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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
had then produced, could not be reprinted over here, lest it should supply the Socinians with inconvenient texts. Nelson hints that the great Jesuit may have been a secret Arian, and Bull stamped upon his theory amid the grateful applause of Bossuet and his friends. Petavius was not an innovator, for the idea had long found a home among the Franciscan masters: "Proficit fides secunduln statum communem, quia secundum profectum temporum efficiebantur homines magis idonei ad percipienda et in- telligenda sacramenta fidei.-Sunt multae conclusiones necessario inclusae in articulis creditis, sed antequam sunt per Ecclesiam declaratae et explicatae non oportet quem- cumque eas credere. Oportet tamen circa eas sobrie opinari, ut scilicet homo sit paratus eas tenere pro tempore, pro quo veritas fuerit declarata." Cardinal Duperron said nearly the same thing as Petavius a generation before him: "L' Arien trouvera dans sainct lrénéc, Tertullien et autres qui nous sont restez en petit nombre de ces siècles- là, que Ie Fils est l'instrument du Père, que Ie Père a com- mandé au Fils lors qu'il a esté question de la création des choses, que Ie Père et Ie Fils sont alilJ,d et alz:ud,- choses que qui tiendroit aujourd'huy, que Ie langage de I'Eglise est plus examiné, seroit estimé pour Arien luy- mesme." All this does not serve to supply the pedigree which Newman found it so difficult to trace. Develop- ment, in those days, was an expedient, an hypothesis, and not even the thing so dear to the Oxford probabilitarians, a working hypothesis. It was not more substantial than the gleam in Robinson's farewell to the pilgrims: "I am very confident that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy word." The reason why it possessed no scientific basis is explained by Duchesne: U Ce n'est guère avant la seconde moitié du xvii e siècle qu'il devint impossible de soutenir l'authenticité des fausses décrétales, des constitutions apostoliques, des' Récognitions Clémen- tines,' du faux Ignace, du pseudo-Dionys et de l'immense fatras d'æuvres anonymes ou pseudonymes qui grossissait sou vent du tiers ou de la moitié l'héritage littéraire des auteurs les plus considérables. Qui aurait pu même
