Boulogne and that whosoever should dare maintain this Translation was unjust did erre both from the Truth and Catholick Faith Fuit igitur à Basileensi Civitate legitima pro tunc nostra Concilii dissolutio asserentes contrà sunt penitus ab omni veritate fide Catholica alieni And yet notwithstanding the Fathers of the Council of Basil persisting that this Translation was unjust and null Eugenius was forc'd to acknowledge by another as authentick a Bull that in effect it was void and that the Council was alwaies legitimately assembled from the beginning of it to that very time You may find both the one and the other of these Bulls in Raynaldus the first in the year 1433 and the latter in Anno 1434. Now shall both of these be embrac'd for Articles of Faith And shall we be oblig'd to believe that the same Council at the very same time was an Unlawfull Conventicle and a Lawfull Council of the Universal Church assembled by the Holy Spirit The same Raynaldus mentions a Bull of Eugenius the IVth against the Cardinal d' Arles Ad Ann. 1640. who presided at the Council of Basil wherein he is call'd Iniquitatis alumnus atque perditionls filius If the Suffrage of the Popes in the Judgments which they make concerning Persons by their Bulls are to be reputed as Infallible as that of Jesus Christ we should be oblig'd to hold this Cardinal for a very wicked Caitiff But what shall we think if God have judg'd otherwise concerning him and that far from willing us to detest him as a Child of Iniquity and a Son of Perdition he would have us to reverence him for one of the Blessed confirming his Sanctity by publick Miracles authoriz'd by another Pope which was Clement the VIIth who has by an authentick Bull enroll'd him among the number of the Happy by declaring not that he had done Penance after his being a Child of Iniquity but that he had alwaies led a most heavenly chast and immaculate life as it is to be seen in that Bull of his Beatification recited at large by Ciaconius These are some Examples which sufficiently discover to us the false pretence of these Jesuites But without seeking farther the very Authors of this Doctrine find themselves plung'd in Heresie by the undeniable sequel of their Errours For they maintain in this very Conclusion That Pope Honorius has taught nothing in his Epistles but what was most consonant and agreeable to the Catholick Faith concerning the two Wills and two Operations in Jesus Christ Duas in Christo Voluntates Operationes fuisse profitemur nec aliud à nobis sensit Honorius dum Operationem Christi unicam esse scripsit Now if this be a point of Faith as these Jesuites pretend That the Book of Jansenius is Heretical and that the Five Propositions are of this Author because two Popes have affirmed it and that we are oblig'd to consider what they say in those Particulars as if J. Christ had himself pronounc'd it with how much greater reason may we affirm the same of Pope Honorius's Epistles which have both been examin'd condemn'd and Burnt by a General Council of the whole Church where the Pope himself presided by his Legats and which has been confirm'd as to this very point and Article by two other General Councils more and by a very great number of Popes beside For if ever Popes speak out of the Chair it is then when they speak with the General Councils and confirm them by their Apostolical Authority And thus doubtless Leo Epist ad Constan Pope Leo the Second spake out of his Chair when in several of his Epistles which he wrote to confirm the VIth Oecumenical Council he did in particular ratifie the Condemnation of Honorius and pronounced him Anathema because he had not enlightned the Apostolical Church they are the express words by the doctrine of Apostolical Tradition but suffered her to be defiled by a prophane Tradition Qui hanc Apostolicam Ecclesiam non Apostolicae Traditionis doctrinâ illustravit sed prophanâ Traditione maculari permisit And by consequence if then when the Popes dictate from their Chair whatsoever the Subject be matter of Right or Fact they have the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ and that all which they pronounce is an Article of Faith it ought to be as much a matter of Faith that the Epistles of Honorius are Heretical and the person who denies it after assent to this general Maxime bears the most notorious mark of an Heretick according to S. Paul which is to be self-condemned It would not signifie in the least to have recourse to that pretended falsification of the Acts of the VIth Council and the Epistles of Leo the Second For as this pretence is altogether unmaintainable frivolous and extravagant as even the most devoted Bishops to the Jesuites have themselves acknowledged in the last Assembly of the Clergy were there onely this miserable evasion to excuse us from believing with a divine Faith that Honorius was justly Anathematiz'd and his Epistles legally condemn'd as replete with Heresies we must certainly have renounc'd our common Senses to form any other judgment concerning that Pope and not to hold his Epistles for Heretical But as it is the property of Errour to destroy it self He that should be engaged by this novel Opinion of the Jesuites necessarily to hold that the Epistles of Honorius are Heretical by the same would find himself oblig'd to acknowledg the Fallacy of this Opinion For how should he believe that all Popes are endow'd with a like Infallibility with J. Christ what time they speak out of their Chair considering that Honorius slipt into an Errour in a conjuncture in which 't is difficult to conceive but that he did speak out of his Chair seeing he spake as a Judge in a Controversie of Faith and in order to the adjusting of the greatest difference which was then on foot in the Church and which had divided all the Oriental Patriarchs And for all this not regarding the judgment of the VIth Council and supposing what is extremely ridiculous that the Acts thereof were corrupted how should it be pretended that Honorius had in this encounter the same Infallibility with J. Christ since having by his Letters approved the heretical Epistles of Sergius Patriarch of Constantinople either he understood it as he ought and then he erred in point of Right by approving the heretical Opinion of one single Will in J. Christ which he had acknowledg'd to be in effect contain'd in this Epistle of Sergius or he understood it amiss for accepting that in a Catholick sense which Sergius had asserted in an Heretical and so he had at least erred in point of Faith So that the Jesuites can in no sort avoid the being Hereticks in either sense For if it be Heresie as doubtless it is to attribute to Popes speaking è Cathedra the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ as well
Right and Fact and Questions purely of Fact as will appear by these Examples The Semi-pelagians affirm that the Doctrine of S. Augustine concerning Grace was not orthodox The Calvinists on the contrary maintain that it is The Jesuites say the same And the Church saies so too Whiles we dwell here one shall never come to know whether these Questions are of Fact or of Right but we shall easily discover it by the same Rule The Semi-pelagians acknowledge with the Church that the Doctrine of the Necessity of Grace efficacious of it self for all good actions was really S. Augustine's but they reject this Doctrine as not true at least in regard to the inception of Faith And the Church on the contrary maintains it against them that it is both certain and very true as well in respect of the beginning of Faith as of all other actions of Piety So as since the matter of Fact was not contested and that the dispute was onely concerning the quality of the Doctrine the whole Question between the Church and the Semi-pelagians was purely concerning Right They say with the Semi-pelagians that the Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se is not true but as they are a great deal less sincere then the Semi-pelagians they adde that this Doctrine is not S. Augustine's which the Semi-pelagians do not affirm They are therefore agreed upon the Right with the Semi-pelagians and differ onely upon the pure Fact whereas they neither accord with the Church about the Fact nor the Right though they consent with her in this uncertain expression that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is true because in particular they maintain that the Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se is false and not S. Augustine's albeit the Church has ever acknowledged both the one and the other of these two Points No wonder at all then if in speaking to persons who were at variance not about the Doctrine of S. Augustine in general but the particular Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se it has been said to them in a certain Writing which F. Ferrier has abus'd That it was a Crime an Attempt and an Heresie to condemn the Doctrine of S. Augustine of Heresie which the Church has approved forasmuch as treating of the particular Dogm of efficacious Grace they had reason to affirm that they could not brand it with Heresie without erring in matter of Right and of Faith whether one attacque it for not avowing it to be S. Augustine's as do the Jesuites or acknowledg it for S. Augustine's as did the Semi-pelagians and as those persons would seem to doe to whom this Writing is directed So that the difference which is 'twixt the Church and the Jesuites upon the Doctrine of S. Augustine forms a direct Question of Faith together with a dispute of Fact And of the very same nature is that between the Church and Calvin on the same Doctrine of S. Augustine For he attributing this Errour to S. Augustine That God is the Author of Sin and that he compells the Will to good and evil the asseveration which he makes of this general Proposition that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is orthodox does not excuse him from a double Errour both of Right and Fact since he takes that for a Truth which is an Heresie and attributes to S. Augustine a Blasphemy which was infinitely remote from his thoughts But it may be that the Question concerning the Doctrine of S. Augustine might be purely of Fact from another supposition For if a man led by a false persuasion as was Calvin that S. Augustine teaches God to be as well author of Sins as of Good actions should at the same time condemn the Blasphemy which Calvin approves and by a consequent of this Opinion refuse to acknowledg S. Augustine's Doctrine to be orthodox one could not justly accuse him of Errour in point of Faith because he should condemn what the Church condemns but of an extreme Temerity onely to have father'd so impious an Opinion on S. Augustine But what would be strange in this encounter is That he who should affirm in the sense of Calvin that the Doctrine of S. Augustine were orthodox would notwithstanding be an Heretick because he did not doe it but as approving an Errour which he imputed to S. Augustine whereas he that should say as this person does that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is not orthodox should be Catholick because he would say it without any Errour so little regard there is to be had to be able to judge whether a man be Catholick or Heretick and whether the Questions concern matter of Right or of Fact to these wild and indetermin'd Propositions which approve or condemn anothers Doctrine without so much as shewing it 'T is what S. Augustine has himself decided and in respect to himself by these words full of unction and charity Whilest men saies he L. 1. de Trinit c. 3. imagine that I have held some false Opinion in my Books which in truth I never held and that they condemn this Opinion the law and dictates of Charity advertise and command me but with an injunction full of sweetness to be rather willing to be reprov'd by him who condemns this Errour in attributing it to me without reason then to be prais'd by those who would maintain this Errour because they believ'd I had taught it For though the first did wrongfully to attribute an Errour to me which I never committed they had reason yet to condemn it But the others are under a double mistake since they praise me for an Opinion which the Truth condemns and approve an Opinion which is condemn'd by the Truth True it is that this person who should thus impute an Errour to S. Augustine would be oblig'd to say that the Church has not compris'd it in approving of his Doctrine which would be very rash and scandalous because he would say it without and against all Reason whereas there are some occasions wherein one might doe the same thing without temerity or scandal because one does it not but upon great reason the only Rule for these kind of things being That 't is lawfull to doe them with Reason but by no means without it And therefore It is lawfull to accuse of Supposition the Council of Sinuessa and it is not so in reference to the Council of Nice It is lawfull to say that Theodoret has been ill understood by the Sixth Council but it is not lawfull to say that Nestorius was so by the Council of Ephesus It is lawfull to affirm that they did not understand the Doctrine of Pope Honorius in the VIth Council but it is not so of the Doctrine of Pope Leo in the Council of Chalcedon That which makes that some of these things are permitted and others of them forbidden is that there is Reason to say it of some but none at all to say it of the other So that 't is a very frail consequence which F. Ferrier
