Jansenism was the product of a theological debate that erupted at the University of Louvain shortly after the posthumous publication of Cornelius Jansen's Augustinus in 1640. Augustinus not only revived theological debates over efficacious versus sufficient grace within the Catholic Church but it also exacerbated tensions between members of the regular and secular clergy when Jansen, a bishop, attacked the Jesuit order by likening the theses of recent Jesuit theologians to the heretical doctrine of ancient Pelagian authors. The Jesuits of Louvain countered with the charge that Jansen was the one who was reviving doctrinal errors by repeating the mistakes of Michael Baius, who preceded him on the faculty at Louvain and whose writings had been censored by Pope Pius V in 1567.

Even though these debates over Augustinus originated in Belgium, they became most volatile in France and resulted in bitter factional struggles involving public denunciations and arrests for heresy. Among the reasons for this vehemence was a pervasive anxiety over the social readjustments taking place among the French nobility in the years following the Wars of Religion. These readjustments involved an increase in the number of new “robe” nobles who, in contrast to the traditional “sword” nobles, gained their title through professional and administrative service rather than military service to the Crown. The integration of these new families into the nobility – most notably through the 1604 edict of the paulette making most venal offices fully inheritable – gave rise to a debate over to what extent individual talent, merit, and virtue could be legitimate criteria for ennoblement.