Ad Sanctam Beati Petri Sedem
AD SANCTAM BEATI PETRI SEDEM
A bull of Alexander VII dated Oct. 16, 1656, that states precisely that the five propositions condemned in 1653 by the bull cum occasione of Innocent X came from C. jansen and that they had been condemned in the sense in which Jansen understood them. The pope recalled that he had, while cardinal, taken part in the commissions held in 1653 and that he had thus formed a personal opinion on the subject. Nevertheless, in Jansenist circles there was a persistent rumor that, in order to obtain this bull, their adversaries had showed the pope a falsified copy of augustinus into which had been introduced the last four propositions, which were not there expressed in proper terms. For somewhat obscure reasons, the bull Ad sanctam was held in reserve for quite a long time, and it was not until March 2, 1657, that the nuncio Piccolomini sent it to Louis XIV. Cardinal Mazarin had it immediately accepted by the Assembly of the Clergy, and in the following November, not without some difficulty, by parliament.
Bibliography: h. denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. a schÖnmetzer (Freiburg 1963) 2010–12.
[l. j. cognet]