it not that they were both Judges and Parties That Cardinall Lugo had tyed himself to the generall of the Jesuits by the Vow of a blinde Obedience That Cardinall Spada ashamed that he could not make that censure prevail which he had undortaken had complotted with the Jâ—suits to save his own credit by exposing the reputation of the Pope and finally that the whole affair had been managed rather by Politick Considerations then by the Rules of Ecclesiasticall Discipline and solid Reasons of Theology What was left unattempted by the whole party to set the Prelates against the Pope to draw the Universities to gain particular persons to engage Communities to seduce the people to mislead souls and insensibly corrupt the purity of their Faith and the fidelity they owe to the Universall Pastour of Christs Flock Neverthelesse in fine the Providence of God who watches over his Elect and laughs at the malice of the impious disappointed all your designes and unspeakable was the grief that seiz'd your mindes when you understood that above fourscore Bishops of this Kingdome had demanded the condemnation of the Five Propositions that make up the Fundamental Maximes of Jansenisme that after a long deliberation the Pope had granted it that Heaven had given a blessing to it as the fruit of so many Vows Prayers and Tears shed by the Children of the Church to extinguish by such an amorous deluge the conflagration you had rais'd in the midst of their bowels and finally that those three famous Columnes erected with so much cost and preparation to uphold the credit of your Doctrine which visibly tended to its ruine were not able to support that tottering Machine nor hinder the fall of your Sect. Then it was that drawing forces out of despair you intrench'd your selves within your Fort â—â—ntiris impudentissimè and thence as from a safe Rampart scoffing at Fulminations and Censures you gave your friends to understand n Arnauld's second Letter p. 150. That certain persons having carefully perus'd a Book and not found therein the Propositions which are attributed to a Catholick Bishop after his death in the narration of a Popes constitution could not declare against their conscience that they are in the Book Who would have thought that after you had given the Lye to Popes and Bishops who expresly affirme the contrary there could any thing have been added to your insolence Yet you rested not there you perceiv'd there was something wanting and that to crown so manifest a Rebellion against the Sea Apostolique it was requisite to give it the name of Obedience protesting with pompous words o Arnauld's first Letter p. 25. that the Disciples of Monsieur d' Ipre had made it apparent to all France that they can humble themselves under Gods Vicar not onely when he honours them with his favour but even when he seems to abandon them to the Impostures of their Enemies p In the same Letter p. 9. that they who suspect them of Errour should have much ado to assigne the pretended Heresie which every one fancies to himself as he pleases since if they reduce it to the Five Propositions condemn'd by the Pope that Heresie which he imputed to them would prove to be but a Chimera there being no Divine that maintains those five condemned Propositions What Sir is this the Jansenian humility that so vaunts with ostentation of having submitted to the Vicar of Christ while it rejects the narration of his Bull and accuses the Oracle of truth of falshood lying Is this the sincerity where with you justisie your Doctrine by condemning those of remerity who opposed it before it was condemn'd and accusing those of calumny who ascribe it to you since the publique voice of the Church hath blasted it with an eternall ignominy Before the Popes Bull the Heresie of Jansenius appear'd with lustre in your Works it march'd with great attendance and nevershew'd it self but guarded with the Fathers of the first Ages It was the Doctrine of the Church the Doctrine of the Apostles the Doctrine of the Popes and Councils After the Bull this Heresie is nothing but a Chimâ—ra which every man fancies such as he pleases and no man knows in very truth Before the Popes Bull it was a crime to question the Five Propositions and they that held them suspect were Semipelagians Enemies of the grace of Christ such as attempred to destroy the most ancient Verities and to obscure the clearest Lights of the Gospel After the Bull it is an injury to impute them to you and they that reproach you with them are hainous Detracters and most impudent Lyars Before the Bull those Maximes were as so many unalterable Rules of Faith where of Tradition was he Source Saint Augustine the Oracle and Monsieur de Ipre the faithfull Interpreter that had renew'd them in our Age. After the Bull those very Maximes by a strange Metamorphosis are become meer Impostures which Envy alone hath invented Calumny divâ—lged and nothing but Ignorance to the prejudice of Innocence can believe since there are no Divines who hold these condemned Propositions Thus Sir it appears that you have an ambiguous Faith which you explicate according to the time a Faith that has two faces and which begets illusions in mens mindes at this day it is a Chimera because you dare not produce it so odious it is to all the world when you have wip'd away the shame of it and that the Censure is forgotten it will again be the spirit of the first Ages To grant to deny to say yes to say no are things indifterent to you You put all in practice to advance the pretended reformation you promise and that imaginary dominion which you affect in the Chuâ—ch 'T is onely the hatred you bear to the Jesuites that never changes because your bad inclination towards Religion ever continues You look upon their zeal as an obstacle that retards the progresse of your designs and because you cannot shake their vertue you endeavour at least to ruine the reputation it gains and the approbation it deserves Hence it comes that you make them Authours of all your disgraces and not daring to complain of the hand that strikes you at every blow you feel you bite the hand that would heal you If the Pope condemneth the works of Port-Royall the Jesuites presently become Falsifiers and Forgers of Bulls against the Doctrine of the Fathers If he command the Marble of Jansenius's Tomb to be taken up and that the marks of that proud monument which serv'd as a Trophy to Heresie be effaced the Jesuites are men of prophane spirits they suffer Idolatry in China they traffique in Canada they favour Libertines in Europe and uphold remisnesse and disorder in all parts of the world If the Clergy in France reprove the surreptitious Elogium of the Abbot of St. Cyran the Jesuites every where persecute Persons of Honour and are so far from sparing the living that they forbear not even
on them does not hinder the five Propositions taken out of Jansenius and presented to the Pope by my Lords the Bishops of France from being condemned by the Holy See Nor does it hinder those who now follow the Doctrine of the five Propositions from being as much Heretiques as the Calvinists of Charenton or their Benifices if they have any from being vacant whether they have charge of Souls or no which they have now lost by Heresie Nor if the Jesuits should be proved to erre in Morals is it therefore forbid to say the Jansenists are excommunicated and that those who know them to be Jansenists cannot in conscience receive the Sacraments from their hands Nor does it hinder their Books from deserving the fire and fagot as well as their Persons if the Primitive severity of our Laws were yet in use and there were not some hope of their amendment This the Readers of those Letters ought to consider reflecting on the quality of their Authors who being Jansenists are Heretiques and as such mortal enemies of the Jesuits who have still this advantage that all those who are enemies to the Church at the same time become theirs like that which the Roman Oratour once said of himself 'T was the happiness of his destiny that never any became his Enemy who was not at the same time an Adversary likewise to the Common-wealth This made a great Person of our times and one who was a scourge of Jansenism say One should give no other answer to those wicked Letters then these three words Jansenists are Heritiques In the second place consider likewise with how little discretion or conscience the Writers of those detestable Letters have cunningly published and authorized to the whole world certain pernicious Maximes whilest they charge the Jesuits for having writ them in their Books The Jesuits Opinions whatsoever they were remained in their own Volumes unknown to any but Schoolmen and Doctors to whom such Writings could do no harm since they are the Censurers of them and even in the same Volumes the Jesuits propose the different opinions and the 〈◊〉 Judgements of Authours the one being the Correctour of the other whereas our Jansenist gathers all that he can make seem extravagant out of many severall places and puts all together exposed to the eyes of ignorant Readers in the vulgar Language to persons uncapable of judging betwixt the false and the true the profitable and dammageble that which is to be received and that which is not casting a stumbling-block in the blinde mans way to make him fall and opening a Cistern without covering it contrary to the prohibition made us in Exodus I know well enough the malice of his intention was to create a Horror of the Jesuits by the malignity of the Doctrine which he imposes on them but let him know there is great danger lest he perswade these untruths and wicked Maximes to many under the authority of the Jesuits name to which the greatest part of the world will give more credit then to such petty Buffoons as he is who hath neither sense conscience nor authority Whereas on the contrary the Jesuites are in the universal good opinion of all except onely Heretiques and some others who malice them so that thinking to cry down such Doctrines they render them probable by the Authority of the Jesuits who have another manner of repute in the world then the Jansenists whom every body knows to have been condemned as Heretiques and it is no lesse known that the Jesuites have been the first who opened their eyes against the Errours and Heresies both of Jansenius and the Jansenists being of the number of those in the Church who have most of all fought against Heresies Liberti nisme and Vice in their Books in their Pulpits and Sermons in their Disputes and Conversation Insomuch as it is commonly believed that to be of the same judgement with the Jesuites is to be Orthodox even so far that many will be easily perswaded to receive for a lawfull Opinion and for an unblamable Resolution in respect of their moral life and conduct that which they shall understand to be the common opinion and universall tenet of the Fathers of that Society Therefore the Writer of those pernicious Letters cannot excuse himself from having brought into the whole Church of God and especially into France a horrible scandall and which deserves punishment slandering learned and vertuous Persons by opprobious speeches falsifications lies and calumnies and seducing the ignorant the weak and licentious by a wicked Doctrine By attributing this Doctrine to the Jesuites he has rendred it probable through the credit these Fathers have with the greatest part of the word who will believe it upon their score and by casting it in a vulgar Language among the people he hath thrown a stone of offence at which the weak will stumble and the wicked authorize their unlawfull enterprizes through this belief that they can commit no sin whilest they follow the judgement of so many so knowing and so vertuous Persons as are the Fathers of the Society Thirdly you must know this scraper and patcher up of Calumnies alledges almost nothing in his Letters that is new but makes us read a second time the work of one of his Brethren written near twelve years since against the Fathers of the Society of Jesus to which Work the Author gave this Title The Divinity of the Jesuites Out of this he has taken all the grand reproaches which he makes against those Fathers quoting the very same Authors and Places and using the same Forgeries multiplying his Letters according to the shreads he picks up that he may be able to make many Books out of that one all that is his is that now and then he addeth the names of two or three Auâ—hors not cited in the former Pamphlet and withal dilateth himself in the Narrative of a Romance fit for Jan Potage that he may render the Jesuites ridiculous to the Wits of his gang by such ways of answering which he attributes to them as are childish and foolish the best part of his Boyish Dialogues and which deserve not to go unpunished For the rest he is careful enough not so much as to mention the three Books which were then written in answer to that supposed Moral taking no notice of the answers which were made to the calumnies it contained nor the entertainment that pernicious Book met with which was a condemnation to the flames to be burnt by the hand of the Hangman and this by the sentence of one of the wisest and most August Parliaments in France Fourthly do but cast your eye on his Rhapsody of Passages and Quotations you shall finde nothing but untruths and calumnies the Author of it falsifying the greatest part of those places he alledges and many times lying most boldly and impudently making Authors say that which they never dreamt croping and hacking their words and not producing them entire to the end that
out of The first rejects the bad Doctrine you father upon a famous Divine the second defends the true decision The first unvails your malice the second justifies the innocence of his Brother The weapons they use are different but are equally good and strong they assault you on both sides but the blow which each of them gives you is inevitable In fine as they have both their particular way of encountering you so they both of them obtain the victory and puâ— you in such disorder that you are constrein'd to fly into Germany to learn opprobrious language and to answer each of them in particular with mentiris impudentissimè You will say that you have learn'd this lesson in a good School that you practice it but in imitation of a good Religious German and that the Capuchins being then very fatall to the Jesuites no man ought to be offended that you profit by their misfortune I grant it is of great concernment to you to gain the R R. F F. the Capuchins and that if you could divide them from the Jesuites in the cause of Jansenius you had plaid your game well For besides that their Holinesse of life has acquir'd them the Love and Veneration of the People they are vigorous defenders of the Faith and of the Popes Bâ—ll and consequently great Enemies of Jansenisme which you maintain But 't is in vain to hope for such a rupture and the Decree which they have this year renewed against your Doctrine declares to you sufficiently that the Jesuites are on better terms with the Capuchins then you imagine and that if they have not been so fortunate in respect of one particular you are undoubtedly most unfortunate in regard of the whole Body You shall Sir participate of that Decree and leâ—t you should think your self unfortunate onely in the Capuchins and Jesuites I will adde divers others whereby you shall understand how hatefull your Party is to all Religious Orders and Societies wherein Vertue and Science are in any kinde of repute Learn therefore if you know it not already what are the Sentiments of all godly people touching your Doctrine and judge by the universall odium it lies under if you be not the most unfortunate upon the Earth The Reverend Fathers Capuchins desirous to testifie in all occurrences the respect and obedience they owe to the Holy Sea â—ave prohibited in their Generall Chapter held this Year at Rome the 25. of July That no person of their Order presume to expound or defend the Doctrine of Jansenius which hath been câ—ndemn'd and cut off by Pope Innocent X. neither the Doctrine of Arnauld nor of the Arnauldists Whosoever shall do the contrary besides the penalties spâ—eified in the said Apostolicall Constitution if he be a Superiour let him be depriv'd of his Office if a Reader of the Faculty of Teaching if a Preacher of the power of Preaching and they shall also be liable to other Punishments as their Superiours shall think fitting Bâ—hold you are already very unfortunate in the Capuchins The Reverend Fathers â—ueillans assembled in their Generall Chapter in the Year 1649. made the like Prohibition and ordain'd that the Constitutions of Pope Urban VIII against Jansenius should be sent publish'd and exactly observ'd in all the Monasteries of their Order See you are unfortunate also in them The Reverend Fathers Carmelites Discalceate established the same in their Provinciall Chapter in the Year 1649. with a strict Prohibition against teaching or defending the Doctrine of Jansenius which hath raised so great Disturbances in the Church For instance That Christ dyed not for all the world That all the actions of Unbelievers are sins That God has no will to save all men There again are you unfortunate in the Carmelites The Reverend Fathers Minims made the like Ordinance in their Provinciall Chapter in the Year 1650. To the end say they efficaciously to retrench that dangerous novelty of Doctrine which creeps into mens mindes to the scandall of the Church There likewise you are unfortunate in the Minims The Reverend Fathers of the Congregation of St. Maurice made the like Decree in their Assembly Generall enjoâ—ning under great penalties their Professouts of Divinity to tâ—ach Sufficient Grace and not to go astray out of the grand Road of Catholique Doctours to follow new and exoâ—ick Maximes There again are you unfortunate in the Benedictins I will not dilate my self in a longer enumeration of your misfortunes lest I should seem willing to insult over the unfortunate Your sad condition touches me too sensibly to make any Triumph upon that subject My designe is to undeceive you if I can and to oblige you to acknowledge how dangerous it is to depart from the Sentiments of the Church and to relinquish God since it is the least punishment that attends on a Deserter of the Faith to see himself abandoned of all the world This is it that has befallen you Sir and you see the sad consequences of it by an unhappy experience Popes excommunicate you Bishops declare you Heretiques the Religious Orders have a horrour for your Doctrine the Universities condemne you by their Censures and Sorbon cannot suffer you in her bosome she cuts you off alive from her Body and deprives you of Funerall Honours after death You have a fresh president thereof before your eyes which ought to startle you That sage and couragious Mother suppress'd the tenderness she had for one of her Doctours who dyed not long since in Paris to testifie the greatnesse of her aversion for your Errours she deserted him because he would not renounce the commerce he held with you she disavow'd him because he would not know himself she remain'd inflexible in her severity because he obstinately persisted in his disobedience and as he dyed in the forgetfulnesse of his duty so she would render him no other devoirs then that of an eternall oblivion of his memory Yet after all this Sir you will persist to tell me that the Jesuits are Traducers because they maintain the Jansenists to be Heretiques and you 'l go seek out proofs as far as Germany to give the Lye touching what is done in France and what we see with our eyes How weak is your Ratiocination and how violent your Passion F. Dicastillo a Jesuit say you maintains against the R. F. Quiroga a Capuchin that it is no sin of Injustice but onely of Lying to repell onâ— calumny by another that is equall and to impose false crimes to the ruine of his credit who imposes others on us equally false Dicastillo proves his opinion by the authority of Bannes who is one of the Celebrious Disciples of Saint Thomas as also by the authority of Vega Orellana and many other Authours nay even of the Universities of Prague and Vienna The R. F. Quiroga alledges for warranty of his Tenent three Authours whereof two are Jesuits viz. Lessius and Filiucius These School-Divines grow insensibly hot one against another as it usually falls
