"All that I can tell you is, in one word, that our order has defended, to the utmost of its ability, the doctrine of St.Thomas on efficacious grace.With what ardor did it oppose, from the very commencement, the doctrine of Molina? How did it labor to establish the necessity of the efficacious grace of Jesus Christ? Don't you know what happened under Clement VIIIand Paul V, and how, the former having been prevented by death, and the latter hindered by some Italian affairs from publishing his bull, our arms still sleep in the Vatican? But the Jesuits, availing themselves, since the introduction of the heresy of Luther and Calvin, of the scanty light which the people possess for discriminating between the error of these men and the truth of the doctrine of St.Thomas, disseminated their principles with such rapidity and success that they became, ere long, masters of the popular belief; while we, on our part, found ourselves in the predicament of being denounced as Calvinists and treated as the Jansenists are at present, unless we qualified the efficacious grace with, at least, the apparent avowal of a sufficient.In this extremity, what better course could we have taken for saving the truth, without losing our own credit, than by admitting the name of sufficient grace, while we denied that it was such in effect? Such is the real history of the case." This was spoken in such a melancholy tone that I really began to pity the man; not so, however, my companion."Flatter not yourselves," said he to the monk, "with having saved the truth; had she not found other defenders, in your feeble hands she must have perished.By admitting into the Church the name of her enemy, you have admitted the enemy himself.Names are inseparable from things.
If the term sufficient grace be once established, it will be vain for you to protest that you understand by it a grace which is not sufficient.Your protest will be held inadmissible.Your explanation would be scouted as odious in the world, where men speak more ingenuously about matters of infinitely less moment.The Jesuits will gain a triumph- it will be their grace, which is sufficient in fact, and not yours, which is only so in name, that will pass as established; and the converse of your creed will become an article of faith." "We will all suffer martyrdom first," cried the father, "rather than consent to the establishment of sufficient grace in the sense of the Jesuits.St.Thomas, whom we have sworn to follow even to the death, is diametrically opposed to such doctrine." To this my friend, who took up the matter more seriously than I did, replied: "Come now, father, your fraternity has received an honor which it sadly abuses.It abandons that grace which was confided to its care, and which has never been abandoned since the creation of the world.That victorious grace, which was waited for by the patriarchs, predicted by the prophets, introduced by Jesus Christ, preached by St.Paul, explained by St.Augustine, the greatest of the fathers, embraced by his followers, confirmed by St.Bernard, the last of the fathers, supported by St.Thomas, the angel of the schools, transmitted by him to your order, maintained by so many of your fathers, and so nobly defended by your monks under Popes Clement and Paul- that efficacious grace, which had been committed as a sacred deposit into your hands, that it might find, in a sacred and everlasting order, a succession of preachers, who might proclaim it to the end of time- is discarded and deserted for interests the most contemptible.It is high time for other hands to arm in its quarrel.
