Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	divine_a	faith_n	humane_a	4,064	5	8.7140	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25851	Mysteriou tes ayomias, that is, Another part of the mystery of Jesuitism or, The new heresie of the Jesuites, publickly maintained at Paris, in the College of Clermont, the XII of December MDCLXI ... according to the copy printed at Paris : together with The imaginary heresie, in three letters, with divers other particulars ... never before published in English.	Arnauld, Antoine, 1612-1694.	1664 (1664)	Wing A3729; ESTC R32726	88,087	266

that those amongst some of the new Doctors who would be thought the most favourable to Popes as Monsieur du Val have not been afraid to maintain the Pope's being Infallible was no matter of Faith Duvallius de Suprema authorit Rom. Pontific l. 2. q. 1. Non est de fide Summum Pontificem esse Infallibilem And that the Opinion which assures us he is not is neither erroneous nor rash Ibid. Non est erroneum neque temerarium temeritate Opinionis dicere Summum Pontificem in decernendo errare posse But these very Divines however studious of exalting as much as they could possibly the Authority of the Soveraign Bishops do acknowledge as a thing certain indubitable and constant amongst all Catholicks That they are not Infallible in matters of Fact That therein they may erre and That indeed they are very frequently mistaken Bellarm de Sum. Pontif l. 4. c. 2. All Catholicks saies Cardinal Bellarmine accord in this That the Pope acting as Pope and with the Assembly of his Counsellers yea even with a General Council it self may be deceived in particular facts which depend upon the information and testimony of men And applying this general Maxime to a matter of Fact perfectly resembling that of Jansenius which is to consider whether the Heresie of the Monothelites be comprehended in the Epistles of Honorius as the VI. General Council confirm'd by so many Popes hath defin'd it he adds A General and Lawfull Council cannot erre in defining Points of Faith as neither has the Sixth Council erred therein but it may erre in Questions concerning matters of Fact Ibid. c. 11. Generale Concilium legitimum non potest errare ut neque erravit hoc Sextum in Dogmatibus Fidei definiendis tamen errare potest in Quaestionibus de Facto And Cardinal Baronius affirms the very same upon the same Subject of the Sixth Oecumenical Council We do not so strictly receive the Condemnation even of General Councils themselves as to what concerns mens Persons and their Writings For no body doubts but that who-ever it is he may be deceived in matters of Fact and then is that expression of S. Paul to take place We can doe nothing against the Truth but for the Truth Baron ad An. 681. n. 39. In his enim quae Facti sunt unumquemque contingere posse falli nemini dubium est All other Divines even the most devoted to the Court of Rome have hitherto contain'd themselves within these limits but the Jesuites will no more indure either bounds or Examples in their excess and extravagancies It suffices not them to render the Pope Infallible as some Divines may possibly have done They will have it that Jesus Christ has absolutely imparted to him the very same Infallibility which He himself possess'd upon the Earth and that as this Infallibility of Jesus Christ extended to all and not onely to things already reveal'd but to those things which had never yet been so reveal'd and that he made known himself in saying them so the Pope does also become Infallible not onely in proposing to the Church what is contain'd in the reveal'd Will of God but in proposing to her likewise matters of Fact which it is evident and certain God has never yet reveal'd as when for Instance the Question is Whether these Propositions are in a Book of the Seventeenth Age. Nor are these any Consequences which we may naturally deduce from their doctrine they draw them thence themselves and form Catholick Assertions of them conformable to the Title of their Position There is then say they an Infallible Judge of Controversies of Faith even extrinsecal to a General Council it self as well for Questions appertaining to Right as for those which concern matters of Fact And that you should not doubt what it is they would signifie by these Questions of Fact albeit the word Fact oppos'd to Right renders it sufficiently perspicuous they produce for an Example and as a new Consequence of this Infallibility of Jesus Christ communicated to the Pope That since the Constitutions we may believe with a divine Faith that the Book of