UCSB LIBRARY THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS or BLAISE PASCAL A NEW TRANSLATION WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTEb BY RKV. THOMAS M'CRIE PRECEDED BT A LIFE OF PASCAL, A CRITICAL ESSAY, A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE Ad mum. Domine Jesu, tribunal appllo." PASCAL That miracle of universal genius.' 1 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON EUITKI) BT O. W. WIGHT, A. M. BOSTON: HOUGHTON, MIFF LIN AND COMPANY, GTjje liiucrotBt- press, Copyright, 1859 and 1887, BY O. W. WIGHT. EDITOR'S PREFACE. THIS volume the first of Pascal's works is composed of five parts : 1st, " Life, Genius, and Discoveries of Pascal," from the North British Review ; 2d, " Pascal considered as a Writer and a Moralist," by M. Villemain ; 3d, " Historical Introduction to the Provincial Letters," by the translator; 4th, Bibliographical Notice; and, 5th, "The Provincial Letters," translated by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie. The leading article in the second number of the North British Review, there entitled " Pascal's Life, Writings, and Discoveries," which we entitle Life, Genius, and Discoveries of Pascal, in order to designate its contents with more pre- cision, contains the best general summary of Pascal's career that we have been able to find. It gives especially a full and reliable account of Pascal's labors in the field of scien- tific discovery. Information upon this point we have re- garded as the more necessary, inasmuch as the purely scien- tific writings of Pascal, having become obsolete after the lapse of two centuries, are not deemed worthy of translation and reproduction in our series of French Classics. The Essay of M. Villemain on " Pascal considered as a Writer and a Moralist," written as an introduction to his edition of the Provincial Letters, and subsequently published among his Melanges, is one of the finest pieces of literary criticism in the French language. In translating it for 6 EDITOR'S PREFACE. present use, we have aimed to be faithful to the original ; but that delicate eloquence, which no foreign words can adequately reproduce, which is a characteristic of M. Ville- main's style, we have felt and admired ; but when we have thought to compass it with some form of expression, we have always found it eluding our grasp, as the sunlight escapes when an attempt is made to shut it into a room. The "Historical Introduction," by the translator, Rev. Mr. M'Crie, is an able review of the times in which Pascal wrote his celebrated Provincial Letters. It contains an hon- est, judicious statement of the questions that arose dunng the controversy in which Pascal and the Port-Royalists were engaged. It exhibits adequate theological scholarship, be- coming moderation, and an integrity that is proof against the zeal of party and sect. The Bibliographical Notice indicates the various sources of information in regard to Pascal and his works. We have adopted, without alteration, except in the cor- rection of typographical errors, M'Crie's translation of the Provincial Letters. He has fully comprehended Pascal's meaning, has thoroughly understood the points discussed, and has rendered his author with remarkable fidelity into English. His notes are sufficiently copious, and give just the kind of information needed by any reader who has not made an especial study of Port-Royal and its famous contro- rersy with the Jesuits. Mr.^I'Crie's translation is not fault- less, however ; it does not adequately represent the inimitable style of Pascal. Inimitable ! We use the word advisedly, and it conveys an ample apology for our translator. That atyle so vivacious, so piquant, so graceful, so delicate, so easy, so natural, is at once the admiration and despair o>* EDITORS PREFACE. great French writers. Who can translate it, if great artists in language cannot successfully imitate it in Pascal's own tongue ? Our readers, then, must accept this translation, and comfort themselves with the very important fact that they have Pascal's meaning faithfully rendered into English. We add the whole of Mr. M'Crie's modest Preface, not only in justice to him, but for the information it contains : " The following translation of the Provincial Letters was undertaken several years ago, in compliance with the sug- gestion of a revered parent, chiefly as a literary recreation in a retired country charge, and, after being finished, was laid aside. It is now published at the request of friends, who considered such a work as peculiarly seasonable, and more likely to be acceptable at the present crisis, when gen- eral attention has been again directed to the popish contro- versy, and when such strenuous exertions are being made by the Jesuits to regain influence in our country. i* None are strangers to the fame of the Provincials, and few literary persons would choose to confess themselves alto- gether ignorant of a work which has acquired a world-wide reputation. Yet there is reason to suspect that few books of the same acknowledged merit have had a more limited circle of bona fide English readers. This may be ascribed, in a great measure, to the want of a good English transla- tion. Two translations of the Provincials have already ap- peared in our language. The first was contemporary with the Letters themselves, and was printed at London in 1657, under the title of ' Les Provinciates ; or, The Mysterie ol Jesuitism, discovered in certain Letters, written upon occa- sion of the present differences at Sorbonne, between the Jan- 8 EDITORS PREFACE. wnists and the Molinists, from January 1656 to March 1657 8. N. Displaying the corrupt Maximes and Politicks of that Society. Faithfully rendered into English. Sicut Serpen- fcs.' Of the translation under this unpromising title, it may only be remarked, that it is probably one of the worst speci- mens of ' rendering into English' to be met with, even during that age when little attention was paid to the art of transla- tion. Under its uncouth phraseology, not only are the wit and spirit of the original completely shrouded, but the mean- ing is so disguised that the work is almost as unintelligible as it is uninteresting. " Another translation of the Letters of which I was not aware till I had completed mine was published in London in 1816. On discovering that a new attempt had been made to put the English public in possession of the Provin- cials, and that it had failed to excite any general interest, I was induced to lay aside all thoughts of publishing my ver- sion ; but, after examining the modern translation, I became convinced that its failure might be ascribed to other causes than want of taste among us for the beauties and excellences of Pascal. This translation, though written in good English, bears evident marks of haste, and of want of acquaintance vith the religious controversies of the time ; in consequence wf which, the sense and spirit of the original have been cither entirely lost, or so imperfectly developed, as to render its perusal exceedingly tantalizing and unsatisfactory. "It remains for the public to judge how far the present version may have succeeded in giving a more readable and faithful transcript of the Provincial Letters. No pains, at .east, have been spared to enhance its interest and insure its Oddity. Among the numerous French editions of the Let EDITOR'S PREFACE. 9 lers, the basis of the following translation is that of Amster- dam, published in four volumes, 12mo., 1767 ; with the notes of Nicole, and his prefatory History of the Provincials, which were translated from the Latin into French by Mademoiselle de Joncourt. With this and other French editions I have compared Nicole's Latin translation, which appeared in 1658, and received the sanction of Pascal. " The voluminous notes of Nicole, however interesting they may have been at the time, and to the parties involved in the Jansenist controversy, are not, in general, of such a kind as to invite attention now ; nor would a full translation even of his 'historical details, turning as they do chiefly on local and temporary disputes, be likely to reward the pa- tience of the reader. So far as they were fitted to throw light on the original text, I have availed myself of these, along with other sources of information, in the marginal notes. Some of these annotations, as might be expected from a Protestant editor, are intended to correct error, or to guard against misconception. " To the full understanding of the Provincials, howevei, some idea of the controversies which occasioned their pub- lication seems almost indispensable. This I have attempted to furnish in the Historical Introduction ; which will also be Vmnd to contain some interesting facts, hitherto uncollected, and borrowed from a variety of authorities not generally accessible, illustrating the history of the Letters and the oarties concerned in them, with a vindication of Pascal from the charges which this work has provoked from so many quarters against him." Another translation exists, made by George Pearce, Esq 10 EDITOR'S PREFACE. and published by Longmans in 1849. It is in every way inferior to the translation of Mr. M'Crie. The three different introductions to this volume, which afford a survey of Pascal from a scientific, from a literary, and from a theological point of view, give the amplest means of forming a correct and adequate judgment of that wonderful man, whom the great Sir William Hamilton called "a miracle of universal genius." We hope soon to add another volume from Pascal, con- taining the Thoughts ; and now send forth the Provincial Letters, devoutly praying Heaven that they may continue to spread the " plague of ridicule" through ranks hostile to spiritual freedom and eternal truth. O. W. WlOHT. FUUWABT, 1868 CONTENTS. Live, GENIUS, AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL, . . .15 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS A WRITES AND A MORALIST, . . .65 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, ........ 88 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE, ........ 187 LETTER L Disputes in the Sorbonne, and the invention of proximate power a term employed by the Jesuits to procure the censure of M. Arnauld, 141 LETTER II. Of sufficien grace, which turns out to be not sufficient Concert between the Jesuits and the Dominicans A parable, . . 154 Reply of " the Provincial" to the first two Letters, . . .164 LETTER EL Injustice, absurdity, and nullity of the censure on M. Arnauld A personal heresy, Id LETTER IV. Actual grace and sins of ignorance Father Bauny'a Summary of sins, 178 LETTER V. Design of the Jesuits in establishing a new system of morals- Two sorts of casuists among them A great many lax and some severe ones Reason of this difference Explanation of the doc- trine of tjrobabilism A multitude of modem and unknown au- thors substituted in the place of the holy fathers Escobar, . 194 [2 CONTENTS. LETTER VI. PAOI Various artifices of the Jesuits to elude the authority of the gospe , of councils and of the popes Some consequences resulting from their doctrine of probability Their relaxations in favor of bene- ficiaries, of priests, of monks, and of domestics Story of John d'Alba, 218 LETTER VII. Method of directing the intention adopted by the casuists Permis- sion to kill in defence of honor and property, extended even to priests and monks Curious question raised as to whether Jesuits may be allowed to kill Jansenists 230 LETTER VIII. Corrupt maxims of the casuists relating to judges Usurers The Contract Mohatra Bankrupts Restitution Divers ridiculous notions of these same casuists, 43 LETTER IX. False worship of the Virgin introduced by the Jesuits Devotion made easy Their maxims on ambition, envy, gluttony, equiv- ocation, mental reservations, female dress, gaming, and hearing mass 266 LETTER X. Palliatives applied by the Jesuits to the sacrament of penance, in their maxims regarding confession, satisfaction, absolution, prox- imate occasions of sin, and love to God, 284 LETTER XL The Letters vindicated from the charge of profaneness Ridicule a fair weapon, when employed against absurd opinions Rules to be observed in the use of this weapon Charitableness and dis- cretion of the Provincial Letters Specimens of genuine profane- ness in the writings of Jesuits, 808 LETTER XII. The quirks and chicaneries of the Jesuits on the subjects of alms- giving and simony, ......... 82 CONTENTS. 13 LETTER PAOI fidelity of Pascal's quotations Speculative murder Killing for lander Fear of the consequences The policy of Jesuitism, . 888 LETTER XIV. On murder The Scriptures on murder Lessius, Molina, and Lay- man on murder Christian and Jesuitical legislation contrasted, 355 LETTER XV. On calumny M. Puys and Father Alby An odd heresy Bare- faced denials Flat contradictions and vague insinuations em- ployed by the Jesuits The Capuchin's Mentiris impudentissime, 878 LETTER XVI. Calumnies against Port-Royal Port-Royalists no heretics M. de St. Cyran and M. Arnauld vindicated Slanders against the nuns of Port-Royal Miracle of the holy thorn No impunity for slanderers Excuse for a long letter, ..... 393 LETTER XVII. The author of the Letters vindicated from the charge of heresy The five propositions The popes fallible in matters of fact Per- secution of the Jansenists The grand object of the Jesuits, . 419 LETTER XVHI. The sense of Jansenius not the sense of Calvin Resistibility of grace Jansenius no heretic The popes may be surprised Tes- timony of the senses Condemnation of Galileo Conclusion, . 444 LETTER XIX. Fragment of a nineteenth Provincial Letter, addressed U Pere Annat, ........... 401 LIFE, GENIUS, AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. Iff looking back on the great events by which civilization and knowledge have been advanced, and in estimating the intellec- tual and moral energies by which their present position has been attained, we cannot fail to perceive that the master-steps in our social condition have been the achievement of a few gifted spirits, some of whose names neither history nor tradi- tion has preserved. We do not here allude to the progress of individual States, struggling for supremacy in trade or in com- merce, in arts or in arms, but to those colossal strides in civil- ization which command the sympathy and mould the destinies of mankind. Every nation has its peculiar field of glory its band of heroes its intellectual chivalry its cloud of witnesses; but heroes however brave, and sages however wise, have often no reputation beyond the shore or the mountain range which cou- fines them ; and men who rank as demigods in legislation or in war, are often but the oppressors and the corrupters of their more peaceful and pious neighbors. Traced in the blood of their victims, and emblazoned in acts of strangled liberty, their titles of renown have not been registered in the imperishable records of humanity. Without the stamp of that philanthropy and wisdom which the family of mankind can cherish, their patents of nobility are not passports to immortality. The men who bear them have no place in the world's affections, and their name and their honors must perish with the community that gave them. But while there are deeds of glory which benefit directly only the people among whom they arc- done, or the nation whom 16 I, IKK, GENIUS, AND they exalt, they may nevertheless have the higher character of exercising over our species a general and an inestimable influ- ence. When Regulus sacrificed his lite by denouncing to the Roman senate the overtures of Carthage, he was as mmh a martyr for truth as for Rome, and every country and every age will continue to admire the moral grandeur of tlie sacrifice. When Luther planted the standard of the Reformation in Ger- many, and confronted the Pope, wielding the sceptre of sov- ereign power, he became the champion of civil and religious liberty in every land ; the assertor of the rights of universal conscience the apostle of truth, who taught the world to dis- tinguish the religion of priestcraft from the faith once delivered to the saints. Hence may the Roman patriot become the guide and the instructor of civilized as well as of barbarous nations; and the hero of the Reformation, the benefactor of the Catholic as well as of the Protestant Church. It is not easy to estimate the relative value of those noble bequests which man thus makes to his species. Deeds of Ro- man virtue and of martyr zeal are frequently achieved in hum- ble life, without exciting sympathy or challenging applause; but when they throw their radiance from high places, and cast their halos round elevated rank or intellectual eminence, they light up the whole moral hemisphere, arresting the affections of living witnesses, and, through the page of history, command- ing the homage and drawing forth the aspirations of every future age. It has not been permitted to individuals to effect with their single arm those great revolutions which urge forward the destinies of the moral, the intellectual, and the political world. The benefactors of mankind labor in groups, and shine in con- stellations; and though their leading star may often be the chief object of admiration, yet his satellites must move along vith him, and share his glory. Surrounded with Kepler, and Galileo, and Hook, and Halley, and Flamsteed, and Laplace, Newton completes the seven pleiads by whom the system of the universe was developed. Luther, and Calvin, and Zwingle, and Knox form the group which rescued Christendom fronr. Papal oppression. Watt, and Arkwright, and Brindley, and Bell have made water and iron the connecting links of nations and have armed mechanism with superhuman strength, and al- DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 17 human skill. By the triple power of perseverance, wis- dom, and eloquence, Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and Fox have wrenched from the slave his manacles and fetters ; and we look forward with earnest anticipation to the advent and array of other sages who shall unshackle conscience and reason unlock the world's granaries for her starving children carry the torch- light of education and knowledge into the dens of ignorance and vice and, with the amulet of civil and religious liberty, emancipate immortal man from the iron-grasp of superstition and misrule. Although we have glanced at some of the principal groups of public benefactors, yet there are others which, though less prominent in the world's eye, ire, ie72r*beless, interesting ob- jects both for our study and imitation. In one of these stands pre-eminent the name of Pascal, possessing peculiar claims on the love and admiration of his species. As a geometer and natural philosopher, his inventive genius has placed him on the same level with Newton, and Leibnitz, and Huygens, and Des- cartes. As a metaphysician and divine, he baffled the subtlety and learning of the Sof bonne; as a writer, at once powerful and playful, eloquent and profound, he shattered the strong, holds of Jesuitism ; and as a private Christian, he adorned the doctrine of his Master with lofty piety, inflexible virtue, and all those divine graces which are indigenous in the heart which suffering and self-denial have abased. The celebrated Bayle has affirmed that the life of Pascal is worth a hundred sermons, and that his acts of humility and devotion will be more effective against the libertinism of the age than a dozen of missionaries. The observation is as in strnctive as it is just. During the brief interval which we weekly consecrate to eternity, the impressions of Divine truth scarcely survive the breath which utters them. The preacher's homily, however eloquent, is soon forgotten ; and the mission- ary's expostulation, however earnest, passes away with the heart-throb which it excites ; and if a tear falls, or a sigh es- capes amid the pathos of severed friendship, or the terrors of coming judgment, the evaporation of the one and the echo of the other are the only results on which the preacher can rely. ,t is otherwise, however, with the lessons which we ourselves .earn from illustrious examples of departed piety and wisdom. 18 LIFE, GENIUS, AX 3 The martyr's enduring faith appeals to the heart with the com- bined energy of precept and example. The sage's gigantic in tellect, purified and chastened with the meek and lowly spirit of the Gospel, becomes a beacon-light to the young and an anchor to the wavering. And when faith is thus ennobled by reason, reason is hallowed in return ; and under this union of principles, too often at variance, hope brightens in their com- mingled radiance, and the unsettled or distracted spirit resta with unflinching confidence on the double basis of secular and celestial truth. Even in a heathen age, the doubts and fears of Diocles were instantly dissipated, when he saw Epicurus on his bended knees doing homage to the Father of gods and men. There is, perhaps, no period in the history of our faith when the life and labors of Pascal his premature genius and hia brilliant talents his discoveries and his opinions his sorrows and his sufferings his piety and his benevolence his humility and his meekness could be appealed to with more effect than that in which our own lot is cast. When a political religion is everywhere shooting op in rank luxuriance, as the basis of political institutions ; when the temple of God has become the haunt of the money-changers, and the sacred offices of the ministry are bought and sold like the produce of the earth ;' when the wealth which God himself conferred, and the intel- lectual gifts which he gave, are marshalled in fierce hostility against the evangelism of his word ; in such an age, it may be useful to hold np the mirror to a Eoman Catholic layman to the sainted and immortal Pascal to reflect to all classes, to priest and people, a photogenic picture of a life of bright ex- ample, pencilled by celestial light; and, as time obliterates its shaded groundwork, developing new features for our love and admiration. Blaise Pascal was born at Clermont, on the 19th June, 1623. His family, who had been ennobled by Louis XI. about 1478, held from that time important offices in Auvergne ; and his father, Stephen Pascal, was the first President of the Court of Aides at Clermont-Ferrand. His mother, Antoinette Begon. died in 1626, leaving behind her one son, Blaise, and twc daughters, Gilberte, born in 1620, and Jacqueline, born it 1 This is more applicable to England than to America. ED. DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 19 1625. But though thus deprived of those inestimable instruc- tions which maternal fondness can alone supply, the loss was, to a great extent, compensated by the piety and affection of their remaining parent. Abandoning to his brother his profes- sional duties in Auvergne, that he might devote all his time to the education of his family, Stephen Pascal took up his resi- dence in Paris in 1631. Here he became the sole instructor of his son in literature and science, and of his two daughters in Latin and in belles-lettres; and with the lessons of secular wis- dom he blended that higher learning which formed so con- spicuous a feature in the future history of his family. It was now the spring-tide of science throughout Europe, and Stephen Pascal was one of its most active promoters. His knowledge of geometry and physics had gained him the friend- ship of Descartes, Gassendi, Roberval, Mersenne, Carcavi, Pail- leur, and other philosophers in Paris, who assembled at each other's houses to impart and receive instruction. This little band of sages maintained an active correspondence with the congenial spirits of other lands, and in this interchange of dis- covery, the achievements and the domain of science were simul- taneously extended. Men of rank and influence offered their homage to the rising genius of the age ; and such was the progress of this infant association, that, under the enlightened administration of Colbert, it became the nucleus of the cele- brated Academy of Sciences, which Louis XIV. established by 'royal ordonnance" in 1666. At the meetings of this society, Blaise Pascal was occasion- ally present. Though imperfectly apprehended, the truths of science inflamed his youthful curiosity, and such was his ardor or knowledge, that,, at the age of eleven, he was ambitious of Leaching as well as of learning; and he composed a little trea- tise on the cessation of the sounds of vibrating bodies when touched by the finger. Perceiving his passion for mathematical etudies, and dreading their interference with the more appro- priate pursuits in which he was engaged, his father prohibited the study of geometry, but, at the same time, gave him a gen- eral idea of its nature and objects, and promised him the full gratification of his wishes when the proper time should arrive. The aspirations, however, of heaven-born genius were not thus to be repressed. The very prohibition to study geometry served fO LIFE, GENII'S, AND but to enhance the love of it. In his leisure hours he was found alone in his chamber, tracing, in lines of coal, geometrical fig- ures on the wall ; and on one occasion he was surprised by his father, just when he had succeeded in obtaining a demonstra- tion of the thirty-second proposition of the First Book of Euclid, that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. Astonished and overjoyed, his father rushed to his friend M. Pailleur to announce the extraordinary fact; and the young geometer was instantly permitted to study, unre- strained, the Elements of Euclid, of which he soon made him- self master, without any extrinsic aid. From the geometry ol planes and solids, he passed to the higher branches of the science ; and before he was sixteen years of age, he composed ii treatise on the Conic Sections, which evinced the most ex- traordinary sagacity. Stephen Pascal was now in the zenith of his happiness, that fatal point in the horoscope of man which the world covets and the Christian dreads. In the city of the sciences, which Paris was and still is, his son was deemed a prodigy of genius, and his daughters, with the exterior graces of their sex and the highest mental endowments, had attracted the admiration of the distinguished circles which they had just begun to adorn. An event, however, occurred, which threw this joyous family into despair. Impoverished by wars and financial embezzle- ments, the government found it necessary to reduce the divi- ""inds on the Hotel de Ville in Paris. The annuitants grumbled at their loss, and meetings for discussion and expostulation were treated by the State as seditions. Stephen Pascal, who had invested much of his property in the Hotel de Ville, was accused of being one of the ringleaders in the movement; and ihe tyrant minister, Cardinal Richelieu, who could not brook oven the constitutional expression of dissent, ordered him to be arrested and thrown into the Bastile. Aware, however, of th designs of the Government through the kindness of a friend, he at first concealed himself in Paris, and subsequently took refuge in the solitudes of Auvergne. Thus driven from his home at a time when his youthful family required his most anxious and watchful care, we may conceive the indignation of the citizen when made the victim of calumny and oppression; but whr can estimate the agonies of a parent thus severed from his chil DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 2) dren? The thunder-cloud, however, which so blackly and suddenly lowered upon him, as suddenly cleared away. The God of the storm so directed it ; and marvellous was the play of the elements by which its lightnings were chained and its growling hushed. Tyrants are sometimes gay, and in their gayety accessible. When their consciences cannot be reached by the appeals of justice and truth, nor their hearts softened by tears and cries, they may be soothed by a timely jest, or an in- sinuating smile, or even turned from their firmest purpose by a bold and unexpected solicitation. If, by her graceful move- ments, Herodias's daughter could command from a heathen tyrant a deed of cruelty which he himself abhorred, another damsel might in like circumstances count upon an act of mercy from a Christian cardinal. Though it is doubtful to whom we owe it, the experiment was tried, and succeeded. The Abbe Bossut informs us that Cardinal Richelieu had tak- en a fancy to have Scudery's tragi-comedy of Z' Amour Tyran- nique performed in his presence by young girls. The Duchess d'Aiguillon, who was charged with the management of the piece, was anxious that little Jacqueline Pascal, then about thirteen years of age, should be one of the actresses. Gilberte, her eldest sister, and in her father's absence the head of the family, replied with indignation, that "the cardinal had not been sufficiently kind to them to induce them to do him this favor." The duchess persisted in her request, and made it un- derstood that the recall of Stephen Pascal might be the reward of the favor which she solicited. The friends of the family were consulted, and it was determined that Jacqueline should play the part which was assigned her. The tragi-comedy was performed on the 3d April, 1639. The part by Jacqueline was played witli a grace and spirit which enchanted the spectators, ind particularly the cardinal. T!ie enthusiasm of Richelieu must have been anticipated, for Jacqueline was prepared to take advantage of it. When the play was finished, she ap proached the cardinal, and recited the following verses, with the design of obtaining the recall of her father: " Ne VOUB etonnez pas, incomparable Armand, Si j'ai mal content^ vos yeux et vos oreilles : Mon esprit agite de frayeurs sans pareilles, Interdit a mon corps et voix et monverncnt 22 LIFE, GENII'S, AND Mais pour me rendre ici capable de vous plaire, Kappelez de 1'exil inoii miserable i'ere." Which may be thus rendered: " O marvel not, Armand, the great, the wise, If I have slightly pleased thine ear thine eyes; My sorrowing spini, torn by countless fear*, Each sound forbiddeth save the voice of tears : With power to please thee, wouldst thou me inspire Recall from exile now my hapless sire." The cardinal, taking her in his arms and kissing her while she was repeating the verses, replied, "Yes, my dear child, I grant you what you ask; write to your father that he may re- turn with safety." The Duchess d'Aiguillon took advantage of the incident, and thus spoke in praise of Stephen Pascal : " He is a thoroughly honest man ; he is very learned, and it is a great pity that he should remain unemployed. There is his son," added she, pointing to Blaise Pascal, "who, though he ia scarcely fifteen years of age, is already a great mathematician." Encouraged by her success, Jacqueline again addressed the car- dinal : " I have still, my lord, another favor to ask." " What is it, my child? Ask whatever you please; you are too charm- ing to be refused any thing." "Allow my father to come him- self to thank your eminence for your kindness." " Certainly," said the cardinal; "I wish to see him, and let him bring his family along with him." On the following day Jacqueline sent an account of this interesting episode to her father, and the moment he received the grateful intelligence he set off for Paris. Immediately on his arrival he hastened with his three children to Ruel, the residence of the cardinal, who gave him the most Haltering reception. "I know all your merit," says Richelieu. " I restore you to your children ; and I recommend them to your care. 1 am anxious to do something considerable for you." In fulfilment of this promise, Stephen Pascal was appointed Intendant of Rouen, in Normandy, in 1641. His family ac- companied him to that citj and in the same year his eldest daughter Gilberte, then twenty-one, was married to M. Perier, who had distinguished himself in the service of the Govern- ment, and who was afterwards counsellor to the Court of Aide* n Clermont. DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 23 Released by the return of his father from the only affliction which had hitherto tried- him, and free to pursne the sciences without the interruption of professional cares, Blaiso Pascal aonceived the idea of constructing a machine for perfoiming arithmetical operations. He was now scarcely nineteen years of age, and he himself informs us that he contrived this machine in order to assist his father in making the numerical calculations which his official duties in Upper Normandy required. Thfc construction of such a machine, however, was a much more troublesome task than its contrivance, and Pascal not only in- jured his constitution, but wasted the most valuable portion of his life in his attempts to bring it to perfection. A clockmaker in Rouen, to whom he had described his ear- liest model, made one of his own accord, which, though beauti- ful in its external aspect, was utterly unfit for its purpose. This "little abortion," as Pascal calls it, was placed in the cabinet of curiosities at Rouen, and annoyed him so much that he dismissed all the workmen in his service, under the appre- hension that other imperfect models might be made of the new machine which they were employed to construct. Some time afterwards the Chancellor Seguier, having seen the first model, encouraged him to proceed, and obtained for him in May, 1649, the exclusive privilege of constructing it. Thus freed from the risk of piracy, he made more vigorous efforts to improve it. He abandoned, as he assures us, all other duties, and thought of nothing but the construction of his machine. The first model which he executed proved unsatisfactory, both in its form and its materials. After successive improve- ments he made a second; and this again was succeeded by a third, which went by springs, and was very simple in its con- struction. This machine he actually used several times in the piesence of many of his friends ; but defects gradually presented themselves, and he executed more than fifty models, all of them different some of wood, others of ivory and ebony, and others of copper before he completed the machine, to which he in- rited the attention of the public. From the general description which Pascal has published o( t..is remarkable invention, and particui&riy from the dedication >f it to Chancellor Seguier, it is evident that he expected much more reputation from it than posterity has awarded. This over 24 LIFE, GENIUS, AND estimate of its merits, founded, no doubt, on the length of time and tlie mental energy which it had exhausted, is still more strongly exhibited in a letter which he wrote to Christina, Queen of Sweden, in 1650, accompanying one of the machine** 1 It was in this year that Christina was crowned, with unusua. pomp and splendor. She had announced herself as the patron of letters and the arts throughout Europe, and had invited Pas- cal, along with Descartes, Grotius, Gassendi, Saumaise, and others, to invest her throne with the lustre of their genius and learning. The state of his health prevented Pascal from thu paying homage to the young and admired queen; but, in the letter to which we have referred, he has made ample compen- sation for his absence. He addresses her Majesty in a tone frank and manly in a strain of compliment chaste and elegant in language rich and beautiful ennobling, by the happiest antithesis, bold and touching sentiments worthy of a sage to utter and of a queen to receive. Though only in his twenty- seventh year, Pascal had witnessed, and even experienced, the truth, that nations who vaunt most loudly their superiority in science and learning have been the most guilty in neglecting and even starving their cultivators. The French monarch had indeed given him the exclusive privilege of his invention the right of expending his time, his money, and his health, in per- fecting a machine for the benefit of France and the world ; but like a British pateut, bearing the great seal of England, it was not worth the wax which the royal insignia so needlessly adorned. The minister, it must be owned, had recalled his father from an unjust exile, and balanced the injustice by a laborious office in the provinces; but no honor no official sta tion no acknowledgment of services was ever given to his illustrious son, the pride of his country and the glory of his 1 Pascal appears from a passage in this letter, to have sent to Christina, through it. de Bounlfliit, a fuller history and description of the machine than the one which he published. This singular character, who is described as a sprightly buf- foon, nd who engror-sed more of the queen's notice than the most eminent or nor lavans, wn an Abt'C, whose real name was Pierre Miclion, whom, though a priest ttic Pope permitted to practice medicine. Snumaisr took him to Stockholm, where ue se< ins to have been the Beau Brurninel. the wit ami the butt of the royal table . 401. ED. DISCOVEUIES OF PASCAL. 27 jfe and motion. New rights wiL again spring up from the trodden germ, and discontents, which have their hot-bed in the feelings more than in the wants of the people, will propagate themselves with a vital energy, to which resistance will be vain. In the history of modern revolutions, let European nations read, u if they can read," the lessons which they teach. Let them he pondered by the unstable governments of France and England, where the vessel of the State ia ever on a tempestuous ocean now braving the storm, now yielding to it now among brist- ling rocks, now in the open sea; but whether she rides in dis- tress or in triumph, Faction is ever at the helm, and personal and family ambition in the hold. Poetry, with her lyrics, may charm the adventurers on their cruise Science may guide them through quicksands, and storms, and darkness and Mechanism, with her brawny arm, may push them across every obstacle of wind and wave; but when genius, and skill, and enterprise have filled the treasury and exalted the nation, the Poet, the Philosopher, and the Inventor are neither permitted to labor in its service nor share in its bounty. Her offices and her honors have been already pledged to the minions of corruption ; and whether genius appears in the meek posture of a suppliant, or n the proud attitude of a benefactor, her cries are stifled and her claims overborne. It is pre-eminently in France and in England where the accidents of birth and fortune repress the heaven-born rights of moral and intellectual worth. It is pre- eminently in the Kussian empire where a paternal, though an absolute monarch, dispenses to every servant of the State a just share of its wealth and its honors.' 1 By an imperial ukase, issued In 1S35, the science anf the doctrine of probabilities, an important branch of mathe- r.iatical science, which Huygens, a few years afterwards, im- proved, and which, in our own day, the Marquis Laplace and M. Poisson have so greatly extended. These treatises, with the 1 These works were entitled Promote* Apolloniut Gillut, in which be ex- te:idel the theory of Conic Sections, and described several unknown properties o those curves; TtictionfS Sj>hricce, TacHont* Onnicce, Loci plant et solia/i. Perspectives methodi, etc. The AbW Bossnt endeavored to find them, but it, rtin. 1 This triangle 1* an isosceles right-angled triangle, divided Into triangular celta nmilar to the original triangle. DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 37 exception of that on the Cycloid, were composed and printed fn the year 1654, but were not published till 1668, after the death of their author. Although Pascal's health had suffered from the severity of his early studies, yet it was not till 1641, when he had reached his eighteenth year, that his constitution was seriously im- paired. From that time "he never lived a day without pain." The labor which he had bestowed on his arithmetical machine, and on his physical and mathematical researches, gradually un- dermined his constitution, and at the close of 1647 he labored for three months under a paralytic attack, which deprived him wholly of the use of his limbs. About this time he took up his residence in Paris, along with his father and his sister Jac- queline. Here he resumed all his scientific pursuits, and de- voted himself wholly to those nobler studies which at all sea- sons of life become an immortal nature, but which are peculiarly appropriate when the languid and shattered ark is about to sur- render its undying occupant. The study of Christian truth, and the practice of Christian graces, engrossed all his thoughts ; and though his father's piety was always ardent, yet, under the instruction and example of his son, it acquired new brightness, and he died in 1651, full of faith and hope. Under the same holy tuition, his sister Jacqueline was led to renounce the world and its pleasures, and to spend the rest of her days in the con- Vent of Port-Royal, doing the will and following the example of her Master. But even these sacred duties were found to be too much for so weak a frame; and, in order to give his mind complete re- laxation, he made several journeys in Auvergne and other provinces, from which he derived considerable advantage. In 1653, however, after Jacqueline's departure for Port-Royal, Pascal found himself desolate and alone in Paris deprived of :he kind control of parental affection, and without those tender cares with which a sister's love had so assiduously watched Vim. His master-passion for study and for duty again seized Lira. He became first its servant, and then its slave, till hia feeble and wasted frame reminded him of his own mortality. In order to give him even a chance of recovery, the total renun- ciation of study, and even of the slighter exertions of the mind, Secarne imperative. His occupations were henceforth to be in 38 LIFE, GENIUS, AND the open air, or in the society of a few congenial friends; and though the change was a violent inroad upon all his habits, whether mental or physical, yet he yielded to the stern decree on implicit obedience. It is a strange fact in the history of our unfathomable nature that this godlike man, whom suffering had so singularly exalted, and who had seemed to all around him already embalmed for eternity, should, in almost the last extremity of his being, have acquired a taste for the very pcison which Lad been dispensed to save him. In solitude at home, and prohibited from every mental occupation, he naturally relished the society of friends whom he esteemed anxl loved, and who, doubtless, offered to him all the idolatry of their af- fections ; but habits had begun to be formed which threatened to interfere with the higher purposes of his being, and it was not improbable that a return to health, through the world's in- tervention, might not be a return to his Maker. Bossnt informs ns that he had begun to like society, and had even entertained serious thoughts of entering into the married state, in the hope that an amiable companion might enliven his solitude and alleviate his sufferings. Bat Providence had otherwise decreed. In the month of October, 1654, when he went to take his usual drive to the Bridge of Neuilly, Jn a carriage with four horses, the two leaders became restive at a part of the road where there was no parapet, and precipitated themselves into the Seine. Fortunately, the traces which yoked them to the poles gave way, and Pascal in his carriage stood in perilous safety on the verge of the precipice. The effect of such a shock upon a frame so frail and sensitive may be easily conceived. Pascal fainted away; and though his senses returned after a consider- able interval, his disturbed and shattered nerves never again recovered their original tone. During his sleepless nights and moments of depression he saw a precipice at his bedside, into which he was in danger of falling; and it is said that he be Heved it to be real, till a chair was placed between his bed and ;he visionary gulf which alarmed him. Pascal did not fail to profit by this alarming incident. Re- garding it as a message from heaven to renounce the pleasures of society, he resolved to follow where Providence so clearly led ; and, under the instruction of his sister, to whom he had himself taught the same difficult lesson, he was enab'ed to carry DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 39 his resolution into effect. The spiritual bread which he had thrown upon the waters returned to him after many days; and lie must have felt, as we ought to feel, that it is only in the commerce of holy living that the exchange is always iu fuvor of the giver, and that it is but in the mutual breathings of souls panting for immortality, that the inspirations become fuller and stronger. The green and smiling earth, which gives up its springs to cool the burning ether above, exhibits to us the gift returned in gentle dews or in refreshing showers. This inter- esting event in the life of Pascal, then in the thirty-first year oi his age, has been mentioned in the following manner by his sis- ter, Madame Perier : "Jacqueline Pascal was then a religious, and led a life so eminent for sanctity, that she edified all the convent. Being in that state, she with pain beheld the man to whom, next under God, she stood indebted for all the heavenly graces she en- joyed, remain himself out of the possession of these graces ; and as my brother made her frequent visits, so she made him fre- quent harangues on that subject : and this she did at last with s.o much force and energy, and yet with so much winning and persuasive sweetness at the same time, that she prevailed upon him, just as he had at first prevailed on her, absolutely to quit the world ; and he accordingly went into a firm resolution of bidding a final adieu to all public company, and of retrenching all the little unprofitable superfluities of life, even with the risk of his health, because he thought salvation preferable to all things, and the health of his soul infinitely more valuable than that of his body." Thus freed from the embarrassments of social life, Pasca. re- tired to the country, renouncing the pursuits of science, and devoting all his time to the study of the Scriptures, and the discharge of the duties they enjoined. His great mind was never greater than now, and though the mortal coil which en- A rapped it was frail, and fast mouldering away, it still afforded scope and shelter for the mighty spirit within. It is when the material seed is exhausted in the quickening of its germ, that vegetable life bursts forth in all its strength and beauty. It was not to be expected that a mind of such energy as Pascal's would be permitted to ndulge in an inglorious repose, when the interests of truth, secular auJ divine, required its aid. Its 40 LIFE, GENIUS, AND past acquisitions were but preparations for a future battle-field ; and no sooner was it equipped in the full panoply of its intel- lectual might, than there was provided an occasion for its highest exercise. It was in the defence of Port-Royal and its immortal band of saints and sages, and of the great truths which reason and revelation combined to sanction, that Pascal was summoned from his retreat, and girt himself for the con test. About six miles beyond Versailles, and in a secluded valle}. stood the celebrated Abbey of Port-Royal des Champs, su called to distinguish it from Port-Royal de Paris, the town residence of the abbess, Augelique Arnaud. After having re- formed the abuses and regulated the affairs of her own nun- nery, she extended her pious cares to other institutions, where sacred vows had given way to secular pleasures, and where penitence and fasting had passed into riot and intemperance. There the scions of rank and power revelled in all the gayety of the capital. Luxurious fetes polluted the sacred groves by day, while dancing, and gambling, and stage-plays closed the visible revels of the night. Confiding in a stronger arm than her own, the undaunted abbess succeeded in her holy enter- prise. Open profligacy disappeared from the recreant nun- neries, and her own institution acquired new celebrity and distinction. But, exalted as was her new position and that of her thriving community, it was destined, through suffering, to rise to still higher purity and glory. In the cycle of the seasons an unhealthy summer occurred. Heat and moisture united their deleterious powers ; and dense vapors, rising from the marshy soil, scattered their gaseous poison over the valley. The nunnery became a hospital; and, in order to save its inmates, the establishment was transferred to Port-Royal de Paris, a hotel which the mother of the abbess had purchased for their reception. At this time the Catholic Church was divided, as every other ihurch has since been, into two parties the one maintaining in their purity the great evangelical truths which Scripture so alearly reveals, and the other accommodating its doctrines to the weakness of human reason, and making them palatable to that large and powerful section of society who consider religion but as a generalization of moral duties, and its ministers aa D18COVKKIES OF PASCAL. 41 jational police, whose function it is to wield the terrors of the Divine law in support of the altar and the throne. In managing the affairs of the Church, these two parties were equally at variance. To maintain tht, purity of its discipline to exalt the character of its literature to keep up a high morality in its clergy, and to correct the flagrant abuses which had pro- faned its altars, were unceasingly the objects of the Catholic Evangelists. Against such innovations, genius and casuistry plied their skill ; the minions of corruption stood forth in fero- cious array ; and the petty tyrants, who directed the consciences and the will of kings, threatened with their fiercest vengeance the exposure of their crimes. The parties thus placed in order of battle were the Jansenists and the Jesuits. Cornelius Jansen, bishop of Ypres, born in 1585, and John du Verger D'Hauranne, abbot of Saint Cyran, born in 1581, at Bayonne, were the founders of Jansenism, a system of evangelical doctrine which they found embodied in the almost inspired writings of Augustine, and which was given to the world under the title of Augustinus, a posthumous work of Jansen, which appeared in 1640, about two years after his death. While he was at the College of Louvaine along with Duverger, his health suffered from intense study. His physi- cians recommended a change of air ; and, on the invitation of his friend, lie accompanied him to Bayonne. Here, under the roof of Duverger, the two youthful divines spent six years in unremitting and successful study, and acquired the highest reputation for their piety as well as their learning. The Bishop of Bayonne extended to them his patronage. Duverger became :i canon in the Cathedral, and Jansen head-master of the New College; and thus did a community of feeling and of destiny weld their young hearts into the warmest and most enduring friendship. Duverger was soon afterwards appointed Grand Vicar to Henry de la Rochepozay, bishop of Poitiers, who, in 1620, resigned to him the abbacy of the Monastery of Saint Cyran. When Cardinal Richelieu was bishop of Lucon, he was struck With the high talent and not'e mien of the abbot; and after his ambitious views began to be developed, he sought to pro- pitiate his alliance by the offer of the richest bishoprics and abbacies in his gift. Saint Cyran, however, was animated with i2 LIFE, GENIUS, AND 'oftier objects. Possessing the highest endowments of the sage, he adorned them with the highest attributes of the saint, and these he had already pledged in the service of a better Master. The cardinal was chagrined at the rejection of his offers; and when he found himself unable to attach Saint Cyran to his interests as a tool, he began at first to dread him, and at last to treat him as an enemy. There were events in the cardinal's early life which Saint Cyran could disclose, and there were schemes in his head which he might successfully resist. Already had he refused to sanction the divorce of tho Duke of Orleans, to make way for his marriage to the cardi- nal's niece ; and it became a measure of personal security to deprive his self-created enemy of the power of injuring him. The holy abbot was accordingly sent, in 1638 (the very year of Jansen's death), to the castle of Vincenues, where the odor of his sanctity and the radiance of his learning hallowed, for four years, that gloomy prison, till, a few months before his death, his hated oppressor was summoned to a still narrower and darker home. While the sisterhood of Port-Royal were residing in Paris, the abbess became acquainted with this remarkable individual. Pledged to the same Master, and intent on the same prize, they resolved to re-establish Port-Royal, in order to maintain and propagate the great evangelical principles which they had adopted. The disciples may we not say the worshippers? of Saint Cyran were equally distinguished by their learning, their talents, and their piety ; and under his orders there assembled at Port-Royal des Champs a sacred band, who, throwing all their wealtii into its treasury, resolved to consecrate them- selves to God, and, in fasting and prayer, to devote their lives to the improvement and instruction of their species. Anthony Arnaud and Arnaud D'Andilly, the brothers of the abbess ; Lemaitre and De Saci, her two nephews; Nicole, Tillemont, Lancelot, Hermaud, Renaud, and Fontaine, formed the noble group who, in unequal dimensions and dissimilar attitudes, occupied the grand pediment of that Christian temple. But beneath its heavenward cusp one blank was left, which Pascal was soon to fill. Having had frequent occasion to visit his sister Jacqueline, the philosopher of Clermont became acquaint- ed with the celebrated brotherhood of Port-Royal. To his DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 43 opinions and aspirations theirs were ardently responsive. The same throb of piety beat in each heart ; the same flash ol genius glanced in each eye ; the same notes of eloquence fell from each tongue. Each and all of them looked to intellectual labor as their daily toil ; to temperance and self-denial as their spiritual medicine; to the grave as their resting-place; and to heaven as their home. We could have wished to give our readers some account of the holy men who occupied the farm-house of Les Granges, close to the Abbey of Port-Royal, and of the eminent persons who came to enjoy their society and benefit by their instruc- tions ; but the task, excepting in fragments, is beyond our limits. Anthony Arnaud was the undaunted hero of the Port- Royal enterprise. He had bravely striven with the Jesuits, and beaten them in many a well-contested field. He had dared even to assail the errors of Malebranche and Descartes ; but though he never failed to crush, in his gigantic grasp, the more tangible and outstanding heresies of his antagonists, yet the gossamer and cobwebs of the Jesuits escaped unhurt in its in- terstices. It required the fine touch, the tapering fingers, and the sharp lancet of Pascal to unravel the tangled web, to ex- tract the truth from its meshes, and to exhibit it in its native beauty, for the reception of mankind. Arnaud and his asso- ciates soon recognized the capacity of their young friend for so delicate a task; and, aided by their learning and research, he threw himself into the breach between the Jansenists and the Jesuits. The Auguatinu* of Jansen the text-book of Port-Royal theology had been assailed by the Jesuits with the most ran- corous hostility ; and when unable to meet its doctrines in the fair field of discussion, they pretended to deduce from it jftre propositions which it did not contain, and which they clothed in language of such double meaning, that they were capable of two or three different interpretations, and misled even honest inquirers. We cannot even attempt to give a meager outline of the European controversy which these propositions occu- pying, in* all, about fifteen lines called forth, or of the dra- matic incidents to which they gave rise. At its commencement, it agitated not only France, but Italy. It disquieted kings and princes it shook the Vatican; and before its close, it over. 44 LIFE, GENIUS, AND threw the perfidious but triumphant Jesuits who excited it, and laid prostrate the temporal power of the Popes who mis- judged it. The cause of truth, indeed, which genius and learn- ing had plead in vain, received the first shock; and the holy men, who stood faithful to the end, became exiles or dungeon slaves for its sake. But though the avenging arm was not lifted up in immediate or general retribution, it yet struck at individual victims it executed stern retaliation on the familie? of ungodly princes and sent the agonies of conscience, and the pangs of death, to wield their fiercest power over their guilty minions. The first step in this exciting movement was taken ii the Sorbonne, on the 1st of July, 1649, when M. Cornet, Syndic of the Faculty, submitted to that body seven propositions, con- taining heretical doctrines, which, he asserted, were making rapid progress among the bachelors of divinity. Durirg the sharp discussion which ensued, several of the speakers pointed out its bearing on the doctrines of Saint Augustine, so often authorized by Popes and Councils ; and M. Marcan prophetic- ally declared, " that it was well enough discerned, that under pretext of these propositions Jansen was aimed at, and that the design was to cause the censure to fall one day upon that author.' 1 ' 1 It was decided, however, in a meeting packed for the purpose, that the propositions should be examined; and a committee of eight doctors was accordingly appointed for the purpose. Although the disciples of Augustine had lost no time in un- masking the designs and denouncing the malice of the Jesuits, yet the committee resolved, and allowed their resolution to transpire, to condemn the propositions, " without making any distinction of the different senses of which they were capable.'' At the meeting held for this purpose on the 2d of August, M. St. Amour, a distinguished Jansenist, served upon them an appeal to Parliament, signed by sixty doctors, for the purpose of preventing any decision in the Faculty. When M. Brousset had begun to report the appeal to the Great Chamber, the president, M. Mole, instantly stopped him. The affair* he said, was too important to be rashly judged ; and following out this opinion, he, in a few days, proposed a truce of some months which the Jansenists accepted, and to which he pledged him DISCOVKKIES OF PASCAL. 45 self on the part of the Jesuits. This triumph of the Jansenist^ however, was of short duration. The Jesuits broke the pledge of the president. They confessed that they were bound to do nothing for a few months, but they were not pledged to say nothing ; and on the strength of this defence, they had pre- pared their condemnation of the propositions; and in Septem- ber they circulated it through the kingdom, denouncing their* as heretical, scandalous, and contrary to Scripture! This gross breach of faith excited general indignation. The Jansenists, full of the energy which their cause inspired, again appealed to Parliament for an interdict against the proceedings of the committee. Parties were heard. Five of the Jesuits had the effrontery to declare that they had never passed any censure, while all of them asserted that they had never pub- lished it. In order to restore peace to the Church, the presi- dent proposed that the Jesuits shorld pledge themselves, in the presence of the Court, " to do nothing more for the future ;" and addressing himself to their leader, M. Cornet, he asked his concurrence. Cornet replied, " Sir, we pledge ourselves to make good all that we promised to President Mole." Indignant at the equivocation, the president replied, "Ha. Gentlemen, speak plain French ; these loose words and general promises are not discourses to be held in this company. The Sorbonne hath not the repute of using equivocations" Unwilling to issue an in- terdict, the president again proposed a mutual agreement. u War," he said, u was kindled both without and within the empire : we had suffered famine, and there were still other scourges that threatened us, and it was a thing of ill relish to see division among the doctors." The Jansenists, however, insisted on the interdict, and on the 5th of October the Parlia- ment "enjoined and prohibited the parties from publishing the said draught of censure; from agitating or bringing into ques- tion the propositions contained therein, and writing and pub- lishing any thing concerning them." Though now under legal restraint, the Jesuits were as little restrained by law as they had been by honor. They auda- ciously sent to Rome the disowned and prohibited censure, as a True Censure of the propositions issued by the Faculty of the Sorbonne, and, as such, it was "brought, before the Pope in the Assembly of the Holy Office, to be the subject of debate for his 16 LIFE, GENIUS, AND Holiness and that tribunal." Three out ot the fire consulters approved of the censure, and all the cardinals would have con- curred, had not one of them, more upright than the rest, holdly maintained, " that the censure, and not the proposition, was heretical." Upon this the Pope exclaimed, u Beware of Car- dinal N , who says that our consulters are heretics;" to which the cardinal replied, "Excuse rne, blessed Father; I do not say that my lords the consulters are heretics, but that their censures are heretical. But still, it is true that they would be heretics should they continue obstinately therein." The intrigues of the Jesuits, and their repeated attempts tc deceive and prejudice the Pope, rendered it necessary that decision on the five propositions should be obtained from thi highest authority. A letter, signed by eleven French bishops, was accordingly addressed to his Holiness, requesting the es- tablishment of a solemn congregation, at which the subject should be discussed before the Pope pronounced judgment; and M. St. Amour, and other four deputies, were sent to Rome to carry out the views of the bishops. The Jesuits appointed a similar deputation, and both parties arrived at Rome. The activity of M. St. Amour annoyed the Jesuits, and they tried every means to frighten him from Italy. Even Cardinal D'Este intimated to him that his residence in Rome was one of real danger; and a French ecclesiastic informed him, in secret, that there was a plan to seize him at night and immure him in the prison of the Inquisition. Notwithstanding these threats, the heroic Jansenist stood firm at his post; and on the 10th of July, 1651, he had an audience of the Pope. After stating that the Jesuits in France had made sure of the Pope's opinion, his Holiness replied, says M. St. Amour, u by showing me a cruci- fix, which he said was his counsel in such affairs as these ; and having heard what would be represented to him by such as argued therein, he kneeled dowrt before that crucifix, to take at the feet thereof his resolution according to the inspiration given to him by the Holy Spirit, whose assistance was promised "o him, and could not fail him." On the 'Jlst of June, 1652, the Jansenist deputation had their long-promised audience of Innocent X. The members addressed his Holiness in succession, and brought before him Severn, striking facts, within his own knowledge, which placed beyonc DISCOVERIES OF PASCA.L. 47 a duubt the intrigues and calumnies of his opponents ; and there was reason to believe that the Pope took a favorable view ot' the cause. Advice, however, and even warnings, from kings and bishops, overset the papal mind, and created doubts and fears which an appeal to his crucifix seemed unable to remove. The King of Poland urged the condemnation of the five propo- sitions, and declared that he was ''"more apprehensive in his do- minions of the divisions which might arise about them than the wars of the Tartars and Muscovites ;" and there is reason to be- lieve that the French king and his tyrant minister rested their own personal safety, as well as that of their kingdom, on the condemnation of truths eternal and immutable. To such in- fluences the Holy Father was constrained to yield ; and though he honored the deputies with a grand audience on the 19th May, 1653, and listened for hours to their learned and unanswerable appeals, yet on the 81st of May the bull of condemnation was placarded in the streets, and copies sent to the French king and bishops, without any communication even of the fact of its hav- ing been passed being made to the deputation! Upon taking leave of Innocent, the Jansenist deputies were received with a degree of kindness which excited the greatest joy even in Rome. Annoyed by this expression of opinion, the Jesuits solicited an audience of the Pope, to request from him a declaration of his dissatisfaction with his subjects. The application, however, was in vain. The feelings and conduct of the Pope are thus described, in a dispatch from the French ambassador to the Secretary of State: " On Thursday last I told the Pope that the doctors who bear the title of St. Augustine's defenders were desirous to kiss his feet before their departure, being ready to return into France. His Holiness answered me, that whatever business he might have he would admit them to audience on Friday morning: which he did, and caressed the doctors extremely, and told them that he had not condemned the doctrine of St. Augustine or St. Thomas, nor the point of grace effectual by itself, leaving this part of the controversy in the same posture as Clement VIII. and Paul V. had left it; but that as they themselves had declared that the five propositions had three senses, one Cal- rinistic, one Pelagian, and one true and Catholic, they ought tc 48 LIFK, GENIUS, AND be pronounced erroneous and temerarious, inasmuch as in a cer- tain manner and intent they were heretical." Although the Jansenists yielded implicit obedience to the de- cision of the Roman Pontiff, the Jesuits were restless and dis- satisfied. Aided by the king and the government, they used every means to annoy and oppress their adversaries. They de- nounced the Jansenist leaders as deists ; they charged the depu- tes with having circulated libels against the king; they ridiculed ttiem in silly caricatures; they afterwards established an anti- Jansenist test, with suitable penalties to enforce it ; and they ejected from their offices the Professor of Divinity at Caen and the Principal of the College of Montaigu. But this was not all. The writings of Jansen the object of all their hostility had not yet been condemned. To effect this, the Jesuits of Church and State united their strength. Cardinal Mazarin even lent his influence; and it was speedily decreed, in a muster of Pa- risian doctors, that the condemned propositions were actually contained in the Augustinus of Jansen! In this emergency the indomitable Arnaud rushed to tLe combat. In a vigorous letter, written in 1655, he declared that the condemned propositions were not to be found in the writ- ings of Jansen ; and he boldly announced his own orthodox pinions on the perplexing questions of grace and free-will. The doctors of the Sorbonne were again in arms. Arnaud vas charged not only with heresy, but with disrespect to the Homan See; and hence it became necessary that charges so grave in themselves, and so serious in their consequences, should be fully and fairly canvassed by the public. Such was the state of this extraordinary controversy, when Pascal became the champion of truth and of Port-Royal. Un- der the signature of Louis de Mont.il te, he composed a series ot letters, 1 addressed to a friend in the country, containing ani- madversions on the morals and policy of the Jesuits. The first Df these letters was published on the 23d January, 1656, and ./hey were continued at intervals till the 24th March, 1657, when he eighteenth and last letter made its appearance. 8 1 The Letters appeared first with the title of Lettre* ecrile* par Loui* de 3/oi 4ilfo, a un Provincial de se amis, et aua: RR. PP. Jesuites, sttr la morale et la PoHtique de c P&re. * A nineteenth letter, dated 1st June, 1657, has been added in some modrt DISCOVEKIES OF PASCAL. 49 Thefost of the Provincial Letters, as they are now called, s introduced with a notice of the proposed censure of Arnaud. In a series of imaginary conversations with doctors and monks, Pascal investigates, with much humor and elegance of style, the meaning of the term proximate power (pouvoir prochairi), which the Molinists had invented for the purpose of drawing down a censure upon Arnaud. This letter produced a great sensation. It roused the public, who had hitherto been indifferent to the subject; but so active and zealous were the enemies of Arnaud, that a week afterwards they succeeded, by a majority of votes, in expelling him from the Faculty of Theology in the Sorbonne. 1 The second letter, dated January 29, treats of the subject of sufficient grace, which, according to the Jesuits, was of no avail without efficacious grace an inconsistency which the author exposes in a strain of the happiest and most convincing raillery, and which leads him to address to the Dominicans an eloquent and glowing admonition. In the third and fourth letters, which immediately followed the decision of the Sorbonne, he ridicules with great effect the Dominicans, who seem on this occasion to have abandoned the doctrine of St. Thomas, and he shows in the clearest manner that the sentiments of Arnaud coincide with those of the Fathers ; that the censure pronounced upon him was as absurd as it was unjust; and that the heresy charged against him was not in his writings, but in his person. Thus did it appear that the proximate power of the Jesuits was that which left man powerless ; and their sufficient grace that whicli sufficeth not. In these four letters Pascal assumes the character of a person not much versed in such controversies. He consults various learned doctors, proposes doubts, and obtains solutions of them, and in this way he makes the subject so plain that the Jesuits and the Dominicans became the objects of universal ridicule. u Pascal," says an eminent French critic, "explains every question so clearly, that we are compelled out of gratitude to agree with him." In the six following letters the Jesuits are scourged with the most unmerciful severity, and yet with stripes editions, on tbe subject of the proposed establishment of the Inquisition In Frbure. 1 At this meeting, which was held in the 31st January, 1656, 206 members ol he Faculty were present. For M. Arnaud, there were 71 votes of doctors ; against him, 80 ; and 40 votes of mendicant frinrs, 15 members declining to vote 3 fiO LIKE, GENIUS, AND so quietly and measuredly applied that the sound of the lash, like that of the cricket or the grasshopper, scarcely affects our ears. The writhing of the unseen culprit becomes almost vis- ible; and we think we hear him, in words not expressed, ac- knowledging the justice of his punishment. Almost every religious order had its casuists, who decided cases of conscience, and affixed as it were a numerical value to human actions. Crimes became virtues when tested by the intention of the criminal ; and thus did the casuist priests, with the privileges of the confessional, become at once the arbiters and the tyrants of conscience. The theological ethics of the Jesuits abounded in those misleading principles, in which their casuists were intrenched. Their doctrines of probdbalism, of mental restriction, and of the direction of intention, were often applied with singular subtilty and talent; but, in an age of ignorance and superstition, the actual decisions of snch judges as the Jesuits, administering such codes of casuistic law, must have been, as they were, scandalous and revolting. Against cases of this kind, carefully collected from their writings, Pas- cal directs the artillery of his sarcasm. Their new system of morality their remiss and their rigid casuistry their substitu- tion of obscure authorities for that of the Fathers their arti- fices for evading the authority of the Gospel, the Councils, and the Popes the privileges of sinning, and even of killing, granted to priests and friars their corrupt maxims respecting judges 7 their false worship of the Virgin Mary their facilities for pro- curing salvation while living in sin, are all exposed with severity of satire, a gayety of sentiment, an elegance of style, and an exuberance of wit, which have interested all classes of readers. In the remaining eight letters the morals, the maxims, and the calumnies of the Jesuits are again discussed; but, as if the subject had become too grave for ridicule, and their crimes too flagrant for satire, Pascal assails them with the severest reproof, and in the most fervid eloquence. Abandoning his previous tactics, he attacks the whole body of the Jesuits, and address- ing his two last letters to Father Annat, the very confessor of the king, who had charged the author with being a heretic am? a Port-Royalist, he makes the following bold reply: "You feel yourselves smitten by an invisible hand a hand, however DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. '51 which makes your delinquencies visible to all ; and in vain do you try to strike at me in the dark, through the persons of those with whom you suppose me to be associated. I fear you not, either on my own account or on that of any other, being bound by no tie either to a community or to any individual whatso- ever. All the influence which your society possesses can be of no avail in my case. From this world I have nothing to hope, nothing to dread, nothing to desire. Through the goodness of God I have no need of any man's money or any man's patron- age. Thus, father, I elude all your attempts to lay hold of me. You may touch Port-Eoyal if you choose, but you shall not touch me. You may turn people out of the Sorbonne, but that will not turn me out of my domicile. You may hatch plots against priests and doctors, but not against me, for I am neither the one nor the other. And thus, father, you never perhaps had to do, in the whole course of your experience, with a person so completely beyond your reach, and, therefore, so admirably qualified for dealing with your errors one perfectly free one without engagement, entanglement, relationship, or business of any kind one, too, who is pretty well versed in your maxims, and determined, as God shall give him light, to discuss them, without permitting any earthly consideration to arrest or slacken his endeavors." The effect produced by the Provincial Letters far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the Port-Koyalists. Eead and understood by the world, to whom Jansenism and Jesuitism were subjects of indifference, they were devoured by all classes, and the Jesuits became everywhere the subject of mirth and ridicule. Even their friends at court enjoyed in secret the hu- miliation of their spiritual tyrants, and the gay and profligate society of the capital found the cheapest absolution, and indul- gences, without price, in the moral law of the Jesuits. Thus driven from the field as casuists and as divines, they had no place of refuge in literature or science. The most distinguished wri- ters and philosophers of the day, if not all Jansenists, were, at least, none of them Jesuits. The shaft which struck them was shot from a bow doubly strung, which genius and piety had combined to bend, and though it was not barbed with upas, nor guided to a vital part, it yet shook the seat of life, and, by a sure though lingering process, brought its victim to the tomb. 52 LIFE, GENIUS, AND After this blow, the Jesuits were unable to recover either their station or their influence. The political power, indeed, previously intrusted to them against Port-Royal, was now put forth with new force, and wielded with unscrupulous malignity. Anne of Austria, the Regent of France, and Cardinal Mazarin, her unprincipled minister, were the guilty authors of this attack upon Port-Royal. A troop of archers, aided by the police, marched to its sacred groves. The masters and scholars were ejected from its schools ; the recluses were banished from its sanctuary, and an order of council was issued to eject every scholar, postulant, and novice both from their Abbey-in-the- Fields, and their residence in the capital. An event, however, occurred as strange in its nature as it was powerful in its influ- ence, which arrested the secular arm, and stayed for awhile the fanatical vengeance of the Jesuits. Among the scholars at Port-Royal, Marguerite Perier, the neice of Pascal, was an object of peculiar interest. She was eleven years of age, and had for three years been afflicted with bfatula lachrymalig. The most celebrated surgeons in Paris had, during six months, exhausted in vain all the resources of their art. Her nose and cheeks were deformed with the most loathsome sores. The bones had even become carious, her at- tendants almost shrunk from her presence, and so desperate was the case that the surgeons had decided on the application of the cautery. Her father was summoned to witness the operation, aud he had set out on his journey to be present on the appointed day. Previous to this event, M. de la Potherie, a priest resident in Paris, had obtained one of the thorns said to be from our Saviour's crown, which, at the urgent request of the virgins, had been sent for adoration to the different monas- teries in Paris. The inhabitants of Port-Royal were naturally anxious to show the same respect to the sacred relic ; and on Friday, the 24th March, 1656, the nuns and scholars marched through the church in solemn procession, and kissed the holy thorn as they passed. Marguerite Perier had been advised to apply her eye to the thorn after she had kissed it, and no sooner nad she done this than the disease disappeared. Several of the physicians and surgeons, who had been previously consulted, were called to witness the cure. They could not believe their eyes ; and so complete was the cure that they could scarcely D1SCOVKRIES OF PASCAL. 53 flislingnish Mademoiselle Perier from her companions. 1 This extraordinary cure was at first kept secret by the ladies ol Port-Royal, but it was soon made known in Paris by the medi- cal attendants. The mind of the capital was agitated the Jesuits trembled, and their political agents paused in their deed of persecution. The regent sent the king's surgeon to inquire into the truth of the story, and when it was reported to her to be true, she pondered over the event. All good Catholics regarded the Miracle of the Thorn as an interposition of Provi- dence to save the monastery ; and Anne of Austria, unable to resist the general feeling, which she probably did not share, recalled her archers from their work of sacrilege, and permitted the saints and sages of Port-Royal to resume their intellectual and pious labors. The respite thus obtained for the condemned monastery dis- concerted the plans of its relentless enemies. The Jesuits at first threw doubts over the story of the Holy Thorn, and called in question the testimony of those who had witnessed it ; and when they found these attempts to be unavailing, they pub- lished the most scandalous libels against the Port-Royalists. In the Rdbat-joie des Jansenistes, published anonymously, but written by Father Annat, the king's confessor, this holy slan- derer, after trying to put down the story as untrue, admitted it to be a real miracle, and maintained that God had allowed it to be wrought amid a conclave of heretics, in order to prove that Christ died for all men ! Pascal, who had seen with his own eyes the disease, and had also witnessed its cure, could not but view the event as miraculous; and, as a Roman Catholic, he naturally regarded it as produced by the touch of the Holy "We have abridged this account from the third note of Nicole (Willelmns Wendrockius) on the Sixteenth Provincial Letter. Nicole was then in Paris en- oying the society of Pascal, his intimate friend. He went to Port-Royal, and witnessed with his own eyes the fact of the cure, having been assured by Pascal nd the surgeons of the fact of the disease. " Turn ego Parisiis versabar externna, nee mediocrem curn clarissimo viro D. Pascal omnibus Europ* mathematicis notissimo usum contraxeram, propter illorum, in quibus aliqnando gravioribus atigatus acquiesco, studiorum societatem. Is erat istius pnellw avunculus : idem et tanti miraculi testls omni exceptione major. Hnjns causa ipse qnoque cum seteris Portum Eegium petii, commonstrari mihi pnellam curavl: at #icut turn Mi integerrimct fidei viro, turn gpectatifttimi* mediate et ohii-urgis de morbc tredideram, de sanitate mihi credidi." Lud. Montalt. Lett. Prov., p. 4S9, Ed t, Colon. 