François Annat (1590 – 14 June 1670) was a French

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, theologian, writer, and one of the foremost opponents of

Jansenism Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century Christian theology, theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in Kingdom of France, France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of Free will in theology, f ...

Biography

Annat was born in Rodes, and entered the

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

on 16 February 1607. He was professor of philosophy for six years, and theology for seven, in the college of his order in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, of which he was subsequently appointed rector. Later he filled the same office at

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

. He was assistant to the General in Rome, and Provincial of Paris. In 1654 he was sent to the court as

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, and, after the faithful discharge of the duties of his office, he felt compelled to resign, owing to the King's extramarital relationship with

Louise de la Vallière Françoise-Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours (6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710) was a French nobility, French noblewoman and the Royal mistress, mistress of King Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. La Vallière ...

. He became known to the academic world in 1632, by a publication of a defense of the Jesuit doctrine of divine grace against the Oratorian Gibieuf. In 1644 he began a series of more lengthy contributions of the famous controversy that sought to reconcile human freedom with divine efficacious grace. He was prominent in defending Catholic orthodoxy against the attacks of the Port-Royal theologians, and in consequence came to the notice of Pascal, who directed the last of the ''

Provincial Letters The (''Provincial Letters'') are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte. Written in the midst of the formulary controversy between the Jansenists and the ...

'' against Annat. A full description of Annat's published works may be found in

Carlos Sommervogel Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclo ...

's (Jesuit Bibliography). A complete edition, in three volumes, of his writings appeared in Paris, in 1666, under the title . Annat died in Paris on 14 June 1670.

Sources

See also ''The Life and Career of François Annat, SJ: the Failure of his Antijansenism, May 1641--October 1608.'' Van Hove, Brian William. The Catholic University of America: ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1999, 9925215. {{DEFAULTSORT:Annat, F 1590 births 1670 deaths 17th-century French Jesuits 17th-century French Catholic theologians