THE NEVV HERESIE OF THE JESUITS Publickly maintain'd at PARIS in the Colledge of CLERMONT by Conclusions Printed 12. Decemb. 1661. Denounced to all the BISHOPS OF FRANCE Translated out of the French Original Lucae 5. 39. Nemo bibens vetus statim vult novum dicit enim vetus melius est LONDON Printed in the Year of our Lord 1662. THE NEW HERESIE OF THE JESUITS Publikely maintained at Paris in the Colledge of Clermont by Conclusions Printed the 12 of December 1661. Denounced to all the Bishops of France AS it is the duty of Bishops to cut off whilst they are yet in the bud the Errors that tend to the ruine of Faith so is it no less the part of Divines to make Discovery of them and stir up their pastoral vigilance by giving them a timely advice thereof For which Reason My Lords you will not I am confident disapprove the Information given you of a New Heresie publikely maintained by the Jesuites in their Colledge of Paris by Conclusions printed and defended the 12 of December past which bear in Front this Title Assertiones Catholicae de Incarnatione contra saeculorum omnium ab Incarnato verbo praecipuas haereses Catholike Assertions of the Incarnation against the principal Heresies of all Ages since Christ Whereby they sufficiently intimate that excepting some subtleties of the Schools they would have us take for Catholike truths whatever else they advance in opposition to these Heresies They propose then for the Heresie of the 10 th Age the Schism of the Grecians and pretend by the following words to prescribe us what we ought to beleeve that we fall not into this Heresie X. SAECULUM Romanae Ecclesiae Caput contra Graecos Schismaticos HOc tandem saeculo Schisma Phocii invalcscens Graecos ab Ecclesiae capite dis-junxit Christum nes ita caput agnoscimus ut illius regimen dum in caelos abiit primum Petro tum dâ—inde successoribus commiserit eandem quam habebat ipse infallibilitatem concesserit quoties ex Cathedrâ loquerentur Datur ergo in Ecclesia Romana Controversiarum Fidei Judex infallibilis etiam extra Concilium generale tam in questionibus Juris quam Facti Vnde post Innocentii X. Alexandri VII Constitutiones fide divinâ credi potest librum cui titulus est Augustinus Jansenii esse haereticum quinque Propositiones exeo decerptas esse Jansenii in sensu Jansenii damnatas Propugnabuntur Deo duce auspice Virgine in Aula Collegii Claromontani Societatis Jesu die 12 Decembris Anno 1661. X. AGE The Head of the Roman Church against the Schismatick Grecians IT was in this Age that the Schism of Photius growing strong cut off the Grecians from the Head of the Church for our parts we acknowledge Jesus Christ to be in such sort the Head that he hath left the government first to S. Peter and afterwards to his Successors and that he hath bequeathed unto them as often as they shall speak out of their Chair the same infallibility which he himself had Wherefore there is in the Church of Rome an infallible judge of Controversies of Faith even out of a General Council as well in Questions of right as matters of Fact for which reason now after the Constitutions of Innocent X and Allexander VII one may believe with Divine Faith that the Book of Jansenius intituled Augustinus is Heretical and that the five Propositions extracted out of it are of Jansenius and condemned in his sense This Conclusion contains two parts One the Primacy of the Pope in which all Catholicks agree The other the Infallibility which the Jesuits attribute to him Nor is the question concerning that Infallibility which some Divines maintain and which regards only the judgements of Popes touching the truths revealed by God in the Holy Scripture and Tradition It is well known what the opinions of the Gallican Church and School of Paris are upon this Subject and what is to be understood by their words Sententia Parisiensium when one meets with them in the Books even of Jesuits upon this matter It is also known that those among some modern Doctors who would be most favourable to Popes as Dr. Du Val were nevertheless of Opinion that it is not a point of Faith that the Pope is Infallible Non est de Fide summum Pontificem esse infallibilem and that the contrary opinion is neither erroneous nor rash Non est erroneum neque temerarium temeritate opinionis dicere summum pontificem in decernendo errare posse But these same Divines how passionate soever they were to exalt the authority of the Sovereign Bishops do acknowledge as a thing certain unquestionable and agreed on by all Catholicks that in matters of fact they are not infallible but may be deceived and so really have been in sundry occasions All Catholicks are of Agreement sayes Cardinal Bellarmin that the Pope acting as Pope with advice of his Council nay even of a general Council may be deceived in particular affairs depending on the information and attestation of Men. And applying this general Maxime to a particular fact altogether conformable to that of Jansenius to wit whether the Heresie of the Monothelites were contain'd in the Letters of Honorius as the VI general Council confirmed by so many Popes had determined A General Council sayes he that is a lawful one cannot erre in the definition of dogmatical points of Faith wherein