1665. 51 LIFE, GENIUS, AND Thorn. He entered the lists, therefore, with Father Annal and the Jesuits, and repels, in his sixteenth letter, the base calumnies which they had circulated against his friends. The following appeal to them is at once beautiful and eloquent : " Cruel, cowardly persecutors! Must, then, the most retired cloisters afford no retreat from your calumnies ? While these consecrated virgins are employed, night and day, according to their institution, in adoring Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament, you cease not, night or day, to publish abroad that they do not believe that he is either in the eucharist or even at the right hand of his Father; and you are publicly excommunicating them from the Church, at the very time when they are in secret praying for the whole Church, and for you ! You blacken with your slanders those who have neither ears to hear nor mouths to answer you ! But Jesus Christ, in whom they are now hid- den, not to appear till one day together with him, hears you, and answers for them At the moment I am now writing, that holy and terrible voice is heard which confounds nature and consoles the Church. And I fear, fathers, that those who now harden their hearts, and refuse with obstinacy to hear them, while he speaks in the character of God, will one day be com- pelled to hear him with terror, when he speaks to them in the character of a Judge." We are unwilling to enter into any discussion respecting the apparently supernatural core of Mademoiselle Perier. As Pro- testants, we reject the miracle as men, we admit the fact. Unwilling to believe that the Church of Christ was either to be sustained or adorned by miraculous gifts, we cannot believe that the occurrence of events which baffle human reason is any proof of the purity of the Church with which they are associated. We may believe that meteoric stones fall from the ky, when we see them whizzing across our path and dropping warm at our feet; but we need not believe that they have fallen from the moon, or formed part of a shattered planet. Those who take away human life on circumstantial evidence, or on direct testimony, must believe that an extraordinary, if not an instantaneous cure, was performed on Mademoiselle Perier, or rather took place on the day the procession passed (he fancied relic ; but it would require more evidence than can be produced, and that, too, of a very peculiar kind, to prove DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 55 that the cure was effected by the touch of a thorn, and that the thorn employed had ever existed in our Saviour's crown. But, whatever be our opinion of this event, there is no doubt that the regent and her minister viewed it as divine. It para- lyzed their vindictive arm ; and while they were the deposit- aries of power, that arm was never again lifted against Port- Riyal. The pious world were equally impressed with its supernatural character. Crowds of devotees thronged to the sacred scene. The Queen of Poland, the Princess Guirnenee the Dukes and Duchesses of Luynes, Liancourt, and Pont- chateau the Marquesses of Sevigne and Sable, annually re- tired to it for instruction ; and the celebrated Duchess de Lon- gueville, with the Prince and Princess de Conti, her broth ei and sister, became worshippers at Port-Royal. About the same time, -Madame de Montpensier, the niece of Louis XIII., paid a visit to the Abbey, and carried back to the queen regent the most favorable account of its principles and its inmates. 1 These indications of prosperity, however, were but the fore- shadows of a coming storm. The Jesuits viewed them with an evil eye, and the popularity of Port-Royal spurred them on to new acts of aggression. On the death of Cardinal Mazarin, the young monarch, Louis XIV., yielded to the desires of the Jesuits. Having refused to sign the anti-Jansenist formulary of 1660, the novices and scholars were expelled from the monastery ; the small schools of Port-Royal and the neighbor hood were shut up; and, in consequence of a decree of tho 13th of April, 1661, a troop of horse appeared at the abbey, and drove into prison or exile its higher functionaries. Arnaud was banished. Singlin, the father confessor, was thrown into the Bastille, where he died; and Angelique Arnaud, after a bold remonstrance addressed to the queen, took leave of the companions of her solitude, and closed a holy and a useful life, strong in the faith which had so long sustained her, and ani- mated with those hopes which affliction brightens, and death embalms. In the midst of these calamities, Pascal was engrossed with trofound researches in geometry, an occupation well fitted to serenity to a heart bleeding from the wounds of his beloved 1 if&moires de Mademoiselle de Montpenster, torn. HL, p. 810. 56 LIFE, GENIUS, AND associates. He had long before renounced the study of the sci- ences ; but during a violent attack of toothache, which deprived him of sleep, the subject of the cycloid forced itself upon his thoughts. Fennat, Roberval, and others, had trodden the same ground before him ; but in less than eight days, and under severe suffering, he discovered a general method of solving this class of problems by the summation of certain series ; and as there was only one step from this discovery to that of Fluxions. Pascal might, with more leisure and better health, have won from Newton and from Leibnitz the glory of that great in- vention. The Duke de Roannes, and other friends of Pascal, conceived the idea of making this discovery subservient to the interests of religion, in so far as it showed that a profound geometer might be an humble Christian. With this view, in June, 1658, Pas- cal, under the assumed name of Amos Dettonmlle, the anagram of Louis de Montalte, offered prizes of forty and twenty pistoles for the best determination of the area and the centre of gravity of any segment of the cycloid, and the dimensions and centre of gravity of solids, half and quarter solids, &c., which the same segment would generate by revolving round an absciss or an ordinate. Huygens, Slusius, Wren, and Richi transmitted par- tial solutions. Wallis, and Lallouere, a Jesuit, were the only real competitors; but neither of them succeeded. Dettonville published his own solution in his Traite Generate de la Rou- lette, which appeared in January, 1659 ; and though the whole iffair was arranged by his friend Carcavi, a lawyer, as well as a mathematician, yet Pascal was involved in a dispute with the two disappointed candidates, who charged him with injustice. Posterity, however, has rescued his name from this unmerited reproach, while it has stamped with its highest praise the beauty and originality of his researches. The miraculous cure of Marguerite Perier, whom Pascal dearly loved, and who had been his "spiritual daughter in bap- tism," left a deep impression on his heart. He spoke of it as a special manifestation of the Almighty, at a time "when faith appeared to be extinguished in the hearts of the majority ot mankind." His mind was therefore full of the subject of mira- cles, and he resolved to dedicate the rest of his life to the com- position of a great work on the Evidences of Religion. The DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 57 war, however, which he was at this time waging against the Jesuits lasted three years, and the unexpected intrusion of the geometry of the cycloid, upon the year following, interfered with the execution of this great undertaking. He had do voted to it, however, the last year in which he was permitted to labor, and the various portions of it which he had written were col- lected by his Port-Eoyal friends, and published, in 1670, under the title of Pensees de M. Pascal sur la Religion, et sur q^uelques autres sujets. This little work, which has been translated into every European language, is pregnant with great and valuable lessons, and has met with general admiration. Original and striking views of divine truth pervade its pages, and fragments of profound thought, and brilliant eloquence, and touching sen- timent, everywhere remind us of its gifted author. Appealing to minds of the highest order, his opinions on the solemn ques- tions of faith and duty cannot fail to have a transcendent influ- ence over hearts which studies and sufferings, like his own, have enlightened and subdued. The two last years of Pascal's life were marked with few events excepting those of suffering and of duty ; but even these few have not been recorded by his biographers. We and, how- ever, in one of his letters to Fermat, some interesting informa- tion respecting his health and movements, and also some im- portant particulars relative to his religious and philosophical opinions. In a letter dated July 25th, 1660, Fermat, then in his 67th year, proposes to meet Pascal in September or Octo- ber, at some place intermediate between Clermont and Thou- ouse ; and in order to secure an interview, he adds that if Pascal is unwilling to travel, he will thus expose himself to the risk of seeing him at his own house, and of having in it two invalids 1 at the same time. To this proposal Pascal replied in * beautiful letter, dated De Bienassis, 10th August, 1660, from which the following is an extract : u I will also say to you, that although you are the only one in all Europe whom I regard as a great geometrician, no mere geometrician would have had any attraction for me; but I ancy there is so much intelligence and sincerity in your con- 1 Fermat died In 1C63, a few months after Pascal. 53 LIFE, GENIUS, AND versation, that for this reason I have desired to meet you. For to speak to you frankly of geometry, I find it the highest exer- cise of the mind ; but at the same time I know it to be so use- less that I make little difference between a man who is only a geometrician and a skilful artisan. I call it, therefore, the most beautiful occupation in the world ; but in fact it is only an oc- cupation, and I have often said that it is good to make the essay, but not the employment of our force; so that I would not go two steps for geometry, and I am confident that you are very much of my opinion. But at present there is this more- over in me, that I am engaged in studies so different from geometry, that I am scarcely conscious of its existence. 1 turned my attention to it a year or two since, for quite a par- ticular reason, and my object having been accomplished, I may never think of it again; besides that, my health is not yet firm enough for it, for I am so feeble that I cannot walk without a cane, nor hold myself on a horse ; neither can I ride but a very short distance in a carriage, for which cause I have been twenty-two days on the road from Paris here. The physicians order me the waters of Bourbon during the month of Septem- ber, and I have been engaged, so far as I can be engaged, for two months to go thence into Poitou by water as far as Sau- mur, to remain till Christmas with the Due de Roannes, gover- nor of Poitou, who has for me sentiments above my worth. But as I shall pass by Orleans in going to Saumur by the river, if my health does not allow me to go further, I will go hence to Paris. So you see, sir, what is the present state of iny life, an account of which I am obliged to give you, in order to as- sure you of the impossibility of accepting the honor which you .leign to offer me, and which I desire with all my heart to be able some day to acknowledge, either to you or your children, to whom I am quite devoted, having a particular regard for those who bear the name of a man most eminent. "I am, etc., PASCAL." The opinion which Pascal here expresses of geometry as a s.ady his fine allusion to his higher pursuits his reference tc the accident which turned his mind to the cycloid, and his ac- sount of his own health and plans, have a peculiar interest. We cannot, however, learn that he performed the journeys, anc DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 59 paid the visit to the Duke de Roannes, to which he alludes ; but it is probable, from Madame Perier's silence, that he returned from Bienassis to Paris, where new calamities awaited him. Agitated with the occurrences at Port-Royal, his sister Jac- queline, who had become sub-prioress of the abbey, sunk under the conflict between expediency and conscience, and died on the 4th October, 1661, the first victim, as she herself expressed it, of the Formulary, the anti-Jansenist test which the Jesuit king had exacted from the nunneries. She is the author of some excellent compositions in poetry, and had gained the poetical prize given at Rouen, on the clay of the Conception. Upon hearing of her death, Pascal said, with a deep sigh, " May God give us grace to die like her." His own last hour, so frequently, and almost miraculously delayed, was now rapidly approaching. Madame Perier had come to Paris with her family to watch over her beloved brother, and from the nature of his habits she occupied a sepa- rate dwelling. He had taken into his own house a poor man with his wife and family, whom he generously supported, but one of the sons having been seized with the small-pox, Pascal thought it unsafe for Madame Perier to expose herself and her children to infection ; and he therefore took up his residence with her on the 19th June, 1662. He had no sooner made the change than he was seized with an alarming illness, and on the 17th August it assumed such an aspect of immediate danger, that he himself requested a consultation of the faculty. The wise men pronounced "the illness to be no more than a megrim in the head, joined with some vapors;" but Pascal judged other- wise, and desired the Holy Communion to be dispensed to him next morning. During the night a violent convulsion ensued, and though he was given over as dead, he recovered so com- pletely, as to be able to take the Sacrament. In answer to the usual questions of the priest, respecting his belief in " the princi- pal mysteries of the faith," he replied : " Yes, sir, I do verily be- lieve them all from the bottom of my heart and soul ;" and his last prayer was, " May the all-gracious God never forsalce me." Another convulsion immediately supervened, and this great man expired at one o'clock in the morning of the 19th August, 1662. in the fortieth year of his age. Upon opening his body the stomach and liver were found diseased, and the intestines in % 60 LIFE, GENIUS, AND state of gangrene; and when his skull was laid open, it was found to contain "an enormous quantity of brain, the substance of which was very solid and condensed." His remains were interred in his parish church of St. Etienne-du-Mont, where a marble tablet, erected by Mons. Perier and his wife, preserves a local memory of his talents and virtues. It would be fruitless to delineate the character of a man in whose life and writings the most exalted virtues have shone so brightly and conspicuously. In no age of the Church, have the graces of Faith, Hope, and Charity, been so finely blended, as in Pascal's life. Genius threw round them its attractive halo, and the crown of martyrdom hallowed the combination. Though he was never immured in a dungeon, nor tied to the stake, nor prostrate beneath the Jesuit's axe, his life was a prolonged mar- tyrdom, and the Church of Christ is at this moment reaping the fruits of his labors and his sufferings. There is, however, one point of Pascal's character the least obtrusive, though the most attractive which demands our notice his humility, and simplicity of mind. In referring to these qualities, a distin- guished friend of his own beautifully remarked, " that the grace of God makes itself known in men of great genius by little things, and in men of little understanding by the greatest." The little mind has no scale, no unit of length, by which it can measure its awful distance from the Supreme Intelligence. The philosopher can take for his unit, his own vast distance from the unlettered peasant; and he finds it but a grain of sand in the sea-beach of the globe but an infinitesimal atom in the whole matter of the universe. As an elegant writer, Pascal has long occupied the highest level ; and we can scarcely charge his countrymen with extrav- agance, when they assert that his Provincial Letters have no iicdel either among ancient or modern writers. Voltaire has said that the best comedies of Moliere have not more wit than the first Provincial Letter, and that Bossuet has nothing more sublime than the last. The remarkable simplicity and elegance which characterize the style of Pascal, were doubtless owing to the great labor which he bestowed on his writings. His friend Nicole, speaking in general of them, informs us that he was guided by rules of composition which he had himself discovered , that he often spent twenty whole days on a single letter, and DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. Gl that he wrote some of them seven times over, before they attained the perfection in which they finally appeared. We have anxiously sought for some authentic information regarding the secrecy under which the Provincial Letters were published, and the time when the author became generally known. It is obvious, from the prefaces to the different editions of Nicole's translations of them, that in 1660 they were not ncknowledged by Pascal ; but, on the other hand, Madame Perier informs us "that his manner in writing was so peculiar, and so proper to him alone, that as soon as the Provincial Letters were seen abroad in the world, it was as plainly seen that they came from his hand, notwithstanding all the mighty precautions he took to keep them concealed, even from his most intimate friends." But whatever be the truth, it does not appear that during the five years which elapsed between the publication of the Letters and the death of Pascal, he was either annoyed or persecuted as their author. It would be improper to conclude an account of the life and writings of Pascal, without adverting to the great lessons which they so impressively convey. During the progress of the Ref- ormation, the attention of Roman Catholics was necessarily directed to the doctrine and discipline of their Church ; and a body of learned ecclesiastics, and pious laymen, were gradually led to acknowledge the corruptions which had disfigured it as a missionary institution. The sound theology of Augustine, sanc- tioned by holy writ, had given way to a creed palatable to the secular mind ; and the new discipline which that creed tolerated, held but a light and a loose rein over the will and actions of men. The Church's most sacred rites were freely dispensed to individuals who used them but as cloaks for sin, or as substi- *utes for holiness. Jansen, as we have seen, stood forth, the champion of the doctrine of grace ; and Arnaud, in his able work, De la frequente Communion, exposed and lashed the in- discriminate admission to the Lord's Table which characterized the reign of the Jesuits. Round the standard of primitive truth which was thus planted on the towers of Port-Royal, men of high attainments and noble lineage speedily assembled ; and a party was formed within the Catholic Church, which naintained its ancient faith, and struggled, under suffering aiid persecution, to restore its ancient purity. 62 LIFE, GENIUS, AND Without the support of any organized body, and opposed by the wealth, and power, and vicious policy of the State, the members of the Port-Royal band maintained the combat with a boldness and success unexampled in the history of civiliza- tion. Each individual wrought as if the result depended on his single arm ; and though their weapons were various in kind, and different in temper, they struck the same plague-spot of corruption ; and if they did not stop its growth, they never failed to deaden its vitality. But it was neither by their bril- liant talents, nor by their unity of effort, that they thus kept in check the intrigues and menaces of power. It was their high moral courage, their fearless heroism, their trust in an arm stronger than their own, that enabled them to endure and to triumph. The men, indeed, who left father and mother for their Master's sake who abandoned lucrative professions, and gave all they had to the treasury of the faithful, were not likely to flinch from suffering, or quail before mortals like themselves. When Nicole, the comrade of Arnaud in his hottest encounters, desired one day to have some rest frotn his toils, Arnaud ex- claimed, " You rest ! will you not have the whole of eternity for rest .*" And when some of the gentler spirits of Port-Royal were desirous of yielding some secondary point, as a measure of expediency, Pascal unceasingly repeated to them words which can never lose their meaning or their value: "You wish to save Port-Royal. You can never save it ; hut you may he traitors to truth." 1 " 1 Two hundred years have passed away since these noble wit- nesses pronounced and sealed their testimony. In that long .interval of time empires have fallen, and races of kings dis- appeared. Revolution has swept away time-hallowed institu- tions, and even systems of faith have surrendered their most Cherished errors ; but, amid all these changes, Providence has left us a clue by which we can trace through the labyrinth of its ways the inarch and the workings of those great principles \\hich the Port-Royalists labored to establish. The persecu- tion of the Jansenists proved the destruction of the Jesuits. The Papal power, made contemptible by the exposure of its "allibility and ignorance, lost its hold even over its most bigoted votaries. The equality of man's rights, the dignity of his sta- tion, and the claims of the poor not for deeds of charity alone DISCOVERIES OF PASCAL. 63 but for acts of justice doctrines taught and practised by Pascal and the Port-Royalists contributed to foster those yearnings after civil liberty which, when unchained in an evil hour from religion, led to the annihilation of that royal house which per- secuted the Jansenists and razed Port-Royal to the ground. Should such times again occur, if they have not already oc- curred, let us look to the Pascals and Arnauds of former days, and let us be assured, as they were, that Truth will admit of no compromise ; and that over the great questions of Faith, Expediency must have no control. Let us read that lesson to our children; let us show them it in practice; and when the field of conflict is about to become their inheritance, we shall leave it with the conviction that their labors, in imitation and in aid of ours, will advance the cause of truth and righteous- ness, and hasten the day when " tne tabernacle of God shall be among men, and when they who overcome shall inherit all things." PASCAL CONSIDERED AS A WHITER AND A MORALIST. BY M. VILLEMAIN. IN surveying the varieties of human knowledge, we percoi7e two great divisions under which all the acquirements of the intellect are comprised. In the one, mind is employed upon matter ; in the other, upon itself. The one contains the whole science of external objects, from the most common mechanism to that of the heavens ; the sole object of the other is the heart of man ; and its instruments are Ethics, Eloquence, and Poetry. Does the same genius possess the power to master these two opposite spheres of knowledge ? Or is their separation as in- surmountable as their diversity is manifest? When physical science was imperfect and new, it could not alone suffice for the complete activity of a powerful mind ; besides, it needed imagination, to cover its ignorance and errors. Pythagoras, who gave the Greeks the science of numbers, taught Ethics in harmonious verses ; and the divine Plato supported upon Geom- etry his brilliant metaphysics. But when science had gath- ered within her domain a multitude of observations and facts, she was bound to retire within herself, and henceforth maintain an independent existence. Thus by the progress of human Knowledge began tlie divorce of science and letters; and our increased knowledge has been divided, as an empire too vast is separated into independent kingdoms. There are reckoned men who would make an exception to this law of human weakness ; and they, too, confirm it. If they have embraced the extremes, they have not been able to carry them to the same point. One of the two perfections is always opposed to the other; and they are, when united, mediocre and sublime. A man appeared, to give to the human mind two 66 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS titles of glory at once ; but his first flights exhausted the forces of nature, and he had no time to complete his work. Yet what a spectacle is presented by the labors and attempts of this man arrested in the midst of his task ! What monuments are the unformed outgushings of his genius ! We here propose to bring together some reflections upon those of Pascal's works that are foreign to the mathematical sciences. Pascal wrote to one of the profounde*t geometricians of his time : " I call geometry the most beautiful occupation in the world ;* but, in fine, it is only an occupation ; and I have often said that it is good for the trial, but not the employment of our force." Without joining in this hard and perhaps capricious anathema against a science so much admired in our times, it is permitted to seek by preference the greatness of the human mind in those monuments of lofty reason and inimitable elo- quence, which speak to all centuries, and transmit to the future the man of genius in his completeness. In the exact sciences, the discovery is separated, thus to speak, from the discoverer ; it is corrected, extended, perfected by other hands, and becomes a simple link in the successive order of truths that must be dis- covered by the patience of centuries ; but the writer who has stamped great thoughts or generous sentiments with eloquence, has done all at once, and remains immortal himself with his works. In reflecting upon that premature instinct which turned, from infancy, the genius of Pascal towards geometry, and made him discover the elements of the science which, without know- ing it, he desired, it would be superfluous to inquire whether the faculty that he first manifested was necessarily in him the most natural and the highest. All talents suppose innate germs ; but a multitude of external circumstances and transi- tory impressions, a thousand hazards that we do not calculate upon, may determine the development of the faculties of the mind, in an order which does not suppose the pre-eminence of one over another. The father of Pascal wished to occupy his son with the study of letters ; but he was himself a passionate geometrician, and he lived only for *his science. While deny- ing it to his son, he promised it to him in the future, as a re- (Euvres de Patcal. vol. Hi A WUITKR AND A MORALIST. 67 ward of his efforts; he told him that geometry was a science for men. It is always seen, in less important cases, that chil- dren imitate instead of obeying, that they repeat actions and forget counsels, that, in fine, their curiosity especially seeks what is denied them. Is it not probable that, in a rcind pro- digiously active and penetrating like Pascal's, the eagerness to know a secret and prohibited thing still served to excite the mathematical talent? Once developed, this passion for the ex act sciences, one of the most powerful over the minds possessed by it, retained that ardent genius by the attraction of the dis- coveries, the novelty of the experiments, the certainty of the truths, and consumed with excessive labors the greatest portion of that life so short, and so soon devoured. But how could there come from the midst of these arid and withering studies, the skilful and passionate orator, the creator of French style? Our great writers have all been produced, either by the sudden gush of a first and unique inspiration, or by long patience in a single labor. Pascal is a sublime writer on first quitting his geometrical books. In the eloquent pages that occupied but a portion of the few years accorded to this extraordinary man, you perceive neither the beginning nor the progress of genius, the limit is reached at the outset ; the trace of steps does not appear. Perhaps this singular phenomenon ought to be explained in part by the very influence of the abstract studies that occupied Pascal, at a period when such high knowledge, still destitute of the perfection and the facility of method, imposed upon the aiind the effort of a continued creation. All was originality in a study incomplete and new. A sort of enthusiasm and ele- vated imagination was attached to all the essays of science. We can imagine how much more fruitful and inspiring must have been the habit of such contemplations than the frivolous labors to which literature had too often been confined under the protection of Richelieu. Could the French genius and language be happily developed by those writers, who sought in style only style itself, and made the study of words a distinct science? In order to find what makes men eloquent, it is necessary to seek what exalts the mind. Ancient liberty created ancient eloquence. Poetic imitation reproduced it in the verses of Corneille. But GUI institutions left no place for it elsewhere than upon the stage 68 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS When the mind cannot occupy itself with the great interests of country and of liberty, when it is deprived, thus to speak, of public existence, there still remain to it noble sources of inspi- ration. These are the intimate emotions of the soul, lofty views of nature, and the love of speculative truth. To these sublime fountains Pascal went, and thence drew his eloquence. Good taste, contempt of false ornaments find vain rhetoric, sprang, for him, from the greatness of the objects with which he had occupied his mind. Originality followed him from geometry into letters, he invented his language, as he had found the principles of science, under an eternal law of fitness and truth. Perhaps if he had received from nature a less vivid imagination, he would have extinguished it forever in the coldness of ab- stract studies. But a mind like his, far from yielding to geom- etry, received from it that vigor of deduction and those irre- sistible arguments that become the arms of his speech. How much, too, must the mind of Pascal have been animated by intercourse with those illustrious recluses, whom he was destined to surpass and defend ! I know how easy it is to re- fuse admiration for virtues that are no longer in use, for talents that have left only a name. To-day the highest title of Port- Royal is, that it was the school of Racine. Nicole, Hermant, Sacy, are no longer read. The fame of Arnauld is a question, his quarrels appear ridiculous. Nevertheless, the most enlight- ened minds of a polished century studied with admiration these authors so much disdained ; and Louis XIV. directed his policy and power against the firmness of a few theologians. Port- Royal had, then, a real grandeur, attested by persecution as well as by enthusiasm. At the commencement of an epoch in which religion was destined to be clothed with all the splendors of art and genius, a few men of grave manners, of free and elevated minds, most of them united by blood or the closest friendship, formed, far from the world, a society wholly occupied with labor and medi- tation. Studious lovers of antiquity, their writings bear its manly and strong character. With more reason than elegance, they nevertheless give the first model of good taste and sound .iterature. They have known affairs and life; they have ad- mitted into their bosoms men beaten by the storms of faction. These pious recluses are the innocent but faithful friends of the A WHITER AND A MORALIST. 6fl ambitions coadjutor of Paris. 1 Port-Royal received more than one noble relic of the Fronde; and that independence at once violent and frivolous, which had agitated the State without the wisdom to reform it, came to seek an asylum in religion. There was found nearly all united, like one of the tribes of antiquity, the family of Arnaulds, astonishing by variety of talents and uniform elevation of characters. If difference of manners ad- mitted of such a singular parallel, we should call them the Appii of Port-Royal, all ardent, skilful, obstinate. They, too, like the Romans, had to sustain one of those long enmities which in the ancient republics made part of the heritage of families. An- toine Arnnuld, a vehement antagonist of the Jesuits, in a famous suit, had brought upon his numerous children the hatred of that vindictive and powerful society, and had transmitted to them the courage and the talent to brave it. But, it may be said, of what importance are the five unin- telligible propositions of Jansenius, and so many long and ster- ile controversies? Such ready contempt would be very unphil- osophical. Circumstances and forms change ; the occupations of the human mind are renewed; but in all times, under differ- ent names, there exists a conflict between arbitrary authority and independence of thought, between those who would intro- duce absolute submission into the domain of intelligence and those who claim the natural and free exercise of reason: it is the quarrel of Socrates and Anytus, of the Stoic philosophers and the emperors, of Henri IV. and the League, of the Hol- landers and Philip II. Speculative, religious, political, literary, this controversy is modified, transformed, ennobled, or abased, by a thousand chances, by a thousand accidents of civilization or manners: but it always subsists; it pertains to the dignity 'tself of our nature to that noble privilege which makes thought in man the first and most precious possession that an- rther can wish to invade, that he may be called upon to defend. In this endless struggle the recluses of Port- Royal, while ap- pearing to discuss only scholastic subtilties, represented the liberty of conscience, the spirit of examination, the love of jus* lice and truth. Their adversaries plead the opposite cause that of blind domination over minds and souls. Pascal was in > Cardinal de Kets. YO PASCAL CONSIDERED AS dignant at the yoke which such doctrines imposed on reason. His lofty genius refused to bend beneath this insolent usurpa- tion of the noblest faculties of man vainly taking refuge in the sanctuary of conscience and faith. He saw his virtuous frienda devoting themselves with obstinate zeal to profound studies upon the origin and monuments of religion ; he saw them re- signed, solitary, humble with a true humility, afraid of finding ambition in the priestly office, and preferring persecution, as in the first days of Christianity. The society of the Jesuits, on the contrary, was menacing, accredited, distributed favor or disgrace, and eagerly pursued with calumny and decrees of exile a body of learned, religious, irreproachable men, whose only crime was that of maintaining their own opinions and fol- lowing their own conscience. Could the noble and pure soul of Pascal remain indifferent at the sight of such a combat? He had at ftrst approached Port-Royal, preoccupied with the philosophy of Epictetus and the uncertainties of Montaigne. The candor of the virtuous Sacy struck him with a new light. The vast erudition, the indefatigable spirit of Arnauld ; the in- sinuating reason, the judicious elegance, and the gentleness ot Nicole, who seemed the Melancthon of that orthodox and mod- erate reform ; the natural eloquence and imagination of Le- maistre, agitated in every way that soul passionately in love with truth. In his fruitful conversations with minds worthy of him, Pascal showed the superiority of his intellect, whatever might he the subject; and these men, whose memory was fed with vast reading, seemed to find again in their most precious recol- lections the thoughts that Pascal produced at the instant from Jiimself, as if he had been destined to carry everywhere that species of divination which, in childhood, he had exercised upon geometry. The recluses were especially great theologians, hut every thing that can interest the human mind philosophy, history, antiquity became the subject of their conversations. Arnauld was a profound geometrician, and that clearness, that vigor of logic, that inflexibility of deduction which Pascal had loved in geometry, seemed the common character of the lan- guage, books, doctrines, and, if you will, of the errors of Port- Royal. What ties must have united that society, natura. ftmong lofty intellects, brought together by love of meditation ind study! What fidelity, not of party, but of conviction and A WHITER AND A MORALIST. 71 nitue, must have been cemented by that noble intercourse' We can imagine how, from that time, the theological labors ol the recluses became the exclusive study of Pascal, and how the countless charms of his satirical genius satirical by force of reason lent themselves so readily to reinvest with naturalness and elegance the learned demonstrations with which the expe- rience of his friends furnished him. Thus the Provincial Letters were produced by the necessity of appealing from the Sorbonne to the public, and of explaining those subtile questions of grace that served as a pretext for the persecution of Arnauld, the most illustrious supporter of Port- Royal. Those letters appeared under a false name, almost furtively ; they defended an illustrious man oppressed ; they attacked an abuse of theological power in an age when religion was the primary object of attention ; they were not aimless, but responded to one of the most real interests of the time. Brevity, clearness, an unknown elegance, a biting and natural pleasantry, words that stuck to the memory, made them suc- cessful and popular. Pascal so clearly explains the question, that out of gratitude one is obliged to judge as he judges. 1 should admire the Provincial Letters less if they had not been written before Moliere. Pascal has anticipated good comedy. He introduces upon the stage several actors, an in- different person who receives all the confidences of anger and passion, sincere party men, false party men more zealous than others, sincere conciliators everywhere repelled, hypocrites everywhere welcomed. It is a true comedy of manners, with change of costume. But the scene becomes still more comic when, reduced to two characters, it exhibits to us the naive interpreter of casuists with an apparent disciple, who, some- times by ingenious contradictions, sometimes by an ironical docility, excites and favors the indiscreet vivacity of a ton pere. Animated by such a listener, the Jesuit develops with a proud confidence the maxims of his authors, measures the degree of his admiration by that of their stupidity, and renders probable by his praises what seems an improbable reproach. The dialogue of the two interlocutors is greatly prolonged ; but he form assumed is so happy, so varied in the details, and produces an illusion so natural, that it is impossible to grow iveary of it. Plato, combating the subtil ties of the rhetori- 72 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS cians, gives the model of this excellent species of satire. His Euthydemus, who boasts of teaching virtue by an abridged method, resembles a father Jesuit explaining devotion made easy. But it must be confessed that, for the purposes of ridi- cule, the casuists of Pascal are still better than the sophists of Plato. The subject of the Provincial Letters is therefore not very far from it sterile and unfavorable, as some would willingly suppose, out of admiration for the author's genius: not only did Pascal know how to create, but he chose well. Certainly, of all the aberrations of the mind, one of the most singular is that of wishing to justify vice by virtue, of doing bad acts with good motives, of continually falsifying ethics while protesting respect for them, and, by force of distinctions, of even coming to find in the laws of God the privilege of meritoriously injur- ing men. Besides, nothing is more amusing than the contrast between the severity of persons and the laxity of principles. Such are the resources that presented themselves to Pascal, and he made use of them with wonderful effect. In attributing to his adversaries the formal and premeditated design of corrupt- ing morals, he doubtless makes an exaggerated supposition ; but he gives to all his attacks a point of unity from which they derive vivacity and support. Moreover, can we affirm with Voltaire 1 that the whole book is false, inasmuch as no society ever thought of establishing itself by destroying morals? Is the moral instinct so invincible and determined that it could not be reduced and perverted by an imposing authority ? What man has never hesitated in regard to his duties, and has not sometimes desired the privilege of being remiss without blame and without remorse? This feebleness of our hearts sufficiently explains the favor that a complaisant system of ethics may ob- tain. Has not more than one celebrated writer propagated his philosophy by his ethics, and corrupted in order to succeed? We can conceive, while deploring such a scandal, that in a religious, but unequally enlightened century, a society which as- oired to the domination of consciences, and carried its empire aito countries differing in manners, customs, national and iomestic prejudices, may, through ambition, have softened the > SUcle de Louts XIV., t. II. A WRITER AND A MORALIST. .3 moral rule that it wished to make adopted by so many opposite minds. You are tempted to doubt Pascal's veracity, while reading in his letters that strange citation in which priests, ministers of mildness and peace, sanctify duelling and authorize homicide; but the author of those maxims is not only a Jesuit, but a Spaniard, a Sicilian, of some country where revenge re- mains hereditarily consecrated where devotion, innate in the manners of the inhabitants, could obtain every thing except the sacrifice of passions like it indigenous and national. Doubtless, the culpable casuists who flattered these different prejudices of peoples, had altered the most beautiful character of the Christian law the sublime uniformity of its ethics, in- dependent of places, times, and men. It was, therefore, a just and salutary work undertaken by Pascal, that of sternly com- bating the lax complaisance which degraded religion, and of bringing into disrepute that strange jurisprudence which had, thus to speak, introduced into the sublime truths of morals and conscience subtilties of chicanery and crafty forms of proce- dure. With what natural fire with what pitiless irony with what humor worthy of the ancient comedy did Pascal fulfil this generous mission ! Have not the doctrines of proba- bility and the regulation of motive become immortal by the ridicule with which he clothed them? That art of pleasantry, which the ancients called a part of eloquence that mockery and naive atticistn which Socrates made use of that instruc- tive and comic piquancy which Rabelais soiled with the cyni- cism of his words that inner and profound humor that animates Moliere and is often found in Lesage in fine, that perfection of esprit, which is nothing else than a superior and lively reason, such is the imperishable merit of the first Provincial Letters. When we regard the life of Pascal, so limited in its course, so afflicted by suffering and the sadness inseparable from pro- found studies when we read those detached thoughts which seem the product of the restlessness of a sublime spirit, we can at first scarcely conceive of that superabundance of humor with which this man floods the arid fields of scholasticism. Is laughter, then, so near to sadness in those rare intellects which regard human nature from a lofty point? We should be tempted to believe it in reading Pascal, Shakspeare, and Mo- liere. It has been said, in order to explain such an alliance, 4 74 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS that the habil of observing inspires sadness. This sentiment pertains rather to the elevation itself of the intellectual facul- ties, because such minds feel more sensibly the limits and the impotence of thought, and are saddened by their very .force, even while they laugh or are indignant at the common weak- ness. Pascal had completed his first ten letters Arnauld was de- fended, avenged. His apologist had carried the war into the camp of his enemies ; and the rapid, humorous, familiar expo- sition of the erroneous principles of their doctors on moral questions had amused the public, and struck the powerful society with the plague of ridicule. Then it was that the dis- cussion took a more serious turn that Pascal changed, thus to speak, his genius. The Jesuits, especially occupied with caus- ing the writings of this dangerous opponent to be interdicted and suppressed, nevertheless attempted to refute them; but, with little art, little logic, like men disconcerted by the sur- prise of an attack so bold. It must be avowed, moreover, that the society had not then in its bosom the celebrated men who have made it illustrious. Bourdaloue was unknown, and had not yet learned his potent dialectics in Pascal himself. The defenders of the society, feeble, unskilful, contumelious, and unreadable, only served to rouse the genius of its terrible ad- versary. It was in answering them, that, under this form of simple letters, Pascal reached without effort the highest elo- quence of logic and wrath. You have read a hundred times the passage in which Pascal, after having described with mar- vellous energy the long and strange war between violence and truth two powers, he says, which have no ascendency over each other nevertheless predicts the triumph of truth, because it is eternal and powerful like God himself. Has Demosthenes, Chrysostom, or Bossuet, inspired by the tribune, uttered any thing stronger or more sublime than those words thrown in at the end of a polemical letter ? This grand eloquence is the natural tone of the last Provin- cial Letters. Every thing in them is bitter, vehement, pas- sionate. Those same questions with which Pascal had at first played, which he had uo it were exhausted by pleasantry, he resumes and renews with seriousness and anger, so as to make his enemios look back with regret upon that railing style of A WRITER AND A MORALIST. 75 which they had at first complained. Now he ulcerates and tears open the first wounds of humiliated self-love. Those odious doctrines concerning homicide, which he had almost in- dulgently handled in only covering them with contempt, he attacks corps d corps, with all the power of inexorable dialec- tics, as a crime against State and Church, nature and piety. His vehemence seems to increase in pursuing another offence, too common in times of division and party calumny, that moral assassination of which his adversaries had made both frequent use and naively apologized for; two things that cor- rect but d not redeem each other. In this controversy, Pascal seems sometimes to approach a vehemence more injurious than Christian. In repelling calumny, he is prodigal of invective. His generous soul, profoundly indignant at the misfortune of his friends, is no longer able to moderate his words. Strong in his genius, in his resentment, in the mystery that still shielded his name, he cries out, addressing himself to all his adversaries : " You feel yourselves struck by an invisible hand ; you attempt in vain to attack me in the person of those with whom you believe me to be united. I fear you neither for myself nor for any other. All the credit you may have is useless so far as I am concerned. I hope nothing from the world ; I apprehend nothing from it ; I wish nothing from it. I need, by the grace of God, neither the wealth nor the authority of any one. Thus, my fathers, I escape all your snares." Need we be astonished that, in a position so elevated, and the only one that was worthy of him, Pascal was carried away, even to the emotions and the violent liberty of the ancient tribune? The circumstances, the times, were greatly changed, but the eloquence was the same. Is the question concerning some great interest of patriotism or giory ? No ; the question is concerning the defence of a few humble nuns accused of heresy. But what imports the subject ? Listen to the tone of the orator and the indignation of the good man : " Cruel and base persecutors, must it be then that the most retired cloisters are not asylums against your calum- oies? etc. You publicly cut off from the Church these holy rirgins, while they are praying in secret for you and the whole Church. You calumniate those who have no ears to hear yon, no mouth to reply to you.' 1 76 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS If Pascal, in his letters, has united all the secrets of the most energetic and most passionate eloquence, some of his Thoughts inform us that this talent was supported by meditation upon all the resources of art, and by a very profound theory which he invented for his own use. It is futile enough to read principles upon taste written by men without genius. But when a great writer explains some general ideas on the art of speech, he necessarily adapts them to his own character, to the habits of his owO mind ; he puts in them something of himself; and this revelation is more instructive than the very principles of art. Pascal, so profound a geometrician, had conceived, by the su- periority of his reason, the use and limits of the scientific spirit carried int: the arts. What he wrote on the spirit of geometry and the spirit of taste is the completest refutation of the literary paradoxes which Fontenelle, D'Alembert, and Condillac pub- lished in the following century. Pascal, whose genius had no prejudices, because it had no limits, 1 fixes the character of pos- itive sciences and that of letters, without being arrested through fear of taking something from himself, in limiting the dominion of such or such a faculty, and as it were sure of finding his place iii all the departments of human intelligence. Pascal, in fact, combined in the highest degree the two extreme powers of thought reasoning and imagination. His life, his character, his works, show this alliance ; and it is found in a marked de- gree in the greatest work to which his genius was directed. No one, in the same century, received perhaps, with a more ardent and sincere enthusiasm, the truths of Christianity ; but the habit of reasoning, breaking through his enthusiasm, still agitated him with the torments of doubt. Can we otherwise explain that forecast which revealed to him so many objections little known to his age, and inspired him with the thought of fortifying ami defending what no one had yet attacked? The illustrious contemporaries of Pascal, filled with a conviction not .ess pure, but more peaceable, limited themselves to developing the consequences of a religion whose principles encountered no advorsaries, they raised the roof of the temple without fearing that any hand might be bold enough to undermine its columns, * Villemain may here seem somewhat extravagant In his praise, but even 8 W. Hamilton has called Pascal a " "I'rscle of universal genins." A WRITER AND A MORALIST. 77 Pascal alone, warned of peril by his own experience, meditated a work in which he hoped to leave unanswered none of the doubts of skepticism which this great genius had, thus to speak, tried in every sense upon himself. The hand of the architect is still entirely visible in the ruins of that monument com- menced. But who would dare to reconstruct it 'in idea, and calculate the combination of its scattered and formless parts ? In the sands of Egypt we discover superb porticos that no longer lead to a temple which the ages have destroyed, vast debris, remains of an immense city, and, upon the fallen capitals, antique paintings, whose dazzling colors will nevsr pass away, which preserve their frail immortality in the midst of these ancient ruins : such appear the Thoughts of Pascal mutilated relics of his great work. It is known that he began it, already mortally infected with that mournful languor which was so soon to consume his life. Having upon the earth no other action than that of the intel- lect, he continued it until he drew his last breath. Such, how- ever, was the intensity of his ills, that some other preoccupation than that of ethical truths became necessary to him. Mora than once, we are told by the historians of his life, he resumed with ardor the most laborious meditations of geometry, and gave himself wholly up to them, in order to distract physical pains. Was it not rather against other pains that he sought such a remedy? Did he not find in them repose from the dis- turbed activity of his soul too much assailed by thoughts? In fact, consider this sublime intellect, captive in a miserable body, fatigued by so many prodigious efforts, and continually finding before it all those great problems of human destiny, that cannot be resolved, like those of science : " I know not who has put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor what I am myself. I am in terrible ignorance of all things. I know not what is my body, what my senses, what my soul, and that very part of me, which thinks what I am saying, which reflects upon every thing, and upon itself, no more knows itself than the rest." This terrible ignorance, which Pascal retraces with too much tnergy not to have suffered from it, was the enemy whose yoke, nore overwhelming than faitn, he labored to shake off. The Mime uncertainties had agitated the ancient philosophers, had 78 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS sometimes troubled them even to despair. This torment of the loftiest intellects had returned with increased energy in all the great renewals of civilization, at the moment when men, after having journeyed a long time supported by the old beliefs, feel them escaping, equally impotent to dispense with them, or to make use of them. Thus, towards the last centuries of the Sn.pire, when polytheism was falling on every hand, and the Jast disciples of Plato were in vain endeavoring to create a faith, and to re-establish a worship by the force of reason, the most eloquent of these philosophers, Porphyry, is represented to us in a melancholy that reaches delirium, ready to commit suicide, in order to escape from the torture of doubt. Thus, with some of those speculative Germans who have worked upon the ruins accumulated by a century of skepticism, madness seems sometimes born from the too habitual and too ardent contem- plation of the great mysteries of human existence. Doubt turned in every direction, and, everywhere sterile, pushes on these eager minds towards a sort of mystic theurgy ; as if to believe were a repose necessary to the soul, as if the illusions of enthusiasm were the first good for it after truth. Pascal, whose superiority of genius had made him traverse in advance the whole field of disquietudes that the human mind can experience, in a civilization of several centuries, Pascal, instructed in all by the conflict to which he had aban- doned the powers of his soul, threw himself into the arms of Christian faith. It alone explained to him the origin of human life, the greatness and the misery of man. But what restless efforts in order to arrive at this repose! "In regarding," he says, " the whole mute world, and man without light aban- doned to himself, and as it were strayed into this corner of the universe, without knowing who has placed him here, what he has come to do here, and what he will become in dying, I am frightened, like a man who should be borne sleeping into a desert island, and should awake without knowing where he is. I see other persons about me, of a nature similar to my own. I ask them whether they are better instructed than I, and they tell me no, and thereupon these unhappy wanderers (egares), having looked about them, and having seen some pleasing ob- jects, give themselves up to them, and become attached tc them. As for me, I have not been able to stop there, nor to A WRITER AND A MORALIST. 79 be at rest in the society of these beings similar to myself, un- happy and powerless like myself." Do we not feel, in these words, all the suffering, all the labor of this great genius, to find the truth ? Can we now be sur- prised at the depth of sadness and eloquence that animates under his pen a few metaphysical Thoughts thrown out at hazard? What are all the interests of earth, what are all passions, in comparison with that great interest of the spiritual being searching after itself? In an intellect that sees every thing, the combat against doubt is the greatest effort of human thought. Pascal himself sometimes succumbs to it, he seeka strange aids against so great a peril. You are astonished that he once tosses up (mette d eroix ou pile) to determine the ex- istence of God and the immortality of the soul, and settles his conviction by a calculus of probability. You remember how Rousseau, more feeble and more capricious, made his hope ol eternal salvation depend upon the throwing of a stone. Herein must be recognized the impotence, and, thus to speak, the de- spair of thought, after long efforts to penetrate the incompre- hensible. It was the torment of Pascal, a torment so much the greater, as it was proportioned to his genius. A positive religion could alone emancipate and comfort him. It gave him some security, in subjecting him to the power of belief. "When we read that Pascal carried under his garments a symbol formed of mystic words, a species of amulet, we feel that his power- ful intellect had recoiled even to such superstitious practices, in order to flee farther from a terrific uncertainty. Herein was his terror. The imaginary precipice which, after a sad acci- dent, the enfeebled senses of Pascal believed they saw opening beneath his steps, was a faint image of this abyss of doubt that internally terrified his soul. Thus passed away the too-brief life of this great man. At first he sought to emancipate human reason, he reclaimed the independence of thought and the authority of conscience ; then he consumed himself with efforts to construct dykes and barri- ers against the limitless invasion of skepticism. This powerful and inflexible mind embraces with a profound conviction, as a safeguard, the dogmas of Christianity, and gives them, by his submission, perhaps the greatest of human testimonies. But if kite conviction is entire, the demonstration is imperfect, the 80 PASCAL CONSIDERED AS proofs are not united, the reasoning is not conclusive : there re- main some indications of the struggle through which Pascal had passed, and extraordinary marks of his force, rather than a per- fect monument of his victory. Be they what they may, these remains exist to astonish frivolous Pyrrhonism, to put it in doubt of itself, and to afford the learned and wise a subject ol long meditation. It has been said that Pascal did not speak to the heart, that his religion had the appearance of a yoke imposed, rather than of a consolation promised. Vincent de Paul and Fenelon would doubtless have obtained more conversions than Pascal. We do not feel in him that tenderness of soul, that affection for men which the Gospel breathes, which constitutes the power of the New Law. He always profoundly interests, he is so far from being a declaimer and so true ! His bitter words against human nature are not invectives; they are cries of grief concerning himself. We are struck with a sort of sad respect, when we ee the internal ill of this sublime intellect. His misanthropy seems an expiation of his genius, he is himself more humiliated than exalted by it. He is not like the Stoic of antiquity, an impassive contemplater of our miseries, he bears them all in himself: "But," he says, "in spite of all these miseries that touch us, that hold us by the throat, we have an irrepressible instinct that supports us." This instinct of spiritualism opposed to our mortal weakness, this contrast of greatness and nothing- ness, alone fills Pascal's sublimest chapters on the nature of man. It inspires him with emotions of an incomparable elo- quence, and thoughts of fearful depth. We are astonished to see him descend from such high metaphysics to truths of obser- vation, to seize the minutest secrets of the heart, and penetrate the whole nature of man with a vast and sad regard. Pascal does not, like la Bruyere, describe and portray, but he seizes and expresses the principle of human actions. He writes the history of the race, not that of the individual. Judg- ing the things of earth with a liberty and a disinterestedness wholly philosophic, he often arrives by a very different route to the same end at which the boldest innovators arrive, but he does not stop there; he sees beyond. Sometimes he seems to disturb the fundamental principles of society, of property, of justice; but soon he strengthens them by a higher thought A WHITER AND A MORALIST. 81 He is sublime by good sense as well as by genius. His style bears in itself the impress of these two characters. Nowhere will you find more boldness and simplicity, more grandeur and naturalness, more enthusiasm and familiarity. A celebrated writer has remarked that he is perhaps the only original genius that taste has almost never the right to blame, and this is true ; but we do not think of it while reading him. 1 We here add Pascal's "Profession of Faith," which was ft and in his hand- writing after his death. ED. " I love poverty, because Jesus Christ loved it. I love property, because it affords the means of assisting the wrettbed. I keep faith with all. I do not ren- der evil to those who injure me; but I wish them a condition like mine, in which neither evil nor good is received on the part of man. I try to be just, true, sincere and faithful to all men ; and I have a tenderness of heart for those with whom God has closely united me; and whether I am alone, or in the sight of men, I per- form all my actions as in the sight of God who is to judge them, and to whom 1 have devoted them all. " These are my convictions ; and I bless every day of my life my Redeemer who has inspired me with them, and who, of a man full of weakenss, wretchedness, concupiscence, pride, and ambition, has made a man exempt from all these evila by the force of his grace, to which all the glory is due, for in myself are onlv wretchedness and error." 4 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS ^Y THE TRANSLATOR. THE Church of Rome, notwithstanding her pretensions to infallibility, has been fully as prolific in theological contro- versy and intestine discord as any of the Reformed Churches. She has contrived, indeed, with singular policy, to preserve, amidst all her variations, the semblance of unity. Protest- anism, like the primitive Church, suffered its dissentients to fly off into hostile or independent communions. The Papacy, on the contrary, has managed to retain hers within the out- ward pale of her fellowship, by the institution of various religious orders, which have served as safety-valves for exu- berant zeal, and which, though often hostile to each other, have remained attached to the mother Church, and even proved her most efficient supporters. Still, at different times, storms have arisen within the Romish Church, which could be quelled neither by the infallibility of popes nor the author- ty of councils. It is doubtful if religious controversy ever raged with so much violence in the Reformed Church, as it did between the Thomists and the Scotists, the Dominicans nd Franciscans, the Jesuits and the Jansenists, of the Church of Rome. Uninviting as they may now appear, the disputes about grace, in which the last mentioned parties were involved, gave occasion to the Provincial Letters. The origin of these dis putes must be traced as far back ns the days of Augustine 84 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. and the Pelagian controversy of the fifth century. The motto of Pelagius was free-will ; that of Augustine was efficacious o o grace. The former held that, notwithstanding the fait, the human will was perfectly free to choose at any time between good and evil ; the latter, that in consequence of the fall, the will is in a state of moral bondage, from which it can only be freed by divine grace. With the British monk, election is suspended on the decision of man's will ; humau nature is still as pure as it came originally from the hands of the Creator : Christ died equally for all men ; and, as the result of his death, a general grace is granted to all mankind, which any may comply with, but which all may finally for- feit. With the African bishop, election is absolute we are predestinated, not from foreseen holiness, but that we might be holy ;' all men are lying under the guilt or penal obliga- tion of the first sin, and in a state of spiritual helplessness and corruption ; the sacrifice of Christ was, in point of destina- tion, offered for the elect, though, in point of exhibition, it is offered to all ; and the saints obtain the gift of perseverance in holiness to the end. 9 Pelagius, whose real name was Morgan, and who is sup- posed to have been a Welshman, belonged to that numerous class of thinkers, who, from their peculiar idiosyncrasy, are apt to start at the sovereignty of divine grace, developed in the plan of redemption, as if it struck at once at the equity of God and the responsibility of man. He is said to have betrayed his heretical leanings, for the first time, by publicly expressing his disapprobation of a sentiment of Augustine, which he heard quoted by a bishop : " Da quod jubes, ef. jule quod vis Give, Lord, what thou biddest, and bid what thou wilt." It would be easy to show that, in recoiling from the odious picture of the orthodox doctrine, drawn by his awn fancy, he fell into the very consequences which he was o eager to avoid. The deity of Pelagius being subjected 1 Non quia per nos sancti et immaculati futuri essemus, sed elegi pnedestinavitque ut essemus, (De Praedest., Aug. Op., torn. x. 815.) " De dono Persever. (Ih., 822. 1 AUGUSTINE AND PELAOIU8. 85 to the changeable will of the creature, all things were left to the direction of blind chance or unthinking destiny ; while man, being represented as created with concupiscence, to account for his aberrations from rectitude in other words, with a constitution in which the seeds of evil were implanted the authorship of sin was ascribed, directly and primarily, to the Creator. 1 Augustine was a powerful but unsteady writer, and has expressed himself so inconsistently as to have divided the opinions of the Latin Church, where he was recognized as a standard, canonized as a saint, and revered under the title of " The Doctor of Grace." On the great doctrine of salva- tion by grace, he is scriptural and evangelical ; and hence he has been frequently quoted with admiration by our Reformed divines, partly to evince the declension of Rome from the faith of the earlier fathers, partly from that veneration for antiquity, which induces us to bestow more notice on the ivy-mantled ruin, than on the more graceful and commodious modern edifice in its vicinity. When arguing against Pelagi- anism, Augustine is strong in the panoply of Scripture ; when developing his own system, he fails to do justice either to Scripture or to himself. Loud, and even fierce, for the entire corruption of human nature, he spoils all by admitting the ubsurd dogma of baptismal regeneration. Chivalrous in the defence of grace, as opposed to free-will, he virtually aban- dons the field to the enemy, by teaching that we are justified by our works of evangelical obedience, and that the faith which justifies includes in its nature all the offices of Christian ; harity. During the dark ages, the Church of Rome, professing the highest veneration for St. Augustine, had ceased to hold the Augustinian theology. The Dominicans, indeed, yielded a vague allegiance to it, by adhering to the views of Thomas Aquinas, " the angelic doctor" of the schools, from whom they were termed Thomists ; while the Franciscans, who op- posed them, under the auspices of Duns Scotus, from whom * Neaivlor, RiM. ll^prts.. iii. 94 , Leyder.ker. dc Jansen. Dogm.. 4!2 86 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. they were termed Scotists, leaned to the views of Pelagius The Scotists, like the modern advocates of free-will, inveighed against their opponents as fatalists, and charged them with making God the author of sin ; the Thomists, again, retorted on the Scotists, by accusing them of annihilating the grace of God. But the doctrines of grace had sunk out of view, under a mass of penances, oblations, and intercessions, founded on the assumption of human merit, and on that very confu- sion of the forensic change in justification with the moral change in sanctification, in which Augustine had unhappily led the way. At length the Reformation appeared ; and as both Luther and Calvin appealed to the authority of Augus- tine, when treating of grace and free-will, the Romish divines, in their zeal against the Reformers, became still more deci- dedly Pelagian. In the Council of Trent, the admirers of Augustine durst hardly show themselves ; the Jesuits carried everything before them ; and the anathemas of that synod, which were aimed at Calvin fully as much as Luther, though they professed to condemn only the less guarded statements of the German reformer, were all in favor of Pelagius. The controversy was revived in the Latin Church, about the close of the sixteenth century, both in the Low Countries and in Spain. In 1588, Lewis Molina, a Spanish Jesuit, published lectures on " The Concord of Grace and Free- Will ;" and this work, filled with the jargon of the schools, gave rise to disputes which continued to agitate the Church during the whole of the succeeding century. Molina con- ceived that he had discovered a method of reconciling the jivine purposes with the freedom of the human will, which would settle the question forever. According to his theory, God not only foresaw from eternity all things possible, by a foresight of intelligence, and all things future by a foresight of vision ; but by another kind of foresight, intermediate be- tween these two, which he termed scientia media, or middle Knowledge, he foresaw what' might have happened under certain circumstances or conditions, though it never may take olace. All men, according to Molina, are favored with a MOLINA. 87 general grace, sufficient to work out their salvation, if they choose to improve it ; but when God designs to convert a sinner, he vouchsafes that measure of grace which he fore- sees, according to the middle knowledge, or in all the cir- cumstances of the case, the person will comply with. The honor of this discovery was disputed by another Jesuit, Peter Fonseca, who declared that the very same thing had burst upon his mind with all the force of inspiration, when lecturing on the subject some years before.' Abstruse as these questions may appear, they threatened a serious rupture in the Romish Church. The Molinists were summoned to Rome in 1598, to answer the charges of the Dominicans ; and after some years of deliberation, Pope Clement VIII. decided against Molina. The Jesuits, how ever, alarmed for the credit of their order, never rested till they prevailed on the old pontiff to re-examine the matter ; and in 1602, he appointed a grand council of cardinals, bish- ops, and divines, who convened for discussion no less than seventy-eight times. This council was called Congregatio de Auxiliis, or council on the aids of grace. Its records being kept secret, the result of their collective wisdom was not known with certainty, and has been lost to the world. 8 The probability is, that like Milton's " grand infernal peers," who reasoned high on similar points, " They found no end, in wandering mazes lost." Those who appealed to them for the settlement of the ques- tion, had too much reason to say, as the man in Terence does o his lawyers "Fecistis probe ; incertior sum multo quant But this interminable dispute was destined to assume a more popular form, and lead to more practical results. In 3 The question of the middle knowledge is learnedly handled by Voetius (Disp. Theol., i. 264). by Hoornbeck (Socin. Confut), and other Protestant divines who have shown it to be untenable, useless, ^id fraught with absurdity. a Dupin Reel. Hist.. 17th cent. 1-14. " Well done, gentlemen ; you have lef me more in the dark tha tver." 88 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 1604, two young men entered, as fellow-students, the uni- versity of Louvain, which had been distinguished for its hos- tility to Molinism. Widely differing in natural temperament as well as outward rank, Cornelius Jansen, who was afterwards bishop of Ypres, and Jolm Duverger de Hauranne, afterwards known as the Abbe de St. Cyran, formed an acquaintance which soon ripened into friendship. They began to study together the works of Augustine, and to compare them with the Scriptures. The immediate result was, an agreement in opinion that the ancient father was in the right, and that the Jesuits, and other followers of Molina, were in the wrong. This was followed by an ardent desire to revive the doctrines of their favorite doctor a task which each of them prosecuted in the way most suited to his respective character. Jansen, or Jansenius, as he is often called, 1 was descended of humble parentage, and born October 28, 1585, in a village near Leerdam, in Holland. By his friends he is extolled for his penetrating genius, tenacious memory, magnanimity, and piety. Taciturn and contemplative in his habits, he was frequently overheard, when taking his solitary walks in the garden of the monastery, to exclaim: "0 verilanf veritasf truth ! truth !" Keen in controversy, ascetic in devo- tion, and rigid in his Catholicism, his antipathies were about equally divided between heretics and Jesuits. Towards the Protestants, his acrimony was probably augmented by the consciousness of having embraced views which might expose himself to the suspicion of heresy ; or, still more probably, \>y that uneasy feeling with which we cannot help regarding those who, holding the same doctrinal views with ourselves, may have made a more decided and consistent profession of them. The first supposition derives countenance from the private correspondence between him and his friend St. Cyran, which shows some dread of persecution ; f the second is ccn- 1 He was the son of a poor artisan, whose name was Jan. or John Ottho ; hence Jansen, corresponding to our Johnson, which was Latin- zed into Jansenius. 8 Petitot, Collect, des Memoires, Notice sur Port-Royal, torn, xxxiii. THE JESUITS. 89 firmed by his acknowledged writings. He speaks of Protes- tants as uo better than Turks, and gives it as his opinion that " they had much more reason to congratulate themselves on the mercy of princes, than to complain of their severities, which, as the vilest of heretics, they richly deserved." 1 His controversy with the learned Gilbert Voet led the latter to publish his Desperata Causa Papatus, one of the best expo- sures of the weaknesses of Popery. When to this we add that the Calvinistic synod of Dort, in 1618, had condemned Arminius and the Dutch Remonstrants as having fallen into the errors of Pelagius and Molina, the position of Jansen became still more complicated. Of Arminius he could not approve, without condemning Augustine ; with the Protes- tant synod he could not agree, unless he chose to be de- nounced as a Calvinist. But the natural enemies of Jansen were, without doubt, the Jesuits. To the history of this Society we can only now ad- vert in a very cursory manner. It may appear surprising that an order so powerful and politic should have owed its origin to such a person as Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier : and that a wound in the leg, which this hidalgo received at the battle of Pampeluna, should have issued in his becoming the founder of a Society which has embroiled the world and the Church. But in fact, Loyola, though the originator of the sect, is not entitled to the honor, or rather the disgrace, of organizing its constitution. This must be assigned to Lay- nez and Aquaviva, the two generals who succeeded him men as superior to the founder of the Society in talents as he excelled them in enthusiasm. Ignatius owed his success to circumstances. While he was watching his arms as the fenight-errant of the Virgin, in her chapel at Montserrat, or J. 19. This author's attempt to fix the charge of a conspiracy between ansen and St. Cyran to overturn the Church, is a piece of specia' pleading, bearing on its face its own refutation. 1 The followers of Jansen were not more charitable than he in their udgments of the Reformed, and showed an equal zeal with the Jesuits to persecute them, when they had it in their power. (Berioit. Hist de Edit de Nantes, iii. 200.) 90 HISTORICAL INTRODCC.'IOX. squatting within his cell iu a state of body too noisome for human contact, and of mind verging on insanity, Luther was making Germany ring with the first trumpet-notes of the Ref- ormation. The monasteries, in which ignorance had so long slumbered in the lap of superstition, were awakened ; but tlieir inmates were totally unfit for doing battle on the new field of strife that had opened around them. Unwittingly, in the heat of his fanaticism, the illiterate Loyola suggested a line of policy which, matured by wiser heads, proved more adapted to the times. Bred in the court and the camp, he contrived to combine the finesse of the one, and the discipline of the other, with the sanctity of a religious community ; and proposed that, instead of the lazy routine of monastic life, his followers should actively devote themselves to the educa- tion of youth, the conversion of the heathen, and the sup- pression of heresy. Such a proposal, backed by a vow of devotion to the Holy See, commended itself to the pope so highly that, in 1540, he confirmed the institution by a bull, granted it ample privileges, and appointed Loyola to be its first general. In less than a century, this sect, which as- sumed to itself, with singular arrogance, the name of " The Society of Jesus," rose to be the most enterprising and for- midable order in the Romish communion. Never was the name of the blessed Jesus more grossly prostituted than when applied to a Society which is certainly the very opposite, in spirit and character, to Him who was "meek and lowly," "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." The Jesuits may be said to have invented for their own peculiar use, an entirely new system of ethics. In place of the divine law, they prescribed, as. the rule of t.ieir conduct, a " blind obedience" to the will of their supe- riors, whom they are bound to recognize as " standing in the place of God," and in fulfilling whose orders they are to have DO more will of ..heir own " than a corpse, or an old man's -taff." The glory of God they identify with the aggrandize- ment of their Society; and holding that "the end sanctifies die means," they scruole at no means, foul or fair, which t.hov THE JESUITS. 