2757347The Syllabus for the People — II. Syllabus of the principal errors of our timePius IX, translation authorized by Cardinal Paul Cullan
Layout 2
II.
Syllabus of the principal errors of our time, which are censured in the Consistorial Allocutions, Encyclical, and other Apostolical Letters of our Most Holy Lord, Pope Pius IX.
§ I.
Pantheism, Naturalism, and absolute Rationalism.
1. There exists no Supreme, all-wise, all-provident divine being, distinct from the universe, and God is identical with the nature of things, and is, therefore, subject to changes. In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God and have the very substance of God, and God is one and the same thing with the world, and, therefore, spirit with matter, necessity with liberty, good with evil, justice with injustice.
2. All action of God upon man and the world is to be denied.
Ibid.
3. Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself, and suffices, by its natural force, to secure the welfare of men and of nations.
Ibid.
4. All the truths of religion proceed from the innate strength of human reason; hence reason is the ultimate standard by which man can and ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of every kind.
Ibid., and Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846, etc.
5. Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to a continual and indefinite progress, corresponding with the advancement of human reason.
Ibid.
6. The faith of Christ is in opposition to human reason, and divine revelation not only is not useful, but is even hurtful to the perfection of man.
Ibid.
7. The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets, and the mysteries of the Christian faith the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the Old and New Testament there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is himself a myth.
Ibid.
§ II.
Moderate Rationalism.
8. As human reason is placed on a level with religion itself, so theological must be treated in the same manner as philosophical sciences.
9. All the dogmas of the Christian religion are indiscriminately the object of natural science or philosophy; and human reason, enlightened solely in an historical way, is able by its own natural strength and principles, to attain to the true science of even the most abstruse dogmas; provided only that such dogmas be proposed to reason itself as its object.
Letters to the Archbishop of Munich, Dec. 11th, 1862, and Dec. 21st, 1863.
10. As the philosopher is one thing, and philosophy another, so it is the right and duty of the philosopher to subject himself to the authority which he shall have proved to be true; but philosophy neither can nor ought to submit to any such authority.
Ibid, Dec. 11th, 1862.
11. The Church not only ought never to pass judgment on philosophy, but ought to tolerate the errors of philosophy, leaving it to correct itself.
Ibid, Dec. 21st, 1863.
12. The decrees of the Apostolic See and of the Roman Congregations impede the true progress of science.
Ibid.
13. The method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times and to the progress of the sciences.
Ibid.
14. Philosophy is to be treated without taking any account of supernatural revelation.
Ibid.
N.B.—To the rationalistic system belong in great part the errors of Anthony Günther, condemned in the letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne, Eximiam tuam, June 15th, 1847, and in that to the Bishop of Breslau, Dolore haud mediocri, April 30th, 1860.
§ III.
Indifferentism. Latitudinarianism.
15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.
Allocution Maxima quidem, June 9th, 1851.
16. Man may in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation.
Ibid., and Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846.
17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ.
18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.
Pests of this kind are frequently reprobated in the severest terms in the Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846; Allocution Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849; Encyclical Noscitis et nobiscum, Dec. 8th, 1849; Allocution Singulari quadam, Dec. 9th, 1854; Encyclical Quanto conficiamur, August 10th, 1863.
§ V.
Errors concerning the Church and her rights.
19. The Church is not a true and perfect Society, entirely free; nor is she endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may exercise those rights.
Allocution Singulari quadam, Dec. 9th, 1854, etc.
20. The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the Civil Government.
22. The obligation by which Catholic teachers and authors are strictly bound, is confined to those things only which are proposed to universal belief as dogmas of Faith by the infallible judgment of the Church.
Letter to the Archbishop of Munich, Dec. 21st, 1863.
23. Roman Pontiffs and Œcumenical Councils have wandered outside the limits of their powers, have usurped the rights of princes, and have even erred in defining matters of faith and morals.
Apostolic Letter Multiplices, June 10th, 1851.
24. The Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect.
25. Beside the power inherent in the Episcopate, other temporal power has been attributed to it by the civil authority, granted either expressly or tacitly, which on that account is revocable by the civil authority whenever it thinks fit.
Ibid.
26. The Church has no innate and legitimate right of acquiring and possessing property.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
27. The sacred ministers of the Church and the Roman Pontiff are to be absolutely excluded from every charge and dominion over temporal affairs.
Allocution Maxima quidem, June 4th, 1862.
28. It is not lawful for bishops to publish even Letters Apostolic without the permission of Government.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
29. Favours granted by the Roman Pontiff ought to be considered null, unless they have been sought for through the civil government.
Ibid.