derives in his Writings That if it be lawfull to say the Pope did not well understand Jansenius in condemning him one might as well say of the Church that she did not rightly comprehend the Doctrine of S. Augustine in approving it since it being not permitted to doe either of them without Reason it were lawfull to doe both when Reason requir'd it And the truth is that one of them which is to affirm the Doctrine of Jansenius was never throughly understood at Rome is very lawfull because there is great Reason to believe it and the other that the Doctrine of S. Augustine was not well comprehended is very unlawfull because there is also no Reason for it as will be demonstrated in another Treatise One cannot therefore know in general whether it be lawfull or not to affirm that an Author has been ill understood by the Church since it depends on the particular Reasons which induce one to say it Nor can one also know in general whether those who dispute whether the Doctrine of an Author be Catholick or Heretical are at variance upon the Right or the Fact since it may be upon either of them but one may clearly understand it by examining in Particular what is agreed upon or contested both by the one and the other And hence it is they easily prove that the present Contestation about the Doctrine of Jansenius is a pure Question of Fact For it would in truth prove a Question of Right if there were a certain precise Dogm maintain'd by some for Catholick and condemn'd by others for heretical But seeing the contrary is true that there is no precise and determin'd Dogm in the present Contestation as appears clearly from F. Ferrier's not being able to specifie any 't is visible that the Question is but concerning matter of Fact And therefore it must be acknowledg'd F. Ferrier has not altogether fail'd of the promise which he makes in the Title of his Treatise to present us with the true Idea of Jansenism For this true Idea consisting in conceiving an Imaginary Heresie his Treatise is of excellent use for the forming of this Idea since in Heresie without Position and without any Question concerning Faith such as is what he presents us is the true Idea of an Imaginary Heresie 'T is true indeed this is not his intention in it but many times men doe things contrary to their intentions Nor was it doubtless his design to shew us that the Jesuites be Hereticks how-ever one might invincibly prove it by an argument like that which he produces against the Divines whom he strives to render Hereticks He acknowledges no other matter of Fact in the Pope's Decision which declares that the Doctrine of Jansenius on the Five Propositions is heretical then this Jansenius teaches some Doctrine on the Five Prepositions which is certain he will have all the rest to be of Right and thence concludes That the Divines whom he accuses not denying this Fact That Jansenius did teach some Dogm upon the Five Propositions and yet refusing to own that his sense is heretical deny a Right and are Hereticks If this argument be valid behold the Jesuites arrant Hereticks without remedy For there is no more to be said but the same That it being certain the Sixth Council has condemn'd the Doctrine of Honorius this Decision comprehends no other Fact then this That Honorius teaches some Doctrine concerning the Will of J. Christ which is indubitable and by consequent the Jesuites who do not deny this Fact yet denying Honorius's sense to be heretical deny a Right and are Hereticks This obligation therefore the Jesuites have to F. Ferrier that he has made them rank Hereticks if you will believe him But it were yet a great charity to draw them out of this Heresie they have a world of others where it is impossible to warrant them The expedient is easie it being onely to shew them after how extraordinary a manner their F. Ferrier is mistaken For it is very certain the matter of Fact which he specifies That Jansenius has taught some Doctrine is to be found in this Question whether the Doctrine of Jansenius be Catholick or Heretical But there yet occurrs another also very distinct and far separate from Right and which has been the whole subject of this Contestation and this it is he dissembles Perhaps F. Ferrier imagines that when one submits a Book to the Pope to judge whether the Doctrine in it be Catholick or heretical 't is sufficient for him to know that the Book teaches some Doctrine upon a certain matter and that thereupon addressing himself to God he reveals to him that this Doctrine of which he all this while knows nothing is Catholick or Heretical If Ecclesiastical judgements were made after this sort there would in effect be no need to examine any other Fact then this whether the Author in controversie do teach some Doctrine upon a certain subject and this Fact being alwaies evident there would hardly be ever any Questions of Fact because men seldom dispute whether an Author have some Doctrine upon a subject no matter what But because this Imagination comprehends in it a very gross Errour since it supposes particular Revelations in the Pope which should be the foundations of these Decisions it is evident that Ecclesiastical judgements are not made in this manner Neither the Pope nor Bishops can judge whether the Doctrine of a Book be Catholick or Heretical without comparing it with Tradition Now 't is impossible they should compare it with Tradition without they distinctly know it Men never compare a Doctrine with Tradition which they know not but under the general Idea of the Doctrine of an Author For 't is neither Catholick nor Heretical as Doctrine nor as Doctrine of an Author The Doctrine of God is essentially true as being the Doctrine of God because God is the essential Truth But the Doctrine of the Devil himself is not false as being the Doctrine of the Devil because the Devil is not false from his Essence and because he sometimes speaks truth as when he acknowledged that J. Christ was the Son of God A fortiori the Doctrine of a Catholick Author is not Heretical because it is a Doctrine and because it is his Of necessity therefore ought both the Pope and the Bishops to judge rightly whether the Doctrine of a Book be Heretical or Catholick pass through the examen of this point of Fact That it is the Doctrine of this Book and to reduce it to some precise Position distinct and determinate from whence first to establish this Judgment of Fact namely that This Dogm and Position is of such an Author and after that this Judgment of Right This Dogm is Heretical or Catholick It is of this distinct Dogm that they affirm these two things viz. That it is of such an Author That it is Heretical But they affirm it by two very separate and remote Judgments and form'd upon most different
urg'd to condemn it because supposing they do not understand it they can neither truely averr that they do reject it nor promise truely that they will not embrace it for peradventure they may be engag'd to doe it without knowing of it and perhaps fall into it before they are aware Now if we suppose that these Divines do know what the Pope and the Bishops understand by this Sense of Jansenius they have so much the more reason to demand because they onely know it by particular waies and such as are not authentical so that if they should themselves determine what the Pope understands by the Sense of Jansenius as these Propositions are susceptible of various senses the Jesuites would not fail presently to say that this were not yet what the Pope understands and what they ought to condemn in fine that 't were some other thing without saying what and so one should never have an end It were therefore much better they should make their addresses to those who have the power to determine this Sense that if they once did it it might clearly appear by condemning this Dogm together with them in which they had comprehended the Sense of Jansenius that one be not enwrapp'd in any Errour But the plain truth is These Divines both do know and do not know the Sense of Jansenius They do very well know a Doctrine in Jansenius to be very holy very Catholick and most Orthodox which is that of Efficacious Grace per se which infallibly causes the Will to act without imposing of a necessity They acknowledge the Catholick Doctrine of the free Predestination of the Elect receiv'd by the whole Church and maintain'd by Bellarmine himself as a point of Faith and they do acknowledge no other Point upon the subject of the Five Propositions But since it is evident by the universal consent of the Church that this is not that which the Pope and the Bishops mean by the Sense of Jansenius which they condemn but a certain Sense which was never known to our Divines before Baius and Jansenius according to those Gentlemen the Bishops of the Assembly a certain Sense contrary to the Doctrine of all the Catholick Schools as these very Bishops do assure us a certain Sense different from efficacious Grace repugnant to S. Augustine and which has been constantly condemn'd by the Dominicans and the Jesuites as F. Annat and M. Hallier have so deeply protested before the Constitution of Pope Innocent It is this certain Sense which these Divines do not understand or at least which they but very confusedly know They know all that the Jesuites and the other adversaries of Jansenius have said of it in divers Books But they see that their Explanations do not agree together whiles some of them place it in one Point and others in another All that they know of this Sense is that it is different from Efficacious Grace and by consequent that they do not hold it and that they reject it because they hold but this Doctrine and that whatsoever Doctrine is repugnant to it is false So as in the necessity to which they are reduc'd for the justification of their Faith and to avoid the reproch which they cast on them touching this uncertain unexplicable Sense they have reason to appeal to the Bishops who ought to know it since they condemn it and to the Pope who could not have condemn'd it without knowing it to conjure them to explain it that so they may be inabled to confound their Accusers