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58 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
the Clergyman. The Pope, however, condemned this pretended
silence, by a formal "
decree, Ad perpetuam rei memoriam," on
the 12th of January, 1703. Many of the French Bishops, also,
condemned it, and more especially Cardinal de Noailles, Arch
bishop of Paris, who likewise obliged the forty Doctors to retract
their decision, with the exception of one alone, who refused, and
was, on that account, dismissed from the Sorbonne, and that
famous Faculty also branded their decision as rash and scan
dalous, and calculated to renew the doctrines of Jansenius, con
demned by the Church. Clement XL expedited another Butt,
Vineam Domini, &c., on the 16th of July, 1705, condemning the
" Case
of Conscience," with various notes. All this was because
the distinction of Law and Fact (Juris et Facti) was put forth to
elude the just and legitimate condemnation of the five propositions
of Jansenius. This is the very reason Clement himself gives for
renewing the condemnation. His Bull was accepted by the whole
Church, and, first of all, by the assembly of the Gallican Church ;
thus the Jansenists could no longer cavil at the condemnation
of the Book of their Patron (13).
In the Refutation of the errors
of Jansenism, we will respond to their subterfuges in particular.
17. We may as well remark here, that about this time an
anonymous work appeared, entitled, "De SS. Petri et Pauli
Pontificatu," in which the writer endeavoured to prove that St.
Paul was, equally with St. Peter, the Head of the Church. The
author s intention was not to exalt the dignity of St. Paul, but to
depress the primacy of St. Peter, and, consequently, of the Pope.
The Book was referred to the Congregation of the Index, by
Innocent XL, and its doctrine condemned as heretical by a public
Decree (14). The author lays great stress on the ancient practice
used in Pontifical Decrees, that of painting St. Paul on the right,
and St. Peter on the left. That, however, is no proof
that St.
Paul was equally the Head of the Church, and exercised equal
authority with St. Peter, for not to him, but St. Peter, did Christ
say,
" Feed
my sheep." Hence, St. Thomas says (15),
"
Apostolus
fuit par Petro in execution, authoritatis, non iivauctoritate
regiminis."
Again, if the argument be allowed, that, because St. Paul
was painted to the right of St. Peter, he was equal to him, would
,
, 4.