Folio 465

Pius IX, 1846-1878

printed p. 433 · pdf p. 465

who "not enduring sound doctrine" [II Tim. 4:3], contend that "without sin and with no loss of Catholic profession, one can withhold assent and obedience to those judgments and decrees of the Apostolic See, whose object is declared to relate to the general good of the Church and its rights and discipline, provided it does not touch dogmas of faith or morals." There is no one who does not see and understand clearly and openly how opposed this is to the Catholic dogma of the plenary power divinely bestowed on the Roman Pontiff by Christ the Lord Himself of feeding, ruling, and governing the universal Church.

1699. In such great perversity of evil opinions, therefore, We, truly mindful of Our Apostolic duty, and especially solicitous about our most holy religion, about sound doctrine and the salvation of souls divinely entrusted to Us, and about the good of human society itself, have decided to lift Our Apostolic voice again. And so all and each evil opinion and doctrine individually mentioned in this letter, by Our Apostolic authority We reject, proscribe, and condemn; and We wish and command that they be considered as absolutely rejected, proscribed, and condemned by all the sons of the Catholic Church.

"Syllabus," or Collection of Modern Errors1

[Excerpted from various Allocutions, Encyclicals, Epistles of PIUS IX, together with (the above quoted) Bull, "Quanta cura," edited Dec. 8, 1864]

A. Index of the Acts of Pius IX, from which the Syllabus is excerpted

1700. 1. The Encyclical Letter, "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846 (to this are referred the propositions of the Syllabus 4-7, 16, 40, 63).

  1. Letter of His Eminence Cardinal I. Antonelli . . . with which the Syllabus compiled by order of His Holiness is sent to the bishops.

    Your Most Illustrious and Reverend Lordship:

    Our most holy Lord, PIUS IX, Pontifex Maximus, being especially solicitous concerning the salvation of souls and sound doctrine, even from the very beginning of his Pontificate has never ceased by his Encyclical Letters and Allocutions held in Consistories, and by publishing other Apostolic Letters and Allocutions to proscribe and condemn the most conspicuous errors and false doctrines of this especially unhappy age. But, since it could perhaps happen that all these Pontifical acts have not reached each ordinary, therefore, the Supreme Pontiff wished that a Syllabus of the same errors be made to be sent to all the bishops of the whole Catholic world, by which the same bishops could have before their eyes all the errors and dangerous doctrines which have been condemned and proscribed by Him. To me he gave the command to see to it that this printed Syllabus be forwarded to you, your most Illustrious and Reverend Lordship, on this occasion and at the time when the same Supreme Pontiff because of his supreme anxiety about the safety and welfare of the Catholic Church and of the whole flock of the Lord divinely entrusted to him, decided that another Encyclical letter should be written to all Catholic bishops. Therefore, fulfilling the order of the same Pontiff with ↩