Note 74 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal

The essential position of the Church on this point (I say essential; for, by close search, one can find texts supporting the opposite thesis, but once more the curious thing is the fact that this search should be made) seems to me defined in these lines: ‘Malebranche inclines, like Bossuet, to look upon social inequalities and injustices as the results of sin, which must be endured as such, and to which exterior conduct must conform.... We must not even attempt to remedy these injustices except by charity, for we should simply disturb the peace of the world, probably without any result. Only, we should not in our own souls attach any sort of importance to these circumstances and conditions, for the true life is not there’ (H. Joly, Malebranche, p. 262).