Abstract
Preparatory notes and fragments for the Provincial Letters: jottings against the Jesuits, casuistry and probability, on lax morality opposed to truth, and on the conduct of the order — raw materials later recast into the finished work.
Traduzione di George Pearce · Delphi Classics, 2000 · pubblico dominio
Translated by George Pearce, 1849
[All these Thoughts and Notes are published for the first time, although not preceded by the mark +. TRANSLATOR]
Letter upon the compulsory establishment of the Jesuits everywhere.
— Preternatural blindness.
— This system of morals, which has in its front a crucified God!
— Behold the men to whom they have taken a vow of obedience: “tanquam Christo!”
— The decline of the Jesuits.
— Our religion which is wholly divine.
— A Casuist, a mirror.
If you approve it, it is his testimony.
— It is strange that there are no means of conveying to them an idea of religion.
— A crucified God.
— As to the multitude of the Casuists, so far from being a ground of reproach against the Church, it is rather a cause of grief to the church.
— And that we may not be suspicious, like the Jews, who carry their books without suspicion to the Gentiles, they bring us their Constitutions.
— In…this affair… they are… [Several words illegible in the MS.]
— But what a contrast! Their disciples love and cherish corruption: their adversaries abhor it.
As for us, we could not lay down any «general rules. If you look at our Constitutions, you will scarcely be able to recognize us; they make us mendicants, and enemies of courts, and yet… &c. — But it is no infringement of them, for the glory of God is everywhere…
There are various ways of proceeding. St. Ignacius took one; and now others are in fashion. It was best at the outset to prescribe poverty and retirement: further objects were more advantageously postponed to the future. It would have excited alarm to begin at too high a pitch: it would have been unnatural.
Not that the general rule was not to conform to the institutes; for they might be abused. Few would be found able, like ourselves, to bear elevation without vanity.
— Two obstacles, — the Gospel, and the laws of the state. “A majori ad minus.” Junior.
— The Jansenists bear the penalty.
— God evidently protects us against rash judgments, and groundless scruples.
— All the truth on one side: we extend it to both.
(On this page of the MS. are references to various authors, such as Père St. Jure, Escobar, Aquaviva, Clement et Paul, &c.)
The tip of a hood sets up in arms twenty-five thousand monks.
Pascal’s Notes.
To bring all the Fathers into conformity with his fancies, rather than conform his opinions to those of the Fathers.
Modesty.
The mass. I know not what he says.
Policy.
Unluckily, or rather by a singular good fortune, whatever is done by one member of the society is attributed to all.
To obey, scrupulously, the bishops; that we may not appear to affect any rivalry of them, like St. Xavier.
Wills. Suits.
They make additions — they invent even false narratives.
Failure in inflicting punishment upon slanderers.
Lest the society should corrupt itself.
Failure of obedience in promoting their reputation.
Failure of obedience in seeking the support of the great.
They commit enormities, and such as are quite foreign to the principles of the society, alleging that persons of high station importune them to do so; whereas it is they that are the solicitors, insomuch as they know they must either make such persons their enemies by refusal, or corrupt the Society by yielding to their wishes.
Chastity.
Poverty. Relaxed opinions opposed to truth.
Vines, &c.
— Have you a proper idea of our society?
— The church has subsisted so long without these questions.
— The others do it, but not in the same manner.
— What comparison is there, do you suppose, between twenty thousand individuals, and two hundred thousand members, who would all perish for each other? A body possessed of immortality.
— We will maintain ourselves till death. Lama.
— We urge our opponents. M. Puys.
— Everything depends upon probability.
— The world naturally likes some kind of religion, but an accommodating one. [In the margin, Kings, Pope, 3 Reg. 246.]
— He has a mind that I should show it you by a strange supposition. I will then state…
Did not God, by his special providence, sustain us for the benefit of the church, I could prove to you that, humanly speaking only, we cannot perish.
— Grant me this principle, and I will prove to you the whole. It is, that the society and the church are involved in a common destiny. Without this nothing can be done.
— Persons do not continue long in a state of open profligacy, nor are they naturally disposed to the practice of great austerities. An accommodating religion is fittest for duration.
They court them by licentiousness.
— For individuals who do not aspire to rule by force of arms, I know no better methods.
Rectitude and good faith in devotion.
4, Hatred on account of their merit.
Apel. Universe. 159. Decree of Sorbonne.
