IF all true Christians, making truly but one Body, are to be guided by the conduct of the same spirit and same heart, and are, out of considerations of charity towards God, [...]blig'd to be tender of the spirituall concernments one of another, in those emergencies which Heaven is pleas'd to present them with; it must needs be, that all the Pastors of the Catholick Church stand in a far greater obligation to that duty. For it being expected that their charity should be much more shining then that of private men, as being the pattern and modell thereof, it is accordingly but just it should more closely cement them together, and engage them beyond others, to mutuall helps and assistances, for the better improvement & edification a [...]d those souls which God hath committed to their charge.

Out of this consideration was it that we were induc'd to entertain with a favourable reception, what hath been represented to us by our Reverend Brethren the Curez of Rouen in our late Assemblies. Which was this, That, the Reverend Curè of S. Ma [...]lou, one of [Page 2] the most considerable among them, having thought himself obliged to say something (in a Synodal Ser­mon, preach'd before his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Rouen, above eight hundred Curez, and abundance of other persons of quality) against the perni [...]ious Ma­ximes of certain Casuists, as such as disturb the order of the Hierarchy, and corrupt Christian Morality; And that, having since declar'd in a Sermon preach'd in his own parish, though he preach'd against those corrupt Maximes, yet he did not attribute [...]hem to any Order, or to any Community or Body of men, but opposed them considered onely in themselves, The Je [...]uits of the City of Rouen have neverthelesse thought themselves so m [...]ch disobliged and injured by the pu [...]lick disparagement done the doctrine contained therein, that they presented to his Grace the Arch-Bi­shop of Rouen, in the name of Brother Iohn Brisacier Rector of their Colledge in the said City, a Petition [...]illed with injuries and calumn [...]es against the Person of the said Cu [...]e of Saint Maclou; to the end, that, ha­ving blasted his credit and reputation, all others might be deterred from engaging in an attempt so hazard­ous as that of the publick discrediting of what those scandalous Authors dare publickly write and openly maintain: That this unworthy treatment of their Brother had obliged them to assemble together to ex­amine those points in Morality which had given the fi [...]st occasions of the difference: That to effect that, they h [...]d perused the Books out of which they had been taken, and that having made faithfull Extracts thereof, they had found therein some propositions so extravagant, and so likely to pervert soules, that it f [...]rther ingaged them to side with their Brother, to demand all together the condemnation thereof: That, to that purpose; they had presented a Petition to his Grace the Arch-Bishop of Rouen, who, ha­ving return'd them answer, that that Affair was of gene­rall concernment, and ref [...]ected on the whole Church, [Page 3] expressed to them his inclinations to have the bus [...] ­nesse returned up to the right Reverend Lords of the Generall Assembly of the Clergy of France, then sit­ting at Paris. And this was it that gave them occasi­on to addresse themselves also to Us, to the end that by mutuall and joynt assistances, our endeavours might prove the more effectuall to obtain a Censure of these Maximes, as such as are absolutely opposite to the rules and sp [...]rit of the Gospel, whereof they have sent us extracts, and to check the violence of those, who [...] by their power, would muzzle the P [...]stors of the Church, who being appointed by God to be watch­men and Sent [...]nels to the House of Israel, according to the words of the Scripture, are obliged to cry o [...] and give notice of whatever may prejudice those soul [...], whereof God will one day demand so severe an account at their hands.

This advice of theirs, full of prudence [...]nd zeal, having had a great influence upon us, hath put us up­on a resolution in our late assemblies, not onely to joyn our endeavours with those of the reverend Curez of Rouen, but also to imitate them, by communica [...]ing to you this Affair which indeed is common to all, since it equally concerns us all that the Church, the chaste and undefiled Spouse of IESUS CHRIST, whereof we are entrus [...]ed wi [...]h the conduct, under the authority of our Lords the Bishops, should not receive any spot or pollution in her Morality, by Maximes that are corrupt, and absolutely contrary to her holy administrations; and that she should not any longerly subject [...] to the scandalous reproaches which her pro­fessed Enemies, the Hereticks, burthen her with up­on this occasion, in that they would have her to be accountable for those pernicious opinions of certain priva [...]e Casuists, though she hath ever opposed and con­demned them by her Canons and Decrees.

Tis with this design, and purely out of a conside­ration of doing the Church some service, and to the [Page 4] end you might be fully acquainted with all that passed upon this emergency, we send you a copy of the Pe­tition, which the reverend the Curez of Rouen pre­sented to their Arch-Bishop, with a faithfull extract of some of the Propositions, taken out of a far grea­ter number of others suitable thereto, which contain such a doctrine, as no man that hath ever so little tendernesse of his own Salvation b [...] must conceive a horrour at; and among which we have onely put in those that concern Morality, and not those that concern the Hierarchy. Whereof we hope this ef­fect, that being bound up in the same spirit of peace, concord and charity, and embarqued in the same desires of cultivating those souls which are commit­ted to us all, you might joyn with us, as diverse of the reverend the Curez of other Dioceses have al­ready offered to do, and accordingly send your Let­ters of procuration or Atturney to the Syndics of our Company, authenticated by the testimonies of two publick Notaries, and set at the bottome of the Ex­tract which we send you of the propositions to be condemned; and to demand and prosecute joyntly with us, as well before the Lords of the Generall Assembly of the Clergie of France, as elsewhere, as it shall be thought requisite, the Censure and con­demnation of these pernicious maximes, which cor­rupt and Poison Christian Morality, and disturb ci­vill Society, such as are those whereof we send you the extracts, and others of the same thread.

That so, the people, whom God hath commit­ted to our charge, under our Lords the Prelates, may henceforth be preserved from that mortall ve­nome which inclines them to licentiousnesse and Li­bertinisme: and that we may have occasion all to­gether to praise and blesse the Father of Mercies, for that he hath given us the power and confidence to do that which our duties obliged us to, without be­ing deterred by any feare or humane considerations; [Page 5] as also for that he shall have done us the favour to make our endeavours upon this account instrumen­tall and contributary to the salvation of those ma­ny Soules which have been redeemed by the preci­ous blood of our Lord and Saviour IESUS CHRIST.

I Have received your Letter of the 13. current, where­in you tell me that your health being not in such a posture as would permit you to come hither to the Sy­nod, where you were in hopes to understand what had passed between the Curez of Rouen and the Fa­thers of the Society of Iesus, a Friend of yours here had sent you a printed sheet, with this title, T [...]e Answer of a Divine to the Propositions extracted out of the LETTERS of the IANSENISTS, by some of the Curez of Rouen; which answer hath been presented to the Right Reverend the Bishops met together in the Ge­nerall Assembly of the Clergy.

I cannot but imagine how much you were surprized at the first reading of that Answer, and how that at the same time your judgement of it was, that it could be no other then an infamous Libell, and a scandalous Pamphlett purposely scattered abroad to blast the ho­nour and holinesse of the Church, derogating from the authority of the right Reverend the Arch-bishop of this place, and destructive to the innocence of the Pa­stors who endeavour to serve and maintain that divine Spouse of IESUS CHRIST.

That you have also understood, how that the Iesuits seem loudly enough to declare themselves the Authors of that piece, when they cause it to be sold publickly by the Book-sellers belonging to their Colledge, when they distribute it themselves in the houses where they [Page 27] make any visits, and do so exactly play the Mercu­ries to scatter it up and down, that we are oblig'd to them for its coming among those that are of our Arch-bishop's Councell.

And lastly, that you expected with some impati­ence a generous reply from the Reverend the Curez of Rouen to that injurious and ill-instructed Divine, and how necessary you conceiv'd it that such a course should be taken, to the end that all the world might be satisfied of the purity of their intentions in the cause they are now engag'd in, their prudence in point of proceeding, as well in the enterprise as the prosecu­tion, and the integrity of their Faith, which it was the main design of that Libell to cast a blemish upon.

To satisfie therefore your desires as to these parti­culars, and to give you some account of an affair where­in we are all equally engag'd by the common concern­ments of their Ministery; I am to tell you, Sir, that the Curez of Rouen, having taken notice of a sheet that was scatter'd up and down full of impostures and calumnies against them, and being in a manner perswaded, as well by the hints you give in your Letter, as by other too too pregnant circumstances, that it was a production of the Jesuits, thought fit to make their complaint a­gainst it to the other Arch-bishop, by a Letter which they immediately writ thereupon, and to demand ju­stice for the same of his Officiall, by a Petition which they presented to him, whereof I thought it not a misse to send you a copy, that you may see the justifiable mo­tives of their complaints.

That once done, they had resolved to sit down and be silent, so in some measure to expresse their moderation in suffering injuries suitable to the ma­ximes of the Gospel wherein they instruct their peo­ple. They were, I say, content to be quiet, expe­cting the publick satisfaction and reparation, which might prove the effect of those juridicall courses they had taken.

[Page 28]But having observ'd on the one side, that the procee­dings were likely to take up much time, and that the Iesuit [...] in the interim made their advantage of their modesty, persisting still in the distribution of that Libel, giving out where ever they came that it could not be answered, nay, treating the Curez of Rouen as such as were to be derided for their weaknesse and igno­rance; and on the other side, having taken it into consideration that they are oblig'd to maintain the di­gnity of their Ministery, and that it is their duty to hin­der that from falling into contempt, or their persons into disparagement before their people, through the hor [...]id calumnies which the pretended Divine loads them with, representing them as seditious persons, a­bettors and fautors of he [...]es [...]e; They thought it con­cerned the honour of the Church and their own repu­tation, that the world should be acquainted with the sincerity of their Faith, as also that the Simple, who might haply be surpriz'd by truth-lesse suppositions, should be undeceiv'd, and that, by answering that scur­rilous libell with the greatest moderation they possibly could, they might satisfie and convince all those that are Lovers of Truth and Justice that their interprise is holy, their proceeding canonicall, and that they can­not be blam'd by any for what they have done, but by such as are prepos [...]essed by passion, or too violently engag'd in the interests of a party they makes some ad­vantages of.

