End of Times is Nigh

Gnostic Gospel: Infancy Gospel of James

2009-07-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

N THE RECORDS OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly; and he brought his offerings double, saying: There shall be of my superabundance to all the people, and there shall be the offering for my forgiveness to the Lord for a propitiation for me. For the great day of the Lord was at hand, and the sons of Israel were bringing their offerings. And there stood over against him Rubim, saying: It is not meet for thee first to bring thine offerings, because thou hast not made seed in Israel. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and went away to the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: I shall see the registers of the twelve tribes of Israel, as to whether I alone have not made seed in Israel. And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up seed in Israel. And he called to mind the patriach Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.

2. And his wife Anna mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: I shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness. And the great day of the Lord was at hand; and Judith her maid-servant said: How long dost thou humiliate thy soul? Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand, and it is unlawful for thee to mourn. But take this head-band, which the woman that made it gave to me; for it is not proper that I should wear it, because I am a maid-servant, and it has a royal appearance. And Anna said: Depart from me; for I have not done such things, and the Lord has brought me very low. I fear that some wicked person has given it to thee, and thou hast come to make me a sharer in thy sin. And Judith said: Why should I curse thee, seeing that the Lord hath shut thy womb, so as not to give thee fruit in Israel? And Anna was grieved exceedingly, and put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as Thou didst bless the womb of Sarah, and didst give her a son Isaac.

3. And gazing towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow's nest in the laurel, and made a lamentation in herself, saying: Alas! who begot me? and what womb produced me? because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! to what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before Thee, O Lord. Alas! to what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before Thee, O Lord. Alas! to what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before Thee, O Lord. Alas! to what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth bringeth forth its fruits in season, and blesseth Thee, O Lord.

4. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord hath heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive, and shall bring forth; and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life. And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim thy husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God hath heard thy prayer Go down hence; for, behold, thy wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring me hither ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran anti hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God hath blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house.

5. And on the following day he brought his offerings, saying in himself: If the Lord God has been rendered gracious to me, the plate on the priest's forehead will make it manifest to me. And Joachim brought his offerings, and observed attentively the priest's plate when he went up to the altar of the Lord, and he saw no sin in himself. And Joachim said: Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and departed to his own house. And her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? and she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary.

6. And the child grew strong day by day; and when she was six months old, her mother set her on the ground to try whether she could stand, and she walked seven steps and came into her bosom; and she snatched her up, saying: As the Lord my God liveth, thou shall not walk on this earth until I bring thee into the temple of the Lord. And she made a sanctuary in her bed-chamber, and allowed nothing common or unclean to pass through her. And she called the undefiled daughters of the Hebrews, and they led her astray. And when she was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel. And Joachim brought the child to the priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations. And all the people said: So be it, so be it, amen. And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever. And her mother snatched her up, and took her into the sanctuary of her bed-chamber, and gave her the breast. And Anna made a song to the Lord God, saying: I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He hath looked upon me, and hath taken away the reproach of mine enemies; and the Lord hath given the the fruit of His righteousness, singular in its kind, and richly endowed before Him. Who will tell the sons of Rubim that Anna gives suck? Hear, hear, ye twelve tribes of Israel, that Anna gives suck. And she laid her to rest in the bed-chamber of her sanctuary, and went out and ministered unto them. And when the supper was ended, they went down rejoicing, and glorifying the God of Israel.

7. And her months were added to the child. And the child was two years old, and Joachim said: Let us take her up to the temple of the Lord, that we may pay the vow that we have vowed, lest perchance the Lord send to us, and our offering be not received. And Anna said: Let us wait for the third year, in order that the child may not seek for father or mother. And Joachim said: So let us wait. And the child was three years old, and Joachim said: Invite the daughters of the Hebrews that are undefiled, and let them take each a lamp, and let them stand with the lamps burning, that the child may not turn back, and her heart be captivated from the temple of the Lord. And they did so until they went up into the temple of the Lord. And the priest received her, and kissed her, and blessed her, saying: The Lord has magnified thy name in all generations. In thee, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel. And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her.

8. And her parents went down marvelling, and praising the Lord God, because the child had not turned back. And Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an angel. And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of the priests, saying: Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, test perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord? And they said to the high priest: Thou standest by the altar of the Lord; go in, and pray concerning her; and whatever the Lord shall manifest unto thee, that also will we do. And the high priest went in, taking the robe with the twelve bells into the holy of holies; and he prayed concerning her. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him, saying unto him: Zacharias, Zacharias, go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and let them bring each his rod; and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. And the heralds went out through all the circuit of Judaea, and the trumpet of the Lord sounded, and all ran.

9. And Joseph, throwing away his axe, went out to meet them; and when they had assembled, they went away to the high priest, taking with them their rods. And he, taking the rods of all of them, entered into the temple, and prayed; and having ended his prayer, he took the rods and came out, and gave them to them: but there was no sign in them, and Joseph took his rod last; and, behold, a dove came out of the rod, and flew upon Joseph's head. And the priest said to Joseph, Thou hast been chosen by lot to take into thy keeping the virgin of the Lord. But Joseph refused, saying: I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl. I am afraid lest I become a laughing-stock to the sons of Israel. And the priest said to Joseph: Fear the Lord thy God, and remember what the Lord did to Dathan, and Abiram, and Korah; how the earth opened, and they were swallowed up on account of their contradiction. And now fear, O Joseph, lest the same things happen in thy house. And Joseph was afraid, and took her into his keeping. And Joseph said to Mary: Behold, I have received thee from the temple of the Lord; and now I leave thee in my house, and go away to build my buildings, and I shall come to thee. The Lord will protect thee.

10. And there was a council of the priests, saying: Let us make a veil for the temple of the Lord. And the priest said: Call to me the undefiled virgins of the family of David. And the officers went away, and sought, and found seven virgins. And the priest remembered the child Mary, that she was of the family of David, and undefiled before God. And the officers went away and brought her. And they brought them into the temple of the Lord. And the priest said: Choose for me by lot who shall spin the gold, and the white, and the fine linen, and the silk, and the blue, and the scarlet, and the true purple. And the true purple and the scarlet fell to the lot of Mary, and she took them, and went away to her house. And at that time Zacharias was dumb, and Samuel was in his place until the time that Zacharias spake. And Mary took the scarlet, and span it.

11. And she took the pitcher, and went out to fill it with water. And, behold, a voice saying: Hail, thou who hast received grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women! And she looked round, on the right hand and on the left, to see whence this voice came. And she went away, trembling, to her house, and put down the pitcher; and taking the purple, she sat down on her seat, and drew it out. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood before her, saying: Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found grace before the Lord of all, and thou shalt conceive, according to His word. And she hearing, reasoned with herself, saying: Shall I conceive by the Lord, the living God? and shall I bring forth as every woman brings forth? And the angel of the Lord said: Not so, Mary; for the power of the Lord shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of the Most High. And thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And Mary said: Behold, the servant of the Lord before His face: let it be unto me according to thy word.

12. And she made the purple and the scarlet, and took them to the priest. And the priest blessed her, and said: Mary, the Lord God hath magnified thy name, and thou shall be blessed in all the generations of the earth. And Mary, with great joy, went away to Elizabeth her kinswoman, and knocked at the door. And when Elizabeth heard her, she threw away the scarlet, and ran to the door, and opened it; and seeing Mary, she blessed her, and said: Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? for, behold, that which is in me leaped and blessed thee. But Mary had forgotten the mysteries of which the archangel Gabriel had spoken, and gazed up into heaven, and said: Who am I, O Lord, that all the generations of the earth should bless me? And she remained three months with Elizabeth; and day by day she grew bigger. And Mary being afraid, went away to her own house, and hid herself from the sons of Israel. And she was sixteen years old when these mysteries happened.

13. And she was in her sixth month; and, behold, Joseph came back from his building, and, entering into his house, he discovered that she was big with child. And he smote his face, and threw himself on the ground upon the sackcloth, and wept bitterly, saying: With what face shall I look upon the Lord my God? and what prayer shall I make about this maiden? because I received her a virgin out of the temple of the Lord, and I have not watched over her. Who is it that has hunted me down? Who has done this evil thing in my house, and defiled the virgin? Has not the history of Adam been repeated in me? For just as Adam was in the hour of his singing praise, and the serpent came, and found Eve alone, and completely deceived her, so it has happened to me also. And Joseph stood up from the sackcloth, and called Mary, and said to her: O thou who hast been cared for by God, why hast thou done this and forgotten the Lord thy God? Why hast thou brought low thy soul, thou that wast brought up in the holy of holies, and that didst receive food from the hand of an angel? And she wept bitterly, saying: I am innocent, and have known no man. And Joseph said to her: Whence then is that which is in thy womb? And she said: As the Lord my God liveth, I do not know whence it is to me.

14. And Joseph was greatly afraid, and retired from her, and considered what he should do in regard to her. And Joseph said: If I conceal her sin, I find myself fighting against the law of the Lord; and if I expose her to the sons of Israel, I am afraid lest that which is in her be from an angel, and I shall be found giving up innocent blood to the doom of death. What then shall I do with her? I will put her away from me secretly. And night came upon him; and, behold, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream, saying: Be not afraid for this maiden, for that which is in her is of the Holy Spirit; and she will bring forth a Son, and thou shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. And Joseph arose from sleep, and glorified the God of Israel, who had given him this grace; and he kept her.

15. And Annas the scribe came to him, and said: Why hast thou not appeared in our assembly? And Joseph said to him: Because I was weary from my journey, and rested the first day. And he turned, and saw that Mary was with child. And he ran away to the priest? and said to him: Joseph, whom thou didst vouch for, has committed a grievous crime. And the priest said: How so? And he said: He has defiled the virgin whom he received out of the temple of the Lord, and has married her by stealth, and has not revealed it to the sons of Israel. And the priest answering, said: Has Joseph done this? Then said Annas the scribe: Send officers, and thou wilt find the virgin with child. And the officers went away, and found it as he had said; and they brought her along with Joseph to the tribunal. And the priest said: Mary, why hast thou done this? and why hast thou brought thy soul low, and forgotten the Lord thy God? Thou that wast reared in the holy of holies, and that didst receive food from the hand of an angel, and didst hear the hymns, and didst dance before Him, why hast thou done this? And she wept bitterly, saying: As the Lord my God liveth, I am pure before Him, and know not a man. And the priest said to Joseph: Why hast thou done this? And Joseph said: As the Lord liveth, I am pure concerning her. Then said the priest: Bear not false witness, but speak the truth. Thou hast married her by stealth, and hast not revealed it to the sons of Israel, and hast not bowed thy head under the strong hand, that thy seed might be blessed. And Joseph was silent.

16. And the priest said: Give up the virgin whom thou didst receive out of the temple of the Lord. And Joseph burst into tears. And the priest said: I will give you to drink of the water of the ordeal of the Lord, and He shall make manifest your sins in your eyes. And the priest took the water, and gave Joseph to drink and sent him away to the hill-country; and he returned unhurt. And he gave to Mary also to drink, and sent her away to the hill-country; and she returned unhurt. And all the people wondered that sin did not appear in them. And the priest said: If the Lord God has not made manifest your sins, neither do I judge you. And he sent them away. And Joseph took Mary, and went away to his own house, rejoicing and glorifying the God of Israel.

17. And there was an order from the Emperor Augustus, that all in Bethlehem of Judaea should be enrolled. And Joseph said: I shall enrol my sons, but what shall I do with this maiden? How shall I enrol her? As my wife? I am ashamed. As my daughter then? But all the sons of Israel know that she is not my daughter. The day of the Lord shall itself bring it to pass as the Lord will. And he saddled the ass, and set her upon it; and his son led it, and Joseph followed. And when they had come within three miles, Joseph turned and saw her sorrowful; and he said to himself: Likely that which is in her distresses her. And again Joseph turned and saw her laughing. And he said to her: Mary, how is it that I see in thy face at one time laughter, at another sorrow? And Mary said to Joseph: Because I see two peoples with my eyes; the one weeping and lamenting, and the other rejoicing and exulting. And they came into the middle of the road, and Mary said to him: Take me down from off the ass, for that which is in me presses to come forth. And he took her down from off the ass, and said to her: Whither shall I lead thee, and cover thy disgrace? for the place is desert.

18. And he found a cave there, and led her into it; and leaving his two sons beside her, he went out to seek a widwife in the district of Bethlehem. And I Joseph was walking, and was not walking; and I looked up into the sky, and saw the sky astonished; and I looked up to the pole of the heavens, and saw it standing, and the birds of the air keeping still. And I looked down upon the earth, and saw a trough lying, and work-people reclining: and their hands were in the trough. And those that were eating did not eat, and those that were rising did not carry it up, and those that were conveying anything to their mouths did not convey it; but the faces of all were looking upwards. And I saw the sheep walking, and the sheep stood still; and the shepherd raised his hand to strike them, and his hand remained up. And I looked upon the current of the river, and I saw the mouths of the kids resting on the water and not drinking, and all things in a moment were driven from their course.

19. And I saw a woman coming down from the hill-country, and she said to me: O man, whither art thou going? And I said: I am seeking an Hebrew midwife. And she answered and said unto me: Art thou of Israel? And I said to her: Yes. And she said: And who is it that is bringing forth in the cave? And I said: A woman betrothed to me. And she said to me: Is she not thy wife? And I said to her: It is Mary that was reared in the temple of the Lord, and I obtained her by lot as my wife. And yet she is not my wife, but has conceived of the Holy Spirit. And the widwife said to him: Is this true? And Joseph said to her: Come and see. And the midwife went away with him. And they stood in the place of the cave, and behold a luminous cloud overshadowed the cave. And the midwife said: My soul has been magnified this day, because mine eyes have seen strange things -- because salvation has been brought forth to Israel. And immediately the cloud disappeared out of the cave, and a great light shone in the cave, so that the eyes could not bear it. And in a little that light gradually decreased, until the infant appeared, and went and took the breast from His mother Mary. And the midwife cried out, and said: This is a great day to me, because I have seen this strange sight. And the midwife went forth out of the cave, and Salome met her. And she said to her: Salome, Salome, I have a strange sight to relate to thee: a virgin has brought forth -- a thing which her nature admits not of. Then said Salome: As the Lord my God liveth, unless I thrust in my finger, and search the parts, I will not believe that a virgin has brought forth.

20. And the midwife went in, and said to Mary: Show thyself; for no small controversy has arisen about thee. And Salome put in her finger, and cried out, and said: Woe is me for mine iniquity and mine unbelief, because I have tempted the living God; and, behold, my hand is dropping off as if burned with fire. And she bent her knees before the Lord, saying: O God of my fathers, remember that I am the seed of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; do not make a show of me to the sons of Israel, but restore me to the poor; for Thou knowest, O Lord, that in Thy name I have performed my services, and that I have received my reward at Thy hand. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by her, saying to her: Salome, Salome, the Lord hath heard thee. Put thy hand to the infant, and carry it, and thou wilt have safety and joy. And Salome went and carried it, saying: I will worship Him, because a great King has been born to Israel. And, behold, Salome was immediately cured, and she went forth out of the cave justified. And behold a voice saying: Salome, Salome, tell not the strange things thou hast seen, until the child has come into Jerusalem.

