Barcos, Martino de

BARCOS, MARTINO de. - Jansenist theologian, b. at Bayonne in 1600 and d. on 22 Aug. 1678. Nephew of Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, the famous abbot of Saint-Cyran, he studied together with his cousin d'Anguibert at Louvain under the guidance of Jansenius. Secretary of his uncle after the death of his cousin, he collaborated with him on the drafting of the Petrus Aurelius (1631-46) and with the famous Arnauld d'Andilly, whose son he had been tutor to, on that of Frequent Communion, the fatal origin of all his future controversies. Supported by the queen mother, on 9 May 1644 he succeeded his deceased uncle in the government of the abbey of Saint-Cyran, which he set about reforming; there too, after a period of exile, he died. With the other Jansenist authors and in the wake of Gallicanism he sought to shake the authority of the Roman Pontiff.

His principal works are: De l'autorité de s. Pierre et de s. Paul qui réside dans le pape successeur de ces deux apôtres, s. l. [1645], which he published anonymously, in which B. sets forth his theory, expounded in other later publications, that the two apostles had an equal right to the title of supreme pastors of the Church. The work was condemned by the Holy Office on 24 Jan. 1647, and on the 29th the related doctrine was specifically condemned as well (Denz-U. 965); La grandeur de l'église romaine établie sur l'autorité de s. Pierre et de s. Paul (s. l. 1645); Epistola ad Innocentium de suprema ecclesiae romanae amplitudine (s. l. [1645], both placed on the Index on 24 Jan. 1647); Éclaircissements de quelques objections que l'on a formées contre la grandeur de l'église romaine (s. l. 1646); Quae sit s. Augustini et doctrinae ejus auctoritas in Ecclesia (Paris 1650); De la foi, de l'espérance et de la charité (2 vols., Antwerp s. d., reissued at Châlons 1691); Exposition de la foi de l'église romaine touchant la grâce et la prédestination (Mons 1696; placed on the Index on 24 Apr. 1697).

Vito Zolini