AUTHORISED TRANSLATION OF THE BULL. HUMANUM GENUS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 21

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION OF THE BULL. HUMANUM GENUS.

TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN, ALL PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, AND BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD, IN FAVOUR AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE. Pope Leo XIII. Venerable Brethren, health and Apostolic Benediction. The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and the Giver of heavenly gifts, " through the envy of the devil," separated into two diverse and opposite parls, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other for those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ ; and those who desire from their hearts to be united with it, so as to gain salvation, must of necessity serve God and His Only-begotten Son with tbeir whole mind and with an entire will. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuseto obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God. This twofold kingdom St. Augustine keenly discerned and described after the manner of the two cities, contrary in their laws because striving for contrary objects ; and with a subtle brevity he expressed the efficient cause of each ia these words: "Two loves formed two cities : the love of self, reaching even to contempt of God, an earthly city ; and the love of God. reaching to contempt of self, a heavenly one." At every period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons, and of warfare, although not always with equal ardour and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organised and widespread association called the Freemasous. No longer making any secret o£ their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of Holy Church publicly and openly ; and this with the set purp ise of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Lamenting these evils, We are constrained by thu charity which urges Our heart to cry out often to God : " For 10, Thy enemies have made a noise ; and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken a malicious counsel against Thy people, and they have consulted against Thy Saints. They have said, ' Come, and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation.' " At so urgent a crisis, when so fierce and so pressing an onslaught is made upon the Christian name, it is Our office to point out the danger, to mark who are the adversaries, and to ths best; of Our power to make head against their plans aa<i devices, that those may not perish whose salvation is committed to Us, and that the kinglocn of Jesus Christ intrusted to Our charge may not only stand au<t remain whole, but may be enlarged by an ever-increasing growth throughout the world. The Roman Pontiffs Our Predecessors, in their incessant watchfulness over the safety of the Christian people, were prompt in detecting the presence and the purpose of this capital enemy immediately it sprang into the light instead of hiding as a dark conspiracy ; and moreover they took occasion with true foresight to give, as it were, the alarm, and to admouish both princes and nations to stand on their guard, and not allow themselves to bo caught by the devices and snares laid out to deceive them. The first warning of the danger was given by Clement XII. in the year 1738, and his Constitution was confirmed and renewed by Benedict XIV. Pius VII. followed the same path ; and Leo XII., by his Apostolic Constitution, '• Quo graviora," put together the Acts and Decrees of former Pontitfd ou this subject, and ratified and confirmed them for ever. In tho same sense spoke Pius VIII., Gregory XVI., and many times over I'jua IX. For, as soon as the constitution and the sprit of the Masonic sect were clearly discovered by mauifest signs of its action, by cases investigated, by the publication of its laws, and of its rites and commentaries, with the addition of ten of the personal testimony of those who were in the secret, this Apostolic Bee denounce 1 the sect of the Freemasons, and publicly declared its c mstitutiou, at contrary to law and right, to be pernicious no less to Christendom than to the State ; and it forbade anyone to enter the society, under the penalties which the Church is wont lo inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons. The sectaries, indignant at this, thiuking to elude or to weaken the force of these decrees, partly by contempt of them, and partly by calumny, accused the Sovereign Pontiffs wao had passed them, either of exceeding the bounds of moderation in their decrees or of decreeing what was not just. This was the manner in which they endeavoured to elude the authority and the weight of the Apostolic Constitutions of Clement XII. and Benedict XIV., an well as of Pius VII. and Pius IX. Yet in the very society itself there were to be found men who unwillingly acknowledged that the Kotnan Pontiff* had acted within their right according to the Catholic doctrine and discipline. Tne Pontiffs received the same assent, ami in strong terms, from many princes and heads of Governments, who made it their business either to delate the Masouic Society to the Apostilic Bee, or of their own accord by special enactments to brand it as pernicious, as, for example, in Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Sp.du, Bavaria, Savoy, and other parts of Italy. But, what is of highesb importance, the course of events has demonstrated the prudence of Our Predecessors. For their provident and paternal solicitude had not always and everywhere the result desired ; and this, either because of the simulation and cunning of some who were active agents in the mischief, or else of the though ties i levity of the rest who ought, in their own interest, to have given to the matter their diligent attention. In consequence the sect of Freemasons grew with a rapidity beyond conception in the course of a century and a half, until it came to be able, by means of fraud or

