LETTER VI

The most important event for Port-Royal between the publication of the Fifth and Sixth Letters was the Miracle of the Holy Thorn. On 24 March Margot Perier, Pascal's nièce, a pensionnaire of Port-Royal, was cured of a lachrymal ulcer after the application of a relie which had just been presented to the convent in the chapel of the Paris house. The miracle was generally accepted, not only by the Jansenists but, when it became known, by everyone except the Jesuits. The measures of persécution were suspended. The Solitaries returned to their lodgings beside Port-Royal des Champs.

The effect upon Pascal's mind was immense. If confirmation were needed of the justice of the cause in which he was engaged, hère was ample. Henceforth he adopted as his device a crown of thoms with the motto scio cui credidi.^ He records his confidence in more than one Pensée, e.g. "Les prophéties estoient équivoques ; elles ne le sont plus ... les cinq propositions estoient équivoques : elles ne le sont plus" (Nos. 830 and 831). His Letters do not indeed refer to the miracle until he cornes in Letter XVI. to the defence of the nuns. At présent he is concerned with retorting the charge of heresy which the Jesuits urged with acrimony and persistence, by showing how little they themselves cared for the Pope. Pascal's personal dévotion and obédience to Rome were profound. They hâve an important bearing on the sudden cessation of the " Little Letters " and on the question of his ultimate attitude towards Jansenism.

P. 55, 1. 6. Je le feray . . . facilement. See critical note. The reason for the suppression of this paragraph in G is obvious. Pascal had not given his références in the first draft of the first Five Letters. Now that they were supplied this excuse for their omission became unnecessary.

P. 55, 1. 16, Grégoire XIV. In his Bull of 24 May, 1591, " Cum alias nonnulli," Gregory dénies the right of asylum to footpads, highwajonen, treacherous murderers, assassins, heretics, traitors, and régicides.

In the XIXe Imposture Nouet défends Escobar's définition of assassin as hired murderer. Nicole réfutes him in his note ad loc. by quoting the French Dictionary of Ménage (1650) : " En France et en Italie on appelle ainsi ceux qui tuent de sang froid ". But, as Molinier points out, in Spain and Italy where the point of honour was so jealously guarded, a distinction was natural between the hired assassin or

1 A crown of thoms is atill to be seen carved on the panels of the western door of the Chapel of Port-Royal de Paris.

common murderer and the grandee who avengea hia honour by the sword or dagger.

Pascal accepta the challenge in Letter VII., where he deals faithfully with gentlemen murderers.

P. 56, 1. 3. Donnez l'aumosne de vostre superflu. The Greek of Luke xi. 41, is irKijy rà Mvra Srfxf iKtrifi.o(Tvvi)v. The Vulgate has " Vorumtamen quod superest date eleemosynam ". Moliniersays that PascaFs rendering is wrong, and that " quod superest " = " au reste, au surplus". It is tnie that the Qrook will not bear the meaning which the French expresses — ro ivévra means either " the contents of the vessel," or *' what ye oan " — but Pascal has the authority of Bede for his translation of the Latin. Cf. "quod necessario victui et vestimento superest date pauperibus " (Beda, Expos, in Luc).

P. 56, 1, 10. traité de l'aumo.'iyie, i.e. De praec. eleemosyne (Op. mor.).

P. 56, 1. 13. dans les gens. Cf. Haase, § 126, G, " dans" Rem. I.

P. 56, 1. 15. Diana. Pascal uses this comment of Diana upon Va«quez with great effect in Letter XII.

P. 56, 1. 24. assez d'ajnbition, etc., i.e. the Gospel teaches us to say goodbye to money and ambition ; Vasquez teaches us to cling to both.

P. 66, 1. 36. nos 24 vieillards, i.e. Escobar's book.

P. 56, 1. 37. En quelles occasions, etc. No doubt there is a différence between quitting the ecclesiastical habit for doctrinal reasons and for immoral purposes : and the Pope's excommunications certaiuly only concem the former case. But the apparent equanimity with which the Gasuists contemplate the latter deserves Pascal's ire, and hia account of the reasons that lie behind the ruling of the Praxis is as natural as it is skilful.

P. 67, 1. 17. Contra solicitantes. Bull of Gregory XV., 30 August,

P. 57, 1. 19. Contra Clericos. Bull of Plus V., 80 August, 1660.

On thèse Bulls see Œuvres de Pascal, t. 6, p. 9 ff.