Kings. 241.
Jesuits hung. 112.
Religion and science.
— “Jesuit a omnis homo.”
— Colleges, relatives, friends, children, to be chosen.
Constitutions.
- Useless things rejected. Good address, riches, nobility, &c. What! Were you afraid that they would not be earlier admitted?
- To give his property to the society for the glory of God. Dec. [These are the Declarations of the Generals of the Order, which have the same force as the Constitutions. (French Editor.)
The figures in the margin, and elsewhere, obviously refer to passages in various Jesuit works. (Transl.)]
51, 52. Harmony of views. Decl.: To submit to the society, and thus secure uniformity. But in the present day this uniformity consists in differences, for so the society determines.
- To yield nothing to relatives, and rest satisfied with the advisers appointed by the Superior.
- Not to excite to continual alms-giving, nor demand them as matter of justice, nor charity-box.
Decl “Non tanquam Eleemosina.”
— By our religion we should be all rich, without our Constitution. Therefore we are poor.
— And by means of a true religion, and even without it, we are powerful.
Cle. [Two words illegible.]…
Our Generals are apprehensive of injury, through our external occupations. 208. 152. 150.
On account of the court. 209. 208. 216. 218.
Because they might not follow the safest and the most authoritative opinions, St. Thomas, &c. 215. 218.
“Stipendium contra Constit.” 218.
Females. 225. 228.
Princes of policy. 227. 168. 177.
Probability, 279.
Novelty, 156.
To beguile time and amuse themselves, rather than promote man’s salvation, 158.
Relaxed opinions. 160.
Mortal and venial sin.
Contrition, 162.
Policy. 162.
… 162. 182.
The enjoyments of life are on the increase among the Jesuits. 166.
Apparent and false advantages which deceive them. 192. ad.
Complaints of the Generals. None of St. Ignace. None of Laynez; some of Borgia and Aquaviva. Multitude of Mutius, &c.
P. Lemoine: 10,000 crowns out of his province.
See the imperfection of man’s foresight! All those things from which our earlier leaders apprehended injury to our society, are those by which she has been strengthened, — high patronage, the inconsistency of our Constitutions, multitude of orders, diversity and novelty of opinions, &c.
Policy. 181.
The early spirit of the Society extinct, 184 ad 189. — 170, 171 ad 174.
“Non e pià quella.” Vitelescus. 180.
To refer to personal vices.
— Beautiful letter of Aquaviva, 18 June, 1611, against probable opinions.
St, Augustin. 282.
— And as to St. Thomas, the parts in which he has expressly treated of these things.
“Climaq pour l”… 277.
And novelties.
And it is no excuse for the Superiors to allege that they were ignorant, for they ought to have known. 279-194-192.
— As to morality, 283.
— Aquoquiez confessed females.
— The Society placed to the account of the church, for good and for evil. 236.156.
To examine the motives of the censure by the phenomena.
To form an hypothesis which should serve to…
— The habit forms the doctrine.
— You confess multitudes who confess only once a year. (Erased.)
— I considered that he held one opinion to balance another. (Erased.)
— When we are so hardened as to have lost all remorse, we do not., — ..[Two words illegible.] (Erased.)
You persecute M. Arnaud [Pascal’s habit was to write Arnaud, instead of Arnauld.] then, without remorse. (Erased.)
— I suspect this doctrine, for it appears to me too mild for the malignity which they impart to me.
I am suspicious of their union, on account of their individual contrarieties. I shall wait till they agree, before I take any part. For one friend, I should make many enemies. I am not learned enough to controvert them.
— Why, would you not select some great heresy? (Erased.)
— The wagerer. (Erased.)
I supposed we might be condemned for having never had good thoughts; but to believe that no one hasany, is to me certainly a novelty. [ This passage will be found almost literally in the 4th Provincial] (Erased.)
— What is the object of this? To console the righteous, and to save the despairing? No; for no one can tell whether they be righteous or not.
— M. Chamillard would be a heretic, which is manifestly untrue, for he has written in favour of M. Arnaud. (Erased.)
— Those who think they do well in committing sin. (Erased.)
— In the year 1647, all might yet agree; in 1650 it was more difficult, &c.
— Luther, everything, but true.
— If there had not been in the church any similar instance, but herein I trust to my curate!
— There is only one who speaks the truth.
