since those refused to believe Jesus Christ innocent only because
they doubted if his miracles were of God. But on the contrary, though
the Jesuits cannot doubt that the Port Royal miracles were of God,
they still continue to doubt the innocency of that house.
Men never commit evil so fully and so gaily as when they do so for
conscience sake.
Experience shows us a vast difference between devoutness and goodness.
The two contrary reasons. We must begin with that; without that we
understand nothing and all is heretical; in the same way we must
even add at the close of each truth that the opposite truth is to be
remembered.
If there was ever a time in which it were necessary to make
profession of two contraries, it is when we are reproached for
omitting one. Therefore the Jesuits and the Jansenists are wrong in
concealing them, but the Jansenists most, for the Jesuits have better
made profession of the two.
M. de Condran. There is, he says, no comparison between the union
of the saints and that of the Holy Trinity. Jesus Christ says the
opposite.
That we have treated them as kindly as is possible while keeping
ourselves in the mean, between the love of truth and the duty of
charity.
That piety does not consist in never opposing our brethren, it would
be very easy, etc.
It is false piety to keep peace to the prejudice of the truth. It is
also false zeal to keep truth and wound charity.
Neither have they complained.
Their maxims have their time and place.
He will be condemned indeed who is so by Escobar.
Their vanity tends to grow out of their errors.
Conformed to the fathers by their faults, and to the martyrs by their
sufferings.
Moreover they do not disavow any of....
They had only to take the passage, and disavow it.
_Sanctificavi prælium._
M. Bourseys. At least they cannot disavow that they are opposed to
the condemnation.
I have re-read them since, for I had not known them....
The world must be blind indeed if it believe you.
If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon. _Ne convertantur,
et sanem eos, et dimittantur eis peccata._ Isaiah. Matt. xiii.
Truth is so obscure in these days, and falsehood so established, that
unless we love the truth we shall be unable to know it.
As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so his truth remains
among ordinary opinions without external difference. Thus the
Eucharist among ordinary bread. All faith consists in Jesus Christ
and in Adam, and all morals in lust and in grace.
"I have reserved me seven thousand." I love the worshippers unknown
to the world and even to the prophets.
To trust in forms is superstition, but to refuse to submit to forms
is pride.
As peace in States has for its sole object the safe preservation
of the property of the people, so the peace of the Church has for
its sole object the safe preservation of truth, her property and
the treasure where her heart is. And as to allow the enemy to enter
into a State, and pillage without opposition, for fear of troubling
repose, would be to work against the good of peace, because peace,
being only just and useful for the security of property, it becomes
unjust and harmful when it suffers property to be destroyed, while
war in the defence of property becomes just and necessary. So in the
Church, when truth is assailed by the enemies of faith, when men
would tear it from the heart of the faithful, and cause error to
reign there, to remain in peace is rather to betray than to serve
the Church, to ruin rather than defend. And as it is plainly a crime
to trouble peace where truth reigns, so is it also a crime to rest
in peace when truth is destroyed. There is then a time when peace is
just, and another when it is unjust. And it is written that there
is a time for peace and a time for war, and it is the interest of
truth to discern them. But there is not a time for truth and a time
for error, and it is written, on the contrary, that the truth of God
abideth for ever; and this is why Jesus Christ, who said that he came
to bring peace, said also that he came to bring war. But he did not
say that he came to bring both truth and falsehood. Truth is then the
first rule and the ultimate end of things.
As the two principal interests of the Church are the preservation
of the piety of the faithful and the conversion of heretics, we are
overwhelmed with grief at the sight of factions now arising, to
introduce those errors which more than any others may close for ever
against heretics the entrance into our communion, and fatally corrupt
those pious and catholic persons who remain to us. This enterprise,
made at the present day so openly against those truths of Religion
most important for salvation, fills us not only with displeasure, but
also with fear and even terror, because, besides the feeling which
every Christian must have of these disorders, we have further an
obligation to remedy them, and to employ the authority which God has
given, to cause that the peoples which he has committed to us, etc.
