LETTER IX

We learn from Hermant ( Mém ., iii., pp. 71 ff.) of desperate efforts made after Letter VIII. to prevent the printing of any more, four Jesuits betaking themselves to the censor and threatening punishment by superior authority if he did not interfère. Meanwhile belief in the miracle of 24 March gained ground ; Mazarin instituted a formai inquiry, and even a Jesuit preacher, in the midst of fulminations against Port- Royal, admitted it as one of the wonders which Scripture prophesied would be wrought by false apostles.

The plan of Letter IX. is said to hâve been drawn by Nicole, who in his translation supplies a long note on the right kind of dévotion to be offered to the Virgin.

P. 94, 1. 2. m'en fit. Cf. Haase, § 104, A.

P. 94, 1. 11. P. Barry. Paul de Barry (1585-1663), author of some twenty-five books of popular dévotion, such as La solitude de Philagie;

NOTES

Les saintes intentions de Ph. Les saints accords de Ph. La dévotion à S. Joseph, dedicated to Saint Teresa, translated into English in 1835 and since reprinted.

Le Paradis ouvert à Philagie ran through seventeen éditions between 1636 and 1678 and was translated into Dutch, German, Italian, and Latin.

Philagie = “ lover of holy things

P. 94, 1. 24. au rencontre. Rencontre was at one time masculine as well as féminine. It is still masculine in heraldry, e.g. au re?icontre du cerf = a stag’s head caboched.

P. 94, 1. 25. le petit chapelet. I do not know the particular rosary recommended by Barry, but the ordinary Dévotion of the Rosary consists of 3 chaplets of 15 décades of Aves with Paters and Olorias. In the first chaplet the 5 Joyful Mysteries are contemplated, in the second the 5 Sorrowful, in the third the 5 Glorious.

P. 95, 1. 36. l'exemple de la p. 34. Barry gives as his authority for this story Vincent de Beauvais. It was a common theme in the devotional literature of the Middle Ages. As a matter of fact Pascal is unfair in accusing the Jesuits of having invented the kind of dévotion which with Sound moral instinct he déridés ; but it is certain that they gave a great impulse to their production.

P. 96, 1. 13. P. Binet. Étienne Binet (1569-1639). He enjoyed the friendship of St. François de Sales, whose fellow-pupil he had been at the Collège de Clermont, and he won the praise of Mme de Chantal : “ Je n’ai jamais ouï un esprit plus conforme en solide dévotion à celui de Monseigneur (i.e. St. François) en la conférence particulière des choses de l’âme ”. Apart from his works of dévotion, he is a curious and interesting writer. Cf. his Les Merveilles de la Nature, 1621, a sort of Enquire Within or gentleman’s manual of knowledge, which went through twenty-one éditions in the course of the century, and then disappeared. Rhetoric was his undoing. There is an excellent chapter on Binet in H. Bremond’s, L'humanisme dévot , t. i., pp. 128-148.

P. 96, 1. 14. de la Marque de Prédestination. The full title is, De la dévotion à la glorieuse Vierge Marie, Mere de Dieu, vraye marque de nostre Prédestination (Arras, 1619).

P. 96, 1. 15. soit de bond ou de volée. Terms of tennis : “ Off the floor (lit. at the bounce), or at the volley ”. The impropriety of the image no doubt pleased Pascal.

P. 96, 1. 22. la petite republique, etc. A piece of real “ préciosité”.

P. 96, 1. 36. sans l'approbation , etc. This rule is not peculiar to the Company of Jésus but applies to ail religious Orders.

P. 96, 1. 42. particulier à nostre Compagnie. The Privilège in question, which was called forth by conspiracies laid or supposed to be laid by the Jesuits against Henri III. and Henri IV., was no doubt peculiar to the Company ; but the custom was general. See preceding note.

