Perceiving,
however, that the latter was now sanctioned at Rome and by all the
learned in the Church, and unable to combat the doctrine on its own
merits, you resolved to attack it in a clandestine way, under the name
of the doctrine of Jansenius. You were resolved, accordingly, to get
Jansenius condemned without explanation; and, to gain your purpose,
gave out that his doctrine was not that of efficacious grace, so
that every one might think he was at liberty to condemn the one
without denying the other. Hence your efforts, in the present day,
to impress this idea upon the minds of such as have no acquaintance
with that author; an object which you yourself, father, have
attempted, by means of the following ingenious syllogism: "The pope
has condemned the doctrine of Jansenius; but the pope has not
condemned efficacious grace: therefore, the doctrine of efficacious
grace must be different from that of Jansenius." If this mode of
reasoning were conclusive, it might be demonstrated in the same way
that Honorius and all his defenders are heretics of the same kind.
"The sixth council has condemned the doctrine of Honorius; but the
council has not condemned the doctrine of the Church: therefore the
doctrine of Honorius is different from that of the Church; and
therefore, all who defend him are heretics." It is obvious that no
conclusion can be drawn from this; for the Pope has done no more
than condemn the doctrine of the five propositions, which was
represented to him as the doctrine of Jansenius.
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