The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-28 00:00:00

The Pope's Encylical Letter.

ROME, Dec. 21.
The following is the full text of the Pope's Ena
cyclical Letter :
" To our venerable brethren, all the patriarchs.
primates, archbishops, and bishops, in communion
with the Apostolic See, we, Pius IX., Pope, send
greeting and our apostolic blessing.
"You know, venerable brethren, with what. care,
what pastoral vigilance the Roman pontiffs, our
predecessors, fulfilling the charge intrusted to them
by our Lord Jesus Christ himself in the person of
the blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, have un-
failingly observed their duty in providing for the
sheep and the lambs, in assiduously nourishing the
flock of the Lord with the words of faith, in imbuing
them with salutary doctrine, and in turnirg them
away from poisoned pastures. All this is known
to you, and you have appreciated it ; and certainly
our predecessory, in affirming and in vindicating
the august Catholic faith, truth, end justice, were
never animated in their case for the salvation of
souls by a more earliest desire than that of extinct
guishing and condemning by their letters and their
constitutions all the heresies and errors which as
enemies of our Divine faith, of the doctrines of the
Catholic Church, of the purity of murals, end of the
wernalisalvation of man, have frequently excited
serious storms and precipitated civil and Christian
society into the most deplorable misfortunes. Fur
this reason our predecessors have opposed themselvs
with vigorous energy to the criminal enterprises of
those wicked men, who, spreading their disturbing
opinions like the waves of a raging sea, and promis-
ing liberty when they are slaves to corruption, en-
deavour by their pernicious writings to overturn
the foundations of the Christian Catholic religion
and of civil society ; to destroy all virtue and jus-
tice ; to deprave all minds and hearts; to turn away
simple minds, and especially those of inexperienced
youth, from the healthy discipline of morals: to
corrupt it miserably ; to draw it into the meshes of
error ; and, finally, to tear it from the bosom of the
Catholic Church. •

" Bat, as you are aware, venerable brethren,
we bad scarcely been raised to the chair of St,
Peter, above our merits, by the mysterious design
of Divine Providence, than seeing with the most
profound grief of our soul the horrible storm excited
by evil doctrines and the very grave and deplorable
injury caused specially by so many errors to Chris.
tian people, in accordance with the duty of our
apostolic ministry, and following in the glorious
footsteps of our predecessors, we raised our voice,
and by the publication of several encyclicals, consis.
torial letters and allocutions, and other apostolical
letters, we have condemned the principal errors of
our sad oge, reanimated your utmost episcopal
vigilance, warned and exhorted upon various occa-
sions all our dear children in the Catholic Church

to repel and absolutely avoid the contagion of so
horrible a plague. More especially in our first ency-
clical of the 9th of November, 1846, addressed to
you, and in our two allocutions of the 9th of Decem-
ber, 1854, and the 9th of June, 1862, to the Consist
tories, we condemned the monstrous opinions which
particularly predominates in the present day, to the
great prejudice of souls, and to the detriment of
civil society—doctrines which not only attack the
Catholic Church, her salutary instruction, and her
venerable rights, but also the natural unalterable
law inscribed by God upon the heart of man—that
of sound reason.

" But, although we have not hitherto omitted to
proscribe and reprove the principal errors of this
kind, yet the cause of the Catholic Church, the
safety of the souls which have been confided to us,
and the wellbeing of human society itself absolutely
demand that we should again exercise our pastoral
solicitude to destroy new opinions, which spring out
of these same errors as from so many sources. These
false and perverse opinions are the more detestable
as they especially tend to shackle and turn aside
the salutary force that the Catholic Church, by the
example of her Divine author and his order, ought
freely to exercise until the end of time, not only
with regard to each individual man, but with re-
gard to nations, peoples, and their rulers, and to
destroy that agreement and concord between the
priesthood and the Government which have always
existed for the happiness and security of reli-
gious and civil society. For as you are well aware,
venerable brethren, there are a great number of
men in the present day who, applying to civil
society the impious and absurd principle of natu-
ralism, as it is called, dare to teach that the perfect
right of public society and civil progress absolutely
require a condition of human society constituted
and governed without regard to all considerations
of religion, as if it had no existence, or at least
without making any true distinction between true
religion and heresy. And, contrary to the teach-
ing of the Holy Scriptures, of the Church, and of
the Fathers, they do not hesitate to affirm that
the best condition of society is that in which the
power of the laity is not compelled to inflict the

penalties of law upon violators of the Catholic re,
ligion unless required by the considerations of pub
lie safety.' Actuated byan idea of social governmen

so absolutely false, they do not hesitate further to
propagate the erroneous opinion, very hurtful to
the safety of the Catholic Church, and of souls,
and termed delirium by our predecessor, Gregory
XVI., of excellent memory—viz., liberty of con-
science and of worship is the right of every man—
a right which ought to be pros [timed andestablished
by law in every well constituted State, and that
citizens are entitled to make known and declare,
with a liberty which neither the ecclesiastical nor
the civil authority can limit, their convictions, of
whatever kind, either by word of month or through
the press, or by other means. But, in making these
rash assertions, they do not reflect, they do not
consider that they preach the liberty of perdition
(St. Augustine, Epistle 105, al. 166), and that,
it is always free to human conviction to discuss,
men will never bo wanting who dare to struggle
against the truth, and to rely upon the loquacity of