and the world hath seen no alteration wrought by this Work the Jesuites have not lost one Friend by means of it Had this Letter-writer endeavoured to keep within compasse and to shew us that the Jesuites are not all such Saints but that there are some faults in their lives and that their Doctrine is not all so Sacred but that some opinions of theirs may be impugned and some reprehended he might have been believed and the Jesuites themselves though they would have resented it that their faults should be blazed about the world without necessity yet they would have acknowledged that they are not impeccable neither in Doctrine nor Manners 'T is a priviledge reserved for Heaven that no faults can there be found here on earth that Community is happiest which hath fewest faults none are without all fault But to taxe the Jesuites Doctrine generally as a monstrous Source of all Irregularities and their Persons as the most abominable and despicable thing in the world that is a meer Paradox which begets a disbelief giveth it self the lye and by saying too much saith nothing Over-reaching praises are laughed at and too excessive reprehensions are scorned by all wise men The Jesuites have many that reprehend them and so have all those that are eminent and seem to overtop others in whatsoever it be For Glory and Envy are Twins one is never borne without t'other Honour should be but in our Age Detraction is the shadow of Vertue which darkens its Lustre Calumny alwayes lodgeth over against Piety to spy her Actions and defame her Glory It was a Fable that there was a Momus among the Gods in Heaven but it is not a Fable that the Heroes of this world are never without a Momus to censure what soever they do But as the Greek Proverb saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is easie to play the Momus easie to reprehend but hard to imitate so I say to these Censorian spirits Let them mend what they reprehend Let them do something like that which the Jesuits do and see whether they can do it and not fall into more faults then the Jesuites do Let them employ as many hundred Masters in teaching Grammar Poetry Rhetorique Arithmetique Mathematiques Philosophy Divinity Positive and Speculative Let them trace the Jesuites scattered over the face of the whole earth in all the Nations on which the Sun doth shine for to convert Infidells Let them Catechize Preach Administer Sacraments visit the Sick attend the Hospitals and Prisons comfort the Poor direct Souls in all states let them write as many learned Books as the Jesuits do and then let 's see whether they can do all this without deserving a Censure oftner then the Jesuits do They that reprehend others ought to be themselves irreprehensible at least in that which they censure And yet this is the Jansenists misfortune that they reprehend the Jesuits Books and scarce have yet set out one of the many which they have printed that is not censured But there is difference betwixt censure and censure The Jansenists censure the Jesuits Books and the Catholique Church censures the Jansenists Books The Jansenists censure the Jesuites Morall and the Church censureth the Jansenists Faith The Jansenists set out Libells against the Jesuites and the Church thundereth Anathema's in the Popes Bulls against the Jansenists So different are the Censures Yet this is not all The grand Difference betwixt the Censures is that the Censures which the Church layes on the Jansenists fall on their reall Crimes but the Censures which the Jansenists give the Jesuits Doctrine is grounded on false imputation and meer Calumny This is clearly shewed in the Book which here is answered All the whole Book of the Provinciall Letters which casts so much durt on the Jesuits that the Translatour calls it The Mystery of Jesuitisme is a false and groundlesse Censure given by an Heretique to Doctrine which hath the generall Approbation of Schools When I say an Heretique I would not have our Protestants of England think themselves concern'd I understand the Jansenian Heretique who dissents as far from the Protestant as he doth from the Catholique This then is the aim of these Answers to shew that the Censures which the Provinciall Letters lay on the Jesuites Doctrine are groundlesse Censures and false Calumnies and meer Impostures and so the Translatour hath his Mystery revealed It is but a Pacquet of lying Letters which he calleth the Mystery of Jesuitisme he might better have called it the Misery of Jansenisme For it is the greatest misery of the world to be reduced to such streits as that one cannot say any thing either for himself or against his Adversary which is not false Now this is the Jansenists case This being so as the Reader will finde it so it appeareth how unreasonably the Translatour vomits up so much gall in the end of his Preface in making a disgracefull Character of the Jesuites where he concludeth that the Jesuites are to be looked upon as the Vermin of all Humane Society I do not desire to use foul language yet if I may use this term of Vermin to any Christian I conceive it cannot agree with any man so well as with the Authour of the Provinciall Letters For who is the Vermin of Mankinde in matter of Faith but he that denieth that Christ is the Redeemer of all men and so openeth a way to desperation and neglect o◠Christian duty This Montalt doth Who in matter of Learning can be called Vermin rather then the Writer of Libells against Learning who is but a Scold in print and like a Moth doth but corrode and disgrace learned Books or like a Fly sucks at others sores or like a Serpent extracteth poison where he might have suck'd honey This Montalt doth Who in civill community can be termed Vermin but the Detractour This Montalt is evidently proved to be and so was he judged by the Parliament of Aix Finally who among all men noble and ignoble deserves the name of Vermin as unfit for any humane Society either Christian or Heathen but the Liar This Montalt is convinced to be Now if the Authour of the Provinciall Letters deserveth these Titles his Translatour may judge what part of these commendations reflects on him I will not deal him any part all I say as to him is that I am sorry to see him mislead and I wish him hereafter a better employment to practise his pen on then the translating of condemned Libells Now as to the Reader to give him some short account of this Work it containeth severall Pieces made by the Jesuites in France in Answer to the Provincial Letters which though our English Preface-maker despises yet they do unanswerably convince the Letter-writer of being an arrant cheat and of falsifying Authours I will not say much of the Particulars because I have put to the severall Pieces Prefaces and Arguments which may direct the Reader Some Pieces are added in this Edition as the
History of Jansenisme the Answer to the Reply made in Defence of the Twelfth Letter the Answer to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Letter and another inserted in the Second English Edition betwixt the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Also the Conclusion of the Work concerning the Additionalls These Pieces either not being at all made in France or not come to my hands I have supplied The rest is taken out of the French Answer made by some of the Society with little alterations which are noted in the places where any considerable change is made If these Answers seem to have something too much of the Picquant the Reader will reflect that 't is necessity which putteth the Author on that strain The light of nature teacheth that he that wrongfully impeacheth an innocent person giveth him right to challenge his Accuser of unjust dealing 'T is no incivility to call that man an Impostour a Cheat a Liar who by grosse calumnies and notorious falsities is proved to wrong another man The Authour of the Provinciall Letters begun first and treated the Jesuites as Sycophants as Corrupters of the Doctrine of the Church as Abettours of all sorts of Crimes The Jesuites argue him of falsly calumniating them and their Authours of Forging and Imposture of wrongfully taxing good and solid Doctrine whilest in the mean time he venteth Heresies If this seems hard he must thank himself 't is but a just retorting on him those terms which he unjustly cast on the Society and on all School-Divines This I thought fit to advertise the Reader of All the favour I desire is that the Learned Reader will shew no favour to either side but as an equall Judge hear both Parties and if he have leisure to view the Authours I entreat him to do Truth so much right as to say what he findes For example the Doctrine of Probability is by the Authour of the Provinciall Letters called an Invention of the Jesuites to palliate crimes and give scope to Libertines The Jesuites answer that the Doctrine of Probability is no Invention of theirs they cite for that Doctrine a great number of learned Authours none of them Jesuites and many of them dead long before the Jesuites were in the world That which here I desire the Learned Reader to do is to examine the Authours which the Jesuites produce for this Doctrine and as they finde them cited so to pronounce who is the cheat and who hath wronged t'other This I desire of the learned For the unlearned or those that will not take the pains to look into Books of Divinity I expect so much reason at their hands that they will not prejudicate but rather credit the Answers here given them by men of known worth who cite their Authors and give their reasons then an idle Pamphleter who bringeth neither reason nor authority for himself but with a presumptuous boldnesse professing himself to have no skill in Divinity undertakes to censure all Divines As for those Readers who are bred to such Idaea's of Catholique Religion that they confound Rome and Babylon the Pope and Antichrist Saints and Idolls Sacraments and Sacriledges to whom a Jesuit and a Monster are two words that signifie the same thing for those I say I commend them to the Man in the Moon to cure their Phrensie When they have either more wit or lesse passion they will accuse those who lead them into illusion and abuse their ignorance to make non-sense of their Faith This Book hopes no favour nor fears no censure from such 'T is not meant for those that either cannot or will not judge right 'T is presented to the impartiall Readers either Protestants or Catholique who when they have read it will I hope finde satisfaction for 't is a satisfaction to upright mindes to see Impudence put to a just confusion and Innocency defended THE HISTORY OF JANSENISME BEcause it will be necessary for the understanding of this Work to have some generall Notion of the Transactions in matter of Jansenisme I have taken some pains to gather together those things which I hope will satisfie the Reader And for to make the Relation Authenticall I have not taken any thing on report onely or out of those Authours who have made Invectives against the Jansenists but out of the Publique Acts known to the whole world or out of the Jansenists own Writings If the things that I set down be scandalous Enormities I hope the Reader will judge that the blame ought not to reflect on Catholique Religion In the Primitive Church there were dives Heretiques Ebionites Marcionites Nicolaites and others whose Maximes lead men to most foul Crimes yet the Primitive Church had not then the lesse fervour and sanctity nor now the lesse esteem for their impieties As that age so this and all others are to be judged of by the piety of the faithfull not by the impiety of those whom pride hath made Rebells against Christ and his Church Had the Jansenists been members of the Catholique Church they would never have taught Doctrine against the Church But by teaching and professing this Doctrine exierunt ex nobis they are gone out and the Catholique Church remains no more responsable for their lives or Doctrine then for Arius Nestorius or any other Heretique This I thought fit to advertise the Reader of that he be not scandalized and measure the Church by those who are not of the Church but are her declared Enemies This premised I come to the History it self There are then three Persons who may be looked at as the main Authours and Abbettours of the Heresies which are now commonly understood by the name of Jansenisme of whom the three following Paragraphs shall treat § 1. Of the Abbot of St. Gygiran commonly called San-Cyran In the Year of our Lord 1638. on the Fifth Day of June Lewis the Thirteenth King of France granted a Warrant for the apprehending of John du Vergier de Haurannes Native of Bayonne commonly known by the Title of Abbot of St. Cyran and Claudius Seguenot an Oratorian Priest This was done by the King upon Information given to his Majesty of the scandalous and false Doctrine which these two persons did sow as well in Paris as other places of France to the perversion of the Catholique Faith and subversion also as Monsieur Marande * See his Book entituled Inconveniens d' Estat procedans du Jansenisme proveth it of the State of France San-Cyran therefore being apprehended for of Seguenot I intend not to speak was carried Prisoner to Bois de Vincennes near Paris all his Papers being seized on and strict Information taken of those who were known to be conscious of his Doctrine and particularly of his Disciples which lived to the number of about Twenty together in the House of Port-Royall some six or seven leagues off Paris This Port-Royall is a Monastery of Nuns committed to St. Cyrans direction by the Bishop of Langres deceived as he since professed by the opinion he had
it was more then probable that many of them upon that account were easily drawn in and made to embrace the defence of the Book which they esteemed to have given so fatall a Blow to the Jesuits Doctrine that one of the Sorbonists called it the Jesuites Tomb. As for the Oratorians their speciall Obligations to San-Cyran and Jansonius drew them in before they well knew what was intended For it was a plot of Jansenius and San-Cyran which they had practised of a long time to raise up these Oratorians in opposition to the Jesuites in hopes as Jansenius expresses in his Letters that they might in a short time get all the Jesuites Scholars to them and being but Clergy-men at the Bishops Disposall they imagined they should carry the universall good-will of the Clergy so that the Jesuites should at last be quite deserted This made those poor Oratorians drink so deep of the Doctrine of San-Cyran and Jansenius that divers of their Books were condemned as namely Gibieufs and Seguenots which I do not say to censure them universally or the major part of them but it is certain that they were looked on as a party and many of them becoming Curez did in their Parishes as well as many other Curez broach Jansenius's Doctrine in Flaunders under the shelter of the University of Lovain and the forenamed Bishops and in France under the name of Sorbon of which as I said a very great part sided with Jansenius and also under the favour of some Bishops of France This animosity appeared greater when Pope Urban who was soon advertis'd of these practises put out his Bull which he did in March 1642. to suppresse Jansenius his Book for then many unmaskt themselves and spoke plain even against his Holinesse Orders in defence of Jansenius though as Pope Urbans Bulls speak Jansenius had renewed condemned Heresies and had incurred Excommunication by writing his Book and treating in it matters forbidden to be treated of in print that is the matters called de Auxiliis forbid by Paul the Fifth to be treated of under pain of Excommunication Pope Urban therefore sent redoubled Briefs to suppresse the rising Faction of the Jansenians as in one of his Bulls he termeth them Many submitted to their duty Yet all Pope Urbans time the Faction was very strong and though it decayed something in Flaunders yet it strengthened daily in France where it least ought to have been received For whereas Jansenius had writ a most bitter Invective against the Crown and Kings of France called Mars Gallicus it was to have been expected that all faithfull Subjects of that Crown ought rather to have sided against Jansenius then for him And this Monsieur Marande presseth much against the French Jansenists in his Book dedicated to the King of France in the Year 1654. which we formerly mentioned where a good part of his discourse tendeth to shew that Innovations in Religion are promoted by those chiefly who aim at Innovation in State Things therefore being come to so great a height in France that now Jansenisme was formed into a considerable body which might in time prove formidable both to the Church and Crown the Bishops in their generall Assembly or Synod at Paris took the matter into their consideration and having well examined the Book of Jansenius they collected Five Propositions out of it which seemed to them to deserve a censure The Propositions were these 1. Some of Gods Commandments are impossible to the Just according to their present forces though they have a will and do endeavour to accomplish them and they want the Grace that rendreth them possible 2. In the state of Nature corrupt men never resist Interiour Grace 3. To merit and demerit in the state of Nature corrupted it is not necessary to have the liberty that excludes necessity but it suffices to have that liberty which excludes coaction or constraint 4. The Semipelagians admitted the necessity of Interiour preventing Grace to every Action even to the beginning of Faith But they were Heretiques in this that they would have that Grace to be such as the will of man might resist it or obey it 5. It is Semipelagianisme to say that Jesus Christ dyed or shed his Blood generally for all men These Propositions the Bishops drew out of Jansenius his Book yet knowing themselves to be but a Nationall Synod they would not lay any censure upon them but in the Year 1650. sent them to Pope Innocent the Tenth then sitting humbly requiring him that through his Paternall care of the Universall Church he would determine what ought to be held it belonging onely to him to define in this cause This Letter was signed by eighty five Bishops then present at the Assembly The Pope thereupon took the matter into Examination and deputed divers Divines to examine the Propositions whom he often heard himself the Deputies of the Jansenists being also present at Rome and having liberty to speak for themselves as they often did At length after two years examination of the matter and many Prayers Fasting and Supplications to God Innocent the Tenth proceeded to censure and defined the said Five Propositions to be Hereticall by his Bull given on the last day of May 1653. This Bull is inserted into the Bull of Pope Alexander the Seventh which by and by I shall produce But all this was not enough to make many of the Jansenists submit Upon sight of the Bull they changed their note and whereas before they had owned the Five Propositions to be in Jansenius but maintained them to be Catholique Tenents and the true Doctrine of St. Augustin now they acknowledged the said Five Propositions were justly censured by the Pope but defended that they were not in Jansenius yet whosoever taught them or wheresoever they were to be found the Jansenists professed to condemn them By this means they thought both to clear themselves from the censure of defending Hereticall Propositions and withall still to maintain the Doctrine of Jansenius as they had done before and so all the fault was to redound on the Pope and the Synod of France as the Jansenists would have it thought â—â— on those who had informed them wrong That the Propositions were in Jansenius which indeed said they were not there at least in the sense in which they were condemned This Discourse though never so frivolous prevailed with many for their constant maintaining of Jansenius so as it was feared the whole endeavour of the Bishops of France and also the Constitution of the Pope would at length come to nothing To prevent this mischief the Bishops of France who were yet remaining in their Assembly at Paris wrote this following Letter to the rest of the Archbishops and Bishops that were absent from the said Assembly and that it might be publique caused it to be printed which for the same reason I have thought fit here to set down translated into English To the most Reverend and Religious the Lords Archbishops