the VI Council likewise was free from error but it may erre in questions of Fact Generale Concilium legitimum non potest errare ut neque erravit hoc sextum in dogmatibus Fidei definiendis tamen errare potest in questionibus de Facto And Cardinal Baronius sayes the same upon the same subject of the sixth Oecumenical Council The Condemnation even of General Councils is not received with so much rigour in what concerns mens persons and their writings For no man doubts but that whoever he be he may be deceived in matters of Fact in which occasion the saying of St. Paul is appliable we can do nothing against truth but for truth In his enim quae facti sunt unumquemque contingere posse falli nemini dubium est All other Divines even the more wedded to the interest of the Court of Rome have hitherto contain'd themselves within these bounds But the Jesuits will neither admit Bounds nor Examples in their excesses and extravagancieâ— It is not enough for them to make the Pope infallible in the manner as some other Divines have done they must needs have it that Jesuus Christ hath given him the same infallibility which Himself enjoyed here on earth and as this infallibility of Jesus Christ reached to all things and not only to matters revealed but also to such as till then had not been reveal'd and which he revealed by uttering them so they will have the Pope to become infallible not only in proposing to the Church the truths comprised in Divine Revelation but also
certain facts which we are sure were never revealed by God as whether such Propositions be found in a Book compos'd in the 17 th AGE These are not consequences drawn by others out of their Doctrine They themselves infer them and make them passe for Catholick Assertions according to the Title of their Conclusions There is then in the Church an infallible Judge of controversies of Faith even out of a General Council as well for questions of right as of fact And that we may not doubt of their meaning by questions of Fact though the word it self of Fact taken in opposition to that of Law or Right doth sufficiently clear it they alleage for an example and a consequence of this new infallibility of Jesus Christ communicated to the Pope that after the foresaid Constitutions one may beleive with Divine Faith that Jansenius his book is heretical and that the five Propositions are truly this Authors Vnde post Innocentij X Alexandri VII Constitutiones fide divina credi pâ—test librum cui titulus est Jansenij Augustinus esse haereticum quinque propositiones ex eo decerptas esse Jansenii Behold the Proposition which they publickly advance in the face of the greatest City of the World nor will it be amisse to take notice of the origin and date thereof For these same men that now so boldly maintain it had for some time agoe laid the seeds of it in their other writings and it was easily discernable that their whole conduct was to be built upon this error They had severally exposed the Inferences in one place and the Principles in an other but still with certain windings and intricacy of words that might as occasion served be a cloak to them It is now in fine that they discover to the Church without any maske what they pretend to establish Let the whole Church then hear and take notice that the 12 of December in the year 1661. was the day on which the Jesuits brought to light this monstrous opinion whereof they had been so long in labour that this was the day on which they proposed as a Catholick assertion that the Pope speaking out of his Chair hath the same infallibilitie with Jesus Christ not only in questions of Right but also in those of Fact and consequently that one may believe with Divine Faith that the five propositions are the opinions of Jansenius It is not conceived needful My Lords to use many words to make appear that there is not here a simple Error nor a simple Heresie but a Source of Errors and as one may say a General Heresie which overthrows all Religion For your Lordships know that the first and principal ground of Christian Religion is this that our Faith doth not depend on the word of Men but on the word of God who is truth it self that this is it which makes it inconcussible and wholly Divine whereas it would be purely humane did it rely upon any Authority lesse than That of God or that we could not bear the like Testimony to our selves which St. Paul did to the Christians of Thessalonaâ—a to have received the word which God was pleased to propose to us by his Church not as the word of Men but as the word of God as it trâ—ly is Non ut verbum hominum sed sicut est vere verbum Dei All whatsoever is comprehended under the notion of Faith saith St. Bernard is founded upon the solid truth perswaded us by the Oracles of God confirmed by miracles and consecrated by the Child-bearing of a Virgin by the bloud of our Redeemer and the glory of Jesus raised from the dead Totum quod in Fide est certâ ac solidâ veritate subnixum oraculis miraculis divinitus persuasum stabilitum consecratum partu Virginis sanguine Redemptoris gloriâ Resurgentis Whoever then saith A thing not revealed nor attested by God as that certain Propositions are truly such an Authors of these later ages is an object