Paris, February 25, 1656 SIR, Nothing can come up to the Jesuits.I have seen Jacobins, doctors, and all sorts of people in my day, but such an interview as I have just had was wanting to complete my knowledge of mankind.Other men are merely copies of them.As things are always found best at the fountainhead, I paid a visit to one of the ablest among them, in company with my trusty Jansenist- the same who accompanied me to the Dominicans.Being particularly anxious to learn something of a dispute which they have with the Jansenists about what they call actual grace, I said to the worthy father that I would be much obliged to him if he would instruct me on this point- that I did not even know what the term meant and would thank him to explain it."With all my heart," the Jesuit replied;"for I dearly love inquisitive people.Actual grace, according to our definition, 'is an inspiration of God, whereby He makes us to know His will and excites within us a desire to perform it.'" "And where," said I, "lies your difference with the Jansenists on this subject?" "The difference lies here," he replied;"we hold that God bestows actual grace on all men in every case of temptation;for we maintain that unless a person have, whenever tempted, actual grace to keep him from sinning, his sin, whatever it may be, can never be imputed to him.The Jansenists, on the other hand, affirm that sins, though committed without actual grace, are, nevertheless, imputed; but they are a pack of fools." I got a glimpse of his meaning; but, to obtain from him a fuller explanation, I observed: "My dear father, it is that phrase actual grace that puzzles me; I am quite a stranger to it, and if you would have the goodness to tell me the same thing over again, without employing that term, you would infinitely oblige me." "Very good," returned the father; "that is to say, you want me to substitute the definition in place of the thing defined; that makes no alteration of the sense; I have no objections.We maintain it, then, as an undeniable principle, that an action cannot be imputed as a sin, unless God bestow on us, before committing it, the knowledge of the evil that is in the action, and an inspiration inciting us to avoid it.Do you understand me now?" Astonished at such a declaration, according to which, no sins of surprise, nor any of those committed in entire forgetfulness of God, could be imputed, I turned round to my friend the Jansenist and easily discovered from his looks that he was of a different way of thinking.
But as he did not utter a word, I said to the monk, "I would fain wish, my dear father, to think that what you have now said is true, and that you have good proofs for it." "Proofs, say you!" he instantly exclaimed:
"I shall furnish you with these very soon, and the very best sort too;let me alone for that." So saying, he went in search of his books, and I took this opportunity of asking my friend if there was any other person who talked in this manner? "Is this so strange to you?" he replied."You may depend upon it that neither the fathers, nor the popes, nor councils, nor Scripture, nor any book of devotion employ such language; but, if you wish casuists and modern schoolmen, he will bring you a goodly number of them on his side." "O! but I care not a fig about these authors, if they are contrary to tradition," I said."You are right," he replied.As he spoke, the good father entered the room, laden with books; and presenting to me the first that came to hand."Read that," he said; "this is The Summary of Sins, by Father Bauny- the fifth edition too, you see, which shows that it is a good book." "It is a pity, however," whispered the Jansenist in my ear, "that this same book has been condemned at Rome, and by the bishops of France." "Look at page 906," said the father.I did so and read as follows:
"In order to sin and become culpable in the sight of God, it is necessary to know that the thing we wish to do is not good, or at least to doubt that it is- to fear or to judge that God takes no pleasure in the action which we contemplate, but forbids it; and in spite of this, to commit the deed, leap the fence, and transgress." "This is a good commencement," Iremarked."And yet," said he, "mark how far envy will carry some people.
It was on that very passage that M.Hallier, before he became one of our friends, bantered Father Bauny, by applying to him these words: Ecce qui tollit peccata mundi- 'Behold the man that taketh away the sins of the world!'" "Certainly," said I, "according to Father Bauny, we may be said to behold a redemption of an entirely new description." "Would you have a more authentic witness on the point?" added he."Here is the book of Father Annat.It is the last that he wrote against M.Arnauld.Turn up to page 34, where there is a dog's ear, and read the lines which I have marked with pencil- they ought to be written in letters of gold." I then read these words: "He that has no thought of God, nor of his sins, nor any apprehension (that is, as he explained it, any knowledge) of his obligation to exercise the acts of love to God or contrition, has no actual grace for exercising those acts; but it is equally true that he is guilty of no sin in omitting them, and that, if he is damned, it will not be as a punishment for that omission." And a few lines below, he adds: "The same thing may be said of a culpable commission." "You see," said the monk, "how he speaks of sins of omission and of commission.Nothing escapes him.
