Folio 444

Pius IX, 1846-1878

printed p. 412 · pdf p. 444

the whole earth by land and sea, from the rising to the setting of the sun, under the one standard of the Cross, and also, having overcome the deceits of idolaters and torn away the mist of errors and triumphed over enemies of every kind, it has illuminated with the light of divine knowledge all peoples, races, nations, howsoever barbarous in culture and different in disposition, customs, laws, and institutions; and has subjected them to the most sweet yoke of Christ Himself, "announcing peace" to all, "announcing good" [Isa. 52:7]. All of this certainly shines everywhere with so great a glory of divine wisdom and power that the mind and intelligence of each one clearly understands that the Christian Faith is the work of God.

1639. And so, human reason, knowing clearly and openly from these most splendid and equally strong proofs that God is the author of the same faith, can proceed no further; but, having completely cast aside and removed every difficulty and doubt, it should render all obedience to this faith, since it holds as certain that whatever faith itself proposes to man to be believed or to be done, has been transmitted by God.1

Civil Marriage2

[From the Allocution, "Acerbissimum vobiscum," Sept. 27, 1852]

1640. We say nothing about that other decree in which, after completely despising the mystery, dignity, and sanctity of the sacrament of matrimony; after utterly ignoring and distorting its institution and nature; and after completely spurning the power of the Church over the same sacrament, it was proposed, according to the already condemned errors of heretics, and against the teaching of the Catholic Church, that marriage should be considered as a civil contract only, and that divorce,

  1. When the Hermesians dared to interpret these words of the Pontiff as if he were confirming and protecting the doctrine of Hermes, PIUS IX wrote letters, dated July 25, 1847, to John, Archbishop of Cologne, later His Reverend Eminence Cardinal de Geissel, in which he confirmed the Brief of GREGORY XVI, Sept. 26, 1835, and the added decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, and he rejected and condemned the works of Hermes. ↩

  2. Aexq 117; AP I 392 f.; cf. ASS 1 (1865), 508 ff.—The commonwealth of New Granada had already in the year 1845 passed a law injurious to the rights of the Church, which merited the attention of GREGORY XVI. But the rulers of that region were so far from withdrawing their steps from the road they had undertaken (or, from the journey they had begun) that they harassed the religious orders by new decrees, appropriated ecclesiastical goods for secular uses, persecuted the bishops who were resisting with invincible faith, and finally violated the sanctity of the sacrament by introducing civil marriage. Therefore the Supreme Pontiff decided that he should cry out publicly against such iniquitous laws. Newspapers reported that the Supreme Pontiff exposed the same doctrine about civil marriage, in a letter dated Sept. 19, 1852, to the King of Sardinia, in whose realm this innovation was introduced. ↩