It was upon these reflections, and the wholesome ad­vice in your Letter (which I have communicated to them) that they enjoyn'd me to write to you what you now receive, and to entreat you to communicate it to your Brethren, and all other good people, as we shall do here and elsewhere, to the end that all the world may be satisfied of the equity of our Cause, and that those persons of quality, who shall come to the knowledge thereof, may conceive an opinion of us quite contrary to that which some would have perswaded them to, by atif [...]ces es and detraction.

[Page 29]There needs no more then the simple, that is to say, the most sincere and most faithfull relation of what hath passed in this emergency on the part of the Cu­rez of Rouen, to justifie their proceedings, and to prove the Author and dispersers of that Libell guilty of ma­lice and imposture. I shall not say any thing which cannot be confirm'd by the testimonies of persons on whom no reproach can be fastened, nay, by that of the Arch-bishop himself; who being our head, our Judge, and our Father, hath also ever been our witnesse and our Oracle; and we should justly deserve his indigna­tion, did we any thing without a relyance on his Ap­probation and conduct.

The businesse, as to matter of fact, stands thus. Mon­sieur De Four, Curé of S. Maclou (whose abilities and worth are generally known) having preach'd two seve­rall times (as you have already understood) against those pernicious doctrines which tend to the corruption of good manners, the Iesuits were immediately troubled thereat, and made great complaints of it to our Arch-bishop, in a Petition which they presented to him in the name of Father Brisacier, fraught with injurious ex­pressions and calumnies against the said Monsieur du Four. These things coming to the knowledge of the Curez of Rouen, they thought themselves oblig'd to en­gage in the quarrell of their reverend Brother, violent­ly set upon in a difference wherein they were all equal­ly concern'd, since it is their duty to be watchfull over sound doctrine and the purity of Manners, as that on which depends the safety of those souls that are com­mitted to their charge.

But that their proceeding might appear to be such as was the effect of a serious consideration of the Affair they were to engage in, they had a debate in one of their Assemblies, about consulting the Bookes, whence it was alledged, that the propositions and pernici­ous Maximes, preached against by the Curé of Saint Maclou, had been taken, to the end that true copies [Page 30] and extracts should be made of the same, and accor­dingly that the condemnation thereof should be re­quired by Canonicall wayes, if the [...] were found in the Casuists, what quality or condition soever they were of [...] But, on the contrary, if they were not to be found in those books, that the prosecution might determine as to the Casuists, and be reviv'd to procure a Censure of the LETTERS TO THE PROVINCIAL, wherein those doctrines, with the Authors that main­tained them, were cited.

Six of the Assembly were pitched upon and ap­pointed to undertake that employment. They spent therein a whole moneth, doing all things with all pos­sible [...]ideli [...]y and exactnesse; they sought out the pla­ces cited, they found them, word for word, as they were cited, in the Originals. They drew copies there­of, and reported the whole to their Brethren in a se­cond Assembly, wherein for further certainty, it was ordered; That if any among them were desirous of fur­ther satisfaction as to those matters, they would be permitted to come to the persons deputed, into the places where the books were, to consult them and compare them as they pleased. This order was put in execution, insomuch, that for five or six d [...]yes af­ter, there were seldome lesse the [...] ten or twelve Cu­rez at a time, searching after the passages, and com­paring them with the Authors, as being satisfied of the truth and faith [...]ulnesse of the Ci [...]ations.

What greater circumspection could be us'd in a proceeding of this nature? And certainly there needs no more to give an absolute defeat to the imposture of those, who, purposely to disparage the said Cu­rez, and to rais [...] some clouds of division and Jealou­sie among them, affirme, that diverse of them were surpriz'd, and inconsiderately drawn in to engage in that party.

Nor was their prudence lesse remarkeable in the Petition presented to the Arch-bishop, in the name [Page 31] name and on the behalf of the said Curez. For, ha­ving been drawn up, and digested into the particu­lars to be invested on, by some of their Company appointed to that purpose, it was read severall times in two or three severall Assemblies, wherein were present ordinar [...]ly twenty or two and twenty Curez, in so much that at the last it was sign'd by twenty & eight.

This certainly should be look'd on as an argument of the union and good intelligence which is among the Curez of Rouen, and that it is the same spirit they are guided by; not as proceeding from any combination, as it is maliciously objected by the Author of the Libell, but from the Love of Justice, and a tendernesse for truth, which thus joyntly en­gages them in this cause.

Five were chosen out to go as Deputies from the Assembly to the Arch-bishop, to present to him the Petition and the Extract of pernicious proposition [...] gathered out of the Casuists, and that worthy Pre­late honoured them with so kind an entertainment, and so favourable a reception; he express'd so much satisfaction at their piety and zeale; he told them with so much earnestnesse and reality that he abhorr'd those corrupt doctrines, that they could not, from all, but conceive immediate hopes of happy succe [...]e of their enterprise.

In a word, that prudent Arch-bishop, having first ta­ken the conclusions of his Pr [...]ctor-General, and the advice of his Councell, it was ordered by him, that the said petition, with the said [...]xtracts, thereunto annexed, should be sent up to our Lords of the Gene­rall assembly of the Clergy, to the end, that those pe­stilent doctrines should receive a more notorious and solemn Censure, by the decisions of so illustrious and and venerable an Assembly as that which is the repre­sentative of the Church of France, and whence we de­rive the Oracles of our Religion.

But ere things were risen to this height, the reve­rend, [Page 32] the Curez of Paris having had notice of what was in agitation in our City about these matters, were s [...]ir­red up by the same spirit, and animated by the same zeale with those of Roven, they honour them so far as th [...]t they write to them, and to give them thanks for the affection and tendernesse they had expressed for the purity of Christian Morality, they intreat them to send up their collections and memorials, and appoint eight of themselves, all Doctors of Divinity of the fa­culty of Paris to examine them, and accordingly to give the said Curez of Rouen all the advice and assi­stance requisite in such a business. Since which time, be­ing more fully informed and satisfied as to the matter of fact, they resolv'd to joyn with us in this cause, and to exhort the Curez of the other Diocesses of France, to demand joyntly with them, of our Lords the Prelates (in a spirit of peace and charity, which ought ever to be attended by a true zeale) the censurt of the dange­rous, propositions specified in the Ca [...]alogue and Ex­tracts which they sent them.

And our Arch-bishop himself, for his own part, to shew how much he thought himself concern'd in an affair of this importance, and the justice he was de­sirous to do the Curez of his chief City, sent up Monsieur Gaulde his Grand Vicar (whose vertue and abilities all have sufficient experience of) to present, on his behalf, the Petition, and Extracts made by the Curez of Rouen to our Lords of the Assembly Generall with Letters of recommendation worthy his zeal and earnestnesse.

Accordingly hath that honourable Assembly given eare to these just demands, it hath afforded them a favourable reception, it hath even publickly com­mended [...]e procedure of the Curez of Rouen, it hath judged [...]t jus [...]ifiable and canonicall, and taking co­gn [...]s [...]nce of the businesse as such as Religion it self and the salvation of mens souls are very much con­cerned in, it hath appointed Delegates, very de­vout [Page 33] and very able men, to take it into examina­tion. From all which cirrcumstances, we cannot but raise a certaine hope, that God will strengthen them with his spirit, and fill them w [...]th his light, that their endeavours, to expell this mortall con­tagion, which tends to the poisoning of her children, out of the Church, may prove the more effectuall, that she may be maintained in her most holy rules, and may flourish and fructifie though the spirit of the Gospell, whence she derives that incomparable beauty which is so amiable to the sight, and winnes her the heart of her divine Beloved.

Thus, Sir, have I given you a true and sincere ac­count of what passed in this Affaire on the part of the Curez of Roven. I dare call God to witnesse, that it is nothing but the naked truth, and thence you may be pleased to consider, whether they have had any ground to traduce us; consider, what foundation they may have to blast our reputation with calumnies as they do in that Libell; consider, I say, whether it does not even in the title broach three signall im­postures.

For in the first place, the Propositions, which we desire should be censured, are not extracted out of the LETTERS of the JANSENISTS, as the A [...]thour sales in that Pamphlet. But they were taken out of the bookes of the Casuists; nay, if what he saies wer [...] true, the extracts would be ten times larger and of greater bulk then the whole p [...]eces, out of which they are taken, as it were easy for us to demonstrate.

Secondly, this catalogue and the extracts which the Jesuits have so great an aversion for, and are the ground of all their fury and exasperation, are not the worke of the Curez of Rouën, who only drew up the Extracts which they presented to their Arch-Bishop, and which the Arch-Bishop hath sent up to the Assembly [...]

[Page 34]L [...]stly, it is far from truth, that this Answer of a Divine was ever presented to the said Assembly. Our Lords the Prelates, whereof it con [...]ists; would ne­ver have suffered such an affront should be done to the dignity thereof, nay, it is an act of the greatest contempt that can be committed against such an Assem­bly to direct to it a scandalous pamphlet without a name [...] such as is that Answer. No, those who are thought to be the Authors of it, are more prudent and better advised then ever to have attempted any such thing, though they are not to be numbred among those that have the most respct of Bish­ops.

I should be over troublesome to you, and haply exceed the Limits of a Letter, should I make it my businesse to refute all the calumnies and impostures which are scattered up and down the body of that pamphlet, and therefore shall fasten only on some.

This implacable Pamphleteer sayes, that we have put in an information against the Iesuits at the tribunall of our Lords the Bishops, and we may say, on the con­trary, that it is they themselves that have brought the information against themselves. For neither in our Petition nor our Extracts presented to the Arch-Bishop do we any where taxe the Iesuits by name; if we say any thing of them, it is occasionally, and by way of instance; all that we desire being only the condemnation of the pernicious doctrines taught by some late Casuists, whoever they may be. But they have betrayed themselves by their own complaints and expostulation, they are wounded by their own wea­pons, Sagittae [...]orum factae sunt plagae corum. Psal. 63. And they were the only men, who, Satanically zealous to maintaine these doctrines, and to shew th [...]mselves in a manner the Patronizers of Homicides, Simonies, and other the like crimes, have made all the noise, and raised that tempest which is likely to [...]ll so heavy upon them. Besides, we cannot be said [Page 35] to have presented to our Lords of the Assembly any petition or other piece to bring them into trouble there, it being certaine that it is only the Arch-Bishop him selfe that hath, by his Grand Vicar, presented them, and consequently this Jesuiticall Secretary does Notoriously derogate from his Authority, and is not afraid in his Libell to be a little too peremptory with him and to traduce him under the name of the Curez of Roven.

