Encyclical Of Pope
Leo XII Condeming Secret Societies
Given March 13th, 1826
For the perpetual remembrance of the matter.
1. Blessed Peter, Prince of Apostles, and his
Successors have been given the Power and Care of Feeding and Ruling the flock of
Christ, Our God and Savior. Hence, the more grave the evils threatening the
flock, the greater the solicitude the Roman Pontiffs ought to employ in
preventing them. For, those who have been placed in the topmost Watch Tower of
the Church can discern from afar the artifices which the enemies of the
Christian family undertake to destroy the Church of Christ: (which they will
never achieve) they can point them out and expose them to the faithful, who may
then guard against them; they can drive away and remove them by their Authority.
Our Predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs, understanding this most Grievous Duty
imposed upon them, have unceasingly kept the watches of a good Shepherd, and by
Exhortations, Doctrines, Decrees, and by their very life given for their sheep,
have been solicitous about restraining and utterly abolishing the sects
threatening the complete ruin of the Church. Neither is the memory of this
Pontifical solicitude able to be drawn only from the age of Ecclesiastical
Annals. What things have been carried out in our time and in the age of Our
Fathers by the Roman Pontiffs, how they opposed themselves to secret factions of
men contriving maliciously against Christ, clearly demonstrate such. For when
Clement XII, Our Predecessor, saw that the sect de` Liberi Muratori or des
Francs-Macons, or otherwise named, was increasing every day and that they were
acquiring new strength, which he knew with certainy from many proofs to be not
only suspect but even altogether inimical to the Catholic Church, condemned it
with his magnificent Constitution, beginning with In eminenti, published on the
28th of April 1738, the text of which is supplied:
BISHOP CLEMENT, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
Health and Apostolic Benediction to all Christ's
Faithful
2. "Stationed on the prominent Watch Tower, although
with inferior merits, in the disposition of Divine Mercy, in accord with the
Duty of Pastoral Providence entrusted to Us We direct with a continual zeal for
solicitude, (insofar as it is granted from on High) Our attention to those
things through which, once the access to errors and vices has been shut off, the
Integrity of Orthodox Religion may be principally preserved, and the dangers of
disturbances may be driven off from the whole Catholic world in these most
difficult times.
"To be sure, even as the very voice of the public
testifies, it has become known to Us that spreading far and wide and each day
gaining strength are some societies, assemblies, meetings, gatherings,
fellowships, or associations commonly called de` Liberi Muratori or
Francs--Macons, or identified by whatever other designation according to the
variety of idioms in which men of any religion and sect whatsoever, satisfied by
a certain feigned appearance of natural honesty, are mutually united by a strict
as well as impenetrable covenant according to the laws and statues established
by them, and which at the same time they both secretly dedicate themselves to by
a strict oath administered on the Sacred Bible, and which under the accumulation
of severe penalties they are bound to conceal by an inviolable silence.
"But since such is the nature of a crime, that it
betrays its very self, and emits a cry as a herald of itself, on this account
the societies or associations mentioned above have impressed upon the minds of
the faithful a powerful suspicion to such an extent, that to enroll in these
same fellowships is, before prudent and likewise approved men, absolutely the
same as incurring the mark of depravity and perversion. For if they were not
acting wickedly, they would never have such great hate for the light. Which
voice has continually become more frequent, that in many regions the above
mentioned societies have appeared for a long time to be outlawed by the secular
authorities as being in adverse to the security of the realms and providentially
banned.
"Consequently, We, reflecting upon the most serious
damages, which generally are inflicted not only on the tranquillity of the
temporal State, but also on the spiritual health of souls from societies and
associations of this kind, and for this reason, at least, in order to be in
harmony with both civil and Canonical Sanctions, We, as Commander of the family
of the Lord after the manner of the faithful and prudent Servant, ought to teach
with Divine Eloquence by day and night, that a vigil must be kept lest the class
of men of this type as thieves break into the house, and lest, in Truth, like
foxes strive to destroy the vineyard, they corrupt the hearts of the simple
ones, and shoot the innocent ones with arrows in hidden ways. In order to
obstruct the broadest path which could possibly be opened to accomplish with
impunity their wickedness, and from other just and reasonable causes known to
Us, We have established and Decreed, that from the counsel of several of Our
Brother Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and especially by Our own motion
aand from the fullness of Apostolic Power, those same societies, assemblies,
meetings, gatherings, fellowships, or associations commonly called de` Liberi
Muratori or Francs--Macons, or called by any other name whatever, must be
condemned and prohibited, as by Our present Constitution, perpetually valid, We
condemn and prohibit them.