21. And, behold, Joseph was ready to go into Judaea. And there was a great commotion in Bethlehem of Judaea, for Magi came, saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him. And when Herod heard, he was much disturbed, and sent officers to the Magi. And he sent for the priests, and examined them, saying: How is it written about the Christ? where is He to be born? And they said: In Bethlehem of Judaea, for so it is written. And he sent them away. And he examined the Magi, saying to them: What sign have you seen in reference to the king that has been born? And the Magi said: We have seen a star of great size shining among these stars, and obscuring their light, so that the stars did not appear; and we thus knew that a king has been born to Israel, and we have come to worship him. And Herod said: Go and seek him; and if you find him, let me know, in order that I also may go and worship him. And the Magi went out. And, behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them until they came to the cave, and it stood over the top of the cave. And the Magi saw the infant with His mother Mary; and they brought forth from their bag gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned by the angel not to go into Judaea, they went into their own country by another road.

22. And when Herod knew that he had been mocked by the Magi, in a rage he sent murderers, saying to them: Slay the children from two years old and under. And Mary, having heard that the children were being killed, was afraid, and took the infant and swaddled Him, and put Him into an ox-stall. And Elizabeth, having heard that they were searching for John, took him and went up into the hill-country, and kept looking where to conceal him. And there was no place of concealment. And Elizabeth, groaning with a loud voice, says: O mountain of God, receive mother and child. And immediately the mountain was cleft, and received her. And a light shone about them, for an angel of the Lord was with them, watching over them.

23. And Herod searched for John, and sent officers to Zacharias, saying: Where hast thou hid thy son? And he, answering, said to them: I am the servant of God in holy things, and I sit constantly in the temple of the Lord: I do not know where my son is. And the officers went away, and reported all these things to Herod. And Herod was enraged, and said: His son is destined to be king over Israel. And he sent to him again, saying: Tell the truth; where is thy son? for thou knowest that thy life is in my hand. And Zacharias said: I am God's martyr, if thou sheddest my blood; for the Lord will receive my spirit, because thou sheddest innocent blood at the vestibule of the temple of the Lord. And Zacharias was murdered about daybreak. And the sons of Israel did not know that he had been murdered.

24. But at the hour of the salutation the priests went away, and Zacharias did not come forth to meet them with a blessing, according to his custom. And the priests stood waiting for Zacharias to salute him at the prayer, and to glorify the Most High. And he still delaying, they were all afraid. But one of them ventured to go in, and he saw clotted blood beside the altar; and he heard a voice saying: Zacharias has been murdered, and his blood shall not be wiped up until his avenger come. And hearing this saying, he was afraid, and went out and told it to the priests. And they ventured in, and saw what had happened; and the fretwork of the temple made a wailing noise, and they rent their clothes from the top even to the bottom. And they found not his body, but they found his blood turned into stone. And they were afraid, and went out and reported to the people that Zacharias had been murdered. And all the tribes of the people heard, and mourned, and lamented for him three days and three nights. And after the three days, the priests consulted as to whom they should put in his place; and the lot fell upon Simeon. For it was he who had been warned by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death until he should see the Christ in the flesh.

And I James that wrote this history in Jerusalem, a commotion having arisen when Herod died, withdrew myself to the wilderness until the commotion in Jerusalem ceased, glorifying the Lord God, who had given me the gift and the wisdom to write this history. And grace shall be with them that fear our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory to ages of ages. Amen.

Gnostic Gospel: Assumption of Mary

2009-07-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

Apocryphal Works on the Assumption of Mary

The Account of St. John the Theologian of the Falling Asleep of the Holy Mother of God.

As the all-holy glorious mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, as was her wont, was going to the holy tomb of our Lord to burn incense, and bending her holy knees, she was importunate that Christ our God who had been born of her should return to her. And the Jews, seeing her lingering by the divine sepulchre, came to the chief priests, saying: Mary goes every day to the tomb. And the chief priests, having summoned the guards set by them not to allow any one to pray at the holy sepulchre, inquired about her, whether in truth it were so. And the guards answered and said that they had seen no such thing, God having not allowed them to see her when there. And on one of the days, it being the preparation, the holy Mary, as was her wont, came to the sepulchre; and while she was praying, it came to pass that the heavens were opened, and the archangel Gabriel came down to her and said: Hail, you that brought forth Christ our God! Your prayer having come through to the heavens to Him who was born of you, has been accepted; and from this time, according to your request, you having left the world, shall go to the heavenly places to your Son, into the true and everlasting life.

And having heard this from the holy archangel, she returned to holy Bethlehem, having along with her three virgins who ministered unto her. And after having rested a short time, she sat up and said to the virgins: Bring me a censer, that I may pray. And they brought it, as they had been commanded. And she prayed, saying: My Lord Jesus Christ, who deigned through Your supreme goodness to be born of me, hear my voice, and send me Your apostle John, in order that, seeing him, I may partake of joy; and send me also the rest of Your apostles, both those who have already gone to You, and those in the world that now is, in whatever country they may be, through Your holy commandment, in order that, having beheld them, I may bless Your name much to be praised; for I am confident that You hear Your servant in everything.

And while she was praying, I John came, the Holy Spirit having snatched me up by a cloud from Ephesus, and set me in the place where the mother of my Lord was lying. And having gone in beside her, and glorified Him who had been born of her, I said: Hail, mother of my Lord, who brought forth Christ our God, rejoice that in great glory you are going out of this life. And the holy mother of God glorified God, because I John had come to her, remembering the voice of the Lord, saying: Behold your mother, and, Behold your son. John 19:26-27 And the three virgins came and worshipped. And the holy mother of God says to me: Pray, and cast incense. And I prayed thus: Lord Jesus Christ, who has done wonderful things, now also do wonderful things before her who brought You forth; and let Your mother depart from this life; and let those who crucified You, and who have not believed in You, be confounded. And after I had ended the prayer, holy Mary said to me: Bring me the censer. And having cast incense, she said, Glory to You, my God and my Lord, because there has been fulfilled in me whatsoever You promised to me before you ascended into the heavens, that when I should depart from this world You would come to me, and the multitude of Your angels, with glory. And I John say to her: Jesus Christ our Lord and our God is coming, and you see Him, as He promised to you. And the holy mother of God answered and said to me: The Jews have sworn that after I have died they will burn my body. And I answered and said to her: Your holy and precious body will by no means see corruption. And she answered and said to me: Bring a censer, and cast incense, and pray. And there came a voice out of the heavens saying the Amen. And I John heard this voice; and the Holy Spirit said to me: John, have you heard this voice that spoke in the heaven after the prayer was ended? And I answered and said: Yes, I heard. And the Holy Spirit said to me: This voice which you heard denotes that the appearance of your brethren the apostles is at hand, and of the holy powers that they are coming hither today.

And at this I John prayed.

And the Holy Spirit said to the apostles: Let all of you together, having come by the clouds from the ends of the world, be assembled to holy Bethlehem by a whirlwind, on account of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ; Peter from Rome, Paul from Tiberia, Thomas from Hither India, James from Jerusalem. Andrew, Peter's brother, and Philip, Luke, and Simon the Cananæan, and Thaddæus who had fallen asleep, were raised by the Holy Spirit out of their tombs; to whom the Holy Spirit said: Do not think that it is now the resurrection; but on this account you have risen out of your tombs, that you may go to give greeting to the honour and wonder-working of the mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, because the day of her departure is at hand, of her going up into the heavens. And Mark likewise coming round, was present from Alexandria; he also with the rest, as has been said before, from each country. And Peter being lifted up by a cloud, stood between heaven and earth, the Holy Spirit keeping him steady. And at the same time, the rest of the apostles also, having been snatched up in clouds, were found along with Peter. And thus by the Holy Spirit, as has been said, they all came together.

And having gone in beside the mother of our Lord and God, and having adored, we said: Fear not, nor grieve; God the Lord, who was born of you, will take you out of this world with glory. And rejoicing in God her Saviour, she sat up in the bed, and says to the apostles: Now have I believed that our Master and God is coming from heaven, and I shall behold Him, and thus depart from this life, as I have seen that you have come. And I wish you to tell me how you knew that I was departing and came to me, and from what countries and through what distance you have come hither, that you have thus made haste to visit me. For neither has He who was born of me, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, concealed it; for I am persuaded even now that He is the Son of the Most High.

And Peter answered and said to the apostles: Let us each, according to what the Holy Spirit announced and commanded us, give full information to the mother of our Lord. And I John answered and said: Just as I was going in to the holy altar in Ephesus to perform divine service, the Holy Spirit says to me, The time of the departure of the mother of your Lord is at hand; go to Bethlehem to salute her. And a cloud of light snatched me up, and set me down in the door where you are lying. Peter also answered: And I, living in Rome, about dawn heard a voice through the Holy Spirit saying to me, The mother of your Lord is to depart, as the time is at hand; go to Bethlehem to salute her. And, behold, a cloud of light snatched me up; and I beheld also the other apostles coming to me on clouds, and a voice saying to me, Go all to Bethlehem. And Paul also answered and said: And I, living in a city at no great distance from Rome, called the country of Tiberia, heard the Holy Spirit saying to me, The mother of your Lord, having left this world, is making her course to the celestial regions through her departure; but go also to Bethlehem to salute her. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me down in the same place as you. And Thomas also answered and said: And I, traversing the country of the Indians, when the preaching was prevailing by the grace of Christ, and the king's sister's son Labdanus by name, was about to be sealed by me in the palace, on a sudden the Holy Spirit says to me, Go also, Thomas, to Bethlehem to salute the mother of your Lord, because she is taking her departure to the heavens. And a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me down beside you. And Mark also answered and said: And when I was finishing the canon of the third day in the city of Alexandria, just as I was praying, the Holy Spirit snatched me up, and brought me to you. And James also answered and said: While I was in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit commanded me, saying, Go to Bethlehem, because the mother of your Lord is taking her departure. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me beside you. And Matthew also answered and said: I have glorified and do glorify God, because when I was in a boat and overtaken by a storm, the sea raging with its waves, on a sudden a cloud of light overshadowing the stormy billow, changed it to a calm, and having snatched me up, set me down beside you. And those who had come before likewise answered, and gave an account of how they had come. AndBartholomew said: I was in the Thebais proclaiming the word, and behold the Holy Spirit says to me, The mother of your Lord is taking her departure; go, then, to salute her in Bethlehem. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, brought me to you.

The apostles said all these things to the holy mother of God, why they had come, and in what way; and she stretched her hands to heaven and prayed, saying: I adore, and praise, and glorify Your much to be praised name, O Lord, because You have looked upon the lowliness of Your handmaiden, and because You that are mighty has done great things for me; and, behold, all generations shall count meblessed. Luke 1:48 And after the prayer she said to the apostles: Cast incense, and pray. And when they had prayed, there was thunder from heaven, and there came a fearful voice, as if of chariots; and, behold, a multitude of a host of angels and powers, and a voice, as if of the Son of man, was heard, and the seraphim in a circle round the house where the holy, spotless mother of God and virgin was lying, so that all who were in Bethlehem beheld all the wonderful things, and came to Jerusalem and reported all the wonderful things that had come to pass. And it came to pass, when the voice was heard, that the sun and the moon suddenly appeared about the house; and an assembly of the first-born saints stood beside the house where the mother of the Lord was lying, for her honour and glory. And I beheld also that many signs came to pass, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, lepers cleansed, and those possessed by unclean spirits cured; and every one who was under disease and sickness, touching the outside of the wall of the house where she was lying, cried out: Holy Mary, who brought forth Christ our God, have mercy upon us. And they were straightway cured. And great multitudes out of every country living in Jerusalem for the sake of prayer, having heard of the signs that had come to pass in Bethlehem through the mother of the Lord, came to the place seeking the cure of various diseases, which also they obtained. And there was joy unspeakable on that day among the multitude of those who had been cured, as well as of those who looked on, glorifying Christ our God and His mother. And all Jerusalem from Bethlehem kept festival with psalms and spiritual songs.

And the priests of the Jews, along with their people, were astonished at the things which had come to pass; and being moved with the heaviest hatred, and again with frivolous reasoning, having made an assembly, they determine to send against the holy mother of God and the holy apostles who were there in Bethlehem. And accordingly the multitude of the Jews, having directed their course to Bethlehem, when at the distance of one mile it came to pass that they beheld a frightful vision, and their feet were held fast; and after this they returned to their fellow-countrymen, and reported all the frightful vision to the chief priests. And they, still more boiling with rage, go to the procurator, crying out and saying: The nation of the Jews has been ruined by this woman; chase her from Bethlehem and the province of Jerusalem. And the procurator, astonished at the wonderful things, said to them: I will chase her neither from Bethlehem nor from any other place. And the Jews continued crying out, and adjuring him by the health of Tiberius Cæsar to bring the apostles out of Bethlehem. And if you do not do so, we shall report it to the Cæsar. Accordingly, being compelled, he sends a tribune of the soldiers against the apostles to Bethlehem. And the Holy Spirit says to the apostles and the mother of the Lord: Behold, the procurator has sent a tribune against you, the Jews having made an uproar. Go forth therefore from Bethlehem, and fear not: for, behold, by a cloud I shall bring you to Jerusalem; for the power of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is with you. The apostles therefore rose up immediately, and went forth from the house, carrying the bed of the Lady the mother of God, and directed their course to Jerusalem; and immediately, as the Holy Spirit had said, being lifted up by a cloud, they were found in Jerusalem in the house of the Lady. And they stood up, and for five days made an unceasing singing of praise. And when the tribune came to Bethlehem, and found there neither the mother of the Lord nor the apostles, he laid hold of the Bethlehemites, saying to them: Did you not come telling the procurator and the priests all the signs and wonders that had come to pass, and how the apostles had come out of every country? Where are they, then? Come, go to the procurator at Jerusalem. For the tribune did not know of the departure of the apostles and the Lord's mother to Jerusalem. The tribune then, having taken the Bethlehemites, went in to the procurator, saying that he had found no one. And after five days it was known to the procurator, and the priests, and all the city, that the Lord's mother was in her own house in Jerusalem, along with the apostles, from the signs and wonders that came to pass there. And a multitude of men and women and virgins came together, and cried out: Holy virgin, that brought forth Christ our God, do not forget the generation of men. And when these things came to pass, the people of the Jews, with the priests also, being the more moved with hatred, took wood and fire, and came up, wishing to burn the house where the Lord's mother was living with the apostles. And the procurator stood looking at the sight from afar off. And when the people of the Jews came to the door of the house, behold, suddenly a power of fire coming forth from within, by means of an angel, burnt up a great multitude of the Jews. And there was great fear throughout all the city; and they glorified God, who had been born of her. And when the procurator saw what had come to pass, he cried out to all the people, saying: Truly he who was born of the virgin, whom you have thought of driving away, is the Son of God; for these signs are those of the true God. And there was a division among the Jews; and many believed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in consequence of the signs that had come to pass.

