Folio 379

Clement XI, 1700-1721

printed p. 347 · pdf p. 379

Errors of Paschasius Quesnel1

[Condemned in the dogmatic Constitution, "Unigenitus,"2 Sept. 8, 1713]

1351. (Sec. 3) 1. What else remains for the soul that has lost God and His grace except sin and the consequences of sin, a proud poverty and a slothful indigence, that is, a general impotence for labor, for prayer, and for every good work?

1352. 2. The grace of Jesus Christ, which is the efficacious principle of every kind of good, is necessary for every good work; without it, not only is nothing done, but nothing can be done.

1353. 3. In vain, O Lord, do You command, if You do not give what you command.

1354. 4. Thus, O Lord, all things are possible to him for whom You make all things possible by effecting those same things in him.

1355. 5. When God does not soften a heart by the interior unction of His grace, exterior exhortations and graces are of no service except to harden it the more.

1356. 6. The difference between the Judaic dispensation and the Christian is this, that in the former God demanded flight from sin and a fulfillment of the Law by the sinner, leaving him in his own weakness; but in the latter, God gives the sinner what He commands, by purifying him with His grace.

1357. 7. What advantage was there for a man in the old covenant, in which God left him to his own weakness, by imposing on him His law? But what happiness is it not to be admitted to a convenant in which God gives us what He asks of us?

1358. 8. But we do not belong to the new covenant, except in so far as we

  1. DuPl III, II 462 ff.; coll. Viva II 1 ff.; CIC Rcht II 140 ff.; BR(T) 21, 569 b ff.; MBR 8, 119 a ff. Variant, doubtful, and corrected readings are according to the first Gallic text which DuPl, l.c., presents—Paschasius Quesnel was born on July 14, 1634. After completing his studies in the Sorbonne in 1657, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory; but because of his zeal for the heresy of Jansenism, he was forced to leave the Congregation. His book, "Reflections morales," was condemned, to which the Constitution, "Unigenitus," is related. Shortly before his death on Dec. 2, 1719, he made a profession of faith publicly [Hrt, Sec. rec. II² 822 ff.]. ↩

  2. This dogmatic constitution was confirmed by the same Clement XI in the Bull, "Pastoralis Officii" (Aug. 28, 1718) against the Appellantes, in which he declares that certain Catholics "who did not accept the Bull "Unigenitus" were clearly outside the bosom of the Roman Church; by Innocent XIII in a decree published on Jan. 8, 1722; by Benedict XIII and the Roman Synod in 1725; by Benedict XIV in the encyclical, "Ex omnibus Christiani orbis regionibus" on Oct. 16, 1756; it was accepted by the Gallic clergy in assemblies in 1723, 1726, 1730, by the councils of Avignon, 1725 and Ebred, 1727, and by the whole Catholic world. ↩