BESOIGNE, Jérôme. - Jansenist theologian, born in Paris in 1686 and died there on 25 January 1763. Ordained priest in 1715 and doctor of theology in 1718, he taught philosophy at the Collège de Plessis. As a young priest, he sided with the opponents of the bull Unigenitus, which condemned Jansenism; for this reason, in 1729 he was struck from the list of doctors of the Sorbonne and in 1731 was exiled. Returning from exile the following year, and living in private life, he devoted himself to the compilation of his numerous works.
He upheld the Presbyterian thesis of the independence of the jurisdiction in the internal forum of the priest, or at least of the parish priest, from his own bishop, since the jurisdictional power to absolve is granted by God himself to the priest together with the power of order in the rite of ordination. With equal fervor, he defended the thesis of the separability of the contract from the sacrament in the rite of marriage.
With his many ascetical works, he established himself as the most accomplished writer of Jansenist spirituality: *Disertatio speculiare et pratique sur la confiance et la crainte* (s.l. 1735); *La concorde des livres de la sagesse ou morale du St-Esprit* (Paris 1737-46); *Concorde des épîtres de s. Paul et des Épîtres canoniques, ou morale des apôtres* (vii 1747); *Principes de la perfection chrétienne et religieuse* (vii 1748); *Histoire de l'Abbaye de Port-Royal* (6 vols., Cologne [Paris] 1752).