LETTER IV

With the Pourth Letter Pascal changes his venue. So far he has been concerned with Arnauld’s case, and the attitude of the Thomists, his object being to convince these last of the unreality and dishonesty of their alliance with the Jesuits. Now that this alliance has succeeded in its object and that Arnauld is definitely disgraced, Pascal turnsfrom the Thomists and attacks the Jesuits. According to an old story, his friend the Chevalier de Méré had pointed out to him that the theological topics of the first Three Letters were too dry for the general public whose suffrages he was seeking : that a rich field lay before him in the “ morale relâchée ” of the Jesuits : that the time was corne when attack should replace defence. But the intervention of Méré was not necessary. The last paragraph of Letter III. betrays a weariness of the scholastic dispute and préparés us, not for a cessation of hostilities, but for a different warfare. With bitter irony Pascal déclarés that the

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only chance of destroying Molinism is to get Arnauld to adopt it. Wroth with the Jesuits as he is for working the ruin of his friend, it is natural that he should cast about for a means of avenging him, and this he finds in the Casuists. As he reads them, he discovers that a greater cause than Arnauld’s is at stake, nothing less than that of his Master, Christ. The Jesuit morality threatens to lower, and so lose, the teaching of the Gospel. From this time forward his principal care is the defence of Christian purity of life. It is this that accounts for the heightened tone of his writing. He is now in deadly earnest and, we must admit, somewhat blinded by his zeal. Cf. Introd., p. xxxiv. He found his material in Arnauld’s Apologie des saints pères (1651) and Théologie morale des Jésuites (1643), which latter drew his attention to Bauny and served him as an arsenal throughout his attack on Jesuit morality.

P. 30, 1. 1. rien tel que les Jésuites. Cf. Haase, § 116, A.

P. 30, 1. 1. Jacobins. See above, note on p. 6, 1. 40.

P. 30, 1. 9. grâce actuelle. The first occurrence of “ actualis ” applied to “gratia ” which I hâve found is in the De Causa Dei of Thomas of Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury ( ob . 1349). But the doctrine of a transient grâce bestowed “ ad actum,” i.e. for the performance of a meritorious act, as distinguished from habituai grâce, ensuring a permanent state (“habitus”), was current scholastic doctrine. Cf. St. Thomas, Une, q. 109, a. 9, and Introduction, p. xviii f.

P. 30, 1. 14. Une inspiration , etc. This is Arnauld’s own définition in the Apologie des saints pères, very slightly altered.

P. 31, 1. 4. la définition à la place du defini. Cf. “il n’y a rien de plus permis que de donner à une chose qu’on a clairement designée un nom tel que l’on voudra. Il faut seulement prendre garde qu’on n’abuse de la liberté ... en donnant le mesme (nom) à deux choses differentes . . . mais si l’on tombe dans ce vice on peut luy opposer un remède très seur et très infaillible : c’est de substituer mentalement la définition à la place du defini. . . (De l'Esprit géométrique in Pensées, p. 166.)

P. 31, 1. 22. Faites estât, “ be sure”. Cf. “Faites état qu’il ne lui mangeroit rien” (La Fontaine).

P. 31, 1. 30. La Somme des Pechez , by Etienne Bauny, S. J. (1564- 1649). lst ed., Paris, 1630; 5th ed. Censured at Rome, 1640; at Mantes by the Assemblée du Clergé, 1641 ; by the Sorbonne, 1641 (Richelieu prevented the publication of this censure) ; by Louvain, 1657 and 1659.

P. 31, 1. 31. la cinquième édition. Apparently some scandalous propositions were omitted in the 6th édition of 1643. Cf. Sommervogel, Bibl. de la comp. de Jés., s.v. Bauny. But Pascal takes no risks and quotes the book at its worst.

P. 32, 1. 3. M. Hallier. François Hallier commenced as a Jansenist and helped Arnauld in his Théol. mor. des Jésuites, but he turned Molinist in 1649, and was one of the party that went to Rome in 1652 to procure the condemnation of the Five Propositions.

NOTES

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P. 32, 1. 3. avant qu'il fust. See critical note, and cf. Haase, § 84, Rem. III.

P. 32, 1. 4. Ecce qui tollit. Cf. John i. 29. Applied by Caramuel to Diana in ail seriousness. See Letter VI.

P. 32, 1. 9. P. Annat. François Annat (1590-1670). If Ménage may be trusted, his real name was Canard, which to avoid impertinent jesting he latinized as Annatius. Cf. Menagiana, t. i., p. 285 (2nd édition). Anas = duck. He had been professor of theology at Toulouse, but was at this time confessor to the King. Sommervogel ( Bibl . de la comp. de Jés., s.v. Annat) says that Annat gave up his charge when Mme La Vallière became the King’s mistress (about 1661). This statement apparenfcly reposes on the sole authority of the scandalous Amours du Palais Roial ( ca . 1665), and it is tacitly abandoned by Sommervogel himself when he cornes to speak of Jean Ferrier who, he says, succeeded Annat in the Royal Household in 1670. It is in direct contradiction with the statement of “ Sotwel " (i.e. “ Southwell,” i.e. Nath. Bacon, S.J.) in the Bibl. scriptorum Soc. Jes. (1676), according to whom Annat continued his function until within four months of his death in 1670, when increasing deafness compelled him to seek a release which was reluctantly granted by his royal master. However this may be, strictness is not among the many good qualities ascribed to Annat by Southwell. His freedom from nepotism and his zeal against Jansenism are selected for especial praise. The King’s remark that he did not know that Annat had any relations is evidence of the former virtue, as the polemic against Arnauld and Pascal is of the latter.

