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 PHILOSOPHY AMONG THE JESUITS. 267 there was a time when no Professor who admitted the existence of atoms would have been permitted to retain his chair ; and now, without any change in the written laws of the Society, Professors every day teach that atoms exist, because the inconvenience that once was felt is felt no longer, and the prohibitory clauses have little by little been allowed to fall into desuetude. That no doctrine was ever specially imposed by the Society may seem a strange assertion to readers of MIND who recollect that not long ago (July, 1886) there appeared in the pages of this Review a notice written by one who appears to be well informed, about the order of Father Beckx, inspired by Pope Leo XIII., to teach the real dis- tinction of matter and force (or form). But this is only an exception, and the circumstances under which it took place were exceptional too. As for the liberty left in the Society to all doctrines by which the Church did not seem en- dangered, it is sufficient to notice the decree of the thir- teenth General Congregation, that runs as follows : " It has been reported to the Congregation that some are persuaded that the Society has taken on itself expressly to defend the opinion of those doctors who hold that it is allowable to follow the less probable opinion of two, which favours liberty of action, and set aside the more probable one, according to which one is morally obliged to act. The Congregation has thought fit to declare that the Society has neither forbidden nor forbids the contrary opinion to be defended by all those who think it more likely to be true." 1 Here we find the very Society that has so often defended Probabilism, and had so many awkward thrusts to parry on its account, so much so, that the Jesuits are perhaps better known as Probabilists than as followers of Molina, declar- ing that any of its members are perfectly free to defend the contrary opinion ! This is, I think, a strong enough proof of my assertion that the general rule of the Order was only to exercise a negative and temporary supervision over the doctrines taught by its Professors. Father Acquaviva indeed 2 tried to impose on the Society the doctrine of Suarez in the question of Grace and Free-will, midway between Molina and the Thomists. But here he did not succeed, and was not approved by the following General Congrega- tion. Many details too, of Molina's system, have been rejected by the majority of Jesuit philosophers. Molina 1 IS Congr. Gen. Deer, xviii., 1687. 2 So I was told by a Jesuit of some note, but I have not been able to find any trace of the fact in the decrees of the General Congregations.