and Define That those Five Propositions were drawn out of the Book of the same Cornelius Jansenius Bishop of Ipres entituled Augustinus as also that they were condemned in the sense intended by the same Cornelius and as such we condemn them anew applying to them the same censure wherewith every one of them was particularly branded in the forementioned Declaration and Definition And we again condemn and prohibit the same Book of the so oft recited Cornelius Jansenius entituled Augustinus and all other Books as well Manuscripts as Printed or which may hereafter happen to be printed wherein the above-condemned Doctrine of the same Cornelius Jansenius is or shall be defended asserted or maintained Prohibiting all Faithfull Christians to hold preach teach or expound the said Doctrine either by word or writing or to interpret it either in publique or in private or to cause it to be printed either openly or in secret and this under the Penalties and Censures specified in the Law against Heretiques instantly to be incurred ipso facto without further Declaration Wherefore we enjoyn all our Venerable Brethren Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries of places Inquisitours of Heresie and all other Judges Ecclesiasticall to whom it shall belong to cause this above-said Constitution Declaration and Definition of Pope Innocent our Predecessour to be observed according to our present Determination and to restrain and punish all disobedient and Rebellious persons by the aforesaid Penalties and other remedies Juris facti even by imploring the assistance of the Secular Arm if it shall be necessary Given at Rome at St. Marie Major the Sixteenth of October in the year of our Lord God 1656. and of our Pontificate the second This Bull was received with the joy and approbation of all Catholique Princes Prelates and People notwithstanding in France there remained and do remain still to this day some who could not or would not be brought back to the unity of the Catholique Church The chief of these as for matter of Action are the Disciples of San-Cyran Inhabitants or Confederates of Port-Royall the Seminary of this Heresie and under-hand divers mutinous spirits glad to embrace any thing that looks like a Faction Among these one and as far as I hear the principall one is Arnauld of whom I will now treat § 3. Of Anthony Arnauld This man was a Disciple of San-Cyran and sometimes Directour of those at Port-Royall He was made Doctour of Sorbon before he set forth his Book of Frequent Communion I say His because the Book beareth his name though it were at least the Body and Substance of it made by San-Cyran as appeareth by San-Cyrans own Letter kept by the Reverend Fathers Minimes at Paris The Hereticall and condemned Maximes which this man hath taught in his Book of Frequent Communion and other Works are many Some few I here set down I have taken them out of the Answer to the Apology which Arnauld made for himself in a Letter to the Queen of France which Answer was printed in the Year 1644 and there for every one of these Hereticall Tenets several Texts of Arnaulds are produced His Doctrine then is this Arnauld's Doctrine taught in his Book of Frequent Communion 1. That the Church is corruptible in her Manners and Discipline that is her Doctrine of Manners 2. That there is no other Rule whereby to know Catholique Verities but onely Tradition So the Pope and Councells and Scriptures and Theologicall Demonstration are excluded from being any rule of knowing Catholique Verities 3. That St. Peter and St. Paul are two Heads of the Church which make but one 4. That the Absolution of the Priest gives not to the Penitent any thing else but the Grace of an exteriour Reconciliation but that it is the Canonicall Satisfaction which gives justifying Grace and revives the Soul And that it is therefore onely that Confession is necessary that the Priest may set a proportionable Penance 5. That the practise of Penance for all mortall Sins whether publique and scandalous or private is according to the Fathers and Primimitive Church to go thus First you must confesse and demand Penance Secondly the Penance is given Thirdly the Penance is to be fulfilled during a proportionable space of dayes moneths or years Fourthly cometh Absolution which is immediately followed with the Communion or receiving of the Blessed Sacrament And he that communicateth before he hath fullfilled his Penance communicateth unworthily 6. That the manner of doing Penance or frequenting the Sacrament of Penance now adays is different from what was practised for the first twelve hundred years that it is an abuse and wonderfull blindenesse 7. That the practice of Penance which is nowadayes favours the generall impenitence of the world In his second Edition he hath changed this Proposition thus That the Practice of Penance which is now-adayes most common is favoured by the generall impenitence of the world All this he hath in his Book of Frequent Communion and the long Preface to it This Book when it first came out was looked on by many who judged of it onely by the Title as a good and pious Work But the Jesuites at Paris who discovered the malice of the above mentioned Maximes preached and wrote against it and at length it was condemned By this the Iesuites got the ill will of the Jansenists and animated Port-Royall against them Yet all good Catholiques thanked the Jesuits for having stood up for the Church and hindred the consequences which were like to have followed and the errours into which many were running unawares Many things were writ to and fro The Jansenists defending Arnauld and the Jesuites with other Catholiques impugning him At length Arnauld who besides the above mentioned pernicious Maximes held also for Jansenius writ a little Tract called The Second Letter of Monsieur Arnauld to a Duke and Peer of France where he excuses Jansenius and the Jansenists from Heresie in the same manner which the Authour of the Provinciall Letters afterwards held to wit by saying that the Five Propositions could not be found in Jansenius that it was matter of Fact and not any Theologicall point wherein the Jansenists and others disagreed and consequently that they could not be called Heretiques This Letter was after a long Examen of it condemned in the Sorbon and Arnauld refusing to submit and further protesting against the Determination of the University was cashier'd the Sorbon and had his Title of Doctour taken from him in the Year 1656. the last of January as appeareth by the Act then passed in Sorbon This set the Jansenists in a rage And whereas hitherto they had defended themselves with some shew of modesty and pretense of learning and piety now they turned to write furious Satyrs which they call Provinciall Letters against the Sorbon first then against the Dominicans but their main fury they discharged against the Jesuites whom they would needs imagine to be the Authors of all their disgraces of which
the victory and will no longer contend but with those that call them Hereticks as I had occasionally done in the Preface of the Book From this accusation he intends to vindicate the Party by the difference there is between the judgements of the Pope and Councils touching questions of Fact and their judgements concerning questions of Right the former not being infallible as it may be the later are and by the unquestionable certitude of the Doctrine of Efficacious Grace that is Grace efficacious of it self maintained in the Writings of Jansenius and which there is no probability that the Pope intended to touch By this it appears that the Secretary played the Schoolman at the beginning in his first four Letters disputing against the censure of Sorbon and perceiving that he advanced little by striving to overbear a judgement maintain'd by the authority of the Pope and Bishops was forc'd to fall upon the Jesuites Morall which furnish'd him with the matter of the Twelve following Letters But being also driven out of that field by the conviction of his falsities â—e returns again to the Scholastick in his Seventeenth disputing of the infallibility of Pope and Councells and of the truth of the Doctrine of Efficacious Grace It would require a Letter longer then his to refute all his extravagances illusions bravadoes falshoods vanities and all that he speaks impertinently and contrary to the respect he owes to the Sea Apostosique I shall onely take notice of his two principall Mediums to prove that he is no Heretique As to the first which is the pretext of difference between decisions of Fact and decisions of Right the Reader will see that there is nothing necessary to be added to what I have latelely said in answer to the Jansenists Complaint and that the stories he reports concerning Pope Honorius and others avail him not at all As to the point of Self-efficacious Grace the good Secretary understands it very ill and shews not onely that he is no Doctor as he confesseth of himself but that he deserves not to be one He pretends that the Five Propositions are not hereticall in Jansenius's sense if that sense be no more then the Doctrine of Efficatious Grace not seeing that by the same argument Calvin may justifie his Doctrine on the same subject affirming also that he pretends nothing else but to defend the verity of Efficacious Grace The Secretary must learn that there are two wayes of defending Efficacious Grace one which is Hereticall and relying upon Hereticall Principles the other Orthodox maintained by Principles established in Councills Calvin follows the first and is therein Hereticall The Catholique Doctors Thomists Scotists Sorbonists Jesuits agree in the second and therefore notwithstanding their particular disputes they all remain in unity of Faith and in the Communion of the Church To know therefore whether Jansenius's Doctrine be secured by his profession of defending Efficacious Grace it must be known which way he defends it whether by Calvin's way or that of the Catholique Doctors Calvin so defends Effcacious Grace that he believes it leaves us no other liberty then the liberty from coaction or constraint subjecting us in other respects to a necessity of acting which deprives us of the power of resisting it so long as Grace perseveres The Catholique Doctors agree that Efficacious Grace so rules the Will as it leaves us a power of dissenting so that these two things are found together Grace in the Will and in the same Will under Grace a power sufficient to hinder its consenting to Grace and they doubt not but this is the true sense of the words of the Councill of Trent Potest dissentire Bunnez and Molina and all Catholique Doctours even the most divided in their opinions and the most opposite in the disputes of Grace are united in this point They are so likewise in this other That Grace under that formality of efficacious is not so necessary to good actions as that it cannot be sufficient without it and give us all power requisite to make that which God requireth of us and which yet we perform not to be truly possible to us even when we fail to do it whence it frequently happens that through our own fault Grace attains not its effect I ask the Secretary therefore whether Jansenius be of that opinion when he teaches that we need not fear lest necessity by what name soever call'd deprive us of liberty so it be not a necessity of coaction Or when he disputes against the indifference of liberty and leaves us not any that Calvin has denied nor acknowledges any that Calvin has not likewise acknowledged Or when he takes sufficient Grace for a Monster in Divinity and denies that there was ever any medicinall Grace that had not its effect Or when he imputes as errour to the Semipelagians their saying That the Will can obey or resist Grace And seeing it is evident that this Doctrine is dissonant to the Catholique Doctours way of explaining Self-efficacious Grace and is rather consonant to that followed by Calvin it must be concluded that reducing the sense of the Five condemned Propositions to the sense of Efficacious Grace as it has been explicated by Jansenius is to reduce it to an hereticall sense and that all they who follow this explication are not onely Disciples of Jansenius but of Calvin too Whence it appears that the Secretary accuses me in vain for having granted that the deceased Pope touched not in his Constitution the Controversie of Efficacious Grace For in the Cavilli from whence he hath taken it I speak expresly of the point in controversie between the Fathers of St. Dominique's Order and the Jesuiâ—es 'T is very true the Pope was not willing to touch that but he touched the point wherein they and we are agreed in confirming it by the condemnation of the Heresie of Jansenius which is opposite to it as being the sense of Calvin Wherefore 't is no wonder if the Calvinists have every where stretch'd forth their arms to embrace the Jansenists owning them for their School-fellows The Protestant Cantons by the mouth of Henry Ottius chief Professor of the University of Zuric cryes out In nostras cum consortibus Jansenius transit partes Jansenius and his Followers are come over to our side and they finde so great a conformity between their Doctrine of Grace and that which the Jansenists have expounded in their Catechisme that they verily believe there is nec aliud nec plus nec minus neither more nor lesse nor any other thing taught in the one then in the other The States of Holland encourage the Jansenists by the voice of Samuel Marez Pastor and Professor of Groyning who exhorts them to stand firm Macte illâ vestrâ virtute viri docti quòd audeatis resistere impio illi pontifici Be of good courage sayes he you generous and learned Jansenists seeing you daâ—e resist that wicked Pope With the rest joyns England who makes even her
