LETTER XVII

P. 211, 1. 1. Au reverend P. Annat. For Annat see above, note on p. 32, 1. 9.

P. 211, 1. 1. vostre procédé. Hermant (Mém., t. iii., p. 245) speaks of an armistice between the belligerent parties. But this did not prevent the busy préparation of pamphlets on either side. The Jesuits, however, had good hope of procuring both an embargo on Jansenist publications and “ privilèges ” for themselves as “defenders of the truth”

NOTES

from the Chancellor Séguier, always their firm friend. The XVIIth Letter was ready on 12 January ; it was not issued till 19 February.

P. 211, 1. 3. tant d'escrits. The latest of these were (1) Nouet’s Response à la quinzième Lettre. (2) Defense de la Vérité Catholique touchant les miracles, written under the pseudonym of Sainte-Foy. (3) La Bonne Foy des Jansénistes, by Annat, written in September, which was answered by a Lettre au R. P. Annat, which is included with the Provinciales in the édition of 1657, but which is not Pascal’s.

P. 211, 1. 12. ce livre , i.e. La Bonne Foy des Jansénistes.

P. 211, 1. 18. assez répondu. Cf. “ Apres ma 8Ine je croyois avoir assez répondu ” (Pensées, No. 30).

P. 212, 1. 3. je vous y vas repondre — je vais vous répondre ^àdessus.

P. 212, 1. 7. Charenton. See above, note on p. 197, 1. 15.

P. 212, 1. 11. Constitution. This is a convenient place to state the distinctive titles of Papal utterance. A papal “ Constitution ” is a legal enactment from the Pope. It is a generic term. Ail lettersfrom the Pope are constitutions ; they reçoive spécifie names according to their form or subject matter. A constitution may be a Bull, the form adopted for important and permanent decrees. A bull begins + “ Episcopus servus servorum Dei,” and has a leaden seal (“bulla ”) attached to it. In a Brief some of the formalities are dispensed with. The direct form of address is used, the document is closed and sealed in red wax with the fisherman’s ring. Papal letters addressed to ail bishops are termed Encyclicals ; when they are issued in response to an inquiry thev are Décrétal Epistles, when they are issued propria motu they are Decrees ; when they are directed to individuals and deal with matters of minor importance they are Rescripts.

P. 212, 1. 12. ou .. . vous m'entendez bien. Nicole complétés the phrase : “ Respondendum est, Pater, aut jam Valeriani Patris intorquebo telum,” i.e. “ I will reply, mentiris impudentissime See above, Letter XV, p. 189 f.

P. 212, 1. 15. Que le Port-Royal, etc. Cf. Pensées, No. 929.

P. 212, 1. 23. Que je suis seul, etc. See above, note on p. 193, 1. 2.

P. 212. 1. 28. La Constitution, i.e. the Bull of Innocent X. condemning the Five Propositions, 30 May, 1653, “Cum occasione ”.

P. 212, 1. 32. dans la 14. See above, p. 174, 1. 6.

P. 213, 1. 1. je n'ay d'attache, etc. This is not mere rhetoric or polemical subterfuge. A month or two earlier Pascal had written to the Rouannez : “ Nous sçavons que toutes les vertues, le martyre, les austeritez et toutes les bonnes œuvres sont inutiles hors de l’Eglise et de la communion du Chef de l’Eglise, qui est le Pape. Je ne me separeray jamais de sa communion, au moins je prie Dieu de m’en faire la grâce: sans quoy je serois perdu pour jamais.” Pascal was gradually drawing away from the extreme Jansenist position.

P. 213, 1. 17. Je n'espere rien, etc. Cf. Pensées, No. 920.

P. 213, 1.22. délogé . . . de Sorbonne. Some thirty-seven Doctors were

lodged within the college. Note the omission of the article. Sorbonne is regarded as a place name.

P. 213, 1. 30. pousser = “ to combat ”. Cf.

“Et je ne sais pourquoi votre âme ainsi S’emporte, Madame, a me pousser de cette étrange sorte.”

