The Jansenists' Manuale Catholicorum: freedom does not consist in indifference
Those who call themselves disciples of Augustine, and whom their opponents call Jansenists, took up this doctrine of Jansenius and still hold it. This can be seen in their book entitled Manual of Catholics, in the twenty-first apologetic and doctrinal thesis.
They write there: 'The essence of freedom in no way consists in indifference. For the holy Fathers say, Where there is will, there is freedom. Free choice, according to St Prosper, is the spontaneous appetite for a thing that pleases one. And according to St John of Damascus, freedom of choice is nothing other than the will.'
A little later they add: 'What is done voluntarily is done freely, even if it is done necessarily, for God loves himself necessarily and yet freely.' And again: 'Only the necessity of compulsion or violence, then, is incompatible with freedom, not simple necessity, unchangeable necessity, or the necessity of natural inclination.'
Latin
XXXV. Atque hanc Jansenii doctrinam amplexi sunt, & etiamnum amplectuntur qui se discipulos Augustini vocant, & ab adversariis dicuntur Jansenistae, ut videre est in libro cui titulum fecerunt, Manuale Catholicorum, Thesi Apologetica & dogmatica Vigesima prima. Ubi haec sunt eorum verba, Essentia libertatis nullo modo consistit in indifferentia. Nam ex Sanctis Patribus, Ubi voluntas ibi libertas. Est enim Liberum Arbitrium ex Sancto Prospero, Rei sibi placitae Spontaneus appetitus. Et ex S. Damasceno Arbitrii Libertas nihil aliud est quam voluntas. Et Paulo post, Quod voluntarie fit, etiamsi necessario fiat, libere tamen fit. Deus namque seipsum necessario amat, & tamen libere. Item, sola itaque necessitas coactionis, aut violentiae repugnat Libertati, non autem necessitas simplex, immutabilis, seu naturalis inclinationis.