our Redeemer and by the glory of his Resurrection Totum quod in Fide est certâ ac solidà veritate subnixum Oraculis Miraculis divinitus persuasum stabilitum consecratum partu Virginis sanguine Redemptoris gloriâ resurgentis Whosoever therefore shall presume to affirm that a Thing neither revealed nor attested by God as is that to know whether Propositions are really an Author 's of these last Ages is an Object of divine Faith merely because the Pope has said it or does establish for a Fundamental of his Belief any humane Authority and word of a mortal Man subverts the Faith or that makes a God of the Pope and of his Word a divine Word and a holy Scripture is not onely guilty of Heresie but of horrid Impiety and a species of Idolatry For Idolatry does not consist merely in giving to Man the Name of God but infinitely more when we attribute to him those Qualities which are peculiar to God and when we render him those honours which are alone due to the Deity Now this intire submission of our Spirit and of all out Intellectuals comprehended in the act of our Faith is no other then that Adoration which we pay to the Prime Verity it self and therefore whosoever he be that renders it to the word of a Man what-ever rank he may hold in the Church whoever saies that he believes with a Faith divine that which he would not believe but because a Man has affirmed it does constitute Man in the place of God transferrs to the Creature that which is alone due to the Creator and makes as far as in him lies a kind of Idol of the Vicar of Jesus Christ And it is this My Lords which will doubtless cause you so much the more to detest this Impiety That the Promoters of this Doctrine have imagin'd they shall make it pass under the shelter of that Respect which all Catholicks bear towards the Pope and that none will presume to oppose it for fear of offending him But were it possible to offer a greater affront to the prime Minister of Jesus Christ then to conceive they doe him honour by a Blasphemy so injurious to Jesus Christ that he should suffer them to equal him with his Master by ascribing to him the same Infallibility which He alone possesses and that men should render that supreme Cultus of a Divine faith to his Words which is onely due to the Word of God If S. Paul and S. Barnabas perceiving certain persons ready to render them the same honours which they gave to their false Gods did rend their Garments to testifie their extreme grief and resentment and cast themselves in amongst the people to hinder them of their purpose we are bound to believe that if the Pope were well advertiz'd of this fearfull and prodigious excess he would not fail with his whole Authority to repress these prophane Adorators and that as a Crime capable of losing him for ever before God he would not permit himself to be so much as once touch'd with the least complacency of so detestable a Flattery He would certainly consider even with trembling the vengeance which God did execute upon that last King of the Jews for having onely indulg'd the tumultuary Acclamations of a People who after they heard him speak cry'd out The Voice of God and not of Man Dei voces non hominis since the Scripture informs us that the Angel of the Lord did immediately smite him because he had not given the honour which was due to God Confestim autem percussit eum Angelus Domini eò quòd non dedisset honorem Deo In the mean while how much less criminal were the Adulations of these People then that of the Jesuites That might possibly be taken for some sudden transport of Joy which is oftentimes not regulated by Reason and sometimes we find that even the Scripture it self gives to Judges and to Princes the appellation of God but here they attribute to the Pope and that deliberately out of a formed design and the establishment of a Dogme and of a Theological Assertion not a senseless Name but one of the most resplendent and glorious Titles of God and the most incommunicable to the Creature which is That the Word of a Pope should be so Infallible as it should merit the submission of divine Faith to it which cannot be render'd without gross Idolatry to any save to the Prime and Sovereign Verity For we cannot say upon this occasion what those are wont to affirm who maintain the Infallibility of the Pope in matters of Faith That in believing what the Pope decides concerning them they do not establish their Faith upon the word of a Man because he proposes onely what has been by God reveal'd in Scripture and Tradition so as still their Faith is founded upon the Word of God We can say nothing like this upon the subject in hand and in reference to which the Jesuites pretend that the Pope is as Infallible as Jesus Christ and his Decision an object of divine Faith When the Pope shall propose a matter of Fact of a Seventeenth Age as for example to divine whether heretical Propositions have been taught by an Author of that Period we cannot pretend that he propounds a thing which is either reveal'd in Scripture or in Tradition Well he may say that so he judges it but he cannot affirm that God has reveal'd it He may averre it of himself but he cannot say Dominus locutus est that God has declar'd it In like sort when it is Man which speaks and not God those who assert that we may adhibit a divine Faith to a Decision of this nature do visibly perpetrate the abominable excess of those blinded people and joyn in their acclamation Voces Dei non hominis Now if the Piety of the Pope do as doubtless it will preserve him from being infected with this Sacrilegious Opinion those who present him this poison will nevertheless be as criminal as those miserable Flatterers who were the occasion of the death of their King by their impious Elogies For he is not an homicide of the Soul or Body onely who effectively takes away the Life of one or the other but he is a Murtherer also who does that which is of it self capable to extinguish either the one or the other Cyprianus de Lapsis S. Cyprian names those Christians Parricides that for fear of Persecution offer'd their sucking Infants to the Idols because though they could not saies S. Augustin by this Idolatry and in which the poor Babes had no part bereave them of that spiritual life which they had deriv'd from their Baptism yet did they notwithstanding rob them of it as much as in them lay Aug. Ep. 23 In illis quidem interfectionem non faciunt sed quantum in ipsis est interfectores fiunt Flatter not your selves adds the same S. Augustin In lib. de Pastoribus cap. 4.
and Father Ferrier the Jesuite In the mean time the Father has so dextrously manag'd his negotiation that he has brought it to this pass that it should not suffice to subscribe the Formularie Perhaps he has taken another resolution by the way and another Conscience too it may be For your Doctors of the Probabilitie such as is the Father Ferrier who has written a book of it have this privilege They change their Conscience as men do their Clothes and as the Rules of this Doctrine permit them so as they have one for Tolouse another for Paris and another for Rome I shall not wonder at all Sir if this astonish you for it is indeed most admirable But you are to understand that these Gentlemen the Casuists are a Corporation within themselves who have their Laws their Customs and Reasonings quite different from those of other people so as the surprise is commonly mutual on both sides The World is astonish'd when they hear the Maximes which they teach and they as much wonder when they learn that the world does by no means approve of them You were surpriz'd when I told you of the change of Conscience which these Casuists permit and which they name Mutatio dictaminis and the Parliament were amaz'd also when Father Coton publickly declar'd that as he maintain'd in France that the King was not subject to the Pope in Temporals so he would affirm the contrary if he were at Rome But Caramuel is wonderfully troubled that the Parliament should make any scruple at this double Conscience of F. Coton's and therefore does handsomly and ingeniously maintain it in his Fundamental Theologie n. 194. That F. Coton is no-waies to be blam'd for having in France embrac'd the opinion of the French concerning the Independence of Kings and at the same time to have declar'd that he should change his Sentiment when he chang'd the Country and that being at Rome he would be of the opinion that they were of at Rome For this same chopping of probable Conscience is so certainly indulged according to Caramuel that he assures us 't is as clear as the Sun at noon Thesim istam saies he judico luce meridianâ clariorem n. 285. Edit Francoford So as the poor Parliament who took it seems offence at it must needs be more blind then those who at mid-day see no light 'T is a prodigious thing saies one in the world that the Jesuite L' Amy should dare teach that it is lawfull for a Religious man to kill any who shall but mean the publishing of the notorious Crimes of his Society if there be no other means to hinder him and that 't is strange according to Caramuel that any one in the world should scruple at this pious doctrine of F. L' Amy since it is not onely saies he probable but the contrary improbable in the opinion of all the learned Casuists Doctrinam Amici solum probabilem contrariam improbabilem censemus omnes docti This was not an unprofitable Digression seeing it serves to inform us what there is contain'd in the quality of your Casuists and which is one of the most conspicuous of F. Ferrier's for this Father is a wonderfull Casuist And by this one may judge that it is not altogether unlikely but that as he came to Paris under pretence of pacifying the differences of the Divines so he now promotes the same differences to the end he may still continue there The Doctrine of Probability and of shifting Conscience may well be allow'd to goe so far because the prime Rule which it follows is Utility Now commonly these Provincial Jesuites conceive it very profitable to come to Paris when they are not there and to dwell there when they once are What-ever it be to tell you in one word who this Father Ferrier is You must understand he is a great Jesuite a great Casuist and a great friend of F. Annat he does all by corresponding with him is his prime Minister and the depositary of his most reserved and secret thoughts so that he is to be consider'd as a person totally illuminated with all that is in F. Annat and when you speak of F. Annat you have said all for who should know any thing of this business if he do not He is the sole Author of this Formularie that has made such a noise The late Archbishop of Tolouse was onely his property and therefore it behov'd him to know what he thought when he did it and on what grounds he settled it He is the principal instigator of all those persecutions which have happen'd to this pretended Heresie He therefore ought to know it better then any man and is the most capable to teach others to know it also And it is indeed what the Father Ferrier pretends to effect by his orders and what he promises by the very Title that he has given to this flying sheet THE TRUE IDEA OF JANSENISM He is to let us see that it is not an Imaginary Heresie as they have so confidently publish'd but an Heresie in good earnest and in effect the Conclusions which he gathers from them against those whom he accuses are very real ones for he causes them to be excommunicated by the Church and overwhelm'd by the Royal power and these are indeed consequences to the purpose The Question is whether the Principles thereof be also solid for it were a very strange thing if they should have no other support for these severe Conclusions but visible Falsities and palpable Equivocations Doubtless men are never more concern'd to reason discreetly then when they are upon positive resolutions of banishing persons from the Church and State If it should then appear that the whole Writing of F. Ferrier is but a mere extravagancy of spirit without example what may one conclude of the Rashness of this Father and of his fellow Jesuites and what are we to think of an Heresie which is founded onely upon these Imaginations But to understand them rightly we are to consider the state of the Dispute when F. Ferrier did first enter upon it and began to publish to the World his new lights The Jesuites accus'd the Divines of Heresie because they did not condemn the Five Propositions in the Sense of Jansenius and these Divines replied that this reproch was a visible criminal and inexcusable Calumny nor did they content themselves to have said it they prov'd it by a reason which is without contradiction All Heresie does consist in a certain precise and determinate Dogme opposite to the verity of Faith reveal'd in Scripture and Tradition and which may be known and express'd independently from the name of the Author since all the Verities of Faith are coevous with the Church it self though they are not often oppos'd till a long while after the beginning of the Divine revelation So that as these Verities of Faith were Truths long e're they were oppos'd so the Errours which were repugnant to these Truths were doubtless Errours
