Jansenists, a party in the Roman Catholic Church, supporters of Jansen's views, who, in opposition to the Jesuits, maintained the Augustinian principle of the sovereign and irresistible nature of divine grace. The most celebrated members of the party were the Port-Royalists (q. v.) of France, in particular Arnauld and Pascal, and they were opposed not only by the Jesuits, but by both Louis XIV. and the Pope. Driven from France on the death of Louis, they took refuge in Holland, and thither the Pope Clement XI. followed them, first in 1713, hurling a bull against them, and then in 1719 by ex-communicating them and driving them for good from within the pale of the Catholic Church.