History of Jansenisme the Answer to the Reply made in Defence of the Twelfth Letter the Answer to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Letter and another inserted in the Second English Edition betwixt the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Also the Conclusion of the Work concerning the Additionalls These Pieces either not being at all made in France or not come to my hands I have supplied The rest is taken out of the French Answer made by some of the Society with little alterations which are noted in the places where any considerable change is made If these Answers seem to have something too much of the Picquant the Reader will reflect that 't is necessity which putteth the Author on that strain The light of nature teacheth that he that wrongfully impeacheth an innocent person giveth him right to challenge his Accuser of unjust dealing 'T is no incivility to call that man an Impostour a Cheat a Liar who by grosse calumnies and notorious falsities is proved to wrong another man The Authour of the Provinciall Letters begun first and treated the Jesuites as Sycophants as Corrupters of the Doctrine of the Church as Abettours of all sorts of Crimes The Jesuites argue him of falsly calumniating them and their Authours of Forging and Imposture of wrongfully taxing good and solid Doctrine whilest in the mean time he venteth Heresies If this seems hard he must thank himself 't is but a just retorting on him those terms which he unjustly cast on the Society and on all School-Divines This I thought fit to advertise the Reader of All the favour I desire is that the Learned Reader will shew no favour to either side but as an equall Judge hear both Parties and if he have leisure to view the Authours I entreat him to do Truth so much right as to say what he findes For example the Doctrine of Probability is by the Authour of the Provinciall Letters called an Invention of the Jesuites to palliate crimes and give scope to Libertines The Jesuites answer that the Doctrine of Probability is no Invention of theirs they cite for that Doctrine a great number of learned Authours none of them Jesuites and many of them dead long before the Jesuites were in the world That which here I desire the Learned Reader to do is to examine the Authours which the Jesuites produce for this Doctrine and as they finde them cited so to pronounce who is the cheat and who hath wronged t'other This I desire of the learned For the unlearned or those that will not take the pains to look into Books of Divinity I expect so much reason at their hands that they will not prejudicate but rather credit the Answers here given them by men of known worth who cite their Authors and give their reasons then an idle Pamphleter who bringeth neither reason nor authority for himself but with a presumptuous boldnesse professing himself to have no skill in Divinity undertakes to censure all Divines As for those Readers who are bred to such Idaea's of Catholique Religion that they confound Rome and Babylon the Pope and Antichrist Saints and Idolls Sacraments and Sacriledges to whom a Jesuit and a Monster are two words that signifie the same thing for those I say I commend them to the Man in the Moon to cure their Phrensie When they have either more wit or lesse passion they will accuse those who lead them into illusion and abuse their ignorance to make non-sense of their Faith This Book hopes no favour nor fears no censure from such 'T is not meant for those that either cannot or will not judge right 'T is presented to the impartiall Readers either Protestants or Catholique who when they have read it will I hope finde satisfaction for 't is a satisfaction to upright mindes to see Impudence put to a just confusion and Innocency defended THE HISTORY OF JANSENISME BEcause it will be necessary for the understanding of this Work to have some generall Notion of the Transactions in matter of Jansenisme I have taken some pains to gather together those things which I hope will satisfie the Reader And for to make the Relation Authenticall I have not taken any thing on report onely or out of those Authours who have made Invectives against the Jansenists but out of the Publique Acts known to the whole world or out of the Jansenists own Writings If the things that I set down be scandalous Enormities I hope the Reader will judge that the blame ought not to reflect on Catholique Religion In the Primitive Church there were dives Heretiques Ebionites Marcionites Nicolaites and others whose Maximes lead men to most foul Crimes yet the Primitive Church had not then the lesse fervour and sanctity nor now the lesse esteem for their impieties As that age so this and all others are to be judged of by the piety of the faithfull not by the impiety of those whom pride hath made Rebells against Christ and his Church Had the Jansenists been members of the Catholique Church they would never have taught Doctrine against the Church But by teaching and professing this Doctrine exierunt ex nobis they are gone out and the Catholique Church remains no more responsable for their lives or Doctrine then for Arius Nestorius or any other Heretique This I thought fit to advertise the Reader of that he be not scandalized and measure the Church by those who are not of the Church but are her declared Enemies This premised I come to the History it self There are then three Persons who may be looked at as the main Authours and Abbettours of the Heresies which are now commonly understood by the name of Jansenisme of whom the three following Paragraphs shall treat § 1. Of the Abbot of St. Gygiran commonly called San-Cyran In the Year of our Lord 1638. on the Fifth Day of June Lewis the Thirteenth King of France granted a Warrant for the apprehending of John du Vergier de Haurannes Native of Bayonne commonly known by the Title of Abbot of St. Cyran and Claudius Seguenot an Oratorian Priest This was done by the King upon Information given to his Majesty of the scandalous and false Doctrine which these two persons did sow as well in Paris as other places of France to the perversion of the Catholique Faith and subversion also as Monsieur Marande * See his Book entituled Inconveniens d' Estat procedans du Jansenisme proveth it of the State of France San-Cyran therefore being apprehended for of Seguenot I intend not to speak was carried Prisoner to Bois de Vincennes near Paris all his Papers being seized on and strict Information taken of those who were known to be conscious of his Doctrine and particularly of his Disciples which lived to the number of about Twenty together in the House of Port-Royall some six or seven leagues off Paris This Port-Royall is a Monastery of Nuns committed to St. Cyrans direction by the Bishop of Langres deceived as he since professed by the opinion he had
of San-Cyrans Sanctity But the Disciples I speak of were men who in a Quarter joyning to the Nuns Monastery were brought up according to the principles of that Doctrine which now beareth the â—ame of Jansenisme There is also another House called Port-Royall in the Suburbs of St. James at Paris which sometimes is meant by Port-Royall in this Treatise the Nuns whereof and their Directours hold the same strain of Doctrine with the other San-Cyran then being Prisoner in the Bois de Vincennes and the Informations fully made by the Commissaries and Judges deputed by the King and the Archbishop of Paris he was found evidently criminall in divers points which concerned the Catholique Faith and the Doctrine of Christian Duty The Judges inclining to mildnesse would not proceed to rigour against him but by the Kings advice a Paper was presented to him containing the Catholique Doctrine contrary to his Maximes which if he would have signed and promised to observe he had been set free But the Abbot notwithstanding he had the impudence to deny all that of which by evident witnesse of irreproachable persons and by his own Letters as likewise of his Friends to him he was convinced yet he would not be brought to sign the Catholique Articles but chose rather to remain Prisoner then by professing the Catholique Faith to unsay in publick what he had privately taught Some time after the King who now drew towards an end of his days resolved to close up his life by a Royall act of Clemency which was the freeing of prisoners and recalling â—xiles from their banishment He had very great difficulty to resolve on the liberty of San-Cyran but being sollicited by many of the Abbots Friends who undertook for him that he should never meddle with writing or spreading his venomous Doctrine at length his Majâ—sty condescended that this Abbot also among others should be set at liberty But the King was no sooner dead but that San-Cyran fell to his old trade of venting his pernicious Maximes and laid down the draught of the Book now called Frequent Communion which though he never lived to see finished yet it came out afterward under the name of Arnauld a Doctour of Sorbon of whom we shall speak in the third Paragraph All this relation I have out of the Book called the Progresse of Jansenisme dedicated to the Chauncellour of France by Monsieur Preville and printed in the year 1655. In which Book is contained the whole Information made against San-Cyran by persons of worth who were acquainted with him and who having answered upon oath to the Interrogotories made by the Justice did at length every one of them sign what they had deposed Now out of this Authentique Information the Originall whereof is in Clermont Colledge and may be seen by any man that will I have taken that which I thought sufficient to set down what kinde of Doctrine this man vented I conceive all is not yet known For San-Cyran above all his other Maximes perpetually inculcated to his Confidents That they should be sure to keep secret what he taught them That if they spake of any thing he would deny it and that if ever they were examined about it they should deny all even upon oath His conscience dictated so clearly to him the malice of his Maximes that he was ever most unwilling to deliver his Doctrine by writing and when he could not avoid writing he endeavoured to be obscure and commanded those that received his papers to burn them as soon as they had read them Yet his Friends were not so faithfull to him nor he to himselfe but that many of his Writings and Letters either to him or from him were kept and since discovered all which make a great part of two Books in Quarto and out of them as concerning San-Cyrans Doctrine take what followeth First then for himself he teacheth That he hath his Mission from God That God giveth him particular Lights to know the Interiour of men That he learneth not his Maximes in Books but in God and that his conduct is in all things according to the interiour instincts which God giveth him Secondly for the Church and its Members he maintaineth that the Church is not now the same which Christ planted That for these six hundred years last past the Church is quite corrupted in Manners and not onely in Manners but also in Doctrine That God himself destroyeth the Church That the Bishops and Pastours of the Church that now are are destitute of the Spirit of Christianity of the Spirit of Grace and of the Spirit of the Church That the Religious Orders and other Spirituall men of these times understand not the Gospell nor the wayes of Christ and that he onely hath the true light of the Gospell and perfect Intelligence of the Scriptures That the Councell of Trent was made by the Pope and by School-men who have much changed the Doctrine of the Church That School-Divinity is a pernicious Science which ought to be destroyed That St. Thomas hath corrupted Divinity by Humane Reason That the Jesuites ought to be destroyed as most domageable to the Church of God Thirdly for what belongeth to the Commandments he denieth That all just men have sufficient Grace to keep them Further he maintaineth That every just person ought to steer his actions according to the interiour motions which God giveth him though contrary to the exteriour Law and this he maintaineth even in Murther for the committing whereof this interior instinct is warrant enough And according to this Doctrine he maintaineth in his Book called the Royall Question That men may lawfully kill themselves and that many times they are bound to kill themselves The Reader will note that this last Tenent of killing ones self is not mentioned in the Progresse of Jansenisme as the rest are but he defends it in his Book of the Royall Question as I said But I have here set it down for the similitude it hath with the precedent point Fourthly concerning the Sacraments he teacheth That Confirmation and the Sacrament of Orders and Episcopall Consecration that is the making of a Bishop blots out all sins quoad culpam poenam like Baptisme That the Sacrament of Confirmation is more perfect then Baptisme hath more force and more efficacy and requireth no other dispositions and therefore that a man in Mortall Sin hath no need of Confession for to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation That Veniall Sins are not matter sufficient for Absolution That perfect Contrition is absolutely necessary for the Sacrament of Penance That Absolution is to be deferred a long time till the Penance be first fulfilled That by Absolution the Priest doth not forgive sins but declare them forgiven by sorrow and penance That it is not necessary to confesse the number or Species of Mortall sins if the Contrition be sufficient That the Holy Communion hath more force to forgive sins then the Sacrament of Penance That the frequenting the Sacraments