Molière, Misanthr., Act III., sc. 5.

P. 213, 1. 40. P. Mester. Etienne Mester, Oratorian (f 1648), committed suicide at Metz, his mind being distraught, the Jesuits said, by Jansenist teaching. If this be true, Mester is an instance of the danger against which the XVIIth Art. of the Church of England warns ; to dwell on the mystery of Prédestination may be “ a most dangerous downfall

P. 214, 1. 2. S. Merry. See above, note on p. 192, 1. 5.

P. 214, 1. 3. Prendre . . . a partie = To make a formai charge against some one. Cf. “Je vous prends à partie pour me payer les 10,000 écus ”. Molière, Avare, Act V., sc. 5.

P. 214, 1. 3. de la Sainte Virginité. This was a translation of St. Augustine’s Be Sancta Virginitate , by Claude Seguenot of the Oratory (1638), avec quelques remarques pour la clarté de la doctrine. These “ remarques,” which betrayed the influence of Port-Royal, were attributed to Saint-Cyran, and were the occasion of his incarcération for three years in the Bastile. See Sainte-Beuve, P. R., il. , ch. 6, and the X,ne Imposture.

P. 214, 1. 12. comme je Vay fait voir. In Letters IX. and XIII.

P. 214, 1. 18. vos qeneraux. See above, note on p. 161, 1. 10.

P. 215, 1. 7. qu'on n'a pas la liberté, etc. Pascal runs together the Third and Fourth Propositions.

P. 215, 1. 13. vos catéchismes. See note on p. 27, 1. 8.

P. 215, 1. 14. à S. Louis. To-day the Church of St-Paul et St-

Louis in the Rue St- Antoine.

P. 215, 1. 15. vos petites bergeres, i.e. dressed up as a shepherd in the Dévotion to the Crib.

P. 215, 1. 21. Crasset. See above, note on p. 181, 1. 4.

P. 215, 1. 21. qui en a esté interdit. “ En,” in accordance with a

common use in the seventeenth century, refers to the whole phrase (“ vous les entretenez . . . sermons”) and marks the cause of Crasset’s disgrâce.

P. 215, 1. 24. quand vous commençâtes, etc. The first move was in 1649, when Cornet denounced the Propositions to the Sorbonne.

P. 215, 1. 29. M. de Sainte-Beuve. Jacques de S. B. (1613-1677), regius professor of theology from 1643 to 1656, when he was removed from his chair and forbidden to preach, for having refused subscription to Arnauld’s censure. But he signed the Formulary in 1661 “ à deux mains,” i.e. with alacrity, and was restored to dignity, being commissioned by the Assemblée de Clergé at Mantes to compose a Théologie Morale. Pascal adds sting to his sentence by giving to Sainte-Beuve the title which he had jusfc lost.

NOTES

P. 216, 1. 30. escrits publics, i.e. his public lectures. Sainte-Beuve wrote no pamphlet in defence of the Propositions.

P. 215, 1. 32. de la Grâce Victorieuse, i.e. De la Grâce Victorieuse de J. C. ou Molina et ses disciples convaincus de l'erreur des Pelagiens et des semi-Pelagiens . . . par le sieur de Bonlieu , docteur en théologie (Paris, 1651). The author was Noël de Lalane, who in it accuses the Jesuits of having invented the two Propositions out of their own head and of seeking to contrive the ruin of Efficacious Grâce in favour of Sufficient Grâce. The préfacé, which Pascal summarizes, contains the passages of St. Prosper quoted.

P. 215, 1. 39. S. Prosper. St. Prosper of Aquitaine (403-463) embraced the cause of St. Augustine, whom he had never seen, and whom he induced to write two of his most famous anti-Pelagian Treatises. His opponents, unable to confute them by argument, had recourse to calumny, as St. Prosper describes in his Besponsio ad capitula objectionum Vincentianorum, from the préfacé to which the following passage is taken. Prosper was a poet as well as a divine, and his anti-Pelagian Carmen de injustis was translated by M. de Saci in 1646.