The next thing he quarrells at is that we are guilty of a frivolous busying of our selves to weed out the corrupti­ons that may be found in bookes, while they grow and thrive in mens soules, whence we should endeavour to root them up. This is an indeterminate charge of our idleness and want of courage in our Functions, but without the least consideration, that these Lesbian Maximes purposely sorewed up to a complyance with sinners (whereof we find the bookes of the Casu [...]sts but too full,) are the fatall seeds of so many cor­ruptions and [...]candalls as are predominant in this un­happy age; and that our time cannot haply be better employed, then in endeavouring to smother them, and to prevent them from growing out of those Books into mens consciences which are of themselves in­clinable enough to entertaine any thing that cherishes the passions, and complyes with the vergency of cor­rupt nature.

Then he tells us, that it were a far better employment for our Assemblies to review the Houres of Port Royal, and addes, that the Faithfull committed to our charge, do to this day repeat, at the feet of our Altars those very prayers that are contained in that book, to the reproach of Faith and scandall of the Church. We never had yet the least acquaintance with the Authors of those Houres, and therefore cannot be said to countenance them, and it is a prerogative of God only to judge of the in­tentions of their hearts. But it's to be hoped, this censorious Libeller will not think it much we should [Page 36] give them a charitable interpr [...]tation, and should avoid, upon this occasion, that reproachable waxinesse of na [...]ure (as he observes himself) that is so easily wrought upon at to hearken to and countenance calumny, though he himself hath not much endeavoured to a­void it heere. Some more knowing and better Di­vines then he differ very much from his opinion of those Houres, because they are not prepossessed a­gainst them as he is, who supposes that the son of God is therein degraded from the title of the Redeemer of all men, because it is not there expressed in the Version of certaine Hymnes, though the same thing be found in severall other places, and particularly in the 7th. ver. of the Te Dum. And we would gladly referre him to the Hymnes of the Romane Breviary corrected by Vrban VIII. of blessed memory. That methinks were enough to give a check to his sinistrous judgement of the persons that composed them, as to what concernes that article. And for the other, where he alledge [...], that they have therein followed the version of Mar [...]t in the 17. ver. of the 138th. Psalme, to take away the Invocation of Saints; he betrayes his want of con­sicience in imposing that drift upon them, since he is not ignorant, that though that Version be not the more ordinary, yet is it approved by above ten mo­derne Jnterpreters, Jesuits, and others, men very learned and of unsuspected faith, who stick close to the Hebrew text. Besides that in the Hymnes, Li­tanies and Prayers of these Hours, the intercession of the Saints is therein very often insisted upon. What probability is there then, that, if some of our Pa­rishoners make use of them, it must needs he to the great reproach of Faith and scandall of the Church?

He would [...]urther put us into an alarme against the memory of the late Abbot of S [...]. Cyran, whom he charges with the reviving of certaine propositions of Wiclef which blast the dignity of our character. But let [Page 37] him take good heed that this accusation, which he advances to put a flurre upon him, proceed not, ei­ther from want of diligence in the reading of his works, or an excesse of passion against that great man, incli­ning him [...]o disparage them. As there is not hardly any one that is unaquainted with his excellent and glorious endeavours for the defence of the Priesthood of Iesus Christ, so methinks should it be heard for any one to imagine that he had any designe to blast it in his Lettters, which are all most Christian, and full of piety. For, in a word, not to medle with the two last propositions, since our Divine hath no [...] thought to cite the places, out of a prudent feare that in case we should examine them we might dis­cover his foule play in falsifying and distorting of them, he hath suppressed out of the first a word that is essentiall and of importance purposely to give it a wrong sence, and to make it odious. 'Tis not our busi­nesse to write a panegyrick for Monsieur de S. Cyrian, but only to beare witnesse to the truth, and the Author of the Pamphlet must give me leave to tell him, that his way of proceeding is not justifiable. In the 93. Letter, which he cites, we find, that the Church hath a power to take a course with Priests of ill lives, and to cut them off from any relation to her, if she think it fit, and that if she do it, they are no longer to be reputed Priests, but to be looked on as secular persons. This faithfull Secretary hath left out the word re­puted, which is to be seen in all the latter editions of those Letters, and was omitted onely in the first printed at Paris, through the Printers negligence, and is accordingly put upon his score among the other Errata at the beginning of the Book. Let him then but restore that word to the passage fore­recited, and he will find the Doctrine of that Let­ter to be the same with what is taught us by the Church in her Canons, that is to say, that Priests degraded, and such as, for their lewd lives and [Page 38] noto [...]ious crimes, have been deprived of Tonsure and the long robe, which are the honourable badges of the Sacerdotall Function, are not to be looked upon or reputed as Priests, [...]t such as are reduced to a secul [...]r qualification; though, all this supposed, they do not lose the divine Character of their Ordination. The case being thus [...]airely cleared up, we are content the Author himselfe should be judge in the difference, appealing from himselfe mis-informed to himselfe bet­ter informed, or lesse prepossessed, to dec [...]de, whether such pr [...]positions as these, are those of the infamous Arc [...] Heretick Wiclif, and whe [...]her in our Assemblies, we should make it our businesse to conspire their Cen­sure.

He further playes the Admonisher, when he tells us, that our endeavours would be more serviceable to the publick should we prosecute the suppression of the Scanda­lous LETTERS; published, (as he saies) with so much [...] defyance of punishment ever since so long a time against the honour of Sorbonne and all Divines. But he sayes too much to be credited. For were it true, that those Letters were published to the dishonour of Sor­bonne and all Divines, whence comes it to passe that the Colledge of Sorbonne and all the Divines of the whole Church do no [...] combine against them to have them condemned, prohibited, suppressed; Whence comes it that the Iesuits (for whom this Secre [...]ary apologises all the way) make it their complaint wher­ever they come that those Letters are Levelled only against their Society? Whence comes it th [...]t only they of all others took the alarme [...]hereat? And if they are so much employed in fighting against the Enemies of the Church, and in courageously standing up for the conc [...]rnements of Iesus Christ, as this pamphlet would make us beleeve they are, whence comes it, that, when they pretend to refute the Letters, which are so insupportable to them, they [Page 39] direct their Answers only to those which oppose their corrupt doctrine, and that pernicious [...] Libertinisme which they introduce into Morality? How comes it that they are so silent as to the four first Letters? How can it be that they have hardly a word to say of them, tho [...]gh they hold them to be injurious to the Grace of the son o [...] God, and the sacred decisions of his C [...]urch? Needs there any more to demonstrate that they, out of a set design, forsake the cause of Iesus Christ, and flight the advan [...]ages of his divine spouse, when it lies upon them to make good their own interests, and the transient lustre of their Society seems to be falling into some eclipse? Is this the glorious employme [...]t they make such brags off? But how ere it be, we declare, that we do not th [...]nk our selves concerned in those Let­ters, otherwise then it may be lawful for all others to be, that is, that we look on them as such as may somewhat [...]urther the discovery of errours, that so they may b [...] the better avoided; leaving the judgement thereof to our Lords the Bishops.

This writer hath a further accusation against us, which is, tha [...] we blow the coals of that heresie which is now breaking forth in [...]o flames in the house of God, and cruelly persecute those who make it their endeavour to quench it. For which he adds this reproach, that the unjustice of our prosecu [...]ion tends to the prejudice of Fai [...]h, and the re-establishment of Jansenisme [...] yet further blaming us, for that we are engaged in a combination, and endeavour to sacrifice the Masters o [...] both ancient and modern Divinity to the passion of the Iansenists, so to be of­fered up a [...] the publick victims of Heresie. And so goes even to the end with discourses much of the same na­ture, very unworthy the name of a Christian, and most injurious to the Pa [...]tors of the Church.

Who could ever have expected that a Divine should [Page 40] have treated us in these terms? Or imagine, that a spirit perpetually covered with the robe of Charity should persecute us with expressions so full of gall and so maliciously satyri [...]al? However, we think it no hard matter to forgive him. But when we truly consider his language (which is far different from that of Hea­ven to the annointed ones of the Lord) w [...] presently find, that he is but too close an imitator of those whom he vindicates, and that we may well take occasion to tell him, V [...]rè et tu unus ex illis es, nam et loquela tua ma­nif [...]stum te facit. For when they finde themselves cal­led to account, either for attempting any thing against the Hierarchy of the Church, and the priviledges of the Pastors thereof; or for maintaining the most dis­lut [...] and most extravagant opinions of the late Casu­ists, such as are absolutely destructive to the purity of Manners, they are in a manner reduced (out of an ingenious, but withal a diabolical p [...]ece of Reynar­disme) to this one evasion, or rather injury of Ianse­nists, which they make their bulwark and last refuge [...] where being once gotten into, they think thems [...]lves out of all danger, and whence they believe they may, without any fear, shoot the prisoned arrows of the most cankered de [...]raction against those who only quar­rel at their errours and irregularities.