We must let heretics know, who gain advantage from the doctrine of
the Jesuits, that it is not that of the Church ... the doctrine of
the Church, and that our divisions separate us not from the altar.
They hide themselves in the crowd, and call numbers to their aid.
Tumult.
In corrupting the bishops and the Sorbonne, if they have not had the
advantage of making their judgment just, they have had that of making
their judges unjust. And thus, when in future they are condemned,
they will say _ad hominem_ that they are unjust, and thus will refute
their judgment. But that does no good. For as they cannot conclude
that the Jansenists are rightly condemned because they are condemned,
so they cannot conclude then that they themselves will be wrongly
condemned because they will be so by corruptible judges. For their
condemnation will be just, not because it will be given by judges
always just, but by judges just in that particular, which will be
shown by other proofs.
These are the effects of the sins of the peoples and of the Jesuits,
great men have wished to be flattered, the Jesuits have wished to be
loved by the great. They have all been worthy to be given up to the
spirit of lying, the one party to deceive, the others to be deceived.
They have been greedy, ambitious, pleasure loving: _Coacervabunt tibi
magistros_.
_The Jesuits._
The Jesuits have wished to unite God and the world, and have gained
only the scorn of God and the world. For, on the side of conscience
this is plain, and on the side of the world they are not good
partisans. They have power, as I have often said, but that is in
regard to other religious. They will have interest enough to get a
chapel built, and to have a jubilee station, not to make appointments
to bishoprics and government offices. The position of a monk in
the world is a most foolish one, and that they hold by their own
declaration.--Father Brisacier, the Benedictines.--Yet ... you yield
to those more powerful than yourselves, and oppress with all your
little credit those who have less power for intrigue in the world
than you.
_Venice._--What advantage will you draw from it, except the princes'
need of it, and the horror the nations have had of it. If these had
asked you and, in order to obtain it, had implored the assistance of
all Christian princes, you might have boasted of this importunity.
But not that during fifty years all the princes have exerted
themselves for it in vain, and that it required such a pressing need
to obtain it
If by differing we condemned, you would be right. Uniformity without
diversity is useless to others, diversity without uniformity is
ruinous for us. The one injures us without; the other within.
We ought to hear both parties, and on this point I have been careful.
When we have heard only one party we are always on that side, but
the adverse party makes us change, whereas in this case the Jesuit
confirms us.
Not what they do, but what they say.
They cry out against me only. I am content I know whom to blame for
it.
Jesus Christ was a stone of stumbling.
Condemnable, condemned.
Jesus Christ never condemned without a bearing. To Judas: _Amice, ad
quid venisti_? To him who had not on the wedding garment, the same.
Unless they give up probability their good maxims are as little holy
as the bad. For they are founded on human authority, and thus if they
are more just they will be more reasonable, but not more holy, they
take after the wild stock on which they are graffed.
If what I say serves not to enlighten you, it will aid the
people.--If these hold their peace, the stones will cry out.
Silence is the greatest persecution; the saints never held their
peace. It is true that a vocation is needed, it is not from the
decrees of the Council that we must learn whether we are called, but
from the compulsion to speak. Now after Rome has spoken, and we
think that she has condemned the truth, and they have written it,
and the books which have said the contrary are censured; we must cry
so much the louder the more unjustly we are censured, and the more
violently they try to stifle speech, until there come a pope who
listens to both sides, and who consults antiquity to do justice.
So good popes will find the Church still in an uproar.
The Inquisition and the Society are the two scourges of the truth.
Why do you not accuse them of Arianism? For if they have said that
Jesus Christ is God, perhaps it is not with a natural meaning, but as
it is said: _Dii estis_.
If my Letters are condemned at Rome, what I condemn in them is
condemned in heaven.
_Ad tuum, Domine Jesu, tribunal appello._
You are yourselves corruptible.
I feared that I had written ill when I saw myself condemned, but the
example of so many pious writings makes me believe the contrary.
Good writing is no longer permitted, so corrupt or ignorant is the
Inquisition.
It is better to obey God than men.
