Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	authority_n	church_n	person_n	1,479	5	5.0691	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41099	The maxims of the saints explained, concerning the interiour life by the Lord Arch-bishop of Cambray &c. ; to which are added, Thirty-four articles by the Lord Arch-Bishop of Paris, the Bishops of Meaux and Chartres, (that occasioned this book), also their declaration upon it ; together with the French-King's and the Arch-Bishop of Cambray's letters to the Pope upon the same subject.; Explication des maximes des saints sur la vie interieure. English	Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715.; Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, 1651-1715. Correspondence.; Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715. Correspondence.; Noailles, Louis-Antoine de, 1651-1729.; Godet des Marais, Paul, 1647-1709.; Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704. Instruction sur les estats d'oraison, où sont exposées les erreurs des faux mystiques de nos jours.	1698 (1698)	Wing F675; ESTC R6318	100,920	267

a little less pure and disinterested It 's enough for this State that the Acts of Vertue are performed therein very frequently with that perfection that Charity diffuses there and with which the same are animated All these things are agreeable to our thirty four Articles I shall joyn to the Book which I have published most Holy Father a Collection in Manuscript of the Sentiments of the Fathers and Saints of the last Age concerning the Pure Love of Contemplatives to the end that that which is but plainly set out in the First Book may be proved in the Second by the Testimonies and Opinions of the Saints of all Ages I entirely submit Most Holy Father both the one and the other Pieces to the Judgement of the Holy Roman Catholick Church who is the Mother Church of all and has taught all the rest I devote all that is mine and my self to your Holiness as a Son ought to do that is full of Zeal and Respect towards you But if my Book in French hath been already brought unto your Holiness I most humbly intreat you most Holy Father to decide nothing concerning it 'till such time as you have seen my Latin Version that will be dispatched away with all speed There is nothing now remaining for me save to wish a long Pontificate to the chief of Pastors who Rules the Kingdom of Christ with so disinterested an Heart and who says with so much applause from all the Roman Catholick Nations to his Illustrious Family I know you not In doing thus daily I think I seek the Glory and Consolation of the Church the Re-establishment of its Discipline the propagation of the Faith the Extirpation of Schisms and Heresies and lastly an abundant Harvest in the Field of the Soveraign Father of the Family I shall for ever c. The Lord Arch-Bishop of Cambray 's Letter of August the 3d 1697. SIR BE not concerned for me the business of my Book is gone to Rome if I am under a mistake the Authority of the Holy See will undeceive me and this is that I wait for with a gentle and lowly Mind if I have illy exprest my self they will reform my expressions If the matter appears to require a more large explication that I will readily do by way of Additions If my Book contains nothing in it but what is pure Doctrine I shall have the consolation to know exactly what a Man ought to believe and what to reject I shall not in this Case fail to make all those Additions which without weakning the truth will be conducive to enlighten and edifie such Readers as are most subject to take the allarm But Sir in short if the Pope condemns my Book I shall be the first God willing that will condemn it and put out a Mandate to forbid the reading of it in the Diocess of Cambray I shall only intreat the Pope to do me the favour exactly to note those passages he condemns and the sense whereon he grounds his Condemnation to the end that I may subscribe thereunto without restriction and that I may never run the risque of defending excusing or tolerating the sense it s condemned in Being thus disposed thro' the blessing of God I am at rest and have nothing to do but to wait the disposition of my Superiour in whom I acknowledge the Authority of Jesus Christ to be lodged disinterested Love must not be defended but with a sincere disinterest We have not to do herein with a point of Honour nor with the Opinion of the World nor yet with that profound humiliation wherein Nature may fear to meet with ill success I think I act with integrity I am as much afraid of being presumptuous and possessed with a base shame as to be feeble politick and fearful in the defence of truth If the Pope condemns me I shall be thereby undeceived and the vanquished shall reap all the real fruits of the Victory Victoria scedet victis saith St. Augustine But if on the other side the Pope does not condemn my Doctrine I shall endeavour both by my silence and respect to pacifie those of my Fraternity whose Zeal has animated them against me by laying a sort of Doctrine to my charge which I abhor and always did as much as they do Perhaps they will do me justice when they see my sincerity There are but two things that my Doctrine was intended to comprehend the first whereof is that Charity is a love to God sor his own sake distinct from that motive of blessedness that we find in him Secondly that Charity in the life of the most perfect Souls is that which precedes all other Vertues which animates them and commands the acts so as to make them bear to its end