Critique and defense of Augustine in the seventeenth century. Doctrinal censorship and philosophical issues

The seventeenth century can be characterized as a century in which we witness the "twilight of the Mystics" (Louis Cognet) or as a century when the doctrinaire controversies over the grace and the "correct" interpretation of St. Augustine generated a revitalization of Patristic sources. This revitalization was not done without provoking famous controversies where Augustine was used as a yardstick of theological orthodoxy, at the expense of the others Church Fathers. The purpose of this article is to expose the arguments used in one of these controversies and to underline the extent to which "augustinism" had become, in the seventeenth century, a very rigid position.