The intrepid Pontiff unites with his Predecessors in warning the faithful against "the machinations of those evil men who, 'foaming out their own confusion, like the raging waves of the sea,' and promising liberty while they themselves are the slaves of corruption, have endeavored, by their fallacious opinions and most wicked writings, to subvert the foundations of the Catholic Religion and of civil Society, to remove from our midst all virtue and justice, to deprave the minds and hearts of all, to turn away from the right discipline of morals the incautious, and especially inexperienced youth, miserably corrupting them, leading them into the nets of error, and finally withdrawing them from the bosom of the Church." (P. 2, Official copy.)
Who these wicked men are, who thus machinate, the Pontiff sufficiently declares in the following passage: "For you know well, Venerable Brethren, that at this time there are found not a few, who applying to civil intercourse (consortio) the impious and absurd principle of what they call Naturalism, dare teach, that the best form (ratio) of society, and the exigencies of civil progress absolutely require human society to be constituted and governed without any regard whatever to Religion, as if this did not even exist, or at least without making any distinction between true and false religions." (P. 4.)
The men who advocate this, as the best theory of human society, are evidently not only latitudinarians, but downright infidels, who believe in Naturalism as opposed to Supernaturalism, in reason as opposed to Revelation, in man as opposed to God. And these same unscrupulous and impious men very naturally extend their theory of social optimism, so as to shield from just punishment "the violators of the Catholic Religion, unless in so far as the public peace may require." They very consistently advocate, "as the best condition of society," that in which they can at will rob the Catholic Church of its property, and violate all its time consecrated rights, provided they can do so with impunity, and without violating "the public peace!"
The idea of the Pontiff is still further illustrated in the following passage, in which he refers to the cherished error
