To Our Venerable Brothers, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops, of the Universal Church, having Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Health and Apostolic Benediction:
It is well known unto all men, and especially to You, Venerable Brothers, with what great care and pastoral vigilance Our Predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs, have discharged the Office entrusted by Christ Our Lord to them, in the Person of the Most Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, have unremittingly discharged the duty of feeding the lambs and the sheep, and have diligently nourished the Lord's entire flock with the words of faith, imbued it with salutary doctrine, and guarded it from poisoned pastures. And those Our Predecessors, who were the assertors and Champions of the august Catholic Religion, of truth and justice, being as they were chiefly solicitous for the salvation of souls, held nothing to be of so great importance as the duty of exposing and condemning, in their most wise Letters and Constitutions, all heresies and errors which are hostile to moral honesty and to the eternal salvation of mankind, and which have frequently stirred up terrible commotions and have damaged both the Christian and civil commonwealths in a disastrous manner. Wherefore those Our Predecessors have, with Apostolic fortitude continually resisted the machinations of those evil men, who, "foaming out their own confusion, like the raging waves of the sea," and "promising liberty, while they are themselves the slaves of corruption," endeavored by their fallacious opinions and most wicked writings to subvert the foundations of Religion and of civil Society, to remove from our midst all virtue and justice, to deprave the hearts and minds of all, to turn away from right discipline of morals the incautious, and especially inexperienced youth, miserably corrupting them, leading them into the nets of error, and finally withdrawing them from the bosom of the Catholic Church.
And now, Venerable Brothers, as is also very well known to you, scarcely had We (by the secret dispensation of Divine Providence, certainly by no merit of Our own) been called to this Chair of Peter, when We, to the extreme grief of Our soul, beheld a horrible tempest stirred up by so many erroneous opinions, and the dreadful and never-enough to be lamented mischiefs which redound to Christian people from such errors; and We then, in discharge of Our Apostolic Ministerial Office, imitating the example of Our illustrious Predecessors, raised Our voice, and in several published Encyclical Letters, and in Allocutions delivered in Consistory, and in other Apostolical Letters, We condemned the prominent, most grievous errors of the age, and We stirred up your excellent episcopal vigilance, and again and again did We admonish and exhort all the sons of the Catholic Church, who are most dear to Us, that they should abhor and shun all the said errors, as they would the contagion of a fatal pestilence.—Especially in Our first Encyclical Letter, written to You on the 9th of November, A. D. 1846, and in two Allocutions, one of which was delivered by Us in Consistory on the 9th of December, A. D. 1854, and the other on the 9th of June, A. D. 1862, We condemned the monstrous and portentous opinions, which prevail especially in the present age, to the very great loss of souls, and even to the detriment of civil society; and which are in the highest degree hostile, not only to the Catholic Church, and to her salutary doctrine and venerable laws, but also to the everlasting law of nature engraven by God upon the hearts of all men, and to right reason; and out of which almost all errors originate.
Now although hitherto We have not omitted to denounce and reprove the chief errors of this kind, yet the cause of the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls committed to Us by God, and even the interests of human society absolutely demand, that once again We should stir up Your pastoral solicitude, to drive away other erroneous opinions which flow from those errors above specified, as their source. These false and perverse opinions are so much the more detestable, by as much as they have chiefly for their object to hinder and banish that salutary influence which the Catholic Church, by the institution and command of her Divine Author, ought freely to exercise, even to the consummation of the world, not only over individual men, but nations, peoples, and sovereigns, and to abolish that mutual co-operation and agreement of counsels between the Priesthood and Governments, which has always been propitious and conducive to the welfare both of Church and State. (Gregory XVI. Encyclical, 13th August, 1832.) For you know well, Venerable Brethren, that at this time there are found not a few, who applying to civil intercourse the impious and absurd principles of what they call Naturalism, dare teach, "that the best form of Society, and the exigencies of civil progress absolutely require human society to be constituted and governed without any regard whatsoever to Religion, as if this (Religion) did not even exist, or at least without making any distinction between true and false religions." Contrary to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, these persons do not hesitate to assert, that "the best condition of human society is that, wherein no duty is recognized by the Government of correcting, by enacted penalties, the violators of the Catholic Religion, except when the maintenance of the public peace requires it." From this totally false notion of social government, they fear not to uphold that erroneous opinion most pernicious to the Catholic Church, and to the salvation of souls, which was called by Our Predecessor Gregory XVI. (lately quoted) the insanity (deliramentum), (Encycl. 13 August, 1832): namely, "that the liberty of conscience and of worship is the peculiar (or inalienable) right of every man, which should be proclaimed by law, and that citizens have the right to all kinds of liberty, to be restrained by no law, whether ecclesiastical or civil, by which they may be enabled to manifest openly and publicly their ideas, by word of mouth, through the press, or by any other means." But whilst these men make these rash assertions, they do not reflect, or consider, that they preach the liberty of perdition (St. Augustine, Epistle 105. al. 166), and that, "if it is always free to human arguments to discuss, men will never be wanting who will dare to resist the truth, and to rely upon the loquacity of human wisdom, when we know from the command of Our Lord Jesus Christ, how faith and Christian wisdom ought to avoid this most mischievous vanity." (St. Leo, Epistle 164, al. 133, sec. 2, Boll. ed.).
