decree. On the contrary, the Jesuits contend, that all this is false; and that the pontiff with the wisest of the theologians, after examining the whole cause, judged the sentiments of Molina to contain nothing which much needed correction. It is far more probable that Paul was deterred from passing sentence by fear of the kings of France and Spain; of whom the former patronized the cause of the Jesuits, and the latter that of the Dominicans. And if he had published a decision, it would undoubtedly have been not unlike those usually promulgated at Rome, that is, ambiguous, and not wholly adverse to either of the contending parties'.

§ 39. The wounds, which seemed thus healed, were again torn open, to the great damage of the catholic interest, when the book of Cornelius Jansenius, bishop of Ypres in the Netherlands, was published after his death, in 1640, under the title of Augustinus. In this book, (the author of which is allowed even by the Jesuits to have been a learned and solid man, and apparently at least devout,) the opinions of Augustine respecting the native depravity of man, and the nature and influence of that grace, by which alone this depravity can be cured, are stated and explained; and, for the most part, in the very words of Augustine. For it was not the object of Jansenius, as he tells us himself, to show what ought to be believed on these subjects, but merely what Augustine believed. But, as the doctrine of Augustine, (which differed little from that of St. Thomas [Aquinas,] which was embraced by the Dominicans,) was accounted almost sacred and divine, in the Romish church, on account of the high character and merits of the author of it; and, at the same time, was almost diametrically opposite to the common sentiments of the Jesuits; this work of Jansenius could not but appear to them as a silent but most effectual

For an account of this famous man, see Bayle's Dictionnaire, tom. ii. p. 1529. Melchior Leydecker, de Vita et Morte Jansenii, libri iii. constituting the first part of his Historia Jansenismi, published at Utrecht, 1695, 8vo. Dictionnaire des livres Jansenistes, tom. i. p. 120, &c. and many others. This celebrated work, which gave a mortal wound to the Romish community, which all the power and all the sagacity of the vicar of Jesus Christ were unable to heal, is divided into three parts. The first is historical, and nar. rates the origination of the Pelagian contests in the fifth century: the second investigates and explains the doctrine of Augustine, concerning the state and powers of human nature, before the fall, as fallen, and as renewed. The third traces out his opinions, concerning the assistance of Christ by his renewing grace, and the predestination of men and angels. The language is sufficiently clear and perspicuous, but not so correct as it should be. [Jansenius was born at a village near Leerdam, in Flanders, A. D. 1585,

educated at Louvain, where he became principal of the college of St. Pulcheria, doctor of theology in 1617, and professor in ordinary. He was twice sent by the university of Louvain to the Spanish court, to manage their affairs. His political work against France, entitled Mars Gallicus, procured him favour at the court of Spain, and he was appointed bishop of Ypres in 1635. He died in 1638, of a contagion, taken by visiting his flock labouring under it. His Augustinus, in 3 vols. fol. cost him 20 years labour. He also wrote against the protestants. Tr.]

Thus Jansenius, in his Augustinus, tom. ii. Introductory Book, cap. xxix. p. 65, says: "Non ego hic de nova aliqua sententia reperienda disputosed de antiqua Augustini.-Quæritur, non quid de naturæ humanæ statibus et viribus, vel de Dei gratia et prædestinatione sentiendum sit: sed quid Augustinus olim ecclesiæ nomine et applausu-tradiderit, prædicaverit, scriptoque multipliciter consignaverit."

confutation of their sentiments. Hence, they not only attacked it with their own writings, but instigated the pontiff, Urban VIII., to condemn it. Nor were their efforts unsuccessful. First, the inquisitors at Rome, in 1641, prohibited the reading of it; and then, in 1642, Urban himself, in a public decree, pronounced it contaminated with several errors long since rejected by the church.