one may not understand their true sense purposely omitting the modifications and limitations which they use to render them ridiculous or monstrous in their opinions fancying to himself that having cited the places quoted the Books and written some of the Authours words every one will credit him though the Author of the Morall Divinity has been convicted of falsity in the most of the self-same Allegations Do but remember after what manner the Calvinists who have as little truth in their Quotations as they have in their Faith alledge the holy Scripture and Sentences of the holy Fathers that falshood is entailed on Heresie and that the Jansenists have that Character of Errour in their Sect that it is now become a Proverb in many places when one would call one an impudent Liar to say That he over-reaches as much as a Jansenist I know not what I ought to blame most in these men and their writings whether their falseness and impudence in lying or their malice in inventing calumnies or their ignorance in so ill understanding and so ill alledging of Authors and their Opinions or their injustice in forging crimes where there are none or their inveterate hate against the Jesuites whom they set upon by false and unreasonable accusations Fifthly reflect on the manner of this Authors writing who in matters of Divinity of Morall of Cases of Conscience and Salvation uses a taunting foolish stile I will not onely say unworthy of a Divine or an Ecclesiasticall person but even of a Christian who ought not to treat holy Things like a Scoffer or Comedian He calls himself as all of that Sect of his doe Disciple of St. Augustin Let him finde me one place in the writings of that great Doctour where he takes upon him the part of a Jeaster or Buffoon 'T is the spirit of Heresie which has nothing in it of serious but rage and fury if yet notwithstanding men swayed with those passions deserve to be termed serious 'T is the spirit of the ungodly and Blasphemers which is spoken of in Job Imitaris linguam blasphemantium Thou speakest like a Blasphemer the Original bears Irrisorum Thou hast the tongue of Jeasters It is also a kinde of Blasphemy to treat holy things in Rallicry thus the Devils often endeavour by their jeastings to put by the force of Exorcismes speaking like Buffoons to stir up the common people to a loose kinde of Laughter the Enemy of Devotion and the Ruine of Religion Yet 't is the whole advantage this naughty Writer has for having neither solidity nor science nor truth he took his recourse to his best fortâ—sse which is Fooling and that alone it is which gives utterance to his Work although his Work found another way of a facil vent which was that many Copies were distributed at the cost and charges of the whole Party out of the Almes of Jansenisme The Wise man advises us what entertainment we are to give such spirits and writings in the 22. of the Proverbs Ejtâ—e derisorem Drive far from you the Mocker and Buffoon he deserveth nought but disdain both of his Person and his Work but being also a Jansenist we must drive him away with a horrour since that every Jansenist is an Heretique In the sixth place consider the ill reasoning of this malicious Writer who often attributes to the whole Body of the Jesuites that which none of them has said or at most what escaped from some one of their Body notwithstanding that all the rest have written against it Who yet ever saw that from one particular a man could conclude an universal Must we call those the Maximes or the Moral of the Jesuits which were scarce ever said by any one of the Jesuits If Gerson Chancellour of the University of Paris have had some erroneous opinion upon the difference of Venial and Mortall sin must we censure that as the Maxime or the Moral of the Sorbon Richerius had a particular Opinion which was not approved concerning the sovereign Pastour must we therefore blame the whole Faculty If any of the holy Fathers have had some opinion which since his time hath not been approved must we therefore attribute it to all the holy Fathers Had this Authour but one grain of sincerity whilest he accuseth one Jesuit for advancing an opinion which seems not true to him why conceals he that many other Jesuites have taught the contrary This Caveat he might have read in the Reply to the Moral Divinity which we shall be constrained to make him read in the Second Answer which will be made to his Letters to his Falsities and to his malicious Dissimulations I appeal to any judicious man what is properly to be called the Jesuites Doctrine whether that which onely one of that Body shall have said or that which many amongst them have taught to the contrary and if it be not an insupportable injustice and which deserves not to escape unpunished maliciously to impute to a whole Community not what the greatest part have taught but what onely one of them has said Were it not injustice to impeach the whole Colledge of the Apostles for Treason because one of their number betrayed his Master Finally let any man judge whether it be not a loud calumny and grosse foolery to charge the Jesuites as Introducers and first Authors or sole defenders of opinions which were taught for many Ages in all the Universities of Europe before the Order of the Jesuites was established They call Opinions and Maximes of the Jesuites those very assertions which have been and are the opinions of others and which the greatest part of the Iesuites oppose in their Writings as may be seen in the Answer to the Book called Morall Divinity But all that is odious must be cast upon the Iesuites they are used by their enemies such as are commonly Heretiques and the followers of Jansenisme as the Primitive Christians were by the Heathens for as to those it was crime enough to be a Christian so to these 't is enough to be a Iesuite to lie under the lash of every ones censure when there is power and impunity That which is past by in some Writers and which is not so much as a light fault in the Books of others is in the Iesuites a crime an attempt against publique Order an abomination The Authour of the Letters does not reproach the Iesuites with any one Maxime Decision or Answer which is not either falsly alledged by that Impostor or corrupted and disguised or so separated from its own place from its modifications and limitations that it is no more the same If any opinion that seemeth to give scope to Liberty be taught by any of the Society it is opposed by many others of the same body Nay whatsoever any particular person of the Society hath advanced contrary to the sentiments of the rest of his Order that very same hath been formerly taught by many Doctours out of his Order in all Universities and by
many famous Writers and Masters of the Faculty of Paris of other Schools and many times of the Sorbon it self This I say to the end you may know that what they attribute to the Iesuites belongs lesse to them then to others and that oftentimes the Doctrine which this good Fellow would make passe as ridiculous false and contrary to good manners is not such in the opinion of many great Doctours whose Authority must countervail in Schools It is these we are bound to credit more then Heretiques and people that know neither speculative nor positive Divinity and far more then an ignorant Buffoon good for nothing but to jeast and play the Comedian as is the Author of these Letters who as himself vouches is neither Divine nor Casuist nor Clergy-man and cannot deny but that he is a â—ansenist and by a necessary consequence an Heretique since all Jansenists are so Whence comes it then that he sets upon the Iesuites rather then upon other Writers that teach the same Hence that it is the custome of Heretiques to be more against this Body then against all the rest It is also a badge of this Society to be persecuted by all the Wicked she hath been so dealt withall from her very Cradle and shall be so as long as she makes profession of pure Doctrine and true Vertue If this sleeveless Writer had had a zeal for the Truth or a just horror of false Doctrine he would have fought against errour where ever he had found it and would have sided with those who maintained Truth as the Iesuits do But it is apparent enough it was not the love of Truth made him write but the hatred of it under pretence of opposing the evil Doctrine of the Iesuits he would revenge himself on them although it were to the prejudice of Truth and his own Conscience if yet he have any for their accusing the Doctrine of Jansenius which has been condemned as Heretical But he has a Bone to pick he will never perswade the world that the Doctrine of the Iesuites deserves condemnation since it is that which carries on the War against Heresie Errour and Libertinisme Therefore the Iudicious laught at his Letters the honest Party detested them and the Ignorant were scandalized On the contrary the Heretiques hugged them and Libertines adored them Buffoons owned their stile in them Port Royall their Characters and Iansenists their mode of cavilling and vainly answering the just reproaches made to their wicked Doctrine After all this the Iesuites will not be without an Answer the Church without Censures nor the Magistrates without Punishment so soon as this wicked Writer shall have published his Name in concealing of which he cannot dissemble his being a Jansenist and by consequence an Heretique The second Answer Wherein the Authour of the Provincial Letters is convinced of IMPOSTURE The Preface THe Author of the Provincial Letters chargeth the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that they have brought into the world opinions in matter of Morality which corrupt the manners of Christians To make good this charge he instanceth in many cases from the beginning of his fifth Letter where he entereth upon his grand design of impugning the Society to the end of the tenth in all which he will have it clear that the Society hath introduced a Moral which breedeth corruption of manners in the whole world To prove this charge he ought to make good four things in the instances which he alledgeth The first is that the Doctrine against which he inveigheth is not ancienter then the Society For if it were taught in the Church by approved Authors before that Religious Order was in being it is false to charge the Society with introducing it Secondly when he chargeth them with any Doctrine he must cite their words truly according to the plain sense of the Authors Thirdly the Doctrine wherewith he chargeth the Society must be naught and unallowable otherwise he doth but shew his own either ignorance or malice and deserveth to be cast out of the Schools for censuring and deriding good and wholesome Doctrine Fourthly he must shew that the Doctrine which he objecteth to the whole Order is not onely the private Tenent of one or two single persons in it but taught by many or at least allowed by many and generally owned by the Society For it is false to call that the Doctrine of a Religious Order which though one or two have held is generally disclaimed by the whole Body That these four things ought to be observed is so unquestionable that no rationall man will dispute it I reflect on them because they are those by which the Authour of this Answer evidently convinceth the Impostor though he do no where set down these conditions And I do defie all the Jansenists and all their Cabal to make these four Conditions good in any one of all the great number of Cases which these Letters object It is easie to object great crimes to the greatest innocency it is easie to rail and taunt when Spleen and Choler furnish words to Fury But let them come to the point and prove what they say and then I le give them leave to boast and pardon all their Rhodomontadoes The Societies Answer is their Innocency There is not one objection of all that are made in this Book which is rightly made not one by which the Society may be made guilty of corrupt Doctrine Here are nine and twenty Impostures laid open there might have been as many more but these are enough to let the world see that this man deserveth no credit who in six Letters is convinced of twenty nine Impostures The whole Machin of the Objections made in the Provincial Letters is mainly built upon the Doctrine of Probable Opinions which though the Church hath alwayes allowed this Letter-writer and his Translatour into English who will needs become his Second call a Monster and Source of Irregularities I will therefore put that in the first place and set the rest of the Answers down as near as may be in the same order as the Objections all which are Impostures do lye in the Provincial Letters that the Reader may easily turn to them I invert the order a little in which they are printed in the French but it is to facilitate the matter The First Imposture which in the French Copy is the twentieth THe Doctrine of Probable Opinions is the Source of a Torrent of Irregularities Let. 5. page 84. The Casuists scarce evâ—r agree there are few questions wherein one does not hold the affirmative the other the negative Let. 5. page 94. And 't is this way they palliate Crimes tolerate Disorders and excuse all Vice Let. 5. Answer This is no new Imposture for 't is one part of the first Propositions in the Morall Divinity which is falsely imputed to the Jesuites and as Father Caussin sayes 'T is the Head of that Book a weak yet malignant Head which hath an influence into
sieri homines ut nova aliqua licentiosa regula fabricetur Jansen Tom. 2. L. Proaem cap. 8 That as School Divines breaking down the bounds of Sacred Things do often fall into fantastical Abstractions even so the Casuists in the Moral laying aside the most simple rule of humane Actions which the pure light of Reason and Ancient Fathers have taught us under pretext of accommodating themselves to the weakness of men have given such scope to consciences that nothing is now adayes required as necessary to frame a new rule yet more licentious of morall life then that men become more wicked then now they are Confess the truth Is it not from these Authors that you took those ill impressions which you labour to spread amongst the common people of Scholastique and Morall Divinity to the end that by rendring them odious to the vulgar you might prevail wholly over their weak judgements without all danger of punishment when by this means there shall be found no more any persons of knowledge and ability to hinder your dispersing the venom of your pernicious doctrine among them Truly I am not at all astonished that you should declare war against Probable Opinions since you are Disciple of a Master that was a profest enemy of demonstrations even in Diviniry maintaining with most insolent boldness that a c Conclusionem è propositionibus elicitam quarum una sidei est altera evidenter nota graves Theologi Haereticam censent Haeresi vero proximam universi profitentur qui eam pertinaciter asserit sinc dubio Haeretiâ—us haberi consuevit conclusion which is drawn from two Propositions one of which is of Faith and the other evidently known is esteemed hereticall by very great Divines but that all generally confess it borders upon Heresie and without all doubt he who maintains it most commonly is reputed an Heretique And in another place d Quae propositionibus ex verbo Dei recta consecutione fluentibus opponuntur non protinus Haeretica sunt nec Haeresim innuunt etfi Dei verbo contraria sint pertinaciámve demonstrent All that which is repugnant to Propositions which by good consequence are inferred from the word of God is not alwayes hereticall nor suspected to be so although it be contrary to the word of God and be maintained with obstinacy What do you say now to the temerity of this proposition you know the Author of it I need not name him neither do I think you will disown it After this what remaineth to make up the height of extravagancy and insolency but to say as you do that Propositions of Faith are Pelagian Heresies and those who teach them are undoubtedly held for Heretiques You have both said it and publisht it you have taught that 't is Semi-pelagianisme to say Jesus Christ died generally for all men And to that infamous Proposition you have added four others which have been blasted with Anathema's You have dared to say notwithstanding the judgement of the Church which condemned them in Jansenius that you have not found them there and that one may yet maintain Grace is wanting to some just persons when they sin This is that we call teaching the Doctrine of Hereticall Opinions This is the Source of our contests and the true cause of your animosity against Jesuites Acknowledge your errour disavow that false and pernicious doctâ—ine receive wiâ—h respect that which was lately determined in the Assembly of Bishops concerning the Elogy of the Abbot of St. Cyran and the Heresie of Jansenisme and then our difference concerning Probable Opinions will soon be at an end Your Cavils concerning Probable Opinions serve but for a hiding hole whilest you cannot defend your self but we must ferret you out whilest you continue still obstinate in maintaining the Doctrine of Hereticall Opinions The second Imposture French 21. THat Emmanuel Sa and Filiucius give scope enough and liberty of Conscience to Sinners because they teach It is lawfull to follow the lesse Probable Opinion though it be the lesse secure Let 5. Engl. edit p. 95. Answer I ask this wretched Casuist whether he believe there are none but Jesuites that teach this Doctrine If he do he is very ignorant if he do not but knowing the merit of those persons who maintain it with them chargeth notwithstanding the Jesuites as sole Authors of this opinion he has a great deal of passion and very little judgement Has Monsieur Du Val a Sorbonist given any scope to Sinners when he saith 'T is sufficient to follow a safe and probable opinion and that without any difficulty a man might leave that which has more probability Has b Non tenemur foro conscientiae sequi probabiliorem partem sed satis est absolutè si sequamur probabilem quae perâ—tis doctis placet donec Ecclesia contrarium statuerit aut prima illa opinio è scholis Theologorum omnino explosa fucrit Gamach 1 2. tract 1. pag. 115. Monsieur Gamasche another Sorbonist given liberty of Conscience in assuring us that we are a Asserendum est satis esse tutam probabilem opinionem sequi probabiliorem posse optimè relinqui Vallius Doctor Parisiensis tract 12 de human Actibus art 13. Sect. Et sic nonnulli not bound by any law of Conscience to follow that opinion which has most probability but that it is sufficient absolutely to follow that which is probable and approved by learned and able men till such time as the Church rejects it or that it be banisht out of all the Schools of Divinity If we must alledge the Authority of Fathers dots St. Antonine encourage Libertinisme when he teaches that very same Doctrine in these words They object to us that in case a man doubt he ought to follow the most secure way which causes scrupulous persons to take the straitest way But to that it is answered to chuse the surest way is a Counsel and not a Precept Otherwise many were obliged to go into Religious Orders because in them one lives with more safety then in the world It is not then necessary to follow the most secure as long as one may follow another way which is safe For as there are many wayes which lead us to the same Town although one of them be more safe then the other even so is it in our journey to the Celestiall City one taketh this way another that d Sed ad hoc respondetur eligere viam tutiorem confilii est non praecepti alià s oportet multos ingredi Religionem in qua tutiùs vivitur quà m in saeculo Non ergo oportet de necessitate eligere tutiorem quando etiam alia via eligi potest tuta Sicut enim diversae viae conducunt ad unam Civitatem licet una tutior alia sit sic ad Civitatem caelestem alius sic alius sic vadit tutè licet aliquis tutiori modo St. Antonin 1. part Tit. cap. 10. §. 10.
