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Project and Program Management
Project and Program Management
A Competency-Based Approach,
Fourth Edition
By Mitchell L. Springer
Dr. Mitchell L. Springer currently serves as an executive director for Purdue University’s Polytechnic Insti-
tute located in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has over thirty-five years of theoretical and defense industry-based
practical experience from four disciplines: software engineering, systems engineering, program manage-
ment, and human resources. Dr. Springer possesses a significant strength in pattern recognition, analyzing,
and improving organizational systems. He is internationally recognized, has contributions to scholarship of
nearly 300 books, articles, presentations, editorials, and reviews on software development methodologies,
management, organizational change, and program management. Dr. Springer sits on many university and
community boards and advisory committees. He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, most
recently the Indiana Council for Continuing Education Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. Dr. Springer
is the president of the Indiana Council for Continuing Education as well as the past chair of the Continuing
Professional Development Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Dr. Springer received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Purdue University, his MBA
and doctorate in adult and community education with a cognate in executive development from Ball State
University. He is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Senior Professional in Human
Resources (SPHR & SHRM-SCP) in Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), and in civil and domestic media-
tion. Dr. Springer is a State of Indiana Registered domestic mediator.
Contents
• xix
“. . . for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to
your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you”
Proverbs 2:10-11
Introduction
The first edition of this text evolved from nearly 17 years of research, teaching, and writing. It came to be
through an iterative process of understanding the research and development phases of the program/proj-
ect management life-cycle of major system product development. The text began with a basic underlying
understanding and desire to write about program planning, that being the pre-contract award period of the
overarching process for managing programs.
Program Planning was written in 1995. It dealt primarily with the program/project management plan-
ning process; again, that being prior to a contract being awarded. It identified a process made up of a series
of activities, each with its own attendant products. Back in 1995, the whole discipline of program and proj-
ect management was just starting to evolve into a recognized and accepted discipline. Now, it can be readily
argued that program/project management has been around since the beginning of time, and in fact the most
widely recognized credentialing authority, the Project Management Institute, has been around since 1959.
The Defense Systems Management College has equally been around since that time. But, program and
project management as a recognized and essential discipline didn’t really begin to proliferate in literature
until around 1995.
Program Planning defined a planning process with multiple time-phased, semi-sequential activities
and their attendant products. In retrospect, although somewhat narrow in perspective, the book covered the
basics of the quantitative aspects of program/project management. Through teaching program/project man-
agement in multiple universities, primarily to working professionals and graduate students, came the real-
ization that a text for planning programs that was entirely quantitatively focused was insufficient. It became
clear that the actual practice of program/project management, if taught correctly, needed to include more
than the quantitative component; it also needed to include the peripheral disciplines and concepts. This
more thorough understanding, evolving from actual teaching experience, led to Program Management: A
Comprehensive Overview of the Discipline. This book gained recognition internationally and was published
in seven countries around the world. Interestingly enough, the title itself brought many questions. How can
something be a comprehensive overview? Can’t something be less than a comprehensive overview? It was
the breadth of the discipline that was gaining the breadth of discussion.
Again, as before, it was the numerous and varied disciplines as represented by the students that led to
the natural conclusion that my defense industry background had caused the use of a very defense industry-
specific set of terminology and an unnecessarily complex process. The terminology, process, and practice as
defined and implemented in the defense industry is the most complex in any industry and certainly doesn’t
lend itself readily to assimilation from those not in the more acronym-oriented defense industry. What was
needed was a much simpler overview and discussion of the process and products themselves. To this end,
A Concise Guide to Program Management evolved.
The value of A Concise Guide to Program Management was that the process and products were dis-
cussed in terms of a much simpler industry, one oriented toward something with which a large number of
students had at least some familiarity: home building. This book, then, focused on describing program/proj-
ect management from a commercial perspective, versus the previous attempts at describing the discipline
from a defense-oriented perspective.
