To elucidate the point still further, I shall assume as a principle, what you yourselves acknowledge—_that the doctrine of efficacious grace has never been condemned, and that the pope has not touched it by his constitution_. And, in fact, when he proposed to pass judgment on the five propositions, the question of efficacious grace was protected against all censure. This is perfectly evident from the judgments of the consulters,[327] to whom the pope committed them for examination. These judgments I have in my possession, in common with many other persons in Paris, and, among the rest, the Bishop of Montpelier,[328] who brought them from Rome. It appears from this document, that they were divided in their sentiments; that the chief persons among them, such as the Master of the Sacred Palace, the Commissary of the Holy Office, the General of the Augustinians, and others, conceiving that these propositions might be understood in the sense of _efficacious grace_, were of opinion that they ought not to be censured; whereas the rest, while they agreed that the propositions would not have merited condemnation, had they borne that sense, judged that they ought to be censured, because, as they contended, this was very far from being their proper and natural sense. The pope, accordingly, condemned them; and all parties have acquiesced in his judgment. It is certain, then, father, that efficacious grace has not been condemned. Indeed, it is so powerfully supported by St. Augustine, by St. Thomas, and all his school, by a great many popes and councils, and by all tradition, that to tax it with heresy would be an act of impiety. Now, all those whom you condemn as heretics declare that they find nothing in Jansenius, but this doctrine of efficacious grace. And this was the only point which they maintained at Rome. You have acknowledged this yourself, when you declare that, “when pleading before the pope, they did not say a single word about the propositions, but occupied the whole time in talking about efficacious grace.”[329] So that whether they be right or wrong in this supposition, it is undeniable, at least, that what they suppose to be the sense is not heretical sense; and that, consequently, they are no heretics: for, to state the matter in two words, either Jansenius has merely taught the doctrine of efficacious grace, and in this case he has no errors; or he has taught some other thing, and in this case he has no defenders. The whole question turns on ascertaining whether Jansenius has actually maintained something different from efficacious grace; and should it be found that he has, you will have the honor of having better understood him, but they will not have the misfortune of having erred from the faith.