Pierre Auguste Fournet

“ The following year four bishops, Soanen of Senez, Colbert of Montpellier, de la Broue of Mirepoix, and de Langle of Boulogne, appealed from the Bull Unigenitus to a future general council. Their example was followed by sixteen bishops, ninety-seven doctors of the Sorbonne, a number of cures of Paris, Oratorians, Genevievans, Benedictines of Saint-Maur, Dominicans, members of female religious orders, and even lay people. This movement extended to the provinces, but not to the universities, all of which, with the exception of Nantes and Reims, supported the Papal Bull. ”

“ The great majority voted for acceptance and counted on their side more than 100 bishops. The appelants had only 20 bishops. Clement XI knew that he must act vigorously. He had used every means of persuasion and had written to the Archbishop of Paris beseeching him to set the example of submission. He even consented to a delay. But the opposition was unyielding. It was then that the Pope published the Bull Pastoralis Officii (28 August, 1718) , in which he pronounced excommunication upon all who opposed the Bull Unigenitus. ”

“ He was indifferent to the question of doctrine, but was politic enough to see that censorious people like the appelants were no less dangerous to the State than to the Church. Moreover, his old teacher, the Abbé Dubois, now his Prime Minister, with an eye perhaps to the cardinal's hat, was in favour of peace. He caused to be composed a Corps de Doctrine (1720) explaining the Bull Unigenitus, and about one hundred prelates gave their adhesion to it. Noailles then accepted the Bull (19 November, 1720) , "following the explanations which have been approved of by a great number of French bishops." ”