To summarize, at the time of A Concise Guide to Program Management, experience with students had
led to an enlarged writing perspective from simply planning programs to describing the comprehensive
nature of program/project management to describing program/project management from a commercially
oriented perspective. Through additional teaching, it was discovered that students preferred to actually have
a little of the defense perspective, with a more detailed discussion involving the commercial perspective. In
this sense, both books served to more completely define the program/project management process, such that
a more comprehensive understanding could be attained. This was good and would prove to be the winning
combination for maximum assimilation and subsequent application.
• 1
2 • Introduction
What is left then to write about on this topic? The answer: another perspective that entails the work pre-
viously discussed and now formalizes the knowledge into a structure that allows the exhibition of behaviors
believed to be required for success as program managers of the future. In other words, we need a model of
competencies premised on behaviors that entail the concepts presented in previous work around planning
and other interrelated disciplines: a competency-based approach.
Aren’t there already books on competency-based approaches to program/project management? The
answer is yes, but they do not include the breadth of discussion required to fully understand the discipline.
Other books on competency-based approaches to program/project management simply discuss what the
authors feel are required competencies, and not all authors agree.
What differentiated the first edition of this book from other competency-based perspectives, then, was
that the book rounded-out the discussion on competencies required for future program/project management
success by incorporating the more complex discussion already evolved and expanded on in previous works
on planning and the interrelatedness of peripheral disciplines. The first edition of this book used a broader
stroke to paint a more complete perspective of not only the process and products identified to be the pro-
gram/project management process, but equally, placed these elements into a competency-based framework,
which could then be tied directly to a competency model and subsequent training.
The second edition of Project and Program Management: A Competency-Based Approach really took
the first edition to a new level. To begin with, through years of teaching and writing, there were a number of
new chapters, significant expansion of existing ones, and a major shuffling of the order of the material. This
revision had expanded and new chapters recognizing the qualitative significance of the discipline—this idea
coming directly from the students. Additionally, the many students over the years have helped to evolve a
much greater understanding of the competencies required to be a successful program/project manager. This
effort was reflected through 315 references to 107 unique companies. Where within those 107 unique com-
panies, there are a total of 54 unique behaviors identified; across those 54 unique behaviors, there are 229
unique skills, where each behavior had two or more skills, and on average around four skills per behavior.
The work provided significant insight into the business and industrial perspective of what constitutes a well-
rounded program/project manager.
The quantitative chapters, those dealing directly with the program/project management process, ac-
tivities, and outcomes (products), had been refined to bring together the non-jargon-oriented commercial
perspective, then followed by what may be termed a deeper dive. This more detailed perspective provided
insight into the complexities of each activity and attendant outputs. The deeper dive is for those who wish
a more thorough understanding and the challenges that might arise from a large-scale implementation of
the process.
The new qualitative chapters included material dealing with disruptive technologies, leadership and
gender, succession planning, change management, and, perhaps most excitedly, providing an insight into
what it means to capitalize on the world’s collective knowledge. As before, all of these chapters were re-
searched, taught on more than one occasion, and suggested by the many students to be part of this revised
edition.
Included in the second edition was a chapter summarizing the entire program/project management
process outputs by identifying in a concise manner the ordered outputs from the many process activities.
This chapter, as others, was highly regarded and recommended by the students. It brought together the
quantitative discussion from applicable chapters into one brief chapter, with reference to other chapters for
further understanding.
Lastly, the material had been significantly restructured and reorganized. To better integrate the qualita-
tive and quantitative material, the students felt the new organization presented in the revised second edition
supported a greater perceptual flow, which in the end enhanced student understanding and assimilation.
The third edition of Project and Program Management: A Competency-Based Approach expanded on
the second edition in every chapter, bringing fresh and updated insight gained from the continuation of
Introduction • 3
teaching and research. Additionally, the third edition delved deeper into the qualitative nature of program/
project management. It opened the aperture further than previous editions by following paths of logic rela-
tive to the new student learner and in particular professional working adult learners in the multifaceted
discipline of program/project management.