— However little inconvenience it may cause, they produce from it more grace, for they dispose of it as of their own.
— For every several occasion! a distinct species of grace, — grace for the great, grace for the commonalty. (Erased.)
— At last M. Chamillard has approached so near, that if there are degrees by which we may arrive at nullity, this “suffisante grâce” is now the nearest to it.
Amazing, to be a heretic for that! (Erased.)
— Every one was surprised at this, for as it has never been discovered in the Scriptures, or the Fathers, &c.
— How long, my father, has this been an article of faith? It can be, at most, only since the invention of the terms, “pouvoir prochain;” and I should think this heresy was contemporary with his birth, and he was born for this one object only. [1st Provincial Letter]
— The censure merely forbids this way of speaking of St. Peter; nothing more. (Erased.)
— I am under great obligation to them… (Erased.)
— They are adroit folks; they were fearful that these letters written to the provincials…(Erased.)
— It is not the punishment for a word. (Erased.)
— The colourings have wronged me.
— The same proposition shall be good in one writer, and objectionable in another. Yes; but there are, then, other bad propositions.
— There are some who defer to the censure; others, to the reasons assigned; — all, to reasons of some description or other. [2nd Provincial Letter] I am surprised that you have not with you the general, rather than the individual approval; or at least, that you have not united them.
— How am I consoled! No Frenchman is a good Catholic.
— The… Clement VIII. — Paul V. — Censure.
God evidently protects us.
— How small is man’s capacity! He cannot even form a worm.
— Instead of… grace to proceed thither.
— Multitude of graces.
— Jansenist interpreters.
— St. Augustin has the most, on account of the dissentions of his opponents. Besides one thing which we may consider as an uninterrupted tradition of twelve thousand Popes, councils, &c. (Erased.)
— M. Arnaud’s opinions must certainly be very unfortunate, that they should infect all who are connected with him.
— The censure will render them this service, — that, when condemned, they will defend themselves by alleging that they follow the Jansenists.
Diana.
That is very useful to us. (Erased.)
It is lawful not to confer benefices without a charge of souls to the most deserving. The Council of Trent seems to lay down the contrary; but thus it is proved, If this were so, all the bishops would be lost, for they have all done the same thing. (11.)
The King and the Pope are not bound to promote the most deserving. If it were otherwise, they would both incur a terrible responsibility. (11.)
And again, — If this opinion were not sound, penitents and their Confessors would have much to do; and therefore I hold, that in practice it must be followed. (21.)
And in another place, where he lays down the conditions for constituting a sin mortal, he brings together so many circumstances that scarcely any can commit mortal sin; and having established this, he exclaims, “How light and easy is the Lord’s yoke!” (22.)
And elsewhere: “We are not obliged to give alms of our superfluity in the ordinary necessities of the poor; if it were otherwise, we should condemn the greater part of rich persons and their Confessors.” (11.)
These sophistries tried my patience, and I said to the father, “But what prevents our saying that they are so?”
“This has been provided for in the same passage,” he replied, “ where, after it is said, — If that were true, the richest persons would be damned:” he adds, “To this Arragonius replies that they are so; and Baunez further declares that their Confessors are equally so: but I reply with Valentia, another Jesuit, and other writers, that there are various excuses to be made for the rich and their Confessors.” (22.)
I was delighted with this reasoning, when he concluded by saying, “If this opinion in regard to restitution were just, how many restitutions would be required!”
“My good father,” I said, “your reasons are excellent!”— “Ah!” he replied, “he is indeed an indulgent person!”— “I see plainly,” I rejoined, “that without you casuists, all the world would be damned! How wide have you made the road to Heaven! O, how many will now be able to find it! Here is one…”
What have you gained by accusing me of jesting at sacred things? As little will you gain by your charges of misrepresentation. (Erased.)
— I have not revealed the whole; this you will soon perceive. (Erased.)
— I am no heretic; I have not maintained the five propositions. You assert it, but without proof. I affirm that you have said thus, and I prove it.[ln the margin is, “Ex Senatusconsultis et plebiscite. Demander des passages pareils.”]
— Do you threaten me?
— I tell you, you are impostors. I prove it; and you do not deny, but rather, insolently avow the fact. — Brisacier, Minier, D’Alby.
— When you considered M. Puys an enemy to the Society, he was a bad pastor, — ignorant, heretical, of evil faith and conversation. Now he is an excellent pastor, — pure in faith and morals!