P. 215, 1. 40. les Semipelagiens de France , i.e. the monks of Southern Gaul (Marseilles and the island of Lerins), whose leaders John Cassian and Vincent of Lerins were imbued with Greek notions concerning Pree Will. See Introduction, p. xv fï.

P. 216, 1. 10. La Constitution. See above, note on p. 285, 1. 5.

P. 216, 1. 10. ils la receurent avec . . . respect. Papal Bulls could not enter France without the King’s consent, and it was not at ail unusual for him to delay publication or to take exception to their clauses. But Louis XIV., acting under the advice of Mazarin, made no difficulty over the “ Cum occasione,” which was received by the bishops in the name of the French clergy on 11 July, 1653, and by the Sorbonne immediately afterwards without any opposition.

P. 216, 1. 21. avec passion, “ with hatred ”,

P. 216, 1. 26. estre satisfaits de. .. . See critical note. The reviser remembers that the Letter is addressed to Annat in person.

P. 216, 1. 30. Besp. à quelques demandes, i.e. Besponse à quelques demandes, by Annat, written in 1655, a few months before Arnauld’s Seconde Lettre. See above, note on p. 32, 1. 9.

P. 216, 1. 34. Si l'on refuse, etc. The quotation, from St. Gregory’s Begistr., v., c. 15, is supplied by the Seconde Lettre.

P. 216, 1. 40. parce , dit-il, que. ... Cf. St. Greg., Ep., vi., 16 (MPL, lxxvii. col. 805).

P. 217, 1. 12. Cavilli, i.e. Cavilli J ansenistarum contra latam in ipsos a sede apostolica sententiam a P. Francisco Annati, S.J. (1654). There is no doubt that Annat strains the truth in saying “ totidem verbis,” nor, on the other hand, that Pascal labours the point.

P. 217, 1. 28. On vous défia de citer les pages de Jansennis, etc. Annat, in his replyto the XVIth Letter, gives chapterand verse which, however, only correspond “ totidem verbis " to Proposition I.

P. 217, 1. 31. Je rapporte, etc. Cf. Pensées , No. 929.

P. 217, 1. 40. Depuis vous la mites dans le cœur, i.e. in the Formulary of 1656: “Je condamne de cœur et de bouche le doctrine des cinq Propositions de Jansenius . . . laquelle doctrine n’est point celle de Saint Augustin, que Jansenius a mal expliquée contre le sens de ce saint Docteur ”.

P. 218, 1. 22. S. Basile et S. Athanase. The editors of the Œuvres de Pascal suggest {ad loc.) that Pascal, using Arnauld’s Apologie pour M. de Saint-Cyran, has confounded the separate incidents. This is not so. Pascal’s history is correct. St. Basil believed the current calumny that St. Dionysius of Alexandria had sown the seeds of the Anomœan heresy (viz. the essential unlikeness of the Son to the Father). St. Athanasius, with better knowledge, defended St. Dionysius in a treatise {de sententia Dionysii), and established his orthodoxy. Cf. Lumper, Historia sanctorum patrum, vol. xiii., pp. 85 fï.

P. 219, 1. 15. que la doctrine, etc. Cf. Cavilli, ch. iv.

P. 219, 1. 20. les Avis des Consulteurs. The Congrégation of the Holy Office, charged with the examination of the Propositions, consisted of five cardinals and thirteen consultores. Their “ avis ” were brought to France by François Bosquet, then Bishop of Lodève, and two years later, of Montpellier. They were published in 1657 and reprinted by Nicole in 1650.

P. 219, 1. 25. le Maistre du sacré Palais. This was Vincenzo Candido, Dominican, who declared the first three and the fifth propositions to be orthodox ; also with some reserve the fourth.