And since Religion has been excluded from civil Society, and the doctrine and authority of divine Revelation, or the true and germane notion of justice and human right have been obscured and lost, and material or brute force substituted in the place of true justice and legitimate right, it is easy to perceive why some persons, forgetting and trampling upon the most certain principles of sound reason, dare cry out together, "that the will of the people, manifested by what they call public opinion, or in any other way, constitutes the supreme law, independent of all divine and human right, and that, in the political order, accomplished facts, by the mere fact of having been accomplished, have the force of right." But who does not see and plainly understand, that the Society of man, freed from the bonds of Religion and of true justice, can certainly have no other purpose than the effort to obtain and accumulate wealth, and that in its actions it follows no other law than that of the uncurbed cupidity, which seeks to secure its own pleasures and comforts? For this reason, also, these same men persecute with such bitter hatred the Religious Orders, who have deserved so well of religion, civil Society, and Letters; they loudly declare that these Orders have no right to exist, and, in so doing, make common cause with the falsehoods of the heretics. For, as was most wisely taught by Our Predecessor of illustrious memory, Pius VI., "the abolition of Religious Orders injures the state of public profession of the Evangelical Counsels; injures a mode of life recommended by the Church, as in conformity with Apostolical doctrine; does wrong to the illustrious founders whom we venerate upon our altars, and who constituted these societies under the inspiration of God." (Epistle to Cardinal de la Rochefaucauld, March 10, 1791.)
And these same persons also impiously pretend, that citizens should be deprived of the liberty of publicly bestowing on the Church their alms for the sake of Christian charity, and that the law forbidding "servile labour on account of Divine worship" upon certain fixed days should be abolished, upon the most fallacious pretext that such liberty and such law are contrary to the principles of political economy. Not content with abolishing Religion in public Society, they desire further to banish it from families and private life. Teaching and professing those most fatal errors of Socialism and Communism, they declare, that "domestic society, or the family, derives all its reason of existence solely from civil law, whence it is to be concluded that from civil law descend and depend all the rights of parents over their children, and, above all, the right of instructing and educating them." By such impious opinions and machinations, do these most false teachers endeavour to eliminate the salutary teaching and influence of the Catholic Church from the instruction and education of youth, and miserably to infect and deprave by every pernicious error and vice the tender and pliant minds of youth. All those who endeavour to throw into confusion both religious and political affairs, to destroy the good order of society, and to annihilate all Divine and human rights, have always exerted all their criminal schemes, attention, and efforts upon the manner in which they might, above all, deprave and delude unthinking youth, as We have already shown: it is upon the corruption of youth that they place all their hopes. Thus they never cease to attack by every method the Clergy, both secular and regular, from whom, as testify to us in so conspicuous a manner the most certain records of history, such considerable benefits have been bestowed in abundance upon Christian and Civil Society and upon the republic of Letters; asserting of the Clergy in general, that they are the enemies of the useful sciences, of progress, and of civilization, and that they ought to be deprived of all participation in the work of teaching and training the young.
