In Controversy
His influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of France at large was less successful. When, in 1651, the majority of the French bishops petitioned Pope Innocent X to decide upon the ten propositions of Jansenius, Choiseul was among the eleven who requested no decision in the case. Unable to prevent a formal condemnation of the Jansenists, he exerted himself to bring about an agreement between the contending parties.
His posture on Gallicanism was clearer. For his advocacy of the "Gallican Liberties" he was chosen, in the Assembly of the Clergy of 1682, member of the committee on resolutions, and was personally entrusted with the duty of formulating in Latin the propositions on which the Assembly was to vote. Louis XIV had in 1673 extended to his entire kingdom the royal right of régale. Two bishops only protested against the usurpation and appealed to Rome. This was the beginning of a stubborn struggle between Innocent XI and Louis XIV. To obtain public approval and support from his clergy, and to have limits set to the pontifical power, the king, at the instance principally of his minister, Colbert, convoked the French clergy in a general assembly. Choiseul had no sooner presented his draft than Bossuet rose against it. An animated discussion, related in full by Fénelon in his "De Summi Pontificis Auctoritate", ensued. When Choiseul saw that Bossuet's conciliatory distinction between the Holy See's infallibility in teaching the Faith and its indefectibility in holding it found favour with both clergy and Court, he resigned his special commission. Bossuet took his place and drew up the four articles as they passed into history.
Choiseul's leaning towards Jansenism led him to approve the French translation of a little book published in Cologne under the title "Monita salutaria Beatæ Mariæ Virginis ad cultores suos discretos". This book was so criticized that Choiseul published, in a pastoral letter on the Blessed Virgin, a justification of himself.
Read more about this topic: Gilbert De Choiseul Duplessis Praslin
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)