91 Conceive may advance such an end. 1 The supreme power is rested in the general, who is not responsible to any other au- thority, civil or ecclesiastical. A system of mutual espionage, and a secret correspondence with head-quarters at Home, in which everything that can, in the remotest degree, affect the interests of the Society is made known, and by means of which the whole machinery of Jesuitism can be set in motion at once, o- its minutest feelers directed to any object at pleas- are, presents the most complete 1 system of organization in the world. Every member is sworn, by secret oath, to obey the orders, and all are confederated in a solemn league to advance the cause of the Society. It has been defined to be " a na- ked sword, the hilt of which is at Rome." Such a monstrous combination could not fail to render itself obnoxious. Con- stantly aiming at ascendency in the Church, in which it is an imperium in imperio, the Society has not only been em- broiled in perpetual feuds with the other orders, but has re- peatedly provoked the thunders of the Vatican. Ever inter- meddling with the affairs of civil governments, with allegiance to which, under any form, its principles are utterly at vari- ance, it has been expelled in turn from almost every Euro- pean State, as a political nuisance. But Jesuitism is the very soul of Popery ; both have revived or declined together ; and accordingly, though the order was abolished by Clement XIV. in 1775, it was found necessary to resuscitate it under Pius VII. in 1814; and the Society was never in greater power, nor more active operation, than it is at the present noment. It boasts of immortality, and, in all probability, it will last as long as the Church of Rome. It has been termed " a militia called out to combat the Reformation," and exhib- iting, as it does to this day, the same features of ambition, treachery, and intolerance, it seems destined to fall only in 1 Caeca quadam obedientia. Ut Christum Dominum in superiors ifiutlibet agnoscere studeatis. Perlnde ac si cadaver essent, vel similittf atque senis baculus. Ad majorem Dei gltr-iam (Constit. Jesuit, pan L cap. 1 ; Ignat. Epist., &c .) t>'2 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. the ruins of that Church of whose unchanging spirit it is the genuine type and representative. 1 In prosecuting the ends of their institution, the Jesuits have adhered with singular fidelity to its distinguishing spirit. As the instructors of youth, their solicitude has ever been less to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge than to bar out what might prove dangerous to clerical domination ; they have confined their pupils to mere literary studies, which might amuse without awakening their minds, and make them subtle dialecticians without disturbing a single prejudice of the dark ages. As missionaries, they have been much more industrious and successful in the manual labor of baptizing all nations than in teaching them the Gospel. 5 As theologi- ans, they have uniformly preferred the views of Molina ; re- garding these, if not as more agreeable to Scripture and right reason, at least (to use the language of a late writer) as " more consonant with the common sense and natural feelings of mankind." 3 As controversialists, they were the decided foes of all reform and all reformers, from within or without the Church. As moralists, they cultivated, as might be ex- pected, the loosest system of casuistry, to qualify themselves for directing the consciences of high and low, and becoming, through the confessional, the virtual governors of mankind. In all these departments they have, doubtless, produced men of abilities ; but the very means which they employed to ag- 1 Balde, whom the Jesuits honor in their schools as a modern Horace, ihus celebrates the longevity of the Society ; in his Carmen Seculars de Societate Jesu, 1 640 : " Profuit quisquis voluit nocere. Cuncta subsident sociis ; ubique Exules vivunt, et ubique cives! Sternimus victi. supreamus imi, Surgitnus plures toties cadendo." 5 Their famous missionary Francis Xavier, whom they canonized, was ignorant of a single word in the languages of the Indians whom he professed to evangelize. He employed a nand-bell to summon the natives around him ; and the poor savages, mistaking him for one of their learned Brahmans he baptized tr.em until his arm was exhausted with the task, and boasted of every one he baptized as a regenerated lonvert ! Macintosh, Hist, of England, ii. 353. CASUISTRY. 93 grandize the Society have tended to dwarf the intellectual growth of its individual members : and hence, while it is true that " the Jesuits had to boast of the most vigorous contro- versialists, the most polite scholars, the most refined court- iers, and the most flexible casuists of their age,'" it has been commonly remarked, tfiat they have never produced a single great man. Casuistry, the art in which the Jesuits so much excelled, is, strictly speaking, that branch of theology which treats of cases of conscience, and originally consisted in nothing more than an application of the general precepts of Scripture to particular cases. The ancient casuists, so long as they con- fined themselves to the simple rules of the Gospel, were at least harmless, and their ingenious writings are still found useful in cases of ecclesiastical discipline ; but they gradu- ally introduced into the science of morals the metaphysical jargon of the schools, and instead of aiming at making men moral, contented themselves with disputing about morality. 2 The main source of the aberrations of casuistry lay in the unscriptural dogma of priestly absolution in the right claimed by man to forgive sin, as a transgression of the law of God ; and the arbitrary distinction between sins as venial and mortal a distinction which assigns to the priest the pre- rogative, and imposes on him the obligation, of drawing the critical line, or fixing a kind of tariff on human actions, and apportioning penance or pardon, as the case may seem to re- quire. In their desperate attempt to define the endless forms of depravity on which they were called to adjudicate, or which the pruriency of the cloister suggested to the imagi- nation, the casuists sank deeper into the mire at every step ; and their productions, at length, resembled the common sew- ers of a city, which, when exposed, become more pestiferous 1 Macintosh, Hist, of England, ii 357. * Augustine himself is chargeabL with having been the first tointro- *uce the scholastic mode of treating morality in the form of trifling questions, more fitted to gratify curiosity, and display acumen, than to edify or enlighten. His example was followed, and miserably abused, oy the moralists of succeeding tiges. (Buddei Isagoge. vol. i p 50-S. > 94 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. than the filth which they were meant to remove. Even un- der the best management, such a system was radically bad; in the hands of the Jesuits it became unspeakably worse. To their "modern casuists," as they were termed, must we ascribe the invention of probabilism, mental reservation, and the direction of the intention, which have been sufficiently ex- plained and rebuked in the Provincial Letters. We shall only remark here, that the actions to which these principles were applied were not only such as have been termed indif ferent, and the criminality of which may be doubtful, or de- pendent on the intention of the actor : the probabilism of the Jesuits was, in fact, a systematic attempt to legalize crime, under the sanction of some grave doctor, who had found out some excuse for it ; and their theory of mental reservations, and direction of the intention, was equally employed to sanc- tify the plainest violations of the divine law. Casuistry, it is true, has generally vibrated betwixt the extremes of imprac- ticable severity and contemptible indulgence ; but the charge against the Jesuits was, not that they softened the rigors of ascetic virtue, but that they propagated principles which sapped the foundation of all moral obligation. " They are a people," said Boileau, " who lengthen the creed and shorten the decalogue." Such was the community with which the Bishop of Ypres ventured to enter the lists. Already had he incurred their resentment by opposing their interests in some political nego- tiations ; and by publishing his " Mars Gallicus," he had mortally offended their patron, Cardinal Richelieu ; but, Btrange to say, his deadly sin against the Society was a pos- thumous work. Jansen was cut off by the plague, May 8, 1038. Shortly after his decease, his celebrated work, enti- tled " Augustinus," wa- published by his friends Frotnond =md Calen, to whom he had committed it on his death-bed. To the preparation of this work he may be said to have de- moted his life. It occupied him twenty-two years, during vhich, we are told, he had ten times read through the works f Augustine (ten volumes, folio!) and thirty times collated AUGUSTINUS. 95 those passages which related to Pelagianism. 1 The book it- self, as the title imports, was little more than a digest of the writings of Augustine on the subject of grace. 8 It was divi- ded into three parts ; the first being a refutation of Pelagian- isra, the second demonstrating the spiritual disease of man, and the third exhibiting the remedy provided. The sincerity of Jansen's love to truth is beyond question, though we may be icermitted to question the form in which it was evinced. The radical defect of the work is, that instead of resorting to the living fountain of inspiration, he confined himself to the cistern of tradition. Enamored with the excellences of Au- gustine, he adopted even his inconsistencies. With the for- mer lie challenged the Jesuits ; with the latter he warded off the charge of heresy. As a con trover tist, he is chargeable with prejudice, rather than dishonesty. As a reformer, he wanted the independence of mind necessary to success. In- stead of standing boldly forward on the ground of Scripture, ha attempted, with more prudence than wisdom, to shelter himself behind the venerable name of Augustine. If bv thus preferring the shield of tradition to the sword of the Spirit, Jansen expected to out-manoeuvre the Jesuits, he Lad mistaken his policy. " Augustinus," though profess- edly written to revive the doctrine of Augustine, was felt by the Society as, in reality, an attack upon them, under the name of Pelagians. To conscious delinquency, the language of implied censure is ever more galling than formal impeach- ment. Jansen's portrait of Augustine was but too faithfully secuted ; and the disciples of Loyola could not fail to see now far they had departed from the faith of the ancient Church ; but the discovery only served to incense them at the man who had exhibited their defection before the world. The approbation which the book received from forty learned doctors, and the rapture with which it was welcomed by the Lancelot. Tour to Alet, p. 173; Leydecker. p. 122. a The whole title was : " Augustinus Cornelii Jansenii episcopi. sen ioctrina sancti Augustini de human naturae sanctitate aegritudmiB nedici. adversus Pelagianos et Massilienses." Louvain 1640. 90 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. friends of the author, only added to their exasperation. The whole efforts of the Society were summoned to defeat its influence. Balked by the hand of death of their revenge on the person of the author, they vented it even on his remains. By a decree of the pope, procured through their instigation, a splendid monument, which had been erected over the grave of the learned and much-loved bishop, was completely de- molished, that, in the words of his Holiness, " the memory of Jansen might perish from the earth." It is even said that his body was torn from its resting-place, and thrown into some unknown receptacle. 1 His literary remains were no less severely handled. Nicholas Cornet, a member of the Society, after incredible pains, extracted the heretical poison of " Au- gustinus," in the form of seven propositions, which were after- wards reduced to five. These having been submitted to the judgment of Innocent X., were condemned by that pontiff in a bull dated 31st May, 1653. This decision, so far frcm re- storing peace, awakened a new controversy. The Jansenists, as the admirers of Jansen now began to be named by their opponents, while they professed acquiescence in the judgment of thr pope, denied that these propositions were to be found in " .Aiijiusainus." The succeeding pope, Alexander Til., who was still morr favorable to the Jesuits, declared formally, in a bull dated 1657, "that the five propositions were cer- tainly taken from the book of Jansenius, and had been con- demned in the sense of that author." But the Jansenista were ready to meet him on this point ; they replied, that a decision of this kind overstepped the limits of papal authcr- ty, and that the pope's infallibility did not extend to a judg- ment of facts. 2 The reader may be curious to know something more about these famous five propositions, condemned by the pope, which, in fact, may be said to have given occasion to the Provincial Letters. They were as follows : 1 Leydecker, p. 132; Lancelot, p. 180. a Ranke. Hist, of the Popes, vol. iii. 143 ; Abbe Du Mas. Hist. de ropositions, p. 48. THE FIVE PROPOSITIONS. 97 1. There are divine precepts which good men, though wil- ling, are absolutely unable to obey. 2. No person, in this corrupt state of nature, can resist the influence of divine grace. O 3. In order to render human actions meritorious, or other- wise, it is not requisite that they be exempt from necessity, but only free from constraint. 4. The semi-Pelagian heresy consisted in allowing the hu- man will to be endued with a power of resisting grace, or of complying with its influence. 5. Whoever says that Christ died or shed his blood for all mankind, is a semi-Pelagian. The Jansenists, in their subsequent disputes on these prop- ositions, contended that they were ambiguously expressed, and that they might be understood in three different senses a Calvinistic, a Pelagian, and a Catholic or Augustinian sense. In the first two senses they disclaimed them, in the last they approved and defended them. Owing to the ex- treme aversion of the party to Calvinism, while they substan- tially held the same system under the name of Augustinian- ism, it becomes extremely difficult to convey an intelligible idea of their theological views. On the first proposition, for example, while they disclaimed what they term the Calvinis- tic sense, namely, that the best of men are liable to sin in all that they do, they equally disclaim the Pelagian sentiment, that all men have a general sufficient grace, at all times, for the discharge of duty, subject to free will ; and they strenu- ously maintained that, without efficacious grace, constantly vouchsafed, we can do nothing spiritually good. In regard to the resistibility of grace, they seem to have held that the will of man might always resist the influence of grace, if it chose to do so ; but that grace would effectually prevent it from so choosing. And with respect to redemption, they ap- pear to have compromised the matter, by holding that Christ died for all, so as that all might be partakers of the grace of justification by th merits of t.s death ; but they denied that 5 98 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Christ died for each man in particular, so as to secure his final salvation ; in this sense, he died for the elect only. Were this the proper place, it would be easy to show that, in the leading points of his theology, Jansen did not differ from Calvin, so much as he misunderstood Calvinism. The Calvinists, for example, never held, as they are represented in the Provincial Letters,' " that we have not the power of resisting grace." So far from this, they held that fallen man could not but resist the grace of God. They preferred, there- fore, the term " invincible," as applied to grace. In short, they held exactly the victrix delectatio of Augustine, by which the will of man is sweetly but effectually inclined to comply with the will of God. 2 On the subject of necessity and con- straint their views are precisely similar. Nor can they be considered as differing essentially in their views of the death of Christ, as these, at least, were given by Jansen, who ac- knowledges in his " Augustinus," that, " according to St. Augustine, Jesus Christ did not die for all mankind." It is certain that neither Augustine nor Jansen would have sub- scribed to the views of grace and redemption held by many who, in our day, profess evangelical views. Making allow- ance for the different position of the parties, it is very plain that the dispute between Augustine and Pelagius, Jansen and Molina, Calvin and Arminius, was substantially one and the same. At the same time, it must be granted that on the great point of justification by faith, Jansen went widely astray from the truth ; and in the subsequent controversial writings of the party, especially when arguing against the Protestants, this departure became still more strongly marked, and more deplorably manifested. 3 Letter xviii. pp. 310-313. 1 \Vitsii CEconom. Foed.. lib. iii. ; Turret. Theol.. E'enct. xv. quest I; De Moor Comment, iv. 496; Mestrezat. Serin, sur Rom., viii. 274. 1 I refer here particularly to Arnauld's treatise, entitled " Renverse- oient de la Morafce de Jesus Christ par les Calvinistes," which was an- jwered by Jurieu in his " Justification de la Morale des Refonnez." 1685, by M. Merlat, and others. Jurieu has shown at^reat length, and with a severity for which he had too much provocation, that Arnauld and his friends, in their violent tirades against the Reformed, neither acted i ST. CYRAN. 99 The revenge of the Jesuits did not stop at procuring the ondemnation of Jansen's book ; it aimed at his living follow- ers. Among these none was more conspicuous for virtue and influence than the Abbe de St. Cyran, who was known to have shared his counsels, and even aided in the preparation of his obnoxious work. While Jansen labored to restore the theoretical doctrines of Augustine, St. Cyran was ambitious to reduce them to practice. In pursuance of the moral sys- tem of that father, he taught the renunciation of the world, and the total absorption of the soul in the love of God. His religious fervor led him into some extravagances. He is said to have laid some claim to a species of inspiration, and to have anticipated for the Saviour some kind of temporal domin- ion, in which the saints alone would be entitled to the wealth and dignities of the world. 1 But his piety appears to have been sincere, and, what is more surprising, his love to the Scriptures was such that he not only lived in the daily study of them himself, but earnestly enforced it on all his disciples. He recommended them to study the Scriptures on their knees. " No means of conversion," he would say, " can be more apostolic than the Word of God. Every word in Scripture deserves to be weighed more attentively than gold. The Scriptures were penned by a direct ray of the Holy Spirit ; the fathers only 6y a reflex ray emanating therefrom." His whole character and appearance corresponded with his doc- trine. " His simple mortified air, and his humble garb formed a striking contrast with the awful sanctity of his countenance, and his native lofty dignity of manner." 2 Pos- sessing that force of character by which men of strong minds silently but surely govern others, his proselytes soon in- ereased. and he became the nucleus of a new class of re- formers. St. Cyran was soon called to preside over the renowned rood faith, nor in consistency with cne sentiments of their much admired leaders. Augustine and Jansen. 1 Fontaine, Memoires. i. 200 ; Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., cent. jniL 2. * Lancelot, p. 123. 100 HISTORICAL INTRODCCTION. monastery of Port-Royal. Two houses went under this name, though forming one abbey. One of these was called Port-Royal des Champs, and was situated in a gloomy forest, about six leagues from Paris ; but this having been found an unhealthy situation, the nun were removed for some time to nnother house in Paris, which went under the name f Port- Royal de Paris. The Abbey of Port-Royal was one of the most ancient belonging to the order of Citeaux, having been founded by Eudes de Sully, bishop of Paris, in 1204. It was placed originally under the rigorous discipline of St. Bene- dict, but in course of time fell, like most other monasteries, into a state of the greatest relaxation. In 1602, a new ab- bess was appointed in the person of Maria Angelica Arnauld, sister of the famous Arnauld, then a mere child, scarcely eleven years old ! The nuns, promising themselves a long period of unbounded liberty, rejoiced at this appointment. But their joy was not of long duration. The young abbess, at first, indeed, thought of nothing but amusement ; but at the age of seventeen a change came over her spirit. A cer- tain Capuchin, wearied, it is said, or more probably disgust- ed, with the monastic life, had been requested by the nuns, who were not aware of his character, to preach before them. The preacher, equally ignorant of his audience, and supposing them to be eminently pious ladies, delivered an affecting dis- course, pitched on the loftiest key of devotion, which left an impression on the mind of Angelica never to be effaced. She set herself to reform her establishment, and carried it into effect with a determination and self-denial quite beyond her years. This "reformation," so highly lauded by her pane- gyrists, consisted chiefly in restoring the austere discipline of ^t Benedict, and other severities practised in the earlier ages, the details of which would be neither edifying nor agreeable. The substitution of coarse serge in place of linen as underclothing, and dropping melted wax on the bare arms, may be taken as specimens of the reformation introduced by Mere Angelique. In these mortifying exercises the abbess showed an example to all the rest. She chose as her dormi- PORT-ROYAL ITS DEVOTIOV. 101 lory the filthiest cell in the convent, a place infested with toads and vermin, in which she found the highest delight, declaring that she " seemed transported to the grotto of Bethlehem." The same rigid denial of pleasure was extended to her food, her dress, her whole occupations. Clothed her- self in the rudest dress she could procure, nothing gave her greater offence than to see in her nuns any approach to the fashions of the world, even in the adjustment of the coarse black seree, with the scarlet cross, which formed their hum- O * ble apparel. 1 Yet, in the midst of all this "voluntary hu- mility," her heart seems to have been turned mainly to the Saviour. It was Jesus Christ whom she aimed at adoring in the worship she paid to "the sacrament of the altar." And in a book of devotion, composed by her for private use, she gave expression to sentiments too much savoring of undivi- ded affection to Christ to escape the censure of the Church. It was dragged to light and condemned at Rome." There is reason to believe that, under the direction of M. de St. Cyran, her religious sentiments, as well as those of her com- munity, became much more enlightened. Her firmness in resisting subscription to the formulary and condemning Jan- sen, in spite of the most cruel and unmanly persecution, and the piety and faith she manifested on her death-bed, when, in the midst of exquisite suffering, and in the absence of the rites which her persecutors denied her, she expired in the full assurance of salvation through the merits of the only Saviour, form one of the most interesting chapters in the martyrology of the Church. But St. Cyran aimed at higher objects than the manage- ment of a nunnery. His energetic mind planned a system of education, in which, along with the elements of learning, the youth might be imbued with early piety. Attracted by his fame, several learned nun, some of them of rank and for- 1 Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire de Port- Royal, vol. i. pp. 35, 57 142. 8 Ih.. p. 456. The title of this work was. " The Secret Ch.iplet o< the Holy Sacrament." 102 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. tune, fled to enjoy at Port- Royal des Champs a sacred retreat from the world. This community, which differed from a monastery in not being bound by any vows, settled in a farm adjoining the convent, called Les Granges. The names of Arnauld, D'Andilly, Nicole, Le Maitre, Saoy,' Fontaine, i/ascal, and others, have conferred immortality on the spot. The system pursued in this literary hermitage was, in many respects, deserving of praise. The time of the recluses was divided between devotional and literary pursuits, relieved by agricultural and mechanical labors. The Scriptures, and other books of devotion, were translated into the vernacular language ; and the result was, the singular anomaly of a Roman Catholic community distinguished for the devout and diligent study of the Bible. Protestants they certainly were not, either in spirit or in practice. Firm believers in the in- fallibility of their Church, and fond devotees in the observ- ance of her rites, they held it a point of merit to yield a blind obedience, in matters of faith, to the dogmas of Rome. None were more hostile to Protestantism. St. Cyran, it is said, would never open a Protestant book, even for the purpose of refuting it, without first making the sign of the cross on it, to exorcise the evil spirit which he believed to lurk within its pages.* From no community did there emanate more learned apologies for Rome than from Port-Royal. Still, it must be owned, that in attachment to the doctrines of grace, so far as they went, and in the exhibition of the Christian virtues, attested by their sufferings, lives, and writings, the Port-Royalists, including under this name both the nuns and recluses, greatly surpassed many Protestant communities. Their piety, indeed, partook of the failings which have al- ways characterized the religion of the cloister. It seems to have hovered between superstition and mysticism. Afraid to fight against the world, they fled from it ; and, forgetting vhat our Saviour was driven into the wilderness to be tempt- 1 Sacy, or Saci. was the inverted name of Isaac Le Maitre, celebratef br his translation of the Bible. 3 Mosheim. Eecl. Hist., cent. xvii. $2. PORT-ROYAL ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 103 ed of the devil, they retired to a wilderness to avoid tempta- tion. Half conscious of the hollowness of the ceremonial they practised, they sought to graft on its dead stock the vi- talities of the Christian faith. In their hands, penance was sublimated into the symbol c.' penitential sorrow, and the mass into a spiritual service, the benefit of which depended on the preparation of the heart of the worshipper. In their eyes, the priest was but a suggestive emblem of the Saviour ; and to them the altar, with its crucifix and bleeding image, served only as a platform on which they might obtain a more advantageous view of Calvary. Transferring to the Church of Rome the attributes of the Church of God, and regarding her still, in spite of her eclipse and disfigurement, as of one spirit, and even of one body, with Christ, infallible and im- mortal, they worshipped the fond creation of their own fancy. At the same time, they attempted to revive the doctrine of religious abstraction, or the absorption of the soul in Deity, and the total renouncement of everything in the shape of sensual enjoyment, which afterwards distinguished the mys- tics of the Continent. Even in their literary recreations, while they acquired an elegance of style which marked a new era in the literature of France, they betrayed their ascetic spirit. Poetry was only admissible when clothed in a devotional garb. It was by stealth that Racine, who stud- ied at Port-Royal, indulged his poetic vein in the profane pieces which afterwards gave him celebrity. And yet it is candid to admit, that the mortifications in which this amiable fraternity engaged, consisted rather in the exclusion of pleas- ure than the infliction of pain, and that the object aimed at in these austerities was not so much to merit heaven as to attain an ideal perfection on earth. Port-Royalism, in short, was Popery in its mildest type, as Jesuitism is Popery in its perfection ; and had it been possible to present that system in a form calculated to disarm prejudice and to cover its na- tive deformities, the task might have been achieved by the pious devotees of Les Granges. But the same merciful Prov- idence which, for ihe preservation of the human species, has 104 HISTORICAL INTROPUCTIOIS. furnished the snake with his rattle, and taught the lion to "roar for his prey," has so ordered it that the Romish Church should betray her real character, in order that his people might "come out of her, and not be partakers of her sins, that they receive not of her plagues." The whole sys- tem adopted at Port-Royal was regarded, from the com- mencement, with extreme jealousy by the authorities of that Church ; the schools were soon dispersed, and the Jesuits never rested till they had destroyed ever} 7 vestige of the ob- noxious establishment. The enemies of Port-Royal have attempted to show that St. Cyran and his associates had formed a deep-laid plot for overturning the Roman Catholic faith. From time to time, down to the present day, works have appeared, under the auspices of the Jesuits, in which this charge is reiterated ; and the old calumnies against the sect are revived a period- ical trampling on the ashes of the poor Jansenists (after hav- ing accomplished their ruin two hundred years ago), which reminds one of nothing so much as the significant grinning and yelling with which the modern Jews celebrate to this day the downfal of Haman the Agagite. 1 In one point only could their assailants find room to question their orthodoxy the supremacy of the pope. Here, certainly, they were led, more from circumstances than from inclination, to lean to the side of the Gallican liberties. But even Jansen himself, after spending a lifetime on his " Augustinus," and leaving ii be- hind him as a sacred legacy, abandoned himself and his trea- tise to the judgment of the pope. The following are his words, dictated by him half an hour before his death: "I feel that it will be difficult to alter anything. Yet if the Ro- mish see should wish anything to be altered, I am her obedi- ent son ; and to that Church in which I have always lived, even to this bed of death, I will prove obedient. This is my last will." The same sentiment is expressed by Pascal, in one 1 We may refer particularly to Petitot in his Collection des Memoirea. torn, rxxiii.. Paris, 1824; anil to a History of the Company of Jesus by 7. Cretineau-Joly, Paris. 1845. With high pretensions to impartiality Jiese works abound with the most glaring specimens of special pleading PORT-ROYAL ITS ENEMIES. 105 of his letters. Alas ! how sad is the predicament in which the Church of Rome places her conscientious votaries ! Both of these excellent men were as firmly persuaded, no doubt, of the faith which they taught, as of the facts which came un- der their observation ; and yet they held themselves bound to cast their religious convictions at the feet of a fellow-mor- tal, notoriously under the influence of the Jesuits, and pro- fessed themselves ready, at a signal from Rome, to renounce what they held as divine truth, and to embrace what they regarded as damnable error ! A spectacle more painful and piteous can hardly be imagined than that of such men strug- gling between the dictates of conscience, and the night-mare of that "strong delusion," which led them to " believe a lie." In every feature that distinguished the Port-Royalists, they stood opposed to the Jesuits. In theology they were antip- odes in learning they were rivals. The schools of Port- Royal already eclipsed those of the Jesuits, whose policy it has always been to monopolize education, under the pretext of charity. But the Jansenists might have been allowed to retain their peculiar tenets, had they not touched the idol of every Jesuit, " the glory of the Society," by supplanting them in the confessional. The priests connected with Port- Royal, from their primitive simplicity of manners and severity of morals, and, above all, from their spiritual Christianity, acquired a popularity which could not fail to give mortal offence to the Society, who then ruled the councils both of the Church and the nation. Nothing less than the annihila- tion of the whole party would satisfy their vengeful purpose. In this nefarious design they were powerfully aided by Car- dinal Richelieu, and by Louis XIV., a prince who, though yet a mere youth, was entirely under Jesuitical influence in mat- ters of religion ; and who, having resolved to extirpate Prot- estantism, could not well endure the existence of a sect within the Church, which seemed to favor the Reformation by ex posing the corruptions of the clergy. 1 1 Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV., t. it 5* 106 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. To effect their object, St. Cyran, the leader and ornament of the party, required to be disposed of. He was accused of various articles of heresy ; and Cardinal Richelieu at once gratified his party resentment and saved himself the trouble of controversy, by immuring him in the dungeon of Vincennes. In this prison St. Cyran languished for five years, and sur- vived his release only a few months, having died in October, 1643, His place, however, as leadei of the Jansenist party, was supplied by one destined to annoy the Jesuits by his con troversial talents fully more than his predecessor had done by his apostolic sanctity. Anthony Arnauld may be said to have been born an enemy to the Jesuits. His father, a celebrated lawyer, had distinguished himself for his opposition to the Society, and having engaged in an important law-suit against them, in which he warmly pleaded, in the name of the uni- versity, that they should be interdicted from the education of youth, and even expelled from the kingdom. Anthony, who inherited his spirit, was the youngest in a family of twenty children, and was born February 6, 1612.' Several of them were connected with Port-Royal. His sister, as we have seen, became its abbess ; and five other sisters were nuns in that establishment. He is said to have given preco- cious proof of his polemic turn. Busying himself, when a mere boy, with some papers in his uncle's library, and being asked what he was about, he replied, " Don't you see that I am helping you to refute the Hugonots?" This prognostica- .ion he certainly verified in after life. He wrote, with almost equal vehemence, against Rome, against the Jesuits, and against the Protestants. He was, for many years, the facile princeps of the party termed Jansenists ; and was one of those characters who present to the public an aspect nearly the re- verse of the estimate formed of them by their private friends. By the latter he is represented as the best of men, totally free from pride and passion. Judging from his physiognomy, 1 M^moires de P. Royal, i. 13. Bayle insists that his father ha 'wenty-two children. Diet., art. Arnauld. PASCAL. 107 his writings and his life, we would say the natural temper of Arnauld was austere and indomitable. Expelled from the Sarbonne, driven out of France, and hunted from place to place, he continued to fight to the last. On one occasion, wishing his friend Nicole to assist him in a new work, the lat ter observed, "We are now old, is it not time to rest?' " Rest !" exclaimed Arnauld, " have we not all eternity to rest in ?" Such was the character of the man who now entered the lists against the redoubtable Society. His first offence was the publication, in 1643, of a book on "Frequent Commu- nion ;" in which, while he inculcates the necessity of a spirit- ual preparation for vhe eucharist, be insinuated that the Church of Rome had a two-fold head, in the persons of Peter and Paul. 1 His next was in the shape of two letters, pub- lished in 1656, occasioned by a dispute referred to in the first Provincial Letter, in which he declared that he had not been able to find the condemned propositions in Jansen, and add- ed some opinions on grace. The first of these assertions was deemed derogatory to the holy see ; the second was charged with heresy The Jesuits, who sighed for an opportunity of humbling the obnoxious doctor, strained every nerve to procure his expulsion from the Sarbonne, or college of divinity in the university. This object they had just accomplished, and ev- erything promistd fair to secure their triumph, when another combatant unexpectedly appeared, like one of those closely- visored knights of whom we read in romance, who so oppor- unely enter the field at the critical moment, and with their single arm turn the tide of battle. Need we say that we allude to the author of the PROVINCIAL LETTERS ? Bayle commences his Life of Pascal by declaring him to be " one of the sublimest geniuses that the world ever pro- duced. " Seldom, at least, has the world ever seen such a combination of excellences in one man. In him we are called *> admire the loftiest attribuit-s of mind with the lovelies! 1 Weisman, Hist. Ecd., ii. 204. 108 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Bimplicity of moral character. He is a rare example of one born with a natural genius for the exact sciences, who ap- plied the subtlety of his mind to religious subjects, combining with the closest logic the utmost elegance of style, and crowning all with a simple and profound piety. Blaise Pas- cal was born at Clerraont, 19th June, 1623. His family had been ennobled by Louis XI., and his father, Stephen Pascal occupied a high post in the civil government. Blaise mani- fested from an early age a strong liking for the study of mathematics, and, while yet a child, made some astonishing discoveries in natural philosophy. To these studies he devo- ted the greater part of his life. An incident, however, which occurred in his thirty-first year a narrc'v escape from sud- den death had the effect of giving an entire change to the current of his thoughts. He regarded it as a message from heaven, calling him to renounce all secular occupations, and devote himself exclusively to God. His sister and niece be- ing nuns in Port-Royal, he was naturally led to associate with those who then began to be called Jansenists. But though he had several of the writings of the party, there can be no doubt that it was the devotion rather than the theology of Port-Royal that constituted its charm in the eyes of Pascal. His sister informs us, in her memoirs of him, that " he had never applied himself to abstruse questions in divinity." Nor, beyond a temporary retreat to Port-Royal des Champs, and an intimacy with its leading solitaries, can he be said to have had any connection with that establishment. His fragile frame, which was the victim of complicated disease, and his feminine delicacy of spirit, unfitting him for the rough col lisions of ordinary life, he found a congenial retreat amir 1 these literary solitudes ; while, with his clear and comprt tensive mind, and his genuine piety of heart, be must have sympathized with those who sought to remove from the Church corruptions which he could not fail to deplore, and to renovate the spirit of that Christianity which he loved far above any of its organized forms. His life, not unlike a per- Detnal miracle, is ever exciting our admiration, not unmingled. PASCAL. 100 however, with pity. We see great talents enlisted in the support, not indeed of the errors of a system, but of a sys- tem of errors we see a noble mind debilitated by supersti- tion we see a useful life prematurely terminating in, if not shortened by, the petty austerities and solicitudes of monas- ticism. Truth requires us to state, that he not only denied himself, at last, the most common comforts of life, but wore beneath his clothes a girdle of iron, with sharp points, which, as soon as he felt any pleasurable sensation, he would strike with his elbow, so as to force the points of iron more deeply into his sides. Let the Church, which taught him such folly, be responsible for it ; and let us ascribe to the grace of God the patience, the meekness, the charity, and the faith, which hovered, seraph-wise, over the death-bed of expiring genius. The curate who attended him, struck with the triumph of re ligion over the pride of an intellect which continued to bum after it had ceased to blaze, would frequently exclaim : "Hu is an infant humble and submissive as an infant !" He died on the 19th of August, 1662, aged thirty-nine years and twu months. While Arnauld's process before the Sarbonne was in de pendence, a few of his friends, among whom were Pascal and Nicole, were in the habit of meeting privately at Port-Royal, to consult on the measures they should adopt. During these conferences one of their number said to Arnauld : "Will you really suffer yourself to be condemned like a child, without saying a word, or telling the public the real state of the ques- tion?" The rest concurred, and in compliance with their so- licitations, Arnauld, after some days, produced and read be- fore them a long and serious vindication of himself. Hia audience listened in coolness and silence, upon wliich he re- marked : " I see you don't think highly of my production, and I believe you are right ; but," added he, turning him- self round and addressing Pascal, " you who are young, why cannot you produce something ?" The appeal was not lost upon our author ; he had hitherto written almost nothing, but lie engaged to try a sketch or rough draft, which they aright 110 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. fill up and retiring to his room, he produced, in a few hours, instead of a sketch, the first letter to a provincial. On read- ing this to his assembled friends, Arnauld exclaimed, " That is excellent ! that will go down ; we must have it printed immediately." Pascal had, in fact, with the native superiority of genius, pitched on the very tone which, in a controversy of this kind, was calculated to arrest the public mind. Treating theology in a style entirely new, he brought down the subject to the comprehension of all, and translated into the pleasantries of comedy, and familiarities of dialogue, discussions which had till then been confined to the grave utterances of the school. The framework which he adopted in his first letter was ex- ceedingly happy. A Parisian is supposed to transmit to one of his friends in the provinces an account of the disputes of the day. It is said that the provincial with whom he affected to correspond was Perrier, who had married one of his sis- ters. Hence arose the name of the Provincials, which was given to the rest of the letters. This title they owe, it would appear, to a mistake of the printer ; for in an advertisement prefixed to one of the early editions, it is stated that " they have been called ' Provin- cials,' because the first having been addressed without any name to a person in the country, the printer published it under the title ' Letter written to a Provincial by one of his Friends.' " This may be regarded as an apology for the use of a term which, critically speaking, was rather unhappy The word provincial in French, when used to signify a per son residing in the provinces, was generally understood in a bad sense, as denoting an unpolished clown. 1 But the title, 1 The title under which the Letters appeared when first collected into a volume was, " L/ettres ecrites par Louis de Montalte a un Provincial fe ses amis, et aux RR. PP. Jesuites, sur la morale et la politique de tes Peres." Father Bouhours. a Jesuit ridicules the title of the Letters, and says '.e is surprised they were not rather entitled "Letters from a Country Pumpkin to his Friends." and instead of ; ' The Provincr-ils" called ' Th Bumpkins" 1 ' Campagnardes.'' (Remarques sur la langue Fran., p .i. 306 Dirt. Univ.. art. Pmriticial.} ANECDOTES OF THE PROVINCIALS. Ill uncouth as it is, has been canonized and made classical for- ever ; and " The Provincials" is a phrase which it would now be fully as ridiculous to attempt to change as it could be at first to apply it to the Letters. The most trifling particulars connected with such a publi- cation possess an interest. The Letters, we learn, were pub- lished at first in separate stitched sheets of a quarto size and, on account of their brevity, none of them extending to more than one sheet of eight pages, except the last three, which were somewhat longer, they were at first known by the name of the " LITTLE LETTERS." No stated time was observed in their publication. The first letter appeared Jan- uary 13, 1656, being on a Wednesday ; the second on Janu- ary 29, being Saturday ; and the rest were issued at inter- vals varying from a week to a month, till March 24, 1657, which is the date of the last letter in the series ; the whole thus extending over the space of a year and three months. All accounts agree in stating that the impression produced by the Provincials, on their first appearance, was quite unex- ampled. They were circulated in thousands in Paris and throughout France. Speaking of the first letter, Father Daniel says : " It created a fracas which filled the fathers of the Society with consternation. Never did the post-office reap greater profits ; copies were despatched over the whole kingdom ; and I myself, though very little known to the gentlemen of Port-Royal, received a large packet of them, post-paid, in a town of Brittany where I was then residing." The same method was followed with the rest of the letters. The seventh found its way to Cardinal Mazarin, who laughed over it very heartily. The eighth did not appear till a month after its predecessor, apparently to keep up expectation. 1 In short, everybody read the " Little Letters," and, what- ever might be their opinions of the points in dispute, all agreed in admiring the genius which they displayed. They were found lying on the merchant s counter, the lawyer's 1 Daniel Entretiens, p. 19. 112 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. desk, the doctor's table, the lady's toilet ; and everywhem they were sought for and perused with the same avidity. 1 The success of the Letters in gaining their object was not less extraordinary. The Jesuits were fairly checkmated ; and though they succeeded in carrying through the censure of Arnauld, the public sympathy was enlisted in his favor. The confessionals and churches of the Jesuits were deserted while those of their opponents were crowded with admiring thousands. 2 " That book alone," says one of its bitterest enemies, " has done more for the Jansenists than the ' Au- gustinus' of Jansen, and all the works of Arnauld put to- gether." 3 This is the more surprising when we consider that, at that time, the influence of the Jesuits was so high in the ascendant, that Arnauld had to contend with the pope, the king, the chancellor, the clergy, the Sorbonne, the universi- ties, and the great body of the populace ; and that never was Jansenism at a lower ebb, or more generally anathema- tized than when the first Provincial Letter appeared. This, however, was not all. Besides having the tide of public favor turned against them, the Jesuits found them- selves the objects of universal derision. The names of their favorite casuists were converted into proverbs : Escobarder came to signify the same thing with " paltering in a double sense ;" Father Bauny's grotesque maxims furnished topics for perpetual badinage ; and the Jesuits, wherever they went, were assailed with inextinguishable laughter. By no other method could Pascal have so severely stung this proud and self-conceited Society. The rage into which they were thrown was extreme, and was variously expressed. At one lime it found vent in calumnies and threats of vengeance. At other times they indulged in puerile lamentations. It was amusing to hear these stalwart divines, after breathing fire and slaughter against their enemies, assume the queru- lous tones of injured and oppressed innocence. " The perse- 1 Petitot, Notices, p. 121. 2 Benott, Hist, de 1'Edit. de Nantes, iii. 198 ' Daniel, Entretiens. p. 11. ANECDOTES OF THE PROVINCIALS. Ill cution which the Jesuits suffer from the buffooneries of Port- Royal," they said, "is perfectly intolerable : the wheel and the gibbet are nothing to it ; it can only be compared to the torture inflicted on the ancient martyrs, who were first rubbed over with honey and then left to be stung to death by wanps and wild bees. Their tyrants have subjected them to em- poisoned raillery, arid the world leaves them unpitied to suf- fer a sweet death, more cruel in its sweetness than the bit- terest punishment." 1 The Letters were published anonymously, under the ficti- tious signature of Louis de Montalte, and the greatest care was taken to preserve the secret of their authorship. As on all such occasions, many were the guesses made, and the false reports circulated ; but beyond the circle of Pascal's personal friends, none knew him to be the author, nor was the fact certainly or publicly known till after his death. The following anecdote shows, however, that he was suspected, and was once very nearly discovered : After publishing the third letter, Pascal left Port-Royal des Champs, to avoid be- ing disturbed, and took up his residence in Paris, under the name of M. de Mons, in a hotel garni, at the sign of the King of Denmark, Rue des Poiriers, exactly opposite the college of the Jesuits. Here he was joined by his brother-in-law, Perrier, who passed as the master of the house. One day Perrier received a visit from his relative, Father Fretat, a Jesuit, accompanied by a brother monk. Fretat told him that the Society suspected M. Pascal to be the author of the "Little Letters," which were making such a noise, and ad- vised him as a friend to prevail on his brother-in-law to de- sist from writing any more of them, as he might otherwise involve himself in much trouble, and even danger. Perrier thanked him for his advice, but said he was afraid it would be altogether useless, as Pascal would just reply that he could not hinder people from suspecting him, and that though he should deny it they would not believe him. The monks took their departure, much to the relief of Perrier, fo 1 Nicole, Notes sur la xi. Lettre iii. 332. 114 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Bt that very time several sheets of the seventh or eighth let- ter, newly come from the printer, were lying on the bed, where tluy had been placed for the purpose of drying, but, fortunately, though the curtains were only partially drawn, and one of the monks sat very close to the bed, they were not observed. Perrier ran immediately to communicate the incident to his brother-in-law, who was in an adjoining apart- ment ; and he had reason to congratulate him on the narrow escape which he had made. 1 As Pascal proceeded, he transmitted his manuscripts to Port-Royal des Champs, where they were carefully revised and corrected by Arnauld and Nicole. Occasionally, these expert divines suggested the plans of the letters ; and by them he was, beyond all doubt, furnished with most of his quotations from the voluminous writings of the casuists, which, with the exception of Escobar, he appears never to have read. We must not su,ppose, however, that he took these on trust, or gave himself no trouble to veiify them. We shall afterwards have proof of the contrary. The first letters he composed with the rapidity of new-born enthusi- asm ; but the pains and mental exertion which he bestowed on the rest are almost incredible. Nicole says " he was often twenty whole days on a single letter: and some of them he recommenced seven or eight times before bringing them to their present state of perfection." 8 We are assured that he wrote over the eighteenth letter no less than thirteen times. 8 Having been obliged to hasten the publication of the sixteenth, on account of a search made after it in the printing office, he apologizes for its length on the groum 1 that " he had found no time to make it shorter." 4 i Recueil de Port-Royal, 278, 279 ; Petitot. pp 122, 123. 5 Histoire des Provinciates, .p. 12. * Petitot. p. 124. The eighteenth letter embraces the delicate topic uf papal authority, as well as the distinction between faith and fact, in stating which we can easily conceive how severely the ingenuous mind of Pascal must have labored to find some plausible ground far, rindicating his consistency as a Roman Catholic. To the Protestant eader, it must appear the most unsatisfactory of all the Letters. * Prov. Let., p. 418. CHARACTER OF THE PROVINCIALS. 1> The fruits of this extraordinary elaboration appear in every letter ; but what is equally remarkable, is the art with which BO many detached letters, written at distant intervals, and prompted by passing events, have been so arranged as to form an harmonious whole. The first three letters refer to Arnauld's affair ; the questions of grace are but slightly touched, the main object being to interest the reader in favor of the Jansenists, and excite his contempt and indignation against their opponents. After this prelude, the fourth let- ter serves as a transition to the following six, in which he takes up maxims of the casuists. In the eight concluding letters he resumes the grand objects of the work the morals of the Jesuits and the question of grace. These three parts have each their peculiar style. The first is distinguished for lively dialogue and repartee. Jacobins, Molinists, and Jan- senists are brought on the stage, and speak in character, while Pascal does little more than act as reporter. In the second part, he comes into personal contact with a casuisti- cal doctor, and extracts from him, under the pretext of desi- ring information, some of the weakest and worst of his max- ims. At the eleventh letter, Pascal throws off his disguise, and addressing himself directly to the whole order of the Jesuits, and to their Provincial by name, he pours out his whole soul in an impetuous and impassioned torrent of decla- mation. From beginning to end it is a well-sustained bat- tle, in which the weapons are only changed in order to strike the harder. The literary merits of the Provincials have been univer- sally acknowledged and applauded. On this point, where Pascal's countrymen must be considered the most competent judges, we have the testimonies of the leading spirits of France. Boileau pronounced it a work that has " surpassed at once the ancients and the moderns." Perrault has given a similar judgment : " There is more wit in these eighteen letters than in Plato's Dialogues ; more delicate and artful raillery than in those of Lucian ; and more strength and in- genuity of reasoning than in the orations of Cicero. We 116 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. have nothing more beautiful in this species of writing." 1 " Pascal's style," says the Abbe d'Artigny, " has never been surpassed, nor perhaps equalled." 2 The high encomium of Voltaire is well known : " The Provincial Letters were mod- els of eloquence and pleasantry. The best comedies of Mo- lidre have not more wit in them than the first letters ; Bos- suet has nothing more sublime than the last ones." Again, the same writer says : "The first work of genius that ap- peared in prose was the collection of the Provincial Letters. Examples of every species of eloquence may there be found. There is not a single word in it which, after a hundred years, has undergone the change to which all living languages are liable. We may refer to this work the era when our lan- guage became fixed. The Bishop of Luc,on told me, that having asked the Bishop of Meaux what work he would wish most to have been the author of, setting his own works aside, Bossuet instantly replied, ' The Provincial Letters.' " J "Pascal succeeded beyond all expression," says D'Alem- bert ; " several of his bon-mots have become proverbial in our language, and the Provincials will be ever regarded as a model of taste and style." 4 To this day the same high eulo- giums are passed on the work by the best scholars of France.* To these testimonies it would be superfluous to add any criticism of our own, were it not to prepare the English reader for the peculiar character of our author's style. Pas- cal's wit is essentially French. It is not the broad humor >{ Smollet ; it is not the cool irony of Swift ; far less is it the envenomed sarcasm of Junius. It is wit the lively, po- lite, piquant wit of the early French school. Nothing can be finer than its spirit ; but from its very fineness it is apt to evap- orate in the act of transfusion into another tongue. Nothing Perrault, Parallcle des Anc. et Mod., Bayle, art. Pascal. D'Articrny. Nouveaux Memoires iii. p. 34. Voltaire. Siorle de Louis XIV. torn. ii. pp. 171, 274. D'Alembt-rt Destruct. des Jesuites p. 51. Bordas- Demon lin Eloge de Pascal, p. xxv. (This was the pri issay before the French Academy, in June, 1842.) CHARACTER OF THE PROVINCIALS. 117 can be more ingenious than the transitions by which the author glides insensibly from one topic to another ; and in the more serious letters, we cannot fail to be struck with the mathe- matical precision of his reasoning. But there is a speeies of iteration, and a style of dovetailing his sentiments, which does not quite accord with our taste ; and the foreign texture of which, in spite of every effort to the contrary, must shine through any translation. High as the Provincials stand in the literary world, they were not suffered to pass without censure in the high places of the Church. The first effect of their publication, indeed, was to raise a storm against the casuists, whom Pascal had so effectually exposed. The cures of Paris, and afterwards the assembly of the clergy, shocked at the discovery of such a sink of corruption, the existence of which, though just be- neath their feet, they never appear to have suspected, deter- mined to institute an examination into the subject. Hitherto the tenets of the casuists, buried in huge folios; or only taught in the colleges of the Jesuits, had escaped public observa- tion. The clergy resolved to compare the quotations of Pas- cal with these writings ; and the result of the investigation was, that he was found to be perfectly correct, while a mul- titude of other maxims, equally scandalous, were dragged to light. These were condemned in a general assembly of the c.ergy. 1 Unfortunately for the Jesuits, they had not a single writer at the time capable of conducting their vindication. Several replies to the Provincials were attempted while they were in the course of publication ; but these were taken up by the redoubtable Montalte, and fairly strangled at their birth. 9 Shortly after the Letters were finished, there ap- peared " An Apology for the Casuists," the production of a 1 Nicole, Hist, des Provinciates. a The names of these unfortunate productions alone survive; 1. '"First Reply to Letters, &c.. by a Father of the Company of Jesus." B " Provincial Impostures of Sieur de Montalte, Secretary of Port- Royal, discovered and refuted by a Father of the Company of Jesus." 3. " Reply to a Theologian," &c. 4. ' : Reply to the Seventeenth Let- er, by Francis Annat," &c., &c. 118 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Jesuit named Pirot, who, with a folly and frankness which proved nearly as fatal to his order as it did to himself, attempted to vindicate the worst maxims of the casuistical school. This Apology was condemned by the Sorbonne, and subsequently at Rome ; its author died of chagrin, and the Jesuits fell into temporary disgrace. 1 But, with that tenaciousness of life and elasticity of limb which have ever distinguished the Society, it was not long before they rebounded from their fall and regained their feet. Unable to answer the Letters, they succeeded in obtaining, m February, 165*7, their condemnation by the Parliament of Provence, by whose orders they were burnt on the pillory by the hands of the common executioner. Not content with this clumsy method of refutation, they succeeded in procur- ing the formal condemnation of the Provincials by a censure of the pope, Alexander VII., dated 6th September, 1657. In this decree the work is " prohibited and condemned, under the pains and censures contained in the Council of Trent, and in the index of prohibited books, and other pains and cen- sures which it may please his holiness to ordain." It is almost needless to say, that these sentences neither enhanced nor lessened the fame of the Provincials. It must be inter- esting to know what the feelings of Pascal were, on learning that this work, into which he had thrown his whole heart, and mind, and strength, and which may be said to have been at once his chef-d'oeuvre and his confession of faith, had been condemned by the head of that Church which he had hith- erto believed to be infallible. Warped as his fine spirit was by education, his unbending rectitude forbids the supposition that he could surrender his cherished and conscientious sen- timents at the mere dictum of the pope. An incident oc- curred in 1661, shortly before his death, strikingly illustrative T)f his conscientiousness, and of the sincerity of purpose with which the Letters were written. The persecution had begun to rage against Port-Royal ; one mandement after another 1 Eichhorn, Gcschichte der Litteratur. vol. i. pp. 420-423. PAPAL CONDEMNATION CF THE PROVIXl,IAL8. 119 requiring subscription to the condemnation of Jansen, came down from the court of Rome ; and the poor nuns, shrink- ing, on the one hand, f "om violating their consciences by sub- scribing what they believed to be an untruth, and trembling, on the other, at the consequences of disobeying their eccle- siastical superiors, were thrown into the most distressing em- barrassment. Their " obstinacy," as it was termed, only pro- voked their persecutors to more stringent demands. In these circumstances, even the stern Arnauld and the conscientious Nicole were tempted to make some compromise, and drew up a declaration to accompany the signature of the nuns, which they thought might save at once the truth and their consist- ency. To this Pascal objected, as not sufficiently clear, and as leaving it to be inferred that they condemned " efficacious grace." He could not endure the idea of their employing an ambiguous statement, which appeared, or might be supposed by their opponents, to grant what they did not really mean to concede. The consequence was a slight and temporary dispute not affecting principle so much as the mode of maintaining it in which Pascal stood alone against all the members of Port-Royal. On one occasion, after exhausting his eloquence upon them without success, he was so deeply affected, that his feeble frame, laboring under headache and other disorders, sunk under the excitement, and he fell into a swoon. After recovering his consciousness, he explained the cause of his sudden illness, in answer to the affectionate inquiries of his sister : " When I saw those," he said, " whom I regard as the persons to whom God has made known hi? truth, and who ought to be its champions, all giving way, L was so overcome with grief that I could stand it no longer." Subsoquent mandements, still more stringent, soon saved the {.oor nuns from the temptation of ambiguous submissions, and econciled Pascal and his friends. 1 ' Recueil de Port-Rcyal, pp. 314-323. Some papers passed between Pascal and his friends on this topic. Pascal committed these on hin death-bed, to his friend M. Domat. "with a request that he would burn them if the nuns of Port-Royal proved firm, and print them if thej ihould yield." (Ib., p. 322.) The nuns biving stood firm, the croha 120 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. But we are fortunately furnished with his own reflections on the subject of the Provincials, in his celebrated " Thoughts on Religion :" " I feared," says he, " that I might have written errone- ously, when I saw myself condemned ; but the example of so many pious witnesses made me think differently. It is no longer allowable to write truth. IF MY LETTERS ARE CON- DEMNED AT ROME, THAT WHICH I CONDEMN IN THEM IS CON DEMNED IN HEAVEN."' It is only necessary to add, that Pascal continued to main- tain his sentiments on this subject unchanged to the last. On his death-bed, M. Beurrier, his parish priest, administered to him the last ntes of his Church, and came to learn, after hav- ing confessed him, that he was the author of the " Provincial Letters." Full of concern at having absolved the author of a book condemned by the pope, the good priest returned, and asked him if it was true, and if he had no remorse of conscience on that account. Pascal replied, that "he could assure him, as one who was now about to give an account to God of all his actions, that his conscience gave him no trou- ble on that score ; and that in the composition of that work he was influenced by no mad motive, but solely by regard to the glory of God and the vindication of truth, and not in the least by any passion or personal feeling against the Jesuits." Attempts were made by Perefixe, archbishop of Paris, first to bully the priest for having absolved such an impenitent offender, 1 " and afterwards to force him into a false account of his penitent's confession. It was confidently reported, on the pretended authority of the confessor, that Pascal had ex- pressed his sorrow for having written the Provincials, and bility is that they were destroyed. Had they been preserved, they micrht have thrown some further light on the opinions of Pascal regarding papal authority. 1 Si mes Lettrec sont condamnees a Rome, ce que fy condamne. est tondamne dans le del. (Pensees de Blaise Pascal, torn. ii. 1G3. Paris 1824.) 8 ' How came you," said the archbishop to M. Beurrier, " to admin* v T the sacraments to such a person 1 Didn't you know that he wat< a jaiisenist 1" (Recueil, 348.) EDITIONS OF THE PROVINCIALS. 121 that he had condemned his friends of Port-Royal for want of due respect to papal authority. Both these allegations were afterwards distinctly refuted the first by the written avowal of M. Beurrier, and the other by two depositions for- mally made by Nicole, showing that the real ground of Pas- cal's brief disagreement with his friends was directly the ic- verse of that which had been assigned. 1 Few hooks have passed through more editions than the Provincials. The following, among many others, may be mentioned as French editions: The first, in 1656, 4to; a second in 1657, 12mo; a third in 1658, 8vo; a fourth in 1659, 8vo; a fifth in 1666, 12mo; a sixth in 1667, 8vo; a seventh in 1669, 12mo ; an eighth in 1689, 8vo; a ninth in 1712, 8vo ; a tenth in 1767, 12mo.* The later editions are beyond enumeration. The Letters were translated into Latin, during the lifetime of Pascal, by his intimate friend, the learned and indefatigable Nicole, under the assumed namf of " William Wendrock, a Saltzburg divine." 3 Nicole, who was a complete master of Latin, has given an elegant, though comewhat free, version of his friend's work. He has fre- quently added to the quotations taken from the writings of the Jesuits and others ; a liberty which he doubtless felt himself the more warranted to take, from the share he had in the original concoction of the Letters. Nicole's prelimi- nary dissertatioa and notes were translated by Mademoiselle de Joncourt, a lady, it is said, " possessed of talents and piety, who, to the graces peculiar to her own sex, added the Accomplishments which are the ornament of ours." 4 Be- sides this, the Provincials have been translated into nearly all 1 Recueil de Port-Royal, pp. 327-330 ; Petitot, p. 165. 2 Walchii Biblioth. Theol., ii. 295. 8 The title of Nicole's transL-.tion, now rarely to he met with, is, L/u- dorici Montaltii Litteree Provinciales. de Moroli et Politica Jesuitarum Disciplina. A Wlllelmo Wendrockio. Salisburgensi Theologo, Several editions of this translation were printed. I have the first, published at Cologne in 1658, and the fifth, much enlarged, Cologne, 1679. 4 Avertissement. Les Provinciales, ed. 1767. Mad. de Joncourt, 01 Joncoux, took a deep interest in the falling fortunes of Port-Royal fSce some account of her in Madame Schimmelpenninck'a History of Vhe Dtmolition of Port-Royal, p. 135.) 6 122 HISTORICAL IXTRODUC riOX. the languages of Europe. Bayle informs us that lie had seen an edition of them iu 8vo, with four columns, containing the French, Latin, Italian, and Spanish. 1 The Spanish transla- tion, executed by Gratien Cordero of Burgos, was suppressed by order of the Inquisition. 1 But all the efforts made for (.he suppression of the Provincials only served to promote their popularity ; and their enemies found that, if they would wlence, they must answer them. Forty years elapsed after the publication of the Provincials before the Jesuits ventured on a reply. At length, in 1697, appeared an answer, entitled Entrctiens de Cleandre et (T Eu- doxe, sur les Lettres au Provincial. The author is known to have been Father Daniel, the historiographer of France. This learned Jesuit undertook the desperate task of refuting the Provincials, in a form somewhat resembling that of the Letters themselves, being a series of supposed conversations between two friends, aided by an abbe, " who is excessively frank and honest, one who never could bear all his life to see people imposed upon." The dialogue is conducted with con- siderable spirit, but is sadly deficient in vrai 'semblance. Tlvj author commences with high professions of impartiality. Ole- ander and Eudoxus are supposed to be quite neutral some what like the free-will of Molina, " in a state of perfect equi librium, until good sense and stubborn facts turn the scale.' But, alas ! the equilibrium is soon lost, without the help eithei of facts or of sense. The friends have hardly uttered two sentences, till they begin to talk as like two Jesuits as could well be imagined. Party rage gets the better of literary dis- cretion ; the Port-Royalists are " honest knaves," " true hyp- ocrites," " villains animated with stubborn fury ;" Arnauld's " pen may be known by the gall that drops from it ;" Nicole " swears like a trooper," and as to Pascal he is all these char- acters in turn, while his book is " a repertory of slander," Mid is " villainous in a supreme degree !" The whole strain of Daniel's reply corresponds with thif i Bayle. Diet. art. Pascal. * Daniel, Kntretiens p. 111. DANIELS ANSWER TO THE PROVINCIALS. 123 specimen of its spirit. Avoiding the error of Pirot, and yet without renouncing the favorite dogmas of the Society, such as probabilism, equivocations, and mental reservations, which he only attempts to palliate, Father Daniel has exhausted his skill in an attack on the sincerity of Pascal. His main ob- ject is to convey the impression that the Provincials are a libel, written in bad faith, and full of altered texts and false citations. In selecting this plan of defence, the Jesuit cham- pion evinces considerably more ingenuity than ingenuousness. He was well aware that, at the time of their publication, the Letters had been subjected to a sifting process of examina- tion by the most clear-sighted Jesuits, who had signally failed in proving any falsifications. But he knew also, that, during the forty years that had elapsed, the writings of the casuists had fallen into disuse and contempt, mainly in consequence of the scorching which they had received from the wit and eloquence of Pascal, and that it would be now a much easier and safer task to call in question the fidelity of citations which none would give themselves the trouble of verifying. In this bold attempt to turn the tables against the Jansenists, by ac- cusing them of chicanery and pious fraud, the very crimes which they had succeeded in establishing against their oppo- nents, the unscrupulous Jesuit could be at no loss to find, among the voluminous writings of the casuists, some plausi- ble grounds for his charges. At all events, he could calcu- late on the readiness with which certain minds, fonder of gen eralizing than of investigating facts, would lay hold of the nere circumstance of a book havi.ig been written in defence of his order, as sufficient to show that a great deal may be eaid on both sides. As to the manner in which Daniel has executed his task, it might be sufficient to say, that it has been acknowledged by the Jesuits themselves to be a failure. Even at its first appearance, great efforts were made to sup- press it altogether, as likely tr do more harm than good to ihe Society ; and in their references to it afterwards, we see the disappointment which they felt. " There was lately pub- lished," says Richelet, " an answer to the Lettres Provin- 124 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. ciaxs, which professes to demolish them, but which, never- theless, will not do them much harm. Do you ask how ? The reason is, that although this answer shows the horrid injustice, the abominable slanders, and injurious falsehoods of the Provincials, against one of the most famous societies in the Church, yet these Letters have so long, by their facetious Ruches, got the laughers of all denominations on their side, that they have acquired a credit and authority of which it will be difficult to divest them. It must be confessed that prejudice, on this occasion, is very unjust, very cruel, and very obstinate in its verdict; since, though these Letters have been condemned by popes, bishops, and divines, and burnt by the hands of the hangman, yet they have taken such deep root in people's minds as to bid defiance to all these pow- ers." 1 " The reply," says another writer, " as may be easily imagined, was not so well received as the Letters had been. Father Daniel professed to have reason and truth on his side ; but his adversary had in his favor what goes much further with men, the arms of ridicule and pleasantry." 9 This, how- ever, is a mere begging of the question Ridentem dicer e verum, quid vetat? It is quite possible that Father Daniel may be lugubriously in the wrong, and Pascal laughingly in the right. This was very triumphantly made out in the an- swer to Daniel's work, which appeared in the same year with the Entretiens, under the title of " Apology for the Provin- cial Letters, against the last Reply of the Jesuits, entitled Conversations of Oleander and Eudoxus." The author was Don Mathieu Petitdidier, Benedictine of the congregation of St. Vanne, who died bishop of Macra. 8 In this masterly per- formance, the accusations of Daniel are shown to be totally groundless, his answers Jesuitical and evasive, and his argu- ments untenable. The " Apology" was never answered, and Daniel's work sank out of sight. Subsequent apologists of the Jesuits have followed th 1 Bayle, Diet., art. Pascal, note K. a Abbe de Castres. Les Trois Siecles, ii. 63. 1 Pnrbier, Diet, des Ouvragcs Anon, et Pseudon. PASCAL'S SELF- VINDICATION. 125 line of defence adopted by Father Daniel. The continued repetition of his charges, though they have been long since disposed of, renders it necessary to advert to them. For the strict fidelity of Pascal's citations, we have not merely the testimony of contemporary witnesses, but what will be to many a sufficient guarantee, the solemn assertion of Pascal himself. In a conversation that took place within a year of his death, and which has been preserved by his sister, he thus answers the chief articles of accusation that had been brought against the Provincials: " I have been asked, first, if I repented of having written the Provincial Letters ? I answered that, far from repent- ing, if I had it to do again, I would write them yet more strongly. " I have been asked, in the second place, why I named the authors from whom I extracted these abominable passages which I have cited ? I answered, If I were in a town where there were a dozen fountains, and I knew for certain that one of them was poisoned, I should be under obligation to tell the world not to draw from that fountain ; and, as it might be supposed that this was a mere fancy on my part, I should be obliged to name him who had poisoned it, rather than ex- pose a whole city to the risk of death. " I have been asked, thirdly, why I adopted an agreeable, jocose, and entertaining style ? I answered, If I had writ- isn dogmatically, none but the learned would have read my book ; and they had no need of it, knowing how the mattei stood, at least as well as I did. I conceived it, therefore, my duty to write, so that my Letters might be read by women, and people in general, that they might know the danger of all those maxims and propositions which were then spread abroad, and admitted with so little hesitation. "Finally, I have been asked, if I had myself read all the V>oks which I quoted ? I answered, No. To do this, I had need have passed the greater part of my life in reading very 6ad books. But I have twice read Escobar throughout ; and Prov. Let., p. 196. f Ib.. p. 220. 1 Tabaraud p. 117; Bonl. Demoulin, Elooe dc Pascal. Append. 1 Schlegel, Lectures on Hist, of Lit. ii. 188. CRITICISMS ON THE PROVINCIALS. 129 knowledge of mankind made the Jesuits more cautious in the culture of devotional feelings. They well knew that but few can prudently engage in open hostility with what, in ascetic language, is called the world."' The strange mixture of truth and error in this statement leaves an unfavorable im- pression on the mind, the fallacy of which we feel ere we have time to analyze it. It is true that nothing could be more opposite to the laxity of the Jesuits than the asceticism of Port-Royal. But it is doing injustice to Pascal to insinu- ate that he measured Jesuitical morality by " the strict, un- bending maxims of the Jansenists ;" and it is flagrantly un- true that the Jesuits merely aimed at reducing monastic enthusiasm to the standard of common sense and ordinary life. We repeat that the real charge which Pascal substanti- ates against them is, not that they softened the austerities of the cloister, but that they sacrificed the eternal laws of moral- ity not that they prudently suited their rules to men's tem- pers, but that they licensed the worst passions and propensi- ties of our nature not that they declined urging all to for- sake the world (which he never expected), but that they sought, for their own politic ends, to veil its impurities, and countenance its evil customs. Disguising their hostility to science, under the mask of friendship to literature, the Jesuits have succeeded in making to themselves friends of many who are acquainted with them only through the medium of their writings. And it is the remarkable fact of our day, that, while on the Continent, where they are practically known, the Jesuits have enlisted against themselves the pens of its most eminent novelists, historians, and philosophers, in Protestant England it is quite Uie reverse. The most talented of our periodical writers Lave exerted all their powers to white-wash them, to paint and paper them, and set them off with ornamental designs ; and where they have not dared to defend, they have tried to blunt the edge of censure against them. Following in the 1 Letters from Spain, p. 86. 