of Confession and Communion is oftentimes more hurtfull then profitable That the calling on the Name of Jesus is as efficacious as the receiving of the Holy Eucharist These and many other like these are the Maximes of San-Cyran which are Authentically set down in the Information taken of him and to be seen in the Progresse of Jansenisme Now that which gave this unfortunate man credit and made all that he said to be esteemed good and holy was his Exteriour appearance which seemed to breath nothing but Sanctity He was a person of a sad look stern countenance austere carriage and disposition Hypochondriaâ—all which the ignorant people interpreted to be the rigour of Penance attributing that to a profound Sanctity which in him was nothing but either Nature or Hypocrisie The esteem which the world held in him bred in him such a height of pride as made him contemne all that was ordinary His usuall saying was That the ordinary way was for ordinary people For himself he dream't of nothing and talk't of nothing but the Ancient times the Fathers the Primitive fervour of the Church to which he would reduce the World whose universall Darknesse and Errours he did often bemoan presuming himself to be the onely man able to redresse all that was amisse He was so bold as to assever to the Abbot of Prieres that if he would give him Fifteen or Twenty young men who had never received impression from other Masters if they would follow his Instructions in the space of six moneths he would make them compleat Divines And of his Book called Petrus Aurelius he was so vainly conceited that he said It was the best Book that had been made in the Church these six hundred Years past though it be a condemned Book in which among other grosse absurdities he reaches That a Priest loseth his Priest-hood by committing a mortall Sin which is one of Wiclif's Heresies and as great a foolery as if one would teach that a Christian is unchristned by a mortall sin Thus his Austerity which was partly naturall partly affected got him the opinion of Sanctity and that bred in him a pride and arrogance fit for an Arch Heretique All this and much more concerning this Abbot of St. Cyran is to be seen in the Information above-mention'd § 2. Of Jansenius Cornelius Jansenius of whom the late Heresie took its name was by birth a Hollander of Leerdam but Student of the University of Lovain where in the Year 1619. Octob. 24. he proceeded Doctor He was ligued with the Abbot of San-Cyran of whom we have spoken in a most strict amity and kept perpetuall correspondence with him giving him continuall account of his affairs and making him sole Arbiter of all his Thoughts all his Studies and all his Designes He oftentimes visited San-Cyran and conferred with him he both helped San-Cyran in furnishing him with matter for his Aurelius and was also helped himself by him in his Sermons and publique Speeches which San-Cyran as being the abler Preacher sent him out of France upon every occasion All this appears by his Letters to this Abbot which make up a main part of the Book called The Birth of Jansenisme and were found in the Abbots chamber when he was seized on Out of the same Letters it also appears that Jansenius had suck'd in all the poison of that Heretique for he also deâ—piseth School-Divines as Bablers is disgusted with St. Thomas no lesse then St. Cyran and relisheth nothing but Antiquity But above all he hates the Jesuits against whom he laboured almost perpetually writing Libells against the Society that it is not to be wondred if his Disciples follow the same train carping at their Doctrine defending such as apostatized from their Order incensing and exasperating all men against them that possibly he could and lastly not forbearing even to censure the Pope himself for having canonized St. Ignatius and St. Xaverius Furthermore it appears by the same Letters that he had no small inclination to favour Heresie For of Marcus Antonius de Dominis one whom all the world knows of an Arch-bishop of Spalato to have become an Apostata and pernicious enemy of the Church first in Holland and afterwards in England he writeth that his Doctrine was in a manner Catholique save onely where he touched on the oeconomy of the Church and shews how much he was afraid lest the University of Lovain should have required him to write against the said Archbishop Besides he speaketh very favourably of the Synod of Dort where although rigid Calvinisme was established yet he feareth not to pronounce of the Doctrine of that Synod that it was almost all Catholique But that which is most of all remarkable and likewise most apparently discovered in these Letters is the Grand Design concerted betwixt Jansenius and San-Cyran in opposition to the Jesuites to the School-Divines and to the Catholique Church This design was the reproving of those Catholique Tenents which were maintained by the Society and in effect by the whole Church concerning Grace Free-will Predestition c. To compasse this design 't is manifest that from the year wherein he proceeded Doctour even to his dying day this man made it his study to read St. Augustin and interpret the many hard places of this great Saint in such manner as to make St. Augustin teach his own private Heresies He knew well enough that his Work would never please the Pope as he oftentimes hinteth in his Letters wherefore his chief labour was first to keep it secret fearing that if it were discovered it might be choaked in the womb and never come to see light And secondly to dispose mens mindes so by himself and by his Friend San-Cyrans means that it might finde some great Persons of Authority or Interest who should favour and maintain it And in effect they got what they aimed at For their secret was not discovered and whereas Jansonius died before his Work was printed being taken away by the Plague in the second year of his Bishoprique at Ipres on the 7. of May 1638. his Book notwithstanding found many Patrons both in Flaunders and in France In Flaunders many of the University of Lovain the Archbishop of Machelen the Bishop of Gaunt and divers others stood stifly for defence of this new Augustinus for so he called his book In France some Bishops also many Gurez a very considerable part of the Sorbon with divers of the Oratorian Priests of Cardinalll Berull's Institution did the same The reasons why these Persons engaged so far against the Truth I will not here dive into I believe many were deceived by the very Title of the Work For he calling his Book Augustinus they imagined that a Doctour of Lovain and Bishop of the Catholique Church would not give any thing for St. Augustius Doctrine but what was truly his But it is also known that not a few of these Defenders of Jansenius had a tooth against the Order of the Jesuites so as
they were so sensible that they seem'd half desperate For now San-Cyrans wicked Maximes were laid open in the Information made against him which Monsieur Preville printed Jansenius was condemned I mean his Book as Hereticall and the last Pillar of Jansenisme Arnauld was ignominiously turned out of Sorbon This is the summe of the History of Jansenisme as to the main Heads of it This the occasion of the Provincial Letters I suppose the Reader when he hath read this will not wonder that the Jesuites are against the Jansenists Doctrine nor will he think strange that the Jansenists after having broached such Impious Doctrine after having endeavoured to corrupt the Articles of the Catholique Faith after having shewed so much disrespect to the Popes Bishops and whole Catholique Church should falsifie the Jesuites Doctrine and treat them with those terms of igâ—ominy of which their Provinciall Letters are full The first Answer To the Provincial Letters Which The Jansenists have published against the Society of Jesus Note that this Answer was made at the coming out of the Ten first Letters as a general warning about the Authors Quality and Conditions the proof of his Forgeries in particular being reserved to the second Answer called The Impostures The Argument of this first Answer 1. THe Author of the Provinciall Letters discovered to be an Heretique 2. His pittiful shifting off the main Question of Jansenisme which he was obliged to defend and in place of defence turning to Slanders against the Jesuites 3. The wrong he hath done the Church in endeavouring to make pass in the vulgar Tongue under the Name and Authority of the Jesuites and thereby giving them a shew of truth amongst the vulgar many false Opinions which they never taught but the quite contrary 4. That what he saith is taken chiefly out of a Book condemned long since and burnt by the Hang-man 5. His citing of Authors is full of gross untruth and ignorance scarce ever alledging any of them in his true meaning 6. His unworthy handling of Divinity by impugning grave Authors and treating most serious matters onely with fleering and scoffing 7. His ignorant attributing to the whole Society that which haply some one amongst them may have taught though all the rest have opposed it and taught the quite contrary 8. His gross Metachronisme or mistake of Times making Jesuites to be the first Authors and Inventors of that which was taught and received many Ages before there were any Jesuites in the world IT cannot be denied that the Author of those Letters which are spread abroad against the Society and fill the world with so much noise is a Jansenist If notwithstanding it be the work of one single man and not rather of the whole party of the Jansenists I conceive that if the Author were questioned and would answer truly to his name he must use the same words which that Devil did who tormented the miserable wretch that dwelt among the Tombs and say My name is Legion for we are many But howsoever that the Author is a Jansenist is manifest For in his four first Letters he maintaineth that Doctrine which the Pope hath condemned under the name of Jansenius his Doctrine And in the following Letters he chargeth the Jesuits with having been the first that discovered and impugned those hainous Errours which make up Jansenius his Book The Jansenists had writ many things in defence of the Doctrinal Points of Jansenius now condemned by the Church but they were answered so briskly that they were forced to lay down their arms and abandon the defence of those infamous Propositions which since their being Anathemaâ—â—z'd at Rome have been a horror to all that have not renounced their Fâ—ith but live under the name of Catholique This hath forced the Jansenists to change their manner of fighting they stand no more upon their Defence but are bâ—come Assailanâ—s They have quiâ—ted the 〈◊〉 intherto agitated of the Doctrinal Pâ—inâ—s of Faiâ—h wherein they were alwayâ—s worsted and now they muster up as their â—â—st Reserve Accusations Slanders Calumnies tracing in all this proceeding the steps of their Predecessors the ancient Heretiquâ—s The resolution of the Faâ—hers of the Society whom thesâ— Letters attaque was first not to spare them an inch wheresoever the Doctrine of Faith should be questioned that being the Interest of God and next to pass by their Calumnies and slight their Slanders since herein none were concerned but they themselves who had long since learnt of their Master this Lesson taught in the Gospel Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you and speak all that is naught against you untruly for my sake But since their patience in suffering and their modesty in being silent has made up one part of the Scandall whereof they stand accused it is necessary to give some Antidote to the Readers of those infamous Letters to the end that poison which has been offered them in the Babylonish Cup of gold as the Scripture speaks that is to say under the gilt of some fond railing and jeasting words have not the sad effect which those Hereticall Wrâ—ters true poisoners of mens Souls do pretend And that they may have no better fortune in their Calumnies then they met with in their wicked Doctrine I hold it necessary to desire the Readers as well of those Letters as of this Writing to consider In the first place the subtle and malicious wayes of the Jansenists who as I have already hinted by a sleight very ordinary with Heretiques have quitted their poste in the sight of the whole world not giving now the least Answer to those Reproaches made against them concerning the falsenesse of their Propositions challenged to be Erroneous Scandalous and Hereticall which as defendants they ought to have maintained but reproaching the Jesuits with the wickedness of their Moral by that means becomming the Assaulters and obliging the others to the Defensive part in a matter which concerned not the questions in hand Thus did the Arians deal with great St. Athanasius when finding it impossible to answer the force of his reasons they laid that care aside and became reproachers of his life obliging him to justifie himself from those horrible Accusations with which they set upon his innocency accusing him for ravishing a woman and barbarously murthering a man that he might cut off his hand to use it in Enchantment The question was not here what Answers the Jesuits have made concerning sundry Cases of Conscience which have either been proposed to them or which their Adversaries have forged at their pleasure or to speak yet more truly which the Enviers of their Glory and Abilities have maliciously attributed unto them but of the Doctrine of Jansenius and of the five Propositions taken out of that Author and condemned as his by the holy See That the Jesuits have well or ill answered or writ on the subject of Duels Usuries Restitutions and other Cases which their Adversaries impertinently impose
