But you have only altered the heresy to suit the time; for no
sooner had they freed themselves from one charge than your fathers,
determined that they should never want an accusation, substituted
another in its place. Thus, in 1653, their heresy lay in the quality
of the propositions; then came the word for word heresy; after that we
had the heart heresy. And now we hear nothing of any of these, and
they must be heretics, forsooth, unless they sign a declaration to the
effect "that the sense of the doctrine of Jansenius is contained in
the sense of the five propositions."
Such is your present dispute. It is not enough for you that they
condemn the five propositions, and everything in Jansenius that
bears any resemblance to them, or is contrary to St. Augustine; for
all that they have done already. The point at issue is not, for
example, if Jesus Christ died for the elect only- they condemn that as
much as you do; but, is Jansenius of that opinion, or not? And here
I declare, more strongly than ever, that your quarrel affects me as
little as it affects the Church. For although I am no doctor, any
more than you, father, I can easily see, nevertheless, that it has
no connection with the faith. The only question is to ascertain what
is the sense of Jansenius. Did they believe that his doctrine
corresponded to the proper and literal sense of these propositions,
they would condemn it; and they refuse to do so, because they are
convinced it is quite the reverse; so that, although they should
misunderstand it, still they would not be heretics, seeing they
understand it only in a Catholic sense.
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