Reasons They judge that this distinct Dogm is of an Author by the very view of the Passages and the connexion of his Principles They judge it to be Heretical or Catholick by the comparison which they make of it with the Scripture and Tradition Thus it is the Pope and the Bishops should proceed indeed in condemning the Doctrine of Jansenius It was not enough for them to know that Jansenius teaches some Doctrine on the Five Propositions since 't is ridiculous to conclude from thence that this Doctrine is heretical but they should necessarily have reduc'd the vain uncertain Doctrine of Jansenius to a precise Dogm by a judgment purely of Fact in judging that this distinct Doctrine is of Jansenius to be able afterwards to pronounce the judgment of Faith which insinuates the Doctrine to be heretical There are not in the whole World things more separate and distinct then these Conclusions This Dogm is Jansenius's This Doctrine is heretical The one is matter of Fact the other of Right The one is true ever since the Church has been the Church the other cannot be true but since Jansenius has written and was before that false It may be true that this was such an Author's Position without his being an Heretick and it may be as true that a Position is heretical without being such an Author's because it is not therefore heretical for being such an Author's nor therefore such an Author 's for being heretical Now these two Judgments more remote from each other then are the Heavens from the Earth are both comprehended in this single Proposition The Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical which is the result and thus it comprehends a Right and a Fact really separated though confounded in the expression It may be deny'd as to them both and were onely the Fact deny'd they are not those who fall into the Heresie that doe it but those who accuse them of Heresie under this pretext as does the F. Ferrier For 't is certain that of one part the Pope has form'd this Judgment namely This is Jansenius's Doctrine but this is onely a matter of Fact and a Fact not revealed either in Scripture or Tradition It is also evident this Fact is wholly separate from Right and that it is compris'd within the Pope's Decision which declares that the Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical When therefore F. Ferrier accuses those of Heresie who deny it he falls himself into the Heresie of establishing a point of Faith upon a thing which is neither contained in the Scripture nor in Tradition He has therefore the choice after this to say that this Fact has been either reveal'd to the Pope or not reveal'd If he acknowledge it has not been reveal'd to him he falls into this Heresie of making an Article of Faith of a matter of Fact which is no-where revealed And if he pretend a Revelation of the Pope's he falls into a double Errour one for admitting particular Revelations in the Pope which were to open a gate to all manner of Illusion and another for founding of Points of Faith upon these particular Revelations which is repugnant to the essence of the Catholick Faith which is onely established upon Divine Revelation contain'd in the Scripture and in Tradition He is therefore guilty of Heresie whether he do admit of these Revelations or whether he do not And on the contrary the Divines whom he accuses for that they pretend Jansenius has not been well understood at Rome and that they attribute to him a Doctrine which he no-where maintains are Catholicks whether they be or be not mistaken in this their pretension For it is no way necessary to exempt them from errour of Faith that the Pope should fall into an errour of Fact They are acquitted whether the Pope be mistaken in the matter of Fact or whether he be not If this be true that the Pope did not well understand Jansenius they had reason then not to acknowledge the Doctrine of Jansenius to be heretical And if it be true that he did well understand it all that one ought thence to conclude is this That these Divines did ill understand it and too favourably explain'd it in attributing to it a Catholick sense which it has not and in overseeing another heretical sense which it truly had all which amounts but to a simple errour of Fact which is neither a Crime nor Violence but the most pardonable Mistake in the world and the most worthy of Man according to that of S. Augustine since it all consists in taking the words of a great Bishop in a good sense Qui error saies the Saint non solùm humanus est sed etiam homine dignissimus All the cruel Conclusions of F. Ferrier and the Phantasm of his Heresie being founded upon these false Principles That the Question is de jure That a Fact is inseparable from Right That there is no other Fact in the judgment of the Pope then to know whether Jansenius has taught any Doctrine on the Five Propositions are not onely false but criminal Let him make choice of other Subjects to dispute ill upon as long as he pleases This is a thing which cries for vengeance before God and man to demand of the King as he does Declarations so far remote from his Goodness and Justice upon Arguments so contrary to common Sense Let him distinctly specifie if he can what this Heresie is which he accuses these Divines of and express it under other terms then the ambiguous and uncertain words of the Sense of Jansenius by which no man can know them And if he cannot doe this let him hold his peace and repent of these Extravagances or rather make them some publick reparation as indeed he is obliged This Argument is infinitely more pressing then what he emploies against these Divines pag. 5. in this manner The Jansenists saies he cannot deny that they mock God and the Church when they demand that one should shew them this Sense or Doctrine of Jansenius upon the Five Propositions And why I pray do they mock thus Because saies this Father if they do know what the Sense of Jansenius is upon the Five Propositions they are ridiculous to enquire of a thing which they know already If they do not know what the Sense is they are doubly to blame to publish that they are convinc'd that the Sense of Jansenius is Catholick when as they do not know what it is and for refusing to submit to the Church in a matter which is otherwise unknown to them They replie in a word to F. Ferrier That the Divines who are bound to act according to knowledge and who are not obliged to render the Bishops more then a reasonable obedience have cause to enquire what the Sense of Jansenius is which they would have them to condemn whether they do know it or whether they know it not If they be ignorant of it they have reason to ask to be instructed before they be
that though the Pope was chief of Bishops yet the Congregation of Bishops was the Court from whence final resolutions were to be expected The former Tenet had of late gotten a great strength through the most parts of Christendom but the Divine Providence when it found it fitting raised the French Church which at the present is very flourishing to set a bar to their great advance as may be seen by the Papers here inserted The substance of the Advocate General 's Plea against a Thesis defended in Sorbon concerning the Pope's Infallibility Translated out of the French Copy I Do saies he acknowledge my carelesness in having suffered to scape unpunished those horrible Blasphemies which the Jesuites vomited out against Jesus Christ in a Thesis defended the last year in the College of Clermont which maintained that the Pope was as infallible in matters both of Fact and Right as Jesus Christ himself Has a greater Impiety been heard of But it is ordinary with them to teach erroneous Doctrines And I believe 't is from the impunity of that Crime that the boldness has been taken to defend the like Errours in Sorbon against her Statutes the Doctrine of the Gallican Church and the Maximes of State and of this Court How That the Pope with five or six ignorant Divines with mercenary souls should be Infallible to make Articles of Faith of whatsoever Passion Interest or Ambition shall suggest to him Our Ancestors have seen the fatal consequences and effects of this pernicious Doctrine Wherefore lest this poison should spread it self farther and this pernicious Doctrine take root if it be left unpunished I conclude the Thesis shall be struck out and blotted the Defendent and President constrained to maintain the direct contrary and the Syndic never to approve such like Theses under pain of being extraordinarily proceeded against The Pope and Bishops are not Authors of our Faith but faithfull Guardians and irrefragable Witnesses of universal Tradition received from hand to hand from Jesus Christ to us according to Vincentius Lirinensis Quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus creditum est hoc de Fide est c. Notes upon it Those who are acquainted with the Government of France understand that the Parliament of Paris is made of Members given to Learning and reading of Fathers and to the skill of Languages particularly Greek and Latine and by consequence of Church Antiquities and that the King's Advocate who at this present is called Monsieur Talon is ordinarily one of the most eminent and that in matters of Divinity they are tenacious of the Decrees of the Sorbon the greatest Catholick University in our parts of the World and whose Doctrine passeth for the Doctrine of the Church of France especially their Ancient Decrees It is again to be noted that he saith that the Tenet of the Pope's Personal Infallibility in making Doctrines to be of new accepted for Articles of Faith is against the Maximes of the French Government that is that it toucheth upon Treason which if it be true in France it can be no less in England and he cannot be truly loyal to his Country who obstinately maintaineth that Errour The reason is clear for if that be true the Pope may define and oblige Subjects to believe that he can depose a Prince and bind his Subjects to take Arms against him as was insinuated in a Letter confidently reported to have been lately written from Rome to Ireland by a great man of that Court though others say the Letter was counterfeited Extracted out of a Letter written from France to a Person of Quality The Jesuites having defended formerly that the Pope hath the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ Monsieur Talon the Advocate General complained of it publickly in Parliament remonstrating that this was a most horrible Impiety and highly deserving open and corporal Punishment Whereupon the Court of the said Parliament has ordained that the President the Regent and the Scholars which maintain'd it should appear personally to receive a Reprehension for the first time and a denouncing of corporal and publick punishment intended and resolv'd to be inflicted in case any of them should relapse into the like Blasphemy hereafter Notes upon it The Thesis mentioned is that against which was divulged the Paper entituled THE JESUITES NEW HERESIE which insinuates that the Tenet of the Pope's Infallibility was their former Heresie which is a gentle Censure upon a Doctrine able to introduce Heresies without number into the Church of God as is evident to whosoever shall consider how easie it is for a dozen of Divines to be either corrupted or deceived and yet our Faith by this Position is made to depend on their Science and Integrity Note again that the King's Advocate professeth that the Tenet of the Pope's Infallibility in matters of Fact deserveth publick and corporal punishment which signifies no less then whipping banishment or some such like punishment and that it is a Crime deserving that the Civil Magistrate ought to take notice of it This Absurdity was invented by the Jesuites in envy to the great Scholar Jansenius to the end that people might be persuaded he held Errours not visible in his Books of the which they calumniated him and would prove him guilty of them onely by the Pope's Infallible word defining him to be so which mad Prank of theirs has made such a pother in France of late years A Decree of the Court of Parliament against a Theological Conclusion intended to have been maintain'd the 19 of January 1662 3. by Monsieur Gabriel Droüet of Ville-neufve Bachelor Given the 22 of January 1662 3 at Paris Extracted out of the Registers of Parliament and faithfully render'd into English THis day the Court having deliberated upon what was by the King's Council represented the 19 and 20 of this present Month concerning a Thesis intended to have been maintain'd the said 19 day by Monsieur Gabriel Drouet of Ville-neufve in Britany Bachelor in Divinity at the Act call'd The great Ordinary of SORBON which contain'd in its Second Position Christus Sanctum Petrum ejúsque Successores summâ supra Ecclesiam Auctoritate donavit Christ gave Saint Peter and his Successors highest Authority over the Church in its Third Romani Antistites Privilegia quibusdam Ecclesiis sicut Ecclesiae Gallicanae impertiunt The Bishops of Rome bestow Privileges upon certain Churches as upon the French Church in its Eighth Concilia Generalia ad exstirpandas Haereses Schismata alia tollenda incommoda admodum sunt utilia non tamen absolutè necessaria General Councils are very profitable to extirpate Heresies and Schisms and to take away other inconveniencies but not absolutely necessary and many other Propositions contrary to the Authority of the Church to the Ancient Doctrine alwaies received and conserved in this Kingdome to the holy Canons to the Decrees of General Councils and to the Liberties of the Gallican Church tending also to exalt the power of the Pope