of audacity to gain such entrance into every rank of the State as to seem to be almost its ruling power. This swift and formidable advance has brought upon the Church, upon the power of princes, upon the public well-being, precisely that grievous harm which Our Predecessors had long before foreseen. Such a condition has been reached that henceforth there will be grave reason to fear, not indeed for the Church — for her foundation i 3 much too firm to bo overturned by the effort of men— but for those States in which prevails the power, either of the sect of which we are speaking, or of other sects not dissimilar which lend themselves to it as disciples and subordinates. For these reasons We no sooner came to the helm of the Church than We clearly saw and felt it to bs Our duty to use Our authority to the very utmost against so vast an evil. We have several timea already, as occasion served, attacked certain chief points of teaching which showed in a special manner the perverse influence of Masonic opinions. Thus, in Our Encyclical Letter, " Qicod Apostolioimuneris," We endeavoured to refute the monstrous doctrines of the Socialists and Communists ; afterwards, in another beginning " Arcanum," We took pains to defend and explain the true and genuine idea of domestic life, of which marriage is the spring and origin ; and again, in that which begins " Diuturnwn" We described the ideal of political government conformed to the principles of Christian wisdom, which is marvellously in harmony, on the one hand, with the natural order of thiugs and, on the other, with the well-being of both sovereign princes and of nations. It is now Our intention, following the example of Our Predecessors, directly to treat of the Masonic Society itself, of its whole teaching, of its aims and of its manner, of thinking and acting, in order to bring more and more into the' light its power for evil, and to do what We can to arrest the contagion of this fatal plague. There are several organised bodies which, though differing in name, in ceremonial, inform and origin, are nevertheless so bound together by community of purpose and by the similarity of their main opinions, as to make in fact one thing with the sect of the Freemasons, which is a kind of centra whence they all go forth, and whither they all return. Now, these no longer show a desire to remain concealed ; for they hold their meetings in the daylight and before the public eye, and publish their own newspaper organs ; and yet, when thoroughly understood, they are found still to retain the nature and the habits of secrets societies. There are many things like mysteries which it is the fixed rule to hide with extreme care, not only from strangers, but from very many members also ; such as their secret and final designs, the names of the chief leaders, and certain sjcret and inner meetings, as well as their decisions, aud the ways and n^ns of carrying them out. This is, no doubt, the object of the manifold difference among the members as to right, offi je, and privilege— of the received distinction of orders and grades, and oE that severe discipline which is maintaine 1. Candidates are generally commanded to promise — nay, with a special oath, to swear— that they will never, to any person, at any time or in any way, make known, the members, the passes, or the subjects discussed. Thus, with a fraudulent external appearance with a style of simulation, which is always the same, the Freemasons, like the Manichees. of old, strive, as far as possible, to conceal themselves, and to admit no witnesses but their own members. As a convenient manner of concealment, they assume the character of literary men and scholars associated for purposes of learning. They speak of their zeal for a more cultured refinement, and of their love for the poor ; and they declare their one wish to be the amelioration of the condition of the masses, and to share with the largest possible number all the benefits of civil life. Were these purposes aimed at in real truth, they arc by no means the whole of their object. Moreover, to b 9 cor illed, it is.necessary that the candidates promise and undertake to be thenceforward strictly obedient to their leaders and masieis with the utmost submission and fidelity, and to be in readiness to do their bidding up^n the slightest expression of their will ; or, if- disobedient, to submit to the direst penalties and death itself. As a fact, if any are judged, to have betrayed the doings of the sect or to have resisted commands given, punishment is inflicted on them not unfrequently, aud with so much audacity and dexterity that the assassin very often escapes the detection and penalty of his crime. But to