And of this I have a clear and pertinent example to give you. For I bese [...]ch you, sir, do but consider what relation there is between the Propositions con­demned by the Constitution of Innocent X. which ar [...] the subject of Iansenisme, and the doctrines now in question, and wher [...]of we demand the censure? The former are of Grace and Free will; and the latter re­late only to Morality. The former treat of the most sublime, and most mysterious points of all Scholastical Divinity, such as only Doctors, and the most know­ing are able to look into; and the latter are only de­cisions relating to the conduct of Christian life, where­in it is requisite that every one be instructed. What [Page 41] ground then have the Iesuits to charge us with this in­jury? Upon what account do they make it their main business to perswade the people, that their Pastors, who are their spiritual guides, and on whom depends the salvation of their souls, according to the Scripture, ex quibus anima populi pende [...], countenance Hereticks, and make use of their arms? Or rather why would they have the world believe that there [...]s a new Sect of Hereticks, and a sort of enemies now rising that set the Church on fire? We declare that we know not any, that we do not so much as see this fire, and that if we could perceive it, we would be among the first that should endeavour to quench it. Whence comes it then, that they make such an ignominious parallel as that of comparing Priests and Pastors of the Church to Huss [...]es, Lu [...]herans, and Calvinists, which is the greatest affront and de [...]ogation they could have been guilty of in relation to the character and employment they have in the house of God? Is it that they would make them unserviceable in their Functions, and their Ministery, by this injurious bringing of their faith in­to suspition, and by those false impressions which they so much endeavour to make in those whom God hath co [...]mitted to the [...]r charge?

But what! Can it be objected to the Curez of Ro­ven, that they are not in an absolute and perfect sub­mission to all the orthodox truths of the Church? Do they not instruct their parishoners in the inviolable maximes of the Gospel, and the adorable Mysteries of Religion? And do they not endeavour as much as lies in their power to reduce the enemies that oppose them? Is not their doctrine sound, and their word irreprehensible, as the Apostle would have i [...], in his Epistle to Titus? Is not their Arch-Bishop, to whom they are accountable, satisfied with their conduct, and the integrity of their Faith? Is not the whole cit­ty a sufficient testimony of their good and whol [...]ome [Page 42] instructions? And do not the Iesuits know well e­nough, that we have all published the Popes Bull, and the Mandate of our Arch-Bishop concerning the five propositions justly condemned at Rome? Is there any one among us that hath maintained, taught, or preached any of them? Or hath otherwise dissented from the sacred Constitution of the Vicar of JESUS CHRIST?

Wherein then do the said Curez countenance He­reticks? Wherein do they afford them their name and interest? As in imposed upon them by the Libel­ler. What is it that makes them the cruel persecutors of the children of the Church? It is because they pre­ [...]er the most undefiled, and most sacred rules of the Gospel, before the dangerous instructions of the late Casuists? It is becau [...]e they are in love with the holi­ness of the Church their Mother, and conceive a cer­tain horrour to see her defiled by her own children, through the doctrines of those, who, incapable of be­ing their Fathers, will needs be their dangerous Tu­tors and instructors? Is it because they demand of their Arch Bishop, (the Judge of sound and corrupt doctrine) the censure of those pernicious propositi­ons that are the destructive Vipers of all Morality? But are they not obliged to this watchfulness, to pre­vent the tears from growing up in their Masters field, and that the souls for which they are accountable at the Tribunal of God should not be infected by that mortal poison? I can assure you, Sir, that they were not stirred up by any other motives in all this affair; that by the grace of God, they will not be guided by any other, and that if their enemies will not give o­ver persecuting them and charging them with Calum­nies [...] they will nevertheless endeavour the discharge of their duty, and as much as they can reassume more and more courage, to bring things so about, that In­nocence and Truth may triumph over violence and Imposture.

[Page 43]In the mean time, Sir, let us continue nnited in the spirit of peace and charity, in the midst of these disorders, which God will, in his good time, put a Period to. And let us withall generously maintain the concernments of our common Mother, whose breast, as it ought, so it ever shall even to the end of all ages, be ever full, as well of the most pure milk, and most power [...]ul wine, of the celestial and divine truths of JESUS CHRIST, the Master, Doctor, and perpetual dictator of his Church, as of the pre­cious treasure and inestimable riches of his Graces, which he sheds into all souls, but especially the souls of the Faithful, in the quality of Saviour, deliverer, and universal Redeemer. Sir, be pleased to af [...]ord me your prayers to him, that I may not be so unhappy as to resist his Grace, or deprive my self of it by my unthankfulness towards him, and the abuse of my Li­berty.

I am. &c.

THe favourable reception we have found in your honourable Assembly seems not to us a lesse re­markable discovery of your Goodnesse towards us, then of your zeal for the undefilednesse of Ch [...]istian Morality. We have inferred [...]rom it, to our more then ordinary comfort, that all the artifices which some have made use of to bring an odium upon us, have not prov'd so effectuall as to surprise you, and to make you in the least measure unsatisfied of our invi­olable submission to Episcopall Authority. And cer­tainly it must needs be a strange thing, that those who make it their main businesse to render it as despicable as they can, and have so often given you occasion to [Page 51] oppose their Attempts against the Hierarchie, should be guilty of an imagination that they could raise jea­lous [...]es in you of those, who think it a glory to them, that they have not any priviledges whereby they might be exempted from the dependance they have on their Prelates.

For your Honours may be pleas'd to consider, that they could not upon any occasion betray a more groundlesse pretence of their detraction, since that, e­ver since the first breaking forth of this business to the present, we have not done any thing but what dis­covers the respect we have for your sacred dignity. The Reverend Clergy of Rouen who first set this bu­sinesse on foot, and made the first complaints about it, brought it before their Arch-bishop; all the end that we had in countenancing and furthering what they did, was onely to make a joynt addresse to your Assembly; and when we sollicited the Curez of the other Diocesses to joyn also with us,, we were very far from thinking it should be done wi [...]h any deroga­tion from their Bishops. Your honours will, we hope, have that opinion of us, that we are not to learn the obligations that ly upon us, or the limits of our du­ty. We thought it a breach thereof to continue any longer silent, when we see the Church over-grown with a poysonous Morality, more corrupt then that of Pagans themselves; nor are we ignorant on the o­ther side, that we are excusable in the sight of God, by discovering the horrour we conceive thereat in our endeavours to raise an impression of it in all the souls committed to our charge, and in addressing our selves to the Princes of the Church, to represent unto them the pernicious consequences thereof.

It lyes upon your honours to prevent the [...]urther progresse thereof by a legall and authentick condem­nation, since it is to your Authority that God hath particularly committed the discernment of sound and corrupt doctrine, and the care of being guides to the [Page 52] people of God, by rules that are wholly divine, ac­cording to the word of the grea [...] Pope, Innocent I. to a certain Arch-bishop of France; Disciplin [...] deific [...] po­pulum [...]rudi [...] deb [...]mus. And that which is added by the same Pope, in the place before mentioned [...] viz [...] that it is to be feared, that the silence of the Bishop [...] be not taken for their consent to the dissolution of Morality, Ne [...]ilentio nostro exist [...]mur his pr [...]b [...]e con­s [...]nsum, dicente Domino, Videbas [...]urem, u [...] cu [...]re [...] cum [...]o, is, at this time, more considerable then even. For the extravagance of these writers is come to tha [...] height, that making their advantages of the lenity of the Church in poin [...] of toleration, they presu [...]e to affirm it openly, that she co [...]ntenance [...] their irr [...] ­g [...]l [...]rities, because she suffers them. This is no more then what hath already been made appear t [...] your honours out of F. Baun [...] a Jesuite, and what may be seen yet further in another of the same Society, whose name is Mascarennas, who being equally d [...]ou [...] in F. Ba [...]ny to establish this extravag [...]nt p [...]opositio [...], Th [...]t it is sufficient, so as to fulfill the precep [...] of hearing Masse, if a man heare [...] [...]wo halves at the same [...] from severall Priests, imagines it excellently well maintain'd by this erroneous and dangerous principle, That the Church, without any opposition, suffering that opinion should be published, is an argument that she [...] approues i [...].

Thi [...] Maxime which carries within it, wi [...]hout exce­ption, all the E [...]rour [...] which th [...]se C [...]suis [...] have pub­lish'd, must need [...] oblige your honour [...] to find out some speedy remedy against evils that grow daily mor [...] and more predominant [...] and which those that introduce them end [...]avour to establish by principes that make them incapable of any remedy. For their temerity i [...] come to that p [...]t [...], [...]s to pretend that th [...] Author [...]ty of the Bishops cannot give them [...]ny check. They have made no difficulty to maintain, ( [...] you may per­ceive by the Extract [...] which we now present you with of a new d [...]e [...]) That th [...] Bishop [...] cannot prohibit th [...] [Page 53] Books of the Casuists, such as are those of Diana; (one of the most extravagant that ever were) otherwise then as Marchandises, or, at the worst, but as prejudiciall by accident, and not condemn them as evill in themselves: and that, when four or five of these Authours agree in the same opinion, it is so far probable and safe in point of conscience, that unlesse the Church mukes the contrary thereto an Article of Faith, it can no more cease so b [...] such, then foure can cease to be foure.

Thus is it, may it please your honours, that these writers do at the same time invest simple private men with a pernicious power to overturn at their pleasure all Chris [...]ian Morality, and would devest the Successors of the Apostles of the right which IESUS CHRIST hath endu'd them with, to prevent the extravagances of man's wit from corrupting the truth of his Gospel. But this also considered must needs engage you the more to make them feel the weight of that Authori­ty, which they would deprive you of and receive, to the advantage of the whole Church, the examples of your Predecessors and your own.

It is not unknown to your honours, how that in the beginning of the Ninth age, the Church of France did by the severity of her Canons, put a stop to a licenti­ousnesse much less considerable then that which is now so prevalent. There started up of a sudden a many tri­viall writers, who put out a sort of books called Peni­tentials, to regulate, as they thought fit, the penance to be inflicted on Penitents, according to the diversity of sins. But having by that erroneous indulgence de­viated very much from the regulations specified in the Canons, the Bishops of France assembled in the II. Councell of Cha [...]lons upon S [...]one, and in the VI. of Parls, ordered, That all Priests should forbear making [...]ny account of those Penitentiall Book [...], as also that they should be absolutely abolished, nay burnt, to the end they might not prove an occasion to deceive the Pri [...]sts that read them, and consequently the people. Whereas [Page] [...] [Page] [...] [Page 54] there are many Priests, sayes the Councell of Paris, Can. 32. who either out of negligence or ignorance in­flict penances on those that confesse their sinnes, otherwise then it is provided by the Canonicall Constitutions, making use, to that purpose, of certain writings which they call Penitentialls, contrary to the holy Canons, and by that means cure not the wounds made by sinne, but cherish and continue sinners therein by an over-indulgent dressing there­of, drawing upon themselves that malediction of the Pro­phet; Woe unto those that sowe pillowes to all El­bowes, and make cushions for the heads of men to seduce them; we have ordered, by a generall consent, that every Bishop shall within his Diocesse cause strict search to be made after those erroneous writings, and ha­ving found them, shall cause them to be burnt, to the end, that such priests as are ignorant may not any longer make use thereof to the de [...]uction of souls.

