Well, now, I suppose I may consider myself master of this chapter of morals;and I see perfectly that, with the exception of ecclesiastics, nobody need refrain from killing those who injure them in their property or reputation.""What say you?" exclaimed the monk."Do you, then, suppose that it would be reasonable that those, who ought of all men to be most respected, should alone be exposed to the insolence of the wicked? Our fathers have provided against that disorder; for Tanner declares that 'Churchmen, and even monks, are permitted to kill, for the purpose of defending not only their lives, but their property, and that of their community.' Molina, Escobar, Becan, Reginald, Layman, Lessius, and others, hold the same language.Nay, according to our celebrated Father Lamy, priests and monks may lawfully prevent those who would injure them by calumnies from carrying their ill designs into effect, by putting them to death.Care, however, must always be taken to direct the intention properly.His words are: 'An ecclesiastic or a monk may warrantably kill a defamer who threatens to publish the scandalous crimes of his community, or his own crimes, when there is no other way of stopping him; if, for instance, he is prepared to circulate his defamations unless promptly despatched.For, in these circumstances, as the monk would be allowed to kill one who threatened to take his life, he is also warranted to kill him who would deprive him of his reputation or his property, in the same way as the men of the world.'" "I was not aware of that," said I; "in fact, I have been accustomed simply enough to believe the very reverse, without reflecting on the matter, in consequence of having heard that the Church had such an abhorrence of bloodshed as not even to permit ecclesiastical judges to attend in criminal cases." "Never mind that," he replied; "our Father Lamy has completely proved the doctrine I have laid down, although, with a humility which sits uncommonly well on so great a man, he submits it to the judgement of his judicious readers.Caramuel, too, our famous champion, quoting it in his Fundamental Theology, p.543.thinks it so certain, that he declares the contrary opinion to be destitute of probability, and draws some admirable conclusions from it, such as the following, which he calls 'the conclusion of conclusions- conclusionum conclusio': 'That a priest not only may kill a slanderer, but there are certain circumstances in which it may be his duty to do so- etiam aliquando debet occidere.'
He examines a great many new questions on this principle, such as the following, for instance: 'May the Jesuits kill the Jansenists?'" "A curious point of divinity that, father! " cried I."I hold the Jansenists to be as good as dead men, according to Father Lamy's doctrine." "There, now, you are in the wrong," said the monk: "Caramuel infers the very reverse from the same principles." "And how so, father?" "Because," he replied, "it is not in the power of the Jansenists to injure our reputation.'The Jansenists,'
says he, 'call the Jesuits Pelagians, may they not be killed for that?
No; inasmuch as the Jansenists can no more obscure the glory of the Society than an owl can eclipse that of the sun; on the contrary, they have, though against their intention, enhanced it- occidi non possunt, quia nocere non potuerunt.'" "Ha, father! do the lives of the Jansenists, then, depend on the contingency of their injuring your reputation? If so, I reckon them far from being in a safe position; for supposing it should be thought in the slightest degree probable that they might do you some mischief, why, they are killable at once! You have only to draw up a syllogism in due form, and, with a direction of the intention, you may despatch your man at once with a safe conscience.Thrice happy must those hot spirits be who cannot bear with injuries, to be instructed in this doctrine! But woe to the poor people who have offended them! Indeed, father, it would be better to have to do with persons who have no religion at all than with those who have been taught on this system.For, after all, the intention of the wounder conveys no comfort to the wounded.The poor man sees nothing of that secret direction of which you speak; he is only sensible of the direction of the blow that is dealt him.And I am by no means sure but a person would feel much less sorry to see himself brutally killed by an infuriated villain than to find himself conscientiously stilettoed by a devotee.To be plain with you, father, I am somewhat staggered at all this;and these questions of Father Lamy and Caramuel do not please me at all.""How so?" cried the monk."Are you a Jansenist?" "I have another reason for it," I replied."You must know I am in the habit of writing from time to time, to a friend of mine in the country, all that I can learn of the maxims of your doctors.Now, although I do no more than simply report and faithfully quote their own words, yet I am apprehensive lest my letter should fall into the hands of some stray genius who may take into his head that I have done you injury, and may draw some mischievous conclusion from your premisses." "Away!" cried the monk; "no fear of danger from that quarter, I'll give you my word for it.Know that what our fathers have themselves printed, with the approbation of our superiors, it cannot be wrong to read nor dangerous to publish." I write you, therefore, on the faith of this worthy father's word of honour.But, in the meantime, I must stop for want of paper- not of passages; for I have got as many more in reserve, and good ones too, as would require volumes to contain them.I am, &c.The Provincial Letters of Blaise Pascal