6* I 30 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. same line of defence, a certain class of Protestant writers, fond of historical paradox, and of appearing superior to vul- gar prejudices, have volunteered to protect the Jesuits. " No man is a stranger to the fame of Pascal," says Sir James Macintosh ; " but those who may desire to form a right judg- ment on the contents of the Lettres Provinciales would do well to cast a glance over the Entretiens d'Ariste et d 1 Euge- nie, by Bouhours, a Jesuit, who has ably vindicated his order.'" Sir James had heard, perhaps, of Father Daniel's Entretiens de Cleandre et d'Eudoxe, but it is very evident that he had never even " cast a glance over" that book ; for the work of Bouhours, which he has confounded with it, is a philological treatise, which has no reference whatever to the Provincial Letters ; and yet he could say that the Jesuit " has ably vindicated his order !" Next to the art which the Jesuits have shown in smuggling themselves into places of power and trust, is that by which they have succeeded in hoodwinking the merely literary portion of society. But, not to dwell longer on these objections, the Provin- cials are liable to another charge, seldomer advanced, and not so easily answered ; which is, that the loose casuisti- cal morality denounced by Pascal was not confined to the Jesuits, nor to any one of the orders of the Romish Church, much less, as Voltaire says, to " a few Spanish and Flemish Jesuits," but was common to all the divines of that Church, and was, in fact, the native offspring and inevitable growth of the practices of confession and absolution. It is admitted that the Jesuits were mainly responsible for its preservation and propagation ; that they have been the most zealous in reducing it to practice ; that, even after it had incurred the anathemas of popes, bishops, and divines, and after it had been disclaimed by all the other orders of the Church, the Jesuits pertinaciously adhered to it ; and that, even to this day, they have identified themselves with the worst tenets of the casuists. But Protestants writers have generally al 1 Macintosh, Hi&tory of England, vol. ii. 359, note PROTESTANT CRITICISM. 131 leged. not withcu.t reason, that the corruptions of casuistical divinity may be traced from the days of Thomas Aquinas and Cajetan. whom the Church of Rome owns as authori- ties ; that the "new casuists" merely carried the maxims of their predecessors to their legitimate conclusions ; and that though condemned by some popes, the censure has been only partial, and has been more than neutralized by the condem- nation of other works written against the morality of the Jesuits. Thus, in a work entitled " Guimenius Amadeus," the author, who was the Jesuit Moya, boldly claimed the sanction of the most venerated names in favor of the modern casuists. This work, it is true, was condemned to the flames in 1680, by Pope Innocent XL, who was favorable to the Jansenists ; but the Jesuits boast of having obtained other papal constitutions, reversing the judgment of that pontiff", whom they do not scruple to stigmatize with heresy.' It cannot be denied that tjhe Jesuits have all along succeeded in obtaining for their System the sanction of the highest au- thorities in the Church ; while those works which undertook to advocate a purer morality were printed clandestinely, without privilege or approbation, under fictitious names of authors and printers ; nor can it be forgotten that the Pro- vincial Letters, the most powerful exposure of Jesuitical morality that ever appeared, were censured at Rome, and burnt by the hands of the executioner.* In short, and with- out entering into the question so ingeniously handled by Nicole and other Jansenists, whether the modern casuists were justified in their excesses by the ancient schoolmen, it is undeniable that this is the weakest point. of the Provin- cials, and one on which tl.e thorough-going Jesuit occupies, on popish principles, the most advantageous ground. The disciples of Loyola constitute the very soul of the Papacy ; and they must be held as the genuine exponents of that atro- 1 Eichhorn. Geschichte der Litter., vol. i. pp. 423-425; Weisman, Hist. Eccl.. vol. ii. 21 ; Jurieu. Prejugez Legitimes cont. le Papisme, p, <8i> ; Claude. Defence of the Reformation, p. 29. " Jurieu. Justification de la Morale des Reformez. centre M. Arnauld, i P. 30. 132 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. eious system of morals which, engendered in ths privacy of the cloister during the dark ages, reached its maturity in the hands of a. designing priesthood, who still find it too conve- nient a tool for their purposes to part with it. There are other respects in which we cannot fail to detect, throughout these Letters, the enfeebling and embarrassing influence of Popery over the naturally ingenuous mind of the author. Among all the maxims peculiar to the Jesuits, none are more pernicious than those in which they have openly taught that disobedience to the Papal See releases subjects from their allegiance and oaths of fidelity to their sovereigns, and authorizes them to put heretical rulers to death, even by assassination. 1 On this point Pascal has failed to speak out the whole truth. Whether it may have been from genuine dread of heresy, or from a wish to spare the dignity of the pope, it is easy to see the timidity, the circumspection, the delicacy with which he touches on the point of papal au- thority. The Jansenists have been called the Methodists of the Church of Rome ; but the term is applicable to them rather in the wide sense in which it has been applied, derisively, to those who have sought reformation or aimed at superior sanctity within the pale of an established Church, than as applied to the party now known under that designation. They disclaimed the title of Jansenists, as a nickname applied 1 A disingenuous attempt has been sometimes made to identify these nefarious maxims with certain principles held by some of our reformers. There is an essential difference between the natural right claimed, we do not say with what justice, for subjects to proceed against their rulers as tyrants, and the right assumed by the pope to depose rulers as her- etics. And it is equally easy to distinguish between the disallowed acts of some fanatical individuals who have taken the law into their own hands, and the atrocious deeds of such men as Chatel and Ravaillac, who could plead the authority of Mariana the Jesuit, that " to put ty- rannical princes to death is not only a lawful but a laudable, heroic, and glorious action." (Dalton's Jesuits ; their Principles and Acts, London, 1843.) The Church of St. Ignatius at Rome is or was adorn, ed, it seems, with pictures of all the assassinations mentioned in Scrip- lure, which they have, most presumptuously, perverted in justification o their feats in thi-s departiii'riit. (D'Alembert Dest. of the Jesuits, p. MM.) DISADVANTAGES OF THE JANSEN 7 1ST8. 133 to them by their adversaries. They held themselves to be jhe true Catholics, the representatives of the Church as it existed down, at least, to the days of St. Bernard, whom they termed " the last of the fathers." They ascribed a spe- cies of semi-inspiration to the early fathers of the Church. They reverenced the Scriptures, but received them at second- hand, through the medium of tradition. To be a Catholic and a Christian were with them convertible terms. Hence the horror evinced by Pascal, in his concluding letters, at the bare thought of "heresy existing in the Church." ''Embarrassed at every step," it has been well observed, " by their professed submission to the authority of the popes, galled and oppressed by their necessary acquiescence in the flagrant errors of their Church, these good men made profes- sion of the great truths of Christianity under an incompara- bly heavier weight of disadvantage than has been sustained by any other class of Christians from the apostolic to the present times. Enfeebled by the enthusiasm to which they clung, the piety of these admirable men failed in the force necessary to carry them through the conflict with their atro- cious enemy, ' the Society.' They were themselves in too many points vulnerable to close fearlessly with their adver- sary, and they grasped the sword of the Spirit in too infirm a manner to drive home a deadly thrust The Jan- senists and the inmates of Port-Royal displayed a constancy that would doubtless have carried them through the fires of martyrdom ; but the intellectual courage necessary to bear them fearlessly through an examination of the errors of the papal superstition, could spring only from a healthy form of mind, utterly incompatible with the dotings of religious ab- straction, and the petty solicitudes of sackclothed abstinence. The Jansenists had not such courage ; if they worshipped not the Beast, they cringed before him ; he placed hia iragon-foot upon their necks, and their wisdom and their Tirtues were lost forever to Francs.'" 1 Taylor, Natural Hist, of Enthusiasm, p. 256. 134 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. It is the policy of the Jesuits at present, as of old, to deny- point-blank, the truthfulness of Pascal's statements of their doctrine and policy to reiterate the exploded charge of hia having garbled his extracts and, after affecting to join in the laugh at his pleasantry, and to forgive, for the wit's sake, his injustice to their innocent and much-calumniated fathers, to declare that, of course, he could not himself believe the half of what he said against them, nor comprehend the pro- found questions of casuistry on which he presumed to argue. Under this affectation of charity, they dexterously evade Pas- cal's main charges, and slyly insinuate a vindication of the heresies of which they have been convicted. Thus, in a iate publication, one of their number actually attempts to vindi- cate the old Jesuitical doctrine of probabilism ! ' At the same time, they retain, with undiminished tenacity, the moral maxims which Pascal condemns. The discovery lately made of the Theology of Dens, still taught by the Jesuits in Ire- .aud, is a proof of this : for it is nothing more than a collec- tion of the most wicked and obscene maxims of casuistical morality. Matters are no better in France. Dr. Gilly men- tions a publication issued at Lyons, in 1825, which is so bad that the reviewer says, " We cannot, we dare not copy it ; it is a book to which the cases of conscience of Dr. Sanchez were purity itself."* The disclosures made still more re- cently by M. Michelet and M. Quinet, are equally startling, and will, in all probability, issue in another expulsion of the Jesuits from France. The policy of the Society, as hitherto exhibited in the countries where they have settled, describes a regular cycle of changes. Commencing with loud professions of charity, of liberal views in politics, and of an accommodating code of morals, they succeed in gaining popularity among the non- 1 De 1'Existence et de 1'Institut des Jreuites. Par le R. P. de Ra- vign an.de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris, 1845, p 83. Probabilism is the doctrine, that if any opinion in morals lias been held by any grant doctor of the Church, it is probably true, and may be safely followed in metiee, ' Gilly Xanativf of an F,Trur.ion to Piedmont, p. 150 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 135 religious, the dissipated, and the restless portion of society. Availing themselves of this, and carefully concealing, in Protestant country, the more obnoxious parts of their creed, their next step is to plant some of the most plausible of their apostles in the principal localities, who are instructed to estab- lish schools and seminaries on the most charitable footing, so as to ingratiate themselves with the poor, while they secure the contributions of the rich ; to attack the credit of the most active and influential among the evangelical ministry ; to re- vive old slanders against the reformers ; to disseminate tracts of the most alluring description ; arid, when assailed in turn, to deny everything and to grant nothing. Rising by these means to power and influence, they gradually monopolize the seats of learning and the halls of theology they glide, with noiseless steps, into closets, cabinets, and palaces they be- come the dictators of the public press, the persecutors of the good, and tjie oppressors of all public and private liberty. At length, their treacherous designs being discovered, they rouse against themselves the storm of natural passions, which, descending on them first as the authors of the mischief, sweeps away along with them, in its headlong career, every- thing that bears the aspect of that active and earnest religion, under the guise of which they had succeeded in duping man- kind. What portion of this cycle they have reached among us it is needless to demonstrate. They have evidently got be- yond the first stage ; and it is highly probable that, in proof of it, the present publication may elicit a more than ordinary exhibition of their skill in the science of defamation and de- nial. It is far from being unlikely that, at the present point of their revolution, they may find it their interest, after all the mischief that Pascal has done them, and all the ill that they have spoken against Pascal, to claim him as a good Catholic, and take advantage of the prestige of his name to Insinuate, that the Church which could boast of such a man is not to be lightly esteemed. And, in fact, it requires no mall exercise of caution to guard cursives against such an 136 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. illusion, It is difficult to characterize Popery as it deserves without apparent uncharitableness to individuals, such as Fenelon and Pascal, who, though members of a corrupt Church, possessed much of the spirit of true religion. But, though it would be impossible to class such eminent and pious men with an infidel cardinal or a Spanish inquisitor, it does not follow thac they are free from condemnation. It has been justly remarked, that " their example has done much harm, and been only the more pernicious from their eminence and their virtues. It is difficult to calculate how much assistance their well-merited reputation has given to prop the falling cause of Popery, and to lengthen out the continuance of a delusion the most lasting and the most dangerous that has ever led mankind astray from the truth.'" With regard to our author, in particular, it may be well to remember, that he was virtuous without being indebted to his Church, and evangelical in spite of his creed ; that his piety, for which he is so much esteemed by us, was the very quality that ex- posed him to odium and suspicion from his own communion j that the truths, for his adherence to which we would claim him as a brother in Christ, were those which were reprobated by the authorities of Rome ; and that the following Letters, for which he is so justly admired, were, by the same Church, formally censured and ignominiously burnt, along with the Bible which Pascal loved, and the martyrs who have suffered for " the truth as it is in Jesus." 1 Douglas on Errors in Religion, p. 1 13. LIST OF WORKS TO BE CONSULTED WITH REFERENCE TO PASCAL AND HIS WR1TINOS. Recueil de plusieurt, pieces pour servir a 1'histoire de Port-RoyaL Dtrecht, 174U, in-12. Memoires poui servir a 1'histoire de Port-Royal et a la vie de la mere Ange'lique Utrecht, 1742, t. iii. Vies interessames des religieuses de Port-Royal, 1751, t. ii. Lettres, opuscules et memoires de madame Perier, de Jacqueline, sceur de Pascal, et de Marguerite Perier, sa niece, public's sur les manu- Bcrits originaux, par M. P. Faugere. 1845, 1 vol. in-8. COUSIN, Jacqueline Pascal. Paris, 1845, in-18. The live works whose titles are given above, although separated by wide intervals of time, and all subsequent to the seventeenth centiu'y, may be regarded as the most direct sources for the history of Pascal and that of his family, because they are almost exclusively composed of contemporaneous documents ; for which reason we place them at the head of this bibliographical notice. Eloge de Pascal, by Nicole (in Latin), reproduced by the Abbe" Bos- sut, at the head of his edition. BAILLET, Vie de Descartes, II* part., p. 330. Sentiments de M. . . . (Boullier) sur la Critique des Pensees de Pascal, par M. de Voltaire, 1741 et 1753. An excellent composition by a French Protestant, a refugee in Holland. Boullier was the only champion who defended Pascal against Voltaire ; and he did it, ac- cording to M. Sainte-Beuve, with gravity and vigor, planting him- self from the outset at the centre of attack. See PorLRoyal, vol. iii., p. 323 et sequens. Eloge de Blaise Pascal, par Condorcet, 1776. Reprinted in the (Euvres de Condorcet, Paris, Didot, 1847, in-8, t. iii., p. 567 et seq. Remarques de Voltaire sur les pensees de Pascal. Sixty-four of these remarks, under the date of 1728, are preceded by an Advertisement added by Voltaire ; eight others bear the date of May 10, 1743, and are applied to certain of the Pensees published by P. Desmolets, which the early editors had rejected from their collection ; finally uinety-four appeared, for the first time, in the octavo edition which Voltaire caused to be published at Geneva, in 1778. Discours sur la vie et les ouvraaes de Pascal, by the Abbe' Bossut, in- Kerted in the edition of 1779, 5 vol. in-8 and reprinted separately, wifa additions and corrections, in 1781. ;/,/ Pascal: CHATEAUBRIAND, Genie du Christianisme, III" part., liv, d . chap. vi. Eloge de Blaise Pascal, par Alexis Dumesnil. Paris, 1813, in-8. 138 BIULIOGKAI'HICAL NOTICE. Eloge dt Blaise Pascal, accompagne' dc notes historiques et critiques, L)y Georges-Marie Raymond. Lyon, 1816, in-8. 2" tklit. J. H. MOKNIER, Essai sur Blaise Pascal. Paris, 1822, in-8. Discours prelinimaire de 1' Edition des Pensees, par M. Frantin. Di- jon, 1835, -2? e"dit., 1853. Journal des Savants, 1839, p. 554. KKUCHLIN, Pascal's Leben. Stuttgard, 1840. COUSIN. Sur la necessite d'une nouvelle edition des Pensees de Pascal. Report to the French Academy. (Journal des Savants, avril-novem- bre, 1842.) Reprinted under the following title : Des Pennies dt Pascal, etc. Paris, 1843, in-8. See M. Foisset's compte-renda of this work, in the Correspondant, April, 1843. A new edition (revue et corri- aee) app^red in 1849. In a preface to this new edition, M. Cousiu discusses, at great length, the question of Pascal's philosophic skep- ticism. Inasmuch as a great deal of needless controversy has grown out of a misappreh&nsion the confounding of skepticism in philos- ophy with skepticism in religion, we will here give M. Cousin's very clear statement of the question. There probably will be no difference of opinion among those competent to form a judgment, when the point shall be definitely understood "Already, in 1828," l says M. Cousin, " -we had found Pascal a skeptic, even in Port-Royal and Bossut ; in 1842, we found him still more skeptical in the autograph manuscript, and, in spite of the lively controversy that has been awakened on the subject, our con- viction has not been for a single moment shaken it has been even strengthened by new studies. " ' What ! Pascal a skeptic ?' such is the cry raised in almost ev- ery quarter. ' What Pascal are you putting in the place of him who has hitherto been regarded as one of the greatest defenders of the Christian religion?' A truce, gentlemen; let us understand each other, I beg you. I have not said that Pascal was a skeptic in reli- gion : that were indeed a little too absurd : far from that, Pascal believed in Christianity with all the powers of his soul The question must be stated with clearness and precision : Pascal was a skeptic in philosophy and not in religion ; and because he was a skeptic in philosophy he attached himself so much the more closely to religion, as to the last resource of humanity in the impotence of reason, in the ruin of all natural truth among men. This is what I have said, what I now maintain " What is skepticism ? It is a philosophical opinion that consists precisely in rejecting all philosophy a? impossible, on the ground that man is incapable of reaching "?y himself any truth, still less those truths that constitute what is called, in philosophy, Ethics and Natural Religion, that is, the freedom of man, the law of duty, the distinction between just and unjust, between good and evil, the sanctity of virtue, the immateriality of the soul, and Divine Provi- dence. All philosophers worthy of the name aspire to these truths. .n order to reach them one takes one course, another another : pro- cesses differ ; hence diverse methods and schools, less opposed to each other than one at first sight would believe, whose history ex- presses the movement and progress of human intelligence and civil- nation. But the most different schools pursue the same end, the Ccurs de FhUioire de la philcspphie modern f, II Serie, t ii., lee. xli., p. 888. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 139 establishment of truth ; and they set out from a common principle, from the firm conviction that man has received from God the power of attaining truths of the moral order, as well as those of the physi- cal order. This natural power, which they place in sensation or re- flection, in sentiment or intellect, is among themselves a subject of family quarrel ; but they are all agreed upon the essential point, that man possesses the power of reaching truth ; for upon this con dition, and this alone, philosophy is not a chimera. " Skepticism is the adversary, not only of such or such a school of philosophy, but of all schools. We must not confound skepticism and doubt. Doubt has its legitimate use, its wisdom, its utility. It serves philosophy in its way, for it warns her of her aberrations, and reminds reason of its imperfections and limits. It may be ap- plied to such a result, such a process, such a principle, even such an order of cognitions ; but as soon as it is applied to the faculty of knowing, if it contests with reason her power and her rights, from that moment doubt is no longer doubt, it is skepticism. Doubt does not shun truth, it seeks it, and the better to attain it, watches over and holds in check the procedures often rash of reason. Skep- ticism does not seek the truth, for it knows, or thinks it knows, that there is none and can be none for man. Doubt is to philosophy an inconvenient, often an importunate, always a useful friend : skepti- cism is to it a mortal enemy. Doubt occupies, in some sort, the place in the empire of philosophy of the constitutional opposition in the representative system ; it acknowledges the principle of the gov- ernment, only criticises its acts, and that too, in the very interest of the government. Skepticism resembles an opposition that labors to ruin the established order, and exerts itself to destroy.the princi- ple itself in virtue of which it speaks. In days of peril, the constitu- tional opposition hastens to the support of the government, while the other opposition invokes dangers, and in them places its hopes of triumph. Thus, when the rights of philosophy are menaced, doubt, feeling itself also menaced, rallies to her as to its own principle ; skepticism, on the contrary, then lifts the mask and openly betrays. " Skepticism is of two kinds : it is either its own end, and rests tranquilly in the negation of all certitude ; or it has a secret aim quite different from its apparent object. In the bosom of philosophy it has the appearance of combating for the unlimited liberty of the human mind, against the tyranny of what it calls philosophical dog- matism, while in reality it is conspiring in favor of a foreign tyranny. " Who does not remember, for example, having seen in our times a French writer 1 preaching, in one volume of the "Essay on Indif- ference," the most absolute skepticism, in order to conduct us, ir. the other volumes, to the most absolute dogmatism that ever existed ? " It remains to ascertain whether skepticism, as we have just de- fined it in general, is or is not in the book of ' Thoughts.' " According to us, it is, and manifests itself on every page, at ev- ery line. Pascal breathes skepticism ; he is full of it ; he proclaims its principle, accepts all its consequences, and pushes it at the outset to its final term, which is the avowed contempt and almost hatred )f all philosophy. *' Yes. Pascal is a declared enemy of philosophy : he believes in it 1 The allusion is to tbe Abbe de Lamennsis ED. 140 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. neither ranch nor little; he absolutely rejects it." (Btaise 1'nmil, preface de la noicvelle edition, pp. 3-6.) Da sceplicisnie de Pascal. (Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 de"cembre, 1814 15 jauvier, 1845.) BORDAS-DKMOULIN, Eloge de Pascal (concours de 1' Academic frau- jaise, en 1842). _ PROSPER FAUGERE, Eloge de Pascal (meme concours). Fait inedit de la vie de Pascal, par M. Francois Collet. Paris, 1848, in-8 de 44 pages flistoire de la Litlerature fran^aise de M. Nisard, t. i. Pensees, fragments et lettres de Blaise Pascal, published for the first time after the original manuscripts in great part inedited, by M. Prosper Faugere. Paris, 1844, 2 vols. in-8. See M. Sainte-Beuve's Compte-rendu of this work in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1" juillet, 1844. ALEX. THOMAS, dePascali ; an vere scepticus fuei-it. 1844. in-8 (thesis for a doctorate). De I'Amulelte de Pascal. e"tude sur le rapport de la sante' de ce grand homme a son g^nie, par le docteuv Le"lut. Paris, 1846. in-8. North British Review. August, 1844 (Article on Pascal). Edinburgh Review. January, 1847 (Article on Pascal). L'ABBE FLOTTE, Etudes sur Pascal. 1843-1845, in-8. VINET, Etudes sur Pascal, 1844-1847. De la methode philosophique de Pascal, par Lescoeur, 1850. L'ABBE MAYNARD Pascal, sa vie, son caractere, etc. Paris, 1850, 2 vol. in-8. The principal object of this book is to defend Pascal against the charge of skepticism. SAINTE-BEUVE, Port- Royal, t. ii., liv. iii , chap. i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. , t. iii., liv. iii., chap. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. xiii. xvii. xviii. xix. xx. xxi. HAVET, Elude sur les Pensees de Pascal (Introduction of his edition of the Pensees). Pans, Dezobry, 1852, in-8. Revue de theoloaie et la philosophic chretienne. Vol. 8, 1854. Several articles on Pascal, in which M. F.-L. Fre"d. Chavannes aims to &how the part played by the idea of authority in the life of the author of the Pensees. Revue chretienne, 1854. Pascal et le vicaire Savoyard, par J.-F. AstSe*. Pensees de Pascal, e'dition variorum, par Charles Louandre. Paris, Charpentier, 1858. Pensees de Pascal, e'dition complete, avec des notes, un index et une pre'face par J.-F. Astie'. Paris et Lausanne, 1857. Select Memoirs of Port-Royal; to which are added, Tour to Alet, Visit to Port-Royal, Gift of an Abbess, Biographical Notices, &c., from original documents ; by M. A. Schimmelpenninck. Fifth edi- tion, 3 vols. 8vo. London : Longman, Brown & Co., 1859. Whoever wishes to read the Provindales in the original, will find a pure text and beautiful typography in the Lefevre edition, among the Chefs-d '(Euvre Littiraires du XVII. Siede; Didot Freres, Paris. THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS LETTER I. DISPUTES IN THE SORBONNE, AND THE INVENTION OF PROXIMATE POWER A TERM EMPLOYED BY THE JESUITS TO PROCURE THE CENSURE OF M. ARNAULD. PARIS, January 23, 1656. SIR, We were entirely mistaken. It was only yesterday that I was undeceived. Until that time I had labored under the impression that the disputes in the Sorbonne were vastly important, and deeply aftected the interests of religion. The frequent convocations of an assembly so illustrious as that of the Theological Faculty of Paris, attended by so many ex- traordinary and unprecedented circumstances, led one to form such high expectations, that it was impossible to help coming to the conclusion that Vhe subject was most extraordinary. You will be greatly surpilsed, however, when you learn from the following account, the issue of this grand demonstration, which, having made myself perfectly master of the subject, I shall be able to tell you in very few words. Two questions, then, were brought under examination ; the one a question of fact, the other a question of right. The question of fact consisted in ascertaining whether M Arnauld was guilty of presumption, for having asserted in his second letter 1 that he had carefully perused the book of 1 Anthony Arnauld. or Arnaud. priest and doctor of the Sorbonne, was the BOH of Anthony Arnauld, a famous advocate and born at Paris, February f>. 1612. He early distinguished himself in philosophy and Jivinity, advocating the doctrines of Augustine and Port-Royal, and op- '2 I'KOVJNCIAL LETTERS. Jansenius, and that he had not discovered the propositions condemned by the late pope ; but that, nevertheless, as he condemned these propositions wherever they might occur, he condemned them in Jansenius, if they were really contained in that work. ' The question here was, if he could, without presumption, entertain a doubt that these propositions were in Jansenius, after the bishops had declared that they were. The matter having been brought before the Sorbonne, sev- enty-one doctors undertook his defence, maintaining that the only reply he could possibly give to the demands made upon him in so many publications, calling on him to say if he held that these propositions were in that book, was, that he had not been able to find them, but that if they were in the book, he condemned them in the book. Some even went a step farther, and protested that, after all the search they had made into the book, they had nevei stumbled upon these propositions, and that they had, on the contrary, found sentiments entirely at variance with them. They then earnestly begged that, if any doctor present had discovered them, he would have the goodness to point them out ; adding, that what was so easy could not reasonably be refused, as this would be the surest way to silence the whole posing those of the Jesuits. The disputes concerning grace which broke out about 1C43 in the University of Paris, served to foment the mutual animosity between M. Arnauld and the Jesuits, who entertained a hereditary feud against the whole family, from the active part taken by their father against the Society in the close of the preceding century. In Ifi55 it happened that a certain duke, who was educating his grand- daughter at Port-Royal, the Jansenist monastery, and kept a Jansenist abbe in his house, on presenting himself for confession to a priest under the influence of the Jesuits, was refused absolution unless he promised to recall his grand-daughter and discard his abbe. This produced two letters from M. Arnauld, in the second of which he exposed the calum- nies and falsities with which the Jesuits had assailed him in a multitude of pamphlets. This is the letter referred to in the text. 1 The book which occasioned these disputes was entitled Augustinus, and was written by Cornelius Jansrnius or Jansen. bishop^ of Ypies and published after his death. Five propositions, selected from this vork. were condemned by the pope ; and armed with these, as with u *courge, the Jesuits continued to persecute the Jansenists till they ac- tomplished their ruin. DISPUTES IN THE SORBONNK. 143 of them, M. Arnauld included ; but this proposal has been uniformly declined. So much for the one side. On the other side are eighty secular doctors, and some forty mendicant friars, who have condemned M. Arnauld's proposition, without choosing to examine whether he has spo- ken truly or falsely who, in fact, have declared, that they have nothing to do with the veracity of his proposition, but simply with its temerity. Besides these, there were fifteen who were not in favor of the censure, and who are called Neutrals. Such was the issue of the question of fact, regarding which, I must say, I give myself very little concern. It does not affect my conscience in the least whether M. Arnauld is presumptuous, or the reverse ; and should I be tempted, from curiosity, to ascertain whether these propositions are con- tained in Jansenius, his book is neither so very rare nor so very large as to hinder me from reading it over from begin- ning to end, for my own satisfaction, without consulting the Sorbonne on the matter. Were it not, however, for the dread of being presumptuous myself, I really think that I would be disposed to adopt the opinion which has been formed by the most of my acquaint- ances, who, though they have believed hitherto on common report that the propositions were in Jansenius, begin now to suspect the contrary, owing to this strange refusal to point them out a refusal, the more extraordinary to me, as I have not yet met with a single individual who can say that he has liscovered them in that work. I am afraid, therefore, that this censure will do more harm than good, and that the im- pression which it will leave on the minds of all who know its history will be just the reverse of the conclusion that has benn come to. The truth is, the world has become sceptical of late, and will not believe things till it- sees them. But, as I said before, this point is of very little moment, as it has no cone era with religion. 1 1 And Tt " the question of fact." which Pascal professes to treat so , became the turning point of all the subsequent persecutions rti- 144 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. The question of right, from its affecting the faith, appears mijch more important, and, accordingly, I took particular pains in examining it. You will be relieved, however, to find that it is of as little consequence as the former. The point of dispute here, was an assertion of M. Arnauld's in the same letter, to the effect, " that the grace without which we can do nothing, was wanting to St. Peter at his fall." You and I supposed that the controversy here would turn upon the great principles of grace ; such as, whethei grace is given to all men ? or, if it is efficacious of itself ": But we were quite mistaken. You must know I have be- come a great theologian within this short time ; and now for the proofs of it ! To ascertain the matter with certainty, I repaired to my neighbor, M. N , doctor of Navarre, who, as you are aware, is one of the keenest opponents of the Jansenists, and my curiosity having made me almost as keen as himself, I asked him if they would not formally decide at once that "grace is given to all men," and thus set the question at rest. But he gave me a sore rebuff, and told me that that was not the point ; that there were some of his party who held that grace was not given to all ; that the examiners themselves had declared, in a full assembly of the Sorbonne, that that opinion was problematical ; and that he himself held the same sentiment, which he confirmed by quoting to me what he called that celebrated passage of St. Augustine : "We know that grace is not given to all men." I apologized for having misapprehended his sentiment, and requested him to say if they would not at least condemn tha other opinion of the Jansenists which is making so much noise, "That grace is efficacious of itself, and invincibly de- reeted against the unhappy Port-Royalists ! Those who have read the sad tale of the demolition of Port- Royal, will recollect, with a sigh, the sufferings inflicted on the poor scholars and pious nuns of that estab- lishment, solely on the ground that, from respect to Jansenius and to joctrine is admirably exposed by Pascal in his second letter. PROXIMATE POWER. 149 disciples of M. le Moine. I begged him to inform me what it was to have the proximate power of doing a thing. " It is easy to tell you that," he replied ; " it is merely to have all that is necessary for doing it in such a manner that nothing is wanting to performance." " And so," said I, " to have the proximate power of cross- ing a river, for example, is to have a boat, boatmen, oars, and all thf, rest, so that nothing is wanting ?" " Exactly so," said the monk. " And to have the proximate power of seeing," continued T, " must be to have good eyes and the light of day ; for a person with good sight in the dark would not have the prox- imate power of seeing, according to you, as he would want the light, without which one cannot see ?" " Precisely," said he. " And consequently," returned I, " when you say that all the righteous have the proximate power of observing the commandments of God, you mean that they have always all the grace necessary for observing them, so that nothing is wanting to them on the part of God." " Stay there," he replied ; " they have always all that is necessary for observing the commandments, or at least for asking it of God." " I understand you," said I ; " they have all that is neces- sary for praying to God to assist them, without requiring any new grace from God to enable them to pray." " You have it now," he rejoined. " But is it not necessary that they have an efficacious prace, in order to pray to God ?" " No," said he ; " not according to M. le Moine." To lose no time, I went to the Jacobins, 1 and requested 1 Jacobins, another name for the Dominicans in France, where they W..TC so called from the street in Paris. Rue de St. Jacques where their 6rst convent was erected, in the year 121H. In England they were tailed Black Friars. Their four,der was Dominick, a Spaniard. His mother, it is said, dreamt, before his birth, that she was 'to be delivered of a wolf with a torch in his mouth. The augury was realized in the wirbarous humor of Dominick, and the massacres which he occasicnud m varbus parts of the world, by preaching up crusades against the 150 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. an interview with some whom I knew to be New Thomists, and I begged them tor tell me what "proximate power'' was. " Is it not," said I, " that power to which nothing is wanting in order to act ?" " No," said they. " Indeed ! fathers," said T ; "if anything is wanting to that power, do you call it proximate ? Would you say, for in- stance, that a man in the night time, and without any light, had the proximate power of seeing ?" " Yes, indeed, he would have it, in our opinion, if he is not blind." " I grant that," said I ; " but M. le Moine understands it in a different manner." " Very true," they replied ; " but so it is that we under- stand it." " I have no objections to that," I said ; " for I never quar- rel about a name, provided I am apprized of the sense in which it is understood. But I perceive from this, that when you speak of the righteous having always the proximate power of praying to God, you understand that they require another supply for praying, without which they will never pray." " Most excellent !" exclaimed the good fathers, embracing me ; " exactly the thing ; for they must have, besides, an efficacious grace bestowed upon all, and which determines their wills to pray ; and it is heresy to deny the necessity of that efficacious grace in order to pray." " Most excellent !" cried I, in return ; " but, according to you, the Jansenists are Catholics, and M. le Moine a heretic ; for the Jansenists maintain that, while the righteous have power to pray, they require nevertheless an efficacious grace ; and this is what you approve. M. le Moine, again, maintains that the righteous may pray without efficacious grace ; and this is what you condemn." Heretics. He was the founder of the Inquisition, and his order was, b fore the Reformation what the Jesuits were after it the soul of the tomish hierarchy, and the bitterest enemies of the truth. PROXIMATE POWER. 151 " Ay," said they ; " but M. le Moine calls that power proximate power." " How now ! fathers," I exclaimed ; " this is merely play- ing with words, to say that you are agreed as to the common terms which you employ, while you differ with them as to the sense of these terms." The fathers made no reply ; and at this juncture, who should come in but my old friend the disciple of M. le Moine ! I regarded this at the time as an extraordinary piece of good fortune ; but I have discovered since then that such meetings are not rare that, in fact, they are constantly mixing in each other's society. 1 " I know a man," said I, addressing myself to M. le Moine's disciple, " who holds that all the righteous have al- ways the power of praying to God, but that, notwithstanding this, they will never pray without an efficacious grace which determines them, and which God does not always give to all the righteous. Is he a heretic?" " Stay," said the doctor ; " you might take me by sur- prise. Let us go cautiously to work. Distinguo? If he call that power proximate power, he will be a Thomist, and therefore a Catholic; if not, he will be a Jansenist, and therefore a heretic." " He calls it neither proximate nor non-proximate," said I. " Then he is a heretic," quoth he ; "I refer you to these good fathers if he is not." I did not appeal to them as judges, for they had already aodded assent ; but I said to them : " He refuses to admit that word proximate, because he can meet with nobody who will explain ; t to him." 1 This is a sry hit at the Dominicans for combining with their natural enemies the Jesuits, in order to accomplish the ruin of M. Arnauld. a Digtin&uo. " I draw a distinction" a humorous allusion to the tndless distinctions of the Aristotelian school, in which the writings of the Casuists abounded, and by means cf which they may be said to Live more frequently eluded than elucidated the truth. M. le Moine wap particularly famous for these distinsruos frequently introducing href or r our of them in succession on one head ; and the disciple in the ex.f ut no, you cannot have lost all recollection of it ; for, to avail myself of an illustra- tion which will come home more vividly to your feelings, let us suppose that you were supplied with no more than two ounces of bread and a glass of water daily, would you be quite pleased with your prior were he to tell vou that thi3 would be sufficient to support you, under the pretext that, along with something else, which, however, he would net give you, you would have all that would be necessary to support you ? How, then, can you allow yourselves to say that all men have sufficient grace for acting, while you admit that there is another grace absolutely necessary to acting which all men have not ? Is it because this is an unimpor- tant article of belief, and you leave all men at liberty to be- lieve that efficacious grace is necessary or not, as they choose ? Is it a matter of indifference to say, that with sufficient grace a man may really act ?" " How !" cried the good man ; " indifference ! it is heresy formal heresy. The necessity of efficacious grace for acting effectively, is a point of faith it is heresy to deny it." " Where are we now ?" I exclaimed ; " and which side am I to take here ? If I deny the sufficient grace, I am a Jan senist. If I admit it, as the Jesuits do, in the way of deny- ing that efficacious grace is necessary, I shall be a heretic, cay you. And if I admit it, as you do, in the way of main- taining the necessity of efficacious grace, I sin against com- mon sense, and am a blockhead, say the Jesuits. What must I do, thus reduced to the inevitable necessity of being a blockhead, a heretic, or a Jansenist? And what a sad pas& are matters come to, if there are none but the Jansenists who avoid coming into collision either with the faith or with rea- OF SUFFICIENT GRACE- 159 ion, and who save themselves at once from absurdity and from error !" My Jansenist friend took this speech as a good omen, and llready looked upon me as a convert. He said nothing to me, however ; but, addressing the monk : " Pray, father," inquired he, " what is the point on which you agree with the Jesuits ?" " We agree in this," he replied, " that the Jes uits and we acknowledge the sufficient grace given to all.' " But," said the Jansenist, " there are two things in this ex- pression sufficient grace there is the sound, which is only so much breath ; and there is the thing which it signifies, which is real and effectual. And, therefore, as you are agreed with the Jesuits in regard to the word sufficient, and opposed to them as to the sense, it is apparent that you are opposed to them in regard to the substance of that term, and that you only agree with them as to the sound. Is this what you call acting sincerely and cordially ?" " But," said the good man, " what cause have you to com- plain, since we deceive nobody by this mode of speaking ? In our schools we openly teach that we understand it in a man- ner different from the Jesuits." "What I complain of," returned my friend, "is, that you do not proclaim it everywhere, that by sufficient grace you understand the grace which is not sufficient. You are bound in conscience, by thus altering the sense of the ordinary terms of theology, to tell that, when you admit a sufficient grace in all men, you understand that they have not sufficient grace n effect. All classes of persons in the world understand the word sufficient in one and the same sense ; the New Thom- ists alone understand it in another sense. All the women, who form one-half of the world, all courtiers, all military men, all magistrates, all lawyers, merchants, artisans, the whole populace in short, all sorts of men, except the Do- minicans, understand the word sufficient to express all that is necessary. Scarcely any one is aware of this singular ex- leption. It is reported over the whole earth, simply that Dominicans hold that all men have the sufficient graces. 100 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. What other conclusion can be drawn from this, than that they hold that all men have all the graces necessary for action ; especially when they are seen joined in interest and intrigue with the Jesuits, who understand the thing in that sense ? Is not the uniformity of your expressions, viewed in connec- tion with this union of -party, a manifest indication and con- firmation of the uniformity of your sentiments ? " The multitude of the faithful inquire of theologians : What is the real condition of human nature since its corrup- tion? St. Augustine and his disciples reply, that it has no sufficient grace until God is pleased to bestow it. Next come the Jesuits, and they say that all have the effectually sufficient graces. The Dominicans are consulted on this con- trariety of opinion ; and what course do they pursue ? They unite with the Jesuits ; by this coalition they make up a majority ; they secede from those who deny these sufficient graces ; they declare that all men possess them. Who, on hearing this, would imagine anything else than that they gave their sanction to the opinion of the Jesuits ? And then they add that, nevertheless, these said sufficient graces are perfectly useless without the efficacious, which are not given to all ! " Shall I present you with a picture of the Church amidst these conflicting sentiments ? I consider her very like a man who, leaving his native country on a journey, is encountered by robbers, who inflict many wounds on him, and leave him half dead. He sends for three physicians resident in the neighboring towns. The first, on probing his wounds, pro- nounces them mortal, and assures him that none but God can restore to him his lost powers. The second, coming after the other, chooses to flatter the man tells him that he has still sufficient strength to reach his home ; and, abusing the first physician who opposed his advice, determines upon his ruin. In this dilemma, the poor patient, observing the third medical gentleman at a distance, stretches out his hands to him as the person who should determine the controversy This practitioner, on examining his wounds, and ascertaining OF SUFFICIENT GRACE. 161 the opinions of the first two doctors, embraces that of the second, and uniting with him, the two combine against the first, and being the stronger party in number drive him from the field in disgrace. From this proceeding, the patient naturally concludes that the last comer is of the same opin- ion with the second ; and, on putting the question to him, he assures him most positively that his strength is sufficient for prosecuting his journey. The wounded man, however, sensible of his own weakness, begs him to explain to him how he considered him sufficient for the journey. 'Because/ re- plies his adviser, ' you are still in possession of your legs, and legs are the organs which naturally suffice for walking.' 1 But,' says the patient, ' have I all the strength necessary to make use of my legs ? for, in my present weak condition, it humbly appears to me that they are wholly useless.' ' Cer- tainly you have not,' replies the doctor; ' you will never walk effectively, unless God vouchsafes some extraordinary assist- ance to sustain and conduct you.' ' What !' exclaims the poor man, ' do you not mean to say that I have sufficient strength in me, so as to want for nothing to walk effectively ?' ' Very far from it,' returns the physician. ' You must, then,' Bays the patient, 'be of a different opinion from your com- panion there about my real condition.' ' I must admit that I am,' replies the other. " What do you suppose the patient said to this ? Why, he complained of the strange conduct and ambiguous terms of this third physician. He censured him for taking part with the second, to whom he was opposed in sentiment, and with whom he had only the semblance of agreement, and for having driven away the first doctor, with whom he in reality agreed; and, after making a trial of his strength, and finding by experience his actual weakness, he sent them both about their business, recalled his first adviser, put himself under his care, and having, by his advice, implored from God the strength of which he confessed his need, obtained the mercy he Bought, and, through divine help, reached his house in peace." The worthy monk was so confounded with this parable that 162 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. he could not find words to reply. To cheer him up a little, I said to him, in a mild tone : " But after all, my dear father, what made you think of giving the name of sufficient to a grace which you say it is a point of faith to believe is, in fact, insufficient ?" " It is very easy for you to talk about it," said he. " You are an independent and private man ; I am a monk, and in a community cannot you estimate the difference be- tween the two cases ? We depend on superiors; they de- pend on others. They have promised our votes what would you have to become of me ?" We understood the hint; and this brought to our recollection the case of his brother monk, who, for a similar piece of indiscretion, has been exiled to Abbeville. " But," I resumed, " how comes it about that your com- munity is bound to admit, this grace ?" " That is another question," he replied. " All that I can tell you is, in one word, that our order has defended, to the utmost of its abil- ity, the doctrine of St. Thomas on efficacious grace. With what ardor did it oppose, from the very commencement, the doctrine of Molina ? How did it labor to establish the ne- cessity of the efficacious grace of Jesus Christ ? Don't you know what happened under Clement YIII. and Paul V., and how the former having been prevented by death, and the latter hindered by some Italian affairs from publishing his bull, our arms still sleep in the Vatican ? But the Jesuits, availing themselves, since the introduction of the heresy of Luther and Calvin, of the scanty light which the people pos- sess for discriminating between the error of these men and the truth of the doctrine of St. Thomas, disseminated their principles with such rapidity and success, that they became, ere long, masters of the popular belief ; while we, on our \>art, found ourselves in the predicament of being denounced t>s Calvinists, and treated as the Jansenists are at present, un- less we qualified the efficacious grace with, at least, the ap- parent avowal of a sufficient. 1 In this extremity, what bet- 1 "It is certain," says Baylc, " that the obligation which the Romisfc Church is under to respect the doctrine of St. Augustine on the subject OF SUFFICIENT GRACE. 103 ter course could we have taken for saving the truth, without *osing our own credit, than by admitting the name of suffi- cient grace, while we denied that it was such in effect? Such is the real history of the case." This was spoken in such a melancholy tone, that I really Degan to pity the man ; not so, however, my companion. " Flatter not yourselves," said he to the monk, "with hav- ing saved the truth ; had she not found other defenders, in your feeble hands she must have perished. By admitting into the Church the name of her enemy, you have admitted the enemy himself. Names are inseparable from things. If the term sufficient grace be once established, it will be vain for you to protest that you understand by it a grace which is not sufficient. Your protest will be held inadmissible. Your explanation would be scouted as odious in the world, where men speak more ingenuously about matters of infinitely less moment. The Jesuits will gain a triumph it will be their grace, which is sufficient, in fact, and not yours, which is only so in name, that will pass as established ; and the converse of your creed will become an article of faith." " We will all suffer martyrdom first," cried the father, " rather than consent to the establishment of sufficient grace in the sense of the Jesuits. St. Thomas, whom, we have of grace, in consequence of its having received the sanction of Popes and Councils at various times, placed it in a very awkward and ridicu- lous situation. It is so obvious to every man who examines the matter without prejudice, and with the necessary means of information, that the doctrine of Augustine and that of Jansenius are one and the same, that it is impossible to see, without feelings of indignation, the Court of Rome boasting of having condemned Jansenius, and nevertheless pre- serving to St. Augustine all his glory. The two things are utterly irre- concilable. What is more, the Council of Trent, by condemning the doctrine of Calvin on free-will, has, by necessity condemned that of St. Augustine; for there is no Calvinist who has denied, or who can deny. Ihe concourse of the human will and the liberty of the soul in the sense which St. Augustine gives to the words concourse, co-operation - an;l liberty. There is no Calvinist who does not acknowledge the freedom of the will, and its use in conversion, if that word is understood accord- ing to the ideas of St. Augustine. Those vhom the Council of Trent londemns do not reject free-will, except as signifying the liberty of indif- ference. The Thornists, also, reject it under this notion, and yet they Bass for very good Catholics." (Bayle's Diet., art Augustine.) 164 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. sworn to follow even to the death, is diametrically opposed to such doctrine." 1 To this my friend, who took up the matter more seriously than I did, replied : " Come now, father, your fraternity has received an honor which it sadly abuses. It abandons that grace which was confided to its care, and which has never been abandoned since the creation of the world. That vic- torious grace, which was waited for by the patriarchs, pre- dicted by the prophets, introduced by Jesus Christ, preached by St. Paul, explained by St. Augustine, the greatest of the fathers, embraced by his followers, confirmed by St. Bernard, the last of the fathers, 8 supported by St. Thomas, the angel of the schools, 8 transmitted by him to your order, maintained by so many of your fathers, and so nobly defended by your monks under popes Clement and Paul that efficacious grace, which had been committed as a sacred deposit into your hands, that it might find, in a sacred and everlasting order, a succes- sion of preachers, who might proclaim it to the end of time is discarded and deserted for interests the most contemptible. It is high time for other hands to arm in its quarrel. It is time for God to raise up intrepid disciples of the Doctor of grace,* who, strangers to the entanglements of the world, will serve God for God's sake. Grace may not, indeed, num- ber the Dominicans among her champions, but champions she .shall never want ; for, by her own almighty energy, she cre- ates them for herself. She demands hearts pure and disen- * It is a singular fact that the Roman Church, which boasts so much f her unity, and is ever charging the Reformed with being Calfinists, Lutherans &c.. is in reality, divided into numerous conflicting sects, each strorn to uphold the peculiar sentiments of its founder. If there is one principle more essential than another to the Reformation, it is that of entire independence of all masters in the faith: " Nullius addicUw jurare in verba magislri." *"The famous St. Bernard, abbot of Clairval. whose influence throughout all Kurope was incredible whose word was a law. and whose counsf Is were regarded by kings and princes as so many orders to which the most rpspectful obedience was due; this eminent ecclesiastic was the person who contributed most to enrich and aggrandize the Cis- tercian order." (Mosh. Eccl. Hist., cent, xii.) * Thomas Aquinas, a scholastic divine of the thirteenth century, wht Was termed the Angelic Doctor * Augustine. OF SUFFICIENT GRACE. 165 gaged ; nay, she herself purifies and disengages them from worldly interests, incompatible with the truths of the Gospel. Reflect seriously on this, father ; and take care that God does not remove this candlestick from its place, leaving you in darkness, and without the crown, as a punishment for the coldness which you manifest to a cause so important to hia Ciiurch." 1 He might have gone on in this strain much longer, for he was kindling as he advanced, but I interrupted him by rising lo take my leave, and said : " Indeed, my dear father, had I any influence in France, I should have it proclaimed, by sound of trumpet : ' BE IT KNOWN TO ALL MEN, tJutt when the Jaco- bins SAY that sufficient grace is given to all, they MEAN that all have not the grace which actually suffices /' After which, you might say it as often as you please, but not otherwise." And thus ended our visit. You will perceive, therefore, that we have here a politic sufficiency somewhat similar to proximate power. Meanwhile I may tell you, that it appears to me that both the proximate power and this same sufficient, grace may be safely doubted by anybody, provided he is not a Jacobin.* I have just come to learn, when closing my letter, that the censure 3 has passed. But as I do not yet know in what terms it is worded, and as it will not be published till the 15th of February, I shall delay writing you about it till the next post. I am, positively nothing between this obnoxious proposition and the truth but an imperceptible point. The distance between them is so impalpable, that I was in terror lest, from pure inability to perceive it, I might, in my over-anxiety to agree with the doctors of the Sorbonne, place myself in opposition to the doctors of the Church. Under this apprehension, I iudged it expedient to consult one of those who, through policy, was neutral on the first question, that from him I THE CENSURE. 173 might learn the real state of the matter. I have accordingly had an interview with one of the most intelligent of that party, whom I requested to point out to me the difference between the two things, at the same time frankly owning te him that I could see none. He appeared to be amused at my simplicity, and replied, with a smile : " How simple it is in you to believe that there is any difference ! Why, where could it be ? Do you im- agine that, if they could have found out any discrepancy be- tween M. Arnauld and the fathers, they would not have boldly pointed it out, and been delighted with the opportu- nity of exposing it before the public, in whose eyes they are so anxious to depreciate that gentleman ?" I could easily perceive, from these few words, that those who had been neutral on the first question, would not all prove so on the second ; but anxious to hear his reasons, T asked : " Why, then, have they attacked this unfortunate proposition ?" " Is it possible," he replied, " you can be ignorant of these two things, which I thought had been known to the veriest tyro in these matters ? that, on the one hand, M. Arnauld has uniformly avoided advancing a single tenet which is not powerfully supported by the tradition of the Church ; and that, on the other hand, his enemies have determined, cost what it may, to cut that ground from under him ; and, ac- cordingly, that as the writings of the former afforded no handle to the designs of the latter, they have been obliged, r order to satiate their revenge, to seize on some proposi- tion, it mattered not what, and to condemn it without telling why or wherefore. Do not you know how the Jansenists keep them in check, and annoy them so desperately, that they cannot drop the slightest word against the principles of *h.e fathers Avithout being incontinently overwhelmed with whole volumes, under the pressure of which they are forced .'o succumb ? So that, after a great many proofs of their weakness, they have judged it more to the purpose, and 174 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. much less troublesome, to censure than to reply it being a much easier matter with them to find monks than reasons." 1 " Why then," said I, " if this be the case, their censure is not worth a straw ; for who will pay any regard to it, when they see it to be without foundation, and refuted, as it no doubt will be, by the answers given to it ?" " If you knew the temper of people," replied my friend the doctor, " you would talk in another sort of way. IT. eh censure, censurable as it is, will produce nearly all its de- signed effect for a time ; and although, by the force of de- monstration, it is certain that, in course of time, its Invalidity will be made apparent, it is equally true that, at first, it will tell as effectually on the minds of most people as if it had been the most righteous sentence in the world. Let ic only be cried about the streets : ' Here you have the censure of M. Arnauld ! here you have the condemnation of the Jan- senists !' and the Jesuits will find their account in it. How few will ever read it ! How few of them who do read, will understand it ! How few will observe that it answers no ob- jections ! How few will take the matter to heart, or attempt to sift it to the bottom ? Mark then, how much advantage this gives to the enemies of the Jansenists. They are sine to make a triumph of it, though a vain one, as usi al, for some months at least and that is a great matter for them they will look out afterwards for some new means of sub- sistence. They live from hand to mouth, sir. It is in this way they have contrived to maintain themselves down to the present day. Sometimes it is by a catechism in which child is made to condemn their opponents ; then it is by a procession, in which sufficient grace leads the efficacious in triumph ; again it is by a comedy, in which Jansenius is rep- resented as carried off by devils ; at another time it is by an almanac ; and now it is by this censure." 2 1 That is, they could more readily procure monks to vote against M. Xrnauld. than arguments to answer him. " The allusions in the text afford curious illustrations of the mode of warfare pursued by the Jesuits of the seventeenth century. The firs lefers to a comic catec'iism. in which the simple anguage ot'childhooo THE CENSURE. 175 *' In good sooth, said I, " I was on the point of finding fault with the conduct of the Molinists ; but after what you have told me, I must say I admire their prudence and their policy. I see perfectly well that they could not have fol- lowed a safer or more judicious course." " You are right," returned he ; " their safest policy has always been to keep silent; and this led a certain learned divine to remark, ' that the cleverest among them are those who intrigue much, speak little, and write nothing.' " It is on this principle that, from the commencement of the meetings, they prudently ordained that, if M. Arnauld came into the Sorbonne, it must be simply to explain what he believed, and not to enter the lists of controversy with any one. The examiners having ventured to depart a little from this prudent arrangement, suffered for their temerity. They found themselves rather too vigorously 1 refuted by his second apology. " On the same principle, they had recourse to that rare and very novel device of the half-hour and the sand-glass. 5 By this means they rid themselves of the importunity of those troublesome doctors, 3 who might undertake to refute all their arguments, to produce books which might convict them of forgery, to insist on a reply, and reduce them to the predica- ment of having none to give. was employed as a vehicle for the most calumnious charges against the opponents of the Society. Pascal refers again to this catechism in Let- ter xvii. The second device was a sort of school-boy masquerade. A handsome youth, disguised as a female, in splendid attire, and bearing the inscription of sufficient grace, dragged behind him another dressed as a bishop (representing Jansenius, bishop of Ypres), who followed with rude cuts for the amusement of the vulgar, the Jesuits procured the in- sertion of a caricature of the Jansenists, who were represented as pur- sueo by the pope, and taking refuge among the Calvinists. This, how- ever, called forth a retaliation, in the shape of a poem, entitled "The Prints of the Famous Jesuitical Almanac, in which tfie Jesuits were o successfully held up to ridicule, that they could hardly show face for tome time in the streets of Paris. Nicole, i. p. 208. 1 Vertement ''smartly." (Edit. 1657.) 4 See Letter ii. s Che docteurs " those doctors." (Edit. 1767.^ 176 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. " It is not that they were so blind as not tc see that this encroachment on liberty, which has induced s< many doctors to withdraw from the meetings, would do m good to their censure ; and that the protest of nullity, taken on this ground by M. Arnauld before it was concluded, would be a bad pre- amble for securing it a favorable reception. Thsy know very well that unprejudiced persons place fully as much weight oo the judgment of seventy doctors, who had nothing to gain by defending M. Arnauld, as on that of a hundred others who had nothing to lose by condemning him. But, upon the whole, they considered that it would be of vast importance to have a censure, although it should be the act of a party only in the Sorbonne, and not of the whole body ; although it should be carried with little or no freedom of debate, and obtained by a great many small manoeuvres not exactly ac- cording to order ; although it should give no explanation of the matter in dispute ; although it should not point out in what this heresy consists, and should say as little as possible about it, for fear of committing a mistake. This very silence is a mystery in the eyes of the simple ; and the censure will reap this singular advantage from it, that they may defy the most critical and subtle theologians to find in it a single weak argument. " Keep yourself easy, then, and do not be afraid of being set down as a heretic, though you should make use of the condemned proposition. It is bad, I assure you, only 0.3 oc- curring in the second letter of M. Arnauld. If you will not oelieve this statement on my word, I refer you to M. le Moine the most zealous of the examiners, who, in the course of con versation with a doctor of my acquaintance this very morn- ing, on being asked by him where lay the point of difference in dispute, and if one would no longer be allowed to say what the fathers had said before him, made the following ex- quisite replj : ' This proposition would be orthodox in the mouth of any other it is only as coming from M. Arnauld that the Sorbonne have condemned it!' You must now be prepared to admire the machinery of Molinism, which can THE CEXSURE. 177> produce such prodigious overturnings in the Church that what is catholic in the fathers becomes heretical in M. Ar- naultthat what is heretical in the Semi-Pelagians becomes orthodox in the writings of the Jesuits ; the ancient doctrine of St. Augustine becomes an intolerable innovation, and new inventions, daily fabricated before our eyes, pass for the an- cient fait! of the Church." So saying, he took his leave of me. This information has satisfied my purpose. I gather from it that this same heresy is one of an entirely new species. It is not the sentiments of M. Arnauld that are heretical ; it is only his person. This is a personal heresy. He is not a heretic for anything he has said or written, but simply because he is M. Arnauld. This is all they have to say against him. Do what he may, unless he cease to be, he will aaver be a good Catholic. The grace of St. Augustine will never be the true grace, so long as he continues to defend it. It would become so at once, were he to take it into his head to impugn it. That would be a sure stroke, and almost the only plan for establishing the truth and demolishing Molin- ism ; such is the fatality attending all the opinions which he embraces. Let us leave them, then, to settle their own differences. These are the disputes of theologians, not of theology. We, who are no doctors, have nothing to do with their quarrels. Tell our friends the news of the censure, and love me while I am, &c.' 1 In Nicole's edition, this letter is signed with the initials'" E. A. A. B. P. A. F. D. E. P." which seem merely a chance medley of letters, to quiz those who were so anxious to discover the author. There may have been an allusion to the absurd story of a Jansenist conference held, it was said, at Bourg Fontaine, in 1621. todeliberate on ways and means for abolishing Christianity ; among the persons present at which, indicated by initials, Anthony Arnauld was ridiculously accused of hav- .ng been one under the initials A. A. (See Bayle's Diet., art. Ant. Ar- * Et ancien ami, Elaise Pascal, Awoergnat.flt cU Etienne Pasc.al. (M. TabW aynaril ) ED. 8* LETTER IV. O ACTUAL GRACE AND SINS OF IOSORASCB. PARIS, February 25, 1656. SIR, Nothing can come up to the Jesuits. I have seen Jacobins, doctors, and all sorts of people in my day, but such an interview as I have just had was wanting to complete my knowledge of mankind. Other men are merely copies of them. As things are always found best at the fc untain- head, I paid a visit to one of the ablest among them, in com- pany with my trusty Jansenist the same who accompanied me to the Dominicans. Being particularly anxious to l^arn something of a dispute which they have with the Jinsenlsts about what they call actual grace, I said to ;he worthy rather that I would be much obliged to him if he would instruct me on this point that I did not even know what the term meant, and would thank him to explain it. " With all my heart," the Jesuit replied ; " for I dearly love inquisitive people. Actual grace, according to our definition, ' is an in- spiration of God, whereby he makes us to know his will, and excites within us a desire to perform it.' " " And where," said I, " lies your difference with the Jan- senists on this subject ?" " The difference lies here," he replied ; " we hold that Gond with zeal ?' Is it not enough to and, from the Gospel, that those who crucified Jesus Christ had need of thf. pardon which he asked for them, although th^v knew not the malice O / f their action, and would never Lave committed it, accord- Big to St. Paul, if they had known it ? Is it not enough thai ACTUAL GKACE AND SINS OF IGNORANCE. 18} Jesus Christ apprizes us that there will be persecutors of the Church, who, while making every effort to ruin her, will ' think that they are doing God service ;' teaching us that this sin, which in the judgment of the apostle, is the greatest of all sins, may be committed by persons who, so far from knowing that they were sinning, would think that they sinned by not committing it ? In fine, is it not enough that Jesus Christ himself has taught us that there are two kinds of sinners, the one of whom sin with ' knowledge of their Mas- tor's will,' and the other without knowledge ; and that both of them will be ' chastised,' although, indeed, in a different iSanner ?" Sorely pressed by so many testimonies from Scripture, to which he had appealed, the worthy monk began to give way ; and, leaving the wicked to sin without inspiration, he said : " You will not deny that good men, at least, never sin unless God give them " " You are flinching," said I, interrupt- ing him ; " you are flinching now, my good father ; you aban- don the general principle, and finding that it will not hold good in regard to the wicked, you would compound the mat- ter, by making it apply at least to the righteous. But in this point of view the application of it is, I conceive, so cir- cumscribed, that it will hardly apply to anybody, and it ia scarcely worth while to dispute the point." My friend, however, who was so ready on the whole ques- tion, that I am inclined to think he had studied it all that very morning, replied : " This, father, is the last entrench- ment to which those of your party who are willing to reason at all are sure to retreat ; but you are far from being safe even here. The example of the saints is not a whit more in your favor. Who doubts that they often fall into sins of surprise, without being conscious of them ? Do we not learn rom the saints themselves how often concupiscence lays hid- ilen snares for them ; and how generally it happens, as St. Augustine complains of himself in his Confessions, that, with all their discretion, they 'give to pleasure what they mean to give to necessity ? ' 188 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. "How usual is it to see the more zealous friends of truth betrayed by the heat of controversy into sallies of bitter pas- sion for their personal interests, while their consciences, at the time, bear them no other testimony than that they are acting in this manner purely for the interests of truth, and they do not discover their mistake till long afterwards ! " What, again, shall we say of those who, as we learn from examples in ecclesiastical history, eagerly involve themselves in affairs which are really bad, because they believe them to be really good ; and yet this does not hinder the fathers from con- demning such persons as having sinne'l ;:, hese occasions? "And were this not the case, how could the saints hav% their secret faults ? How could it be true that God alone knows the magnitude aad the nnmber of our offences ; that no one knows whether he is worthy of hatred or love ; and that the best of saints, though unconscious of any culpabil- ity, ought always, as St. Paul says of himself, to remain in ' fear and trembling ?' ' " You perceive, then, father, that this knowledge of the evil, and love of the opposite virtue, which you imagine to be essential to constitute sin, are equally disproved by the exam- ples of the righteous and of the wicked. In the case of the wicked, their passion for vice sufficiently testifies that they have no desire for virtue ; and in regard to the righteous, the love which they bear to virtue plainly shows that they are not always conscious of those sins which, as the Scripture teaches, they are daily committing. " So true is it, indeed, that the righteous often sin through 1 "The doubtsome faith of the pope,' 1 as it was styled by our Re- formers, is here lamentably apparent. The " fear and trembling'" of the apostle were those of anxious care and diligence, not of doubt or appre- hension. The Church of Rome, with all her pretensions to he regarded as the only safe and infallible guide to salvation, keeps her children in darkness and doubt on this point to the last moment of life ; they are never permitted to reach the peaceful assurance of God's love and the bumble hope of eternal life which the Gospel warrants the believer tj iherish ; and this while it serves to keep the superstitious multitude un. der the sway of priestly domination, accounts for the gloom which has characterized, in all ages, the devotion of the best and most intelligent Romanists. ACTUAL GRACE AND SINS OF IGNORANCE. 189 ignorance, that the greatest saints rarely sin otherwise For how can it be supposed that souls so pure, who avoid with BO much care and zeal the least things that can be displeasing to God as soon as they discover them, and who yet sin many times every day, co\ild possibly have, every time before they fell into sin, ' the knowledge of their infirmity on that occa- sion, and of their physician, and the desire of their souls' health, and of praying to God for assistance,' and that, in spite of these inspirations, these devoted souls ' nevertheless transgress,' and commit the sin ? " You must conclude then, father, that neither sinners nor yet saints have always that knowledge, or those desires and inspirations every time they offend ; that is, to use your own terms, they have not always actual grace. Say no longer, with your modern authors, that it is impossible for those to sin who do not know righteousness ; but rather join with St. Augustine and the ancient fathers in saying that it is impos- sible not to sin, when we do not know righteousness : Ne- cesse est ut peccet, a quo ignoratur justitia." The good father, though thus driven from both of his po- sitions, did not lose courage, but after ruminating a little, u Ha!" he exclaimed, "I shall convince you immediately." And again taking up Father Bauny, he pointed to the same place he had before quoted, exclaiming, u Look now see the ground on which he establishes his opinion ! I was sure ho would not be deficient in good proofs. Read what he quotes from Aristotle, and you will see that, after so express an au- thority, you must either burn the books of this prince of philos- ophers or adopt our opinion. Hear, then, the principles which support Father Bauny : Aristotle states first, ' that an action cannot be imputed as blameworthy, if it be involuntary.' " I grant that," said ray friend. " This is the first time you have agreed together," said L f ' Take my advice, father, and proceed no further." " That would be doing nothing," he replied ; " we must know what are the conditions necessary to constitute an ac- tion voluntary." 