Others, reviving the depraved fictions of innovators, errors many times condemned, presume, with extraordinary impudence, to subordinate the authority of the Church and of this Apostolic See, conferred upon it by Christ Our Lord, to the judgment of civil authority, and to deny all the rights of this same Church and this See with regard to those things which appertain to the secular order. For these persons do not blush to affirm, "that the laws of the Church do not bind the conscience, if they are not promulgated by the civil power; that the acts and decrees of the Roman Pontiffs concerning religion and the Church require the sanction and approbation, or at least, the assent of the civil power; and that the Apostolic Constitutions, (Clement XII., Benedict XIV., Pius VII., Leo XII.) condemning secret societies, whether these exact or do not exact an oath of secrecy, and branding with anathema their followers and partisans, have no force in those countries of the world where such associations are tolerated by the civil Government." It is likewise affirmed, "that the excommunications launched by the Council of Trent and the Roman Pontiffs against those who invade and usurp the possessions of the Church and its rights, strive, by confounding the spiritual and temporal orders, to attain solely a mere earthly end; that the Church can decide nothing which may bind the consciences of the faithful in the temporal order of things; that the right of the Church is not competent to restrain with temporal penalties the violators of her laws; and that it is in accordance with the principles of theology and of public law, for the civil Government to appropriate property possessed by the churches, the Religious Orders, and other pious establishments." And they have no shame in avowing openly and publicly the heretical statement and principle, from which have emanated so many errors and perverse opinions, "that the ecclesiastical power is not, by the law of God, made distinct from and independent of the civil power, and that no distinction, no independence of this kind can be maintained without the Church invading and usurping the essential rights of the civil power." Neither can We pass over in silence the audacity of those who, not enduring sound doctrine, assert that "the judgments and decrees of the Holy See, the object of which is declared to concern the general welfare of the Church, its rights, and its discipline, do not claim acquiescence and obedience, under pain of sin and loss of the Catholic profession, if they do not treat of the dogmas of faith and of morals."
How contrary is this doctrine to the Catholic dogma, of the plenary power divinely conferred on the Sovereign Pontiff by Our Lord Jesus Christ, to guide, to supervise and to govern the Universal Church, no one can fail to see and understand, clearly and evidently.
Amid so great a perversity of depraved opinions, We, remembering Our Apostolic duty, and solicitous before all things for Our most holy Religion, for sound doctrine, for the salvation of the souls confided to Us, and for the welfare of human Society itself, have considered the moment opportune to raise anew Our Apostolic voice. Therefore do We, by our Apostolic authority, reprobate, denounce, and condemn generally and particularly all the evil opinions and doctrines specially mentioned in this Letter, and We wish that they may be held as reprobated, denounced and condemned by all the children of the Catholic Church.
But You know further. Venerable Brothers, that in Our time the haters of all truth and justice, and violent enemies of our religion have spread abroad other impious doctrines, by means of pestilent books, pamphlets, and journals, which, distributed over the surface of the earth, deceive the people and wickedly lie. You are not ignorant that in our day men are found who, animated and excited by the spirit of Satan, have arrived at that excess of impiety, as not to fear to deny Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and to attack His Divinity with scandalous persistence. And here We cannot abstain from awarding You well-merited praise. Venerable Brothers, for all the care and zeal, with which you have raised Your episcopal voice against so great an impiety.
And therefore in this present letter. We speak to You with all affection; to You who, called to partake Our cares, are Our greatest support in the midst of Our very great grief; Our joy and consolation, by reason of the excellent piety of which You give proof in maintaining religion, and the marvellous love, faith, and discipline with which, united by the strongest and most affectionate ties to Us and this Apostolic See, You strive valiantly and accurately to fulfil Your most weighty episcopal ministry. We do then expect, from Your excellent pastoral zeal, that, taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and strengthened by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, You will watch with redoubled care, that the faithful committed to Your charge "abstain from evil pasturage, which Jesus Christ doth not till, because His Father hath not planted it." (St. Ignatius, M. ad Philadelph. St. Leo, Epist. 156, al. 125). Never cease, then, to inculcate on the faithful that all true happiness for mankind proceeds from our august Religion, from its doctrine and practice, and that that people is happy who have the Lord for their God (Psalm 143). Teach them, "that kingdoms rest upon the foundation of the Catholic faith (St. Celest, Epist., 22 ad Syn. Eph.), and that nothing is so deadly, nothing so certain to engender every ill, nothing so exposed to danger, as for men to believe that they stand in need of nothing else than the free will which we received at birth, if we ask nothing further from the Lord; that is to say, if forgetting our Author, we abjure His power to show that we are free." And do not omit to teach, "that the royal power has been established, not only to exercise the government of the world, but, above all, for the protection of the Church (St. Leo, Epist. 156 al. 125); and that there is nothing more profitable and more glorious for the Sovereigns of States, and Kings, than to leave the Catholic Church to exercise her laws, and not to permit any to curtail her liberty;" as Our most wise and courageous Predecessor, St. Felix, wrote to the Emperor Zeno. "It is certain that it is advantageous for Sovereigns, when the cause of God is in question, to submit their Royal will, according to his ordinance, to the Priests of Jesus Christ, and not to prefer it before them." (Pius VII. Epist., Encycl., Diu satis, 15th May, 1800).
