PAVILLON, NICOLAS

Jansenistic reform bishop of Alet in Languedoc; b. Paris, Nov. 17, 1597; d. Alet, Dec. 8, 1677. For five years he was a coworker with St. vincent de paul, who recommended him to Richelieu for the See of Alet in 1637. His asceticism attracted him to the Jansenists of Port-Royal, whom he openly favored after Vincent's death. He was one of four bishops who, contrary to the order of Alexander VII, refused to sign the formula of 1653 condemning five propositions that summed up the doctrine of jansen. The bishops urged the distinction that the Church is infallible in matters of right, but not in matters of fact. Pavillon signed the compromise formula of Clement IX in 1668, although he clearly indicated verbally his distinction between right and fact. His insistence on episcopal prerogatives appears also in his refusal, together with Bishop caulet, to sign the declaration of Louis XIV on the Droit de Régale in 1673. Pavillon's main theological treatises favor Jansenism. His Jansenistic Rituel d'Alet (1667) was condemned by Clement IX but was used in Alet and other dioceses. There is no edition of his complete works. Manuscripts are scattered in French libraries. The Oeuvres of arnauld (v.36, 37) contain documents relating to Pavillon.

Bibliography: e. dejean, Un prélat indépendant au XVII e siècle (Paris 1909). j. carreyre, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 12:77–79. p. broutin, La réforme pastorale en France au XVII e siècle (Paris 1956). h. weber, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 8:237.

[j. j. smith]