Thomas Aquinas 'That if the times be hard, or the judge unequal, a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed, or mingle water with his wine, and sell for pure, so he do not lie; and yet if he does, it is no mortal sin, nor obliges him to restitution.' Emanuel Sa affirms,[1] 'That if a man lie with his intended wife before marriage, it is no sin, or a light one; nay, quinettiam expedite, si multum illa differatur—it is good to do so, if the benediction or publication of marriage be much deferred.' 'That infants in their cradles may be made priests, is the common opinion of divines and canonists,' saith Tolet;[2]?and that in their cradles they can be made bishops, saith the archdeacon and the provost;[3] and though some say the contrary, yet the other is more true, saith the cardinal. Vasques saith,[4] 'that not only an image of God, but any creature in the world, reasonable or unreasonable, may, without danger, be worshipped together with God, as his image: that we ought to adore the relics of saints, though under the form of worms; and that it is no sin to worship a ray of light in which the devil is invested, if a man supposes him to be Christ; and in the same manner, if he supposes it to be a piece of a saint, which is not, he shall not want the merit of his devotion.' And to conclude, Pope Celestine III., as Alphonsus a Castro reports himself to have seen a decretal of his to that purpose, affirmed, 'That if one of the married couple fall into heresy, the marriage is dissolved, and that the other may marry another;' and the marriage is nefarious, and they are 'irritæ nuptiæ'—'the espousals are void,'[5] if a Catholic and a heretic marry together, said the Fathers of the synod in Trullo. And though all of this be not owned generally, yet if a Roman Catholic marries a wife, that is, or shall turn heretic, he may leave her, and part bed and board, according to the doctrine taught by the canon law itself,[6] by the lawyers and divines, as appears in Covaruvius,[7] Matthias Aquarius,[8] and Bellarmine.[9]
These opinions will appear strange to Protestants, but not so to the Church of Rome; for they are taught by their great doctors, by Popes themselves, by cardinals, and the canon law, and are therefore probable, and so may be believed and practised without danger, according to the doctrine of probability.
As this is a topic of considerable importance, and those unskilled in the evasions of the Church of Rome would be led to suppose that such principles could not be advocated by any man professing the Christian religion, we will have recourse to a Roman Catholic author who has treated this subject with great clearness, ability, and success. The author is the celebrated Blaise Paschal, in his provincial letters, containing an exposure of the principles and morals of the Jesuits. In his fifth letter he delineates the doctrine of probability aa taught by the Jesuits, whose teachings are now the standard in the Roman Catholic Church, in consequence of their restoration and reception to favour,
- ↑ Aphor, tit. Debitum Conjugale, 6.
- ↑ Lib. i, c. 60.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ De Adorat., lib. iii, disp. 1, c. 2. Ibid., c. 5, sec. 33.
- ↑ Ibid., disp. 1, c. 2. Ibid., c. 3, sec. 33.
- ↑ Cap. Fin. de Conver. Conjug., c. 2, de Divertus.
- ↑ De Matrim., part ii, c. 7, sec. 5, n. 4.
- ↑ In Sent. 4, d. 39, art. 1, concol. ult.
- ↑ Lib. i, de Matrim., c. 14, sec. secundo sine consensu.
