Original scientific paper
Croatian church historiography on the so-called late Jansenism within the ideological system of Josephinism
Franjo Emanuel Hoško
Abstract
Jansenism, named after its founder Cornelius Jansen (1583-1638), a professor of theology and the bishop of Ypern, is a theological doctrine on the relationship between mercy and predestinarianism. It aims to harmonize the Catholic and the Protestant teaching on the two basic issues of Christian belief and doctrine. Jansen’s followers soon took the matter one step further from theological discussions and proposed a complete program of church reforms, as they had been set forth in the 16th century by the Council of Trident. Since they strongly held that this program of reforms had been hampered by the Popes and that papal rule jeopardized the rights of bishops, Jansenists stood up against the doctrine of the Pope’s infallibility and encouraged the state to interfere in the life of the Church and to implement Church reforms even in the absence of agreement of the central church authorities in Rome. After a systematic research of Josephinism by the so called Viennese historical school, European historiography today, as well as church historiography, holds that that program of church reforms, as it originated in Jansenism, also became the program of Josephinism, moreover that it became its key component which modern historians call Reform Catholicism.
Croatian church historiographers are acquainted with the research conducted by the Vienna school; some are in favor it, others follow the gudielines of the so called Innsbrug school of historiography, which sees in Josephinism nothing more than state absolutism. The author of this paper argues that it is only by accepting the attitudes of the Viennese school of history that one can develop a better understanding of Josephinism in Civil Croatia and understand and correctly evaluate reformed catholicism as its component, which emerged out of late Jansenism. Only then will Croatian church historiography recognize the still unrecognized jansenistically oriented groups of church people in Croatia. The first group gathered in the so called "Zagreb school", and the other around the bishops of Pécs and Ðakovo. This other group might conditionally be labelled "the Franciscan school".
Keywords
Jansenism; late Jansenism; Josephinism; "the Zagreb school"; "the Franciscan school"; Croatian church historiography
Hrčak ID:
8013
URI
Publication date:
30.9.2005.
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