earth remains stationary; and if it can be demonstrated by sure
observation that it is the earth and not the sun that revolves, the
efforts and arguments of all mankind put together will not hinder
our planet from revolving, nor hinder themselves from revolving
along with her.

    Again, you must not imagine that the letters of Pope Zachary,
excommunicating St. Virgilius for maintaining the existence of the
antipodes, have annihilated the New World; nor must you suppose
that, although he declared that opinion to be a most dangerous heresy,
the King of Spain was wrong in giving more credence to Christopher
Columbus, who came from the place, than to the judgement of the
pope, who had never been there, or that the Church has not derived a
vast benefit from the discovery, inasmuch as it has brought the
knowledge of the Gospel to a great multitude of souls who might
otherwise have perished in their infidelity.

    You see, then, father, what is the nature of matters of fact,
and on what principles they are to be determined; from all which, to
recur to our subject, it is easy to conclude that, if the five
propositions are not in Jansenius, it is impossible that they can have
been extracted from him; and that the only way to form a judgement
on the matter, and to produce universal conviction, is to examine that
book in a regular conference, as you have been desired to do long ago.
Until that be done, you have no right to charge your opponents with
contumacy; for they are as blameless in regard to the point of fact as
they are of errors in point of faith- Catholics in doctrine,
reasonable in fact, and innocent in both.

    Who can help feeling astonishment, then, father, to see on the one
side a vindication so complete, and on the other accusations so
outrageous! Who would suppose that the only question between you
relates to a single fact of no importance, which the one party
wishes the other to believe without showing it to them! And who
would ever imagine that such a noise should have been made in the
Church for nothing (pro nihilo), as good St. Bernard says! But this is
just one of the principal tricks of your policy, to make people
believe that everything is at stake, when, in reality, there is
nothing at stake; and to represent to those influential persons who
listen to you that the most pernicious errors of Calvin, and the
most vital principles of the faith, are involved in your disputes,
with the view of inducing them, under this conviction, to employ all
their zeal and all their authority against your opponents, as if the
safety of the Catholic religion depended upon it; Whereas, if they
came to know that the whole dispute was about this paltry point of
fact, they would give themselves no concern about it, but would, on
the contrary, regret extremely that, to gratify your private passions,
they had made such exertions in an affair of no consequence to the
Church. For, in fine, to take the worst view of the matter, even
though it should be true that Jansenius maintained these propositions,
what great misfortune would accrue from some persons doubting of the
fact, provided they detested the propositions, as they have publicly
declared that they do? Is it not enough that they are condemned by
everybody, without exception, and that, too, in the sense in which you
have explained that you wish them to be condemned? Would they be
more severely censured by saying that Jansenius maintained them?
What purpose, then, would be served by exacting this acknowledgment,
except that of disgracing a doctor and bishop, who died in the
communion of the Church? I cannot see how that should be accounted
so great a blessing as to deserve to be purchased at the expense of so
many disturbances. What interest has the state, or the pope, or
bishops, or doctors, or the Church at large, in this conclusion? It
does not affect them in any way whatever, father; it can affect none
but your Society, which would certainly enjoy some pleasure from the
defamation of an author who has done you some little injury. Meanwhile
everything is in confusion, because you have made people believe
that everything is in danger. This is the secret spring giving impulse
to all those mighty commotions, which would cease immediately were the
real state of the controversy once known. And therefore, as the
peace of the Church depended on this explanation, it was, I
conceive, of the utmost importance that it should be given that, by
exposing all your disguises, it might be manifest to the whole world
that your accusations were without foundation, your opponents
without error, and the Church without heresy.

    Such, father, is the end which it has been my desire to
accomplish; an end which appears to me, in every point of view, so
deeply important to religion that I am at a loss to conceive how those
to whom you furnish so much occasion for speaking can contrive to
remain in silence. Granting that they are not affected with the
personal wrongs which you have committed against them, those which the
Church suffers ought, in my opinion, to have forced them to
complain. Besides, I am not altogether sure if ecclesiastics ought
to make a sacrifice of their reputation to calumny, especially in
the matter of religion. They allow, you, nevertheless, to say whatever
you please; so that, had it not been for the opportunity which, by
mere accident, you afforded me of taking their part, the scandalous
impressions which you are circulating against them in all quarters
would, in all probability, have gone forth without contradiction.
Their patience, I confess, astonishes me; and the more so that I
cannot suspect it of proceeding either from timidity or from
incapacity, being well assured that they want neither arguments for
their own vindication, nor zeal for the truth. And yet I see them
religiously bent on silence, to a degree which appears to me
altogether unjustifiable. For my part, father, I do not believe that I
can possibly follow their example. Leave the Church in peace, and I
shall leave you as you are, with all my heart; but so long as you make
it your sole business to keep her in confusion, doubt not but that
there shall always be found within her bosom children of peace who
will consider themselves bound to employ all their endeavours to