30. The immunity of the Church and of ecclesiastical persons derived its origin from civil law.
Apostolic Letter Multiplices, June 10th, 1851.
31. The ecclesiastical Forum or tribunal for the temporal causes, whether civil or criminal, of clerics, ought by all means to be abolished, even without consulting and against the protest of, the Holy See.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
32. The personal immunity by which clerics are exonerated from Military Conscription and service in the Army may be abolished without violation either of natural right or of equity. Its abolition is called for by civil progress, especially in a society framed on the model of a liberal government.
Letter to the Bishop of Monreale Singularis, September 29th, 1864.
33. It does not appertain exclusively to the power of ecclesiastical jurisdiction by right, proper and innate, to direct the teaching of theological questions.
Letter to the Archbishop of Munich, Dec. 21st, 1863.
34. The teaching of those who compare the Sovereign Pontiff to a Prince, free, and acting in the universal Church, is a doctrine which prevailed in the middle ages.
Apostolic Letter Ad Apostolicæ, August 22nd, 1851.
35. There is nothing to prevent the decree of a General Council, or the act of all peoples, from transferring the Supreme Pontificate from the Bishop and City of Rome to another bishop and another city.
Ibid.
36. The definition of a National Council does not admit of any subsequent discussion, and the civil authority can assume this principle as the basis of its acts.
Ibid.
37. National Churches, withdrawn from the au thority of the Roman Pontiff and altogether separated, can be established.
38. The Roman Pontiffs have, by their too arbitrary conduct, contributed to the division of the Church into Eastern and Western.
Apostolic Letter Ad Apostolicæ, August 22nd, 1851.
§ VI.
Errors about Civil Society, considered both in itself and in its relation to the Church.
39. The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits.
Allocution Maxima quidem, June 9th, 1862.
40. The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.
Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846.
41. The Civil Government, even when in the hands of an infidel sovereign, has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs. It therefore possesses not only the right called that of exequatur, but also that of appeal, called appellatio ab abusu.
Apostolic Letter, Ad Apostolicæ, August 22nd, 1851.
42. In the case of conflicting laws enacted by the two powers, the civil law prevails.
Ibid.
43. The Secular power has authority to rescind, declare, and render null, solemn Conventions, commonly called Concordats, entered into with the Apostolic See, regarding the use of rights appertaining to ecclesiastical immunity, without the consent of the Apostolic See, and even in spite of its protest.
Allocution Multis gravibusque, Dec. 17th, 1860, etc.
44. The Civil Authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality, and Spiritual Government: hence, it can pass judgment on the instructions issued for the guidance of consciences, conformably with their mission, by the pastors of the Church. Further, it has the right to make enactments regarding the administration of the Divine Sacraments, and the dispositions necessary for receiving them.
Allocution In Consistoriali, Nov. 1st, 1850, etc.
45. The entire government of public schools in which the youth of a Christian State is educated, except (to a certain extent) in the case of episcopal seminaries, may and ought to 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 conferring of degrees, in the choice or approval of the teachers.
Allocution Quibus luctuosissimis, Sept. 5th, 1851.
46. Moreover, even in ecclesiastical seminaries, the method of studies to be adopted is subject to the civil authority.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
47. The best theory of civil society requires that popular schools, open to children of every class of the people, and generally, all public institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophical sciences, and for carrying on the education of youth, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority, control, and interference, and should be fully subjected to the civil and political power at the pleasure of the rulers, and according to the standard of the prevalent opinions of the age.
Epistle to the Archbishop of Freyburg, July 14th, 1864.
48. Catholics may approve of a system of educating youth, unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life.
Ibid.
49. The Civil power may prevent the prelates of the Church and the faithful from communicating freely and mutually with the Roman Pontiff.
Allocution Maxima quidem, June 9th, 1862.
50. Lay authority possesses of itself the right of presenting bishops, and may require of them to under take the administration of the dioceses before they receive canonical institution and the Letters Apostolic from the Holy See.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1862.
51. And further, the lay Government has the right of deposing bishops from their pastoral functions, and is not bound to obey the Roman Pontiff in those things which relate to the institution of bishoprics and the appointment of bishops.
Allocution Acerbissimam, Sept. 17th, 1852.
52. Government can, by its own right, alter the age prescribed by the Church for the religious profession both of women and men; and may require of all religious orders to admit no person to take solemn vows without its permission.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
53. The laws enacted for the protection of religious orders and regarding their rights and duties, ought to be abolished; nay more, Civil Government may lend its assistance to all who desire to renounce the obligation which they had undertaken, of a religious life, and to break their vows. Government may also sup press the said religious orders, as likewise Collegiate Churches and simple benefices, even those of advow
son, and subject their property and revenues to the administration and pleasure of the Civil power.