I have neither fear nor hope. Not so the bishops. Port Royal fears,
and it is a bad policy to dissolve the community, for they will fear
no longer and will inspire greater fear.
I fear not even your censures, ... if they be not founded on those of
tradition.
Do you censure all? What, even my respect?--No.--Say then, what it
is, or you will do nothing, since you do not point out the evil, and
why it is evil. And this is what they will have some trouble to do.
Unjust persecutors of those whom God visibly protects.
If they reproach you with your excesses they speak as do the heretics.
If they say that the grace of Jesus Christ separates us, they are
heretics.
If miracles are wrought, it is the mark of their heresy.
Ezekiel,
They say, these are the people of God who thus speak.
Hezekiah,
My reverend father, all this was done in figures. Other religions
perish, this one perishes not.
Miracles are more important than you think, they have served for the
foundation, and will serve for the continuance of the Church till the
coming of Antichrist, till the end.
The two witnesses.
In the Old Testament and the New, miracles are wrought in connection
with types. Salvation or an useless thing, if not to show that we
must submit to the creature.--Figure of the sacraments.
The synagogue was a figure and so it perished not, and it was only
the figure and so it has perished. It was a figure which contained
the truth, and so it subsisted till it contained the truth no longer.
The exaggerated notion which you have of the importance of your
society has made you establish these horrible ways. It is very plain
that it has made you follow the way of slander, since you blame in
me as horrible the same impostures which you excuse in yourselves,
because you regard me as a private person, and yourselves as _imago_.
It plainly appears that your praises are follies, by those which are
crazy, as the privilege of the uncondemned.
Is this giving courage to your children to condemn them when they
serve the Church?
It is an artifice of the devil to turn in another direction the arms
with which these people used to combat heresies.
You are bad politicians.
The history of the man born blind.
What says Saint Paul? Does he constantly speak of the bearing of
prophecies? No, but of his miracles.
What says Jesus Christ? Does he expound the bearing of the
prophecies? No, his death had not fulfilled them; but he says, si non
fecissem: believe the works.
_Si non fecissem quæ alius non fecit._
These wretches who have obliged us to speak of miracles!
Abraham and Gideon confirmed faith by miracles.
There are two supernatural foundations of our wholly supernatural
Religion, the one visible, the other invisible.
Miracles with grace, miracles without grace.
The synagogue, which has been treated with love as a figure of the
Church, and with hatred because it was only the figure, has been
restored, being about to fall when it was well with God, and thus a
figure.
The miracles prove the power which God has over hearts by that which
he exercises over the body.
The Church has never approved a miracle among heretics.
Miracles are a support of religion. They have been the test of Jews,
of Christians, of saints, of innocents, and of true believers.
A miracle among schismatics is not much to be feared, for schism
which is more evident than miracle, evidently marks their error; but
when there is no schism, and error is in question, miracle is the
test.
Judith. God speaks at length in their extreme oppression.
If because charity has grown cold the Church is left almost without
true worshippers, miracles will raise them up.
This is one of the last effects of grace.
If only a miracle were wrought among the Jesuits!
When a miracle deceives the expectation of those in whose presence
it occurs, and when there is a disproportion between the state of
their faith and the instrument of the miracle it must lead them to
change; but with you it is the opposite. There would be as much
reason in saying that if the Eucharist raised a dead man one ought
to turn Calvinist rather than remain a Catholic. But when he crowns
the expectation, and those who have hoped that God would bless the
remedies see themselves cured without remedies....
_The wicked._--No sign was ever given on the part of the devil
without a stronger sign on the part of God, at least unless it were
foretold that this would be so.
These nuns, amazed at what is said, that they are in the way of
perdition, that their confessors are leading them to Geneva, and
teach them Jesus Christ is not in the Eucharist, nor on the right
hand of the Father, know all this to be false, and offer then
themselves to God in that state. _Vide si via iniquitatis in me est._
What happens thereupon? The place, which is said to be the temple of
the devil, God makes his own temple. It is said that the children
must be taken away, God heals them there. It is said to be hell's
arsenal, God makes of it the sanctuary of his graces. Lastly, they
are threatened with all the furies and all the vengeance of heaven,
and God loads them with favours. Those must have lost their senses,
who therefore believe them in the way of perdition.--_We have,
without doubt, the same tokens as Saint Athanasius._--
The five propositions were equivocal; they are so no longer.
