Equity reads adversaries where they speak calmly, and softens harsh dispute-talk from better places
Those rash blurted words, born of hatred and blind passion rather than a settled judgment, our people may most justly note and press. Yet when we fix the state of any controversy, we think we should look rather to the places where they speak with a calm mind, treat the matter on purpose, and explain their Church's mind clearly and distinctly.
Not only men who plead a bad cause, but also good men set on defending the truth, often pull too far from the opposing view in the heat of dispute and are carried to the opposite shore. They imprudently urge against an adversary things that also hurt themselves, and that do not sit fully with the truth or with their own settled opinions. Our people and the Pontificii alike often notice this in the ancient Fathers of the Church, when those Fathers refute schismatics and heretics and inveigh against heresies.
Equity and candor require that words spoken so harshly and awkwardly be explained from other places where those authors speak more fitly and more in step with the truth. We do not deny that our own doctors sometimes need the same pardon and indulgence. So if we are to deal kindly and candidly with our adversaries, we judge that the same should be granted them: where they have spoken badly and falsely in one place, but well and truly in another, the earlier words should be softened and read from the later.
Latin
VIII. Porro licet ista sic temere effutita, odioque et caeco affectu, potius quam certa animi sententia prolata, justissime a nostris notentur et exagitentur: in constituendo tamen controversiae alicujus statu, respiciendum potius arbitramur ad ea loca ubi sedato animo loquuntur, et rem illam, de qua agitur, ex professo tractant, mentemque suae Ecclesiae clare et distincte explicant. Etenim, non tantum istiusmodi viris, qui malam causam agunt, sed viris quoque bonis, quibus propositum est veritatem tueri, non raro contingit ut, inter disputandum, ab adversa sententia plus nimio recedant, et deferantur in contrarias oras; eaque imprudenter proferant in adversarium, quae ipsis quoque nocent, neque cum veritate, et propriis ipsorum placitis usquequaque congruunt. Quod tam nostri quam Pontificii saepe in priscis Ecclesiae Patribus animadvertunt, dum schismaticos et haereticos confutant et in haereses invehuntur. Sed aequitas et candor exigit, ut quae ita duriter et incommode dicta sunt, explicentur ex aliis locis, ubi autores illi commodius loquuntur, et veritati magis consentanee. Neque diffitemur nostros quoque Doctores aliquando hac venia et indulgentia egere. Ideoque, ut benigne et candide agamus cum adversariis nostris, existimamus etiam hoc ipsis debere concedi, ut sicubi quaedam male et falso prolocuti sint, alibi vero bene et veritati congruenter, priora illa ex posterioribus emolliantur et intelligantur.
About this text
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu - Sedan Theological Theses, newly rendered from the 1675 London Latin. Covers De Theologia through Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII and Pars Secunda (Reformata) I-XL. Not the collected folio.
English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).
Catalogue & scope
ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.