Chapter I — The propositions condemned by the Church in the matter of faith are recounted

I.

1. An infidel who does not believe, led by a less probable opinion, will be excused of infidelity.

2. Faith is not considered to fall under a special precept and of itself.

3. It is enough to elicit an act of faith once in a lifetime.

4. If one be interrogated by the public Power, I counsel him to confess the faith openly, as glorious to God and to the faith; to keep silence I do not condemn as of itself sinful.

5. The will cannot make the assent of faith in itself more firm than the weight of the reasons impelling to assent deserves.

6. Hence one can prudently repudiate the supernatural assent which he has.

7. The assent of supernatural faith, useful to salvation, stands with a merely probable knowledge of revelation; nay, with a fear whereby one fears lest God has not spoken.

8. Only faith in one God seems necessary with the necessity of means, but not explicit faith in God as rewarder.

9. Faith broadly so called, from the testimony of creatures or a similar motive, suffices for justification.

10. A man is capable of absolution, however much he labor under ignorance of the mysteries of the faith, and even if through negligence, even culpable negligence, he know not the mystery of the most Holy Trinity and of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

11. It suffices to have believed those mysteries once.

12. Two other propositions in this matter the Gallican Clergy proscribed in the year 1730. The first is this: The Christian religion is evidently credible: for it is evident that whoever embraces it is prudent; but it is not evidently true, for either it teaches obscurely, or the things it teaches are obscure. Nay, those who say the Christian religion is evidently true must needs confess that it is evidently false. Infer hence that it is not evident: 1. That there now exists on earth any true Religion — for whence have you it that not all flesh has corrupted its way? 2. That, of all the religions on earth, the Christian is the most verisimilar — for have you traversed all lands, or do you know them to have been traversed by others? 3. That the Divinity of Christ was manifested by the Apostles and by the demons — for if you teach this, you must teach that Christ is manifestly God. 4. That the oracles of the Prophets were poured forth by the breathing of God — for what would you oppose to me, whether I deny that those were true vaticinations, or affirm them conjectures? 5. That the miracles recorded as wrought by Christ were true — although no one can prudently deny these.

The censure which the Gallican Clergy pronounced upon the aforesaid proposition is this: The doctrine contained in this proposition is impious, blasphemous, erroneous, and favors the enemies of the Christian religion.

13. The other is this: It is not evident, with moral evidence properly so called, and physical evidence, that the Christian Religion is true.

Censure: This proposition, containing doctrine consonant with the preceding proposition, is temerarious, and leads into error.

14. Purely negative infidelity, in those to whom Christ has not been preached, is a sin. It was condemned by Pius V and Gregory XIII.

15. Nothing is to be believed which exceeds the power of our intellect. The Council of Rheims condemned this proposition of Peter Abelard in the year 1148.

16. When in great sinners all love is wanting, faith also is wanting; and even if they seem to believe, it is not divine faith, but human. Similar is proposition 51 of Paschasius Quesnel.