Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, a Jansenist despite himself: a historiographical misunderstanding?
Journal title STORIA IN LOMBARDIA
Author/s Andrea Forti
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/2
Language Italian Pages 26 P. 38-63 File size 484 KB
DOI 10.3280/SIL2025-002002
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Historiography has frequently attributed the label of Jansenist to Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (17231807), archpriest of Cividate Camuno (Brescia), theologian, and historian. Although this attribution has undoubtedly been prompted by several significant affinities between Guadagnini’s thought and Jansenism, historiography has nevertheless failed to provide evidence that is sufficiently comprehensive to substantiate such a classification: no profession of faith, no ecclesiastical condemnation, and no slavish Jansenist positioning in thought and action. Guadagnini’s affinities with Jansenism – moral rigorism, anticurialism, antiJesuitism, parochialism and jurisdictionalism – are rooted in a broader spiritual horizon nourished by Augustinianism, Muratorianism and Catholic Aufklärung. Convinced that Christian ethics was the only effective foundation for civil coexistence, the archpriest confronted the Enlightenment, the Josephine reforms and the Revolution by formulating his own pragmatic reflections on the relationship between the Catholic religion and political authority. Addressing the misconception surrounding Guadagnini’s supposed Jansenism could stimulate future research into his intellectual output and pastoral activities.
Keywords: Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Italian Jansenism, EighteenthCentury Religious Historiography, Catholic Jurisdictionalism, Muratorian Reform Thought, Christian Ethics and Civil Society.
Andrea Forti, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini giansenista malgré lui: un equivoco storiografico? in "STORIA IN LOMBARDIA" 2/2025, pp 38-63, DOI: 10.3280/SIL2025-002002