Theological Theses · §2258 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Bellarmine: Catholics, against all the heretics, hold free choice in moral good as dogma

This is seen in Bellarmine. 'The controversy,' he says, 'is between all Catholics on one side and all the heretics of this time on the other (for on this point there is no variety of opinion either among our own or among our adversaries): whether man in the state of fallen nature has free choice in choosing moral good and avoiding evil, or, what is the same, in keeping or breaking the precepts of morals.

And all Catholics, both the old and the more recent, proclaim the affirmative as a dogma of the Catholic faith.' On free choice, book 5, chapter 13.

Latin

LI. Istud videre est apud Bellarminum. Controversia est, inquit, inter Catholicos omnes ab una parte, & Hereticos omnes hujus temporis (neque enim hac in re vel apud nostros, vel apud adversarios ulla est opinionum varietas) sitne homo in statu naturae lapsae liberi arbitrii in bono morali eligendo, & malo evitando, sive quod idem est in praeceptis morum observandis, aut praevaricandis. Et quidem Catholici omnes, tum veteres tum recentiores, tanquam dogma fidei Catholicae praedicant partem affirmantem. De libero Arbitrio lib. 5. cap. 13.

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About this text

Louis Le Blanc, a Reformed professor at Sedan, sets out theology in theses argued against Rome: Scripture, faith, grace, free choice, good works and the saints.

This volume holds the Theses on Theology I–XLIII and On Faith I–XXII, in eighteen sections.

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675) was minister and professor of theology at the Academy of Sedan, the Reformed school on France's eastern border. His Theses were disputed by students over many years and collected in a London folio (1675).

The Theological Theses range across the whole Reformed system — Scripture, God, predestination, grace, and justifying faith — in the crisp thesis-and-proof form of the seventeenth-century schools.

Date1675 AD (Sedan theses; London collection)

No modern English.

Reference

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves).

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We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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