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

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNEsDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 28, 1864.

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The l'Ope's Encylical Letter.

ROME, Dec. 21.
The following is the full text of the Pope's En.
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 turLir g them
away from poisoned pastures. All this is known
to you, and you have appreciated it; and certainly
our predtcessory, in effirming and in vindicating
the august Catholic faith, truth, and justice, were
never animated in their case for the salvation of
souls by a more earnest desire than that of extin•
guisbing 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 morals, end of the
wernalisalvation of man, have frequently excited
serious storms and precipitated civil and Christian
s-ciety into the most deplorable misfortunes. For
this .reason our predecessors have opposed themselve
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 prnicious writings to overturn
the foundations of the Christian Catholic religion
snd of civil Keit ty ; to eh stroy all virtue and jus-
tice; to deprave all minds sod 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 had ec.reesty been raised to the chair of St.
Peter, utove 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•
thin 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 age, 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 Consiss
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 cnly 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 withcut 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•
tic safety.' Actuated byan idea of social government
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 proc g.,imed and estabiished
by law in every well constituted State, and that

citiz,,na are entitled to rink° 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 mouth or through
the press, or by other means. Bat, 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

it is always free to human conviction to discuss,
men will never be wanting who dare to struggle
against the truth, and to rely upon the loplacity of

human eviedow, when we know by the example.of
Our Lord Jesus Christ how faith and Christian sa-
gacity ought to avoid this very culpable vanity (St
Leon, Epistle 164, al. 133, see. 2, 8011. ad.)
" Since also religion has been banished from civil
Government ; since the doctrine and authority of
Divine revelation have been repudiated, the idea
intimately connected therewith of justice and human
right is obscured by darkness and lost sight of, and
in place of true justice and legitimate right brute
force is substituted, which has permitted some—
entirely oblivious of the plainest principles of sound
reason, to dare to proclaim 'that the will of the
people, manifested by what is called public opinion
or by other means, constitutes a supreme law supee
rior to all Divine and human right—and that ac-
complished facts in political affairs, by the mere fact
of their having been accomplished, have the force of
law.' But who does not perfectly see and under•
stand that human society, released from
the ties of religion and true justice, can
have no other object than to amass riches
and can follow no other law in its actions
than the indomitable wickedness of a heart given
up to pleasure and interest ?
" For this reason also these same men persecute
with so relentless a hatred the religious orders who
have deserved so well of religion, civil society, and
letters ; they loudly declare that the orders have no
right to exist, and, in so doing, make common cause
with the falsehoods of the heretics; for, as taught
by our predecessor of illustrious memory, Pius VI.,
'the abolition of religious houses injures the state
of public profession audiiereouttaryto the counsels
of the Gospel injures a mode Of life recommended
by the Church and in conformity with the aposto-
lical doctrine; does wrong to the celebated founders
whom we veaerate upon the altar, and who consti-
tuted these societies under the inspiration of God.'
(Epistle to Cardinal do la Rochefaucauld, March
10, 1791.)
"In their impiety these same persons pretend
that citizens and the Church should be deprived of
the opportunity of openly receiving alms from
Christian charity,' and that the law forbidding
'servile labour on account of Divine worship' upon
certain fixed days should be abrogated, upon the
fallacious pretext that this opportunity and this law
are contrary to the principles of political economy.
Not content with eradicating religion from public
society, they desire further to banish it from
families and private life. Teaching and profess-
ing those most fatal errors of Socialism and Com-
munism, they declare that domestic society or
the entire family derives its right of existence
solely from civil law, whence it is to be concluded
that from civil law descend all the rights of
parents over their children, and, above all, the right
of instructing and educating them.' By such ime
pious opinions and machinations do these false spirits
endeavour to eliminate the salutary teaching and
influence of the Catholic Church from the instruc-
tion and education of youth, and to infect and mise-
rably deprave by their pernicious errors and their
vices the tender and pliant minds of youth. All
those who endeavour to trouble sacred and public
things, to destroy the good order of society, and to
annihilate all Divine and human rights have always
concentred their criminal schemes, attention, and
efforts upon the manner in which they might, above
all, deprave and delude unthinking youth, as we
have already shown.- It is upon the corruption of
youth that they place all their hopes. Thus they
never cease to attack the clergy, from whom have
descended to us in so authentic a manner the most
certain records of history, and by whom such con-
siderable benefit has been bestowed in abundance
