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Syllabus of Errors
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<h2 id="summary">Summary</h2> <p>A cover letter by <a href="/facts/Giacomo_Antonelli/UI9keFVN">Cardinal Antonelli</a> notes that Pope Pius IX had ordered the creation of the list, in case some Bishops had not read all his recent <a href="/facts/Papal_allocution/AAptuWxU">allocutions</a>, speeches or encyclicals.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>The <i>Syllabus</i> is made up of phrases and <a href="/facts/Paraphrase/YQuQNPcn">paraphrases</a> from earlier papal documents, along with index references to them, presenting a list of "<a href="/facts/Proposition/0877MFMD">condemned propositions</a>". The Syllabus does not explain why each particular proposition is wrong, but cites the earlier document considering each subject. The ideas of <a href="/facts/Juan_Donoso_Cort%25C3%25A9s/IGcCNa43">Juan Donoso Cortés</a> helped shape the content of the Syllabus.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>The Syllabus is divided into ten sections on the following topics: </p> <ol><li><a href="/facts/Pantheism/jcvmRCAr">pantheism</a>, <a href="/facts/Philosophical_naturalism/Glvu6ASA">naturalism</a>, and absolute <a href="/facts/Rationalism/MNk171TG">rationalism</a>, #1–7</li> <li>moderate rationalism, #8–14</li> <li><a href="/facts/Indifferentism/ldbo7FC2">indifferentism</a> and <a href="/facts/Latitudinarian/Pam3pxXF">latitudinarianism</a>, #15–18</li> <li><a href="/facts/Socialism/U2kVoPaA">socialism</a>, <a href="/facts/Communism/PkUwa9xK">communism</a>, <a href="/facts/Secret_society/xq3AkToK">secret societies</a>, <a href="/facts/Bible_Society/XL2vt3ht">Bible societies</a>, and liberal <a href="/facts/Clergy/IzdAVmsT">clerical</a> societies, a general condemnation, unnumbered</li> <li>the <a href="/facts/Catholic_Church/rJ4F4gqH">Catholic Church</a> and its rights, #19–38 (defending <a href="/facts/Temporal_power_of_the_Holy_See/8Fad3sf3">temporal power</a> in the <a href="/facts/Papal_States/536PqTjo">Papal States</a>, <a href="/facts/Capture_of_Rome/TvMpRd3V">overthrown six years later</a>)</li> <li><a href="/facts/Civil_society/2rV8LTm9">civil society</a> and its relationship to the Catholic Church, #39–55</li> <li>natural and <a href="/facts/Christian_ethics/nEjJ6RMp">Christian ethics</a>, #56–64</li> <li><a href="/facts/Christian_marriage/DTwDrWxt">Christian marriage</a>, #65–74</li> <li>the <a href="/facts/Temporal_power_(Papal)/8Fad3sf3">civil power</a> of the pope in the Papal States, #75–76</li> <li><a href="/facts/Liberalism/nj54a01U">liberalism</a> in every political form, #77–80.</li></ol> <h3>Sources cited</h3> <p>The <i>Syllabus</i> cites a number of previous documents that had been written during Pius's papacy. These include: <i><a href="/facts/Qui_pluribus/MtsVjGYV">Qui pluribus</a></i>, <i>Maxima quidem</i>, <i>Singulari quadam</i>, <i>Tuas libenter</i>, <i>Multiplices inter</i>, <i><a href="/facts/Quanto_conficiamur_moerore/dPtvmBBM">Quanto conficiamur</a></i>, <i>Noscitis</i>, <i><a href="/facts/Nostis_et_nobiscum/Alta4CK3">Nostis et nobiscum</a></i>, <i>Meminit unusquisque</i>, <i>Ad Apostolicae</i>, <i>Nunquam fore</i>, <i>Incredibili</i>, <i>Acerbissimum</i>, <i>Singularis nobisque</i>, <i>Multis gravibusque</i>, <i><a href="/facts/Quibus_quantisque/4hobnu6G">Quibus quantisque</a></i>, <i>Quibus luctuosissimis</i>, <i>In consistoriali</i>, <i>Cum non sine</i>, <i>Cum saepe</i>, <i>Quanto conficiamur</i>, <i><a href="/facts/Jamdudum_cernimus/FHedNlBv">Jamdudum cernimus</a></i>, <i>Novos et ante</i>, <i>Quibusque vestrum</i> and <i>Cum catholica</i>. </p> <h2 id="reactions">Reactions</h2> <h3>Non-Catholics</h3> <p>In 1874, the British <a href="/facts/Leader_of_the_Opposition_(United_Kingdom)/9pKPgcyr">Leader of the Opposition</a> <a href="/facts/William_Ewart_Gladstone/0UT80hav">William Gladstone</a> published a tract entitled <i><a href="/facts/The_Vatican_Decrees_in_Their_Bearing_on_Civil_Allegiance/BLPAf2bz">The Vatican Decrees in their bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation</a></i>, in which he said that after the <i>Syllabus</i> </p> <blockquote><p>no one can now become [Rome's] convert without renouncing his moral and mental freedom, and placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another.</p></blockquote> <h3>Catholics</h3> <p>Catholic <a href="/facts/Christian_apologetics/z3RwdPc3">apologists</a> such as <a href="/facts/F%25C3%25A9lix_Dupanloup/PCAsCURY">Félix Dupanloup</a> and <a href="/facts/John_Henry_Newman/gqGbkUEG">John Henry Newman</a> said that the <i>Syllabus</i> was widely misinterpreted by readers who did not have access to, or did not bother to check, the original documents of which it was a summary. The propositions listed had been condemned as erroneous opinions <i>in the sense and context in which they originally occurred</i>; without the original context, the document appeared to condemn a larger range of ideas than it actually did. Thus, it was asserted that no critical response to the <i>Syllabus</i> could be valid, if it did not take into account the cited documents and their context.