THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 304, 18 September 1860, Page 4

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION.

At Rome on the 29th of March the act of major-excommunication was pronounced against those who have either promised to aid, or who have counselled rebellion, invasion, or usurpation of Romagna. The act was posted up in several quarters of : the city. The following is the text of the excommunication. It has not been allowed to he published in France; but in Italy it has been freely circulated.. Even in Naples it is considered to have done little harm except to those who were its authors:— Apostolic Letter of our Most Holy Master, Pius IX., Pope by the grace of God, by which the punishment of major excommunication is inflicted ,on the invaders and usurpers of some of our Pontificial provinces. PIUS P. P. IX. To the eternal memory of this matter. As the Catholic Church founded and established by the Lord Christ, for the everlasting salvation of mankind, has acquired the form of a perfect society by its divine character, it ought, therefore, in the fulfilment of its sacred ministry, to possess that freedom by which it may not be subject to any civil power. And furthermore, in order to obtain that, the Church required those guarantees which were in accordance with the conditions and necessity of the time. It was, therefore, in accordance with Divine Providence, that after the fall of the Roman empire and its consecutive division into several kingdoms, the Eomish Pope, whom Christ has established as the chief and the centre of his whole Church, obtained temporal power. Therefore it has been ordered by God in the wisest manner, that such a great number and variety of princes exist, the Holy Pope should enjoy that political liberty which is so much wanted in order to exercise his spiritual power, authority, and jurisdiction in the whole world, without any impediments. And therefore it was necessary that the Catholic world should not have any reason to suppose that the Romish Pope is subject to any influence of temporal powers, or biassed in the exercise of the religious powers which the Holy See has to fulfil over the greater part of the Christians. It is easily understood that the dominion of our Roman Church, although having the appearance of something temporal, nevertheless is really of a spiritual character, by the holy destination which it enjoys, and by the close ties by which it is connected with all- Christian aifairs. But this does not prevent that all those things which conduce to the secular welfare of the peoples may be obtained by the Church, as the history of the temporal reign of the Roman Pope during so many centuries shews most clearly. The general good and welfare of the peoples being increased by the temporal power ■which we are alluding to, it is not astonishing that the enemies of this Church endeavor to weaken and embarrass it by many intrigues and all kinds of attempts.

In these impious attempts they were vanquished sooner or later by God, who always defends the Church. The whole world knows already how, during these sad times, the adversaries of the Catholic Apostolic See have made themselves detestable by their attempts, which were characterised by their lying hypocrisy, in trying to deprive the Holy See of its secular power. They could not obtain their end by an open attack and by force of arms, but only by false and pernicious principles, by ounniug dissimulation in their conduct, and by maliciously provoking popular risingg. They did not blush to oounsel the peoples to sedition against their princes, which is clearly and distinctly condemned by tEe apostle, when he says—•• Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God; the powers which are ordained of God. Whosoever therer fore resisteth the power resist^th the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.* These wicked innovators, in attacking, the temporal power of the Church and its temporal dominion, and in despising its venerable authority, go so far in .their, impudence as to feign esteem for the Church and obedience to her commands. And it is the most to be deplored that some of those on whom, as song of the Catholic Church, the duty was imposed to protect that Church and to maintain iti power, have sullied themselves by their wicked acts. In these mischievous and perverse intrigues which we deplore, the Sardinian/government has the principal part, as it is generally known how much in that kingdom thei .Church has suffered injuries' and restrictions which we have already vehemently lamented in our Conaistorial Allocution of the 22nd of January; I??.?!.' ?**! Swdinla.B government tata until