in shewing the world how free they are from any Errour This is the onely reason which makes them require with so much earnestness the Explication of this Sense for they have otherwise no such hast to know it They hold the truth of the Doctrine of Efficacious Grace per se and reject whatsoever Errour is repugnant to it whether it be in attributing too little to Grace as the Molinists or in destroying its liberty as this pretended Errour of Jansenius's Sense should be This suffices them so as men molest them not with the indetermin'd Sense of Jansenius and they will soon leave enquiring what it is But if they continue their Persecutions thus upon this point they will be forc'd to continue the pressing of them to explain this Sense nor can they refuse to doe it without an evident sign of Oppression For the Bishops cannot in conscience make them condemn it without they know it and if they do know it 't is a foolery not to be understood that they should refuse to declare it But Sir it is now time we took off our spirits from these subtile matters and which smell of the School to oppose another Illusion of Father Ferrier not a whit less dangerous but somewhat more intelligible This Father does upon all occasions represent the present Church as divided in two Parties The one pompous and triumphant as compos'd of the Pope the Bishops and of all both Ecclesiastical Secular and Regular who condemn the Sense of Jansenius as heretical who believe that matter of Fact is inseparable from matter of Right and that therefore it is not to be deny'd without being an Heretick The other poor and abandon'd as consisting but of a small number of Divines who refuse to acknowledge that the Sense of Jansenius is heretical who hold that there is a Fact separate from Right in the Decision of the Pope which condemns it and that therefore one may by consequence refuse to believe it without being an Heretick This is the Idea which F. Ferrier gives us of the Church in his Treatise But as there is nothing more prodigious then this Idea so is there also nothing more false God will never abandon his Church to that degree as to suffer so gross and visible an Errour to reign in it And every man may by himself be convinc'd of the falseness of this phantastick Supposition For unless a man wilfully shut his own eyes one cannot deny but there are in the Church no less then four different Opinions upon the Formularie The First is that of the Jesuites who affirm that matter of Fact is inseparable from that of Right and that quatenus so it cannot be deny'd without Heresie The Second is that of a considerable number of Divines who believe that though it be no Article of divine Faith to hold that the Sense of Jansenius is heretical and that the Fact may very well be separated from Right yet that Christian humility obliges us nevertheless to prefer the Sense of the Pope to his proper Illumination and so they ought to believe the Fact by humane Faith and under that notion sign the Formularie The Third and the most embrac'd consists in affirming that a man is not oblig'd to believe the matter of Fact as decided either by divine or humane Faith but that one may for all that sign the Formularie without violating his Conscience because the Signature does never concern or fall upon the Facts
in Questions pertaining to Right as to those of Fact so as their Decisions concerning the Facts themselves may be believed by a divine Faith they are rank Hereticks as being engag'd to maintain this Blasphemy And in case they pretend that this is a true Opinion they are nevertheless Hereticks because they oppose the Faith not submitting to the Decision of so many Popes and General Councils in reference to the condemnation of Honorius who according to their Errour we are by divine Faith oblig'd to believe had been justly condemn'd because he was so by Judges as Infallible as Jesus Christ as well in matters of Right as those of Fact I insist too long my Lords in refuting an Errour so notorious Give me leave yet to represent to you one most pernicious Consequence You have seen what the design of this Position is and how specious a Title they have prefix'd before it Assertiones Catholicae contra Saeculorum omnium praecipuas Haereses This being so what may we else imagin when we shall see by the sequel of that which they oppose to these Heresies but that they are Catholick Truths maintain'd by the Church against these Hereticks and which we are oblig'd to acknowledge under censure of being our selves Hereticks and of Apostasie from the Communion of the Church Never then according to these Jesuites must we think of receiving the poor Greeks into the Communion of the Catholick Church or re-unite these divided Members sever'd by so deplorable a Schism but in obliging them to confess that J. Christ has bestowed the same Infallibility upon all the Popes which He himself has in all that they propose to the Universal Church yea even in matters which concern particular Facts And as all the Hereticks of these last Ages have embrac'd the Errour of the Greeks against the Primacy of the holy See we must never open the doors of the Church to them before they make profession of this fine new Article of Faith But admit we should not exact that so strictly of them what an Obstacle do we not lay in the way of their Conversion what Scandal are we not guilty of and what pretext do we not afford their Ministers to decry the Catholick Church before their abus'd People by rendering her odious and contemptible and by confirming them in those their ancient Calumnies and Reproches which they have so frequently objected to the Catholicks for equalling the Pope to Almighty God 'T is well known that it is from their Principles they have inspired Rebellion into so many People Should therefore Religious and Pious persons favour them in this detestable design that they furnish them with Armes to fight against us and suffer them to look upon the deference which the Faithfull owe to the Pope as an insupportable Yoak upon the Conscience in things that do not at all concern any point of Faith and whereof the knowledge does not in the least conduce to Salvation This is it my Lords which has chiefly oblig'd us to speak upon this occasion And it was highly necessary that the Catholick Divines should make hast to decry this Impiety lest those Uncircumcis'd should take occasion of insulting over the Armies of the living God We were obliged to prevent them to the end they may see that we do no less abhor this excess in the Catholick Church for the love of Truth then they appear to detest her by the design which they pretend to justifie their faulty separation But if it be sufficient to acquit Divines of their devoir that they represent this publick Complaint it is not enough for the honour of the Church and for the entire reparation of this Scandal that there have been onely Divines which have reprov'd it It is You my Lords who ought to be enflamed with Zeal for the Purity of the Doctrine whereof You are the Depositaries for the Salvation of the Faithfull of whom You are the Fathers for the Sanctity of the Church whereof You are the Spouses les Espouses for the Honour of J. Christ of whom You are the chief Ministers to consider as in the presence of God what your Duty is upon so important an Occasion in which the Faith of the Church is violated by a Capital Errour which subverts its very Foundation where the Faithfull are empoison'd with an Opinion which tends to the changing of that Veneration into Idolatry which they ought to bear to their soveraign Bishop where the Church is prophan'd by an Impiety that dishonors and exposes her to the outrages of her Enemies in summe where J. Christ is horribly offended by the Sacrilegious Parity which is put between the words of his Servant and his own most Sacred Dictates by making the one as well as the other the Object of a divine Faith Haply some there be may reply that this Extravagance deserves not half this aggravation and doubtless they will make use of it for a pretext to induce you to connive at so foul an excess But my Lords you ought to consider that how extravagant soever this Opinion may appear it is promoted by Persons who may give us just occasion to apprehend the strange Consequences of it For 't is sufficiently evident that it is not by chance or through the blindness of any particular man that it comes thus to appear in the World It is long since that they have prepar'd and dispos'd all things for its production and entertainment though they never usher'd it in with pomp before they were well assur'd all things were favourable for its reception and that there was not a Champion remaining who had the courage or confidence to oppose it openly Perhaps indeed their Pretence is not yet so far advanc'd as to draw a formal Approbation from the Bishops But that which they hope for is since I am obliged to speak all that their credit and their power of being able to doe good or ill offices will be a means to retain all the Bishops in silence so as none of them shall dare to condemn them for fear of drawing upon them the strength and displeasure of so puissant a Society and that the Sorbonne which they now reckon to be in their dependence will never have the confidence to Censure this Doctrine whatever their aversion may be to it Thus they hope that during this Silence and whiles all the World is as it were snorting dum dormirent homines this Cockle which they have sown in the field of the Church will take root and in time get strength There they will leave it to ripen and as they use to say relinquent tempori maturandum and when it shall be arriv'd to full maturity produce the natural Consequences that must necessarily spring from it At present indeed they do but say onely One may believe Particular Facts with a divine Faith but they will shortly pronounce that men are bound to believe them which will be very easie for them to establish because it is but a
before any man had the boldness to maintain them This we generally find in all Heresies The Doctrine of Arius is an Heresie but it does not consist in the vain and indeterminate words of the Doctrine of Arius but in this particular Position or Opinion that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father It is the very same in all the rest They all maintain a peculiar and distinct Dogme independent from the name of the Author and when we do not know the Opinion any more we say that we know the Heresie no more and if a man had never known it he might well say that it never was This is sufficient say the Divines to repell that unjust Reproch which they fling upon us of being sectators of a new Heresie For we sincerely protest that we intirely acquiesce in the Authority of the Universal Church that we embrace without the least reservation all the Dogms which She proposes to us as of Faith that we submit all our Understanding and Reason to her and that our hearts do not at all accuse us of holding any Doctrine which is repugnant to her Decisions so as we can say before God with confidence upon this subject Iniquitatem si aspexi in corde meo non exaudiet Dominus We do not conceal our sense but are ready to referre it to the Pope and to the Bishops and to accept them for our Judges We have offer'd it several times and have this consolation that those who are the most prejudic'd against us have nothing to object against us In fine we are so far from embracing any particular Doctrine on the Five Propositions that though we do not acknowledge the Jesuites for the Rules of our Faith yet it is most true that we hold no Opinion upon the matter of the Five Propositions which they dare publickly accuse of Heresie before the Pope or the Bishops How clear and ingenuous Sir is this Declaration how truly Catholick