reperies à sexto ad undecimum caput lib. 8. de Hist. Pelagiana c. And of the Fifth f Pag. 36. Augustini verba sententiam summa side repraesentavit Iprensis Episcopus lib. 3. de Gr. Salv. cap. 2. Vbi retulit veterem Ecclesiam Lugdunâ—nsem Sinodum Valentinam expressissime definiâ—ntes velut â—idei Catholicae dogma Non pro omnibus omâ—ino sed pro â—idelibus solis mortuum Christum Crucisixum The Author of the Book of Victorious Grace with six Approbatours sayes That those Propositions are most true and most Cotholique according to the sense of Grace efficacious in it self g Pag. 16. 18 21 22. As it is also in that sole sense that the Lord Bishop of Ipres maintains them against the errours of the Jesuites That they have a good sense in which the Lord Bishop of Ipres and the Disciples of St. Augustine have alwayes defended them And where is it that the Lord Bishop of Ipres has defended them Is it not in his Augustinus And how should he defend them in that Book if they were not there They are therefore the Propositions of Jansenius and they that cannot finde them there again need onely resume the eyes they had before those Propositions were condemn'd Since the Authour of the Memoire touching the Jesuites design affirms That Jansenius's opinions on the Subject of those Propositions are the same wiâ—h St. Augustins and consequently that one cannot determine them condemn'd in Jansenius 's sense without violating all the rules of the Church As also that the ablest Divines would be oblig'd to acknowledge the capitall points of St. Augustine 's Doctrine condemned if the Five Propositions had been condemned in Jansenius 's sense Does â—e not grant those Propositions to have a sense in the Doctrine of Jansenius and consequently that they are Jansenius's either as to the Letter or as to that sense And the Authour of the Illustration upon some new Objections supposeth he not the same when he sayes That though the Jesuites should by surprize have extorted a generall condemnation of Jansenius 's sense Yet all the Learned who are vers'd in St. Austines Doctrine would not be able to believe that they could without wounding their consciences so far blinde themselves as to take the most constant Maximes of that great Saints Doctrine for Heresie and Impietics He is carefull to forbear denying the Five Propositions to contain the sense of Jansenius and contents himself with the common evasion viz. That Jansenius his sense is also the Doctrine of St. Augustine 'T is notoriously known that the five Deputies at Rome a few dayes before their condemnation protested before the Pope in the name of themselves and all the Disciples and Defenders of St. Augustine that they did and would maintain during their lives the Five Propositions in their legitimate sense as containing the undoubted Doctrine of St. Austin and consequently of the Church They well knew that in their opinion the sense of St. Augustine and Jansenius were not different But rightly judging that the defence of St. Austin would appear more reasonable then the defence of Jansenius they in a Bravado stil'd themselves the Defenders of St. Augustine though they were in effâ—ct but the Defenders of Jansenius And consequently till such time as we have a constat of their revoking that generous protestation we are bound to believe them on their Parol that they and the other Disciples and Defenders of St. Austin that is to say all the Jansenists do still and will during life defend the Five Propositions in their legitimate sense which is just the sense of Jansenius We are therefore agreed of the Fact by the Jansenists own confession to wit That the five Propositions are of Jansenius either as to the words or as to the sense they may receive nay as to their legitimate sense if we will believe their Deputies at Rome We must therefore hence forward dispute onely of the Right to know whether the Fact which we are agreed on deserves approbation or condemnation For 't is just as when in secular judgements the supposed criminall confesses the fact he is charg'd with as when Milo for example freely grants that he â—lew Clodius after which it remains onely to enquire whether he had right to do it So since the Jansenists have confessed that they maintain the Five Propositions in Jansenius's sense there 's no further diâ—pute but whether they have right to maintain them But the Pope decides the controversie saying That in those Propositions he condemns the sense of Jansenius And consequently if he be deceived he is deceived in the decision of a point of Right not a point of Fact And if the Jansenists refuse to obey that decision the pretext of its being a question of Fact will not excuse their refusall For 't is but a mear mockery to say they have submitted to the Constitution unlesse in their Morality they call it a submission to refuse to act what is ordained Nor can they alledge that Jansenius's own sense of the Propositions and that which we pretend to be his are divers senses We call no other the sense of Jansenius then that which Jansenius himself has express'd in his Book then that which the Jansenists have preach'd taught publish'd by an infinity of Writings and have abridg'd in the Paper of Three Columns That is the sense we call Iansenius his sense and which also the Pope intends And therefore it was that in the pursuance of his Bull he condemned all Books that defend that sense and namely the Paper of Three Columns That is to say he condemns the expression which Iansenius and the Iansenists themselves have made of their Doctrine in the Five Propositions In a word the Pope having declar'd that he has condemn'd the Doctrine of Jansenius we press the Jansenists with their own Maximes so as 't will be impossible for them to escape without retracting what they have said or renouncing the infallibility of the Church For see how they argue Pope Celestine writing to the Bishops of France declar'd St. Augustines Doctrine touching matter of Grace to be the Catholique Doctrine Therefore they that impugne the same Doctrine of St. Augustine are Heretiques We say in like manner Pope Innocent X. writing to the Bishops of France declar'd that Jansenius's Doctrine is condemn'd as Hereticall Therefore the Jansenists who defend that Doctrine are Heretiques What is there replyable It is they will say a question of Fact wherein the Pope is not infallible viz. whether the Doctrine he condemnes is or is not the Doctrine of Jansenius And 't is also say we a question of Fact wherein the Pope is not infallible viz. whether the Doctrine he established be or be not the Doctrine of St. Augustine What know we say they whether Pope Innocent ever read Jansenius And what know we whether Pope Celestine ever read St. Augustine Pope Celestine express'd in a certain number of Propositions the Doctrine
Decisionâ— of the Church another while dissembling and palliâ—ting that contradiction acting as St. Bernard sayes now the Wolf and anon the Fox The Church â—ells us that the Five Propositions taken in Jansenius's sense are Hereticall the Jansenists affirm That the Five Propositions taken in Jansenius's sense are the most constant verities of Catholique Doctrine This is acting the Wolf and declaring point-blank against the Church which is Christs Flock Yet they say withall they condemn the Five Propositions where ever they finde them Now that 's to play the Fox to wit by a mentall reservation and exception of Jansenius's sense which neverthelesse is that sense which is condemned by the Church I say nothing of their acting the Sheep by that Innocence and Sanctity of life which they vaunt of and which they endeavour to confirm even by Miracles And to say but the truth they work Miracles to prove their Sanctity far greater then any man is able to believe For what greater Miracle in persons that regard onely the love of God thenthen the accord which they make betwixt that love and the hatred of their Neighbour which they have shown from the beginning and that even before they could pretend to have receiv'd any displeasure from men 'T is well known that when Jansenius's Book was first brought into France one of their Patriarchs who laboured to engage many Doctors of the Sorbon in the defence of that Doctrine and begg'd their Approbations having met with one of those Doctours who would not be perswaded by his other reasons to approve the Book without reading it as some of his Colleagues had done he had recourse to his last reason which he thought so prevalent that he could not but submit to it and shewing him the Book Behold saith he the Jesuites Tomb. He is fallen himself into it and I pray God he may rise happily from it But is it not a great miracle to reconcile so charitable an intention as this with that purified Zeal for the love of God whereof they make profession And is not that another great Miracle which appears in their Letters viz. The attonement of Justice which is so dear to them with the liberty of calumniating Their Calumnies are so clearly display'd inâ—â—ur Answers that it will bâ— a new Miracle of boldnesse or rather impudence if any man that looks but in the Books shall engage himself to defend them Which Miracle involves a Third viz. The agreement of that faithfull and sincere dealing of which they make profession with the imposture and falsity of their Allegations This illustriously appears in the same Letters And after I had particularly shown it in Seventeen severall Citations they had the candour to affirm in lieu of a full answer that I had noâ— touch'd their six last Letters Which is in effect to say that 't is but a Peccadillo a small matter to have been taken upon seventeen severall occasions in Imposture and Falsifying I thought it had been sufficient to have prov'd it in one onely instance as it suffices to make a man infamous for his whole life to be but once convinc'd of bearing false witnesse But seeing this is not enough for the Jansenists I must entreat them to tell me near about what number of Impostures will go to the making of a Jansenist be declared an Impostor seeing that to be taxed of seventeen is counted but a triâ—le and not sufficient However their Writings are so â—uxuriant in fruits of this nature that require as many as you will it will be no hard matter for them to make up their account I should be over tedious if I meant to relate all the other Miracles of the Jansenists It shall suffice me to adde onely that which is the most visible one in all their conduct viz. The reconciling of the true Doctrine of Christianity with the war they make against the Church of Christ I call war against the Church of Christ their combating against the Decisions of the Holy Sea receiv'd and approv'd both by the Bishops and Doctors I speak not here of Sorbon onely or apart by it self which is yet Body considerable enough to prevail against the authority of certain particular Doctours whose number is much lesse and whose quality to speak modestly is no wayes preferrable to that of Sorbon Neither speak I of the Bishops separately whose judgement yet in Causes Ecclâ—siasticall is far more considerable then that of single Doctors No nor do I speak of the Holy Sea apart by it self which yet in the judgement of all Antiquity was believ'd to be sufficient to make those acknowledg'd for Heretiques who were declared such by the Pope and those also reputed Catholiques whom the Pope receiv'd into his Communion and declar'd to be such I conâ—oyn all three together and 〈…〉 to whole establishment the Pope Bishops and Doctors do unanimously concurre is to make war against the Church whose Sentiments neither ought nor can â—e be better represented then by the common consent of the Head and principall Members which compose it And since that whole united body conspiringly informs us that the Five Propositions are condemn'd in Jansenius's sense and his Opinions and Doctrine condemn'd in the Five Propositions it is undeniable that the Jansenists who hitherto make a practice of contradicting it do work so great a Miâ—acle as not any Faith save that of the Arians Nestorians Euâ—ychiaâ—s Monothelites adde likewise Luthâ—rans Zuinglians Calvinists c. is able to believe which is The agreement of the true Doctrine which they bâ—ag to be taught by them in its purity with the war against the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Church Judge Reader whether one ought to require any other Miracls then these in proof of what I have affâ—rted That the Jansenists are Heretiques An ANSWER to the JANSENISTS Sixteenth Letter addressed to the Directors of Port-Royall Argument 1. THat the Authour of the Provinciall Letters not deserving an Answer for his Rudenesse Calumny and Ignorance this is addressed to the Port-Royall meaning thereby the whole Party of the Jansenists 2. That Port-Royall holdeth Intelligence with Geneva and Charenton whilest the Jesuites are maintained by Popes Councells Kings and Nobles 3. Port-Royall 's greatest Happinesse is not to be known on the contrary the Jesuites when they are known are made happy in the Love and Respect of all and none despise them but such as know them not 4. That they pretend Reforme and set upon the Jesuites Moralls as giving scope to Liberty whilest really they aim not at a Reforme but Destruction of the Church which they see is much maintained by the Jesuites and the establishing the Heresies of Geneva impugned by the Jesuits 5. A Parallell betwixt Port-Royal and Geneva in points of Faith 6. That all other Heretiques cry up Port-Royall as consenting with them 7. Apostata's profess to have learnt Calvinisme in Jansenius his Books and Jansenisme in Calvin's Works 8. The Book of Arnauld of Frequent Communion commended at
fine not to overwhelm you with the prodigious number of your errours you have dared to say q Pag. 725. That God does us an infinite honour to admit us to the participation of the same food in time which the Elect enjoy in eternity without any other difference saving that here be affords us not the sensible sight and taste of iâ— reserving them both till we come to Heaven If you admit no other difference then that hope not for the approbation of your Doctrine in the Romane Church that of Geneva onely will approve it Now if these Maximes be not faithfully extracted out of the Book of Frequent Communion convince me of Imposture If the first be not censured the second impious the third licentious and prophane the fourth and fifth suspect of Heresie convince me of falsity and ignorance If I attribute them to you undeservedly convince me of slaunder and malice But if you be the Authours of them if you have produced them under Monsieur Arnauld's name if some of them have been condemn'd by the Pope as that of the two Heads others reprov'd by all Persons of Piety as the two following others again held for suspect against the B. Sacrament by the ablest Divines why have you not retracted them Wherefore in lieu of suppressing them do you accuse of detraction lying imposture and cruelty those who advertise you of your obligations Though you had not published them as you have done though you had contented your selves with whispeâ—ing them in mens â—ars and making a sâ—cret Caball of them they that should have heard them had they not been bound to become â—â—formers unlesse they would have entred into the Conspiracy of your Crime Why then wiâ—l you needs have the Jesuits to be detractours for disclosing Heresies which they cannot conceale without sinning Was the deceased Dishop of Langres r In his Declaration directed to the Bishop of St. Malo signed with his own hand the 26. of May 1638. a Calumniatour for having declar'd that the Abbot of St. Cyran induced the Religious of the Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament to Confesse but seldome and to communicate yet lesse frequently then they Confessed in so much as Mother Mary Angelica Arnauld though a Superious was once five moneths without receiving the Blessed Sacrament and likewise pass'd over an Easter day without communicating Was the deceased Bishop of Sens a Calumniator because he sent a writing a little before his death to the Popes Nuntio containing his last Sentiments touching the Disciples of the Abbot of St. Cyran to the end he should informe his Holinesse and assure him that the affected singularity he had alwayes abserv'd in them their pride their presumption of minde their