sheweth that the poor man if he be refused by one rich man ought to go to another and not presently fall a pilfering But if after all his industry in begging no body will help him then according to Vasquez he may lawfully take that which is necessary for his relief not onely in his extream but also in his urgent want This is Vasquez his Doctâ—ine which if you will impugn with reason I shall willingly hear you for I am not of Vasquez his opinion nor of Cajâ—tans neither though I respect them both as far above me I have onely one thing more to adde That this Treatise of Vasquez concerning Alms is a Postâ—ume Work and therefore it must not be wondred if it be a little obscure wanting the Authours last hand Nor were it any great credit for you if in a Work which the Authour never lived to perfect you should spy some â—rrour But your disgrace is not the lesse for having falsified this Work But it is time to passe to Valentia and Tannâ—r whom you accuse of favouâ—ing Simony which is crime enough if you can prove it But before I begin with you I will set down something for a generall Notion of Simony to clear the Reader and let him know in what all agree and what the terms which we must use do mean For though you Sir and your Friend would needs be answered in this matter without School-terms yet I judge it very impertinent to humour you in this desire and if every Tradesman is allowed his terms if a Faulconer or Hunts-man would be laughed at for relating their Game without the terms of their art sure it cannot be required that a Divine should desert his terms which are necessary to make him intelligible First then the Reader will be pleased to understand that the Definition of Simony which St. Tho. 2. 2. q. 100. and all Divines allow of is that which is given in Gloss Decret c. 1. q. 1. in these words Simonia est studiosa voluntas â—mendi aut vendendi aliquid spirituale aut spirituali annexum Simony is a deliberate will of Buying or Selling some Spirituall Thing or something annexed to a Spirituall Thing Secondly the Authour from whose infamous crime this horrid Sin hath its name is Simon Magus who would have bought of St. Peter the power of giving the Holy Ghost by Imposition of hands For though the Authour of the Provinciall Letters a fit Advocate for such a purpose say Letter the Twelfth page 294. first Edit That it is certain that Simon Magus used no terms of Buying or Selling yet it is most certain that he did and upon the authority of Scripture we have it that he would have * Acts 8. 20. bought that power of St. Peter So St. Peter understood it and so all the world conceived it till this Jansenist was pleased to plead for Simon Magus Thirdly all consent that according to the Definition given to make any act truly Simoniacall there must be a Buying or Selling of some Spirituall Thing or something annexed to a Spirituall Thing And if there be not a Buying or Selling then all agree that there is no Simony By this means Curats and other Church-men are exempt from Simony For though they receive Tythes Pensions Stipends and Distributions from the people in respect of their Spirituall Functions yet they receive them not as a price of their Spiritual Functions but as a Temporall Subsistance which out of gratitude or to incline them to do willingly what they undertake the people pay or give those by whom they are helped in Spiritualls and this is grounded on Christs appointment For as St. Paul tellâ—th 1 Cor. 9. So our Lord ordained to them that announce the Gospell to live of the Gospell It is therefore allowed by all that it is not Simony speaking onely according to the Dâ—finition to give a Temporall Good for a Spirituall either by way of gratitude or to encline the will when there is no pact or bargain of Justice intervening And by this Doctrine many acts which are commended by Antiquity are understood For example Baronius in his History Anno 929. commendeth Henry King of Germany whom he calleth the Ornament of Christian Religion for having given great gifts and a great part of the Province of Suâ—via to Rodulph King of Italy and Burgundy for to obtain of him the Lance of Constantiâ—e in which there was one of the Nails wherewith Christ was nailed to the Crosse This act is commended by Baronius who would never have commended Simony Nor indeed can that good King be suspected of Simony since God blessed him as Luitprandus relateth with a great victory by means of that Lance. And besides he made a vow to God to extirpate Simony in all his Realm We must therefore say that what he gave for the Lance which he esteemed Sacred was not as a price to buy it but as a motive to induce King Rodulph to give it or a gratitude for it And the like we must judge of divers other such actions commended by Antiquity and practised by Saints Fourthly it is to be known that among other Divisions of Simony one very common is into Simony against the Divine Law and Simony against Positive Law Simony against Divine Law is that which properly and strictly agreeth with the Definition above mentioned Simony against Positive Law as Sotus saith lib. 9. de Justit q. 5. Art 2. is not properly Simony for it hath not in it a Buying or Selling of a Spitituall Thing or any thing annexed to a Spirituall Thing But it is called Analogically Simony because it is punished by the Church as Simony For the Church hath forbidden many acts under pain of Simony for very just reasons though those acts contain not a Buying or Selling of a Spirituall Thing These acts are all expressed in the Ecclesiasticall or Positive Law So that to incurre Simony against Positive Law is to do some act expresly forbidden in the Positive Law under pain of Simony These acts are very many and it imports not to set them down we have said enough for our purpose These things then being foreknown now I come to you Sir and will begin with what you say against Valentia Your Friend the Jansenist in his Sixth Letter pag. 114. chargeth Valentia to have deserted St. Thomas and to have taught in his 3. Tome pag. 2042. this Doctrine If a man give a Temporall Good for a Spirituall that is to say money for a Benâ—â—ice and that a man give money as the price of a Benefice it is apparent Simony but if he give it as the motive inclining the will of the Incumbent to resign his Interest non tanquam pretium Benificii sed tanquam motivum ad resignandum it is not Simony though he that resings consider and look upon the money as his principall end This is the charge he layeth to Valentia which you Sir undertake to make good The Jesuites answer that
Court has heard the relation and I assure my self that it is still the discourse of all France behold a large Theater set open to your reputation 'T is pity you discover not your self nor make known the name of so learned a man who so solidly grounds his Theology on a Box o' th' Ear. Theâ—e was a rumour spread a few dayes since in the Town of Compeign that a person whose name is well known had receiv'd a Box o' th' Ear from a Jesuite whose rare modesty hath gain'd him the affâ—ction of the greatest in France Monsiegneur de Rhodes desirous to inform himself thereof learnt the falshood of that calumny from his very mouth who was said to be the person affronted While this false rumour blows over in Compeigne and affords matter of laughter the lye being ashamed to see it self discovered and not daring to be seen any longer at Court repair'd to you in your darkness to request you to lend it that fair glosse you set upon your Impostures that so it might passe currant through the streets of Paris You have given it welcome because you love it you have joyfully enterâ—ain'd it and having painted and disguized it you set it in the fairest part of your Letter at the head of an infinity of falshoods which attend it as a Convoy Were you a grave Author the Jesuites would be in an ill taking For how false soever this popular opinion were as soon as it should appear in your writings you would oblige them by the doctrine of Probability to grant according to F. Escobar that it is a probable opinion secundum praxim Sociâ—tatis But Sir the King is expected at the very instant I am writing this when he arrives how will this maskâ— and transformed lye once dare to appear What will men say of that able Writer who ha's put it among his cases of Consciâ—nce What will become of the Christian instructions of that Curate whom you onely put into your Letter because hâ— has no great good will for the Jâ—suites and was driven out of Paâ—is for â—earing lesse affection to Religion In â—ine what will the Jansenists answer when it shall be â—aid to their charge that to the prâ—judice of innocâ—nce you have from a silly report made the decisions of their Morall Divinity Really Sir I do not see what they can say unlesse haply that Grace bâ—ing Verity in the Spirit and Charity in the Hâ—art they have both fâ—â—led you Bâ—t since this confâ—ssion is noâ— vâ—â—y Catholâ—qâ—e I â—ad rather sâ—y you hâ—ve failâ—d as to Grace and that it is false that a Jâ—suite hath wounded Charity by giving a Box on the Eâ—r buâ— 't is truâ— that a Jansenist wâ—iting it has given Truâ—h a buffer Here leave we then your Imposture of Compeigâ—e and let us see whether you defend the Fourth any better then you have done the former Threâ— I have convinced you of falshood upon the Text concerning Homicide which you ascribe to Lessius a Jesuite though it belongs to Victoria whose name you conceal in your Seventh Letter After reproof for this foul dealing you acknowledge in your Thirteenth that 't is indeed Victoria's and to â—xcuse your self for châ—rgeing it upon another you answer That this is not the subject of the Dispute I know not whether it be the subject you take for your dispute but I well know Sir nor can you deny it that it is the subject of your Imposture I percâ—ive plainly it is a Subject that does not please you as not finding your self in a good posture concerning it and that you would be glad to shift your place But what avails the sick man to quit his bed if he cannot leave his weaknesse behinde but must carâ—y his sicknesse with him You may well fly to another Subject because you finde not your advantage in this 'T is the ordinary method of Heretiques in whom you are not meanly studied But you cannot perswade your self that to father words on Lessius which you are forc'd to restore to Victoria is not a most visible falsification See here the passage in Dispute which I deliver you in your own terms He that has receiv'd a Bâ—x o' th' Ear may not have an intentioâ— to revenge himself but he may intend to avoid infamy and on that account immediately repell the affront even with his sword Tell me then Sir is not this the Text you ascrib'd to Lessius in your Seventh Letter And â—ell me is not this the very same Text you restore to Victoria in your Thirteenth Is not this a palpable falsity In fine is it sufficient for him that committed it to say for his justification That this is not the subject of the Dispute I apprehend a Purser in the very fact and compell him to restore it to the owner is he quit for saying that this is not the subject of his charge and that he is guilty of many more robberies You see Sir the fault you have committed in ascribing that to an Authour which he onely reports out of another I might content my self with having forc'd you to a publique acknowledgement thereof But because you will say That is not the subject of the Dispute there being indeed many other faults to correct in your sheet I will go on with the list of your Impostures which grow still grosser as they increase in number If it be true say you that Lessius does but cite the words of the Casuist Victoria it is also as true that he cites them not but to follow them This is a new Imposture which draws indeed many other after it but does not justifie the precedent It is an ill way for the healing of your wounds to make still fresh ones Had you been content with falsifying this Jesuites words it might have been taken for an effect of your distemper which would have begot our pitty But to change his thoughts and corâ—upt the purity of his Doctrine is an effect of an affected malice which merits nothing but disdain and indignation Is it to follow Victoria's opinion to say that it ought noâ— easily to be permitted because it is to be â—eared lest it might give occasion of hatred revenge and excesse Could he declare himself against â—hat celebrious Authour in any rougher expression without transgressing the bounds of civilâ—â—y and that respect which ought to be observ'd in this kinde of dispute against Catholique Doctours Is it a following of his opinion to impugne it with St. Austins authority which you had no minde to make known because it would at the same time have discover'd your fraud and to conclude with the opinion of that great Saint that if he hardly grants that one may kill a man in defence of his life much lesse would he affirm it lawfull to kill him in defence of his honour Is it a following of his opinion to say immediately after on the subject of that other Maxime which permits to kill in repulse of a calumny that admits
you say Sir if I shew you that though you are a declar'd enemy to the Doctrine of Probable Opinions yet you are oblig'd in despite of your aversion to approve what you condemn and to bear at the same time two so different Titles as Accuser of what you approve and Approver of what you accuse For either you believe that among the questions of Morality there are Opinions Probable on either part or you do not believe it if you believe it you are an adherent to Probability if you disbelieve it you go against common sense For if it be true as the Philosopher sayes That in no Science there is more of Probability and lesse of evidence then in Morality is it not absurd to expect to finde in it what is not there I should as easily say you have found the evidence of the truth and falshood of all things and that in case we hearken to Port Royall we shall have nothing but Articles of Faith in Speculative Divinity Canons and indubitable Rules in Morality infallible Aphorismes in Physick Demonstrations in Phylosophy Questions of Right and Fact clearer then the Sun in the science of the Laws and that you will banish out of the world all Probability which in your judgement is the Source of all Irregularities Pardon me if I tell you it is more then probable that you either deceive the world or your self if you be in that errour Moreover presupposing that you must needs passe for ridiculous unlesse you admit of Probable Opinions in Morality either you hold that of two Probable Opinions we must alwayes follow the securest or you hold it not If you judge that men are not alwayes bound to prefer the safest you approve what you have condemned But if you affirm the contrary that men are ever obliged to prefer the more secure then the lesse safe opinion will remain probable onely in Speculation and will never be probable in Practice Thus of a severe Censurer behold your self become an Approver of that distinction which the Vniversity say you branded with the note of ridiculous Bâ—hold your self guilty of all the disorders it is cause of Behold your self a Complice of that fatall secret of the Politiques of the Jesuites a Voucher of all their Opinions responsable for their corrupt Maximes a Pagan with Lessius in what concerns Homicide a Pagan with Vasquez in what regards Alms a Pagan with Tannerus in what relates to Simony a Pagan with F. Desbois whom you make Authour of a Doctrine he never taught and charge with a Chymericall offence In fine a Pagan with all the Jesuites in all that has relation to the Doctrine of manners I pray God Sir you may be such a one as they and I believe I cannot wish you a greater good for all the ill will you bear them then that of a perfect confoâ—mity of Heart and Sentiment with them which may render you submissive unto the Church like them obedient to the decisions of Popes and Bishops like them zealous to impugn the pernicious Doctrine of Heretiques like them and finally modest and discreet like them not rashly to condemn the Probable Doctrine of all Catholique Divines An ANSWER to the JANSENISTS Fourteenth Letter Argument 1. THat the Jansenist is much out of his element when he comes to be serious 2. His Impostures against the Casuists Opinions in point of defence of ones Goods and Honour are meer Reveries 3. He condemneth all to the Devil that think not with him and so no School escapeth his Curse 4. Some of the Saints must be pulled out of Heaven at this mans Verdict 5. The Jâ—nsenists are no fit Judges of the Doctrine of Killing who teach that it is â—awfull to kill ones self and that when the Interiour Spirit moveth one may and must kill his Neighbour though the Exteriour Law forbid it 6. Other Maximes of the Jansenists are set down which they teaching are unfit to câ—nsure others 7. His falsifyings of Lessins Layman Molina Reginaldus c. are again taken notice of 8. Port-Royall complaineth of the Jansenist for his loose Divinity and his Answer to them solveth all his own difficulties 9. That the Casuists favour not Crimes when they teach it lawfull to kill in the just defence of Goods or Honour but the Jansenists favour Thieves and insolent Fellows when they say that the Innocent may not defend their Goods and Honor against them for fear of killing 10. The Jansenists challenge to shew any one that alloweth that one may kill in defence of Goods and Honor answered and many Authorities produced whereof none are Jesuites but all conspire with Jesuites in their Maximes and none with the Jansenist 11. That all which he saith of the Form of Pleading signifieth nothing to the purpose since a Thief in a wood cannot be proceeded with in that manner SIR I Perceive a change in your manner of writing but can discover no amendment you are alwayes in extreams and having for a long time plaid the Scoffer you will all on a sudden act the part of a Doctour You have reason to renounce that Title since it becomes you so ill and if you proceed with so pittifull a grace they will be so far from receiving you in Sorbon that I know not whether people will â—ndure you in the streets One may easily see you are not in your element when you endeavour to be serious you appear too surly and musing your dreams are all offensive like those of a sick man and your talking of nothing but Murthers Homicide and Blood a Thus a great Bishop writ to Monsieur de Sâ— Cyran whose disposition he was acquainted with His Letter is among the Records of the Abbots Triall to be seen in Clermont Colledge I speak this Dear Brother to draw you a little out of your melanchloy humour which I read in your Letters and which I believe you ought to resist with a most particular care to the end you may overcome it before it be too deeply rooted If the Abbot of Sr. Cyran would have followed this good counsell which a great Prelate thought himself bound to give him at the time when he was beginning to form your Sect he had never instill'd into you such deadly Sentiments against the Casuists and if you would follow it your self you would presently expunge out of your minde all those sinister impressions you havâ— receiv'd against them Those that distemper you touching the point of Homicide are very stâ—ange the convulsions they cause in you shew that your disease is dangerous and requires a speedy help You seem as if you were beset with Sprights and that you take all Divines for Furies b Letter 14. Their Maximes say you are so horrid that it were to be wished they had never come forth of Hell and that the Devil who was the first Authour of them had never found out men so far devoted to his orders as to publish them among Christians See what wicked People