And after all these wonderful things had come to pass through the mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary the mother of the Lord, while we the apostles were with her in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit said to us: You know that on the Lord's day the good news was brought to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel; and on the Lord's day the Saviour was born in Bethlehem; and on the Lord's day the children of Jerusalem came forth with palm branches to meet him, saying, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; and on the Lord's day He rose from the dead; and on the Lord's day He will come to judge the living and the dead; and on the Lord's day He will come out of heaven, to the glory and honour of the departure of the holy glorious virgin who brought Him forth. And on the same Lord's day the mother of the Lord says to the apostles: Cast incense, because Christ is coming with a host of angels; and, behold, Christ is at hand, sitting on a throne of cherubim. And while we were all praying, there appeared innumerable multitudes of angels, and the Lord mounted upon cherubim in great power; and, behold, a stream of light coming to the holy virgin, because of the presence of her only-begotten Son, and all the powers of the heavens fell down and adored Him. And the Lord, speaking to His mother, said: Mary. And she answered and said: Here am I, Lord. And the Lord said to her: Grieve not, but let your heart rejoice and be glad; for you have found grace to behold the glory given to me by my Father. And the holy mother of God looked up, and saw in Him a glory which it is impossible for the mouth of man to speak of, or to apprehend. And the Lord remained beside her, saying: Behold, from the present time your precious body will be transferred to paradise, and your holy soul to the heavens to the treasures of my Father in exceeding brightness, where there is peace and joy of the holy angels—and other things besides. And the mother of the Lord answered and said to him: Lay Your right hand upon me, O Lord, and bless me. And the Lord stretched forth His undefiled right hand, and blessed her. And she laid hold of His undefiled right hand, and kissed it, saying: I adore this right hand, which created the heaven and the earth; and I call upon Your much to be praised name Christ, O God, the King of the ages, the only-begotten of the Father, to receive Your handmaid, Thou who deigned to be brought forth by me, in a low estate, to save the race of men through Your ineffable dispensation; do Thou bestow Your aid upon every man calling upon, or praying to, or naming the name of, Your handmaid. And while she is saying this, the apostles, having gone up to her feet and adored, say: O mother of the Lord, leave a blessing to the world, since you are going away from it. For you have blessed it, and raised it up when it was ruined, by bringing forth the Light of the world. And the mother of the Lord prayed, and in her prayer spoke thus: O God, who through Your great goodness hast sent from the heavens Your only-begotten Son to dwell in my humble body, who hast deigned to be born of me, humble as I am, have mercy upon the world, and every soul that calls upon Your name. And again she prayed, and said: O Lord, King of the heavens, Son of the living God, accept every man who calls upon Your name, that Your birth may be glorified. And again she prayed, and said: O Lord Jesus Christ, who art all-powerful in heaven and on earth, in this appeal I implore Your holy name; in every time and place where there is made mention of my name, make that place holy, and glorify those that glorify You through my name, accepting of such persons all their offering, and all their supplication, and all their prayer. And when she had thus prayed, the Lord said to His mother: Let your heart rejoice and be glad; for every favour and every gift has been given to you from my Father in heaven, and from me, and from the Holy Spirit: every soul that calls upon your name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy, and comfort, and support, and confidence, both in the world that now is, and in that which is to come, in the presence of my Father in the heavens. And theLord turned and said to Peter: The time has come to begin the singing of the hymn. And Peter having begun the singing of the hymn, all the powers of the heavens responded with the Alleluiah. And then the face of the mother of the Lord shone brighter than the light, and she rose up and blessed each of the apostles with her own hand, and all gave glory to God; and the Lord stretched forth His undefiled hands, and received her holy and blameless soul. And with the departure of her blameless soul the place was filled with perfume and ineffable light; and, behold, a voice out of the heaven was heard, saying: Blessed are you among women. And Peter, and I John, and Paul, and Thomas, ran and wrapped up her precious feet for the consecration; and the twelve apostles put her precious and holy body upon a couch, and carried it. And, behold, while they were carrying her, a certain well-born Hebrew, Jephonias by name, running against the body, put his hands upon the couch; and, behold, an angel of the Lord by invisible power, with a sword of fire, cut off his two hands from his shoulders, and made them hang about the couch, lifted up in the air. And at this miracle which had come to pass all the people of the Jews who beheld it cried out: Verily, He that was brought forth by you is the true God, O mother of God, ever-virgin Mary. And Jephonias himself, when Peter ordered him, that the wonderful things of God might be showed forth, stood up behind the couch, and cried out: Holy Mary, who brought forth Christ who is God, have mercy upon me. And Peter turned and said to him: In the name of Him who was born of her, your hands which have been taken away from you, will be fixed on again. And immediately, at the word ofPeter, the hands hanging by the couch of the Lady came, and were fixed on Jephonias. And he believed, and glorified Christ, God who had been born of her.

And when this miracle had been done, the apostles carried the couch, and laid down her precious and holy body in Gethsemane in a new tomb. And, behold, a perfume of sweet savour came forth out of the holy sepulchre of our Lady the mother of God; and for three days the voices of invisible angels were heard glorifying Christ our God, who had been born of her. And when the third day was ended, the voices were no longer heard; and from that time forth all knew that her spotless and precious body had been transferred to paradise.

And after it had been transferred, behold, we see Elisabeth the mother of St. John the Baptist, and Anna the mother of the Lady, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David, singing the Alleluiah, and all the choirs of the saints adoring the holy relics of the mother of the Lord, and the place full of light, than which light nothing could be more brilliant, and an abundance of perfume in that place to which her precious and holy body had been transferred in paradise, and the melody of those praising Him who had been born of her— sweet melody, of which there is no satiety, such as is given to virgins, and them only, to hear. We apostles, therefore, having beheld the sudden precious translation of her holy body, glorified God, who had shown us His wonders at the departure of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose prayers and good offices may we all be deemed worthy to receive, under her shelter, and support, and protection, both in the world that now is and in that which is to come, glorifying in every time and place her only-begotten Son, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Passing of Mary

First Latin Form

Concerning the Passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In that time before the Lord came to His passion, and among many words which the mother asked of the Son, she began to ask Him about her own departure, addressing Him as follows:— O most dear Son, I pray Your holiness, that when my soul goes out of my body, Thou let me know on the third day before; and do Thou, beloved Son, with Your angels, receive it. Then He received the prayer of His beloved mother, and said to her: O palace and temple of the living God, O blessed mother, O queen of all saints, and blessed above all women, before you carried me in your womb, I always guarded you, and caused you to be fed daily with my angelic food, as you know, how can I desert you, after you have carried me, and nourished me, and brought me down in flight into Egypt, and endured many hardships for me? Know, then, that my angels have always guarded you, and will guard you even until your departure. But after I undergo suffering for men, as it is written, and rise again on the third day, and after forty days ascend into heaven, when you shall see me coming to you with angels and archangels, with saints and with virgins, and with my disciples, know for certain that your soul will be separated from the body, and I shall carry it into heaven, where it shall never at all have tribulation or anguish. Then she joyed and gloried, and kissed the knees of her Son, and blessed the Creator of heaven and earth, who gave her such a gift through Jesus Christ her Son.

In the second year, therefore, after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most blessed Virgin Mary continued always in prayer day and night. And on the third day before she passed away, an angel of the Lord came to her, and saluted her, saying: Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord be with you. And she answered, saying: Thanks to God. Again he said to her: Receive this palm which the Lord promised to you. And she, giving thanks to God, with great joy received from the hand of the angel the palm sent to her. The angel of the Lord said to her: Your assumption will be after three days. And she answered: Thanks to God.

Then she called Joseph of the city of Arimathæa, and the other disciples of the Lord; and when they, both relations and acquaintances, were assembled, she announced her departure to all standing there. Then the blessed Mary washed herself, and dressed herself like a queen, and waited the advent of her Son, as He had promised to her. And she asked all her relations to keep beside her, and give her comfort. And she had along with her three virgins, Sepphora, Abigea, and Zaël; but the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ had been already dispersed throughout the whole world to preach to the people of God.

Then at the third hour there were great thunders, and rains, and lightnings, and tribulation, and an earthquake, while queen Mary was standing in her chamber. John the evangelist and apostle was suddenly brought from Ephesus, and entered the chamber of the blessed Mary, and saluted her, and said to her: Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord be with you. And she answered: Thanks to God. And raising herself up, she kissed Saint John. And the blessed Mary said to him: O my dearest son, why have you left me at such a time, and hast not paid heed to the commands of your Master, to take care of me, as He commanded you while He was hanging on the cross? And he asked pardon with bended knee. Then the blessed Mary gave him her benediction, and again kissed him. And when she meant to ask him whence he came, and for what reason he had come to Jerusalem, behold, all the disciples of the Lord, except Thomas who is called Didymus, were brought by a cloud to the door of the chamber of the blessed Mary. They stood and went in, and saluted the queen with the following words, and adored her: Hail, Mary, full of grace! The Lord be with you. And she eagerly rose quickly, and bowed herself, and kissed them, and gave thanks to God. These are the names of the disciples of the Lord who were brought there in the cloud: John the evangelist and James his brother, Peter and Paul, Andrew, Philip, Luke, Barnabas, Bartholomew and Matthew, Matthias who is called Justus, Simon the Chananæan, Judas and his brother, Nicodemus and Maximianus, and many others who cannot be numbered. Then the blessed Mary said to her brethren: What is this, that you have all come to Jerusalem? Peter, answering, said to her: We had need to ask this of you, and do you question us? Certainly, as I think, none of us knows why we have come here today with such rapidity. I was at Antioch, and now I am here. All declared plainly the place where they had been that day. And they all wondered that they were there when they heard these things. Theblessed Mary said to them: I asked my Son, before He endured the passion, that He and you should be at my death; and He granted me this gift. Whence you may know that my departure will be tomorrow. Watch and pray with me, that when the Lord comes to receive my soul, He may find you watching. Then all promised that they would watch. And they watched and prayed the whole night, with psalms and chants, with great illuminations.

And when the Lord's day came, at the third hour, just as the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a cloud, so Christ descended with a multitude of angels, and received the soul of His beloved mother. For there was such splendour and perfume of sweetness, and angels singing the songs of songs, where the Lord says, As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters, Song of Songs 2:2 that all who were there present fell on their faces, as the apostles fell when Christ transfigured Himself before them on Mount Thabor, and for a whole hour and a half no one was able to rise. But when the light went away, and at the same time with the light itself, the soul of the blessed virgin Mary was taken up into heaven with psalms, and hymns, and songs of songs. And as the cloud went up the whole earth shook, and in one moment all the inhabitants of Jerusalem openly saw the departure of St. Mary.

And that same hour Satan entered into them, and they began to consider what they were to do with her body. And they took up weapons, that they might burn her body andkill the apostles, because from her had gone forth the dispersions of Israel, on account of their sins and the gathering together of the Gentiles. But they were struck with blindness, striking their heads against the walls, and striking each other. Then the apostles, alarmed by so much brightness, arose, and with psalms carried the holy body down from Mount Zion to the valley of Jehoshaphat. But as they were going in the middle of the road, behold, a certain Jew, Reuben by name, wishing to throw to the ground the holy bier with the body of the blessed Mary. But his hands dried up, even to the elbow; whether he would or not, he went down even to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, weeping and lamenting because his hands were raised to the bier, and he was not able to draw back his hands to himself. And he began to ask the apostles that by their prayer he might be saved and made a Christian. Then the apostles, bending their knees, asked the Lord to let him loose. And he, being healed that same hour, giving thanks to God and kissing the feet of the queen of all the saints and apostles, was baptized in that same place, and began to preach the name of our God Jesus Christ.

Then the apostles with great honour laid the body in the tomb, weeping and singing through exceeding love and sweetness. And suddenly there shone round them a light from heaven, and they fell to the ground, and the holy body was taken up by angels into heaven.

Then the most blessed Thomas was suddenly brought to the Mount of Olivet, and saw the most blessed body going up to heaven, and began to cry out and say: O holy mother, blessed mother, spotless mother, if I have now found grace because I see you, make your servant joyful through your compassion, because you are going to heaven. Then the girdle with which the apostles had encircled the most holy body was thrown down from heaven to the blessed Thomas. And taking it, and kissing it, and giving thanks to God, he came again into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. He found all the apostles and another great crowd there beating their breasts on account of the brightness which they had seen. And seeing and kissing each other, the blessed Peter said to him: Truly you have always been obdurate and unbelieving, because for your unbelief it was not pleasing to God that you should be along with us at the burial of the mother of the Saviour. And he, beating his breast, said: I know and firmly believe that I have always been a bad and an unbelieving man; therefore I ask pardon of all of you for my obduracy and unbelief. And they all prayed for him. Then the blessed Thomas said: Where have you laid her body? And they pointed out the sepulchre with their finger. And he said: The body which is called most holy is not there. Then the blessed Peter said to him: Already on another occasion you would not believe the resurrection of our Master and Lord at our word, unless you went to touch Him with your fingers, and see Him; how will you believe us that the holy body is here? Still he persists saying: It is not here. Then, as it were in a rage, they went to the sepulchre, which was a new one hollowed out in the rock, and took up the stone; but they did not find the body, not knowing what to say, because they had been convicted by the words of Thomas. Then the blessed Thomas told them how he was singing mass in India— he still had on his sacerdotal robes. He, not knowing the word of God, had been brought to the Mount of Olivet, and saw the most holy body of the blessed Mary going up into heaven, and prayed her to give him a blessing. She heard his prayer, and threw him her girdle which she had about her. And the apostles seeing the belt which they had put about her, glorifying God, all asked pardon of the blessed Thomas, on account of the benediction which the blessed Mary had given him, and because he had seen the most holy body going up into heaven. And the blessed Thomas gave them his benediction, and said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

And the same cloud by which they had been brought carried them back each to his own place, just like Philip when he baptized the eunuch, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles; Acts 8:39 and as Habakkuk the prophet carried food to Daniel, who was in the lions' den, and quickly returned to Judæa. And so also the apostles quickly returned to where they had at first been, to preach to the people of God. Nor is it to be wondered at that He should do such things, who went into the virgin and came out of her though her womb was closed; who, though the gates were shut, went in to His disciples; John 20:19 who made the deaf to hear, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, and did many other wonderful things. To believe this is no doubtful matter.