190 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. "Iain much afraid," returned I, "that you will get at loggerheads on that point." " No fear of that," said he ; " tliis is sure ground Aris- totle is on my side. Hear, now, what Father Bauny says : ' In order that an action be voluntary, it must proceed from a man who perceives, knows, and comprehends what is good and what is evil in it. Voluntarium est that is a voluntary action, as we commonly say with the philosopher' (that is Aristotle, you know, said the monk, squeezing my hand ;) ' quod Jit a principle cognoscente singula in quibus est acfio which is done by a person knowing the particulars of the ac- tion ; so that when ihe will is led inconsiderately, and with- out mature reflection, to embrace or reject, to do or omit tc do anything, before the understanding has been able to see whether it would be right or wrong, such an action is neither good nor evil ; because previous to this mental inquisition, view, and reflection on the good or bad qualities of the mat- ter in question, the act by which it is done is not voluntary.' Are you satisfied now ?" said the father. " It appears," returned I, " that Aristotle agrees with Fa- ther Bauny ; but that does not prevent me from feeling sur- prised at this statement. What, sir ! is it not enough to make an action voluntary that the man knows what he is doing, and does it just because he chooses to do it ? Must we suppose, besides this, that he ' perceives, knows, and comprehends what is good and evil in the action ?' Why, on this supposi- tion there would be hardly such a thing in nature as volun- tary actions, for no one scarcely thinks about all this. How many oaths in gambling how many excesses in debauchery how many riotous extravagances in the carnival, must, on this principle, be excluded from the list of voluntary actions, and consequently neither good nor bad, because not accompa- nied by those ' mental reflections on the good and evil qual- ities' of the action ? But is it possible, father, that Aristotle held such a sentiment? I have always understood that h was a sensible man." "1 shall soon convince you of that," said the Jansemst ACTUAL GRACE AND SINS OF IGNORANCE. 101 and requesting a sight of Aristotle's Ethics, he opened it at the beginning of the third book, from which Father Bauny had taken the passage quoted, and said to the monk : " I ex- cuse you, my dear sir, for having believed, on the word of 1< ather Bauny, that Aristotle held such a sentiment ; but you would have changed your mind had you read him for your- self. It is true that he teaches, that 'in order to make an action voluntary, we must know the particulars of that ac- tion' singula in quibus est actio. But what else does he mean by that, than tho particular circumstances of the ac- tion ? The examples which he adduces clearly show this to be his meaning, for they are exclusively confined to cases in which the persons were ignorant of some of the circumstan- ces ; such as that of ' a person who, wishing to exhibit a machine, discharges a dart which wounds a bystander ; and that of Merope, who killed her own son instead of her en- emy,' and such like. " Thus you see what is the kind of ignorance that renders actions involuntary ; namely, that of (he particular circum- stances, which is termed by divines, as you must know, igno- rance of the fact. But with respect to ignorance of the right ignorance of the good or evil in an action which is the only point in question, let us see if Aristotle agrees with Father Bauny. Here are the words of the philosopher: 'All wicked men are ignorant of what they ought to do, and what they ought to avoid ; and it is this very ignorance which makes them wicked and vicious. Accordingly, a man can- not be said to act involuntarily merely because he is ignorant of what it is proper for him to do in order to fulfil his duty. This ignorance in the choice of good and evil does not make the action involuntary ; it only makes it vicious. The same thing may be affirmed of the man who is ignorant generally f the rules of his duty ; such ignorance is worthy of blame, not of excuse. And consequently, the ignorance which ren- ders actions involuntary and excusable is simply that which relates to the fact and its particular circumstances. In this 192 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. ease the person is excused and forgiven, being considered fa having acted contrary to his inclination.' " After this, father, will you maintain that Aristotle is of your opinion ? And who can help being astonished to find that a Pagan philosopher had more enlightened views than your doctors, in a matter so deeply affecting morals, and the direction of conscience, too, as the knowledge of those con- ditions which render actions voluntary or involuntary, and which, accordingly, charge or discharge them as sinful ? Look for no more support, then, father, from the prince of philosophers, and no longer oppose yourselves to the prince of theologians, 1 who has thus decided the point in the first book of his Retractations, chapter xv. : 'Those who ^,in through ignorance, though they sin without meaning to sin, commit the deed only because they will commit it. And, therefore, even this sin of ignorance cannot be committed except by the will of him who commits it, though by a will which incites him to the action merely, and not to the sin ; and yet the action itself is nevertheless sinful, for it is enough to constitute it such that he has done what he was bound not to do.' " The Jesuit seemed to be confounded more with the passage from Aristotle, I thought, than that from St. Augustine ; but while he was thinking on what he could reply, a messen- ger came to inform him that Madame la Mareschale of , and Madame the Marchioness of , requested his attendance. So taking a hasty leave of us, he said : " I shall speak about it to our fathers. They will find an answer to it, I warrant you ; we have got some long heads among us." We understood him perfectly well ; and on our being left alone, I expressed to my friend my astonishment at the subversion which this doctrine threatened to the whole sys- tem of morals. To this he replied that he was quite aston- ished at my astonishment. " Are you not yet aware," he laid, " that they have gone to far greater excess in morals 1 Augustine. ACTUAL GRACE AND SINS OF IGNORANCE. 193 than in any other matter?" He gave me some strange illustrations of this, promising me more at some future time. The information which I may receive on this point, will, I hope, furnish the topic of my next communication. I am &c. 9 LETTER V. DESIGN OF THE JESUITS IN ESTABLISHING A NEW SYSTEM OF MOH- ALS TWO SORTS OF CASUISTS AMONG THEM, A GREAT MANY LAX, AND SOME SEVERE ONES REASON OF THIS DIFFERENCE EXPLANATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROBABILITY A MULTITUDE CF MODERN AND UNKNOWN AUTHORS SUBSTITUTED IN THE PLACE OF THE HOLY FATHERS. PARIS, March 20, 1656. SIR, According to my promise, I now send you the first outlines of the morals taught by those good fathers the Jes- uits " those men distinguished for learning and sagacity, who are all under the guidance of divine wisdom a surer guide than all philosophy." You imagine, perhaps, that I am in jest, but I am perfectly serious ; or rather, they are so when they speak thus of themselves in their book entitled " The Image of the First Century." 1 I am only copying their own words, and may now give you the rest of the eu- logy : " The y are a society of men, or rather let us call them angels, predicted by Isaiah in these words, ' Go, ye swift and ready angels.' " f The prediction is as clear as day, is it not ? " They have the spirit of eagles ; they are a flock of phoe- nixes (a late author having demonstrated that there are a great many of these birds) ; they have changed the face of Christendom !" Of course, we must believe all this, since 1 Imago Primi Seculi. The work to which Pascal here refers was printed by the Jesuits in Flanders in the year 1040. under the title of L'Image du Premier Siecle de la Societe de Jesus " being a history of the Society of the Jesuits from the period of its establishment in 1540 a century before the publication. The work itself is very rare, and would probably have fallen into oblivion, had not the substance of it been embodied in a little treatise, itself also scarce, entitled "La Morale Pratique des Jcsuites." The small specimen which Pascal has given conveys but an imperfect idea of the mingled blasphemy and absurdity af this Jesuitical production. * Isa. xviii. 2. POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 195 they Lave said it ; and in one sense you will find the account amply verified by the sequel of this communication, in which I propose to treat of their maxims. Determined to obtain the best possible information, I did not trust to the representations of our friend the Jansenist, but sought an interview with some of themselves. I found, however, that he told me nothing but the bare truth, and I am persuaded he is an honest man. Of this you may judge from the following account of these conferences. In the conversation I had with the Jansenist, he told me BO many strange things about these fathers, that I could with difficulty believe them, till he pointed them out to me in their writings ; after which he left me nothing more to say in their defence, than that these might be the sentiments of some individuals only, which it was not fair to impute to the whole fraternity. 1 And, indeed, I assured him that I knew some of them who were as severe as those whom he quoted to me were lax. This led him to explain to me the spirit of the Society, which is not known to every one ; and you will perhaps have no objections to learn something about it. '" Yoa imagine," he began, " that it would tell considerably in their favor to show that some of their fathers are as friendly to Evangelical maxims as others are opposed to them ; and you would conclude from that circumstance, that these loose opinions do not belong to the whole Society. That I grant you ; for had such been the case, they would not have suf- fered persons among them holding sentiments so diametri- cally opposed to licentiousness. But as it is equally true ihat there are among them those who hold these licentious doctrines, you are bound also to conclude that the Spirit of the Society is not that of Christian severity ; for had such been the case, they would not have suffered persons among them holding sentiments so diametrically opposed to that severity." " And what, then," I asked, " can be the design of the 1 The reader is requested to notice how completely the charge brought against the Provincial Letters by Voltaire and others is here anticipated Mid refuted. (See Hist. Introduction.) 196 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. whole as a body ? Perhaps they have no fixed principle, and every one is left to speak out at random whatever he thinks." " That cannot be," returned my friend ; " such an im- mense body could not subsist in such a hap-hazard sort of way, or without a soul to govern and regulate its move- ments ; besides, it is one of their express regulations, that none shall print a page without the approval of their su- periors." " But," said I, " how can these same superiors give their consent to maxims so contradictory ?" " That is what you have yet to learn," he replied. " Know, then, that their object is not the corruption of manners that is not their design. But as little is it their sole aim to reform them that would be bad policy. Their idea is briefly this : They have such a good opinion of themselves as to believe that it is useful, and in some sort essentially ne- cessary to the good of religion, that their influence should extend everywhere, and that they should govern all con- sciences. And the Evangelical or severe maxims being best fitted for managing some sorts of people, they avail them- selves of these when they find them favorable to their pur- pose. But as these maxims do not suit the views of the great bulk of people, they wave them in the case of such persons, in order to keep on good terms with all the world. Accordingly, having to deal with persons of all classes and of all different nations, they find it necessary to have casuists assorted to match this diversity. " On this principle, you will easily see that if they had none but the looser sort of casuists, they would defeat their main deSign, which is to embrace all ; for those that are truly pious are fond of a stricter discipline. But as there are not many of that stamp, they do not require many severe directors to guide them. They have a few for the select few ; while whole multitudes of lax casuists are provided fo? the multitudes that prefer laxity. 1 1 " It must be observed that most of those Jesuits who were so severe POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 197 "It is in virtue of this 'obliging and accommodating, con- duct, as Father Petau 1 calls it, that they may be said to stretch out a helping hand to all mankind. Should any per- son present himself before them, for example, fully resolved to make restitution of some ill-gotten gains, do not suppose that they would dissuade him from it. By no means ; on the contrary, they will applaud and confirm him in such a holy resolution. But suppose another should come who wishes to be absolved without restitution, and it will be a particularly hard case indeed, if they cannot furnish him with means of evading the duty, of one kind or another, the lawfulness of which they will be ready to guarantee. " By this policy they keep all their friends, and defend themselves against all their foes ; for, when charged with extreme laxity, they have nothing more to do than produce their austere directors, with some books which they have written on the severity of the Christian code of morals ; and simple people, or those who never look below the surface of things, are quite satisfied with these proofs of the falsity of the accusation. " Thus are they prepared for all sorts of persons, and so ready are they to suit the supply to the demand, that when they happen to be in any part of the world where the doc- trine of a crucified God is accounted foolishness, they suppress the offence of the cross, and preach only a glorious and not a suffering Jesus Christ. This plan they followed in the Indies and in China, where they permitted Christians to prac- tise idolatry itself, with the aid of the following ingenious eontrivance : they made their converts conceal under their clothes an image of Jesus Christ, to which they taught them in their writings, were less so towards their penitents. It has been said >f Bourdaloue himself that if he required too much in the pulpit, he abated it in the confessional chair: a new stroke of policy well under- stood on the part of the Jesuits, inasmuch as speculative severity suits persons of rigid morals, and practical condescension attracts the multi- tude." (D'Alembert, Account of Dest. of Jesuits p. 44.) 1 Petau was one of the obscure writers who were employed by the Jesuits to publish defamatory libels against M. Arnauld and the bishopf who approved of his book on Frequent Communion. (Coudrettc. ii. 198 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. to transfer mentally those adorations which they rendered ostensibly to the idol Caehinchoam and Keum-fucum. This charge is brought against them by Gravina, a Dominican, and is fully established by the Spanish memorial presented to Philip IV., king of Spain, by the Cordeliers of the Philip- pine Islands, quoted by Thomas Hurtado, in his ' Marty rdom of the Faith,' page 427. To such a length did this practice go, that the Congregation De Propaganda were obliged ex- pi essly to forbid the Jesuits, on pain of excommunication, to permit the worship of idols on any pretext whatever, or to conceal the mystery of the cross from their catechumens ; strictly enjoining them to admit none to baptism who were not thus instructed, and ordering them to expose the image of the crucifix in their churches : all which is amply de- tailed in the decree of that Congregation, dated the 9th of July, 1646, and signed by Cardinal Capponi. 1 1 The policy to which Pascal refers was introduced by Matthew Ricci, an Italian Jesuit, who succeeded the famous Francis Xavier in attempting to convert the Chinese. Ricci declared that, after consulting the writings of the Chinese literati, he was persuaded that the Xamti and Caehinchoam of the mandarins were merely other names for the King of Heaven, and that the idolatries of the natives were harmless civil ceremonies. He therefore allowed his converts to practise them, on the condition mentioned in the text. In 1631, some new paladins ot the orders of Dominic and Francis, who came from the Philippine Islands to share in the spiritual conquest of that vast empire, were grievously scandalized at the monstrous compromise between Christianity anil idolatry tolerated hy the followers of Loyola, and carried their com- plaints to Rome. The result is illustrative of the papal policy. Pope Innocent X. condemned the Jesuitical policy; Pope Alexander VII. in 1656 (when this letter was written) sanctioned it, and in 16f>9, Pope Clement IX. ordained that the decrees of both of his predecessors should continue in full force. The Jesuits, availing themselves of this sus- pense, paid no regard either to the popes or their rival orders the Dominicans and Franciscans, who. in the persecutions which ensued, always came off with the worst. (Coudrette. iv. '281 ; Hist, of D. Iga. Loyola, pp. 97-112.) The prescription given to the Jesuits by the cardinals to expose the image of the crucifix in their churches appears to us a sort of homoe-> pathic cure, very little better than the disease. Bossuet, and others who have tried to soften down the doctrines of Rome, would represent the worship ostensibly paid to the crucifix as really paid to Christ, who is represented by it. But even this does not accord with the determina- tion of the Council of Trent, which declared of images Eisque vcnc.rd- tionem impertiendmn ; or with Bellarmine who devotes a chapter ex pressHv to prove that true and proper worship is to be given to image? \Stillingflei-t on Popery, by Dr. Cunningham, p. 77.) POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 199 " Such is the manner in which they have spread themselves over the whole earth, aided by the doctrine of probable opin- ions, which is at once the source and the basis of all this, licentiousness. You must get some of themselves to explain this doctrine to you. They make no secret of it, any more than of what you have already learned ; with this difference only, that they conceal their carnal and worldly policy undei the garb of divine and Christian prudence ; as if the faith, and tradition its ally, were not always one and the same at all times and in all places ; as if it were the part of the rule to bend in conformity to the subject which it was meant to regulate ; and as if souls, to be purified from their pollutions, had only to corrupt the law of the Lord, in place of ' the law of the Lord, which is clean and pure, converting the soul which lieth in sin,' and bringing it into conformity with its salutary lessons ! " Go and see some of these worthy fathers, I beseech you, and I am confident that you will soon discover, in the laxity of their moral system, the explanation of their doctrine about grace. You will then see the Christian virtues exhibited in sucha strange aspect, so completely stripped of the charity which is the life and soul of them you will see so many crimes palliated and irregularities tolerated, that you will no longer be surprised at their maintaining that ' all men have always enough of grace' to lead a pious life, in the sense in which they understand piety. Their morality being entirely Pagan, nature is quite competent to its observance. When we maintain the necessity of efficacious grace, we assign it another sort of virtue for its object. Its office is not to cure one vice by means of another ; it is not merely to induce men to practise the external duties of religion : it aims at a virtue higher than that propounded by Pharisees, or the greatest cages of Heathenism. The law and reason are ' sufficient graces' for these purposes. But to disenthral the soul from the love of the world to tear it from what it holds most dear to make it die to itself to lift it up and bind it wholly, Wily, and forever, to God can be the work of none but an 200 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. all-powerful hand. And it would be as absurd to affirm that we have the full power of achieving such objects, as it would ^e to allege that those virtues, devoid of the love of God, which these fathers confound with the virtues of Christian- ity, are beyond our power." Such was the strain of ray friend's discourse, which was delivered with much feeling ; for he takes these sad disorders very much to heart. For my own part, I began to entertain a high admiration of these fathers, simply on account of the ingenuity of their policy ; and following his advice, I waited on a good casuist of the Society, one of my old acquaint- ances, with whom I now resolved purposely to renew my former intimacy. Having my instructions how to manage them, I had no great difficulty in getting him afloat. Retain- ing his old attachment, he received me immediately with a profusion of kindness ; and after talking over some indifferent matters, I took occasion from the present season, 1 to learn something from him about fasting, and thus slip insensibly into the main subject. I told htm, therefore, that I had dif- ficulty in supporting the fast. He exhorted me to do violence to my inclinations ; but as I continued to murmur, he . took pity on me, and began to search out some ground for a dis- pensation. In fact he suggested a number of excuses for me, none of which happened to suit my case, till at length he bethought himself of asking me, whether I did not find it difficult to sleep without taking supper ? ' Yes, my good father," said T ; " and for that reason I am obliged often to take a refreshment at mid-day, and supper at night." 1 " I am extremely happy," he replied, " to have found out a way of relieving you without sin : go in peace you are under no obligation to fast. However, I would not have you depend on my word : step this way to the library." Lent. 1 ' According to the rules of the Roman Catholic fast, one meal alone is allowed on a fast-day. Many, however, fall off before the end o. Lent, and take to their breakfast and suppers, under the sanction of ome good-natured doctor, who declares fasting injurious to their health.' (Blanco White, Letters from Spain, p. 272.) POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 201 On going thither with him he took up a book, exclaiming, with great rapture, " Here is the authority for you : and, by my conscience, such an authority ! It is ESCOBAR !"' " Who is Escobar ?" I inquired. " What ! not know Escobar ?" cried the monk ; " the mem- ber of our Society who compiled this Moral Theology from twenty-four of our fathers, and on this founds an analogy, in his preface, between his book and ' that in the Apocalypse which was sealed with seven st/als,' and states that ' Jesus presents it thus sealed to the four living creatures, Suarez, Vasquez, Molina, and Valencia, 2 in presence of the four-and- twenty Jesuits who represent the four-and-tvventy elders ?' " He read me, in fact, the whole of that allegory, which he pronounced to be admirably appropriate, and which conveyed to my mind a sublime idea of the excellence of the work. At length, having sought out the passage on fasting, " O here it is !" he said ; " treatise 1, example 13, no. 67 : 'If a 1 Father Antoine Escobar ofMendoza was a Jesuit of Spain, and born at Valladolid in 1589. where he died in 1669. His principal work is his " Exposition of Uncontroverted Opinions in Moral Theology." in six vol- umes. It abounds with the most licentious doctrines, and being a compi- lation from numerous Jesuitical writers afforded a ricli field for the satire of Pascal. The characteristic absurdity of this author is, thHt his ques- tions uniformly exhibit two faces an affirmative and a negative ; so that cscobarderie became a synonym in France for duplicity. (Biographic Pittoresque des Jesuites, par M. C. de Plancy, Paris, 182G, p. 38.) Ni- tole tells us that he had in his possession a portrait of the casuist which gave him a '-resolute and decisive cast of countenance" not exactly what might have been expected from his double-faced questions. His friends describe Escobar as a good man. a laborious student, and very devout in his way. It is said that, when he heard that his name and writings were so frequently noticed in the Provincial Letters, he wa quite overjoyed to think that his fame would extend is far as the little tetters had done. Boileau has celebrated him in thd following cou- plet: Si Bourdaloue un ppu severe, Nous dit, craignez la voluptc : Escobar, lui dit-on. mon pere, Nour la permet pour la sante. " If Bourdaloue, a little too severe, Cries. Fly from pleasure's fatal fascination ! Dear Father, cries another. Escobar Permits it as a healthy relaxation." Four celebrated casuists. 9* 202 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. man cannot sleep without taking supper, is he bound to fast? Answer : By no means !' Will that not satisfy you ?" " Not exactly," replied I ; " for I might sustain the fast by taking my refreshment in the morning, and supping at night." " Listen, then, to what follows ; they have provided for all that : ' And what is to be said, if the person might make B shift with a refreshment in the morning and supping at night ?' " " That's my case exactly." " ' Answer : Still he is not obliged to fast ; because no person is obliged to change the order of his meals.' " " A most excellent reason !" I exclaimed. " But tell me, pray," continued the monk, " do you take much wine ?" " No, my dear father," I answered ; " I cannot endure it." " I merely put the question," returned he, " to apprize you that you might, without breaking the fast, take a glass or so in the morning, or whenever you felt inclined for a drop ; and that is always something in the way of support- ing nature. Here is the decision at the same place, no. 57 : ' May one, without breaking the fast, drink wine at any hour he pleases, and even in a large quantity ? Yes, he may : and a dram of hippocrass too." I had no recollection of the hippocrass," said the monk ; " I must take a note of that in my memorandum-book." " He must be a nice man, this Escobar," observed I. " Oh ! everybody likes him," rejoined the father ; " he has such delightful questions ! Only observe this one in the iame place, no. 38 : ' If a man doubt whether he is twenty- 2rie years old, is he obliged to fast ?* No. But suppose I were to be twenty-one to-night an hour after midnight, and k)-morrow were the fast, would I be obliged to fast to-mor- Hippocrass a medicated wine. 9 All persons above the age ot'one-and-twenty are bound to observe the rules of the Roman Catholic fast during Lent. The obligation of fasting begins at midnight, just when the leading clock of every town - surd assumption that our blessed Lord offered up his body and blood in the institution ofthe supper, before offering them on the cross, and par- took of them himself; and it involves the blasphemy of supposing that a sinful mortal may, whenever he pleases, offer up the great sacrifice of that body and blood, which could only be offered by the Son of God and offered by him only once. This, however, is the gr<*at Diana of the popish priests by this craft they have their wealth and ihe whole of its history proves that it was invented for no other purposes than im- posture and extortion. a Heb. vii. '27. It is astonishing to see an acute mind like that of ascal so warped by superstition as not to perceive that in this, an ther allusions to the Levitical priesthood, the object of the apostle was ivowedly to prove that the great sacrifice for sin of which the ancient sacrifices were the types, had been once offered in the end of the world " and that ' there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins;" and that the very text to which he refers, teaches that, in the person of Jesus Christ, our high priest, all the functions of the sacrificing priest- hood were fulfilled and terminated " Who needeth not daily as those hih priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's : for this he did once, when he offered up himself." The ministers of the New Testament are never in Scripture called priests though this name has been applied to the Christian people who offer up he spiritual sacrifices" of praise and good works. (Heb. xiii. 15, 16 I Pet. ii 5.) MAXIMS FOR PRIESTS. 223 of a mass, or, in other words, for the matter of fourpence or fivepence. Verity, father, little as I pretend to be a grave man, I might contrive to make this opinion probable." " It would cost you no great pains to do that," replied the monk ; "it is visibly probable already. The difficulty lies in discovering probability in the converse of opinions manifestly good ; and this is a feat which none but great men can achieve. Father Bauny shines in this department. It is really delightful to see that learned casuist examining with characteristic ingenuity and subtlety, the negative and affir- mative of the same question, and proving both of them to be right ! Thus in the matter of priests, he says in one place : ' No law can be made to oblige the curates to say mass every day ; for such a law would unquestionably (hand dubie) ex- pose ^hem to the danger of saying it sometimes in mortal sin.' And yet in another part of the same treatise, he says, ' that priests who have received money for saying mass every day ought to say it every day, and that they cannot excuse themselves on the ground that they are not always in a fit state for the service ; because it is in their power at all times to do penance, and if they neglect this they have themselves to blame for it, and not the person who made them say mass.' And to relieve their minds from all scruples on the subject, he thus resolves the question : ' May a priest say mass on the same day in which he has committed a mortal sin of the worst kind, in the way of confessing himself before- hand ?' Villalobos says No, because of his impurity ; but Sancius says, He may without any sin ; and I hold his opin- ion to be safe, and one which may be followed in practice ti tuta et sequenda in prazi." 1 " Follow this opinion in practice !" cried I. " Wilt any priest who has fallen into such irregularities, have the assur- ance on the same day to approach the altar, on the mere word of Father Bauny ? Is he not bound to submit to the Micient laws of the Church, which debarred from the sacrifice 1 Treatise 10 p. 474, '!>.. p. 441 ; Quest. 32, p. 457 224 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. forever, or at least for a long time, priests who had commit- ted sins of that description instead of following the modem opinions of casuists, who would admit him to it on the very day that witnessed his fall ?" " You have a very short memory," returned the monk. " Did I not inform you a little ago that, according to our fa- thers Cellot and Reginald, ' in matters of morality we are to follow, not the ancient fathers, but the modern casuists ?' " "I remember it perfectly," said I ; " but we have some- thing more here : we have the laws of the Church." "True," he replied ; "but this shows you do not know an- other capital maxim of our fathers, 'that the laws of the Church lose their authority when they have gone into desue- tude cum jam desuctudine abierunt as Filiutus says. 1 We know the present exigencies of the Church much better than the ancients could do. Were we to be so strict in excluding priests from the altar, you can understand there would not be such a great number of masses. Now a multitude of masses brings such a revenue of glory to God and of good to souls, that I may venture to say, with Father Cellot, that there would not be too many priests, ' though not only all men and women, were that possible, but even inanimate bodies, and even brute beasts bruta animalia were transformed into priests to celebrate mass.' "* I was so astounded at the extravagance of this imagina- tion, that I could not utter a word, and allowed him to go on with his discourse. " Enough, however, about priests ; I am nfraid of getting tedious: let us come to the monks. The grand difficulty with them is the obedience they owe to their superiors ; now observe the palliative which our fathers apply in this case. Castro Palao 8 of our Society has said : ' Beyond all dispute, a monk who has a probable opinion of his own, is 1 Tom. ii. tr. 25. n. 33. And yet they will pretend to hold that then Church is infallible ! 2 Book of the Hierarchy, p. 611, Rouen edition. 3 Op. Mor. p. 1, disp. 2, p. 6. Ferdinand de Castro Palao was a Jesuit of .Spain and author of a work on Virtues and Vices, published in 1631. MAXIMS FOR SERVANTS. 225 not bound to obey his superior, though the opinion of the latter is the more probable. For the monk is at liberty to adopt the opinion which is more agreeable to himself quce sibi gratior fuerit as Sanchez says. And though the order of his superior be just, that does not oblige you to obey him, for it is not just at all points or in every respect non unde- quaque justd prcecepit but only probably so ; and conse- quently, you are only probably bound to obey him, and prob- ably not bound probabiliter obligatus, et probabiliter deobli- gatus.' " "Certainly, father," said I, "it is impossible too highly to estimate this precious fruit of the double probability." " It is of great use indeed," he replied ; " but we must be brief. Let me only give you the following specimen of our famous Molina in favor of monks who are expelled from their convents for irregularities. Escobar quotes him thu's : ' Mo- lina asserts that a monk expelled from his monastery is not obliged to reform in order to get back again, and that he is no longer bound by his vow of obedience.' ' " Well, father," cried I, " this is all very comfortable for the clergy. Your casuists, I perceive, have been very indul. gent to them, and no wonder they were legislating, so to speak, for themselves. I am afraid people of other condi- tions are not so liberally treated. Every one for himself in this world." " There you do us wrong," returned the monk ; " they could not have been kinder to themselves than we have been to them. We treat all, from the highest to the lowest, with an even-handed charity, sir. And to prove this, you tempt me to tell you our maxims for servants. In reference to this class, we have taken into consideration the difficulty they must experience, when they are men of conscience, in serving profligate masters. For if they refuse to perform all the er- rands in which they are employed, they lose their places ; and if they yield obedience, thej have their scruples. To relieve them from these, our four-and-twenty fathers have specified the services which they may render with a safe conscience ,' 10* 226 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. luch as, 'carrying letters and presents, opening doors and windows, helping their master to reach the window, holding the ladder which he is mounting. All this,' say they, ' is al- lowable and indifferent ; it is true that, as to holding the lad- der, they must be threatened, more than usually, with being punished for refusing ; for it is doing an injury to the master of a house to enter it by the window.' You perceive the judiciousness of that observation, of course?" "I expected nothing less," said I, "from a book edited by four-and-twenty Jesuits." "But," added the monk, "Father Bauny has gone beyond this ; he has taught valets how to perform these sorts of offices for their masters quite innocently, by making them direct their intention, not to the sins to which they are acces- sary, but to the gain which is to accrue from them. In his Summary of Sins, p. YlO, first edition, he thus states the matter : ' Let confessors observe,' says he, ' that they cannot absolve valets who perform base errands, if they consent to the sins of their masters ; but the Reverse holds true, if they have done the thing merely from a regard to their temporal emolument.' And that, I should conceive, is no difficult mat- ter to do ; for why should they insist on consenting to sins of which they taste nothing but the trouble ? The same Father Bauny has established a prime maxim in favor of those who are not content with their wages : ' May servants who are dis- satisfied with their wages, use means to raise them by laying their hands on as much of the property of their masters as they may consider necessary to make the said wages equiva- lent to their trouble ? They may, in certain circumstances ; as when they are so poor that, in looking for a situation, they have been obliged to accept the offer made to them, and when other servants of the same class are gaining more than they. elsewhere.' " " Ha, father !" cried I, " that is John d' Alba's passage, I declare." "What John d'Alba?" inquired the father : "what do you mean ?" 8TORT OP JOHN o'ALBA. 227 "Strange, father!" returned I: " do you not remember what happened in this city in the year 1647 ? Where in the world were you living at that time ?" " I was teaching cases of conscience in one of our colleges far from Paris," he replied. " I see you don't know the story, father : I must tell it you. I heard it related the other day by a man of honor, whom I met in company. He told us that this John d'Alba, who was in the service of your fathers in the College of Cler- mont, in the Rue St. Jacques, being dissatisfied with his wa- ges, had purloined something to make himself amends ; and that your fathers, on discovering the theft, had thrown him into prison on the charge of larceny. The case was reported to the court, if I recollect right, on the 16th of April, 1647 ; for he was very minute in his statements, and indeed they would hardly have been credible otherwise. The poor fel- low, on being questioned, confessed to having taken some pewter plates, but maintained that for all that he had not stolen them ; pleading in his defence this very doctrine of Fa- ther Bauny, which he produced before the judges, along with a pamphlet by one of your fathers, under whom he had stud- ied cases of conscience, and who had taught him the same thing. Whereupon M. De Montrouge, one of the most re- spected members of the court, said, in giving his opinion, ' that he did not see how, on the ground of the writings of these fathers writings containing a doctrine so illegal, per- nicious, and contrary to all laws, natural, divine, and human, and calculated to ruin all families, and sanction all sorts of household robbery they could discharge the accused. But his opinion was, that this too faithful disciple should be whipped before the college gate, by the hand of the common hangman ; and that, at the same time, this functionary should burn the writings of these fathers which treated of larceny, with certification that they were prohibited from teaching *uch doctrine in future, upon pain of death.' " The result of this judgment, which was heartily approved of, was waited for with much curiosit) when some incident 228 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. occurred which made them delay procedure. But in the mean time the prisoner disappeared, nobody knew how, and nothing more was heard about the affair ; so that John d' Alba got off, pewter plates and all. Such was the account he gave us, to which he added, that the judgment of M. De Alontrouge was entered on the records of the court, where any one may consult it. We were highly amused at the story." " What are you trifling about now ?" cried the monk. " What does all that signify ? I was explaining the maxims of our casuists, and was just going to speak of those relating to gentlemen, when you interrupt me with impertinent stories." " It was only something put in by the way, father," I ob- served ; " and besides, I was anxious to apprize you of an im- portant circumstance, which I find you have overlooked in establishing your doctrine of probability." " Ay, indeed !" exclaimed the monk, " what defect can this be, that has escaped the notice of so many ingenious men ?" " You have certainly," continued I, " contrived to place your disciples in perfect safety so far as God and the conscience are concerned ; for they are quite safe in that quarter, according to you, by following in the wake of a grave doctor. You have also secured them on the part of the confessors, by obliging priests, on the pain of mortal sin, to absolve all who follow a urobable opinion. But you have neglected to secure them >n the part of the judges ; so that, in following your proba- bilities, they are in danger of coming into contact with the whip and the gallows. This is a sad oversight." " You are right," said the monk ; " I am glad you men- tioned it. But the reason is, we have no such power over magistrates as over the confessors, who are obliged to refer to us in cases of conscience, in which we are the sovereign iudges." " So I understand," returned I ; " but if, on the one hand, you are the judges of the confessors, are you not, on the STORY OF JOHN D*ALBA. 229 other hand, the confessors of the judges ? Your power is very extensive. Oblige them, on pain of being debarred from the sacraments, to acquit all criminals who act on a probable opinion ; otherwise it may happen, to the great contempt and scandal of probability, that those whom you render innocent in theory may be whipped or hanged in practice. Without something of this kind, how can you expect to get disciples ?" " The matter deserves consideration," said he ; " it will never do to neglect it. I shall suggest it to our father Pro- vincial. You might, however, have reserved this advice to some other time, without interrupting the account I was about to give you of the maxims which we have established in favor of gentlemen ; and I shall not give you any more in- formation, except on condition that you do not tell me any more stories." This is all you shall have from me at present ; for it would require more than the limits of one letter to acquaint you with all that I learned in a single conversation. Meanwhile 1 ana, ur Father Layman to give it for me. He permits duelling in so many words, provided that, in accepting the challenge, the person directs his intention solely to the preservation of his honor or his property ' If a soldier or a courtier is 236 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. in such a predicament that he must lose either his honor OT his fortune unless he accepts a challenge, I see nothing tc hinder him from doing so in self-defence.' The same thing is said by Peter Hurtado, as quoted by our famous Escobar ; his words are : ' One may fight a duel even to defend one's property, should that be necessary ; because every man has a right to defend his property, though at the expense of his enemy's life !' " I was struck, on hearing these passages, with the reflec- tion that while the piety of the king appears in his exerting all his power to prohibit and abolish the practice of duelling in the State, 1 the piety of the Jesuits is shown in their em- ploying all their ingenuity to tolerate and sanction it in the Church. But the good father was in such an excellent key for talking, that it would have been cruel to have interrupted him ; so he went on with his discourse. " In short," said he, " Sanchez (mark, now, what great names I am quoting to you !) Sanchez, sir, goes a step further ; for he shows how, simply by managing the intention rightly, a person may not only receive a challenge, but give one. And our Escobar follows him." " Prove that, father," said I, " and I shall give up the point : but I will not believe that he has written it, unless I see it in print." " Read it yourself, then," he replied : and, to be sure, I read the following extract from the Moral Theology of Sanchez : " It is perfectly reasonable to hold that a man may fight a duel to save his life, his honor, or any considerable 1 Before the age of Louis XIV. the practice of duelling prevailed in France to such a frightful extent that a writer, who is not given to ex- aggerate in such matters says that -; It had done as much to depopu- late the country as the civil and foreign wars and that in the course of twenty years, ten of which had been disturbed by war more French- men perished by the handset* Frenchmen than by those of their enemies. (Voltaire. Siucle de Louis XIV.. p 4'2.) The abolition of this barba- ous custom was one of the greatest services which Louis XIV. rendered to his country. This was not fully accomplished till 1663, when a bloody combat of four against four determined him to put an end to the practice, by making it death, without benefit of clergy, to send or accept a challenge. ASSASSINATION PERMITTED. 237 portion of his property, when it is apparent that there is a design to deprive him of these unjustly, by law-suits and chicanery, and when there is no other way of preserving them. Navarre justly observes, that in such cases, it is lawful either to accept or to send a challenge licet acceptare et vfferre duellum. The same author adds, that there is nothing to prevent one from despatching one's adversary in a private way. Indeed, in the circumstances referred to, it is advisa- ble to avoid employing the method of the duel, if it is possi- ble to settle the affair by privately killing our enemy ; for, by this means, we escape at once from exposing our life in the combat, and from participating in the sin which our op- ponent would have committed by fighting the duel !'" " A most pious assassination !" said I. " Still, however, pious though it be, it is assassination, if a man is permitted to kill his enemy in a treacherous manner." " Did I say that he might kill him treacherously ?" cried the monk. " God forbid ! I said he might kill him privately, and you conclude that he may kill him treacherously, as if that were the same thing ! Attend, sir, to Escobar's defini- tion before allowing yourself to speak again on this subject ' We call it killing in treachery, when the person who is slain had no reason to suspect such a fate. He, therefore, that slays his enemy cannot be said to kill him in treachery, even although the blow should be given insidiously and behind his back licet per insidias aut a tergo percutiat.' And again : ' He that kills his enemy, with whom he was reconciled under a promise of never again attempting his life, cannot be abso- lutely said to kill in treachery, unless there was between them all the stricter friendship arctior amicitia.'* You see now you do not even understand what the terms signify, and yet vou pretend to talk like a doctor." " I grant you this is something quite new to me," I re- plied ; " and I should gather from that definition that few, if my, were ever killed in treachery ; for people seldom take 1 Sanchez Theol. Mor., liv. ii. c. 39, n. 7. z Escobar, ir. G ; ex. 4. n. 23, 5G. 238 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. it into their heads to assassinate any but their enemies. B< this as it may, however, it seems that, according to Sanchez, a man may freely slay (I do not say treacherously, but only insidiously, and behind his back) a calumniator, for example, who prosecutes us at law ?" "Certainly he may," returned the monk, "always, how- ever, in the way of giving a right direction to the intention : you constantly forget the main point. Molina supports the same doctrine ; and what is more, our learned brother Regi- nald maintains that we may despatch the false witnesses whom he summons against us. And, to crown the whole, according to our great and famous fathers Tanner and Ema- nuel Sa, it is lawful to kill both the false witnesses and tlie judge himself, if he has had any collusion with them. Here are Tanner's very words : ' Sotus and Lessius think that it is not lawful to kill the false witnesses and the magistrate who conspire together to put an innocent person to death ; but Emanuel Sa and other authors with good reason impugn that sentiment, .at least so far as the conscience is concerned.' And he goes on to show that it is quite lawful to kill both the witnesses and the judge." " Well, father," said I, " I think I now understand pretty well your principle regarding the direction of the intention ; but I should like to know something of its consequences, and all the cases in which this method of yours arms a man with the power of life and death. Let us go over them again, for fear of mistake, for equivocation here might be attended with dangerous results. Killing is a matter which requires to be well-timed, and to be backed with a good probable opinion. You have assured me, then, that by giving a proper turn to the intention, it is lawful, according to your fathers, for the preservation of one's honor, or even property, to accept a challenge to a duel, to give one sometimes, to kill in a private ?ay a false accuser, and his witnesses along with him, and even the judge who has been bribed to favor them ; and you have also told me that he who has got a blow, may, without ASSASSINATION PERMITTED. 239 avenging himself, retaliate with the sword. But you have not told me, father, to what length he may go." " He can hardly mistake there," replied the father, " for he may go al'i the length of killing his man. This is satis- factorily proved by the learned Henriquez, and others of our fathers quoted by Escobar, as follows : ' It is perfectly right to kill a person who has given us a box on the ear, althougj he should run away, provided it is not done through hatred or revenge, and there is no danger of giving occasion thereby to murders of a gross kind and hurtful to society. And the reason is, that it is as lawful to pursue the thief that has , stolen our honor, as him that has run away with our prop- erty. For, although your honor cannot be said to be in the hands of your enemy in the same sense as your goods and chattels are in the hands of the thief, still it may be recov- ered in the same way by showing proofs of greatness and authority, and thus acquiring the esteem of men. And, in point of fact, is it not certain that the man who has received a buffet on the ear is held to be under disgrace, until he has wiped off the insult with the blood of his enemy ?' " I was so shocked on hearing this, that it was with great difficulty I could contain myself; but, in my anxiety to hear the rest, I allowed him to proceed. " Nay," he continued, "it is allowable to prevent a buffet, by killing him that meant to give it, if there be no other way to escape the insult. This opinion is quite common with our fathers. For example, Azor, one of the four-and-twenty eld- ers, proposing the question, ' Is it lawful for a man of honor to kill another who threatens to give him a slap on the face, or strike him with a stick ?' replies, ' Some say he may not ; alleging that the life of our neighbor is more precious than our honor, and that it would be an act of cruelty to kill a man merely to avoid a blow. Others, however, think that it is allowable ; and I certainly consider it probable, when there is no other way of warding off the insult ; foi , other- wise, the honor of the innocent would be constantly exposed to the malice of the insolent.' The same opinion is given by 240 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. our great Filiutius; by Father Hereau, in his Treatise on Homicide ; by Hurtado de Mendoza, in his Disputations ; by Becan, in his Summary ; by our Fathers Flahaut and Le- court, in those writings which the university, in their third petition, quoted at length, in order to bring them into dis- grace (though in this they failed) ; and by Escobar. In short, this opinion is so general, that Lessius lays it down as a point which no casuist has contested ; he quotes a great many that uphold, and none that deny it ; and particularly Peter Navarre, who, speaking of affronts in general (and there is none more provoking than a box on the ear), declares that ' by the universal consent of the casuists, it is lawful to kill the calumniator, if there be no other way of averting the affront ex sententia omnium, licet contumeliosum occidere, si aliter ea injuria arceri nequit.' Do you wish any more authorities ?" asked the monk. I declared I was much obliged to him ; I had heard rather more than enough of them already. But just to see how far this damnable doctrine would go, I said, " But, father, may not one be allowed to kill for something still less ? Might not a person so direct his intention as lawfully to kill another for telling a lie, for example ?" " He may," returned the monk ; " and according to Father Baldelle, quoted by Escobar, ' you may lawfully take the life of another for saying, You have told a lie ; if there is no other way of shutting his mouth.' The same thing may be done in the case of slanders. Our Fathers Lessius and Hereau agree in the following sentiments : ' If you attempt to run my character by telling stories against me in the presence of men of honor, and I have no other way of preventing this than by putting you to death, may I be permitted to do so ? According to the modern authors, I may, and that even though I have been really guilty of the crime which you divulge, provided it is a secret one, which you could not establish by legal evidence. And I prove it thus : If you mean to rob me of my honor by giving me a box on the ear ] may prevent it by force of arms ; and the same mode of KILLING FOR A LIB. 241 defence is lawful when you would do me the same injury with the tongue. Besides, we may lawfully obviate affronts, and therefore slanders. In fine, honor is dearer than life : and as it is lawful to kill in defence of life, it must be so to kill in defence of honor.' There, you see, are arguments in due form ; this is demonstration, sir not mere discussion. And, to conclude, this great man Lessius shows, in the same place, that it is lawful to kill even for a simple gesture, or a sign of contempt. 'A man's honor,' he remarks, 'may be ftttacked or filched away in various ways in all which vin- dication appears very reasonable ; as, for instance, when one offers to strike us with a stick, or give us a slap on the face, or affront us either by words or signs sive per signa.' " " Well, father," said I, " it must be owned that you have made every possible provision to secure the safety of reputa- tion ; but it strikes me that human life is greatly in danger, if any one may be conscientiously put to death simply for a defamatory speech or a saucy gesture." " That is true," he replied ; " but as our fathers are very circumspect, they have thought it proper to forbid putting this doctrine into practice on such trifling occasions. They say, at least, ' that it ought hardly to be reduced to practice practice vix probari potest.' And they have a good reason for that, as you shall see." " Oh ! I know what it will be," interrupted I ; " because the law of God forbids us to kill, of course." "They do not exactly take that ground," said the father; " as a matter of conscience, and viewing the thing abstractly, they hold it allowable." " And why, then, do they forbid it ?" " I shall tell you that, sir. It is because, were we to kill all the defamers among us, we should very shortly depopu- late the country. ' Although,' says Reginald, * the opinion that we may kill a man for calumny is not without its proba- bility in theory, the contrary one ought to be followed in practice ; for, in our mode of defending ourselves, we should always avoid doing injury to the commonwealth ; and it is 11 242 PROVINCIAL LKTTKRS. evident that by killing people in this way there would be too many murders.' ' We should be bn our guard,' says Lessius, ' lest the practice of this maxim prove hurtful to the State ; for in this case it ought not to be permitted tune enim non ist permittendus.' " " What, father ! is it forbidden only as a point of policy, and not of religion ? Few people, I am afraid, will pay any regard to such a prohibition, particularly when in a passion. Very probably they might think they were doing no harm to the State, by ridding it of an unworthy member." " And accordingly," replied the monk, " our Filiutius has *orti6ed that argument with another, which is of no slender mportance, namely, ' that for killing people after this man- ner, one might be punished in a court of justice.' " " There now, father ; I told you before, that you will never be able to do anything worth the while, unless you get the magistrates to go along with you." " The magistrates," said the father, " as they do not pen- etrate into the conscience, judge merely of the outside of the action, while we look principally to the intention ; and hence it occasionally happens that our maxims are a little different from theirs." " Be that as it may, father ; from yours, at least, one thing may be fairly inferred that, by taking care not to injure the commonwealth, we may kill defamers with a safe conscience, provided we can do it with a sound skin. But, sir, after having seen so well to the protection of honor, have you done nothing for property ? I am aware it is of inferior im- portance, but that does not signify ; T should think one might direct one's intention to kill for its preservation also." " Yes," replied the monk ; " and I gave you a hint to that effect already, which may have suggested the idea to you. All our casuists agree in that opinion ; and they even extend the permission to those cases ' where no further violence is Apprehended from those that steal our property ; as, for ex ample, where the thief runs away.' Azor, one of our Society proves that point." KILLING FOR PROPERTY. 243 " But, sir, how much must the article be worth, to justify ur proceeding to that extremity ?" " According to Reginald and Tanner, ' the article must be of great value in the estimation of a judicious man.' And so think Layman and Filiutius." " But, father, that is saying nothing to the purpose ; where tm I to find ' a judicious man' (a rare person to meet with at any time), in order to make this estimation ? Why do they not settle upon an exact sum at once ?" " Ay, indeed !" retorted the monk ; " and was it so easy, think you, to adjust the comparative value between the life of a man, and a Christian man, too, and money ? It is here I would have you feel the need of our casuists. Show me any of your ancient fathers who will tell for how much money we may be allowed to kill a man. What will they say, but ' Non occides Thou shalt not kill ?' " " And who, then, has ventured to fix that sum ?" I in- quired. " Our great and incomparable Molina," he replied " the glory of our Society who has, in his inimitable wisdom, estimated the life of a man ' at six or seven ducats ; for which sum he assures us it is warrantable to kill a thief, even though he should run off ;' and he adds, ' that he would not venture to condemn that man as guilty of any sin who should kill another for taking away an article worth a crown, or even less unius aurei, vel minoris adhuc valoris ;' which has led Escobar to lay it down as a general rule, ' that a man .nay be killed quite regularly, according to Molina, for the value of a crown-piece.' " " father !" cried I, " where can Molina have got all this wisdom to enable him to determine a matter of such impor- tance, without any aid from Scripture, the 'councils, or the fathers ? It is quite evident that he has obtained an illumi- nation peculiar to himself, and is far beyond St. Augustine in the matter of homicide, as well as of grace. Well, now, I suppose I may consider myself master of this chapter of morals ; and I see perfectly that, with the exception of eccle- 44 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. siastics, nobody need refrain from killing those who injure them in their property or reputation." " What say you ?" exclaimed the monk. " Do you then suppose that it would be reasonable that those who ought of all men to be most respected, should alone be exposed to the insolence of the wicked ? Our fathers have provided against that disorder ; for Tanner declares that ' Churchmen, and even monks, are permitted to kill, for the purpose of defending not only their lives, but their property, and that of their community.' Molina, Escobar, Becan, Reginald, Layman, Lessius, and others, hold the same language. Nay, according to our celebrated Father Lamy, 1 priests and monks may lawfully prevent those who would injure them by cal- umnies from carrying their ill designs into effect, by putting them to death. Care, however, must be always taken to direct the intention properly. His words are: 'An ecclesi- astic or a monk may warrantably kill a defamer who threatens to publish the scandalous crimes of his community, or his own crimes, when there is no other way of stopping him ; if, for instance, he is prepared to circulate his defamations unless promptly despatched. For, in these circumstances, as the monk would be allowed to kill one who threatened to take his life, he is also warranted to kill him who would de- prive him of his reputation or his property, in the same way as the men of the world.' " " I was not aware of that," said I ; "in fact, I have been accustomed simply enough to believe the very reverse, with- mt reflecting on the matter, in consequence of having heard ihat the Church had such an abhorrence of bloodshed as not even to permit ecclesiastical judges to attend in criminal cases." 8 1 Francois Amicus. or L'Amy, was chancellor of the University ot Gratz. In his Cours Tkeologique. published in 1642. he advances the inost dangerous tenets, particularly on the subject of murder. * This is true; but in the case of heretics, at least, they found out a Convenient mode of compromising the matter. Having condemned Iheir victim as worthy of death, he was delivered over to the secular iourt, with the disgusting farce of a recommendation to mercy, couch- ed in these terms : 1; My lord judge, we beg of you with all possible af CHURCHMEN MAY KILL 245 " Never mind that," he replied ; " our Father Lamy has lompletely proved the doctrine I have laid down, although, with a humility which sits uncommonly well on so great a man, he submits it to the judgment of his judicious readers. Caramuel, too, our famous champion, quoting it in his Fun- damental Theology, p. 543, thinks it so certain, that he de- clares the contrary opinion to be destitute of probability, and draws some admirable conclusions from it, such as the fol- lowing, which he calls ' the conclusion of conclusions con- clusionum conclusio :' * That a priest not only may kill a slanderer, but there are certain circumstances in which it mav be his duty to do so etiam aliquando debet occidere? He examines a great many new questions on this principle, such as the following, for instance : 'May the Jesuits kill the Jansenists ?' " " A curious point of divinity that, father !" cried I. " I hold the Jansenists to be as good as dead men, according to Father Lamy's doctrine." " There now, you are in the wrong," said the monk : " Caramuel infers the very reverse from the same principles." " And how so, father ?" " Because," he replied, " it is not in the power of the Jan- eenists to injure our reputation. 'The Jansenists,' says he, 'call the Jesuits Pelagians; may they not be killed for that ? No ; inasmuch as the Jansenists can no more obscure the glory of the Society than an owl can eclipse that of the Bun ; on the contrary, they have, though against their in- tention, enhanced it occidi non possunt, quia nocere non po- tiierunt.' " " Ha, father ! do the lives of the Jansenists, then, depend on the contingency of their injuring your reputation ? If so, I reckon them far from being in a safe position ; for suppos- "ection, for the love of God, and j?s you would expect the gifts of mercy and compassion, and the benefit of our prayers, not to do anything in- jurious to this miserable man, tending to death or the mutilation of hit oody '" (Orespin, Hist, des Martyres, p. 185.) 246 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. ing it should be thought in the slightest degree probable that they might do you some mischief, why, they are killable at once ! You have only to draw up a sylllogism in due form, and, with a direction of the intention, you may despatch your man at once with a safe conscience. Thrice happy must those hot spirits be who cannot bear with injuries, to be in- structed in this doctrine ! But woe to the poor people who hare offended them ! Indeed, father, it would be better to have to do with persons who have no religion at all, than with those who have been taught on this system. For, after all, the intention of the wounder conveys no comfort to the wounded. The poor man sees nothing of that secret direction of which you speak ; he is only sensible of the direction of the blow that is dealt him. And I am by no means sure but a person would feel much less sorry to see himself bru- tally killed by an infuriated villain, than to find himself con- scientiously stilettoed by a devotee. To be plain with you, father, I am somewhat staggered "at all this; and these questions of Father Lamy and Caramuel do not please me at all." " How so ?" cried the monk. " Are you a Jansenist ?" " I have another reason for it," I replied. " You must know I am in the habit of writing from time to time, to a friend of mine in the country, all that I can learn of the max- ims of your doctors. Now, although I do no more than simply report and faithfully quote their own words, yet I am apprehensive lest my letter should fall into the hands of some stray genius, who may take into his head that I have done you injury, and may draw some mischievous conclusion from your premises." " Away !" cried the monk ; " no fear of danger from that quarter, I'H give you my word for it. Know that what our fathers have themselves printed, with the approbation of our superiors, it cannot be wrong to read nor dangerous to publish." I write you, therefore, on the faith of this worthy father's MAY JESUITS KILL JANSENISTS ? 247 word of honor. But, in the mean time, I must stop for want of paper not of passages ; for I have got as many more in reserve, and good ones too, as would require volumes to con- tain them. I am, &C. 1 1 It may be noticed here that Father Daniel has attempted to evade the main charge against the Jesuits in this letter by adroitly altering the state of the question. He argues that the intention is the soul of an action, and that which often makes it good or evil ; thus cunningly in- sinuating that his casuists refer only to indifferent actions, in regard to which nobody denies that it is the intention that makes them good or bad. (Entretiens df Cleandre et d'Eudoxe, p. 334.) It is unnecessary to do more than refer the reader back to the instances cited in the letter, to convince him that what these casuists really maintain is, that actions in themselves evil, may be allowed provided the intentions are good ; and, moreover, that in order to make these intentions good, it is not ne- cessary that they have any reference to God, but sufficient if they refer to our own convenience, cupidity or vanity. (Apologie dea LettresPiv- vinciales, pp. 212-221.) LETTER VIII. 1 CVRBUPT MAXIMS OF THE CASUISTS RELATIK3 TO JUDGES U?TJ BERS THE CONTRACT MOHATRA BANKRUPTS RESTITUTION DIVERS RIDICULOUS NOTIONS OF THESE SAME CASUISTS. PARIS, May 28, 1656. SIR, You did not suppose that anybody would have the curiosity to know who we were ; but it seems there are peo- ple who are trying to make it out, though they are not very happy in their conjectures. Some take me for a doctor of he Sorbonne ; others ascribe my letters to four or five per- sons, who, like me, are neither priests nor Churchmen. All these false surmises convince me that I have succeeded pretty well in my object, which was to conceal myself from all but yourself and the worthy monk, who still continnes to bear with my visits, while I still contrive, though with considerable difficulty, to bear with his conversations. I am obliged, how- ever, to restrain myself ; for were he to discover how much I am shocked at his communications, he would discontinue them, and thus put it out of my power to fulfil the promise .1 gave you, of making you acquainted with their morality You ought to think a great deal of the violence which I thus do to my own feelings. It is no easy matter, I can assure you, to stand still and see the whole system of Christian eth- ics undermined by such a set of monstrous principles, with- out daring to put in a word of flat contradiction against them. But after having borne so much for your satisfaction, I am resolved I shall burst out for my own satisfaction in the end, when his stock of information has been exhausted. Mean- while, I shall repress my feelings as much as I possibly can This Letter also was revised by M. Nicole. MAXIMS FOR JUDGES. 249 for I find that the more I hold my tongue, he is the more communicative. The last time I saw him, he told me so many things, that I shall have some difficulty in repeating them all. On the point of restitution you will find th'ey have some most convenient principles. For, however the good monk palliates his maxims, those which I am about to lay before you really go to sanction corrupt judges, usurers, bank- rupts, thieves, prostitutes and sorcerers all of whom are most liberally absolved from the obligation of restoring their ill-gotten gains. It was thus the monk resumed the conver- sation : " At the commencement of our interviews, I engaged to explain to you the maxims of our authors for all ranks and classes ; and you have already seen those that relate to bene- ficiaries, to priests, to monks, to domestics, and to gentlemen. Let us now take a cursory glance of the remaining, and begin with the judges. "Now I am going to tell you one of the most important and advantageous maxims which our fathers have laid down in their favor. Its author is the learned Castro Palao, one of our four-and-twenty elders. His words are: 'May a judge, in a question of right and wrong, pronounce accord- ing to a probable opinion, in preference to the more probable opinion ? He may, even though it should be contrary to his own judgment imo contra propriam opinionem.' " " Well, father," cried I, " that is a very fair commence- ment ! The judges, surely, are greatly obliged to you ; and T am surprised that they should be so hostile, as we have sometimes observed, to your probabilities, seeing these are so iivorable to them. For it would appear from this, that you give them the same power over men's fortunes, as you have given to yourselves over their consciences." " You perceive we are far from being actuated by self- \nterest," returned he ; " we have had no other end in view Shan the repose of their consciences ; and to the same use- tul purpose has our great Molina devoted his attention, in re- gard to the presents whicli may be made them. To remove 11* 250 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. any scruples which they might entertain in accepting of these on certain occasions, he has been at the pains to draw out a list of all those cases in which bribes may be taken with a good conscience, provided, at least, there be no special law forbidding them. He says : ' Judges may receive presents from parties, when they are given them either for friendship's sake, or in gratitude for some former act of justice, or to induce them to give justice in future, or to oblige them to pay particular attention to their case, or to engage them to despatch it promptly.' The learned Escobar delivers himself to the same effect : ' If there be a number of persons, none of whom have more right than another to have their causes disposed of, will the judge who accepts of something from one of them on condition ex pacto of taking up his cause first, be guilty of sin ? Certainly not, according to Layman ; for, in common equity, he does no injury to the rest, by granting to one, in consideration of his present, what he was at liberty to grant to any of them he pleased ; and besides, being under an equal obligation to them all in respect of their right, he becomes more obliged to the individual who fur- nished the donation, who thereby acquired for himself a pref- erence above the rest a preference which seems capable of a pecuniary valuation quce obliyatio videtur pretio cestimabi- Us.' " " May it please your reverence," said I, " after such a per- mission, I am surprised that the first magistrates of the king- dom should know no better. For the first president 1 has actually carried an order in Parliament to prevent certain clerks of court from taking money fc r that very sort of pref- erence a sign that he is far from thinking it allowable in judges ; and everybody has applauded this as a reform of great benefit to all parties." The worthy monk was surprised at this piece of intelli- gence, and replied : " Are you sure of that ? I heard noth- 1 The president referred to was Pompone de Bellievre, on whom M R eIiftH>n pronounced a beautiful eulogy. USURT. 25 1 ing about it. Our opinion, recollect, is only probable ; the contrary is probable also." "To tell you the truth, father," said I, "people think lhat the first president has acted more than probably well, and that he has thus put a stop to a course of public corruption which has been too long winked at." " I am not far from being of the same mind," returned he ; " but let us waive that point, and say no more about the judges." " You are quite right, sir," said I ; " indeed, they are not half thankful enough for all you have done for them." "That is not my reason," said the father; "but there is BO much to be said on all the different classes, that we must study brevity on each of them. Let us now say a word or two about men of business. You are aware that our great difficulty with these gentlemen is to keep them from usury an object to accomplish which our fathers have been at par- ticular pains ; for they hold this vice in such abhorrence, that Escobar declares ' it is heresy to say that usury is no sin ;' and Father Bauny has filled several pages of his Summary of Sins with the pains and penalties due to usurers. He de- clares them ' infamous during their life, and unworthy of sep- ulture after their death.' " " dear !" cried I, " I had no idea he was so severe." " He can be severe enough when there is occasion for it," said the monk ; " but then this learned casuist, having ob- served that some are allured into usury merely from the love >f gain, remarks in the same place, that ' he would confer no Email obligation on society, who, while he guarded it against the evil effects of usury, and of the sin which gives birth to t, would suggest a method by which one's money might se- cure as large, if not a larger profit, in some honest and law- ful employment, than he could derive from usurious deal- ings.' " "Undoubtedly, father, there would be no more usurers that." " Accordingly," continued he, " our casuist has suggested 252 PROVI.VCIAI. LETTERS, 'a general method for all sorts of persons gentlemen, presi- dents, councillors,' 45, stopped payments after having borrowed upwards of 450.000 ducats, mostly fro.n poor widows and friendless girls. This shameful affair was exposed before the courts of justice, during a long litigation, in the course of which it was discovered that the Jesuit fathers had been carry- ing on extensive mercantile transactions and that instead of spending Ihe money left them for pious u,fs such as ransoming captives, ana ROBBERY". 255 by Lessius, and confirmed by Escobar, as follows : ' May a person who turns bankrupt, with a good conscience keep back as much of his personal estate as may be necessary to maintain his family in a respectable way ne indecore vivat? I hold, with Lessius, that he may, even though he may have acquired his wealth unjustly and by notorious crimes ex injustitia et notorio delicto / only, in this case, he is not at liberty to retain so large an amount as he otherwise might.' " " Indeed, father ! what a strange sort of charity is this, to allow property to remain in the hands of the man who has acquired it by rapine, to support him in his extravagance rather than go into the hands of his creditors, to whom it le- gitimately belongs !" " It is impossible to please everybody," replied the father ; " and we have made it our particular study to relieve these unfortunate people. This partiality to the poor has induced our great Vasquez, cited by Castro Palao, to say, that ' if one saw a thief going to rob a poor man, it would be lawful to divert him from his purpose by pointing out to him some rich individual, whom he might rob in place of the other.' If you have not access to Vasquez or Castro Palao, you will find the same thing in your copy of Escobar ; for, as you are aware, his work is little more than a compilation from twenty-four of the most celebrated of our fathers. You will find it in his treatise, entitled ' The Practice of our Society, in the matter of Charity towards our Neighbors.' " " A very singular kind of charity this," I observed, " to save one man from suffering loss, by inflicting it upon an- other ! But I suppose that, to complete the ?harity, the charitable adviser would be bound in conscience to restore to the rich man the sum which he had made him lose ?" " Not at all, sir," returned the monk ; " for he did not rob the man he only advised the other to do it. But only attend to this notable decision of Father Bauny, on a case which will still more astonish you, and in which you would almsgiving they had devoted it to the purposes of what they termed ' our poor little house of profession. ' (Theatre Jesuitique, p. 200, &c.) 256 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. suppose there was a much stronger obligation to make res- titution. Here are his identical words : ' A person asks a soldier to beat his neighbor, or to set fire to the barn of a man that has injured him. The question is, Whether, in the absence of the soldier, the person who employed him to com- .nit these outrages is bound to make reparation out of his own pocket for the damage that has followed ? My opinion is, that he is not. For none can be held bound to restitution, where there has been no violation of justice ; and is justict violated by asking another to do us a favor ? As to the nature of the request which he made, he is at liberty either to acknowledge or deny it ; to whatever side he may incline, it is a matter of mere choice ; nothing obliges him to it, un- less it may be the goodness, gentleness, and easiness of his disposition. If the soldier, therefore, makes no reparation for the mischief he has done, it ought not to be exacted from him at whose request he injured the innocent.' " This sentence had very nearly broken up the whole con- versation, for I was on the point of bursting into a laugh at the idea of the goodness and gentleness of a burner of barns, and at these strange sophisms which would exempt from the duty of restitution the principal and real incendiary, whom the civil magistrate would not exempt from the halter. But had I not restrained myself, the worthy monk, who was per- fectly serious, would have been displeased ; he proceeded, therefore, without any alteration of countenance, in his ob- servations. " From such a mass of evidence, you ought to be satisfied now of the futility of your objections ; but we are losing bight of our subject. To revert, then, to the succor which our fathers apply to persons in straitened circumstances, Lessius, among others, maintains that 'it is lawful to steal, not only in a case of extreme necessity, but even where the necessity is grave, though not extreme.' " " This is somewhat startling, father," said T. " There are rery few people in this world who do not consider their cases of necessity to be grave ones, and to whom, accordingly, yoo ILLICIT GAINS. 