"Wherefore, We admonish severely and in Virtue of
Holy Obedience each and every faithful of Jesus Christ, of any state, grade,
condition, order, dignity, and pre-eminence whatever, be it laity, or Clerics,
both secular and regular, likewise those worthy of specific and individual
mention and expression, that anyone under whatever pretext or special condition
may not dare or presume to enter or to propagate, or foster, and thus to receive
and hide them in their dwellings or homes or anywhere else, the aforementioned
societies de` Liberi Muratori or Francs--Macons, or otherwise named, to be
enrolled in, to adhere to, or to take part in them, or to give opportunity or
convenience that may allow them to convene in any place, to furnish them with
anything, or otherwise offer counsel, aid or good will, openly or secretly,
directly or indirectly, per se or through others in any way whatever. Likewise
no one may dare or presume to exhort, induce, provoke, or persuade others to be
inscribed in, to be reckoned as part of or be among these societies of whatever
kind, or to help and support them in any way whatever. On the contrary, they are
by all means obliged to abstain totally from those very societies, assembles,
meetings, gatherings, fellowships, or associations under pain of excommunication
to be incurred ipso facto without any declaration by all those offending as
above, from which no one is able to obtain the favor of absolution except
through Us, or the Roman Pontiff reigning at the particular time, save one who
has been determined to be at the point of death.
"Moreover, We Ordain and Mandate, that as well the
Bishops and Prelates, Superiors and other Ordinaries of places, as the
Inquisitors Deputed for the places of heretical perversity wherever, proceed and
search for grounds of accusation against transgressors, of whatever grade,
state, condition, order, dignity, or pre-eminence they may be, and punish with
fitting penalties and confine those strongly suspected of heresy; for We grant
and impart to them, in general, and to each of them unrestricted faculty of
going out and searching for grounds against, and of restraining and punishing
with suitable punishments, those same transgressors, once the aid of the secular
arm also has been called upon for this purpose, if there should be need.
"On the other hand, We Ordain, that absolutely the
same faith which would be applied to the Original Letter, if they would be
produced or shown, be applied to duplicates, likewise to printed copies, of the
present letter signed by the hand of some public notary, and secured by the seal
of a person constituted in Ecclesiastical Dignity.
"It is allowed to no man to falsify this Letter of
Our Declaration, Condemnation, Mandate, Prohibition and Interdict, or to oppose
it by a rash boldness; but if anyone presumes to attempt this, let him know that
he will incur the wrath of Almighty God, and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and
Paul.
"Given at Rome at St. Mary Major in the 1738th year
of the Incarnation of the Lord on the 28th day of April, in the eighth year of
Our Pontificate."
3. Nevertheless, these things were not enough for
Benedict XIV Our Predecessor of celebrated memory. For it had become spread
abroad by the discussions of so many that the penalty of Excommunication
demanded in the Letter of Clement, having died a short while ago, had already
lost its strength, because Benedict had not clearly confirmed that Letter. It
was truly absurd to maintain that the Laws of previous Pontiffs become obsolete,
if they are not confirmed expressly by one's Successors, and futhermore, it was
manifestly evident that the Constitution of Clement had been considered as Valid
by Benedict. Nevertheless, Benedict has judged that this sophistry had to be
torn away from the hands of sectarians by a new Constitution which was
published, the beginning of which was Providas, on the 18th of March in the year
1751, by which Benedict confirmed the Constitution with just as many words,
given to in forma specifica, which is held as the strongest and most effective
of all. In fact the Constitution of Benedict is as follows:
BISHOP BENEDICT, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF
GOD
4. "We reckon that the Providential Laws and
Sanctions of the Roman Pontiffs, Our Predecessors, not only those whose force We
fear can be weakened or extinguished either by a failing of the times or by the
neglect of men, but also those which maintain their initial force and full
strength, must be strengthened and confirmed by a new buttressing of Our
Authority when just and weighty reasons demand it.
"Reasonably, Our Predecessor of happy memory, Pope
Clement XII, by his Apostolic Letter in the 1738th year of the Incarnation of
the Lord, on the 28th day of April, given in the 8th year of his Pontificate,
and written to all of Christ's Faithful, the beginning of which is In eminenti,
has forever condemned and prohibited several societies, assemblies, meetings,
gatherings, fellowships, or associations commonly called de` Liberi Muratori or
Francs-Macons, or identified by whatever other designation, having been
dispersed widely then in certain regions, and each day becoming more powerful,
admonishing each and every one of Chris's faithful, under pain of
excommunication ipso facto without any declaration needing to be incurred, from
which no one would be able to be absolved by any other than the Roman Pontiff
then Reigning, unless on the point of death, so that anyone might nor dare or
presume to enter or propagate, or to foster, receive, conceal societies of this
kind, to be inscribed in, attached to or be among them or otherwise involved
according as it is contained more broadly and richly in the same Letter, the
text of which is above.
"Since, however, as We have learned, there have been
some who have not hesitated to declare and to boast openly that the stated
penalty of excommunication imposed by Our Predecessor, as is shown above, no
longer carries any force, because of the fact that the very Constitution before
introduced has not been confirmed by Us, as if in fact, express confirmation of
a Pontifical Successor were required for the continuation of Apostolic
Constitions published by a Predecessor.
"And since it has also been recommended to Us by some
Pious and God-fearing men that it would be exceedingly expedient for destroying
all the deceptions of the calumniators, and for making public the uniformity of
Our disposition with the mind and will of the same Predecessor, to add the fresh
voice of Our Confirmation to the Constitution of the above mentioned
Predecessor.