Now we humbly intrea [...] your honours to consider what comparison there is between the excesses against which these holy Bishops your Predecessors have a­cted with so much zeale, and those whereof we now humbly begge the suppression? It was not layd to the charge of those composers of Penitentiall Directi­ons, that they had excus'd or authoris'd crimes, but only, that they had taught the Priests to inflict pe­n [...]nces lesse severe then those that were prescribed by the Canons. Nay even as to that point, how much more reserv'd were they then those of this age? For the greatest licentiousnesse they are tax'd with is that which is condemned by the same Councell in the 34. Canon, viz. that they had impos'd on a detestable crime a penance of lesse continuance then 25. years, which was the time prescribed by the Councell of Ancyra, whereas these now reigning think it not enough to take away all the punishments impos'd by the late Popes on the same crime, but are so presumptuous as to maintain, th [...]t those Confessors that are carefull to promote the spirituall good of mens souls ought to send the Laicks [Page 55] to the holy Communion, and the Priests of the Alta [...] the very day, that they had committed those abomina­tions, worthy of all the fires of Heaven, Earth, and Hel.

Thus have we discover'd to your Honours the pro­ceedings of those exemplary men that have preceded you in the government of the Gallicane Church. They have not given way, as they say themselves, that the faithfull should be abus'd by vain hopes, and the deceitfull promises, which they might flatter themselves with out of corrupt Books. And it must needs be by following so wholesome an example, that you have already bro­ken the ice and put a stop to this torrent of licenti­ousnesse and errours, by condemning the books of the s [...]id Father Bauny, who published them in France, as containing Propositions inclining men to Liber [...]inisme and the corruption of good manners, and doing violence to the Naturall right, and the Law of Nations, excusing Blasphemies, Vsuries, Simonies, and diverse other the most [...]normous sinnes, as if they were light pecca­dillo' [...].

But the inju [...]ious contempt wherewith your censure hath been received by some, who maintain that Au­thour, even since your condemnation of him, as being not guilty of any irregularity in point of Mo­rality, and cause his books to be reprinted without the least correction or alteration, is enough to convince you, that since the mischief still continues, and growes more and more predominant by time, there is a neces­sity the same remedies should be continued, and that others should be apply'd that are more effectuall.

The eyes of the whole Church are upo [...] your honors in this affair; her honour is but too much concern'd in it, she cannot any longer bea [...] either with the reproa­ches of hereticks her enemies, who endeavour her dis­paragement by attributing to her these pernicious ma­ximes, or the temerity of some of her own children, who conspire with the others to fasten the same scandall on her. For it is not the greatest scandall that even [Page 56] happened to the Church of IESUS CHRIST, that, while Hereticks are so presumptuous as to im­pu [...]e to the whole body of Ca [...]holicks the licentious­nesses of some particul [...]r persons, there should be, at the same time, whole So [...]ietie [...] that acknowledge them, that justifie their accusation, that would have the stran­ges [...] extravagances accounted Romane Tradit [...]on [...], and are grown to that height of [...] presumption as to pretend that [...]n cannot quarr [...]l at these irreg [...]larities, without being of the number of the Calvenists, or at least coun­tenancing them?

Will not the Church disclaim these temeratio [...]s wretches? will she not make a publick discovery of the horrour she conceive [...] thereat? Shall it ever be said, that for a man to be a Catholick, he must ap­prove domes [...]i [...]k infidelities and usuries with Father Ba [...]y, Simony, with V [...]lentia, the lawfulnesse of Murther to avoid on box o'th' [...]are, with Lessius, As­sas [...]inations for calumnies with Father Amicus, im­postures and false accusations, with Caramuell? Shall it [...]e said, that a man must entertain all the pernici­ous or extravagant decis [...]ons of Escobar for myste­ries revealed by [...] IESUS CHRIST, and that he cannot make any complaint against them, but he must be immediately treated as an Heretick? This is the affront that some would have put upon the reverend, th [...] Curez of Ro [...]en, by a virulent Pam­phlett, under the form of a Petition presented to your Assembly, and yet hath not any name to it (which is a kind of proceeding never heard of before) because, as it should seem [...] the Authors of that scandalous piece would gladly have play'd the wolves with those that hit them in the teeth with their Morality, and tear them in pieces, but d [...]rst not discover themselves, so to avoid the punishment they might deserve for their in [...]olence.

In that piece your honours may discover some tr [...]cks of that confidence [...] whereby they vindicate their most dangerous maximes, They think it not enough to [Page 57] maintain them as tolerable, no, they would have them receiv'd as articles of Faith, which a man cannot de­ny without falling into Lutheranism. This is the ac­count they get in that Pamphlett, of what is taught by Father Bau [...]y, That to make an action impu [...]able as Sinne, it is necessary it should proceed from a man that s [...]es, that knowes, that considers what there is of good or evil therein, and that before this sight and reflection of the mind, it is neither good nor bad. Thir proposition, which palpably excuses an infinite number of Sinnes, and which, as such, was condemn'd by the Colledge of Sorbonne in its Censure of the first of Iuly 1641. in th [...]se words, falsa, viamque aperit ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis, is grown up of a sudden, if we believe the partisans of that [...]asuist, a point of the doctrine of the Church, taught by S. Thomas with all Catholicks, and oppos'd onely by Lutherans and [...]alvinists. These are their own expressions but full of falsity and impo­sture. For where hath S. Thomas ever taught that do­ctrine, he, who maintains every where, that a man's ignorance of those things which he ought to have known excuses him not from sinne; 1.2. q. 77. a. 2. and 3. and qu. 78. a. 1. and that men commit an infinite number of crimes without having any other sight thereof then that, of complying with their pas­sions, and without making any reflection whether what they do be good or evil in the sight of God. 1.2. q. 77. a. 2. And how dare they affirm, that all Catho­lick [...] are of the same opinion, when their own Casu­ists, who are the most guilty of dissolution of all Ca­tholicks, and the most inclin'd to embrace those o­pinions that flatter the humours o [...] men, are not all of that judgement? For Escobar makes it a point of his problematicall Theologie, Lib. 1. probl. 17. and cites those Divines even of his own Society who hold the contrary [...] to that opinion of F [...] Bauny, condemn'd by the Colledge of Sorbonne, which yet they now dare impose upon the whole Church.

[Page 58]This your honours may be pleas'd to look on as a remarkable example of the originall and progresse of their PROBABILITIES. They are lit­ter'd at first imperfectly with some doubt; then are they lick'd into the degree of probable and safe in point of con­science; and thence, by the advantage of confidence, that loses nothing by continuance, they are reduc'd to the predicament of certain Truths, and they that oppose them chargeable [...]ith Heresie, even after they [...]ad been censur'd by whole Vniversities.

Nor indeed do they much dissemble the Novelty of their opinions, or their first productions. They very sincerely acknowledge that they are ordina­rily ha [...]ch'd by the temerity o [...] some particular person, who, under pre [...]ence of some probable reason that comes into his mind, presumes to oppose the common senti­ment of all other Divines, and formes out of his own a probable opinion, which Time afterwards ripens and confirms. This is the acknowledgement of Escobar, in these words, T [...]m. 1. in Prael. cap. 4. Though many persons have treat [...]d of a matter with great care, and hap­pen to b [...] all of the same opinion after they had well con­sidered the reasons thereof, yet is it my judgement that a learned man may neverthelesse, with some probability, be of a contrary opinion, if [...]e sees there is any reason that is very pr [...]gnant for his sentiment, and finds that the others have not sufficiently clear'd up the businesse. For thus were probable opinions first introduc'd into the Schooles [...] HOC ENIM MODO PROBABILES OPINIONES FU­ERE IN SCHOLAS INTRODUCTAE [...] And to be short (adds he a little lower) all these opinions, when th [...]y come first into the world, owe their production to ONE SINGLE AUTHOR. Whereupon, another Doctor a­grees with him, because that opinion, though newly ad­uanc'd seems probable to him. CERTE quaelibe [...] opinio DUM SUSCITATUR, AB UNO Q [...]TUM HABET AUTHORE. Postea alius. alii consentiens ideo assensum praes [...]i [...]it, quia [Page 59] RECENS ADINVENTA opinio sibi visa est probabilis.

Nay, this is not alwayes necessary. There are some probable opinions that proceed from no other dam then blind chance. Be it supposed that a Doctor, without so much as minding what he did hath broach­ed some new and strange imag [...]nation, which he him­self thought not probable; There needs no more to give another doctor occasion to make a new discovery in the Country of Probability. And this is no more then is ingenuously confessed by the same Escobar, in these terms: I do only conclude an opinion to be probable when he that first found it ou [...], judges it to be probable, and confirms it with a probable reason. But even when a do­ctrine, advanced by a doctor, is approved neither by him­self, nor any other as true (ETSI DOCTRINA ADDU­CTA A DOCTORE, NEC A SE, NECAB [...]LIO VE­RA ESSE AFFIRMETUR) but is only proposed as an ar­gument to which an answer is required, or casually brought in to explicate some other, or haply by way of instance, I never [...]he­less bring it into the qualification of probable opinion [...], when I find it maintainable by a rational reason, SI RATIO­NABILI RATIONE INNITI VIDEO.

