APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION OF POPE LEO XII
March 13, 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 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 Saint 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
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 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 Saint 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 Saint 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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
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 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 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, 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.
