The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'CriePascal, Blaise
Religion
The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Pascal, Blaise
Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800
If by thus preferring the shield of tradition to the sword of the
Spirit, Jansen expected to out-manœuvre the Jesuits, he had mistaken his
policy. “Augustinus,” though professedly 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
impeachment. Jansen’s portrait of Augustine was but too faithfully
executed; and the disciples of Loyola could not fail to see how 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
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 demolished,
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.[18] His literary
remains were no less severely handled. Nicholas Cornet, a member of the
Society, after incredible pains, extracted the heretical poison of
“Augustinus,” in the form of seven propositions, which were afterwards
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 from restoring 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 the
pope, denied that these propositions were to be found in “Augustinus.”
The succeeding pope, Alexander VII., who was still more favorable to the
Jesuits, declared formally, in a bull dated 1657, “that the five
propositions were certainly taken from the book of Jansenius, and had
been condemned in the sense of that author.” But the Jansenists were
ready to meet him on this point; they replied, that a decision of this
kind overstepped the limits of papal authority, and that the pope’s
infallibility did not extend to a judgment of facts.[19]
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. There are divine precepts which good men, though willing, are
absolutely unable to obey.
2. No person, in this corrupt state of nature, can resist the influence
of divine grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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