contempt of others and care to hide themselves from those that were not wholly theirs had oblig'd him to believe the whole party suspected of the Church as having seen that their beginning had been in illusion one of whose effects was a false Devotion called the secret Rosary of the B. Sacrament condemned as such by eight Doctours of Sorbon who had understood by persons of credit that Monsieur de St. Cyran spakâ— of the Council of Trent as of a Politique Assembly that was in no wise a true Council and had also been inform'd by many very credible persons that the same Abhot endeavour'd to take away the frequency of Communion even from the best Souls under the pretence of a Spirituall Communion which he made passe for more Holy and fuller of Grace then the Sacramentall Communion If therefore we had no other proofs of your corrupt Doctrine against the B. Sacrament then the testimonies of those two illustrious Prelates should we not with them have reason to hold Port-Royal suspect of Intelligence with Geneva But suspicion is not now the businesse Your Maximes are no longer secret nor are your Errours still known but to a few You have publish'd them in your Works and when you were reprov'd on that account you obstinately defended them Shall I again be forc'd to set them before your eyes and shew you your offence in artificially disguising what you ought rather to wash out with tears Must I produce the Errours Blasphemies Impieties and Extravagances noted by those eight Doctours of Sorbon in your Secret Rosary which your Apologists have made passe for the pious thoughts of an excellent Religious Woman of great wisdome and vertue and Superiour of an Order Must I after so many famous Writers summon you to tell me whether the Solitaries of Port-Royal persist in those Sacrilegious wishes noted in that scandalous Writing which seems to have no other scope then the dishonour of Christ and contempt of the most adorable of our Mysteries Whether they can desire without horrour what I cannot here write without trembling s Impious Wishes contain'd in the secret Rosary of the Jansenists That Christ be in the Blessed Sacrament in such sort as he go not forth of himself that the Society which he will have with men be after a manner separate from them and resident in himself it being unreasonable that he should make an approach to us who are nothing but sin That he dwell in himself leaving the Creature in his incapacity of approaching him that all that he is have no relation to us that his inaccessiblenesse hinder him from going forth of himself that Souls renounce their meeting of God and acquiesce to his dwelling in the place proper to the condition of his being which is a place inaccessible to the creatures where he receives the glory of being onely accompanied with his sole Essence That he regard not any thing that passes without him that Souls present not themselves to him as the object of his application but rather to receive a repulse by the preference he owes to himself That he stoop not to communications disproportionate to his infinite capacity that Souls remain in their unworthinesse of so Divine a communication that they esteem themselves happily portion'd by having no share in the gifts of God but rejoycing that they are so great that we are not capable of them Is it possible to read such horrid Sentiments without an indignation against their Authours and Defenders Compare the judgement given of them by the late Archbishop of Sens and the most famous Doctours oâ— Sorbon to wiâ— Monsiâ—ur du Val Monsieur le Clerc Monsieur Chapelas Charton Hallier Bachelier Moret Cornet with the approbation of Jansenius and your Apologists That Archbishop â—ssures us that the Secret Rosary of the B. Sacrament wherein those Maximes are compriz'd is but a false Devotion whose first originall was an Illusion that gave beginning to your Sect And the Authour of the Letters to a Provinciall maintaines the contrary t Letter 16. That 't is a transcendent wickednesse to affirm the Rosary to have been the fâ—rst fruits of that Conspiracy against Christ The Doctours of Sorbon averre that writing to be stuff'd with Impertiâ—ences Extravagances Errours
that were deputed to examine at Rome there was but one Jesuit For although Cardinall Lugo a Jesuit of Eminent Learning was also to have been one yet at the Jansenists petition he was excluded So that of Thirteen Examiners there was but one Jesuit and his Censures as you report them the furthest from taxing the Five Propositions that could be expected Where then did the Jesuites appear in all this businesse What did they do Whom did they work upon Certainly Sir you would not have been silent if you had any thing to produce against thâ—m You that have laid so many false Calumnies on the Society would never have dissembled any true fault which they had committed in so important a matter You tell us two things which are meer Surmises not Probations One is that Jansenius had taxed Molina a Jesuite of fifty errours What then Do you imagine Jansenius so great a Divine that Molina must fly for his censures I believe no Jesuit ever thought so and in effect it hath not proved so but quite contrary Jansenius his Book is censured as Hereticall and Molina standeth in as good repute as ever But allow that Jansenius had found five hundred true faults in Molina doth that prove that the â—esuites procured a Bull by false Information when it cannot be shewed that they ever did any thing which might make them suspected of such an intention You tell us then for a second Suâ—mise That the Jesuites hold this Maxime as one of the most Authentique of all their Theology viz. That they may without crime calumniate those by whom they think they are unjustly molested Letter 18. pag. 343. I will not answer this false reproach with that uncivill language which your Friend pag. 325. giveth Father Annat the Kings Confessour Though you deserve it yet I scorn foul language But you must give me leave to tell you that you are extreamly out Never any Jesuite taught this Maxime as you set it down so far are they from holding it one of the most Authentique Maximes of their Theology A Jesuite holdeth it a crime to lie and truly should I know any of them that should think they might calumniate others falsely I should esteem them far otherwise then I do You may therefore file this up with the other false Calnmnies you laid on the Jesuites for this Proposition cannot be found any where but in your Letters no Jesuite ever taught it no I dare say no Catholique Doctour ever imagined it Of like falsity with this are those unjust aspersions which you in several places of your Letters cast on the Jesuites which I note in the fourth place you say pag 351. That the Jesuits raise a disturbance in the Church whilest it is evident that they endeavour to allay the disturbance which you raise All they do is to preach and teach doctrine consonant to the Popes Bulls to the sense of the Church to that which Kings and Princes and all Catholique Bishops and Doctors allow of and agree in To be obedient is not to raise disturbance but to be refractory as you are is to raise disturbance Therefore Pope Alexander justly calleth the Jansenists perturbatores quietis publicae perturbatours of the publique peace because they raise disturbance in the Church Again you say pag. 303. That the Jesuits daily fasten new Heresies on the Jansenists First the Propositions were called Heretical then their quality was urged then it was translated to word for word then it was brought into the heart then into the hand To all this I answer that whereas you attribute to the Jesuites the fastening of Heresie on their Adversaries you cannot be ignorant that they never did call you Heretiques till the Pope had first defined it and the Bishops and whole Church allowed it Nor hath there been any change in the Church as to this point What Pope Innocent first defined that Pope Alexander did again define and because you had found new evasions he added a fuller declaration All the change was on your parts First you said the Propositions were in Jansenius but were not Hereticall then you said they were Hereticall but not in Jansenius And when the places were shâ—wed you you tell us they are not in Jansenius in the same sense which they are condemned in so it is you that change not the Jesuites who never desired more or lesse then that the Bulls should be received You are the Proteus's that change daily your shape to elude the force of the Popes Constitutions and so you are for this reason called by Pope Alexander in his Bull Filii iniquitatis Sonnes of Iniquity Finally to end this matter you say the Jesuites quarrel is at the person of Jansenius pag. 340. not at his errours But the contrary is manifest for you cannot say that ever they did any thing against his person and you will not deny but they have alwayes been against his errours But now I come to your arguments by which you would prove that the Jansenists are not to be called Heretiques I will set them down by way of Objections not as they lie in your Letters but according to the connexion of the substance of them nor will I observe your words which abound with Tautologies and frivolous excursions But I will put them in some-form as much as they will bear that when they are seen in their full force the answer may be the better understood For every argument I cite but one or two places though you repeat them over and over many times for to make your Letters the longer I hope you will noâ— be angry that I keep something of a School-form if you be it is no matter the Reader I am sure will be eased by the Order 1. Objection You object then in severall places of your Letters thus * Letter 17. pag. 316. It is not matter of Faith that the Five condemned Propositions are in Jansenius his Book Therefore they that defend Jansenius his Book are not to be called Heretiques The Antecedent you endeavour to prove by severall Arguments which make the following objections which I shall by and by refute But now I deny the Consequence and â—ell you that your Discourse is Null in this that though the Antecedent were true yet the Consequence doth not follow For to make the Consequence good you must suppose this Proposition true No man can be called an Heretique unless it be an Article of Faith that he be an Heretique which is extreamly false For as in other crimes so in Heresie a Moral or Physical evidence is enough to condemn any one of Heresie For example I hear one tell me seriously and often that he doth not believe the Three Persons of the Trinity and that though he know the Church believeth a Trinity yet he doth not nor will not believe it without any controversie I may judge this man an Heretique although it is not matter of Faith either that he is a man or that I hear him speak
Again suppose I do not hear him speak but hear from irrefragable witnesse of many honest and understanding men that he hath made this profession deliberately or that he printeth and teacheth this without controversie I may judge him an Heretique and yet it is not matter of Faith that these witnesses tell me true But it is enough to have either a Physical or Morall Evidence to judge one an Heretique And this as I said is common to all crimes as well as Heresie The Iudge when he condemneth a man to death for murther needeth not put it in his Creed that infallibly this man hath committed Murther nor needeth he have Physicall Certainty but 't is enough that he have a Morall Evidence Secundum allegata probata as the Law saith according to what is alledged and proved by witnesses which notwithstanding may all erre Iust so in cur case though it were allowed not to be of Faith that the Five condemned Propositions are in Jansenius his Book yet without scruple we may and in reason ought to condemn the Book as Hereticall the Church having condemned it for such This proceeding is authorized in Scripture and that fitly to our case Hereticum â—ominem saith St. Paul ad Titum 3. post unam alteram correptionem devita sciens quia subversus est Avoid the Heretique after having once or twice reprehended him knowing that he is subverted Where the Apostle telleth us that after a man hath been once or twice admonished of his Heresie if he mend not he is to be avoided as one with whom the Church holds no Communion and his refusing to submit after one or two admonitions St. Paul calleth a knowing that he is subverted in matter of Faith Now if this were ever clear in any case it is in this we handle of Jansenius For to say nothing of the severall Briefs made by Pope Urban against Jansenius his Book the Five Propositions were extracted out of his Book by the Synod of France who professe to have used all diligence in examining them These Bishops presented the Five Propositions to Pope Innocent He having made the matter be examined with all diligence the Jansenists themselves being present at Rome and acknowledging them to be in Jansenius and defending them as his Doctrine after all condemned them as appeareth in his Bull. After him Pope Alexander now sitting renewed the condemnation testifying that the Propositions are in Jansenius and defining that they are condemned in his sense as they lie in his Book To these two Censures all the Bishops and the whole Catholique Church have subscribed Here are then two Admonitions and more by which it is made known that the Book of Jansenius containeth Hereticall Doctrine we therefore unlesse we will contradict the rule of St. Paul must esteem it Hereticall and know that it is subâ—erted We need not examine whether it be matter of Faith that the Five Propositions be in Jansenius or no it is enough that it hath been once and twice and so many times declared to us that we cannot but esteem it sufficiently certain here being far more then that which St. Paul requireth So Sir you see that your main Argument which is the summe and substance of all is so far from proving what you would inferte that though your Antecedent were granted yet the Consequence were of no force at all 2. Objection It were ridiculous say you Letter 18. pag. 338. to pretend there should be any Heretiques in the Church for matter of Fact But whether the Five Propositions be in Janseniuâ— or no is pure matter of Fact Therefore it is ridiculous to pretend that Jansenius or those that maintain his Doctrine should be Heretiques This