LETTER I

Title. Who invented the title of the Letters ? Nicole, in the Advertissement to his édition of 1657, says it was the printer. Pascal himself in one of his Pensées (no. 52) says, “ Je gagerois que c’est l’imprimeur qui l’a mis au titre des Lettres au Provincial ”. But it is difficult to believe that the author should hâve had no hand in so important a matter. Probably the title was chosen in consultation with the printer, and with a recollection of the anonymous Lettre d'un jurisconsulte à un Provincial de ses amis sur l'usure (Mons, 1598).

No doubt the “ Provincial,” or country friend, who is here addressed, was Pascal’s brother-in-law, Florin Perier, councillor at the Cour des Aides at Clermont in Auvergne.

Date. Arnauld was condemned on the “ point de fait ” (the heresy of Jansen) on 14 January, 1656. The Sorbonne hesitated a moment before passing to the more important “ point de droit ” (Arnauld’s own orthodoxy), and the Thomist party was prepared to treat with him. But the Jesuits were determined to see the thing through, and the negotiations broke down on 17 January. It was upontheir failure that Pascal struck in. The First Letter must therefore hâve been composed within five days, between the 18th and the 23rd of January.

P. 1, 1. 2. j'ay pensé. Cf. Haase, § 65, Rem. III.

P. 1, 1. 2. Sorbonne. The Sorbonne was founded in 1257 by Robert

de Sorbon, chaplain to Louis IX, as a college for students of theology. By the sixteenth century the staff of the Sorbonne had corne to be practically identical with the University faculty of theology.

P. 1, 1. 4. Tant d'assemblées. The Sorbonne began its considération of Arnauld’s case on 1 December, 1655, and discussed it every working day for six weeks from 8 a.m. to 12.30.

P. 1, 1. 5. où. The antécédent is tant d'assemblées.

P. 1, 1. 6. si extraordinaires, etc. The anomalies were (1) the excessive and irregular number of “ friar-doctors ” présent and voting, viz. more than forty instead of the statutable eight (two from each of the Mendicant Orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmélites). (2) A rigid closure, viz., half an hour for each speaker. This was put into practice and regulated by a sand-glass during the discussion on the “question de droit ”. (See Letter II.) Arnauld himself was subjected to spécial disabilities. He must swear to conform to the censure, if it was issued ; he must not attempt to argue, but must simply state his opinion. The resuit was that he did not speak at ail, but only wrote. (3) The intrusion of the lay power into the theological debate in the person of Séguier, the Cliancellor. He terrorized the assembly and managed the sand-glass. Arnauld’s friends protested and withdrew, and Séguier, having done his work, found it convenient to be confined to his house with a cold during the last five sittings, which were accordingly far less temptestuous than the earlier ones.

P. 1, 1. 13. Fait . . . Droit. Pascal returns to the questions of “ Fait ” and “ Droit ” in Letters XVII. and XVIII.

P. 1, 1. 15. temeraire. A recognized term of ecclesiastical censure. A proposition may be haeretica, erronea, haeresi proxima, errori proxima , or merely temeraria.

P. 1, 1. 15. sa seconde Lettre, i.e. the Lettre à un duc et pair (1655). See Introduction, p. xxiv. Pascal gives the sense, but not the précisé words of Arnauld.

P. 1, 1. 16. le livre de Jansenius. The Augustinus. See Introduction, p. xxi.

P. 1, 1. 17. le feu Pape. Innocent X., oh. 7 January, 1655.

P. 2, 1. 5. Messieurs les Evesques, etc. There was an assembly of thirty-eight bishops held at the Louvre under the presidency of Cardinal Mazarin on 28 Mardi, 1654. Ail of them signed the déclaration in question, but four at least did so under protest. Mazarin lightened the deliberations by a sumptuous banquet at which, says Godefroy Hermant, “ ceux qui aimoient l’Eglise eurent tout le loisir d’avaler une infinité de couleuvres ”. Cf. H.’s Mémoires (ed. A. Gazier), t. iii., p. 471 f. ; and see Œuvres d’ Arnauld, t. xix., p. xxvi.

P. 2, 1. 9. tant d'escrits. Arnauld’s Première Lettre drew no less than nine replies from the Jesuits.

P. 2, 1. 12. de Jansenius . . . qu' elles y sont. On this phrase Père Daniel, in the Entretiens de Gleandre et Eudoxe (1694), remarks : “ Pascal auroit eu besoin d’étudier sa grammaire françoise sur cette

particule y : il n’entend point du tout l’usage “ Il falloit dire . . . dans Jansénius.”

P. 2, 1. 13. quelques-uns mesme. E.g. Doctor Claude Cordon. His opinion and that of Dr. Claude Tristan are quoted in Œuvres de Pascal , t. iv., p. 109.

P. 2, 1. 16. de toutes contraires. The defenders of Jansen referred to the following passages of the Augustinus as being contrary to the Five Propositions : —