Vorstius, the successor of Arminius as Professor of Theology at
Leyden, was not so happy. His book, _Tractatus de Deo, seu de natura et
attributis Dei_ (Steinfurti, 1610, in-4), aroused the vengeance of the
Gomarists, and brought about the loss of his professorship and his
banishment from Holland; but any injustice might have been expected from
that extraordinary Synod, where theology was mystified, religion
disgraced, and Christianity outraged. [Footnote: Cf. _Church in the
Netherlands_, by P.H. Ditchfield, chap. xvii.]
Few books have created such a sensation in the world or aroused so
prolonged a controversy as _Les Reflexions Morales_ of Pasquier Quesnel,
published in 1671. The full title of the work is _Le Nouveau Testament en
Francais, avec des reflexions morales sur chaque verset_ (Paris, 1671, i
vol., in-12), _pour les quatre Evangiles seulement_. Praslard was the
publisher. In 1693 and 1694 appeared another edition, containing his
_reflexions morales_, not only on the Gospels, but also on the Acts and
the Epistles. Many subsequent editions have appeared. Not only France, but
the whole of the Western Church was agitated by it, and its far-reaching
effects have hardly yet passed away. It caused its author a long period of
incarceration; it became a weapon in the hands of the Jesuits to hurl at
the Jansenists, and the Papal Bull pronounced against it was the cause of
the separation of a large body of the faithful from the communion of the
Roman Church.
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