"Although, while We have hitherto willingly granted,
not only on numerous occasions formerly, but also especially within the year of
jubilee having now passed, to many of Christ's faithful truly repenting and
lamenting for having violated the laws of the same Constitution, and willingly
professing that they will withdraw entirely from the condemned societies or
associations of this kind and that they are in the future never going to return
to those societies and those associations, or while We have communicated to the
penitentiaries appointed by Us the faculty of being capable of imparting, in Our
name and by Our Authority, to those types of penitents, who have recourse to
them, the same Absolution, also, while We have not neglected with a restless
zeal for vigilance to insist earnestly that action be taken by competent Judges
and Tribunals against the violators of that very Constitution according to the
measure of the crime, which action in fact was often taken, We have given indeed
not merely probable arguments, but clearly evident and certain arguments, from
which Our disposition and steadfast and deliberate will in regard to the force
and continuance of the censures imposed by Clement, Our said Predecessor, as is
shown above, ought clearly enough to be concluded. But if any contrary opinion
was passed around on Our account, We would be able to ddisregard it in all
security, and to abandon our cause to the just judgment of the Ominpotent God,
using those words, which it is certain had at one time been recited in the
Sacred Liturgy: 'Grant, We beseech Thee, O Lord, that we do not trouble
ourselves about the contradiction of spurious minds, but once that very
wickedness has been spurned let us pray that you suffer us neither to be
frightened by the unjust criticisms, nor to be attracted to the insidious
flatteries, but rather to love that which Thou dost command:--' as is found in
the ancient Missal, which is attributed to St. Gelasius, and was published by
the Vernerable Servant of God, Joseph Maria Cardinal Thomasius, in the Mass,
which is entitled Contra obloquentes.
"Nevertheless, so that it might not be able to be
said that something, by which We could easily be able to take away kindling and
shut the mouth of false accusations, had been unguardedly neglected by Us, once
that the Counsel of several of Our Venerable Brothers, Cardinals of the Holy
Roman Church had earlier been heard. We decided to confirm with this presnt
Letter, in forma specifica, that same Constitution of Our Predecessor inserted
above word for word, which is considered the strongest and most effective,
accordingly. From certain knowledge and the fullness of Our Apostolic Authority,
We confirm, strengthen, renew, that Constitution by the text of this present
Letter in all things and on account of all things just as if It had been
published firstly by Our own motion, by Our Authority and in Our name, and We
will and Decree that it have perpetual force and efficacy.
"Furthermore, among the gravest causes of the
aforementioned prohibition and condemnation reported in the Constitution
inserted above, the first is that in societies and associations of this type men
of any religion and sect whatever are united with each other, from which matter
it is evident enough how great a destruction is able to be brought to the purity
of the Catholic Religion. The next is the strict and impenetrable pledge of a
secret, by which those things which are done in associations of such like are
hidden, to which, therefore, that sentence is able fittingly to be applied which
Caecilius Natalis cited before Municius Felix in an indisputably diverse case:
Honest things always rejoice in the public, crimes are secret. The third is the
oath by which they bind themselves for preserving inviolably this type of
secret, as if it were allowed to someone to protect himself under cover of a
promise or swearing, having been questioned by legitimate power, without being
held to confess all things,whatsoever things are sought after for discerning
whether something is done in meetings of this kind,which is contrary to the
welfare and Laws of the State and Religion. The fourth is, that societies of
this kind are known to be against Canonical not less than civil sanctions,
since, namely, all colleges and sodalities united contrary to public authority
are forbidden, as is to be seen in Book XLVII of the Pandects, tit. 22 de
collegiis ac corporibus illicitis, and in the renowned letter of C. Plinius
Caecilius Secundus,, which is XCVII, lib. X, in which he says that by his own
edict in accord with the decrees of the emperor it has been forbidden that there
be, (heretical sects) that is, that societies and assemblies are not able to be
entered or established without the authority of the prince. The fifth is, that
already in many regions the previously mentioned societies and fellowships have
been proscribed by the laws of secular princes, and eliminated. The last,
finally, that before prudent and approved men the same societies and fellowships
were being perceived in an evil light and by their judgment whoever would enroll
in the same would incur the mark of depravity and perversion.
"Finally, the same Predecessor in the Constitution
inserted above rouses the Bishops and superior Prelates, and other Ordinaries of
places, that they do not neglect to invoke the help of the secular branches, if
there be need, for the execution of it.
"Which things, each and every, are not only approved
and confirmed by Us and are commended and enjoined to the same Ecclesiastical
Superiors respectively, but also We Ourselves, in accord with the Duty of the
Apostolic Vigilance, invoke with this Letter the strength and aid of the
Catholic Princes and of all the secular powers as to the accomplishment of the
matters presented above, and We demand with earnest desire, since the same
Supreme Princes and Powers have been chosen by God as the Defenders of the Faith
and Protectors of the Church, and therefore it is their Duty to accomplish by
every suitable means, that obedience due to the Apostolic Constitutions and
consideration of every kind be rendered, which for them the Fathers of the
Council of Trent, sess. 25 cap. 20, and much before, the Emperor Charles the
Great had made exceedingly clear in tit. I, cap. 2 of his Capitularies, where
after the observance of Ecclesiastical Sanctions committed to all those subject
to him, he added: 'For in no way are we able to understand how they can be
faithful to us, who have shown themselves unfaithful to God and disobedient to
their Priests.' Wherefore, enjoining all the rulers and ministers of his
domains, that they should by all means constrain each and every one to offer the
obedience due to the Laws of the Church, and also imposed the gravest penalties
against those who neglect to render this, supplying among other things: 'But
whoever will have been found in these things (that it be absent!) at least
neglecting and disobeying them, let them know that neither do they retain any
honors inour empire, although they will have even been our sons, nor a place in
our palace, neither do they have either any association or communication with
us, but rather let them undergo penalties in difficulty and dryness.'