— As you have arraigned only this point, it follows that you assent to all the rest.
— To calumniate, “haec est magna cœcitas cordis.”
Not to see its criminality, “haec est major cœciias cordis.”
To justify, rather than confess it as a crime, “haec tunc hominem concludit profunditas iniquitatis” &c. — 2. 30. Prosper.
— Persons of high station take their different sides in civil wars; so do you in the civil war of man.
— I wish to assert these things to your face, that they may come with more force. (Erased.)
— I am sure of the approbation of those who examine books for themselves. But those who only look at the title-pages, — and they are the most numerous, — such persons may rely on your word, not supposing that religious professors could be guilty of imposition.
.. (Erased.)
— Not that I do not perceive how much you are embarrassed. For if you were willing to retract, that would be completed, but, &c. (Erased.)
— Saints refine in the scrutiny of their conduct, in order to discover cause of blame in themselves, and charge their best actions with guilt. But these practise refinements to excuse the most culpable.
— A building fair to the eye, but upon a weak foundation; such the heathen sages erected; and the devil deceives men by this appearance of solidity, where the foundation is the most unsound.
— Never had any one so good a cause as I; and never have any furnished so good a mark as yourselves.
— People of the world do not believe themselves to be in the right way.
— Do not flatter yourselves that this matter shall remain in dispute; we will have your works, complete and entire, published in French, and then all the world shall judge for themselves.
— I beg every one will do me the justice not to believe them any longer on their own word.
— The more they regard me as weak, individually, the more authority they contribute to my cause.
— You say I am a heretic. Is that decent? If you are not afraid that I shall receive justice from man, have you no fear of the retribution of God?
— You shall feel the force of truth, and bow to it!
— You would compel the world to believe you, on pain of mortal sin.
— It is sinful to give a hasty belief to slander. (“Non credebitur temerè calumniatori.” St. Aug.) (“Fecitque cadendo undique me cadere,” by the maxims of slander.)
— There is something supernatural in such blindness. “Digna nécessitas.”
—” Mentiris impudentissime.”
— 230. The extremity of guilt is to defend it. Elidere.
— 340. 23. The good fortune of the wicked.
—” Doctrinâ sua noscitur vir.”
— 66. “Labor mendacii.”
— Simulated piety, a double crime.
— Am I alone against thirty thousand? No. Do you keep possession of the court, and entrench yourselves in imposture: my support be truth! There is all my strength: if I lose that, I am lost indeed! I shall have no lack of charges, and persecution. But truth is on my side; and we will see which of us shall prevail!
I am an unworthy defender of religion; but you are also unworthy defenders of error and injustice. May God, in his mercy, disregarding what is evil in me, and looking complacently upon what is good in you, grant us both his grace, that truth may not suffer in my hands, and that falsehood may not…[These words finish page 398 in the MS. The sentence was doubtless continued on another page, which is lost.]
And they set themselves to chase away from the church those who refuse to make this acknowledgment; in v (Erased.)…
Every one declares they are so. [The Five Propositions are no doubt meant The beginning of this fragment is wanting in the MS.]
M. Arnaud and his friends protest they condemn them in themselves, and wherever found: if they are in Jansenius, they condemn them; if not there, provided the heretical meaning condemned by the Pope in these propositions be in Jansenius, then he condemns Jansenius.
But you are not satisfied with these protestations; you require him to admit that the propositions are word for word in Jansenius. He replied, he cannot affirm this, not knowing whether they be so or not; that he has looked for them, as well as a multitude of others, without being able to find them. They have entreated you, and all your party, to furnish them with the passages in which they are contained: no one has done so. And yet you would, on the ground of this refusal, cut him off from the church — although he condemns all that she condemns — for this sole reason, that he does not affirm certain words, or a certain meaning, to be contained in a book, in which he has never found them, nor will any one point them out to him. Truly, my father, so futile is this pretext, that the church, perhaps, never exhibited a proceeding so remarkable, so unjust, and so precipitate, that…[The remainder is wanting in the MS. ]
The church may well compel… (Erased.)
— It is not necessary to be a theologian, to perceive that their heresy consists only in their opposition to yourselves. I experience the same thing myself, and it will be the experience of all who have ventured to attack you.
The Curates of Rouen, Jansenists.
You deem your objects so just, that you make them matter of prayer!
