Apology Against the Calumnies of the Louvain Theologians

lieved, or held, the contrary of which the Catholic Church asserts, believes, feels, and holds. If my writings are not perverted, or interpreted into a perverse sense and against my mind—which, whether it happens through ignorance or malice, I ought not to perform penance for the ignorance or malice of another, when I can show a better sense—then am I not justified? Was not King Abimelech, because he took for himself Sarah, the wife of Abraham, because he had said, "She is my sister," gravely reprimanded by God? And this scandal is not imputed to the vice of the one uttering it, Abraham, but to the one presuming, Abimelech, because he had not searched for the mind behind the words of Abraham. By which example, { Augustinus says, "The tongue is not made guilty unless the mind is guilty," and it is held in c. quaeritur. xxxij. qu. ij. It is the common opinion of the iurisperitorum jurists/legal experts, not only in those things which are of the forum animae court of the soul/conscience, but also in those which are of the quasi-court of the soul, that one must believe the declarant and the one confessing his own will. Hence, by the authority of Metianus, a law was promulgated: In ambiguous orations, one must especially look to the intent of him who has uttered them, especially toward the better part so that the matter may hold valid rather than perish. And Ulpianus in his books of the Digestorum Digests concerning judgments says thus: If someone has used an ambiguous intention or oration, that which is better for him must be accepted. And it is the general opinion of jurists that when any act can be said or done in a way where it falls into a crime or punishment, and in a way where it does not, it ought always to be interpreted so that it does not fall into it.