And if always, so especially at present. Venerable Brothers, in the midst of the numerous calamities of the Church and of civil Society, in view also of the terrible conspiracy of our adversaries against the Catholic Church and this Apostolic See, and the great accumulation of errors, it is before all things necessary to go with faith to the Throne of Grace, to obtain mercy and find Grace in timely aid. We have therefore judged it right to excite the piety of all the faithful, in order that, with Us and with You all, they may pray without ceasing to the Father bf lights and of mercies, supplicating and beseeching Him fervently and humbly, and in the plenitude of their faith they may seek refuge in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us to God with His blood, that by their earnest and continual prayers, they may obtain from that most dear Heart, victim of burning charity for us, that it would draw all to Himself by the bonds of His love, that all men being inflamed by His holy love may live according to His heart, pleasing God in all things, and being fruitful in all good works.
But, as there is no doubt that the prayers most agreeable to God, are those of men who approach Him with a heart pure from all stain, "We have thought it good to open to Christians, with Apostolic liberality, the heavenly treasures of the Church confided to Our dispensation, so that the faithful, more strongly drawn towards true piety, and purified from the stain of their sins by the Sacrament of Penance, may more confidently offer up their prayers to God and obtain His mercy and grace.
By these Letters therefore, emanating from Our Apostolic authority, We grant to all and each of the faithful of both sexes throughout the Catholic world a Plenary Indulgence, in the manner of a Jubilee, during one month, up to the end of the coming year 1865, and not longer, to be carried into effect by You, Venerable Brethren, and the other legitimate local Ordinaries, in the form and manner laid down at the commencement of Our Sovereign Pontificate by Our Apostolical Letters, in form of a Brief, dated the 20th of November, A. D. 1846, and sent to the whole Episcopate of the world, commencing with the words, "Arcano Divinæ Providentiæ consilio," and with the faculties given by Us in those same Letters. "We desire, however, that all the prescriptions of Our Letters shall be observed, saving the exceptions We have declared are to be made. And We have granted this, notwithstanding all which might make to the contrary, even those worthy of special and individual mention and derogation; and in order that every doubt and difficulty may be removed. We have ordered that copies of those Letters should be again forwarded to You.
Let us implore, Venerable Brethren, from our inmost hearts, and with all our souls, the mercy of God. He has encouraged us so to do, by saying: "I will not withdraw My mercy from them." "Let us ask and we shall receive; and if there is slowness or delay in the reception, because we have grievously offended, let us knock, because to him that knocketh it shall be opened; if our prayers, groans, and tears, in which we must persist and be obstinate, knock at the door: and if our prayers be united; let each one pray to God, not for himself alone, but for all his brethren, as the Lord hath taught us to pray." (St. Cyprian, Epistle 11.) But, in order that God may accede more easily to Our and Your prayers, and to those of all His faithful servants, let us employ in all confidence, as our Mediatrix with Him, the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who "has destroyed all heresies throughout the world, and who, the most loving Mother of us all, is very gracious … and full of mercy, … allows herself to be entreated by all, shows herself most clement towards all, and takes under her pitying care all our necessities with a most ample affection," (St. Bernard, Serm de duodecim prærogativis B. V. M. in verbis Apocalyp.); and, "sitting as queen at the right hand of her only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in a golden vestment clothed around with various adornments," there is nothing which she cannot obtain from Him. Let us implore also the intervention of the Blessed Peter, Chief of the Apostles, and of his co-Apostle Paul, and of all those Saints of Heaven, who, having already become the friends of God, have been admitted into the celestial kingdom, where they are crowned and bear palms in their hands; and who, henceforth certain of their own immortality, are sollicitous for our salvation.
In conclusion. We ask of God from Our inmost soul the abundance of all his celestial benefits for You, and We bestow upon You, Venerable Brethren, and upon all the faithful Clergy, and Laity committed to Your care, Our Apostolic Benediction from the most loving depths of Our heart, in token of Our charity toward You.
PIUS, PP. IX.
Given at Rome, from St. Peter's, this 8th day of December, 1864, the tenth anniversary of the Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the nineteenth year of Our Pontificate.