This fourth edition has been again significantly revised, with every chapter being impacted. When we
discuss the qualitative nature of program/project management—that is, the art form of the discipline—
the literature proliferates at an unparalleled pace. Our understanding of generational cohorts continues to
evolve in real-time with extensive research from numerous credible institutions and organizations. Further,
our understanding of the connectedness of our one world sheds nearly daily light on our international
interactions—socially, politically, technologically, and in every other way. Each of these many changes,
coupled with advances in PM technologies and real-world applications, provides a rich basis for furthering
our understanding of the complexities when managing our many programs and projects. This fourth edition
considers the magnitude of these many changes and their impact on each of the chapters of this book. Not
forgotten are the many inputs from the numerous students who continue to bring to the forefront their cur-
rent real-world practices; this across their many represented businesses, industries, and disciplines. These
are perhaps the most important of considerations when comparing previous material to current-day realities.
Chapter 1
• 5
6 • Chapter 1
Socially rooted competencies are more subjective as defined by Frame. He writes, “They focus on
abilities such as good judgment and human relations skills. Task leaders who are able to mediate conflicts
on their teams possess some measure of socially rooted competence, as do project managers who can moti-
vate borrowed resources to put in needed extra hours of work and technical workers who display sensitivity
to their customers need” (p. 6).
The last category of program/project management competencies are business-judgment competencies.
These are “tied to the ability of individuals to make decisions to consistently serve the best business inter-
est of the organization. People who are strong in this area are able to assess the risks and rewards associ-
ated with decisions they are about to make. They look beyond the immediate impact of their decisions and
understand their opportunity costs. Although they recognize the importance of establishing and following
good methods and procedures for the effective functioning of the organization, they do not behave like
mindless bureaucrats. When they see an opportunity to improve the business performance, they seize it,
even when it lies outside the realm of business procedures” (p. 6).
Harold Kerzner, in his 2009, tenth edition book entitled Project Management: A Systems Approach to
Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, defines ten skills he believes project managers must possess to be
effective in their pursuits. These ten skills are:
Team building
Leadership
Conflict resolution
Technical expertise
Planning
Organization
Entrepreneurship
Administration
Management support
Resource allocation
Kerzner goes on to say that “it is important the personal management style underlying these skills
facilitate the integration of multidisciplinary program resources for synergistic operation. The days of the
manager who gets by with technical expertise alone or pure administrative skills are gone” (p. 905).
Others, and there are many, have separated a program/project manager’s competencies into two cat-
egories of leadership and those specific to program/project management, although there seems to be much
confusion on a common set of defined competencies. Others have added the following competencies, some
derived from the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) definitions:
Strategic thinking
Customer focus
Business alignment
Domain knowledge
Decision making
Ethical behavior
Self-management
Global awareness
Risk and opportunity management
Program planning and execution
Over the last thirty-plus years of teaching program/project management, professional working adult
learners have been asked to build competency models in much the same manner as is being described here.
They were asked to visit online organizations, download their respective competency model for program/
project managers, and then compare and contrast their findings. Ultimately, they have been asked to create
Program/Project Management Competencies • 7
their own version of a “good” competency model from their research findings and their own personal expe-
riences. Below are the guidelines provided to students for these many papers.
Something most interesting in figure 1.1 is that qualitative behaviors outnumber quantitative behaviors
significantly. In fact, depending on how one wishes to argue it, there appears to be 17 qualitative behaviors
to just three quantitative ones; in other words, 85 percent of the behaviors of the top researched companies
believe qualitative behaviors are at least as important as quantitative, and from the data, more so.