P. 219, 1. 25. le commissaire du saint Office. Yincenzo de Pretis, Dominican.

P. 219, 1. 26. le General des Augustins. Filippo Visconti.

The difficulty of the problem set by the Propositions is seen in the guarded language of most of the consultores. As Molinier says, they evidently wanted to leave the responsibility of a decision to the Pope.

P. 220, 1. 35. Il est donc seür, etc. These are the very words which the Pope himself used when the Jansenists, taking leave of him at Rome, expressed their trust that his Bull did not touch the doctrine of efficacious grâce. “ O ! questo è certo ! ” he replied.

P. 220, 1. 38. une autorité qui est grande, etc., the Church in a general Council. Cf. “Il n’y a presque plus que la France ou il soit permis de dire que le concile est au-dessus du Pape”. Pensées, No.

P. 220, 1. 42. Les conciles generaux , etc. Cf. Bellarmin, De Romano pontifice, iv., c. 11.

P. 221, 1. 1. Le Pape comme Pape, etc. Cf. Bellarmin, ib.

P. 221, 1. Il faut se soumettre, etc. Cf. Annales ecclesiastici ad an. 681, No. 39, by Cesaro Baronius, Oratorian and Cardinal (1530- 1607), “ the father of modem church history ”.

P. 221, 1. 10. V Archevêque de Toulouse. Pierre de Marca, a celebrated Canonist. The two quotations from him which follow are taken

NOTES 327

from his De concordia sacerdotii et imperii (1641). Pascal translates freely.

P. 221, 1. 11. S. Leon et Pelage II. Cf. Léo, Ep.t lxxi. (olim liii.), ( MPL , liv., col. 895 seq.). Pelagius II. (Pope from 578 to 590), Ep., iv. (olim vi.), MPL , lxxii., col. 710 seq.

P. 221, 1. 15. Tertullien. Cf. “ Fides in régula posita est ”. Tert. De praescriptione, 14.

P. 221, 1. 26. le IV et le V concile. The Fourth General Council of Chalcedon (451) allowed the orthodoxy of the Antiochenes in the writings of Théodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa ; the Fifth Council of Constantinople (453) condemned them as Nestorian, i.e. distinguishing two natures in Jésus Christ, see below.

P. 221, 1. 29. certains moines de Scythie. ... In 519 certain anti- Nestorian monks (what the désignation “ Scythian ” exactly means is unknown) appeared in Constantinople and endeavoured to insert a new clause into the creed, viz. that one of the Persons of the Trinity had been crucified. Pope Hormisdas pronounced the clause, “ unum crucifixum esse ex sancta et consubstantiali Trinitati ” to be wholly unorthodox ; but the Theopaschites, as they were termed, won the day ten years later, when Pope John II. traversed the ruling of his predecessor.

P. 222, 1. 12. le V Concile general. . . . The anathematizing of certain propositions of Origen, to which Pascal refers, was most probably not the work of the Council of Constantinople. They are contained in an edict of Justinian issued some time between 538 and 543. The condemnation in question is the ninth out of ten.

P. 222, 1. 18. Pere Halloix. Pierre Halloix (1571-1656) dedicated his Origenes defensus (Liège, 1648) to Innocent XI. It was none the less placed upon the Index in 1655, “ donec corrigatur ”.

P. 222, 1. 8. Pic de la Mirande. Giovanni Pico délia Mirandola (1463-1494), prince, philosopher, and theologian ; author, amongst many other works, of 900 theses, De omni re scibili (to which Voltaire added the words “ et quibusdam aliis ”), and Heptaplus, an allegorical treatise, in the manner of Origen, on the Création.

P. 222, 1. 8. Genebrard. Gilbert Génébrard (1527-1597), archbishop of Aix, pupil of the great humanist Adrien Turnèbe ; regius professor of Hebrew. He edited the works of Origen in 1574 in an édition which was the best until those of Huet and Delarne.