"We will, however, that absolutely the same faith
which would be applied to the original Letters, if it would be produced or
shown, be applied to duplicates, likewise to printed copies, of the present
letter signed by the hand of some public notary, and secured by the seal of a
person constituted in Ecclesiastical Dignity.
"It is allowed to no man to falsify this letter of
Our confirmation, renewal, approbation, commission, invocation, the demand of
Our Decree and will, or to oppose it by a rash boldness. But if anyone presumes
to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God, and
of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
"Given at Rome in St. Mary Major, in the 1751st year
of the Incarnation of the Lord, on the 18th day of March, in the 11th year of
Our Pontificate."
5. Would that those who were in charge of matters
then had assumed these Decrees to be of such value as the salvation of both the
Church and the State was demanding! Would that they had convinced themselves
that they ought to respect in the Roman Pintiffs, Successors of Blessed Peter,
not only the Universal Pastors and Teachers of the Church, but also the Vigorous
Defenders of their Dignity, and the most diligent heralds of the dangers which
threaten! Would that they had used that power of theirs for dismembering the
sects whose pernicious devices had been exposed to them by the Apostolic See!
Already from that time they had plainly put into effect their cause. And because
they judged that this cause was needing to be treated with indifference or at
least treated very trivially, whether by the deceit of the sectarians cunningly
hiding their affairs, whether by the imprudent counsels of some, from those old
Masonic sects which have never languished, very many others have arisen much
more dangerous and more audacious than the former. The sect of the Carbonari,
which was considered the leader of all the others in Italy and in some other
regions, was considerd to embrace as if in its bosom all these, and having
divided into, as it were, various branches diverse in name only, undertook to
fight most vehemently against the Catholic Religion and every topmost legitimate
civil power. Which being a disaster, so that he might free Italy and other
regions, indeed even the very Pontifical Domain. (into which, because the
Pontifical Government had been obstructed for so long a time, tha sect had
insinuated itself) Pius VII of happy memory, in whose place We have been chosen,
condemned with the gravest penalties the sect of the Carbonari, or with the
passage of time by whatever other name it might be called according to the
diversity of places, of idioms and of men, by a Constitution published on the
13th of September in the year 1821 whose beginning is: Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo.
We deem that the Original of this must also be inserted in Our Letter.
BISHOP PIUS, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
For the perpetual remembrance of the matter.
6. "The Church founded by Jesus Christ Our Savior
upon a firm Rock, and against which Christ Himself has prommised that the gates
of hell will never prevail, has been so often assaulted, and by such dreadful
enemies, that unless that Divine and Unchangeable Promise had intervened, it
might seem that it must be feared that the Church itself, besieged be it by
their power, their crafts, or their cunning, might entirely perish. But that
which has happened in previous times,such also has been done and especially in
this certainly sorrowful time of ours, which seems to be that end time foretold
by the Apostles so long ago, during which time (Jude v. 18.) mockers will come
walking according to their own desires in ungodliness. For It is not concealed
from anyone how great the multitude of wicked men will have joined together in
these most difficult times against the Lord and against His Anointed One, who
are especially solicitous, once the faithful have been ensnared by Philosophy
and vain deceit (Col 2:8.) and torn away from the Doctrine of the Church, for
weakening and overturning the same Church, although by a useless effort. But in
order to succeed more easily, the greater number of them have formed secret
groups and clandestine sects, from which they were hoping that they might induce
many into the fellowship of their conspiracy and crime.
"A long time ago this Holy See, once these sects had
been discovered, cried with a great and unbridled Voice against them, and
exposed their plans, which had been devised secretly by them against Religion,
indeed against civil society. Long ago it called forth the attentiveness of all,
that they might beware lest it be allowed to these sects to attempt that which
they were heinously contemplating. Indeed it must have grieved these endeavors
of the Holy See not to have answered that destruction, which It was observing,
and that wicked men had not desisted from their acknowledged plan; whence they
at long last attained to those evils which We Ourselves have perceived; indeed,
men whose arrogance has always mounted, have dared to begin new secret
societies.
"Mention must be made in this place of a society,
recently born and propagated far and wide in Italy and in other regions, which
although it has been divided into several sects, and according to their variety
it sometimes assumes names among themselves different and distinct, nevertheless
because the entity is a communion of opinions and crimes, and because a certain
pact has been entered into, is one, and is generally accustomed to go under the
name of the Carbonari. Indeed, they simulate a singular respect and a certain
extraordinary zeal toward the Catholic Religion and toward the Person and
Doctrine of Jesus Christ Our Savior, Whom at times they also impiously dare to
call the Rector and great Teacher of this society. But these ways of speaking,
which are seen to be more slippery than oil, are nothing other than darts
employed by crafty men, who come in sheep's clothing but are ravenous wolves
inside, for more securely wounding the too little cautious.