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Newman wrote:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <blockquote> <p>The Syllabus then has no dogmatic force; it addresses us, not in its separate portions, but as a whole, and is to be received from the Pope by an act of obedience, not of faith, that obedience being shown by having recourse to the original and authoritative documents, (Allocutions and the like,) to which the Syllabus pointedly refers. Moreover, when we turn to those documents, which are authoritative, we find the Syllabus cannot even be called an echo of the Apostolic Voice; for, in matters in which wording is so important, it is not an exact transcript of the words of the Pope, in its account of the errors condemned, just as would be natural in what is an index for reference. </p> </blockquote><p> As the English Catholic historian <a href="/facts/E._E._Y._Hales/a2NgXjaA">E. E. Y. Hales</a> explained, concerning item #77:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><blockquote><p>[T]he Pope is not concerned with a universal principle, but with the position in a particular state at a particular date. He is expressing his 'wonder and distress' (no more) that in a Catholic country (Spain) it should be proposed to disestablish the Church and to place any and every religion upon a precisely equal footing. [...] Disestablishment and toleration were far from the normal practice of the day, whether in Protestant or in Catholic states. </p></blockquote><p>Newman points out that this item refers to the 26 July 1855 allocution <i>Nemo vestrum</i>. At this time, Spain had been in violation of its <a href="/facts/Concordat_of_1851/2pwkqyqf">Concordat of 1851</a> with the Holy See (implemented 1855).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p><h2 id="subsequent-history">Subsequent history</h2> <p>In the 21 November 1873 encyclical, <i><a href="/facts/Etsi_multa/lUe1poah">Etsi multa</a></i> ("On the Church in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland"), which is often appended to the <i>Syllabus</i>, Pius expresses further thoughts in the same vein. The Pope particularly condemned the recent rise of <a href="/facts/Liberalism_and_radicalism_in_Spain/6lXVL3QD">Spanish-style liberalism</a> and <a href="/facts/Anti-clericalism/b8Vf1NB0">anti-clericalism</a> in <a href="/facts/History_of_South_America/qXMNLmth">South America</a>, which shares the same tradition of hostility to granting <a href="/facts/Religious_toleration/ho38UdfK">religious toleration</a> and allowing <a href="/facts/Classical_Christian_education/oXg7AvVG">Classical Christian education</a> rooted in the <a href="/facts/Trivium/F180PttJ">Trivium</a> with mainstream <a href="/facts/Republicanism_in_France/gUetSmCx">Republicanism in France</a>, for unleashing "a <a href="/facts/Revolutionary_terror/v8T6dff5">ferocious war</a> on the Church". </p><p>In 1907, <i><a href="/facts/Lamentabili_sane_exitu/rkfvXS82">Lamentabili sane exitu</a></i> was promulgated, a "Syllabus condemning the errors of the <a href="/facts/Modernism/AfPDL45X">Modernists</a>", being a list of errors made by Progressive scholars of <a href="/facts/Biblical_criticism/oXK5lUYw">biblical criticism</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Catholic_Church_and_politics/GsmPKmhg">Catholic Church and politics</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Integralism/sBIu4sn3">Integralism</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Syllabus/vnr5h9Ry">Syllabus</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Ultramontanism/8QHNv9Nw">Ultramontanism</a></li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li><i>Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century</i>, by E.E.Y. Hales (P.J. Kenedy, 1954)</li> <li><i>The Catholic Church in the Modern World</i> by <a href="/facts/E.E.Y._Hales/a2NgXjaA">E.E.Y. Hales</a> (Doubleday, 1958)</li> <li><a href="/facts/Ernesto_Rossi_(politician)/66vqsPEJ">Rossi, Ernesto</a> (2000). <i>Il sillabo e dopo</i> (in Italian). Giuseppe Armani. Milano: Kaos. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 88-7953-092-5. <a href="/facts/OCLC_(identifier)/Yqad8waq">OCLC</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/797673855">797673855</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://fundacionspeiro.org/revista-verbo/1962/3/documento-108">"Donoso Cortés y la preparación del "Syllabus""</a>. <i>fundacionspeiro.org</i> (in Spanish). 1962. Retrieved 4 November 2021.</li> <li>Utt, Walter C. (1960). <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160510000354/http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/libm/libm19600601-v55-06__c.pdf">"Quanta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors"</a> (PDF). <i>Liberty</i>. 55 (6, November–December). Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association: 12, 13, 32–34. Archived from <a href="http://www.adventistarchives.org/docs/LibM/LibM19600601-V55-06__C.pdf#view=fit">the original</a> (PDF) on 10 May 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2011.</li> <li><a href="http://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section7.html">John Henry Newman's discussion of the Syllabus in <i>Difficulties of Anglicans</i></a> volume 2 (1874) newmanreader.org</li> <li><a href="http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/the-syllabus-the-controversy-and-the-context">The Syllabus, the Controversy, and the Context</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120406224649/http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/the-syllabus-the-controversy-and-the-context">Archived</a> 6 April 2012 at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a> In This Rock Magazine, January 2009</li> <li><a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/Gladstone___Vatican.html">Excerpt from Gladstone's <i>The Vatican Decrees in Their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: a Political Expostulation</i></a> at <a href="/facts/Victorian_Web/UUJotG3D">Victorian Web</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14368b.htm">A. Haag, "Syllabus"</a> in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) newadvent.org</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> English <a href="/facts/Wikisource/TrMdylNf">Wikisource</a> has original text related to this article: Syllabus of Errors <ul><li><a href="https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/syllabus-of-errors-9048">The Syllabus of Errors</a> ewtn.com online text</li> <li> <a href="https://librivox.org/search?title=Quanta+Cura+&+The+Syllabus+of+Errors&author=&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced"><i>Quanta Cura & The Syllabus of Errors</i></a> public domain audiobook at <a href="/facts/LibriVox/FF71kJKC">LibriVox</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Pius PP. IX. Quanta cura. Romae, 1864. link. <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/la/documents/encyclica-quanta-cura-8-decembris-1864.html" target="_blank">https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/la/documents/encyclica-quanta-cura-8-decembris-1864.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"The Syllabus of Pius IX". New Advent. Kevin Knight, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Retrieved 19 December 2016. <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14368b.htm" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14368b.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Newman, John. "Newman Reader - Letter to the Duke of Norfolk - Section 7". www.newmanreader.org. <a href="https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section7.html" target="_blank">https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section7.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Donoso Cortés y el Syllabus [1] <a href="https://www.hispanidad.info/syllabusdonoso.htm" target="_blank">https://www.hispanidad.info/syllabusdonoso.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Newman, John. "Newman Reader - Letter to the Duke of Norfolk - Section 7". www.newmanreader.org. <a href="https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section7.html" target="_blank">https://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/gladstone/section7.html</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Francis A. Sullivan, Creative Fidelity, ISBN 0-8091-3644-9, p. 143. <a href="/wiki/Francis_A._Sullivan" target="_blank">/wiki/Francis_A._Sullivan</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Hales, E.E.Y. (1958). THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in the MODERN WORLD: A Survey from the French Revolution to the Present. Doubleday. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Kelly, Leo, and Benedetto Ojetti. "Concordat." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 10 January 2019 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04196a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04196a.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Shaw, Russell. "Syllabus of Errors still relevant 150 years later", OSV Weekly, 25 November 2014 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160423053451/https://www.osv.com/osvnewsweekly/byissue/article/tabid/735/artmid/13636/articleid/16503/syllabus-of-errors-still-relevant-150-years-later.aspx" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20160423053451/https://www.osv.com/osvnewsweekly/byissue/article/tabid/735/artmid/13636/articleid/16503/syllabus-of-errors-still-relevant-150-years-later.aspx</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Pope Pius X (1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Retrieved 17 April 2021. <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10lamen.htm" target="_blank">https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10lamen.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>