THE SYLLABUS
Of the Principal Errors of our Time, which are Stigmatized in the Consistorial Allocutions, Encyclical, and other Apostolical Letters of Our Most Holy Father, Pope Pius IX.
Section I.—Pantheism, Naturalism, and Absolute Rationalism.
I. There exists no Divine Power, Supreme Being, Wisdom, and Providence distinct from the universe, and God is none other than nature, and is therefore mutable. In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God, and have the very substance of God. God is therefore one and the same thing with the world, and thence spirit is the same thing with matter, necessity with liberty, true with false, good with evil, justice with injustice. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
II. All action of God upon man and the world is to be denied. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
III. Human reason, without any regard to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, of good and evil; it is its own law to itself, and suffices by its natural force to secure the welfare of men and of nations. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
IV. All the truths of Religion are derived from the native strength of human reason; whence reason is the master rule by which man can and ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of every kind. (Encyclical letters, Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, Singulari quidem, 17th March, 1856, and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
V. Divine revelation is imperfect, and, therefore, subject to a continual and indefinite progress, which corresponds with the progress of human reason. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
VI. Christian faith is in opposition to human reason, and divine revelation not only does not benefit, but even injures the perfection of man. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
VII. The prophecies and miracles, uttered and narrated in the Sacred Scriptures, are the fictions of poets; and the mysteries of the Christian faith, the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the two Testaments there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is Himself a mythical fiction. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
Section II.—Moderate Rationalism.
VIII. As human reason is placed on a level with Religion, so theological matters must be treated in the same manner as philosophical ones. (Allocution Singulari quadem perfusi, 9th December, 1854.)
IX. All the dogmas of the Christian Religion are, without exception, the object of natural science or philosophy, and human reason, instructed solely by history, is able, by its own natural strength and principles, to arrive at the true knowledge of even the most abstruse dogmas; provided such dogmas be proposed as subject matter for human reason. (Letter to the Archbishop Frising. Gravissimas, 11th December, 1862—to the same, Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.)
X. As the philosopher is one thing, and philosophy is another, so it is the right and duty of the philosopher to submit himself to the authority which he shall have recognised as true; but philosophy neither can nor ought to submit to any authority. (Letter to Archbishop Frising. Gravissimas, 11th December, 1862—to the same, Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.)
XI. The Church not only ought never to animadvert upon philosophy, but ought to tolerate the errors of philosophy, leaving to philosophy the care of their correction. (Letter to Archbishop Frising. 11th December, 1862.)
XII. The decrees of the Apostolic See and of the Roman Congregation fetter the free progress of science. (Id. Ibid.)
XIII. The method and principles, by which the old scholastic Doctors cultivated theology, are no longer suitable to the demands of the age and the progress of science. (Ib. Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.)
XIV. Philosophy must be treated of without any account being taken of supernatural revelation. (Id. Ibid.)
N. B.—To the rationalistic system belong, in great part, the errors of Anthony Gunther, condemned in the letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne "Eximiam tuam," June 15, 1847; and in that to the Bishop of Breslau, "Dolore haud mediocri," April 30, 1860.)
Section III.—Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism.
XV. Every man is free to embrace and profess the Religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason. (Apostolic Letters Multiplices inter, 10th June 1851. Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June 1862.)
XVI. Men may in any religion find the way of eternal salvation, and obtain eternal salvation. (Encyclical letter Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846. Allocution, Ubi primum, 17th December, 1847. Encyclical letter Singulari quidem, 17th March, 1856.)
XVII. We may entertain at least a well-founded hope for the eternal salvation of all those, who are in no manner in the true Church of Christ. (Allocution Singulari quadem, 9th December, 1854. Encyclical letter Quanto conficiamur, 17th August, 1863.)
XVIII. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian Religion, in which it is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catholic Church. (Encyclical letter Noscitis et nobiscum, 8th December, 1849.)
Section IV.—Socialism, Communism, Secret Societies, Biblical Societies, Clerico-Liberal Societies.
Pests of this description are frequently rebuked in the severest terms in the Encyc. Qui pluribus, Nov. 9, 1846; Alloc. Quibus quantisque, Aug. 20, 1849; Encyc. Nescitis et Nobiscum, Dec. 8, 1849; Alloc. Singulari quadam, Dec. 8, 1854; Encyc. Quanto conficiamur mœrore," Aug. 10, 1863.
Section V.—Errors Concerning the Church and Her Rights.