Argument is veâ—y oftâ—n inculcated in many places though I cite but one I answer That understanding as you do Propositions written in any Book to be matter of Fact 't is a perfect madnesse to assert that none can be declared Heretiques for matter of Fact And the Consequences of that Assertion are so evidently absurd and Hereticall that nothing can be more For first it would follow that never any Proposition in any Book could be declared Hereticall for still you would say it is ridiculous that any man should be an Heretique for matter of Fact and still it would be matter of Fact whether the Proposition were in the Book or no and so no Books could be condemned in the Church Secondly it would follow that no person whatsoever could be condemned and that we must not believe that ever there was any Heretique in the Church that can be named except those that are mentioned in Scripture though St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 9. Oportet haereses esse and so we should never be obliged to avoid any one as an Heretique contrary to what I alledged in the first Objection out of the Apostle For still it will be made matter of Fact whether Arius for example and so of the rest did hold this or that For that Arius writ or said thâ—s or that is matter of Fact Thirdly it would follow that as no Proposition in any Book could be defined by the Church to be Hereticall so on the contrary no Proposition in any Book could be defined Orthodox or to be consonant to the word of God or the true word of God And so we should by your wise argument come to doubt of every Proposition even in the Holy Scripture For still it will be according to your ridiculous Maxime â—matter of Fact whether that Proposition be in Scripture And certainly it is as clear matter of Fact whether the Scripture saith God will have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth as it is whether Jansenius in his Book saith Christ did not die for all men And so by this argument we shall never be obliged to admit any Proposition as Scripture which is to say we may deny by your argument all Scripture And further as to the whole Bible it is as much matter of Fact whether this or that Edition of Scripture be true Scripture as whether the Five Propositions be in Jansenius yet the Councell of Trent hath declared that the Vulgat Edition shall be held Authenticall and he would be an Heretique that would not allow it 3. Objection Popes and Councells * Letter 17. pag. 307. may â—rre in matter of Fact as many stories alledged in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Letters prove Therefore perhaps they have â—rred here and so it cannot be matter of Faith I answer That this may all be said as well of Arius or Nestorius or of any Heretique who is not named in Scripture as of Jansenius his Book yet the Church hath said Anathema to many Heretiques by name And look what crime he should commit that should say Arius never was an Heretique the self same should that man incur that should dare to say Jansenius his book containeth no Heresie And certainly the Phrase of the Church hath alwayes been
and the world hath seen no alteration wrought by this Work the Jesuites have not lost one Friend by means of it Had this Letter-writer endeavoured to keep within compasse and to shew us that the Jesuites are not all such Saints but that there are some faults in their lives and that their Doctrine is not all so Sacred but that some opinions of theirs may be impugned and some reprehended he might have been believed and the Jesuites themselves though they would have resented it that their faults should be blazed about the world without necessity yet they would have acknowledged that they are not impeccable neither in Doctrine nor Manners 'T is a priviledge reserved for Heaven that no faults can there be found here on earth that Community is happiest which hath fewest faults none are without all fault But to taxe the Jesuites Doctrine generally as a monstrous Source of all Irregularities and their Persons as the most abominable and despicable thing in the world that is a meer Paradox which begets a disbelief giveth it self the lye and by saying too much saith nothing Over-reaching praises are laughed at and too excessive reprehensions are scorned by all wise men The Jesuites have many that reprehend them and so have all those that are eminent and seem to overtop others in whatsoever it be For Glory and Envy are Twins one is never borne without t'other Honour should be but in our Age Detraction is the shadow of Vertue which darkens its Lustre Calumny alwayes lodgeth over against Piety to spy her Actions and defame her Glory It was a Fable that there was a Momus among the Gods in Heaven but it is not a Fable that the Heroes of this world are never without a Momus to censure what soever they do But as the Greek Proverb saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is easie to play the Momus easie to reprehend but hard to imitate so I say to these Censorian spirits Let them mend what they reprehend Let them do something like that which the Jesuits do and see whether they can do it and not fall into more faults then the Jesuites do Let them employ as many hundred Masters in teaching Grammar Poetry Rhetorique Arithmetique Mathematiques Philosophy Divinity Positive and Speculative Let them trace the Jesuites scattered over the face of the whole earth in all the Nations on which the Sun doth shine for to convert Infidells Let them Catechize Preach Administer Sacraments visit the Sick attend the Hospitals and Prisons comfort the Poor direct Souls in all states let them write as many learned Books as the Jesuits do and then let 's see whether they can do all this without deserving a Censure oftner then the Jesuits do They that reprehend others ought to be themselves irreprehensible at least in that which they censure And yet this is the Jansenists misfortune that they reprehend the Jesuits Books and scarce have yet set out one of the many which they have printed that is not censured But there is difference betwixt censure and censure The Jansenists censure the Jesuits Books and the Catholique Church censures the Jansenists Books The Jansenists censure the Jesuites Morall and the Church censureth the Jansenists Faith The Jansenists set out Libells against the Jesuites and the Church thundereth Anathema's in the Popes Bulls against the Jansenists So different are the Censures Yet this is not all The grand Difference betwixt the Censures is that the Censures which the Church layes on the Jansenists fall on their reall Crimes but the Censures which the Jansenists give the Jesuits Doctrine is grounded on false imputation and meer Calumny This is clearly shewed in the Book which here is answered All the whole Book of the Provinciall Letters which casts so much durt on the Jesuits that the Translatour calls it The Mystery of Jesuitisme is a false and groundlesse Censure given by an Heretique to Doctrine which hath the generall Approbation of Schools When I say an Heretique I would not have our Protestants of England think themselves concern'd I understand the Jansenian Heretique who dissents as far from the Protestant as he doth from the Catholique This then is the aim of these Answers to shew that the Censures which the Provinciall Letters lay on the Jesuites Doctrine are groundlesse Censures and false Calumnies and meer Impostures and so the Translatour hath his Mystery revealed It is but a Pacquet of lying Letters which he calleth the Mystery of Jesuitisme he might better have called it the Misery of Jansenisme For it is the greatest misery of the world to be reduced to such streits as that one cannot say any thing either for himself or against his Adversary which is not false Now this is the Jansenists case This being so as the Reader will finde it so it appeareth how unreasonably the Translatour vomits up so much gall in the end of his Preface in making a disgracefull Character of the Jesuites where he concludeth that the Jesuites are to be looked upon as the Vermin of all Humane Society I do not desire to use foul language yet if I may use this term of Vermin to any Christian I conceive it cannot agree with any man so well as with the Authour of the Provinciall Letters For who is the Vermin of Mankinde in matter of Faith but he that denieth that Christ is the Redeemer of all men and so openeth a way to desperation and neglect o◠Christian duty This Montalt doth Who in matter of Learning can be called Vermin rather then the Writer of Libells against Learning who is but a Scold in print and like a Moth doth but corrode and disgrace learned Books or like a Fly sucks at others sores or like a Serpent extracteth poison where he might have suck'd honey This Montalt doth Who in civill community can be termed Vermin but the Detractour This Montalt is evidently proved to be and so was he judged by the Parliament of Aix Finally who among all men noble and ignoble deserves the name of Vermin as unfit for any humane Society either Christian or Heathen but the Liar This Montalt is convinced to be Now if the Authour of the Provinciall Letters deserveth these Titles his Translatour may judge what part of these commendations reflects on him I will not deal him any part all I say as to him is that I am sorry to see him mislead and I wish him hereafter a better employment to practise his pen on then the translating of condemned Libells Now as to the Reader to give him some short account of this Work it containeth severall Pieces made by the Jesuites in France in Answer to the Provincial Letters which though our English Preface-maker despises yet they do unanswerably convince the Letter-writer of being an arrant cheat and of falsifying Authours I will not say much of the Particulars because I have put to the severall Pieces Prefaces and Arguments which may direct the Reader Some Pieces are added in this Edition as the
it was more then probable that many of them upon that account were easily drawn in and made to embrace the defence of the Book which they esteemed to have given so fatall a Blow to the Jesuits Doctrine that one of the Sorbonists called it the Jesuites Tomb. As for the Oratorians their speciall Obligations to San-Cyran and Jansonius drew them in before they well knew what was intended For it was a plot of Jansenius and San-Cyran which they had practised of a long time to raise up these Oratorians in opposition to the Jesuites in hopes as Jansenius expresses in his Letters that they might in a short time get all the Jesuites Scholars to them and being but Clergy-men at the Bishops Disposall they imagined they should carry the universall good-will of the Clergy so that the Jesuites should at last be quite deserted This made those poor Oratorians drink so deep of the Doctrine of San-Cyran and Jansenius that divers of their Books were condemned as namely Gibieufs and Seguenots which I do not say to censure them universally or the major part of them but it is certain that they were looked on as a party and many of them becoming Curez did in their Parishes as well as many other Curez broach Jansenius's Doctrine in Flaunders under the shelter of the University of Lovain and the forenamed Bishops and in France under the name of Sorbon of which as I said a very great part sided with Jansenius and also under the favour of some Bishops of France This animosity appeared greater when Pope Urban who was soon advertis'd of these practises put out his Bull which he did in March 1642. to suppresse Jansenius his Book for then many unmaskt themselves and spoke plain even against his Holinesse Orders in defence of Jansenius though as Pope Urbans Bulls speak Jansenius had renewed condemned Heresies and had incurred Excommunication by writing his Book and treating in it matters forbidden to be treated of in print that is the matters called de Auxiliis forbid by Paul the Fifth to be treated of under pain of Excommunication Pope Urban therefore sent redoubled Briefs to suppresse the rising Faction of the Jansenians as in one of his Bulls he termeth them Many submitted to their duty Yet all Pope Urbans time the Faction was very strong and though it decayed something in Flaunders yet it strengthened daily in France where it least ought to have been received For whereas Jansenius had writ a most bitter Invective against the Crown and Kings of France called Mars Gallicus it was to have been expected that all faithfull Subjects of that Crown ought rather to have sided against Jansenius then for him And this Monsieur Marande presseth much against the French Jansenists in his Book dedicated to the King of France in the Year 1654. which we formerly mentioned where a good part of his discourse tendeth to shew that Innovations in Religion are promoted by those chiefly who aim at Innovation in State Things therefore being come to so great a height in France that now Jansenisme was formed into a considerable body which might in time prove formidable both to the Church and Crown the Bishops in their generall Assembly or Synod at Paris took the matter into their consideration and having well examined the Book of Jansenius they collected Five Propositions out of it which seemed to them to deserve a censure The Propositions were these 1. Some of Gods Commandments are impossible to the Just according to their present forces though they have a will and do endeavour to accomplish them and they want the Grace that rendreth them possible 2. In the state of Nature corrupt men never resist Interiour Grace 3. To merit and demerit in the state of Nature corrupted it is not necessary to have the liberty that excludes necessity but it suffices to have that liberty which excludes coaction or constraint 4. The Semipelagians admitted the necessity of Interiour preventing Grace to every Action even to the beginning of Faith But they were Heretiques in this that they would have that Grace to be such as the will of man might resist it or obey it 5. It is Semipelagianisme to say that Jesus Christ dyed or shed his Blood generally for all men These Propositions the Bishops drew out of Jansenius his Book yet knowing themselves to be but a Nationall Synod they would not lay any censure upon them but in the Year 1650. sent them to Pope Innocent the Tenth then sitting humbly requiring him that through his Paternall care of the Universall Church he would