〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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
Boulogne and that whosoever should dare maintain this Translation was unjust did erre both from the Truth and Catholick Faith Fuit igitur à Basileensi Civitate legitima pro tunc nostra Concilii dissolutio asserentes contrà sunt penitus ab omni veritate fide Catholica alieni And yet notwithstanding the Fathers of the Council of Basil persisting that this Translation was unjust and null Eugenius was forc'd to acknowledge by another as authentick a Bull that in effect it was void and that the Council was alwaies legitimately assembled from the beginning of it to that very time You may find both the one and the other of these Bulls in Raynaldus the first in the year 1433 and the latter in Anno 1434. Now shall both of these be embrac'd for Articles of Faith And shall we be oblig'd to believe that the same Council at the very same time was an Unlawfull Conventicle and a Lawfull Council of the Universal Church assembled by the Holy Spirit The same Raynaldus mentions a Bull of Eugenius the IVth against the Cardinal d' Arles Ad Ann. 1640. who presided at the Council of Basil wherein he is call'd Iniquitatis alumnus atque perditionls filius If the Suffrage of the Popes in the Judgments which they make concerning Persons by their Bulls are to be reputed as Infallible as that of Jesus Christ we should be oblig'd to hold this Cardinal for a very wicked Caitiff But what shall we think if God have judg'd otherwise concerning him and that far from willing us to detest him as a Child of Iniquity and a Son of Perdition he would have us to reverence him for one of the Blessed confirming his Sanctity by publick Miracles authoriz'd by another Pope which was Clement the VIIth who has by an authentick Bull enroll'd him among the number of the Happy by declaring not that he had done Penance after his being a Child of Iniquity but that he had alwaies led a most heavenly chast and immaculate life as it is to be seen in that Bull of his Beatification recited at large by Ciaconius These are some Examples which sufficiently discover to us the false pretence of these Jesuites But without seeking farther the very Authors of this Doctrine find themselves plung'd in Heresie by the undeniable sequel of their Errours For they maintain in this very Conclusion That Pope Honorius has taught nothing in his Epistles but what was most consonant and agreeable to the Catholick Faith concerning the two Wills and two Operations in Jesus Christ Duas in Christo Voluntates Operationes fuisse profitemur nec aliud à nobis sensit Honorius dum Operationem Christi unicam esse scripsit Now if this be a point of Faith as these Jesuites pretend That the Book of Jansenius is Heretical and that the Five Propositions are of this Author because two Popes have affirmed it and that we are oblig'd to consider what they say in those Particulars as if J. Christ had himself pronounc'd it with how much greater reason may we affirm the same of Pope Honorius's Epistles which have both been examin'd condemn'd and Burnt by a General Council of the whole Church where the Pope himself presided by his Legats and which has been confirm'd as to this very point and Article by two other General Councils more and by a very great number of Popes beside For if ever Popes speak out of the Chair it is then when they speak with the General Councils and confirm them by their Apostolical Authority And thus doubtless Leo Epist ad Constan Pope Leo the Second spake out of his Chair when in several of his Epistles which he wrote to confirm the VIth Oecumenical Council he did in particular ratifie the Condemnation of Honorius and pronounced him Anathema because he had not enlightned the Apostolical Church they are the express words by the doctrine of Apostolical Tradition but suffered her to be defiled by a prophane Tradition Qui hanc Apostolicam Ecclesiam non Apostolicae Traditionis doctrinâ illustravit sed prophanâ Traditione maculari permisit And by consequence if then when the Popes dictate from their Chair whatsoever the Subject be matter of Right or Fact they have the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ and that all which they pronounce is an Article of Faith it ought to be as much a matter of Faith that the Epistles of Honorius are Heretical and the person who denies it after assent to this general Maxime bears the most notorious mark of an Heretick according to S. Paul which is to be self-condemned It would not signifie in the least to have recourse to that pretended falsification of the Acts of the VIth Council and the Epistles of Leo the Second For as this pretence is altogether unmaintainable frivolous and extravagant as even the most devoted Bishops to the Jesuites have themselves acknowledged in the last Assembly of the Clergy were there onely this