of Divine Faith because the Pope hath declared it either establishes for the ground of Faith an authority purely human and the word of a man which is as much as to overthrow Faith or makes a God of the Pope and of his word a divine word and Holy Scripture which is not only an Heresie but a horrible impietie and a kinde of Idolatry For Idolatrie doth not consist onely in giving to man the name of God but much more in ascribing to him the attributes proper to God and the honour which is due only to him Now this submission of our understandings and intellective faculties implied in each Act of Faith is nothing els than the adoration which we exhibite to the primary Truth and so whoever pays it to the word of Man what rank soever he holds in the Church whoever professes he believes a thing with Divine Faith on no other motive then because a Man hath said it places a Man in the Throne of God transferres the honour due only to the Creator to a Creature and for as much as lies in him makes a kinde of Idol of the Vicar of Jesus Christ And that my Lords which will give you a greater horror of this Impiety is this that the Authors thereof imagin'd they should be able to foster it under favour of the respect which all the Catholicks bear the Pope and that no man would have the boldness to oppose it for fear of incurring his displeasure whereas on the contrary could any one commit a greater outrage against the first Minister of Jesus Christ then to imagine he could be honoured by a Blasphemy so injurious to Jesus Christ that it could be pleasing to him to be made equall to his Master by sharing with him the same Infallibility which he possesseth and that men should yield to his words that Supream Worship of Divine Faith which is due to God alone S. Paul and S. Barnabe perceiving the people went about to give them the same honours which they were wont to pay to their false Gods tore in pieces their garments thereby to express the extream displeasure which they resented and cast themselves into the midst of the Assembly to hinder it And we may with reason believe that the Pope himself were he truly advertised of this horrible excess would not fail to imploy his whole Authority to suppress these profane worshippers and would abhor it as a crime able to cause the loss of himself in the sight of God to give way to the least compliance in so detestable a flattery He would with trembling reflect on the just vengeance of God upon that last King of the Jewes for only suffering the tumultuary acclamations of a giddie brain'd people who hearing him speak cryed out It was the voice of a God and not of a man Dei voces non hominis For the Scripture teacheth us that immediatly the Angel of our Lord stroke him because he had not given to God the honor due
But into what a labirinth of errors will not men run headlong if one grant them the freedom to cloak their capricious fancies with the mantle of piety For if opinions must be born with how false soever they be because a false piety judges them pious and if this be a plausible reason to exempt Popes from the common defects of humane nature that one may piously believe that God having entrusted them with the Government of his Church will have a care to preserve them from falling into defects prejudicial to the good thereof as the Jesuits from this ground conceive they have a right to invest the Pope in the same state of infallibility with Jesus Christ even in matters of Fact when they propose them to the whole Church Why may not others lay claim to the same right of attributing to him the same impeccability which Jesus Christ had in all such affairs as concern the Government of the Church and the Functions of his Soveraign Pontificate Why shall this latter opinion be lesse pious than the former doth it not appear more advantageous to the Church that the Head thereof should be in this sort impeccable then that he should be infallible in matters of Fact And have not an infinity of Souls redeem'd with the Sacred Blood of Jesus Christ received damages incomparably greater by the evil Government of some Popes then they can possibly receive by their want of understanding or due attention in the perusal of a particular Author Some one that should have lived in the first ages of the Church catching hold of these seeming conveniences of mans weak understanding would he not have thought himself well grounded to assert That God would never permit the seat of St. Peter to be possest for the space of almost an Age together by persons most unworthy of that dignity As Card. Baronius acknowledges with grief to have hapened during the far greater part of the tenth Age by the power of the Marques of Toscany who tyranising what with arms what with mony over the Clergy and people of Rome caused them to enthrone in St. Peters Chair Men not only vicious in their own persons but also notoriously dammageable to the Church into which they brought most horrible disorders as that in particular of John the Tenth whereof Baronius sadly complains who made an Infant of five years old Archbishop of Rheimes on which the Cardinal makes this reflexion Tantum nefas quo Iura omnia Ecclesiastica sauciantur ejus pontificis authoritate