insomuch that the Just thus qualified do then ordinarily exercise hope and all other Vertues with all the disinterest of Charity it self because this same state of the Soul is not without its exception being no other than an habitual one and not immutable God knows I have never intended to teach any thing else that exceeded these limitations And hence it is that I have said in my speaking concerning pure Love which is Charity so far as it animates and commands all other distinct Vertues Whoever allows of nothing beyond that is within the confines of Tradition whoever passeth those bounds is already out of the way I do not think there is any danger that the Holy See should condemn a Doctrine so well grounded upon the Authority of the Fathers of the Schools and of so many great Saints that the Church of Rome has Canoniz'd As for the manner of Expressions contained in my Book if they should be any ways prejudicial to truth for want of being correct I consign them to the judgement of my Superiour and I should be very sorry to trouble the repose of the Church were there no more in it than the interest of my Person and of my Book These are my thoughts of the matter Sir I go for Cambray having Sacrificed unto God with my whole heart all that I could Sacrifice to him thereupon permit me to exhort you to be of the same mind I have introduced nothing that related to Humane Affairs and Temporals into the Doctrine which I was convinced of the truth of neither have I forbore to let the Pope know any of those Reasons that could support this Doctrine This is enough let God do the rest if it be his Cause that I have vindicated let us not be concerned at the intentions of Men or their proceedings it is God alone that is to be looked to in all this let us be the Children of Peace and Peace will rest upon us it will be bitter but the same will be so much the more pure Let us not spoil good intentions by an humour by any Heat by any Humane Industry by any Natural Impression for the justifying of our selves Let us plainly give an account of our Faith let us

of my Articles will shew all the Consequence of false Principles that tend to create the most dangerous Illusion against the Rule of Faith and good Manners and that under a shew of Perfection I shall endeavour in each Article to point at the Place where the Equivocation begins and to censure all that is ill without in the least diminishing the Authority of the Saints Experiences If our Mystical Men would give me Ear without prejudice they would quickly apprehend what my Meaning is and that I take their Expressions in a just extent of the true Sence of them I 'll even refer it to their own Judgment if I do not explain their Maxims with much more Exactness than most of them have hitherto done because I have made it my principal Business to give their Expressions clear and exact Ideas and such as are Authorised by Tradition without weakning the Foundations of the Things themselves All good Mystical Men who love nothing but Truth and the Edification of the Church ought to be satisfied with this Plan I could have added hereunto a great many formal Passages out of the Ancient Fathers as well as School-Doctors and Mystical Saints but this Vndertaking would engage me into such Lengths and innumerable Repetitions as frightned me from it for the Reader 's sake this is that which hath caused me to suppress the Collection of those Passages which I had already digested and set in Order I do suppose without any more ado this Tradition to be constant and decisive and I have confined my self to set forth here a clear System and such as is agreeable to Theological Definitions Tho' the Driness of this Method looks like a great Inconvenience yet it is less than that of a tiresome Length I have no more to do than to practise this Plan that I have given an Explanation of I look up unto God and not my self for Strength to do it who is pleased to make use of the vilest and unworthiest Instruments My Doctrine ought not to be mine but that of Christ who sends forth Pastors be it far from me to say any thing of my self may I not prosper if while I am engaged in instructing others I be not my self the most teachable and most submissive Child of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church I shall begin my Work with making a plain Exposition of the different Sences that may be given to that we call The Love of God in order to give a clear and distinct Vnderstanding of the State of the Questions belonging to this Matter then will the Reader meet with my Articles which approves of what is true and condemns every thing that is false in each particular relating to the Internal Life The INTRODUCTION WHen I consider the many Differences that have hapned from Time to Time between not only particular Persons of the Roman Communion but even whole Societies particucularly between the Dominicans and Franciscans and the Jesuites and almost all Others about Matters of Faith and other Religious Tenets I cannot but admire at the Boldness of some of those Gentlemen who make their Unity to be a token of their Infallibility and the divided Opinions of the Protestants an evident Mark of the Falsity of their Belief But surely it is now high time they should give over that fantastick Argument since these sort of Dissentions are more rife among themselves than any other Community in the World and they may have Work enough to do to turn their Pens that way especially since Quietism and some other Opinions in Consequence of it hath taken