"Surely that most severe oath, by which, imitating
for the most part the ancient Priscillianists they promise that they at no time
ever, or in no case, either are going to expose to men not enrolled in the
society anything which regards the society, or are going to share with those who
are in the lower degrees anything which pertains to the higher decrees. In
addition, those clandestine and furthermore illegitimate assemblies, which they
have, after the manner employed by many heretics, and the selection of men of
whatever religion and sect into their society, even if other things were not
available, sufficiently convince that it is necessary to have no confidence in
their related discourses.
"But it is not necessary by conjectures and
indications, that it be judged such concerning their sayings, as it was pointed
out above. Books published by these very types in which the procedure is
described, which is accustomed to be used in the meetings, especially of the
higher degrees; their catechisms, statutes, and other authentic and credible
documents, and in fact the testimony of those who, when they had abandoned that
society to which they had previously adhered, revealed its errors and frauds to
Legitimate Judges, have declared openly, that the Carbonari particularly incline
in such a way that they give to each one great license for devising by his own
genius and from his own ideas for himself a religion which he may practice, once
indifference to religion has been introduced, than which hardly anything more
destructive can be contrived, such that they profane and defile the passion of
Jesus Christ by certain of their impious ceremonies, that they despise the
Sacraments of the Church (for which they seem to substitute other new things
invented by themselves through their supreme wickedness) and despise the very
mysteries of the Catholic Religion and that they overthrow this Apostolic See
against which, because on it the Sovereignty of the Apostlic Chair has always
flourished, (S. Aug. Epist. 43.) they are roused by a certain unparalleled hate
and they devise every dangerous destructive plot.
"And the precepts concerning morals, which the
society of the Carbonari hand on, are not, as it is certain from their
monuments, less wicked, although it boasts confidently that it demands from its
own followers, that they cultivate and exercise charity and every kind of
virtue, and abstain from every vice. Therefore, it promotes sensual pleasure
most shamlessly, it teaches that it is licit to kill those who have not kept the
trust offered concerning the secret, which was mentioned above; and although
Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, Decrees, that Christians (1 Pet. 2:13.) be
subject to every human creature on account of God, whether to the king as
pre-eminent, whether to the magistrates as ambassadors to them, etc., and
although Paul the Apostle (Tit. 3:1.) commands that every soul be subject to
Higher Powers: nevertheless that society teaches that it is allowed, once
revolts have been provoked, to deprive of their power kings and other rulers,
whom most unjustly it dares indiscriminately to call tyrants.
"These and other dogmas and precepts of this society
are the ones from which those crimes newly committed by the Carbonari have
emerged, which have brought such intense grief to honest and pious men. We,
therefore, who have been constituted as the Guardian of the House of Israel,
which is Holy Church, and who in accord with Our Pastoral Office ought to beware
lest the Lord's flock divinely entrusted to Us suffer any harm, consider in a
case so serious that We cannot abstain from repressing the filthy undertakings
of men. We are also moved by the example of Clement XII and Benedict XIV, our
Predecessors of happy memory, of whom the one on the 28th day of April of the
year 1738 by the Constitution In Eminenti, the other on the 18th day of March
1751 by the Constitution Providas, have condemned and proscribed the societies
de` Liberi Muratori, or Francs-Macons, or called by whatever other name
according to the variety of regions and idioms, of which societies the society
of the Carbonari, must be considered perhaps the offspring or certainly the
imitation. And although We have already gravely prohibited this society with two
Edicts published through Our Secretary of State; nevertheless, following Our
above mentioned Predecessors, We think that severe penalties must be Decreed
with a formality indeed more Solemnly against this society, especially since the
Carbonari indiscriminately maintain that they are not included in those two
Constitutions of Clement XII and Benedict XIV, and that they are not subject to
the judgments and penalties proposed in them.
"Therefore, now that the select Congregation of Our
Venerable Brothers of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church has been heard,
indeed from its Counsel, and also by Our own motion and from Our certain
knowledge and mature deliberation, indeed from the fullness of Our Apostolic
Power, We have Decreed and Ordained that the society of the Carbonari mentioned
above, or called by any other name whatever, its assemblies, meetings,
gatherings, fellowships, or associations must be condemned and prohibited,
accordingly as We condemn and proscribe by Our present Constitution forever
Valid.
"Wherefore We Order strictly and in Virtue of Holy
Obedience each and every faithful of Chhrist of whatever state, grade,
condition, order, dignity and pre-eminence, be they the laity or Clerics, both
Seculars and Regulars and even those worthy of specific and individual mention,
that anyone under whatever pretext, or special condition not dare or presume to
join or propagate, to foster, the society of the Carbonari mentioned above, or
otherwise named, and to admit and hide in their dwellings, or their homes, or
any other place, to be enrolled in, to adhere to or to take part in it, indeed
whatever degree of it, or to give opportunity or convenience that it may be
convened in any place, to furnish it with anything, or otherwise to offer
counsel, aid or good will, openly or in secret, directly or indirectly, per se
or through others in any way whatever. Likewise no one may dare or presume to
exhort, induce, provoke or persuade others to be inscribed in, be reckoned as
part of or be among a society of this kind, or any degree of it, nor are they to
help and thus support it in any way whatever. On the contrary they must
absolutely abstain themselves from the same society and its assemblies,
meetings, fellowships, or associations under pain of Excommunication needing to
be incurred ipso facto without any declaration by all those offending as above,
from which no one is able to obtain the favor of Absolutiion through anyone
except Us, or the Roman Pontiff Reigning at that time, save one determined to be
at the point of death.