I am Joseph who laid the Lord's body in my sepulchre, and saw Him rising again; and who, before the ascension and after the ascension of the Lord, always kept his most sacred temple the blessed ever-virgin Mary, and who have kept in writing and in my breast the things which came forth from the mouth of God, and how the things mentioned above were done by the judgment of God. And I have made known to all, Jews and Gentiles, those things which I saw with my eyes, and heard with my ears; and as long as I live I shall not cease to declare them. And her, whoseassumption is at this day venerated and worshipped throughout the whole world, let us assiduously entreat that she be mindful of us in the presence of her most pious Son in heaven, to whom is praise and glory through endless ages of ages. Amen.

Second Latin Form

Here Begins the Passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1. Therefore, when the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was hanging on the tree fastened by the nails of the cross for the life of the whole world, He saw about the cross His mother standing, and John the evangelist, whom He peculiarly loved above the rest of the apostles, because he alone of them was a virgin in the body. He gave him, therefore, the charge of holy Mary, saying to him: Behold your mother! And saying, to her: Behold your son! John 19:26-27 From that hour the holy mother of God remained specially in the care of John, as long as she had her habitation in this life. And when the apostles had divided the world by lot for preaching, she settled in the house of his parents near Mount Olivet.

2. In the second year, therefore, after Christ had vanquished death, and ascended up into heaven, on a certain day, Mary, burning with a longing for Christ, began to weep alone, within the shelter of her abode. And, behold, an angel, shining in a dress of great light, stood before her and gave utterance to the words of salutation saying: Hail! You blessed by the Lord, receive the salutation of Him who commanded safety to Jacob by His prophets. Behold, said He, a palm branch— I have brought it to you from the paradise of the Lord— which you will cause to be carried before your bier, when on the third day you shall be taken up from the body. For, lo, your Son awaits you with thrones and angels, and all the powers of heaven. Then Mary said to the angel: I beg that all the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ be assembled to me. To whom the angel said: Behold, today, by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ, all the apostles will come to you. And Mary says to him: I ask that you send upon me your blessing, that no power of the lower world may withstand me in that hour in which my soul shall go out of my body, and that I may not see the prince of darkness. And the angel said: No power indeed of the lower world will hurt you; and your Lord God, whose servant and messenger I am, has given you eternal blessing; but do not think that the privilege of not seeing the prince of darkness is to be given you by me, but by Him whom you have carried in your womb; for to Him belongs power over all for ever and ever. Thus saying, the angel departed with great splendour. And that palm shone with exceeding great light. Then Mary, undressing herself, put on better garments. And, taking the palm which she had received from the hands of the angel, she went out to the mount of Olivet, and began to pray, and say: I had not been worthy, O Lord, to bear You, unless You had had compassion on me; but nevertheless I have kept the treasure which You entrusted to me. Therefore I ask of You, O King of glory, that the power of Gehenna hurt me not. For if the heavens and the angels daily tremble before You, how much more man who is made from the ground, who possesses no good thing, except as much as he has received from Your benignant bounty! You are, O Lord, God always blessed for ever. And thus saying, she went back to her dwelling.

3. And, behold, suddenly, while St. John was preaching in Ephesus, on the Lord's day, at the third hour of the day, there was a great earthquake, and a cloud raised him and took him up from the eyes of all, and brought him before the door of the house where Mary was. And knocking at the door, he immediately went in. And when Mary saw him, she exulted in joy, and said: I beg of you, my son John, be mindful of the words of my Lord Jesus Christ, in which He entrusted me to you. For, behold, on the third day, when I am to depart from the body, I have heard the plans of the Jews, saying, Let us wait for the day when she who bore that seducer shall die, and let us burn her body with fire. She therefore called St. John, and led him into the secret chamber of the house, and showed him the robe of her burial, and that palm of light which she had received from the angel, instructing him that he should cause it to be carried before her couch when she was going to her tomb.

4. And St. John said to her: How shall I alone perform your funeral rites, unless my brethren and fellow apostles of my Lord Jesus Christ come to pay honour to your body? And, behold, on a sudden, by the command of God, all the apostles were snatched up, raised on a cloud, from the places in which they were preaching the word of God, and set down before the door of the house in which Mary dwelt. And, saluting each other, they wondered, saying: What is the cause for which the Lord has assembled us here?

5. Then all the apostles, rejoicing with one mind, finished their prayer. And when they had said the Amen, behold, on a sudden, there came the blessed John, and told them all these things. The apostles then, having entered the house, found Mary, and saluted her, saying: Blessed are you by the Lord, who has made heaven and earth. And she said to them: Peace be with you, most beloved brethren! How have you come hither? And they recounted to her how they had come, each oneraised on a cloud by the Spirit of God, and set down in the same place. And she said to them: God has not deprived me of the sight of you. Behold, I shall go the way of all the earth, and I doubt not that the Lord has now conducted you hither to bring me consolation for the anguish which is just coming upon me. Now therefore I implore you, that without intermission you all with one mind watch, even till that hour in which the Lord will come, and I shall depart from the body.

6. And when they had sat down in a circle consoling her, when they had spent three days in the praises of God, behold, on the third day, about the third hour of the day, a deep sleep seized upon all who were in that house, and no one was at all able to keep awake but the apostles alone, and only the three virgins who were there. And, behold, suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ came with a great multitude of angels; and a great brightness came down upon that place, and the angels were singing a hymn, and praising God together. Then the Saviour spoke, saying: Come, most precious pearl, within the receptacle of life eternal.

7. Then Mary prostrated herself on the pavement, adoring God, and said: Blessed be the name of Your glory, O Lord my God, who hast deigned to choose me Your handmaid, and to entrust to me Your hidden mystery. Be mindful of me, therefore, O King of glory, for You know that I have loved You with all my heart, and kept the treasure committed to me. Therefore receive me, Your servant, and free me from the power of darkness, that no onset of Satan may oppose me, and that I may not see filthy spirits standing in my way. And the Saviour answered her: When I, sent by my Father for the salvation of the world, was hanging on the cross, the prince of darkness came to me; but when he was able to find in me no trace of his work, John 14:30 he went off vanquished and trodden under foot. But when you shall see him, you shall see him indeed by the law of the human race, in accordance with which you have come to the end of your life; but he cannot hurt you, because I am with you to help you. Go in security, because theheavenly host is waiting for you to lead you in to the joys of paradise. And when the Lord had thus spoken, Mary, rising from the pavement, reclined upon her couch, and giving thanks to God, gave up the ghost. And the apostles saw that her soul was of such whiteness, that no tongue of mortals can worthily utter it; for it surpassed all the whiteness of snow, and of every metal, and of gleaming silver, by the great brightness of its light.

8. Then the Saviour spoke, saying: Rise, Peter, and take the body of Mary, and send it to the right hand side of the city towards the east, and you will find there a new tomb, in which you will lay her, and wait until I come to you. And thus saying, the Lord delivered the soul of St. Mary to Michael, who was the ruler of paradise, and the prince of the nation of the Jews; and Gabriel went with them. And immediately the Saviour was received up into heaven along with the angels.

9. And the three virgins, who were in the same place, and were watching, took up the body of the blessed Mary, that they might wash it after the manner of funeral rites. And when they had taken off her clothes, that sacred body shone with so much brightness, that it could be touched indeed for preparation for burial, but the form of it could not be seen for the excessive flashing light: except that the splendour of the Lord appeared great, and nothing was perceived, the body, when it was washed, was perfectly clean, and stained by no moisture of filth. And when they had put the dead-clothes on her, that light was gradually obscured. And the body of the blessed Mary was like lily flowers; and an odour of great sweetness came forth from it, so that no sweetness could be found like it.

10. Then, accordingly, the apostles laid the holy body on the bier, and said to each other: Who is to carry this palm before her bier? Then John said to Peter: Thou, who hast precedence of us in the apostleship, should carry this palm before her couch. And Peter answered him: You were the only virgin among us chosen by the Lord, and you found so great favour that you reclined upon His breast. John 13:23 And He, when for our salvation He was hanging upon the stem of the cross, entrusted her to you with His own mouth. Thou therefore ought to carry this palm, and let us take up that body to carry it even to the place ofsepulture. After this, Peter, raising it, and saying, Take the body, began to sing and say: Israel has gone forth out of Egypt. Alleluiah. And the other apostles along with him carried the body of the blessed Mary, and John bore the palm of light before the bier. And the other apostles sang with a most sweet voice.

11. And, behold, a new miracle. There appeared above the bier a cloud exceeding great, like the great circle which is wont to appear beside the splendour of the moon; and there was in the clouds an army of angels sending forth a sweet song, and from the sound of the great sweetness the earth resounded. Then the people, having gone forth from the city, about fifteen thousand, wondered, saying: What is that sound of so great sweetness? Then there stood up one who said to them:Mary has departed from the body, and the disciples of Jesus are singing praises around her. And looking, they saw the couch crowned with great glory, and the apostles singing with a loud voice. And, behold, one of them, who was chief of the priests of the Jews in his rank, filled with fury and rage, said to the rest: Behold, the tabernacle of him who disturbed us and all our race, what glory has it received? And going up, he wished to overturn the bier, and throw the body down to the ground. And immediately his hands dried up from hiselbows, and stuck to the couch. And when the apostles raised the bier, part of him hung, and part of him adhered to the couch; and he was vehemently tormented with pain, while the apostles were walking and singing. And the angels who were in the clouds smote the people with blindness.

12. Then that chief cried out, saying: I implore you, Saint Peter, do not despise me, I beseech you, in so great an extremity, because I am exceedingly tortured by great torments. Bear in mind that when, in the prætorium, the maid that kept the door John 18:17 recognised you, and told the others to revile you, then I spoke good words in your behalf. Then Peter answering, said: It is not for me to give other to you; but if you believe with your whole heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, whom she carried in her womb, and remained a virgin after the birth, the compassion of the Lord, which with profuse benignity saves the unworthy, will give you salvation.

To this he replied: Do we not believe? But what shall we do? The enemy of the human race has blinded our hearts, and confusion has covered our face, lest we should confess the great things of God, especially when we ourselves uttered maledictions against Christ, shouting: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. Matthew 27:25 Then Peter said: Behold, this malediction will hurt him who has remained unfaithful to Him; but to those who turn themselves to God mercy is not denied. And he said: I believe all that you say to me; only I implore, have mercy upon me, lest I die.

13. Then Peter made the couch stand still, and said to him: If you believe with all your heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ, your hands will be released from the bier. And when he had said this his hands were immediately released from the bier, and he began to stand on his feet; but his arms were dried up, and the torture did not go away from him. ThenPeter said to him: Go up to the body, and kiss the couch, and say: I believe in God, and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom she bore, and I believe all whatsoever Peter the apostle of God has said to me. And going up, he kissed the couch, and immediately all pain went away from him, and his hands were healed. Then he began greatly to bless God, and from the books of Moses to render testimony to the praises of Christ, so that even the apostles themselves wondered, and wept for joy, praising the name of the Lord.

14. And Peter said to him: Take this palm from the hand of our brother John, and going into the city you will find much people blinded, and declare to them the great things of God; and whosoever shall believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall put this palm upon their eyes, and they shall see; but those who will not believe shall remain blind. And when he had done so, he found much people blinded, lamenting thus: Woe unto us, because we have been made likethe Sodomites struck with blindness. Nothing now is left to us but to perish. But when they heard the words of the chief who had been cured speaking, they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and when he put the palm over their eyes, they recovered sight. Five of them remaining in hardness of heart died. And the chief of the priests going forth, carried back the palm to the apostles, reporting all things whatsoever had been done.

15. And the apostles, carrying Mary, came to the place of the Valley of Jehoshaphat which the Lord had showed them; and they laid her in a new tomb, and closed the sepulchre. And they themselves sat down at the door of the tomb, as the Lord had commanded them; and, behold, suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ came with a great multitude of angels, with a halo of great brightness gleaming, and said to the apostles: Peace be with you! And they answered and said: Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in You. Then the Saviour spoke to them, saying: Before I ascended to my Father I promised to you, saying that you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His majesty, will sit, you also, upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19:28 Her, therefore, did I choose out of the tribes of Israel by the command of my Father, that I should dwell in her. What, therefore, do you wish that I should do to her? Then Peter and the other apostles said: Lord, You chose beforehand this Your handmaid to become a spotless chamber for Yourself, and us Your servants to minister unto You. Before the ages You foreknew all things along with the Father, with whom to You and the Holy Spirit there is one Godhead, equal and infinite power. If, therefore, it were possible to be done in the presence of the power of Your grace, it had seemed to us Your servants to be right that, just as Thou, having vanquished death, reign in glory, so, raising up again the body of Your mother, Thou should take her with You in joy into heaven.

16. Then the Saviour said: Let it be according to your opinion. And He ordered the archangel Michael to bring the soul of St. Mary. And, behold, the archangel Michael rolled back the stone from the door of the tomb; and the Lord said: Arise, my beloved and my nearest relation; you who hast not put on corruption by intercourse with man, suffer not destruction of the body in the sepulchre. And immediately Mary rose from the tomb, and blessed the Lord, and falling forward at the feet of the Lord, adored Him, saying: I cannot render sufficient thanks to You, O Lord, for Your boundless benefits which You have deigned to bestow upon me Your handmaiden. May Your name, O Redeemer of the world, God of Israel, be blessed for ever.

17. And kissing her, the Lord went back, and delivered her soul to the angels, that they should carry it into paradise. And He said to the apostles: Come up to me. And when they had come up He kissed them, and said: Peace be to you! As I have always been with you, so will I be even to the end of the world. And immediately, when the Lord had said this, He was lifted up on a cloud, and taken back into heaven, and the angels along with Him, carrying the blessed Mary into the paradise of God. And the apostles being taken up in the clouds, returned each into the place allotted for his preaching, telling the great things of God, and praising our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in perfect unity, and in one substance of Godhead, for ever and ever. Amen.

Heretic Quotes About Catholic as the Only Church Where to Attain Salvation

2009-06-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Outside the (Catholic) church there is no salvation.
-The maxim of St. Cyprian: "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus", Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. VI.

If someone from this people wants to be saved, let him come into this (Catholic) house so that he may be able to attain his salvation....Let no one, then, be persuaded otherwise, nor let anyone deceive himself: Outside of this house, that is, outside of the Church, no one is saved; for, if anyone should go out of it, he is guilty of his own death.
-St. Origen: "Homily on Jesu Nave 3. 5", p 12. 841.

For 'there is one universal (Catholic) Church outside of which no one at all is saved...'
-Pope Pius IX, Ubi Primum (On Discipline For Religious), Encyclical Promulgated on June 17, 1847, #10.