P. 97, 1. 13. à la plus grande Gloire de Dieu. The Jesuit motto, “ Ad majorem Dei gloriam ".

P. 97, 1. 18. le P. le Moyne. Pierre Le Moine (1602-1672), poetaster and theologian. His Epie, Saint Louis (1658), in eight books, enjoyed an immense vogue during the Reign of Bad Taste (see Tilley, op. cit., ch. ix.). Boileau said of him, “ Il est trop poëte pour que j’en dise du mal ; il est trop fou pour que j’en dise du bien ”.

La Dévotion aisée (1652), enjoyed two éditions in the seventeenth century and six in the nineteenth, of which one was edited by L. Veuillot. The book was attacked on its appearance by the Oratorian Toussaint Desmares in his Lettre à un ecclesiastique, which contains many of the passages signalized by Pascal.

P. 97, 1. 25. grimper sur son rocher. Cf. a passage of Montaigne (Essais, i., 25) to which Pascal himself refers in his Entretien avec Saci. “Elle (la philosophie) a pour son but la Vertu, qui n’est pas, comme dit l’eschole, plantée à la teste d’un mont coupé, rabotteux et inaccessible,” etc.

P. 98, 1. 8. Peintures morales. Les Peintures morales où les Passions sont représentées par Tableaux , par Characteres et par questions nouvelles et curieuses (1640). The form of this book is a mixture of prose and verse (Satura Menippea), a type of which the most famous instance is the De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius (a.d. 525).

P. 98, 1. 9. Il est sans yeux, etc. One may believe that the Port- Royalists in general and Pascal in particular were pricked by this description of exaggerated austerity. For Pascal’s attitude towards human affections, beauty, etc., cf. his Life by his sister.

P. 98, 1. 16. idoles . . . pour lesquels. Idole was masculine in the seventeenth century. Cf. “ Et Pison ne sera qu’un idole sacré ” (Corneille, Othon).

P. 99, 1. 8. L'ambition, etc. The phrase “ un appétit desordonné ” is no doubt what drew Pascal’s ire. Cf. “ C’est une sottise de chercher les grandeurs ” (Pensées, No. 161). Escobar’s distinction between simple ambition and treacherous or irreligious ambition is really unexceptionable.

P. 99, 1. 15. Je sçay que les riches, etc. The quotation from Escobar is correct, so far as it goes, but it is incomplète. The Casuist continues, “ I ask whether, supposing him (the rich man) to be bound under penalty of mortal sin, to give alms, he would be obliged to seek out the poor? (Ans.) He need only give alms to those whom he cornes across. (Q.) Ail of them ? (Ans.) Some of them. (Q.) By removing ail their want ? (Ans.) It is enough to give something.”

The text in the abbreviated form quoted by Pascal is given by Arnauld, Theol. Morale.

P. 99, 1. 28. Garasse. François Garasse (1585-1631). A very vigorous controversialist, equally severe against Pasquier, Balzac, and the libertin poet Théophile de Viaud. His So?nme theologique des Veritez capitales de la religion chrestienne (Paris, 1625), censured by the Sorbonne in 1626, was the occasion of a reply by Saint-Cyran. Thus Garasse, in Bayle’s phrase, was the Helen of the war between the Jesuits and the Jansenists.

NOTES 287

He was not a great man, but he died a hero’s death, tending the plaguestricken poor of Poitiers.

P. 99, 1. 30. justice commutative , i.e. justice as between man and

man.

P. 99, 1. 34. quand un pauvre esprit , etc. The modem reader will probably regard Garasse’s excuse for mild self-complacency with less rigour than Pascal who could write “ L’admiration gaste tout de l’enfance,” etc. ( Pensées , No. 151).