miserable evasion to excuse us from believing with a divine Faith that Honorius was justly Anathematiz'd and his Epistles legally condemn'd as replete with Heresies we must certainly have renounc'd our common Senses to form any other judgment concerning that Pope and not to hold his Epistles for Heretical But as it is the property of Errour to destroy it self He that should be engaged by this novel Opinion of the Jesuites necessarily to hold that the Epistles of Honorius are Heretical by the same would find himself oblig'd to acknowledg the Fallacy of this Opinion For how should he believe that all Popes are endow'd with a like Infallibility with J. Christ what time they speak out of their Chair considering that Honorius slipt into an Errour in a conjuncture in which 't is difficult to conceive but that he did speak out of his Chair seeing he spake as a Judge in a Controversie of Faith and in order to the adjusting of the greatest difference which was then on foot in the Church and which had divided all the Oriental Patriarchs And for all this not regarding the judgment of the VIth Council and supposing what is extremely ridiculous that the Acts thereof were corrupted how should it be pretended that Honorius had in this encounter the same Infallibility with J. Christ since having by his Letters approved the heretical Epistles of Sergius Patriarch of Constantinople either he understood it as he ought and then he erred in point of Right by approving the heretical Opinion of one single Will in J. Christ which he had acknowledg'd to be in effect contain'd in this Epistle of Sergius or he understood it amiss for accepting that in a Catholick sense which Sergius had asserted in an Heretical and so he had at least erred in point of Faith So that the Jesuites can in no sort avoid the being Hereticks in either sense For if it be Heresie as doubtless it is to attribute to Popes speaking è Cathedra the same Infallibility with Jesus Christ as well
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
derives in his Writings That if it be lawfull to say the Pope did not well understand Jansenius in condemning him one might as well say of the Church that she did not rightly comprehend the Doctrine of S. Augustine in approving it since it being not permitted to doe either of them without Reason it were lawfull to doe both when Reason requir'd it And the truth is that one of them which is to affirm the Doctrine of Jansenius was never throughly understood at Rome is very lawfull because there is great Reason to believe it and the other that the Doctrine of S. Augustine was not well comprehended is very unlawfull because there is also no Reason for it as will be demonstrated in another Treatise One cannot therefore know in general whether it be lawfull or not to affirm that an Author has been ill understood by the Church since it depends on the particular Reasons which induce one to say it Nor can one also know in general whether those who dispute whether the Doctrine of an Author be Catholick or Heretical are at variance upon the Right or the Fact since it may be upon either of them but one may clearly understand it by examining in Particular what is agreed upon or contested both by the one and the other And hence it is they easily prove that the present Contestation about the Doctrine of Jansenius is a pure Question of Fact For it would in truth prove a Question of Right if there were a certain precise Dogm maintain'd by some for Catholick and condemn'd by others for heretical But seeing the contrary is true that there is no precise and determin'd Dogm in the present Contestation as appears clearly from F. Ferrier's not being able to specifie any 't is visible that the Question is but concerning matter of Fact And therefore it must be acknowledg'd F. Ferrier has not altogether fail'd of the promise which he makes in the Title of his Treatise to present us with the true Idea of Jansenism For this true Idea consisting in conceiving an Imaginary Heresie his Treatise is of excellent use for the forming of this Idea since in Heresie without Position and without any Question concerning Faith such as is what he presents us is the true Idea of an Imaginary Heresie 'T is true indeed this is not his intention in it but many times men doe things contrary to their intentions Nor was it doubtless his design to shew us that the Jesuites be Hereticks how-ever one might invincibly prove it by an argument like that which he produces against the Divines whom he strives to render Hereticks He acknowledges no other matter of Fact in the Pope's Decision which declares that the Doctrine of Jansenius on the Five Propositions is heretical then this Jansenius teaches some Doctrine on the Five Prepositions which is certain he will have all the rest to be of Right and thence concludes That the Divines whom he accuses not denying this Fact That