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flock v
* altenti
Onited Sates Catholic Miscellany.
‘
CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING. THE
FREE EXERCISE THEREOF,—ART. 1
ESTABLISHMENT OF. RELIGION, oR ‘PROHIBITIN G THE
AM END. CON. UNITED STATES.
“On. Iz. NO. 27.) ;
CHARLESTON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1830.
(TOT. NO. 312.
THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER
Of our most holy father Pius VIII., by divine Provi-
dence, Pope, to all Patriarchs, Primates, Arch-
bishops and Bishops
Te our venerable | brethren te Patriarchs, Primates,
bishops an! hops.
TUS VIII. POPE.
VENERABLE BRETHREN.
Health and Apostolical' Benediction.
bout to enter, this day in the L atera,
Basilic,
‘0 Brethren, whom: he in
whose hands are both the grades of offices and the
events of time, hath giver a ag aids to us in the carry-
ing on of so important a commission, not only isit
agreeable and delightful to a to testify to you the
intimate feelings of our wi i, ti
hold conference with yor
spirit. regarding those things by which the safety and
lousy and contempt ; 3 the most sacred precepts are
despised, and the
‘cule ; and the worship of God being made an abo-
mination to the sinner, (1) all those things which
savou religion are ranked amongst old ‘wives’ fa-
bles, and the vain superstitions of weak fanatics.—
Truly the tions have roared upon Israel (2) whilst we
in weeping have said, truly they have mict together
against the Lord and ageinst his Christ; (3) truly,
the e impious have said : ; raze it even to the
foundation there, eof, (4).
phist of this age who: allow no difference between
different professions of faith, and imagine that the
ery sort of re-
prodigy of impiety this, by which the same praise
and prerogative of justice and correctness 1s ascribed
o truth and errors to virtue and vice, to morality and
misconduc!
giousindifer U d by th light of
ich
lreason bihitet} hoa falantk Te,
divin é offices are turned into ridi-|
ends that worst machination of the so-
natu-| ops
benefit of the Christian common weat might be dai-| ‘4
out office
to govern and t
:on 3, to wit the Christan people, but al-
‘sO the sheep, that is, the Prela’
Indeed we exult in spirit, and w we bless the pringe
of Pastors, who hath raised up such hepherds | for
the guardianship of his flock, men who perse
‘sedulonsly in rofieetion and care, that Sere d: ‘fieulty
ve ein
“the w to lose one Ot those
We
ays of nati, so as not
ahom they received from the Father.
aware, Venerable’ Brethren, of you are cle
faith, your intense zeal for religion, your admirable
sanctity:of life and your singular prudence : we
therefore, confidently anicipate Jey results our-
selves, for the church and for- this holy See, fro
such a circle of well requ vated Inbovres: : and this
o us dreadin
gratifying hope give: ge
the weighty burthen of our ar dat rt and shes and
comforts us overwhelmed by the multitade of shar
cares. ‘Therefore, lest we might sirous t
3.
£2
: we them, how
should have "before their eyes. the mode of avefully
rk, and th
tatio: vn and watchfulness over the
whi d in his charge, and t
on and ditigence which he should use in safely
and cautiously bringing. to- his aid the rainisters of
divine “things : we r send for le:
sire: the Saviour and pres oer, “that he
ould ‘protect. you by his immediate influence, and
bring to a favourable and .prosperous issue your
‘deeds and your efforts.
But venerable brethren, though God consoles us
in you, by this virtue ; still we ought t ‘o be sad,
no we Tiscover that the children of this “world in-
troduce the most unpalatable bitterness for us in the
idst of peace itself. Brethren ; we advert to those
nh, whic manifest. over
-driven away by ourc
innumeral he crroneouscommentres and ofthe i ins ati
might ‘watchfally lead it into rH
om taitously distributed even
P oly accompanied
0 seir adherence | |.
_ to the Canonical. prescriptions; that no one should
Be inferred-from the truth of andther, and that light
can have no association with darkness. ‘The people
should be ‘taught, Venerable Brethren, in opposition
| to those destroyers, that the profession of the Catho-
lic faith’ alone is that of truth, eB P jostle pro
claims, éne Lo e Faith, o ism 5 (3) —
and therefore that a+ as :Jerom said re) whosoever
oateth the lamb outside, that house is.protane, and
that whosoever was not in the ark of Noe, at the
time of the flood. -must Perish. Neither is there
any other, name given aine of.