P. 100, 1. 22. La paresse, etc. Molinier (ad loc.) says that Pascal displays an ignorance of theology in rendering “acedia” (Escobar’s word) by “paresse”. This is hard to follow. The fact that he so translated it shows that he knew wliat he was talking about. And he was quite within his rights in using “ paresse ”. It is the lay équivalent of the ecclesiastical term “acedia, accidie,” and dénotés the fourth (some say the seventh) of the Seven Deadly Sins. Cf. “Le quart pechié de parece con apele en clerkois accide ” ( Miroir de l'âme) cf. Ducange, s.v. Acedia). So in English “ the sinne of accidie or slouth ” (Chaucer, Parson's Taie). It is true that “acedia” means properly spiritual sloth, taedium cordis (cf. St. Thomas IIa IIae, q. 35 ; Dante, Purg., canto xvii. ; Dr. F. Paget, The Spirit of Discipline, 2nd édition, 1891), i.e. the state of â/ojSeia, “I don’t care,” regarding spiritual things ; but if Pascal’s readers did not recognize this in his translation of Escobar, it was not his fault. Madame de Sévigné is plainly speaking humorously when she writes to her daughter (21 July, 1680), “ Ne craignez point la paresse, ma belle : vous savez bien qu’il n’est pas aisé de commettre ce péché, puis que, selon un célèbre Casuiste, La paresse est une tristesse,” etc. Pascal was fighting for more than a passing victory in extending sloth beyond the limited sphere to which Escobar’s définition of the ecclesiastical vice confined it, for on more than one occasion he States his conviction that pride and sloth, in the most general sense of the term, are the sources of ail sin. Cf. Pensées, Nos. 395 and

P. 100, 1. 39. qui est sans doute. . . . See critical note. The correction is most likely Pascal’s own. He was himself abstemious to the point of extravagance. Cf. Life : “ Jamais il n’a dit : Voilà qui est bon: et encore, lorsqu’un luy servoit quelque chose selon les saisons, si on luy demandoit après le repas s’il l’avait trouvé bon, il disoit simplement : Il falloit m’en avertir devant, car je vous avoue que je n’y ay point pris garde ... il disoit que c’était une marque qu’on mangeoit pour contenter le goût; ce qui étoit toujours mal ”.

P. 101, 1. 2. selon nostre Pere Sanchez. It is Juan Sanchez (see note on p. 62, 1. 33) who is responsible for this decision of Escobar’s, which was defended by Pirot in his Apologie pour les Casuistes but condemned by Innocent XI. in 1659. Nicole has a note on the subject.

P. 101, 1. 14. se gorgeoit. See critical note. The correction gives a wrong sense, s'égorger — se couper la gorge.

P. 101, 1. 23. nostre doctrine des équivoques. Here again Pascal is

unfair to the Jesuits. It was not they who introduced Equivocation and Mental Réservation, nor were they the sole supporters of the practice. Père Daniel devotes the last forty-five pages of his Entretiens de Clèandre et d'Eudoxe to this point, and he has no difficulty in finding instances of saintly prévarication in the Bible, and of ingenious justifications of it in the writings of the Fathers. He does not cite the one which is probably most shocking to us and which most closely resembles the subterfuge recommended by Filiucci, viz. the explanation of John vii. 8, ofîered by St. Cyril of Jérusalem. “ I go not up to this feast, to keep it as afeast." Nor does he see that the Bible itself, unlike its early commentators, nowhere palliâtes prévarication. The fact is that rigid veracity was not a characteristic even of the greatest of the Fathers. Against this Pascal’s moral instinct rebelled. With ail his faults he was a passionate lover of truth, and he was ready to dènounce any paltering with it whether by friend or foe. Daniel took up the quarrel again in a letter to Père Serry (1705) in which for the quotation from Jesuit writers he substitutes passages of the same ténor from great Dominicans. The device is effective ; but a stiil more telling retort lay to his liand. Mental réservation had been frankly recommended by the Jansenists themselves in connexion with the Formulary of 1661. See Sainte-Beuve, P.R., t. iii., p. 127.

Prévarication cannot be defended on the ground that it differs in principle from lying ; but if it is to be in any way justified, it must be on the view that, like simple lying, it may be inévitable when there is conflict with a higher law, e.g. the law of charity. But the danger of its growing into a habit is a real one which the Jesuit System tended to encourage rather than to avoid, and Pascal’s satire acts as a wholesome corrective.

P. 101, 1. 32. au mesme lieu. The quotations are not ail from the same passage, but they are ail in the same chapter of the Opus Morale.