determine what ought to be held it belonging onely to him to define in this cause This Letter was signed by eighty five Bishops then present at the Assembly The Pope thereupon took the matter into Examination and deputed divers Divines to examine the Propositions whom he often heard himself the Deputies of the Jansenists being also present at Rome and having liberty to speak for themselves as they often did At length after two years examination of the matter and many Prayers Fasting and Supplications to God Innocent the Tenth proceeded to censure and defined the said Five Propositions to be Hereticall by his Bull given on the last day of May 1653. This Bull is inserted into the Bull of Pope Alexander the Seventh which by and by I shall produce But all this was not enough to make many of the Jansenists submit Upon sight of the Bull they changed their note and whereas before they had owned the Five Propositions to be in Jansenius but maintained them to be Catholique Tenents and the true Doctrine of St. Augustin now they acknowledged the said Five Propositions were justly censured by the Pope but defended that they were not in Jansenius yet whosoever taught them or wheresoever they were to be found the Jansenists professed to condemn them By this means they thought both to clear themselves from the censure of defending Hereticall Propositions and withall still to maintain the Doctrine of Jansenius as they had done before and so all the fault was to redound on the Pope and the Synod of France as the Jansenists would have it thought â—â— on those who had informed them wrong That the Propositions were in Jansenius which indeed said they were not there at least in the sense in which they were condemned This Discourse though never so frivolous prevailed with many for their constant maintaining of Jansenius so as it was feared the whole endeavour of the Bishops of France and also the Constitution of the Pope would at length come to nothing To prevent this mischief the Bishops of France who were yet remaining in their Assembly at Paris wrote this following Letter to the rest of the Archbishops and Bishops that were absent from the said Assembly and that it might be publique caused it to be printed which for the same reason I have thought fit here to set down translated into English To the most Reverend and Religious the Lords Archbishops
what probably this Monsieur D'Andilly has done in the Christian and Spiritual Letters of this Abbot to the end you may repolish them and give them by your Holy and Sublime Thoughts that perfection they desire 'T is sincerely the onely cause of the haste I make that by my own disorder I may appear so much the more united to you as I pretend to be using the same disorder with God which is not so great but that if you do me the honour to preserve my blotted paper I should hope that amongst your discourses it would help you for entertainment in those hours which you would dedicate to God to give him an account of the riches which he gives those who love him in all hours You will see that being there is nothing so hard to read as Hebrew and that the first Hebrews never learnt it but by Cabal and Tradition it is not far from the excellence of Divine Affection which ties me to you to labour to understand that which I would say when I write in the language of God All the rest being but a shadow and a fraudulent disguize of which I am as much an enemy as I finde my self blessed in the union of God and you which I conceive to be the same thing The twenty ninth Imposture French 29 THat 't is a new Opinion and particular to the Jesuites that Attrition which is grounded on the fear of punishment is sufficient with the Sacrament Letter 10. Engl. Edit pag. 231. Answer If this Calumniatour offend through malice he deserves a severe censure to rectifie him and if through ignorance he has need of a Master which may give him more certain knowledge then Port-Royall has done Let us carry him to Sorbon He will finde there a Censure by the most able Doctours against them who maintain with him That Attritiou is not sufficient with the Sacrament and a charitable Lesson by the most eminent Writers of that Faculty which will enlighten his judgement perfectly on the Subject of Attrition and Contrition in which he is yet very ill instructed I will make him confesse all the errours he has run into on this Subject in his Tenth Letter meerly by opposing the Doctrine of these Authors to that of the Jansenists The Jansenist believes 't is a particular Opinion of the Jesuites That Attrition onely is sufficient with the Sacrament Yet Monsiâ—ur Gamasche a Sorbonist to undeceive him assures us That 't is a common Opinion of Divines and ordinarily received in the Schools Doctrina communis ac vulgò recepta The Jansenist tells us That the Jesuites have had so great a power over mens spirits That excepting Divines themselves there are scarce any who do not believe that that which is now held concerning Attrition was held from the beginning as the onely belief of the Faithfull a Caeterùm communis ac vulgò recepta aliorum doctrina est sufficere Attritionem simplicitèr cum Sacramento ad Justificationem etiamsi cognita illa â—uerit in genere Attritionis Ita enim dâ—cent Paludanus in 4. dist 19. q. 1. A. 2. Adrianus de Confessione q. 5. B. Antoninus 3. p. tit 14. c. 19. Sylvester verb. Confessio Roffensis Art 5. contr Lutherum Canus Relect. de Poenit. 5. p. ad 2. Estque manifestè sententia D. Thomae Gamachaeus in 3. p. de Poenit. Sacramento c. 9. p. 550. Monsieur Gamasche to undeceive him will tell him he need not exclude Divines out of the number of those who think that which is now held conceâ—ning Attrition was ever not the onely belief of the Faithfull but the judgement of the greatest persons since 't is the opinion of Paludanus of Adrianus of St. Antonine of Sylvester of Roffensis against Luther of Canus and above all of St. Thomas who was clearly of this opinion Estque manifestè sententia D. Thomae The Jansenist was displeased at the Abbot of Boisic for maintaining in his second part pag. 50. That 't is a very Catholique Doctrine and which is very near matter of Faith and very consonant with the Councell of Trent thus this Abbot speaks whose terms ought not to be changed That Attrition alone yea and grounded onely on the pains of Hell which excludes the will of sinning is a sufficient disposition to the Sacrament of Penance and that as to the contrary opinion they will not condemn it altogether of Heresie but yet they will tax it of errour and rashnesse Monsieur Du Vall on the other side tâ—lâ—s us That the Councell of Trent Sess 14. cap. 14. has declared b Quinto Sessione 14. c. 14. Attritionem â—â—â—ctam Sacâ—amento Poenitentiae ad remissionem peâ—catorum suâ—â—icere quod â—isi nondum tarquam de side sit definitum à declaratione tamâ—â— Concilii est ita fidei proximum â—â— qâ—i contra sâ—nâ—it graviter errâ—t Du Vallius T. 2. Tract de Discipliâ—â Ecclesiastiâ—â— q. 7. pag. 802. That Attrition with the Sacrament is sufficient for the remission of sin and that although it be not a decided and resolved point of Faith yet it is so near being one that since the Declaration that Councel made it is a most notorious errour to dispute it If he be not content with the witnesse of one Doctour let him consider the Censure which the Soâ—bon made against the Interpretation of the Book of Holy Virginity which Monsieur Isamâ—â—rt relates in his Treaty of Penance in thâ—se words c Quae tradidit de Attritionis insufficientiâ— contritionis perfectae charitatis absolutâ— necessitate ad recipiendum Sacramentum poenitentiae damnavit quâ—quâ— Facultas censuit has propositiones esse quietis animarum perturbativas communi omnino tutae praxi Ecclesiae contrarias efficaciae Sacramenti poenitentiae imminutivas insuper temerarias erroneas Ysambert de poenit disp 14. A. 6. in â—ine The faculty has also condemned that which he teaches concerning the insufficiency of Attrition and the absolute necessity of Contrition grounded on the motive of perfect Charity for the receiving the Sacrament of Penance c. And she judged those Propositions capable to disquiet the peace of Consciences contrary to the sure and ordinary practice of the Church tending to the prejudice of the efficacy of that Sacrament of Penance and moreover that it is rash and very erroneous The Jansenist is displeased wiâ—h that which Valentia teaches That Contrition is not necessary for the obtaining the principall effect of the Sacrament but on the contary that it is rather an hinderance The faculty of Paris to satisfie that scruple which troubles him hath declared that the contrary opinion of Fath. Seguenot weakâ—â—s the efficacy of the Sacrament of Penance in this that Contrition justifies the sinner and restores the fiâ—st Gâ—ace which is the principall effect of that Sacrament and which it could never produce if Contrition were a disposition absolutely necessary which was the reason That Monsieur Gamasche in the place above cited said That if Attrition was
burthensome to oblige us to it under pain of Damnation when ever we confesse and to make that Disposition necessary to the Sacrament of Penance which is contrary to the Declaration of the Councell of Trent the Censure of Sorbon and the common opinion of Divines either Ancient or Modern as Monsieur Gamasche tells us An Advertisement to the Jansenist Since you continue so constant in telling us That perfect Contrition is absolutely necessary to the Sacrament of Penance and that Attrition is not sufficient notwithstanding that the Proposition in the judgement of the Sorbon is both rash and erroneous tell me also if you be resolved to defend those other Maximes of your Sect concerning this Sacrament Do you agree with the Abbot of St. Cyran in the opinion i Monsieur de Langres witnesseth as much in the Letter he writ touching the Doctrine of this Abbot That this Sacrament does not remit Sins That Absolution is not operative but meerly declarative of the pardon granted That Veniall sins are not sufficient matter for the Sacrament of Penance Do you believe with Monsieur Arnauld k In his Book of Frequent Communion pag. 326 327. ibid. pag. 521. That the Absolution of the Priest is then onely reall when it follows the sentence of the invisible Judge That we ought not to lose any by our Pastorall Authority but those whom our Master has raised up by a quickâ—â—ing Grace That sometimes exteriour Penances may be so great that they may supply the want of inward Repentance Are you of the same opinion with Monsieur Maignard who was once Curate of St. Croix in Roven and Disciple of the Abbot of St. Cyran l In a Letter which he writ to the Abbot of St. Cyran which is in the Memorandums that were used in the Processe of that Abbot That in the Sacrament of Penance it is not necessary to confesse the number of Mortall Sins nor those Circumstances which change the nature of the Sin supposing the Contrition to be such as is required Do you believe with Monsieur D' Andilly in the Christian and Spirituall Letters which he published under the name of the Abbot of Saint Cyran m See the first Edition That we cannot make an available Confession of our Sins if the Soul hath not first been renewed by Grace pag. 228. Lett. 26. That the Confession of Veniall Sins came into common practice in the Church but very lately forasmuch as during the first thousand years and more for the wiping out of Veniall Sins those just persons who committed them thought it sufficient to chuse of themselves some light Penances before they went to assist at the Holy Sacrafice of the Masse pag. 265. Let. 32. That Confession was the last remedy which was practised in the Church for the washing away of Veniall Sins all the others being more ancient pag. 769. Let. 92. Do you believe with the Translatour of the Book of Holy Virginity Disciple of the Abbot of St. Cyran pag. 134. n Censura Sorbonae Haec doctrinâ— quâ ait ex ordine natur â rei requiri quod sit publica confessio est nova falsa periculosa Censura Sorbonae jam citata Quae tradit de Attritionis insufficieutiâ Contrittionis ex perfect â charitate absolut â necessitate ad recipiendum Sacramentum Poenitentiae quae addit approbat de Absolutione quòd â—ihil aliud sit quà m declaratio Juridica peccati jam remissi damnavit quoque facultas â—â—nsuit has propositiones esse quiâ—tis animarum perturbativâ—s communi omnino tutae praxi Ecclesiâ— contrarias efficaciae Sacramenti Poenitentiae imminutivas insuper temerarias â—rroneas That both the order and nature of the thing requires that Sacramentall Penance should be performed in publique And pag. 129 130. That whosoever should say Absolution is nothing but a judiciall Act by which the Priest doth onely declare not simply but with the Authority and in the place of Jesus Christ that the Sins are forgiven he would propose nothing neither against the Councell nor against Ancient Divines And in page 129. That true Contrition which is an act of Charity is absolutely necessary for the obtaining the Grace of the Sacrament of Penance and that it being certain this sort of Charity reconciles a man with God and puts him in his grace and favour before he hath received the Sacrament in effect there resteth nothing for Absolution to do In â—ine do you believe that the Abbot of St. Cyran had any great Contrition for his Sins and that he was perfectly disposed when he confest himself to a Priest onely to oblige him to a secrecy in those wicked Maximes he had told him which he laught at afterwards telling it to the Abbot of Prieres Here follows the sincere Deposition of that Abbot who is yet living in a very high opinion both for his Knowledge and Honesty After that the said St. Cyran told him a certain story which he said past betwixt him and another Ecclesiasticall Person to whom he had also discovered the foresaid Maximes And that fearing lest the said Ecclesiastique should relate them to the Bishop of Poitiers or to some other he stopt him presently upon the way where they were talking of these matters and desired him to hear his Confession even in that very place and time to which the said Ecclesiastique consented though declaring his astonishment at the suddennesse of the resolution He made his Confession and declared in it That he acknowledged he â—ad offended in proposing the said Maximes and then demanded his Absolution the which he said he did to oblige the said Ecclesiastique to keep the said Maximes as a secret under the seal of Confession which otherwise he could not have been secret in When he told this he laught so heartily that the Deponent never saw him laugh so much before at which was present Barcos his Nephew who likewise laught at the same story I do not know whether this be the joy Penance brings to your solitary Persons But I dare assure you it is not that which the true Conversion of Sinners causes in Heaven Mediâ—ate of this seriously and do not think so much of others as to forget your selves An ANSWER to those Letters in which the JANSENIST endeavoureth to clear himself from the precedent IMPOSTURES A Word to the Reader concerning the Subject of the following Letters AFter that the Authour of the Provinciall Letters had vented his malice against the Jesuites and run through their Moral in his fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Letters the Jesuites laid open to the world in the precedent Impostures his grosse ignorance his falsenesse in alleadging Authours and his groundlesse Calumnies and withall taxed him and his party of many Enormities and especially of Heresie Vpon this the Authour of the Provincial Letters as it behoved him undertook to make good what he had writ and to clear himself and his Party from
