But you now
repeat the charge with a different air: you make it the main point
of your vindication. It is, in fact, almost the only thing in the
shape of argument that you employ. You say that, "as a complete answer
to my fifteen letters, it is enough to say fifteen times that I am a
heretic; and, having been pronounced such, I deserve no credit." In
short, you make no question of my apostasy, but assume it as a settled
point, on which you may build with all confidence. You are serious
then, father, it would seem, in deeming me a heretic. I shall be
equally serious in replying to the charge.
You are well aware, sir, that heresy is a charge of grave a
character that it is an act of high presumption to advance, without
being prepared to substantiate it. I now demand your proofs. When
was I seen at Charenton? When did I fail in my presence at mass, or in
my Christian duty to my parish church? What act of union with
heretics, or of schism with the Church, can you lay to my charge? What
council have I contradicted? What papal constitution have I
violated? You must answer, father, else- You know what I mean. And
what do you answer? I beseech all to observe it: First of all, you
assume "that the author of the letters is a Port-Royalist"; then you
tell us "that Port-Royal is declared to be heretical"; and, therefore,
you conclude, "the author of letters must be a heretic." It is not
on me, then, father, that the weight of this indictment falls, but
on Port-Royal; and I am only involved in the crime because you suppose
me to belong to that establishment; so that it will be no difficult
matter for me to exculpate myself from the charge.
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