P. 102, 1. 2. Filiutius . . . tr. 25 . . ., i.e. of the Morales Quaestiones.

P. 102, 1. 17. pourvu qu'ils ayent . . . donneroit. This passage, although printed by Pascal in italics, is not a literal quotation, but a summary of Filliucci’s rule.

P. 102, 1. 26. Les Promesses ... en les faisant. Pascal abbreviates Escobar’s phrase and omits an important qualification ; “ unless the circumstances hâve entirely changed ”. The text runs : “ Obligat quidem promissio nisi res sint ita mutatae, ut si cogitasses ita futurum, non promisisses, aut si non habuisti animum te obligandi sed solum proposuisti facere ”. The animus obligandi is doubtless a necessary condition of a valid promise, but-the distinction between a promise and the proposai to do a thing is extremely elusive, and Pascal does no harm in disregarding it.

P. 102, 1. 35. la direction d'intention. See above, Letter VI.

P. 103, 1. 17. quand cela se fait , etc. Molinier points out that Bauny is here discussing a point of law rather than of morality. Pascal

NOTES 289

would hâve answered : “ Then leave it to the law-books and do not introduce it into a French book of moral theology

P. 103, 1. 24. un poëte payen. Catullus. The lines translated are from Cat. LXII., v., 62-65 : —

Virginitas non tota tua est ; ex parte parentum est,

Tertia pars data patri, pars data tertia matri,

Tertia sola tua est. . . .

P. 104, 1. 5. aux passages de V Escriture. The passages to which Leys refers are 1 Peter iii. 3 ; 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10.

P. 104, 1. 15. il ne le veut point du tout souffrir aux vieilles. Cf. Saint François de Sales : “ On se moque toujours des vieilles gens, quand ils veulent faire les jolys : c’est une folie qui n’est supportable qu’à la jeunesse ” ( Introd . à la vie devote, ch. xxv. : “De la bienséance des habits”), a passage which should be consulted for the commonsense view of the question, which the Jansenists were apt to miss.

P. 104, 1. 27. je vous diray, etc. See critical note. The correction was rendered necessary by the interprétation (“se parer”) which Pascal originally put upon Escobar’s “ pro veste ” which need not mean more than decent clothing.

P. 105, 1. 1. la manière d'assister à la Messe. By the decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. xxii., cap. 9) bishops are required to admonish the faithful to repair frequently to their parish churches for the purpose of hearing Mass, at least on the Lord’s Days and the greater festivals. To omit to attend without legitimate cause is a mortal sin. Cf. Escobar, tr. 1, ex. ii., c. 3, n. 27.

P. 105, 1. 2. Gonninch. Gilles de Conninck (1571-1633), born at Bailleul ; professor of theology at Louvain.

P. 105, 1. 10. ceux qu'on meine à la Messe par force , e.g. an unwilling child.

P. 105, 1. 21. Turrianus. Luis de Torres (1582-1655), professor at Alcalâ.

P. 105, 1. 22. la moitié d'une Messe. Escobar’s “ notes ” on this point are interesting (n. 28). “ Num totum sacrum audiendum? Ita plané,

et si notabilis pars non audiatur, v. gr. mai or parte quarta, videlicet ab introitu usque ad Evangelium exclusivè, praecepto non satisfacis (n. 29). Quid si notabilis pars omissa est ? Si involuntariè omittitur, suppleatur per aliam : si voluntariè, animo non audiendi aliam, ultra mortalem culpam, manet obligatio praeceptum implendi, si nondum tempus sit elapsum. Impleturne auditione partis alterius Missae? Ita plané, etsi consultius esset unius integram audire.”

P. 105, 1. 36. De là je conclus, etc. Maynard blâmes Pascal for not taking into account the omission of this extraordinary opinion from the éditions of 1614 and 1656. But as I hâve said Pascal was not likely to forego the opportunity of a legitimate hit ; and Escobar himself in 1659 records the opinion which he had suppressed. He had in view the case of a

man on whom the obligation of hearing, say, three masses, has been imposed by way of penance.