our  predecessors  have  invariably,  with  most  apostolic  vigour,,
offered  continual  resistance  and  opposition  to  the  flagitious^
machinations  of  godless  men,  who,  frothing  up  in  ebullition  their
peculiar  aberrations  like  the  floods  of  the  raging  sea,  promised
liberty  while  they  themselves  continued  slaves  of  corruption,
and,  with  deceitful  views  and  highly  injurious  writings,  took
pains  to  subvert  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  religion  and  of
the  social  system,  to  eradicate  every  virtue  and  privilege,  to  ruin
all  souls  and  hearts,  to  cause  the  unwary,  and  especially  the
inexperienced  youth,  to  deviate  from  due  propriety  in  manners,
to  destroy  them  miserably,  to  draw  them  into  the  snares  of  error,
and,  finally,  to  tear  them  away  from  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic-
Church."

After  some  intermediate  observations,  Pius  IX. thus  con-
tinues : —

"  In  a  like  manner  have  we  also  raised  our  voice,  as,  to  the-
great  pain  and  disquiet  of  our  soul,  we  perceive  the  hideous
storm  roused  up  by  so  many  infamous  and  wicked  opinions,  and
the  highly  prejudicial  and  never  sufficiently  to  be  deplored
damage,  which  overwhelms  the  Christian  people  with  such  a
flood  of  errors. We,  too,  have  raised  our  voice  by  virtue  of
our  apostolic  office,  and,  by  means  of  several  Encyclical  Briefs
which  we  have  issued,  the  allocutions  we  have  delivered  in  the
Consistory,  and  by  other  apostolical  writings,  have  condemned
the  conspicuous  errors  of  our  truly  melancholy  times,  have-
aroused  your  most  careful  episcopal  vigilance,  and  reminded
and  warned,  over  and  over  again,  all  children  of  the  Catholic
Church,  so  dear  to  us,  that  they  should  utterly  abhor  and  haply
avoid  this  frightful  pestilence. Although,  however,  we  have
never  omitted  to  prohibit  and  reprobate  these  leading  errors,
nevertheless,  the  well-being  of  the  Catholic  Church,  no  less
than  the  salvation  of  souls  committed  by  God  to  our  care,  and
the  matters  connected  with  the  social  system  itself,  settled  by
us,  demand  that  we  should  afresh  incite  your  pastoral  solicitude
owards  the  combating  of  other  not  less  worthless  opinions^
which  spring  up  from  these  errors  as  from  wells."

"For  you  well  know,  reverend  brethren,"  it  goes  on,  "that
there  are  not  a  few  in  this  present  time  who,  while  they  apply,
to  the  social  system  the  absurd  and  godless  principle  of  natural-
ism, dare  to  teach  that  the  best  organisation  of  States  and  of


DEVELOPMENT   OF   CATHOLICISM   INTO   JESUITISM. 