It is only the Catholic Church that retains the true worship. It is the fountain of truth, it is the household of the faith, it is the temple of God: If anyone does not enter it, or if anyone departs from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let no one deceive himself by continuous wranglings. Life and salvation are in the balance, which if not looked to carefully and diligently will be lost and destroyed.
-Lactantius, Divin. Institutiones 4, 30, 11-12, PL 6. 542, (quoted by Pope Pius XI, Pontifex Maximus, in Mortalium Animos (The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical Promulgated on January 6, 1928.

There is no salvation outside the Caholic Church. Anyone who resists this truth perishes.
-St. Louis Marie de Montfort, (quoted in article "EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS (No Salvation Outside the Church), by Our Lady of the Rosary Library).

Some say they are not bound by the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter of a few years ago, and based on the sources of revelation, which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing. Some reduce to a meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to gain eternal salvation.
-Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis (Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine), Encyclical promulgated on August 12, 1950, #27.

For they cannot live outside (the Catholic Church), since there is only one house of God, and there can be no salvation for anyone except in the Church.
-St. Cyprian: "Letters 61:4".

I profess that outside the Catholic Church no one is saved.
-Pope Sylvester II, Profession of Faith made as Archbishop of Rheims, in June, 991; quoted in "Letters of Gerbert, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 224, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

Outside of this communion (as outside of the Ark of Noah) there is absolutely no salvation for mortals: not to Jews or Pagans, who never received the faith of the Church; not to heretics who, having received it, forsook or corrupted it; not to schismatics who left the peace and unity of the Church; finally neither to excommunicates who for any other serious cause deserved to be put away and separated from the body of the Church, like pernicious members....For the rule of Cyprian and Augustine is certain: he will not have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his Mother.
-St. Peter Canisius, Catechismi Latini et Germanici, (quoted in Gate of Heaven, by sister Catherine Goddard Clark, chatper 1).

There is only one true, holy, Catholic church, which is the Apostolic Roman Church. There is only one See founded in Peter by the word of the Lord, outside of which we cannot find either true faith or eternal salvation. He who does not have the Church for a mother cannot have God for a father...This hope of salvation is placed in the Catholic Church which, in preserving the true worship, is the solid home of this faith and the temple of God. Outside of the Church, nobody can hope for life or salvation...
-Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quidem (On The Church In Austria), Encyclical Promulgated on March 17, 1856, #4 & #7.

There is no entering into salvation outside of the Church, just as in the time of the Deluge there was none outside the Ark which denotes the Church.
-Pope John Paul II, quoted in "The Wanderer", May 14, 1992, p. 10, col. 4, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

Outside the Church there is no salvation...therefore in the symbol (Apostles Creed) we join together the Church with the remission of sins: 'I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins'...For this reason the Church is compared to the Ark of Noah, because just as during the deluge, everyone perished who was not in the ark, so now those perish who are not in the Church.
-St. Robert Bellarmine, De Sacramento Baptismi, (quoted in article "The Perennial Understanding of the Church", by Saint Benedict Center).

This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation....Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.
-Pope Paul VI, in Council of Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium", Promulgated on November 21, 1964, Chapter II "On the People of God", #14.

For the (Catholic) Church, although of itself including the totality or fullness of the means of salvation...
-Pope Paul VI, in Decrees of Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church "Ad Gentes", Chapter I "Principles of Doctrine", #6.

For it is only through Christ's Catholic Church, which is 'the all-embracing means of salvation,' that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation.
-Pope Paul VI, in Decrees of Second Vatican Council, Decree On Ecumenism "Unitatis Redintegratio", Chapter I "Catholic Principles On Ecumenism", #3.

The Constitution 'Lumen Gentium', in a fundamental affirmation echoed by the Decree 'Unitatis Redintegratio', states that the one Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church. The Decree on Ecumenism emphasizes the presence in her of the fullness ('plenitudo') of the means of salvation. Full unity will come about when all share in the fullness of the means of salvation entrusted by Christ to his Church.
-Pope John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One), Encyclical promulgated on May 25, 1995, #86.

There is indeed one universal (Catholic) church of the faithful, outside of which nobody at all is saved.
-Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, #1: Confession of Faith, 1215, proclaimed "ex cathedra" (infallible).

With the same great strength of mind, foster in all men their unity with the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation; also foster their obedience towards this See of Peter on which rests the entire structure of our most holy religion.
-Pope Pius IX, Qui Pluribus (On Faith And Religion), Encyclical Promulgated on November 9, 1846, #20.

Also well known is the Catholic teaching that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church. Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who...are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church.
-Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (On Promotion Of False Doctrines), Encyclical Promulgated on August 10, 1863, #8.

The Catholic Church alone is the Body of Christ, of which He is Head and Savior. The 'People of God' and the 'Mystical Body of Christ' are one and the same thing, both of them designating the Church. Membership in the Church requires conditions other than Baptism alone; it requires identical faith and unity of communion, so that by means of the Catholic Church alone, which is the unrestricted instrument of salvation, is it possible to obtain the fullness of the means to salvation. Indeed, the Church is both a sure and an exclusive means of attaining salvation. We must always remember the unity of the Mystical Body outside which there is no salvation, for there is no entering into salvation outside the Church. Outside this Body, the Holy Spirit gives life to no one: those who are enemies to unity do not participate in the charity of Divine Life; those outside the Church do not possess the Holy Spirit. The entrance to salvation is open to no one outside the Church!
-Pope Paul VI, General Audience of May 15, 1974, and reported in "The Wanderer", May 30, 1975, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 2: "Salvation is Found Only in the Catholic Church").

There is no entering into salvation outside the Catholic Church, just as in the time of the Flood there was not salvation outside the Ark, which denotes the Church.
-St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, (quoted in article "The Perennial Understanding of the Church", by Saint Benedict Center).

Be not deceived, my brother; if anyone follows a schismatic (one who has separated themselves from the Catholic Church), he will not attain the inheritance of the kingdom of God.
-St. Ignatius, in his letter to the Philadelphians (Quoted by Pope Gregory XVI in Summo Iugiter Studio (On Mixed Marriages), Encyclical promulgated on May 27, 1832, #5.

Whoever has separated himself from the Catholic Church, no matter how laudably he lives, will not have eternal life, but has earned the anger of God because of this one crime...
-St. Augustine, Council of Cirta, 412 (Quoted by Pope Gregory XVI in Summo Iugiter Studio (On Mixed Marriages), Encyclical promulgated on May 27, 1832, #5.

The sacrosanct Roman Church...firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation...and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.
-Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Bull promulgated on February 4, 1441 (Florentine style), proclaimed "ex cathedra" (infallible).

...those Christian nations which have unhappily fallen away from Mother (Catholic) Church to turn once more to her in whom lies all hope of eternal salvation.
-Pope Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus (On St. Jerome), Encyclical promulgated on September 15, 1920, #68.

There is but one plain known road. When you wander from this, you are lost. You must be altogether within the House of God, within the walls of salvation, to be sound and safe from injury. If you wander and walk abroad ever so little, if you carelessly thrust hand or foot out of the Ship, you shall be thrust forth: the door is shut, the ocean roars, you are undone.
-St. Edmund Campion, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

...We cannot but remind all, great and small, as Pope St. Gregory did, of the absolute necessity of having recourse to this Church in order to have eternal salvation, to follow the right road of reason, to feed on the truth, to obtain peace and even happiness in this life.
-Pope Pius X, Iucunda Sane (On Pope Gregory the Great), Encyclical promulgated on March 12, 1904, #9.

Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins...and she represents one sole mystical body....There had been at the time of the deluge only one ark of Noah, prefiguring the one Church...and we read that, outside of this ark, all that subsisted on the earth was destroyed.
-Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, Bull promulgated on November 18, 1302, proclaimed "ex cathedra" (infallible).

Why did Jesus Christ found the Church? Jesus Christ founded the Church to bring all men to eternal salvation. (a) The Church instituted by Christ is the only way to eternal salvation. Christ gave the Church the means whereby man can be sanctified and saved....

Are all obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved? All are obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved.

What do we mean when we say, "Outside the Church there is no salvation"? When we say, Outside the Church there is no salvation," we mean that those who through their own grave fault do not know that the Catholic Church is the true Church or, knowing it, refuse to join it, cannot be saved. (a) "Outside the Church there is no salvation" does not mean that everyone who is not a Catholic will be condemned. It does mean that no one can be saved unless he belongs in some manner to the Catholic Church, either actually or in desire, for the means of grace are not given without some relation to the divine institution established by Christ.
-Baltimore Catechism, #3, Chapters 11 & 12, #138, 166-167.

Outside the Church there is no salvation"

How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? [Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 73.21: PL 3, 1169; De unit.: PL 4, 509-536.] Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the (Catholic) Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it."
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part One, "The Profession of Faith", Section Two, "The Profession of the Christian Faith", Chapter Three, "I Believe in the Holy Spirit, Article 9, "I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church", Paragraph 3, "The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic", Section III, "The Church Is Catholic", #846 (1992 edition, p 244).

No man can find salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have sacraments, one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can have faith in the Name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic Church.
-St. Augustine, Sermo ad Caesariensis Ecclesia plebem, (quoted in article "The Perennial Understanding of the Church", by Saint Benedict Center).

It is a sin to believe there is salvation outside the Catholic Church!
-Pope Pius IX, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

...nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the catholic church.
-Pope Eugenius IV, in "Bull of Union with the Copts", the Council of Florence, Session 11, on February 4, 1442.

To that Church alone and to those whom she embraces in her bosom and holds in her arms, appertains the invocation of that divine name, outside of which there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.
-The Catechism of Trent, The First Petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ, the Lord-leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition. -Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church), Encyclical promulgated on June 29, 1896, #5.

Anyone who is out of the (Catholic) Ship is walking a path not to Heaven, but to Hell. He is hurrying to the torment of eternal death!
-St. Fulgentius, "To Euthymius, On the Remission of Sins," Book I, ch.19, no. 2, PL 65:527; also JUR, vol. III:2251a, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

Whoever, therefore, have adverse and contrary opinions the Church disapproves and anathematizes and declares to be foreign to the Christian body which is the Church.
-Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Bull promulgated on February 4, 1441 (Florentine style), proclaimed "ex cathedra" (infallible).

...ought themselves to be separated from the Catholic Church and to be alien from the Christian name.
-St. Athanasius, Encyclical Letter of the Council of Sardica, #49.

Not without sorrow can we hear people continually claiming to love Christ but without the Church; to listen to Christ but not to the Church; to belong to Christ but outside the Church. The absurdity of this dichotomy is clearly evident in this phrase of the Gospel: 'Anyone who rejects you, rejects me.' -Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, No. 16, December 8, 1975.

The Ship of the Church is guided by Christ and by His Vicar...It alone carries the disciples and receives Christ. Yes, it is tossed on the sea but, outside it, one would perish immediately. Salvation is only in the Church; outside it, one perishes.
-Pope John Paul I, from the First Address to College of Cardinals, Aug. 27, 1978, First Address To College Of Cardinals, August 27, 1978; Catholic Almanac, ed. Fr. Felician Foy, OFM, 1979, p. 54 (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 1: "There is No Salvation Outside the One True Church").

For it has been delivered to us, that there is one God, and one Christ, and one hope, and one faith, and one Church, and one baptism ordained only in the one Church, from which unity whosoever will depart must needs be found with heretics.
-St. Cyprian, The Epistles of Cyprian, Epistle LXXIII, #11.

Whosoever has cut himself off from the Church of Rome has become an alien to Christianity.
-Pope Boniface I, Epistle Ad Thessalon, LAF, vol IX:57; FOC, p 324 (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 2: "Those Who Reject Christ's Church Are Anti-Christian").

Who is to be called a Christian? He who confesses the salutary doctrine of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, in His (Catholic) Church. Hence, he who is truly a Christian condemns and detests thoroughly all cults and sects which are found outside the doctrine and Church of Christ, everywhere, and among all peoples, as for example, the Jewish, the Mohammedan, and the heretical cults and sects; and he firmly assents to the same doctrine of Christ.
-St. Peter Canisius, Catechismi Latini et Germanici, (quoted in Gate of Heaven, by sister Catherine Goddard Clark, chatper 1).

There is only one Christian faith, that is: Catholic.
-St. Bridget of Sweden, (quoted in "Book of Revelations, St. Bridget of Sweden", ed. Cardinal John Torquemada, Rome: 1488).

He who falls away from the doctrine and faith of the Catholic Church would not be, nor would even be called, a Christian.
-St. Athanasius, Epistle to Serapion, Book 1:28, PG, 26:522 (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 1: "Only Catholics Can Be Christians").

Consequently, all who wish to reach salvation outside the Church are mistaken as to the way and are engaged in a futile effort….Christianity is, in fact incarnate in the Catholic Church; it is identified with that perfect and spiritual society which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and has for its visible head the Roman Pontiff.
-Pope Leo XIII, (quoted in "Annum Ingressi Sumus, Papal Teachings of the Church", p 652-653; Tametsi, PTC 647).

The holy universal Church teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in her and asserts that all who are outside of her will not be saved.
-St. Gregory the Great (Quoted by Pope Gregory XVI in Summo Iugiter Studio (On Mixed Marriages), Encyclical promulgated on May 27, 1832, #5.

One cannot believe in Christ without believing in the (Catholic) Church, the Body of Christ...Faithfulness to Christ implies, therefore, faithfulness to the Church...Be faithful, then, to your faith without falling into the dangerous illusion of seperating Christ from His Church.
-Pope John Paul II, (Quoted in L'Osservatore Romano, June 21, 1980 and November 9, 1981).

Heretics, however, have no fellowship in our discipline, whom the mere fact of their excommunication testifies to be outsiders. I am not bound to recognize in them a thing which is enjoined on me, because they and we have not the same God, nor one--that is, the same--Christ.
-Tertullian, On Baptism, Chapter XV.

They cannot dwell with God who would not be of one mind in God's (Catholic) Church....so neither can he appear as a Christian who does not abide in the truth of His Gospel and of (Catholic) faith....Such a one is to be turned away from and avoided, whosoever he may be, that is separated from the Church. Such a one is perverted and sins, and is condemned of his own self. Does he think that he has Christ...?
-St. Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, #14.

Therefore, having become His (Catholic) disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God.
-St. Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, Chapter 10.

If anyone, however, either suggests or believes or presumes to teach contrary to this faith, let him know that he is condemned and also anathematized according to the opinion of the same Fathers....Consider (therefore) the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the Church, cannot have the Lord [Gal. 3:7].
-Pope Pelagius II, about 585 (Quoted in "Enchiridion Symbolorum: The Sources of Catholic Dogma", by Henricus Denzinger, par 246, 30th edition).