these are But shew us that it is their criminall Maximes that have put you into this ill humour You have often disguis'd the Truth be once at least sincere and haply when the ground of your distemper is rightly understood it will be easier then you imagine to dissipate those Apparitions that affright you Do they say it is lawfull to kill for simple slanders c Letter 7. It is no simple one to write it to a Provinciall as you have done but 't is a horrid shame to be so often rebuked for it and to cover it with no other excuse then that of dissimulation and silence Do they teach that a man may kill as you affirm d Letter 14. in defending that false honour which the Divell transfused out of his own proud spirit into that of his proud Children It is not handsome for a person of any repute to use such language You have the Devil too often in your mouth e He names the Devill seven times in one page the name of that Father of lies is too familiar with you 't is to be fear'd lest having him incessantly upon your tongue he shed not some of his venome into your heart What! have you no honour to preserve but that which comes to you from so bad a hand Know you not that true honour recommended by the great Apostle which the Wise man prefers before the Diadems of Kings the conservation of which is a Christian vertue and its losse a civill death more afflâ—ctive to worthy mindes then that which puts the body in its grave Peradventure they permit expresâ—y to kill a Thief who defends not himself f Letter 14. This expression is ambiguous it is a snare set to surprize the ignorant For though a Thief defend not himself with weapons he may defend himself by flight and carry away something of great importance be it either for its value or the necessity a man has of it magni momenti in which case it being not otherwise recoverable then by killing him some hold it may be done with a safe conscience But that they permit a man to kill him if he defends not himself or being closely pursued throws down what he had unjustly taken is a falshood of the largest size and while you endeavour'd to make it passe for currant with all that boldnesse wherewith you boulster up your Impostures you durst not affirm it but by halves so base and timerous a thing is a a lie even after it has past all the bounds of modesty In fine do they assert that it is lawfull to kill for a crown nay for an apple g Letter 14. 'T is clear in your opinion Lessius has so determin'd it How cunning and malicious are you You imitate the Serpent in making use of an apple to deceive poor women but the Learned laugh at your poor subtilties Play not the child before wise men lose not your credit for a apple Say freely that Lessius teaches in the place you cite that it is not lawfull to kill for the conservation of ones goods in case the losse be not considerable nisi illae facultates sinâ— magni momenti Say it is most unjust according to that Father to take away a mans life for an apple or for a crown est enim valde iniquum ut pro pomo vel uno aureo servando alicui vita auferatur Say that a Gentleman may at the instant draw his sword to recover what an insolent fellow has taken from him to insult over him though it be but an apple because it is not his goods he defends but his honour tunc enim non tam rei quam honoris est defensio Say if you please that in this case he may kill if it be necessary for the defence of his life which he hazards in disputing his honour not his crown or apple si opus est occidere But adde these words which you suppres'd juxta Sotum acknowledge it to be the opinion of Sotus whose name is illustrious in the School of St. Thomas Fling not the apple at Lessius h Posses conari si opus esset etiam occidere juxta Sotum tunc enim non tam rei quam honoris esset defensio Lessius l. 2. c. 9. n. 68. who does but report the opinion of that excellent Divine who appear'd with honour in the Councell of Trent and govern'd the conscience of the Emperour Charles the Fifth And when you have restor'd what belongs to him you have nothing remaining to your self but the shame of having aim'd to do a mischief but could not though there 's not any thing more easie Come then to the point of our difference and tell us in fine what it is you finde horrid in the Doctrine of the Casuists But speak it clearly for I ever mistrust this turning of the hand which with a Back-blow absolves you without scruple from your Imposture of Compeigne and puts you as you believe perhaps into a security of Conscience They say what nature teacheth us and what all Laws Divine and Humane confirm that it is never lawfull for a private person to take away his Neighbours life but on the terms of a just and necessary defence and you agree with them therein They extend this just defence to the occasions wherein one cannot otherwise avoid the losse of life and chastity and you are of the same opinion But they also comprise therein the losse of goods and honour which St. Thomas calls the two prime Organs of life without which it cannot possibly subsist This heats your zeal and so far transports you as to treat the Authors of this Doctrine as if they were the Devils Proctors come out of Hell to publish it on Earth Really Sir you damn men with too great facility and this excesse of heat has I know not what of resemblance with the transports of those phantastick spirits who give all the world to the Devil having first given themselves over to the Demon of choler which predominates in them Did you hold intelligence with that Prince of Darknesse you could not advance his tyranny over nobler Subjects You make all Universities tributary to him and oblige the most Learned Schools to leave to him for a prey the flower of their Doctours as men devoted to his orders Ministers of his fury Emissaries of his errours and Complices of his crimes Sorbon to give you satisfaction must sacrifice Monsieur Du Vall i Du Valliuâ— de Charitate q. 17. a. 1. § dices justa est because he teaches that the Laws of a just defence may sometimes be extended to goods and honour The School of the Thomists must deliver up to him Cardinall Cajetan k Cajetanus in 2. 2. q. 64. a. 7 who defended this opinion before there were any Jesuites in the world The School of the Clarks Regulars must leave to him their Generall who has lately publish'd the same even in the Court of
out in such Disputes some words escape their mouth not so well consorted as might have been This is all you bring us from those remote Conntreys which you display magnificently making them serve to fill up the pages of your Letter What do you conclude from thence Therefore the Five Propositions condemn'd by the Pope are not to be found in Jansenius as he declares they are in an q The Popes Brief to the Bishops of France expresse Brief How weakly is this argued Therefore those very Propositions are not Scandalous Hereticall and Temerarious as the Pope asserts them to be in his Bulls How frivolous is this Therefore Monsieur Arnauld's second Letter which protests they are not in the Lord d' Ipre's Book has not been censured How ridiculous is that Therefore it is not an Heresie condemned by the Pope to say with Monsiâ—ur Arnauld in his preface that St. Peter and St. Paul are the two Heads of the Church which make but one How irrationall is this Therefore the Abbot of St. Cyran sayes not in one of his Letters That he professes to know nothing but what the Church has taught him twelve hundred years ago that he had known all Ages and spoken with all the great Successours of the Apostles Therefore Janseniâ—s promises not that Abbot to maintain his Nephew Barcos with Colledge Moneys he had in his hands so as no man in the world should discover it in the Accounts he was to render Therefore he writes not to the same Abbot r The Originall of these Letters are in Clermont Colledge That God has taken away two Ecclesiastiques within a few Dayes to cast a Canonry into his hands and that he is already proffer'd for it six hundred Florins together with a Beneâ—ice Therefore Mother Agnes of St. Paul Abbess of Port-Royall sayes not in writing to the Abbot of St. Cyran That there are some of her Religious who have not been at Confession for the space of fifteen Moneths and that this were enough to astonish a Confessour who requires onely words and not dispositions By what Laws of Logick can you reason in this sort without exposing your self to the laughter even of the meanly learned The Jesuites have no no need to impose upon you false Heresies you have publish'd but too many real ones They do not falsifie your Books that so they may finde them stuft with errours in Doctrine and Morality they have mark'd you the place the page your very words they alter not the Letters of Jansenius and the Abbot of St. Cyranâ— they have the Originalls in their Archives of Clermont Colledge they conceal them not they shew them to all the world You have sent thither and have had a more faithfull relation then you desired what have you to say in answer what have you answered hitherto Certainly Sir you were never more in the right thâ—n whâ—n you protested you would onely answer en passant as passing by For it is true you very dexterously passe by all the accusations brought against you and take no notice of them It is not so as to the aspersions you cast upon the Jesuites They answer clearly they dissolve your intâ—icate ambiguities they unvail your Impostures they dissipate your illusions they plainly convince you of ignorance and falsity The whole world sufficiently perceives it They know wherefore you treat the Kings Confessour so unworthily why you worry Vasquez Suarez Molina Lessiâ—â— and so many famous Divines whose radiant lustre dazles your eyes they know why it is you so violently attaque one while the whole Body another while particular men as F. Danjou and F. Crasset without imputing to them other crime then having preach'd against Jansenisme which is at this day so infamous and having clear'd certain Persons who suspected themselves tax'd and made great complaints thereof This is it that angers you this is the reall cause of the strange animosity you expresse 'T is not your zeal for the Discipline that makes you scatter so many calumnies in Paris 'T is the grief you feel to see your self condemn'd at Rome the very place where you should present your grievances were they reasonable that has held you these six moneths in perpetuall extravagances Return then Sir to the point of our difference let us resume the subject of our Dispute I will not oblige you to justifie the Doctrine of Jansenius that were to require an impossibility but it is easie for you nay advantagious sincerely to condemn it by retracting the Heresies you have advanced in your four first Letters and which Monsiuer de Marande s Mounsieur de Marande Counsellour of State in a Book intituled Considerations upon a Libell of Port Royall p. 82. has impugn'd with such eloquence and strength of judgement as that generous Defender of Grace has shewn in all his Works against Arnauld which are unanswerable This is the subject of my wishes the publique hope the interest of the Church and the answer I resolve henceforth to make to all your obloquies for leaving to you that fair Apology of Port-Royall menâ—irâ—s impudentissimè I will not otherwise defend my self in the future then by remonstrating your errour and bidding you at every Maxime I refute Be no longer a Jansenist An ANSWER to the JANSENISTS Complaint of being called Heretiques By Father Francis Annat Argument 1. THat the â—ansenists are Heretiques because they maintain the Five Propositions in the sense of Jansenius which the Pope hath condemned and declared Hereticall 2. The â—ansenists vain distinction of Matters of Fact and of Faith seeing they were agreed in the Matter of Fact long since as appeareth by severall Confessions of theirs 3. A Parallell of Pope Celestins commending St. Augustins Doctrine and Pope Innocent the Tenth his condemning Jansenius his Doctrine 4. The Five condemned Propositions with the expressions of Jansenius conformable to every one of them 5. The great stubbornnesse of the Jansenists denying what is ocularly evident and what they themselves have confessed 6. The Jansenists as truly Heretiques as the Arians Nestorians c. 7. It is enough to know that the Pope and Church hath condemned Jansenius his Doctrine for to be obliged to condemn it and call them Heretiques who maintain it without knowing what the particular sense of Jansenius is as to condemn Mahomets Doctrine 't is enough to know that he hath taught Doctrine renounced by all Christians 8. It is evident that the Propositions are in Jansenius and it is of Faith that they are condemned in his sense 9. The Jansenists false Submission to the Bull of Pope Innocent like the fraudulent Submissions of Ancient Heretiques 10. The Jansenists Miracles in reuniting the the Love of God with Hatred of their Neighbour of Justice with Calumny of Sincerity with Falsity of the Doctrine of Christ with War against the Church of Christ I Have newly receiv'd the Complaint of a Jansenist who believes I am much to blame for calling those of his Sect