Jansenius is heretical and that the Five Propositions do belong to this Author Unde post Innocentii X. Alexandri VII Constitutiones fide divinâ credi potest Librum cui titulus est Jansenii Augustinus esse haereticum Quinque Propositiones ex eo decerptas esse Jansenii Behold then here the Proposition which these men assert publickly in one of the greatest Cities of the World and it is worth observing to note the Original and the date of it For those who now at present promote it so boldly had long since scatter'd the seeds thereof in some of their Writings and it was sufficiently evident that all their design was to be bottom'd upon this Errour they had likewise themselves advanced the Conclusions in one place and the Principles in another but it was still with certain windings and ambiguities of termes which as yet furnish'd them with lurking-holes and places of subterfuge but now they discover nakedly and without disguise to the Church what it is they pretend to establish in her Let the whole Church take notice of it then and record it That it was the 12 of December in the year 1661 that the Jesuites openly publish'd that monstrous Opinion which they have been so long a-brooding That it was upon this day they propos'd as a most Catholick Assertion That whenever the Pope does speak out of his Chair HE HATH THE SAME INFALLIBILITY THAT JESUS CHRIST HATH not onely in Questions of Right BUT ALSO IN MATTERS OF FACT and that hence we are to believe WITH A FAITH DIVINE that those Five Propositions are of Jansenius It will My Lords be needless to amplifie much in letting the world see that this is not here onely a solitary Errour or simple Heresie but a whole source of Errours and as one may say an Universal Heresie which overthrows all Religion For you know My Lords that the very prime Fundamental of Christian Religion is That our Faith is not supported upon the word of Men but upon the Word of God which is Truth it self and that it is That which renders it immoveable and altogether Divine whereas it would else prove but Humane were it upheld by any other Authority less then that of God and if we were not able to render our selves that Testimony which S. Paul gives the Christians of Thessalonica To have received the Word which God hath taught us by his Church and that not as the Word of Men but as the Word of God and as in truth it is Non ut verbum hominum sed sicut est verè verbum Dei De error Abailardi c. 4. Whatsoever is comprised in the Faith saies S. Bernard is built upon solid and certain Truth persuaded by the divine Oracles confirmed by Miracle and consecrated by the production of the Virgin by the bloud of

our Redeemer and by the glory of his Resurrection Totum quod in Fide est certâ ac solidà veritate subnixum Oraculis Miraculis divinitus persuasum stabilitum consecratum partu Virginis sanguine Redemptoris gloriâ resurgentis Whosoever therefore shall presume to affirm that a Thing neither revealed nor attested by God as is that to know whether Propositions are really an Author 's of these last Ages is an Object of divine Faith merely because the Pope has said it or does establish for a Fundamental of his Belief any humane Authority and word of a mortal Man subverts the Faith or that makes a God of the Pope and of his Word a divine Word and a holy Scripture is not onely guilty of Heresie but of horrid Impiety and a species of Idolatry For Idolatry does not consist merely in giving to Man the Name of God but infinitely more when we attribute to him those Qualities which are peculiar to God and when we render him those honours which are alone due to the Deity Now this intire submission of our Spirit and of all out Intellectuals comprehended in the act of our Faith is no other then that Adoration which we pay to the Prime Verity it self and therefore whosoever he be that renders it to the word of a Man what-ever rank he may hold in the Church whoever saies that he believes with a Faith divine that which he would not believe but because a Man has affirmed it does constitute Man in the place of God transferrs to the Creature that which is alone due to the Creator and makes as far as in him lies a kind of Idol of the Vicar of Jesus Christ And it is this My Lords which will doubtless cause you so much the more to detest this Impiety That the Promoters of this Doctrine have imagin'd they shall make it pass under the shelter of that Respect which all Catholicks bear towards the Pope and that none will presume to oppose it for fear of offending him But were it possible to offer a greater affront to the prime Minister