P. 32, 1. 9. le dernier qu'il a fait contre M. Arnauld , i.e. Réponse à quelques demandes , dont V éclaircissement est nécessaire au ternies pi'ésent, 2e édition , augmentée des reflexions sur la seconde lettre du sieur Arnaud , 1656 ; to which is appended Examen de ce qui a été avancé par le sieur Arnaud dans sa seconde Lettre sur le sujet de la première proposition condamnée.

P. 32, 1. 12. Celuy qui n'a aucune pensée de Dieu , etc. Annat is here maintaining the doctrine of “ invincible ignorance,” i.e. ignorance which does not yield before moral diligence and which, according to Roman teaching, excuses from ail culpability. Calvin denied the existence of such ignorance; Luther, and Jansen after him, allowed it only in case of breaches of human law. Our ignorance of divine law and of God is due, they held, to original sin and is therefore sinful. Jansen’s proposition on the subject (not one of the Five) was condemned by Alexander VIIL in 1690.

P. 32, 1. 13. appréhension = connoissance. The more ordinary meaning is “ fear as to what may happen,” and Pascal uses the verb in this sense a few lines later.

P. 32, 1. 34. Je crains à force de desirer, i.e. “ My desire that the doctrine should be true makes me fear lest it should prove false

P. 32, 1. 36. Monsieur le Moyne : Alphonse le Moine. See above, note on p. 6, 1. 6.

P. 32, 1. 41. en François. This passage from le Moine liad already been signalized and translated by Arnauld in his Apologie pour les saints pères , but Pascal gives his own rendering.

P. 33, 1. 32. celles qu'on auroit crû. Cf. Haase, § 92, A.

P. 33, 1. 35. pensoit le moins. Cf. Haase, § 29, Rem. I.

P. 34, 1. 1. de s'y abandonner . Cf. Haase, § 10, II.

P. 34, 1. 33. ces libertins , i.e. Free-thinkers. This is the regular meaning of the word in the seventeenth century. Cf. “ Je le soupçonne d’être un peu libertin: je ne remarque point qu’il hante les églises” (Molière, Tart ., Act II., sc. 2). “ Deux sortes de gens fleurissent dans les cours ... les libertins et les hypocrites ” (La Bruyère).

P. 35, 1. 14. ces Philosophes, e.g. Cicero and Seneca, whom Arnauld has cited in the Apologie pour les saints pères.

P. 35, 1. 17. Dieu ne donne point la vertu. Cf. virtutem . . . nemo unquam acceptam deo rettulit. Cicero, De Nat. Deor., III., 36.

P. 35, 1. 22. L'implorer dans nos besoins. Cf. De Nat. Deor., I., 20. and Horace, Ep., I., 18, 111-112.

P. 35, 1. 28, 29. véritable . . . véritables. See critical note. E. Havet suggests that the change to “ vrai ” was due to the feeling that “véritable” has the sense of “ sincere ”. Yet Mme de Sévigné says to her daughter “ que vous êtes vraie 1 ” and La Rochefoucauld called Mme de la Fayette, “ vraie ”.

P. 36, 1. 5. Que Dieu n'a pas révélé, etc. Ps. cxlvii. 20 ; Acts xiv.

P. 36, 1. 7. les Livres sacrez. Cf. Eph. iv. 17-18 ; Luke i. 79 ; Matt. iv. 16 ; Ps. lxxxviii. 6.

P. 36, 1. 10. le premier des pécheurs. 1 Tim. i. 13.

P. 36, 1. 13. par l' Evangile. Luke xxiii. 34.

P. 36, 1. 16. selon S. Paul. 1 Cor. ii. 8.

P. 36, 1. 24. Jésus Christ luy mesme. John xv. 20, 21 ; xvi. 2 ; Luke xii. 47, 48.

P. 37, 1. 9. quelques sobres. Cf. Haase, § 48, B.

P. 37, 1. 11. Confessions. Cf. Aug., Conf. X. 31. This is Pascal’s own quotation.

P. 37, 1. 23. pechez cachez. Cf. Ps. xix. 12.

P. 37, 1. 26. digne d'amour ou de haine. Cf. Ecoles, ix. 1.

P. 37, 1. 29. S. Paul. Phil. ii. 12. Cf. 1 Cor. iv. 4.

P. 37, 1. 37. selon V Escriture. Cf. Prov. xxiv. 16.

P. 38, 1. 17. Necesse est. ... Cf. Aug., Op. imperf. in Julian., I., 108, quoted by Arnauld in his Apologie pour les saints pères.

P. 38, 1. 41. Voluntarium, etc. This is the translation of Aristotle, Nie. Eth., III., 1, by William of Moerbeke (Am. Jourdain believed it to be by Grossetête ; cf. Recherches sur les anciennes traditions d'Aristote), which St. Thomas used for his commentary on the Ethics, and which figures as the Vêtus or antiqua translatio in modem éditions of that work.

P. 39, 1. 6. perquisition = “ research”.

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