Oh, how much are worldlings deceived who think to go to Heaven by the wide way that only leadeth to perdition! The path to Heaven is narrow, rough, and full of wearisome ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil. And therefore, wrong is their way, gross their error, and assured their ruin who, after the testimony of so many thousands of saints, will not learn where to settle their footing! Wrestle no longer against the struggles of your own conscience and the forcible admonitions God doth send you. Embrace His mercy before the time of rigor, and return to His Church lest He debar you His Kingdom. He cannot have God for Father who refuseth to possess the Catholic Church for Mother.
-St. Robert Southwell, LFB, pp.19-20, 259, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 3: "Those Outside the Catholic Church Are Lost Forever").

Jesus and the Church are the same thing: indissoluble, inseparable. Christ and the Church are only one thing. It is not possible to say: I believe in Jesus, I accept Jesus, but I do not accept the (Catholic) Church.
-Pope John Paul I, General Audience of September 13, 1978, (published in L'Osservatore Romano).

And He who does not have the Church as his mother, cannot have God as his father…He who does not uphold this unity does not uphold the law of God, does not uphold the faith of the Father and the Son, and has neither life nor salvation.
-St. Cyprian, De Unitate Ecclesiae (Unity of the Church), IV, V, VI: PL IV, 513, 514, 516-20 (Quoted by Pope Pius XII in Meminisse Iuvat (On Prayers For The Persecuted Church), Encyclical Promulgated on July 14, 1958, #22.

It is impossible to be joined to God except through Jesus Christ; it is impossible to be united to Christ except in and through the (Catholic) Church which is His Mystical Body.
-Pope John XXIII, Quotiescumque Nobis, Encyclical Promulgated on June 29, 1961, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 2: "Salvation is Found Only in the Catholic Church").

For if we carefully consider the things that pertain to Christ, we shall find that, among those heretics who call themselves Christians, Christ is present in name only: in deed and in truth He is not among them.
-St Aurelius Augustine, The Enchiridion (Handbook) on Faith, Hope and Love, #5: "Answers to Laurentius' Question's", written in 421.

Outside this Body, the Holy Spirit gives life to no one: those who are enemies to unity do not participate in the charity of Divine Life; those outside the Church do not possess the Holy Spirit. The entrance to salvation is open to no one outside the Church!
-Pope Paul VI, General Audience of June 12, 1974, and reported in "The Wanderer", July 4, 1974, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 1: "Only Catholics Can Be Christians").

The Lord severed the Jewish people from His kingdom, and heretics and schismatics are also severed from the kingdom of God and from the Church. Our Lord makes it perfectly clear that every assembly of heretics and schismatics belongs not to God, but to the unclean spirit.
-St. Ambrose, "Expl. of Luke", ch.7, 91-95; PL 15; SS, vol. II, p. 85, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 2: "Those Who Reject Christ's Church are Anti-Christian").

Let such as these take counsel with themselves, and realize that they can in no wise be counted among the children of God, unless they take Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the (Catholic) Church as their mother.
-Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church), Encyclical promulgated on June 29, 1896, #16.

...outside the Church there is no Holy Spirit, sound faith moreover cannot exist, not alone among heretics, but even among those who are established in schism.
-St. Cyprian: "Treatise on Rebaptism" 10.

And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or morals...so, on the contrary, all other societies arrogating to themselves the name of church, must necessarily, because guided by the spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious errors, both doctrinal and moral.
-The Catechism of Trent, Article IX : "I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints".

Therefore, none of the heretics holds the truth; the Church alone is in possession of the truth.
-St. Ambrose, On Psalm 118: Lamed, XIX; FOC, p. 70-71, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

This is Our last lesson to you: receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you: by God's commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church; the strong and effective instrument of salvation is none other than the Roman Pontificate.
-Pope Leo XIII, in 1902, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 653).

And you will say also, beloved sons, and you will not weary of repeating what the Vicar of Christ believes and proclaims-not simply as Common Father of all the faithful, but also oas a man of his own time; not simply for the well-being of the Church of which he is the Head, but also for the general good-: that the catholic Church is the irreplaceable support and the sole conserving force of real and genuine Christianity. In fact, what remains outside the Catholic church after the real havoc wrought by the so-called free thought, liberalism, and various pretended reforms, what remains of the doctrine of Jesus Christ transmitted by the Gospel and legitimate tradition? What remains of the sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ? What remains of His Divine Person itself?
-Pope Pius XI, in 1936, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 932).

Since truth never contradicts truth, we declare every assertion contrary to the truth of (Catholic) faith to be altogether false; and we strictly decree that all who adhere to errors of this kind are to be shunned and punished as detestable and abominable infidels who disseminate damnable heresies and weaken the Catholic faith.
-Fifth Lateran Council, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 3: "Speculation in Matters of Faith is Prohibited").

Both the devil and his disciples use the testimonies of Holy Scripture, and vehemently indeed. For, they scarcely ever bring forward anything which they do not try to color with the words of Scripture. Read the tracts of such pests, and you will witness a vast heap of Scriptural examples. Hardly a page is not painted with sentences from the Old or New Testaments. But the more secretively they lurk under the shadows of the divine law, the more are they to be avoided; for they are all false apostles, false prophets, and false teachers, and all of them utterly heretics. Thus, what shall Catholic men do to discern truth from falsehood in the Holy Scriptures? Take very great care to interpret the Scriptures according to the traditions of the universal Church. Within this truly Catholic and Apostolic Church, it is necessary to follow universality, antiquity, and agreement.
-St. Vincent of Lerins, "Commonitoria", no. 29, FOC, p. 354, and no. 25, PL 50:637, FOC, p. 389-390, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

The mystery of salvation is revealed to us and is continued and accomplished in the (Catholic) Church, and from this genuine and single source...it reaches the whole world. Dear young people, and members of the faithful...we have to be conscious of and absorb this fundamental and revealed truth, contained in the phrase consecrated by tradition: There is no salvation outside the Church. From her alone there flows surely and fully the life-giving force destined, in Christ and in His Spirit, to renew the whole of humanity, and therefore directing every human being to become a part of the Mystical Body of Christ.
-Pope John Paul II, (quoted in L'Osservatore Romano, October 21, 1981).

The true faith of the Catholic Church alone is the true source of salvation, from which all heresies, which have only the name of Christ but not the faith of Christ, have been cut off and separated.
-St. Epiphanius, Anaceph., Book 2, FOC, p.66-67 (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

Faith in Christ cannot be maintained pure and unalloyed when it is not protected and supported by faith in the (Catholic) Church, 'the pillar and ground of truth'. It is Christ Himself, the ever-blessed God, who erected this pillar of faith. His commandment to hear the Church, to receive in the teaching and commandments of the Church his own teaching and commands, is binding on all men, on every period, and every country. The Church founded by the Redeemer is one-for all peoples and nations.
-Pope Pius XI, in 1937, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 934).

Jesus, going into one of the ships that belonged to Simon, asked him to draw back a little; and, sitting down, He taught the multitudes out of the Ship' (Lk. 5:3). The Church is the Ship outside which it is impossible to understand the Divine Word.
-St. Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew, Book XII:1, t. 1, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

How can two or three be gathered in the name of Christ, who it is clear are separated from Christ and His gospel?...Do they who are gathered together outside the Church of Christ think that Christ is with them when they have been gathered together?
-St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church, Chapters 12-13.

Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the (Catholic) Church.
-Pope Pius X, E Supremi (On the Restoration of All Things in Christ), Encyclical promulgated on October 4, 1903, #9.

People often say, 'It is better to be a good Protestant than a bad Catholic.' That is not true! That would mean that one could be saved without the true faith. No. A bad Catholic remains a child of the family, although a prodigal; and however great a sinner he may be, he still has a right to mercy. Through his faith, a bad Catholic is nearer to God than a Protestant, for he is a member of the household, whereas the heretic is not. And how hard it is to make him become one!
-St. Peter Julian Eymard, (quoted in "The Real Presence, NY: Blessed Sacrament Fathers, 1938, p. 245).

In particular, ensure that the faithful are deeply and thoroughly convinced of the truth of the doctrine that the Catholic faith is necessary for attaining salvation. This doctrine, received from Christ and emphasized by the Fathers and Councils, is also contained in the formulae of the profession of faith used by Latin, Greek, and Oriental Catholics.
-Pope Pius IX, Nostis Et Nobiscum (On The Church In The Pontifical States), Encyclical Promulgated on December 8, 1849, #10.

Whoever wills to be saved, before all things it is necessary that he holds the catholic faith. Unless a person keeps this faith whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish eternally....This is the catholic faith. Unless a person believes it faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.
-Council of Basel (Sometimes called Council of Florence), 1431-1445 A.D.

There is only one true, holy, Catholic church, which is the Apostolic Roman Church. There is only one See founded in Peter by the word of the Lord, outside of which we cannot find either true faith or eternal salvation....The Church clearly declares that the only hope of salvation for mankind is placed in the Christian faith, which teaches the truth, scatters the darkness of ignorance by the splendor of its light, and works through love. This hope of salvation is placed in the Catholic Church which, in preserving the true worship, is the solid home of this faith and the temple of God. Outside of the Church, nobody can hope for life or salvation...
-Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quidem (On The Church In Austria), Encyclical Promulgated on March 17, 1856, #4 & #7.

If they (non-Catholics) would try to heal their hearts by purging them of their vices, they would soon receive light, which would show them the necessity of joining the Catholic Church, where alone is salvation. We should constantly thank the Lord for having granted us the gift of the true Faith, by associating us with the children of the Holy Catholic Church....How many are the infidels, heretics, and schismatics who do not enjoy the happiness of the true Faith! Earth is full of them and they are all lost!
-St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, (quoted in article "EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS (No Salvation Outside the Church), by Our Lady of the Rosary Library).

My faith is the true faith; it is the right faith; it is the faith that leads to Heaven. I was born in that faith, and in that faith I mean to die. But you, be converted and do penance. Give up your schism and submit to our Holy Father, or you will never save your soul!
-St. Andrew Bobola, SKL, p. 129, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching.
-Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (On Promotion Of False Doctrines), Encyclical Promulgated on August 10, 1863, #7.

Among these heresies belongs that foul contrivance of the sophists of this age who do not admit any difference among the different professions of faith and who think that the portal of eternal salvation opens for all from any religion....Against these experienced sophists the people must be taught that the profession of the Catholic faith is uniquely true, as the apostle proclaims: one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Jerome used to say it this way: he who eats the lamb outside this (Catholic) house will perish as did those during the flood who were not with Noah in the ark.
-Pope Pius VIII, Traditi Humilitati (On His Program for the Pontificate), Encyclical promulgated on May 24, 1829, #4.

Just as all within the ark were saved and all outside of it were carried away when the flood came, so when all who are pre-ordained to eternal life have entered the (Catholic) Church, the end of the world will come and all will perish who are found outside.
-St. Bede the Venerable, Hexaemeron, (quoted in article "The Perennial Understanding of the Church", by Saint Benedict Center).

This is the teaching of the Catholic truth from which no one can depart without loss of faith and salvation....remain steadfast and without blemish in that faith by which We are united and by which alone We shall obtain salvation.
-Pope Pius XII, Ad Apostolorum Principis (On Communism And The Church In China), Encyclical Promulgated on June 29, 1958, #46 & 53.

By means of religious indifference, crafty men deceitfully pretend that people can attain eternal salvation in the practice of any religion, as though there could be any fellowship of light with darkness. These men conclude that not only sons of the Church but also others, however estranged they may remain from Catholic unity, are equally on the road to salvation and are able to achieve everlasting life. Words fail Us from utter horror in detesting and abhorring this new and terrible insult!
-Pope Pius IX, Ubi Primum, (quoted in The Raccolta, published by the Benzinger Brothers, Boston, 1957, No. 626).

Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly....This is the Catholick Faith: which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.
-Confession of Our Christian Faith, Commonly Called the Athanasian Creed, Quicunque vult.

This true catholic faith, outside of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, is what I shall steadfastly maintain and confess, by the help of God, in all its completeness and purity until my dying breath, and I shall do my best to ensure [2] that all others do the same. This is what I, the same Pius, promise, vow and swear. So help me God and these holy gospels of God.
-Decrees of the First Vatican Council, Papal Oath taken by Pope Pius IV, Second Session, January 6, 1870, Profession of Faith.

Neither faith outside the Church nor the Church without the faith can save us.
-St. Francis de Sales, (quoted in article "True Fod, True Faith, True Church", Si, Si, No, No, June, 1996, #16, by Society of St. Pius X).

If anyone says that the condition of the faithful and those who have not yet attained to the only true faith is alike, so that Catholics may have a just cause for calling in doubt, by suspending their assent, the faith which they have already received from the teaching of the church, until they have completed a scientific demonstration of the credibility and truth of their faith: let him be anathema. -Decrees of the First Vatican Council, Cannons, Section 3, On faith, #6.

This true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved, I (name) do at this present freely confess and sincerely hold; and I promise most constantly to retain, and confess the same entire and unviolated, with God's assistance, to the end of my life.
-Pope Pius IV, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII, The Trentine Creed, or the Creed of Pope Pius IV., a.d.1564.

Next let Us start with the things which concern the faith...You know how zealously Our predecessors taught that very article of faith which these dare to deny, namely the necessity of the Catholic faith and of unity for salvation.
-Pope Gregory XVI, Summo Iugiter Studio (On Mixed Marriages), Encyclical promulgated on May 27, 1832, #5.

You must also care for and defend the Catholic faith with episcopal strength and see that the flock entrusted to you stands to the end firm and unmoved in the faith. For unless one preserves the faith entire and uninjured, he will without doubt perish forever.
-Pope Pius IX, Qui Pluribus (On Faith And Religion), Encyclical Promulgated on November 9, 1846, #19.

Most firmly hold and never doubt that not only pagans, but also Jews, all heretics, and all schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church, will go into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels....No one, howsoever much he may have given alms, even if he sheds his blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remains in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.
-St. Fulgentius, De fide ad Petrum 38. 81. CC 91A, p 757, (quoted in article "Is There Salvation Outside the Church?").

Neither sanctity nor salvation can be found outside the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church. -Pope Pius IX, (quoted in The Raccolta, published by the Benzinger Brothers, Boston, 1957, No. 626).

Many Protestants have almost the same practices as we, only they do not submit to the Holy Father and attach themselves to the true Ark of Salvation. They do not want to become Catholics and unite themselves under the banner of truth wherein alone there is true salvation. Of what avail is it, children, if Protestants lead naturally pure, honest lives, yet lack the Holy Ghost? They may well say: 'We do no harm; we lead good lives'; but, if they do not enter the true fold of Christ, all their protestations are in vain.
-St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, "Travels", Chicago: 1944, pp. 84, 71.

Christians, when interrogated, must answer that those who die as infidels (all who are outside of the Catholic Church) are damned.
-Pope Pius X, in Decree of the Holy Office, 1907 (quoted in Gate of Heaven, p. 17).