of Jesus Christ then to conceive they doe him honour by a Blasphemy so injurious to Jesus Christ that he should suffer them to equal him with his Master by ascribing to him the same Infallibility which He alone possesses and that men should render that supreme Cultus of a Divine faith to his Words which is onely due to the Word of God If S. Paul and S. Barnabas perceiving certain persons ready to render them the same honours which they gave to their false Gods did rend their Garments to testifie their extreme grief and resentment and cast themselves in amongst the people to hinder them of their purpose we are bound to believe that if the Pope were well advertiz'd of this fearfull and prodigious excess he would not fail with his whole Authority to repress these prophane Adorators and that as a Crime capable of losing him for ever before God he would not permit himself to be so much as once touch'd with the least complacency of so detestable a Flattery He would certainly consider even with trembling the vengeance which God did execute upon that last King of the Jews for having onely indulg'd the tumultuary Acclamations of a People who after they heard him speak cry'd out The Voice of God and not of Man Dei voces non hominis since the Scripture informs us that the Angel of the Lord did immediately smite him because he had not given the honour which was due to God Confestim autem percussit eum Angelus Domini eò quòd non dedisset honorem Deo In the mean while how much less criminal were the Adulations of these People then that of the Jesuites That might possibly be taken for some sudden transport of Joy which is oftentimes not regulated by Reason and sometimes we find that even the Scripture it self gives to Judges and to Princes the appellation of God but here they attribute to the Pope and that deliberately out of a formed design and the establishment of a Dogme and of a Theological Assertion not a senseless Name but one of the most resplendent and glorious Titles of God and the most incommunicable to the Creature which is That the Word of a Pope should be so Infallible as it should merit the submission of divine Faith to it which cannot be render'd without gross Idolatry to any save to the Prime and Sovereign Verity For we cannot say upon this occasion what those are wont to affirm who maintain the Infallibility of the Pope in matters of Faith That in believing what the Pope decides concerning them they do not establish their Faith upon the word of a Man because he proposes onely what has been by God reveal'd in Scripture and Tradition so as still their Faith is founded upon the Word of God We can say nothing like this upon the subject in hand and in reference to which the Jesuites pretend that the Pope is as Infallible as Jesus Christ and his Decision an object of divine Faith When the Pope shall propose a matter of Fact of a Seventeenth Age as for example to divine whether heretical Propositions have been taught by an Author of that Period we cannot pretend that he propounds a thing which is either reveal'd in Scripture or in Tradition Well he may say that so he judges it but he cannot affirm that God has reveal'd it He may averre it of himself but he cannot say Dominus locutus est that God has declar'd it In like sort when it is Man which speaks and not God those who assert that we may adhibit a divine Faith to a Decision of this nature do visibly perpetrate the abominable excess of those blinded people and joyn in their acclamation Voces Dei non hominis Now if the Piety of the Pope do as doubtless it will preserve him from being infected with this Sacrilegious Opinion those who present him this poison will nevertheless be as criminal as those miserable Flatterers who were the occasion of the death of their King by their impious Elogies For he is not an homicide of the Soul or Body onely who effectively takes away the Life of one or the other but he is a Murtherer also who does that which is of it self capable to extinguish either the one or the other Cyprianus de Lapsis S. Cyprian names those Christians Parricides that for fear of Persecution offer'd their sucking Infants to the Idols because though they could not saies S. Augustin by this Idolatry and in which the poor Babes had no part bereave them of that spiritual life which they had deriv'd from their Baptism yet did they notwithstanding rob them of it as much as in them lay Aug. Ep. 23 In illis quidem interfectionem non faciunt sed quantum in ipsis est interfectores fiunt Flatter not your selves adds the same S. Augustin In lib. de Pastoribus cap. 4.

