ition to a learned saint whose opinions were always
considered orthodox, have both performed a hundred feats of contortion,
etc.'

371. The two courses which M. Bayle distinguishes here do not exclude a
third course, according to which the determination of the soul does not
come solely from the co-operation of all the causes distinct from the soul,
but also from the state of the soul itself and its inclinations which
mingle with the impressions of the senses, strengthening or weakening them.
Now all the internal and external causes taken together bring it about that
the soul is determined certainly, but not of necessity: for no
contradiction would be implied if the soul were to be determined
differently, it being possible for the will to be inclined, but not
possible for it to be compelled by necessity. I will not venture upon a
discussion of the difference existing between the Jansenists and the
Reformed on this matter. They are not perhaps always fully in accord [348]
with themselves as regards things, or as regards expressions, on a matter
where one often loses one's way in bewildering subtleties. Father Theophile
Raynaud, in his book entitled _Calvinismus Religio Bestiarum_, wished to
strike at the Dominicans, without naming them. On the other hand, those who
professed to be followers of St. Augustine reproached the Molinists with
Pelagianism or at the least semi-Pelagianism. Things were carried to excess
at times by both sides, whether in their defence of a vague indifference
and the granting of too much to man, or in their teaching _determinationem
ad unum secundum qualitatem actus licet non quoad ejus substantiam_, that
is to say, a determination to evil in the non-regenerate, as if they did
nothing but sin. After all, I think one must not reproach any but the
adherents of Hobbes and Spinoza with destroying freedom and contingency;
for they think that that which happens is alone possible, and must happen
by a brute geometrical necessity. Hobbes made everything material and
subjected it to mathematical laws alone; Spinoza also divested God of
intelligence and choice, leaving him a blind power, whence all emanates of
necessity. The theologians of the two Protestant parties are equally
zealous in refuting an unendurable necessity. Although those who follow the
Synod of Dordrecht teach sometimes that it suffices for freedom to be
exempt from constraint, it seems that the necessity they leave in it is
only hypothetica