When most of us become program/project managers, we are given key training on the tools and tech-
niques that enable us to monitor our cost, schedule, and technical performance baseline. In other words, we
are taught about: (1) scheduling techniques; the differences between Gantt charts and network diagrams,
(2) earned value; how to compare a program’s actual cost to credit earned for work performed and baseline
cost, and perhaps (3) we may be indoctrinated into the organization’s departmental budgeting process. Most
all of these, as one would notice, are quantitative measures, which while essential, are arguably not the en-
tirety of what is required for successful program/project management.
To provide an example premised on the findings from the above research, I’d like to share a story.
Earlier in my career, I was working on a program as the software engineering manager. We were a sub-
contractor to a larger prime contractor located in the southern United States. At this particular point in our
relationship with this prime contractor, the program manager, contracts manager, marketing manager, and I
(the software engineering manager) were flying down to see our prime for what is termed fact finding. Fact
finding is the process a prime contractor goes through with a subcontractor to determine appropriateness of
the subcontractor’s cost basis for the subcontractor’s bid to do their portion of the job.
After some number of hours and numerous discussions on the many line items that formed the basis of
our bid, we stumbled onto a particular document that we felt would take five months of a single person’s
time to complete. The prime, our customer, felt it should only take two months to complete. After what ap-
peared to be a standstill, their contract manager stood up and said, “We don’t think you are negotiating in
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spoken—a work in which he shows quite another spirit from that
which appears in his former compilation from your four-and-twenty
elders. At that time he thought that there might be opinions
probable in speculation, which might not be safe in practice; but he
has now come to form an opposite judgment, and has, in this, his
latest work, confirmed it. Such is the wonderful growth attained by
the doctrine of probability in general, as well as by every probable
opinion in particular, in the course of time. Attend, then, to what he
says: “I cannot see how it can be that an action which seems
allowable in speculation should not be so likewise in practice;
because what may be done in practice depends on what is found to
be lawful in speculation, and the things differ from each other only
as cause and effect. Speculation is that which determines to action.
Whence it follows that opinions probable in speculation may be followed
with a safe conscience in practice, and that even with more safety than
those which have not been so well examined as matters of
speculation.”[250]
Verily, fathers, your friend Escobar reasons uncommonly well
sometimes; and, in point of fact, there is such a close connection
between speculation and practice, that when the former has once
taken root, you have no difficulty in permitting the latter, without any
disguise. A good illustration of this we have in the permission “to kill
for a buffet,” which, from being a point of simple speculation, was
boldly raised by Lessius into a practice “which ought not easily to be
allowed;” from that promoted by Escobar to the character of “an
easy practice;” and from thence elevated by your fathers of Caen, as
we have seen, without any distinction between theory and practice,
into a full permission. Thus you bring your opinions to their full
growth very gradually. Were they presented all at once in their
finished extravagance, they would beget horror; but this slow
imperceptible progress gradually habituates men to the sight of
them, and hides their offensiveness. And in this way the permission
to murder, in itself so odious both to Church and State, creeps first
into the Church, and then from the Church into the State.
A similar success has attended the opinion of “killing for slander,”
which has now reached the climax of a permission without any
distinction. I should not have stopped to quote my authorities on
this point from your writings, had it not been necessary in order to
put down the effrontery with which you have asserted, twice over, in
your fifteenth Imposture, “that there never was a Jesuit who
permitted killing for slander.” Before making this statement, fathers,
you should have taken care to prevent it from coming under my
notice, seeing that it is so easy for me to answer it. For, not to
mention that your fathers Reginald, Filiutius, and others, have
permitted it in speculation, as I have already shown, and that the
principle laid down by Escobar leads us safely on to the practice, I
have to tell you that you have authors who have permitted it in so
many words, and among others Father Hereau in his public lectures,
on the conclusion of which the king put him under arrest in your
house, for having taught, among other errors, that when a person
who has slandered us in the presence of men of honor, continues to
do so after being warned to desist, it is allowable to kill him, not
publicly, indeed, for fear of scandal, but IN A PRIVATE WAY—sed clam.