With so many other signs of piety they have that of persecution also,
which is the best mark of piety.
By showing the truth we gain belief for it, but by showing the
injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Conscience is made
secure by a demonstration of falsehood; our purse is not made secure
by the demonstration of injustice.
Miracles and truth are both needful, as we have to convince the whole
man, body and soul alike.
It is good that their deeds should be unjust, for fear it should not
appear that the Molinists have acted justly. Thus there is no need to
spare them, they are worthy to commit them.
_The Church, the Pope._--Unity, plurality. Considering the Church as
unity, the pope its head, is as the whole; considered as plurality,
the pope is only a part of it. The Fathers have considered the Church
now in this way, now in that, and thus they have spoken in divers
ways of the pope.
Saint Cyprian, _sacerdos Dei_.
But in establishing one of these two truths, they have not excluded
the other.
Plurality which cannot be reduced to unity is confusion. Unity which
depends not on plurality is tyranny.
There is scarce any where left but France in which it is allowable to
say that a council is below the pope.
We may not judge of what the pope is by some words of the Fathers--as
the Greeks said in a council, important rules--but by the acts of the
Church and the Fathers, and by the canons.
Unity and plurality: _Duo aut tres in unum_. It is an error to
exclude one of the two, as the papists do who exclude plurality, or
the Huguenots who exclude unity.
The pope is chief, who else is known of all, who else is recognised
by all? Having power to insinuate himself into all the body, because
he holds the leading shoot, which extends itself everywhere.
How easy to cause this to degenerate into tyranny. This is why Jesus
Christ has laid down for them this precept: _Vos autem non sic_.
God works not miracles in the ordinary conduct of his Church. It
would be a strange miracle, did infallibility reside in one, but that
it should dwell in a multitude appears so natural that the ways of
God are concealed under nature, as all his other works.
Men desire certainty, they like the pope to be infallible in faith,
grave doctors to be infallible in morals, in order to have certainty.
The pope hates and fears men of science, who are not at once
submissive to him.
Kings are masters of their own power, not so the popes.
Whenever the Jesuits take the pope unawares, they will make all
Christendom perjured.
It is very easy to take the pope unawares, because of his
occupations, and the trust which he has in the Jesuits, and the
Jesuits are very capable of taking him unawares by means of calumny.
The five propositions condemned, yet no miracle, for truth was not
attacked, but the Sorbonne and the bull.
It is impossible that those who love God with all their heart, should
misunderstand the Church, which is so evident.
It is impossible that those who love not God should be convinced of
the Church.
Let us look to the discourses on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th of the
Jansenist. They are lofty and grave.
We would not make a friend of either.
The ear only is consulted because the heart is wanting.
Beauty of omission, of judgment.
The rule is that of honourable conduct.
Poet and not honourable man.
These men want heart.
We would not make a friend of him.
For this name of honourable man.
_Canonical._--The heretical books in the early age of the Church
serve to prove the canonical.
_Heretics._--Ezekiel. All the heathens spake evil of Israel, and the
Prophet did the same, yet the Israelites were so far from having a
right to say to him, "You speak as the heathen," that he made it his
strongest point that the heathens said the same as he.
Those are feeble souls who know the truth, and uphold it only so far
as their interest is concerned, but beyond that abandon it.
Annat. He makes the disciple without ignorance, and the master
without presumption.
There is such great disproportion between the merit which he thinks
he has and his stupidity, that it is hard to believe he mistakes
himself so completely.
And will this one scorn the other?
Who should scorn? Yet he scorns not the other, but pities him.
Port Royal is surely as good as Voltigerod.
So far as your proceeding is just according to this bias, so far is
it unjust on the side of Christian piety.
