[110]. Atroces—“atrocious.” (Edit. 1657.)
[111]. Des plus detestables erreurs—“the most detestable errors.” (Edit. 1657.) Erreurs—“errors.” (Nicole’s Edit., 1767.)
[112]. Horriblement contraire—“horribly contrary.” (Edit. 1657.)
[113]. The meaning of Chrysostom is good, but the expressions of these ancient fathers are often more remarkable for their strength than their precision. The Protestant reader hardly needs to be reminded, that if divine grace can be said to have failed the Apostle Peter at his fall, it can only be in the sense of a temporary suspension of its influences; and that this withdrawment of grace must be regarded as the punishment, and not as the cause, of his own negligence.
[114]. That is, they could more readily procure monks to vote against M. Arnauld, than arguments to answer him.
[115]. The allusions in the text afford curious illustrations of the mode of warfare pursued by the Jesuits of the seventeenth century. The first refers to a comic catechism, in which the simple language of childhood was employed as a vehicle for the most calumnious charges against the opponents of the Society. Pascal refers again to this catechism in Letter xvii. The second device was a sort of school-boy masquerade. A handsome youth, disguised as a female, in splendid attire, and bearing the inscription of sufficient grace, dragged behind him another dressed as a bishop (representing Jansenius, bishop of Ypres), who followed with a rueful visage, amidst the hootings of the other boys. The comedy referred to was acted in the Jesuits’ college of Clermont. The almanacs published in France at that period being usually embellished with rude cuts for the amusement of the vulgar, the Jesuits procured the insertion of a caricature of the Jansenists, who were represented as pursued by the pope, and taking refuge among the Calvinists. This, however, called forth a retaliation, in the shape of a poem, entitled “The Prints of the Famous Jesuitical Almanac,” in which the Jesuits were so successfully held up to ridicule, that they could hardly show face for some time in the streets of Paris. (Nicole, i. p. 208.)
[116]. Vertement—“smartly.” (Edit. 1657.)
[117]. See Letter ii.
[118]. Ces docteurs—“those doctors.” (Edit. 1767.)
[119]. In Nicole’s edition, this letter is signed with the initials “E. A. A. B. P. A. F. D. E. P.” which seem merely a chance medley of letters, to quiz those who were so anxious to discover the author. There may have been an allusion to the absurd story of a Jansenist conference held, it was said, at Bourg-Fontaine, in 1621, to deliberate on ways and means for abolishing Christianity; among the persons present at which, indicated by initials, Anthony Arnauld was ridiculously accused of having been one under the initials A. A. (See Bayle’s Dict., art. Ant. Arnauld.)