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is ANOTHER PART OF The Mystery of Jesuitism OR The new Heresie of the Jesuites Publickly maintained At PARIS in the College of CLERMONT the XII of December MDCLXI Declar'd to all the Bishops of France According to the Copy printed at Paris Together with The Imaginary Heresie in three LETTERS With divers other Particulars relating to this Abominable Mysterie Never before published in English LONDON Printed by James Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY 1664. To my most honour'd Friend from whom I received the Copy SIR I Transmit you here the French Copy which you were pleased to consign to me and with it the best effects of your injunction that my weak Talent was able to reach to but with a Zeal so much the more propense as I judged the publication might concern the World of those miserably-abus'd Persons who resign themselves to the conduct of these bold Impostors and who may indeed be said to be what the Athenians mistook S. Paul for 17 Act. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Setters forth of strange Gods as well as of strange and unheard-of Doctrines whilst they take upon them thus to attribute as much to Dominus Deus Papa Gloss in Extr Jo. c. 22. Cum inter de verborum signif their Lord God the Pope as to God Almighty himself I stand amaz'd that a Church which pretends so much to Puritie and that is so furious against the least dissenters to her Novelties amongst Protestants should suffer such swarms of impure Insects amongst themselves lest these Cancerous Members in stead of edifying the Church and conducting Consciences eat out in fine the very heart and vitals of the common Christianity For my part Exetasis sive Tho. Albii Purgati◠after I have seen what Mr. White has lately publish'd concerning the Method of the Roman Court in her Decrees and of her rare abilities to discern as he there affords us the Prospect I have no great reason to hope for any redress of these Enormities and then to what a monstrous growth this Head is like to arrive let all the World compute by the strange pretences of these audacious Sycophants Nor let any man wonder how those other Errours are crept into their Religion who in a day of so universal light permit such pernicious Doctrines to be publickly asserted to the dishonour of our B. Lord the scandal of his beloved Spouse and the hinderance of that glorious Unity which none does more earnestly breath after then He who subscribes himself SIR Your most humble and most obedient Servant 21 Sept. 1664. LESSIVS MOLINA S. IGNATIVS LOYOLA SOCIETATIS IESV FVNDATOR VASQUEZ ESCOBAR Optabilior est Fur quam Mendax assiduus vtrique Perditionis haereditatem consequentur Eccles. 20. vers 25. THE New Heresie of the Jesuites publickly maintain'd at Paris in the College of Clermont by Positions printed the xij of December M DC LXI Declar'd to all the Bishops of France c. AS it is the constant duty of Bishops to stifle those Errours in their very birth and cradle which tend to the ruine and subversion of Faith so is it no less that of Divines to make discovery of those Errours to them and by giving timely notice of them to excite and stir up their Pastoral Vigilancy You will therefore My Lords doubtless approve of the Information which is made you of a New Heresie that has been publickly maintain'd by the Jesuites in their College at Paris in a Thesis printed and defended the twelfth of December last The Position bears this Title ASSERTIONES CATHOLICAE de Incarnatione contra Saeculorum omnium ab incarnato Verbo praecipuas Haereses CATHOLICK ASSERTIONS concerning the Incarnation against the principal Heresies of all Ages By which they sufficiently demonstrate that abating some few Subtilties of the Schools they pretend We should accept what-ever They oppose against these Heresies for Catholick Verities and Truths indubitable In order hereunto They propose for the Heresie of the Tenth Age the Schism of the Greek Church and by these words declare the Opinions to which they expect our Assent as a mark and characterism of our aversion from that Heresie X. SAECULUM Romanae Ecclesiae Caput contra Graecos Schismaticos Hoc tandem Saeculo Schisma Photii invalescens Graecos ab Ecclesiae Capite disjunxit Christum nos ità Caput agnoscimus ut illias Regimen dum in coelos abiit primùm Petro tum deinde Successoribus commiserit EANDEM QUAM HABEBAT IPSE INFALLIBILITATEM concesserit quoties ex Cathedra loquerentur DATUR ergo in E.R. Controversiarum Fidei Jadex infallibilis ETIAM EXTRA CONCILIUM GENERALE tum in Quaestionibus Juris tum FACTI Unde post Innocentii X. Alexandri VII Constitutiones FIDE DIVINA CREDI POTEST Librum cui titulus Augustinus Jansenii esse haereticum Quinque Propositiones ex eo decerptas esse Jansenii in sensu Jansenii damnatas Propugnabuntur Deo duce auspice Virgine in Aula Collegii Claromontani Societatis Jesu die 12 Decembris An. 1661. The TENTH AGE The Head of the Church of Rome against the Schismatical Greeks It was in this Age that the Schism of Photius prevailing did separate the Greeks from the Head of the Church We acknowledge Christ to be so the Head that during his absence in Heaven he hath delegated the Government thereof first to Peter and then to his Successors and does grant unto them THE VERY SAME INFALLIBILITY WHIGH HE HIMSELF HAD as often as they shall speak è Cathedra There is therefore in the Church of Rome an Infallible Judge of Controversies of Faith EVEN WITHOUT A GENERAL COUNCIL as well in Questions appertaining to Right as in matters of FACT Therefore since the Constitutions of Innocent the Xth and Alexander the VIIth WE MAY BELIEVE WITH A DIVINE FAITH that the Book intituled the Augustin of Jansenius is heretical and the Five Propositions which are gathered out of it to be Jansenius's and in the sense of Jansenius condemned These shall be defended by the assistance of God and the favour of the Virgin in the Hall of the College of Clermont belonging to the Society of Jesus the 12 day of December in the Year 1661. This Position contains in it two parts the one concerning the Primacy of the Pope in which all Catholicks do agree the other touching that Infallibility which these Jesuites do attribute to him We do not speak here of that which is by some Divines maintain'd and which onely concerns the Judgments which the Popes have of such Truths as are revealed by God in the Scriptures in Tradition It is sufficiently known what has been upon this Subject the sense and opinions of the Gallicane Church and of the University of Paris and what we are to understand by this expression Sententia Parisiensium when we find it upon this matter in the books even of the Jesuites themselves As evident is it also
speaking of such as gave others occasion of sinning that your Brother is not yet dead through the scandal you have given him He is not dead and yet are you an homicide Et ille vivit tu homicida es We may say the very same of the Jesuites in relation to the Pope into whom they strive to inspire an Opinion so mortal Non sibi blandiantur quia ille non est mortuus ille vivit isti homicida sunt But it is not the Pope alone to whom they give an occasion of Scandal they offer it to all the Faithfull in general whilst they persuade them to establish their Belief upon the Word of a mortal Man and to submit themselves to it as to the prime Verity which can in no sort be done as has already been demonstrated without a kind of Idolatry So as the Jesuites doe in a manner the very same thing with those Hereticks who would have men render Divine honours to the Virgin For as the true respect which we owe to the Virgin the most holy of all the Creatures would not diminish the Crime of these Hereticks and their Disciples so nor would the veneration that all the Faithfull have for the Head of the Church exempt them from the guilt of a very hainous sin before God if thus deluded by the Jesuites they should render to the Word of a Man howsoever conspicuous in the Church this soveraign deference of Divine Faith which cannot be pai'd without manifest impiety but to the Word of God himself Little do the men of the world consider the magnitude of these sorts of offences since being wholly carnal they are not concern'd but with things altogether gross and exteriour These hypocritical Devotes permit themselves to be easily transported with such excesses because they conceive it a great degree of Piety blindly to embrace what-ever it be that elevates those Things and Persons to whom we owe respect and hence it is proceeds that variety of Opinions which they term Pious without at all putting themselves to the trouble of inquiring whether they are true or false as if what were false could be a fit object of Piety or that the God of Truth might be honour'd with a Lie But you my Lords know that those who are bred up in the sincere spirit of Christianism make a far different account of these matters They equally detest Lying to whose profit soever it may possibly appear advantageous were it to the Pope to the Virgin were it even to J. Christ himself And which one would hardly say had not S. Augustin said it before us for this Father was not afraid to assert it Aug. de Mendacio cap. 20. That if the Lying and the Calumny which is us'd to take away the temporal life of a man be a detestable crime much more abominable is that which tends to the bereaving us of the life eternal such as is all prevarication in matter of Religion yea though it were even employ'd in ascribing false praises to Jesus Christ himself Ibid. cap. 10. Wherefore saies the same Father it were an extreme folly for a Christian not to be rather prepar'd to suffer all sorts of indignities and even such as strike a terror into holy Souls then once condescend to whomsoever would oblige him to corrupt the Gospel by any fictitious praises of J. Christ Seeing then according to this holy Saint it would be an abominable Crime to attribute any false Praises to J. Christ himself who being God is superiour to all Praises how much greater is it to ascribe to a mortal Man inviron'd with infirmities as the Scripture expresses it the Praises which appertain to God alone But into what Labyrinths of Errours shall we not precipitate our selves if once we grant a liberty to our humane fancy to shroud its various wandrings under a pretext of Piety For if Opinions must be tolerated how false soever they may be because an ill-advis'd Piety judges them Pious and if it be a plausible and sufficient reason to exempt Popes from Faults and Errours obnoxious to humane nature by pretending one may piously believe that God having intrusted them with the Government of the Church will never permit them to fall into any Errours which may be prejudicial to it as the Jesuites do from hence believe they have a right to invest the Popes in the same state of Infallibility which J. Christ had and that even in matters of Fact when they propose them to the Universal Church why may they not as well pretend they have the same right also of attributing to the Popes the same Impeccability which J. Christ had in all those concernments which relate to the Government of the Church and the functions of their Soveraign Pontificate why should not this latter opinion be as pious as the former Would it not seem incomparably more advantageous to the Church that the Popes could not sin in this manner then to be Infallible in matters of Fact And the Souls which are purchased by the bloud of J. Christ have they not receiv'd infinitely more detriment from the wicked Administration of some Popes then they could ever contract from their want of illumination or due attention in the understanding of some particular Author A man that had liv'd in the Primitive Ages of the Church resting himself upon these Probabilities and Conveniencies of humane Witts would he not have believed he had reason to say That God would never permit that the Seat of S. Peter should for near one intire Age be possess'd by Persons so prodigiously unworthy Baron ad An. 897. n. 4. As Cardinal Baronius does with grief acknowledg it happen'd for during almost the whole Tenth Age by the power of the Marquess of Toscany who domineering with his Arms and Mony over the Clergy and people of Rome establish'd such Persons in S. Peter's Chair as were not onely wicked in regard of themselves but were so also to the Church by introducing most horrible Disorders such as the same Baronius complains were brought in by John the Xth who made a Child of five years of age Archbishop of Reims upon which the Cardinal makes this sad reflexion Tantum nefas Ad An. 923 n. 11. quo jura omnia Ecclesiastica sauciantur ejus Pontificis authoritate introductum quem infamis foemina infami operâ Petri solium intrusisset Would not this man have believed that God would never have permitted the Vicar of him who said his Kingdom was not of this World to undertake the disposal of temporal Kingdoms to depose some from them and conferre them upon others Mr. du Puis in his Treatise of the Rights of the King to the Kingdom of Navarre as Julius the II d did the Kingdom of Navarre which the Kings of Spain now possess to the prejudice of ours and that by virtue onely of a Gift pretended to be receiv'd of this Pope who took it away from its lawful King Would
