Pasquier Quesnel
French priest whose New Testament with moral reflections on each verse was condemned by Pope Clement XI in the constitution Unigenitus of 1713, which drew 101 propositions from it.
The constitution Unigenitus does not name him in its title. It names his book: a New Testament in French, in several volumes, with moral reflections on each verse, printed at Paris in 1693, 1694 and 1699 (Clement XI, Unigenitus, title of the Paris printing of 1713). Among the 101 propositions it takes from the book are that it is useful and necessary at all times and for every kind of person to study Scripture, and that the reading of Scripture is for all; the censure says that the propositions renew those of Cornelius Jansen (Clement XI, Unigenitus, propositions 79–80 and the closing censure).
The duc de Saint-Simon, writing of the French court, calls the book “the New Testament of Pere Quesnel” and says that the king’s former confessor, the Jesuit La Chaise, kept a copy on his table, saying that he liked what was good wherever he found it (Saint-Simon, Memoirs, chapter 46). See Jansenism and the Bull Unigenitus.
In the timeline
- 1653 to 1713, firm dateJansenism and the Bull Unigenitus
In 1653 Rome condemns five propositions on grace. The defenders of Cornelius Jansen condemn them too but deny that they are in his book; Rome defines that they are, and in 1713 the bull Unigenitus condemns 101 propositions from Quesnel’s New Testament.
Primary sources
Memoirs
- Saint-Simon, Memoirs, chapter 46gutenberg.org