第102章

If the Truth were on your side, she would fight for you- she would conquer for you; and whatever enemies you might have to encounter, "the Truth would set you free" from them, according to her promise.But you have had recourse to falsehood, for no other design than to support the errors with which you flatter the sinful children of this world, and to bolster up the calumnies with which you persecute every man of piety who sets his face against these delusions.The truth being diametrically opposed to your ends, it behooved you, to use the language of the prophet, "to put your confidence in lies."You have said: "The scourges which afflict mankind shall not come nigh unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." But what says the prophet in reply to such? "Forasmuch,"says he, "as ye have put your trust in calumny and tumult- sperastis in calumnia et in tumultu- this iniquity and your ruin shall be like that of a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is shivered in pieces"-with such violence that "there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shred to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." "Because," as another prophet says, "ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and ye have flattered and strengthened the malice of the wicked; I will therefore deliver my people out of your hands, and ye shall know that I am their Lord and yours." Yes, fathers, it is to be hoped that if you do not repent, God will deliver out of your hands those whom you have so long deluded, either by flattering them in their evil courses with your licentious maxims, or by poisoning their minds with your slanders.He will convince the former that the false rules of your casuists will not screen them from His indignation; and He will impress on the minds of the latter the just dread of losing their souls by listening and yielding credit to your slanders, as you lose yours by hatching these slanders and disseminating them through the world.Let no man be deceived;God is not mocked; none may violate with impunity the commandment which He has given us in the Gospel, not to condemn our neighbour without being well assured of his guilt.And, consequently, what profession soever of piety those may make who lend a willing ear to your lying devices, and under what pretence soever of devotion they may entertain them, they have reason to apprehend exclusion from the kingdom of God, solely for having imputed crimes of such a dark complexion as heresy and schism to Catholic priests and holy nuns, upon no better evidence than such vile fabrications as yours."The devil," says M.de Geneve, "is on the tongue of him that slanders, and in the ear of him that listens to the slanderer." "And evil speaking," says St.Bernard, "is a poison that extinguishes charity in both of the parties; so that a single calumny may prove mortal to an infinite numbers of souls, killing not only those who publish it, but all those besides by whom it is not repudiated." Reverend fathers, my letters were not wont either to be so prolix, or to follow so closely on one another.

Want of time must plead my excuse for both of these faults.The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

You know the reason of this haste better than I do.You have been unlucky in your answers.You have done well, therefore, to change your plan; but I am afraid that you will get no credit for it, and that people will say it was done for fear of the Benedictines.I have just come to learn that the person who was generally reported to be the author of your Apologies, disclaims them, and is annoyed at their having been ascribed to him.He has good reason, and I was wrong to have suspected him of any such thing;for, in spite of the assurances which I received, I ought to have considered that he was a man of too much good sense to believe your accusations, and of too much honour to publish them if he did not believe them.There are few people in the world capable of your extravagances; they are peculiar to yourselves, and mark your character too plainly to admit of any excuse for having failed to recognize your hand in their concoction.I was led away by the common report; but this apology, which would be too good for you, is not sufficient for me, who profess to advance nothing without certain proof.In no other instance have I been guilty of departing from this rule.

I am sorry for what I said.I retract it; and I only wish that you may profit by my example.