[628] Commen. ad loca de Antichrist.  Via ad pacem, p. 617.

[629] Votum pro pace, p. 750.

[630] Matt. xix. 12. 1 Cor. vii.

[631] Votum pro pace, p. 682.

[632] Ep. 647. p. 951.

[633] P. 702.

[634] Ep. 615. p. 944.

[635] Sent. des Theolog. de Hollande, p. 393.  Menagiana, t. 2. p. 298.

[636] Vin.  Grot. p. 506.

[637] Vin.  Grot. p. 505.

[638] Tom. 4. p. 180.

[639] See Vie du P. Petau, Niceron, t. 37. p. 159.

XXIII.  That which contributed to the removal of Grotius’s prejudices against the Catholic Church was undoubtedly the project he had formed of reconciling all the different parties which divide Christendom.  He saw well the necessity of having the Catholics on his side; and he flattered himself that having gained them, he would easily bring over the rest.  M. Huet did not think such a project absolutely chimerical[640]:  “The religious differences, says he, which have long disturbed the peace of Christians, are not impossible to be accommodated.  If the parties would set about it sincerely, without obstinacy or private interest, they would soon find ways of accommodation; but some of all parties are so warm, that they censure such of their own party as seek to accommodate differences, with no less severity than they do their adversaries.  With what presumptuous rigour did Rivetus the Minister treat Grotius for proposing the means of peace?  Grotius, in a modest answer, humbles his pride without naming him; humorously pointing him out by that title taken from Catullus[641], Adversus quemdam opaca quem facit bonum barba.”

M. Bayle differed from M. Huet concerning the attempt to unite the different religions:  he thinks it as great a chimera as the Philosophers stone, or the quadrature of the circle.  The truth is, to hope for success in such a project, one must suppose in all men a sincere love of truth, and a readiness to renounce their prejudices, good understandings, and upright hearts.

In this undertaking one essential thing, which must not be forgot, is, that if the Catholic Church, by a condescendance worthy of her charity and her desire that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, should remit some point of her discipline, she cannot shew this indulgence with regard to any tenet condemned by the Council of Trent, without betraying her principles:  there is therefore only one way of reunion, namely, that those who separated from the Catholic Church acknowledge that they have no argument that can justify their schism, and humbly praying to be received into the bosom of their mother, seek to obtain this favour by sacrificing their errors.