simulate and wish to lie hid ; to bind men like slaves iv. the very tightest bonds, and without giving any sufficient reason ; to make use of men enslaved to the will of another for any arbitrary act ; to arm men's right hands for bloodshed after securing impunity for the crime — all this is an enormity from which nature recoils. Wherefore reason and truth itself make it plain that the society of which we are speaking is in antagonism with justice and natural uprightness And this becomes still plainer, inasmuch as other arguments also, and those very manifest, prove that it is essentially opposed to natural virtue. For, no matter how great may be men 'a cleverness in concealing and their experience in lying, it is impossible to prevent the effects of any cause from showing, in somo way, the intrinsic nature ot the cause whence they come. " A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit." Now, the Masonic sect produces fruits that are pernicious and of the bitterest savour. For, from what we have above most clearly shown, that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into viaw — namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religiou9 and political or^ler of the -world whicli the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of thiugs ia accordance with their ideas, of which the foun lations and laws shall be drawn from mere " NaturalUm." What We have said, and are about to say, must be understood of the sect of the Freemasons taken geuericalty, and in so far as it comprises the associations kindred to it and confederated with it, but nob of the individual members of thiin. There may be persons amongst these and not a few, who, although not free from the guilt of having entangled themselves in such associations, yet are neither themselves partners in their criminal acts, nor aware of tha ultimate object which they are endeavouring to attain. In the name way, some ot the affiliated societies, perhaps, by no means approve of the extreme conclusions which they would, if consistent, embrace as necessarily following from their common principles, did not their very foalnewr

strike them with horror. Some of these, again, are led by circumstances of times and places either to aim at smaller things thau the others usually attempt, or than they themselves would wish to attempt. They are not, however, for this reason, to be reckoned aa alien to the Masonic federation ; for the Masonic federation is to be judged not so much by the things which it has done or brought to completion, as by the sum of its pronounced opinions. Now, the fundamental doctrine of the Naturalists, which they sufficiently make known by their very name, is that human nature and human reason ought in all things to be mistress and guide. Laying this down, they care little for duties to God, or pervert them by erroneous and vague opinions. For they deny that anything ha's been taught by God ; they allow no dogma of religion or truth which cannot be understood by the human intelligence, nor any teacher who ought to be believed by reason of his authority. And since it is the special and exclusive duty of the Catholic Church fully to set forth in words truths divinely received, to teach, besides other divine helps to salvation, the authority of its office, and to defend the same with perfect purity, it is against the Church that the we and attack of the enemies are principally directed. In those matters which regard religion let it be seen how the sect of the Freemasons acts, especially where it is more free to act without restraint, and then let anyone judge whether in fact it does not wish to carry out the policy of the Naturalists. By a long and persevering labour, they endeavour to brm_c about this result— uamely, that the office and authority of the Church may become of no account in the civil State ; and for this same r -ason they declare to the people and contend that Church ami State ought to be altogether disunited. By this means they reject from the laws and from the •commonwealth the wholesome influence or the Catholic religion ; and they consequently imagine that States ought to be constituted without any regard for the laws and precepts of the Church. Nor do they think it enough to disregard the Church— the best of guides— unless they also injure it by their hostility. Indeed, with them it is lawful to attack with impunity the very foundations of the Catholic religion, in speech, in writing, and in teaching ; and even the rights of the Church are not spared, and the offices with which it is divinely invested are not safe. The.'least possible liberty to manage affairs is left to the Church ; and this is done by laws not apparently very hostile, but in freality framed and fitted to hinder freedom of action. Moreover, We see exceptional and onerous laws imposed upon the clergy, to the end that they may be continually diminished in number and in necessary means. We see also the remnants of the possessions of the Church fettered by the strictest conditions, and subjected to the power and arbitrary will of the administrators of the State, and the religious Orders rooted up and scattered. # But against the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff the contention of these enemies has been for a long time directed. The Pontiff was first, for specious reasons, thrust out from the bulwark of his