introductum quem infamis faeminae infami operâ in Petri solium intrusisset Would he not have believed that God Almighty would never have suffered the Vicar of Him who made that solemn Protestation that his Kingdom was not of this World to attempt the disposing of Temporal Kingdoms to take them from some and confer them on Others as Julius the second did That of Navarre which to the prejudice of our Kings the Kings of Spain possesse upon me no other title than a pretended guift of the Pope in taking it from its lawful King Would he not have thought that God would never have permitted Schisme to have crept even into the Chair of Unity in such sort that the Church for almost 40 years should not have been able to discern its true from its false Pastour groaning under the oppression of two Mercenaries strugling for the right Title and agreeing only in this joynt design to keep the Church in this dismal division as in effect it happened about the end of the 14 th Age whilst one of these Anti-popes kept his seat at Avignon the other at Rome Would he not have thought that God would never have permitted that he whose principal charge it is to keep all Christians in Unity should by rash and precipitate excommunications be the Cause that whole Kingdoms should fall off from the Communion of the Church whereby an infinite number of Souls should miserably suffer shipwrack against the Rocks of Schisme and Heresie as it happened to the Kingdome of England by the precipitancy of Clement the Seventh as Cardinal Peron most pregnantly represented to Paul the fifth to keep him from falling into a like oversight in the cause of the Venetians adding the example of Leo the Tenth in regard of Germany and remonstrating to him That he ought to consider he was then in the same Crisis and at the same point in which Leo the tenth was the ruine of Catholick Religion in Germany in which Clement the seventh destroyed It in England in which Clement the eighth preserved It in France It is certain that to confine our discourse to what may appear advantageous to the Church and to what we according to our weak understanding would be apt to judge fitting to be done had any of those that appear the wisest among Men been admitted in to the Council of God when he was casting the models of his Church they would all have concurred in this judgement that it would be in no sort expedient to permit those who were to supply his place upon earth to fall into disorders so opposite to the duty of their Charge and so prejudicial to the Souls of Men committed to their conduct But the Counsels of God are intirely different from those of Men and he was pleased out of his inscrutable judgements by the succeeding events quite to confound our pretended wisdome For he permitted all that which we would have conceiv'd he ought to have prevented So that Persons truly pious ought to be convinced by so many deplorable examples of this important verity that God would not have the firm subsistance of his Church depend on the Saintity wisdome or clear-sightednesse of any one single person though he were the Head and Soveraign Pastor of it This is the pious reflection which Cardinal Baronius makes upon the disorders of the 10 th Age To the end sayes he that God might make appear that his Church was not the contrivance of Man but an Institute purely divine it was necessary he should shew that the vices of bad Popes should never be able to destroy It as Kingdomes often are overthrown by the vicious lives of their Kings Vt enim Deus significaret eandem suam Ecclesiam nequaquam humanum esse figmentum sed plane divinum inventum oportuit ostendisse eam nequaquam pravorum Antistititum operá perdi posse ad nihilum redigi sicut de aliis diversarum gentium regnis bene statutis Rebus-publicis fastum constat It is the same case of this kind of Infallibility which by a new and unheard-of error the Jesuits grant to the Pope which God hath permitted to be disproved by so many evident examples that not any Divine can give credit to it without condemning himself of formal Heresie for if all the decisions of Popes touching matters of Fact were as many Articles of Faith there not being one able Divine that doth not impugne some one of them there would not be
one that did not impugne a point of Faith For example who is there now a dayes that doth not esteem the Letters imputed to the first Popes not only not to be Theirs but contrariwise a Rapsody collected by some Forger and Impostor And notwithstanding both Pope Nicholas commanded the Bishops of France to receive them and his Successors inserted them into the book of Decretals which by their Apostolical authority they proposed to serve for a rule to the whole Church wherein they speak at least as much out of their Chair as in their ordinary Bulls How then can one without Impiety believe that these letters are suppositions as now all the ablest Church-men do even the Jesuits themselves if there be an obligation to hold the same Infallibilitie in the Popes as in Jesus Christ even in matters of Fact would the infallibility of Christ permit that one should propose to the Church false pieces instead of true ones There are scarce any matters of Fact of more importance to