in Questions pertaining to Right as to those of Fact so as their Decisions concerning the Facts themselves may be believed by a divine Faith they are rank Hereticks as being engag'd to maintain this Blasphemy And in case they pretend that this is a true Opinion they are nevertheless Hereticks because they oppose the Faith not submitting to the Decision of so many Popes and General Councils in reference to the condemnation of Honorius who according to their Errour we are by divine Faith oblig'd to believe had been justly condemn'd because he was so by Judges as Infallible as Jesus Christ as well in matters of Right as those of Fact I insist too long my Lords in refuting an Errour so notorious Give me leave yet to represent to you one most pernicious Consequence You have seen what the design of this Position is and how specious a Title they have prefix'd before it Assertiones Catholicae contra Saeculorum omnium praecipuas Haereses This being so what may we else imagin when we shall see by the sequel of that which they oppose to these Heresies but that they are Catholick Truths maintain'd by the Church against these Hereticks and which we are oblig'd to acknowledge under censure of being our selves Hereticks and of Apostasie from the Communion of the Church Never then according to these Jesuites must we think of receiving the poor Greeks into the Communion of the Catholick Church or re-unite these divided Members sever'd by so deplorable a Schism but in obliging them to confess that J. Christ has bestowed the same Infallibility upon all the Popes which He himself has in all that they propose to the Universal Church yea even in matters which concern particular Facts And as all the Hereticks of these last Ages have embrac'd the Errour of the Greeks against the Primacy of the holy See we must never open the doors of the Church to them before they make profession of this fine new Article of Faith But admit we should not exact that so strictly of them what an Obstacle do we not lay in the way of their Conversion what Scandal are we not guilty of and what pretext do we not afford their Ministers to decry the Catholick Church before their abus'd People by rendering her odious and contemptible and by confirming them in those their ancient Calumnies and Reproches which they have so frequently objected to the Catholicks for equalling the Pope to Almighty God 'T is well known that it is from their Principles they have inspired Rebellion into so many People Should therefore Religious and Pious persons favour them in this detestable design that they furnish them with Armes to fight against us and suffer them to look upon the deference which the Faithfull owe to the Pope as an insupportable Yoak upon the Conscience in things that do not at all concern any point of Faith and whereof the knowledge does not in the least conduce to Salvation This is it my Lords which has chiefly oblig'd us to speak upon this occasion And it was highly necessary that the Catholick Divines should make hast to decry this Impiety lest those Uncircumcis'd should take occasion of insulting over the Armies of the living God We were obliged to prevent them to the end they may see that we do no less abhor this excess in the Catholick Church for the love of Truth then they appear to detest her by the design which they pretend to justifie their faulty separation But if it be sufficient to acquit Divines of their devoir that they represent this publick Complaint it is not enough for the honour of the Church and for the entire reparation of this Scandal that there have been onely Divines which have reprov'd it It is You my Lords who ought to be enflamed with Zeal for the Purity of the Doctrine whereof You are the Depositaries for the Salvation of the Faithfull of whom You are the Fathers for the Sanctity of the Church whereof You are the Spouses les Espouses for the Honour of J. Christ of whom You are the chief Ministers to consider as in the presence of God what your Duty is upon so important an Occasion in which the Faith of the Church is violated by a Capital Errour which subverts its very Foundation where the Faithfull are empoison'd with an Opinion which tends to the changing of that Veneration into Idolatry which they ought to bear to their soveraign Bishop where the Church is prophan'd by an Impiety that dishonors and exposes her to the outrages of her Enemies in summe where J. Christ is horribly offended by the Sacrilegious Parity which is put between the words of his Servant and his own most Sacred Dictates by making the one as well as the other the Object of a divine Faith Haply some there be may reply that this Extravagance deserves not half this aggravation and doubtless they will make use of it for a pretext to induce you to connive at so foul an excess But my Lords you ought to consider that how extravagant soever this Opinion may appear it is promoted by Persons who may give us just occasion to apprehend the strange Consequences of it For 't is sufficiently evident that it is not by chance or through the blindness of any particular man that it comes thus to appear in the World It is long since that they have prepar'd and dispos'd all things for its production and entertainment though they never usher'd it in with pomp before they were well assur'd all things were favourable for its reception and that there was not a Champion remaining who had the courage or confidence to oppose it openly Perhaps indeed their Pretence is not yet so far advanc'd as to draw a formal Approbation from the Bishops But that which they hope for is since I am obliged to speak all that their credit and their power of being able to doe good or ill offices will be a means to retain all the Bishops in silence so as none of them shall dare to condemn them for fear of drawing upon them the strength and displeasure of so puissant a Society and that the Sorbonne which they now reckon to be in their dependence will never have the confidence to Censure this Doctrine whatever their aversion may be to it Thus they hope that during this Silence and whiles all the World is as it were snorting dum dormirent homines this Cockle which they have sown in the field of the Church will take root and in time get strength There they will leave it to ripen and as they use to say relinquent tempori maturandum and when it shall be arriv'd to full maturity produce the natural Consequences that must necessarily spring from it At present indeed they do but say onely One may believe Particular Facts with a divine Faith but they will shortly pronounce that men are bound to believe them which will be very easie for them to establish because it is but a
necessary Consequence of their Principle since it is certain that one may not believe any thing with a divine Faith but what truly is of divine Faith and that what-ever is so ought to be believed with a divine Faith when it is sufficiently proposed to us It suffices them for the present that the Bishops do not condemn this Opinion but within a little while they will make the Bishops Approbators according to another of their Maximes P. Bauny Theol. Mor. Tract p. 321. viz. That the Church does approve all those Opinions which she suffers without opposing It therefore highly concerns you my Lords to consider not onely the Peril to which the Church is expos'd but that also wherein you your selves are lest the Jesuites one day vouch you for abettors of their Heresie and lest God himself do lay it to your charge For though there be nothing more false then that the Church does approve all those Opinions which she does not repress yet is it no less true as both Councils and Popes have taught that God does impute the approbation of an Errour to those Pastors which have not in due time resisted it Greg. l. 7. p. 2. Ep. 115. Error cui non resistitur approbatur Qui non corrigit resecanda committit Which induc'd the Second Council of Tours to declare Concil Turon 2. Anno 1567. That the Shepherd seem'd to be at an agreement with the Wolf who whiles it was in his power hindered not the spoil which he made in the Flock And S. Leo speaking of those who neglected the application of those necessary Remedies to the Evils of the Church accuses them as plainly fomenters of them Leo Magnus Ep. 4. Qui multam saepe nutriunt pestilentiam dum necessariam dissimulant adhibere medicinam But these are Reflexions my Lords which it were needless to represent to you whose Zeal and Pastoral Illumination is more capable to inform you what is most expedient for the Church upon this occasion then all the Discourses which can be made you It is sufficient that private Divines display and lay open before you the sad Diseases and deep Wounds which they have given to the Faith and to say to every one of you in particular what once the Prophet said to God Vide Domine considera Behold and consider what Doctrine is taught in the Church whereof you are the Overseers Their Duty reaches no farther after this they may retire themselves to lament before Almighty God in Humility and Silence FINIS An Advertisement to the Reader IT will be very conducible to the more perfect understanding of divers particulars in these Papers especially as to what concerns the Five Propositions pretended to be in Jansenius that the Reader did cast his Eye upon the Provincials or Letters written by Lovis de Montalte and chiefly upon the 17 Letters c. which the Interpreter of these Papers had subjoyn'd to them were they not commonly to be had at every Bookseller's shop and already translated into English THE Imaginary Heresie The First LETTER SIR I Would willingly send you something that were new concerning Church-affairs but what can be more said of them then that they are still where they were They perpetually talk of the Five Propositions and threaten to treat them as Hereticks who refuse to acknowledg them to be in Jansenius Some are preparing to persecute them by secret Cabals and others to defend themselves as well as they are able by publick Writings which men reade and give their different opinions of Some commend them and say they are good others that they are too violent 'T is confess'd that they prove very well what they pretend M the Lieutenant Civil has made a very particular judgment of them as pronouncing them injurious to the Person of the King whiles others find nothing in them but Elogies of his Majestie and the defence of his sovereign Authority This is all I can inform you of it in general unless perhaps you would have me adde my own reflexions and the truth is there is an ample subject for them I must needs confess that I have long since admir'd at the patience of men and especially of the French who were not wont to be reproch'd with that fault 't is now at least ten years that they have been continually talking of a thing that did not deserve to be discours'd of one day What does it signifie whether the Five Propositions be or be not in Jansenius's book whether men believe any such thing or whether they doubt of it In the mean time the whole business of the Church seems to be engag'd in this pleasant Question Nor do the Bishops who superintend the Clergy take notice of any other disorder which they think worthy of their application They discourse of nothing save this in all their Assemblies the Formularie is almost the onely Canon which men are now oblig'd to obey and the onely great Crime which is punish'd among the Ecclesiasticks by privation of their employments is to but doubt of this matter of Fact A small grain of anti-Jansenism purges all kinds of defects as the least degree of Indifference in the Point sullies all their other vertues so as the most compendious way for one to make his fortune is to appear something zealous for the Formularie be the man never so Ignorant or Scandalous this zeal supplies and covers all In summe never was the Spanish Catholicon appli'd to so many uses as these Five Propositions Nor are they onely our men of Learning who talk of these matters the very Courtiers entertain themselves with nothing else and though the most understanding persons discourse of it as of a thing really ridiculous to make sport there are some Sr Politicks that make a great business of it One would imagine to hear them speak as if all Religion depended on it and the whole State were concern'd so that there happen no Inundations Tempests Storms Shipwrecks Poison or Plague which they do not attribute to this Foppery But what does most of all surprise me as I said is that men should thus persevere to be alwaies talking of the same thing and of so mean a subject For my own part I protest to you I am so tir'd with the Five Propositions and with all that Dispute that their discourses of it would be insufferable to me did I not look on the whole affair with a particular view according to which it affords me a very strange prospect and I shall impart it to you There is nothing in my opinion more wonderfull in all the histories of the Ages past or in what has happen'd in our own times and of which we have been the spectators then to contemplate the images of the Vanity of mens Fancies and withall to consider the infinite troubles and agitations which the most inconsiderable Trifles have produc'd amongst them Is it not for example a thing worthy of astonishment to behold all the
Kingdomes of the World engage themselves in a Quarrel betwixt Augustus and Antonius the whole force of the Roman Empire and neighbour States re-united in their Armies and these Armies together by the ears near Actium when one shall consider that one Female was the sole cause and pretext of this bloudy War which was to decide who should be master of the Universe and absolutely abolish the whole frame of the Roman State This signal event and which drew such a consequent after it had for its beginning but the face of a Woman and but for this weak passion Antony had taken other measures and in all probability nothing of what succeeded it had happen'd though for my part I am glad it did since by it I perceive what a piece of nothing Man is Antonius whiles he makes the whole World depend upon him does himself depend and dote upon a silly Woman See here the cause of all this stupendious Change a prodigious image of the Vanity of all humane affairs You shall reade in some of the Indian Histories that one white Elephant was the cause of the death of five or six great Princes and of the desolation of several Kingdomes There was among others a King of Pegu who assembled an Army consisting of a million of men in which there were three thousand Camels five thousand Elephants and two hundred thousand Horses to take this Beast from the King of Siam He destroy'd the whole Country of this poor King ruin'd his chief City which was twice as large as ours of Paris and in fine forc'd him to kill himself after the loss of his whole Empire and all this but for one white Elephant Yet had this Conquerour three already he wanted only a fourth for his Coach and to procure that he brought a whole Kingdom to desolation We commonly look upon these Histories as on the Follies and Extravagances of Barbarians but in my judgment we should think otherwise of them I find nothing in them but what seems very worthy of Men and exceedingly proportionable to the stretch of their fancy and so much the less vain as indeed they serve to discover to us the vanity and emptiness of all those Enterprises