For who ever heard
of a heresy which nobody could explain? The answer was ready,
therefore, that if Jansenius has no errors, it is wrong to condemn
him; and if he has, you were bound to point them out, that we might
know at least what we were condemning. This, however, you have never
yet been pleased to do; but you have attempted to fortify your
position by decrees, which made nothing in your favour, as they gave
no sort of explanation of the sense of Jansenius, said to have been
condemned in the five propositions. This was not the way to
terminate the dispute. Had you mutually agreed as to the genuine sense
of Jansenius, and had the only difference between you been as to
whether that sense was heretical or not, in that case the decisions
which might pronounce it to be heretical would have touched the real
question in dispute. But the great dispute being about the sense of
Jansenius, the one party saying that they could see nothing in it
inconsistent with the sense of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, and the
other party asserting that they saw in it an heretical sense which
they would not express. It is clear that a constitution which does not
say a word about this difference of opinion, and which only condemns
in general and without explanation the sense of Jansenius, leaves
the point in dispute quite undecided.
You have accordingly been repeatedly told that as your
discussion turns on a matter of fact, you would never be able to bring
it to a conclusion without declaring what you understand by the
sense of Jansenius.
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