But as your dispute
turns upon the meaning of that author, and they believe that,
according to this doctrine, grace may be resisted, whatever heresy you
may be pleased to attribute to him, you have no ground to brand them
as heretics, seeing they condemn the sense which you put on Jansenius,
and you dare not condemn the sense which they put on him. If,
therefore, you mean to convict them, show that the sense which they
ascribe to Jansenius is heretical; for then they will be heretical
themselves. But how could you accomplish this, since it is certain,
according to your own showing, that the meaning which they give to his
language has never been condemned?
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 judgement on the five propositions, the question of
efficacious grace was protected against all censure. This is perfectly
evident from the judgements of the consulters to whom the Pope
committed them for examination. These judgements I have in my
possession, in common with many other persons in Paris, and, among the
rest, the Bishop of Montpelier, 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.
Pages:
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339