P. 57, 1. 33. trois Papes. Paul V., Gregory XV., Urban VIII,

P. 57, 1. 35. la vie quadragesimale, " life of lenten abstinence ".

P. 57, 1. 37. que nonobstant, etc. This sentence is not a quotation and has no business to be in italics. Nicole prints it in Boman type. It is Pascal's summary of Diana quoted in the next paragraph.

P. 57, 1. 40. le pilus fiyi, " the quintessence".

P. 58, 1. 12 R. 65 sur un autre sujet. A subject so indécent that Pascal does not discuss it.

P. 68, 1. 15. la sphère de probabilitt', . . . Diana's own illustration is the foUowing. The Pope can beatify a human being in virtue of his headship of the Church : but it is only a probable opinion that the objecfc of béatification is worthy of it.

P. 58, 1. 24. Monsieur Hallier. Hallier (see above, note on p. 32, 1. 8), wrote, controverting Bauny, an Extrait d'un livre intitulé Somme des péchez.

The Jansenists, as a rule, laid little stress on Papal censure. But the

Jesuits, who were the devoted servants of Eome, also took refuge in the assertion of Gallican liberty when it suited them. Thus Bauny on this occasion; and Père Daniel, when his Entretiens, tr&nalateà into Latin, was put upon the Index said, " De ce qu'un livre est mis à l'Indice il ne s'en suit pas toujours qu'il contienne une mauvaise doctrine. Il ne faut pas pour cela qu'avoir manqué à observer certaines rubriques que le saint Siège a autrefois sagement prescrites et qui ne sont point en usage en France." Cf. Recueil de divers ouvrages, 1724, t. ii., p. 565.

P. 59, 1. 15. relinqtco tempori maturandam. The phrase is not found in Diana by récent editors. But it has never been contested.

P. 59, 1. 18. qu'une opinion, etc. This proposition of Bauny's was condemned by the 27th article of the decree of Alexander III. and by the 121st of the Assembly of Clergy in 1700.

P. 59, 1. 29. Caramuel. Juan Lobkowitz Caramuel (1606-1682), Cistercian, Bishop of Vigevano, author, inter alia, of Theologiae moralis fundamentalis decalogica (Prankfort, 1652-3), which was reprinted at Rome in 1656 with many expurgations in the préface, and a public apology for former laxity. It was in this connection that Caramuel aprlies to Diana the same text that Hallier uses of Bauny (see above, note on p. 32, 1. 4) : " si eiusmodi peccata ab orbe litterario Diana sustulit merito dicatur esse Agnus Dei, etc."

In gênerai we may say of Diana that he misses the saving point of " Probabilism " by ollowing the higher law to be overridden. But n.6. Diana was not a Jesuit.

P. 59, 1. 40. prévaricateurs, " transgrepsors ". Cf. Rom. iv. 15. " Lex enim iram operatur. Ubi enim non est lex, nec praevaricatio."

P. 60, 1. 9. par condescendance. The personal goodness of many Casuists which Pascal, whether seriously or ironically, admits (vide supra), only renders their " condescendance" more dangerous.

P. 60, 1, 32. qu^l trafic. So Nicole, in the course of a note on the authority of the Canons, says that " disorders such as simony, ambition, and intrigue to obtain livings are universal to-day and universally tolerated ". So Bourdaloue, in his Exhortation sur la dignité et les devoirs des prêtres, laments the disorder daily growing in the Church to such an extent that the priesthood seems the prey of every base désire. " Pour les pauvres, c'est une fortune et un moyen de se garantir de la misère. Pour les riches c'est une voie à des rangs honorables et à des distinctions éclatantes. De là combien voyons-nous de prêtres intéres ses, de prêtres ambitieux," etc.

One of the objects of the famous secret sooiety La Compagnie du Saint Sacrement was the removal of scandais in church administration. Cf. M. Allier, La Cabale des Dévots, 1902, ch. viii,, and A. Tilley, op. cit., pp. 69-73.

P. 60, 1. 33. les anciens, i.e. the early Casuists.

P. 60, 1. 37. Valentia. Valentia deals with simony in Vol. III. of his Commentaria theologica (Lyons, 1603), Disp. vi., quaest. xvi.

P. 61, 1. 2. non tanquam. See critical note. Thèse words do not oocur

in Valentia's toxt. Havet conjectures that Pascal had before him a résumé of Valentia's opinion by some other writer and mistook it for Valentia's own. It represents the opinion accurately enough.