P. 222, 1. 25. Sirmond. Jacques Sirmond ; see above, note on p. 117, 1. 39. His defence of the orthodoxy of Theodoret may be read in the Life prefixed to his édition of that Father (Paris, 1642).

P. 222, 1. 33. Pape Honorius. Pope from 625 to 638. The story of Honorius is briefly this : Early in the seventh century an attempt was made to reconcile with the Church and the doctrine of Chalcedon (see above, note on p. 221, 1. 26) the Monophysites who held the heresy of only one nature in Christ. The Emperor Heraclius proclaimed, by way of compromise, the theory of two natures, a human and a divine, and one divine-human energy (ivépyeia tipao-Tucri). To this Honorius,

whose opinion was asked, gave a qualified assent, but in his letters on the subject he used the term “ una voluntas,” thus sanctioning the Monothelite heresy. Honorius’s action and language were not viewed with favour at Rome, but it was not till after his death that trouble began. The Sixth General Council (Constantinople, 680) condemned the doctrine and anathematized Honorius “non quidem ut haereticus sed ut haereticorum fautor”.

P. 223, 1. 5. deux autres conciles, viz. the Seventh (Nicaea, 787) and the Eighth (Constantinople, 870).

P. 223, 1. 5. par . . . par . Cf. Haase, § 145, Rem I.

P. 223, 1. 5. Leon II. Pope from 682 to 684.

P. 223, 1. 5. Adrien II. Pope from 867 to 872.

P. 223, 1. 9. Bellarmin. The passage quoted is from the De roman o pontifice.

P. 224, 1. 9. par un bref. Rapin (Mém., ii., 227) tells us that the Pope, pressed on ail sides to explain his Bull which was being diversely interpreted, summoned a new Congrégation in which he condemned everything that had been written before and after the Bull in defence of Jansenist doctrine, and especially the letters of the archbishop of Sens, the bishops of Angers, Beauvais, and Comminges. The resuit was the Brief of 29 September, 1654.

P. 224, 1. 23. vous estiez à Rome. Annat was at the time assistant to the Jesuit General.

P. 224, 1. 33. vous avez trompé le Pape. Cf. Pensées , No. 882.

P. 225, 1. 3. telle qu'elle soit. Cf. Haase, § 45, B.

P. 225, 1. 21. selon le Pape et les evesques, etc., i.e. the bishops who received the Bull and the Brief.

P. 225, 1. 37. une confession de foy en blanc. The expression was actually used by a deputy of the Assembly of Clergy on 4 September. Cf. Hermant, Mém., t. iii., p. 141, quoted in Œuvres de Pascal, ad loc.

P. 226, 1. 1. abstrahendo ab omni sensu. . . . See Letter I., p. 8, 1. 39.

P. 226, 1. 21. vostre principal interest, etc. The theme of Lalane’s De la Grâce victorieuse, see above, note on p. 215, 1. 32.

P. 228, 1. 37. des privilèges, see above, note on p. 126, 1. 23.

P. 228, 1. 38. jusqu'aux miracles. Annat’s Defence de la Vérité catholique touchant les miracles had a privilège of 30 December, 1656.

P. 228, 1. 42. d'estre réduit à l'impression d'Osnabrüch, “ to be reduced to Osnabrück printing If any reason is to be sought for the choice of Osnabrück as the supposititious place of the bad printing of Letter XVII., it is perhaps to be found in the interest in the fate of that town and bishopric as decided by the Peaceof Westphalia in 1648. Cardinal Wartenberg, who had been bishop ail through the Thirty Years’ War, managed to prevent the sécularisation of his See by the Swedes, but only on condition that after his death (which occurred in 1661) it should be administered alternately by a Protestant and a Catholic bishop. Annat, in his reply to Letter XVII., makes a Smart point : “ Why,” he asks, “ go ail the way to Osnabrück for your print-

NOTES

ing ? Amsterdam, Lôyden, Geneva, are ail nearer at hand and more sympathetic.”