Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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BAIANISM

A system of grace developed by Michael Baius (1513-89) at Louvain and condemned in seventy-nine propositions by Pope St. Pius V in 1567. Its main principles were: 1. man's original state was not a supernatural gift of God; 2. original sin is the same as habitual concupiscence; 3. as a result of the fall, man's will is not really interiorly free; 4. all human actions proceed either from cupidity (evil concupiscence) or from the charity infused by God. The former actions are morally bad, the latter morally good. Baianism was the direct forerunner of Jansenism and gave it the logical premises derived from the Protestant reformers on which it was built.