Pope Innocent in 1679 publicly condemns sixty-five propositions, taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar, Suarez and other casuists (mostly Jesuit casuists, who had been heavily attacked by Pascal in his Provincial Letters) as propositiones laxorum moralistarum and forbids anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication.

He condemns in particular the most radical form of mental reservation (stricte mentalis) which authorizes deception without an outright lie.