and exceedingly remote from all suspicion of Heresie and that not onely for acquitting these persons of Errours but for shewing that they could not be culpable of Heresie if without their knowledge and consent they should haply fall into some Errour since all the world knows that the crime of Heresie does not consist simply in the Errour but in the Obstinacy to maintain and dwell in an Errour against the judgment of the Church Now how is it possible that these people should impudently maintain an Errour they are totally ignorant of against a judgement of the Church which they know nothing of But this does not satisfie the Jesuites and because they do not find their reckoning in it they continue their accusation of Heresie and this is it which has oblig'd the Divines to give them this defiance and which is certainly very urging Either set the Heresie you impute to us distinctly and clearly down or acknowledge your selves Calumniators for accusing us of an Heresie which you cannot tell what to make of On this it is that the Jesuites have reveal'd the Mysterie of their Politicks and the whole secret of the Heresie In stead of endeavouring to set down describe the Positions a thing which upon trial did never succeed with them they intrench themselves and have recourse to the uncertain expression of the Sense and of the Doctrine of Jansenius without any farther advance You hold say they the Doctrine of Jansenius to be Catholick the Pope declares it heretical behold then your Heresie But as they had to doe with persons very well prepar'd to defend themselves so never was there an Equivocation unriddled as this has been They told F. Annat in express terms that this was a Scholastical Sophism unworthy an old Logician as he was Nunquámne intelliges Dialectice senex puerile argumentationis vitium and they prov'd it well too For some of them it seems condemn his Sense and his Doctrine as heretical whiles others defend it for Catholick without the least difference between them concerning Faith because it is not the same precise and determin'd Sense which is thus condemn'd by some and approv'd by others though they both of them call it by the same name and that is but what we daily meet with in the different explication of an Author For there is ever in these encounters this opposition of words that some affirm the Doctrine of an Author to be Catholick and others that 't is heretical though neither of them disagree touching the true Faith The Fifth Council pronounces the Doctrine of Theodoret to be impious and heretical Father Petavius and many other Jesuites deny it are they therefore against the Faith of the Council By no means since they defend Theodoret but by interpreting him after another way then did the Council and by giving him a Catholick sense 'T is the very same case in the present Dispute The Pope saies the Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical other men say We find no such matter in Jansenius The words have indeed an appearance of contrariety but without implying the least contrariety of Faith forasmuch as the Doctrine which these Divines maintain to be Catholick and of Jansenius is not certainly the same Doctrine which the Pope condemns for heretical and as being that of Jansenius And the proof which they bring is decisive We do not say they maintain on the matter of the Five Propositions any thing save the Doctrine of Grace efficacious alone as 't is held by S. Augustine and by the whole School of S. Thomas Now 't is clear that the Pope does no-where condemn this Doctrine as he makes all the Church believe and indeed as both the Church and the Jesuites themselves do accord It is then certain that the Pope does not condemn that which we understand under the notion of the Sense of Jansenius as we likewise do not hold what the Pope condemns under these terms seeing this Doctrine excepted we have nothing at all to doe with the rest but reject it in general as we are ready to doe in particular when-ever the Church shall please to describe it in particular or to shew us where it is And thus you have the whole state of this ten-years Dispute The Jesuites stand to their sense of Jansenius and all men that will may perceive the Illusion and Equivocation of the terms But in fine F. Ferrier is come up from the very farthest part of all Languedoc to the aid of his Confraternity and has been chosen by F. Annat to publish this Heresie and to answer all those Writings which made it plainly out that it is but a mere Chimaera but especially he undertook to replie to the Treatise of Just Complaints which expressly clears this Equivocation of the Sense of Jansenius Now therefore it is that we shall shortly come to know in what this wondrous Heresie consists or else we must never hope to understand it whiles we live What saies this Reverend Father to us then That 't is expedient to publish
the true Idea of Jansenism in effect 't is very expedient and there it was it should indeed have been begun For 't is a wondrous strange thing that men should make such a noise about a business which no body yet understands And also saies F. Ferrier because these Divines complain in their Writings that we accuse them of an Heresie without being able to determine what it is I find my self oblig'd to say their complaints are very unjust It has been told them a thousand times over that their Heresie consists in their believing and maintaining that the Doctrine of Jansenius on the Five Propositions is Catholick although the Church condemn it for Heretical which is quoth he pag. 3. a true Question of Right that presupposes matter of Fact viz. That Jansenius establishes some Doctrine in his Augustine and in this Question one cannot divide the Fact from the Right that is to say one cannot hold the Doctrine which is condemn'd for heretical and at the same moment maintain the Doctrine of Jansenius upon these Propositions not to be the same which the Popes have condemn'd This is all the illumination that F. Ferrier affords us upon this point and to which all his Colours are reduc'd After this 't is to no purpose to hope for any other either from him or from any else He has done his utmost was too far engag'd and we are not to believe that any body will ever be able to out-doe him But in earnest Sir 't is an Abuse beyond all humane patience to promote as F. Ferrier does here a thing so invisible as is this Heresie without Dogme and to make as if he understood nothing of so many convincing reasons by which the falsity of this pretence has been made evident to stand so obstinately in an Equivocation that has been so fully detected and to repeat in cold bloud seriously and gravely Absurdities which have been a hundred times overthrown as if they were infallible Oracles I profess to you Sir I know not what to think of all this unless perhaps the Jesuites may imagine that being as they are powerfull in the world they may lawfully say and doe what they please themselves as being no more subject like other men to the dictates of Reason and common Sense Was there any need that F. Ferrier should himself have discovered the Mysterie of this Heresie without Position or to say better this Heresie without Heresie Did not the Cordelier Jubilé doe it before him and fully as well Every body derided it in this Frier and so will they doe in this Jesuite so as if this be all that he has to doe at Paris he may e'en goe back again to his Province His staying at Paris will be no advantage to his Cause and most certainly blemish his Reputation But saies F. Ferrier 'T is a Question of Right to understand whether the Doctrine of Jansenius be Catholick or Heretical as it also is to know whether the Doctrine of S. Augustine be orthodox or not But I maintain that whoever saies so knows not what a Question of Right or a Question of Fact signifies We must doe all we can then to penetrate through these natural or voluntary Obscurities of F. Ferrier and after this if he render not up himself I shall esteem him for a desperado We are not to imagine that so soon as ever the words of Catholick Doctrine and Heretical Doctrine come into a Question it is presently a Question of Right since if so several Contestations would likewise be reduc'd to Questions of Right which are merely but of Fact being expressed by these terms And for instance they would affirm that there is a Question of Right between the Fifth Council and Father Petavius seeing the Council condemns the Doctrine of Theodoret as Heretical and this Father maintains it to be Catholick which in the language of F. Ferrier one would name a Right But to know in very truth whether a Question be of Right or of Fact or of both of them together you are onely to consider what both parties agree in and what they contest for 't is evident that the Question does not fall upon that which is accorded but wholly on that which is disputed When therefore two persons are agreed that a certain Dogm or Position is heretical and question onely whether this Dogm be of such an Author or not the dispute is onely concerning the matter of Fact The Jesuites and the Sixth Council do consent that 't is an Heresie to say There is but one Will in J. Christ but they are at variance whether this Heresie was taught by Pope Honorius The Council affirms it the Jesuites deny it This is only a Question of Fact though it be express'd by terms which look like matter of Right The sense of Honorius is heretical saies the VIth Council The sense of Honorius is Catholick say the Jesuites When men agree on the contrary that an Author has taught a certain Doctrine and the dispute be whether this Doctrine be Catholick or heretical the Question is of the Right not the Fact because the Effect is agreed upon and the Right is contested The Monothelites and the Sixth Council agreed that Pope Honorius taught that there was but one Will in J. Christ but the Monothelites pretended that this Doctrine was Catholick the Council maintains it for Heretical This is a Question of Right express'd by the same terms with the other The Doctrine of Honorius is Catholick say the Monothelites The Doctrine of Honorius is heretical saies the Sixth Council But when they are not agreed concerning a certain Doctrine whether it be Catholick or Heretical or has been promoted by some Author there the Question is concerning Fact and Right together because both of them are disputed The Monothelites affirm that 't is a Catholick Doctrine to say there is but one Will in J. C. as Pope Honorius teaches the Jesuites reply the Doctrine is not Catholick and that 't is falsly imputed to P. Honorius Here the Question is both of Fact and Right But that which is strange is this that when they dispute in this manner concerning matter of Fact and Right they both accord in the expression For the Jesuites who neither agree with the Monothelites either in the Fact or Right do yet consent with them in this expression contrary to that of the Council that the Doctrine of Honorius is Catholick 'T is an easie matter by this Rule to detect the Illusion of F. Ferrier who maintains it generally in his Writings that these are Questions of Right viz. to know whether the Doctrine of S. Augustine be orthodox or not or this of Jansenius heretical or Catholick For 't is evident that insisting upon the general terms one cannot distinguish whether they be Questions of Fact or of Right whiles 't is possible to form upon the Doctrine of S. Augustine and on that of any other Author whatsoever Questions purely of Right and Questions both of