_Montalte._--Lax opinions are so pleasing to men, that it is strange
that theirs displease. It is because they have exceeded all bounds;
and more, there are many persons who see the truth, yet cannot attain
to it; but there are few who do not know that the purity of religion
is contrary to our corruptions. It is absurd to say that eternal
reward is offered to the morals of Escobar.
But is it _probable_ that _probability_ gives certainty?--Difference
between rest and security of conscience. Nothing but truth gives
certainty. Nothing gives rest but a sincere search after truth.
_Probability._ They have oddly explained certainty, for after having
established that all their ways are sure, they no longer call that
sure which leads to heaven without danger of not arriving thereby,
but that which leads there without danger of going out of the road.
Now probability is necessary for the other maxims, as for that of the
friend and the slanderer.
_A fructibus eorum_, judge of their faith by their morals.
Probability is little without corrupt means, and means are nothing
without probability.
There is pleasure in being able to do good, and in knowing how to do
good, _scire et posse_. Grace and probability give this pleasure, for
we can render our account to God in reliance upon their authors.
_Probability._
Everyone can impose it, none can take it away.
_Probable._--If as bad reasons as these are probable, all would be so.
1. Reason. _Dominus actuum conjugalium._ Molina.
2. Reason. _Non potest compensari._ Lessius.
To oppose not with holy, but with abominable maxims.
They reason as those who prove that it is night at midday.
Bauny, the burner of barns.
... The Council of Trent for priests in mortal sin: _quam primum_....
_Probable._--Let us see if we seek God sincerely, by the comparison
of things we love.
It is probable that this meat will not poison me.
It is probable that I shall not lose my law suit if I do not bring it.
If it were true that grave authors and reasons would suffice, I say
that they are neither grave nor reasonable. What! a husband may
make profit of his wife according to Molina. Is the reason he gives
reasonable, and the contrary one of Lessius reasonable also?
Would you dare thus to trifle with the edicts of the King, as by
saying that to go for a walk in a field and wait for a man is not to
fight a duel;
That the Church has indeed forbidden duelling, but not taking a walk?
And usury too, but not....
And simony, but not....
And vengeance, but not....
And unnatural crime, but not....
And _quam primum_, but not....
Take away _probability_, and you can no longer please the world, give
_probability_, and you can no longer displease it.
_Universal._--Morals and language are special but universal sciences.
_Probability._--The zeal of the saints to seek the truth, was useless
if the probable is certain.
The fear of the saints who have always followed the surest way.
Saint Theresa having always followed her confessor.
_Probability._--They have some true principles, but they abuse them.
Now the abuse of truth should be as much punished as the introduction
of falsehood.
As if there were two hells, one for sins against charity, the other
for sins against justice.
Men who do not keep their word, without faith, without honour,
without truth, double hearted, double tongued, like the reproach once
flung at that amphibious creature in the fable, who kept itself in a
doubtful position between the fish and the birds.
It is of importance to kings and princes to be supposed pious, and
therefore they must take you for their confessors.
_State super vias et interrogate de semitis antiquis, et ambulate
in eis. Et dixerunt: Non ambulabimus, sed post cogitationem nostram
ibimus._ They have said to the nations: Come to us, we will follow
the opinions of the new authors, reason shall be our guide, we
will be as the other nations who follow each their natural light.
Philosophers have....
All religions and sects in the world have had natural reason for a
guide. Christians alone have been obliged to take their rules from
without themselves, and to acquaint themselves with those which Jesus
Christ left to men of old time to be transmitted to the faithful.
This constraint is wearisome to these good fathers. They desire like
the rest of the world to have liberty to follow their imaginations.
In vain we cry to them, as the prophets to the Jews of old: "Enter
into the Church, enquire of the ways which men of old have left to
her, and follow those paths." They have answered, as did the Jews,
"We will not walk in them, but we will follow the thoughts of our
hearts;" and they have said, "We will be as the nations round about
us."
Can it be any thing but the desire to please the world which makes
you find things probable? Will you make us believe that it is truth,
and that if duelling were not the fashion, you would find it probable
they might fight, looking at the matter in itself?