CONFLICT   WITH   CATHOLIC   ECCLESIASTICS.  471

an  appearance  of  justification  for  these  persecutions,  Le  Tellier
begged  Pope  Clement  XI.  to  appoint  a  court  of  investigation
regarding  the  heresy  of  Quesnel,  after  the  pattern  of  the  Con-
gregatio  de  Auxiliis,  and  His  Holiness  at  once  acceded  to  this
request.  Indeed,  further,  he  nominated  as  judges  in  the  inves-
tigation none  but  adherents  of  the  Jesuits,  and  appointed  Cardinal
Fabroni,  a  bosom  friend  of  the  Society,  to  be  President  of  the
■Congregation.  But  what  put  a  crown  upon  the  affair — of  all
these  judges  only  one  single  one  of  them  understood  the  French
language,  and  they  had  to  read  a  work  written  in  French,
deliver  their  judgment  upon  it,  and  condemn  it !  In  fact,  it
was  a  colossal  comedy,  the  like  of  which  had,  indeed,  never
before  been  acted;  but  what  did  that  signify,  if  only  the  believing
world  could  be  deceived  ?

The  Congregation  thus  held  its  sittings,  and  the  member
-Aubenton,  who  understood  French,  soon  brought  it  about  that
101  propositions  of  the  Testament  of  Quesnel  were  designated
as  dangerous,  calculated  to  give  offence,  and  heretical.  Truly,
these  included  even  statements  out  of  the  Bible  itself,  as  well
as  doctrinal  propositions  of  the  holy  Augustine  and  other
orthodox  Fathers  of  the  Church.  This  was  done  without  the
learned  members  of  the  Congregation  having  any  conception
of  it,  as  they  had  not,  all  of  them,  made  much  particular  pro-
gress in  the  study  of  the  Fathers  or  of  the  Bible — but  what  did
that  also  signify  ?  SufiBce  it  to  say,  the  Jesuit  Jouvenci  con-
cocted a  Bull,  in  which  the  said  101  propositions  were  solemnly
condemned,  and,  on  the  8th  October  1713,  the  Pope  published
the  document,  which,  according  to  the  words  by  which  it  com-
mences, was  called  Unigenitus.