25V rould not give the right of stealing with a good conscience, And though you should restrict the permission to those only who are really and truly in that condition, you open the door to an infinite number of petty larcenies which the magistrates would punish in spite of your 'grave necessity,' and which you ought to repress on a higher principle you who are bound by your office to be the conservators, not of justice only, but of charity between man and man, a grace which this permission would destroy. For after all, now, is it not a violation of the law of charity, and of our duty to our neighbor, to deprive a man of his property in order to turn it to our own advantage ? Such, at least, is the way I have been taught to think hitherto." " That will not always hold true," replied the monk ; " for our great Molina has taught us that ' the rule of charity does not bind us to deprive ourselves of a profit, in order thereby to save our neighbor from a corresponding loss.' He ad- vances this in corroboration of what he had undertaken to prove ' that one is not bound in conscience to restore the goods which another had put into his hands in order to cheat his creditors.' Lessius holds the same opinion, on the same ground. 1 Allow me to say, sir, that you have too little compassion for people in distress. Our fathers have had more charity than that comes to : they render ample justice to the poor, as well as the rich ; and, I may add, to sinners as well as saints. For, though far from having any predilec- tion for criminals, they do not scruple to teach that the property gained by crime may be lawfully retained. ' No person,' says Lessius, speaking generally, 'is bound, either by the law of nature or by positive laws (that is, by any law ), to make restitution of what has been gained by committing a criminal action, such as adultery, even though that action is contrary to justice.' For, as Escobar comments on this writer, ' though the property whi:h a woman acquires by adultery is certainly gained in an illicit way, yet once ac- 1 Molina, t. ii., tr. 2, disp. 339, n. 8 ; Lessius, liv. ii., ch. 20, diet. 1$ n. 168. 258 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. quired, the possession of it is lawful quamvis mulier ilhcitt ttcquisat, licite tamen retinet, acquisita.' It is on this prin- ciple that the most celebrated of our writers have formally decided that the bribe received by a judge from one of the parties who has a bad case, in order to procure an unjust de- cision in his favor, the money got by a soldier for killing a man, or the emoluments gained by infamous crimes, may be legitimately retained. Escobar, who has collected this from a number of our authors, lays down this general rule on the xjoint, that ' the means acquired by infamous courses, such as murder, unjust decisions, profligacy, &c., are legitimately possessed, and none are obliged to restore them.' And further, ' they may dispose of what they have received for homicide, profligacy, &c.., as they please ; for the possession is just, and they have acquired a propriety in the fruits of their iniquity.' " " My dear father," cried I, " this is a mode of acquisition which I never heard of before ; and I question much if the law will hold it good, or if it will consider assassination, in- justice, and adultery, as giving valid titles to property." "I do not know what your law-books may say on the point," returned the monk ; " but I know well that our books, which are the genuine rules for conscience, bear me out in what I say. It is true they make one exception, in which restitution is positively enjoined ; that is, in the case of any receiving money from those who have no right to dis- pose of their property, such as minors and monks. ' Unless,' says the great Molina, ' a woman has received money from one who cannot dispose of it, such as a monk or a minor nisi mulier accepisset ab eo qui alienare non potest, ut a reli- giose et filio familias. In this case she must give back the money.' And so says Escobar." 3 " May it please your reverence," said I, " the monks, 1 Escobar, tr. 3, ex. 1, n. 23, tr. 5, ex. 5, n. 53. Molina, 1 . torn. i. ; De Just., tr. 2, disp. 94 ; Escobar, tr. 1, ex 8, a 50.tr 3, ex. 1, n. 23. ILLICIT GAINS. 259 I see, are more highly favored in this way than other people." " By no means," he replied ; " have they not done as much generally for all minors, in which class monks may be viewed as continuing all their lives ? Tt is barely an act of justice to make them an exception ; but with regard to all other people, there is no obligation whatever to refund to 'hem the money received from them for a criminal action. For, as has been amply shown by Lessius, 'a wicked action may have its price fixed in money, by calculating the advan- tage received by the person who orders it to be done, and the trouble taken by him who carries it into execution ; on which account the latter is not bound to restore the money he got for the deed, whatever that may have been homi- cide, injustice, or a foul act' (for such are the illustrations which he uniformly employs in this question) ; ' unless he obtained the money from those having no right to dispose of their property. You may object, perhaps, that he who has obtained money for a piece of wickedness is sinning, and therefore ought neither to receive nor retain it. But I reply, that after the thing is done, there can be no sin either in giving or in receiving payment for it.' The great Filiutius enters still more minutely into details, remarking, ' that a \nan is bound in conscience, to vary his payments for actions of this sort, according to the different conditions of the in- dividuals who commit them, and some may bring a higher price than others.' This he confirms by very solid argu- ments." 1 He then pointed out to me, in his authors, some things of this nature so indelicate that I should be ashamed to repeat them ; and indeed the monk himself, who is a good man, would have been horrified at them himself, were it not for 1 Tr. 31, c. 9, n. 231. "Occulhse fornicaria? debetur pretium in cori- scientia, et multo majore ratione. quam public. Copia enim quam occulta facit mulier sui corporis multo plus valet quam ea quam pub- aa facit meretrix ; nee ulla est lex positiva qune reddit earn incnpacen) pre,ii. Idem dicendnOi de pretio promisso virgin! conjugatae. moniali it cuicumque alii. Est enim omnium eadem ratio.'' 260 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. the profound respect which he entertains for his fathers, and which makes him receive with veneration everything that proceeds from them. Meanwhile, I held my tongue, not so much with the view of allowing him to enlarge on this mat- ter, as from pure astonishment at finding the books of men in holy orders stuffed with sentiments at once so horrible, so iniquitous, and so, silly. He went on, therefore, without in- terruption in his discourse, concluding as follows : " From these premises, our illustrious Molina decides the following question (and after this, I think you will have got enough) : ' If one has received money to perpetrate a wicked action, is he obliged to restore it ? We must distinguish here,' says this great man ; ' if he has not done the deed, he must give back the cash ; if he has, he is undor no such obli- gation !' ' Such are some of our principles touching restitu- tion. You have got a great deal of instruction to-day ; and I should like, now, to see what proficiency you have made. Come, then, answer me this question : ' Is a judge, who has received a sum of money from one of the parties before him, in order to pronounce a judgment in his favor, obliged to make restitution ?' " " You were just telling me a little ago, father, that he was not." " I told you no such thing," replied the father ; " did I express myself so generally ? I told you he was not bound to make restitution, provided he succeeded in gaining the cause for the party who had the wrong side of the question, But if a man has justice on his side, would you have him to purchase the success of his cause, which is his legitimate right ? You are very unconscionable. Justice, look you, is a debt which the judge owes, and therefore he cannot sell it ; but he cannot be said to owe injustice, and therefore he may lawfully receive money for it. All our leading authors, accordingly, agree in teaching 'that though a judge is bound to restore the money he had received for doing an act of jus- tire, unless it was given him out of mere generosity, he is no* 1 Quo'ed by Escobar, tr. 3, ex. 2, n. 138. SORCERY. 261 obliged to restore what he has received from a man in whose favor he has pronounced an unjust decision.' " This preposterous decision fairly dumbfounded me, and while I. was musing on its pernicious tendencies, the monk had prepared another question for me. " Answer me again," said he, " with a little more circumspection. Tell me now, * if a man who deals in divination is obliged to make resti- tution of the money he has acquired in the exercise of hia art?'" "Just as you please, your reverence," said I. " Eh ! what ! just as I please ! Indeed, but you are a pretty scholar ! It would seem, according to your way of talking, that the truth depended on our will and pleasure. I see that, in the present case, you would never find it out yourself : so I must send you to Sanchez for a solution of the problem no less a man than Sanchez. In the first place, he makes a distinction between ' the case of the diviner who has recourse to astrology and other natural means, and that of another who employs the diabolical art. In the one case, he says, the diviner is bound to make restitution ; in the other he is not.' Now, guess which of them is the party bound ?" " It is not difficult to find out that," said I. " I see what you mean to say," he replied. " You think that he ought to make restitution in the case of his having employed the agency of demons. But you know nothing about it ; it is just the reverse. ' If,' says Sanchez, ' the sorcerer has not taken care and pains to discover, by means of the devil, what he could not have known otherwise, he must make restitution si nullam operam apposuit ut arte diaboli id sciret ; but if he has been at that trouble, he is not obliged.' " " And why so, father ?" " Don't you see ?" returned he. " It is because men may 1 Molina, 94, 99; Reginald. I. 10, 184; Filiutius, tr. 31 Encobar jr 3 ; Lessius, 1. 2, 14. 262 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. truly divine by the aid of the devil, whereas astrology is a mere sham." "But, sir, should the devil happen not to tdl the truth (and he is not much more to be trusted than astrology), the magician must, I should think, for the same reason, be obliged to make restitution ?" " Not always," replied the monk : " Distinguo, as Sanchez says, here. ' If the magician be ignorant of the diabolic art si sit artis diabolicce iynarus he is bound to restore : but if he is an expert sorcerer, and has done all in his power to arrive at the truth, the obligation ceases ; for the industry of such a magician may be estimated at a certain sum of money.' " " There is some sense in that," I said ; " for this is an ex- cellent plan to induce sorcerers to aim at proficiency in theii art, in the hope of making an honest livelihood, as you would say, by faithfully serving the public." "You are making a jest of it, I suspect," said the father: " that is very wrong. If you were to talk in that way in places where you were not known, some people might take it amiss, and charge you with turning sacred subjects into ridi- cule." " That, father, is a charge from which I could very easily vindicate myself ; for certain I am that whoever will be at the trouble to examine the true meaning of my words will find my object to be precisely the reverse ; and perhaps, sir, before our conversations are ended, I may find an opportunity of making this very amply apparent." " Ho, ho," cried the monk, " there is no laughing in youf head now." " I confess," said I, " that the suspicion that I intended to laugh at things sacred, would be as painful for me to incur, as it would be unjust in any to entertain it." " I did not say it in earnest," returned the father ; " but let us speak more seriously." " I am quite disposed to do so, if you prefer it ; that de- pends upon you, father. But I must say, that I have been tstonished to see vour friends carrying their attentions to al ADVANTAGES OF THE MAXIMS. 263 sorts and conditions of men so far as even to regulate the Iegitimat3 gains of sorcerers." " One cannot write for too many people," said the monk, " nor be too minute in particularizing cases, nor repeat the same things too often in different books. You may be con- vinced of this by the following anecdote, which is related by one of the gravest of our fathers, as you may well suppose, seeing he is our present Provincial the reverend Father Cel- los : ' We know a person,' says he, ' who was carrying a large sum of money in his pocket to restore it, in obedience to the orders of his confessor, and who, stepping into a book- seller's shop by the way, inquired if there was anything new ? numquid novi ? when the bookseller showed him a book on moral theology, recently published ; and turning over the leaves carelessly, and without reflection, he lighted upon a passage describing his own case, and saw that he was un- der no obligation to make restitution : upon which, relieved from the burden of his scruples, he returned home with a purse no less heavy, and a heart much lighter, than when he left it : abjecta scrupuli sarcina, retento auri pondere, levior domum repetiit.'* " Say, after hearing that, if it is useful or not to know oui maxims ? Will you laugh at them now ? or rather, are you not prepared to join with Father Cellot in the pious reflec- tion which he makes on tne blessedness of that incident? 'Accidents of that kind,' he remarks, 'are, with God, the effect of his providence ; with the guardian angel, the effect of his good guidance ; with the individuals to whom they happen, the effect of their predestination. From all eternity, God decided that the golden chain of their salvation should depend on such and such an author, and not upon a hundred others who say the same thing, because they never happen to meet with them. Had that man not written, this man would not have been saved. All, therefore, who find fault jrith the multitude of our authors, we would beseech, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, to beware of envying others those 1 C'ellot liv. viii. de la Hierarch, c. 16, 2. 2G4 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. books which the eternal election of God and the blood of Je- sus Christ has purchased for them !' Such are the eloquent terms in which this learned man proves so successfully the proposition which he had advanced, namely, ' How useful it must be to have a great many writers on moral theology qnam utile sit de theologia morali mulios scribere /' ' " Father," said I, " I shall defer giving you my opinion of that passage to another opportunity ; in the mean time, I shall only say that as your maxims are so useful, and as it is so important to publish them, you ought to continue to give me further instruction in them. For I can assure you that the person to whom I send them shows my letters to a great many people. Not that we intend to avail ourselves of them in our own case ; but indeed we think it will be useful for the world to be informed about them." "Very well," rejoined the monk, "you see I do not con- ceal them ; and, in continuation, I am ready to furnish you, at our next, interview, with an account of the comforts and indulgences which our fathers allow, with the view of render- ing salvation easy, and devotion agreeable ; so that in ad- dition to what you have hitherto learned as to particular con- ditions of men, you may learn what applies in general to all classes, and thus you will have gone through a complete course of instruction." So saying, the monk took his leave of me. I am, &c. P. S. I have always forgot to tell you that there are dif- ferent editions of Escobar. Should you think of purchasing him, 1 would advise you to choose the Lyons edition, having on the title-page the device of a lamb lying on a book sealed with seven seals; or the Brussels edition of 1651. Both of these are better and larger than the previous editions pub- lished at Lyons in the years 1644 and 1646.' 1 " Since all this, a new edition has been printed at Paris by Piget, more correct than any of the rest. But the sentiments of Escobar may pe still better ascertained from the great work on moral theology, print- ed at Lyons " (Note in Nicole's edition of the Letters.) I may avail myself of this space to remark, that not one of thechargei FATHER DANIEL'S REPLY. 265 brought against the Jesuits in this letter has been met by Father Daniel in his celebrated reply. Indeed, after some vain efforts to contradict about a dozen passages in the letters, he leaves avowedly more than hundred without daring to answer them. The pretext for thus failing to perform what he professed to do, and what he so loudly boasts, at the commencement, of nis being able to do, is ingenious enough. " You will easily comprehend," says one of his characters, " that this confront- ing of texts and quotations is not a great treat for a man of my taste I could not stand this disagreeable labor much longer." (Entretiens de Cleandre et d'Eudoxe. p. 277.) We reserve our remarks on the pre- tended falsifications charged against Pascal, till we come to his own masterly defence of himself in the subsequent letters. "Escobar," says M. Saint-Beuve (Port-JRoyal, t. iii., p. 52), "wai printed forty-one times previous to 1656, and forty-two times durint that year." ED. 12 LETTER IX. iLSE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN INTRODUCED BY THE JESUITS UEVOTION MADE EASY THEIR MAXIMS ON AMBITION, ENVY GLUTTONY, EQUIVOCATION, AND MENTAL RESERVATIONS FEMALB DRESS GAMING HEARING MASS. PARIS, July 3, 1656. SIR, I shall use as little ceremony with you as the worthy monk did with me, when I saw him last. The mo- ment he perceived me, he came forward with his eyes fixed on a hook which he held in his hand, and accosted me thus : " ' Would you not be infinitely obliged to any one who should open to you the gates of paradise ? Would you not give millions of gold to have a key by which you might gain ad- mittance whenever you thought proper ? You need not be at such expense ; here is one here are a hundred for much less money.' " At first I was at a loss to know whether the good fathei was reading, or talking to me, but he soon put the matter beyond doubt by adding : " These, sir, are the opening words of a fine book, written by Father Barry of our Society ; for I never give you any- thing of my own." " What book is it ?" asked I. " Here is its title," he replied : " 'Paradise opened to Philagio, in a Hundred Devotions to the Mother of God, eas- ily practised.' " " Indeed, father ! and is each of these easy devotions a sufficient passport to heaven ?" " It is," returned he. " Listen to what follows : ' The de- votions to the Mother of God, which you will find in this book, are so manv celestial kevs, which will open wide to DEVOTION MADE EAST. 267 f ou the gates of paradise, provided you practise them ;' and accordingly, he says at the conclusion, ' that he is satisfied if you practise only one of them.' " " Pray, then, father, do teach me one of the easiest of them." " They are all easy," he replied , " for example ' Sa- luting the Holy Virgin when you happen to meet her image saying the little chaplet of the pleasures of the Virgin fervently pronouncing the name of Mary commissioning the angels to bow to her for us wishing to build her as many churches as all the monarchs on earth have done bidding her good morrow every morning, and good night in the evening saying the Ave Maria every day, in honor of the heart of Mary' which last devotion, he says, possesses the additional virtue of securing us the heart of the Virgin." 1 "But, father," said I, " only provided we give her our own in return, I presume ?" " That," he replied, " is not absolutely necessary, when a person is too much attached to the world. Hear Father Barry : ' Heart for heart would, no doubt, be highly proper ; but yours is rather too much attached to the world, too much bound up in the creature, so that I dare not advise you to offer, at present, that poor little slave which you call your heart.' And so he contents himself with the Ave Maria which he had prescribed." 8 " Why, this is extremely easy work," said I, " and I should -eally think that nobody will be damned after that." " Alas !" said the monk, " I see you have no idea of the nardness of some people's hearts. There are some, sir, who 1 " Towards the conclusion of the tenth century, new accessions were made to the worship of the Virgin. In this age, (the tenth cen- tury) there are to be found manifest indications of the institution of the rosary and crown (or chaplet) of the Virgin, by which her worshippers were to reckon the number of prayers they were to offer to this new livinity. The rosary consists of fifteen repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, and a hundred and fifty salutations of the blessed Virgin ; while the trown consists in six or seven repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, and seven times ten salutations, or Ave Mwias." (Mosheim, cent. X.) 8 These are the devotions presented at pp. 33, 59, 145. 156, 172, 258 t20 of the first edition. 268 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. would never engage to repeat, every day, even these simplt words, Good day, Good evening, just because such a prac- tice would require some exertion of memory. And, accord- ingly, it became necessary for Father Barry to furnish them with expedients still easier, such as wearing a chaplet nighl and day on the arm, in the form of a bracelet, or carrying about one's person a rosary, or an image of the Virgin. 1 ' And, tell me now,' as Father Barry says, ' if I have not pro- vided you with easy devotions to obtain the good graces of Mary ?' " " Extremely easy indeed, father," I observed. " Yes," he said, " it is as much as could possibly be done, and I think should be quite satisfactory. For he must be a wretched creature indeed, who would not spare a single mo- ment in all his lifetime to put a chaplet on his arm, or a ro- sary in his pocket, and thus secure his salvation ; and that, too, with so much certainty that none who have tried the experiment have ever found it to fail, in whatever way they may have lived ; though, let me add, we exhort people not to omit holy living. Let me refer you to the example of this, given at p. 34 ; it is that of a female who, while she prac- tised daily the devotion of saluting the images of the Virgin, spent all her days in mortal sin, and yet was saved after all, by the merit of that single devotion." " And how so ?" cried I. "Our Saviour," he replied, " raised her up again, for the very purpose of showing it. So certain it is, that none can perish who practise any one of these devotions." " My dear sir." I observed, " I am fully aware that the devotions to the Virgin are a powerful mean of salvation, and that the least of them, if flowing from the exercise of faith and charity, as in the case of the saints who have practised them, are of great merit ; but to make persons believe that, by practising these without reforming their wicked lives, they will be converted by them at the hour of death, or that God Vill raise them up again, does appear calculated rather to 1 See the devotions, at pp. 1 4, 326, 44" DEVOTION MADE EAST. 269 keep sinners going on in their evil courses, by deluding them with false peace and fool-hardy confidence, than to draw them off from sin by that genuine conversion which grace alone can effect.'" " What does it matter," replied the monk, " by what road we enter paradise, provided we do enter it ? as our famous Father Binet, formerly 4 our provincial, remarks on a similar subject, in his excellent book On the Mark of Predestination, ' Be it by hook or by crook,' as he says, ' what need we care, if we reach at last the celestial city.' " " Granted," said I ; " but the great question is, if we will get there at all ?" " The Virgin will be answerable for that," returned he ; " so says Father Barry in the concluding lines of his book : ' If, at the hour of death, the enemy should happen to put in some claim upon you, and occasion disturbance in the little commonwealth of your thoughts, you have only to say that Mary will answer for you, and that he must make his appli- cation to her.' " " But, father, it might be possible to puzzle you, were one disposed to push the question a little further. Who, for example, has assured us that the Virgin will be answerable in this case ?" " Father Barry will be answerable for her," he replied. " ' As for the profit and happiness to be derived from these devotions,' he says, ' I will be answerable for that ; I will stand bail for the good Mother.' " " But, father, who is to be answerable for Father Barry ?" " How !" cried the monk ; " for Father Barry ? is he not a member of our Society ? and do you need to be told that 1 The Jesuits raised a great outcry against Pascal for having, in this letter, as they alleged, turned the worship of the Virgin into ridicule. Nicole seriously undertakes his defence, and draws several distinctions between true and false devotion to the Virgin. The Mariolatry or Mary-worship, of Pascal and the Port-Royalists, was certainly a differ- ent sort of thing from that practised in the Church of Rome ; but it is ad to see the straits to which these sincere devotees were reduced, in heir attempts to reconcile this practice with the honor due to Gjd and ' is Son. 270 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. Dur Society is answerable for all the books of its members ? It is highly necessary and important for you to know aboul this. There is an order in our Society, by which all book- sellers are prohibited from printing any work of our fathers without the approbation of our divines and the permission of our superiors. This regulation was passed by Henry III., 10th May 1583, and confirmed by HeWy IV., 20th Decem- ber 1603, and by Louis XIII., 14th February 1612; so that the whole of our body stands responsible for the publica- tions of each of the brethren. This is a feature quite pecu- liar to our community. And, in consequence of this, not a single work emanates from us which does not breathe the spirit of the Society. That, sir, is a piece of information quite apropos." 1 "My good father," said I, "you oblige me very much, and I only regret that I did not know this sooner, as it will in- duce me to pay considerably more attention to your au- thors." " I would have told you sooner," he replied, " had an op- portunity offered ; I hope, however, you will profit by the in- formation in future, and, in the mean time, let us prosecute our subject. The methods of securing salvation which I have mentioned are, in my opinion, very easy, very sure, and sufficiently numerous ; but it was the anxious wish of our doctors that people should not stop short at this first step, where they only do what is absolutely necessary for salva- tion, and nothing more. Aspiring, as they do without ceas- ing, after the greater glory of God, 8 they sought to elevate 1 Father Daniel makes an ingenious attempt to take off the force of this statement, by representing it as no more than what is done by other societies, universities &c. (Entretiens. p. 32.) But while these bodies acted in good faith on this rule the Jesuits (as Pascal afterwards shows. Letter xiii.) made it subservient to their double policy. Pascal's point was gainful by establishing the fact, that the books published by the Jesuits had the imprimatur of the Society: and. in answer to all that Daniel has said on the point, it may be sufficient to ask, Why not try the simple plan of denouncing the error and censuring the author 1 'See Letter v.. p. 117.) 3 There is an allusion here to the phrase which is pprptually occur- ing in the Constitutions of the Jesuits. ' Ad majorem Dei gto<-iam To DEVOTION MADE EAST. 27 J men to a higher pitch of piety ; and as men of the world are generally deterred from devotion by the strange ideas they have been led to form of it by some people, we have deemed it of the highest importance to remove this obstacle which meets us at the threshold. In this department Fa- ther Le Moine has acquired much fame, by his work entitled DEVOTION MADE EASY, composed for this very purpose. The picture which he draws of devotion in this work is perfectly charming. None ever understood the subject before him. Only hear what he says in the beginning of his work : ' Vir- tue has never as yet been seen aright ; no portrait of her, hitherto produced, has borne the least verisimilitude. It is by no means surprising that so few have attempted to scale her rocky eminence. She has been held up as a cross-tem- pered dame, whose only delight is in solitude ; she has been associated with toil and sorrow ; and, in short, represented as the foe of sports and diversions, which are, in fact, the flowers of joy and the seasoning of life.' " " But, father, I am sure, I have heard at least, that there have been great saints who led extremely austere lives." " No doubt of that," he replied ; " but still, to use the language of the doctor, ' there have always been H number of genteel saints, and well-bred devotees ;' and this differ- ence in their manners, mark you, arises entirely from a differ- ence of humors. ' I am far from denying,' says my author, ' that there are devout persons to be met with, pale and mel- ancholy in their temperament, fond of silence and retirement, with phlegm instead of blood in their veins, and with faces of clay ; but there are many others of a happier complexion, and who possess that sweet and warm humor, that genial and rectified blood, which is the true stuff that joy is made of.' " You see," resumed the monk, " that the love of silence and retirement is not common to all devout people ; and that, as I was saying, this is the effect rather of their complexion than their piety. Those austere manners to which you refer, the greater glory of God." which is the reason ostentatiously paraded for almost all their laws and customs. 272 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. are, in fact, properly the character of a savage and barbarian, and, accordingly, you will find them ranked by Father Le Moine among the ridiculous and brutal manners of a moping idiot. The following is the description he has drawn of one of these in the seventh book of his Moral Pictures : ' He has no eyes for the beauties of art or nature. Were he to indulge in anything that gave him pleasure, he would con- sider himself oppressed with a grievous load. On festival days, he retires to hold fellowship with the dead. He de lights in a grotto rather than a palace, and prefers the stump of a tree to a throne. As to injuries and affronts, he is as insensible to them as if he had the eyes and ears of a statue. Honor and glory are idols with whom he has no acquaintance, and to whom he has no incense to offer. To him a beautiful woman is no better than a spectre ; and those imperial and commanding looks those charming tyrants who hold so many slaves in willing and chainless servitude have no more influence over his optics than the sun over those of owls,' &c." " Reverend sir," said I, " had you not told me that Father Le Moine was the author of that description, I declare I would have guessed it to be the production of some profane fellow, who had drawn it expressly with the view of turning the saints into ridicule. For if that is not the picture of a man entirely denied to those feelings which the Gospel obliges us to renounce, I confess that I know nothing of the mat- ter." 1 "You may now perceive, then, the extent of your igno- rance," he replied ; " for these are the features of a feeble uncultivated mind, 'destitute of those virtuous and natura. affections which it ought to possess,' as Father Le Moine says at the close of that description. Such is his way of teaching ' Christian virtue and philosophy,' as he announces in his advertisement ; and, in truth, it cannot be denied that this method of treating devotion is much more agreeable to 1 If Rome be in the right, Pascal's notion is correct. The religion f the monastery is the only sort of piety or seriousness known to, o* anctionetl by, the Romish Church. AMBITIOK. 273 ihe taste of the world than the old way in which they went to work before our times." "There can be no comparison between them," was my re- ply, " and I now begin to hope that you will be as good aa your word." " You will see that better by-and-by," returned the monk. " Hitherto I have only spoken of piety in general, but, just to show you more in detail how our fathers have disencum- bered it of its toils and troubles, would it not be most con- soling to the ambitious to learn that they may maintain gen uine devotion along with an inordinate love of greatness ?" " What, father ! even though they should run to the ut- most excess of ambition ?" " Yes," he replied ; " for this would be only a venial sin, unless they sought after greatness in order to offend God and injure the State more effectually. Now venial sins do not preclude a man from being devout, as the greatest saints are not exempt from them. ' ' Ambition,' says Escobar, ' which consists in an inordinate appetite for place and power, is of itself a venial sin ; but when su^h dignities are coveted for the purpose of hurting the commonwealth, or having more opportunity to offend God, these adventitious circumstances render it mortal.' " " Very savory doctrine, indeed, father." "And is it not still more savory," continued the monk, " for misers to be told, by the same authority, ' that the rich are not guilty of mortal sin by refusing to give alms out of their superfluity to the poor in the hour of their greatest need ? scio in gravi pauperum necessitate divites non dando tuperflua, non peccare mortaliter? " " Why truly," said I, " if that be the case, I give up all pretension to skill in the science of sins." " To make you still more sensible of this," returned he, " you have been accustomed to think, I suppose, that a good 1 The Romish distinction of sins into venial and mortal, afforded too feir a pretext for such sophistical conclusions to be overlooked by Jes- uitical casuists. 12* 2'/4 PROVINCIAL LKTTKRS. opinion of one's self, and a complacency in one's own works, is a most dangerous sin ? Now, will you not be surprised if I can show you that such a good opinion, even thoxigh there should be no foundation for it, is so far from being a sin, that it is, on the contrary, the gift of God ?" " Is it possible, father ?" " That it is," said the monk ; " and our good Father Garasse 1 shows it in his French work, entitled Summary of the Capital Truths of Religion : 'It is a result of commu- tative justice that all honest labor should find its recompense either in praise or in self-satisfaction. When men of good talents publish some excellent work, they are justly remune- rated by public applause. But when a man of weak parts has wrought hard at some worthless production, and fails to obtain the praise of the public, in order that his labor may not go without its reward, God imparts to him a personal satisfaction, which it would be worse than barbarous injus- tice to envy him. It is thus that God, who is infinitely just, has given even to frogs a certain complacency in their own croaking.' " " Very fine decisions in favor of vanity, ambition, and ava- rice !" cried I ; " and envy, father, will it be more difficult to find an excuse for it ?" " That is a delicate point," he replied. " We require to make use here of Father Bauny's distinction, which he lays down in his Summary of Sins : ' Envy of the spiritual good of our neighbor is mortal, but envy of his temporal good is only venial.' " " And why so, father ?" " You shall hear," said he. " ' For the good that consists in temporal things is so slender, and so insignificant in rela- 1 Francois Garasse was a Jesuit of Anjouleme; he died in 1631 He was much followed as a pree.cher. his sermons beinjr copiously in- terlarded with buffoonery. His controversial works are full of fire anu fury; and his theological Summary, to which Pascal here refers, abounds with eccentricities. It deserves to be mentioned as some off- let to the folly of this writer, that Father Garasse lost his life in conse- quence of his attentions to his countrymen who were infected with the plag-ie. SLOTH. 275 tion to heaven, that it is of no consideration in the eyes of God and hi& saints.' " " But, father, if temporal good is so slender, and of so little consideration, how do you come to permit men's lives to b* taken away in order to preserve it ?'" " You mistake the matter entirely," returned the monk , " you were told that temporal good was of no consideration in the eyes of God, but not in the eyes of men." "That idea never occurred to me," I replied; "and now, it is to be hoped that, in virtue of these same distinctions, the world will get rid of mortal sins altogether." " Do not flatter yourself with that," said the father ; " there are still such things as mortal sins there is sloth, for example." " Nay, then, father dear !" I exclaimed, " after that, fare- well to all ' the joys of life !' " " Stay," said the monk, " when you have heard Escobar's definition of that vice, you will perhaps change your tone : ' Sloth,' he observes, ' lies in grieving that spiritual things are spiritual, as if one should lament that the sacraments are the sources of grace ; which would be a mortal sin.' " " O my dear sir !" cried I, " I don't think that anybody ever took it into his head to be slothful in that way." " And accordingly," he replied, " Escobar afterwards re- marks : ' I must confess that it is very rarely that a person falls into the sin of sloth.' You see now how important it is to define things properly ?" " Yes, father, and this brings to my mind your other defi- nitions about assassinations, ambuscades, and superfluities. 3ut why have you not extended your method to all cases, and given definitions of all vices in your way, so that people may no longer sin in gratifying themselves ?" "It is not always essential," he replied, "to accomplish that purpose by changing the definitions of things. I may illustrate this by referring to the subject of good cheer, whicu is accounted one of the greatest pUasures of life, and which 1 See before, Letter vii., p. 159. 276 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. Escotar thus sanctions in his ' Practice according to our So- ciety :' ' Is it allowable for a person to eat and drink to reple- tion, unnecessarily, and solely for pleasure ? Certainly he may, according to Sanchez, provided he does not thereby injure his health ; because the natural appetite may be permitted to enjoy its proper functions.' "' " Well, father, that is certainly the most complete pas- sage, and the most finished maxim in the whole of your moral system ! What comfortable inferences may be drawn from it ! Why, and is gluttony, then, not even a venial sin ?" " Not in the shape I have just referred to," he replied ; " but, according to the same author, it would be a venial sin ' were a person to gorge himself, unnecessarily, with eating and drinking, to such a degree as to produce vomiting.' 1 So much for that point. I would now say a little about the facilities we have invented for avoiding sin in worldly conver- sations and intrigues. One of the most embarrassing of these cases is how to avoid telling lies, particularly when one is anxious to induce a belief in what is false. In such cases, our doctrine of equivocations has been found of admirable service, according to which, as Sanchez has it, ' it is permit- ted to use ambiguous terms, leading people to understand them in another sense,, from that in which we understand them ourselves.' " 3 " I know that already, father," said I. " We have published it so often," continued he, " that at fength, it seems, everybody knows of it. But do you know what is to be done when no equivocal words can be got ?" " No, father." " I thought as much," said the Jesuit ; " this is something new, sir : I mean the doctrine of mental reservations. ' A 1 " An comedere et. bibere usque ad satietatem absque necessitate ob solar* roluptatem, sit peccatum ? Cum Sanctio negative respnndeo, modo nay obait valetudini, quid licite palest appetitus naturalis suis actibus frui. (N. 102.) " Si quis se usque ad vomitum ingurgitet." (Esc., n. 56.) Op. mor., p. 2, I. 3, c. 6 n. 13. MENTAL RESERVATIONS. 277 man may swear/ as Sanchez says in the same place, ' that ha never did such a thing (though he actually did it), meaning within himself that he did not do so on a certain day, or before he was born, or understanding any other such circumstance, while the words which he employs have no such sense as would discover his meaning. And this is very convenient in many cases, and quite innocent, when necessary or conducive to one's health, honor, or advantage.' " " Indeed, father ! is that not a lie, and perjury to boot ?" " No," said the father ; " Sanchez and Filiutius prove that it is not ; for, says the latter, ' it is the intention that determines the quality of the action.' 1 And he suggests a still surer method for avoiding falsehood, which is this : After saying aloud, / swear that I have not done that, to add, in a low voice, to-day ; or after saying aloud, I swear, to interpose in a whisper, that I say, and then continue aloud, tJiat I have done that. This, you perceive, is telling the truth."* " I grant it," said I ; "it might possibly, however, be found to be telling the truth in a low key, and falsehood in a loud one ; besides, I should be afraid that many people might not have sufficient presence of mind to avail themselves of these methods." " Our doctors," replied the Jesuit, " have taught, in the same passage, for the benefit of such as might not be expert in the use of these reservations, that no more is required of 1 Tr. 25. chap. It, n. 331, 328. 2 The method by which Father Daniel evades this charge is truly Jesuitical. First, he attempts to involve the question in a cloud of difficulties, by supposing extreme cases, in which equivocation may be allowed to preserve life, &c. He has then the assurance to quote Scripture in defence of the practice, referring to the equivocations of Abraham which he vindicates : to those of Tobit and the angel Ra- phael, which he applauds; and even to the sayings of our blessed Lord, which he charges with equivocation ! (Entretiens, pp. 378, 382.) Even Bossuet was ashamed of this abominable maxim. ' I know noth- ing." he says, speaking of Sanchez. " more pernicious in morality, than the opinion of that Jesuit in regard to an oath ; he maintains that the fitention is necessary to an oath, without which, in giving a false an- *wer to a judge, when questioned at the bar. one is not capable of per "ury." (Journal de 1'Abbc le Dieu. apud Dissertation sur la foi qui est (ue au temoignage de Pascal &c.. p. 50.) 278 PROVINCIAL LETTiiKS. them, to avoid lying, than simply to say that they have noi done what they have done, provided ' they have, in general, the intention of giving to their language the sense which an able man would give to it.' Be candid, now, and confess if you have not often felt yourself embarrassed, in consequence of not knowing this?" " Sometimes," said I. "And will you not also acknowledge," continued he, " that it would often prove very convenient to be absolved in conscience from keeping certain engagements one may have made?" " The most convenient thing in the world !" I replied. "Listen, then, to the general rule laid down by Escobar: ' Promises are not binding, when the person in making them had no intention to bind himself. Now, it seldom happens that any have such an intention, unless when they confirm their promises by an oath or contract ; so that when one sim- ply says, / will do it, he means that he will do it if he does not change his mind ; for he does not wish, by saying that, to deprive himself of his liberty.' . He gives other rules in the same strain, which you may consult for yourself, and tells us, in conclusion, ' that all this is taken from Molina and our other authors, and is therefore settled beyond all doubt.' " "My dear father," I observed, "I had no idea that the direction of the intention possessed the power of rendering promises null and void." " You must perceive," returned he, " what facility this affords for prosecuting the business of life. But what has given us the most trouble has been to regulate the commerce between the sexes ; our fathers being more chaiy in the mat- ter of chastity. Not but that they have discussed questions of a very curious and very indulgent character, particularly in reference to married and betrothed persons." At this stage of the conversation I was made acquainted with the most extraordinary questions you can well imagine. He gave me enough of them to fill many letters ; but as you FEMALE DRB88. 279 ihow my communications to all sorts of persons, and as I do not choose to be the vehicle of such reading to those who would make it the subject of diversion, I must decline even giving the quotations. The only thing to which I can venture to allude, out of all the books which he showed me, and these in French, too, is a passage which you will find in Father Bauny's Summary, p. 165, relating to certain little familiarities, which, provided the intention is well directed, he explains " as passing for gallant ;" and you will be surprised to find, at p. 148, a prin- ciple of morals, as to the power which daughters have to dis- pose of their persons without the leave of their relatives, couched in these terms : " When that is done with the con- sent of the daughter, although the father may have reason to complain, it does not follow that she, or the person to whom she has sacrificed her honor, has done him any wrong, or violated the rules of justice in regard to him ; for the daughter has possession of her honor, as well as of her body, and can do what she pleases with them, bating death or mu- tilation of her members." Judge, from that specimen, of the rest. It brings to my recollection a passage from a Heathen poet, a much better casuist, it would appear, than these rev- erend doctors ; for he says, " that the person of a daughter does not belong wholly to herself, but partly to her father and partly *o her mother, without whom she cannot dispose of it, even in marriage." And I am much mistaken if there is a single judge in the land who would not lay down as law the very reverse of this maxim of Father Bauny. This is all I dare tell you of this part of our conversation, which lasted so long that I was obliged to beseech the monk to change the subject. He did so, and proceeded to enter- tain me with their regulations about female attire. " We shall not speak," he said, " of those who are actua- ted by impure intentions ; but as to others, Escobar remarks, that ' if the woman adorn herself without any evil intention, but merely to gratify a natural inclination to vanity ob na~ iuralem fastus indinationem this is only a venial sin, or 280 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. rather no sin at all.' And Father Bauny maintains, that ' even though the woman knows the bad effect which her care in adorning her person may have upon the virtue of those who may behold her, all decked out in rich and precious attire, she would not sin in so dressing." And among oth- ers, he cites our Father Sanchez as being of the same mind." " But, father, what do your authors say to those passages of Scripture which so strongly denounce everything of that sort ?" " Lessius has well met that objection," said the monk, " by observing, ' that these passages of Scripture have the force of precepts only in regard to the women of that period, who were expected to exhibit, by their modest demeanor, an ex- ample of edification to the Pagans.' " " And where did he find that, father ?" "It does not matter where he found it," replied he; "it ia enough to know that the sentiments of these great men are always probable of themselves. It deserves to be noticed, however, that Father Le Moine has qualified this general per- mission ; for he will on no account allow it to be extended to the old ladies. ' Youth,' he observes, ' is naturally entitled to adorn itself, nor can the use of ornament be condemned at an age which is the flower and verdure of life. But there it should be allowed to remain : it would be strangely out of season to seek for roses on the snow. The stars alone havs a right to be always dancing, for they have the gift of per- petual youth. The wisest course in this matter, therefore, for old women, would be to consult good sense and a good mirror, to yield to decency and necessity, and to retire at tb.4 first approach of the shades of night.' "* " A most judicious advice," I observed. i Esc. tr. 1, ex. 8 ; Summary of Sins. c. 46, p. 1094. " They had their Father Le Moine." said Cleandre, " and I am sin- prised they did not oppose him to Pascal. That father had a lively imagination and ajlorid, brilliant style ; he stood high among polished iociety. and his Apology written against the hook entitled : The Moral Theology of the Jesuits.' was hardly less popular than his Currycomb fo" the Jiinsenist Pegasus." " The Society thought, perhaps." replied Eudoxus. " that he could not easily catch the delicate and at the same imc easy style of Pascal. It was Father Le Moine's failing, to embel- HEARING MASS. 281 "But," continued the monk, "just to show you how care- ful our fathers are about everything you can think of, 1 may mention that, after granting the ladies permission to gamble, and foreseeing that, in many cases, this license would be of little avail unless they had something to gamble with, they have established another maxim in their favor, which will be found in Escobar's chapter on larceny, n. 13 : 'A wife,' says he, 'may gamble, and for this purpose may pilfer money from her husband.' " " Well, father, that is capital !" " There are many other good things besides that," said the father ; " but we must waive them, and say a little about those more important maxims, which facilitate the practice of holy things the manner of attending mass, for example. On this subject our great divines, Gaspard Hurtado, and Coninck, have taught ' that it is quite sufficient to be present at mass in body, though we may be absent in spirit, provided we maintain an outwardly respectful deportment.' Vasquez goes a step further, maintaining ' that one fulfils the precept of hearing mass, even though one should go with no such intention at all.' All this is repeatedly laid down by Esco- bar, who, in one passage, illustrates the point by the exam- ple of those who are dragged to mass by force, and who put on a lixed resolution not to listen to it." " Truly, sir," said I, " had any other person told me that, I would not have believed it." "In good sooth," he replied, "it requires all the support which the authority of these great names can lend it ; and so does the following maxim by the same Escobar, ''that even a wicked intention, such as that of ogling the women, joined to that of hearing mass rightly, does not hinder a man from fulfilling the service.' 1 But another very convenient fish all he said, to be always aiming at something witty, and ne /er to *peak simply. Perhaps, too, he did not feel himself equal for the com- bat and did not like to commit himself." 'Entretiens de Cleandre et i'Eudoxe, p. 7H.) 1 " Nee obest alia prava intentio. ut aspiciendi libidinose f-*rana3. n 'Esc. tr. 1, ex. 11, n. 31.) 282 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. device, suggested by our learned brother Turrian, 1 is, that ' one may hear the half of a mass from one priest, and the other half from another ; and that it makes no difference though he should hear first the conclusion of the one, and then the commencement of the other.' I might also mention thai it has been decided by several of our doctors, to be lawful to hear the two halves of a mass at the same time, from the lips of two different priests, one of whom is commencing the mass, while the other is at the elevation ; it being quite pos sible to attend to both parties at once, and two halves of a mass making a whole duoe medietates unam missam consti- tuunt.'* 'From all which,' says Escobar, 'I conclude, that you may hear mass in a very short period of time ; if, for example, you should happen to hear four masses going on at the same timo, so arranged that when the first is at the com- mencement, the second is at the gospel, the third at the con- secration, and the last at the communion.' " " Certainly, father, according to that plan, one may hear mass any day at Notre Dame in a twinkling." " Well," replied he, " that just shows how admirably wo have succeeded in facilitating the hearing of mass. But I am anxious now to show you how we have softened the use of the sacraments, and particularly that of penance. It is here that the benignity of our fathers shines in its truest splendor ; and you will be really astonished to find that de- votion, a thing which the world is so much afraid of, should have been treated by our doctors with such consummate skill, that, to use the words of Father Le Moine, in his Devo- tion made Easy, ' demolishing the bugbear which the devil had placed at its threshold, they have rendered it easier than vice, and more agreeable than pleasure ; so that, in fact, simply to live is incomparably more irksome than to live well. Is that not a marvellous change, now ?" "Indeed, father, I cannot help telling you a bit of mj > Select , p. 2. d. 16. Sub. 7. 11 Bauny. Hurtado Azor &c. Escobar, " Practice for Hearing Mas* IccordinjT to our Society." Lyons edition. HEARING MASS. 283 mind : I am sadly afraid that you have overs! ot the mark, and that this indulgence of yours will shock more people than it will attract. The mass, for example, is a thing so grand and so holy, that, in the eyes of a great many, it would be enough to blast the credit of your doctors forever, to show them how you have spoken of it." " With a certain class," replied the monk, " I allow that may be the case ; but do you not know that we accommodate ourselves to all sorts of persons ? You seem to have lost all recollection of what I have repeatedly told you on this point. The first time you are at leisure, therefore, I propose that we make this the theme of our conversation, deferring till then the lenitives we have introduced into the confessional. I promise to make you understand it so well that you will never forget it." With these words we parted, so that our next conversa- tion, I presume, will turn on the policy of the Society. I am, f the Holy Ghost, and not of the apostles except ministerially, in the use of the spiritual keys of doctrine and discipline, of intercessary praye and of the sacraments. (Ussher's Jesuits' Challenge, p. 122. &c.) Even the schoolmen held that the power of binding and loosing committed to the ministers of the Church is not absolute, but must be limited byclaot \um errante. or when no error is committed ia the use of the keys. ABSOLUTION. 289 sir, that passage ought to make an impression on the confes- sors, and render them very circumspect in the dispensation of this sacrament, to ascertain whether the regret of their penitents is sufficient, and whether their promises of future amendment are worthy of credit." " That is not such a difficult matter,'' replied the father ; ' Filiutius had more sense than to leave confessors in that dilemma, and accordingly he suggests an easy way of getting out of it, in the words immediately following : ' The confessor may easily set his mind at rest as to the disposition of his penitent ; for, if he fail to give sufficient evidence of sorrow, the confessor has only to ask him if he does not detest the sin in his heart, and if he answers that he does, he is bound to believe it. The same thing may be said of resolutions as to the future, unless the case involves an obligation to resti- tution, or to avoid some proximate occasion of sin.' " w As to that passage, father, I can easily believe that it is Filiutius' own." " You are mistaken though," said the father, " for he has extracted it, word for word, from Suarez." " But, father, that last passage from Filiutius overturns what he had laid down in the former. For confessors can no longer be said to sit as judges on the disposition of their penitents, if they are bound to take it simply upon their word, in the absence of all satisfying signs of contrition. Are the professions made on such occasions so infallible, that no other sign is needed ? I question much if experience has taught your fathers, that all who make fair promises are re- markable for keeping them ; I am mistaken if they have not often found the reverse." " No matter," replied the monk ; " confessors are bound to believe them for all that ; for Father Bauny, who has probed this question to the bottom, has concluded ' that at whatever time those who have fallen into frequent relapses, without giving evidence of amendment, present themselves before a confessor, expressing their regret for the past, and a good 1 In 3 part ; t. 4, disp. J2, sect. 2, n. 2. 13 J&O PROVINCIAL LETTERS. purpose for the future, he is bound to believe them on their simple averment, although there may be reason to presume that such resolution only came from the teeth outwards. Nay,' says he, ' though they should indulge subsequently to greater excess than ever in the same delinquencies, still, in my opinion, they may receive absolution.' * There now that, I am sure, should silence you." " But, father," said I, " you impose a great hardship, I think, on the confessors, by thus obliging them to believe the very reverse of what they see." " You don't understand it," returned he ; " all that is meant is, that they are obliged to act and absolve as if they believed that their penitents would be true to their engage- ments, though, in point of fact, they believe no such thing. This is explained, immediately afterwards, by Suarez and Fi- liutius. After having said that ' the priest is bound to believe the penitent on his word,' they add, ' It is not necessary that the confessor should be convinced that the good resolution of his penitent will be carried into effect, nor even that he should judge it probable ; it is enough that he thinks the person has at the time the design in general, though he may very shortly after relapse. Such is the doctrine of all our authors ita docent omnes an tores.' Will you presume to doubt what has been taught by our authors ?" " But, sir, what then becomes of what Father Petau' him- self is obliged to own, in the. preface to his Public Penance, ' that the holy fathers, doctors, and councils of the Church 1 Summary of Sins. c. 46 p. 1000. 1, '2. * Denis Petau (Dionysius Petnvius) a learned Jesuit, was born at Orleans in 1593. and died in 1652. The catalogue of his works alon would fill a volume. He wrote in elegant Latin, on all subjects, gram- mar, history, chronology. &c.. as well as theology. Perrault informs us that he had an incredible ardor for the conversion of heretics, and had almost succeeded in converting the celebrated Grotius a very unlikely story. (Les Hommes Illustres. p. 19.) His book on Public Penance (Paris, 1644) was intended as a refutation of Arnauld's ' Frequent Communion;" but is said to have been ill-written and unsuccessful. Though he professed the theology of his order, he is said to have had a kind of predilection for austere opinions, being naturally of a melan- choly temper. When invited by the pope to visit Rome, he replied " I m too old iojlit" demenager. (Diet. Univ., art. Petau.} ABSOLUTION. 291 agree in holding it as a settled point, that the penance pre- paratory to the eucharist must be genuine, constant, resolute, and not languid and sluggish, or subject to after-thoughts and relapses?'" " Don't you observe," replied the monk, " that Father Pe- tau is speaking of the ancient Church ? But all that is now $o little in season, to use a common saying of our doctors, that, according to Father Bauny, the reverse is the only true view of the matter. ' There are some,' says he, ' who main- tain that absolution ought to be refused to those who fall fre- quently into the same sin, more especially if, after being of- ten absolved, they evince no signs of amendment ; and others hold the opposite view. But the only true opinion is, that they ought not to be refused absolution ; and though they should be nothing the better of all the advice given them, though they should have broken all their promises to lead new lives, and been at no trouble to purify themselves, still it is of no consequence ; whatever may be said to the contrary, the true opinion which ought to be followed is, that even in all these cases, they ought to be absolved.' And again : ' Absolution ought neither to be denied nor delayed in the case of those who live in habitual sins against the law of God, of nature, and of the Church, although there should be no apparent prospect of future amendment etsi emendationis futures nulla spes appareat.' " " But, father, this certainty of always getting absolution may induce sinners " " I know what you mean," interrupted the Jesuit : " but listen to Father Bauny, q. 15 : ' Absolution may be given even to him who candidly avows that the hope of being absolved induced him to sin with more freedom than he would other- wise have done.' And Father Caussin, defending this prop- osition, says, ' that were this not true, confession would be interdicted to the greater part of mankind ; and the only re- KHircc left for poor sinners would be a branch and a rope !' " > Reply to the Moral Theol, p. 211. 292 PROVINCIAL LETTEKB a O father, how these maxims of yours will draw people to your confessionals ! " " Yes," he replied, " you would hardly believe what num- bers are in the habit of frequenting them ; ' we are absolutely oppressed and overwhelmed, so to speak, under the crowd of our penitents penitentium numero obruimur ' as is said in The Image of the First Century.' " ** I could suggest a very simple method," said I, " to es- cape from this inconvenient pressure. You have only to oWige sinners to avoid the proximate occasions of sin ; that single expedient would afford you relief at once." " We have no wish for such a relief," rejoined the monk ; " quite the reverse ; for, as is observed in the same book, ' the great end of our Society is to labor to establish the virtues, to wage war on the vices, and to save a great number of souls.' Now, as there are very few souls inclined to quit the proximate occasions of sin, we have been obliged to define what a proximate occasion is. ' That cannot be called a prox- imate occasion,' says Escobar, 'where one sins but rarely, or on a sudden transport say three or four times a year;" or, as Father Bauny has it, ' once or twice in a month.' 2 Again, asks this author, ' what is to be done in the case of masters and servants, or cousins, who, living under the same roof, are by this occasion tempted to sin ?' " " They ought to be separated," said I. " That is what he says, too, ' if their relapses be very fre- quent : but if the parties offend rarely, and cannot be sepa- ated withoiit trouble and loss, they may, according to Sua- rez and other authors, be absolved, provided they promise to Bin no more, and are truly sorry for what is past.' " This required no explanation, for he had already informed me with what sort of evidence of contrition the confessor was bound to rest satisfied. "And Father Bauny," continued the monk, "permits those who are involved in the proximate occasions of sin, ' to remain as they are, when they cannot avoid them without 1 Esc., Practice of the Society, tr. 7, ex. 4, n. 226, 2 P. 1082, 1089 OCCASIONS OF SIN. 293 becoming the common talk of the world, or subjecting them- selves to inconvenience.' ' A priest,' he remarks in another work, ' may and ought to absolve a woman who is guilty of living with a paramour, if she cannot put him away honora- bly, or has some reason for keeping him si non potest honeste tjicere, aut habeat aliquam causam retinendi provided she promises to act more virtuously for the future.' " " Well, father," cried I, " you have certainly succeeded in relaxing the obligation of avoiding the occasions of sin to a very comfortable extent, by dispensing with the duty as soon as it becomes inconvenient ; but I should think your fathers will at least allow it to be binding when there is no difficulty in the way of its performance ?" " Yes," said the father, " though even then the rule is not without exceptions. For Father Bauny says, in the same place, ' that any one may frequent profligate houses, with the view of converting their unfortunate inmates, though the probability should be that he fall into sin, having often expe- rienced before that he has yielded to their fascinations. Some doctors do not approve of this opinion, and hold that no man may voluntarily put his salvation in peril to succor his neigh- bor ; yet I decidedly embrace the opinion which they contro- vert.' " " A novel sort of preachers these, father ! But where does Father Bauny find any ground for investing them with such a mission ?" " It is upon one of his own principles," he replied, " which he announces in the same place after Basil Ponce. I men- tioned it to you before, and I presume you have not forgotten it. It is, ' that one may seek an occasion of sin, directly and expressly primo et per se to promote the temporal or sph- ktual good of himself or his neighbor.' " On hearing these passages, I felt so horrified that I was on Hie point of breaking out ; but, being resolved to hear him lo an end, I restrained myself, and merely inquired : " How, father, does this doctrine comport with that of the Gospel, 1 Theol. Mor., tr 4, De Poenit., q. 13 pp. 93, 91. 894 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. which binds us to ' pluck out the right eye,' and ' cut off the right hand,' when they ' offend,' or prove prejudicial to salvation ? And how can you suppose that the man who wilfully indulges in the occasions of sins, sincerely hates sin ? Is it not evident, on the contrary, that he has never been properly touched with a sense of it, and that he has not yet experienced that genuine conversion of heart, which makes a man love God as much as he formerly loved the creature ? " * Indeed ! " cried he, " do you call that genuine contrition ? It seems you do not know that, as Father Pintereau l says, ' all our fathers teach, with one accord, that it is an error, and almost a heresy, to hold that contrition is necessary ; or that attrition alone, induced by the sole motive, the fear of the pains of hell, which excludes a disposition to offend, is not sufficient with the sacrament ? ' " 2 " What, father ! do you mean to say that it is almost an article of faith, that attrition, induced merely by fear of pun- ishment, is sufficient with the sacrament ? That idea, I think, is peculiar to your fathers ; for those other doctors who hold that attrition is sufficient along with the sacrament, always take care to show that it must be accompanied with some love to God at least. It appears to me, moreover, that even your own authors did not always consider this doctrine of yours so certain. Your Father Suarez, for instance, speaks 1 The work ascribed to Pintereau was entitled, " Les Impostures et les Ig- I orances du Libelle intitule la Theologie Morale des Je'suites : par 1'AbM ia Boisic." 2 That is, the sacrament of penance, as it is called. " That contrition is at kit times necessarily required for obtaining remission of sins and justifica- tion, is a matter determined by the fathers of Trenc. But mark yet the mystery. They equivocate with us in the term contrition, and make a dis- tinction thereof into perfect and imperfect. The former of these is contrition properly; the latter they call atti-ition, which, howsoever in itself it be no true contrition, yet when the priest, with his power of forgiving sins, inter- poses himself in the business, they tell us that attrition, by virtue of the keys, is made contrition : that is to say, that a sorrow arising from a servile c enr of punishment, and such a fruitless repentance as the reprobate may fairy with them to hell, by virtue of the priest's absolution, is made so fruit- ful that it shall serve the turn for obtaining forgiveness of sins, as if it had been that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation not to be re- pented of. By which spiritual cozenage manv poor souls are most miser tbly deluded." (Ussher's Tracts, p. 153.) ATTRITION. 295 f it thus : ' Although it is a probable opinion that attrition is sufficient with the sacrament, yet it is not certain, and it may be false nonest certa, et potest esse falsa. And if it is false, attrition is not sufficient to save a man ; and he that dies knowingly in this state, wilfully exposes himself to the grave peril of eternal damnation. For this opinion is neither very ancient nor very common -nee valde antiqua, nee mul- ium communist Sanchez was not more prepared to hold it as infallible, when he said in his Summary, that ' the sick man and his confessor, who content themselves at the hour of death with attrition and the sacrament, are both chargeable with mortal sin, on account of the great risk of damnation to which the penitent would be exposed, if the opinion tha attrition is sufficient with the sacrament should not turn out to be true.' Comitolus, too, says that ' we should not be too sure that attrition suffices with the sacrament.' " * Here the worthy father interrupted me. " What !" he cried, " you read our authors then, it seems ? That is all very well ; but it would be still better were you never to read them without the precaution of having one of us beside you. Do you not see, now, that, from having read them alone, you have concluded, in your simplicity, that these pas- sages bear hard on those who have more lately supported our doctrine of attrition ? whereas it might be shown that nothing could set them off to greater advantage. Only think what a triumph it is for our fathers of the present day to have suc- ceeded in disseminating their opinion in such short time, and to such an extent that, with the exception of theologians, no- body almost would ever suppose but that our modern views .n this subject had been the uniform belief of the faithful in all ages ! So that, in fact, when you have shown, from our fathers themselves,, that, a few years ago, ' this opinion was lot certain,' you have only succeeded in giving our modern authors the whole merit of its establishment ! 1 These quotations, carefully marked in the original, afford a suffi- cient answer to Father Daniel's loner argument, which consists chiefly f citations from J^uit writers who hold the views above given. 296 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. " Accordingly," he continued, " our cord;?.! friend Diana, to gratify us, no doubt, has recounted the various steps by which the opinion reached its present position. 1 ' In former days, the ancient schoolmen maintained that contrition was necessary as soon as one had committed a mortal sin ; since then, however, it has been thought that it is not binding ex- cept on festival days ; afterwards, only when some great calamity threatened the people : others, again, that it ought not to be long delayed at the approach of death. But our fathers, Hurtado and Vasquez, have ably refuted all these opinions, and established that one is not bound to contrition unless he cannot be absolved in any other way, or at the point of death !' But, to continue the wonderful progress of this doctrine, I might add, what co/ fathers, Fagundez, Granados, and Escobar, Lave decided, 'that contrition is not necessary even at death ; because,' say they, ' if attrition with the sacrament did not suffice at death, it would follow that attrition would not be sufficient with the sacrament. And the learned Hurtado, cited by Diana and Escobar, goes still further ; for he asks, ' Is that sorrow for sin which flows solely from apprehension of its temporal consequences, such as having lost health or money, sufficient ? We must distin- guish. If the evil is not regarded as sent by the hand of God, such a sorrow does not suffice ; but if the evil is viewed as sent by God, as, in fact, all evil, says Diana, except sin, comes from him, that kind of sorrow is sufficient.' 3 Our Father Lamy holds the same doctrine." 3 " You surprise me, father ; for I see nothing in all that Attrition of which you speak but what is natural ; and in this way a sinner may render himself worthy of absolution without 1 It may be remembered that Diana, though not a Jesuit, was claimed by the Society as a favorer of their casuists. This writer was once held in suca high repute, that he was consulted by people from all parts of the world as t perfect oracle in cases of conscience. He is now forgotten. His style like that of most of these scholastics, is described as " insipid, stingy, unc "rawling." (Biogr. Univ., Anc. et Mod.) 2 Eso. Pratique de notre Socie'te', tr. 7, ex. 4, n. 91. * Tr. 8, disp. 3, n. 13. ATTRITION. 297 supernatural grace at all. Now everybody knows that this is a heresy condemned by the Council." 1 " I should have thought with you," he replied ; " and yel it seems this must not be the case, for the fathers of our Col- lege of Clermont have maintained (in their Theses of the 23rd May and 6th June 1644) 'that attrition may be holy and sufficient for the sacrament, although it may not be super- natural :' and (in that of August 1643) ' that attrition, though merely natural, is sufficient for the sacrament, provided it ia honest.' I do not see what more could be said on the sub- ject, unless we choose to subjoin an inference, which may be easily drawn from these principles, namely, that contrition, so far from being necessary to the sacrament, is rather preju- dicial to it, inasmuch as, by washing away sins of itself, it would leave nothing for the sacrament to do at all. That is, indeed, exactly what the celebrated Jesuit Father Valencia remarks. (Tom. iv., disp. 7, q. 8, p. 4.) ' Contrition,' says he, 'is by no means necessary in order to obtain the princi- pnl benefit of the sacrament ; on the contrary, it is rather an obstacle in the way of it imo obstat potius quominus effectus seguatur.' Nobody could well desire more to be said in commendation of attrition." 2 " I believe that, father," said I ; " but you must allow me to tell you my opinion, and to show you to what a dreadful length this doctrine leads. When you say that ' attrition, induced by the mere dread of punishment,' is sufficient, with the sacrament, to justify sinners, does it not follow that a person may always expiate his sins in this way, and thus be 1 Of Trent. Nicole attempts to prove that the " imperfect contrition" of this Council includes the love of God, and that they condemned as heretical the opinion, that <: any could prepare himself for grace with- out a movement of the Holy Spirit." He is more successful in showing hat the Jesuits were heretical when judged by Augustine and the Holy Scriptures. (Note 2, sur la x. Lettre.) 2 The Jesuits are so fond of their "attrition," or purely natural repent- Mice, that one of their own theologians (Cardinal Francis Tolet) having condemned it, they falsiriecl the passage in a subsequent edition, making him speak the opposite sentiment. The forgery was exposed ; but the worthy fathers, according to custom, allowed it to pass without notice, ad Vtajorem Dei gloriam. (Nicole, iii. 95.) 298 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. laved without ever having loved God all his lifetime ? Would your fathers venture to hold that ? " " I perceive," replied the monk, " from the strain of your remarks, that you need some information on the doctrine of our fathers regarding the love of God. This is the last fea- ture of their morality, and the most important of all. You must have learned something of it from the passages about contrition which I have quoted to you. But here are others etill more definite on the point of love to God Don't inter rupt me, now ; for it is of importance to notice the connection. Attend to Escobar, who reports the different opinions of our authors, in his ' Practice of the Love of God according to our Society.' The question is : " When is one obliged to have an actual affection for God ? ' Suarez says, it is enough if one loves him before being articulo mortis at the point of death without determining the exact time. Vasquez, that it is sufficient even at the very point of death. Others, when one has received baptism. Others, again, when one is bound to exercise contrition. And others, on festival days. But our father, Castro Palao, combats all these opinions, and with good reason merito. Hurtado de Mendoza insists that we are obliged to love God once a-year; and that we ought to regard it as a great favor that we are not bound to do it oftener. But our Father Coninck thinks that we are bound to it only once in three or four years ; Henriquez, once in five years ; and Filiutius says that it is probable that we are not strictly bound to it even once in five years. How often, then, do you ask ? Why, he refers it to the judgment of the judicious." I took no notice of all this badinage, in which the ingenu- ity of man seems to be sporting, in the height of insolence, with the love of God. " But," pursued the monk, " our Father Antony Sirraond surpasses all on this point, in his admirable book, ' The De- fence of Virtue,' 1 where, as he tells the reader, ' he speaks French in France,' as follows : ' St. Thomas says that we 1 Tr. 1, ex. 2, n. 21; and tr. 5, ex. 4, n. 8. LOVE TO GOD. 299 re obliged to love God as soon as we come to the use of reason : that is rather too soon ! Scotus says, every Sunday, pray, for what reason ? Others say, when we are sorely tempted : yes, if there be no other way of escaping the temptation. Scotus says, when we have received a benefit from God : good, in the way of thanking him for it. Others say, at death : rather late ! As little do I think it binding at the reception of any sacrament : attrition in such cases is quite enough, along with confession, if convenient. Suarez says that it is binding at some time or another ; but at what time ? he leaves you to judge of that for yourself he does not know ; and what that doctor did not know I know not who should know.' In short, he concludes that we are not strictly bound to more than to keep the other commandments, without any affection for God, and without giving him our hearts, provided that we do not hate him. To prove this is the sole object of his second treatise. You will find it in every page ; more especially where he says : ' God, in com- manding us to love him, is satisfied with our obeying him in his other commandments. If God had said, Whatever obe- dience thou yieldest me, if thy heart is not given to me, I will destroy thee ! would such a motive, think you, be well fit- ted tc promote the end which God must, and only can, have in view ? Hence it is said that we shall love God by doing his will, a* if we loved him with affection, as if the motive in this case was real charity. If that is really our motive, so ' nuch the better ; if not, still we are strictly fulfilling the ommandment of love, by having its works, so that (such is the goodness of God !) we are commanded, not so much to love him, as not to hate him.' " Such is the way in which our doctors have discharged men from the ' painful' obligation of actually loving God. And this doctrine is so advantageous, that our Fathers An- &at, Pintereau, Le Moine, and Antony Sirmond himself, nave strenuously defended it when it has been attacked. You have only to consult their answers to the ' Moral Theology.' That of Father Pintereau, in particular, will enable you to 800 PROVINCIAL LE TTERS. form some idea of the value of this dispensation, from the price which he tells us that it cost, which is no less than the blood of Jesus Christ. This crowns the whole. It appears, that this dispensation from the ' painful ' obligation to love God, is the privilege of the Evangelical law, in opposition to the Judaical. ' It was reasonable,' he says, ' that, under the law of grace in the New Testament, God should relieve us from that troublesome and arduous obligation which existed under the law of bondage, to exercise an act of perfect con- trition, in order to be justified ; and that the place of this should be supplied by the sacraments, instituted in aid of an easier disposition. Otherwise, indeed, Christians, who are the children, would have no greater facility in gaining the good graces of their Father than the Jews, who were the slaves, had in obtaining the mercy of their Lord and Master.' '" " father !" ciied I ; "no patience can stand this any longer. It is impossible to listen without horror to the sen- timents I have just heard." " They are not my sentiments," said the monk. " I grant it, sir," said I ; " but you feel no aversion to them ; and, so far from detesting the authors of these max- .