XIX. The Church is not a true, and perfect, and entirely free society, nor does she enjoy peculiar and perpetual rights conferred upon her by her Divine Founder, but it appertains to the civil power to define, what are the rights and limits within which the Church may exercise authority. (Allocution Singulari quadem, 9th December, 1854, Multis gravibusque, 17th December, 1860, Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
XX. The ecclesiastical power must not exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the civil Government. (Allocution; Meminit unusquisque, 30th September, 1861.)
XXI. The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically, that the Religion of the Catholic Church is the only true Religion. (Apostolic Letters Multiplices inter, 10th June, 1851.)
XXII. The obligation which binds Catholic teachers and authors applies only to those things, which are proposed for universal belief as dogmas of the faith, by the infallible judgment of the Church. (Letters to Archbishop Frising. Tuas libenter, 21st Dec, 1863.)
XXIII. The Roman Pontiffs and Œcumenical Councils have exceeded the limits of their power, have usurped the rights of Princes, and have even committed errors in defining matters of faith and morals. (Apost. Letter, Multiplices inter, 10th June 1851.)
XXIV. The Church has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power. (Letter Apost. Ad. Apostolicæ, 22nd Aug., 1851.)
XXV. In addition to the authority inherent in the Episcopate, a further and temporal power is granted to it by the civil authority, either expressly or tacitly, which power is on that account also revocable by the civil authority whenever it pleases. (Letter Apost. Ad. Apostolicæ, 22nd Aug., 1851.)
XXVI. The Church has not the innate and legitimate right of acquisition and possession. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 18th Dec, 1856. Encyclical Incredibili, 17th Sept., 1863.)
XXVII. The ministers of the Church and the Roman Pontiff ought to be absolutely excluded from all charge and dominion over temporal affairs. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
XXVIII. Bishops have not the right of promulgating even their Apostolical letters, without the permission of the Government. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.)
XXIX. Dispensations granted by the Roman Pontiff must be considered null, unless they have been asked for by the civil Government. (Id. Ibid.)
XXX. The immunity of the Church and of ecclesiastical persons derives its origin from civil law. (Apost. Multiplices inter, 10th June, 1851.)
XXXI. Ecclesiastical Courts for the temporal causes, of the clergy, whether civil or criminal, ought by all means to be abolished, even without the concurrence and against the protest of the Holy See. (Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1852. And. Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.)
XXXII. The personal immunity exonerating the clergy from military service may be abolished, without violation either of natural right or of equity. Its abolition is called for by civil progress, especially in a community constituted upon principles of Liberal Government. (Letter to the Archbishop of Montreal, Singularis nobisque, 29th September, 1864.)
XXXIII. It does not appertain exclusively to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, by any right proper and inherent, to direct the teaching of theological subjects. (Letter to Archbishop Frising. Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.)
XXXIV. The teaching of those, who compare the Sovereign Pontiff to a free Sovereign acting in the Universal Church, is a doctrine which prevailed in the Middle Ages. (Letter Apost. Ad. Apostolicæ, 22nd August, 1851.)
XXXV. There would be no obstacle to the sentence of a General Council, or the act of all the universal peoples, transferring the Pontifical Sovereignty from the Bishop and city of Rome to some other bishopric and some other city. (Id. Ibid.)
XXXVI. The definition of a National Council does not admit of any subsequent discussion, and the civil power can regard as settled an affair decided by such National Council. (Id. Ibid.)
XXXVII. National Churches can be established, after being withdrawn and plainly separated from the authority of the Roman Pontiff. (Allocution Multis gravibusque, 17th December, 1860. Jamdudum cernimus, 18th March, 1861.)
XXXVIII. Roman Pontiffs have, by their too arbitray conduct, contributed to the division of the Church into Eastern and Western. (Letter Apost. Ad. Apostolicæ, 22nd August, 1851.)
Section VI.—Errors about Civil Society, considered both in itself and in its Relation to the Church.
XXXIX. The Republic is the origin and source of all rights, and possesses rights which are not circumscribed by any limits. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
XL. The teaching of the Catholic Church is opposed to the well-being and interests of society. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 1849.)
XLI. The Civil power, even when exercised by an infidel Sovreign, possesses an indirect and negative power over religious affairs. It, therefore, possesses not only the right called that of exequatur but that of the (so-called) appellatio ab abusu.[1] (Apostolic Letter, Ad. 22d August, 1851.)
XLII. In the case of conflicting laws between the two Powers, the civil law ought to prevail. (Letter Apost. Ad. Apostolicæ, 22nd August, 1851.)