And yet your Honours may be pleased to take no­tice, that these fantastick conceits, which they themselves acknowledge to be new, and newly introduced into the Schools, which they confess to be the aerial issue of their own spirits, the most cor­rupt of all Masters, according to that remarkable expression of Saint Hierome; non quod à me ipso oidi­ci, hoc est à presumptione, p [...]ssimo praec [...]ptore; these imaginations, unknown, according to their own ac­knowledgement, to all antiquity, are nevertheless to be thought certain and infallible paths to lead men to hea­ven. For it being their main design only to flatter men, and to bring them to their lure, they saw well enough, that it would amount to nothing to invent probable re­missions of duty, if those that followed them drew no o­ther advantage thence, then that they were probably fa­ved [Page 60] and probably damned. They have therefore thought themselves obliged to get higher, and by a Mystery unknowne to all Divinity and Reason make an allyance between probable sinning, and the certainty of not sinning [...]

Be pleased then to consider the strange ratiocination of all these late writers. If I kill anothe [...] for a bo [...] on the care, it is probable that I shall not sinne, accor­ding to Lessius, Filliucius, Bald [...]llus: it is also probable that I shall sinne, according to all the Ancients; it is therefore certaine that I shall not sinne, by the princi­ple of Probability. Whence it may be further inferred, that when ever they affirme it to be doubtfull whether an action be a sinne, and contrary to the Law of God, they with the same breath maintaine, that it is not doubtfull, but undeniable, that if a man does it, he commies not any [...]inne in the sight of God.

'Tis upon this new kind of Logick, of concluding a certainty from an uncertainty, that they have laid the foundation of all Christian Morality, taking this alwayes as an undenyable principle, That all the con­trary opinions of the Casuists are equally saf [...]. OM­NES OPINIONES PROBABILES SUNT AEQUE TUTAE. Not but that they are very sen­sible, that, of two contrary opinions upon the same point of Morality, it is necessary that one be true, and the other false; that one be consonant to the law of God [...] and the other contrary thereto; but they never­thelesse stand upon it, that being both probable; be­cause there are Cas [...]ists that hold as well one as the other, the conscience d [...]ives equall sec [...]rity from both; that the judgement [...] of men, even when they are deceaved and pervert the divine Law, puts us out of all danger as to what we might expect [...]rom the Law of God; and lastly, that we may make as great ad­vantages, in our journey towards heaven, of a pro­bable falsity, as of the most certaine Truth; UT QUAMCUNQUE, as Escobar affirmes, VIA­RU [...] [Page 61] PRIMO DIVERSARUM INIE­RINT HOMINES, RECTA TENDANT AD SUPEROS.

What then must we think will become of that ter­rible saying of the wise man, which he hath repeated in two severall places, a [...] it were to make a greater im­pression thereof in our mind [...], There is a way, that seemeth straight unto man, and yet is that which leadeth unto hell; I [...] there needs no more then that a way seeme str [...]ight to some Casuist to lead us in a direct line to heaven, even when it is not streight in the [...]ight of God? And what account will there be had of these words of JESUS CHRIST, If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch, if two C [...]suists, whereof the one is blind the other illuminated, because the one maintaines that which is true, the other that which is false, are as infallible guides one as another?

We might have produced to your honours a whole bloud of Fathers, whose judgements are absolutely op­posite to this so dangrous imagination of these Casuists; but we have thought it enough to weigh them by the doctrine onely of S. Thomas [...] who establishes a quite contrary maxime, which he makes use of as a certaine principle whereby to resolve other questions. For whereas there were in his time different opinions con­cerning this point [...] viz [...] whether it were lawfull for a man to have a plurality of prehendaries, as he himself acknowledges quod l. [...] [...]niuotur Theologi Theologis, & I [...]rist [...] I [...]risti [...] contraria sen [...]ire. He there­fore puts [...] to the question in his Quod. l. 8. ar [...]. 13. Whether this contrariety of opinions were a sufficient ground for a man to forbeare the having of more then one, be [...]ause he could not do it without running him­selfe into some danger of sinning. Now according to this new mystery of Probability, there was not the least occasion to make any such question it being evident, that a man might with safety of conscience follow whe­ther he thought good of the two opinions so authori­sed, [Page 62] and that there were not the least danger of shining in either the one or the other. But the Divinity of that Saint is far different from this latter, and men were haply in his time ignorant of this so commodi­ou [...] [...]n invention of complying with all the world [...] A m [...]n, saith he, becomes guilty of [...]inne, tw [...] manner of waies [...] one by acting ag [...]nst the Law of God, the other by acting against hi [...] own Conscienc [...] [...] NOW THAT WHICH is DONE AGAINST THE LAW OF GOD is ALWAIES EUILL, and is not to be [...]xcused though it be according to a man's Conscience. When there [...]re ther­fore two con [...]rary opinions of the same thing, is mu [...]t ne­cessarily b [...], that one is true and the other false [...] and con­sequently, either the opinion of those Doctors tha [...] main­tain [...] i [...] to be [...]lawfull to have severall prebends, it true, and if it be so, he WHO ACTS CONTRARY TO THAT TRUE OPINION, AND CONSEQUENTLY CONTRARY TO THE LAW OF GOD [...] IS NOT TO BE EXEMPTED FROM SINNE, THOUGH HE DO NOT THEREIN ACT AGAINST HIS CONSCI­ENCE [...] But if that opinion be false, and tha [...] it were law­full according to the [...] of God to have a plurality of Pr [...] ­bends, he that should be perswaded of it, should not sinne &c.

Now we are to represent to your honours that this erroneous confidenc [...] in th [...] opinions of men, though contrary to t [...]uth, which i [...] so formally condemned by S [...]. Thoma [...], after the Fathers, and according to the Scripture, is now become the maine hindge upon which they pretend that all cases of Conscience ought to be turned about. These late writers treat as igno­rant all those that are not of their opinions; [...]GNO­RANTIAE INVIDENTI CONDOLEAS, sayes Cara­m [...]l, upon that occasion; [...]ay they are so far from any feare of the dreadfull consequences of this irre­cla [...]meable liberty they take to reduce all things to the predicament of Probabilities [...] that they [...]onceive it to be an extraordinary service done the Church, to mul­tiply [Page 63] them as much as they can. They out-vy one the other who shall invent most, and the greate [...]t panegy­ricks they make one the other, is grounded upon their introduction into the world of the greatest number of new probabilities. I have a reverence (s [...]ies Cara­muel) for the ingenu [...]y of the learned Diana: He must needs be an envious person who does not acknowledge, that by his i [...]dustry many opinions are grown probable, which were not such before him, and consequently that those who follow them sinne not, though they had sinned before. 'Tis by the meanes of this infinite multitude o [...] different probable opinions, whereof some are true [...] others false, that they so presumpt [...]o [...]sly give out themselves, that they have found severall wayes to go to heaven, such as extreamly facilitate the salvation of mankind; for that if there were no other then the path of Truth, which is upon every point, the same and indivisible, men would find it too great a difficul [...]y to travell in it, and one would be forced to jostle the other out of his way.

We cannot without horrour & shame entertaine your honours with these extravagan [...]es; but they are such only in their own principle, since they are but too too formally inferred from it. For if it be true that the Authority of these Casuists can make opinions pro­bable, and that it must be supposed that all probable opinions may safely be followed, as to matter of con­science, though they permit a man to do that which is evill in it selfe, and con [...]rary to the eternall tr [...]th, they have very much reason to conclude thence that the whole Church is extremely obliged to them, for that they have made Salvation a thing so easy for her children to attaine to, by the multitude of probable opinions, which they make it so much their boast that they have lately found out. But do they not with all give us just ground to complaine with the learned and pious Guigues, Generall of the Carthusians; O Apostol [...] ­rum tempora infelicissima! O viros illos ignorantiae tenebris [Page 64] involutos, A omni miser [...]tione dignissimos [...] qui [...]ut a [...] vitam pertingeren [...], propter verba labioru [...] Dei, [...]am d [...]r [...] vi [...] custodieban [...], & hac nostra compendia nesciebant, ‘O how unhappy were the Apostles in their times! O how did those that lived then grope in deplorable darknesse! How were they to be [...]emoan [...]d that they were not acquainted with any other way to go to heaven then those rough and austere ones which were chalked th [...]m by the word of God [...] and were ignorant of all these shifts and compendious methods of Pro­bable opinions, never found out till this age of ours.’

We doubt not but your honours are sufficiently sa­tisfyed of the strangenesse o [...] this doctrine in it selfe, and to what dre [...]dfull extravaga [...]ces it may open a gap and give encouragement. All errour [...] in matter of Morality are very dangerous, because they cor­rupt the Judgement, which discernes between good and evill [...] and is the originall of all actions. But this principle of Probability is much more dangerous, in so much that it may be called the generall poison of those en [...]e [...]med sources, which communicates to them a particular infection far gr [...]ater then that which they have of thems [...]lves. For instance, it must certainly be a d [...]mnable extravagance of opinion, to main­taine, [...]s F. Amicus and Caramuel [...] do, that men that hav [...] devoted their selve [...] to a Religious kind of life (and there [...]ore with much mo [...] reason those that are of the world) may kill those that intend to ca­lumni [...]te them: But the feare of damnation for follow­ing these [...]asuists, might haply stop their hands who were inclin'd thereto, if at the same time it were not demonstrated according to the genera [...]l doctrine of probability, that, of two probable opin [...]ons, it is as s [...]se to follow one as the other, a [...]d consequ [...]ntly [...] that there is as litle danger of offending God by k [...]lling [...] as there is in no [...] killing.

