XVI. have been ranged under the third class, were pub CENT. licly carried on in the century of which we are SECT. III. now writing. The others were conducted with PART 1. more secrecy and reserve, and did not come forth to public view before the following age. Nor will this appear at all surprising to those who consider that the controversies concerning grace and free will, which had been set in motion by Luther, were neither accurately examined, nor peremptorily decided, in the church of Rome, but were rather artfully suspended and hushed into silence. The sentiments of Luther were indeed condemned; but no fixed and perspicuous rule of faith, with respect to these disputed points, was substituted in their place. The decisions of St Augustin were solemnly approved; but the difference between these decisions and the sentiments of Luther were never clearly explained. The first rise of this fatal controversy was owing to the zeal of Michael Baius, a doctor in the university of Louvain, equally remarkable on account of the warmth of his piety and the extent of his learning. This eminent divine, like the other followers of Augustin, had an invincible aversion to that contentious, subtile, and intricate manner of teaching theology, that had long prevailed in the schools; and under the auspicious name of that famous prelate, who was his darling guide, he had the courage or temerity to condemn and censure, in an open and public manner, the tenets commonly received in the church of Rome, in relation to the natural powers of man, and the merit of good works. This bold step drew upon Baius the indignation of some of his academical colleagues, and the heavy censures of several Franciscan monks. Whether the Jesuits immediately joined in this opposition, and may be reckoned among the first accusers of Baius, is a matter unknown, or, at most, uncertain; but it CEN T. is unquestionably evident and certain, that, even SECT. III. at the rise of this controversy, they abhorred the PARTI principal tenets of Baius, which he had taken XVI. from Augustin, and adopted as his own. In the year 1567, this doctor was accused at the court of Rome, and seventy-six propositions, drawn from his writings, were condemned by Pope Pius V. in a circular letter expressly composed for that purpose. This condemnation, however, was issued out in an artful and insidious manner, without any mention being made of the name of the author; for the fatal consequences that had arisen from the rash and inconsiderate measures employed by the court of Rome against Luther, were too fresh in the remembrance of the prudent pontif to permit his falling into new blunders of the same nature. The thunder of excommunication was therefore suppressed by the dictates of prudence, and the person and functions of Baius were spared, while his tenets were censured. About thirteen years after this transaction, Gregory XIII, complied so far with the importunate solicitations of a Jesuit, named Tolet, as to reinforce the sentence of Pius V. by a new condemnation of the opinions of the Flemish doctor. Baius submitted to this new sentence, either from an apprehension that it would be followed by severer proceedings in case of resistance, or, which is more probable, on account of the ambiguity that reigned in the papal edict, and the vague and confused manner in which the ob noxious propositions were therein expressed. But his example, in this respect, was not followed by the other doctors who had formed their theological system upon that of Augustin [f]; and, [f] See, for an account of the disputes relating to Baius, the works of that author, published in 4to, at Cologn, in 1696, particularly the second part, or appendix, entitled, "Baiana, seu XVI. even, at this day, many divines of the Romish C EN T. communion, and particularly the Jansenists, de- SECT. III. clare openly that Baius was unjustly treated, and PARTL that the two edicts of Pius and Gregory, mentioned above, are absolutely destitute of all authority, and have never been received as laws of the church [g]. medius. XXXIX. Be that as it may, it is at least cer- Contests with the Jetain, that the doctrine of Augustin, with respect suits, Lessito the nature and operations of divine grace, lost us, and Ha none of its credit in consequence of these edicts, but was embraced and propagated, with the same zeal as formerly, throughout all the Belgic provinces, and more especially in the two flourishing universities of Louvain and Douay. This appeared very soon after, when two Jesuits, named Lessius and Hamedius, ventured to represent the doctrine of predestination in a manner different from that. in which it appears in the writings of Augustin: For the sentiments of these Jesuits were publicly condemned by the doctors of Louvain in the year 1587, and by those of Douay the year following. The bishops of the Low Countries were disposed to follow the example of these two universities, and had already