When we say, ‘Do you believe in eternal life and the remission of sins through the holy Church?’ we mean that remission of sins is not granted except in the Church.
-St. Cyprian: "Letters 69:2."

Without a doubt, the forgiveness of sins is the work of the Holy Spirit and is granted by God, but not independently of the Church founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of all men."
-Pope John Paul II, "The Wanderer", May 14, 1992, p. 10, col. 4, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 5: "Sacraments Impart No Life Outside the True Church").

If any one saith, that the man who is justified and how perfect soever, is not bound to observe the commandments of God and of the (Catholic) Church, but only to believe; as if indeed the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life, without the condition of observing the commandments ; let him be anathema.
-The Council of Trent, Sixth Session, Canon XX.

Wherefore, by divine and catholic faith all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God as found in scripture and tradition, and which are proposed by the church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or in her ordinary and universal magisterium. Since, then, without faith it is impossible to please God and reach the fellowship of his sons and daughters, it follows that no one can ever achieve justification without it, neither can anyone attain eternal life unless he or she perseveres in it to the end. So that we could fulfil our duty of embracing the true faith and of persevering unwaveringly in it, God, through his only begotten Son, founded the church, and he endowed his institution with clear notes to the end that she might be recognised by all as the guardian and teacher of the revealed word. To the catholic church alone belong all those things, so many and so marvellous, which have been divinely ordained to make for the manifest credibility of the christian faith.
-Decrees of the First Vatican Council, Third Session, April 24, 1870, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chapter 3--On Faith.

When we say that faith is necessary for the remission of sins, we mean to speak of the Catholic faith, not heretical faith. Without the habit of this faith, no man is justified.
-St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

That (is) our Catholic faith, without which it is impossible to please God.
-The Council of Trent, Fifth Session.

The (Catholic) Church is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account we are bound to avoid them....Resist them in defense of the only true and life giving faith, which the Church has received from the Apostles and imparted to her sons.
-St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book III, (quoted in article "The Perennial Understanding of the Church", by Saint Benedict Center).

The Catholic Church alone, then, Christ calls His Spouse. The Church, therefore, is one; this cannot be said amongst any of those who are heretics or schismatics. The churches of every one of the heretics is prostituted; they are churches which Christ repudiates as unnecessary, since He is the Spouse of One Church.
-St. Optatus of Milevis, "Schism of the Donatists," Book I, no's. 6, 10; LAF, vol. II; PL 11; CSL, vol. XXVI, Vienna: 1893; FOC, p.158, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 2: "Those Who Reject Christ's Church Are Anti-Christian").

Not without sorrow have we learned that another error, no less destructive, has taken possession of some parts of the Catholic world, and has taken up its abode in the souls of many Catholics who think that one should have good hope of the eternal salvation of all those who have never lived in the true Church of Christ....But, as is Our Apostolic duty, we wish your episcopal solicitude and vigilance to be aroused, so that you will strive as much as you can to drive from the mind of men that impious and equally fatal opinion, namely that the way of eternal salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever. May you demonstrate with that skill and learning in which you excel, to to the people entrusted to your care that the dogmas of the Catholic faith are in no wise opposed to divine mercy and justice.

For it must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood..." -Pope Pius IX, in the year 1854, (quoted in "Enchiridion Symbolorum: The Sources of Catholic Dogma", by Henricus Denzinger, par 1646-1647, 30th edition).

[It is error to believe that] Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation....[It is error to believe that] Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section 3--Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism, #16 & #18.

Those who are seeking the true religion will never find it outside the Catholic Church alone, because in every other religion, if they trace it up to the author, they will find some imposter whose imagination furnished a mass of sophisms and errors.
-St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

All the more, then, because 'we are fighting for the honor and unity' of the Church, let us beware of giving to heretics the credit of whatever we acknowledged among them as belonging to the Church; but let us teach them by argument, that what they possess that is derived from unity is of no efficacy to their salvation, unless they shall return to that same unity.
-St. Aurelius Augustine, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. IV, Anti-Donatist Writings, Book IV, Chapter 2, #2.

If you ever hear those who are called Christians (outside of the Catholic Church), named, not from the Lord Jesus Christ, but (their church name is called) from some one else....know that it is not Christ’s Church, but the synagogue of Antichrist.
-St. Jerome, Adv. Lucif. fin.

There is no middle way between Catholicism and Atheism; hence, Protestants have abandoned themselves to the extreme of Atheism or Materialism, denying every maxim of the faith. If you take away obedience to the Church, there is no error which will not be embraced.
-St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

By the heart we believe and by the mouth we confess the one Church, not of heretics but the Holy Roman, catholic, and Apostolic (Church) outside which we believe that no one is saved.
-Pope Innocent III, in the year 1208, (quoted in "Enchiridion Symbolorum: The Sources of Catholic Dogma", by Henricus Denzinger, par 423, 30th edition. See also article "Is There Salvation Outside the Church?".

He who does not have the (Catholic) Church for a mother cannot have God for a father, and whoever abandons the See of Peter on which the Church is established trusts falsely that he is in the (true) Church.
-Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quidem (On The Church In Austria), Encyclical Promulgated on March 17, 1856, #4.

For this mother and teacher of all the churches has always preserved entire and unharmed the faith entrusted to it by Christ the Lord. Furthermore, it has taught it to the faithful, showing all men truth and the path of salvation. Since all priesthood originates in this (Catholic) church, the entire substance of the Christian religion resides there also. The leadership of the Apostolic See has always been active, and therefore because of its preeminent authority, the whole Church must agree with it....Whoever does not gather with this Church scatters.
-Pope Pius IX, Qui Pluribus (On Faith And Religion), Encyclical promulgated on November 9, 1846, #11.

All the leaders of heretics have gone out of Christ's Church to the synagogue of Satan, and they have passed over all together, disagreeing in their opposition to the faith, but agreeing in their leaving it.
-St. Jerome, FOC, p 75, note 4, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 2: "Those Who Reject Christ's Church Are Anti-Christian").

Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ....He who observes not this unity observes not the law of God, holds not the faith of the Father and the Son, clings not to life and salvation.
-St. Cyprian, De Cath. Eccl. Unitate, # 6, (Quoted by Pope Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church), Encyclical promulgated on June 29, 1896, #5.

The Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the only true Church, outside the pale of which no one can be saved.
-St. Alphonsus Liguori, (quoted in Hail Mary, Full of Grace, published in Still River, MA, 1957, p. 107.).

The exaltation of Holy Church is our exaltation, for in no other place do souls receive life than in that Church. No one can attain to joy in the beauty of God without the help of that sweet Bride, for we must all pass through the gate of Christ Crucified, and that gate is found nowhere but in the Church.
-St. Catherine of Siena, SCS, pp. 200, 201, 380, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 2: "The Book of Salvation", Chapter 3: "Those Outside the Catholic Church Are Lost Forever").

'He who deserts the (Catholic) Church will vainly believe that he is in the (True) Church...'
-Pope Pius IX, Amantissimus (On The Care Of The Churches), Encyclical Promulgated on April 8, 1862, #3.

O Mary, Mother of Mercy and Seat of Wisdom! Enlighten the minds enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may clearly recognize the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church to be the only true Church of Jesus Christ, outside which neither sanctity nor salvation can be found.
-Pope Pius XII in a prayer to Mary, (quoted in The Raccolta, published by the Benzinger Brothers, Boston, 1957, No. 626).

Unless therefore they receive saving baptism in the Catholic Church, which is one, they cannot be saved, but will be condemned with the carnal in the judgment of the Lord Christ.
-Catholic Bishop Nemesianus of Thubunae, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing. If anyone without the right faith receives Baptism outside the Church, he does not receive it unto salvation. Men can receive the Baptism of the Church outside her fold, but no one can receive or keep the salvation of the blessed outside the Church.
-St. Thomas Aquinas, STL III, Q. 68, art. 8, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 5: "Sacraments Impart No Life Outside the True Church").

I decide, that every man who comes to us from heresy must be baptized. For in vain does he think that he has been baptized there (outside of the Catholic Church), seeing that there is no baptism save the one and true baptism in the (Catholic) Church; because not only is God one, but the faith is one, and the Church is one, wherein stands the one baptism, and holiness, and the rest. For whatever is done without, has no effect of salvation.
-Catholic Bishop Primus of Misgirpa: The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Peter also, showing this, set forth that the Church is one, and that only they who are in the Church can be baptized; and said, 'In the ark of Noah, few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water; the like figure where-unto even baptism shall save you;" proving and attesting that the one ark of Noah was a type of the one Church. If, then, in that baptism of the world thus expiated and purified, he who was not in the ark of Noah could be saved by water, he who is not in the (Catholic) Church to which alone baptism is granted, can also not be quickened by baptism. Moreover, too, the Apostle Paul, more openly and clearly still manifesting this same thing, writes to the Ephesians, and says, 'Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water.' But if the Church is one which is loved by Christ, and is alone cleansed by His washing, how can he who is not in the (Catholic) Church be either loved by Christ, or washed and cleansed by His washing?
-St. Cyprian, Epistle LXXV, #2, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

I know only one baptism in the Church, and none out of the (Catholic) Church. This one will be here, where there is the true hope and the certain faith. For thus it is written: 'One faith, one hope, one baptism;' not among heretics, where there is no hope, and the faith is false, where all things are carried on by lying...
-Cathoic Bishop Caecilius of Bilta, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Since our Lord Christ says, 'He who is not with me is against me;' and John the apostle calls those who depart from the Church Antichrists--undoubtedly enemies of Christ--any such as are called Antichrists cannot minister the grace of saving baptism.
-Catholic Bishop Secundinus of Cedias, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Jesus Christ our Lord and God, Son of God the Father and Creator, built His Church upon a rock, not upon heresy; and gave the power of baptizing to bishops, not to heretics. Wherefore they who are without the (Catholic) Church, and, standing in opposition to Christ, disperse His sheep and flock, cannot baptize, being without.
-Catholic Bishop Fortunatus of Tuccaboris, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Outside the unity of faith and love which makes us members of the Church, no one can be saved; hence, if the Sacraments are received outside the Church, they are not effective for salvation even though they be true Sacraments. However, they can become useful if a person returns to Holy Mother the Church, the solitary Spouse of Christ, whose sons alone Christ considers worthy of eternal inheritance.
-St. Bonaventure, BRE, Book 6, ch. 5:4, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 5: "Sacraments Impart No Life Outside the True Church").

God and our Lord Jesus Christ, teaching the apostles with His own mouth, has entirely completed our (Catholic) faith, and the grace of baptism, and the rule of the ecclesiastical law, saying: 'Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Thus the false and wicked baptism of heretics must be rejected by us, and refuted with all detestation, from whose month is expressed poison, not life, not celestial grace, but blasphemy. -Catholic Bishop Euchratius of Thenae, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

...sins are not remitted save in the baptism of the (Catholic) Church...
-Catholic Bishop Victor of Gor, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

If Antichrist (those outside of, and who believe differently than, the Catholic Church) can give to any one the grace of Christ, heretics also are able to baptize, for they are called antichrists.
-Catholic Bishop Saturninus of Avitini, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

Since there is one baptism in the Catholic Church, it is manifest that one cannot be baptized outside the Church.
-Catholic Bishop Peter of Hippo Diarrhytus,The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

I believe that there is no saving baptism except in the Catholic Church. Whatsoever is apart from the Catholic Church is a pretence.
-Catholic Bishop Pusillus of Lamasba, The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

And as the ark of Noah was nothing else than the sacrament of the Church of Christ, which then, when all without were perishing, kept those only safe who were within the ark, we are manifestly instructed to look to the unity of the Church. Even as also the Apostle Peter laid down, saying, 'Thus also shall baptism in like manner make you safe;' showing that as they who were not in the ark with Noah not only were not purged and saved by water, but at once perished in that deluge; so now also, whoever are not in the (Catholic) Church with Christ will perish outside, unless they are converted by penitence to the only and saving lava (water baptism) of the Church.
-St. Cyprian, Epistle LXXIV, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.

The comparison of the Church with Paradise shows us that men may indeed receive her baptism outside her pale, but that no one outside can either receive or retain the salvation of eternal happiness. For, as the words of Scripture testify, the streams from the fountain of Paradise flowed copiously even beyond its bounds....Accordingly, though the waters of Paradise are found beyond its boundaries, yet its happiness is in Paradise alone. So, therefore, the baptism of the Church may exist outside, but the gift of the life of happiness is found alone within the (Catholic) Church, which has been founded on a rock, which has received the keys of binding and loosing. 'She it is alone who holds as her privilege the whole power of her Bridegroom and Lord;' by virtue of which power as bride, she can bring forth sons even of handmaids. And these, if they be not high-minded, shall be called into the lot of the inheritance; but if they be high-minded, they shall remain outside.
-St. Augustine, Anti-Donatist Writings, Book IV, #1, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. IV.

Hold most firmly, and never doubt in the least, that outside the Catholic Church the Sacrament of Baptism cannot be of any profit; nay, just as within the Church salvation is conferred through the Sacrament of Baptism upon those who believe rightly, so too, outside the Catholic Church, ruin is heaped up for those who were baptized by that same Baptism, if they do not return to the Church. -St. Fulgentius, On Faith, To Peter, LXXIX, JUR, vol. 3:2273, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 5: "Sacraments Impart No Life Outside the True Church").

The unity of Christians cannot be otherwise obtained than by securing the return of the separated to the one true (Catholic) Church of Christ from which they once unhappily withdrew....it would be false and foolish to say that Christ's Mystical Body could be composed of separated and scattered members. Whoever, therefore, is not united with it is not a member of it, nor does he communicate with its Head Who is Christ. No one is found in the one Church of Christ, and no one perseveres in it, unless he acknowledges and accepts obediently the supreme authority of St. Peter and his legitimate successors. Did not the very ancestors of those who are entangled in the errors of Photius and the Protestants obey the Roman Bishop as the high shepherd of souls?...Let these separated children return to the Apostolic See...not with the idea or hope that the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth (I Tim. 3, 15) will abandon the integrity of the Faith and bear their errors, but to subject themselves to its teaching authority and rule....May God Our Saviour Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. 2, 4) hearken to our ardent prayer and vouchsafe to call back all wanderers to the unity of the Church!
-Pope Pius XI, Pontifex Maximus, Mortalium Animos (The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical promulgated on January 6, 1928.