now despised our just reclamations, and bas even dared to inflict on our Church great injury, and to attack its secular power, while according to the will of God, the Holy See of St. Peter, as stated above, ought to be proteoted in the liberty of its apostolic office. The first evident signs of the hostile attacks were seen at the Paris Congress of the year 1856, when that power, among other hostile declarations, proposed to weaken the temporal power of the Pope and the authority of the Holy See. But last year, when war broke out between the Emperor of Austria and the Emperor of the French and the King of Sardinia, no fraud, no sin, was avoided which could excite the inhabitants of the States of the Church to sedition. Hence instigators were despatched, a great deal of mone^r was spent, arms were supplied, excitement was created by bad pamphlets and journals, and fraud of every kind was employed, even 'on the part of those who were members of the embassy of that country at Rome, without any regard to honesty and international right, as Jhey asserted their dignity, in order to be enabled to misuse it, and to pursue their dark project, for damaging our Papal government. When, then, in some of our provinces, the seditions which for some time had already been entertained clandestinely, broke out at last openly, the agitators directly proclaimed a royal diotatorship, and commissioners of the Sardinian government were immediately appointed, who, then, in assuming other titles, undertook to govern those provinces. During these occurrences we, remembering our serious office, did not fail in our allocutions of June 20 and September 26 of last year, to complain loudly of these violation* fof the temporal power, and to remind the violators of the punishment and atonement which are imposed by the canonical laws, and which they became liable to. It might have been expected that the originators of these violations would, in consequence of our repeated admonitions, abstain from their unjust projects, especially.as all,the ohiefs of our holy Church, as well as the faithful believers of every rank, dignity, and class joined their own protests to ours, in order to defend unanimously the rights of the Holy See, and of the Churoh in general, as they very well understood how much the temporal power, which is made questionable on this occasion, is necessary for the maintenance of the Papal power. But we shudder in >saying it—-the Sardinian government has not only despised our admonition and complaints, and our religious resentment, but by persevering in its wickedness by force, money, threats, terror, and other cunning means, they obtained the universal vote in their favor, and dared to invade our provinces to occupy them, and to subject them to their power. This is a great profanation, as rights of others have been usurped against the law of nature and of God; every law has been overthrown, and the bases of all temporal power and human society have been underminded. We "perceive on one side, with the greatest grief, how useless would be all further complaints against those who, like deaf adders, close their ears, and who do not listen to our complaints and admonitions and, on the other side, we feel what the cause of our Apostolic See and the whole Catholic world requires, for stigmatising the attempts of those wicked men in order not by tarrying to prejudice the dignity of our grave office. It resulted, that, faithful to the examples of our illustrious predecessors, we exercise that authority, which gives us the power to loosen and to bind, in order to employ the necessary severity against the guilty, and to give a salutary example to others. Having invoked the light of the Holy Spirit in private and public prayers, and having taken the advice of the reverend brothers the cardinals of our Holy Romish Church, we declare, in accordance with the authority which we hold from Almighty God and the moat Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and also in accordance with our own authority, all those who have taken part in the sinful insurrection in our provinces in' usurping, occupying, and invading them, or in doing such deeds as we complained of in our above-mentioned allocutions of the 20th of June and 26th of September of the last year, or those who have perpetrated some of those acts themselves, as well as those who have been their warranters, supporters, helpers, counsellors, followers, as well as those who connived at executing the above-mentioned deeds, under whatever pretence and in whatever manner, or who perpetrated them themselves, to have taken on themselves the atonement of the major excommunication and religious punishment, as they are determined in our Apostolic constitution, and by the decrees of the general councils, especially that of Trent (sess. 22, chap. 11. on reforms); and, if necessary, we excommunicate them again, we anathemize them, further declaring that they are to lose all privileges and graces, and indulgence which they enjoyed until now froni our Papal predecessors, and that they cannot in any manner be released or absolved of 'these censures, by any one except ourselves, or the Romish Pontiff then reigning, except at the moment of death; but not in the event of their recovery, when they are again subject to the above punishment, and are unable to receive any absolution until they have retracted, revoked, annulled, and abolished in public, all th6y have committed, and have brought everything back, fully- and effectively, to its former state, and have given complete satisfaction to the Papal Power. Therefore, all those who in the remotest manner have participated in those deeds, and also the successors in their offices, are liable to such revocation, retractation, abrogation, and abolition of the above-mentioned sins, to do so personally, in reality, and in truth, anil to give the full satisfaction they owe to the Holy See, and under no pretence to be released and freed, but to always remain bound by it until;they are worthy to obtain the benefit, of absolution; thus .-.we. declare, by the present letter. ■■■•■■' '■■■':-; ;'';: ■' :' :: ''■ ' ';' ;: ■ .:

, But in being-obliged by sad necessity to fulfil this part of our duty, we do not forget that we represent Himon earthy " who; wishes not the death of a sinner,:but rather that he should be converted and live, for He came into the world to keek and tosave those who die." Therefore, in fervent p^yerY-we implore, and we ask unceasingly, in the meekness of our heart, the mercy bf the Almighty, to enlighten by the light of His holy grace, and by His almighty virtue to lead back to the path of salvation all those against whom we have been obliged to employ^ the severity of thereligious punishments. -.■■■■--.;■: -•■.• ;.; ;; * '\\ v / -■_ - :

'Herewith) by this letter, and all its contents, ihd all that has been said above, we order all who have participated in any way or in any mannefj-of whatever rank,, dignity, or class they may be, or whether they- -arei individually mebtionedor^ot^'for whose sake:^e -present letter has bfeen written, and whY altS;, Mt; suffi-, cientiy designated, or who, for >ny; reason oy!

pretence whatever, should doubt the signature, or the value of this letter, or who should be brought before justice, and should appeal agaiust'it,or whio should ask for grace, that this document is and shall always remain, and be v considered; valid, and shall be-in variably and inconWstably observed by those to whom it refers; they shall be responsible before every judge or deputy, also before the auditors (auditores):of the Apoßtolic palace, and before the Carding! of the Holy Roman Empire, and before the ad latere legatum and Nuncios of the See, and before all who possess or will possess similar power, and they shall be deprived of all faculty and authority of judging or interpreting, and that if they do, it shall be declared invalid. As the present letter, as is well known, cannot be safely published everywhere, and especially in such places where it would be most required, we will that this letter, or copies of it, shall be posted on the doors of the Lateran Churob, on those of' the Church of the Prince of the Apostles (basilica principis Apostolprum), on ihose of the Apostolh) chancery (curia generalis) in Monte Citatoris, and at the corner of the field of Flora of the city (in acie campi Florae do UrbeJ, as is usual, and the so posted and published letters, and each of these letters, shall have the same power upon every one whom it concerns, as if they had been presented nominatem and personaliter. We order that translations, as well as copies, of the printed letters shall be signed by some public notary, and sealed by some person who holds an ceolesiastic dignity, their testimony shall be receivable in every place and in every country, as weU as ia courts of justice as in any other place, they shall be valfcl as if they were presented and delivered personally. Dated at Saint Peter, Kome, under the ring' of the Fishers, 26th day of March, 1860, io the 14th year of Our Popedom. ; PIUSP.P.IX. In the year of our Lord indict. 111., the. . fourteenth day of the Popedom of our Most Holy Lord and Father in Christ, Pius the Ninth, the present Apostolic letter was published, and affixed to the doors of.the Lateran and Vatican Churohes, the Apostolic Chancery, the great Church of Innocencia. and at the top of the field of Flora, by me v Aloys Serafani, Apostolical Cursor. Philippus Ossani, Magister Cursor.