--"It is in vain that we cry to God, My _Father_, if it is
not the Spirit of love that cries."
This is described as "pernicious in practice, and offensive to pious
ears."
Proposition 54.--"It is love alone that speaks to God; it is love alone
that God hears."
This, according to the cardinals, "is scandalous, temerarious, impious,
and erroneous."
The acceptance of the Bull was a great stumbling-block to many churchmen.
Louis XIV. forced it upon the French bishops, who were entertained at a
sumptuous banquet given by the Archbishop of Strasbourg and by a large
majority decided against the Quesnelites. It is unnecessary to follow the
history of this controversy further. France was long agitated by it, and
the Church of Holland was and is excommunicate from Rome mainly on account
of its refusal to accept the Bull _Unigenitus_, which was called forth by
and so unjustly condemned Quesnel's famous book.
In connection with the history of this Bull we may mention the work of one
of its most vehement opponents, Pierre Francois le Courayer, of the order
of the canons regular of St. Augustine, who wrote a book of great interest
to English churchmen, entitled _Dissertation sur la validite des
Ordinations Anglicanes_ (Bruxelles, 1723, 2 vols., in-12). This book was
condemned and its author excommunicated. He retired to the shelter of the
Church whose right of succession he so ably defended, and died in London
in 1776.
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