The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-02-06
POPE LEO'S ENCYCLICAL.
FULL TEXT OF TIE DOCUMENT THAT
ALL EUROPE rs DISCUSSING.

Anethematiztng the Socialists, tho Com
Ing Plague that Is Creeping into all thu
Fibres of Human Soclety"-Said to Hav.
Been Written by the Supreme Prelat4
lIimself.
To the patriarchs, primates, archbishops, aud al
bishops on the face of the earth having favor anG
communion with the apostolic see:
VENERABLE BRETHREN-SALUTAT1oN AND APos
polio BENED1cT1oN: Promptly after our elevation
IN an encyclcal letter addressed to You, venerable
brethren, rs demanded of us becanse Of our apos
tolic Office, we did not fail to point out the death
dealing plague that is creeping into all the bres OF
human society, and is leading it into the greatest
danger.
At the same time we showed the remedies most
efhcacious, by which a wholesale state of societ,
could be recovered and the dangers, most grievous
that threaten might be avoided. .
But those evils We then deplored even in so short
time have increased, SO that again we compelled
onr ears: "LIansa ! ne cesses! Eualtu quasi tu6o
roceM tuam.'' (Cry ont. Cease not. Raise thy
voice Ike trumpet-Isaias viii, ~
You readily understand, venerable brethren, that
we speak Of that sect of men, called by sundry and
almost barbarous names, Socialists, CoMnsuuisfs
OF Nsh.ls1s; They are spread all over the world
tween them all. But no longer do they seek cover il,
their hidden haunts. Openly, boldly, they vaunt in
public what they had patched i'll secret, and aim to
destroy the very foundations of civil society," of
whatever kind. These they foretod in the words
OF divine inspiration (St. Jude W. .'Defile the
flesh, and despise government, and blaspheme maj
1io"e spern"s majesiateM 'e%, a@te G~ssss Gi@spIe
Maht They leave nothing unhurt, or .unsmirched,
that has been wisely ordered by divine and human
Ihose "hlsher powers" to whom, as the apostle ad-
monshes, every soul ought to be subject and pow
ers of right government derived from God are re-
fused obedience, and there is proclaimed perfect
equality OF all men i'll rights and positions.
Inc natural union of man and woman, sacred
even among barbarians, is befoued; and the mar
laxed, or even broken loose. Decoyed by lust for
the good things Of this world which sis the root of
.ha an evils, .n. aud which, seeking, some have lost
dde) Il. Timothy vi. rs They attack the right Of
property sanctioned by the natural law. And, pre-
their wishes by huge crime, they aim at robbing
and making common spoil Of whatever has been
lawfully inherited or gained by skill and labor or &C.
And these outrages they proclaim in their meet
ings, put forth in circulars, and spread among the
ignorant in q swarm of newspapers.
The result is that, ia short time past the majesty
and rule Of kings, that should be respected have
met such All i'll will the part of se(litious null
htnde that criminal traitors, going loose from all
sraint have sought by impous attacks to assassi,-
ate the rulers Of many States.
But this outbreak Of faitlless neil, that, day by
day. threatens more awful ruin to civil life in COM
mon, and shocks all who think with solictos fore
hodlhE, has its cause and origin from former
times i'll the poisoned doctrines that as bad seeds
gave FORTH in their time corrupt fruits to be scat
tered among many people. For You well have
known, Venerable l'rethern, the unbride.l war
against the Catholic filth, from the sixteenth cc-
tlry, excited by IT, innovators that continually,
even now, S working, that the way shall be open to
ihe inventions say rather the ravings) Of reason left
to ITSELF stripped Of ali revelation, and OF the super
natural order.
1t is all error of the kind, usurping falsely,
the name of rational, while coaxing and spurrnv
the desire belonging TO man, and giving loo8c rein
TO all sorts OF luss, that has not only caught many
men, but has infected very widely human society.
Hence. by new goaie*s"csx, unknown even
among pagans, republics form Nemseites taking
no account of God or of the order he has set.