-ms, you hold them in esteem. Are you not afraid that your consent may involve you in a participation of their guilt ? and are you not aware that St. Paul judges worthy of death, 1 Shocking as these principles are, it might be easy to show that they necessarity flow from the Romish doctrine, which substitutes the imper- "ect obedience of the sinner as the meritorious ground of justification, in the room of the all-perfect obedience and oblation of the Son of God, whith renders it necessary to lower the divine standard of duty. The attempt of Father Daniel to escape from the serious charge in the text Under a cloud of metaphysical distinctions about affective and effective love, is about as lame as the argument he draws from the merciful sharacter of the Gospel, is dishonorable to the Saviour, who " came not D destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil." But this "confusion worse confounded" arises from putting love to God out of its proper Dlace. and representing it as the price of our pardon, instead of the fruit of faith in pardoning mercy. Arnauld was as far wrong on this point as the Jesuits ; and it is astonishing that he did not discover in their system the radical error of his own creed carried out to its proper con- lequences. (Reponse Gen. au Livre de M. Aniauld, par Elie Merlat p. 30.) PASCAL'S INDIGNANT DISCLOSURE. 301 Dot only the authors of evil things, but also ' those who have pleasure in them that do them ?' Was it not enough to have permitted men to indulge in so many forbidden things? under the covert of your palliations? Was it necessary to go still further, and hold out a bribe to them to commit even those crimes which you found it impossible to excuse, by offering them an easy and certain absolution ; and for this purpose nullifying the power of the priests, and obliging them, more as slaves than as judges, to absolve the most in- veterate sinners without any amendment of life without any sign of contrition except promises a hundred times bro- ken without penance ' unless they choose to accept of it ' and without abandoning the occasions of their vices, ' if they should thereby be put to any inconvenience ?' " But your doctors have gone even beyond this ; and the license which they have assumed to tamper with the most holy rules of Christian conduct amount to a total subversion of the law of God. They violate ' the great commandment on which hang all the law and the prophets ; ' they strike at the very heart of piety ; they rob it of the spirit that giveth life ; they hold that to love God is not necessary to salva- tion ; and go so far as to maintain that ' this dispensation from loving God is the privilege which Jesus Christ has in- troduced into the world !' This, sir, is the very climax of impiety. The price of the blood of Jesus Christ paid to obtain us a dispensation from loving him ! Before the incar- nation, it seems men were obliged to love God ; but since God has so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son,' the world, redeemed by him, is released from loving him ! Strange divinity of our days to dare to take off the 'anathema' which St. Paul denounces on those ' that love not the Lord Jesus ! ' To cancel the sentence of St. John : ' He that loveth not, abideth in death ! ' and that of Jesus Christ himself: 'He that loveth me not keepeth not my pre- Repts ! ' and thus to render those worthy of enjoying God trough eternity who never loved God all their life ! * Be- 1" Nothing on this point," gays Nicole in a note here," can be finer 302 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. hold the Mystery of Iniquity fulfilled ! Open your eyes at length, my dear father, and if the other aberrations of your casuists have made no impression on you, let these last, by their very extravagance, compel you to abandon them. This is what I desire from the bottom of my heart, for your own sake and for the sake of your doctors ; and my prayer to God is, that he would vouchsafe to convince them how false the light must be that has guided them to such preci- pices ; and that he would fill their hearts with that love of himself from which they have dared to give man a dis- pensation !" After some remarks of this nature, I took my leave of the monk, and I see no great likelihood of my repeating my visits to him. This, however, need not occasion you any regret; for, should it be necessary to continue these com- munications on their maxims, I have studied their books suf- ficiently to tell you as much of their morality, and more, perhaps, of their policy, than he could have done himself. I am, i L^e blushes of Delphina to the ardor of those spirits, which s neither more nor less than the ardor of divine love, and this simile of the fan applied to their mysterious wings, strike you as being very Christian-like in the lips which con- 316 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. secrate the adorable body of Jesus Christ ? I am quite aware that he speaks only in the character of a gallant, and to raise a smile ; but this is precisely what is called laughing at things holy. And is it not certain, that, were he to get full justice, he could not save himself from incurring a cen- sure ? although, to shield himself from this, he pleads an excuse which is hardly less censurable than the offence, "that the Sorbonne has no jurisdiction over Parnassus, and that the errors of that land are subject neither to censure nor the Inquisition ;" as if one could act the blasphemer and profane fellow only in prose ! There is another passage, however, in the preface, where even this excuse fails hit:;, when he says, " that the water of the river, on whose banks he composes his verses, is so apt to make poets, that, though it were converted into holy water, it would not chase away the demon of poesy." To match this, I may add the follow- ing flight of your Father Garasse, in his " Summary of the Capital Truths in Religion," where, speaking of the sacre \ mystery of the incarnation, he mixes up blasphemy and her- esy in this fashion : " The human personality was grafted, as it were, or set on horseback, upon the personality of the Word !'" And omitting many others, I might mention an- other passage from the same author, who, speaking on the subject of the name of Jesus, ordinarily written thus, j. H. s. observes that " some have taken away the cross from the tcp of it, leaving the characters barely thus, I. H. S. which," says he, "is a stripped Jesus !" Such is the indecency with which you treat the truths of religion, in the face of the inviolable law which binds us al- ways to speak of them with reverence. But you have sinned no less flagrantly against the rule which obliges us to speak of them with truth and discretion. What is more common 1 The apologists of the Jesuits attempted to justify this extraordinary 'Hustration, by referring to the use which Augustine and other fathers make of the parable of the good Samaritan who" set on his own beast' the wounded traveller. But Nicole has shown that fanciful as these indent interpreters oftenwere.it is doing them injustice to. father on -m the absurdity of Father Garasse. (Nicole's Notes iii. 340.) CALUMNY. 311 in your writings than calumny ? Can those of Father Bri- sacier 1 be called sincere ? Does he speak with truth when he says, that " the nuns of Port-Royal do not pray to the saints, and have no images in their church ?" Are not these most outrageous falsehoods, when the contrary appears before the eyes of all Paris ? And can he be said to speak with discretion, when he stabs the fair reputation of these virgins, who lead a life so pure and austere, representing them as " impenitent, unsacramentalists, uncommunicants, foolish vir- gins, visionaries, Calagans, desperate creatures, and anything you please," loading them with many other slanders, which have justly incurred the censure of the late Archbishop of Paris ? or when he calumniates priests of the most irreproach- able morals, 2 by asserting " that they practise novelties in confession, to entrap handsome innocent females, and that he would be horrified to tell the abominable crimes which they commit." Is it not a piece of intolerable assurance, to ad- vance slanders so black and base, not merely without proof, but without the slightest shadow, or the most distant sem- blance of truth ? I shall not enlarge on this topic, but defer it to a future occasion, for I have something more to say to you about it ; but what I have now produced is enough to show that you have sinned at once against truth and dis- cretion. But it may be said, perhaps, that you have not offended against the last rule at least, which binds you to desire the salvation ^f those whom you denounce, and that none can charge you with this, except by unlocking the secrets of your breasts, which are only known to God. It is strange, fathers, but true, nevertheless, that we can convict you even of this offence ; that while your hatred to your opponents has carried you so far as to wish their eternal perdition, your 1 Brisaeier, who became rector of the College of Rouen, was a bitter inamy of the Port- Royalists. His defamatory libel against the nuns of Port-Royal, entitled, " Le Jansenisme Confondu," published in 1651, was censured by the Archbishop of Paris, and vigorously assailed by M. Ar- ikuld- a The priests of Port-Royal. 318 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. infatuation has driven you to discover the abominable wish that so far from cherishing in secret desires for their salva- tion, you have offered up prayers in public for their damna- tion ; and that, after having given utterance to that hideous vow in the city of Caen, to the scandal of the whole Church, you have since then ventured, in Paris, to vindicate, in your printed books, the diabolical transaction. After such gros* offences against piety, first ridiculing and speaking lightly of things the most sacred ; next falsely and scandalously ca- lumniating priests and virgins ; and lastly, forming desires and prayers for their damnation, it would be difficult to add anything worse. I cannot conceive, fathers, how you can fail to be ashamed of yourselves, or how you could have thought for an instant of charging me with a want of charity, who have acted all along with so much truth and moderation, without reflecting on your own horrid violations of charity, manifested in those deplorable exhibitions, which make the charge recoil against yourselves. In fine, fathers, to conclude with another charge which you bring against me, I see you complain that among the vast number of your maxims which I quote, there are some which have been objected to already, and that I " say over anrain, what others have said before me." To this I reply, that it is just because you have not profited by what has been said be- fore, that I say it over again. Tell me now what fruit has appeared from all the castigations y^u have received in all the books written by learned docturs, and even the whole university ? What more have your fathers Annat, Caussin Pintereau, and Le Moine done, in the replies they have put forth, except loading with reproaches those who had given them salutary admonitions t Have you suppressed the books in which these nefarious maxims are taught? 1 Have you 1 This is the real question, which brings the matter to a point, and serves to answer all the evasions of the Jesuits. They boast of their unity as a society, and their blind obedience to their head. Have they, Ihen. ever, as a society disclaimed these maxims ? have they even, at tuck, condemned the sentiments of their fathers Becan. Mariana, and Hhers. on the duty of dethroning and assassinating herttical kings PERTINACITY OF THE JESUITS. 819 restrained the authors of these maxims ? Have you become more circumspect in regard to them ? On the contrary, is it not the fact, that since that time Escobar has been repeat- edly reprinted in France and in the Low Countries, and that your fathers Cellot, Bagot, Bauny, Lamy, Le Moine, and others, persist in publishing daily the same maxims over again, or new ones as licentious as ever ? Let us hear no more complaints, then, fathers, either because I have charged you with maxims which you have not disavowed, or because I have objected to some new ones against you, or because I have laughed equally at them all. You have only to sit down and look at them, to see at once your own confusion and my defence. Who can look without laughing at the decision of Bauny, respecting the person who employs another to set fire to his neighbor's barn ; that of Cellot on restitution ; the rule of Sanchez in favor of sorcerers ; the plan of Hurtado for avoiding the sin of duelling by taking a walk through a field, and waiting for a man ; the compliments of Bauny for escaping usury ; the way of avoiding simony by a detour of the intention, and keeping clear of falsehood by speaking high and low ; and such other opinions of your most grave and reverend doctors ? Is there anything more necessary, fathers, for my vindication ? and as Tertullian says, " can anything be more justly due to the vanity and weakness of these opin- ions than laughter ? " But, fathers, the corruption of man- ners to which your maxims lead, deserves another sort of consideration ; and it becomes us to ask, with the same an- cient writer, " Whether ought we to laugh at their folly, or deplore their blindness ? Rideam vanitatem, an exprobrem ccecitatem ? " My humble opinion is, that one may either laugh at them or weep over them, as one is in the humor. ffcec tolerabilius vel ridentur, vel flentitr, as St. Augustine says. The Scripture tells us that " there is a time to laugh, and a time to weep ; " and my hope is, fathers, that I may not find verified, in your case, these words in the Proverbs : Thej- have not; and till this is done, they must be held, as Jesuits, respon- lible for the sentiments which they refuse to disavow. 320 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. " If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest." 1 P. S. On finishing this letter, theie was put in my hands one of your publications, in which you accuse me of falsifica- tion, in the case of six of your maxims quoted by me, and also with being in correspondence with heretics. You will shortly receive, I trust, a suitable reply ; after which, fathers, I rather think you will not feel very anxious to continue this species of warfare. 1 1 Prov. nix. 9. * This postscript, which appeared in the earlier editions, it dropl in that of Nicole and others. LETTER XII. TO THE REVEREND FATHERS, THE JESUITS. REFUTATION OF THEIE CHICANERIES REGARDING ALMS-GIVING AMI SIMONY. September 9, 1656. REVEREND FATHERS, I was prepared to write you on the subject of the abuse with which you have for some time past been assailing me in your publications, in which you salute me with such epithets as " reprobate," " buffoon," " block- head," "merry-Andrew," "impostor," "slanderer," "cheat," " heretic," " Calvinist in disguise," " disciple of Du Moulin,'" " possessed with a legion of devils," and everything else you can think of. As I should be sorry to have all this believed of me, I was anxious to show the public why you treated me in this manner ; and I had resolved to complain of your cal- umnies and falsifications, when I met with your Answers, in which you bring these same charges against myself. This will compel me to alter my plan ; though it will not prevent me from prosecuting it in some sort, for I hope, while de- fending myself, to convict you of impostures more genuine than the imaginary ones which you have ascribed to me. Indeed, fathers, the suspicion of foul play is much more sure to rest on you than on me. It is not very likely, standing 1 Pierre du Moulin is termed by Bayle ' one of the most celebrated ministers which the Reformed Church in France ever had to boast of." He was born in 1 568, and was for some time settled in Paris ; but having incurred the resentment of Louis XIII., he retired to Sedan in 1623, where he became a professor in the Protestant University, and died, in the ninetieth year of his age, in 1658. two years after the time when D ascal wrote. Of his numerous writings, few are known in this coun- try, excepting his " Buckler of the Faith." and his <; Anatomy of the Mass," which were translated into English. (Quick's Synodicon, ii., 105.) 14* 322 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. as I do, alone, without power or any human defence, against such a large body, and having no support but truth and in- tegrity, that I would expose myself to lose everything, by laying myself open to be convicted of imposture. It is toe easy to discover falsifications in matters of fact such as the present. In such a case there would have been no want of persons to accuse me, nor would justice have been denied them. With you, fathers, the case is very different ; you may say as much as you please against me, while I may look in vain for any to complain to. With such a wide difference between our positions, though there had been no other con- sideration to restrain me, it became me to study no little caution. By treating me, however, as a common slanderer, you compel me to assume the defensive, and you must be aware that this cannot be done without entering into a fresh exposition, and even into a fuller disclosure of the points of your morality. In provoking this discussion, I fear you are not acting as good politicians. The war must be waged within your own camp, and at your own expense ; and al- though you imagine that, by embroiling the questions with scholastic terms, the answers will be so tedious, thorny, and obscure, that people will lose all relish for the controversy, this may not, perhaps, turn out to be exactly the case ; I shall use my best endeavors to tax your patience as little as possible with that sort of writing. Your maxims have some- thing diverting about them, which keeps up the good humor of people to the last. At all events, remember that it is you that oblige me to enter upon this eclair -cissement, and let us see which of us comes off best in self-defence. The first of your Impostures, as you call them, is on the opinion of Vasquez upon alms-giving. To avoid all ambigu- ity, then, allow me to give a simple explanation of the matter in dispute. It is well known, fathers, that according to the mind of the Church, there are two precepts touching alms 1st, "To give out of our superfluity in the case of the ordi nary necessities of the poor ;" and Idly, " To give even out of our necessaries, according to our circumstances, in cases ALMS-GIVING. 828 of extreme necessity." Thus says Cajetan, after St. Thomas BO that, to get at the mind of Vasquez on this subject, wa must consider the rules he lays down, both in regard to ne- cessaries and superfluities. With regard to superfluity, which is the most common source of relief to the poor, it is entirely set aside by that single maxim which I have quoted in my Letters : " That what the men of the world keep with the view of improving their own condition and that of their relatives, is not properly superfluity ; so that, such a thing as superfluity is rarely to be met with among men of the world, not even excepting kings." It is very easy to see, fathers, that according to this definition, none can have superfluity, provided they have ambition ; and thus, so far as the greater part of the world is concerned, alms-giving is annihilated. But even though a man should happen to have superfluity, he would be under no obligation, according to Vasquez, to give it away in the case of ordinary necessity ; for he protests against those who would thus bind the rich. Here are his own words : " Cor- duba," says he, " teaches, that when we have a superfluity we are bound to give out of it in cases of ordinary necessity ; but this does not please me sed hoc non placet for we have demonstrated the contrary against Cajetan and Navarre." So. fathers, the obligation to this kind of alms is wholly set aside, according to the good pleasure of Vasquez. With regard to necessaries, out of which we are bound to give in cases of extreme and urgent necessity, it must be ob- vious, from the conditions by which he has limited the obli- gation, that the richest man in all Paris may not come within its reach once in a lifetime. I shall only refer to two of these. The first is, That " we must know that the poor man cannot be relieved from any other quarter hcec intettigo et ceetera omnia, quando scio nullum alium opem laturum." What say you to this, fathers ? Is it likely to happen fre- quently in Paris, where there are so many charitable people, that I must know that there is not another soul but myself to relieve the poor wretch who begs an alms from me ? A ad 124 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. yet, according to Vasquez, if I have not ascertained that fact. I may send him away with nothing. The second condition is. That the poor man be reduced to such straits " that he is menaced with some fatal accident, or the ruin of his charac- ter" none of them very common occurrences. But what marks still more the rarity of the cases in which one is bound to give charity, is his remark, in another passage, that the poor man must be so ill off, " that he may conscientiously rob the rich man !" This must surely be a very extraordinary case, unless he will insist that a man may be ordinarily al- lowed to commit robbery. And so, after having cancelled the obligation to give alms out of our superfluities, he obliges the rich to relieve the poor only in those cases when he would allow the poor to rifle the rich ! Such is the doc- trine of Vasquez, to whom you refer your readers for their edification ! I now come to your pretended Impostures. You begin by enlarging on the obligation to alms-giving which Vasquea imposes on ecclesiastics. But on this point I have said noth- ing ; and I am prepared to take it up whenever you choose. This, then, has nothing to do with the present question. As for laymen, who are the only persons with whom we have now to do, you are apparently anxious to have it understood that, in the passage which I quoted, Vasquez is giving not his own judgment, but that of Cajetan. But as nothing could be more false than this, and as you have not said it in BO many terms, I am willing to believe, for the sake of your character, that you did not intend to say it. You next loudly complain that, after quoting that maxim of Vasquez, " Such a thing as superfluity is rarely if ever to be met with among men of the world, not excepting kings," I have inferred from it, " that the rich are rarely, if ever, bound to give alms out of their superfluity." But what do you mean to say, fathers ? If it be true that the rich have almost never superfluity, is it not obvious that they will almost never be bound to give alms out of their super- fluity ? I might have put it into the form of a syllogism fo ALMS-GIVING. 526 you, if Diana, who has such an esteem for Vasquez that he calls him " the phoenix of genius," had not drawn the same conclusion from the same premises ; for, after quoting the maxim of Vasquez, he concludes, " that, with regard to the question, whether the rich are obliged to give alms out of their superfluity, though the affirmation were true, it would seldom, or almost never, happen to be obligatory in pratice." I have followed this language word for word. What, then, are we to make of this, fathers ? When Diana quotes with approbation the sentiments of Vasquez when he finds them probable, and " very convenient for rich people," as he says in the same place, he is no slanderer, no falsifier, and we hear no complaints of misrepresenting his author ; whereas, when I cite the same sentiments of Vasquez, though without holding him up as a phoenix, I am a slanderer, a fabricator, a corrupter of his maxims. Truly, fathers, you have some reason to be apprehensive, lest your very different treatment of those who agree in their representation, and differ only in their estimate of your doctrine, discover the real secret cf your hearts, and provoke the conclusion, that the main ob ject you have in view is to maintain the credit and glory of your Company. It appears that, provided your accommo- dating theology is treated as judicious complaisance, you never disavow those that publish it, but laud them as con- tributing to your design ; but let it be held forth as pernicious laxity, and the same interest of your Society prompts you to disclaim the maxims which would injure you in public esti- mation. And thus you recognize or renounce them, not according to the truth, which never changes, but according to the shifting exigencies of the times, acting on that motto of one of the ancients, " Omnia pro tempore, nikil pro veri' tate Anything for the times, nothing for the truth." Be- ware of this, fathers ; and that you may never have it in your power again to say that I drew from the principle of Vasquez a conclusion which he had disavowed, I beg to in- form you that he has drawn it himself: "According to the opinion of Cajetan, and according to MY OWN et secundum 326 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. nostram (he says, chap, i., no. 27), one is hardly obliged to give alms at all, when one is only obliged to give them out of one's superfluity." Confess then, fathers, on the testi- mony of Vasquez himself, that I have exactly copied hia sentiment ; and think how you could have the conscience to say, that " the reader, on consulting the original, would see to his astonishment, that he there teaches the very reverse !" In fine, you insist, above all, that if Vasquez does not bind the rich to give alms out of their superfluity, he obliges them to atone for this by giving out of the necessaries of life. But you have forgotten to mention the list of conditions which he declares to be essential to constitute that obligation, which I have quoted, and which restrict it in such a way as almost entirely to annihilate it. In place of giving this hon- est statement of his doctrine, you tell us, in general terms, that he obliges the rich to give even what is necessary to their condition. This is proving too much, fathers ; the rule of the Gospel does not go so far ; and it would be an error, into which Vasquez is very far, indeed, from having fallen. To cover his laxity, you attribute to him an excess of severity which would be reprehensible ; and thus you lose all credit as faithful reporters of his sentiments. But the truth is, Vasquez is quite free from any such suspicion ; for he has maintained, as I have shown, that the rich are not bound, either in justice or in charity, to give of their superfluities, and still less of their necessaries, to relieve the ordinary wants of the poor ; and that they are not obliged to give of the neces- saries, except in cases so rare that they almost never happen. Having disposed of your objections against me on this head, it only remains to show the falsehood of your assertion, that Vasquez is more severe than Cajetan. This will be very easily done. That cardinal teaches " that we are bound in justice to give alms out of our superfluity, even in the or- dinary wants of the poor ; because, according to the holy fathers, the rich are merely the dispensers of their superflu- ity, which they are to give to whom they please, among those who have need of it." And accordingly, unlike Diana, ALMS -GIVING. 327 who says of the maxims of Vasquez, that they will be " very convenient and agreeable to the rich and their confessors," the cardinal, who has no such consolation to afford them, de- clares that he has nothing to say to the rich but these words of Jesus Christ : "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into heaven ;" and to their confessors : " If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." 1 So indispensable did he deem this obligation ! This, too, is what the fathers and all the saints have laid down as a certain truth. " There are two cases," says St. Thomas, " in which we are bound to give alms as a matter of justice ex debito legali : one, when the poor are in danger ; the other, when we possess superfluous property." And again : " The three tenths which the Jews were bound to eat with the poor, have been augmented under the new law ; for Jesus Christ wills that we give to the poor, not the tenth only, but the whole of our superfluity." And yet it does not seem good to Vasquez that we should be obliged to give even a fragment of our superfluity ; such is his complaisance to the rich, such his hardness to the poor, such his opposition to those feelings of charity which teach us to relish the truth contained in the following words of St. Gregory, harsh as it may sound to the rich of this world : " When we give the poor what is necessary to them, we are not so much bestowing on them what is our property, as rendering to them what is their own ; and it may be said ti' be an act of justice, rather than a work of mercy." It is thus that the saints recommend the rich to share with the poor the good things of this earth, if they would expect to possess with them the good things of heaven. While TOU make it your business to foster in the breasts of men that ambition which leaves no superfluity to dispose of, and that avarice which refuses to part with it, the saints have la- oored to induce the rich to give up their superfluity, and to tonvince them that they would have abundance of it, pro- rided they measured it, not by the standard of covotous- 1 De Eleemoayna, c. 6. 328 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. ness, which knows no bounds to its cravings, but by that of piety, which is ingenious in retrenchments, so as to have wherewith to diffuse itself in the exercise of charity. " We will have a great deal of superfluity," says St. Augustine, " if we keep only what is necessary : but if we seek after vanities, we will never have enough. Seek, brethren, what is suffi- cient for the work of God" that is, for nature " and not for what is sufficient for your covetousness," which is the work of the devil : " and remember that the superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor." I would fondly trust, fathers, that what I have now said to you may serve, not only for my vindication that were a small matter but also to make you feel and detest what is corrupt in the maxims of your casuists, and thus unite us sincerely under the sacred rules of the Gospel, according to which we must all be judged. As to the second point, which regards simony, before pro- ceeding to answer the charges you have advanced against me, I shall begin by illustrating your doctrine on this sub- ject. Finding yourselves placed in an awkward dilemma, between the canons of the Church, which impose dreadful penalties upon simoniacs, on the one hand, and the avarice of many who pursue this infamous traffic on the other, you have recourse to your ordinary method, which is to yield to men what they desire, and give the Almighty only words fend shows. For what else does the simoniac want, but money, in return for his benefice ? And yet this is what you exempt from the charge of simony. And as the name of simony must still remain standing, and a subject to which it may be ascribed, you have substituted, in the place of this, an imaginary idea, which never yet crossed the brain of a simoniac, and would not serve him much though it did the idea, namely, that simony lies in estimating the money con. sidered in itself as highly as the spiritual gift or < ffice con- sidered in itself. Who would ever take it into his head to Compare things so utterly disproportionate and heterogeneous ? A.nd yet, provided this metaphysical comparison be not SIMONY. 329 drawn, any one may, according to your authors, give away a benefice, and receive money in return for it, without being guilty of simony. Such is the way in which you sport with religion, in order to gratify the worst passions of men ; and yet only see with what gravity your Father Valentia delivers his rhapsodies in the passage cited in my letters. He says : " One may give a spiritual for a temporal good in two ways first, in the way of prizing the temporal more than the spiritual, and that would be simony ; secondly, in the way of taking the tem- poral as the motive and end inducing one to give away the spiritual, but without prizing the temporal more than the spiritual, and then it is not simony. And the reason is, that simony consists in receiving something temporal, as the just price of what is spiritual. If, therefore, the temporal is sought si petatur temporale not as the price, but only as the motive, determining us to part with the spiritual, it is by no means simony, even although the possession of the tem- poral may be principally intended and expected minime erit simonia, etiamsi temporale principaliter intendatur et expecte- tur." Your redoubtable Sanchez has been favored with a similar revelation ; Escobar quotes him thus : " If one give a spiritual for a temporal good, not as the price, but as a mo- tive to induce the collator to give it, or as an acknowledgment if the benefice has been actually received, is that simony ? Sanchez assures us that it is not." In your Caen Theses of 1644, you say: "It is a probable opinion, taught by many Catholics, that it is not simony to exchange a temporal for a spiritual good, when the former is not given as a price." And us to Tanner, here is his doctrine, exactly the same with that of Valentia ; and I quote it again to show you how far wrong it is in you to complain of me for saving that it does not agree with that of St. Thomas, for he avows it himself in the very passage which I quoted in my letter : " There is prop- erly and truly no simony," says he, " unless when a temporal good is taken as the price o r a spiritual ; but when taken merely as the motive for giving the spiritual, or as an ac- 330 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. Knowledgment for having received it, this is not simony, at least in point of conscience." And again: " The same thing may be said although the temporal should be regarded as the principal end, and even preferred to the spiritual ; although St. Thomas and others appear to hold the reverse, inasmuch as they maintain it to be downright simony to exchange a spiritual for a temporal good, when the temporal is the end of the transaction." Such, then, being your doctrine on simony, as taught b} your best authors, who follow each other very closely in this point, it only remains now to reply to your charges of mis- representation. You have taken no notice of Valentia's opin- ion, so that his doctrine stands as it was before. But you fix on that of Tanner, maintaining that he has merely decided it to be no simony by divine right ; and you would have it to be believed that, in quoting the passage, I have suppressed these words, divine right. This, fathers, is a most uncon- scionable trick ; for these words, divine right, never existed in that passage. You add that Tanner declares it to be simony according to positive right. But you are mistaken ; he does not say that generally, but only of particular cases, or, as he expresses it, in casibus a jure erpressis, by which he makes an exception to the general rule he had laid down in that passage, "that it is not simony in point of conscience," which must imply that it is not so in point of positive right, unless you would have Tanner made so impious as to main- tain that simony, in point of positive right, is not simony in point of conscience. But it is easy to see your drift in mus- tering up such terms as " divine right, positive right, natural light, internal and external tribunal, expressed cases, outward presumption," and others equally little known ; you mean to escape under this obscurity of language, and make us lose eight of your aberrations. But, fathers, you shall not escape by these vain artifices ; for I shall put some questions to you eo simple, that they will not admit of coming under your dis- inguo. 1 1 See before, page 151. SIMONT. 33 \ I ask you, llien, without speaking of "positive rights," of "outward presumptions," or "external tribunals" I ask if, according to your authors, a beneficiary would be simoniacal, were he to give a benefice worth four thousand livres of yearly rent, and to receive ten thousand francs ready money, not as the price of the benefice, but merely as a motive inducing him to give it ? Answer me plainly, fathers : What must we make of such a case as this according to your authors ? Will not Tanner tell us decidedly that " this is not simony in point of conscience, seeing that the temporal good is not the price of the benefice, but only the motive inducing to dispose of it ?" Will not Valentia, will not your own Theses of Caen, will not Sanchez and Escobar agree in the same decision, and give the same reason for it ? Is anything more necessary to exculpate that beneficiary from simony ? And, whatever might be your private opinion of the case, durst you deal with that man as a simonist in your confessionals, when he would be entitled to stop your mouth by telling you that he acted according to the advice of so many grave doctors ? Confess candidly, then, that, according to your views, that man would be no simonist ; and, having done so, defend the doctrine as you best can. Such, fathers, is the true mode of treating questions, in order to unravel, instead of perplexing them, either by scho- lastic terms, or, as you have done in your last charge against me here, by altering the state of the question. Tanner, you say, has, at any rate, declared that such an exchange is a great sin ; and you blame me for having maliciously sup- pressed this circumstance, which, you maintain, " completely justifies him." But you are wrong again, and that in more ways than one. For, first, though what you say had been true, it would be nothing to the point, the question in the passage to which I referred being, not if it was sin, but if it was simony. Now, these are two very different questions. 8in, according to your maxims, obliges only to confession simony obliges to restitution ; and there are people to whom Jiese may appear two very different things. You have found 332 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. expedients for making confession a very easy affair ; but you have not fallen upon ways and means to make restitution an agreeable one. Allow me to add, that the case which Tan- ner charges with sin, is not simply that in which a spiritual good is exchanged for a temporal, the latter being the prin- cipal end in view, but that in which the party " prizes the temporal above the spiritual," which is the imaginary case already spoken of. And it must be allowed he could not go far wrong in charging such a case as that with sin, since that man must be either very wicked or very stupid who, when permitted to exchange the one thing for the other, would not avoid the sin of the transaction by such a simple process as that of abstaining from comparing the two things together. Besides, Valentia, in the place quoted, when treating the question, if it be sinful to give a spiritual good for a tem- poral, the latter being the main consideration, and after pro- ducing the reasons given for the affirmative, adds, " Sed hoc non videtur mihi satis certum But this does not appear to my mind sufficiently certain." Since that time, however, your father, Erade Bille, pro- fessor of cases of conscience at Caen, has decided that there is no sin at all in the case supposed ; for probable opinions, you know, are always in the way of advancing to maturity. 1 This opinion he maintains in his writings of 1G44, against which M. Dupre, doctor and professor at Caen, delivered that excellent oration, since printed and well known. For though this Erade Bille confesses that Valentia's doctrine, adopted by Father Milliard, and condemned by the Sorbonne, " is contrary to the common opinion, suspected of simony, and punishable at law when discovered in practice," he does not scruple to say that it is a probable opinion, and consequently sure in point of conscience, and that there is neither simony nor sin in it. " It is a probable oyinion," he says, " taught by many Catholic doctors, that there is neither any simony nor any sin in giving money, or any other temporal thing, for a benefice, either in the way of acknowledgment, or as a mo- 1 See before, page 218. SIMONY. 333 live, without which it would not be given, provided it is not given as a price equal to the benefice." This is all that could possibly be desired. In fact, according to these maxims of yours, simony would be so exceedingly rare, that we might exempt from this sin even Simon Magus himself, who desire'? to purchase the Holy Spirit, and is the emblem of those simo- nists that buy spiritual things ; and Gehazi, who took money for a miracle, and may be regarded as the prototype of the simonists that sell them. There can be no doubt that when Simon, as we read in the Acts, " offered the apostles money, saying, Give me also this power ;" he said nothing about buy- ing or selling or fixing the price ; he did no more than offer the money as a motive to induce them to give him that spir- itual gift ; which being, according to you, no simony at all, he might, had he but been instructed in your maxims, have escaped the anathema of St. Peter. The same unhappy ig- norance was a great loss to Gehazi, when he was struck with leprosy by Elisha ; for, as he accepted the money from the prince who had been miraculously cured, simply as an ac- knowledgment, and not as a price equivalent to the divine virtue which had effected the miracle, he might have insisted on the prophet healing him again on pain of mortal sin ; see- ing, on this supposition, he would have acted according to the advice of your grave doctors, who, in such cases, oblige con- fessors to absolve their penitents, and to wash them from that spiritual leprosy of which the bodily disease is the type. Seriously, fathers, it would be extremely easy to hold you ip to ridicule in this matter, and I am at a loss to know why you expose yourselves to such treatment. To produce thh effect, I have nothing more to do than simply to quote Esco- bar, in his " Practice of Simony according to the Society of Jesus ;" " Is it simony when two Churchmen become mutu- ally pledged thus : Give me your vote for my election as provincial, and I shall give you mine for your election as prior ? By no means." Or take another : " It is not simony kO get possession of a benefice by promising a sum of money, idien one has no intention of actually paying the money; 334 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. for this is merely making a show of simony, and is as far from being real simony as counterfeit gold is from the gen- uine." By this quirk of conscience, lie has contrived means, in the way of adding swindling to simony, for obtaining ben- efices without simony and without money. But I have no time to dwell longer on the subject, for I must say a word or two in reply to your third accusation, which refers to the subject of bankrupts. Nothing can be more gross than the manner in which you have managed this charge. You rail at me as a libeller in reference to a senti- ment of Lessius, which I did not quote myself, but took from a passage in Escobar ; and therefore, though it were true that Lessius does not hold the opinion ascribed to him by Escobar, what can be more unfair than to charge me with the misrepresentation ? When I quote Lessius or others of your authors myself, I am quite prepared to answer for it ; but as Escobar has collected the opinions of twenty-four of your writers, I beg to ask, if I am bound to guarantee any- thing beyond the correctness of my citations from his book ? or if I must, in addition, answer for the fidelity of all his quotations of which I may avail myself ? This would be hardly reasonable ; and yet this is precisely the case in the question before us. I produced in my letter the following passage from Escobar, and you do not object to the fidelity of my translation : " May the bankrupt, with a good conscience, retain as much of his property as is necessary to afford him an honorable maintenance ne indecore vivat ? I answer, with Lessius, that he may cum Lessio assero posse." You tell me that Lessius does not hold that opinion. But just con- sider for a moment the predicament in which you involve yourselves. If it turns out that he does hold that opinion, you will be set down as impostors for having asserted the contrary ; and if it is proved that he does not hold it, Esco- bar will be the impostor ; so it must now of necessity follow, lhat one or other of the Society will be convicted of impos- ture. Only think what a scandal! You cannot, it would ippear, foresee the consequences of things. You seem to BANKRUPTCY. 885 Imagine that you have nothing more to do than to cast as- persions upon people, without considering on whom they may recoil. Why did you not acquaint Escobar with your objection before venturing to publish it? He might have given you satisfaction. It is not so very troublesome to get word from Valladolid, where he is living in perfect health, and completing his grand work on Moral Theology, in six volumes, on the first of which I mean to say a few words by and-by. They have sent him the first ten letters ; you might as easily have sent him your objection, and I am sure he would have soon returned you an answer, for he has doubt- less seen in Lessius the passage from which he took the ne indecore vivat. Read him yourselves, fathers, and you will find it word for word, as I have done. Here it is : '" The same thing is apparent from the authorities cited, particularly in regard to that property which he acquires after his failure, out of which even the delinquent debtor may retain as much as is necessary for his honorable maintenance, according to his station of life tit non indecore vivat. Do you ask if this rule applies to goods which he possessed at the time of his failure ? Such seems to be the judgment of the doctors." I shall not stop here to show how Lessius, to sanction his maxim, perverts the law that allows bankrupts nothing more than a mere livelihood, and that makes no provision for " hon- orable maintenance." It is enough to have vindicated Esco- bar from such an accusation it is more, indeed, than what T was in duty bound to do. But you, fathers, have not done your duty. It still remains for you to answer the passage of Escobar, whose decisions, by the way, have this advan- tage, that being entirely independent of the context, and con- densed in little articles, they are not liable to your distinc- tions. I quoted the whole of the passage, in which " bank- rupts are permitted to keep their goods, though unjustly acquired, to provide an honorable maintenance for their fam- ilies" commenting on which in my letters, I exclaim : " In- deed, father ! by what strange kind of charity would you have the ill-gotten property of a bankrupt appropriated to 336 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. his own use, instead of that of his lawful creditors ? J>1 This is the question which must be answered ; but it is one that involves you in a sad dilemma, and from which you in vain seek to escape by altering the state of the question, and quoting other passages from Lessius, which have no connec- tion with the subject. I ask you, then, May this maxim of Escobar be followed by bankrupts with a safe conscience, or no ? And take care what you say. If you answer, No, what becomes of your doctor, and your doctrine of proba- bility ? If you say, Yes I delate you to the Parliament. 1 In this predicament I must now leave you, fathers ; for my limits will not permit me to overtake your next accusa- tion, which respects homicide. This will serve for my next letter, and the rest will follow. In the mean while, I shall make no remarks on the adver- tisements which you have tagged to the end of each of your charges, filled as they are with scandalous falsehoods. I mean to answer all these in a separate letter, in which I hope to show the weight due to your calumnies. I am sorry fathers, that you should have recourse to such desperate re- sources. The abusive terms which you heap on me will not clear up our disputes, nor will your manifold threats hinder me from defending myself. You think you have power and impunity on your side ; and I think that I have truth and in- nocence on mine. It is a strange and tedious war, when vio- lence attempts to vanquish truth. All the efforts of violence cannot weaken truth, and only serve to give it fresh vigor All the lights of truth cannot arrest violence, and only serve to exasperate it. When force meets force, the weaker must Buccumb to the stronger ; when argument is opposed to ar- gument, the solid and the convincing triumphs over the -jmpty and the false ; but violence and verity can make no im- pression on each other. Let none suppose, however, that the two are, therefore, equal to each other ; for there is this i See before, p. 177. a " The Parliament of Paris was originally the court of the kings of 'ranee, to which they committed the supreme administration of jus- ace.' 1 (Robertson's Charles V.. vol. i. 171.) VIOLENCE AND VERITY. 337 rast difference between them, that violence has only a certain course to run, limited by the appointment of Heaven, which overrules its effects to the glory of the truth which it assails ; whereas verity endures forever, and eventually triumphs over its enemies, being eternal and almighty as God him- self. 1 1 In most of the French editions, another letter is inserted after this, being a refutation of a reply which appeared at the time to Letter xii. But as this letter, though well written, was not written by Pascal, and as it does not contain anything that would now be interesting to the reader, we omit it. Suffice it to say, that the reply of the Jesuits con- sisted, as usual, of the most barefaced attempts to fix the charge of mis- representation on their opponent, accusing him of omitting to quote pas- sages from his authors which they never wrote, of not answering objec- tions which were never brought against him. of not adverting to cases which neither he nor his authors dreamt of in short, like all Jesuitical answers, it is anything and everything but a refutation of the charges which have been substantiated against them. 15 LETTER XIII. TO THE REVEREND FATHERS OP THE SOCIETY OP JESUS. HIS DOCTRINE OF LESSItJS ON HOMICIDE THE SAME WITH THAT OF VALENTIA HOW EASY IT IS TO PASS FROM SPECULATION TC PRACTICE WHY THE JESUITS HAVE RECOURSE TO THIS DIS- TINCTION, AND HOW LITTLE IT SERVES FOR THEIR VINDICATION. September 30, 1656. REVEREND FATHERS, I have just seen your last produc- tion, in which you have continued your list of Impostures up to the twentieth, and intimate that you mean to conclude with this the first part of your accusations against me, and to pro- ceed to the second, in which you are to adopt a new mode of defence, by showing that there are other casuists besides those of your Society who are as lax as yourselves. I now see the precise number of charges to which I have to reply ; and as the fourth, to which we have now come, relates to homicide, it may be proper, in answering it, to include the llth, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, which refer to the same subject. In the present letter, therefore, my object shall be to vin- dicate the correctness of my quotations from the charges of falsity which you bring against me. But as you have ven- tured, in your pamphlets, to assert that " the sentiments of your authors on murder are agreeable to the decisions of popes and ecclesiastical laws," you will compel me, in my next letter, to confute a statement at once so unfounded and BO injurious to the Church. It is of some importance to show that she is innocent of your corruptions, in order that heretics may be prevented from taking advantage of your aberrations. FIDELITY OF PASCAL'S QUOTATIONS. 3'J9 lo draw conclusions tending to her dishonor. 1 And thus, Clewing on the one hand your pernicious maxims, and on the other the canons of the Church which have uniformly con- demned them, people will see, at one glance, what they should shun and what they should follow. Your fourth charge turns on a maxim relating to murder, which you say I have falsely ascribed to Lessius. It is as follows : " That if a man has received a buffet, he may im- mediately pursue his enemy, and even return the blow with the sword, not to avenge himself, but to retrieve his honor." This, you say, is the opinion of the casuist Victoria. But this is nothing to the point. There is no inconsistency in saying, that it is at once the opinion of Victoria and of Lessius ; for Lessius himself says that it is also held by Navarre and Hen- riquez, who teach identically the same doctrine. The only question, then, is, if Lessius holds this view as well as his brother casuists. You maintain " that Lessius quotes this opinion solely for the purpose of refuting it, and that I there- fore attribute to him a sentiment which he produces only to overthrow the basest and most disgraceful act of which a writer can be guilty." Now I maintain, fathers, that he quotes the opinion solely for the purpose of supporting it. Here is a question of fact, which it will be very easy to settle. Let ,us see, then, how you prove your allegation, and you will see afterwards how I prove mine. To show that Lessius is not of that opinion, you tell ua that he condemns the practice of it ; and in proof of this, you quote one passage of his (1. 2, c. 9, n. 92), in which he says, in so many words, " I condemn the practice of it." I grant that, on looking for these words, at number 92, to which you refer, they will be found there. But what wil) people say, fathers, when they discover, at the same time, that he is treating in that place of a question totally different 1 The Church of Rome has not left those whom she terms heretics so Joubtfully to ' take advantage" of Jesuitical aberrations. She has dona everything in her power to give them this advantage. By identifying herself, at various times, with the Jesuits, she has virtually stamped Iheir doctrines with her approbation. 840 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. from that of which we are speaking, and that the opinion of which he there says that he condemns the practice, has no connection with that now in dispute, but is quite distinct ? And yet to be convinced that this is the fact, we have only to open the book to which you refer, and there we find the whole subject in its connection as follows : At number 79 he treats the question, " If it is lawful to kill for a buffet ?" and it number 80 he finishes this matter without a single word of condemnation. Having disposed of this question, he opens a new one at art. 81, namely, " If it is lawful to kill for slanders ?" and it is when speaking of this question that he employs the words you have quoted " I condemn the prac- tice of it." Is it not shameful, fathers, that you should venture to pro- duce these words to make it be believed that Lessius condemns the opinion that it is lawful to kill for a buffet ? and that, on the ground of this single proof, you should chuckle over it, as you have done, by saying : " Many persons of honor in Paris have already discovered this notorious falsehood by consulting Lessius, and have thus ascertained the degree of credit due to that slanderer ?" Indeed ! and is it thus that you abuse the confidence which those persons of honor re- pose in you ? To show them that Lessius does not hold a certain opinion, you open the book to them at a place where he is condemning another opinion ; and these persons not having begun to mistrust your good faith, and never thinking of examining whether the author speaks in that place of the subject in dispute, you impose on their credulity. I make no doubt, fathers, that to shelter yourselves from the guilt of such a scandalous lie, you had recourse to your doctrine of equivocations ; and that, having read the passage in a loud voice, you would say, in a lower key, that the author was speaking there of something else. But I am not so sure whether this saving clause, which is quite enough to satisfy your consciences, will be a very satisfactory answer to the just complaint of those "honorable persons," when they thall discover that you have hoodwinked them in this style. FIDELITY OF PASCAl/5 DESCRIPTIONS. 341 Take care, then, fathers, to prevent them by all means from seeing my letters ; for this is the only method now left you to preserve your credit for a short time longer. This is not the way in which I deal with your writings : I send them to all my friends : I wish everybody to see them. And I verily believe that both of us are in the right for our own ixterests ; for after having published with such parade this fourth Imposture, were it once discovered that you have made it up by foisting in one passage for another, you would be instantly denounced. It will be easily seen, that if you could have found what you wanted in the passage where Lessius treated of this matter, you would not have searched for it elsewhere, and that you had recourse to such a trick only because you could find nothing in that passage favora- ble to your purpose. You would have us believe that we may find in Lessius what you assert, " that he does not allow that this opinion (that a man may be lawfully killed for a buffet) is probable in theory ;" whereas Lessius distinctly declares, at number 80 : " This opinion, that a man may kill for a buffet, is prob- able in theory." Is not this, word for word, the reverse of your assertion ? And can we sufficiently admire the hardi- hood with which you have advanced, in set phrase, the very reverse of a matter of fact ! To your conclusion, from a labricated passage, that Lessius was not of that opinion, we have only to place Lessius himself, who, in the genuine pas- sage, declares that he is of that opinion. Again, you would have Lessius to say " that he condemns the practice of it ;" and, as I have just observed, there is not in the original a single word of condemnation ; all that he says is : " It appears that it ought not to be EASILY permit- ted in practice In praxi non vide'ur FACILE permittenda." Is that, fathers, the language of a man who condemns a maxim ? Would you say that adultery and incest ought not 'o be easily permitted in practice ? Must we not, on the con- trary, conclude, that as Lessius says no more than that the nractice ought not to be easily permitted, his opinion is, that 3-12 PROVINCIAL BETTERS. it may be permitted sometimes, though rarely ? And, as if he had been anxious to apprize everybody when it might be permitted, and to relieve those who have received affronts from being troubled with unreasonable scruples, from not knowing on what occasions they might lawfully kill in prac- tice, he has been at pains to inform them what they ought to avoid in order to practise the doctrine with a safe conscience. Mark his words : " It seems," says he, " that it ought not to be easily permitted, because of the danger that persons may act in this matter out of hatred or revenge, or with excess, or that this may occasion too many murders." From this it appears that murder is freely permitted by Lessius, if one avoids the inconveniences referred to in other words, if one can act without hatred or revenge, and in circumstances that may not open the door to a great many murders. To illus- trate the matter, I may give you an example of recent occur- rence the case of the buffet of Compiegne. 1 You will grant that the person who received the blow on that occasion has shown by the way in which he has acted, that he was suf- ficiently master of the passions of hatred and revenge. It only remained for him, therefore, to see that he did not give occasion to too many murders ; and you need hardly be told, fathers, it is such a rare spectacle to find Jesuits bestowing buffets on the officers of the royal household, that he had no great reason to fear that a murder committed on this occa- sion would be likely to draw many others in its train. You cannot, accordingly, deny that the Jesuit who figured on that occasion was killable with a safe conscience, and that the offended party might have converted him into a practical illustration of the doctrine of Lessius. And very likely, fa- thers, this might have been the result had he been educated in your school, and learnt from Escobar that the man who 1 The reference here is to an affray which made a considerable noise at the time, between Father Borin, a Jesuit, and M. Guille. one of the officers of the royal kitchen, in the College of Compiegne. A quarrel .laving taken place, the enraged Jesuit struck the royal cook in the face -vhilelie was in the act of preparing dinner, by his majesty's order, for Christina, queen of Sweden, in honor, perhaps, of her conversion t the Romish faith. (Nicole, iv. 37 ) SPECULATIVE MURDER. 343 has received a buffet is held to be disgraced until he has taken the life of him who insulted him. But there is ground to believe, that the very different instructions which he re ceived from a curate, who is no great favorite of yours, have contributed not a little iu this case to save the life of a Jes- uit. Tell us no more, then, of inconveniences which may, in many instances, be so easily got over, and in the absence of which, according to Lessius, murder is permissible even in practice. This is frankly avowed by your authors, as quoted by Escobar, in his " Practice of Homicide, according to your Society." " Is it allowable," asks this casuist, " to kill him who has given m3 a buffet ? Lessius says it is permissible in speculation, though not to be followed in practice non con- sulendum in praxi on account of the risk of hatred, or of murders prejudicial to the State. Others, however, have judged that, BY AVOIDING THESE INCONVENIENCES, THIS is PERMISSIBLE AND SAFE IN PRACTICE in praxi probobilem et tutam judicarunt Henriquez," &c. See how your opinions mount up, by little and little, to the climax of probabilism ! The present one you have at last elevated to this position, by permitting murder without any distinction between specula- tion and practice, in the following terms : " It is lawful, when one has received a buffet, to return the blow immediately with the sword, not to avenge one's self, but to preserve one's honor." Such is the decision of your fathers of Caen in 1644, embodied in their publications produced by the uni- versity before parliament, when they presented their third remonstrance against your doctrine of homicide, as shown in the book then emitted by them, at page 339. Mark, then, fathers, that your own authors have themselves demolished this absurd distinction between speculative and practical murder a distinction which the university treated with ridicule, and the invention of which is a secret of your policy, which it may now be worth while to explain. The knowledge of it, besides being necessary to the right under- Itanding of your 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th charges, is well 344 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. calculated, in general, to open up, by little and little, the principles of that mysterious policy. In attempting, as you have done, to decide cases of con- science in the most agreeable and accommodating manner, while you met with some questions in which religion alone was concerned such as those of contrition, penance, love to God, and others only affecting the inner court of conscience you encountered another class of cases in which civil so- ciety was interested as well as religion such as those relating to usury, bankruptcy, homicide, and the like. And it is truly distressing to all that love the Church, to observe that, in a vast number of instances, in which you had only Religion to contend with, you have violated her laws without reserva- tion, without distinction, and without compunction ; because you knew that it is not here that God visibly administers his justice. But in those cases in which the State is interested as well as Religion, your apprehension of man's justice has induced you to divide your decisions into two shares. To the first of these you give the name of speculation ; under which category crimes, considered in themselves, without re- gard to society, but mereyy to the law of God, you have permitted, without the least scruple, and in the way of tram- pling on the divine law which condemns them. The second you rank under the denomination of practice ; and here, con- sidering the injury which may be done to society, and the presence of magistrates who look after the public peace, you take care, in order to keep yourselves on the safe side of the law, not to approve always in practice the murders and other crimes which you have sanctioned in speculation. Thus, for example, on the question, " If it be lawful to kill for slan- ders ?" your authors, Filiutius, Reginald, and others, reply : " This is permitted in speculation ex probabile opinione licet ; but is not to be approved in practice, on account of the great number of murders which might ensue, and which mio-ht injure the State, if all slanderers were to be killed, and also because one might be punished in a court of justice for having Trilled another for that matter." Such is the style in which SPECULATIVE MURDER. 345 your opinions begin to develop themselves, under the shelter of this distinction, in virtue of which, without doing any sensible injury to society, you only ruin religion. In acting thus, you consider yourselves quite safe. You suppose that, on the one hand, the influence you have in the Church will effectually shield from punishment your assaults on truth ; and that, on the other, the precautions you have taken against too easily reducing your permissions to practice will save you on the part of the civil powers, who, not being judges in cases of conscience, are properly concerned only with the outward practice. Thus an opinion which would be con- demned under the name of practice, comes out quite safe under the name of speculation. But this basis once estab- lished, it is not difficult to erect on it the rest of your max- ims. There is an infinite distance between God's prohibition of murder, and your speculative permission of the crime ; but between that permission and the practice the distance is very small indeed. It only remains to show, that what is allowa- ble in speculation is also so in practice ; and there can be no want of reasons for this. You have contrived to find them in far more difficult cases. Would you h'ke to see, fathers, how this may be managed ? I refer you to the reasoning of Escobar, who has distinctly decided the point in the first of the six volumes of his grand Moral Theology, of which I have Already spoken a work in which he shows quite another bpirit from that which appears in his former compilation from your four-and-twenty elders. At that time he thought that there might be opinions probable in speculation, which might not be safe in practice ; but he has now come to form an op- posite judgment, and has, in this, his latest work, confirmed it. Such is the wonderful growth attained by the doctrine of probability in general, as well as by every probable opinion in particular, in the course of time. Attend, then, to what he says : " I cannot see how it can be that an action which seems allowable in speculation should not be so likewise in practice ; because what may be done in practice depends on what is found to be lawful in speculation, and the things 15* 346 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. differ from each other only as cause and effect. Speculation is that which determines to action. WHENCE rr FOLLOWS THAT OPINIONS PROBABLE IN SPECULATION MAY BE FOLLOWED WITH A SAFE CONSCIENCE IN PRACTICE, and that even with more safety than those which have not been so well examined as matters of speculation." 1 Verily, fathers, your friend Escobar reasons uncommonly well sometimes ; and, in point of fact, there is such a close connection between speculation and practice, that when the former has once taken root, you have no difficulty in per- mitting the latter, without any disguise. A good illustration of this we have in the permission " to kill for a buffet," which, from being a point of simple speculation, was boldly raised by Lessius into a practice "which ought not easily to be al- lowed ;" from that promoted by Escobar to the character of " an easy practice ;" and from thence elevated by your fathers of Caen, as we have seen, without any distinction between theory and practice, into a full permission. Thus you bring your opinions to their full growth very gradually. Were they presented all at once in their finished extravagance, they would beget horror ; but this slow imperceptible pro- gress gradually habituates men to the sight of them, and hides their offensiveness. And in this way the permission to murder, in itself so odious both to Church and State, creeps first into the Church, and then from the Church into the State. A similar success has attended the opinion of " killing for lander," which has now reached the climax of a permission without any distinction. I should not have stopped to quote my authorities on this point from your writings, had it not been necessary in order to put down the effrontery with which you have asserted, twice over, in your fifteenth Impos- ture, " that there never was a Jesuit who permitted killing for slander." Before making this statement, fathers, you O should have taken care to prevent it from coming under my fcotice, seeing that it is so easy for me to answer it. For 1 In Prolog., n. 15. KILLING FOR SLANDER. 347 flot to mention that your fathers Reginald, Filiutius, and oth- ers, hiive permitted it in speculation, as I have already shown, and that the principle laid down by Escobar leads us safely on to the practice, I have to tell you that you have authors who have permitted it in so many words, and among others Father Hereau in his public lectures, on the conclusion of which the king put him under arrest in your house, for hav- ng taught, among other errors, that when a person who has slandered us in the presence of men of honor, continues to do so after being warned to desist, it is allowable to kill him, not publicly, indeed, for fear of scandal, but IN A PRIVATB WAY sed clam. I have had occasion already to mention Father Lamy, and you do not need to be informed that his doctrine on this sub- ject was censured in 1649 by the University of Louvain. 1 And yet two months have not elapsed since your Father Des Bois maintained this very censured doctrine of Father Lamy, and taught that " it was allowable for a monk to defend the honor which he acquired by his virtue, EVEN BY KILLING the person who assails his reputation etiamcum morte invasoris ;" which has raised such a scandal in that town, that the whole of the cures united to impose silence on him, and to oblige him, by a canonical process, to retract his doctrine. The case is now pending in the Episcopal court. What say you now, fathers ? Why attempt, after that, to maintain that " no Jesuit ever held that it was lawful to kill for slander ?" Is anything more necessary to convince you of this than the very opinions of your fathers which you quote, since they do not condemn murder in speculation, but only in practice, and that, too, " on account of the injury that might thereby accrue to the State ?" And here I would 1 The doctrines advanced by Lamy are too gross for repetition. Suf- fice it to say, that they sanctioned the murder not only of the slanderer, ut of the person who might tell tales against a religious order, of one ovho might stand in the way of another enjoying a legacy or a benefice, and even of one whom a priest might have robbed of her honor, if she threatened to rob him. of his. These horrid maxims were condemned oy civil tnounals and theological faculties : but the Jesuits persisted in ustifying them. (Nirole. Notes, iv. 41, &c.~\ 348 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. just beg to ask, whether the whole matter in dispute between us is not simply and solely to ascertain if you have or have not subverted the law of God which condemns murder ? The point in question is, not whether you have injured the com- monwealth, but whether you have injured religion. What purpose, then, can it serve, in a dispute of this kind, to show that you have spared the State, when you i^ake it apparent, at the same time, that you have destroyed the faith ? Is this not evident from your saying that the meaning of Reg- inald, on the question of killing for slanders, is, " that a pri- vate individual has a right to employ that mode of defence, viewing it simply in itself?" I desire nothing beyond this concession to confute you. "A private individual." you say, " has a right to employ that mode of defence" (that is, kill- ing for slanders), "viewing the thing in itself;" and, conse- quently, fathers, the law of God, which forbids us to kill, is nullified by that decision. It serves no purpose to add, as you have done, " that such a mode is unlawful and criminal, even according to the law of God, on account of the murders and disorders which would follow in society, because the law of God obliges us to have regard to the good of society." This is to evade the question : for there are two laws to be observed one forbidding us to kill, and another forbidding us to harm so- ciety. Reginald has not perhaps, broken the law which for- bids us to do harm to society ; but he has most certainly violated that which forbids us to kill. Now this is the only point with which we have to do. I might have shown, be- Bidcs, that your other writers, who have permitted these murders in practice, have subverted the one law as well as the other. But, to proceed, we have seen that you sometimes forbid doing harm to the State ; and you allege that your design in that is to fulfil the law of God, which obliges us to consult the interests of society. That may be true, though 't is far from being certain, as you might do the same thing ourely from fear of the civil magistrate.* With your per- FEAR OF THE OO.VSEQUENCE8. 349 mission, then, we shall scrutinize the real secret of this move- ment. Is it not certain, lathers, that if you had really any regard to God, and if the observance of his law had been the prime and principal object in your thoughts, this respect would have invariably predominated in all your leading decisions and would have engaged you at all times on the side of re- ligion ? But if it turns out, on the contrary, that you violate, in innumerable instances, the most sacred commands thai God has laid upon men, and that, as in the instances before us, you annihilate the law of God, which forbids these ac- tions as criminal in themselves, and that you only scruple to approve of them in practice, from bodily fear of the civil magistrate, do you not afford us ground to conclude that you have no respect to God in your apprehensions, and that if you yield an apparent obedience to his law, in so far as re- gards the obligation to do no harm to the State, this is not done out of any regard to the law itself, but to compass your own ends, as has ever been the way with politicians of no religion ? What, fathers ! will you tell us that, looking simply to the law of God, which says, " Thou shalt not kill," we have a right to kill for slanders ? And after having thus trampled on the eternal law of God, do you imagine that you atone for the scandal you have caused, and can persuade us of your reverence for him, by adding that you prohibit the practice for State reasons, and from dread of the civil arm ? Is not tfcis, on the contrary, to raise a fresh scandal ? I mean not oy the respect which you testify for the magistrate ; that is not my charge against you, and it is ridiculous in you to ban- ter, as you have done, on this matter. I blame you, not for fearing the magistrate, but for fearing none but the magis- trate. And I blame you for this, because it is making God fess the enemy of vice than man. Had you said that to kill for slander was allowatle according to men, but not accord - iig to God, that might have been something more endurable ; fcut when you maintain, that what is too criminal to be tol- 350 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. erated among men, may yet be innocent and right in the eyes of that Being who is righteousness itself, what is this but to declare before the whole world, by a subversion of principle as shocking in itself as it is alien to the spirit of the saints, that while you can be braggarts before God, you are cowards before men ? Had you really been anxious to condemn these homicides, you would have allowed the commandment of God which forbids them to remain intact ; and had you dared at once to permit them, you would have permitted them openly, in spite of the laws of God and men. But your object being to per- mit them imperceptibly, and to cheat the magistrate, who watches over the public safety, you have gone craftily to work. You separate your maxims into two portions. On the one side, you hold out " that it is lawful in speculation to kill a man for slander ;" and nobody thinks of hindering you from taking a speculative view of matters. On the other side, you come out with this detached axiom, " that what is permitted in speculation is also permissible in practice ;" and what concern does society seem to have in this general and metaphysical-looking proposition ? And thus these two principles, so little suspected, being embraced in their sep- arate form, the vigilance of the magistrate is eluded ; while it is only necessary to combine the two together, to draw from them the conclusion which you aim at namely, that it is lawful in practice to put a man to death for a simple slander. It is, indeed, fathers, one of the most subtle tricks of youi policy, to scatter through your publications the maxims which you club together in your decisions. It is partly in this way that you establish your doctrine of probabilities, which I have frequently had occasion to explain. That gen- eral principle once established, you advance propositions harmless enough when viewed apart, but which, when taken in connection with that pernicious dogma, become positively horrible. An example of this, which demands an answer, way be found in the llth page of your " Impostures," where THE POLICY OF JKSUITISM. 