P. 61, 1. 5. Tannerus. Adam Tanner (1571-1632), like Laiman, a Tyrolese. Appointed Chancellor of Prague Univeraity by Ferdinand II. The work from which the quotation following is taken is : Universa theologia scholastica, speculatio practica ad metJwdum S. Thomae, 4 vols., Ingolsta,dt, 1626. See Letter XII. for Pascal's reply to Nouet's charge of false citation hère.

P. 61, 1. 22. de V argent pour dire une messe. Technically known as a Mass stipend. This is an offering in money made to a priest who in return for it must celebrate mass in accordance with the intention of the donor. In this he applies the spécial fruit of the sacrifice (which is to be distinguished from the gênerai fruit of benefit to ail mankind). See below, note on p. 62, 1. 17,

The justification of the Mass stipend is found in 1 Cor. ix. 13. The practice of offering money dates from the eighth century (see below). It is regulated by the Council of Trent, Sess. xxii. Abuses such as Pascal indicates are safeguarded by the rule that no priest may accept more " intentions " that he can satisfy in a reasonable time : he must conscientiously fulfil ail tho appointed conditions.

P. 61, 1. 28. comme pour un tiers. . . . This opinion was condemned by Alexander VII. in 1665 and 1666.

P. 62, 1. 1. que les Prestres, etc. Cf. Heb. vii. 27.

P. 62, 1. 4. fruit dzi sacrifice. This is twofold, " fructus generalis" and " fructus specialis ". See above, note on p. 61, 1. 5.

P. 62, 1. 17. le traité 10, i.e. of Bauny's De sacramentis.

P. 62, 1. 27. celuy qui leur fait dire la messe. Bauny is more careful of the convenience of the worshipper than of the dignity of the sacrament.

P. 62, 1. 31. un péché mortel, etc. Pascal through modesty refrains to give ail the détails which Bauny describes.

P. 62, 1. 32. Villalobos. Enrico de Villalobos (ob. 1637), Franciscan, wrote in Spanish a Summa and a Manual for conf essors.

P. 62, 1. 33. Sancius. This is not the great Tomàs Sanchez, but Dr. Juan Sanchez, who wrote a work of moral theology {Sclectae et practicae disputationes, etc., Madrid, 1G24), which Diana praised as worthy of immortality, but which was condemned by the Inquisition " donec corrigatur " in 1646.

P. 63, 1. 11. perdent leur force. Nicole dévotes a long note to the question of the abrogation of canons by non -user, with the object of proving that non-user cannot touch what has been ordained by the divine law, but only precepts as to cérémonies, etc.

P. 63, 1. 12. tom. 2, etc., i.e. of the Morales quaestiones.

P. 63, 1. 30. Castrus Palails. Ferdinando de Castro Pallao (1581- 1633), professer at Valladolid, Compostella, and Salamanca.

P. 63, 1. 30. Op. mor. = Opus morale de virtutibus et vitiis in seven parts or vols. 1631-1664.

P. 63, 1. 36. Sanchez. This is Tomâs Sanchez.

P. 64, 1. 8. Molina assure. Maynard is at pains to prove that Escobar has hère misread Molina who maintained the exact opposite of the opinion he attributed to him. But Pascal translates Escobar accurately, and he was not bound to turn up the passage in Molina.

P. 64, 1. 16. Ilfalloit. ... Cf. Haase, § 66, D.

P. 65, 1. 12. Les valets, etc. This opinion was censured by the Sorbonne in 1641 and by Louvain in 1649.

P. 65, 1. 13. les croistre. Cf. Haase, § 59, s.v. " croître".

P. 65, 1. 20. Jean d'Alba. Pascal's account of this affair is substantially correct, though it is wrong in some particulars. For instance, Jean d'Alba did not undergo the indignity of a public whipping, but got ofï with a formai reproof and banishment from Paris.

P. 65, 1. 30. servant vos Pères. He was apparently usher, or rather executioner, in the school, his duty being to chastise naughty boys.

P. 66, 1. 1. M. de Montrouge, brother of the Bishop of Plours. See Hermant, Mém. s.v. He was counsellor of the Châtelet from 1614 to

P. 66, 1. 2. cette Compagnie, i.e. the bench of judges.

P. 66, 1. 4, 10. contenans. Cf. Haase, § 91, A.

P. 66, 1. 18. Chastelet. The Châtelet, opposite the Pont au Change, " rive droite," was the seat of royal justice down to the Révolution. Its precious collection of registers were transferred to the Archives.

This procès verbal was extracted from the Châtelet Registers and published by order of Choiseul in the Atmales de la société des soidisans Jésuites (1767).