upon Christian and civil society and upon letters.
They assail them in every shape, going so far as to
say of the clergy in general,' that, being the enemies
of the useful sciences, of progress, and of civilisa-
tion, they ought to be deptived of the charge of in-
structing and educating youth.'
" Others, taking up wicked errors many times
condemned, presume, with notorious impudence, to
oubmit the authority of the Church and of this
Apostolic See, conferred upon it by God himself, to
the judgment of civil authority, and to deny all the
rights of this same Church and this See with regard
to exterior order.
" They do not blush to affirm 'that the laws of the Church
do not bind the conscience it they are not promulgated by
the civil power; that the acts and decrees of the Roman
Pontiffs concerning religion and the Church require the
sanction and approbation, or at least the assent of the civil
power; and that the Apostolic Constitutions condemning
secret societies, whether these exact or do not exact an oath
of secrecy, and branding with anathema their secretaries
and promoters, have no force in those regions of the world
where these associations are tolerated by the civil Govern-
ment,' It is likewise affirmed that the excommunications
launched by the Council of Trent and the Roman Pontiffs
against those who invade the possessions of the Church, and
usurp its rights, seek, in confounding the spiritual and tem-
poral orders, to attain solely a terrestrial object; that the
Church can decide nothing which may bind the consciences
of the faithful in a temporal order of things ; that the law
of the Church does not demand that violations of sacred
laws should be punished by temporal penalties; and that
it is in accordance with sacred theology and the principles
of public law to claim for the civil Government the pro-
perty
piousp oss e s
es
se
tda
bbl
iys
hthe e churches,
ntestablishments,'
the religious orders, and
other
" And they have no shame in avowing openly and pub-
licly the thesis, the principle of heretics from whom ema-
nated so many errors and perverse opinions. They say that
the ecclesiastical power is not of right divine, distinct and
independent ,from the civil power, and that no distinction,
no independence of this kind can be maiotained without the
Church invading and usurping the essential rights of the
civil power.' Neither can we pass over in silence the au-
dacity of those who, insulting sound doctrines, assert that
'the judgments and decrees of the Holy See, whose object
is declared to concern the general welfare of the Church, its
right, and its discipline; do not claim the acquiescence and
obedience under pain of sin and loss of the Catholic pro-
fession, if they do not treat of the dogmas of faith and
manners.'
" How contrary is this doctrine to the Catholic dogma
of the full power divinely given to the Sovereign Pontiff by
our Lord Jesus Christ, to guide, supervise, and govern the
Universal Church, no one can fail to see and understand
clearly and evidently.
"Amid so great a perversity of depraved opinions, we,
remembering our Apostolic duty, and solicitous before all
things for our most holy religion, for sound doctrine, for the
salvation of the souls confided to us, and for the welfare of
human society itself, have considered the moment oppor-
tune to raise anew our Apostolic voice, and therefore do we
condemn and prescribe generally and particularly all the
evil opinions and doctrines specially mentioned in this letter,
and we wish that they may be held as rebuked, proscribed,
and condemned by all the children of the Catholio Church.
"But you know further, venerable brothers, that in our
time insulters of every truth and of all justice and violent
enemies of our religion have spread abroad other impious
doctrines by means of pestilent books, pamphlets, and
journals which, distributed over the surface of the earth,
deceive the people and wickedly lie. You are not ignorant
that in our day men are found whe, animated and excited by
the spirit of Satan, have arrived at that excess of impiety as
not to fear to deny our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and
to attack his divinity with scandalous persistence. We can-
not abstain from awarding you well-merited eulogies, vene-
rable brothers, for all the care and zeal with which you
have raised your episcopal voice against so great an impiety,
"In the present letter, therefore, we speak to you with all
our heart, to you who, called to partake our cares, are our
greatest support in the midst of our very great grief, oar
joy, and our consolation by reason of the excellent piety of
which you give proof in maintaining religion, and the
marvellous love, faith, and discipline with which, united by
the strangest and most affectionate ties to us and this Apos-
tolic See, you strive to valiantly and accurately fulfil your
grave episcopal ministry. We ought then to expect from
your excellent pastoral zeal that, taking the sword of the
Spirit, that is to say, the Word of God, and strengthened
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will watch with
redoubled care that the faithful committed to your charge
' abstain from evil pasturage, which Jesus Christ does not
cultivate because it was not sown by his Father.' (St. Ignac.
Mad. Philadelph. St. Lent, Epist. 156, al. 125). Never
cease, then, to inculcate in the faithful that all true felicity
proceeds for the men of our august religion from doctrine
and practice, and that that people is happy who has the Lord
with them (Psalm 143). Teach that kingdoms rest upon
thefoundation of the faith (St Celest. lett. 22 au Syn. d'Eph),
and that nothing is so mortal, so prompt to engender every
ill, so exposed to danger for those who think that it can
alone suffice, as the free will which we received at birth, if
we ask nothing further from the Lord—that is to say, if,
forgetting our Author, we abjure His power to show that
we are free.' And do not omit to teach that the Royal