Two years ago their heresy consisted in the Bull; last year it was the internal meaning; for these six months past it has been in the “ totidem;” now it is in the interpretation.
— Do I not plainly see that you are determined to bring them in heretics? — St. Sacrament.
— I have embroiled myself in taking up the cause of others.
— You are supremely ridiculous in the clamour you make about these propositions. It is all for nothing.
They must be made to listen.
— … Without the names of the authors; but as they saw through your design, seventy were found to oppose you.
— To date the decree.
— In order that the man whom you could not convict of heresy on his own words, &c.
— that all these statements, even the most horrible, should proceed from your authors! (Erased.)
— For every one knows.
— Have you no other reply, and no better proof than this? (Erased.)
— Whether he know, or do not know, or be in doubt; whether a sinner or a heretic.
— That illumination which reveals to us truths that lie beyond our understanding, reveals them free from error, whereas…
— As for me, I would rather be unjustly, &c…
(Erased.)
— A band of reprobates.
— All the boxes of St. Mary might be opened without proving you less innocent. (Erased.)
— What is your reason for this? You say I am a Jansenist; that the Port Royal maintains the Five Propositions; and therefore I maintain them. Here are three falsehoods.
— I beg you will not pretend to say, it is not you who have caused all this to be done. Spare me the necessity of a reply; it would be such as would not be agreeable to yourselves, or to others. (Erased.)
— There are two things which the Pope has not condemned: he has condemned only the interpretation of the Five Propositions. Will you say he has not condemned it? But the meaning of Jansenius is included in it, says the Pope. I see plainly the Pope supposes this, because of your “totidem.” But he has not said this, under pain of excommunication.
How could he, and the bishops of France, do otherwise than believe this? You had pronounced your “totidem,” and they little knew that you were capable of affirming such a thing to be the fact, when it was in reality not so! Impostors that you are! They had not seen my fifteenth Letter.
— How could the meaning of Jansenius be in the propositions, when they are none of his?
Either the matter in question is in Jansenius, or not. If it is there, that condemns it; if not, for what is he to be condemned?
Let them condemn one of your propositions in Escobar. I will take in one hand Escobar, in the other the Censure, and produce a formal argument from the two.
On hearing the report of the Feuillants [A religious order]…
I communicated it to an old friend of mine: speaking of devotion he fancied that I held some sentiments of the same kind, and might become a Feuillant myself.
And that I might do some service as a writer — especially in these times — against modern innovations. fait, lately against your Chapter-General, which is that they should subscribe the Bull.
That he could wish that God might aid me with his inspirations.
Father, must he subscribe?
“It is obvious,” said the Feuillant, “that the point is not so clear, for controversy indicates doubt.”
St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom. Morality, infidels.
— The Jesuits have not succeeded in rendering truth doubtful, but they have left no doubt of their impiety.
Contradictions have ever existed, to perplex the wicked.
Everything that offends truth or charity, is evil. This is an undoubted axiom.
Notes for a Nineteenth Provincial.
— The day of judgment.
— This then, my father, is what you call the meaning of Jansenius; this is what you palm off as such, both to the Pope and the bishops.
— If the Jesuits were corrupt, and it were true that we stood alone, the more reason have we to remain as we are.
—” Quod helium firmavit, pax ficta non auferat.”
—” Neque benedictione, neque maledictione movetur, sicut angelus domini.”
— They attack the greatest of Christian principles, which is the love of truth.
— If the signature bears this meaning, let them suffer us to explain it, that there may be no ambiguity; for it cannot be doubted that many believe the signature to imply a consent.
— We are not blameable for not believing; but we should be blameable to swear without believing.
— But you may be deceived? I swear that I believe I may be deceived: but I do not swear that I believe I am deceived.
— If the “rapporteur” were not to sign, the decree would be invalid; if the Bull were not signed, it would be good; it is not then…
— That puts them in the ascendant with Escobar; but they do not take it thus: and evincing their concern to find themselves in a conflict between God and the Pope — I am grieved to be obliged to tell you all this: I give a simple narrative.
Isolated Note. (page no. MS. aut.)
We ought, my father, to judge Divine ordinances with sobriety.[This is almost identical with the title of Ch xxxi., Book 1, of Montaigne, « That we ought to set about soberly in judging of Divine ordinances.”] (Erased.)
St. Paul in the island of Malta. (Erased.)