reperies à sexto ad undecimum caput lib. 8. de Hist. Pelagiana c. And of the Fifth f Pag. 36. Augustini verba sententiam summa side repraesentavit Iprensis Episcopus lib. 3. de Gr. Salv. cap. 2. Vbi retulit veterem Ecclesiam Lugdunâ—nsem Sinodum Valentinam expressissime definiâ—ntes velut â—idei Catholicae dogma Non pro omnibus omâ—ino sed pro â—idelibus solis mortuum Christum Crucisixum The Author of the Book of Victorious Grace with six Approbatours sayes That those Propositions are most true and most Cotholique according to the sense of Grace efficacious in it self g Pag. 16. 18 21 22. As it is also in that sole sense that the Lord Bishop of Ipres maintains them against the errours of the Jesuites That they have a good sense in which the Lord Bishop of Ipres and the Disciples of St. Augustine have alwayes defended them And where is it that the Lord Bishop of Ipres has defended them Is it not in his Augustinus And how should he defend them in that Book if they were not there They are therefore the Propositions of Jansenius and they that cannot finde them there again need onely resume the eyes they had before those Propositions were condemn'd Since the Authour of the Memoire touching the Jesuites design affirms That Jansenius's opinions on the Subject of those Propositions are the same wiâ—h St. Augustins and consequently that one cannot determine them condemn'd in Jansenius 's sense without violating all the rules of the Church As also that the ablest Divines would be oblig'd to acknowledge the capitall points of St. Augustine 's Doctrine condemned if the Five Propositions had been condemned in Jansenius 's sense Does â—e not grant those Propositions to have a sense in the Doctrine of Jansenius and consequently that they are Jansenius's either as to the Letter or as to that sense And the Authour of the Illustration upon some new Objections supposeth he not the same when he sayes That though the Jesuites should by surprize have extorted a generall condemnation of Jansenius 's sense Yet all the Learned who are vers'd in St. Austines Doctrine would not be able to believe that they could without wounding their consciences so far blinde themselves as to take the most constant Maximes of that great Saints Doctrine for Heresie and Impietics He is carefull to forbear denying the Five Propositions to contain the sense of Jansenius and contents himself with the common evasion viz. That Jansenius his sense is also the Doctrine of St. Augustine 'T is notoriously known that the five Deputies at Rome a few dayes before their condemnation protested before the Pope in the name of themselves and all the Disciples and Defenders of St. Augustine that they did and would maintain during their lives the Five Propositions in their legitimate sense as containing the undoubted Doctrine of St. Austin and consequently of the Church They well knew that in their opinion the sense of St. Augustine and Jansenius were not different But rightly judging that the defence of St. Austin would appear more reasonable then the defence of Jansenius they in a Bravado stil'd themselves the Defenders of St. Augustine though they were in effâ—ct but the Defenders of Jansenius And consequently till such time as we have a constat of their revoking that generous protestation we are bound to believe them on their Parol that they and the other Disciples and Defenders of St. Austin that is to say all the Jansenists do still and will during life defend the Five Propositions in their legitimate sense which is just the sense of Jansenius We are therefore agreed of the Fact by the Jansenists own confession to wit That the five Propositions are of Jansenius either as to the words or as to the sense they may receive nay as to their legitimate sense if we will believe their Deputies at Rome We must therefore hence forward dispute onely of the Right to know whether the Fact which we are agreed on deserves approbation or condemnation For 't is just as when in secular judgements the supposed criminall confesses the fact he is charg'd with as when Milo for example freely grants that he â—lew Clodius after which it remains onely to enquire whether he had right to do it So since the Jansenists have confessed that they maintain the Five Propositions in Jansenius's sense there 's no further diâ—pute but whether they have right to maintain them But the Pope decides the controversie saying That in those Propositions he condemns the sense of Jansenius And consequently if he be deceived he is deceived in the decision of a point of Right not a point of Fact And if the Jansenists refuse to obey that decision the pretext of its being a question of Fact will not excuse their refusall For 't is but a mear mockery to say they have submitted to the Constitution unlesse in their Morality they call it a submission to refuse to act what is ordained Nor can they alledge that Jansenius's own sense of the Propositions and that which we pretend to be his are divers senses We call no other the sense of Jansenius then that which Jansenius himself has express'd in his Book then that which the Jansenists have preach'd taught publish'd by an infinity of Writings and have abridg'd in the Paper of Three Columns That is the sense we call Iansenius his sense and which also the Pope intends And therefore it was that in the pursuance of his Bull he condemned all Books that defend that sense and namely the Paper of Three Columns That is to say he condemns the expression which Iansenius and the Iansenists themselves have made of their Doctrine in the Five Propositions In a word the Pope having declar'd that he has condemn'd the Doctrine of Jansenius we press the Jansenists with their own Maximes so as 't will be impossible for them to escape without retracting what they have said or renouncing the infallibility of the Church For see how they argue Pope Celestine writing to the Bishops of France declar'd St. Augustines Doctrine touching matter of Grace to be the Catholique Doctrine Therefore they that impugne the same Doctrine of St. Augustine are Heretiques We say in like manner Pope Innocent X. writing to the Bishops of France declar'd that Jansenius's Doctrine is condemn'd as Hereticall Therefore the Jansenists who defend that Doctrine are Heretiques What is there replyable It is they will say a question of Fact wherein the Pope is not infallible viz. whether the Doctrine he condemnes is or is not the Doctrine of Jansenius And 't is also say we a question of Fact wherein the Pope is not infallible viz. whether the Doctrine he established be or be not the Doctrine of St. Augustine What know we say they whether Pope Innocent ever read Jansenius And what know we whether Pope Celestine ever read St. Augustine Pope Celestine express'd in a certain number of Propositions the Doctrine
which he establish'd as St. Augustines Doctrine so Pope Innocent express'd in the number of Five Propositions the Doctrine which he condemn'd as Jansenius's Doctrine We are not agreed of the sense of the Propositions condemn'd by Pope Innocent We are every whit as much agreed of it as of the sense of the Propositions decided by Pope Celestine But was Pope Innocent a School-Divine And how do we know that Pope Celestine was more a School-Divine then he Celestine toâ—k the Sentiments of his Church And Innocent did the like of his The Sentiments of Celestine's Church were indubitable And are not the Sentiments of Innocent's Church equally undoubtfull Here 's the difficult passe and dangerous leap the Jansenists are broughâ— unto They must over of necessity and either with Monsieur de St. Cyran scoff at the present Church or else go back to fetch the better leap that is retract what they have said viz. that the Five Propositions are true in the sense of Jansenius since their condemnation by the Sea Apostolique And this I have said not to violate the Authority of Pope Celestine which I do and shall ever hold inviolable and worthy of the respect and submission of all Christians as well as that of Pope Innocent but to shew the Jansenists the blindeness of their proceeding while they endeavour to justifie their contempt of Pope Innocent's authority by Reasons equally destâ—uctive of the authority of Pope Celestine whereon never the lesse they ground their principall Defence But that you may judge whether the condemned Propositions be not really those of Jansenius and as expressive of his sense as those of Pope Celestine were of the Doctrine of St. Augustine and consequently whether there be not as great reason to affirme that Pope Innocent X. condemned in the Five Propositions the true sense of Jansenius as to say that Pope Celestine establish'd the true sense of St. Augustine in those eight or nine Heads of his Epistle I desire the Jansenists to cast their eyes on the subsequent Table and consider on the one hand the Propositions condemned by the Pope as Hereticall and on the other those which are the expression of the sense of Jansenius Aman needs not be a Doctour of Divinity to understand their conformity The first Hereticall Proposition Jansenius's Proposition â—tom 3. lib. 3. cap. 13. Some of Gods Commandements are impossible to the Just according to their present forces though they have a will and do endeavour to accomplish them and they want the grace that renders them possible And therefore all things plainly shew that in St. Augustines Doctrine there is nothing better establish'd nor more certain Then this verity That there are some Precepts which are impossible not onely to the Unfaithfull but even to the Faithfull and Just considering the forces of their present state though they have a will and use their endeavour therein and that they want Grace to make them become possible The second Hereticall Proposition Jansenius's Proposition tom 3. l. 2. c. 4 14 25. In the â—ate of Nature corrupted men never resist interiour Grace The succour of the sick Will is not subject to the Free Will but invincibly determines the Free Will to chuse and embrace this or that  The whole Body of St. Augustines Works tends to this as its scope that Christians believe and also understand if they be able That there is no Free Will that can hinder the force or influence of Grace in any action  There is no medicinall Grace of Christ that hath not its effect The third Hereticall Proposition Jansenius's Proposition tom 3. lib. 6. c. 38. To merit and demâ—rit in the state of Nature corrupted it is not necessary to have thâ— liberty that excludes necessity but it suffices to have that liberty which excludes â—oâ—ction or constraint The most holy and learned Doctours unanimously and invariably teach that the Will is therefore Free because it is reasonable and that no necessity of Immutability Inâ—vitaâ—ility or by what other name sâ—even you will call it iâ— repugnant to it but â—nely the necessity of 〈◊〉 The fourth Hereticall Proposition Jansenius's Proposition tom 1. lib. 8. cap. 6. Thâ— Semipâ—lagians admitted the necessity of interiour prâ—venting Grace to every action even to the beginning of Faith But they were Heretiques in this that they would have that Grace to be such as the Will of man might resist it or obey it That the Massilians they are the same with the Semipâ—lagians did not from the Will of Believing exclude an interiourly assisting Grace is evidenâ— from that which c In this therefore properly consists the Massilians Errour that they think we have some reliques of our originall liberty left us whereby corrupted man might at least believe if he would yet not without the help of interiour Grace whereof the good or bad use is left to the Free-will and power of every man The fifth Hereticall Proposition Jansenius's Proposition tom 3. lib. 3. cap. 21. It is Sâ—mipelagianisme to say that Jesus Christ dyed or shed his Blood generally for all men Whereas they say that J. Christ dyed for all men it is an Engine advanced by the Pelagians but rejected by the ancient Church The Pelagianâ— and principally the Massilians ever repeated that argument Christ dyed to give life to those eternally who received Faith Charity and Perseverance to the end not for those who wanting Faith and Charity die in iniquity Christ prayed not to his Father for their salvation viz. for unbelievers or for the just who persevered not no more then he did for the salvation of the Devil Thâ—â— Proposition understood so as that Christ dyed onely for the Predestinate is Hereticall  It would be difficult to finde elsewhere save among the Jansenists such couragious spirits as durst deny so known a verity and maintain that the Hereticall Propositions and those of Iansenius set over against them agree in nothing neither as to words nor sense and that they are different expressions I challenge them to assign that diversity and discover any thing in the signification of the one sort that may not be as fitly accommodated to the signification of the other Wherefore we rightly and with reason tell the Jansenists they are Heretiques for in defending the opinions of Jansenius they defend those which are the same either formally or virtually and are acknowledg'd and declar'd Hereticall by the Church And we shall still be obliged to speak in that Dialect till they have declared themselves to hold the Propositions of Jansenius for well and duly condemned This we require at their hands and they are much to blame for complaining of it there being no Accuser more humane and innocent then he who having named the offence he informs against is content to receive the lie That is the part we act in accusing the Jansenists for not acknowledging the Five Propositions well and duly condemned in the sense of Jansenius but defending them in his sense If
Decisionâ— of the Church another while dissembling and palliâ—ting that contradiction acting as St. Bernard sayes now the Wolf and anon the Fox The Church â—ells us that the Five Propositions taken in Jansenius's sense are Hereticall the Jansenists affirm That the Five Propositions taken in Jansenius's sense are the most constant verities of Catholique Doctrine This is acting the Wolf and declaring point-blank against the Church which is Christs Flock Yet they say withall they condemn the Five Propositions where ever they finde them Now that 's to play the Fox to wit by a mentall reservation and exception of Jansenius's sense which neverthelesse is that sense which is condemned by the Church I say nothing of their acting the Sheep by that Innocence and Sanctity of life which they vaunt of and which they endeavour to confirm even by Miracles And to say but the truth they work Miracles to prove their Sanctity far greater then any man is able to believe For what greater Miracle in persons that regard onely the love of God thenthen the accord which they make betwixt that love and the hatred of their Neighbour which they have shown from the beginning and that even before they could pretend to have receiv'd any displeasure from men 'T is well known that when Jansenius's Book was first brought into France one of their Patriarchs who laboured to engage many Doctors of the Sorbon in the defence of that Doctrine and begg'd their Approbations having met with one of those Doctours who would not be perswaded by his other reasons to approve the Book without reading it as some of his Colleagues had done he had recourse to his last reason which he thought so prevalent that he could not but submit to it and shewing him the Book Behold saith he the Jesuites Tomb. He is fallen himself into it and I pray God he may rise happily from it But is it not a great miracle to reconcile so charitable an intention as this with that purified Zeal for the love of God whereof they make profession And is not that another great Miracle which appears in their Letters viz. The attonement of Justice which is so dear to them with the liberty of calumniating Their Calumnies are so clearly display'd inâ—â—ur Answers that it will bâ— a new Miracle of boldnesse or rather impudence if any man that looks but in the Books shall engage himself to defend them Which Miracle involves a Third viz. The agreement of that faithfull and sincere dealing of which they make profession with the imposture and falsity of their Allegations This illustriously appears in the same Letters And after I had particularly shown it in Seventeen severall Citations they had the candour to affirm in lieu of a full answer that I had noâ— touch'd their six last Letters Which is in effect to say that 't is but a Peccadillo a small matter to have been taken upon seventeen severall occasions in Imposture and Falsifying I thought it had been sufficient to have prov'd it in one onely instance as it suffices to make a man infamous for his whole life to be but once convinc'd of bearing false witnesse But seeing this is not enough for the Jansenists I must entreat them to tell me near about what number of Impostures will go to the making of a Jansenist be declared an Impostor seeing that to be taxed of seventeen is counted but a triâ—le and not sufficient However their Writings are so â—uxuriant in fruits of this nature that require as many as you will it will be no hard matter for them to make up their account I should be over tedious if I meant to relate all the other Miracles of the Jansenists It shall suffice me to adde onely that which is the most visible one in all their conduct viz. The reconciling of the true Doctrine of Christianity with the war they make against the Church of Christ I call war against the Church of Christ their combating against the Decisions of the Holy Sea receiv'd and approv'd both by the Bishops and Doctors I speak not here of Sorbon onely or apart by it self which is yet Body considerable enough to prevail against the authority of certain particular Doctours whose number is much lesse and whose quality to speak modestly is no wayes preferrable to that of Sorbon Neither speak I of the Bishops separately whose judgement yet in Causes Ecclâ—siasticall is far more considerable then that of single Doctors No nor do I speak of the Holy Sea apart by it self which yet in the judgement of all Antiquity was believ'd to be sufficient to make those acknowledg'd for Heretiques who were declared such by the Pope and those also reputed Catholiques whom the Pope receiv'd into his Communion and declar'd to be such I conâ—oyn all three together and 〈…〉 to whole establishment the Pope Bishops and Doctors do unanimously concurre is to make war against the Church whose Sentiments neither ought nor can â—e be better represented then by the common consent of the Head and principall Members which compose it And since that whole united body conspiringly informs us that the Five Propositions are condemn'd in Jansenius's sense and his Opinions and Doctrine condemn'd in the Five Propositions it is undeniable that the Jansenists who hitherto make a practice of contradicting it do work so great a Miâ—acle as not any Faith save that of the Arians Nestorians Euâ—ychiaâ—s Monothelites adde likewise Luthâ—rans Zuinglians Calvinists c. is able to believe which is The agreement of the true Doctrine which they bâ—ag to be taught by them in its purity with the war against the Catholique Apostolique and Roman Church Judge Reader whether one ought to require any other Miracls then these in proof of what I have affâ—rted That the Jansenists are Heretiques An ANSWER to the JANSENISTS Sixteenth Letter addressed to the Directors of Port-Royall Argument 1. THat the Authour of the Provinciall Letters not deserving an Answer for his Rudenesse Calumny and Ignorance this is addressed to the Port-Royall meaning thereby the whole Party of the Jansenists 2. That Port-Royall holdeth Intelligence with Geneva and Charenton whilest the Jesuites are maintained by Popes Councells Kings and Nobles 3. Port-Royall 's greatest Happinesse is not to be known on the contrary the Jesuites when they are known are made happy in the Love and Respect of all and none despise them but such as know them not 4. That they pretend Reforme and set upon the Jesuites Moralls as giving scope to Liberty whilest really they aim not at a Reforme but Destruction of the Church which they see is much maintained by the Jesuites and the establishing the Heresies of Geneva impugned by the Jesuits 5. A Parallell betwixt Port-Royal and Geneva in points of Faith 6. That all other Heretiques cry up Port-Royall as consenting with them 7. Apostata's profess to have learnt Calvinisme in Jansenius his Books and Jansenisme in Calvin's Works 8. The Book of Arnauld of Frequent Communion commended at
