In vain did people attempt to discover how it could possibly be, that M. Arnauld’s expression differed from those of the fathers as much as truth from error, and faith from heresy. For where was the difference to be found? Could it be in these words, “that the fathers point out to us, in the person of St. Peter, a righteous man?” St. Augustine has said the same thing in so many words. Is it because he says “that grace had failed him?” The same St. Augustine, who had said that “St. Peter was a righteous man,” says “that he had not had grace on that occasion.” Is it, then, for his having said, “that without grace we can do nothing?” Why, is not this just what St. Augustine says in the same place, and what St. Chrysostom had said before him, with this difference only, that he expresses it in much stronger language, as when he says “that his fall did not happen through his own coldness or negligence, but through the failure of grace, and the withdrawment of God?”[113] Such considerations as these kept everybody in a state of breathless suspense, to learn in what this diversity could consist, when at length, after a great many meetings, this famous and long-looked for censure made its appearance. But, alas! it has sadly baulked our expectation. Whether it be that the Molinist doctors would not condescend so far as to enlighten us on the point, or for some other mysterious reason, the fact is, they have done nothing more than pronounce these words: “This proposition is rash, impious, blasphemous, accursed, and heretical!” Would you believe it, sir, that most people, finding themselves deceived in their expectations, have got into bad humor, and begin to fall foul upon the censors themselves? They are drawing strange inferences from their conduct in favor of M. Arnauld’s innocence. “What!” they are saying, “is this all that could be achieved, during all this time, by so many doctors joining in a furious attack on one individual? Can they find nothing in all his works worthy of reprehension, but three lines, and these extracted, word for word, from the greatest doctors of the Greek and Latin Churches? Is there any author whatever whose writings, were it intended to ruin him, would not furnish a more specious pretext for the purpose? And what higher proof could be furnished of the orthodoxy of this illustrious accused?