Jansenius did teach some Dogm upon the Five Propositions and yet refusing to own that his sense is heretical deny a Right and are Hereticks If this argument be valid behold the Jesuites arrant Hereticks without remedy For there is no more to be said but the same That it being certain the Sixth Council has condemn'd the Doctrine of Honorius this Decision comprehends no other Fact then this That Honorius teaches some Doctrine concerning the Will of J. Christ which is indubitable and by consequent the Jesuites who do not deny this Fact yet denying Honorius's sense to be heretical deny a Right and are Hereticks This obligation therefore the Jesuites have to F. Ferrier that he has made them rank Hereticks if you will believe him But it were yet a great charity to draw them out of this Heresie they have a world of others where it is impossible to warrant them The expedient is easie it being onely to shew them after how extraordinary a manner their F. Ferrier is mistaken For it is very certain the matter of Fact which he specifies That Jansenius has taught some Doctrine is to be found in this Question whether the Doctrine of Jansenius be Catholick or Heretical But there yet occurrs another also very distinct and far separate from Right and which has been the whole subject of this Contestation and this it is he dissembles Perhaps F. Ferrier imagines that when one submits a Book to the Pope to judge whether the Doctrine in it be Catholick or heretical 't is sufficient for him to know that the Book teaches some Doctrine upon a certain matter and that thereupon addressing himself to God he reveals to him that this Doctrine of which he all this while knows nothing is Catholick or Heretical If Ecclesiastical judgements were made after this sort there would in effect be no need to examine any other Fact then this whether the Author in controversie do teach some Doctrine upon a certain subject and this Fact being alwaies evident there would hardly be ever any Questions of Fact because men seldom dispute whether an Author have some Doctrine upon a subject no matter what But because this Imagination comprehends in it a very gross Errour since it supposes particular Revelations in the Pope which should be the foundations of these Decisions it is evident that Ecclesiastical judgements are not made in this manner Neither the Pope nor Bishops can judge whether the Doctrine of a Book be Catholick or Heretical without comparing it with Tradition Now 't is impossible they should compare it with Tradition without they distinctly know it Men never compare a Doctrine with Tradition which they know not but under the general Idea of the Doctrine of an Author For 't is neither Catholick nor Heretical as Doctrine nor as Doctrine of an Author The Doctrine of God is essentially true as being the Doctrine of God because God is the essential Truth But the Doctrine of the Devil himself is not false as being the Doctrine of the Devil because the Devil is not false from his Essence and because he sometimes speaks truth as when he acknowledged that J. Christ was the Son of God A fortiori the Doctrine of a Catholick Author is not Heretical because it is a Doctrine and because it is his Of necessity therefore ought both the Pope and the Bishops to judge rightly whether the Doctrine of a Book be Heretical or Catholick pass through the examen of this point of Fact That it is the Doctrine of this Book and to reduce it to some precise Position distinct and determinate from whence first to establish this Judgment of Fact namely that This Dogm and Position is of such an Author and after that this Judgment of Right This Dogm is Heretical or Catholick It is of this distinct Dogm that they affirm these two things viz. That it is of such an Author That it is Heretical But they affirm it by two very separate and remote Judgments and form'd upon most different
very gate of Desperation 't is the high-way of Obduration 't is the wide gap for men to die in final Impenitence and without Sacraments 'T is the Cullender of Hell 't is the leven to corrupt all the Priests and to make them abuse the Discoveries which they receive in secret All these Accusations were far more important then those which they now form upon the Case of Jansenius The Jesuites dispers'd them with the same assurance they treated their adversaries after the same sort with Heresiarchs Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks they gave them the names of Sects as they do now at present But let us see the event These bruits and Accusations gave a thousand traverses to the poor Divines whom the Jesuites did in this manner decry for they are alwaies successfull in that The Divines have continu'd to be oppress'd and the Jesuites have alwaies been very powerfull in the World Their Calumnies yet destroy'd themselves have been confounded before the face of the whole Church but still