Cabinet against the storms that menace them Are they the Prelates and Bâ—shops They have approv'd this Order in a Generall Councell they have establish'd it in the heart of the Realm they have extended it from the center of the Monarchy to the utmost limits thereof and when it was under consideration to procure confirmation of it in the last Generall Assembly of Estates they did it in such terms as shew the esteem they made of the life and doctrine of those that belong to it The great fruits say they and the remarkable services which those of the Society and Company of the Jesuites have done and daily do in the Catholique Church and particularly in your Kingdom oblige us most humbly to beseech your Majesty that in consideration of their learning and piety whereof they make profession you will be pleas'd to permit them to teach and perform their other Functions in the Colledge of Clermont in the City of Paris as they have formerly done May it further please your Majesty that conserving them in the places of your Kingdom where they are at present you would grant them likewise to those who shall desire them hereafter and that you would take the whole Society into your Royall Protection as the King your Predecessor was pleas'd to do f See Cardinal Rocheâ—oucault's Book entituled Raison pour le Desaueu Sect. 7. where he observes that the Nobility caus'd the same Article to be inserted in the Book of their Requests In â—ine are they the Vertuous people who still conserve amidst the disorders of the present Age the sense of the ancâ—â—nt Piety and Faith of their Forefathers It may be there are some that know them not as having never contracted acquaintance or commerce with them but there are none that hate them without Errour nor condemne them but by surprize nor suspect them but on false reports nor yet have any ill apprehension of them but from such monstrous Disguisements and Misrepresentations of them as they finde in your infamous Libels Know you not what answer was made by Henry the Fourth to their Enemies who were not a little griev'd to see the Innocence of those Religious secur'd from their calumnies by his Royall Protection I have been heretofore deceiv'd like you said that incomparable Monarch but I have since understood that this Society is beneficiall both to Religion and the State Consider Sir the judgement of the wisest Prince in the world and you will soon condemne your own It is not with the Jesuits as it is with their Calumniators who conceal their names to publâ—sâ— their Impostures with more impunity The Jesuits crime is that men know not their Innocence and their enemies Innocence is that men know not their crimes O that they were unvail'd O that God would reveal the Mystery of iniquity to the whole world We are lost if we be known said those Criminalls so famous in History seeing themselves surpriz'd by a company of Passengers and I replied one of the Sages of Greece am lost if I be not known Thus may these Fathers say whom you assault with so great passion and fury They were lost if they were not known if Popes Kings Magistrates Vertuous People were not better inform'd of their carriage then by the mouth of calumny they were lost whereas on the contrary their Detractours would be lost if they were known Wherefore they do all they can to conceal themselves they never go unmaskt they walk not but as if they were mov'd by engins they subsist not but by Hypocrisie they so explain themselves that they may not be understood they disavow not their errours but to maintain their Sect in fine they appear nothing lesse then what they are and they are nothing lesse then what they would appear It is not therefore strange Sirs that you had recourse to Geneva's weapons that is to say to calumnies and injurious speeches to decry the Jesuites Morality You could not oppose Truâ—h but by Falshood Innocence but by Imposture nor the Children of the Church but by the deceits of Heretiques It is also easily perceivable where at you drive and the curious searches â—ou make into every thing to finde some blemish in that great Body are as so many evident marks of an enteâ—prize that has a further reach then â—ou will yet own What does it avail you to dissemble 'T is noâ— the loosenesse of manners that displeases you The best people are the wâ—â—st for your turn You make them Idolaâ—ers even in China and Japan where Tyranâ—s Martyr them You finde out Castors skins to apparrell them with like Merchants even in those vaste Forrests whâ—re the Iroquois cast them staâ—k naked into â—â—mes And there are Countreys which having nothing but Prisons and Gibbets for the Jesuiâ—es do yet foâ—bear to question you because you stigmatize them as Rebells and Enâ—mies to the State This your so violent and unjust proceeding discovâ—rs your craft and makes the clearer-sighted judge that while you seem to bâ—eaâ—h noâ—hing but reformaâ—ion yâ—u seek that which you care not much to finde and that all your ill language to speak truly has Religion â—nâ—ly for its objâ—ct but not daring â—penly to oppose it you are â—oâ—c'd to seek other false preâ—â—ncâ—s to cover the envâ—nom'd hatred that you â—â—ar towards those whom you esteem capable of opposing your designs Entertain us no longer wiâ—h thâ—se vain â—lamouâ—s against their Morall Diviâ—ity that is not the thing that gauls you they are not odâ—ous to you for any other reason â—ut because you love not the Holy Sea which ap 〈…〉 noâ— he Church that employes them nor yet the Faith they teach in a word you had never â—aln out with them so much but because you are falâ— in too far with the Church of Geneva against that of Rome which has onely Câ—nsures and Anathema's for you g Second Part. Port-Royall holâ—ing Intelligence with Geneva against the Church This accusation I confess is a great one and were it not well grounded I should pardon all those bloudy invectives and horrid injuries which passion forcâ—s from your mouth and casts like foam upon your Accusers For if it be a crime of State to hold intelligence with the Enemies of our Prince what sâ—all it be to hold intelligence with the Enemies of God But Sirs if this crime be reall if it be publique if you be convinc'd of it if you have been arraign'd for it in the sight of all Europe if the Pope after examination and a long Audience given to the Deputies of Port-Royal hath judged you condemned you and declared you guilty of high offence why do you accuse the Jesuits Aâ—e they Traducers because they presse you to submit your selves to the Decisions of Councils and Popes Are they base and cruel Impostors because they are afflâ—cted to see you obstinate and rebellious against evident light Are they Detractors and most impudent Liars because they exhort you to acknowledge sincerely that the
condemned the Errours of Jansâ—nius by an expresse Bull and his Scholars protest in their observations upon that Bull a See the Observations upon that Bull published by the Jansenists That it is proper onely to scandalize the world because it condemnes the Doctrine of St. Austine as the most blinde say they are constrain'd to avow Geneva sayes no lesse against the Council of Trent protesting with Calvin that all the Anathema's of that Council fall upon St. Austin and that the Authours of them understood not the Doctrine of that great man Melancthon quarrels with Sorbon and having said that those Doctours condemne St. Augustine under the name of Luther he cryes out with astonishment b Melancthon in his Apology for Luther Is it not strange that in all Sorbon there is not a man that understands St. Augustines opinion In fine Port-Royal crecting a Trophy to the memory of Jansenius as the learnedst man of his time whose minde was enrich'd with the knowledge both of Scripture and also Tradition c See the first Apology for Jansenius pag. 10 15 91. calls him the Hercules of our Age who vanquish'd that Monster Sufficient Grace brought St. Austin down from Heaven re-establsh'd his Doctrine and clcar'd it twelve hundred years after the decease of that excellent Father in a time when it was contâ—mned and obscured Geneva gives the same Elâ—gium to d Beza in the life of Calvin Calvin which Melancthon does to Luther affirming almost in the same terms that he has as it were reviv'd St. Augustine in these last Ages re-establish'd and marvellously clear'd his Doctrine which was for so long a time obscured Who could have believ'd Siâ—s that the Eccho of Port Royal would have been so faithfull to repeat verbatim what it had learn'd of Geneva to publish the same Maximes to defend them by the same reasons to explain them with the same expressions to ground them on the same passages even to the citing as Jansenius does of one sole Text of St. Augustine a â—undred and seventy times which Calvin had alledg'd but twenty Who would have imagin'd that the Jansenian Heresic which appears so young under the trim ornaments of a new language had been an Age old That the most remarkable lines of its beauty should be but the wrinkles of a face burn'd and blasted with lightning from the Vatican which has been seen to fall above twice upon its head Who would have been perswaded that Genâ—va could have com'd so close to Paris as to make a part of its Suburbs Or that Port-Royal should in so short a time have gotten as far as Geneva and that those pious Solitaries who make themselves invisible in the Roman Church should be so well known in all the Lutheran and Calvinian Churches scattered over Europe Passe the Sea when you please Sirs and go visit your friends in Great Brittain you will there finde great support yea even though your onely Credentials were the London Mâ—rcury of the third of January 1656. who has every where given you this testimony That your Doctrine is in many things the same with that of the Reformed Churches Descend into the Low-Countreys and all the Schools of Holland will be opened to you all Calvins Disciples will give ear to you as Oracles all the Ministers will subscribe to your Catechisme of Grace condemned by the Pope all their Oratours will labour to set forth your Panegyrick and will charm your ears with the sweet harmony of your praises which Mr. Marsh Professor of Groiuing has already made resound over the whole Earth e In Sinopsi verae Catholicaeque doctrinae Where he defends the Jansenists Catechisme condemned at Rome Macte illa vestrâ vertute viri docti quod audeatis in os resistere impio illi Pontifici qui in suorum Jesuitarum gratiam damnatâ Orthodoxissimâ sententiâ puri puti Pelagianismi putidam impiam protectionem susceperat Take courage you generous and learned men who durst openly oppose that impious Prelate who to gratisie his Jesuits undertook the defence of pure Pelagianisme by condemning a most Orthodox Opinion Go into Switzerland there the Protestant Cantons will give you great entertainment your Deputies were feasted there in their return from Rome your selves will be far more regarded and making Victorious Grace triumph in despiâ—e of the Pope and Jesuits as f In confesso est ipsis novatoribus vestris Jesuitis ultro hoc largientibus quod victricis gratiae propugnatores Jansenistae in maximiâ— ac fundamentalibus Fidei articulls in castra transierunt nostra Henry Ottius Professor and Minister of Zuric in his Speech printed 1653. after the Catechisme of Grace was censured sayes one of their famous Ministers in the Academies of Zuric Basil and Berne you will be â—avished to behold your selves covered with Laurâ—ls in the Zuinglians camp for having generously defended the fundamentall Maximes of their Doctrine Now if you hold so good Intelligence with these strangers what may you not hope from the Hugenots of this Kingdom among whom you have two remarkable Disciples L' Abadie and Le Masson who being turned Calvinists without leaving to be Jansenists do publiquely set forth in their preachings at Montauban what they have heard in your Assemblies testifying by an acknowledgement worthy of those Ministers that they learned Calvinisme in the Books of Jansenius and Jansenisme in the Books of Calvin Hear Sirs what the latter of them sayes who violating the honour of his Character and the dignity he not long since bore of a Pastour while he exercis'd its Functions in a Parish of Normandy findes no better excuse to justifie his perfidiousnesse then to say that being a Disciple of Jansenius he changed not his Party in coming to that of Calvin and had done no more but declar'd exteriourly what he already was in the interiour of his soul and manifested to the eyes of men what had appeared before to the eyes of God g Lewis le Masson an Apostata Priest in his Apology printed at Montauban 1656. It was written me from Paris sayes that wretched Runaway that some of my Friends did attribute my change to an effect of Jansenisme and a just judgement of God who had forsaken me in my errour to punish my curiosity for being a little too examining of Things whereas I ought to have kept my self submissively in the Commmnion of the Church and have had a better Opinion of Rome and believ'd her infallible in decisions of Faith Forasmuch as concerns Jansenisme I answer That before Jansenius was known in France I was a Jansenist as I may say that is I had the same Sentiments twenty years ago touching matters of Grace Free-will and Predestination that I have at this day And could a man acknowledge any other Master of the Celestiall Mysteries then Jesus Christ I might adde that the Book of Calvin 's Institutions had made me a Jansenist before the Book of Jansenius by reason of the
