Convulsionaries

Convulsionaries, the name given to a fanatical sect of Jansenists who sprang up in France about 1730. Their meeting-place was the church-yard of St Médard, in a suburb of Paris, where was the tomb of a certain Francis of Paris, who died in 1727, and was reckoned very holy by the Jansenists on account of his extravagant asceticism. At this tomb a multitude of people poured forth fanatical prayers, preachments, and prophesying. Miracles are also alleged to have been performed, for proof of which we are referred to a work written by M. Montgeron, a French senator, and entitled La Vérité des Miracles opérés par l'Intercession de François de Paris (Paris, 1737). After 1731 the fanaticism of the convulsionaries increased to utter madness. 'They threw themselves into the most violent contortions of body, rolled about on the ground, imitated birds, beasts, and fishes, and at last, when they had completely spent themselves, went off in a swoon.' In 1733 the king issued an order for the imprisonment of these fanatics, but it was found impossible to put a complete stop to the mischief. They took to predicting the downfall of the throne and the church, which prophecy the French Revolution appeared to fulfil. They were not much heard of in Paris after the middle of the 18th century, but have occurred in country-places at various times within the present century. They brought Jansenism into so much disrepute, that Voltaire declared the tomb of Francis to be the grave of Jansenism. See Mathieu, Histoire des Miraculés et des Convulsionnaires (1864).