Reasons They judge that this distinct Dogm is of an Author by the very view of the Passages and the connexion of his Principles They judge it to be Heretical or Catholick by the comparison which they make of it with the Scripture and Tradition Thus it is the Pope and the Bishops should proceed indeed in condemning the Doctrine of Jansenius It was not enough for them to know that Jansenius teaches some Doctrine on the Five Propositions since 't is ridiculous to conclude from thence that this Doctrine is heretical but they should necessarily have reduc'd the vain uncertain Doctrine of Jansenius to a precise Dogm by a judgment purely of Fact in judging that this distinct Doctrine is of Jansenius to be able afterwards to pronounce the judgment of Faith which insinuates the Doctrine to be heretical There are not in the whole World things more separate and distinct then these Conclusions This Dogm is Jansenius's This Doctrine is heretical The one is matter of Fact the other of Right The one is true ever since the Church has been the Church the other cannot be true but since Jansenius has written and was before that false It may be true that this was such an Author's Position without his being an Heretick and it may be as true that a Position is heretical without being such an Author's because it is not therefore heretical for being such an Author's nor therefore such an Author 's for being heretical Now these two Judgments more remote from each other then are the Heavens from the Earth are both comprehended in this single Proposition The Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical which is the result and thus it comprehends a Right and a Fact really separated though confounded in the expression It may be deny'd as to them both and were onely the Fact deny'd they are not those who fall into the Heresie that doe it but those who accuse them of Heresie under this pretext as does the F. Ferrier For 't is certain that of one part the Pope has form'd this Judgment namely This is Jansenius's Doctrine but this is onely a matter of Fact and a Fact not revealed either in Scripture or Tradition It is also evident this Fact is wholly separate from Right and that it is compris'd within the Pope's Decision which declares that the Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical When therefore F. Ferrier accuses those of Heresie who deny it he falls himself into the Heresie of establishing a point of Faith upon a thing which is neither contained in the Scripture nor in Tradition He has therefore the choice after this to say that this Fact has been either reveal'd to the Pope or not reveal'd If he acknowledge it has not been reveal'd to him he falls into this Heresie of making an Article of Faith of a matter of Fact which is no-where revealed And if he pretend a Revelation of the Pope's he falls into a double Errour one for admitting particular Revelations in the Pope which were to open a gate to all manner of Illusion and another for founding of Points of Faith upon these particular Revelations which is repugnant to the essence of the Catholick Faith which is onely established upon Divine Revelation contain'd in the Scripture and in Tradition He is therefore guilty of Heresie whether he do admit of these Revelations or whether he do not And on the contrary the Divines whom he accuses for that they pretend Jansenius has not been well understood at Rome and that they attribute to him a Doctrine which he no-where maintains are Catholicks whether they be or be not mistaken in this their pretension For it is no way necessary to exempt them from errour of Faith that the Pope should fall into an errour of Fact They are acquitted whether the Pope be mistaken in the matter of Fact or whether he be not If this be true that the Pope did not well understand Jansenius they had reason then not to acknowledge the Doctrine of Jansenius to be heretical And if it be true that he did well understand it all that one ought thence to conclude is this That these Divines did ill understand it and too favourably explain'd it in attributing to it a Catholick sense which it has not and in overseeing another heretical sense which it truly had all which amounts but to a simple errour of Fact which is neither a Crime nor Violence but the most pardonable Mistake in the world and the most worthy of Man according to that of S. Augustine since it all consists in taking the words of a great Bishop in a good sense Qui error saies the Saint non solùm humanus est sed etiam homine dignissimus All the cruel Conclusions of F. Ferrier and the Phantasm of his Heresie being founded upon these false Principles That the Question is de jure That a Fact is inseparable from Right That there is no other Fact in the judgment of the Pope then to know whether Jansenius has taught any Doctrine on the Five Propositions are not onely false but criminal Let him make choice of other Subjects to dispute ill upon as long as he pleases This is a thing which cries for vengeance before God and man to demand of the King as he does Declarations so far remote from his Goodness and Justice upon Arguments so contrary to common Sense Let him distinctly specifie if he can what this Heresie is which he accuses these Divines of and express it under other terms then the ambiguous and uncertain words of the Sense of Jansenius by which no man can know them And if he cannot doe this let him hold his peace and repent of these Extravagances or rather make them some publick reparation as indeed he is obliged This Argument is infinitely more pressing then what he emploies against these Divines pag. 5. in this manner The Jansenists saies he cannot deny that they mock God and the Church when they demand that one should shew them this Sense or Doctrine of Jansenius upon the Five Propositions And why I pray do they mock thus Because saies this Father if they do know what the Sense of Jansenius is upon the Five Propositions they are ridiculous to enquire of a thing which they know already If they do not know what the Sense is they are doubly to blame to publish that they are convinc'd that the Sense of Jansenius is Catholick when as they do not know what it is and for refusing to submit to the Church in a matter which is otherwise unknown to them They replie in a word to F. Ferrier That the Divines who are bound to act according to knowledge and who are not obliged to render the Bishops more then a reasonable obedience have cause to enquire what the Sense of Jansenius is which they would have them to condemn whether they do know it or whether they know it not If they be ignorant of it they have reason to ask to be instructed before they be
they let F. Annat alone with his Not that this Reverend Father with all his credit is yet arriv'd so far as to be able to procure the Bishops or the Pope by any formal Decisions to support these particular Absurdities of his Society That matter of Fact is inseparably annex'd to Faith and That he who denies it is an Heretick He is not so weak a man as to attempt that at present He satisfies himself that every one signs the Fact simply without taking notice of his intention to make use of these Subscriptions when time serves and as may best conduce to his ends nor for the most part does he find any difficulty in it since their spirits furnishing them with expedients to sign without believing the Fact either of divine or humane Faith their Interests easily persuade them to embrace them They fansie themselves not oblig'd openly to oppose F. Annat but that they may safely shelter themselves from this rowling tempest and therefore suffer him freely to oppress those against whom he is particularly animated because they conceive it their own fault that they do not seek their safety as they doe by a Subscription which as they affirm engages them to nothing By this means those who refuse to sign remain expos'd to the unjust violence of the Jesuites Those who agree with them in certain Points and condemn them in others blame them highly in those particulars about which they contest with them but they are very wary to defend them when they think they have reason on their side How infinitely are these Gentlemen mistaken saies honest M. Moret in all his Sermons not to believe the Decision de facto with an humane Faith But he is wary enough not to adde that the Jesuites are mistaken who require we should treat those as Hereticks who acknowledge no Fact which we can onely assent to but by humane Faith Yet is this manner of acting more tolerable then that of those who say nothing at all in publick concerning their intention but joyn simply with the Jesuites by an exteriour signature however different and remote in their sense If they did but say clearly what they reprove in those who do not sign the diversity of their opinions would render their authority less considerable but whiles they say nothing at all such as onely judge things by the out-side take them for approbators of the Opinions of the Jesuites 'T is not therefore an universal Illusion but an universal Baseness which makes these Divines to be oppress'd or rather 't is the Oppression of the Church in general which renders their Oppression particular Let every man speak as he thinks and they shall be fully justified Let every man also condemn them as he thinks and they shall yet be more fully justified seeing it will appear that in all the Points on which they are accus'd they are united with the greater number of the Divines of the Church But the terror and dread of F. Annat keeps all mens tongues bound to defend them and lets them all loose to condemn them uniting in one equivocal expression persons that are extremely distant in Opinion that so F. Annat may seem to be follow'd of the whole Church whenas in truth he is in effect condemn'd by the whole Church Were there indeed no other Life besides the present nor any other Judge save Men it must needs be confess'd that F. Annat were a marvelous able man for knowing how to conceal with so much address the weakness of his Party How victorious in appearance is he whenas in effect he is abandon'd by all the World But this Father whilest he thinks to cheat others cheats himself first because the business in agitation here is of things which depend upon the truth and will be judged by the truth and not on appearance It is not a deceitfull union in an equivocal expression which renders one orthodox but a real and veritable conformity of ones sense with that of the universal Church in matters which concern the Faith So as these Divines maintaining no other Doctrine upon the Fact of Jansenius but that of the whole Church which is that this Fact has no relation to Faith continue Orthodox whatever Cabal they contrive to oppress them And both F. Annat and the Jesuites who would make it a point of Faith are not Orthodox for all their power and credit forasmuch as in this they are really repugnant to the sense of the Church into which they do introduce a Real Heresie under pretence forsooth of destroying an Heresie which is but Imaginary One may therefore justly applie these words of J. Christ to the Jesuites which he spake to a Bishop in the Apocalypse Dicis quòd dives sum locupletatus nullius egeo nescis quia es miser miserabilis pauper cacus nudus You conceit your selves indeed rich and aboundant by the number of your Sectators whereas in the mean time you are miserable and objects of compassion You are poor abandon'd blind and naked since all those who seem so much to follow you do in effect condemn you And one may on the contrary applie to these persecuted Divines those other words of our B. Saviour to another Bishop in the same Book Scio tribulationem tuam paupertatem tuam sed dives es blasphemaris ab his qui se dicunt Judaeos esse non sunt I know the Oppressions which you suffer and the poverty which they reproch you of notwithstanding ye are rich because the most part of those who appear against you are in truth for you and you are born down but by people who pronounce themselves Orthodox but who are indeed replete with Errours Sir I am c. This 1. of March 1664. Since this Letter was finished I have receiv'd a large Writing of F. Ferrier's intituled Relation veritable c. A true Relation c. I conceive as to what relates to the Heresie of which he continues to accuse the Divines who are more Catholick then himself you will find nothing in it which is not here overthrown before-hand But as to the prodigious number of Falsities with which his Relation abounds this Father deserves to be particularly answered and I am assur'd there will some body be found out that will so doe it as the Jesuites will hardly find the advantage they expected of their Impostures The Third LETTER SIR I Have already told you and I repeat it again that within one fifty years men will look upon this pretended Heresie of Jansenism but as a rare example of the Vanity of mens spirits and rank the whole Dispute with that of the Cowls and the Cordeliers Bread They will then ask with astonishment what this Father Annat and F. Ferrier were that spake such impertinent things in the Age they liv'd in and who those silly persons were that suffer'd themselves to be led by their Dotages But these you 'l say are Prophecies and 't is no hard