pro omnibus omnino hominibus mortuum esse aut Sanguinem suum fudisse Quod Semipelagianis tribuat â—ansâ—â—ius 〈◊〉 assertionem Christus pro omnibus mortuus est seu Christus est omnium Redemptor patet ex Libro Tertio de Gratia Christi Salvatoris Capite 20. Quod sic inâ—ipit Sed aliud Argumentum pro Gâ—aâ—â—â sufficienti omnium proferri solet quod Christus est Redemptor omnium juxta illud 1. ad Tim. â— Qui dedit semetipsum redemptionem pro omnibus Et paulò post Respondetur hoc Argumentum ad nause am usque à Pelagianiâ— pâ—aeserâ—â—mque Massiliensibus incuâ—catum suiâ— ut mirum sit recentiores tanto studio trita Haereticorum arâ—a colligere obsoleta recudere Et paulò post rursùm de iâ—sdem Masâ—liensibus lit D. Haec habet Tanquam firmâ—ssimam Basim errori suo collocaverunt illa Scripturae loca quibuâ— Deus dicitur omnes velle Salvos sieri atque esse Redemptor omnium Jam vero suam sententiam Jansenius eodem capite pag. 164. col 1. lit A. sic exprimit Nec enim juxta doctrinam Antiquorum pro omnibus omnino Christus passus aut mortuus est aut pro omnibus omninâ— tam generaliâ—èr sanguinem suum fudit Cum hoc potius tanquam errorem à fide Catholicâ abhorrentem â—oceant esse reâ—puâ—ndum Omnibuâ— vero illis pro quibus sanguinem suum fudit quatenus pro â—s fudit eâ—iam Sufficiens Auxilium donat quo non solum possint sed reipsa veliâ—t faciant id quâ—d â—b iiâ— volendum faciendum esse decreviâ— Nam per illa occultissimè justa justissimè occuâ—ta conâ—â—â—iâ— sua quibusdam â—â—minâ—bâ—s dare praeâ—estinavit Fidem Charitatem in â—â Perseverantiam usque in finem qâ—os absoluâ—è pâ—aedestinatos eâ—â—ctos Salvandos dicimus aliis Charitatâ—m fine Perseverantiâ aliis Fidem fine Charitate Pro primi generis hominibus tanquam veris ovibus suis vero populo suo tanquâ—m absolutè salvando semetipsum dedit ac tradidit pro istorum peccatis omnibus omninò delendis aeternâ oblivionâ— sepeliendis Propitiatio est pro istis in aeternum vivisicandis mortuus esâ— pro istis ab omni malo liberandis rogavâ—t Patrem suum non pro caeâ—eris qui à Fide Charitate desicientes in iniquitate moriuntur Pro his enim in tantum morâ—uus est in tantum rogavit Patrem in quantum temporalibus quibuâ—dam gratiae â—ffectibus exornandi sunt Et ut alia innumera loca omittam in fine hujus Capitis 20. quod ultimum est coâ—elusio libri pag. 165. col 2. lit E. sic loquitur Nullo modo principiis ejus Augustini consentaneum est ut Christus Dominus vel pro infidelium in infidelitate morientium vel pro justorum non perseverantium aeâ—errâ salute morâ—uus esse sanguinem fudisse semetipsum redemptiâ—nem dedisle Patrem orasse seâ—iatur Sâ—ivit enim quò quisque ab aeterno praedestinatus eâ—at Scivit hoâ— decreâ—um neque ullius pretii oblatione mutandum esse nec seâ—psum velle mutaâ—e Ex quo factum est ut juxta Sanctissimum Doctorem non magis Patrem pro aeternâ liberatione ipsorum quam pro Diaboli deprecatus fuerit And now Sir I hope you will not say that the places cannot be cited since there is nothing said in any of the Five condemned Propositions which is not in the Quotations I have here brought And besides these there are innumerable other places wherein Jansenius abâ—seth the Auâ—hoâ—ity of St. Augustin and under his name delivereth the same Heresies For you knâ—w Sir that 't is Jansenius his Mode to make St. Augustin say what he would have thought wherein he hath been very injâ—rious to that Learned Doctour and â—iâ—ht of the Church whom after so many â—gâ—â— he hath perverted to make him become a Dâ—â—ender of Heresie Buâ— I go on to your other Objections The sixth Objection a Letter 17. pag. 305. Jansenius in these Five Propositions teacheth nothing but what the Tomists and Dominicans teach But the Tomists are not Heretiques Therefore the Propositions in Jansenius are not Hereticall I answer This is one of those means by which you endeavour to evade the force of the Popes Definitions which Pope Alexander in his Bull points at when he telâ—eth us that â—â—rtaine perturbatours of the publique Tranquiâ—lity endeavour by subtle interpretations to clude the sorce of Pope Innocents Constitution For here you would either bring the Dominicans Doctrinâ— under the same censure of Heresie by telling us they teach the same with Jansenius or else 〈◊〉 your selves under their shadow by telling us the Dominicans are good Catholiques and therefore you who teach nothing but what they teach are also good Cathosiques But I suppose the Dominicans will noâ— be much troubled at you and Jansenius for this For since Jansenius saith though falsly that St. Augustin tâ—acheth these Propositions 't is not to be wondred that he abuseth the Dominicans as much as he doth so great a Doctour of the Church and the othâ—r Sâ—ints and Fathers of whom he either telleth us that they were in an errâ—â—r or else that thâ—y taught his opinions Nor was Jansenius the first that used this way of disâ—â—uâ—â—e The Câ—â—vinistâ— carried the Lanthorn bâ—fore him who attribute to Sâ— Augustin all their Errours in this matter and cite the Dominicans for their opinions as may be seen particularly in Prideaux his Dâ—cem Lectiones in which he useth the same Arguments which Jansenius afterward used so fully that I believe there is scarce an Argument which Jansenius hath in all his Tomes to prove any of the Five Propositions or to confute the contrary Arguments which may not be found in Pridâ—aux In particular he groundeth his opinion upon St. Augustin and proveth it by the Tomists and namely by Alvarez as may be seen in his Second and Fourth Lections and in all the fiâ—st six generally where he often as Jansenius also doth attributes to the Jesuits Semipelagianisme and would make the Dominicans defenders of rigid Calvinisme To the Argument then I answer that the Major is false The Tomists Doctrine is very different from Jansenius his Doctrine as it is from Calvins I could easily prove this But the Tomists as they have vertue enough to kâ—ep themselves within the Church so they have learning enough to defend their own Doctrine In the mean time it is enough to say that never any Tomist advanced the Five Propositions of Jansenius or any of them in his sense and that Jansenius himself impugneth the Tomists And as to the Argument of this Objection it is a great deal better to put it thus The Tomists Doctrine is Catholique as all allow But the Five Propositions are not Catholique as the Church believeth Therefore the Tomists do not teach the same with Jansenius his five Propositions This discourse you snarle at yet it is a great deal
believed to have wronged Janseniuâ— by false accusations And you set out many Histories of the Errours of Popes and Councels that it might as easily be believed that the Pope and Synod of France have â—rrâ—d in condemning Jansenius upon the Jesuits false information And so you leave nothing certain in the Church nothing to be obeyed for what is certain what is to be submitted unto if not the Decrees of Popes and Councels But I desire the Reader to take notice that as you have done in the Jesuits Books so in the Histories of the Popes and Councels which you mention you have falsified and misapplied many things and given for certain that which the best Authors have delivered as very dubious and suspected as may be seen in Baronius Bellarmin and others where is set down a clear answer to every one of these stories But you did not think sit to set down the Answers it was enough for you to bring the Objections so to undermine as much as you could the Authority of the Church by making the world think Fathers were against Fathers Popes against Popes Councells against Councells which never was in any matter which brings any consequence to destroy the union of Faith and submission to the Church which is that you would overthrow It would be too long a businesse to refute every particular story I content my self then to tell the Reader That 't is you that tell these stories that is one who for his perpetuall Imposture deserves no credit all And that Baronius and Bellarmin and many Learned Controvertists beside have solved all the difficulties which occurre in these passages all which have been objected by many Adversaries of the Catholique Church with more vigour then this Pedant objects them with The last thing then which you say and with which I conclude is That you tell us in the end of your Eighteenth Letter That Jesuits wrong the memory of a Bishop that died in the Communion of the Catholique Church and make a great noise about a matter of no concern Your Piâ—â—y to Jansenius his memory is but meer Hypocrisie You would have him judged a Saint though it were with censuring Pope Innocent and Pope Urban and Pope Alexander and the whole Synod of France who are not excusable if Jansenius his Book be Catholique But you care not that all the Popes and Bishops of the Church â—e thought never so wicked so Jansenius passe but for a Saint You care not how impious you be against all both living and dead so you be but pious towards Jansenius because of your affection to his Herrâ—ie And how can you call this a matter of small importance for which you make so great a noise and which evidently is such that the whole Church is concerned in it If what you say be true the whole Church is in an errour for falsely condemning Jansenius If your Arguments be good there must be no power in the Church to condemâ— any Heretique for never any was or can be more clearly and legally condemned then Jansenius his Book If you might have your will the Church should lose all Authority in deâ—ining matters of Faith because you will in all cases as well as this of Jansenius â—inde matter of Fact wheresoever any words written or spoken do intervene which shall serve you to cast a mist before the eyes of ignorant people to delude them and winde them into an errour against Faith The question is not betwixt the Jesuits of France and an idle Libeller whom they might easily contemne but it is betwixt the Church of Christ and Hereâ—ie If the Jesuites appear in this quarrell they do their duty and oblige all Catholiques whose common cause they defend in a matter where though you slight it the Authority of the Church is at stake and would be over-thrown if the Jansenists of Port Royall could prevail But he that secured his Church from the Gates of Hell will secure it from Port-Royall Portae inferi non praevaelebunt The Conclusion of the VVORK concerning those things which are not answer'd and concerning the Additionalls which deserve no Answer Reader By perusing the precedent Work you will see That the Authour of the Provinciall Letters remaines still under the same censuâ—e of a Slaunderer Falsifier and Jansenist That in all these Letters he hath not made good so much as one of the Twenty Nine Impostures laid to his charge That he undertook a dâ—fence of Four or Five of them but sucâ—eded so ill that he durst not adventure on the rest Out of this I conceive every rationall man will conclude That as hath often been incuâ—cated in this Work he ought not to be believed in any thing And consequently That the Reader ought at least to suspend his judgement and not give his Vâ—rdict against any Authour of the Society or others upon this mans Testmony till he hath viewed the Books For none can justly be esteemed criminall because an arrant Liar giveth him out for such This then is desired of all That before they passe their censure if they be able they will be pleased to hear both Sidâ—s and when they have read what this man objects then view the Authours in their own Works which as it seemeth but a reasonable request so I am confident it is enâ—ugh to clear all the Casuists and Doctours whom this man slaundereth It was thus a Lawyer of our Nation not long since did For having read the Provinciall Letters he who knew it was not a legall nor rationall way to judge before both Sides were heard took some pains to turn to the Authours that were taxed And he was soon satisfied For having loâ—ked on three or four Citations and found them all false he gave no more credit to the Provinciall Letters but esteemed all of no credit and cited a Maxime of the Law That he that is once convinced a Lyar ought never to be believed In this manner I appeal to all the men of England that have ability enough to understand the Authours and desire them to be Judges provided onâ—ly they will be pleased to read the Authours in their own Works And as for those who 〈◊〉 want of Abilities cannot look into Books of Divinity I entreat them that they will be pleasâ—d to aâ—k that Question which the Roman Oraâ—â—â—â— did in a defâ—â—ce of his Quis quem accusat 〈◊〉 accuseth whom The Author of the Provinciall Letters accuseth the Fathers of the Society of Jesus and with them all the Schools of Divinity Whom are we to believe It is evident that one single man ought not to bear down all the world And more evident that an ignorant man ought not to censure a number of Learned Divines And most evident that no man in reason can conceive a prejudice against the Doctrine of many great Divines to whom the world hath for many years given publique applause for Learning and Vertue upon the report of an infamous Libell condemn'd of ignorance by learned
Heretiques and demands satisfaction for so great an injury He sees not how I can well excuse my self since it is manifest as he imagines that they who are termed Jansenists have perfectly submitted to the Popes Constitution which condemns the five Propositions and do hold the same Propositions for well and duely condemned I have often and long since satisfied this objection But because we have to deal with such as are voluntarily deaf who will hear but what they please and have ears impenetrable to the voice that informs them what they ought but will not do I shall here again unfold the reason I have to call them Heretiques Though it prevail with them no more then formerly yet will it serve to undeceive those who might be caught with the fair shew of their Complaint I affirm therefore that the Jansenists are Heretiques and that without all dispute they ought to be call'd by that name The reason is for want of a due submission to the Constitutions of the Holy Sea and the Declarations made by the Church to advertise that the Doctrine they maintain is Hereticall I will not speak of the Bull of Vrban VIII which affirms Jansenius to have reviv'd a Doctrine already condemn'd to the sâ—andall of Christianity and contempt of the Sea Apostolique and therefore condemns his Book anew Every man knows that both in France and Flaunders they have publish'd a number of Books to perswade the nullity and falshood of that Bull. And if after all they will still vaunt of their submission a man must say that to obey after the Jansenist fashion is to dispute against the command I onely speak of the Constitution of Pope Innocent X. and maintain that they have not submitted to it nor hold the condemned Propositions for well and duly condemned the demonstration whereof is easie For the Pope in condemning the Propositions did not condemn the characters they are written in nor the voice they are pâ—onounced with but the sense of those that write or pronounce them that is to say the judgement corresponding to the proper signification of the voice and characters And that we might not be put to the trouble of divining that sense the Pope who condemns the Propositions declares it to us in the same Constitution when he calls them opinions of Jansenius shewing by those words that he pretends to condemn the opinions of Jansenius in condemning those Propositions and which comes all to one that be intends to condemn those Propositions in the sense they have in Jansenius's Doctrine Since that Constitution the Pope has made another Decree by which he twice pronounced that in the Five Propositions he condemned the Doctrine of Jansenius Wherefore he proscribes or prohibits afresh the pretended Augustine of Jansenius and all Books either written or to be written that shall defend his Doctrine The Bishops of France having explicated the Constitution in the same manner and affirmed that the Five Propositions were condemn'd in the sense of Jansenius the Pope in avowing their explication rejoyced thereat and has again the third time pronounced that he condemn'd the Doctrine of Jansenius in the Five Propositions The assembly generall of the Clergy have receiv'd his Brief and confirm'd it by the testimonies they have given of their satisfaction therein The manifest result of all which is that 't is not a submitting to the Popes Constitutions to say they condemn the Five Propositions and yet approve the Opinions Doctrine or Sense of Jansenius Wherefore we ask the Jansenists whether in condemning the Five Propositions as they pretend to do they condemn the Opinions Sense and Doctrine of Jansenius If they say yes praised be God that they return to the Churches sense and â—enâ—ounce Jansenisme and let us call them no longer Heretiques If they say no they are manifestly Hrâ—tiques since they maintain the Five Propositions in that sense in which the Pope has declar'd them Heretâ—call and by the same reason they have not submitted to the Pope's Constitution And because they have hitherto refused to confesâ—e that truth thâ—â— so constant a refusall being not otherwise interpretable thâ—n an avowment of the contrary we have most just reason to call them absolutely Heretiques as people obstinately defending a Doctrine declar'd and condemn'd for Hereticall So that we cannot change our language except they alter their mindes Their usuall evasion by distinguishing betwixt questions of Right and question of Fact cannot secure them We must consider in that Sect two sorts of persons the Captains or Conductors of the Flock who are their Doctours and the Followers that are blindely engag'd in the Party by faction Caball and adherence to their Conductors The former understand the fact by their own knowledge and therein ought to remain agreed with us The latter know it by adhesion to the knowledge of their Leaders Which is to say that they who make Apologies for Jansenius and daily dispute in defence of his Doctrine and who have written a hundred and a hundred Pieces in Latine and French to perswade men that their Doctrine touching the Five Propositions is the Doctrine of St. Augustine that so it may not be said they have gone sotâ—iâ—hly to work and disputed on a businesse they understood not are oblig'd to confesse that they know it to be the Doctrine of Jansenius as also that it has relation to the Five Propositions and that in the same relation the Five Propositions have a sense conformable the Doctrine of Jansenius We are therefore accorded as to matter of Fact But in case they should deny it they are caught by their own confession They have often avowed it They have acknowledg'd those Propositions to be laid down in Jansenius and that they might be consider'd a In the Book intituled Propositiones de Gratiâ Sorbonae Facultate propediem examinaâ—dae Vt in Jansenii Augustino jacent vel quoad verba vel quoad verborum vim sententiam They have noted the places where they are found saying of the first b Pag. 10. Veniamus ad Jansenium expendamus quo ille intellectu positionem hanâ— usurparit justis omnibus volentibus conantibus c. Habetur ea apud hunc authorem lib. 3. de Gratiâ Salvatoris cap. 13. And of the Second c Pag. 16. Accâ—dat modo Antistes Iprensis Asscrit ipse expliâ—at ex professo propâ—sitam thesim libro tâ—rtio de Gratiâ Salvatoris â—ámque firmat solidâ—ssimè c. And of the Third d Pag. 24. Quoad Iprensis Episcopi hâc in parte sententiam vide ab ipso Augustini aliorumque Patrum omnis atatis congesta loca innumera quibus â—vincit invictissiâ—è solam libâ—rtatem à coactionâ— ad veram libertatem ac proiâ—de ad meritum esse necessariam And notes in the Margent lib. 6. de Gr. Salvatoris cap 6. seq And of the Fourth e Pag. 30. Quid vero senserit de islo argumento Iprensis Episcopus fusissime