power has been established not only to exercise the govern-
ment of the world, but above all for the protection of the
Church (St. Lent. Epist., 156 al 125), and that there is
nothing more profitable and more glorious for the Sove-
reigns of States and Kings than to leave the Catholic
Church to exercise its laws, and not to permit any to attack
its liberty; as our most wise and courageous predecessor,
St. Felix, wrote to the Emperor Zenon, 'lt is certain that
it is advantageous for Sovereigns, when the cause of God is
in question, to subn it their royal will according to the
established rules to the priests of Jesus Christ, and not to
impose their will upon them.' (Pius VII. 's Epist., Encyc.
Diu, satis, 15th of May, 1800.)
" It is always, but especially at present, your duty, ve-
nerable brothers, in the midst of the numerous calamities of
the Church and of civil society, in view of the terrible con-
spiracy of our adversaries against the Catholic Church and
our Apostolic See, and the great accumulation of errors, it
is your duty, I say before all, to go with faith to the Throne
of Grace to obtain mercy and find fitting succour. We
have therefore judged the moment to have come to excite
the piety of all the faithful in order that, with us and with
you all, they may pray without ceasing to the Father,
supplicating and beseeching Him fervently and humbly for
instruction and mercy, in order also that in the plenitude of
their faith they may seek refuge in our Lord Jesus Christ
who has redeemed us with His divine blood, that by their
multiplied efforts they may obtain from that burning heart,
victim of its charity for us, the gift of drawing all by the
bonds of His love, of inspiring all seen inflamed by Hisholy
love with the desire of living according to His heart, pleas-
ing Gud in all things, and fruitful in all good works.
" But, as there is no doubt that the prayers most agree-
able to God are those of the men who approach Him with
a heart pure from all stain, we have thought it good to
open to Christians, with a truly apostolic liberality, the
Heavenly freasurespf the Church confided to our dispen-
sation, so that ttie faithful, 'store strongly drawn towards
true piety and.fnrified froin the stain of fheir,sins by_the
offernmtfniiteimiiiractinly
prayers to God and obtain His mercy and grace.
"By these letters emanating from our apostolic autho-
rity, we grant to all and each of the faithful of both sexes
throughout the universe a plenary indulgence during one
month up to the end of the year 1865 and not longer, to be
carried into effect by you, venerable brethren, and the other
legitimate ordinaries, in the form and manner laid down at
the commencement of our Sovereign Pontificate by our
apostolical letters issued as a brief upon the 20th Novem-
ber, 1846, and sent to the whole ep'scopate of the world,
commencing with the words, 'Arcano alivince Providentim
consilio,' and with the faculties given by us in those same
letters. We desire, however, that all the prescriptions of
our letters shall be observed, saving the exceptions wa have
declared admissible. We have come to this determination
notwithstanding all which might be ordered to the contrary
by special and individual mention, and which might be
worthy of departure from that decision—but, in order that
every hesitation and difficulty should be removed, we have
ordered that a copy of our letter should be again forwarded
to you.

" Let us implore, venerable brethren, from the bottom of
our hearts, and with all our souls, for the mercy of God.
He has encouraged us to do so by saying—" I will not
withdraw my mercy from them.' Let us ask and we
shall receive; and if there is slowness or delay in its recep-
tion, because we have gravely offended, let us knock, be-

cause lie opens to those who knock, for prayers, groans, and
tears, by means of which we must persist and remain,
kacck at the door, &c. (St. Cyprian, Epistle 11.) But,
in order that God may accede more easily to our prayers,
and our wishes, and to these of all his faithful servants,
let us employ in all confidence as our mediatrix with
Him the Virgin Mary, who has destroyed all here.
sies throughout the world, and who, the well-beloved
Mother of us all, is very gracious . . and full of mercy
. , . allows herself to be touched by all, shows herself
very clement towards all, and takes under her pitying care
all our miseries with unlimited affection' (St. Bernard,
Gerus de duodecim prerogativis B.M.V. en verbis Apoca-
lypti), and who, ' sitting as queen upon the right hand of
her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in a golden vestment shining
with various adornments, knows nothing which she cannot
obtain from the Sovereign Master. Let us implore also the
intervention of the blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles,
and of his co-Apostle Paul, and all those Saints of
Heaven, who, having already become the friends of God,

have been admitted into the celestial kingdom, where they
are crowned and bear palms, and who, henceforth certain of
immortality, are entirely devoted to our salvation,
"Lastly, let us ask of God from the bottom of our heart

