The Syllabus for the People/Chapter 1
THE SYLLABUS OF PIUS IX.
I.
Introduction.
The Syllabus of Pius IX. is a series or catalogue of propositions, taken mostly from works of writers in our own century, and condemned by the See of Rome during the Pontificate of his present Holiness. The Syllabus itself was published on the 8th of December, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in the year 1864; but all the propositions contained in it had been branded with Papal censure in some previous Bull, Brief, or Apostolic Letter, either in the reign of Pius IX. himself, or in that of his immediate predecessor, Gregory XVI. This will be seen from the references at the foot of each condemned thesis in the subjoined translation of the Syllabus, which give the date and title of the official document in which the said proposition had been previously censured. By glancing down the headings of the several classes in which the condemned errors are arranged, the reader will see that while some of them involve abstract doctrines, by far the greater part deal with those principles of Christian morals, which are developed and applied as the individual comes into contact with society and with the State.
The Syllabus was accompanied by an Encyclical, or circular letter of His Holiness, addressed to "all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops in communion with the Apostolic See." The tenor of the Encyclical, wherein the Holy Father commands all the children of the Catholic Church to hold every doctrine condemned by the Holy See as unlawful to be upheld or defended, coupled with subsequent declarations, leave Catholics no room to doubt that, in passing censure on each and every one of these propositions, the Pope claims intellectual obedience on the ground of his infallibility.
To explain from proper sources and in as easy a shape as possible, the sense wherein the condemnations were intended to be made, is the object of my present essay. To do this, I shall first give the Syllabus translated in full; next I shall say a word or two on what are called the "minor censures," etc., so as to convey an idea of what the Church means to do when she stamps a proposition with such or such a theological censure; and shall then pass to review the Syllabus in detail. Ignorance of its nature, caused by the most violent misrepresentation, has raised a storm against it in the public mind of our country; but nine-tenths of the condemnations it contains would be as heartily subscribed to by Protestants as by Catholics.