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04 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
Sees where a Dogmatical Bull was accepted, appealed against it.
The appeal was, therefore, justly rejected by both the secular
and Ecclesiastical authorities. In the year 1718, Cardinal de
Noailles subscribed to the appeal of the Bishops, but still it was
annulled by the Pope, and towards the end of the year 1718,
about fifty
of the Bishops of France published commandments
to their Diocesans, ordering them to yield unreserved obedience
to the Bull:
"
Quippe qua) universalis est Ecclesia judicium
Dogmaticum, a quo omnis appellatio est nulla" (11). The defen
ders of Quesnel only became more violent in their opposition to
the Bishops after this, and the press groaned with their pam
phlets; so in the year 1727, a Provincial Council was held at
Embrun, in which the Bishop of Sens was suspended for refusing
to subscribe to the Bull which was declared to be the dogmatical
and unchangeable judgment of the Church, and it decided that
the appeal was, ipso jure, schismatical, and of no avail. The
whole proceeding there received the sanction of the Pope,
Benedict XIII., and the King (12).
25. The Appellants then had recourse to the lawyers of
Paris, and they published a
"
Consultum," in which they under
took to invalidate the judgment of the Council, on account of
several irregularities. They were then joined by twelve Bishops,
who signed
a letter to the King, against the Council, but he
strongly censured the production, and ordered that all the
Bishops should be assembled in Paris in an extraordinary
Assembly, and record their opinion on the Consultum of the
lawyers. On the 5th of May, 1728, the Prelates assembled, and
made a representation to the King that the Consultum was not
only not to the point, but that it smelt of heresy, and was in fact
heretical. The King, therefore, published a particular Edict,
ordering the Consultum to be set aside (13). Soon after this, in
the same year, Cardinal de Noaillcs, now very far advanced in
years, yielded to the admonition of Benedict XIII., and revoked
his
appeal, and sincerely accepted the Bull, prohibiting all his
Diocesans from reading Quesnel s works. lie sent his retracta
tion to the Pope, who was delighted to receive it. In about six
months after, he died (14). In the year 1729, the Faculty of
(11) Tour. cit. (13) Tour. cit.
(1-2) Tour. cit. (14) Tour. cit.