I have had occasion already to mention Father Lamy, and you do
not need to be informed that his doctrine on this subject was
censured in 1649 by the University of Louvain.[251] And yet two
months have not elapsed since your Father Des Bois maintained this
very censured doctrine of Father Lamy, and taught that “it was
allowable for a monk to defend the honor which he acquired by his
virtue, EVEN BY KILLING the person who assails his reputation—etiam
cum morte invasoris;” which has raised such a scandal in that town,
that the whole of the curés united to impose silence on him, and to
oblige him, by a canonical process, to retract his doctrine. The case
is now pending in the Episcopal court.
What say you now, fathers? Why attempt, after that, to maintain
that “no Jesuit ever held that it was lawful to kill for slander?” Is
anything more necessary to convince you of this than the very
opinions of your fathers which you quote, since they do not
condemn murder in speculation, but only in practice, and that, too,
“on account of the injury that might thereby accrue to the State?”
And here I would just beg to ask, whether the whole matter in
dispute between us is not simply and solely to ascertain if you have
or have not subverted the law of God which condemns murder? The
point in question is, not whether you have injured the
commonwealth, but whether you have injured religion. What
purpose, then, can it serve, in a dispute of this kind, to show that
you have spared the State, when you make it apparent, at the same
time, that you have destroyed the faith? Is this not evident from
your saying that the meaning of Reginald, on the question of killing
for slanders, is, “that a private individual has a right to employ that
mode of defence, viewing it simply in itself?” I desire nothing beyond
this concession to confute you. “A private individual,” you say, “has a
right to employ that mode of defence” (that is, killing for slanders),
“viewing the thing in itself;” and, consequently, fathers, the law of
God, which forbids us to kill, is nullified by that decision.
It serves no purpose to add, as you have done, “that such a mode
is unlawful and criminal, even according to the law of God, on
account of the murders and disorders which would follow in society,
because the law of God obliges us to have regard to the good of
society.” This is to evade the question: for there are two laws to be
observed—one forbidding us to kill, and another forbidding us to
harm society. Reginald has not, perhaps, broken the law which
forbids us to do harm to society; but he has most certainly violated
that which forbids us to kill. Now this is the only point with which we
have to do. I might have shown, besides, that your other writers,
who have permitted these murders in practice, have subverted the
one law as well as the other. But, to proceed, we have seen that you
sometimes forbid doing harm to the State; and you allege that your
design in that is to fulfil the law of God, which obliges us to consult
the interests of society. That may be true, though it is far from being
certain, as you might do the same thing purely from fear of the civil
magistrate. With your permission, then, we shall scrutinize the real
secret of this movement.
Is it not certain, fathers, that if you had really any regard to God,
and if the observance of his law had been the prime and principal
object in your thoughts, this respect would have invariably
predominated in all your leading decisions, and would have engaged
you at all times on the side of religion? But if it turns out, on the
contrary, that you violate, in innumerable instances, the most sacred
commands that God has laid upon men, and that, as in the instances
before us, you annihilate the law of God, which forbids these actions
as criminal in themselves, and that you only scruple to approve of
them in practice, from bodily fear of the civil magistrate, do you not
afford us ground to conclude that you have no respect to God in
your apprehensions, and that if you yield an apparent obedience to
his law, in so far as regards the obligation to do no harm to the
State, this is not done out of any regard to the law itself, but to
compass your own ends, as has ever been the way with politicians
of no religion?
What, fathers! will you tell us that, looking simply to the law of
God, which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” we have a right to kill for
slanders? And after having thus trampled on the eternal law of God,
do you imagine that you atone for the scandal you have caused, and
can persuade us of your reverence for him, by adding that you
prohibit the practice for State reasons, and from dread of the civil
arm? Is not this, on the contrary, to raise a fresh scandal?—I mean
not by the respect which you testify for the magistrate; that is not
my charge against you, and it is ridiculous in you to banter, as you
have done, on this matter. I blame you, not for fearing the
magistrate, but for fearing none but the magistrate. And I blame you
for this, because it is making God less the enemy of vice than man.
