# The Syllabus for the People/Chapter 2

By proposition: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
Layout 2
II.
§ I.
Pantheism, Naturalism, and absolute Rationalism.
2. All action of God upon man and the world is to be denied. Ibid.
3. Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself, and suffices, by its natural force, to secure the welfare of men and of nations. Ibid.
5. Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to a continual and indefinite progress, corresponding with the advancement of human reason. Ibid.
6. The faith of Christ is in opposition to human reason, and divine revelation not only is not useful, but is even hurtful to the perfection of man. Ibid.
7. The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets, and the mysteries of the Christian faith the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the Old and New Testament there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is himself a myth. Ibid.
§ II.
Moderate Rationalism.
12. The decrees of the Apostolic See and of the Roman Congregations impede the true progress of science. Ibid.
13. The method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times and to the progress of the sciences. Ibid.
14. Philosophy is to be treated without taking any account of supernatural revelation. Ibid.
N.B.—To the rationalistic system belong in great part the errors of Anthony Günther, condemned in the letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne, Eximiam tuam, June 15th, 1847, and in that to the Bishop of Breslau, Dolore haud mediocri, April 30th, 1860.
§ III.
Indifferentism. Latitudinarianism.
§ IV.
Socialism, Communism, Secret Societies, Biblical Societies, Clerico-liberal Societies.
Pests of this kind are frequently reprobated in the severest terms in the Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846; Allocution Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849; Encyclical Noscitis et nobiscum, Dec. 8th, 1849; Allocution Singulari quadam, Dec. 9th, 1854; Encyclical Quanto conficiamur, August 10th, 1863.
§ V.
Errors concerning the Church and her rights.
Ibid.
29. Favours granted by the Roman Pontiff ought to be considered null, unless they have been sought for through the civil government. Ibid.
35. There is nothing to prevent the decree of a General Council, or the act of all peoples, from transferring the Supreme Pontificate from the Bishop and City of Rome to another bishop and another city. Ibid.
36. The definition of a National Council does not admit of any subsequent discussion, and the civil authority can assume this principle as the basis of its acts. Ibid.
§ VI.
Errors about Civil Society, considered both in itself and in its relation to the Church.
48. Catholics may approve of a system of educating youth, unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of ​merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life. Ibid.
§ VII.
Errors concerning Natural and Christian Ethics.
57. The science of philosophical things and morals, and also civil laws, may and ought to keep aloof from Divine and ecclesiastical authority. Ibid.
58. No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excel lence of morality ought to be placed in the accumula tion and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure. Ibid.
59. Right consists in the material fact. All human duties are an empty word, and all human facts have the force of right. Ibid.
60. Authority is nothing else but numbers and the sum total of material forces. Ibid.
§ VIII.
Errors concerning Christian Marriage.
66. The sacrament of marriage is only a something accessory to the contract and separate from it, and the sacrament itself consists in the nuptial benediction alone. Ibid.
67. By the law of nature, the marriage tie is not in dissoluble, and in many cases divorce properly so called may be decreed by the civil authority. Ibid.
70. The Canons of the Council of Trent, which anathematize those who dare to deny to the Church the right of establishing diriment impediments, either are not dogmatic, or must be understood as referring to such borrowed power. Ibid.
71. The form of solemnizing marriage prescribed by the Council of Trent, under pain of nullity, does not bind in cases where the civil law lays down another form, and declares that when this new form is used the marriage shall be valid. Ibid.
72. Boniface VIII. was the first who declared that the vow of chastity taken at ordination renders marriage void. Ibid.
73. In force of a merely civil contract, there may exist between Christians a real marriage, and it is false to say either that the marriage contract between Christians is always a sacrament, or that there is no contract if the sacrament be excluded. Ibid.
74. Matrimonial causes and espousals belong by their nature to civil tribunals. Ibid.
N.B.—To the preceding questions may be referred two other errors regarding the celibacy of priests and the preference due to the state of marriage over that of virginity. These have been stigmatized: the first ​in the Encyclical Qui pluribus, Nov. 9th, 1846; the second in the Letters Apostolic Multiplices inter, June 10th, 1851.
§ IX.
Errors regarding the Civil Power of the Sovereign Pontiff.
75. The children of the Christian and Catholic Church are divided amongst themselves about the compatibility of the temporal with the spiritual power. Ibid.
N.B.—Besides these errors, explicitly censured, very many others are implicitly condemned by the doctrine propounded and established, which all Catholics are bound most firmly to hold touching the temporal sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff. This doctrine is clearly stated in the Allocutions Quibus quantisque, April 20th, 1849, and Si semper antea, May 20th, 1850; Letters Apost. Quum Catholica Ecclesia, March 26th, 1860; Allocutions Novos, Sept. 28th, 1860, Jamdudum, March 18th, 1861, and Maxime quidem, June 9th, 1862.
§ X.
Errors having reference to Modern Liberalism.