"Futhermore We Order all under the same pain of
Excommunication reserved to Us and Our Successors, the Roman Pontiffs, that they
are held to declare to the Bishops, or to others whom it pertains all those whom
they know to have joined in this society or to have defiled themselves by any
one of the crimes mentiond above.
"Finally, that every danger of error may
efficaciously be prevented, We condemn and We proscribe that all, as they call
them, catechisms and books of the Carbonari, and We forbid, under the same pain
of Major Excommunication reserved in the same way, every one of the faithful to
read or to possess the books mentioned above, and We command that they hand over
those materials, either to the Ordinaries, or to others, to whom the right of
receiving them pertains.
"We Will, however, that absolutely the same Faith
which would be applied to the Original Letter, if they would be produced or
shown, is to be applied to duplicates, likewise printed copies, of the present
Letter signed by the hand of some public notary, and secured by the seal of a
person Constituted in Ecclesiastical Dignity.
"It is allowed to no man to falsify this Letter of
Our Declaration, Condemnation, Mandate, Prohibition and Interdict, or ot oppose
it by a rash boldness; but if anyone presumes to attempt this, let him know that
he will incur the wrath of Almighty God, and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and
Paul.
"Given at Rome in Saint Mary Major, in the 1821st
year of the Incarnation of the Lord, on the 13th day of September, in the
twenty-second year of Our Pontificate."
7. Not long after the Constitution published by Pius
VII, We were elevated to the topmost Chair of Blessed Peter by no merits of
Ours; and immediately We turned Our attention to exposing what the state of
clandestine sects was, what their number was, what their poser was. Inquiring
about these things We easily understood that their arrogance had grown
principally on account of the multitude of them, increased by the new sects.
From which sects that one must especially be mentioned which is called
Universitaria, because it has a seat and domicile in many universities of
learning, in which the young are informed, initiated to, and fashioned for every
crime by some teachers, who are zealous not to teach them, but to pervert them
by the mysteries of the same sect which ought to be called most truly the
mysteries of inquity.
From this it indeed appears that even after so long a
time since the flames of revolution were enkindled and spread abroad, indeed
after the remarkable victories reported by the powerful Princes of Europe, by
which those flames were expected to be extinguished, their wicked undertakings
still have not known an end. For in these very regions in which the early storms
seem to have quieted, what fear there is of new distrubances and seditions,
which those sects continually devise! Such dread of the impious daggers, which
they secretly fix in the bodies of those whom they assign to death! How many and
how grave the things, even against their will, are they who rule with power over
the same ones not rarely forced to decree for safeguarding public peace?
From this the most painful calamities come forth by
which the Church is everywhere fiercely plagued, and which We are not able to
relate without pain, without deep sorrow. Its Holy Dogmas and Precepts are
fought against most shamelessly; Its Dignity is diminished; and that peace and
happiness which It ought to enjoy by a certain right of Its own, was not only
being disturbed, but is totally destroyed.
Nor must it be thought that all these evils, and
others which have been omitted by Us are attributed to these clandestine sects
surely through calumny. Books which they do not hesitate to write about Religion
and the State, have been published in their name, with which they scorn
dominion, blaspheme majesty; moreover they declare repeatedly that Christ is
either a scandal or foolish; indeed, not rarely, that there is no God, and they
teach that the soul of man dies together with the body: the codes and statues,
by which they explain their goals and ordinances openly declare that all the
things which We have already mentioned, and which pertain to the overthrowing of
Legitimate Rulers and totally destroying the Church come forth from them. And
this has been ascertained and must be considered as certain, that these sects,
although in name different, nevertheless have been joined among themselves by an
impious bond of filthy goals.
Since matters are in such a state, We judge it to be
the Character of our Office to Condemn these clandestine sects again, and in
such a manner indeed that no one of them can boast that they are not encompassed
by Our Apostolic Pronouncement, and under this pretext lead careless and less
sagacious men into error. Therefore, from the Counsel of Our Venerable Brethren,
the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also by Our own motion indeed with
Our certain knowledge and mature consideration, We forbid forever under the same
penalties which are contained in the Letters of Our Predecessors already
reported in this Our Contitution, which Letters We expressly confirm, that all
secret societies, those which now are and those which perhaps will afterwards
sprout out, and which propose to themselves against the Church and against the
highest civil powers those things which We have mentioned above, by whatever
name they may finally be called.