XLIII. The civil power has a right to break, and to declare and render null the conventions (commonly called Concordats), concluded with the Apostolic See, relative to the use of rights appertaining to the ecclesiastical immunity, without the consent of the Holy See, and even contrary to its protest. (Allocution In consistoriali, 1st November, 1850. Multis gravibusque, 17th December, 1861.)
XLIV. The civil authority may interfere in matters relating to Religion, morality, and spiritual government. Hence it has control over the instructions for the guidance of consciences issued, conformably with their mission, by the Pastors of the Church. Further it possesses power to decree, in the matter of administering the divine Sacraments, as to the dispositions necessary for their reception. (Allocution In Consistoriali, 1st November, 1850. Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1861)
XLV. The entire direction of public schools, in which the youth of Christian States are educated, except (to a certain extent) in the case of Episcopal Seminaries, may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far, that no other authority whatsoever shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the schools, the arrangement of the studies, the taking of degrees, or the choice and approval of the teachers.—(Allocution in Consistoriali, 1st November, 1850.—Allocution Quibus luctuosissimis, 5th September, 1851.)
XLVI. Much more, even in Clerical Seminaries, the method of study to be adopted is subject to the civil authority. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.)
XLVII. The best theory of civil society requires, that popular schools open to the children of all classes, and, generally, all public institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophy, and for conducting the education of the young, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority, government, and interference, and shonld be fully subjected to the civil and political power, in conformity with the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of the age. (Letter to the Archbishop of Fribourg, Quam non sine, 14th July, 1864.)
XLVIII. This system of instructing youth, which consists in sepating it from the Catholic faith and from the power of the Church, and in teaching exclusively, or at least primarily, the knowledge of natural things and the earthly ends of social life alone, may be approved by Catholics. (Id. Ibid.)
XLIX. The civil power has the right to prevent ministers of Religion, and the faithful, from communicating freely and mutually with each other, and with the Roman Pontiff. (Allocution Maxima qudem, 9th June, 1862.)
L. The secular authority possesses, as inherent in itself, the right of presenting Bishops, and may require of them that they take possession of their dioceses, before having received canonical institution and the Apostolical letters from the Holy See. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.)
LI. And further, the Secular Government has the right of deposing Bishops from their Pastoral functions, and it is not bound to obey the Roman Pontiff, in those things which relate to Episcopal Sees and the institution of Bishops. (Letter Apost. Multiplices inter 10th June, 1851. Allocution, Acerbissimum, 28th Sept., 1852.)
LII. The Government has of itself the right to alter the age prescribed by the Church for the religious profession, both of men and women; and it may enjoin upon all religious establishments, to admit no person to take solemn vows without its permission. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856.)
LIII. The laws for the protection of religious establishments, and securing their rights and duties, ought to be abolished: nay more, the civil government may lend its assistance to all who desire to quit the religious life they have undertaken, and break their vows. The government may also suppress Religious Orders, collegiate Churches, and simple Benefices, even those belonging to private patronage, and submit their goods and revenues to the administration and disposal of the civil power. (Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852. Allocution, Probe memineritis, 22nd January, 1855. Allocution, Cum sæpe, 26th July, 1855.)
LIV. Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are superior to the Church, in litigated questions of jurisdiction. (Letter Apost. Multiplices inter, 10th June, 1851.)
LV. The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church. (Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1852.)
1 The power of authorising official acts of the Papal power, and of correcting the alleged abuses of the same.
Section VII.—Errors concerning Natural and Christian Ethics.
LVI. Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and there is no necessity that human laws should be conformable to the law of nature, and receive their sanction from God. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
LVII. Knowledge of philosophical things and morals, and also civil laws may and must be independent of divine and ecclesiastical authority. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
LVIII. No other forces are to be recognized than those which reside in matter, and all moral teaching and moral excellence ought to be made to consist in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and in the enjoyment of pleasure. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. Encyclical Quanto conficiamur, 10th August, 1863.)
LIX. Right consists in the material fact, and all human duties are but vain words, and all human acts have the force of right. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
LX. Authority is nothing else, but the result of numerical superiority and material force. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.)
LXI. An unjust act, being successful, inflicts no injury upon the sanctity of right. (Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, 18th March, 1861.)
LXII. The principle of non-intervention, as it is called, ought to be proclaimed and adhered to. (Allocution Novos et ante, 28th September, 1860.)
