Encyclical Letter of His Holiness.

 

         POPE LEO XIII ON FREEMASONRY.

 

                       April 20, 1884.

 

                  HUMANUM GENIUS 

 

    ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER

            

               BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

 

                        Two Kingdoms.

 

1.  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 parts,

     of which the one steadfastly contrary to

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 heart to be united with it,

    so as to gain salvation, must of necessity serve

God and His only-begotten Son with their whole

     mind and with an entire will.

The other is the kingdom of Satan, i whose

     possession and control are all whosoever follow 

the fatal example of their leader and of our first

    parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and

eternal law, and who have many aims of their own

     in contempt of God, and many aims also

against God.

 

                TWO LOVES OCH TWO CITIES. 

 

2.  This twofold kingdom St. Agustine keenly discerned and described after the manner of two

    cities, contrary in their laws because striving

for contrary objects, and with a subtle brevity he

    expressed the efficient cause of each in 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 ardor and assault.

At this period, however, partisans of evil seem to

    be combining together, and to be struggling with

united vehemence, led on or assisted by that 

    strongly organized and widespread association

called the Freemasons.

    No longer making any secret of 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 set purpose of

    utterly despoiling thr nations of Christendom,

if it ware possible, of the blessings obtained

    for us through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Lamenting these evils, We are constrained by the 

    charity which urges Our heart to cry out often to

God: "For lo, Thy enimies 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, ad let us destroy 

    them, so that they be not a nation".

 

                      THE POPE S DUTY.

 

3.  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 the best of

    Our power to make head against their plans and

devices, that those may not perish whose salvation

    is committed to Us, and that the kingdom of

Jesus Christ intrusted to Our charge may not only

    stand och remain whole, but may be enlarged

by an ever-increasing growth throughout

    the world.  

 

               OUR PREDECESSORS ON THE ALERT.

 

4.  The Roman Pontiffs Our predecessors, in their

    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 the light instead of hiding as a

    dark conspiracy; and morever they took occasion

with true foresight to give, as it were, the alarm,

    and to admonish both princes and nations to

stand on their guard, and not allow themselves to

   be caughtby the devices and snares laid out to

deceive them.

 

        FROM CLEMENT XII TO PIUS IX.

 

5.  The first warning of the danger was given by Clemens XII in the year 1738, and his Constitution

    was comfirmed and renewed by Bendict XVI.

Pius VII followed the same path; and Leo XII, by his

    Apostolic Constitution.

"QUO GRAVIORA", put together the acts and

    decrees of former Pontiffs on this subject, and 

ratified and confirmed them forever.

    In the same sence spoke Pius VIII, Gregory XVI,

and many times over Pius IX.

 

          THE CHURCH, THE STATE AND MASONRY.

 

6.  For as soon as the constitution and the spirit of

the Masonic sect were cleary discovered by

   manifest signs of its actions, by cases investigated, by the publication of its laws, and of

  its rites and commentaries, with the addition often of the personal testimony of those who were in the

    secret, this Apostolic See denounced the sect 

of Freemasons, and and publicly declared its

   constitution, as contrary to law and right, to be

pernicious ne less to Christendom than to the State;

    and it forbade any one to enter the society,

under the penalties which the Church is wont to

    inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons.

The Sectaries, indignant at this, thinking to elude

    or to weaken the force of these decrees, partly

by contempt of them, and partly by calumnly,

    accused the Sovereign Pontiffs, who 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 endeavored

to elude the authority and the weight of the

   Apostolic Constitutions of Clemens XII and 

Benedictus XVI, as 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

     Roman Pontiffs had acted within their right, 

according to the Catholic doctrine and discipline.

    The Pontiffs received the same assent, and in

strong terms, from many princes and heads of

    goverments, who made it their business either 

to delate the Masonic society to the Apostolic See,

     or of their own accord by special enactments to

brand it as pernicious, as, for example, i Holland,

   Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Bavaria, Savoy, and

other parts of Italy.   

 

       OUR PREDECESS0RS WARNINGS VINDIATED.

 

7.  But, what is of highest importance, the course

  of events as 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 thoughtless 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 hencforth

    there will be grave reason of fear, not indeed

for the church --- for her foundation is much too 

   firm to be 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.

 

    THE TEACING AND AIMS OF MASONRY.

 

8.  For these reasons We no sooner came to the helm of the Church than We cleary saw and felt it to

    be Our duty to use Our authority to the very utmost against so vast an evil.

    We have several times already, as occasion served, attacked certain chief point of teaching 

   which showedd in a special manner the perserve

influence of Masonic opinions.

    Thus, in Our Encyclical Letter, "QUAD APOSTTOLIC MUNERIS;" We endeavored 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 "DIUTURNUM", We described

    the ideal of political government conformed to  

the principles of Christian wisdom, which is

   marvelously in harmony, on the the one hand,

with natural order of things, and, on the other,

   with the wellbeing of both sovereign princes and

of nations. 

    It is now Our intention, following the example of

Our predecessors, directly to treat ofthe Masonic

    society itself, of its whole teaching, of its aims,

and of manner of thinking and acting, i 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. 

 

               UNITY OF ALL SECRET SOCIETIES.

  

9.  There several organized bodies which, though

differing in name, in ceremonial, in form and origin,

     are nevertheless so bound together by community of purpose and by the similarity of their

    mainn opiinions, as to make inn fact one thing 

with the sect of the Freemasons, which is a kind 

    of center whence they all go forth, and whither

that 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 stranges, but from very many members also;

    such as their secret and final designs, the names

of the chief leaders, and certain secret and inner

    meetings, as well as their decisions, and the ways and means of carrying them out.

    This is, no doubt, the object of the manifold

difference among the members as to right, office,

   and privilege --- of the received distinction of 

orders and grades, and of thet severe discipline

   which a maintained.

 

                      SECRECY AND DECEIT.

 

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,

and 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 to witnesses but their own members.

     As a convenient manner of concealment, they

assume the character of literary men and scholars

   associated for porposes of learning.

They speak of thier zeal of 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

   are by on means the whole of their object.

Moreover, tobe enrolled, it is necessery that the 

    candidates promise and undertake to be thenceforward stricly obedient to their leaders and

    masters with the utmost submission and fidelity,

and to be in readiness to do their bidding upon the 

    slightest expression of their will; or of 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

   infrequently, and with so much audacity and dexerity that the assassin very often escapes the

    detection and penalty of this crime.

 

                  EVIL FRUITS OF MASONARY.

 

10.  Bout to simulate and wish to lie hid; to bind men like slaves in 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 opposedto natural virtue.

For, no matter how great may be men´s cleverness

   in concealing and their experience in lying, it is

impossible to prevent the effects of many cause

   from showing, in some way, the intrinsic nature

of 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 savor.

      For, from what We have above most cleary shown, that which is their ultimate purpose forces

    itself ito view --- namely, the utter overthrow

of that whole religious and political order of the 

   world which the Christian teaching had produced, 

and the substitution of a new state of things in 

    accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere

    "Naturalism".