351 you allege that "several famous theologians have decided that it is lawful to kill a man fora box on the ear." Now, it is certain, that if that had been said by a person who did not hold probabilism, there would be nothing to find fault with in it ; it would in this case amount to no more than a harmless statement, and nothing could be elicited from it. But you, fathers, and all who hold that dangerous tenet, " that whatever has been approved by celebrated authors is probable and safe in conscience," when you add to this " that several celebrated authors are of opinion that it is lawful to kill a man for a box on the ear," what is this but to put a dagger into the hand of all Christians, for the purpose of plunging it into the heart of the first person that insults them, and to assure them that, having the judgment of so many grave authors on their side, they may do so with a perfectly safe conscience ? What monstrous species of language is this, which, in an- nouncing that certain authors hold a detestable opinion, is at the same time giving a decision in favor of that opinion which solemnly teaches whatever it simply tells ! We have learnt, fathers, to understand this peculiar dialect of the Jesuitical school ; and it is astonishing that you have the hardihood to speak it out so freely, for it betrays your senti- ments somewhat too broadly. It convicts you of permitting murder for a buffet, as often as you repeat that many cele- brated authors have maintained that opinion. This charge, fathers, you will never be able to repel ; iior will you be much helped out by those passages from Vas- quez and Suarez that you adduce against me, in which they condemn the murders which their associates have approved. These testimonies, disjoined from the rest of your doctrine, may hoodwink those who know little about it ; but we, who know better, put your principles and maxims together. You Bay, then, that Vasquez condemns murders ; but what say you on the other side of the question, my reverend fathers ? Why, " that the probability of one sentiment does not hinder the probability of the opposite sentiment ; and that it is war- 352 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. rantable to follow the less probable and less safe opinion, giving up the more probable and more safe one." What fol- lows from all this taken in connection, but that we have per- fect freedom of conscience to adopt any one of these conflict- ing judgments which pleases us best ? And what becomes of all the effect which you fondly anticipate from your quo- tations ? It evaporates in smoke, for we have no more to do than to conjoin for your condemnation the maxims which you have disjoined for your exculpation. Why, then, produce those passages of your authors which I have not quoted, to qualify those which I have quoted, as if the one could excuse the other ? What right does that give you to call me an " impostor ?" Have I said that all your fathers are impli- cated in the same corruptions ? Have I not, on the contrary, been at pains to show that your interest lay in having them of all different minds, in order to suit all your purposes ? Do you wish to kill your man ? here is Lessius for you. Are you inclined to spare him ? here is Vasquez. Nobody need go away in ill humor nobody without the authority of a grave doctor. Lessius will talk to you like a Heathen on homicide, and like a Christian, it may be, on charity. Vas- quez, again, will descant like a Heathen on charity, and like a Christian on homicide. But by means of probabilism, which is held both by Vasquez and Lessius, and which renders all your opinions common property, they will lend their opinions to one another, and each will be held bound to absolve those who have acted according to opinions which each of them has condemned. It is this very variety, then, that confounds you. Uniformity, even in evil, would be better than this. Nothing is more contrary to the orders of St. Ignatius 1 and the first generals of your Society, than 1 It is very sad to see Pascal reduced to the necessity of saluting the founder of the sect which he held up to the scorn of the world, as Saint Ignatius! Ignatius Loyola was a native of Spain, and born in 1491. At first a soldier of fortune, he was disabled from service by a wound in the leg at the siege of Pampeluna, and his brain having become heated by reading romances and legendary tales, he took it into his head to oecome the Don Quixote of the Virgin, and wage war against all here- tics and infidels By indomitable perseverance he succeeded in estab- PROBABILI8M. 353 this confused medley of all sorts of opinions, good and bad, I may, perhaps, enter on this topic at some future period ; and it will astonish many to see how far you have degener- ated from the original spirit of your institution, and that your own generals have foreseen that the corruption of your doc- trine on morals might prove fatal, not only to your Society, but to the Church universal. 1 Meanwhile, I repeat that you can derive no advantage from the doctrine of Vasquez. It would be strange, indeed, if, out of all the Jesuits that have written on morals, one or two could not be found who may have hit upon a truth which has been confessed by all Christians. There is no glory in main- taining the truth, according to the Gospel, that it is unlawful to kill a man for smiting us on the face ; but it is foul shame to deny it. So far, indeed, from justifying you, nothing tells more fatally against you than the fact that, having doctors among you who have told you the truth, you abide not in the truth, but love the darkness rather than the light. You have been taught by Vasquez that it is a heathen, and not a Chris- tian, opinion to hold that we may knock down a man for a blow on the cheek ; and that it is subversive both of the Gos- pel and of the decalogue to say that we may kill for such a matter. The most profligate of men will acknowledge as much. And yet you have allowed Lessius, Escobar, and oth- ers, to decide, in the face of these well-known truths, and in lishing the sect calling itself " the Society of Jesus." This ignorant fanatic, who, in more enlightened times, would have been consigned to a mad-house, was beatified by one pope, and canonized, or put into the list of saints, by another ! Jansenius, in his correspondence with St. Cyran, indignantly complains of pope Gregory XV. for having canon- ized Ignatius and Xavier. (Leydecker, Hist. Jansen. 23.) 1 This is rather a singular fact, and applies only to one of the Soci- ety's generals, viz., Vitelleschi, who, in a circular letter, addressed, January 1617, to the Company, much to his own honor, strongly rec- ommended a purer morality, and denounced probabilism. But. says Nicole, the Jesuits did not profit by his good advice. (Nicole, iv., p. 33.) It is true, hnwever, that the Jesuits, during this century, had lost sight of the original design of their order, and of all the ascetic rules of jheir founders. Ignatius and Aquaviva. " The spirit which once ani- jnated them had fallen before the temptations of the world, and their lole endeavor now was to make themselves necessary to mankind, let Jie means be what they might " (ft..nk's Hist, of the Popes, iii. 139.) 354 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. spite of all the laws of God against manslaughter, that it is quite allowable to kill a man for a buffet ! What purpose, then, can it serve to set this passage of Vas- quez over against the sentiment of Lessius, unless you mean to show that, in the opinion of Vasquez, Lessius is a " hea- then" and a " profligate ?" and that, fathers, is more than I durst have said myself. What else can be deduced from it than that Lessius " subverts both the Gospel and the deca- logue ;" that, at the last day, Vasquez will condemn Lessius on this point, as Lessius will condemn Vasquez on another; and that all your fathers will rise up ir (udgment one against another, mutually condemning each other for their sad out- rages on the law of Jesus Christ ? To this conclusion, then, reverend fathers, must we come at length, that as your probabilism renders the good opinions of some of your authors useless to the Church, and useful only to your policy, they merely serve to betray, by their contrariety, the duplicity of your hearts. This you have completely unfolded, by telling us, on the one hand, that Vasquez and Suarez are against homicide, and on the other hand, that many celebrated authors are for homicide ; thus presenting two roads to our choice, and destroying the sim- plicity of the Spirit of God, who denounces his anathema on the deceitful and the double-hearted : " Vce duplici corde, et inrjredienti duabus viis ! Woe be to the double hearts, and the sinner that goeth two ways !'" 1 Ecclesiasticus (Apocrypha), ii. 12 LETTER XIV. TO THE REVEREND FATHERS, THE JESUITS. JH WHICH THE MAXIMS OF THE JESUITS ON MURDER ARE REFUTED FROM THE FATHERS SOME OF THEIR CALUMNIES ANSWERED BY THE WAT AND THEIR DOCTRINE COMPARED WITH THE FORMS OBSERVED IN CRIMINAL TRIALS. October 23, 1656. REVEREND FATHERS, If I had merely to reply to the three remaining charges on the subject of homicide, there would be no need for a long discourse, and you will see them refu- ted presently in a few words ; but as I think it of much more importance to inspire the public with a horror at your opin- ions on this subject, than to justify the fidelity of my quota- tions, I shall be obliged to devote the greater part of this let- ter to the refutation of your maxims, to show you how far you have departed from the sentiments of the Church, and even of nature itself. The permissions of murder, which you have granted in such a variety of cases, render it very ap- parent, that you have so far forgotten the law of God, and quenched the light of nature, as to require to be remanded to the simplest principles of religion and of common sense. What can be a plainer dictate of nature than that " no pri- vate individual has a right to take away the life of another ?" " So well are we taught this of ourselves," says St. Chrysos- tom, " that God, in giving the commandment not to kill, did not add as a reason that homicide was an evil ; because, says that father, " the law supposes that nature has taught us that truth already." Accordingly, this commandment has been binding on men in all ages. The Gospel has con- firmed the requirement of the law ; and the decalogue only 356 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. renewed the command which man had received from God before the law, in the person of Noah, from whom all men are descended. On that renovation of the world, God said to the patriarch : " At the hand of man, and at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; for man is made in the image of God." (Gen. ix. 5, 6.) This general prohibition deprives man of all power over the life of man. And so exclusively has the Almighty reserved this prerogative in his own hand, that, in accordance with Chris- tianity, which is at utter variance with the false maxims of Paganism, man has no power even over his own life. But, as it has seemed good to his providence to take human society under his protection, and to punish the evil-doers that give it disturbance, he has himself established laws for depriving criminals of life ; and thus those executions which, without his sanction, would be punishable outrages, become, by vir- tue of his authority, which is the rule of justice, praiseworthy penalties. St. Augustine takes an admirable view of this oubject. " God," he says, "has himself qualified this gen- eral prohibition against manslaughter, both by the laws which he has instituted for the capital punishment of malefactors, and by the special orders which he has sometimes issued to put to death certain individuals. And when death is inflicted in such cases, it is not man that kills, but God, of whom man may be considered as only the instrument, in the same way as a sword in the hand of him that wields it. But, these instances excepted, whosoever kills incurs the guilt of mur- der."' It appears, then, fathers, that the right of taking away the life of man is the sole prerogative of God, and that having ordained laws for executing death on criminals, he has depu- ted kings or commonwealths as the depositaries of that power a truth which St. Paul teaches us, when, speaking of the right which sovereigns possess over the lives of their sub- jects, he deduces it from Heaven in these words : " He bear 1 City of God, book i. ch. 28 THE SCRIPTURE ON MURDER. So 7 eth not the sword in vain ; for he is the minister of God to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." (Rom. xiii. 4.) But as it is God who has put this power into their hands, so he requires them to exercise it in the same manner as he does himself; in other words, with perfect justice; according to what St. Paul observes in the same passage : " Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou, then, not be afraid of the power ? Do that which is good : for he is the minister of God to thee for good." And this restriction, so far from lowering their prerogative, exalts it, on the con- trary, more than ever ; for it is thus assimilated to that of God, who has no power to do evil, but is all-powerful to do good ; and it is thus distinguished from that of devils, who are impotent in that which is good, and powerful only for evil. There is this difference only to be observed betwixt the King of Heaven and earthly sovereigns, that God, being justice and wisdom itself, may inflict death instantaneously on whomsoever and in whatsoever manner he pleases ; for, besides his being the sovereign Lord of human life, it is cer- tain that he never takes it away either without cause or with- out judgment, because he is as incapable of injustice as he is of error. Earthly potentates, however, are not at liberty to act in this manner; for, though the ministers of God, still they are but men, and not gods. They may be misguided by evil counsels, irritated by false suspicions, transported by passion, and hence they find themselves obliged to have re- course, in their turn also, to human agency, and appoint mag- istrates in their dominions, to whom they delegate their power, that the authority which God has bestowed on them may be employed solely for the purpose for which they received it. I hope you understand, then, fathers, that to avoid the crime of murder, we must act at once by the authority of God, and according to the justice of God ; and that when these two conditions are not united, sin is contracted ; wheth- er it be by taking away life with his authority, but without his justice ; or by taking it away with justice, but without his authority, From this indispensable connection it follows. 358 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. according to St. Augustine, "that he who, without proper authority, kills a criminal, becomes a criminal himself, chiefly for this reason, that he usurps an authority which God has not given him ;" and on the other hand, magistrates, though they possess this authority, are nevertheless chargeable *r ith murder, if, contrary to the laws which they are bound to follow, they inflict death on an innocent man. Such are the principles of public safety and tranquillity which have been admitted at all times and in all places, and on the basis of which all legislators, sacred and profane, from the beginning of the world, have founded their laws. Even Heathens have never ventured to make an exception to this rule, unless in cases where there was no other way of escaping the loss of chastity or life, when they conceived, as Cicero tells us, " that the law itself seemed to put its weapons into the hands of those who were placed in such an emergency." But with this single exception, which has nothing to do with my present purpose, that such a law was ever enacted, authorizing or tolerating, as you have done, the practice of putting a man to death, to atone for an insult, or to avoid the loss of honor or property, where life is not in danger at the same time ; that, fathers, is what I deny was ever done, even by infidels. They have, on the contrary, most expressly forbidden the practice. The law of the Twelve Tables of Rome bore, " that it is unlawful to kill a robber in the day- time, when he does not defend himself with arms ;" which, indeed, had been prohibited long before in the 22d chapter of Exodus. And the law Furem, in the Lex Cornelia, which is borrowed from Ulpian, forbids the killing of robbers even by night, if they do not put us in danger of our lives. 1 Tell us now, fathers, what authority you have to permit what all laws, human as well as divine, have forbidden ; and who gave Lessius a right to use the following language ? ' The book of Exodus forbids the killing of thieves by day ifhen they do not employ arms in their defence ; and in a 1 See Cujas, tit. dig. de just, et jur. ad 1. 3. LESSIUS ON MURDER. 359 court of justice, punishment is inflicted on those who kill under these circumstances. In conscience, however, no blame can be attached to this practice, when a person is not sure of being able otherwise to recover his stok o goods, or enter- tains a doubt on the subject, as Sotus expresses it ; for he is not obliged to run the risk of losing any part of his property merely to save the life of a robber. The same privilege ex- tends even to clergymen." 1 Such extraordinaiy assurance ! The law of Moses punishes those who kill a thief wh^n he does not threaten our lives, and the law of the Gospel, ac- cording to you, will absolve them ! What, fathers ! has Jesus Christ come to destroy the law, and not to fulfil it ? "The civil judge," says Lessius, " would inflict punishment on those who should kill under such circumstances ; but no blame can be attached to the deed in conscience." Must we conclude, then, thai the morality of Jesus Christ is more sanguinary, and less the enemy of murder, than that of Pagans, from whom our judges have borrowed their civil laws which condemn that crime ? Do Christians make more account of the good things of this earth, and less account of human life, than infidels and idolaters ? On what principle do you proceed, fathers ? Assuredly not upon any law that ever was enacted either by God or man on nothing, indeed, but this extraordinary reasoning : " The laws," say you, " per- mit us to defend ourselves against robbers, and to repel force by force ; self-defence, therefore, being permitted, it follows that murder, without which self-defence is often impractica- ble, may be considered as permitted also." It is false, fathers, that because self-defence is allowed, murder may be allowed also. This barbarous method of self-vindication lies at the root of all your errors, and has been justly stigmatized by the Faculty of Louvain, in their censure of the doctrine of your friend Father Lamy, a? << murderous defence defensio occisiva." I maintain that the laws recognize such a wide difference between murder and elf-defence, that in those very cases in which the latter is 1 L. 2, c. 9, n. 66, 72. 360 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. sanctioned, they have made a provision against murder, when the person is in no danger of his life. Read the words, fa- thers, as they run in the same passage of Cujas : " It is law- ful to repulse the person who comes to invade our property ; but we are not permitted to kill him. And again : " If any should threaten to strike us, and not to deprive us of life, it is quite allowable to repulse him ; but it is against all law to put him to death." Who, then, has given you a right to say, as Molina, Regi- nald, Filiutius, Escobar, Lessius, and others among you, have said, " that it is lawful to kill the man who offers to strike us a blow ?" or, " that it is lawful to take the life of one who means to insult us, by the common consent of all the casuists," as Lessius says. By what authority do you, who are mere private individuals, confer upon other private individuals, not excepting clergymen, this right of killing and slaying ? And how dare you usurp the power of life and death, which belongs essentially to none but God, and which is the most glorious mark of sovereign authority ? These are the points that demand explanation ; and yet you con- ceive that you have furnished a triumphant reply to the whole, by simply remarking, in your thirteenth Imposture, " that the value for which Molina permits us to kill a thief, who flies without having done us any violence, is not so small as I have said, and that it must be a much larger sum than six ducats!" How extremely silly! Pray, fatheis, where would you have the price to be fixed ? At fifteen or sixteen ducats ? Do not suppose that this will produce any abatement in my accusations. At all events, you cannot make it exceed the value of a horse ; for Lessius is clearly of opinion, " that we may lawfully kill the thief that runs off with our horse." 1 But I must tell you, moreover, that I was perfectly correct when I said that Molina estimates the value of the thief's life at six ducats ; and, if you will not lake it upon my word, we shall refer it to an umpire, to whom you cannot object. The person whom I fix upon fo' 1 L. ii., c. 9 n. 74. , MOLINA ON MURDER. 361 this office is your own Father Reginald, who, in his explana- tion of the same passage of Molina (1. 28, n. 68), declares that " Molina there DETERMINES the sum for which it is not allowable to kill at three, or four, or five ducats." And thus, fathers, I shall have Reginald in addition to Molina, to bear me out. It will be equally easy for me to refute your fourteenth Imposture, touching Molina's permission to " kill a thief who offers to rob us of a crown." This palpable fact is attested by Escobar, who tells us " that Molina has regularly deter- mined the sum for which it is lawful to take away life, at one crown." 1 And all you have to lay to my charge in the fourteenth imposture is, that I have suppressed the last words of this passage, namely, " that in this matter every one ought to study the moderation of a just self-defence." Why do you not complain that Escobar has also omitted to mention these words ? But how little tact you have about you ! You imagine that nobody understands what you mean by self-defence. Don't we know that it is to employ " a murderous defence ?" You would persuade us that Molina meant to say, that if a person, in defending his crown, finds himself in danger of his life, he is then at liberty to kill his assailant, in self-preservation. If that were true, fathers, why should Molina say in the same place, that "in this mat- ter he was of a contrary judgment from Carrer and Bald," who give permission to kill in self-preservation ? I repeat, therefore, that his plain meaning is, that provided the person can save his crown without killing the thief, he ought not to kill him ; but that, if he cannot secure his object without shedding blood, even though he should run no risk of his own life, as in the case of the robber being unarmed, he is permitted to take up arms and kill the man, in order to save his crown ; and in so doing, according to him, the person Joes not transgress " the moderation of a just defence." To show you that I am in the right, just allow him to explain himself: "One does not exceed the moderation of a just de- l Treat, i, examp. 7, n. 44. Ifl 362 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. fence," says he, " when he takes up arms against a thief who has none, or employs weapons which give him the advantage over his assailant. I know there are some who are of a con- trary judgment ; but I do not approve of their opinion, even in the external tribunal." 1 Thus, fathers, it is unquestionable that your authors have given permission to kill in defence of property and honor, though life should be perfectly free from danger. And it is upon the same principle that they authorize duelling, as I have shown by a great variety of passages from their writ- ings, to which you have made no reply. You have animad- verted in your writings only on a single passage taken from Father Layman, who sanctions the above practice, " when otherwise a person would be in danger of sacrificing his fortune or his honor ;" and here you accuse me with having suppressed what he adds, " that such a case happens very rarely.'' You astonish me, fathers : these are really curious impostures you charge me withal. You talk as if the ques- tion were, Whether that is a rare case ? when the real ques- tion is, If, in such a case, duelling is lawful ? These are two very different questions. Layman, in the quality of a casuist, ought to judge whether duelling is lawful in the case sup- posed ; and he declares that it is. We can judge without his assistance, whether the case be a rare one ; and we can tell him that it is a very ordinary one. Or, if you prefer the testimony of your good friend Diana, he will tell you that ''the case is exceedingly common." 2 But be it rare or not, and let it be granted that Layman follows in this the exam- ple of Navarre, a circumstance on which you lay so much stress, is it not shameful that he should consent to such an opinion as that, to preserve a false honor, it is lawful in con- 1 In casuistical divinity, a distinction is drawn between the internal ana the external tribunal, or forum, as it is called. The internal tribu- nal, or the forum poll, is that of conscience, or the judgment formed of actions according to the law of God. The external tribunal, or the forum soli, is that of human society, or the judgment of actions in the estimation of men, and according to civil law. (Voet.Disp. Theol., iv S2.) 1 Part. 5. tr. 1fl, misc. 2, resol. M. , KILLING FOR AN APPLE. 363 cience to accept of a challenge, in the face of the edicts of all Christian states, and of all the canons of the Church, while, in support of these diabolical maxims, you can pro- duce neither laws, nor canons, nor authorities from Scripture, or from the fathers, nor the example of a single saint, nor, in short, anything but the following impious syllogism : " Honor is more than life it is allowable to kill in defence of life ; therefore it is allowable to kill in defence of honor !" What, fathers ! because the depravity of men disposes them to pro- fer that factitious honor before the life which God hath given them to be devoted to his service, must they be permitted to murder one another for its preservation ? To love that honor more than life, is in itself a heinous evil ; and yet this vicious passion, which, when proposed as the end of our con- duct, is enough to tarnish the holiest of actions, is considered by you capable of sanctifying the most criminal of them ! What a subversion of all principle is here, fathers ! And who does not see to what atrocious excesses it may lead ? It is obvious, indeed, that it will ultimately lead to the com- mission of murder for the most trifling things imaginable, when one's honor is considered to be staked for their preser- vation murder, I venture to say, even for an apple ! You might complain of me, fathers, for drawing sanguinary Infer- ences from your doctrine with a malicious intent, were I not fortunately supported by the authority of the grave Lessius, who makes the following observation, in number 68 : " It is not allowable to take life for an article of small value, such as for a crown or for an apple aut pro porno unless it would be deemed dishonorable to lose it. In this case, one may recover the article, and even, if necessary, kill the aggressor for this is not so much defending one's property as retrieving one's honor." This is plain speaking, fathers; and, just to crown yonr doctrine with a maxim which includes all the rest, allow me to quote the following from Father Hereau, who has taken it from Lessius: " The right of self-defence extends to whatever is necessary to protect ourselves from all in- jury." 364 PROVINCIAL LITTERS. What strange consequences does this inhuman principle involve ! and how imperative is the obligation laid upon all, and especially upon those in public stations, to set their face against it ! Not the general good alone, but their own per- sonal interest should engage them to see well to it ; for the casuists of your school whom I have cited in my letters, ex- tend their permissions to kill far enough to reach even them. Factious men, who dread the punishment of their outrages, which never appear to them in a criminal light, easily per- fiuade themselves that they are the victims of violent oppres- sion, and will be led to believe at the same time, " that the right of self-defence extends to whatever is necessary to pro- tect themselves from all injury." And thus, relieved from contending against the checks of conscience, which stifle the greater number of crimes at their birth, their only anxiety will be to surmont external obstacles. I shall say no more on this subject, fathers ; nor shall I dwell on the other murders, still more odious and important to governments, which you sanction, and of which Lessius, in common with many others of your authors, treats in the most unreserved manner. 1 It was to be wished that these horrible maxims had never found their way out of hell ; and that the devil, who is their original author, had never discov- ered men sufficiently devoted to his will to publish them among Christians. 9 From all that I have hitherto said, it is easy to judge what a contrariety there is betwixt the licentiousness of your opin- ions and the severity of civil laws, not even excepting those 1 Doubts 4th and 10th. a " I am happy," says Nicole, in a note, " to state here an important fact, which confers the highest honor on M. Arnauld. A work of cori iderable size was sent him before going 'o press, in which there was a collection of all the authorities, from Jesuit writers, prejudicial to the life of kfngs and princes. That celebrated doctor prevented the impression of the work, on the ground that it was dangerous for the life of mon- archs and for the honor of the Jesuits that it should ever see the light ; ind, in fact, the work was never printed. Some other writer, less deli- cate than M. Arnauld. has published something similar, in a work en- titled Recueil de Pieces concernant I' Histoire de la Compagnie de Jes:t3 var le P. Jouvenci." THE CHURCH ON MURDER. 365 of heathens. How much more apparent must the contrast be with ecclesiastical laws, which must be incomparably more holy than any other, since it is the Church alone that knows and possesses the true holiness! Accordingly, this chaste spouse of the Son of God, who, in imitation of her heavenly husband, can shed her own blood for others, but never the blood of others for herself, entertains a horror at the crime of murder altogether singular, and proportioned to the pecu- liar illumination which God has vouchsafed to bestow upon her. She views man, not simply as man, but as the image of the jGod whom she adores. She feels for every one of .the race a holy respect, which imparts to him, in her eyes, a venerable character, as redeemed by an infinite price, to be made the temple of the living God. And therefore she considers the death of a man, slain without the authority of his Maker, not as murder only, but as saciilege, by which she is deprived of one of her members ; for whether he be a believer or an unbeliever, she uniformly looks upon him, if not as one, at least as capable of becoming one, of her own children. 1 Such, fathers, are the holy reasons which, ever since the time that God became man for the redemption of men, have rendered their condition an object of such consequence to the Church, that she uniformly punishes the crime of homi- cide, not only as destructive to them, but as one of the gross- est outrages that can possibly be perpetrated against God. In proof of this I shall quote some examples, not from the dea that all the severities to which I refer ought to be kept p (for I am aware that the Church may alter the arrange- 1 Surely Pascal is here describing the Church of Christ as she ought to be, and not the Church of Rome as she existed in 1656. at the very time when she was urging, sanctioning and exulting in the bloody baibarities perpetrated in her name on the poor Piedmontese ; or the same Church as she appeared in 1572, when one of her popes ordered i medal to be struck in honor of the Bartholomew massacre, with the Ascription, " Strages Hugonotarum The massacre of the Hugunots !'' Of what Church, if not the Romish, can it be said with truth, that, "in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that *cere slain on the earth 1" 306 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. Went of such exterior discipline), but to demonstrate her im- mutable spirit upon this subject. The penances which she ordains for murder may differ according to the diversity of the times, but no change of time can ever effect an alteration of the horror with which she regards the crime itself. For a long time the Church refused to be reconciled, till the very hour of death, to those who had been guilty of wil- ful murder, as those are to whom you give your sanction. The celebrated Council of Ancyra adjudged them to penance during their whole lifetime ; and, subsequently, the Church deemed it an act of sufficient indulgence to reduce that term to a great many years. But, still more effectually to deter Christians from wilful murder, she has visited with most severe punishment even those acts which have been com- mitted through inadvertence, as may be seen in St. Basil, in St. Gregory of Nyssen, and in the decretals of Popes Zachary and Alexander II. The canons quoted by Isaac, bishop of Langres (tr. 2. 13), "ordain seven years of penance for hav- ing killed another in self-defence." And we find St. Hilde- bert, bishop of Mans, replying to Yves de Chartres, " that he was right in interdicting for life a priest who had, in self- defence, killed a robber with a stone." After this, you cannot have the assurance to persist in say- ing that your decisions are agreeable to the spirit or the canons of the Church. I defy you to show one of them that permits us to kill solely in defence of our property (for I speak not of cases in which one may be called upon to defend his life se suaqae liberando) : your own authors, and, among the rest, Father Lamy, confess that no such canon can be found. " There is no authority," he says, " human or divine, which gives an express permission to kill a robber who makes no resistance." And yet this is what you permit most ex- pressly. I defy you to show one of them that permits us to Kill in vindication of honor, for a buffet, for an affront, or for ft slander. I defy you to show one of them that permits the killing of witnesses, judges, or magistrates, whatever injustice we may apprehend from them. The spirit of the church it CHRISTIAN LEGISLATION. 367 diametrically opposite to these seditious maxims, opening the door to insurrections to which the mob is naturally prone enough already. She has invariably taught her children that they ought not to render evil for evil ; that they ought to give place unto wrath ; to make no resistance to violence ; to give unto every one his due honor, tribute, submission ; to obey magistrates and superiors, even though they should be unjust, because we ought always to respect in them the power of that God who has placed them over us. She forbids them, still more strongly than is done by the civil law, to take jus- tice into their own hands ; and it is in her spirit that Chris- tian kings decline doing so in cases of high treason, and remit the criminals charged with this grave offence into the hands of the judges, that they may be punished according to the laws and the forms of justice, which in this matter exhibit a contrast to your mode of management, so striking and complete that it may well make you blush for shame. As my discourse has taken this turn, I beg you to follow the comparison which I shall now draw between the style in which you would dispose of your enemies, and that in which the judges of the land dispose of criminals. Every- body knows, fathers, that no private individual has a right to demand the death of another individual ; and that though a man should have ruined us, maimed our body, burnt our house, murdered our father, and was prepared, moreover, to assassinate ourselves, or ruin our character, our private de- mand for the death of that person would not be listened to in a court of justice. Public officers have been appointed for that purpose, who make the demand in the name of the king, r rather, I would say, in the name of God. Now, do you Conceive, fathers, that Christian legislators have established this regulation out of mere show and grimace ? Is it not evident that their object was to harmonize the laws of the state with those of the Church, and thus prevent the external practice of justice from clashing with the sentiments which all Christians are bound to cherish in their hearts ? It is easy to see how this, which forms the commencement of a 868 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. civil process, must stagger you; its subsequent procedure absolutely overwhelms you. Suppose, then, fathers, that these official persons have de- manded the death of the man who has committed all the above mentioned crimes, what is to be done next ? WiH they instantly plunge a dagger in his breast ? No, fathers ; the life of man is too important to be thus disposed of; they go to work with more decency ; the laws have committed it, not to all sorts of persons, but exclusively to the judges, whose probity and competency have been duly tried. And is one judge sufficient to condemn a man to death ? No ; it requires seven at the very least ; and of these seven there must not be one who has been injured by the criminal, lest his judgment should be warped or corrupted by passion. You are aware also, fathers, that the more effectually to secure the purity of their minds, they devote the hours of the morn- ing to these functions. Such is the care taken to prepare them for the solemn action of devoting a fellow-creature to death ; in performing which they occupy the place of God, whose ministers they are, appointed to condemn such only as have incurred his condemnation. For the same reason, to act as faithful administrators of the divine power of taking away human life, they are bound to form their judgment solely according to the depositions of the witnesses, and according to all the other forms pre- scribed to them ; after which they can pronounce conscien- tiously only according to law, and can judge worthy of death .hose only .whom the law condemns to that penalty. And then, fathers, if the command of God obliges them to deliver over to punishment the bodies of the unhappy culprits, the same divine statute binds them to look after the interests of their guilty souls, and binds them the more to this just be- cause they are guilty; so that they are not delivered up to execution till after they have been afforded the means of pro- viding for their consciences. 1 All this is quite fair and in- 1 Providing for their eontciences that is, for the relief of conscience, by confessing to a priest, and receiving absolution. JESUITICAL LEGISLATION. 369 Decent, ; and yet, such is the abhorrence of the Church to blood, that she judges those to be incapable of ministering at her altars who have borne any share in passing or executing a sentence of death, accompanied though it be with these religious circumstances ; from which we may easily conceive what idea the Church entertains of murder. Such, then, being the manner in which human life is dis- posed of by the legal forms of justice, let us now see how you dispose of it. According to your modern system of leg- islation, there is but one judge, and that judge is no other than the offended party. He is at once the judge, the party, and the executioner. He himself demands from himself the death of his enemy ; he condemns him, he executes him on the spot ; and, without the least respect either for the soul or the body of his brother, he murders and damns him for whom Jesus Christ died ; and all this for the sake of avoid- ing a blow on the cheek, or a slander, or an offensive word, or some other offence of a similar nature, for which, if a mag- istrate, in the exercise of legitimate authority, were condemn- ing any to die, he would himself be impeached ; for, in such cases, the laws are very far indeed from condemning any to death. In one word, to crown the whole of this extrava- gance, the person who kills his neighbor in this style, without authority, and in the face of all law, contracts no sin and *oininits no disorder, though he should be religious, and even a priest ! Where are we, fathers ? Are these really relig- ious, and priests, who talk in this manner ? Are they Chris- tians ? are they Turks ? are they men ? or are they demons ? And are these " the mysteries revealed by the Lamb to his Society ?" or are they not rather abominations suggested by the Dragon to those who take part with him ? To come to the point, with you, fathers, whom do you wish to be taken for ? for the children of the Gospel, or for the enemies of the Gospel ? You must be ranged either on the sae side or on the other; for there is no medium here. " He that is not with Jesus Christ is against him." Into these two Jasses all mankind are divided. There are, according to 16* 370 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. Bt. Augustine, two peoples and two worlds, scattered abroad over the earth. There is the world of the children of God, who form one body, of which Jesus Christ is the king and the head ; and there is the world at enmity with God, of which the devil is the king and the head. Hence Jesua Christ is called the King and God of the world, because he has everywhere his subjects and worshippers ; and hence the devil is also termed in Scripture the prince of this world, and the god of this world, because he has everywhere his agents and his slaves; Jesus Christ has imposed upon the Church, which is his empire, such laws as he, in his eternal wisdom, was pleased to ordain ; and the devil has imposed on the world, which is his kingdom, such laws as he chose to estab- lish. Jesus Christ has associated honor with suffering ; the devil with not suffering. Jesus Christ has told those who are smitten on the one cheek to turn the other also ; and the devil has told those who are threatened with a buffet to kill the man that would do them such an injury. Jesus Christ pronounces those happy who share in his reproach ; and the devil declares those to be unhappy who lie under ignominy. Jesus Christ says, Woe unto you when men shall speak well of you ! and the devil says, Woe unto those of whom the world does not speak with esteem ! Judge then, fathers, to which of these kingdoms you be- long. You have heard the language of the city of peace, the mystical Jerusalem ; and you have heard the language of the city of confusion, which Scripture terms " the spiritual Sodom." Which of these two languages do you understand ? which of them do you speak ? Those who are on the side of Jesus Christ have, as St. Paul teaches us, the same mind which was also in him ; and those who are the children of the devil ex patre diabolo who has been a murderer from .he beginning, according to the saying of Jesus Christ, follow uhe maxims of the devil. Let us hear, therefore, the lan- guage of your school. I put this question to your doctors : When a person has given me a blow on the cheek, ought I rather to submit to the injury than kill the offender ? or may I JESUITICAL LEGISLATION. S<1 not kill the man in order to escape the affront ? Kill him by all means it is quite lawful ! exclaim, in one breath, Lessius, Molina, Escobar, Reginald, Filiutius, Baldelle, and other Jesu- its. Is that the language of Jesus Christ? One question more : Would I lose my honor by tolerating a box on the ear, without killing the person that gave it ? " Can there be a doubt," cries Escobar, " that so long as a man suffers an- other to live who has given him a buffet, that man remains without honor ?" Yes, fathers, without that honor which the devil transfuses, from his own proud spirit into that of his proud children. This js the honor which has ever been the idol of worldly-minded men. For the preservation of this false glory, of which the god of this world is the appro- priate dispenser, they sacrifice their lives by yielding to the madness of duelling ; their honor, by exposing themselves to ignominious punishments ; and their salvation, by involving themselves in the peril of damnation a peril which, accord- ing to the canons of the Church, deprives them even of Christian burial. We have reason to thank God, however, for having enlightened the mind of our monarch with ideas much purer than those of your theology. His edicts bearing so severely on this subject, have not made duelling a crime they only punish the crime which is inseparable from duel- ling. He has checked, by the dread of his rigid justice, those who were not restrained by the fear of the justice of God ; and his piety has taught him that the honor of Christians consists in their observance of the mandates of Heaven and the rules of Christianity, and not in the pursuit of that phan- tom which, airy and unsubstantial as it is, you hold to be a legitimate apology for murder. Your murderous decisions being thus universally detested, it is highly advisable that you should now change your sentiments, if not from religious principle, at least from motives of policy. Prevent, fathei-s, by a spontaneous condemnation of these inhuman dogmas, the melancholy consequences which may result from them, and for which you will be responsible. And to impress your minds with a deeper horror at homicide, remember that the 372 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. first crime of fallen man was a murder, committed on the person of the first holy man ; that the greatest crime was a murder, perpetrated on the person of the King of saints ; and that of all crimes, murder is the only one which involves in a common destruction the Church and the state, nature and religion. I have just seen the answer of your apologist to my Thir- teenth Letter ; but if he has nothing better to produce in the shape of a reply to that letter, which obviates the greater part of his objections, he will not deserve a rejoinder. I am sorry to see him perpetually digressing from his subject, to indulge in rancorous abuse both of the living and the dead. But, in order to gain some credit to the stories with which you have furnished him, you should not have made him publicly disavow a fact so notorious as that of the buffet of Com- piegne. 1 Certain it is, fathers, from the deposition of the injured party, that he received upon his cheek a blow from the hand of a Jesuit ; and all that your friends have been able to do for you has been to raise a doubt whether he re- ceived the blow with the back or the palm of the hand, and to discuss the question whether a stroke on the cheek with the back of the hand can be properly denominated a buffet. I know not to what tribunal it belongs to decide this poi'.t ; but shall content myself, in the mean time, with believing t "iat it was, to say the very least, a probable buffet. This go'/ i me .>(!' with a safe conscience. 1 See Letter xiiL, p. 842. LETTER XV. 1 TO THE REVEREND FATHERS, THE JESUITS. SHOWING THAT THE JESUITS FIRST EXCLUDE CALUMNY FROM THEIH CATALOGUE OF CRIMES, AND THEN EMPLOY IT IN DENOUNCING THEIR OPPONENTS. November 25, 1656. REVEREND FATHERS, As your scurrilities are daily in- creasing, and as you are employing them in the merciless abuse of all pious persons opposed to your errors, I feel my- self obliged, for their sake and that of the Church, to bring out that grand secret of your policy, which I promised to disclose some time ago, in order that all may know, through means of your own maxims, what degree of credit is due to your calumnious accusations. I am aware that those who are not very well acquainted with you, are at a great loss what to think on this subject, as they find themselves under the painful necessity, either of believing the incredible crimes with which you charge your opponents, or (what is equally incredible) of setting you down as slanderers. " Indeed !" they exclaim, " were these things not true, would clergymen publish them to the world would they debauch their consciences and damn themselves by ventlr.g such libels ?" Such is their way of reasoning, and thus it is that the palpable proof of your falsifications coming into collision with their opinion of your honesty, their winds hang in a state of suspense between the evidence of truth which they cannot gainsay, and the demands of charity which they would not violate. It follows, that since their 1 Pascal was assisted by M. Arnault! in the preparation of this letter. 'Nicole, iv. 162.) 37-t PROVINCIAL LETTERS. high esteem for you is the only thing that prevents them from discrediting your calumnies, if we can succeed in con- vincing them that you have quite a different idea of calumny from that which they suppose you to have, and that you act- ually believe that in blackening and defaming your adver- saries you are working out your own salvation, there can be little question that the weight of truth will determine them immediately to pay no regard to your accusations. This, fathers, will be the subject of the present letter. My design is, not simply to show that your writings are full of calumnies : I mean to go a step beyond this. It is quite possible for a person to say a number of false things believing them to be true ; but the character of a liar im- plies the intention to tell lies. Now I undertake to prove, fathers, that it is your deliberate intention to tell lies, and that it is both knowingly and purposely that you load your opponents with crimes of which you know them to be inno- cent, because you believe that you may do so without falling from a state of grace. Though you doubtless know this point of your morality as well as I do, this need not prevent me from telling you about it ; which I shall do, were it for no other purpose than to convince all men of its existence, by showing them that I can maintain it to your face, while you cannot have the assurance to disavow it, without confirm- ing, by that very disavowment, the charge which I bring against you. The doctrine to which I allude is so common in your schools, that you have maintained it not only in your books, but, such is your assurance, even in your public theses; as, for example, in those delivered at Louvain in the year 1645, where it occurs in the following terms: " What is it but a venial sin to culminate and forge false accusations to ruin the credit of those who speak evil of us ?" ' So settled is this point among you, that if any one dare to oppose it, yon treat him as a blockhead and a hare-brained idiot. Such 1 Quidni non nisi veniale sit, detrahentes autoritatem magnam, tibi oxiam, false crimine elidere ? ON CALUMNY. 375 was the way in which you treated Father Quiroga, the Ger- man Capuchin, when he was so unfortunate as to impugn the doctrine. The poor man was instantly attacked by Dicastille, one of your fraternity ; and the following is a specimen of the manner in which he manages the dispute : " A certain rueful- visaged, bare-footed, cowled friar cucul- latus gymnopoda whom I do not choose to name, had the boldness to denounce this opinion, among some women and ignorant people, and to allege that it was scandalous and pernicious against all good manners, hostile to the peace of states and societies, and, in short, contrary to the judgment not only of all Catholic doctors, but of all true Catholics. But in opposition to him I maintained, as I do still, that cal- umny, when employed against a calumniator, though it should be a falsehood, is not a mortal sin, either against justice or charity : and to prove the point, I referred him to the whole body of our fathers, and to whole universities, exclusively composed of them, whom I had consulted on the subject ; and among others the reverend Father John Gans, confessor to the emperor; the reverend Father Daniel Bastele, con- fensor to the archduke Leopold ; Father Henri, who was preceptor to these two princes ; all the public and ordinary professors of the university of Vienna" (wholly composed of Jesuits); "all the professors of the university of Gratz" (all Jesuits) ; " all the professors of the university of Prague" (where Jesuits are the masters) ; " from all of whom I have in my possession approbations of my opinions, written and signed with their own hands; besides having on my side the reverend Father Panalossa, a Jesuit, preacher to the emperor and the king of Spain ; Father Pilliceroli, a Jesuit, and many others, who had all judged this opinion to be probable, be- fore our dispute began." l You perceive, fathers, that there are few of your opinions which you have been at more pains to establish than the present, as indeed there were few of them of which you stood more in need. For this reason, doubtless, you have authenticated it so well, that the casuists 1 Dicastillus, De Just., I. 2, tr. 2, disp. 12, n. 404. if 7 6 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. appeal to it as an indubitable principle. "There an be no doubt," says Cararauel, " that it is a probable opinion that we contract no mortal sin by calumniating another, in order to preserve our own reputation. For it is rnaintained by more than twenty grave doctors, by Gaspard Hurtado, and Dicastille, Jesuits, &c. ; so that, were this doctrine not prob- able, it would be difficult to find any one such in the whole compass of theology." Wretched indeed must that theology be, and rotten to the very core, which, unless it has been decided to be safe in conscience to defame our neighbor's character to preserve our own, can hardly boast of a safe decision on any other point ! How natural is it, fathers, that those who hold this principle should occasionally put it in practice ! The cor- rupt propensity of mankind leans so strongly in that direc- tion of itself, that the obstacle of conscience once being re- moved, it would be folly to suppose that it will not burst forth with all its native impetuosity. If you desire an ex- ample of this, Caramuel will furnish you with one that oc- curs in the same passage : " This maxim of Father Dicastille," he says, " having been communicated by a German countess to the daughters of the empress, the belief thus impressed on their minds that calumny was only a venial sin, gave rise in the course of a few days to such an immense number of false and scandalous tales, that the whole court was thrown into a flame and filled with alarm. It is easy, indeed, to conceive what a fine use these ladies would make of the new light they had acquired. Matters proceeded to such a length, that it was found necessary to call in the assistance of a wor- thy Capuchin friar, a man of exemplary life, called Father Qniroga " (the very man whom Dicastille rails at so bitterly), " who assured them that the maxim was most pernicious, especially among women, and was at the greatest pains to prevail upon the empress to abolish the practice of it en- tirely." We have no reason, therefore, to be surprised at the bad effects of this doctrine; on the contrary, the wonder vould be, if it had failed to produce them. Self-love is at ON CALUMNY. 377 ways ready enough to whisper in our ear, when we are at tacked, that we suffer wrongfully; and more particularly in your case, fathers, whom vanity has blinded so egregiously as to make you believe that to wound the honor of your So- ciety, is to wound that of the Church. There would have been good ground to look on it as something miraculous, if you had not reduced this maxim to practice. Those who do not know you are ready to say, How could these good lathers slander their enemies, when they cannot do so but at the expense of their own salvation ? But if they knew you better, the question would be, How could these good fathers forego the advantage of decrying their enemies, when they have it in their power to do so without hazarding their salvation ? Let none, therefore, henceforth be surprised to find the Jesuits calumniators ; they can exercise this vocation with a safe conscience ; there is no obstacle in heaven or on earth to prevent them. In virtue of the credit they have acquired in the world, they can practise defamation without dreading the justice of mortals ; and, on the strength of then self- assumed authority in matters of conscience, they hav invented maxims for enabling them to do it Without any fea of the justice of God. This, fathers, is the fertile source of your base slanders On this principle was Father Brisacier led to scatter his cal umnies about him, with such zeal as to draw down on hi> head the censure of the late Archbishop of Paris. Actuated by the same motives, Father D'Anjou launched his invec- tives from the pulpit of the Church of St. Benedict in Paris, on the 8th of March, 1655, against those honorable gentle- men who were intrusted with the charitable funds raised for xhe poor of Picardy and Champagne, to which they them- selves had largely contributed ; and, uttering a base falsehood, calculated (if your slanders had been considered worthy of any credit) to dry up the stream of that charity, he had the assurance to say, " that he knew, from go-^d authority, that Certain persons had diverted that money from its proper use, to employ it against the Church and the State;" a calumny 378 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. which obliged the curate of the parish, who is a doctor of the Sorbonne, to mount the pulpit the very next day, in order to give it the lie direct. To the same source must be traced the conduct of your Father Crasset, who preached calumny at such a furious rate in Orleans that the archbishop of that place was under the necessity of interdicting him as a public slanderer. In his mandate, dated the 9th of Sep- tember last, his lordship declares, " That whereas he had been informed that Brother Jean Crasset, priest of the Soci ety of Jesus, had delivered from the pulpit a discourse filled with falsehoods and calumnies against the ecclesiastics of thia city, falsely and maliciously charging them with maintaining impious and heretical propositions, such as, That the com- mandments of God are impracticable; that internal grace is irresistible ; that Jesus Christ did not die for all men ; and others of a similar kind, condemned by Innocent X. : he therefore hereby interdicts the aforesaid Crasset from preach- ing in his diocese, and forbids all his people to hear him, on pain of mortal disobedience." The above, fathers, is your ordinary accusation, and generally among the first that you bring against an whom it is your interest to denounce. And although you should find it as impossible to substantiate the charge against any of them, as Father Crnsset did in the case of the clergy of Orleans, your peace of conscience will not be in the least disturbed on that account ; for you be- lieve that this mode of calumniating your adversaries is permitted you with such certainty, that you have no scruple to avow it in the most public manner, and in the face of a whole city. A remarkable proof of this may be seen in the dispute you had with M. Puys, curate of St. Nisier at Lyons ; and the story exhibits so complete an illustration of your spirit, that I shall take the liberty of relating some of its leading circum- stances. You know, fathers, that, in the year 1649, M. Puys translated into French an excellent book, written by another Capuchin friar, " On the duty which Christians owe to their own parishes, against those that would lead them M. PUYS AND FATHER ALBY. 379 away from them," without using a single invective, or point- ing to any monk or any order of monks in particular. Your fathers, however, were pleased to put the cap on their own heads; and without any respect to an aged pastor, a judge in the Primacy of France, and a man who was held in the highest esteem by the whole city, Father Alby wrote a fu- rious tract against him, which you sold in your own church upon Assumption-day ; in which book, among other various charges, he accused him of having " made himself scandalous by his gallantries," described him as suspected of having no religion, as a heretic, excommunicated, and, in short, worthy of the stake. To this M. Puys made a reply ; and Father Alby, in a second publication, supported his former allegations. Now, fathers, is it not a clear point, either that you were calumniators, or that you believed all that you alleged against that worthy priest to be true ; and that, on this latter assumption, it became you to see him purified from all these abominations before judging him worthy of your friendship ? Let us see, then, what happened at the accommodation of the dispute, which took place in the pres- ence of a great number of the principal inhabitants of the town, whose names will be found at the foot of the page, 1 exactly as they are set down in the instrument drawn up on the 25th of September, 1650. Before all these witnesses M. Puys made a declaration, which was neither more nor less than this : " That what he had written was not directed igainst the fathers of the Society of Jesus ; that he had spo- en in general of those who alienated the faithful from their parishes, without meaning by that to attack the Society ; ,.nd that so far from having such an intention, the Society M. De Ville. Vicar-General of M.. the Cardinal of Lyons; M. Scarron. Canon and Curate of St. Paul ; M. Margat. Chanter; MM. Bouvand. Seve, Aubert, and Dervien. Canons of St. Nisier; M. de Gue, President of the Treasurers of France ; M. Groslier. Provost of the Mer- chants; M. de Flechre President and Lieutenant-General; MM. D Boissart De St. Romain and De Bartoly. gentlemen; M Bourgeois, the King's First Advocate in the Court of the Treasurers of France ; MM. De Cotton father and son; and M. Boniel; who have all signed the riginal copy of the Declaration, along with M. Puys and Father Alby. 380 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. was the object of his esteem and affection." By virtue of these words alone, without either retractation or absolution, M. Puys recovered, all at once, from his apostasy, his scandals, and his excommunication ; and Father Alby immediately thereafter addressed him in the following express terms : " Sir, it was in consequence of my believing that you meant to attack the Society to which I have the honor to belong, that I was induced to take up the pen in its defence ; and I considered that the mode of reply which I adopted was such us I was permitted to employ. But, on a better understand- ing of your intention, I am now free to declare, that there is nothing in your work to prevent me from regarding you as a man of genius, enlightened in judgment, profound and ortho- dox in doctrine, and irreproachable in manners ; in one word, as a pastor worthy of your Church. It is with much pleas- ure that I make this declaration, and I beg these gentlemen to remember what I have now said." They do remember it, fathers ; and, allow me to add, they were more scandalized by the reconciliation than by the quarrel. For who can fail to admire this speech of Father Alby ? He does not say that he retracts, in consequence of having learnt that a change had taken place in the faith and manners of M. Puys, but solely because, having understood that he had no intention of attacking your Society, there was nothing further to prevent him from regarding the author as a good Catholic. He did not then believe him to be actually a heretic ! And yet, after having, contrary to his conviction, accused him of this crime, he will not acknowledge he was in the wrong, but has the hardihood to say, that he consid- ered the method he adopted to be " such as he was permitted to employ !" What can you possibly mean, fathers, by so publicly avow- ing the fact, that you measure the faith and the virtue of men only by the sentiments they entertain towards your So- ciety ? Had you no apprehension of making yourselves pass, by your own acknowledgment, as a band of swindlers and slanderers ? What, fathers ! must the same individual AN ODD HERESY. 381 without undergoing any personal transformation, but simply according as you judge him to have honored or assailed your community, be " pious " or " impious," " irreproachable " 01 * excommunicated," " a pastor worthy of the Church," or " worthy of the stake;" in short, " a Catholic " or " a here- tic ?" To attack your Society and to be a heretic, are, there- fore, in your language, convertible terms ! An odd sort of heresy this, fathers 1 And so it would appear, that when we see many good Catholics branded, in your writings, by the name of heretics, it means nothing more than that you think they attack you ! It is well, fathers, that we under- stand tliis strange dialect, according to which there can he no doubt that I must be a great heretic. It is in this sense, then, that you so often favor me with this appellation ! Your sole reason for cutting me off" from the Church is, be- cause you conceive that my letters have done you harm ; and, accordingly, all that I have to do, in order to become a good Catholic, is either to approve of your extravagant morality, or to convince you that my sole aim in exposing it has been your advantage. The former I could not do without renoun- cing every sentiment of piety that I ever possessed ; and the latter you will be slow to acknowledge till you are well cured of your errors. Thus am I involved in heresy, after a very singular fashion ; for, the purity of my faith being of no avail tor my exculpation, I have no means of escaping from the charge, except either by turning traitor to my own conscience, >r by reforming yours. Till one or other of these events lappen, I must remain a reprobate and a slanderer; and, et me be ever so faithful in my citations from your writings, you will go about crying everywhere, " What an instrument of the devil must that man be, to impute to us things of which there is not the least mark or vestige to be found in our books 1" And, by doing so, you will only be acting in jonformity with your fixed maxim and your ordinary prac- tice : to such latitude does your privilege of telling lies ex \end 1 Allow me to give you an example of this, which I select on purpose; it will give me an opportunity of reply 582 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. ing, at the same time, to your ninth Imposture : for, in truth, they only deserve to be refuted in passing. About ten or twelve years ago, you were accused of hold ing that maxim of Father Bauny, " that it is permissible to seek directly (primo et per se) a proximate occasion of sin, for the spiritual or temporal good of ourselves or our neigh- bor" (tr. 4, q. 14); as an example of which, he observes, " It is allowable to visit infamous places, for the purpose of converting abandoned females, even although the practice should be very likely to lead into sin, as in the case of one who has found from experience that he has frequently yielded to their temptations." What answer did your Father Caus- sin give to this charge in the year 1644 ? "Just let any one look at the passage in Father Bauny," said he, " let him peruse the page, the margins, the preface, the appendix, in short, the whole book from beginning to end, and he will not discover the slightest vestige of such a sentence, which could only enter into the mind of a man totally devoid of con- science, and could hardly have been forged by any other but an instrument of Satan.'" Father Pintereau talks in the same style : " That man must be lost to all conscience who would teach so detestable a doctrine ; but he must be worse than a devil who attributes it to Father Bauiiy. Reader, there is not a single trace or vestige of it in the whole of his book." 8 Who would not believe that persons talking in this tone have good reason to complain, and that Father Bauny has, in very deed, been misrepresented ? Have you ever asserted anything against me in stronger terms ? And, after such a solemn asseveration, that " there was not a sin- gle trace or vestige of it in the whole book," who would unagine that the passage is to be found, word for word, in i-he place referred to ? Truly, fathers, if this be the means of securing your repu- tation, so long as you remain unanswered, it is also, unfortu- nately, the means of destroying it forever, so soon as an an- 1 Apology for the Society 3 First Part, p. 24. of Jesus, p. 128. BAREFACED DENIALS. 3S swer makes its appearance. For so certain is it that you told a lie at the period before mentioned, that you make no scru- ple of acknowledging, in your apologies of the present day, that the maxim in question is to be found in the very place which had been quoted; and what is most extraordinary, the same maxim which, twelve years ago, was " detestable," has now become so innocent, that in your ninth Imposture (p. 10) you accuse me of " ignorance and malice, in quarrelling with Father Bauny for an opinion which has not been rejected in the School." What an advantage it is, fathers, to have to do with people that deal in contradictions I I need not the aid of any but yourselves to confute you; for I have only two things to show first, That the maxim in dispute is a worthless one ; and, secondly, That it belongs to Father Bauny; and I can prove both by your own confession. In 1644, you confessed that it was " detestable;" and, in 1656, you avow that it is Father Bauny's. This double acknowl- edgment completely justifies me, fathers ; but it does more, it discovers the spirit of your policy. For, tell me, pray, what is the end you propose to yourselves in your writings? Is it to speak with honesty ? No, fathers ; that cannot be, since your defences destroy each other. Is it to follow the truth of the faith ? As little can this be your end ; since, ac- cording to your own showing, you authorize a " detestable" maxim. But, be it observed, that while you said the maxim was " detestable," you denied, at the same time, that it was the property of Father Bauny, and so he was innocent ; and when you now acknowledge it to be his, you maintain, at the same time, that it is a good maxim, and so he is innocent still. The innocence of this monk, therefore, being the only thing common to your two answers, it is obvious that this was the sole end which you aimed at in putting them forth ; and that, when you say of one and the same maxim, that it is in a certain book, and that it is not ; that it is a good maxim, and that it IB a bad one; your sole object is to white- wash some one or other of your fraternity; judging in the matter, not according to the truth, which never changes, but 884 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. according to your own interest, which is varying every hour Can I say imre than this? You perceive that it amounts to a demonstration ; but it is far from being a singular instance and, to omit a multitude of examples of the same thing, I believe you will be contented with my quoting only one more. You have been charged, at different times, with another proposition of the same Father Bauny, namely, " That abso- lution ought to be neither denied nor deferred in the case oi those who live in the habits of sin against the law of God, of nature, and of the Church, although there should be no ap- parent prospect of future amendment etsi emendationis fu- turce spes nulla appareat" 1 Now, with regard to this maxim, I beg you to tell me, fathers, which of the apologies that have been made for it is most to your liking ; whether that of Father Pintereau, or that of Father Brisacier, both of your Society, who have defended Father Bauny, in your two different modes the one by condemning the proposition, but disavowing it to be Father Bauny's ; the other by allow- ing it to be Father Bauny's, but vindicating the proposition ? Listen, then, to their respective deliverances. Here comes that of Father Pintereau (p. 8) : "I know not what can be called a transgression of all the bounds of modesty, a step beyond all ordinary impudence, if the imputation to Father Bauny of so damnable a doctrine is not worthy of that desig- nation. Judge, reader, of the baseness of that calumny ; see what sort of creatures the Jesuits have to deal with ; and say, if the author of so foul a slander does not deserve to b regarded from henceforth as the interpreter of the father of lies." Now for Father Brisacier : " It is true, Father Bauny Bays what you allege." (That gives the lie direct to Father Pintereau, plain enough.) " But," adds he, in defence of Fa- ther Bauny, " if you who find so much fault with this sentiment, wait, -when a penitent lies at your feet, till his guardian ange" find security for his rights in the inheritance of heaven ; if you wait (ill God the Father, swear by himself that David 1 Tr. 4, q 22, p. 100 FLAT CONTRADICTIONS. 3.-> told a lie, when he said, by the Holy Ghoit, that 'all men are liars,' fallible and perfidious ; if you wait till the penitent be no longer a liar, no longer frail and changeable, no longer a sinner, like other men ; if you wait, I say, till then, you will never apply the blood of Jesus Christ to a single soul.'" What do you really think now, fathers, of these impious and extravagant expressions '? According to them, if we would wait " till there be some hope of amendment" in sin- ners before granting their absolution, we must wait " till God the Father swear by himself," that they will never fall into sin any more ! What, fathers ! is no distinction to be made between hope and certainty ? How injurious is it to the grace of Jesus Christ, to maintain that it is so impossible for Chris- tians ever to escape from crimes against the laws of God nature, and the Church, that such a thing cannot be looked for, without supposing " that the Holy Ghost has told a lie ;" and if absolution is not granted to those who give no hope of amendment, the blood of Jesus Christ will be useless, for- sooth, and "would never be applied to a single soul!" To what a sad pass have you come, fathers, by this extravagant desire of upholding the glory of your authors, when you can find only two ways of justifying them by imposture or by impiety ; and when the most innocent mode by which you can extricate yourselves, is by the barefaced denial of facts as patent as the light of day ! This may perhaps account for your having recourse so fre- quently to that very convenient practice. But this does not complete the sum of your accomplishments in the art of self- defence. To render your opponents odious, you have had recourse to the forging of documents, such as that Letter of a Minister to M. Arnauld, which you circulated through all Paris, to induce the belief that the work on Frequent Com- munion, which had been approved by so many bishops and doctors, but which, to say the truth, was rather against you, nad been concocted through secret intelligence with the min- Part. 4, p. 21 17 386 PROVINCIAL LETTERS. isters of Charentou. 1 At other times, you attribute to yom adversaries writings full of impiety, such as the Circular Letter of the Jansenists, the absurd style of which renders the fraud too gross to be swallowed, and palpably betrays the malice of your Father Meynier, who has the impudence to make use of it for supporting his foulest slanders. Some- times, again, you will quote books which were never in exist- ence, such as The Constitution of the Holy Sacrament, from which you extract passages, fabricated at pleasure, and cal- culated to make the hair on the heads of certain good simple people, who have no idea of the effrontery with which you can invent and propagate falsehoods, actually to bristle with horror. There is not, indeed, a single species of calumny which you have not put into requisition ; nor is it possible that the maxim which excuses the vice could have been lodged in better hands. But those sorts of slander to which we have adverted are rather too easily discredited ; and, accordingly, you have oth- ers of a more subtle character, in which you abstain from specifying particulars, in order to preclude your opponents from getting any hold, or finding any means of reply ; as, for example, when Father Brisacier says that " his enemies are guilty of abominable crimes, which he does not choose to men- tion." Would you not think it were impossible to prove a charge so vague as this to be a calumny ? An able man, however, has found out the secret of it ; and it is a Capuchin again, fathers. You are unlucky in Capuchins, as times now go ; and I foresee that you may be equally so some other time in Benedictines. The name of this Capuchin is Father 1 That is, the Protestant ministers of Paris, who are called I: the ministers of Charenton," from the village of thai name near Paris, where they had their place of worship. The Protestants of Paris were forbid- den to hold meetings in the city, and were compelled to travel five leagues to a place of worship, till 1606, when they were graciously permitted to erect their temple at Charenton. about two leagues from the city ! (Be- noit, Hist, de 1'Edit. de Nantes, i. 435.) Even there they were harassed by the bigoted populace, and at last ' the ministers of Charenton," among whom were the famous Claude and Dai lie. were driven fron\ their homes, their chapel burnt to the ground, and their people scattered abroad. VAGUE INSINUATIONS. 387 Valerien, of the house of the Counts of Magnis. You shall hear, by this brief narrative, how he answered your calum- nies. He had happily succeeded in converting Prince Er- nest, the Landgrave of Hesse Rheinsfelt. 1 Your fathers, however, seized, as it would appear, with some chagrin at seeing a sovereign prince converted without their having had any hand in it, immediately wrote a book against the friar (for good men are everywhere the objects of your persecu- tion), in which, by falsifying one of his passages, they ascribed to him an heretical doctrine. They also circulated a lettei against him, in which they said : " Ah, we have such things to disclose" (without mentioning what) " as will gall you to the quick ! If you don't take care, we shall be forced to inform the pope and the cardinals about it." This manoeuvre was pretty well executed ; and I doubt not, fathers, but you may speak in the same style of me ; but take warning from the manner in which the friar answered in his book, which was printed last year at Prague (p. 112,