Controversy in the Classroom: Jacobus Janssonius (1547–1625) versus Leonardus Lessius on Grace, Free Will and Predestination

The present article analyses Jacobus Janssonius’ (1547–1625) theology of grace and free will against the backdrop of the enduring polemics of the Louvain Faculty of Theology with the Jesuit order on grace, free will and predestination. As one of the protagonists in the Faculty’s conflict with Leonardus Lessius, Janssonius was tasked with teaching a lectio publica intended to counter the Jesuits’ optimistic evaluation of human free will. In this ad hoc course, Janssonius discussed the reconciliation of efficacious grace with human free will, a topic he would return to as Regius professor of Sacred Scripture (1598–1616). On the basis of previously unstudied manuscripts – fragments from his 1587 lectio publica and student notes taken during his tenure as Regius professor – I will challenge the traditional portrayal of Janssonius as a watered-down dupe of Michael Baius’ radicalized anti-Pelagian theology. Rather than slavishly transmitting Baianism to his students, Jacobus Janssonius actively incorporated Baius’ pessimistic theological anthropology into a scholastic framework, allowing him to teach an anti-Pelagian theology of grace that respected the boundaries of Gregory XIII’s definitive condemnation of the Roman interpretation of Baianism with Provisionis nostrae (1580).