The Provincial Letters

Blaise Pascal — translated by Thomas M’Crie (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1856), from Project Gutenberg.

Eighteen letters written anonymously and published one at a time during the Sorbonne’s proceedings against Antoine Arnauld: the first three defend the Jansenists of Port-Royal, and the rest turn on the moral theology of the Jesuits — probabilism, directing the intention, mental reservation — largely by the method of quoting it. Pascal’s own apology for them is the shortest: I have made this letter longer than usual because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

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Contents (20)

1. Letter 1. Disputes in the Sorbonne, and the Invention of Proximate Power—a Term Employed by the Jesuits to Procure the Censure of M. Arnauld
2. Letter 2
3. Reply of the Provincial to the First Two Letters
4. Letter 3
5. Letter 4
6. Letter 5
7. Letter 6
8. Letter 7. Method of Directing the Intention Adopted by the Casuists—permission to Kill in Defence of Honor and Property, Extended Even to Priests and Monks—curious Question Raised by Caramuel, as to Whether Jesuits May Be Allowed to Kill Jansenists
9. Letter 8. Corrupt Maxims of the Casuists Relating to Judges—usurers—the Contract Mohatra—bankrupts—restitution—divers Ridiculous Notions of These Same Casuists
10. Letter 9. False Worship of the Virgin Introduced by the Jesuits—devotion Made Easy—their Maxims on Ambition, Envy, Gluttony, Equivocation, and Mental Reservations—female Dress—gaming—hearing Mass
11. Letter 10. Palliatives Applied by the Jesuits to the Sacrament of Penance, in Their Maxims Regarding Confession, Satisfaction, Absolution, Proximate Occasions of Sin, Contrition, and the Love of God
12. Letter 11. Ridicule a Fair Weapon When Employed Against Absurd Opinions—rules to Be Observed in the Use of This Weapon—the Profane Buffoonery of Fathers Le Moine and Garasse
13. Letter 12
14. Letter 13. The Doctrine of Lessius on Homicide the Same with that of Valentia—how Easy it is to Pass from Speculation to Practice—why the Jesuits Have Recourse to This Distinction, and How Little it Serves for Their Vindication
15. Letter 14. In which the Maxims of the Jesuits on Murder Are Refuted from the Fathers—some of Their Calumnies Answered by the Way—and Their Doctrine Compared with the Forms Observed in Criminal Trials
16. Letter 15. Showing that the Jesuits First Exclude Calumny from Their Catalogue of Crimes, and Then Employ it in Denouncing Their Opponents
17. Letter 16
18. Letter 17. The Author of the Letters Vindicated from the Charge of Heresy—an Heretical Phantom—popes and General Councils Not Infallible in Questions of Fact
19. Letter 18. Showing Still More Plainly, on the Authority of Father Annat Himself, that There is Really No Heresy in the Church, and that in Questions of Fact We Must Be Guided by Our Senses, and Not by Authority Even of the Popes
20. Letter 19