The journal of Monsr. de Saint Amour doctor of Sorbonne,: containing a full account of all the transactions both in France and at Rome, concerning the five famous propositions controverted between the Jansenists and the Molinists, from the beginning of that affair till the Popes decision. / Faithfully rendred out of French. ; A like display of the Romish state, court, interests, policies, &c. and the mighty influences of the Jesuites in that church, and many other Christian states, being not hitherto extant.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE, Giving an Account of the publishing of this JOURNAL.

THe Affair of the Five Propositions being become by its Consequences so conside∣rable, that it is at present the principal part of the Church-History of this Age, those very consequences which were soon foreseen and by divers of the most emi∣nent Bishops of the Gallicane Church committed to me to represent to the H. See, caus'd me alwayes to consider it as of very great importance: and the exact Account I conceiv'd I ought alwayes to be ready to render to those Bishops and the Church of all that I had done and could observe had pass'd therein, oblig'd me to apply my self about it with so much greater care, for that I esteem'd it a Matter above me, and as a particular Engagement impos'd on me by the providence of God, who is sometimes pleas'd to make use of weak Instruments about the greatest Matters. Hence it came to passe, that when after my return from Rome, I went about to reduce all I had acted and remark'd there∣in into a Body of History, I found I had scarce any thing more to do but to transcribe the Memoires I had formerly prepar'd at Rome, and to join together the principal Accounts I had already gvien of this businesse. There are, I doubt not, many Histories more delightful then this for style and variety of matters, but perhaps there never was any more exact and faithful. I have not writ any thing but what I saw or heard, and that while it was fresh in my memory; It hath been alwayes my care to speak nothing false, or that might be exprobated to me, not only before men but far more before God; well knowing that if it be pronounc'd Ʋniversally, That we shall be justified or condemn'd by our words, it more eminently belongs to words of such importance as these, by which a publick Testi∣mony is render'd to the Church of what hath been acted in an Affair wherein she is so highly con∣cern'd.

Truth then hath been the proper scope I aim'd at in writing, which because it is not alwayes sea∣sonable to publish, and never unlesse great and weighty considerations require it, though many made me desirous to print this Journal assoon as it was finish'd, yet others restrain'd me, and some made me wish if possibe wholly to suppresse it. Several yeares were spent in this Irresolution; but at length the Rela∣lations full of falsities which have been offer'd to the world concerning what pass'd at Rome in this Affair, and the numerous false rumours spread abroad about it convinc'd me of my Obligation to un∣deceive the world, by giving it a true History thereof. The different things which have been spoken about it, have made all learned men desirous to know the truth of what hath pass'd; and they have thought it serviceable to the Church, that a History so conducing to the elucidation of the present Con∣tests should not remain longer in the confusion and obscurity wherein it lay.

I was confirm'd in this thought by the extreme satisfaction which the Assembly of the Clergy of France in the year 1655. express'd to my Lord the Bishop of Lodeve, now Bishop of Mont-pellier, with the Relation he made them of what he had learnt from the mouth of Innocent X. about this mat∣ter; it being so great that they desir'd he would give it them in Writing, to the end it might be inserted in the Verbal Proces which they caus'd to be printed a little time after. For hence I infer'd, that, if that Illustrious Assembly was so well pleas'd with that Account (in which things are not resumed from the bottom, but in grosse and confusedly enough) that they judg'd it deserving to be publisht under their

name and by their orders; there would be other grounds of satisfaction, both to the Clergy in general and the rest of Christians, to behold distinctly and orderly the particulars contain'd in this Journal touch∣ing the same matters which were related but in a word in that Account. Moreover, the care Pope In∣nocent X. told the said Bishop of Mont-pellier, he had taken to cause all transactions in this Affair to be compil'd in a Volume, and deposited in the Archives of S. Peter, after he had declar'd the same in the Consistory he••d to that purpose; this Care (I say) clearly shewing that Popes desire to preserve to the Church the remembrance and information of all that pass'd in this Affair, and the said Volume be∣ing not likely to contain other Pieces then what are either intire or sufficiently set down in this Journal, I thought I should second his good intentions by presenting the same to the Publick.

I consider'd further, that besides those Pieces there were many things in this Journal which might be verify'd, not only by other proofs which I can produce thereof, but also by the Testimonies of the conside∣rable Persons whom I call to witnesse by mentioning them: divers of which being since the finishing thereof pass'd to another life, I fear'd that if I longer defer'd the publishing of it, I might one day be reproach'd for attesting only the dead and persons incapable of gainsaying me. Wherefore the faith∣fulnesse I have us'd herein, keeping me from fearing that any person might find any thing in it that were not most true, I judg'd that the sooner I divulg'd it, it would be the better, in regard of having the more witnesses of all that I have said, and of the sincerity with which I have said it.

These considerations induc'd me to resolve upon the Impression which I have caus'd to be made this present Year 1662. that so I might consummate the Work of the Commission, in which it hath pleas'd God to employ me however incapable and unworthy of it, and dye with more quiet, having hereby payd the Churuh what I conceiv'd I ow'd to her.

But because this Journal was written in the end of the Year 1653. and in 1654. I advertise those that shall read it to be mindful thereof, lest they be mistaken in some things which should have been ex∣press'd otherwise, had it been written at the present time. Thus, by those words [M. the Arch-Bi∣shop of Tholouse that dy'd last,] M. de Marca is not meant, but M. de Montchal his prede∣cessor; they not being intelligible of any but him when I writ them, and likewise when they were print∣ed. When I name the Pope, Innocent X. must be alwayes understood, because it was under his Ponti∣ficate that all this Affair was transacted and reduc'd into writing. And when I speak of My Lord Ghiggi, or M. Cardinal Ghiggi, it must alwayes be understood of Pope Alexander VII. who sits in S. Peter's Chair at this present; because during all the time I was employ'd about this Journal, there was no other Cardinal Ghiggi besides him.

At Paris this 25. of November 1662.