Neither public authority majesty nor tho powt r
that God gives rulers is to be maintained but rather
gained from the tllrong of people, that, thinking
themselves free from all divine SANCTION accept only
such laws as, az fibTH, are voted for them. SO(-
HMMo"o f,g'h"s S"brSS' pass" est, 1"0< ipsH Hd
The supernatural truths of fail, treated as hostile
| 10 IeuS"M. But the frf0/0r OF the race of man,
| and it's Redfemer, is QHiehy and so,1ly sought to
DO expelled from the universities, where studi,, are
hursHed, M fsom lyceums and gymnasirn,s, and from
the whole routine of human life.
The rewards and the punishments of future and
eternal life are forgotten in the heat of lust for
pleasant pleasure. These doctrines, far and wide
spread, tins freedom everywhere extended of think
ing and acting with looseness reaching far and
wide, no marvel that men of the lowest sort. beg
at the door, or iders OF the shop are eager to
get into the houses and wealth of the rich no won-
!ler tilat there remains no quietness in public nor
i'll private life, or that the human race has come al
most to the point of perdition.
But the clllef pastors Of tho church. on whom it ia
duty imposed of guarding the flock of the Lord
from the snares of the emy have taken care. in
time to point out the danger and to guard the safety
For SO soon tho secret societies began to snrino
up, from whose breast the seeds have sprung that
We nave spoken OF, the popes-Clement Xii, and
Benedict XIV-faled not to warn the whole world Of
the mpious and pernicious character that Law hidden
III all these secret societies.
But, after an nnbridled kind of liberty was counted
as belonging to man, by those who glored in being
called as philosophers, and what they styled new law
against natural and divine law, had been sought to
be framed and sanctioned Pope Plus vi. of blessed
memory forthwith exposed the meaning and false
hood of their notions in public documents,
and at the same time. by al apostolical foreseeng
tod the ruins to which the wretchedy deceived peo-
pie would re brought by these intrigues.
And when, Notwithstanding no care was taken
against the spreading of these bad doctrines among
tue people, nor did governments outlaw them, the
popes, Plus VII. and Leo XII condemned and
anew declared what danger they would prove to hu,
man society. ~
No one needs to be told with what earnest words or
with what hrmness and constancy of soul our elori
GUS predecessor Plus TX, of blessed memory in his
aocutions, and in his encyccal letters to the bsh
ops OF the Whole world fought against the wicked ef-
forts of the secret sects and by name against the
plague OF socialism that has come out of them
As TO GRADES IN SOCIETY.
is, indeed, deplorable thing that those whose
duty it was to watch over the common welfare benp
duped by the tricks of mpious men and terrified by
their threats, should have shown themselves of con-
stan.ly Suspicious and even unjust mind toward the
church; not perceivng that the efforts of the secta-
res would have come to naught if the doctrine of the
Catholic church and the authority of the Roman
pontlffs both with princes and with peoples had al
ways remained in due honor, for tlle church of the
living God, which is "tle pillar and ground of the
tr11f1, khpcov
which the safety and quiet of society are to be
served, and the horrible plant of socialism pucke
out by the roots.
For although the socialists, perverting the gospel
wary, have been to wrest it to the support of
their opinion, yet great is the conflict between
! their depraved dogmas and the pure doctrine of
Christ that greater could exist. "For what par
tcipation hath justice with injustice, what fellow
| ship hath light with darkness?' They indeed do
not cease to repeat, as wo admit, that all men are
equal by nature, with another, and on this &C.
count they contend that neither honor and rever-
ence due to majesty obedience to laws, unless
perchance they themselves may have been pleased
sanction them. Contrariwise, according to the evan
gelical teachings, tho equality of is thie that
| having all of them received the same nature, they
all called to the same most exalted dignity of the
cons OF God, ~ also that ono and the end having
been appointed to all, each is to be judged by The
same law, receiving punisliments reward accord
ing to his desert. But inequality in authority and
power flows from tho very Author of nature, "of
whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named -
Moreover, following the Catholic doctrine and pre-
cepts the souls of princes and subjects linked
together by mutual duties and obligations that both
the lust of arbitrary power Is tempered and the habit
of obedience is made easy, stable. and ennubling
Indeed, the church seduously inculcates upon the
subjected multitude the apostle ica precept Thcre
ia no power but from God and those that arc or
daned Of God. Therefore, he that resjsteth the
power ressteh the ordinance of God; and they that
resist purchase to themselves dalnnation," And
again. it bids them, bo subjected Of necessity, not
only for wrath, but also for conscience sake and