matter to make others like them by taking 50 years time to prove the event of them I could easily answer you that they are true having already prov'd that the whole Concernment is but a Trifle as I conceive I have sufficiently done and that as one cannot pronounce the same of all sorts of Disputes one cannot reasonably make the like Predictions of them But it being beyond my power to advance and hasten the future to shew you the truth of my Prophecy I chuse to leave it off or rather present you with a picture of what is past which is certain and invariable and that will afford us the most certain conjectures how one may foresee what is like to fall out upon the like encounters 'T is a Glass which very few persons consult from I know not what weakness natural to mens spirits For as men live but in the time that is present so they are likewise concern'd but with things that are present What-ever is remote from the instant which takes them up vanishes and comes to nothing in respect of them and if possibly there remain any traces in their memory they are so weak and indiscernable that they serve them but in little stead for the reforming of those deceitfull impressions which they receive from the present Objects If a man seem to have the advantage during the moment which employs them he loses the remembrance of all the past which might have made him know that this advantage is false and but imaginarie Thus because the Jesuites make a great bustle and every-where cry out on Heresie men are astonish'd at the bruit and because there are but few that oppose them men easily imagine that they are in effect victorious In the interim it is evident that this manner of boulstring their Judgments but upon the present subjects it to an infinity of Illusions The passages of the World discover not themselves to us in every moment but by some of their parts as they succeed one another forasmuch as being thus consequent they do not subsist together in the mean time 't is by the union of the whole Body and of all its Members that we ought to form a Judgment It would be sometimes very difficult to see the Church victorious over Heresies in all its brightness did we consider it but in a small part of its permanency during which she may be so overcast with a mist of Errours that one can hardly tell who has the better of it Truth or Falshood Did not Arianism seem a conqueror at Rimini and the Catholick Doctrine so obscure that as S. Hierom saies All the World was astonish'd how they should become Arian To discover then the advantage of the Church over Errour our memories have need of a larger comprehension of time And then it is we shall see that after a swift and transitory blaze Errours do wither away of themselves and come to nothing whiles the Doctrine of the Church subsists and conserves it self in the bosome of the Church and in the hearts of her legitimate Children And thus Sir to judge rightly of the present Contestation between the Jesuites and their Adversaries we must not limit all our prospect at the Question of Fact and of Right to which 't is for the present totally reduc'd But we should consider the several steps of every of its parties the various Points agitated between them the success of their particular Disputes and by what progress they are arriv'd to the Point where they now stand seeing 't is by this onely we shall be able to discover who have lost or gain'd advanc'd or recoil'd whom we may believe sincere and whom for Cheats and Infidels In fine 't is from hence one may form reasonable conjectures of the Success of the remaining Contestation This is the Design which I have propos'd to my self in this Letter wherein I will present you with a compendious Image of all this tedious Warr of the Divines which though it be not bloudy is no less considerable then the temporal Warrs and whose Successes are altogether as great and important It was in the year 1626 that it began upon occasion of a Book published by a certain Jesuite nam'd Garasse intitled Somme de Veritez capitales de la Religion Chrestienne A Summe of the principal Verities of the Christian Religion c. The late Abbot of S. Cyran having noted therein a prodigious number of Falsifications of the Scripture and of the Fathers together with divers heretical and impious Propositions conceiv'd that the honour of the Church requir'd him to undertake their Refutation though at the same time also his modesty made him resolve to conceal his name as he has alwaies done in the rest of his Books While the first part of this was under the Press and the noise of it spread into all parts it gave occasion for a more through examination of Garasse's Treatise The Rector of the University complain'd of it to the Faculty who nam'd Commissioners to examine the Book But this alarming the Jesuites they quickly gave us to understand that it was not so easie an enterprise to censure a Book of a Jesuite For they so wrought with the Magistrates by their Cabal that M. de S. Cyran's Treatise was a long while stopped Moreover to traverse the Censure F. Garasse bethought himself of a Supercherie as worthy of the Jesuites as any thing had been practis'd during all the process of these Contestations There was a bruit in Paris that the Author of the Refutation was to shew above Fifty heretical Propositions or Errours in Garasse's Summe and it was true but that part which contain'd the conviction of Garasse's Errours was not yet come out of M. de S. Cyran's Study However Father Garasse conceited he had found out a way to know what they had to object against him He chose Fifty Propositions in his Book the most easie to defend that he could find and of which number there was not three of them of those which M. de S. Cyran had accus'd in his Work In consequence of this he form'd a Censure according to his own fancy and by this address dazzl'd the world for a time and disturb'd the Examination of his Book which was doing at the Sorbon so as his Examinators were much confounded and they began every-where to say that they extremely wronged de Garasse to accuse the Summe of so many Errours M. de S. Cyran had a thousand difficulties to take off the impediments which the Jesuites had contriv'd to hinder the publication of his Refutation and to disabuse the World of that wicked artifice of F. Garasse However he at last obtain'd it and maugre all the Cabals of the Society and the tedious delays which they granted F. Garasse to make his Retractation his Book was in fine censur'd for containing divers heretical Propositions Errours Scandals Temerities many Falsifications of passages of Scripture and of the holy Fathers falsly cited and perverted from
very gate of Desperation 't is the high-way of Obduration 't is the wide gap for men to die in final Impenitence and without Sacraments 'T is the Cullender of Hell 't is the leven to corrupt all the Priests and to make them abuse the Discoveries which they receive in secret All these Accusations were far more important then those which they now form upon the Case of Jansenius The Jesuites dispers'd them with the same assurance they treated their adversaries after the same sort with Heresiarchs Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks they gave them the names of Sects as they do now at present But let us see the event These bruits and Accusations gave a thousand traverses to the poor Divines whom the Jesuites did in this manner decry for they are alwaies successfull in that The Divines have continu'd to be oppress'd and the Jesuites have alwaies been very powerfull in the World Their Calumnies yet destroy'd themselves have been confounded before the face of the whole Church but still without any punishment they were still hearkning to people so altogether unworthy of belief nor was there ever yet found one Jesuite of those which appear'd in the world who has had the Conscience to testifie the least regret for the Extravagances of his Society a thing prodigious to consider For what Salvation can they hope in that thus calumniate without Repentance On the contrary they have rewarded those who help'd to vend and distribute their most execrable Impostures whither within or without their Society They procur'd for le Sieur Fileau for publishing the Fable of Bourgfontaine a Brief of Pope Innocent in his commendation with Letters from some Noblemen in France They made Father Brisacier Rector of their chief House because he was transported to excesses which were altogether inhumane By all which we may see sufficient marks of their puissance having been able to support themselves in a Cause in which any else besides themselves had certainly been overthrown But God has in the mean time been pleas'd to shew that his Truth is infinitely stronger then all the men of the World for in spight of all the Jesuites credit maugre the abandoning and oppression of these Divines not onely the Calumnies of the Jesuites are dissipated but the sincere Doctrine which they so furiously attacqu'd in the Book of Frequent Communion has been more and more authoriz'd and practis'd in the Church and on the contrary the Errours of the Jesuites have been formally condemn'd there They have censur'd in the Apologie of the Casuists the very same Doctrine which is oppos'd in the Treatise of Frequent Communion The Doctrine touching proximate Occasions and Habitudes of Sin saies the Church of Paris in her third Censure in which the Author affirms one ought not to refuse Absolution is false rash scandalous and inductive to an evident peril of sinning And the 29. Censure of M. the Archbishop de Sens upon the same Propositions and on that of Recidivations is These very Propositions are pernicious they have been invented to entertain men in a desire to sin they are injurious to Vertue and to the Sacrament of Penance They destroy the judiciary Authority which resides in Priests as Ministers of J. Christ and render them partakers with other mens Crimes Divers other of the Bishops did expressly mark in their Censures the precipitate Absolutions practis'd and authoriz'd by the Jesuites as one of the greatest Disorders of the Church and those Five Illustrious Bishops of Languedoc call them in their Censure Sacrilegious Absolutions And not onely is this Doctrine of the Book of Frequent Communion authoriz'd by these Judgements of the Church but 't is well known that many great Prelats injoyn the practice of it as amongst the rest M. the Bishop de Alet testifies in his Apologie which he has recommended to all the Confessors of his Diocese for see how he speaks of it pag. 11. As touching the delay or refusal of Absolution