which the world forsooth would make pass for so glorious and important Do not imagine Sir that these Examples are onely to be met withall in prophane Histories as if that of the Church which is the Kingdom of God were exempted from them This were not rightly to understand in what estate God has decreed it should yet remain in the world which makes S. Paul say that the Creature is subject to Vanity Vanitati creatura subjecta est She is yet Sir mingled with good and bad Chaff and Corn and so mingled indeed that the Chaff is a great deal more visible then the Wheat Nor are those who govern her alwaies true Citizens of Jerusalem they are oftentimes saies S. Augustine but Citizens of Babylon whom God suffers to ascend the thrones of the Church to render them Ministers of his indignation In fine there is ever amongst the honestest men some mixture of weakness which they draw from their natural corruption amongst those solid benefits which they receive from God We are not therefore to wonder if amidst this multitude of Carnal men who fill the visible Church and the remanent defects of the most Spiritual we find instances of all humane disorders Were there nothing but what were edifying and serious in the exterior Government of the Church she would as one might say be too visible and easie to be discerned by which the Faith of those who adhere and submit themselves to her should not be sufficiently exerciz'd But God having by a just judgement left her alwaies sufficient marks whereby to make her known to all humble and rational spirits is pleas'd to obscure her to the proud and such as are carried away by the image of those visible disorders to look on her as upon an humane Assembly which does no otherwise govern her self then other Societies do For this reason it is that God permits that great troubles should be rais'd for things of no moment as well in the Church as in temporal States What was there for example more vain then the fancy which mov'd Justinian to condemn the Writings of three Authors for which he turn'd the whole Oriental Church topsy-turvy and the Western too per superfluas Quaestiones as Pope Pelagius II d expresses it and to what did all tend but to the tormenting of several Bishops the banishing of some imprisonment of others the exciting of a Schism in Italy and all this to no purpose For however this Emperor had caus'd his Opinion to be approv'd by a General Council and divers Popes yet did all which was at that time done come to nothing of it self a little while after since it both is and alwaies was permitted that men might believe what they pleas'd touching those Authors Writings So true it is that matters of Fact are not to be determin'd but by Reason and Truth and not by Authority But such is the frequent conclusion of such enterprises They seem to succeed for a time and soon after dissipate and vanish of themselves But the misery is that men have commonly their spirits so narrow they cannot stretch them beyond their own Times If they spie a Tempest coming against some particular Book or Person they presently give all for lost and that such as succeed after them will judge of it just as they do by the present face of the Storm which terrifies them I cannot but strangely wonder that Experience should not yet disabuse them of this Illusion and teach them to distinguish solid and stable Judgments which proceed from an inspection of immutable Truths from those which spring onely from the blindness of a transitory Passion since these sort of Opinions are as variable as the Passions from whence they rise they are no sooner at an end but that which appear'd so important begins to seem horribly ridiculous and men are astonish'd that there should ever have been any so simple as to have amus'd themselves about them There 's no question but that when the Cordeliers were at a difference between themselves concerning the form of their Capuchon when those who would be call'd the Spiritual Brethren would have their Hood narrower and the others which they nam'd the Brothers of the Communalty would have theirs of a larger size they thought their dispute wonderfull considerable And in good earnest the quarrel lasted almost a whole Age with infinite heat and animosity on both sides being at last with much adoe determin'd by the Bulls of four Popes Nicolas IVth Clement Vth John XXIIth and Benedict XIIth But now it looks as if really it had been onely to make the World sport when men but mention this Dispute and I verily believe there is hardly a Cordelier at present that cares a rush for the size of his Capuchon For so
before any man had the boldness to maintain them This we generally find in all Heresies The Doctrine of Arius is an Heresie but it does not consist in the vain and indeterminate words of the Doctrine of Arius but in this particular Position or Opinion that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father It is the very same in all the rest They all maintain a peculiar and distinct Dogme independent from the name of the Author and when we do not know the Opinion any more we say that we know the Heresie no more and if a man had never known it he might well say that it never was This is sufficient say the Divines to repell that unjust Reproch which they fling upon us of being sectators of a new Heresie For we sincerely protest that we intirely acquiesce in the Authority of the Universal Church that we embrace without the least reservation all the Dogms which She proposes to us as of Faith that we submit all our Understanding and Reason to her and that our hearts do not at all accuse us of holding any Doctrine which is repugnant to her Decisions so as we can say before God with confidence upon this subject Iniquitatem si aspexi in corde meo non exaudiet Dominus We do not conceal our sense but are ready to referre it to the Pope and to the Bishops and to accept them for our Judges We have offer'd it several times and have this consolation that those who are the most prejudic'd against us have nothing to object against us In fine we are so far from embracing any particular Doctrine on the Five Propositions that though we do not acknowledge the Jesuites for the Rules of our Faith yet it is most true that we hold no Opinion upon the matter of the Five Propositions which they dare publickly accuse of Heresie before the Pope or the Bishops How clear and ingenuous Sir is this Declaration how truly Catholick and exceedingly remote from all suspicion of Heresie and that not onely for acquitting these persons of Errours but for shewing that they could not be culpable of Heresie if without their knowledge and consent they should haply fall into some Errour since all the world knows that the crime of Heresie does not consist simply in the Errour but in the Obstinacy to maintain and dwell in an Errour against the judgment of the Church Now how is it possible that these people should impudently maintain an Errour they are totally ignorant of against a judgement of the Church which they know nothing of But this does not satisfie the Jesuites and because they do not find their reckoning in it they continue their accusation of Heresie and this is it which has oblig'd the Divines to give them this defiance and which is certainly very urging Either set the Heresie you impute to us distinctly and clearly down or acknowledge your selves Calumniators for accusing us of an Heresie which you cannot tell what to make of On this it is that the Jesuites have reveal'd the Mysterie of their Politicks and the whole secret of the Heresie In stead of endeavouring to set down describe the Positions a thing which upon trial did never succeed with them they intrench themselves and have recourse to the uncertain expression of the Sense and of the Doctrine of Jansenius without any farther advance You hold say they the Doctrine of Jansenius to be Catholick the Pope declares it heretical behold then your Heresie But as they had to doe with persons very well prepar'd to defend themselves so never was there an Equivocation unriddled as this has been They told F. Annat in express terms that this was a Scholastical Sophism unworthy an old Logician as he was Nunquámne intelliges Dialectice senex puerile argumentationis vitium and they prov'd it well too For some of them it seems condemn his Sense and his Doctrine as heretical whiles others defend it for Catholick without the least difference between them concerning Faith because it is not the same precise and determin'd Sense which is thus condemn'd by some and approv'd by others though they both of them call it by the same name and that is but what we daily meet with in the different explication of an Author For there is ever in these encounters this opposition of words that some affirm the Doctrine of an Author to be Catholick and others that 't is heretical though neither of them disagree touching the true Faith The Fifth Council pronounces the Doctrine of Theodoret to be impious and heretical Father Petavius and many other Jesuites deny it are they therefore against the Faith of the Council By no means since they defend Theodoret but by interpreting him after another way then did the Council and by giving him a Catholick sense 'T is the very same case in the present Dispute The Pope saies the Doctrine of Jansenius is heretical other men say We find no such matter in Jansenius The words have indeed an appearance of contrariety but without implying the least contrariety of Faith forasmuch as the Doctrine which these Divines maintain to be Catholick and of Jansenius is not certainly the same Doctrine which the Pope condemns for heretical and as being that of Jansenius And the proof which they bring is decisive We do not say they maintain on the matter of the Five Propositions any thing save the Doctrine of Grace efficacious alone as 't is held by S. Augustine and by the whole School of S. Thomas Now 't is clear that the Pope does no-where condemn this Doctrine as he makes all the Church believe and indeed as both the Church and the Jesuites themselves do accord It is then certain that the Pope does not condemn that which we understand under the notion of the Sense of Jansenius as we likewise do not hold what the Pope condemns under these terms seeing this Doctrine excepted we have nothing at all to doe with the rest but reject it in general as we are ready to doe in particular when-ever the Church shall please to describe it in particular or to shew us where it is And thus you have the whole state of this ten-years Dispute The Jesuites stand to their sense of Jansenius and all men that will may perceive the Illusion and Equivocation of the terms But in fine F. Ferrier is come up from the very farthest part of all Languedoc to the aid of his Confraternity and has been chosen by F. Annat to publish this Heresie and to answer all those Writings which made it plainly out that it is but a mere Chimaera but especially he undertook to replie to the Treatise of Just Complaints which expressly clears this Equivocation of the Sense of Jansenius Now therefore it is that we shall shortly come to know in what this wondrous Heresie consists or else we must never hope to understand it whiles we live What saies this Reverend Father to us then That 't is expedient to publish
Right and Fact and Questions purely of Fact as will appear by these Examples The Semi-pelagians affirm that the Doctrine of S. Augustine concerning Grace was not orthodox The Calvinists on the contrary maintain that it is The Jesuites say the same And the Church saies so too Whiles we dwell here one shall never come to know whether these Questions are of Fact or of Right but we shall easily discover it by the same Rule The Semi-pelagians acknowledge with the Church that the Doctrine of the Necessity of Grace efficacious of it self for all good actions was really S. Augustine's but they reject this Doctrine as not true at least in regard to the inception of Faith And the Church on the contrary maintains it against them that it is both certain and very true as well in respect of the beginning of Faith as of all other actions of Piety So as since the matter of Fact was not contested and that the dispute was onely concerning the quality of the Doctrine the whole Question between the Church and the Semi-pelagians was purely concerning Right They say with the Semi-pelagians that the Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se is not true but as they are a great deal less sincere then the Semi-pelagians they adde that this Doctrine is not S. Augustine's which the Semi-pelagians do not affirm They are therefore agreed upon the Right with the Semi-pelagians and differ onely upon the pure Fact whereas they neither accord with the Church about the Fact nor the Right though they consent with her in this uncertain expression that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is true because in particular they maintain that the Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se is false and not S. Augustine's albeit the Church has ever acknowledged both the one and the other of these two Points No wonder at all then if in speaking to persons who were at variance not about the Doctrine of S. Augustine in general but the particular Doctrine of efficacious Grace per se it has been said to them in a certain Writing which F. Ferrier has abus'd That it was a Crime an Attempt and an Heresie to condemn the Doctrine of S. Augustine of Heresie which the Church has approved forasmuch as treating of the particular Dogm of efficacious Grace they had reason to affirm that they could not brand it with Heresie without erring in matter of Right and of Faith whether one attacque it for not avowing it to be S. Augustine's as do the Jesuites or acknowledg it for S. Augustine's as did the Semi-pelagians and as those persons would seem to doe to whom this Writing is