[Page 65]It were therefore but to little purpose for the Church to condemne the pa [...]ticular [...]allyes of Licentiousnesse which these late C [...]suis [...] are guilty of, if your honours do not also take away th [...] roo [...] whence they all de [...]iv [...] life and growth. All the [...]cknowledgement they will make of your Censure, shall be to confesse that your sentiment [...] are probable, but that they hinder no [...] but th [...]t their [...] are so too [...] Of thi [...] evasion of their [...] your honours h [...]v [...] dayly experi [...]nce in their attempts a­gainst the Hierarchy. [...]or whe [...] t [...]ey would maintain [...], for ins [...]ce, that the Regulars of any Religiou [...] Orde [...], [...]ay wit [...] [...] sa [...]e conscience m [...]ke use of those pr [...]iledges wh [...] [...] expressely [...]evo [...]ed by the Councell of Tr [...]n [...]; [...]ha [...] having presented themselves before you, though you had refused to approve them, they have neverthe­l [...], [...] defiance o [...] your Authority, a power to heare Confess [...]on [...]; and lastly [...] that having been once [...]p­prov'd, they cannot be a [...]ter [...]ds revoked, upon what do they ground all these so illegall pretentions [...] [...] Sanch [...], one Rodrig [...] [...] one Villalobos, one Portellus, one Diana, and others of the same mo [...]t [...]ll, which are much more then needs to make an opinion probable. And if you should oppose your Decrees to the t [...] ­merity of these Casuis [...], all the advantage you shall make of it will be, that you shall also make your opini­on probable [...] your honours shall be cited a [...] Main­tainers of the negative, and Escobar shall discourse thus upon the whole: Regulares POSSUNT, ET NON POSSUNT, in foro cons [...]ientia, sui [...] vti privilegis [...] quost sun [...] expresse p [...]r Triden [...]inum revocata [...] Lib. 6 [...] Probl. 16 [...] p. 192. SUFFICIT ET NON SUFFICIT pe [...]ere [...]pprobationem, u [...] Regularis, si injust [...] ei deneg [...]tur [...], [...]ens [...]a [...]ur jure approbatus, Lib. 7. Probl. 30. p [...] 269. That is to say, in a word, some hold the affirmative, others the Negative, you may believe [...] and you may do what you thinke good your selfe.

[Page 66]Nor is it any more difficulty for your honours to imagine what confusion, and what dist [...]rbance [...] this principle of Probability may oc [...]asion in the s [...]ate [...] and what a bane it may prove to civill Society [...] whe [...] it shall be joined with their other maxi [...]e [...] P [...] the [...]ases that Judges have any inclination [...] to [...]a­vour their Friends, or to be revenged of their ene­mies, what encouragement will they not find to per­vert all justice, with safety of conscience, in this maxime of Escobar and foure other Casui [...]ts; namely, That they are not obliged to follow the more probable opini­on [...] but that they may give sentence for him, who seeme to have lesse right of his side [...] and whose [...] is made good by lesse probable reasone? In like man [...]e [...] if the people fall into an humour of Rebellion, what pretences may they not find to colour their defection, in that other maxime of the same Au­thor, viz; That they may without any cause sh [...]wne, choose whether they will submit or no, [...] to [...]he ordinan­ces of their [...]rinces, though after a legall publication thereof; If they have no mind to pay [...] Taxes shall they ever be to seek for a lawfull excuse to be exem­pted; since that to effect it, there needs no more, according to these Casuists, then a litle probabili­ty, even though they cannot deny but that their Prince hath as much if not more reason to impose a Contribution upon them, then they have to deny the payment thereof? But we shall no [...] trouble your honours with any more as to that point. Wha [...] we have, and might say of it, we think two hor­rid to expresse. We have only said a word or too at the beginning of our Extract of Probability, which is enough to satis [...]y all those who have any affection for their Prince [...] a [...] God oblige [...] them to have, o [...] what consequence this doctrine is, and how likely it is to receive, [...]n such emergencies [...] as cannot be fores [...]ene, but ought alwayes to be feared, the de­testable maximes of a great number of these Ca [...]uists, [Page 67] contrary to the sa [...]ety of their persons, and the sove­raigne power which they derive onely from God him­selfe? They may seeme to be supp [...]essed, bu [...] they will never be absolutely extinguished, while they flatter men with an assurance that they do not sinne when they follow these l [...]te Authors, and that even when what they teach, is, in effect, contrary [...] to the Law of God.

These things well considered, who cannot [...] admire the strange confidence of some persons, who would have the complaints we have put up to your honours against these seditious maximes, to be looked on no otherwise then as an attempt prejudici­all to [...]he well fare of the state. But our comfort is, that those who make it their businesse with so much zeale to promote the security and agg [...]andization there­of, are but too well assured of our per [...]ect and in­violable fidelity thereto, ever to give any enter­tainment to those bad impressions which some would have raised in them of us. It is well knowne that in the Assembl [...]es where we are wont to meet, and which are authorised, not only by the custome and approbation of our Arch-Bishops but also by the Let­ters which it hath pleased his Majesty to send us to that purpose, there is not the least discourse had concerning the publick affaires; no, our employ­ment is about other things; Our thoughts are taken up only with the concernments of our Parishes, and the spirituall good of the Soules committed to our charge, because that is the maine designe of our Functions.

Nor is it any other interest then that of those Soules, so precious in the account of [...]ESUS CHRIST, that obliges us to addresse our selves to your honours, to beseech you, by the exercise of your Authority, to prevent the further establishment of these strange corruptions, now so much in vogue, to the dis­honour of C [...]tholicks, and the scandall of hereticks. [Page 68] The Censure you shall passe upon them must need [...] be of extraordinay advantage to the Church, [...]y even to those that are the m [...]intainers and publishers of them; for if they acknowledge and submit to your Decrees, they will ret [...]rne into the way of T [...]th, out of which they had so strangely wandred [...] and if they oppose them, as it is their ordinary course to do, it will be with this disadvantage to them, that they shall lose that erroneous beliefe whence they derive a power to deceive Sou [...]es, and which is, as well in regard of themselves as of others, of all misfortunes the most deplorable. How ere it happen, you will deliver your own soule [...] accor­ding to the [...]ang [...]ge of the Scrip [...]re, and the sen­tence of publick condemnation which you shall passe upon these pernicious opinions, shall prove your vindication before the tribunall of JESUS CHRIST, who will require a strict account of the Pastors of his Church, for all the abuses, and all the disorders, which they shall not have endeavoured to suppresse.

But for our parts, who are only called to the par­ticipation of a small glimpse of that power, whereof your honours shine in the meridi [...]n lustre, all that it lyes in our power to do, is, to let you know, how earnestly we disire and pray for the reestablishment of Christian Mortality in its purenesse and perfection, and by crying down these unhappy maximes among the people committed to our charge, preserve ne­verthelesse union and peace even with those that main­taine them, according to these excellent words of St. Augustine. Quisquis vel quod potest, arguendo cor­rigit, vel quod corrige [...]e non potest, salvo paci [...] v [...]nculo, excludit, vel quod, salvo pacis vinculo excludere, non potest, equitate improbat, [...]mitate supportat, hic [...]st pacificus, et ab isto maledicto quod Scriptura dicit, V [...] his qui dicunt quod nequa [...] bonum est, & quod bonum est nequam, omninò liber, pro [...]s [...]s s [...]cur [...]s, penit [...]s ali [...]nus.

[Page 69]Thus concluded and ordered in the Assembly of the Reverend the Curez of Paris, and presented to the hono [...]rable the A [...]sembly Generall of the Cler­gie.

ON the 21. of May, came to my hands the Letter which your sacred Congregation was pleased to write to me of the 18. of April, whereby you give me to understand, th [...]t, desirous to sati [...]fie in some mea­sure the Rector of the Iesui [...]s Colledge at Louuaine, which is within this Diocess, you have thought fit to enjoyn me, not to deny such Priests of that Colledge as shall have been examined and approved, a permis­sion to hear the confessions of secular persons; unless it were, that, meeting with any thing I should be trou­bled at in so doing, I did, within three moneths, re­present unto your sacred Congregation, the just causes that hindred me from granting that permission; in which case if I neglect to give you satisfaction, some other Bishop should be empowered to examine and approve them.

This your Eminences may well imagine must needs be no small affliction to me, nay, that I cannot but be much more troubled at it then I am well able to ex­press; since that, being come to the extremities of old age, and upon the point of my departure hence, to go and give an account to the supream Judge, of my administration, I finde, that, not only, the world is already full of malice; but also that it degenerates [Page 102] dayly more and more into wickedness, because cha­rity waxeth cold. Desirous to finde out some reason thereof, I have often both observed, it my self, and have it from the information and judgement of several persons, whose integrity, zeal, experience, and learning I am well satisfied of, that the principal cause of this deplorable degeneration and disorder, proceeds from the over indulgence of many confessours who are ready enough to open trap-doors to let men into dissolution and Libertinisme, taking for security [...]or their so doing some new opinions of certain divines, who, instead of measuring their proceedings by the practise of Evangelical Truths and the rules of good life, which have been left us by the holy Fathers, make it their main business to finde out new excuses to con­firm those, which sinners themselves are wont to al­ledge, to palliate their sins, and to cover with the cloak of Probability, the ignominy and shamefulness of their crimes. It is of such persons as these that the Prophet Ezechiel hath said in the Scripture. Wo unto thos [...] that sow cushions under the elbows of men, and lay pil­lows under their heads that they might deceive them.

These perni [...]ious extravagances are now come to that heigh [...], that [...]here were requisite not a Letter, but whole volumes, if a man should make but a simple extract, out of some of their books and practises, of all those unheard [...] of paradoxes, whereby they at this day elude the precepts of the Church, concerning the observation of Fasting, Fes [...]ival dayes, and the recita­tion of the Canonical Hours; whereby they palliate Simonies, private Revenges, Lyes and Perjuries; where­by they e [...]e [...]vate, and bring in a manner to nothing the obligation which lies upon men to avoid the occasions of falling into sin; and in fine those paradoxes whereby they expose to an evident danger of nullity, the effica­ciousness and power of the Sacraments. Now as it is in a manner natural to men to approve those dissolute max­imes which any way flatter their irregular apprehensi­ons, [Page 103] so must it needs happen, that those, who are the Authors thereof, taking it for granted by the easie en­tertainment they meet with in the world, that they had done a very considerable service therein, cannot but presumptuou [...]ly imagine in themselves, that they dayly more and more enlarge the way to Heaven, by the means of their Probability, that is to say, take away the bounds and meers of that straight way which leads to life, planted by the hands of Iesus Christ himself, who is eternal and unchangeable truth, and remove them out of their places as far as they can by such inven­tions, as proceed from no other principle then them­selves.

