The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

378
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Morillon replied that the bull could not be given either to
him or to his opponents, because the Pope intended to put a
stop to the whole controversy. Baius rephed that he* was
very glad to hear that, but regretted that the condemned
propositions should have been so freely made known to his
adversaries. After a long discussion Baius at length agreed
to make his recantation. ^ The Provincial of the Franciscans
in Flanders, too, among whom the celebrated Louvain pro-
fessor always had a number of adherents, ^ obliged the guardians
of the province, by a decree of September ist, 1569, to give
currency to the abjuration which he had made.^
In spite of this, however, the new doctrines were not yet
entirely crushed. It took Baius a long time to overcome the
interior struggle between his obedience to the Pope and his
attachment to his ideas, which he looked upon as the teaching
of St. Augustine, nor did he always keep his feehngs to himself.
The Franciscan, Godfredus of Liege, thought it necessary to
preach against Baianism, and theologians like Cunerus Petri
and the youthful Bellarmine, at that time a professor in the
Jesuit college at Louvain, wrote refutations of it,* for the new
doctrines still found many followers. ^
It must be added that
in 1570, after the death of Tiletanus, Baius had become dean
of the faculty, and the college of professors was composed
entirely of his disciples. Under these circumstances, some
of the bishops of Flanders thought it right to demand of
Baius a pubhc statement of his attitude towards the condemned
propositions.^
Morillon had long been of the opinion that the fault of
Baius lay in his want of knowledge of scholasticism, and in
1 Morillon to Granvelle, June 20, 1569, in Poullet, IIL,
607 seqq.
2 Morillon, September 26, 1568, ibid. 369.
^Le Bachelet, II., 51.
* Le Bachelet, Auctarixim Bellarminianum, Paris, 1913.
314-338-
* " Advertens non deesse multos, quibus hae opiniones placerent"
Autobiography of BeUarmine edited by Le Bachelet, 452.
« Cf. Laderchi, 1570, n, 292.