$ 40. The Jesuits and the Romish edicts were opposed by the doctors of Louvain, and by the other admirers of Augustine, who were always very numerous in the Low Countries. Hence there arose a formidable, and to the Belgic provinces, very troublesome controversy 1. It had scarcely commenced when it spread into the neighbouring France; where John du Verger de Hauranne, abbot of St. Cyran or Sigeran, an intimate friend of Jansenius, a man of an accomplished and elegant mind, and no less respected for the purity of his morals and the sanctity of his life than for his erudition, had already inspired great numbers, with attachment to Augustine and hatred of the Jesuits. The greatest part of the learned in this most flourishing kingdom had connected themselves with the Jesuits: because their doctrines were more grateful to human nature, and better accorded with the nature of the Romish religion and the interests of that church than the Augustinian prin

[The principal adherents to Jansenius in the Netherlands, were James Boonen, the archbishop of Mechlin ; Libertus Fromond, a pupil, friend, and successor of Jansenius, in the professorial chair at Louvain; and Henry Calen, a canon of Mechlen, and archpriest of Brussels. Schl.]

* He is esteemed by all the Jansenists, as highly as Jansenius himself; and he is said to have aided Jansenius in composing his Augustinus. The French especially, who are partial to the doctrines of Augustine, reverence him as a father and an oracle, and extol him above Jansenius himself. His life and history have been duly written by Claude Lancelot, Mémoires touchant la rie de M. S. Cyran; published at Cologne, (or rather at Utrecht,) 1738, 2 vols. 8vo. Add the Recueil de plusieurs pièces pour servir à 'Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 1–150.

Utrecht, 1740. 8vo. Arnaud d'Andilly, Mémoires au sujet de l'Abbé de S. Cyran; printed in the Vies des Religieuses de Port-Royal, tom. i. p. 15-44. Bayle, Dictionnaire, tom. ii. [p. 531. artic. Garasse, note D. Tr.] Dictionnaire des livres Jansenistes, tom. i. p. 133, &c. See also, respecting his early studies, Gabrial Liron, Singularités Histor. et Littér, tom. iv. p. 507, &c. [Jo. Verger de Hauranne was born at Bayonne, in 1581, became abbot of St. Cyran in 1620, was thrown into prison by Richelieu in 1638, released in 1643, and died the same year, aged 62. He held much the same sentiments with Jansenius, and spread them extensively by conversation. His works are: Somme des Fautes,&c. de Garasse, (a Jesuit writer,) 3 vols. 4to: Spiritual Letters, 2 vols. 4to. Apology for Roche-Posay, &c. and Question Royale. Tr.]

ciples. But the opposite party embraced, besides some bishops of high reputation for piety, the men of the best and most cultivated minds almost throughout France; Anthony Arnauld, Peter Nicole, Blaise Pascal, Pascal Quesnel, and the numerous other famous and excellent men, who are denominated the authors of Port Royal; likewise a great number of those who looked on the vulgar piety of the Romish church, which is confined to the confession of sins, frequent attendance on the Lord's supper, and some external works, as far short of what Christ requires of his followers; and who believed that the soul of a christian, who would be accounted truly pious, ought to be full of genuine faith and love to God. Thus, as the one party had the advantage of numbers and power, and the other that of talent and pious fervour, it is not difficult to understand why this controversy is still kept up a whole century after its commencement 3.

§ 41. The attentive reader of this protracted contest will be amused to see the artifices and stratagems with which the one party conducted their attack, and the other their defence. The Jesuits came forth, armed with decrees of the pontiff, mandates of the king, the most odious comparisons, the support of great men, the good-will of most of the bishops, and lastly force and bayonets. The Jansenists enervated those decrees and mandates by the most subtle distinctions and interpretations, nay, by the same sophistry which they condemned in the Jesuits : odious comparisons they destroyed by other comparisons equally odious; to the menaces of great men and bishops they opposed the favour of the multitude; and physical force they vanquished by divine power, that is, by the miracles of which they boasted.

