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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 57
Sedes Apostolica damnavit, sincere auimo damno, ac rejicio, et
ita juro, sic me Deus adjuvet, et haec sancta Evangelia." The
King sanctioned it also by Royal authority, and severe penalties
were imposed on the disobedient (9).
15. This put the Jansenists into a quandary ; some of them
said that the oath could not be taken without perjury, but others,
of a more hardened conscience, said that it might, for it was
enough that the person subscribing should have the intention of
following the doctrine of St. Augustine, which, they said, was
that of Jansenius, and as to the fact externally, it was quite
enough to keep a reverent silence, and the Bishops of Alet,
Pamiers, Angers, and Beauvais were of this opinion ; but under
Clement XI., the successor of Alexander VII., they gave in, and
consented to subscribe themselves, and oblige their subjects to
subscribe the condemnation of the five propositions, without any
restriction or limitation, and thus peace was re-established (10).
The Jansenists, however, would not still yield ; the limitation
of the religious silence was, they said, inserted in the Verbal
Acts of the Diocesan Synods, and they, therefore, demanded
that the silence should be approved by the Pope. In this they
acted unreasonably, for the four above-mentioned Bishops were
admitted to peaceable communion, on condition of signing purely,
sincerely, and without any limitation whatever (11). In 1692 some
other disputes arose concerning the subscription of the Formula,
and the Bishops of Flanders added some other words to it, to
remove every means of deception.
The Louvanians complained
to Innocent XII. of this addition, and he expedited two Briefs,
in 1694 and 1696, removing every means of subterfuge (12).
16. About the year 1702 the Jansenists again raised the
point of the religious silence, by the publication of a pamphlet,
in which it was said that Sacramental Absolution was denied to
a Clergyman, because he asserted that he condemned the five
propositions, as far as the law was concerned (jus.,) but as to the
fact that they were to be found in Jansenius s book, that he con
sidered it was quite enough to preserve a religious silence on that
point. This was the famous Case of Conscience, on which forty
Doctors of Paris decided that Absolution could not be refused to
(9) Tournelly, p. 253. (11) Tournully, ibid.
(10) Ibid. 226. (12) Ibid, 256.
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