it is true that M. de Alet recommends to all the Confessors of his Diocese the carefull practice of the Rules of the Church in the dispensation of the Sacraments and especially that of Penance that the use of it be not prophan'd which is that they by no means absolve those who are in the proximate occasion of any Sin or that perceive themselves in a dangerous condition in which in respect of their disposition and upon experience of their life past it is morally impossible for them not to offend God such also as remain in any habitual mortal sin and do not reform themselves nor give any sign of their sincere amendment since it is the constant Doctrine of the Church and whereof the practice has been carefully recōmended by S. Charles in the advice which he prepar'd for the Confessors of his Diocese In fine the Sanctity of this Doctrine is so universally acknowledged that they oblige those who but dare to oppose it to most solemn Retractations I will shew you an Example both new and curious which I have taken word for word out of a Letter from Tolouse where the thing happened A Religious person of the Order of S. Francis of those whom they call de la grand Observance preaching this year in Tolouse January the 27 maintain'd that Confessors were not to refuse or defer the Absolution of Penitents provided they assur'd them that they were very sorry for having offended God though they had never so often confess'd the very same sins before in the belief said he that they ought to have that the moment in which they should refuse it them might be that of their Conversion The whole City not accustom'd to this dissolute Doctrine being scandaliz'd at it the great Vicar oblig'd this inconsiderate Preacher to make his publick Retractation February the 17. in these very terms which were prescrib'd him When about three weeks since I affirm'd in my Sermon of the Cure of the Leprous that the facility and the promptitude with which Iesus Christ stretched forth his hand upon him was an instruction to Confessors of the obligation which lay on them to give prompt and speedy Absolution to all Penitents provided they profess themselves sorry for having offended God and that they would reform in the future I did not mean to say that Confessors were oblig'd alwaies to believe the Deposition of Penitents which were to invalidate the authority which Priests have receiv'd in their Ordination as well to retain as to remit sins But I pretended onely generally speaking that when they are indeed sincerely repentant and that the prudence of an honest Confessor does judge them so he may then absolve them WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE CHURCHES CANONS and to the Injunctions of this Diocese which oblige Confessors to defer Absolution to Penitents especially in case of Habitudes and proximate Occasion in a serious matter c. WHICH I ACKNOWLEDGE OUGHT TO BE INVIOLABLY OBSERVED Thus has the Dispute concerning Penance and the delay
very welcome to the Jesuites Yet durst they never attacque him openly But they made use of two Artifices to have ruin'd this Work The First was To bring Merenda's Book to the Inquisition and endeavour to have it censur'd upon some pretext which in that Country they never fail of when they desire to blast a Book And accordingly they soon succeeded and we have seen the Book of Merenda in the list of such as the Inquisition has condemn'd The Second was To instigate Caramuel now a Bishop in Italy to write against Fagnani He undertook it and after his manner acquitted himself that is to say with his ordinary Impudence For he maintains in his Book the Doctrine of Probability as an Article of Faith oppos'd to the Heresie of the Jansenists He will have all the Curates of Paris and of Rouën together with all those Bishops who censur'd the Casuists to be arrant Jansenists and of whose authority there is no regard to be had This put him well with the Jesuites who were marvellously satisfied with these goodly beginnings but they were not so with the consequence For the Pope being clearly advertis'd by Fagnani of these Intrigues caus'd Merenda's Book to be fetch'd out of the Inquisition and condemn'd that of Caramuel which continues so censur'd without remedy And thus Sir finish'd the Warr against our Casuists by which it fully appears that they are stuff'd with an infinity of pernicious and impious Maximes that above all the Doctrine of Probability which is the Source is an Invention of the Devil and that therefore F. Ferrier who has defended it and as many Jesuites as have maintain'd it are Co-operators and Predicators of that Serpent Praedicatores Serpentis as S. Augustine saies and that on the contrary those who have oppos'd the Casuists have done the Church one of the most considerable services that Divines are capable of rendring her Their Doctrine continues still victorious as that of the Jesuites quite wither'd and come to nothing in the contest But so is it not as to their Persons The greatness of the Service which these Divines have render'd to the Church has diminish'd nothing of the Persecutions which they have for so long time suffer'd nay on the contrary it does but augment them in provoking the Jesuites to pursue them with the greater violence Nor have the so many Censures of the Moral of the Jesuites abated ought of their temporal power 'T is known they still persevere in the very same Maximes that have been condemn'd nor do they themselves conceal them yet in the mean time they are permitted the administration of the Sacraments Men would never suffer that the Physicians of our Bodies who had been known for Empoisoners should continue to exercise their faculty whiles yet they permit these Physicians of Souls convinc'd to have govern'd them with their envenom'd Maximes to prescribe this pretended spiritual Medicine without giving any mark or caution to the Church that they have sincerely renounc'd them But it is an Effect of the depth of God's Judgements who imparts his Graces on his Church according to measure and boundaries them within the sight of mens Sins A great one it is which he has bestowed on her in causing the Moral of the Jesuites to be condemn'd by so many Bishops and by thereby giving all men an opportunity who sincerely pursue their own Salvation to renounce their Conduct But he has not altogether accomplish'd this favour but suffers the Jesuites to enjoy the same Authority and to preserve themselves in the same Credit which they formerly had to the end they may serve him as ministers of his Wrath that those who deserve to be misled may be misled and by their Persecutions to prove those who are worthy to be prov'd This is their emploiment and office in the Church not unlike to that of the King to whom God directs these words in the Scripture Vae Assur virga furoris mei But I beseech you Sir do not imagine that it is the difference of Opinions upon the quarrel of Jansenism which imports me to embrace these opinions The most Religious persons of the Church and who have never been so much as suspected of any kindness for that which they call Jansenism have I assure you no other Idea of the Jesuites And amongst others the late M. the Bishop of Cahors being upon his Death-bed expressly ordered M. the Abbot Ferrier great Vicar to my Lord Bishop d' Alby to say from him to M. de Alet M. de Pamiers and M. de Comenge That he had done all he could to reduce the Jesuites from their Errours but that he knew them for people incorrigible and without remedy that he held them for the greatest Enemies of the Church and did earnestly desire that these Gentlemen would never have any thing to doe with them This person perform'd his Commission and said the same things to some persons of great Quality from whom we have receiv'd that which we here mention I suppose Sir that you expect what I should say of the Contestation concerning Jansenism which is the most tedious and refractory of all the rest and that you haply think I could not say as much of that that the Cause of these Divines has had its Triumphs also seeing the Jesuites produce whole Volumes of Decrees Briefs Constitutions Arrests and Declarations which they have obtain'd against them and that the Letters of these Gentlemen make a great part of those which have furnish'd the Inquisition of Rome any time these ten years But all this shall not hinder me yet from assuring you before-hand that the success of this Warr will not be at all inferiour to that of the others and that you will there likewise see these Divines oppress'd the Jesuites unpunish'd and the Truth triumphing over their Errours You are onely to follow me as I do that of the various faces of this Dispute It began first in Flanders at the University of Louvain it being there that the Jesuites publish'd those famous Theses against Jansenius where they accus'd him of an infinity of Errours But the Doctors of Louvain repell'd them with so much vigour that whiles they insisted on their Books the Jesuites had no cause to boast of their advantage A little after the Dispute came into France upon occasion of the Sermons of M. Habert a Parisian Divine who in the Pulpit did publickly accuse this Prelat's Book of no less then Fourty Heresies But the first Apologie for Jansenius having taught him a little to moderate his Zeal he reduc'd these Heresies to the number of Twelve of which he continu'd to accuse him in a Treatise which he writ against this Apologie The second Apology for Jansenius which appear'd a little after made him yet to cut off Seven more For Monsieur Cornet how-ever enemy against this Bishop's Book durst propose but Five Propositions to the Faculty and that without naming them though with a design of one day causing his Book to
nice and subtile for many persons that being gross and carnal judge onely of things by the external and by the noise and that one cannot easily make them comprehend that the Cause of those who seem to be oppressed is in effect victorious and that of their Oppressors overcome The Miracles and incomparable Sanctity of the Primitive Christians could not for 300 years abate this impression of their Senses in the spirits of a world of Pagans nor persuade them that the persons whom they kill'd had any Reason on their side There is nothing more ordinary then this Argumentation He is persecuted It is therefore he is in the wrong because he has not the imagination which commonly joines the Idea of Pain with that of the Crime But God would make us see the errour of this in the Christian Religion on which subject this has been most experienc'd in causing on the contrary that this Oppression of the Christians during 300 years which incourag'd those Pagans to despise them should prove one of the brightest and most divine marks to distinguish it from the false Religions For whereas the Kingdoms of the World were established and subsisted by Temporal advantages of those onely who founded or maintain'd them God would on the contrary have his Empire which is that of the Truth should be founded and augmented by the Sufferings and Death of those persons whom he employ'd to establish it to shew that he was stronger then the World in surmounting the World by that very Victory which the World conceiv'd they had over his Servants The Cause of Truth has almost gain'd the same advantage in these our Times both from the excessive power of the Jesuites which attacqu'd them and the extreme weakness of the Divines who defended it all which contributed to its Establishment and to the making it appear with the greater Splendor since there is no man but must conclude that the Jesuites Doctrine must needs be very naught and their Morality extremely corrupted since all their power has not been able to hinder it from being blasted by so many Censures And that on the contrary