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Title: |
Quo Graviora
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Descr.: |
Condemning Secret Societies
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Pope: |
Pope Leo XII
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Date: |
March 13, 1826
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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 certainty 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 tranquility 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 and 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 furthermore, 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 Christ'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 constitutions 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 disregard it in all security, and to
abandon our cause to the just judgment of the Omnipotent 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 Venerable 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 present 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 in our 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 Pontiffs, 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 considered 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, the
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 promised 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 heniously
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 their 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
Apostolic 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 shamelessly, 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 preeminent, 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 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 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 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 pertains all those
whom they know to have joined in this society or to have defiled
themselves by any one of the crimes mentioned 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, in which those things that are
accustomed to be carried out in their meetings, their statues,
codices, and all books written in their defense, whether they be
published in type or manuscripts, are delineated by 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 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 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
power 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 iniquity.
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 disturbances 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
constitution, 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 other 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 no one 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 for 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 shamelessness 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 [faithful]: but do not fear,
nor
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 [the faithful], 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
faithful
forage for enemies]. 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 good,
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 nor "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 proclaimed, 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 are worthy of death, and not only those who do those
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
His Son. Therefore let them at length betake themselves finally at
some time and have recourse again to 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,
condemnation, 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 St. Peter's, 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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