Wherefore We Order strictly and in virtue of Holy
Obedience each and every faithful of Christ of whatever state, grade, condition,
order, dignity and pre-eminence, be they the laity or Clerics, both Seculars and
Regulars and even those worthy of specific and individual mention, that anyone,
under whatever pretext or special condition, may not dare or presume to join or
propagate, or to foster, the societies mentioned above, or by whatever name they
may be called, and to admit and hide, in their dwellings, or their homes, or any
place, to be enrolled in, to adhere to or to take part in them, indeed to
whatever degree of the same, or to give opportunity or convenience that they may
be assembled in any place, to furnish the same with anything, or otherwise to
offer counsel, aid or good will, openly or in secret, directly or indirectly,
per se or through others in any way whatever. Likewise no one may dare or
presume to exhort, induce, provoke or persuade others to be inscribed in, be
reckoned as part of or be among societies of this kind, or any degree of the
same, nor are they to help and thus support them in any way whatever. On the
contrary they must absolutely abstain from the same societies and their
assemblies, meetings, fellowships, or associations under pain of Excommunication
to be incurred ipso facto without any declaration by all those offending as
above, from which no one is able to obtain the favor of absolution through
anyone except Us, or the Roman Pontiff Reigning at that time, save one
determined to be at the point of death.
Furthermore We order all under the same pain of
Excommunication reserved to Us and Our Successors, the Roman Pontiffs, that they
are held to declare to the Bishops, or to others whom it concerns, all those
whom they know to have joined this society, or to have defiled themselves by any
one of the crimes just mentioned above.
In fact, We explicitly condemn and declare invalid
particularly that clearly impious and accursed oath, by which they bind those
who are received into these sects that they will reveal to none those things
which pertain to those sects, and that they will strike with death all those
members who expose those things to their superiors, either Ecclesiastics or
laity. For what reason? Is not an oath, which must be sworn in justice, in order
to establish, as it were, a contract by which someone obliges himself to an
unjust murder, and in order to despise the Authority of those, who, when they
regulate either the Church or Legitimate civil society, have the right of
discerning those things in which the salvation of those societies consists,
contrary to Divine Law? Isn't it the most unjust and the greatest indignity to
call God as a witness and surety of crimes? Most recently the Fathers of the
Lateran Council III have said (Can. 3): "For they must not be called oaths, but
rather perjuries, which are taken against Ecclesiastical utility and the
Ordinances of the most Holy Fathers." And the shamelssness and madness of the
ones among these men who when they say not just in their heart, but also openly
and in their public writings: "There is not a God," dare nevertheless demand an
oath from all those whom they select for their sects.
These things have been established for suppressing
and condemning all these ravening and criminal sects. But now We not only
request but demand your service, Venerable Brothers, the Catholic Patriarchs,
Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops. Be attentive for yourselves and for the
Universal flock over which the Holy Ghost has placed you as Bishops to Rule the
Church of God. Devouring wolves indeed will seize upon you not sparing the
flock: but do not fear, not consider your life more precious than yourselves.
Maintain that Sacred Truth that the constancy of the men entrusted to you in
Religion depends for the most part on you and on things done rightly. For
although we may live in those days which are evil, and in that time in which
many do not maintain sound Doctrine, nevertheless the Obedience of very many
faithful to their Pastors endures, whom they receive with reason as Ministers of
Christ and dispensers of His mysteries. Use, therefore, this Authority for the
advantage of your sheep, which you maintain over their souls by an imperishable
Honor of God. Make known through yourselves the deceits of the sects and with
how much diligence they must guard against them and their social intercourse.
Let them dread their perverse doctrine which mocks the Most Holy Mysteries of
our Religion and the most pure Precepts of Christ, and which attacks every
Legitimate Power, while you act as their models and teachers. And finally let Us
exhort you with the words of Our Predecessor, Clement XII, in his Encyclical
Letter to all the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops of the Catholic
Church of the 14th day of September of the year 1758: "Let Us be filled, I pray,
with the Power of the Spirit of the Lord, with discernment and with virtue, lest
just as dumb dogs not having the power to bark, We suffer Our flocks to be as
pillage and Our sheep forage for the beasts of the field. And let not anything
detain Us from giving ourselves up to all battles for the Glory of God and the
salvation of souls. Let Us consider Him, who underwent such great contradiction
against Himself by sinners. But if We fear the boldness of those wicked ones, it
has been from the force of the Episcopate, and from the sublime and Divine Power
of Governing the Church; but neither are We able to remain much longer or be any
longer Christians, if it has come to this point that We are terrified at the
threats or the artifices of the destroyers."
We demand also with great zeal your assistance,
dearest sons in Christ, Our Catholic Princes, whom We love with a singular and
truly Paternal love. Furthermore We call into memory the words which Leo the
Great, whose Successors in Dignity and Heirs We are, although unworthy of the
name, used writing to the emperor Leo: "You ought unhesitatingly to recognize
that the Royal Power has been conferred to you not only for the Rule of the
world, but especially for the defense of the Church, so that by suppressing the
heinous undertakings you may defend those Statutes which are good and restore
True Peace to those things which have been disordered." Although there is such
an interval, the reality remains in this time, so that those sects must be
restrained by you not only for defending the Catholic Religion, but also for
protecting your safety and that of the people subject to your Rule. In fact, the
cause of Religion especially in this time, has been so united with the health of
society, that certainly in no way can one be separated from the other. For they
who follow those sects, are not less enemies of Religion than of your Power.
They assault each one, they devise to overthrow completely each one. But they
would not however be allowed, if it were possible, to suppress either Religion
or any Royal Power.
