Gregory XVI

“ We have written on these subjects to you, Venerable Brethren, that putting on the buckler of faith, you may be encouraged to go forth and fight the battles of the Lord. You above all others it behoveth to stand as a wall against every height exalting itself against the knowledge of God. ”

“ In sorrow, and with a mind broken with grief, We address you—you, whom We know from your devotedness to religion, to have suffered proportional anxiety of mind in witnessing the depravity of the times with which religion has now to struggle. ”

“ Hither tends that worst and never sufficiently to be execrated and detested liberty of the press, for the diffusion of all manner of writings, which some so loudly contend for, and so actively promote. We shudder, Venerable Brethren, at the sight of the monstrous doctrines, or rather portentous errors, which crowd upon Us in the shape of numberless volumes and pamphlets, small in size, but big with evils, which stalk forth in every direction, breathing a malediction which we deplore over the face of the earth. ”

“ The schools and the universities echo monstrous novelties, which no longer content themselves with undermining the foundation of the Catholic faith, but quitting their lurking holes, rush openly to horrid and impious war with it.—The youth corrupted by the doctrines and examples of their teachers, have inflicted a deep wound upon Religion, and have introduced a most gloomy perversion of manners. ”

“ Nor can we augur more consoling consequences to religion and to governments, from the zeal of some to separate the Church from the State, and to burst the bond, which unites the priesthood to the Empire. For it is clear, that this union is dreaded by the profane lovers of liberty, only because it has never failed to confer prosperity on both. ”

“ Ours is the task to drive the sheep into healthful pastures which preclude all suspicion of danger. But God forbid, Dearest Brethren, God forbid that while so many evils press, while so many dangers threaten, pastors should be wanting to their duty, and that fear-stricken, they should fly from their flocks, or slumber in idle and inactive forgetfulness of them. In union of spirit then, let us be true to our common cause, or rather to the cause of God; and let us unite our vigilance and exertions against the common enemy, for the salvation of the whole people. ”

“ To what warlike achievements should we not be adequate, and prepared for, even against forces more numerous than ourselves? We, who so little fear death, if our religion did not require us rather to suffer than to inflict death. ”

“ Hence it is that men flinging away the restraints of our Holy religion, which can alone keep together the elements of kingdoms, and impart strength and stability to government, have brought us to witness the destruction of public order, the downfall of States, and the overthrow of all legitimate power. ”

“ For hence arise these revolutions in the minds of men: hence this aggravated corruption of youth; hence this contempt among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions and laws; hence, in one word, that pest of all others, most to be dreaded in a state, unbridled liberty of opinion, licenciousness of speech, and a lust of novelty, which, according to the experience of all ages, portend the downfal of the most powerful and flourishing empires. ”

“ Meanwhile, another cause for Our silence arose, from the insolence of faction, which laboured again to raise the standard of rebellion. Finding that long endurance and mildness, instead of softening, appeared rather to foment the spirit of licentiousness, We were at last, With extreme sorrow of heart, compelled to raise the scourge entrusted to Us by the Almighty, for subduing the obstinacy of men ”

“ Embrace with paternal tenderness those in particular who have devoted their minds to sacred studies and to philosophical enquiries. Exhort them and warn them, however, against an imprudent reliance on the unassisted powers of their own minds, which might seduce them from the pathway of truth into the high road of impiety. Bid them remember that "God is the guide of wisdom, and the director of the wise," [31] and that without God it is impossible to understand the nature of God, who teaches men by his word to know God. ”

“ The divine authority of the Church is opposed; robbed of her rights, She is laid prostrate to satisfy human expediency, and iniquity exposes her a degraded slave to the hatred of the nations. The obedience due to Bishops is infringed, and their rights are trodden under foot. ”

“ Called to be labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, confine yourselves to this, labour at this, that every root of bitterness may be torn up in the field entrusted to your care, and that every noxious weed being destroyed, a joyful harvest of virtues may flourish. ”

“ The holiness of things sacred is despised; and the majesty of the divine worship, at once so efficacious and so necessary, is called in question, is vilified, is mocked at by evil men. Hence the perversion of sound doctrine, and hence the effrontery with which errors of every kind are disseminated. The law of the sanctuary, its rights, its customs, whatever is most holy in discipline, is attacked by the tongues of them that speak iniquity. Our Roman See of St. Peter, on which Christ laid the foundation of His Church, is assailed on all sides ”

“ He is a proud, or rather a foolish man, who weighs in a human balance the mysteries of faith, which surpass all understanding, or who confides in the deductions of his own intellect, which subject to the common fatality of human nature, is necessarily weak and infirm. ”

“ Mindful at the same time that it holds a place among things sacred, and is consequently subject to the Church, let the people have always before their eyes the laws framed by the Church respecting and let them comply with them religiously and exactly; for it is on that depends the validity, the stability, and the just union of marriage. Let them beware of offending in any way against the sacred Canons, and the decrees of Councils, properly impressed with the conviction, that no happy issue can result from marriages contracted in defiance of Church discipline ”

“ Your attention had been directed to this subject in the letter addressed to you by Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius VIII.; but the noxious evil is still increasing. The people must therefore be carefully instructed, that matrimony once lawfully engaged in, can never be dissolved: that God hath decreed that the society formed by those, who have once been united in wedlock, should continue during the whole of their lives: and that the tie of union can only be dissolved by death. ”

“ But Our mind shrinks from the memory of troubles, whose sad recital would be only re-opening the sources of sorrow; and We rather bless the God of all consolation, who in subduing the rebels hath shielded Us from impending danger ”

“ But is it not a crime then, never sufficiently to be reprobated, to commit deliberate and greater evil, merely with the hope of seeing some good arise out of it?—Or is that man in his senses, who entrusts poison to every hand, exposes it at every mart, suffers it to be carried about oh all occasions, aye, and to, become a necessary ingredient of every cup, because an antidote may be afterwards procured which chance may render effective? ”

“ Placed over their subjects as parents and as guardians, they will ensure for them a true, constant, rich repose and tranquility, if they make it their first care to protect religion and piety towards God, who has written on his thigh, "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." ”

“ Wherefore both divine and human laws cry out against those who by the basest machinations of treason and rebellion, strive to dissolve the bonds of allegiance to princes, and to drive them from their states. ”

“ May this our seal for the welfare of religious and public order, acquire aid and authority from the princes. Our dearest sons in Christ, who, let them reflect, have rceived their power not merely for their temporal rule, but chiefly for the protection of the Church. Let them carefully observe, that whatever is done for the good of the Church, necessarily benefits their government, and confirms the peace of their states. Let them be persuaded that the cause of the Faith interests them more nearly than that of their Kingdom ”

“ Having moreover heard that doctrines are now circulated in writings among the common people, subversive of the fidelity and the submission due to princes, and that in consequence the flame of sedition is every where kindling; all care must be employed to prevent the people being seduced from the path of duty. Be the admonition of the Apostle known to all, that "there is no power but from God ”

“ With arms in our hands we remain defenceless, for we choose rather to die than to shed blood." [29] But to set in its true light the fidelity of the first Christians to their princes, we should remember with Tertullian, that at that time "the Christians were neither wanting in numbers, nor in resources to resist their persecutors. ”

“ For only destroy those fences, which keep men within the paths of truth, leave them to the headlong sway of their natural evil propensities, and the "bottomless pit" at once yawns before you, from which St. ”