The fifty-fourth gives to Sovereigns the Pontifical power of Pagan Cæsars.
The fifty-fifth, in the intention of its framer, might be fitly embodied thus: Atheism is the only fit religion of State.
§ VII.—Errors concerning Natural and Christian Ethics.
The root of the errors of this section is an utter distortion of the true notion of law, of moral obligation, of right and wrong. Catholic philosophers hold, that the Author of all good in that one infinite act of will, wherewith he loves His own infinite Goodness, loves and wills all that is good; and hence issue the multitude of laws and moral obligations. Hence it is that the principles of right and wrong remain unchangeable, as God cannot will anything hostile to His goodness. But the hideous brood of Pantheistic and Rationalistic vagaries that have sprung into life,
As when the potent rod,
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day
Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
place moral goodness, not in this pure emanation of God's essence, but either in pleasure, or in money-making, or in political usefulness, etc.
Hence the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh shut out the Almighty law-giver from all control over the moral acts of His creatures.
Acting on this blasphemous assertion, the fifty-eighth aims at changing men into unclean animals.