directed So that the difference which is 'twixt the Church and the Jesuites upon the Doctrine of S. Augustine forms a direct Question of Faith together with a dispute of Fact And of the very same nature is that between the Church and Calvin on the same Doctrine of S. Augustine For he attributing this Errour to S. Augustine That God is the Author of Sin and that he compells the Will to good and evil the asseveration which he makes of this general Proposition that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is orthodox does not excuse him from a double Errour both of Right and Fact since he takes that for a Truth which is an Heresie and attributes to S. Augustine a Blasphemy which was infinitely remote from his thoughts But it may be that the Question concerning the Doctrine of S. Augustine might be purely of Fact from another supposition For if a man led by a false persuasion as was Calvin that S. Augustine teaches God to be as well author of Sins as of Good actions should at the same time condemn the Blasphemy which Calvin approves and by a consequent of this Opinion refuse to acknowledg S. Augustine's Doctrine to be orthodox one could not justly accuse him of Errour in point of Faith because he should condemn what the Church condemns but of an extreme Temerity onely to have father'd so impious an Opinion on S. Augustine But what would be strange in this encounter is That he who should affirm in the sense of Calvin that the Doctrine of S. Augustine were orthodox would notwithstanding be an Heretick because he did not doe it but as approving an Errour which he imputed to S. Augustine whereas he that should say as this person does that the Doctrine of S. Augustine is not orthodox should be Catholick because he would say it without any Errour so little regard there is to be had to be able to judge whether a man be Catholick or Heretick and whether the Questions concern matter of Right or of Fact to these wild and indetermin'd Propositions which approve or condemn anothers Doctrine without so much as shewing it 'T is what S. Augustine has himself decided and in respect to himself by these words full of unction and charity Whilest men saies he L. 1. de Trinit c. 3. imagine that I have held some false Opinion in my Books which in truth I never held and that they condemn this Opinion the law and dictates of Charity advertise and command me but with an injunction full of sweetness to be rather willing to be reprov'd by him who condemns this Errour in attributing it to me without reason then to be prais'd by those who would maintain this Errour because they believ'd I had taught it For though the first did wrongfully to attribute an Errour to me which I never committed they had reason yet to condemn it But the others are under a double mistake since they praise me for an Opinion which the Truth condemns and approve an Opinion which is condemn'd by the Truth True it is that this person who should thus impute an Errour to S. Augustine would be oblig'd to say that the Church has not compris'd it in approving of his Doctrine which would be very rash and scandalous because he would say it without and against all Reason whereas there are some occasions wherein one might doe the same thing without temerity or scandal because one does it not but upon great reason the only Rule for these kind of things being That 't is lawfull to doe them with Reason but by no means without it And therefore It is lawfull to accuse of Supposition the Council of Sinuessa and it is not so in reference to the Council of Nice It is lawfull to say that Theodoret has been ill understood by the Sixth Council but it is not lawfull to say that Nestorius was so by the Council of Ephesus It is lawfull to affirm that they did not understand the Doctrine of Pope Honorius in the VIth Council but it is not so of the Doctrine of Pope Leo in the Council of Chalcedon That which makes that some of these things are permitted and others of them forbidden is that there is Reason to say it of some but none at all to say it of the other So that 't is a very frail consequence which F. Ferrier
urg'd to condemn it because supposing they do not understand it they can neither truely averr that they do reject it nor promise truely that they will not embrace it for peradventure they may be engag'd to doe it without knowing of it and perhaps fall into it before they are aware Now if we suppose that these Divines do know what the Pope and the Bishops understand by this Sense of Jansenius they have so much the more reason to demand because they onely know it by particular waies and such as are not authentical so that if they should themselves determine what the Pope understands by the Sense of Jansenius as these Propositions are susceptible of various senses the Jesuites would not fail presently to say that this were not yet what the Pope understands and what they ought to condemn in fine that 't were some other thing without saying what and so one should never have an end It were therefore much better they should make their addresses to those who have the power to determine this Sense that if they once did it it might clearly appear by condemning this Dogm together with them in which they had comprehended the Sense of Jansenius that one be not enwrapp'd in any Errour But the plain truth is These Divines both do know and do not know the Sense of Jansenius They do very well know a Doctrine in Jansenius to be very holy very Catholick and most Orthodox which is that of Efficacious Grace per se which infallibly causes the Will to act without imposing of a necessity They acknowledge the Catholick Doctrine of the free Predestination of the Elect receiv'd by the whole Church and maintain'd by Bellarmine himself as a point of Faith and they do acknowledge no other Point upon the subject of the Five Propositions But since it is evident by the universal consent of the Church that this is not that which the Pope and the Bishops mean by the Sense of Jansenius which they condemn but a certain Sense which was never known to our Divines before Baius and Jansenius according to those Gentlemen the Bishops of the Assembly a certain Sense contrary to the Doctrine of all the Catholick Schools as these very Bishops do assure us a certain Sense different from efficacious Grace repugnant to S. Augustine and which has been constantly condemn'd by the Dominicans and the Jesuites as F. Annat and M. Hallier have so deeply protested before the Constitution of Pope Innocent It is this certain Sense which these Divines do not understand or at least which they but very confusedly know They know all that the Jesuites and the other adversaries of Jansenius have said of it in divers Books But they see that their Explanations do not agree together whiles some of them place it in one Point and others in another All that they know of this Sense is that it is different from Efficacious Grace and by consequent that they do not hold it and that they reject it because they hold but this Doctrine and that whatsoever Doctrine is repugnant to it is false So as in the necessity to which they are reduc'd for the justification of their Faith and to avoid the reproch which they cast on them touching this uncertain unexplicable Sense they have reason to appeal to the Bishops who ought to know it since they condemn it and to the Pope who could not have condemn'd it without knowing it to conjure them to explain it that so they may be inabled to confound their Accusers in shewing the world how free they are from any Errour This is the onely reason which makes them require with so much earnestness the Explication of this Sense for they have otherwise no such hast to know it They hold the truth of the Doctrine of Efficacious Grace per se and reject whatsoever Errour is repugnant to it whether it be in attributing too little to Grace as the Molinists or in destroying its liberty as this pretended Errour of Jansenius's Sense should be This suffices them so as men molest them not with the indetermin'd Sense of Jansenius and they will soon leave enquiring what it is But if they continue their Persecutions thus upon this point they will be forc'd to continue the pressing of them to explain this Sense nor can they refuse to doe it without an evident sign of Oppression For the Bishops cannot in conscience make them condemn it without they know it and if they do know it 't is a foolery not to be understood that they should refuse to declare it But Sir it is now time we took off our spirits from these subtile matters and which smell of the School to oppose another Illusion of Father Ferrier not a whit less dangerous but somewhat more intelligible This Father does upon all occasions represent the present Church as divided in two Parties The one pompous and triumphant as compos'd of the Pope the Bishops and of all both Ecclesiastical Secular and Regular who condemn the Sense of Jansenius as heretical who believe that matter of Fact is inseparable from matter of Right and that therefore it is not to be deny'd without being an Heretick The other poor and abandon'd as consisting but of a small number of Divines who refuse to acknowledge that the Sense of Jansenius is heretical who hold that there is a Fact separate from Right in the Decision of the Pope which condemns it and that therefore one may by consequence refuse to believe it without being an Heretick This is the Idea which F. Ferrier gives us of the Church in his Treatise But as there is nothing more prodigious then this Idea so is there also nothing more false God will never abandon his Church to that degree as to suffer so gross and visible an Errour to reign in it And every man may by himself be convinc'd of the falseness of this phantastick Supposition For unless a man wilfully shut his own eyes one cannot deny but there are in the Church no less then four different Opinions upon the Formularie The First is that of the Jesuites who affirm that matter of Fact is inseparable from that of Right and that quatenus so it cannot be deny'd without Heresie The Second is that of a considerable number of Divines who believe that though it be no Article of divine Faith to hold that the Sense of Jansenius is heretical and that the Fact may very well be separated from Right yet that Christian humility obliges us nevertheless to prefer the Sense of the Pope to his proper Illumination and so they ought to believe the Fact by humane Faith and under that notion sign the Formularie The Third and the most embrac'd consists in affirming that a man is not oblig'd to believe the matter of Fact as decided either by divine or humane Faith but that one may for all that sign the Formularie without violating his Conscience because the Signature does never concern or fall upon the Facts
The Fourth is the opinion of several other Divines who are persuaded of one part that it is most false the Fact should be separated from Right or that it should be a point of Faith to hold the Doctrine of Jansenius heretical or that a man is obliged to believe it by humane Faith but who believe on the other part that the Fact being contain'd in this Formularie those who scruple it cannot sign it without restriction since the declarations which men make to the Church ought to be intirely sincere and free of all duplicity It is visible that in this difference of Divines each party condemns the others but after a sort very different The Jesuites who make the first ought by the necessary consequence of their Opinion to condemn for Heresie not onely the last who absolutely refuse to sign that the sense of Jansenius is heretical but those likewise who do not believe it of humane Faith or that believe it not at all albeit they sign it For Heresie consists in the opinion of the spirit and not in the omission of an exterior action of the hand A person who should not believe but with an humane Faith that the Body of J. Christ were in the Sacrament of the Eucharist or that should sign it in infidelity would be never the less an Heretick then he who should absolutely refuse to sign it So as all those many Bishops that have caus'd none to sign or that receive restrictions concerning the matter of Fact or that declare they do not require the belief of the Fact or that pretend not the Fact can be otherwise believ'd then by humane Faith are as much Hereticks in the judgement of the Jesuites and of F. Annat as these Divines whom they particularly persecute True it is their Politicks oblige them to distinguish of two sorts of Hereticks in France some of which they treat civilly and others most outrageously They place the Bishops Sorbonists the Fathers of the Oratory the Benedictines c. in the first order and whom they do not yet attacque but by consequence though by a very necessary one whiles they range in the other those whom they immediately design for ruine that so they may with the greater force surprize the other Therefore it is sufficiently evident that all those persons who have sign'd the Fact either of humane Faith or without believing it shall be never the more acquitted for that but be all Hereticks in their turn when they have left off oppressing the others seeing they must of necessity be so in the opinion of the Jesuites But on the contrary all these three last parties who accord in this point that this Fact of Jansenius is very separable from Right that it does not in the least concern the Faith and that one may safely deny it without Heresie ought from a necessary consequence of this their mutual Opinion condemn the Jesuites both of Calumny and Errour It is certain these four Parties reside in the Church and that if one would now consider which of them were the most numerous one might safely affirm that there are none more profligate and abandon'd and who have fewer sincere approbators then that of the Jesuites Nor is this an aiery Supposition but