great conformity of those two Authors in matters of Grace what ever attempts have been made to prove the contrary by the sharpest wits amongst those they call Jansenists who indeed were much to blame for avoiding the Jesuites clamours to term Hereticall the opinions oâ— Calvin upon this Subject which after all are no other then their own Thus much by the way to give testimony to the truth Behold Sirs you of Port-Royall I mean behold the strait alliance that unites you with Geneva and the great advantage your Doctrine gives you bâ—ing assur'd to be associated with the little Flock when you please without abjuring your Faith or changing one sole arâ—â—â—le of your belief touching matters of Grace Nay which is no lesse true then it seems horrid without altering any proposition of the Book of Frequent Communion which the Romane Church rejects but Geneva receives and approves h Third Part. Port Royall holding intelligence with Genâ—va against the Blessed Saâ—rament Be not angry I pray you temper your choâ—er and frame the motions of your Spirit to moderation while I make proof of it to you which is the last thing that remains for me to make good I will not judge you since you think it not fit upon the deposition of Monsieur â—â—lleaâ— whose name and merit neverthelesse is too well known to suffer the least reproach unlesse it be from the mouthes of Criminalls I will not condemn you no not upon your refusall to use the terms of locall Presence to justifie your belief on the subject of the Eucharist I will not tell you that the Councel of Trent teaches i Nâ—qâ—e 〈◊〉 inter sepugnant ut Salvator â—oâ—â—er â—â—mper ad dexteram Patris in coelis assidâ—at juxta modum existendi naturalem ut â—â—ultis aliis in locis Sacramentaliter praesens suâ— substantiâ— nobis aâ—sit Concil Trid. Seff 13. c. 1. what you pretend to be ignorant of That there is no repugnancy in this that our Saviour be alwayes sitting at the right hand of his Father according to his naturall manner of being and yet be Sacramentally present by his own substance in many other places multis aliis in locis which is the onely thing that Father â—iâ—cau urges you to acknowledge and which you cannot refuse without rendring your self guilty of errour Neither will I reproach you that you abuse the authority of St. Thomas to â—lude the auâ—hority of the Councâ—ll and that if the Angelicall Doctour sayes that the Body of Christ is not locally in the Blessed Sacrament Alexander de Hales should have given you the meaning of those words when he affirms in his fourth part That k Dupliciter continetur Corpus Christi sub Sacramento uno modo continetur sub signo illo quod est Sacramentumâ— alio modo continetur à loco continente ipsum signum Alensis 4. par q. 10. membro 7. a. 3. § 7. Et ruâ—sum Mirabilis est continentia illius in quantum est sub signo in quantum est in loco Ibidem the Body of Christ is in two manners contain'd in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar the first under the Species of the Sacrament sub signo the second in the place where the Species are in loco Now 't is true as to the first way that Christ's Body is not locally under the Species but is there as a substance is under its accidents though after a more divine and miraculous manner and this is the sense of Saint Thomas in the place by you cited in your Letter As to the second manner it may be said to be a kinde of locall presence Illa continentia habet modum continentiae localis and is like that of bodies which are not in the accident of quantity as in their place but are in place by their quantity yet with this difference That bodies are in place by their proper dimensions mediantibus propriis dimensionibus as St. Thomas sayes l 3. p. q. 76 a. 5. whereas the Body of Christ is there but by the dimensions of another Body mediantibus dimensionibus alienis and this is F. Meyniers sense which is agreeable to the language of the Fathers and Councells when they teach That Christ's Body is at the same in many places multis in locis by the ineffable presence he hath in the Sacred Mysteries which gave them occasion to say That the Altar is the seat of the Body and Blood of Christ m Optatus Milevitanus l. contra Parmen Quid est Altare nisi sedes corporis sanguinis Christi I need not these Scholasticall subtleties to judge of the purity of your Faith my aim is not to convince you of Intelligence with Geneva by any thing you have omitted in your Writings but by what you have dared to affirm I passe by your sins of omission and judge you by your Woâ—ks I shall set you down out of the sole Book of Frequent Communion which is the principall subject of this Dispute five Maximes for the most part contrary to the honour and reverence of the Blessed Sacrament which the Roman Church rejects and that of Geneva approves See if my proceeding be not sincere You have presumed to say pag. 25. of the Preface That St. Peter and St. Paul are two Heads of the Church which make but one Is not that a Maxime condemn'd by the Catholick Church and receiv'd by that of Geneva What have you to reply How can you vindicate your self of so criminall and publique a Conspiracy You have dared to affirm page 628. of that Book n Book of Frequent Communion of the 1. Edit That the most usuall practice of the Church in the Administration of the Sacraments favours the generall impenitence of all the world Carry this Proposition to Rome it will there be reprov'd Carry it to Geneva it shall there be receiv'd How can you defend your self from so just an accusation You have dared to say o In the Preface pag. 33. 34. That there are Souls which would be ravished to testific to God their regret for having offended him by deferring their Communion till the end of thâ—â—r lives Without all question the Roman Church detests this Maxime and if Geneva approves it not it is not because 't is Orthodox but because it is â—oo impious You have presumed to say p Pag. 680. of the Book of Frequent Communion That as the Eucharist is the same food that is caten in Heaven so is it necessary that the Faithfull who eat it here below have such a purity of heart as may hold agreement and proportion with that of the Blessed and that there be no greater difference then there is between Faith and the clear Vision of God on which alone mark that word alone depends the different manner of eating it on Earth and in Heaven Excuses will not serve you this is not the languâ—ge of Rome men speak not thus any where but at Geneva In
of Peter is ours and on the contrary he that agreeth not with the Chair of Peter is not ours We ask with St. Ambâ—ose Orat de obitu fratris of every new Sect Whether it agrees with the Catholique Bishops that is with the Church of Rome Rogavit Si cum Episcopis Catholicis id est cum Ecclesiâ Romanâ consentiret We conclude with St. Irenaus Disciple to Saint Polycarp That it is necessary that every particular Church that is all the Faithfull should agree with the Roman Church by reason of her Prerogatioes Lib. 3. cap. 3. Ad Romanam Ecclesiam propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire â—cclesiam id est â—oâ— qui undique sunt â—ideles This is our sense and for this we must judge you an Heretique who speak a language unknown to Rome and do contradict that Auâ—hority which in all ages Fathers and Doctouâ—s and Councells have submitted unto I know Sir you bring many Arguments to vindicate your self and to prove That the Jansenists are no Heretiques But I shall God willing shew you the nullity of them But before I come to that to disintangle the matter I think fit to refute two Things which serve you for Bravadoes onely and matter of Calumny not for any argument to prove that the Jansenists are no Heretiques The one of these things is what you say concerning your self The other what you lay to the Jesuites which is so mixt with the Arguments you bring that it is necessary to take it apart that both it and the Arguments may be clearly answered For your self then Sir you say pag. 296. of the second English Edition which is that I alwayes follow in this Letter That you are alone And pray Sir how came you to be alone 'T was because you separated your self from the Catholique Church You are alone And so was Arius Eutyches Nestorius and all other Arch-Heretiques when they first began to oppose the Church You are alone and therefore suppose you cannot be argued of Heresie you should have discoursed quite contray You are alone and therefore to be suspected for Separatists cannot likely be sound in Faith But Sir if you be alone as you say you are without relation to any how cometh it that in the Eighteenth Letter pag. 337. c. you take upon you to make Proclamations in the publique cause of all the Jansenists Who intrusted you to speak in their name and to deliver their sense How shall we believe what you tell us That they will submit when the places are shewed them in Jansenius or when this Pope shall have again heard them at Rome How shall we know that they are not already satisfied in their conscience Since as you say you are alone and have no relation to them of Port-Royall that is to the Jansenists No No Sir you are not alone you speak for the whole Party you are the mouth of the Caball you act for all the Jansenists And if they should desert you you would not yet be alone for the Calvinists the Lutherans the Anabaptists the Quakers and all that renounce Obedience to the Church of Rome would shake hands with you You know well enough your Letters were welcome at Charenton and are made much of in Germany in Holland in England and all the Nations which are divided from the Faith of the Catholique Church Say therefore no more That you are alone The next thing that you say for your self is That you are hid and the Jesuites finde themselves wounded from your invisible hand pag. 297. A Thief might well comfort himself with this it is his happinesse to be hidden Omnis qui malè agit odit lucem Every one that doth evill would gladly be invisible But that Truth should seek hiding-holes in a place where it may safely appear as in France any Catholique Doctrine may that Sir I never heard Appear therefore or else every one will conclude against you for every one knoweth that he is to be suspected in all he saith who is forced to hide himself like an Out-law and is so forsaken of all that as you speak of your self he hath no relation to any Community nor to any person whatsoever Embrace therefore the Truth and you will not need to hide your self The Catholique Church is visible and you need not make your self invisible unlesse it be to become a member of the invisible Church which is not Catholique The third Thing you say for your self is That you make a Protestation of your Faith in these words pag. 296. I have not any dependance save that on the Catholique Apostolique Roman Church where I am resolved to live and die in the Communion of the Pope the Sovereign Head thereof out of which I am perswaded there is no Salvation Then you ask what course can be taken with one that talkes after this rate You know Sir what course can be and is taken with you for all this you know that the Decree made feriâ quintâ die sexto Septembris 1657. telleth us That Pope Alexander the Seventh condemneth this very Letter of yours together with all the rest notwithstanding this Protestation These words indeed if they be reall might prove you no Protestant but not no Jansenist For notwithstanding these words you maintain Jansenisme you spit your venome at his Holinesse you contemn his Bulls and calumniate those who endeavour to perswade all to submit to the censures of the Church I mean the Jesuites of whom to come to that you tell us In the first place this pag. 298. There is a vaste difference between the Jesuites and them that oppose them They do really make up one Body united under one Head and their Rules allow them not to print any thing without the Approbation of Superiours who by that means become accountable for their Errours whereas you are accountable to no body for what you write nor no body responsible for you All this you say to tax the Jesuites and prove your self irreprehensible and you do not mark that really you commend the Jesuites in it and disgrace your self and discover the Source of your errours Had any man advised you and reviewed your Papers before they went to the Presse they would not have been so full of grosse errours Had you had any dependance on any learned and vertuous man he would have told you that you could not impute to the Society the inventing of the Doctrine of Probabilities and the like which had been taught some hundred of years before the Society was in the world He would have told you That to cite Auhours falsely as you do almost perpetually was a direct means to disgrace your own Writings that to tax good opinions was but to discover the blindenesse of your own passion that to joyn with Jansenists was but to declare against the Church In fine he would have told you all that which since to your shame you have been told by those who answered your Letters