consecrated ground, or under sacred roofs_.” (Natural Hist. of Enthusiasm, p. 236.) “It is well known,” says Mosheim, “that the Jansenists and Augustinians have long pretended to confirm their doctrine by miracles; and they even acknowledge that these miracles have saved them when their affairs have been reduced to a desperate situation.” (Mosh. Eccl. Hist., cent. xvii., sect. 2.) Footnote 311: Isa. xxviii. 15. Footnote 312: Isa. xxx. 12–14. Footnote 313: Ezek. xiii. 23. Pascal does not, either here or elsewhere, when quoting from Scripture, adhere very closely to the original, nor even to the Vulgate version. Footnote 314: This was the name given to St. Francis de Sales, bishop and prince of Geneva, previously to his canonization, which took place in 1665. Footnote 315: Serm. 24 in Cantic. Footnote 316: These two postscripts have been often admired—the former for the author’s elegant excuse for the length of his letter; the latter for the adroitness with which he turns his apology for an undesigned mistake into a stroke at the disingenuousness of his opponents. LETTER XVII.[317] TO THE REVEREND FATHER ANNAT, JESUIT.[318] THE AUTHOR OF THE LETTERS VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF HERESY—AN HERETICAL PHANTOM—POPES AND GENERAL COUNCILS NOT INFALLIBLE IN QUESTIONS OF FACT. _January 23, 1657._ REVEREND FATHER,—Your former behavior had induced me to believe that you were anxious for a truce in our hostilities; and I was quite disposed to agree that it should be so. Of late, however, you have poured forth such a volley of pamphlets, in such rapid succession, as to make it apparent that peace rests on a very precarious footing when it depends on the silence of Jesuits. I know not if this rupture will prove very advantageous to you; but, for my part, I am far from regretting the opportunity which it affords me of rebutting that stale charge of heresy with which your writings abound.