The Declarations explained away the Constitutions; and an infinite number of minute exceptions and distinctions volatilized vows and obligations into ether.
Transferring the same method to the sphere of ethics, they so wrought upon the precepts of the moral law, whether expressed in holy writ, in the ecclesiastical decrees, or in civil jurisprudence, as to deprive them of their binding force.

The subtlest elasticity had been gained for the machinery of the order by casuistical interpretation.

A like elasticity was secured for the control and government of souls by an identical process.

It was no wonder that the Jesuits became rapidly fashionable as confessors.

The plainest prohibitions were as wax in their hands.