without any punishment they were still hearkning to people so altogether unworthy of belief nor was there ever yet found one Jesuite of those which appear'd in the world who has had the Conscience to testifie the least regret for the Extravagances of his Society a thing prodigious to consider For what Salvation can they hope in that thus calumniate without Repentance On the contrary they have rewarded those who help'd to vend and distribute their most execrable Impostures whither within or without their Society They procur'd for le Sieur Fileau for publishing the Fable of Bourgfontaine a Brief of Pope Innocent in his commendation with Letters from some Noblemen in France They made Father Brisacier Rector of their chief House because he was transported to excesses which were altogether inhumane By all which we may see sufficient marks of their puissance having been able to support themselves in a Cause in which any else besides themselves had certainly been overthrown But God has in the mean time been pleas'd to shew that his Truth is infinitely stronger then all the men of the World for in spight of all the Jesuites credit maugre the abandoning and oppression of these Divines not onely the Calumnies of the Jesuites are dissipated but the sincere Doctrine which they so furiously attacqu'd in the Book of Frequent Communion has been more and more authoriz'd and practis'd in the Church and on the contrary the Errours of the Jesuites have been formally condemn'd there They have censur'd in the Apologie of the Casuists the very same Doctrine which is oppos'd in the Treatise of Frequent Communion The Doctrine touching proximate Occasions and Habitudes of Sin saies the Church of Paris in her third Censure in which the Author affirms one ought not to refuse Absolution is false rash scandalous and inductive to an evident peril of sinning And the 29. Censure of M. the Archbishop de Sens upon the same Propositions and on that of Recidivations is These very Propositions are pernicious they have been invented to entertain men in a desire to sin they are injurious to Vertue and to the Sacrament of Penance They destroy the judiciary Authority which resides in Priests as Ministers of J. Christ and render them partakers with other mens Crimes Divers other of the Bishops did expressly mark in their Censures the precipitate Absolutions practis'd and authoriz'd by the Jesuites as one of the greatest Disorders of the Church and those Five Illustrious Bishops of Languedoc call them in their Censure Sacrilegious Absolutions And not onely is this Doctrine of the Book of Frequent Communion authoriz'd by these Judgements of the Church but 't is well known that many great Prelats injoyn the practice of it as amongst the rest M. the Bishop de Alet testifies in his Apologie which he has recommended to all the Confessors of his Diocese for see how he speaks of it pag. 11. As touching the delay or refusal of Absolution it is true that M. de Alet recommends to all the Confessors of his Diocese the carefull practice of the Rules of the Church in the dispensation of the Sacraments and especially that of Penance that the use of it be not prophan'd which is that they by no means absolve those who are in the proximate occasion of any Sin or that perceive themselves in a dangerous condition in which in respect of their disposition and upon experience of their life past it is morally impossible for them not to offend God such also as remain in any habitual mortal sin and do not reform themselves nor give any sign of their sincere amendment since it is the constant Doctrine of the Church and whereof the practice has been carefully recōmended by S. Charles in the advice which he prepar'd for the Confessors of his Diocese In fine the Sanctity of this Doctrine is so universally acknowledged that they oblige those who but dare to oppose it to most solemn Retractations I will shew you an Example both new and curious which I have taken word for word out of a Letter from Tolouse where the thing happened A Religious person of the Order of S. Francis of those whom they call de la grand Observance preaching this year in Tolouse January the 27 maintain'd that Confessors were not to refuse or defer the Absolution of Penitents provided they assur'd them that they were very sorry for having offended God though they had never so often confess'd the very same sins before in the belief said he that they ought to have that the moment in which they should refuse it them might be that of their Conversion The whole City not accustom'd to this dissolute Doctrine being scandaliz'd at it the great Vicar oblig'd this inconsiderate Preacher to make his publick Retractation February the 17. in these very terms which were prescrib'd him When about three weeks since I affirm'd in my Sermon of the Cure of the Leprous that the facility and the promptitude with which