the Doctrine of the Divines must needs be very orthodox since they have made the Church approve it against so mighty an Opposition The more puissant the Jesuites be the more the Censures which have past concerning their Doctrine should appear legitimate just and authentick since in regard of the Credit they have in the Church it should not be hard for them to procure reparation of the Church for the wrong which has been done them by her unjust Censures And the more the Divines are oppress'd and abandon'd the more ought that which has been done against them to be suspected and what has been done to their advantage esteem'd just and legitimate Thus by a most admirable effect of the Divine Providence the power of the Jesuites is the confusion of Jesuites since 't is an evident Conviction of the Falseness of a Doctrine which the Church has condemn'd in their Authors And the oppression of these Divines defenders of the Hierarchie of Penance of Morality and of Grace is in the mean time the reproch of the Jesuites who have so inhumanely persecuted them and the glory and establishment of the Truth which they have maintain'd with so much success against this insolent Society FINIS A Copy of a Letter FROM The Reverend Father VALERIAN a CAPUCHIN TO Pope ALEXANDER the 7th Most Blessed Father AFTER I have kissed your blessed Feet and made a most humble acknowledgment of my devout subjection c. I F. Valerian Milanese Priest of the Order of the Friers Minors call'd Capuchins being enjoin'd under pain of Excommunication and other Penalties express'd in the Bulls of the Popes your Predecessors declare to your Holiness that I have by a long series of years exactly observ'd that the Clerks Regular named Jesuites whilst they thirst after riches dominion and glory above all mortal men whatsoever publickly commit and perpetrate many things which are prohibited and omit many things that are commanded under the penalty of mortal Sin not shewing the least token of repentance without which they become suspected of Heresie whiles they suppose those enormous commissions not to be prohibited or if conscious of their Crimes they continue to wallow in them presumed guilty of Atheism But I explain my deduction by this Example Titius a Parish-Priest in a City induceth a publick Notarie and four Witnesses to frame a supposititious Testament by which fraud the right Heir is depriv'd of an Inheritance of a hundred thousand Crowns which Titius seizes for himself by perverting justice before the Judge whom notwithstanding together with the Notarie and Witnesses he in the Sacrament of Penance absolves from the Crime as not at all oblig'd to make Restitution defending himself against the parties oppressed and others that are highly scandaliz'd hereat with all manner of other pious Works those onely excepted which hinder the procuring of riches glory and dominion such as Praier Fasting Alms and whatever else have merit and commendation from the Austerity of Life This Fact involves 1. the Crime of Subornation and falsifying in the publick Notarie 2. Perjurie in the four Witnesses 3. the Theft of 100000 Crowns 4. the perverting of Justice before a Judge 5. the notorious Scandal of Impenitence and Impunitie for so many and so grievous Crimes and lastly the extreme abuse of the holy Sacrament of Penance These Six Errours under the guilt of mortal Sin prohibited all men both by the Divine natural and positive Laws whosoever does obstinately and contumaciously deny whether in these or others of like quality is an Heretick To this Doctrine I firmly adhere and having attested the verity of the Fact declare to your Holiness the foresaid Heresie or to say better Atheism of the Jesuites But before I proceed to explain not a few of these and the like Enormities together with the Circumstances of Place Time Persons and other particulars belonging to them I shall first assert to your Holiness the innocency of this my Declaration not from any advantage arising from this suppression of Heresie which of it self is sufficiently manifest but by the very Circumstances of my person Namely thus Since the year 1653 I have frequently signified to the holy Congregation De propaganda Fide and other Ministers of the Apostolical See this my opinion concerning the Heresie of the Jesuites nor hath any of them appear'd to disapprove my Zeal which therefore I have reason to think pious and not at all unacceptable to them Above twenty years since I signified to the same holy Congregation Fourteen Commissions and Omissions wherein the General and two Provincials of the Jesuites and divers others together with their Assistants and Councel remain'd contumaciously involv'd for many years which I condemn'd as including both Heresie and Atheism The Cardinals understanding by me that the Jesuites had spred a report as if I had been reprov'd for this Address
that though the Pope was chief of Bishops yet the Congregation of Bishops was the Court from whence final resolutions were to be expected The former Tenet had of late gotten a great strength through the most parts of Christendom but the Divine Providence when it found it fitting raised the French Church which at the present is very flourishing to set a bar to their great advance as may be seen by the Papers here inserted The substance of the Advocate General 's Plea against a Thesis defended in Sorbon concerning the Pope's Infallibility Translated out of the French Copy I Do saies he acknowledge my carelesness in having suffered to scape unpunished those horrible Blasphemies which the Jesuites vomited out against Jesus Christ in a Thesis defended the last year in the College of Clermont which maintained that the Pope was as infallible in matters both of Fact and Right as Jesus Christ himself Has a greater Impiety been heard of But it is ordinary with them to teach erroneous Doctrines And I believe 't is from the impunity of that Crime that the boldness has been taken to defend the like Errours in Sorbon against her Statutes the Doctrine of the Gallican Church and the Maximes of State and of this Court How That the Pope with five or six ignorant Divines with mercenary souls should be Infallible to make Articles of Faith of whatsoever Passion Interest or Ambition shall suggest to him Our Ancestors have seen the fatal consequences and effects of this pernicious Doctrine Wherefore lest this poison should spread it self farther and this pernicious Doctrine take root if it be left unpunished I conclude the Thesis shall be struck out and blotted the Defendent and President constrained to maintain the direct contrary and the Syndic never to approve such like Theses under pain of being extraordinarily proceeded against The Pope and Bishops are not Authors of our Faith but faithfull Guardians and irrefragable Witnesses of universal Tradition received from hand to hand from Jesus Christ to us according to Vincentius Lirinensis Quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus creditum est hoc de Fide est c. Notes upon it Those who are acquainted with the Government of France understand that the Parliament of Paris is made of Members given to Learning and reading of Fathers and to the skill of Languages particularly Greek and Latine and by consequence of Church Antiquities and that the King's Advocate who at this present is called Monsieur Talon is ordinarily one of the most eminent and that in matters of Divinity they are tenacious of the Decrees of the Sorbon the greatest Catholick University in our parts of the World and whose Doctrine passeth for the Doctrine of the Church of France especially their Ancient Decrees It is again to be noted that he saith that the Tenet of the Pope's Personal Infallibility in making Doctrines to be of new accepted for Articles of Faith is against the Maximes of the French Government that is that it toucheth upon Treason which if it be true in France it can be no less in England and he cannot be truly loyal to his Country who obstinately maintaineth that Errour The reason is clear for if that be true the Pope may define and oblige Subjects to believe that he can depose a Prince and bind his Subjects to take Arms against him as was insinuated in a Letter confidently reported to have been lately written from Rome to Ireland by a great man of that Court though others say the Letter was counterfeited Extracted out of a Letter written from France to a Person of Quality The Jesuites having defended formerly that the Pope hath the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ Monsieur Talon the Advocate General complained of it publickly in Parliament remonstrating that this was a most horrible Impiety and highly deserving open and corporal Punishment Whereupon the Court of the said Parliament has ordained that the President the Regent and the Scholars which maintain'd it should appear personally to receive a Reprehension for the first time and a denouncing of corporal and publick punishment intended and resolv'd to be inflicted in case any of them should relapse into the like Blasphemy hereafter Notes upon it The Thesis mentioned is that against which was divulged the Paper entituled THE JESUITES NEW HERESIE which insinuates that the Tenet of the Pope's Infallibility was their former Heresie which is a gentle Censure upon a Doctrine able to introduce Heresies without number into the Church of God as is evident to whosoever shall consider how easie it is for a dozen of Divines to be either corrupted or deceived and yet our Faith by this Position is made to depend on their Science and Integrity Note again that the King's Advocate professeth that the Tenet of the Pope's Infallibility in matters of Fact deserveth publick and corporal punishment which signifies no less then whipping banishment or some such like punishment and that it is a Crime deserving that the Civil Magistrate ought to take notice of it This Absurdity was invented by the Jesuites in envy to the great Scholar Jansenius to the end that people might be persuaded he held Errours not visible in his Books of the which they calumniated him and would prove him guilty of them onely by the Pope's Infallible word defining him to be so which mad Prank of theirs has made such a pother in France of late years A Decree of the Court of Parliament against a Theological Conclusion intended to have been maintain'd the 19 of January 1662 3. by Monsieur Gabriel Droüet of Ville-neufve Bachelor Given the 22 of January 1662 3 at Paris Extracted out of the Registers of Parliament and faithfully render'd into English THis day the Court having deliberated upon what was by the King's Council represented the 19 and 20 of this present Month concerning a Thesis intended to have been maintain'd the said 19 day by Monsieur Gabriel Drouet of Ville-neufve in Britany Bachelor in Divinity at the Act call'd The great Ordinary of SORBON which contain'd in its Second Position Christus Sanctum Petrum ejúsque Successores summâ supra Ecclesiam Auctoritate donavit Christ gave Saint Peter and his Successors highest Authority over the Church in its Third Romani Antistites Privilegia quibusdam Ecclesiis sicut Ecclesiae Gallicanae impertiunt The Bishops of Rome bestow Privileges upon certain Churches as upon the French Church in its Eighth Concilia Generalia ad exstirpandas Haereses Schismata alia tollenda incommoda admodum sunt utilia non tamen absolutè necessaria General Councils are very profitable to extirpate Heresies and Schisms and to take away other inconveniencies but not absolutely necessary and many other Propositions contrary to the Authority of the Church to the Ancient Doctrine alwaies received and conserved in this Kingdome to the holy Canons to the Decrees of General Councils and to the Liberties of the Gallican Church tending also to exalt the power of the Pope