3 The history of this controversy is to be found entire, or in part, in a great number of books. The following may supersede all the rest: Gabriel Gerberon, Histoire Générale du Jansénisme, Amsterd. 1700. 3 vols. 8vo. and Lyons, 1708. 5 vols. 12mo, The Abbé du Mas, (a senator of Paris, who died 1722.) Histoire des cing Propositions de Jansenius, Liege, 1694. 8vo. Du Mas favours the Jesuits; Gerberon favours the Jansenists. Michael Leydecker, Historia Jansenismi Libri vi. Utrecht, 1695. 8vo. Voltaire, Siècle

de Louis XIV. tom. ii. p. 264, &c. Many books on this subject, by both parties, are mentioned in the Bibliothèque Janseniste, ou Catalogue Alphabétique des principaux livres Jansénistes; published in 1735. 8vo. and said to be the work of Dominic Colonia, a learned Jesuit. See Recueil des pièces pour servir à l'Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 325, &c. But as already remarked, this book much enlarged, appeared under the title of Dictionnaire des livres Jansénistes, Antw. 1752. 4 vols. 8vo.

Perceiving that their adversaries were not to be overcome by the soundest arguments and proofs, they endeavoured to conciliate the favour of the pontiffs, and of the people at large, by their meritorious and splendid deeds, and by their great industry. Hence they attacked those enemies of the church, the protestants, and endeavoured to circumvent them with spells and sophisms that were entirely new; applied themselves to the education of youth of all classes, and imbued them with the elements of the liberal arts and sciences; composed very neat and elegant treatises on grammar, philosophy, and the other branches of learning; laid all classes, from the highest to the lowest, under obligations to them by devotional and practical treatises composed in the most elegant manner; adopted a pure, natural, and agreeable style, and translated and explained in the very best manner not a few of the ancient writers and lastly, they sought to persuade, and actually did persuade very many to believe that God himself espoused their cause, and had, by many prodigies and miracles, placed the truth of the Augustinian doctrine beyond all controversy.

That the Jansenists or Augustinians have long resorted to miracles, in support of their cause, is very well known. And they themselves confess, that they have been saved from ruin, when nearly in despair, by means of miracles. See Mémoires de Port-Royal. tom. i. p. 256. tom. ii. p. 107. The first of these miracles were, those said to have been performed, in the convent of Port-Royal, from the year 1656, onwards, in the cure of several afflicted persons, by means of a thorn from that crown, which the Roman soldiers placed on the head of our most holy Saviour. See Recueil de plusieurs pièces pour servir à l'Histoire de PortRoyal, p. 228. 448. Fontaine, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Port-Royal, tom. ii. p. 131, &c. Other miracles followed in the year 1661. Vies des Religieuses de Port-Royal, tom.i. p. 192; and in the year 1664; Mémoires de PortRoyal, tom. iii. p. 252. The fame of these miracles was great, and very useful to the Augustinians, in the seventeenth century; but at present, it is quite hushed. In our age, therefore, when hard pressed, they have resisted the

fury of their enemies, by new and more numerous prodigies. If we may believe them, the first occurred on the 31st of May, 1725, in the person of a certain woman named de la Fosse ; who was suddenly cured of a bloody flux, when she had supplicated relief, from a host carried by a priest of the Jansenian sect. Two years afterwards, in 1727, the tomb of Gerhard Rousse, a canon of Avignon, was ennobled by very splendid miracles. Lastly, in the year 1731, the bones of Francis de Paris [commonly called, the Abbé de Paris,] which were interred at St. Medard, were famed for numberless miracles and what warm disputes there have been, and still are, respecting these, every one knows. It is also said, that Paschasius Quesnel, Levier, Desangins, and Tournus, those great ornaments of the sect, have often afforded relief to the sick, who relied on their merits and intercession. See: Jesus Christ sous l'Anathéme et sous l'Excommunication; a celebrated Jansenist book, written against the Bull Unigenitus, art. xvii. p. 61. art. xviii. p. 66. ed. Utrecht. A great part of