The Fourth is the opinion of several other Divines who are persuaded of one part that it is most false the Fact should be separated from Right or that it should be a point of Faith to hold the Doctrine of Jansenius heretical or that a man is obliged to believe it by humane Faith but who believe on the other part that the Fact being contain'd in this Formularie those who scruple it cannot sign it without restriction since the declarations which men make to the Church ought to be intirely sincere and free of all duplicity It is visible that in this difference of Divines each party condemns the others but after a sort very different The Jesuites who make the first ought by the necessary consequence of their Opinion to condemn for Heresie not onely the last who absolutely refuse to sign that the sense of Jansenius is heretical but those likewise who do not believe it of humane Faith or that believe it not at all albeit they sign it For Heresie consists in the opinion of the spirit and not in the omission of an exterior action of the hand A person who should not believe but with an humane Faith that the Body of J. Christ were in the Sacrament of the Eucharist or that should sign it in infidelity would be never the less an Heretick then he who should absolutely refuse to sign it So as all those many Bishops that have caus'd none to sign or that receive restrictions concerning the matter of Fact or that declare they do not require the belief of the Fact or that pretend not the Fact can be otherwise believ'd then by humane Faith are as much Hereticks in the judgement of the Jesuites and of F. Annat as these Divines whom they particularly persecute True it is their Politicks oblige them to distinguish of two sorts of Hereticks in France some of which they treat civilly and others most outrageously They place the Bishops Sorbonists the Fathers of the Oratory the Benedictines c. in the first order and whom they do not yet attacque but by consequence though by a very necessary one whiles they range in the other those whom they immediately design for ruine that so they may with the greater force surprize the other Therefore it is sufficiently evident that all those persons who have sign'd the Fact either of humane Faith or without believing it shall be never the more acquitted for that but be all Hereticks in their turn when they have left off oppressing the others seeing they must of necessity be so in the opinion of the Jesuites But on the contrary all these three last parties who accord in this point that this Fact of Jansenius is very separable from Right that it does not in the least concern the Faith and that one may safely deny it without Heresie ought from a necessary consequence of this their mutual Opinion condemn the Jesuites both of Calumny and Errour It is certain these four Parties reside in the Church and that if one would now consider which of them were the most numerous one might safely affirm that there are none more profligate and abandon'd and who have fewer sincere approbators then that of the Jesuites Nor is this an aiery Supposition but a real Verity to be discern'd by every one that has a mind to it that the Jesuites stand almost single in this pretension that matter of Fact is inseparable from matter of Right and that one cannot believe without being an Heretick the Doctrine of Jansenius not to be heretical The most devoted to the Jesuites of the Bishops ask for whom the World takes them that they should believe them capable of so monstrous a Folly as is that of affirming that a Fact should be inseparably joyn'd to Faith They express as much as one would wish in words that they do not require the assent of Fact They receive the Subscriptions of those whom they very well know do not believe it and who declare as much before they sign All the Curats of Paris do solemnly approve and by an authentick Act the Distinction between Fact and Right contain'd in the first Mandat of Paris In fine they proceed with confidence that the Jesuites cannot find six Bishops in all France and ten Divines of the least considerable persons who will sign this Proposition which F. Ferrier maintains and which is the basis of all his Treatise The Fact of Jansenius is inseparable from Faith and one cannot reject the Dogm which is condemned without acknowledging it to be Jansenius ' s. And in particular they affirm that he could not make M. Grandin sign nor M. Moret nor amongst the Doctors M. Chamillart nor Monsieur de Rouën amongst the Bishops It is certain therefore that the Jesuites are in a manner alone in their erroneous opinions And 't is as true that the Divines whom they persecute are almost wholly united to the Church in this difference which is between them I confess they have yet some dispute with the other Divines because against the one they maintain that one owes not so much as humane Faith to Decisions de facto when there is any cause of doubt administred and against the other that it was not altogether sincere in them to subscribe a Formularie which clearly comprizes a Fact without being fully persuaded of the Fact But this difference has relation to Manners onely and not to Faith and in this very difference they may make use of the authority of the one to defend themselves against the other Those who sign the Fact as of humane Faith approve of their Doctrine touching the Sincerity of Subscriptions Those who sign the Fact without believing it approve what they affirm That the Church obliges none to believe the Fact by way of command so as to the truth they have this consolation that in every of the Points whereof they are accus'd they are united in Opinion with the greatest part of the Divines of the Church Whoever shall take the pains diligently to inform himself of the bottom of these particulars will clearly find that what I say is most true And if any man ask why the contrary appears to the World that the Jesuites domineer every-where and the Divines are oppress'd it is not very difficult to give a reason for it They are onely to consider what Post F. Annat holds and what Power the place in which he is affords him both at Rome and at Paris to doe what he pleases as to this matter They know nothing at Rome but from the Instructions which he sends them and he stands at the gate of all the Benefices of France to exclude who-ever stands in his way in any thing Every one has his particular business at Court and those who have no other either for themselues or their Communalty enjoy their repose in which they will not be molested Jansenism is the onely affair of Father Annat so as that people may not be cross'd in their particular businesses