the Church then to know whether a Council be General or no whether Lawful or illegittimate Neverthelesse did the Kingdom of France become Heretick for not acknowledging the Council of Florence to be Oecumenical notwithstanding all the Bulls of Eugenius the fourth and all his declarations prefixed at the head of this Council to oblige the whole world to receive it as a General one Did the Cardinal of Lorraine fall into Heresie when he openly declared to Pope Pius the fourth his and the whole Kingdome of France's opinion on this subject in the following tearms For as much as concerns the last of the Titles to be given to our Holy Father taken out of the Council of Florence I cannot deny but that I am a French man bred up in the Vniversity of Paris in which it is the common Tenet that the authority of a Council is above the Pope and all that bold the contrary are censured as Hereticks That in France the Council of Constance is held Oecumenical in all its parts That they adhere to That of Basile and hold That of Florence neither for a Lawful nor a General One and it were an easier work to kill all French men then to draw them from their said perswasion This Letter which the Cardinal of Lorrain writ to his Secretary at Rome to be communicated to Pope Pius the 4 th is to be seen in the collection of Memorials concerning the Council of Trent published by the deceased Mr. Du Puis and printed by Cramoisi During the first disagreement betwixt Pope Eugenius the 4 th and the Council of Basile he put forth a most authentick Bull by which he declared that he transferr'd this Council to Bolognia and that all those who should maintain this Translation was just and lawful were both out of the Truth and Catholick Faith Fuit igitur a Basiliensi civitate legitima pro tunc nostra Concilii dissolutio asserentes contra sunt penitus ab omni veritate fide Catholica alieni All which notwithstanding the Fathers of the Council of Basile maintaining that this Translation was injust and invalid Eugenius was forced by another Bull equally authentick to acknowledg that the said Translation was in effect null and that the Council had been duely held from its beginning to that very time Both these Bulls are to be seen in Raynald the first in the year 1433. the other in the year 1434. Now shall the one and the other of these Bulls be Articles of Faith and shall we be obliged to believe that the same Council was at the same time an unlawful conventicle and a Lawful Synod of the whole Church assembled in the name of the Holy Ghost The same Raynald makes mention of an other Bull of Eugenius the 4 th against the Cardinal of Arles who presided over the Council of Basile where he is called Iniquitatis Alumnus atque perditionis filius If the voice of Popes in the judgements which they make of persons in their Bulls ought to be esteemed as infallible as that of Jesus Christ we should be obliged to look upon this Cardinal as a most wicked person but what if God hath judged otherwise and if from obliging us to abhor him as a Child of Iniquity and a Son of Perdition he would have us bear respect and veneration to him as one of the Blessed confirming his Saintity by publick Miracles authorized by an other Pope to wit Clement the Seventh who by an authentick Bull has enrolled him in the number of the Blessed declaring not that he did penance after having been a Son of Iniquity but that he had ever a celestial chast and immaculate life as it is to bee seen in the Bull of his Beatification reported at length by Ciaconius These few examples may sufficiently shew the falsity of the Jesuits pretension But without seeking further the very Authors themselves of this new Doctrine fall into Heresie by the undeniable sequele of their error For in these very same Conclusions they maintain that Pope Honorius in his Letters taught nothing but what was most consonant to the Catholick Faith touching the two wills and two operations in Jesus Christ Duas in Christo voluntates operationes fuisse profitemur nec aliud a nobis sensit Honorius dum operationem Christi unicam esse scripsit Now if it be a point of Faith as the Jesuits pretend that the Book of Jansenius is Heretical and the five Propositions are his because two Popes have affirmed it and that one ought to consider what they say with the same regard as if Jesus Christ had said it with how much more reason may one say the same of the letters of Pope Honorius which were both strictly examined condemned and burnt by the Authority of a General Council of the whole Church in which the Pope presided by his Legats and which in this very point was confirmed by two following General Councils and by a great number of Popes For if ever Popes speak out of their chair it is then chiefly when they speak in General Councils and in the confirmation of them by their Apostolical power And so consequently one cannot doubt but that Leo the second spoke out of his Chair when in divers Letters which he wrote in confirmation of the sixth Oecumenical Council he in particular ratified the Condemnation of Honorius pronouncing an Anathema against him because in stead of inlightning the Church these are his words by the Doctrine of Apostolical Tradition he suffered it to be defiled by a profane corruption Qui hanc Apostolicam Ecclesiam non Apostolicâ Traditionis doctrinâ lustravit sed profanâ traditione immaculari permisit And consequently if when the Popes speak out of their chair of what matter soever they speak whether of right or of Fact they injoy the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ and that all they so pronounce is an Article of Faith it ought to be a point of Faith that the Letters of
