CLEMENT, BISHOP, Servant of
the Servants of God to all the faithful, Salutation, and Apostolic Benediction.
Since the divine clemency has placed Us, Whose merits are not equal to the task,
in the high watch-tower of the Apostolate with the duty of pastoral care
confided to Us, We have turned Our attention, as far as it has been granted Us
from on high, with unceasing care to those things through which the integrity of
Orthodox Religion is kept from errors and vices by preventing their entry, and
by which the dangers of disturbance in the most troubled times are repelled from
the whole Catholic World.
Now it has come to Our ears, and common gossip has made clear, that certain
Societies, Companies, Assemblies, Meetings, Congregations or Conventicles called
in the popular tongue Liberi Muratori or Francs Massons or by other names
according to the various languages, are spreading far and wide and daily growing
in strength; and men of any Religion or sect, satisfied with the appearance of
natural probity, are joined together, according to their laws and the statutes
laid down for them, by a strict and unbreakable bond which obliges them, both by
an oath upon the Holy Bible and by a host of grievous punishment, to an
inviolable silence about all that they do in secret together. But it is in the
nature of crime to betray itself and to show itself by its attendant clamor.
Thus these aforesaid Societies or Conventicles have caused in the minds of the
faithful the greatest suspicion, and all prudent and upright men have passed the
same judgment on them as being depraved and perverted. For if they were not
doing evil they would not have so great a hatred of the light. Indeed, this
rumor has grown to such proportions that in several countries these societies
have been forbidden by the civil authorities as being against the public
security, and for some time past have appeared to be prudently eliminated.
Therefore, bearing in mind the great harm which is often caused by such
Societies or Conventicles not only to the peace of the temporal state but also
to the well-being of souls, and realizing that they do not hold by either civil
or canonical sanctions; and since We are taught by the divine word
that it is the part of faithful servant and of the master of the Lord's
household to watch day and night lest such men as these break into the household
like thieves, and like foxes seek to destroy the vineyard; in fact, to prevent
the hearts of the simple being perverted, and the innocent secretly wounded by
their arrows, and to block that broad road which could be opened to the
uncorrected commission of sin and for the other just and reasonable motives
known to Us; We therefore, having taken counsel of some of Our Venerable
Brothers among the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also of Our own
accord and with certain knowledge and mature deliberations, with the plenitude
of the Apostolic power do hereby determine and have decreed that these same
Societies, Companies, Assemblies, Meetings, Congregations, or Conventicles of
Liberi Muratori or Francs Massons, or whatever other name they may go by, are to
be condemned and prohibited, and by Our present Constitution, valid for ever, We
do condemn and prohibit them.
Wherefore We command most strictly and in virtue of holy obedience, all the
faithful of whatever state, grade, condition, order, dignity or pre-eminence,
whether clerical or lay, secular or regular, even those who are entitled to
specific and individual mention, that none, under any pretext or for any reason,
shall dare or presume to enter, propagate or support these aforesaid societies
of Liberi Muratori or Francs Massons, or however else they are called, or to
receive them in their houses or dwellings or to hide them, be enrolled
among them, joined to them, be present with them, give power or permission for
them to meet elsewhere, to help them in any way, to give them in any way advice,
encouragement or support either openly or in secret, directly or indirectly, on
their own or through others; nor are they to urge others or tell them, incite or
persuade them to be enrolled in such societies or to be counted among their
number, or to be present or to assist them in any way; but they must stay
completely clear of such Societies, Companies, Assemblies, Meetings,
Congregations or Conventicles, under pain of excommunication for all the above
mentioned people, which is incurred by the very deed without any declaration
being required, and from which no one can obtain the benefit of absolution,
other than at the hour of death, except through Ourselves or the Roman Pontiff
of the time.
Moreover, We desire and command that both Bishops and prelates, and other local
ordinaries, as well as inquisitors for heresy, shall investigate and proceed
against transgressors of whatever state, grade, condition, order dignity or
pre-eminence they may be; and they are to pursue and punish them with condign
penalties as being most suspect of heresy. To each and all of these We
give and grant the free faculty of calling upon the aid of the secular arm,
should the need arise, for investigating and proceeding against those same
transgressors and for pursuing and punishing them with condign penalties.
Given at Rome, at Saint Mary Mayor, in the year 1738 of Our Lord.