Having received several complaints against this er­roneous and dangerous kinde of Theologie, from those who have a certain zeal and tenderness for a more so­lid doctrin, and a more christian discipline; and find­ing on the other side, that the Hereticks who are our Neighbours, continuall loading us with reproaches, that some Doctors of our Catholick Church do maintain things so extravagant in the business of Morality, as that Pagans themselves ne [...]er betrayed any thing that may come into comparison therewith; I made it my earnest business to make a collection of some of the most disso­lute and most dangerous Articles, whereof I have here­unto annexed a copy, taken partly out of their prin­ted Books, and partly out of what hath been observed in the practice of some of them, whose demeanours I have had a very faithful account of. Having so done, I thought it not amiss to require the opinions and judg­ments thereof of the most knowing men of my Diocess, as well secular as regular. Whereupon having seen and examined the whole, I resolved to prevent the further progress of this evil, by the application of the most gentle remedies I should have thought of; tha [...] is to say, by giving notice as well by my self as those who had managed the examination of the business, that those, who were admitted to hear Confessions, [Page 104] should beware how they fell into that dissolution of doctrin; a [...]d giving order withal that there should be a learned refutation set forth of some part of those Ar­ticles. B [...]t having found afterwards, that this kind [...] of prevention, was not sufficient, and that reco [...]rse must be had to more effectual remedies, I resolved not to grant to any, either Secular, or Regular Priest, the power of receiving Confessions, if he did not pro­mise and swear before hand not to put in practise any of all the said Articles.

Much about that time, it happened, that on the 23. day of April 16 [...]2. several Religio [...]s men of the So­ciety of IESVS, presenting themselves to be exami­ned, I thought it no easie matter to meet with ano­ther so favourable an opportunity to execute the resolution I had taken. And thereupon I began with those, as well out of an imagination, that if they should willingly comply with, and observe that oath, the Religious men of other orders would certainly make no difficulty thereat; as that I had certain proo [...]s, that the Fathers of that society, were of all o­thers, the most addicted to invent and to practise those licentious doctrines. And this among many other ex­amples cle [...]rly apeared to the Examiners whom I had appointed to make the examen, on the day before men­tioned. For the Iesuits, having been, of set purpose, ex­amined that day, concerning the dangerous Articles, they very obstinately maintained the best part of them, and particularly this, which, I have from very good hands, as a certain Truth, hath been practised by the Religious of their society, that is to say, that it is lawful to dismiss those with the sacramental Absolution tha [...] have not haply gone over half their confessions, when there happens to be a great concourse of Penitents, as it may very well happen upon great Festivals, or at a time of indulgence: which being tollerated, it would very of­ [...]e [...] come to pass, that people would make but half & im­perfect confessions, those Fathers drawing to their [Page 105] Churches a great multitude of Penitents. Another effect of this toleration would be, that the greatest sinners, out of the fea [...]e they might be in to declare the en­ormity of their crimes, would with no small satisfa­ction embrace this convenience of obtaining absoluti­on, when they have haply confessed but one or two of their most p [...]donable defaults.

Upon these considerations was it, that I deferr'd the granting of [...] permission to hear the Confessions of se­cular persons to seven o [...] the Religious me [...] of that So­cie [...]y, who in other things had discovered sufficient Learning and abilities, untill such time as they should promise and swear that they would not proceed accor­ding to those Articles in the mannagement of mens Consciences. And wher [...]s I well foresaw tha [...] they would not be perswaded to take any such oath without the consent of their Superiour [...], I gave them a copy of those Articles to be shewen them; which they pro­mis'd me to do. But from that time to this, I never could have [...]y account or answer, either from them or their Superiours, Unlesse it be, that one of them, whom I think to be a Professor of Lovaine, told me that their Society had caus'd to be Printed, in France, some of those very Articles; but that it did not any way concern the Inhabitants of Flande [...]. Whereup­on I made him answer, that, it being not the custome to permit the impressions of books made by those of their Society, without being before-hand [...]pprov'd by three of their Divines nam'd by their Provinciall, it was no longer to be doubted that their whole Society maintain'd, as probable, what so many Divines be­sides the Author of the Book, had thought fit to be communicated to the publick.

All these things considered, I must confesse I could never comprehend upon what these Fathers ground the imagination they are of, that I have done [...]hem any injury, by pressing them to the oath before menti­oned. Had they been but pleas'd to discover the pre­tended [Page 106] grievances which they thought so indigestible. I should have ordered the businesse to be diligently examin'd, and if there had been any thing of reason in their complaints, I should have thought it no difficul­ty to quit my former resolution. For it was far from my design to do ought that might prove prejudiciall to them, all may aime being to prevent the destructi­on of that flock which was committed to my charge, and to rescue it [...]rom [...]he inconveniences consequent to the licentiousness of some Confessors, which I saw grow­i [...]g daily more and more predominant, and, was justly afraid, proceeded for the most part from that Society.

And whereas I could not imagine they should fly to those shi [...]ts and evasion [...] out of any other pretence, then for that there might be, among the censured Articles, some which they conceiv'd might be repre­sented as le [...]se odious by a favourable construction thereof, or might haply be so farre maintain'd by plausible arguments, as that they should seem not [...]o deserve so severe a Censure, I thought fit (purposely to avoid being engag'd into a multiplicity of dispute without any hope of conviction) to put those Arti­cles into the hands of the Theologall Faculty of Lo­vaine, to the end they might there be maturely exami­ned, that those onely might be censur'd which should be found undeniably corrupt and condemnable, and that, if the said Faculty had met with either in the books, or observed in the practise of Confessors any o­ther opinions, containing a doctrine pernicious as was that of the Articles, they might be added thereto, as was accordingly done by the same, both on the 30 of March, and the 26. of April 1653. when they judg'd that the XVII. Propo [...]itions ensuing were not to be tolerated in the practick, and that it was the duty of Superiours, to make provision of their Authority tha [...] they should not be taught, as may be seen by the copy of the Decree of the said Faculty hereunto annexed.

To the end therefore that I might in all things o­bey [Page 107] the order of your Eminences directed to me, as far as lyes in my power, and at the same time not o­mit any thing that my Episcopall Function may oblige me to, as to what concerns the weeding out of these pernicious Doctrines, I shall be ready to admit the Religious men of the Society aforesaid, to receive Confessions, when there shall not be wanting any of the qualifications requisite, provided alwayes that, be­ing legally authorized, they promise and swear, that they will never, in the practick, adhere to those XVII. Propositions at least, which I shall to morrow propose to the Ecclesiasticks and Regulars of my Diocesse, to the end they may be abhorr'd by all, a proceeding I hope your Eminences will allow as justi [...]iable.

There are yet two things, whereof I think it not amiss, upon this occasion, to give your Eminences some ac­count of. The former, is, that the Regulars do not observe the Decree of the Congregation, made concerning the affairs and requisitions of the Bishops and Regulars, da­ted the 15. of Iune, 1647. hereafter mentioned; wherein it is declared, That it is not lawfull for Regulars to give absolution in cases reserved to the Ordinaries of the pla­ces, or that might be reserved to them for the future. And consequently, that they cannot exercise that power, if they have not obtained leave to that purpose of the Ordinary. Now, though I took great care to have the said Decree communicated to all Superiours of the Regular orders the 3. of Octob. 1647. yet hath there been with me but one single Religious man of the Order of S. August. to desire that power, which I accordingly granted him, because he was a prudent and pious man. Others there are that pretend they have I know not what priviledges, or communications of priviledge [...]; nay they disclaim the Decree, as nul, because it was granted without their be­ing heard thereto. Others there are, that affirm it only to be declarative, and consequently that it is of no force a­gainst their priviledges, which, they say, cannot be made invalid, but by a Decree formally levell'd against them. Nay, there are some so teme [...]arious, as presumptuously [Page 108] to affirm, that it is not in the power even of our holy Father the Pope himself, to revoke or abridge their Priviledges, as being such as have been granted them by way of reward for their merits.

The second thing I have to represent unto your Emi­nences, is, that there are severall Regulars who receive Confessions within my Diocesse, though they have not been approved either by my Predecessors or my self. Upon which account it was, that, not long since, I caus'd notice to be given to all the Regulars (as it appears by the copy of the Mandate hereunto annex­ed) that they should come and present the Deed or Writing wherein are to be seen the names, and the time of Approbation, which they had received either from me or my Predecessors. This hath been done by many; and so that it soon discovered the great num­ber of those that have intruded into the Office of Con­fessors within my Diocesse, without the said Approba­tion. But one thing happened which I cannot suffici­ently admire, that is, that when the Mandate came to the knowledge of the Abbot of Saint Angelo, Inter­nuncius of his Holinesse in the Low-Countries, he sent to me that I should revoke the said Mandate, though it did not comprehend any thing which had not been observed from all Antiquity, and that it had been esta­blished for a Rule in the Provinciall Councell of Mae­chlin, and confirmed by Pope Paul V. in the title [...]. c. 1. of the Sacrament of Penance, in the termes recited in the Article hereunto annexed. And all this, notwith­standing the express command of our most holy Fa­ther the Pope that it should be observed, as may be seen in his Brief of the 16. of May 1648. concerning the cause of the Bishops of Angelopolis. By which Brief, it is enjoyned, that the Regulars, even of the Society of Iesus, approved in a Diocesse by the Bishop thereof, to hear the Confessions of secular persons, shall not have power to receive the like Confessions in ano­ther Diocesse without the approbation of the Bishop [Page 109] of the said Diocesse, as I doubt not but is well known to your Eminences.

And thus much I conceiv'd it my duty to discover to your Sacred Congregation, in order to the good of Ecclesiasticall discipline, having so great a confidence of your Piety [...] zeal, and vigilance, as that you will vouchsafe to afford me some more effectuall means and remedies, whereby I may be enabled to oppose those abuses which ought not to be neglected. In the mean time, having with all submission acknowledg'd the re­verence I have for your purple, I remain