Chapter II — A census of propositions which seem lax, culled from the Casuists

I. "And indeed in practice I judge that absolution should never, or most rarely, be denied on account of ignorance of Christian doctrine: because ignorant rustics do not conveniently have a Teacher, and the Confessor can instruct them; nor have they any great capacity for learning. Nay (as we shall say at number 23), this perfect instruction is not necessary for absolving them." Thomas Sanchez, book 2 of the Summa, chapter 3, number 21.

Let the religious censors now weigh how unjustly they have carped at a typographical error, and out of place, since the doctrine is in very deed lax. For that passage is straightway retracted by Fr. Sanchez, and he substitutes: nay, this perfect instruction is not necessary.

II. "So long as an Infidel holds himself persuaded that his Sect is probable, although the contrary be more probable, he would indeed be bound, when placed in the article of death, to embrace the true faith, which he judges more probable — as being placed in that article in which his final salvation is at stake, and hence bound to embrace the part which he judges safer and more probable; but outside that article he is not bound, because he may still prudently think that he can persevere in his Sect, and time remains for examining the matter better. Add that the mysteries of the faith are so sublime, and Christian morals so repugnant to the laws of flesh and blood, that not any greater probability whatever is reputed sufficient to induce the obligation of believing." Thomas Sanchez, book 11 [recte 2] on the Decalogue, chapter 1, number 6; Moya, part 11, on treatise 6 of the Appendix, disputation 5, question 2. This doctrine brings Pyrrhonism into the business of Religion.

III. "That assent once had, this affirmative precept of faith of itself directly obliges no further: because on the one hand no certain and determinate time can be assigned, either by the law of Christ or by that of the Church, at which the precept of faith of itself directly obliges as to the internal act ... therefore Christ the Lord is prudently believed not to have willed to impose a precept of faith distinct of itself." Patritius Sporer, treatise 2 on the Decalogue, chapter 2, section 3, § 3.

IV. "I think that the Faithful are never of themselves and directly obliged, by the precepts of faith, to believe the mysteries either implicitly or explicitly by force of necessity." Tamburini, book 2 on the Decalogue, chapter 1, § 1, number 9.

V. "Does the precept of faith of itself oblige to an act of belief once in each year? ... I answer, certainly as more probable, that it does not oblige: because there is nothing from which such an obligation may be gathered." Leander of the Most Holy Sacrament, treatise 2 on faith, disputation 2, question 37.

VI. "I answer as more probable that this divine precept in no way obliges of itself, or by force of the precept itself, to eliciting acts of faith in the article of death: because neither reason nor any text compels one to assert the opposite." The same Leander, treatise 2 on the Decalogue, chapter 2, section 3, § 3, number 19; and others.

VII. "Nay, I think it sufficiently probable that for a great cause — for example, to avoid death, or to carry off victory from the enemy — Christians can use a garment instituted for professing a false Sect: for example, the priestly garment of the Turks, or a banner on which Mahomet is depicted." Antonio of the Holy Spirit, treatise 1, disputation 1, section 6, number 26, page 4.

VIII. "Rustics, and other simpler men in Germany, who are held for heretics, and yet are not pertinacious, can be absolved by their Parish priests. The reason is that they are not formal heretics, and have the catholic faith received in baptism, which is not lost except by erring pertinaciously." Busembaum, in La-Croix, book 2, chapter 4, doubt 3, number 5.

IX. "Even after the promulgation of the Gospel has been made, explicit knowledge of the Trinity, or of the mystery of the Incarnation, is not necessary with the necessity of means, but only of precept; and thus salvation can befall someone without his explicitly knowing that the Son of God was incarnate and suffered for us." Castropalao, Tome I, treatise 4, disputation 1, point 9, number 7.

X. "One doubting in faith with a voluntary but merely suspensive doubt is not a heretic." Torrecilla, Tome 1 of the Summa, treatise 3, disputation 1, chapter 1, section 10, number 144.

XI. "That anyone be held as a heretic in the internal forum, it is needful that he know and advert that in his opinion he proceeds against what has been defined by the Church, contemning her authority." Torrecilla, Tome 1 of the Summa, treatise 3, disputation 1, chapter 1.