Iesus Christ stretched forth his hand upon him was an instruction to Confessors of the obligation which lay on them to give prompt and speedy Absolution to all Penitents provided they profess themselves sorry for having offended God and that they would reform in the future I did not mean to say that Confessors were oblig'd alwaies to believe the Deposition of Penitents which were to invalidate the authority which Priests have receiv'd in their Ordination as well to retain as to remit sins But I pretended onely generally speaking that when they are indeed sincerely repentant and that the prudence of an honest Confessor does judge them so he may then absolve them WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE CHURCHES CANONS and to the Injunctions of this Diocese which oblige Confessors to defer Absolution to Penitents especially in case of Habitudes and proximate Occasion in a serious matter c. WHICH I ACKNOWLEDGE OUGHT TO BE INVIOLABLY OBSERVED Thus has the Dispute concerning Penance and the delay
of Absolution had the same success with the rest The power of the Jesuites has procur'd them impunitie for their Calumnies and Errours M. Arnauld and those who have supported the Cause of Truth have had Persecutions for their share But the Truth has in fine both triumph'd over these Errours and all the power of the Jesuites besides The Fourth Contestation which is that of the Morale of the Casuists is the most considerable of all the rest for the greatness of the events Every one knows what authority the Casuists had acquir'd in the Church and that albeit the honest men did alwaies govern themselves by Rules which were totally contrary to their Maximes yet they were I know not how got into possession of magisterially deciding the Morals of the Church and to make the Opinions pass for indisputable which they pleas'd to agree upon and those for probable and safe in Conscience which they thought good to doubt of or to controvert It was above fifty years that this reign of theirs continu'd in the Schools and though this their licence was become odious to many knowing persons yet the small resistences which had been made against them from time to time were too feeble to remedy so great an evil as had been fomented by all the power of the Jesuites It was not till the year 1656 that any body undertook to attacque them in good earnest He who made the first onset thought the best way to accomplish his design would be to represent them as they are in their native colours and render them ridiculous to all the world And whereas they exalted themselves like Masters of the Church he treats them as the very abjects and last of men and without troubling himself with opposing Casuist to Casuist he confounds them pel-mel Suarez Vasquez Molina Lessius Filiutius Escobar the head and the tail of the Jesuites undertaking to render them all alike odious and despicable There was never any design that to the Jesuites appear'd more rash who looking upon themselves as elevated to a degree so eminent in the Church looked down as from their sublime Throne on this Incognito that durst presume to attacque the whole Body of their August Society which is the name they give themselves and to accuse them for having corrupted all the Christian Morality Nor were they ever heard to cry out so hideously through all France The Author of the Provincials was an Heretick I and more then an Heretick He borrow'd all his reproches against them from Hereticks He assaulted amongst the Jesuites Morals the most undoubted Maximes of the Christian Faith In fine to answer Fifteen of his Letters it was enough to say according to the R. F. Annat that they were Fifteen Heretical Letters For this has ever been a common Reproch with this good Father to brand those withall who disapprov'd the Doctrine of his Companions But above all he could never sufficiently exaggerate the excess of boldness of this Incognito who should dare thus to condemn so many grave Authors And Father Ferrier does triumph in his Book of Probability in setting out this his Council of Casuists and in opposing them to this unknown Theologue But in spight of all these fine Arguments of the Jesuites maugre the infinite numbers of their Partizans and the weakness of this Adversarie they were astonish'd to find themselves in so little a time the Fable of all France and all the world declaring against them as themselves are forc'd to acknowledge in their Apologie of the Casuists I do not question saies Father Pirot Author of that Book but the Banishments and Martyrdoms have not been less grievous and more easie to support then the Abandoning which this Society finds it self constrain'd to suffer amongst these Railleries since in all their retreats the FF Jesuites were still entertain'd with honour in the Provinces which receiv'd them they had a respect to their Patience and their merit