LXIII. It is allowable to refuse obedience to legitimate Princes; nay more, to rise in insurrection against them. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846. Allocution Quisque vestrum, 4th October, 1847. Encyclical Noscitis et nobiscum, 8th December, 1849. Letter Apostolicas Cum Catholica, 26th March, 1860.)
LXIV. The violation of a solemn oath, even every wicked and flagitious action repugnant to the eternal law, is not only not blameable, but quite lawful, and worthy of the highest praise, when done for the love of country. (Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 1849.)
Section VIII.—Errors concerning Christian Marriage.
LXV. It cannot be by any means tolerated, to maintain that Christ has raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. (Apostolical Letter Ad Apostolicae, 22d August, 1851.)
LXVI. The sacrament of marriage is only an adjunct of the contract, and separable from it, and the sacrament itself consists in the nuptial benediction alone. (Id. ibid.)
LXVII. By the law of nature, the marriage tie is not indissoluble, and in many cases divorce, properly so called, may be pronounced by the civil authority. (Id, ibid.; Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1852.)
LXVIII. The Church has not the power of laying down what are diriment impediments to marriage. The civil authority does possess such a power, and can do away with existing impediments to marriage. (Let. Apost. Multiplices inter, 10th June, 1851.)
LXIX. The Church only commenced in later ages to bring in diriment impediments, and then availing herself of a right not her own, but borrowed from the civil power. (Let. Apost. Ad Apostolicæ, 22d August, 1851.)
LXX. The canons of the Council of Trent, which pronounce censure of anathema against those who deny to the Church the right of laying down what are diriment impediments, either are not dogmatic, or must be understood as referring only to such borrowed power. (Let. Apost. ibid.)
LXXI. The form of solemnizing marriage prescribed by the said Council, under penalty of nullity, does not bind in cases where the civil law has appointed another form, and where it decrees that this new form shall effectuate a valid marriage. (Id. ibid.)
LXXII. Boniface VIII. is the first who declared, that the vow of chastity pronounced at Ordination annuls nuptials. (Id. ibid.)
LXXIII. A merely civil contract may, among Christians, constitute a true marriage, and it is false, either that the marriage contract between Christians is always a sacrament, or that the contract is null if the sacrament be excluded. (Id. ibid., Letter to King of Sardinia, 9th September, 1852. Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1852; Multis gravibusque, 17th December, 1860.)
LXXIV. Matrimonial causes and espousals belong by their very nature to civil jurisdiction. (Let. Apost., 22d August, 1851. Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1859.)
N. B. Two other errors may tend in this direction, those upon the abolition of the celibacy of Priests, and the preference due to the state of marriage over that of virginity. These have been proscribed; the first in the Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846; the second in the Letters Apostolical "Multiplices inter," June 10, 1851.
Section IX.—Errors Regarding the Civil Power of the Sovereign Pontiff.
LXXV. The children of the Christian and Catholic Church are not agreed upon the compatibility of the temporal with the spiritual power. (Let. Apost. Ad Apostolicæ, 22d August 1851.)
LXXVI. The abolition of the temporal power, of which the Apostolic See is possessed, would contribute in the greatest degree to the liberty and prosperity of the Church. (Al. Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 1849.)
N.B. Besides these errors, explicitly noted, many others are impliedly rebuked by the proposed and asserted doctrine, which all Catholics are bound most firmly to hold, touching the temporal Sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff. These doctrines are clearly stated in the Allocutions "Quibus quantisque," April 20, 1859, and "Si semper antea," May 20, 1850; Letters Apost. "Quum Catholica Ecclesia," March 26, 1860; Allocutions "Novas," Sept. 28, 1860; "Jamdudum," March 18, 1861, and "Maxima quidem," June 9, 1862.
Section X.—Errors having Reference to Modern Liberalism.
LXXVII. In the present day, it is no longer expedient that the Catholic Religion shall be held as the only Religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other modes of Worship. (Allocution Nemo vestrum, 26th July, 1855.)
LXXVIII. Whence it has been wisely provided by law, in some countries called Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship. (Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th September, 1852.)
LXXIX. Moreover it is false, that the civil liberty of every mode of worship, and the full power given to all of overtly and publicly manifesting their opinions and their ideas, of all kinds whatsoever, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to the propagation of the pest of indifferentism. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.)
LXXX. The Roman Pontiff can, and ought, to reconcile himself to, and agree with progress, liberalism, and civilization as lately introduced. (Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, 18th March, 1861.)
8 December 1864.
Pope Pius IX
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