CUM OCCASIONE

A bull of innocent X dated May 31, 1653, that condemned the five propositions attributed to C. jansen in his work entitled augustinus. These five propositions, formulated for the first time by the trustee of the Sorbonne, Nicolas Cornet, in July of 1649, had been delated to the Holy See at the beginning of 1651 by the bishop of Vabres, Isaac Habert, with whom 78 other bishops joined. This bull had been written after long discussions at Rome in the commissions of the cardinals and later of the theologians named by the pope, at which the deputies sent by the French Jansenist group had been authorized to present their various writings in the defense of Jansen. Besides, within the commission itself, this defense was remarkably strengthened by the Franciscan Luke Wadding. In the bull the five propositions were separately classified: the first four were declared heretical; and the fifth, false and capable of becoming heretical in a special sense. It was declared at the beginning that the propositions were condemned in connection with the book by Jansen, but they were not altogether clearly attributed to it; this fact later gave rise to complicated discussions to find out if Jansen had really sustained them, and in what sense. Moreover, Innocent X later declared verbally that in publishing this bull he wished to give full protection to the doctrine of St. augustine.

Bibliography: h. denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. a. schÖnmetzer (Freiburg 1963) 2001–07. l. ceyssens, "La cinquième des propositions condamnées de Jansenius: sa portée théologique papal bull Cum Occasione, " in Jansenius et le jansenisme dans les Pays-Bas (Leuven 1982) 39–53.

[l. j. cognet]