such Root amongst them that even some of those who are reckon'd the Pillars of the Church seem to be as good as open Favourers of it and would draw if it were possible his Holiness himself to be of the same Sentiments and so to turn all at once Heretick But among all those who have more openly espoused these new Opinions is the Lord Arch-Bishop of Cambray a Person of that Learning and Consideration in his Countrey as to have been intrusted by the French King his Master with the Education of the young Princes the Dauphine's Sons But how this Eminent Person came thus to expose himself will be somewhat worthy of our enquiry before we proceed to give an Account of the opposition he hath met with and other consequences that have attended the Publishing of his Book which is now presented to the English Readers View that he may pass his Censure also thereupon There are but a few people that have not heard of Molinos and his Doctrine of Quietism some years since broached at Rome and what industry was used by the holy Fathers Inquisitors to ruine both him and it But how rigorous soever they shewed themselves against the Author they have not yet been able to suppress his Opinions which not only have still a being and considerable Fautors amongst them in Italy but the same or something very like it which we may call Semi-Quietism upon the same account as some Ancient Hereticks were distinguished with the name of Semipelagians hath been able to make its way through the snowy Alps and enter into the Kingdom of France and agreed so well since with the Soyl of that Countrey that it will not be quickly rooted out The Rulers of the Gallican Church began to be sensible pretty early of this supposed growing Evil but the occasion of their taking a more publick notice of it was a certain Womans putting out a Pamphlet called A Short Method c. and dispersing some other Papers savouring very much of Quietism whom to reclaim from her error they took care to appoint three Counsellours to admonish and instruct her and to them the Arch-Bishop of Cambray was added for a fourth But which way things came to pass and what success soever the first three might think they had upon the Woman its likely she brought over the fourth to the Opinion or somewhat that was near it if he were not so before She was accused of being guilty of But this did not appear at present However some of the Clergy thought it high time to bestir themselves in the matter and particularly the Arch-Bishop of Paris the Bishops of Meaux and Chartres did believe the foundation of their Church to have been so far struck at by such proceedings that they framed thirty four Articles on the 16th and 26th of April 1695. wherein they set forth what every Christian ought to believe and act and what to reject as erroneous and noxious to the Souls of Men Hereupon the Arch-Bishop of Cambray led by what fate I know not took upon him to compile this Work Entituled The Maxims of the Saints Explained and therein to give a more full Explication of the said thirty four Articles but did it in such a manner as allarmed the whole body of the French Clergy but more particularly the Authors of the said Articles who with divers others failed not to make Complaints thereof to

the King and at the same time to importune him to commit the said Work to Examination The Arch-Bishops of Rheims and Paris with the Bishop of Meaux an implacable Enemy to Cambray were the persons appointed for it the effect whereof was the putting out of their Declaration upon the same Subject wherein they fully set forth their sentiments in relation to it And as these Prelates distinguished their Zeal in this manner against this Semi-Quietism the Bishop of Noyon about the same time in his Pastoral Letter written in the Form of a Preservative to keep the Clergy and Faithful of his Diocess in the holy Exercise of a solid and real Piety against the pernicions Maxims of Quietism sets himself against Quietism in all the Branches of it But tho' he would have the Quietism he darts his Thunder at to be not that of Molinos but this new sort of Semi-Quietism yet when he comes to a kind of an Explanation of it he confounds the new Quietism with the old seeing that in respect to the Opinions which he looks upon to be most monstrous he imputes what Molinos taught to those against whom he writes of which take this one tast What an Abomination is it says the Bishop to set up Vices in the place of Vertues and to pretend that shameful Falls are the Steps by which to ascend to the Glory of a perfect Union with God Now this is Molinos himself that has occasioned this Exclamation who says in direct Terms That we ought not to afflict or disturb our selves when we fall into any Defect but to rise up and go on and set our selves to Exercises of Piety as if we had never fallen Would you not take him to be a Fool says he who contending for the Prize of a Race and hapning to stumble in the midst of his Carier should lie upon the Ground to no other end than to bewail his Fall You would rather say to him Rise Friend and without loss of time set thy self a running again for he that gets up quickly and pursues his Race is like one that never fell So that it 's manifest from hence in short that the French Prelates do not well understand what they write against but that there is something in it tending to invalidate Penances and put Auricular Confessions out of Fashion which has brought so much Grist to the Romish Mill is what they seem to be very apprehensive of But the Clergy