;he abundance of all his cola:Alai benefits for you. We our

selves bestow upon you, venerable brethren, and upon all
clerks and faithful of the laity committed to your care, our
apostolic benediction from the most loving depths of our
heart, in token of our charity towards you.:

" PIUS IX, Pope.
" Given at St. Peter's in Rome, the Bth of December, 1864,
the tenth anniversary of the definition cf the dogma o!
the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the
Mother of God."

Federal Treatment of Southern Prisoners

Mr. S. Phillips Day, in a letter to a contempo-
rary, writes—Mr. Adams, the (soscalled) United
States Minister to this country, observes in his first
note to Lord Wharncliffe, just made public:—"
am very sure that it has never been the desire of
my Government to treat with unnecessary or vin-
dictive severity any of the misguided individuals,
parties in this deplorable rebellion, who have fallen
into their hands in the regular course of war."
Let me ask, can it be really possible that Mr
Adams puts a grammatical, and not a diplomatic,
construction upon the sentiment he utters, or that
he is positively, and not affectedly, ignorant of the
wide-spread opinion to the contrary which obtains?
an opinion as rife throughout the Continent as in
Great Britain.
While in the Northern States and in Canada,
from which I have for the third time just returned,
I have fallen in with many soldiers who have been
incarcerated in Federal bastiles for long and short
periods. They have repeated to me the same un-
varying tale of cruelty and inhumanity. Some have
actually wept in relating their sufferings and the
refinement of torture to which it was their misfor-

tune to have been subjected. I have now before me

a short autobiographical sketch of each of the St.
Aiban's raiders, handed to me by the prig
soners upon my last visit to them in Montreal
gaol. Several of these men had been captured
"in the regular course of war," and incarce-
rated in Fort Warren, Camp Chase, and that
worst of Yankee prisons, Camp Douglas, Illinois.
The tale they severally tell is sickening and heart.
rending. It irrefragably demonstrates that the mis•
guided individuals to whom Mr Adams so patheti•
tally refers, have been treated both with unneces.
sary and vindictive severity. Unfortunately what
is true of some of the St. Alban's raiders is likewise
true of many hundreds of their fellow Confederates
and captives. In July, 1863, Lieut. B. Young, of
Gen. Morgan's staff, was captured with some of his
comrades. Upon being transferred from Camp Chase
to Camp Douglas,Young was confined with 20 other
Southerners in an iron cell within a dungeon. The
dimensions of the cell were but Bft. by 10ft. Herein
he was incarcerated for three weeks, fed upon bad
bread and water and salt meat, and deprived of
everything that could conduce to comfort, cleanli•
ness, and deoency. He thus recounts his first (x.
periences—" In a few hours after I was shut up
here the terrible agonies incidental to suffocation
began to make their appearance. A weight of a
thousand pounds seemed to crush my breast, and I
gasped as a fish when removed from its native ele-
ment." Another raider (likewise one of Gen. Mor-
gan's men) was imprisoned for seven months in
Camp Morton. This he describes as " a tempo-
rary hell, where I was subjected, together with
five hundred of my fellow soldiers, to every
nefarious a rocity and indignity which the North.
ern Vandals are ever ready to invent. 0 ;vin,g to
the malicious treatment I received, and when death
seemed inevitable, I determined upon a plan whereby
I should escape from the thraldom of tyrants. I
did not dread the hPzard, for speedy death was far
preferable to waning life in such a place." This is
the general burden of every statement made to me
by Southern prisoners of war who b.id (ff:?cted their
escape by one stratagem or another. And I must
say that I reirived implicitly their startling accounts
of the worse than heathenish barbarities and cruel
bondage which they had undergone; barbarities
unrelieved by even the faintest semblance of mercy,
and a bitter b'9t3age unsweetened bt a word or look
of human pity.
Possibly the Northern treatment of Confederate
prisoners has changed for the better since 1663.
Charity would have caused me to hope that such a
long-delayed consummation had at length taken
place, but for the instructions.,received from Mr.