whereas on this encounter what-ever countenance they preserv'd they are basely treated The Book of Escobar having been 39 times printed for an excellent Book was printed the fourtieth time as the most wicked and abominable Book that was ever publish'd and to satisfie the curiosity onely of those who had a desire to search out the passages which the Author of the Provincial Letters had cited out of him The Curates of Paris of Rouën and of divers other considerable Towns of the Kingdome rose up against these detestable Maximes A very great number of Bishops condemn'd them by authentick Censures so as the Jesuites could not so much as find one single Bishop who would openly take upon him their defence which considering all the circumstances of this Affair ought to be taken for an infallible mark of the universal Consent of the Church in the Condemnation of the Casuists The Jesuites at first vaunted that the Pope disapprov'd what was done in France But the Pope has himself taken away this pretext so injurious to the Holy See and the Church by condemning likewise the Apologie of the Casuists and in so manifestly consenting with the Judgments which the Bishops had express'd against the Jesuites Morality I tell you here nothing but old stories having onely a design to recall them to your memory but I will now shew you some newer ones and that are more rare to let you see that the Moral of the Jesuites is as well disapprov'd at Rome as elsewhere A certain Professor of Boulogne nam'd Antony Merenda having conceiv'd a very just horror at the unbridled licentiousness of these Casuists compos'd a considerable Work against them not many years since in which he chiefly opposes their Doctrine of Probability as an Invention of the Devil Commentum Diaboli A Dominican Inquisitor of Pavia nam'd Mercorus publish'd soon after a Book against the same Doctrine and divers other Loosenesses of the Casuists And in fine after these last contestations touching the Moral a famous Prelat of Rome call'd Prosper Fagnani a person that the Pope honour'd with a particular friendship has inserted in a great Volume which he has compos'd upon the Decretals a large Treatise against the Probability of the Casuists where he represents this Doctrine as the fountain of all sorts of Corruptions and Disorders and treats it with Merenda as a Diabolical Invention Commentum Diaboli In this Treatise he mentions with an Elogy the pursuits which the Curats of Paris and of Rouën have made against the Casuists He inserts the Extracts which they propos'd to the Assembly of several dangerous Propositions of these Authors and the Censures which have been given them in the Low-Countries and had he been but acquainted with what has been since done in France there is no doubt but he would likewise have mention'd the Censures of the French Bishops as he does those of certain Bishops of Flanders This was all done by consent of the Pope and the Book it self is dedicated to him so as one may well judge it was not
very welcome to the Jesuites Yet durst they never attacque him openly But they made use of two Artifices to have ruin'd this Work The First was To bring Merenda's Book to the Inquisition and endeavour to have it censur'd upon some pretext which in that Country they never fail of when they desire to blast a Book And accordingly they soon succeeded and we have seen the Book of Merenda in the list of such as the Inquisition has condemn'd The Second was To instigate Caramuel now a Bishop in Italy to write against Fagnani He undertook it and after his manner acquitted himself that is to say with his ordinary Impudence For he maintains in his Book the Doctrine of Probability as an Article of Faith oppos'd to the Heresie of the Jansenists He will have all the Curates of Paris and of Rouën together with all those Bishops who censur'd the Casuists to be arrant Jansenists and of whose authority there is no regard to be had This put him well with the Jesuites who were marvellously satisfied with these goodly beginnings but they were not so with the consequence For the Pope being clearly advertis'd by Fagnani of these Intrigues caus'd Merenda's Book to be fetch'd out of the Inquisition and condemn'd that of Caramuel which continues so censur'd without remedy And thus Sir finish'd the Warr against our Casuists by which it fully appears that they are stuff'd with an infinity of pernicious and impious Maximes that above all the Doctrine of Probability which is the Source is an Invention of the Devil and that therefore F. Ferrier who has defended it and as many Jesuites as have maintain'd it are Co-operators and Predicators of that Serpent Praedicatores Serpentis as S. Augustine saies and that on the contrary those who have oppos'd the Casuists have done the Church one of the most considerable services that Divines are capable of rendring her Their Doctrine continues