FIGURISM. – A system of interpreting Sacred Scripture according to which the events and figures of the Bible are prefigurations of events and personages in the history of the Church, especially of the 17th century. It is due to G. B. de Sésne de Ménilles, Abbot of Étemare (1682–1770), a Jansenist, and is connected with the convulsionary movement (v. MÉDARDO) with the aim of drawing from this interpretation of Scripture motives to defend the condemned heresy. According to Étemare, the general apostasy of the Church occurred with the universal acceptance of the bull Unigenitus; false doctors are the pope and all who oppose the doctrine of efficacious grace, representatives of Pelagianism and lax morality. The Roman Church is already foretold in the Beast of the Apocalypse; Saint-Cyr is the Mattathias of the Maccabees; Arnaud is Judas Maccabeus; the ass of Balaam, all the priests who, under the persecutions of the bishops, accept the bull Unigenitus, which, when prophesied, signifies Mother Angelica Arnaud and all the nuns who have openly declared themselves against the Roman constitution. The proclamation of the bull Unigenitus—its acceptance—is a sure sign of the end of the world, of the conversion of the Jews and of the appearance of the prophet Elijah. Elijah, in fact, will reappear on earth at the head of the convulsionaries and will restore the faith in the sense and doctrine of Quesnel and the Appellants.
This novelty gave rise to pamphlets such as *De l'avénement d'Elie*; *Conjectures des derniers temps* and various prophecies, including one that indicated a Jew as the future pope. Étemare’s disciples, Joubert, De Fourquevaux, the two Des Essarts, developed their master’s ideas to the point of forming a veritable sect, to which Jansenist bishops such as Colbert, Soanen, Varlet adhered, as well as publicists like the editor of the Jansenist periodical *La Roche*, and, it was claimed, even the Abbé Paris himself, whose death gave rise to the convulsionary movement. Not only were the personages prefigured in the Bible designated, but the dates of events were also determined. It was already known when Elijah would appear, and preparations were made to go to meet him; on 24 March 1730 the war of the apocalyptic beast had begun with the royal declaration of acceptance, and in September 1733 it was to end. It was necessary, however, that the measure be filled up, that the earth be burdened with sin, so that the final judgment for the wicked and the recompense for the good might take place. To hasten this divine dispensation, some went so far as to commit every kind of enormity. Meanwhile, on the 14th, precursors appeared who declared themselves chosen by God to herald the judgment. Abbé Vaillant claimed to be Elijah and founded the “Eliscans.” Gian Roberto Cose, “Brother Augustine,” called himself the servant of the servants of God, herald of Elijah, the fourth person of the Trinity; he placed himself on a table in the position of the Immaculate Lamb and demanded adoration. Spurred on by these and other figurist delusions, processions of convulsionaries were organized in Paris to obtain the renewal of the Church; they made their way to Port-Royal, stopped at the ruins of the monastery, and the convulsionaries killed a beast with its blood, marking the houses as far as Versailles—those houses that were to be spared by the avenging angel at the coming of Elijah. They even cast lots for one of their number to be crucified in expiation; the lot fell to Abbé Sévin, and they began to scourge him. But when he resisted and declared that such a sacrifice must be voluntary and that a preparation like that of Jesus in the Garden of Olives was necessary, they granted him twenty-four hours to acquire the necessary dispositions of spirit; but when the time expired, he was not found. Today such profanations seem incredible, yet they are the natural conclusion of a degeneration due to rebellion against the authority and dogmas of the Faith, and to the superstitious fanaticism that always seizes proud souls untamed by discipline. A degeneration and fanaticism that furnished weapons to unbelief, as to the sceptic David Hume with regard to the “miracles” of the Abbé Paris (*Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects*, II, London 1777, p. 133).