opinion that tends to change into Idolatry the veneration which they owe to their Soveraign Pastor where the Church is profaned by an impiety that dishonours and exposes it to the outrages of its enemies and finally where Jesus Christ is horribly blasphemed by a Sacrilegious parity which they endeavour to establish betwixt his sacred words and those of his Minister by making the one as well as the other the object of Divine Faith Some one 〈…〉 say it is an extravagance which deserves not to have such notice taken of it and this without question will be the pretext to move you to connive at such an excesse But you ought to consider My Lords that how extravagant soever the opinion may be It is advanc'd by persons who may give a just occasion to apprehend strange consequences of it For clearly it is not by chance or the blind passion of some one private person that it now comes to light but of old there have been dispositions laid for the introducing it nor was it ushered in with such pompe and ceremony but just at that nick of time which they conceived most favourable to procure it a successeful acceptance and in which they thought not any one would have the boldnesse to hold up his hand in opposition to it Their pretensions perchance are not yet ripe enough to draw a formal approbation of it from the Bishops but their hopes are since we must speak the plain truth that their credit and the power which of late they have got of doing both good and bad Offices will at least be able to keep them in silence so that not one shall dare attempt the condemnation of it for fear of drawing on his head the vengeance of so potent a Society and that the Sorbone which now they think they have brought to their beck will never have the confidence to censure it what aversion soever it may have inwardly for it They hope then under the favour of this silence and whilst the whole world shall seem buried in sleep dum dormirent homines this cockle which they have sowed in the fields of the Church will take root and grow up by the advantage of the season In the mean time they will leave it to grow to maturity according to their manner of expression relinquent tempori maturandum and when it shall be fully ripe they will extract the natural consequences that necessarily must spring from it For the present they tell us modestly one may believe with Divine Faith such like particular Facts but we shall shortly hear that we are bound to believ them which gradâ—tion will be easie for them to establish because it follows by a necessary consequence out of their principle it being certain that no man can believe with Divine Faith but what is a matter of Faith and what is such ought of necessity to be believed in that nature when it shall be sufficiently proposed It iâ— enough for their turns at present that the Bishops do not condemn this opinion but we shall see them ere long inveagle them in to be the approvers of it according to an other of their Maximes which is That the Church doth approve all such Doctrines as â—t suffers without making opposition It highly concerns you My Lords to reflect on the danger whereunto not only the Church but you your selves are also exposed lest one day the Jesuits bring you in for abettors of their Heresie and God himself lay it to your charge For though it be a most false error that the Church approvs all opinions which it doth not suppresse it is notwithstanding a constant truth confirmed by Popes and Councils that God imputeth to Pastors the approval of errors which they did not in due time oppose Error cui non resistitur approbatur Qui non corrigit resecanda committit Which made the second Council of Tours declare that the Shepheard seem'd to side with the Woolf as often as he did not hinder the slaughter of his flock having the power to do it And St. Leo speaking of those that were negligent in applying remedies to the grievances of the Church lays them all at their doors Qui multam saepe nutriunt pestilentiam dum necessariam dissimulant adhibere medicinam But these are reflexions altogether needlesse to be suggested to you My Lords whose zeal and Pastoral vigilance is of greater force to represent you what is expedient for the good of the Church in these occasions then all the discourses that can be made you It is enough for private Divines to lay before your eyes the emergent evils and deep wounds inflicted on its Doctrine and only to say to each of you in particular the same which a Prophet said to God Vide Domine considera See and consider what Doctrine is taught in the Church whereof you are the Masters Their duty extends no further and this done they may take up their rest and lament before Almighty God in Silence and Humility Paris the 1st of January 1662. FINIS