Allocution Acerbissimam, Sept. 27th, 1852.
54. Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are superior to the Church in deciding questions of jurisdiction. Apostolic Letter Multiplices inter, June 10th, 1851.
55. The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.
Allocution Acerbissimam, Sept. 27th, 1852.
§ VII.
Errors concerning Natural and Christian Ethics.
56. Moral laws do not stand in need of the Divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary that human laws should be made conformable to the laws of nature, and receive their power of binding from God.
Allocution Maxima quidem, June 3rd, 1862.
57. The science of philosophical things and morals, and also civil laws, may and ought to keep aloof from Divine and ecclesiastical authority.
Ibid.
58. No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excel lence of morality ought to be placed in the accumula tion and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.
Ibid.
59. Right consists in the material fact. All human duties are an empty word, and all human facts have the force of right.
Ibid.
60. Authority is nothing else but numbers and the sum total of material forces.
Ibid.
61. The injustice of an act when successful, inflicts no injury upon the sanctity of right.
Allocution Jamdudum cernimus, March 18th, 1861.
62. The principle of non-intervention, as it is called, ought to be proclaimed and observed.
Allocution Novos, Sept. 28th, 1860.
63. It is lawful to refuse obedience to legitimate princes, and even to rebel against them.
Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1864, etc.
64. The violation of any solemn oath, as well as any wicked and flagitious action repugnant to the eternal law, is not only not blameable, but is altogether lawful and worthy of the highest praise, when done through love of country.
Allocution Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849.
§ VIII.
Errors concerning Christian Marriage.
65. The doctrine that Christ has raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament cannot be at all tolerated.
Apostolical Letter Ad Apostolicæ, August 22nd, 1851.
66. The sacrament of marriage is only a something accessory to the contract and separate from it, and the sacrament itself consists in the nuptial benediction alone.
Ibid.
67. By the law of nature, the marriage tie is not in dissoluble, and in many cases divorce properly so called may be decreed by the civil authority.
Ibid.
68. The Church has not the power of establishing diriment impediments of marriage, but such a power belongs to the civil authority, by which existing impediments are to be removed.
Apostolic Letter Multiplices inter, June, 1851.
69. In the dark ages the Church began to establish diriment impediments, not by her own right, but by using a power borrowed from the State.
Apostolic Letter Ad Apostolicæ, August 22nd, 1851.
70. The Canons of the Council of Trent, which anathematize those who dare to deny to the Church the right of establishing diriment impediments, either are not dogmatic, or must be understood as referring to such borrowed power.
Ibid.
71. The form of solemnizing marriage prescribed by the Council of Trent, under pain of nullity, does not bind in cases where the civil law lays down another form, and declares that when this new form is used the marriage shall be valid.
Ibid.
72. Boniface VIII. was the first who declared that the vow of chastity taken at ordination renders marriage void.
Ibid.
73. In force of a merely civil contract, there may exist between Christians a real marriage, and it is false to say either that the marriage contract between Christians is always a sacrament, or that there is no contract if the sacrament be excluded.
Ibid.
74. Matrimonial causes and espousals belong by their nature to civil tribunals.
Ibid.
N.B.—To the preceding questions may be referred two other errors regarding the celibacy of priests and the preference due to the state of marriage over that of virginity. These have been stigmatized: the first in the Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846; the second in the Letters Apostolic Multiplices inter, June 10th, 1851.
§ IX.
Errors regarding the Civil Power of the Sovereign Pontiff.
75. The children of the Christian and Catholic Church are divided amongst themselves about the compatibility of the temporal with the spiritual power.
Ibid.
76. 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.
Allocution Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849.
N.B.—Besides these errors, explicitly censured, very many others are implicitly condemned by the doctrine
propounded and established, which all Catholics are bound most firmly to hold touching the temporal sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff. This doctrine is clearly stated in the Allocutions Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849, and Si semper antea, May 20th, 1850; Letters Apost. Quum Catholica Ecclesia, March 26th, 1860; Allocutions Novos, Sept. 28th, 1860, Jamdudum, March 18th, 1861, and Maxime quidem, June 9th, 1862.
§ X.
Errors having reference to Modern Liberalism.
77. In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.
78. Hence it has been wisely provided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship.
Allocution Acerbissimam, Sept. 27th, 1852.
79. Moreover it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism.
Allocution Nunquam fore, Dec. 15th, 1856.
80. The Roman Pontiff can, and ought, to reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.