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demning these propositions, but maintained that they were not found in the work of Jansenius.
France was at this time at enmity with Rome, and cardinal Mazarin, though but little interested in these theological questions, believed this a favorable opportu- nity to re-establish amicable relations with Rome, of- fendetl with him on account of his arrest of cardinal Retz (q. v.). He held an assembly at the Louvre, March 26, 1654, in which thirty-eight bishops took part, and which declared that the pope's decision should be considered as applying positively to Jansenius's doc- trine, and that all who held in any way the five con- demned propositions should be dealt with as heretics. This decision was communicated to the heads of all the dioceses throughout France, and approved by the poj^e September 29. In January, 1656, the Sorbonne also took direct action against the Janscnists by condemn- ing two letters of Arnauld, in which the latter declared that he could not find the five condemned propositions in Jansenius's writings. He also hit upon an expedient which not only rendered the bull for a time harmless, but which initiated a new movement against the doc- trine of papal infallibility. " True," he said, " the see of Rome has authority to decide with respect to doc- trine, and every good Catholic must submit to its de- cree ; but the Holy See may misapprehend fact (as in the papal condemnation of Galileo's theory of planetary movement), whether a book contains certain statements or no : the meaning also of a writer may be misunder- stood. Let the five propositions be heretical, yet, with the exception of the first, they are to be foimd neither in letter nor in spirit in the writings of Jansen." Thus arose the celebrated distinction of de facto and de jure. The Sorbonne now demanded of Arnauld that he should discontinue his opposition and submit to her decisions. He, and sixty others with him, still refusing to submit, they were expelled from the theological faculty. A general assembly of the clergy was also convened in September of this year, and the follo^\ing formula v,as adopted on the motion of De Marca, archbisliop of Tou- louse : " I condemn with heart and lips the doctrine of the five propositions of Cornelius Jansenius, contained in his book entitled A ugustinus, and which the pope and bishops have condemned, said doctrine not being that of St. Augustine, whom Jansenius has explained wrong- ly, against the real meaning of that holy doctor." A bull of Alexander YII, October 16, indorsed the deci- sions of the assembly, and aflirmed that the condemned projiositions were a part of the doctrines of Jansenius. The signing of the above formula, which was required of all French priests and members of religious orders, was everywhere opposed. Louis XIY, confounding the Jansenists Avith the Fronde, gave the Church the help of the civil authorities. But the members of Port-Royal continued in their opposition, thinking it perjury for them to sign it. Another royal edict of April 29, 1664, was now issued, which was more moderate in its de- mands. It merely required the signing as a matter of form, but at the same time threatened such as refused with seizure of their income, and even with excommuni- cation. The opposition still continuing, headed by Port- Royal, persecution now commenced in earnest. The dungeons of the Bastile were crowded with those who refused to violate their consciences by subscribing a for- mula which they did not believe to set forth their views. The very passages of the fortress were occuiiied hy pris- oners. Among those who were thus treated was Le- maitre de Sacy, spiritual director of the nuns of Port- Royal, who, accused of inciting them to resist, was im- prisoned in the Bastile in 1066. As for Duvergier de Hauranne, he had already been sent to Yincennes thirty years before.
The government and the Jesuits, determined to sup- press the rebellious spirit of Port-Royal (q. v.), now used every effort that could be devised to gain their end. Two months had elapsed since the expulsion of Amauld from tlie Sorbonne, when the civil authorities ordered
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that every novice and scholar should be removed from Port-Royal. This sharpened the pen of Pascal, and forth came the eighteen famous Provincial Letters {Lettres a un provincial). " In these remarkable letters the author showed with extraordinarj' force how narrow tlie ques- tion really was — whether five propositions arc in the Augustinus or not, when no one had there j)ointed them out; he showed by what unworthy con]|iromises the condemnation of Dr. Arnauld had been oljtaincd ; and, besides touching on doctrinal points which were in- volved, he firmly and manfiUly attacked the shameless casuistry of the Jesuits. These letters had a wonderful efficiency, for their power was felt even by those who had no apprehension of the present subject of controver- sy." Voltaire has said that in wit the earlier of them were not excelled by the comedies of Bloliere, wliile tlie latter rivalled the productions of Bossuet in clo(iuence ; in fact, that they constituted an epoch in French Utera- ture. Says Hallam {Introd. Literature of Europe, Har- per's edition, ii, 335) : " These letters did more to ruin the name of Jesuit than all the controversies of Protes- tantism, or all the fulminations of the I'arliament of Paris." "AH Europe," says JMacaulay {Ilistonj of Emj- land, ii, 46), "read, admired, and laughed." But not only the Jesuits felt this heavy blow ; even the incum- bent of St. Peter's chair staggered and reeled under the sudden attack, and, as a set-off for it, cardinal Chigi, now Alexander VII, not only confirmed the position of his predecessor, and again declared that the five propo- sitions were contained de facto in A iir/ustinus, hut, imi- tating the French authorities, accompanied it by the requisition that every one holding a spiritual office in the Church of Rome should abjiae these errors by sub- scribing a formula prescribed for that purjiose. This injudicious and oppressive act subjected the Jansenists to still severer persecutions, and continued the heated controversy^, in which the ablest pens on both sides were enlisted. A great point was made by the Jesuits of the infallibility question. See Infallibility. But, as the cohtroversy continued, it took a wider range, and came to embrace such topics as the rights of the bishops as contradistinguished from those of the pope ; the Jesuit- ical views of theology and morality, so ably censured by Pascal, as we have already seen ; the vast and alarm- ing power of the Jesuits, and even many usages of the Church of Rome. The opposition, which thus far had seemed to come mainly from Port-Royal recluses, was found to have spread even among high dignitaries of the Church : four bishops refused to sign the formulary which Rome dictated, and many others of this high po- sition in France took the ground of " respectful silence." In 16G8 king Lotus succeeded in obtaining the sanction of Rome for a compromise, substantially on the basis of Arnauld's distinction of de facto and dejure, and of 7-e- spcctful silence.