Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585-1638), called Cornelius Jansénius, criticised the protestant reformation but advocated a doctrine of predestination within the Catholic church which was not dissimilar to that preached by Luther and Calvin. Jansen studied at the universities of Louvain (then in the Spanish Netherlands) from 1602 and Paris from 1604, the went to study at Bayonne where he became director of the episcopal college,1612-1614. He then returned to the university of Louvain where he rose to be rector in 1635. He became Bishop of Ypres in 1636 and died of the plague in 1638.

Jansen spent much of his life studying the works of St Augustine whose writing was concerned to combat the Pelagian heresy that all men can achiev

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Published 29 December 2002

Citation: Editors. "Jansenism". The Literary Encyclopedia. 29 December 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=588, accessed 9 February 2010.]