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A45584
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The condemnation of Monsieur Du Pin his history of ecclesiastical authors by the Archbishop of Paris ; together with his own retractation ; translated out of French.; Ordonnance de Monseigneur l'archevesque de Paris portant condamnation d'un livre intitulé Nouvelle bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésiastiques. English
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Catholic Church. Archdiocese of Paris (France). Archbishop (1671-1695 : Harlay de Champvallon); Harlay de Champvallon, François de, 1625-1695.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing H776; ESTC R11961
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23,873
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36
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they have Written and to give an Account of their Character and Merit which the Author professeth to have been performed for the first Eight Ages in those Volumes which he hath already published intending to continue those which follow until the present And we are so much the more concerned to enter upon a narrow Enquiry into this Book having understood that many Persons do find these first Tomes full of considerable Faults That nothing in this Affair might pass without great Deliberation and a perfect Scrutiny we caused this Book to be read by four Doctors in Divinity of the Faculty of Paris who did read all those Tomes each apart by himself and then conferred a long time together about them of all which they have given us an exact Account in many Meetings We have also our self examined this Book with all possible Attention and have found that this Work is so far from being useful to the Church that it would be on the contrary very prejudicial if we should allow the Sale of it Moreover we desired to hear the Author's Defences that so we might know his Sentiments and present Disposition for which Cause we have granted him as favourable an Audience as was possible for several Meetings in the presence of the same Doctors And as we have found in him an entire Submission to all we should ordain having put into our Hands a Writing signed by himself which is annexed to these Presents in which of the Twelve Articles which we judged chiefly censurable in his Book he doth retract many Propositions advanced by him and testifies in general that he submits himself to our Judgment without any restriction or reservation And as this absolute Submission without which we could not think his Writings sufficient there being in his Book many Propositions censurable which he doth not touch in his Writing secures his Religion and obliges us to spare his Person so there remains nothing more to be done but to give Sentence against the Doctrine of his Book We could have wished that this Work might have deserved only a limited Censure and so would have been satisfied to have marked out of the Author such Changes as he should make for saving the rest of it without proceeding to a full Condemnation and to an entire Suppression of it But the Evil being almost spread through the whole Work we could not dispence with the Condemnation of this Book but are obliged to prohibit the Reading it to all Persons whom it hath pleased God to submit to our Conduct for preventing the Prejudice which it might otherwise do amongst People if such a stop were not put to it that the Church may receive no more Scandal nor Hereticks get any Occasion of drawing Advantage against the Catholicks For these Reasons after having implored the Grace of the Holy Ghost to beseech his Guidance of us we have Condemned and do Condemn the Book entituled A New Library of Ecclesiastick Authors c. by Monsieur Ellies Du Pin Doctor of the Faculty of Paris c. as containing many Propositions false rash scandalous offensive to pious Ears tending to weaken the Proofs of Tradition about the Authority of the Canonical Books and many other Articles of Faith Injurious to Oecumenical Councils to the Holy Apostolical See and to the Fathers of the Church Erroneous and leading to several Heresies We most strictly and under the Penalties prescribed by Law forbid the Reading of this Book to all our Diocesans of either Sex or the causing or advising it to be Read by any Person or having it in their Houses or any other where enjoyning them under the same Censures to return them to us as soon as possible So we command the Officers of our Ecclesiastical Court to see the Execution of our present Ordinance to cause it to be affixed upon the Church Doors of this City and its Suburbs and in every other place where it shall be needful and also to require if it be necessary the Authority of the Magistrates of whose Zeal and Piety we have had Proofs on other Occasions to stop by all due and reasonable Methods the Impression Sale and Vending hereof Given at Paris in our Archiepiscopal Palace the 16 th of April the Year One Thousand Six Hundred Ninty and Three Signed Francis Archbishop of Paris and a little lower by my Lord Wilbault Here followeth the Writing mentioned in this Ordinance signed by the Author of the New Library which he gave into the hands of my Lord the Archbishop Declaration of Monsieur Du Pin. THere being some Persons who after the Reading of my Books of the New Library of Ecclesiastick Authors have testified that they were offended at many places and those Complaints being carried to my Lord Archbishop of Paris who in Quality of proper Judge of Doctrine hath taken them into his Consideration and named some Doctors to search narrowly into this Work and make a Relation of the same to him I do my self acknowledge by a serious Reflection on their Observations that there has indeed dropt from me some Expressions which are hard obscure and that might give some Offence to the Reader some also which may not be true and which against my Design may be brought against the Truth for which I shall always have a Respect and which I do believe ought to be maintained in the Church This obligeth me seeing my Lord the Archbishop hath had the Goodness to discover the same to me in three different Assemblies in which I have not been less touched with his Goodness and Paternal Charity than instructed by his great and clear Light in the presence of the Doctors to whom he committed the Examination of my Book and with whom he himself did Examine it I say this obligeth me to give to what is obscure in that Work the Illustrations which he hath judged and which I may self have perceived necessary to mollify the Expressions which are too hard and to make an Authentick Declaration concerning those which may bear an Ill Sense that it may appear that my Sentiments are Orthodox and that I have transgressed only by inadvertency not sufficienly considering the Terms used nor the Consequences which might be drawn from them To keepthe same Order which my Lord the Archbishop himself observed when he required an Account of all these Places I. I do first acknowledge as I have always owned for Sacred and Canonical Books all those which are contained in the Canon of the Council of Trent Sess 4. in all their Parts I am persuaded that they were all written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost that it is not lawful in any wise to doubt of their Canonicalness after the Decision of the Church and tho' some were not received as Canonical at first by some particular Churches it is nevertheless true that they were owned in the first Ages of the Church for Books of Holy Scripture and quoted as such by many Fathers Therefore these indefinite Expressions in