SUS in which we inst be ‘caved: C an and whe-
ve
those, by “vhom he books ible are published
in every vernacular tongue, ‘and every where gra-
to ost’ ignorant of | «
tand wonder ul expense in new
ie cunningly distorted, by the
y to the most
the people at a great
translations, and thes
| private spirit into bad meaning:
wholesome regulations of the ch
(py. per rverse “tracts that a dead
di
5
from the waters “ saving wisdom. Alre eady has
the Apostolic See desired the Christian people to
be admonished “of. this destruction ; and
of so o great mischief. Hence
upon the minds.of all,which
8] ‘ly
watch ugainet the counsels of | ¢;
Hora. ‘in fe 0 great a danger of doctrine, lest this sort:
of b © spread “abroad amidst your Hock espe~
cay to tha death of the uninformed.
corruption of the sacred writings being re
saved, it is next, you r office, venerable brethren te
turn your care against those secret associations
factious men, who hostile to God and to .gov
ments, are wholly ‘occupied with
bringin:
ern-
the project of
e church, mischief to states and
\ hey strive by the
must darksome Secrecy to cover the wickedness
of their assemblies,and the plans therein undertaken,
on this very account créate grievous suspicion of the
baseness of those: plots which subsequently have,
phir os ng to the badness “of: the times, broken orth,
tom a well of the abyss, ‘to the. gre “detriment.
of what was for the benefit of religion and the public
weal... Hence, this description of secret sectariansy
by whatever name ca as heen over agai
demned by the Ap ostolig eter ofthe chi Bich-
our i nt XIE, diet XIV
Pius VAI. and Leo xs in whose Flees we of far
inferior merit, have been substituted : and we by
the fulness of the Apostolic power confirm those or-
dinance o be fully observed.
And we ‘chal selves watchfully study on this sub-
-{ject,to try that neit f rch, the common
weal shall suffer any evil from the conspiracy of such
sects; as we call upon you for your daily instance in
so great a work, that putting on the armour of zeal a
we might in tne unity of spirit act in our comm
cause, or the rin | the, cause od, to destroy
the bulwarks raised i in opposition by the wicked and
despicable im impiety of men.
we intended to write particularly to each of
ou res spestng another effort of those secret socie-
ties, off description different from what was former-
the ane t of this latter is the corruption of
ed by t
obstinate care is to
such as might lea
Baal, by doctrines which are nat. acco rding to Gat.
Whence it has happened, “as v ave ca o la-
ment, that the licentiousness of those youths hae £0
sanctity of the More pu
of
was provided: by the “published. rules of the Index of
the council of ‘T'r rents and regulated by the congrega-
tion of the Index [9] That no verstons of the ible
into the vulgar tongues are to be permitted except
those*which are approved of by the ho Ff See and
edited accompanied by notes from the b ¥, fathers
ofthe Church: For'the holy council ar Tet
creed to that end ” to restrain pet
that no one relying upon his own radence tn
of faith and morals those things which belong to the
edvfication of Christian doctrine should distort the
writing in contradiction to that sens
pret that sucred w e
teh has held and does
which the holy — the Chu
hold, o ary t
the Fathers, Th hough it “appears manifest that those
those canonical prescriptions been loug prea
condemned, yet our latter predecessors o!
utions of perverted do! doc
pe
+ 33 assailed. not in secret Cand privately, but for the
You
d most ‘bitterly. '
icke a
.
Thi Roman See of the holy
h Christ laid the foundation of his
Snacks is s chiefly assailed int eradually every day |*
the bonds of unity a ‘The authori
the church is extensively ‘hinged upon,and they wi
apreside over sacred things are made objects atjen-
ecially to restrain those unlaw-
articular subject. (11 ith t
you ‘venerable brethren sive in the battles of the
qu Bertesasicn i. 82. 2 Jercmias ii. 15. 3] Psaim
galm cxxxvi. Z [5] Ephe. ive 5, [6] Epis:
al Demaces 2.1. Ce 7) Acts iv. [8] Mi
16. [9] Reg..4 stihe Ind ex, and niditte theezme by
the docree of tho 13th of June (737. [10] Session iv. do-
| sree of thi ° incre ‘ed bo nett Amonget 0
ii. 2
te
the men to be placed over the instructi
3
holy scripture to his own mea nings, or should inter-|-
the unamimous consent of \*
machinations against the Catholic Faith had by] 4,
memory, soligitous: Re the welfare of the Christian
ook ¢ pec
others, those of | Con:
is
Pius VII. e@ Archbishop of Gnesne, Ist of June, 1816,
laws
under foot; and there remains amongst them n
hame of error, or of dar ing : regard ing them we may
truly use the saying of Leo, the great. [13] Their |
aw is a-lie, their religion ‘he devil. their sacrifice:
what is shameful. Breth ren, do..banish those evils
from your Diocesses, and strive by what power you -
“|may.have, and by what ou may obtain
commendable for. their reguiarity of life
and genuine piety. ‘ '
solicitude therefor
and exert your more carefu
ion is peculi-
your Seminaries, whose entire regulati
religious deportment in the discharge of their
duties, science for the. instruction of the people; and
,feravity in their own manners, t at the ministry com.
mitted to them might be thas commended even to
those who- are without our body ; 3 and that they
je in the word of virtue to reprove those
_This' we de-
Os!
might be a
who recede from the paths of justice,
Te] Clom. XIF, Const. In eminenti. Ben, XIV. Const. Pro-
vidas, Pius Vil. Const. Ecclesiam a Jesus Christ.’ Leo XIE.
t. Quo Graviora. Ea} Se ermon 5 on the fast of the
14
gs
tenth ‘month, + chap. 4. Session xxv. chap. 18. on Ree
and tothe ‘Rretbishop of ‘Mohilow, 3d of September 1816.— formatio:
You mu have ibis object specially before you, :
‘