" Observe, then, I pray
you, father, that a man is not heretical for saying that Pope Honorius
was not a heretic; even though a great many popes and councils,
after examining his writings, should have declared that he was so.
I now come to the question before us, and shall allow you to state
your case as favourably as you can. What will you then say, father, in
order to stamp your opponents as heretics? That "Pope Innocent X has
declared that the error of the five propositions is to be found in
Jansenius?" I grant you that; what inference do you draw from it? That
"it is heretical to deny that the error of the five propositions is to
be found in Jansenius?" How so, father? Have we not here a question of
fact exactly similar to the preceding examples? The Pope has
declared that the error of the five propositions is contained in
Jansenius, in the same way as his predecessors decided that the errors
of the Nestorians and the Monothelites polluted the pages of Theodoret
and Honorius. In the latter case, your writers hesitate not to say
that, while they condemn the heresies, they do not allow that these
authors actually maintained them; and, in like manner, your
opponents now say that they condemn the five propositions, but
cannot admit that Jansenius has taught them. Truly, the two cases
are as like as they could well be; and, if there be any disparity
between them, it is easy to see how far it must go in favour of the
present question, by a comparison of many particular circumstances,
which as they are self-evident, I do not specify.
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