ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



695 



confraternities who were Masons. A brief of 

 Pius IX., issued May 29th, bore directly on this 

 question, renewing the decision of former sove- 

 reign Pontiffs. 



Pics IX., POPE. To our Venerable Brother Vtial- 

 Mory, Bltkop of Olinda. 



Venerable Brother, Health, and Apostolic Bene- 

 diction : Our grief has been great on learning, Ven- 

 erable Brother, by the exposition you have made to 

 us, of that pest of Freemasonry, that it ia so preva- 

 lent in your country, and that it has even invaded 

 some confraternities to such an extent that some of 

 them are entirely infected. Nevertheless, we can- 

 not refrain frcm expressing our pleasure at the confi- 

 dence with which you have poured into our heart the 

 sorrow you experience, and to commend the zeal with 

 which you have endeavored to arrest so great an 

 evil. 



This pest is old, and it has been diligently warred 

 against by the Church, and pointed out, but in vain, 

 to the people and governments that it threatened 

 with destruction. As early as the year 1738, Clem- 

 ent XII., in his Encyclical'Letter In eminenti, pub- 

 lished the 28th of April of that year, complained in 

 these words : 



" We have learned that there are daily spreading 

 themselves alar, with renewed vigor, certain socie- 

 ties, vulgarly called Freemason*, in which men of all 

 religions and of all sects, affecting an appearance of 

 natural integrity, bind themselves together by a 

 compact as narrow as it is impenetrable ; " and be 

 urged that the greatest vigilance was necessary, " in 

 order that this sort of men, like robbers, break not 

 into the house, or like foxes destroy the vine ; " he 

 proscribed these conventicles under whatsoever 

 names they assumed, and ordered each and every 

 one of the faithful to "avoid these societies alto- 

 gether, under pain of excommunication by the act it- 

 self, ipto factOj and without any other declaration, 1 ' 

 an excommunication which the Roman Pontiff alone 

 can absolve, except in articulo mortu. Benedict 

 XIV. j his successor, inserted and developed this 

 constitution in his Encyclical Letter Ionidtai of 

 March 18, 1751, by which he confirmed the decrees 

 and penalties set forth by his predecessor. 



Still, this criminal secret society continues to 

 spread, dividing itself into different sects, distin- 

 guished by a variety of names, but which remains 

 united in communion of sentiments and of wicked- 

 ness, until it has become propagated far and wide, 

 and having acquired great strength, has emerged 

 from the darkness in which it had concealed itself, 

 and proved to all sensible men how justly it had 

 been condemned by the sentinels on the watch- 

 towers of Israel. It proclaimed itself to the eyes of 

 all through its catechisms, its constitutions, the pub- 

 lic acts of its lodges published by the press, and still 

 more clearly by its public machinations, and by the 

 fact* that its design is to abolish the Catholic re- 

 ligion, and to accomplish this, to attack the Roman 

 See, the centre of unity, to overthrow all legitimate 

 human authority, to establish man in a complete 

 autonomy, without laws, and disencumered even by 

 ties of blood, and dependent only on his appetites. 



The satanic spirit of the sect manifested itself 

 particularly at the close of the last century, in the 

 violent revolutions of France, which shook the whole 

 world, and proved that a total dissolution of human 

 society would follow, if the powers of this criminal 

 sect were not overcome. Accordingly, Pius VII., 

 of holy memory, in his Encyclical Letter J&c/esiam, 

 published September 13, 1821, did not content him- 

 self by once more placing before the eyes of the 

 world the character, malice, and dangers of such so- 

 cieties; but again reiterated still more forcibly the 

 condemnations and spiritual punishments threat- 

 ened by hi predecessors against those who are 

 members of these societies. All this has again been 

 confirmed, as well by Leo XII., of venerable memory 



in his Apostolic Letter, Quo gramara, of March 13, 

 1826, as by ourselves in our Encyclical Letter Qui 

 pluribui, of November 9, 1846. 



Consequently, after these commands so often re- 

 peated by the Church and accompanied by such 

 august approbations, after the exposition of the 

 works of these impious societies, which have so 

 manifestly revealed their true aim ; after the pertur- 

 bations, the calamities, the innumerable butcneries, 

 which they have occasioned everywhere, and which 

 they have not been ashamed to insolently boast of, 

 no excuse can be made for those who permit their 

 names to be inscribed upon their rolls. 



Yet, considering that these criminal sects reveal 

 their mysteries only to those who, by their impiety, 

 appear worthy to receive them, exacting for this pur- 

 pose from their members a solemn oath by which 

 they swear never to reveal at anv time, nor under 

 any circumstances, to men not belonging to the so- 

 ciety, any thing that relates to this society, and to 

 communicate no information to the inferior grades 

 that is reserved to the superior grades ; considering 

 that under every circumstance they conceal them- 

 selves under the veil of benevolence and mutual as- 

 sistance, and that the imprudent and inexperienced 

 are easily deluded by these appearances of feigned 

 honesty we consent that mercy be extended to 

 those prodigal children, whose loss, Venerable Son, 

 you deplore, if onlv attracted by this gentleness, they 

 abandon their evil ways, and return to the Church, 

 their Mother, from whom they have estranged them- 

 selves. 



Remembering that we are the Vicar of Him who 

 came not to call the just, but the sinner, we believe 

 it our duty to follow the footsteps of our predeces- 

 sor, Leo XII., and accordingly suspend for the space 

 of one whole year after the contents of this Letter 

 shall have been made known, the carrying into effect 

 of the censures incurred by those who have enrolled 

 themselves in these societies; and we concede that 

 they may be absolved from these censures by any 

 confessor approved by the Ordinaries of the place 

 where they reside. 



And if this course of clemency can neither turn 

 the erring from their fatal purposes, nor withdraw 

 them from BO grave a crime, we decree, the aforesaid 

 period of one year having elapsed, that the reserva- 

 tion of the censures be immediately removed, cen- 

 sures which, by virtue of our Apostolic authority, we 

 confirm anew, declaring expressly that none, with- 

 out exception, of the members of these societies, will 

 be exempt from the spiritual punishments aforesaid, 

 no matter what the pretext or good faith alleged, or 

 the appearances of intrinsic probity offered by the 

 said societies, and consequently that all, without ex- 

 ception, incur the same dimgers of eternal damna- 

 tion in adhering to these societies. 



Besides, we grant you full power to proceed in ac- 

 cordance with all the rigors of Canon Law, against 

 religious confraternities, that have so shamefully 

 vitiated their character by this impiety, to disband f 

 them altogether, and to establish others that will 

 comply with the nature of their institution. 



May God grant that the consideration of the per- 

 versity of these societies, in which so many men, 

 honored by the name of Christian, are not afraid to 

 enter, that the thought df the anathemas so often ful- 

 minated against them by the Church, and that the 

 knowledge of the clemency of the Holy See toward 

 them, made known by means of this Letter to those 

 who have been misled, may bring them bock into 

 the path of salvation, prevent the ruin of many souls, 

 and remove the necessity on our part of resorting to 

 severity ! It is for this that we most earnestly pray 

 to God. This is what we expect of your pastoral 

 zeal. It is what we implore of all our children who 

 have been misled. 



And ns we extend the same prayers for other Dio- 

 ceses of this Empire, in which the same evils are 

 being propagated, We desire that this Letter be com- 

 municated to our Venerable Brethren, to the end 



