Opening the text

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

Name: The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Author: Pascal, Blaise

Pascal, Blaise

Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800

deeper horror at homicide, remember that the 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 Thirteenth 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 Compiègne.[266] 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
received 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 point; but shall content myself, in the mean time, with
believing that it was, to say the very least, _a probable buffet_. This
gets me off with a safe conscience.

-----

Footnote 255:

  City of God, book i. ch. 28.

Footnote 256:

  See Cujas, tit. dig. de just. et jur. ad l. 3.

Footnote 257:

  L. 2, c. 9, n. 66, 72.

Footnote 258:

  L. ii., c. 9, n. 74.

Footnote 259:

  Treat. i., examp. 7, n. 44.

Footnote 260:

  In casuistical divinity, a distinction is drawn between the internal
  and the external tribunal, or _forum_, as it is called. The internal
  tribunal, or the _forum poli_, 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. 62.)

Footnote 261:

  Part. 5, tr. 19, misc. 2, resol. 99.

Footnote 262:

  Doubts 4th and 10th.

Footnote 263:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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

deeper horror at homicide, remember that the 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 Thirteenth 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 Compiègne.[266] 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
received 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 point; but shall content myself, in the mean time, with
believing that it was, to say the very least, _a probable buffet_. This
gets me off with a safe conscience.

-----

Footnote 255:

  City of God, book i. ch. 28.

Footnote 256:

  See Cujas, tit. dig. de just. et jur. ad l. 3.

Footnote 257:

  L. 2, c. 9, n. 66, 72.

Footnote 258:

  L. ii., c. 9, n. 74.

Footnote 259:

  Treat. i., examp. 7, n. 44.

Footnote 260:

  In casuistical divinity, a distinction is drawn between the internal
  and the external tribunal, or _forum_, as it is called. The internal
  tribunal, or the _forum poli_, 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. 62.)

Footnote 261:

  Part. 5, tr. 19, misc. 2, resol. 99.

Footnote 262:

  Doubts 4th and 10th.

Footnote 263:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie

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