I have said of the two first in the Advertisement of the 5 Tom. p. I did not mean of all Penitentials nor of all Casuists acknowledging that there are of them who are profitable and good As also when I said in my answer to the Remarks that Scholastick Divines would forget nothing of all that might have a reference to their Metaphysical Questions whereas these good Divines c. I intended not here to oppose good Divines to good Scholasticks but only to those Scholasticks who insist too much upon subtile Questions and Logical Difficulties without applying themselves to the Study of the Scriptures and Tradition acknowlegding that there are good Scholastick Divines and that this Science is useful When I said that St. Thomas quoted Fathers carelesly and with little Judgment I intended only that this Saint as well as many Writers of his time did not quote the Authors with any critical exactness which was the Effect of the Age he lived in rather than a personal Fault IX As to the Ninth Article which concerns the Extracts I have given of Authors it is true that I have not set my self sufficiently to distinguish what is good from what is amiss in them nor to answer the difficult Passages for enabling the Readers how to guard themselves X. As to the Tenth Article which concerneth Critical Questions I own that we ought to regard the Apostles Creed as a formulary of Faith drawn up by them as to the Substance tho' some Terms were not the same in all Churches And as to the Institution of Lent that we ought to say with St. Leo St. Jerom and other Fathers that it is of Apostolical Institution and that the Passages which I have related do not prove the contrary XI As to the Eleventh Article which concerneth Miracles Revelations Apparitions and pious Practices when I said that â—t was surprising that Eusebius never spoke of the Invention of the Cross I did not intend by this to call in question this Matter of Fact which is attested by contemporary Authors nor to doubt of the Miracles which they have related of which I ought to have spoken more confidently than I have done Tom. 2. Part. 1 p. 〈◊〉 as well as of the Revelation made to St. Cyprian to retire Tom. 1. p. 〈◊〉 And of the Miracle of Healing of Leo III. related by Anastasius the Library Keeper Tom. 5. â— Speaking of the Wax Candles which they light in honour of the Martyrs and relating a passage of St. Jerom Tom. 3. Part 1. p. When I remarked That in the times of this Father it was not the custom to light them at Noon I intended not to blame the present Custom of the Church nor to take from it the Authority which it hath from Antiquity It must be added that St. Jerom does not condemn those who lighted Wax Candles at Noon out of Devotion and he testifies that they did it in the East in all Churches while the Gospel was a reading XII Finally As to the last Head which concerneth some passages where I seem not to have comprehended the Sense of the Authors I make no difficulty of acknowledging that this may have happened many times it being very hard not to be deceived in so great a Work and to keep always an equal application in reading so many great Volumes But as I have only done it through inadvertency so I shall be always obliged to those who will advertise me of it and be ready to set me right In particular I do acknowledg that Tom. 3. Part 2. p. 52. I have ill understood the Sentiment of Philostorgius on the Second Book of Maccabees who doth not say that it is of less Authority than the First but of another Author That Hipatius doth not say in the Conference with the Severians That we must not regulate our selves by what every Apostle hath Written and Practised concerning the Observation of Legal Ceremonies but only by what every one hath Practised That the passage of Cassian related Tom. 3. Part 2. p. 13 should not be understood of the Law and Obligation to observe Lent but of the Reason of its Institution That St. Jerom said not in the one hundred and twenty ninth Letter That some Churches both Greek and Latin received not the Epistle to the Hebrews nor the Revelation but only that some Latin Churches did not receive the Epistle to the Hebrews no more than some Greek Churches the Revelation notwithstanding that it is authorized by the Testimony of the Antients and after this manner the Extract of that Letter must be rectified p. Tom. 3. Part 1. Behold the principal things which have been observed to me if there be yet any other thing in my Works which causes any difficulty I shall he always ready to clear it to change it to correct it and even to revoke it if need be my only design in Writing being to seek the Truth and to Edifie the Church I acknowledge with St. Augustin that it is a great favour which God doth to Authors when he giveth them the means of rendering their Works more learned and more exact by the Censures of those who read them and examin them and I do very readily apply to my self these words Ego autem cum per eos qui meos labores legunt non solum doctior verumetiam emendatior fio propitium mihi Deum agnosco hoc per Ecclesiae Doctores maxime expecto si in ipsorum manus venit dignanturque nosse quod scribo St. Aug. De dono Pers circa finem But I do consider it as the greatest happiness which could befal me to have for my Judge the most able and learned Prelate of the Kingdom to whose Judgment I shall ever think it my glory to submit as I am obliged to it without Restriction and without Reservation Signed L' Ellies Du Pin with his own Hond By Monseigneur Wilbault An Extract out of the Registers of the Parliament of Paris Saturday April 25. 1693. THIS day the Kings Council entered the Court and by Monsieur Chrestien Francois de la Moignon Advocate to our Lord the King did acquaint them that they thought it was their Duty to inform them that the Archbishop of Paris had lately Condemned a Book Entituled Novelle Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques written by Monsieur Ellies Du Pin Doctor in Divinity of the Faculty of Paris because it contained Propositions contrary to sound Doctrin That the Cognizance of every thing that relates to the Faith belonging to the Church and the decision of these Matters to the Bishops within their respective Diocese The suppression of the Books which they Condemn and the afflictive punishment of those who persist in Opinions which haue been Censured by the Bishops belongs to the King's Officers and chiefly to this Court which is the Depository of Sovereign Justice That they had nothing to object against the Author of this Book because he has submitted himself to the Judgment of