And so great is the cunning of the most calculating
men that when they are seen especially to be favorable to the increasing of your
Power, then they are looking chiefly for the overturning of it. Those men indeed
teach very many things such that they advocate that Our Power and that of the
Bishops must be diminished and weakened by those who have possession of power,
and that many rights must be transferred to them, both from those which are
Possessions of this Apostolic See and Principal Church, and from those which
pertain to the Bishops, who have been called for a sharing of Our solicitude.
But these things those men teach, not only from a most offensive hate by which
they are inflamed against Religion, but also according to a plan whereby they
hope that people who are subject to your Rule on observing that the limits,
which Christ and the Church instituted by Him have established concerning Sacred
Matters, are overturned, may be easily aroused by this example to change and
destroy even the form of civil government.
Likewise We look with solicitude, by Our Special
Prayer and encouragements, upon you all, O Beloved Sons, who profess the
Catholic Religion. Avoid entirely men who consider light darkness, and darkness
light. For what utility worthy of the name can arise from agreement with men who
think that no consideration for God, no consideration for the more Sublime
Powers, is needing to be had, who through intrigues and secret assemblies try to
declare war on those things, and who are such that they cry even in public and
everywhere that they are the greatest lovers of the public gook, of the Church,
and of society; nevertheless they have already declared by all their deeds that
they wish to throw all things into disorder and to overturn all things. These
are indeed similar to those men to whom John commands in his second Epistle (v.
10) that neither hospitality must be given no "God speed" be said, and whom our
Fathers do not hesitate to call the firstborn of the devil. Beware therefore of
their flatteries and of their discourses sweetened with honey, by which they
will seduce you to enroll in those sects to which they have been admitted. Have
it for certain that no one can be a member of those sects, without being guilty
of the most serious disgraceful act; and drive away from your ears the words of
those who vigorously declare that you may assent to your election to the lower
degrees of their sects, that nothing is admitted in those degrees which is
opposed to reason, nothing which is opposed to Religion, indeed that there is
nothing proclaiimed, nothing performed which is not Holy, which is not Right,
which is not Undefiled. Truly that abominable oath, which has already been
mentioned, and which must be sworn even in that lower echelon, is sufficient for
you to understand that it is contrary to Divine Law to be enlisted in those
lower degrees, and to remain in them. In the next place, although they are not
accustomed to commit those things which are more serious and more criminal to
those who have not attained to the higher degrees, nevertheless it is plainly
evident that the force and boldness of those most pernicious societies grow on
account of the unanimity and the multitude of all who enroll in them. Therefore,
even those who have not passed beyond the inferior degrees, must be considered
sharers of their crimes. And that passage of the Apostle to the Romans (ch. 1)
applies to them: "They who do such things, but also those who consent to those
doing them."
Finally, We call very lovingly to Ourselves those who
had once been enlightened, and had tasted the Heavenly Gift and had been made
partakers, nevertheless, then erred most miserably and follow those sects
whether they are engaged in their inferior or abide in their superior degrees.
For, the one standing in the place of Him Who has professed that He has not come
to call the just but sinners, and Who has likened Himself to a Shepherd, Who,
when He has left the remaining flock behind, carefully seeks the sheep He has
lost, We exhort and implore them to turn back to Christ. For although they have
defiled themselves exceedingly with crime, they ought not despair of Mercy and
Clemency from God and Jesus Christ Who has suffered for them also, Who will not
despise in any way their repentance, but certainly like a most loving Father,
who a long time ago was waiting for his prodigal sons, will very gladly receive
it. But We, in order that We may rouse them, inasmuch as it is in Our Power, and
pave an easier road for them to penance, suspend for the entire interval of a
year, once this Apostolic Letter of Ours has been published in the region in
which they live, both the obligation of denouncing their associates in those
sects, and also the reservation of censures, into which they, enrolling in those
sects, have fallen, and We declare that, even if their associates have not been
denounced, they are able to be absolved from those censures by any confessor
whatever, provided that he is from the number of those who have been approved by
the Ordinaries of the places in which they live.
Which Indulgence also We Authorize to be applied to
those who perhaps live at Rome. But if anyone of them whom We address is so
unyielding (because God the Father of Mercies turns away) that he acts such that
that interval of time, which We have designated, passes without abandoning those
sects, and being truly repentant, by that lapse of time immediately both the
obligation of denouncing his associates and the reservation of censures revives
for him, nor is he able to obtain absolution thereafter, unless once his
associates have been denounced before, or at least once an oath has been sworn
with respect to denouncing them as soon as possible. Nor is he able to be loosed
from those censures by any other than Us, or by Our Successors, or by those who
will have obtained the faculty of absolving from the same by the Holy See.
We will, however, that absolutely the same Faith
which would be applied to the Original Letter, if they would be produced or
shown, is to be applied to duplicates, likewise printed copies, of the present
Letter signed by the hand of some public notary, and secured by the Seal of a
person constituted in Ecclesiastical Dignity.
It is allowed to no man to falsify this Letter of Our
Declaration, condemnations, renewal, ordered prohibition, invocation,
examination, decree and will, or to oppose it by a rash boldness. But if anyone
presumes to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty
God, and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
Given at Rome in Saint Peter, in the 1826th year of
the Incarnation of the Lord, on the 13th day of March, in the second year of Our
Pontificate.
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