still victorious as that of the Jesuites quite wither'd and come to nothing in the contest But so is it not as to their Persons The greatness of the Service which these Divines have render'd to the Church has diminish'd nothing of the Persecutions which they have for so long time suffer'd nay on the contrary it does but augment them in provoking the Jesuites to pursue them with the greater violence Nor have the so many Censures of the Moral of the Jesuites abated ought of their temporal power 'T is known they still persevere in the very same Maximes that have been condemn'd nor do they themselves conceal them yet in the mean time they are permitted the administration of the Sacraments Men would never suffer that the Physicians of our Bodies who had been known for Empoisoners should continue to exercise their faculty whiles yet they permit these Physicians of Souls convinc'd to have govern'd them with their envenom'd Maximes to prescribe this pretended spiritual Medicine without giving any mark or caution to the Church that they have sincerely renounc'd them But it is an Effect of the depth of God's Judgements who imparts his Graces on his Church according to measure and boundaries them within the sight of mens Sins A great one it is which he has bestowed on her in causing the Moral of the Jesuites to be condemn'd by so many Bishops and by thereby giving all men an opportunity who sincerely pursue their own Salvation to renounce their Conduct But he has not altogether accomplish'd this favour but suffers the Jesuites to enjoy the same Authority and to preserve themselves in the same Credit which they formerly had to the end they may serve him as ministers of his Wrath that those who deserve to be misled may be misled and by their Persecutions to prove those who are worthy to be prov'd This is their emploiment and office in the Church not unlike to that of the King to whom God directs these words in the Scripture Vae Assur virga furoris mei But I beseech you Sir do not imagine that it is the difference of Opinions upon the quarrel of Jansenism which imports me to embrace these opinions The most Religious persons of the Church and who have never been so much as suspected of any kindness for that which they call Jansenism have I assure you no other Idea of the Jesuites And amongst others the late M. the Bishop of Cahors being upon his Death-bed expressly ordered M. the Abbot Ferrier great Vicar to my Lord Bishop d' Alby to say from him to M. de Alet M. de Pamiers and M. de Comenge That he had done all he could to reduce the Jesuites from their Errours but that he knew them for people incorrigible and without remedy that he held them for the greatest Enemies of the Church and did earnestly desire that these Gentlemen would never have any thing to doe with them This person perform'd his Commission and said the same things to some persons of great Quality from whom we have receiv'd that which we here mention I suppose Sir that you expect what I should say of the Contestation concerning Jansenism which is the most tedious and refractory of all the rest and that you haply think I could not say as much of that that the Cause of these Divines has had its Triumphs also seeing the Jesuites produce whole Volumes of Decrees Briefs Constitutions Arrests and Declarations which they have obtain'd against them and that the Letters of these Gentlemen make a great part of those which have furnish'd the Inquisition of Rome any time these ten years But all this shall not hinder me yet from assuring you before-hand that the success of this Warr will not be at all inferiour to that of the others and that you will there likewise see these Divines oppress'd the Jesuites unpunish'd and the Truth triumphing over their Errours You are onely to follow me as I do that of the various faces of this Dispute It began first in Flanders at the University of Louvain it being there that the Jesuites publish'd those famous Theses against Jansenius where they accus'd him of an infinity of Errours But the Doctors of Louvain repell'd them with so much vigour that whiles they insisted on their Books the Jesuites had no cause to boast of their advantage A little after the Dispute came into France upon occasion of the Sermons of M. Habert a Parisian Divine who in the Pulpit did publickly accuse this Prelat's Book of no less then Fourty Heresies But the first Apologie for Jansenius having taught him a little to moderate his Zeal he reduc'd these Heresies to the number of Twelve of which he continu'd to accuse him in a Treatise which he writ against this Apologie The second Apology for Jansenius which appear'd a little after made him yet to cut off Seven more For Monsieur Cornet how-ever enemy against this Bishop's Book durst propose but Five Propositions to the Faculty and that without naming them though with a design of one day causing his Book to