Chapter XIV

Will not the Jesuits equally embarrass the Jansenists their enemies, whether they take the oath which is required, or whether they take it not? If they take it, they deprive their inveterate enemies of the hope and the pleasure of seeing them banished; if they refuse to take it, they refute, without reply, the imputation which has been so often cast upon them, of sporting with religion and with oaths? In the first case they disconcert hatred; in the second they confound calumny. Which side ought they to take? That of disconcerting hatred, and of confounding calumny both at once, in joining to the oath, which is required of them, the declaration, the substance of which is contained in the XIth Query, and of which we shall give below the formula.