Quesnel, PASQUIER

Quesnel, PASQUIER, a French theologian, was born at Paris, July 14, 1634, and, after a distinguished course in the Sorbonne, entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1657. So great was his reputation for learning and piety that at the age of twenty-eight he was appointed director of the Paris house of his Congregation. It was for the use of the young men under his care that he commenced the celebrated series Réflexions Morales sur le Nouveau Testament. In 1675 he published an edition of the works of Leo the Great, which in the notes was held to maintain Gallicanism (see GALLICAN CHURCH), and was accordingly placed on the Index. Having refused to subscribe the formulary condemnatory of Jansenism required by a decree of 1684 from all members of the Oratory, Quesnel saw himself compelled to flee to the Low Countries, where he attached himself to Arnauld. He continued at Brussels his Réflexions, which were published in a complete form, with the approval of the Cardinal de Noailles, Bishop of Châlons, and ultimately Archbishop of Paris (1693-94). The Jesuits were unceasing in their malignant hostility, and Quesnel was denounced and flung into prison, but escaped to Holland. His book was finally condemned in 101 several propositions by the celebrated bull Unigenitus (1713). Quesnel spent his last years in Amsterdam, where he died December 2, 1719. A complete list of his many books will be found in Moréri's Dict. Hist. His Letters were edited by Le Courayer (1721-23). For the later history of Jansenism, see Sêché, Les Derniers Jansénistes (1891).