liberty ana of his right, the civil princedom; soon he was unjustly driven into a condition which was unbearable because of the difficulties raised on all sides ; and now the time has come when the partisans of the sects openly declare, what in secret among themselves they have for a long time plotted, that the sacred power of the Pontifc must be abolished, and that the Pontificate it9elf, founded by divine right, must be utterly destroyed. If other prooEs were wanting, this fact would be sufficiently disclosed by the testimony of men well informod, of whom some at other times, and others again recently, have declared it to be true of the Freemasons that they especially desire to assail the Church with irreconcilable hostility .iDd that they will never rest until they have destroyed whatever the Supreme Pontiffs have established for the sake of religion. _ If those who are admitted as members are not commanded to abjure by any form of words the Catholic doctrines, this omission, so far from being adverse to the designs of the Freemasons, is more useful for their purposes. First, in this way they easily deceive the simple-minded and the heedless, and can induce a far great number to become members. Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age— that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only" one that is true, cannot, without great .injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions. y But the Naturalists go much further ; for having, in the highest things, entered upon a wholly erroneous com se, they are carried headlong to extremes, either by reason of the weakness "of human nature or because God inflicts upon them the just pnnishmant of their pride' Hence it happens that .they no longer consider as certain and permanent those things which are fully understood by the natural light of reason, such as certainly are— the existence of God, the immaterial nature of the human soul, and^its immortality. The sect of the Freemasons, by a similar course of error, is exposed to these same dangers , for although in a general way they may profess the existence of God, they themselves are witnesses that they do not all maintain this truth with the full assent of the mind or with a firm conviction Neither do they conceal that this qnestioa about God is the °reai-est source and cause of discords among them ; in fact, it is certain that a considerable contention about this same subject has existed among them very lately. But indeed the S3ct allows great liberty to its votaries, so that to each side is given the right to defend its own opinion, exther that there is a God, or that there is none ; and those who obstinately contend that there is no God are as easily initiated as those who contend that God exists, though; like the Pantheists, they have false notions concerning Him : all which is nothing else than SXf dffiSSS?* 1 WhilG retaiQi^ Borne al > S u,d representation When this greatest fundamental truth has been overturned or weakened, it follows that those truths also which are known bv the teaching of nature must begin to fall-namely, that all things were mstfe by the free will of God the Creator ; that the world is governed

by Providence ; that souls do not die ; that to this life of men upon the earch there will succeed another and an everlasting life. When these truths are done away with, which, are as the principles of nature, and important for knowledge and for practical use, it is easy to see what will become of both public and private morality. We cay nothing of those more heavenly virtufs, which no one can exercise or even acquire without a special gift and grace of God ; of which necessarily no trace can be found in those who reject as unknown the redemption of mankind, the grace of God, the bacraments, and the happiness to be obtained in heaven. We speak now of the duties which have their origin in natural probity. That (xod is the Creator of the world and its provident Ruler : that the eternal law commands the natural order to be maintained, and forbids that it be disturbed ; that the last end of men is a destiny far above human things and beyond this sojourning upon the earth • these are the sources and these the principles of all justice and morality If these be taken away, as the Naturalists and Freemasons desire there will immediately be no knowledge as to what constitutes justice and injustice, or upon what principle morality is founded. And, in truth the teaching of morality which alone finds favour with the sect of Freemasons, and in which they contend that youth should be instructed, is that which they call " civil,' f and " independent," and "free ; namely, that which does not contain any religious belief But how insufficient such teaching is, how wanting in soundness and' how easily moved by every impulse of passion, is sufficiently proved by its sad fruits, which have already begun to appear. For wherever by removing Christian education, the sect has begun more completely to iule, there goodness and integrity of morals have begun quickly to perish, monstrous and shameful opinions have grown up, and the audacity of evil deeds has risen to a high degree. All this is commonly complained of and deplored ; and not a few of those who by no means wish to do so are compelled by abundant evidence to give not unfrcquently the same testimony. (Concluded in our next.)