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Controversies with Other Orders
By the middle of the 17th century the Carmelites had reached their zenith. At that point, however, they
became involved in controversies with other orders, particularly with the Jesuits. The special objects of
attack were the traditional origin of the Carmelites and the source of their scapular. The Sorbonne,
represented by Jean Launoy, joined the Jesuits in their polemics against the Carmelites.
The Carmelite Sebastian of St. Paul, who made such serious charges against the orthodoxy of his opponent’s
writings that the very existence of the Bollandists was threatened, answered Papebroch, the Bollandist editor
of the Acta Sanctorum. The peril was averted, however, and in 1696 a decree of Juan Tomás de Rocaberti,
archbishop of Valencia and inquisitor-general of the Holy Office, forbade all further controversies between the
Carmelites and Jesuits. Two years later, on November 20, 1698, Pope Innocent XII issued a brief, which
definitely ended the controversy on pain of excommunication, and placed all writings in violation of the brief
upon the Index.
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