blemish the honour of that great Doctor of the Church: or if you cannot have audience of his Holiness, they intreat you at least to acquaint the Examinators that the Propositions are not in any Author; that they were never advanced by the Disciples of St. Augustin; that to this present the Disciples of Molina have not been able to verifie it, nor ever will, since in all their Writings which they have published to render the Propositions (invented by themselves) cdious, they have said nothing that verifies it. That the Pope ought not to deny the Disciples of St. Augustin the conference which they demanded in the Assembly of December 1. 1649. since the same is according to the Rules of the Church, and to what hath been formerly done in presence of Popes, and authorised by them. That they are ready to depute for that conference as many Deputies as his Holiness shall please; and that the said Deputy shall set forth by order of my LL. the Prelates, who writ the Letters which you presented to the H. Father. They are all prepar'd for the jour∣ney. My Lords have also commanded me to desire you to represent in their names to our H. Father, or to the Commissioners who examine, that the judge∣ment which they render upon the Propositions before the Parties be heard, will serve only to augment the Disputes; since the Propositions being capable of very different senses, whereof one is Catholick, and the other is not, some will say, that they are con∣demned only in the Heretical sense; others will con∣test, that they are condemned absolutely, and so peo∣ple will not know what to make of them; which will cause great trouble to the Church, and undoubted∣ly much diminish the respect which ought to be had for the authority of the H. See, &c.
The second is of the same date, written by one of the Deputies design'd to be join'd with me, who speaks in the end of his Letter in these words; In the mean time while you expect us, use all possible endeavours that nothing be pronounced upon the Pro∣positions. But you see they will do it, and there is no way to help it; then you must endeavour to get three things done; viz. that it be declared expresly, 1. That they mean not to lay any blemish upon the Doctrine or Authority of St. Augustine, which the H. Father requires to be reverenced by all the Faith∣ful. 2. That there is no purpose at all to impeach Effectual Grace by it self necessary to all good acti∣ons, and to all the good motions of the Will which re∣gard Salvation. 3. That there is also no design to damn the Propositions according to the connexion which they have with the same Doctrine of Effectual Grace by it self necessary to all the good motions of the Will, &c.
The third of those Letters is from the same per∣son who writ the first to me as from the Bishops, and in this which was writen on the 25. of August, he spoke in these terms: I received your Letter of the 31. of July on Sunday last. I shew'd it to my Lords: They gave mecharge to tell you, that they are very glad to know what Cardinals they are to whom the Pope hath given Commission to view and examine the Five Propositions; and they hope that as they are very just persons, they will contribute all their Power, that his Holiness may grant to the persons whom they shall send a Conference or Congre∣gation de Auxiliis to defend the Catholick sense of the said Propositions against all those that mantain they are Heretical and worthy of the greatest Anathemaes. My Lords, expect that the proceeding will not be so quick in this affair, which is the foundation of one of the greatest Contests that ever was in the Church, &c.
The Deputies will set forth the next day after the Nativity of our Lady. Their Commission imports, That they confer not in secret about the Propositions, but demand a publick Conference. The Latin Wri∣ting which I send you, hath been drawn according to the order which you gave me. My Lords are por∣swaded, that nothing can be more plain, concise and nervous then that little Tract; They are confident the Jesuites will never be able to say any thing against it, at least openly, either in a publick regular con∣ference, or by Writing: Indeed in secret, it is certain they may speak all that they please; but it cannot be legal or valid in the Judgement of any Court whatso∣ever.
My Lords have given me charge to tell you, that they have no other design in their Letters, and the Commission which they have given you, but to preserve in the Church the Authority of the great St. Augustin, and the Veneration that is due to his Doctrine, which the Church hath made her own. They do not consider this Doctrine, because it hath been recited by the Bishop of Ipre; they say it is considerable only upon the account of its being St. Augustines, and that M. d' Ipre cannot pass for the Author of any opinion, because he hath advanced nothing of himself; but all that he hath said, he drew out of that great source of light. So that in this affair, they have no regard at all to Jansenius, but solely to St. Augustin. The Bishops of Flanders may, if they think fit, send their Deputies to beseech the Pope to cause Jansenius to be examined, thereby to take from his Adver∣saries the pretexts which they daily make use of to ca∣lumniate him by calumniating the Doctrine of his Book.
My Lords will never consider the Bull against Jansenius but as provisional, and made only for a Political purpose. For whatever the Jesuites say, they will never make it believ'd that the sayd Bull importeth any thing else but a Prohibition, and not a condemnation. Those Fathers do all they can to make good what they say by the word damnat, which is us'd in reference to the Doctrine of Bavis, which the Pope is there made to say, that he reneweth in his Book intitled Augustinus. But there is no strength in this inference, because if the Examiners of Jansenius's Book had found manifestly that he re∣newed the Doctrine of Bavis, undoubtedly they would not have suffered only the word Prohibit to be put in the same place where it is, and not rather have put in that of damnat. They would not have pronounced against it after the same manner as a∣gainst the Thesis of the Jesuites. There is no ratio∣nal man but yields to all this, and is of the same sentiment that I send you touching this Article.
My Lords much wonder that there are found per∣sons whom God seemeth to have plac'd in his Church for the deciding of matters of Faith, and regulating the manners of the Faithful, who yet think 'tis a persecution rais'd against the Jesuites, to oppose them touching Sufficient Grace. They say that such Grace is directly opposite to the faith of the Church, that it wholly destroyes the belief of Original Sin, and evacuateth the adorable value, and victorious power of the death and cross of Jesus Christ; that it the foundation of Libertinism and Impiety; that it de∣stroyes