notwithstanding all their ' fore-mention'd Endeavours for the Suppression of this new Doctrine finding it to spread itself more and more among all Ranks and Orders of Men as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks they thought it high time to transfer the Accusation to the Court of Rome with all the aggravation of the Arch-Bishop's of Cambray's Crime and Heresie imaginable and because they would not fail to make sure work of it they engag'd the French King so far on their side also as to get him to write to the Pope to induce him in Confirmation of the Censures of the Clergy of France to condemn the Arch-Bishop's Book who on his own part also being not ignorant of these Proceedings against him and not to be wanting to his own Defence thought it no less proper to write to his Holiness upon the same Subject But tho' the Bishop has used as much Caution as Submission in that he wrote to the Pope yet you will find in another of his Letters to a Friend that he is the same Man still But how violent soever the Arch-Bishops accusers appear'd against him both in France and Rome the Pope kept a soft pace till such time as having received the Arch-Bishops said Letter he was pleased to appoint seven Commissioners to Examine his Book viz. the Master of the Sacred Pallace His Holiness his Confessor and a Jaccbin Father Marsouiller a French-Man of the same Order the Proctor-General of St. Augustine-Friars Father Gabriel of the Mendicant Order Father Miri a Benedictine Father Grenelli a Franciscan and Father Alfaro Jesuit These were to make their Report to the Congregation of the holy Office in order to their farther proceedings thereupon But whither it were that these Gentlemen could not understand the Bishops Gallimaufry of notional speculations or what shall I call it or what ever else was in the wind they did nothing in it and the matter at last came before old Infallibility himself and his Sacred College of Cardinals But after all this and the continual Sollicitations of the Jesuits and some great Prelates there are some months now elapsed and nothing done in it and by any thing that hitherto has appear'd to the contrary they are so far from coming to a final decision either in favour or against the said Book as when they first began To enter upon an inquiry into the Doctrine and notions contained in this Treatise will not be proper for me in this place that being entirely left to the judgment of every one that has an inclination to peruse it It remains for me therefore to say that as it as stirred up the Curiosity of all sorts of persons abroad to make an inspection into these tenets so it has done mine to engage me in a more particular inquiry into the rise and progress as well as the dislike of and opposition made against them AN EXPLANATION Of the Diverse Loves Which may be had for GOD. 1. WE may love God not for the sake of himself but for some other good things depending on his Almighty power which we hope to obtain from him Such Love as this had the Carnal Jews who observed the Law in hopes only of being recompenc'd with the dew of Heaven and the fertility of the Earth This love is neither Chast nor Filial but meerly Servile or rather to speak properly who loveth so does not love God but his own dear Self and seeks entirely for himself not God but what comes from him 2. We may have Faith and not one degree of Charity with it We know God to be our only happiness that is to say the only Object the sight whereof can render us happy Now should we in this slate love God as the only instrument to be made use of for to work our happiness and because we are not able to find our happiness in any other object should we look upon God as a means of felicity and refer it purely to our selves as to its ultimate end this would be rather a self-love than a love of God at least it would be contrary to order as respecting God as an object or instrument of our felicity both to our selves and our own happiness And though by this love we should seek for no other reward but God alone yet would it prove wholly mercenary and of meer concupiscency That Soul as saith S. Francis of Sales in his Book of the love of God Lib. 2. c. 17. which should love God only out of love to her self by establishing the end of that love

Reasons that have induced me to write concerning the internal Life and Contemplation I have observed That some Persons abusing the Maxims of the Saints that have been so often approved of by the Holy See thought by little and little to insinuate pernicious Errors thereby and that others who knew nothing of spiritual things turned the same into a Ridicule The abominable Doctrine of the Quietists under the appearance of Perfection glided secretly into divers parts of France and even into our Low Countries Several Writings whereof some were too Uncorrect as others might be justly suspected of Errors stirred up the indifferent Curiofity of the Faithful against them Some Ages ago diverse mystical Writers arraigning the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience had favoured the same yet not knowing the Error concealed under it this they did out of an excess of warm Piety want of precaution in the choice of Terms made use of by them and a pardonable ignorance of the Principles of Theology This is that which has inflamed that ardent Zeal of divers illustrious Bishops and this gave them an occasion to Compose Thirty Four Articles which they were pleased to draw up and lodge with me This also has brought them to Censure certain