deliberated about assembling a provincial council for this purpose, when the Roman pontif Sixtus V. suspended their proceedings by the interposition of his authority, and declared, that the cognizance and decision of religious controversies belonged only to the vicar of Christ, residing at Rome. But this cunning vicar, seu scripta, quæ controversias spectant occasione sententiarum CENT. vicar, whose sagacity, prudence, and knowledge Szer. I, of men and things, never failed him in transactions PART 1 of this nature, wisely avoided making use of the privilege he claimed with such confidence, that he might not inflame the divisions and animosities that were already subsisting. And accordingly, in the year 1588, this contest was finished, and the storm laid in such a manner, as that the contending parties were left in the quiet possession of their respective opinions, and solemnly prohibited from disputing, either in public or in private, upon the intricate points that had excited their divisions. Had the succeeding pontifs, instead of assuming the character of judges in this ambiguous and difficult controversy, imitated the prudence of Sixtus V. and imposed silence on the litigious doctors, who renewed afterwards the debates concerning divine grace, the tranquillity and unity of the church of Rome would not have been interrupted by such violent divisions as rage at present in its bosom [b]. The contro the Moli niste. XL. The Roman church had scarcely perceived versies with the fruits of that calm, which the prudence of Sixtus had restored, by suppressing, instead of deciding, the late controversies, when new commotions, of the saine nature, but of a much more terrible aspect, arose to disturb its tranquillity. These were occasioned by Lewis Molina [1], a Spanish [b] See Apologie Historique des deux Censures de Louvain et de Douay, par M. Gery, 1688, in 8vo. The famous Pasquer Quenel was the author of this apology, if we may give credit to the writer of a book, entitled, "Catechisme Historique et Dogmatique sur les Contestations de l'Eglise," tom. i. P. 104. See an account of this controversy in a piece entitled, "Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Controverses dans l'Eglise Romaine sur la Predestination et sur la Grace." This curious piece is to be found in the fourteenth tome of Le Clerc's Bibliotheque Universelle Historique. [] From this Spanish doctor's name proceeded the wellknown denomination of Molinists, by which those Roman-ca tholics. XVI. Spanish Jesuit, professor of divinity in the uni. CENT. versity of Ebora in Portugal, who, in the year 1588, SECT. III. published a book to shew that the operations of di- PART I. vine grace were entirely consistent with the freedom of human will [k], and who introduced a new kind of hypothesis, to remove the difficulties attending the doctrines of predestination and liberty, and to reconcile the jarring opinions of Augustinians, Thomists, Semi-Pelagians, and other contentious divines [7]. This attempt of the subtile Spanish doctor was so offensive to the Dominicans who followed St Thomas as their theological guide, that they sounded, throughout the whole kingdom of Spain, the alarm of heresy, and accused the Jesuits of endeavouring to renew the errors of Pelagius. This alarm was followed by great commotions, and all things seemed to prognosticate a general flame, when Clement VIII. in the tholics are distinguished, who seem to incline to the doctrines of grace and free-will, that are maintained in opposition to those of Augustine. Many, however, who differ widely from the sentiments of Molina, are unjustly ranked in the class of Molinists. [k] The title of this famous book is as follows: "Liberi Arbitrii Concordia cum Gratiæ donis, divina præscientia, providentia, prædestinatione, et reprobatione, auctore Lud. Mo. lina." This book was first published at Lisbon, in folio, in the year 1588. Afterwards, with additions, and in 4to, at Antwerp, Lyons, Venice, and other places, in 1595. A third edition, still farther augmented, was published at Antwerp in 1609. [/] Molina affirmed, that the decree of predestination to eternal glory was founded upon a previous knowledge and consideration of the merits of the elect; that the grace, from whose operation these merits are derived, is not efficacious by its own intrinsic power only, but also by the consent of our own' will, and because it is administered in those circumstances in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge which is called Scientia Media, foresees that it will be efficacious. The kind of prescience, denominated in the school Scientia Media, is that foreknowledge of future contingents that arises from an acquaintance with the nature and faculties of rational beings, of the circumstances in which they shall be placed, of the objects that shall be presented to them, and of the influence that these circumstances and objects must have on their actions. |