a real Verity to be discern'd by every one that has a mind to it that the Jesuites stand almost single in this pretension that matter of Fact is inseparable from matter of Right and that one cannot believe without being an Heretick the Doctrine of Jansenius not to be heretical The most devoted to the Jesuites of the Bishops ask for whom the World takes them that they should believe them capable of so monstrous a Folly as is that of affirming that a Fact should be inseparably joyn'd to Faith They express as much as one would wish in words that they do not require the assent of Fact They receive the Subscriptions of those whom they very well know do not believe it and who declare as much before they sign All the Curats of Paris do solemnly approve and by an authentick Act the Distinction between Fact and Right contain'd in the first Mandat of Paris In fine they proceed with confidence that the Jesuites cannot find six Bishops in all France and ten Divines of the least considerable persons who will sign this Proposition which F. Ferrier maintains and which is the basis of all his Treatise The Fact of Jansenius is inseparable from Faith and one cannot reject the Dogm which is condemned without acknowledging it to be Jansenius ' s. And in particular they affirm that he could not make M. Grandin sign nor M. Moret nor amongst the Doctors M. Chamillart nor Monsieur de Rouën amongst the Bishops It is certain therefore that the Jesuites are in a manner alone in their erroneous opinions And 't is as true that the Divines whom they persecute are almost wholly united to the Church in this difference which is between them I confess they have yet some dispute with the other Divines because against the one they maintain that one owes not so much as humane Faith to Decisions de facto when there is any cause of doubt administred and against the other that it was not altogether sincere in them to subscribe a Formularie which clearly comprizes a Fact without being fully persuaded of the Fact But this difference has relation to Manners onely and not to Faith and in this very difference they may make use of the authority of the one to defend themselves against the other Those who sign the Fact as of humane Faith approve of their Doctrine touching the Sincerity of Subscriptions Those who sign the Fact without believing it approve what they affirm That the Church obliges none to believe the Fact by way of command so as to the truth they have this consolation that in every of the Points whereof they are accus'd they are united in Opinion with the greatest part of the Divines of the Church Whoever shall take the pains diligently to inform himself of the bottom of these particulars will clearly find that what I say is most true And if any man ask why the contrary appears to the World that the Jesuites domineer every-where and the Divines are oppress'd it is not very difficult to give a reason for it They are onely to consider what Post F. Annat holds and what Power the place in which he is affords him both at Rome and at Paris to doe what he pleases as to this matter They know nothing at Rome but from the Instructions which he sends them and he stands at the gate of all the Benefices of France to exclude who-ever stands in his way in any thing Every one has his particular business at Court and those who have no other either for themselues or their Communalty enjoy their repose in which they will not be molested Jansenism is the onely affair of Father Annat so as that people may not be cross'd in their particular businesses
they let F. Annat alone with his Not that this Reverend Father with all his credit is yet arriv'd so far as to be able to procure the Bishops or the Pope by any formal Decisions to support these particular Absurdities of his Society That matter of Fact is inseparably annex'd to Faith and That he who denies it is an Heretick He is not so weak a man as to attempt that at present He satisfies himself that every one signs the Fact simply without taking notice of his intention to make use of these Subscriptions when time serves and as may best conduce to his ends nor for the most part does he find any difficulty in it since their spirits furnishing them with expedients to sign without believing the Fact either of divine or humane Faith their Interests easily persuade them to embrace them They fansie themselves not oblig'd openly to oppose F. Annat but that they may safely shelter themselves from this rowling tempest and therefore suffer him freely to oppress those against whom he is particularly animated because they conceive it their own fault that they do not seek their safety as they doe by a Subscription which as they affirm engages them to nothing By this means those who refuse to sign remain expos'd to the unjust violence of the Jesuites Those who agree with them in certain Points and condemn them in others blame them highly in those particulars about which they contest with them but they are very wary to defend them when they think they have reason on their side How infinitely are these Gentlemen mistaken saies honest M. Moret in all his Sermons not to believe the Decision de facto with an humane Faith But he is wary enough not to adde that the Jesuites are mistaken who require we should treat those as Hereticks who acknowledge no Fact which we can onely assent to but by humane Faith Yet is this manner of acting more tolerable then that of those who say nothing at all in publick concerning their intention but joyn simply with the Jesuites by an exteriour signature however different and remote in their sense If they did but say clearly what they reprove in those who do not sign the diversity of their opinions would render their authority less considerable but whiles they say nothing at all such as onely judge things by the out-side take them for approbators of the Opinions of the Jesuites 'T is not therefore an universal Illusion but an universal Baseness which makes these Divines to be oppress'd or rather 't is the Oppression of the Church in general which renders their Oppression particular Let every man speak as he thinks and they shall be fully justified Let every man also condemn them as he thinks and they shall yet be more fully justified seeing it will appear that in all the Points on which they are accus'd they are united with the greater number of the Divines of the Church But the terror and dread of F. Annat keeps all mens tongues bound to defend them and lets them all loose to condemn them uniting in one equivocal expression persons that are extremely distant in Opinion that so F. Annat may seem to be follow'd of the whole Church whenas in truth he is in effect condemn'd by the whole Church Were there indeed no other Life besides the present nor any other Judge save Men it must needs be confess'd that F. Annat were a marvelous able man for knowing how to conceal with so much address the weakness of his Party How victorious in appearance is he whenas in effect he is abandon'd by all the World But this Father whilest he thinks to cheat others cheats himself first because the business in agitation here is of things which depend upon the truth and will be judged by the truth and not on appearance It is not a deceitfull union in an equivocal expression which renders one orthodox but a real and veritable conformity of ones sense with that of the universal Church in matters which concern the Faith So as these Divines maintaining no other Doctrine upon the Fact of Jansenius but that of the whole Church which is that this Fact has no relation to Faith continue Orthodox whatever Cabal they contrive to oppress them And both F. Annat and the Jesuites who would make it a point of Faith are not Orthodox for all their power and credit forasmuch as in this they are really repugnant to the sense of the Church into which they do introduce a Real Heresie under pretence forsooth of destroying an Heresie which is but Imaginary One may therefore justly applie these words of J. Christ to the Jesuites which he spake to a Bishop in the Apocalypse Dicis quòd dives sum locupletatus nullius egeo nescis quia es miser miserabilis pauper cacus nudus You conceit your selves indeed rich and aboundant by the number of your Sectators whereas in the mean time you are miserable and objects of compassion You are poor abandon'd blind and naked since all those who seem so much to follow you do in effect condemn you And one may on the contrary applie to these persecuted Divines those other words of our B. Saviour to another Bishop in the same Book Scio tribulationem tuam paupertatem tuam sed dives es blasphemaris ab his qui se dicunt Judaeos esse non sunt I know the Oppressions which you suffer and the poverty which they reproch you of notwithstanding ye are rich because the most part of those who appear against you are in truth for you and you are born down but by people who pronounce themselves Orthodox but who are indeed replete with Errours Sir I am c. This 1. of March 1664. Since this Letter was finished I have receiv'd a large Writing of F. Ferrier's intituled Relation veritable c. A true Relation c. I conceive as to what relates to the Heresie of which he continues to accuse the Divines who are more Catholick then himself you will find nothing in it which is not here overthrown before-hand But as to the prodigious number of Falsities with which his Relation abounds this Father deserves to be particularly answered and I am assur'd there will some body be found out that will so doe it as the Jesuites will hardly find the advantage they expected of their Impostures The Third LETTER SIR I Have already told you and I repeat it again that within one fifty years men will look upon this pretended Heresie of Jansenism but as a rare example of the Vanity of mens spirits and rank the whole Dispute with that of the Cowls and the Cordeliers Bread They will then ask with astonishment what this Father Annat and F. Ferrier were that spake such impertinent things in the Age they liv'd in and who those silly persons were that suffer'd themselves to be led by their Dotages But these you 'l say are Prophecies and 't is no hard
be they what they will yet the Sense of Jansenius must in general be condemn'd and it is this general and unexplicable Sense of Jansenius in which according to the Jesuites consists the Heresie of Jansenius It must be confess'd that since men did ever reason together there was never the like Extravagancy But the consequence is yet infinitely more strange For albeit the greatest part of the world laugh'd at it in particular yet they so carried it in publick as if they were of it and the Jesuites have the credit to establish this unheard-of Absurdity to introduce the practice of a Subscription which was never yet heard of in the Church unless it were amongst the Hereticks who are blam'd for it by those who have defended the Church against them For 't is requisite we should know that since the Church was a Church one has never oblig'd either Religious men or School-masters or Clerks or so much as simple Priests to sign They were the German Lutherans of the Confession of Ausburg who for one time onely caus'd their Confession of Faith to be sign'd by the Principals of the Colleges and the Masters of Schools And they are reprov'd for it by Cardinal Bellarmine as of an insupportable Vanity and a Novelty unheard-of in the Church of God ever since the Apostles Now that so strange a thing as this practice to which there was never any recourse in the most damnable Heresies should be introduc'd in France that is to say in a Church the free'st of the world and the greatest enemy to these Servitudes and upon occasion of such Trifles this is what is most stupendious indeed but in that manner which we admire the extraordinary effects of the Fantasticalness of men It is certain yet that the Jesuites could not have better publish'd to the world the excess of that credit which they have in the Church then by this means 'T is nothing to establish reasonable things no man can tell whether it be Reason or Force which has made them to be receiv'd but to make their power appear indeed one should chuse such things as these which are most excessively irrational I can say no more to exalt the power of the Jesuites and we must acknowledge that having succeeded in this Design they are able to doe what-ever is not impossible But in this as ill luck would have it the Heresie of the Sense of Jansenius which they would universally establish is one of those impossible things since to persuade the world of it they must of course change the common Sense of men so as in spight of them the Cause of their adversaries must of necessity vanquish in this last point which is as it were the ultimate Redoubt of the Jesuites I do not onely say that it must needs be so for the future and that all the pretensions of the Jesuites upon the question de facto of Jansenius should pass for ridiculous but I say 't is already so because they do pass for such already amongst all persons who have any cognisance of those matters and that there are very few of them but are disabus'd This I have demonstrated by other proofs in my precedent Letters and therefore I satisfie my self for this time with a concluding one There are divers Bishops in France who have boldly declar'd in the face of the Church that matter of Fact and matter of Right are different things in the affair of Jansenius that all Heresie consists in a precise Dogm and that one cannot with the least shadow of Justice treat those as Hereticks whom they do not reproch with any particular Heresie because they do simply question whether any such Propositions are in a Book or no. M. de Alet M. de Vence M. de Beauvais and M. d' Anger 's clearly promote all these Propositions as certain and indubitable and you may find them all comprehended in M. de Comenge's