little Books some Passages of which being taken in the sense that doth naturally arise from them have deserved to be condemned But most Holy Father Men have not removed far from one Extream without falling into another some persons have taken occasion against our intention to Ridicule as an extravagant Chimera the pure love of a Contemplative Life For my own part I thought by taking diligent heed to an exact medium it was the way to separate Truth from Error and that which is Ancient and Stanch from what is new and dangerous this is that which I have endeavoured to do according to my weak Abilities but to know whether I have succeeded therein or no is left most Holy Father to your Judgment and 't is my business respectfully to give ear to St. Peter as living and speaking in you whose Faith shall never fail I have chiefly applyed my self to make this Work concise and therein have followed the Advice of very knowing Persons who have desired that a ready and an easy remedy should be found out not only against the Illusion which is Contagious but also against the scoffing of prophane Persons Great regard then was to be had for those Souls that are full of Candour who being more simple in that which is good than precaution'd against Evil could not discern that horrible Serpent that was hid under the Flowers regard also must have been had to the Contempt of Criticks who would not separate the Ascetick or studious Traditions and precious Maxims of the Saints from the vile Doctrine of Hypocrites Wherefore it has been thought necessary to make a kind of a Dictionary of Mystical Theology in order to prevent good Souls from passing beyond those Bounds set unto us by our Fathers I have therefore in as short a Style as possibly I could comprized the Desinitions of those Terms which the Practice of the Saints have Authorized I have also imploy'd the weight and authority of a Censure to endeavour to crush down a Heresy so full of Impudence it appeared to me most Holy Father as some sort of undecency that a Bishop should expose those Monstrous Errours to the Publick without testifying at the same time the indignation and horror which the Zeal of God's Cause had inspir'd him with against it Nevertheless I pray God that I may not have lost the sight of my own weaknesses and spoken any thing presumptuously The supream Authority of the Holy See hath abundantly supplyed all my Defects the Soveraign Pontiffs upon a scrupulous examination of all the Writings of the Saints which have been Canoniz'd have upon all occasions approv'd of the true Maxims of the Ascetick or studious Life and contemplative Love Wherefore having kept close to that immutable Rule I hope I have without any danger of going out of the way fitted up the Articles which I have asserted as true ones As to those false ones which I have Condemned I have been led thereunto as it were by the Hand for I have in every thing taken the Solemn Decrees by which the Holy See hath Condemned the Sixty Eight Propositions of Molino's for my Model therein And so having such an Oracle for my Foundation I have endeavoured to lift up my Voice to speak In the first place I have Condemned the permanent Act which has never any occasion to be reitterated as being a Poisoned Spring of Idleness and inward Lethargy In the next place I have Established the indispensible necessity of a distinct Exercise of every Virtue Thirdly I have resisted a perpetual and uninterrupted Contemplation which would exclude Venial Sins the distinction of Virtue and unvoluntary distractions as being incompatible with the Condition of a Traveller Fourthly I have rejected passive Prayer which would exclude the real Cooperation of Free-will for the formation of Meritorious Actions Fifthly I have allowed of no other Rest neither in Prayer nor in other Exercise of the Internal Life save that peace of the Holy Ghost whereby the most pure Souls frame their Actions in so uniform a manner that they appear to Persons without Knowledge not as distinct Acts but a simple and permanent Unity with God Sixthly For fear that the Doctrine of pure Love so much Authorized by so many Fathers of the Church and other Saints might serve as an Azilum or Refuge to the Quietists I have set my self chiefly to shew that in what degree of Perfection soever it may be and how great the Purity of Love wherewith one is filled may arrive to yet he must always retain in his Heart the Hope wherewith we are saved in pursuance to what the Apostle saith concerning Faith Hope and Charity Now these three things Faith Hope and Charity remain but Charity is the greatest We must therefore always hope for desire and pray for our Salvation since 't is God's will it should be so and that he requires that we should will it for his glory thus Hope preserves it self in its proper Exercise not only by the means of the infused Habit but also by its own proper Acts which being commanded and enobled by Charity as the Schools phrase it they are most absolutely carried to the sublime end of the same Charity which is nothing else but the pure glory of God Seventhly This state of pure Charity is not to be found but in a very few perfect Souls and that 't is there only in an habitual manner When I say habitual God forbid that an unamissible state or such as is exempted from any variation should be meant If this estate be still subject to daily Sins with how much more reason is the same compatible with Acts performed from time to time which cease not to be good and meritorious tho' they may be