Had you said that to kill for slander was allowable according to men,
but not according to God, that might have been something more
endurable; but when you maintain, that what is too criminal to be
tolerated among men, may yet be innocent and right in the eyes of
that Being who is righteousness itself, what is this but to declare
before the whole world, by a subversion of principle as shocking in
itself as it is alien to the spirit of the saints, that while you can be
braggarts before God, you are cowards before men?
Had you really been anxious to condemn these homicides, you
would have allowed the commandment of God which forbids them to
remain intact; and had you dared at once to permit them, you would
have permitted them openly, in spite of the laws of God and men.
But your object being to permit them imperceptibly, and to cheat the
magistrate, who watches over the public safety, you have gone
craftily to work. You separate your maxims into two portions. On the
one side, you hold out “that it is lawful in speculation to kill a man
for slander;”—and nobody thinks of hindering you from taking a
speculative view of matters. On the other side, you come out with
this detached axiom, “that what is permitted in speculation is also
permissible in practice;”—and what concern does society seem to
have in this general and metaphysical-looking proposition? And thus
these two principles, so little suspected, being embraced in their
separate form, the vigilance of the magistrate is eluded; while it is
only necessary to combine the two together, to draw from them the
conclusion which you aim at—namely, that it is lawful in practice to
put a man to death for a simple slander.
It is, indeed, fathers, one of the most subtle tricks of your policy,
to scatter through your publications the maxims which you club
together in your decisions. It is partly in this way that you establish
your doctrine of probabilities, which I have frequently had occasion
to explain. That general principle once established, you advance
propositions harmless enough when viewed apart, but which, when
taken in connection with that pernicious dogma, become positively
horrible. An example of this, which demands an answer, may be
found in the 11th page of your “Impostures,” where you allege that
“several famous theologians have decided that it is lawful to kill a
man for a box on the ear.” Now, it is certain, that if that had been
said by a person who did not hold probabilism, there would be
nothing to find fault with in it; it would in this case amount to no
more than a harmless statement, and nothing could be elicited from
it. But you, fathers, and all who hold that dangerous tenet, “that
whatever has been approved by celebrated authors is probable and
safe in conscience,” when you add to this “that several celebrated
authors are of opinion that it is lawful to kill a man for a box on the
ear,” what is this but to put a dagger into the hand of all Christians,
for the purpose of plunging it into the heart of the first person that
insults them, and to assure them that, having the judgment of so
many grave authors on their side, they may do so with a perfectly
safe conscience?
What monstrous species of language is this, which, in announcing
that certain authors hold a detestable opinion, is at the same time
giving a decision in favor of that opinion—which solemnly teaches
whatever it simply tells! We have learnt, fathers, to understand this
peculiar dialect of the Jesuitical school; and it is astonishing that you
have the hardihood to speak it out so freely, for it betrays your
sentiments somewhat too broadly. It convicts you of permitting
murder for a buffet, as often as you repeat that many celebrated
authors have maintained that opinion.
This charge, fathers, you will never be able to repel; nor will you
be much helped out by those passages from Vasquez and Suarez
that you adduce against me, in which they condemn the murders
which their associates have approved. These testimonies, disjoined
from the rest of your doctrine, may hoodwink those who know little
about it; but we, who know better, put your principles and maxims
together. You say, then, that Vasquez condemns murders; but what
say you on the other side of the question, my reverend fathers?