Letter to the King which is alone sufficient to ruine all the Impostures of Father Ferrier and all the Errours of the Jesuites In the mean time these Fathers with all their credit cannot find Five other Bishops in France that dare formally to promote the Propositions contrary to those which are maintain'd by these Prelates They may find some that may speak of the conceal'd venome of the Heresie of Jansenism because they are words which signifie nothing and which they willingly yield to the strongest party But they could never yet find any that durst affirm that matter of Fact and matter of Right were things inseparable and that there was ever any Heresie without some particular Dogm because there is a certain stop to common Sense which hinders those who have never so little wit from such a degree of Extravagance But you will say at least that the Jesuites Cause has all the advantage at Rome because the Briefs are all in their favour But let me tell you Sir 'T is true the Calumnies of the Jesuites have render'd the Divines odious there because they are opposite to the unjust pretences of the Roman Court against the Sovereignty of Kings and the Jurisdiction of Bishops and therefore perhaps they are not displeas'd at Rome at the Oppression which they suffer But since they have common Sense at Rome as well as at other places all that these Divines maintain here is receiv'd there and as well believ'd as in other places indeed more generally then in France it self because Passion has not so much disturb'd their Reason and their Judgement I do not love to report things without proof and therefore I shall alledge one which is very decisive upon this particular viz. That even the Inquisition of Rome has newly authentically approv'd all that those whom they call Jansenists have taught in France upon the Question de facto de jure which is so ridiculously oppos'd by the Jesuites I conceive you will not require of me to shew you that the Inquisition has given this Judgment in favour of them under the express names of Jansenius and Jansenists You know well enough what Reasons they have to hinder them from rendring them this exact Justice But you ought to be satisfied that I shew you wherein they have render'd it in a Cause so like it that it differs only in the name And now judge whether I do not make it good What do these Divines pretend There is say they a very wide difference between defending of condemn'd Opinions and such as are repugnant to the Catholick Faith which they attribute to Jansenius Bishop of Ypres and maintaining that Jansenius Bishop of Ypres has not taught those condemn'd Opinions The First would be prejudicial to the Church and to their selves but the Second is not in any kinde so For as all Divines acknowledg there is a great deal of difference between saying that the General Councils the Church can erre in jure in condemning an Opinion which does not deserve to be condemn'd and affirming that it can
to the Congregation did of their own accord and by their Letters Patent corroborated with their Seal and the subscription of the most eminent Cardinal Borgia commend and approve that my Letter and Zeal exhorting me to constancy in rendring my services to the holy See Apostolick I appeal then to the Archives of the same holy Convocation animated to make this Denunciation by a Person whom I am ready to produce as becomes the design in hand To Father Wadding a Jesuite pretended Chancellor of the University of Prague who endeavour'd my Reconciliation with the Society I promis'd my most humble services upon condition he could prove that the aforementioned Fourteen Crimes were not prohibited under penalty of mortal Sin But he immediately breaking off the discourse departs in a rage and was never seen by me since With like success some years after F. Nicolas Lensisius Exprovincial of Lithuania together with Baron Pramorus Dean of the Cathedral of Comacum in the presence of divers Noble Persons us'd much persuasion to induce me to a better intelligence with the Society But he not having the patience to hear me reade what I had written concerning those Fourteen Actions suddainly departed nor so much as ever reply'd to the Letters which I had sent him on this Argument nor did I afterwards see him any more Being by these and many of the like nature incited to denounce to the H. Apostolick See this growing or rather raging Heresie of that Society I did humbly by an Epistle dated from our Monasterie at Rome admonish Mutius Vitellescus then General of the Society concerning that Affair a Copie whereof I exhibited to Pope Urban the VIIIth of happy memory and to some of the Cardinals who are yet living designing an Exemplar of the same to the Emperour Ferdinand the Second that my judicial Declaration being thus dispos'd of might appear the more innocent when I found that Evangelical correction did nothing avail But neither receiv'd I any answer from Mutius nor observed any Reformation in the Society Thus may I have sufficiently asserted the sincerity of my Declaration as instituted according to the rule of the Holy Gospel and the Canons for the Conservation of Faith and purity of Manners But it also concerns my particular safety which I supplicate you will protect against the Jesuites who desire nothing more then my ruine yea that I were even buried alive with as much indignity to those whose Asylum I invoke as this my personal welfare concerns the integrity of the Catholick Faith Your Holinesse's most humble Servant F. Valer. Capuchinus 28 April 1659. The Copy of a Letter from a R. F. Provincial to the R. R. F. General of the Capuchins WHAT a Tragedy the Apologetick Libell of our Father Valerianus lately publish'd against the Fathers of the Society has rais'd amongst us I will briefly relate Upon the Eve of the Purification of the B. Virgin there appear'd in this our Convent of Vienna the Auditor of the Apostolick Nuncio in a Coach and with him the Secretaries of the Emperor attended with arm'd Souldiers The Auditor having call'd before him the F. Valerian the Guardian of the Place being also present denounces an Arrest against him in the name of the Pope and the Nuncio But the Secretary commands him in the Emperor's name to come without delay immediately into the Coach unless he would be violently seised by the Souldiers He willingly obeys and is led to the Imperial Hospital where he is cast into the most publick and infamous Prison and committed to the custody of the Souldiers thence to be shortly brought forth and as he saies by the command of his Holiness sent Captive to Rome In the mean time behold the whole City of Vienna in an uproar the greater part of both Sexes and of all conditions astonish'd and wondring at this leud manner of proceeding detests it as scandalous precipitate and highly prejudicial to Religion As well Secular persons as Regulars of almost all Orders and even the Grandees themselves run flocking to the Monasterie compassionate the Father's condition some of them of their own accord repair to the Emperor the Empress the Apostolical Nuncio and others of the Nobility whom it concern'd defend the case of Valerianus and of our Order supplicating that means may be found out to obviate the Scandal In the streets are heard the clamors of the People Let the good Capuchins live Let F. Valerian live He suffers thus for the truth c. Let the FF of the Society perish the authors and promoters of all these Confusions Thus they pursue them with imprecations casting dirt and stones at as many of them as come in their way I being at this time employ'd in visiting the neighboring Convents no sooner hear of this but I hasten to Vienna find the Apostolick Nuncio exceedingly perplex'd and passing the nights without sleep declare to him the danger of so great a Tumult pressing him to seek out some Expedient to appease the present and future Scandals He reply'd That he did truly compassionate us and the F. Valerian but durst not disobey the Pontifical Mandats requesting me that I would think of some means how to avert these imminent evils and in fine concludes he would conform himself Caution being given to the disposal of Caesar affirming that he was ignorant of the manner of his Imprisonment From hence I goe to other of the Nobility and at length to the Emperor himself who hearing me very graciously I declare that I came not to plead for the F. Valerian or defend his Actions but to implore Justice that by his Majestie 's Mediation the said Father might be conven'd before a competent Judge his Process heard and being found guilty might be punish'd according to his demerits as he himself also desir'd at least I earnestly beseech him that these Scandals might be repress'd and mature provision made for the honour of our Religion being my self no otherwise concern'd in the affair To this I adde how much all men are astonish'd with admiration that a Capuchin of sixty years in the Order for Life and Manners of highest reputation formerly Provincial of this Country looked upon as one likely to be made General of the whole Order and in time advanc'd to the dignity of Cardinal that had deserv'd so well of the House of Austria by whose negotiation and dexterity the Marriage between the King of Poland and the Daughter of the Emperour Ferdinand the II d succeeded happily that had manag'd divers Embassies to the same King of Poland the See Apostolical and other Princes with success meriting no less of the Roman Church Apostolick Missionary for many years defending the Faith by his Writings and Disputations exposing his life to perills not without admirable advantage of Souls the Conversion of Princes and even of some Preachers themselves That I say such a Person allied by bloud to many Nobles and Princes should with an armed band be surpris'd in his Convent or his own
above that of General Councils and beyond the limits which have alwaies been most religiously conserved in the Church of France having heard the Syndic of the Faculty of Theologie and Monsieur Vincent de Meurs Doctor in the said Faculty of the College of Navar who was to preside at the said Dispute and the said Droüet the Respondent who had all been sent for in pursuance of the Decree of the 19 of this Month as also having heard the King's Council in their Conclusions the Court hath prohibited and forbidden and doth prohibit and forbid the said Droüet to defend the said Thesis hath ordained and doth ordain that it be supprest together with all the rest that shall be found to contain such like Propositions prohibits and forbids all Bachelors Licentiats and Doctors and other persons to write defend and dispute to reade and teach directly or indirectly in the publick Schools or elsewhere any such like or other Propositions contrary to the Ancient Doctrine of the Church to the holy Canons Decrees of General Councils to the Liberties of the Gallican Church and to the Ancient Decrees of the Faculty of Theologie of Paris under pain to be proceeded against according to their demerits Prohibits the Syndic of the said Faculty and the Doctors who shall there preside at the Acts to suffer any such Propositions to be inserted in any Thesis Ordains that this present Decree be read at the general Assembly of the said Faculty of Theologie to be holden in Sorbon the first day which the Court shall command in the presence of two Counsellors of the said Court who together with one of the Substitutes of the King's Attourney-General shall go thither expresly for that purpose To which Assembly shall be summoned all the Doctors of the said Faculty as also even the Bachelors of the first Licence And this Decree shall be Registred in the Registers of the said Faculty and signified to the Rectors Deans and Proctors of the other Faculties there to be Read and Registred and sent to other Universities as also to the Bayliages and Stewardships of this Jurisdiction there to be likewise Read Publish'd and Registred by the procurement of the Substitutes of the King's Attourny-General who within one Month are to make Certificate thereof to the Court. Given in Parliament the 22 Jan. 1662 3. Signed Robert Collationed Notes upon it The Errour of the First Proposition lies in the word supra above for the French Church holds the Pope to have the highest Authority in the Church that is over particular men but not over the whole Church for so it professed in the Council of Trent that it was the Faith of France received from the Councils of Constance and Basil that a General Council is above the Pope as also hath been practised by divers General Councils The Errour of the Second Proposition is That the Privileges of Ancient Churches such as the French Church is come from the Indulgence of the Pope and not from the Succession to the Apostles and Apostolical Founders of them and their first Institution The form of which Churches is to be the Rule to all Christian Churches by whomsoever they are founded nor is it lawfull to bring in new forms without violating Divine Right delivered in the constant Tradition of the Church The Errour of the Third Proposition consisteth in this That it takes away the Practice of the Church begun by the Apostles and continued to the Council of Trent is against manifest Experience and in effect takes away all efficacity of extinguishing Heresies and Schisms reducing it to the weak principle of the Pope's Infallibility and extraordinary Power of which enough is above delivered in proportion to these short Notes to shew how dangerous the mentioned Errours are and how necessary to be condemned and avoided by all good Christians as pernicious both to Church and State Postscript Since the foregoing News 't is advertis'd that the contrary to the before-condemned Theses hath been publickly defended by the Son of Monsieur Le Tellier one of the chief Ministers of State the Arch-Bishop of Paris himself presiding FINIS