Pius VI, 1775-1799

The Power of the One Church in the Marriage of Baptized Persons¹

[From the Epistle, "Deessemus nobis," to the Bishop of Motula, Sept. 16, 1788]

1500a. It is not unknown to us that there are some, who, attributing too much to the authority of the secular princes, and captiously interpreting the words of this canon [see n. 982], have undertaken to defend this: That, since the Tridentine Fathers did not make use of this form of speaking, "to ecclesiastical judges alone," or, "all matrimonial cases,"—they (the Tridentine Fathers) have left to lay judges the power of at least investigating matrimonial cases which are of pure fact. But we know that even this sophism and this false kind of quibbling are devoid of all foundation. For the words of the canon are so general that they embrace and comprise all cases. Moreover, the spirit or purpose of the law extends so widely that it leaves no place for exception or limitation. For if these cases pertain to the tribunal of the Church alone for no other reason than because the marriage contract is truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelical law, then, just as this notion of the sacrament is common to all matrimonial cases, so all these cases ought to pertain to the ecclesiastical judges alone.

Errors of the Synod of Pistoia²

[Condemned in the Constitution, "Auctorem fidei," Aug. 28, 1794]

[A. Errors about the Church³]

Obscuring of Truths in the Church

[From the Decree de Grat., sec. 1]

1501. 1. The proposition, which asserts "that in these later times there has been spread a general obscuring of the more important truths pertaining to religion, which are the basis of faith and of the moral teachings of Jesus Christ,"—heretical.