Why, “that the probability of one sentiment does not hinder the
probability of the opposite sentiment; and that it is warrantable to
follow the less probable and less safe opinion, giving up the more
probable and more safe one.” What follows from all this taken in
connection, but that we have perfect freedom of conscience to adopt
any one of these conflicting judgments which pleases us best? And
what becomes of all the effect which you fondly anticipate from your
quotations? It evaporates in smoke, for we have no more to do than
to conjoin for your condemnation the maxims which you have
disjoined for your exculpation. Why, then, produce those passages of
your authors which I have not quoted, to qualify those which I have
quoted, as if the one could excuse the other? What right does that
give you to call me an “impostor?” Have I said that all your fathers
are implicated in the same corruptions? Have I not, on the contrary,
been at pains to show that your interest lay in having them of all
different minds, in order to suit all your purposes? Do you wish to kill
your man?—here is Lessius for you. Are you inclined to spare him?—
here is Vasquez. Nobody need go away in ill humor—nobody without
the authority of a grave doctor. Lessius will talk to you like a Heathen
on homicide, and like a Christian, it may be, on charity. Vasquez,
again, will descant like a Heathen on charity, and like a Christian on
homicide. But by means of probabilism, which is held both by
Vasquez and Lessius, and which renders all your opinions common
property, they will lend their opinions to one another, and each will
be held bound to absolve those who have acted according to
opinions which each of them has condemned. It is this very variety,
then, that confounds you. Uniformity, even in evil, would be better
than this. Nothing is more contrary to the orders of St. Ignatius[252]
and the first generals of your Society, than this confused medley of
all sorts of opinions, good and bad. I may, perhaps, enter on this
topic at some future period; and it will astonish many to see how far
you have degenerated from the original spirit of your institution, and
that your own generals have foreseen that the corruption of your
doctrine on morals might prove fatal, not only to your Society, but to
the Church universal.[253]
Meanwhile, I repeat that you can derive no advantage from the
doctrine of Vasquez. It would be strange, indeed, if, out of all the
Jesuits that have written on morals, one or two could not be found
who may have hit upon a truth which has been confessed by all
Christians. There is no glory in maintaining the truth, according to
the Gospel, that it is unlawful to kill a man for smiting us on the
face; but it is foul shame to deny it. So far, indeed, from justifying
you, nothing tells more fatally against you than the fact that, having
doctors among you who have told you the truth, you abide not in
the truth, but love the darkness rather than the light. You have been
taught by Vasquez that it is a heathen, and not a Christian, opinion
to hold that we may knock down a man for a blow on the cheek;
and that it is subversive both of the Gospel and of the decalogue to
say that we may kill for such a matter. The most profligate of men
will acknowledge as much. And yet you have allowed Lessius,
Escobar, and others, to decide, in the face of these well-known
truths, and in spite of all the laws of God against manslaughter, that
it is quite allowable to kill a man for a buffet!
What purpose, then, can it serve to set this passage of Vasquez
over against the sentiment of Lessius, unless you mean to show
that, in the opinion of Vasquez, Lessius is a “heathen” and a
“profligate?” and that, fathers, is more than I durst have said myself.
What else can be deduced from it than that Lessius “subverts both
the Gospel and the decalogue;” that, at the last day, Vasquez will
condemn Lessius on this point, as Lessius will condemn Vasquez on
another; and that all your fathers will rise up in judgment one
against another, mutually condemning each other for their sad
outrages on the law of Jesus Christ?
To this conclusion, then, reverend fathers, must we come at
length, that as your probabilism renders the good opinions of some
of your authors useless to the Church, and useful only to your policy,
they merely serve to betray, by their contrariety, the duplicity of your
hearts. This you have completely unfolded, by telling us, on the one
hand, that Vasquez and Suarez are against homicide, and on the
other hand, that many celebrated authors are for homicide; thus
presenting two roads to our choice, and destroying the simplicity of
the Spirit of God, who denounces his anathema on the deceitful and
the double-hearted: “Væ duplici corde, et ingredienti duabus viis!—
Woe be to the double hearts, and the sinner that goeth two
ways!”[254]
LETTER XIV.
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