Therefore, from the high dignity of this Apostolic See, We paternally exhort all those who glory in the fact that they are Christ's disciples, who place in Him all hope for the salvation not only of individuals but of society, to adhere each day more closely and firmly to the Roman Church. In her alone is christ believed with a faith whole and entire, worshipped with sincere homage of adoration, and loved with the constant flame of ardent charity. Let them remember, especially those who preside over the flock seperated from Us, what was the faith professed by their forbears at Ephesus: the same which this supreme Chair of truth, in the past as in the present, keeps intact and strenuously defends. Let them remember that the unity of the the true faith rests on that unique rock established by Christ, and that this unity can be preserved in full security only by the supreme authority of the successors of Blessed Peter....this certainly could never be the result of an unreal union of many warring elements, but only of a single hierarchy, a single supreme teaching authority, a single rule of belief, and one faith embraced by all Christians. No intelligent man can fail to see this.
-Pope Pius XI, in 1931, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 923-924).

[It is error to believe that] In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section X, Errors Having Reference to Modern Liberalism, July 26, 1855, #77.

There is one, and only one, sure democracy, the Catholicism of the Popes.
-The Catholic World, October, 1937.

The first requirement of salvation is to keep to the standard of the true (Catholic) faith.
-Pope Adrian II, "Actio I," DNZ:171, n. 1, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who oppose the authority and statements of the same (Catholic) Church and are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church and also from the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff, to whom "the custody of the vineyard has been committed by the Savior.
-Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (On Promotion Of False Doctrines), Encyclical Promulgated on August 10, 1863, #8.

I will keep in all its purity the Catholic faith and by God's grace persevere in the unity of that faith on which certainly depends the salvation of all Christians.
-St. Boniface, Epistle 16, p. 28 (Quoted by Pope Pius XII in Ecclesiae Fastos (On St. Boniface), Encyclical Promulgated on June 5, 1954, #32.

No one can be saved outside this true Catholic faith.
-Pope Gregory XIII, "Profession of Faith," DNZ:1085; DNZ:1000, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

We pray and conjure you to reflect on the ruin of souls which is wrought by this single cause: ignorance of those most sublime truths, so far beyond the natural understanding of the multitude, which must nonetheless be known by all men alike in order that they may attain eternal salvation....This we solemnly affirm: the majority of those who are condemned to eternal punishment fall into this everlasting misfortune through ignorance of the Mysteries of the Faith which must necessarily be known and believed by all who belong to the Elect.
-Pope Pius X, (quoted in Acts of the Supreme Pontiff Pius X, Rome: Vatican Press, 1904).

And all of us humbly entreat and beseech everyone, all nations and all men in all the earth who are, and who shall be, that we may all of us persevere in the true faith: for otherwise no one can be saved.
-St. Francis of Assisi, SAB, p. 35 (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care....may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever....Therefore 'without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate.'
-Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism), Encyclical promulgated on August 15, 1832, #13.

Without this (Catholic) faith, without this confession, no one can enter the kingdom of Heaven.
-St. Bede the Venerable, Sermon 16, PL94:219; SS III:274, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 3: "The Book of Faith", Chapter 1, "There is No Salvation Except in the Catholic Faith").

With God's help, your clergy will never have any more pressing anxiety than to preach the true Catholic faith: he who does not keep it whole and without error, will indubitably be lost. They will endeavor, therefore, to favor union with the Catholic Church; for he who is seperated from it will not have life. They will maintain obedience to this sovereign Chair of Peter, in which Christ the Lord laid the foundation of this same Church, and where, consequently, is to be found the entire and perfect stability of the Christian religion.
-Pope Gregory XVI, in 1841, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 186).

Wherefore we teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the church throughout the world. In this way, by unity with the Roman pontiff in communion and in profession of the same faith, the church of Christ becomes one flock under one supreme shepherd.

This is the teaching of the catholic truth, and no one can depart from it without endangering his faith and salvation.
-Decrees of the First Vatican Council, Fourth Session, July 18, 1870, First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, Chapter 3 "On the power and character of the primacy of the Roman pontiff".

By the ministry of this Church so gloriously founded by Him, He willed to perpetuate the mission which He had Himself received from His Father; and, on the one hand, having put within her all the means necessary for man's salvation, on the other hand, He formally enjoined upon men the duty of obeying His Church as Himself, and religiously taking her as a guide of their whole lives. "He that heareth you, heareth Me; he that despiseth you, despiseth Me". Therefore, it is from the Church alone that the law of Christ must be asked: and consequently, if for man Christ is the way, the Church, too, is the way, the former of Himself and by His nature, the latter by delegation and communication of power. Consequently, all those who wish to reach salvation outside the Church, are mistaken as to the way and are engaged in a vain effort.
-Pope Leo XIII, in 1900, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 647).

Heretic Quotes About Mary

2009-06-27T03:52:00.000-07:00

Thus there is a mediation: Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself 'in the middle,' that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother.
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptoris Mater (On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church), Encyclical promulgated on March 25, 1987, #21.

But, since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Ghost and bore Him in her breast, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #6.

...we only have access to the Father by means of the Son, who is the Mediator of justice, so we only have access to the Son by means of the Mother, who is mediator of grace, and who obtains for us, by her intercession, the gifts which Jesus Christ has merited for us....you cannot come to God except by means of Jesus Christ, nor can you come to Christ except by means of his Mother. -St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection (The Necessity and Power of Prayer), Chapter 1, The Necessity of Prayer, Section 4 "The Intercession of the Blessed Virgin".

With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother....Mary is this glorious intermediary...
-Pope Leo XIII, in Octobri Mense (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 22, 1891, # 4.

With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother....Mary is this glorious intermediary...
-Pope Leo XIII, in Octobri Mense (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 22, 1891, # 4.

God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all his graces, so that all his graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from him that, according to St Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills.....

We must never go to our Lord except through Mary, using her intercession and good standing with him. We must never be without her when praying to Jesus.....

Beware, chosen soul, of thinking that it is more perfect to direct your work and intention straight to Jesus or straight to God. Without Mary, your work and your intention will be of little value. But if you go to God through Mary, your work will become Mary's work, and consequently will be most noble and most worthy of God..
-St. Louis Marie de Montfort, in The Secret of Mary, #10, 48, 50.

The Father's eternal love, which has been manifested in the history of mankind through the Son whom the Father gave, 'that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life', comes close to each of us through this Mother and thus takes on tokens that are of more easy understanding and access by each person.
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man), Encyclical promulgated on March 4, 1979, #22.

Hail, Mother and Virgin, imperishable temple of the Godhead, venerable treasure of the whole world, crown of virginity, support of the true faith on which the Church is founded throughout the entire world....

Through you the human race, held captive in the bonds of idolatry, arrives at the knowledge of the truth. What more shall I say of you? Hail, through whom kings rule, through whom the only-begotten Son of God has become a star of light to those who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Amen.
-St. Cyril of Alexandria, in Paean to Mary, Temple of the Godhead.

And that through the Virgin, and through her more than through any other means, we have offered us a way of reaching the knowledge of Jesus Christ...it is through Mary that we attain to the knowledge of Christ.
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #7, 8.

Whoever does not wish to have Mary Immaculate as his Mother will not have Christ as his Brother either; the Father will not send His Son to him; the Son will not descend into his soul; the Holy Spirit will not make him a member of the Mystical Body of Christ; for all these mysteries of grace take place in Mary Full-of-Grace, and in her alone. And, since the First-Born Son was conceived only through the specific consent of the Most Blessed Virgin, the same holds true for all other humans.
-St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, ICS, p. 85, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 1: "The Book of Mary," Chapter 3: "Those Who Refuse to Honor Our Lady Will Be Lost").

As you were not worthy that anything divine should be given to you, all graces were given to Mary so that you might receive through her all graces you would not otherwise receive....This is the will of God who willed that we should have all things through Mary. If then, we possess any hope or grace or gift of salvation, let us acknowledge that it comes to us through her.
-St. Bernard (Quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #42.

All the gifts, graces, virtues of the Holy Spirit are distributed by the hands of Mary, to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and in the measure she wills.
-St. Bernardine (Quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #42.

If it is true to say that Mary is, in a sense, mistress of Wisdom incarnate, what control must she have over all the graces and gifts of God, and what freedom must she enjoy in giving them to whom she chooses. The Fathers of the Church tell us that Mary is an immense ocean of all the perfections of God, the great storehouse of all his possessions, the inexhaustible treasury of the Lord, as well as the treasurer and dispenser of all his gifts. Because God gave her his Son, it is his will that we should receive all gifts through her, and that no heavenly gift should come down upon earth without passing through her as through a channel. Of her fullness we have all received, and any grace or hope of salvation we may possess is a gift which comes to us from God through Mary. So truly is she mistress of God's possessions that she gives to whom she wills, all the graces of God, all the virtues of Jesus Christ, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, every good thing in the realm of nature, grace and glory. These are the thoughts and expressions of the Fathers of the Church...(about) this sovereign and lovable Queen...
-St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, #207.

...the greatness of the benefits for which we are debtors to the Virgin Mother. No man can meditate upon these without feeling a new awakening in his heart of confidence that he will certainly obtain through Mary the fullness of the mercies of God. And to this end vocal prayer chimes well with the Mysteries. First, as is meet and right, comes the Lord's Prayer, addressed to Our Father in Heaven: and having, with the elect petitions dictated by Our Divine Master, called upon the Father, from the throne of His Majesty we turn our prayerful voices to Mary. Thus is confirmed that law of merciful meditation of which We have spoken, and which St. Bernardine of Siena thus expresses: 'Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.'
-Pope Leo XIII, in Iucunda Semper Expectatione (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 8, 1894, #5.

All gifts which the Author of all good (God) has deigned to communicate to the unhappy posterity of Adam, are, according to the loving resolve of His Divine Providence, dispensed by the hands of the Most Holy Virgin.
-Pope Benedict XV (AAS 9, 1917, 266) (quoted in "About Our Lady, our Blessed Mother", by Our Lady's Warriors).

In another place, he (St. Bernardine of Sienna) not only says that all graces are transmitted to us by means of Mary, but also asserts that the Blessed Virgin, from the time she became Mother of God, acquired a certain jurisdiction over all the graces that are given to us: 'Through the Virgin the vital graces are transfused from Christ, the head, into his mystical body. From the time when the Virgin Mother conceived in her womb the Word of God, she obtained a certain jurisdiction (if I may so speak) over every temporal procession of the Holy Spirit; so that no creature could obtain any grace from God, except by the dispensation of his sweet Mother.' And he concludes, 'Therefore all gifts, virtues, and graces are dispensed through her hands to whom she wills, and as she wills.' St. Bonaventure says the same: 'Since the whole divine nature was in the womb of the Virgin, I do not fear to teach that she has a certain jurisdiction over all the streams of grace; as her womb was, as it were, an ocean of the divine nature, whence all the streams of grace must emanate.' On the authority of these saints, many theologians have piously and reasonably defended the opinion, that there is no grace given to us except by means of the intercession of Mary; so Mendoza, Vega, Paciucchelli, Segneri, Piore, Crasset and others, as also the learned Alexander Natalis who says: 'It is God's will that we should look to him for all good things, to be procured by the most powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin, when we invoke her, as it is fit.' And he quotes in confirmation the passage of St. Bernard: 'Such is his will, who has determined that we should receive all through Mary.' Contenson says the same, in a comment on the words addressed by Jesus on the cross to St. John, 'Behold thy Mother' (Jn 19,273: as though he had said, 'No one shall be partaker of my blood except by the intercession of my Mother. My wounds are fountains of grace; but their streams shall Mow to no one, except through the canal of Mary. O my disciple John, I will love you as you love her!' For the rest, it is certain that if God is pleased when we have recourse to the saints, he will be much more pleased when we avail ourselves of the intercession of Mary, that she, by her merits, may compensate for our unworthiness, according to the words of St. Anselm: 'That the dignity of the intercessor may supply for our poverty. So that, to invoke the Virgin is not to distrust God's mercy, but to fear our own unworthiness.' St. Thomas, speaking of her dignity, calls it, as it were, infinite: 'From the fact that she is the Mother of God, she has a certain infinite dignity.' So that it may be said with reason, that the prayers of Mary have more power with God than those of all heaven together.
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection (The Necessity and Power of Prayer), Chapter 1, The Necessity of Prayer, Section 4 "The Intercession of the Blessed Virgin".

When we have recourse to Mary in prayer, we are having recourse to the Mother of mercy, who is so well disposed toward us that, whatever the necessity that presses upon us especially in attaining eternal life, she is instantly at our side of her own accord, even though she has not been invoked. She dispenses grace with a generous hand from that treasure with which from the beginning she was divinely endowed in fullest abundance that she might be worthy to be the Mother of God. By the fullness of grace which confers on her the most illustrious of her many titles, the Blessed Virgin is infinitely superior to all the hierarchies of men and angels, the one creature who is closest of all to Christ. 'It is a great thing in any saint to have grace sufficient for the salvation of many souls; but to have enough to suffice for the salvation of everybody in the world is the greatest of all; and this is found in Christ and in the Blessed Virgin.' (St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Salut. Ang.).
-Pope Leo XIII, in Magnae Dei Matris (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 8, 1892, #9.

Moreover, Mary's profound union with the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, leads to her role as Mediatrix of every grace bestowed to the human family....And since the Holy Spirit always acts through the Virgin Mary in His sanctifying action, then all graces must come through Mary as Mediatrix of all graces.
-Mark Miravalle, S.T.D, in Introduction to Mary, p 167 (copyright 1993, bearing the "Imprimatur" and "Nihil Obstat" of the Catholic Church, published by Queenship Publishing Company, P.O. Box 42028, Santa Barbara, California, 93140-2028).

The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace,' as the Second Vatican Council explains, 'lasts without interruption from the consent which she faithfully gave at the annunciation and which she sustained without hesitation under the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. In fact, being assumed into heaven she has not laid aside this office of salvation but by her manifold intercession she continues to obtain for us the graces of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she takes care of the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home.'
-Pope John Paul II, in Dives In Misericordia (The Father of Mercies and God of All Comfort), Encyclical promulgated on November 30, 1980.

The foundation of all Our confidence, as you know well, Venerable Brethren, is found in the Blessed Virgin Mary. For, God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is His will, that we obtain everything through Mary.
-Pope Pius IX, in Ubi Primum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1849, #5.

Hence St. Bernard exhorts us to have continual recourse to the Mother of God, because her prayers are certain to be heard by her Son: 'Go to Mary, I say, without hesitation; the Son will hear the Mother.' And then he says: 'My children, she is the ladder of sinners, she is my chief confidence, she is the whole ground of my hope.' He calls her 'ladder,' because, as you cannot mount: the third step except you first put your foot on the second, nor can you arrive at the second except by the first, so you cannot come to God except by means of Jesus Christ, nor can you come to Christ except by means of his Mother. Then he calls her his greatest security, and the whole ground of his hope; because, as he affirms, God wills that all the graces which he gives us should pass through the hands of Mary. And he concludes by saying, that we ought to ask all the graces which we desire through Mary; because she obtains whatever she seeks, and her prayers cannot be resisted. 'Let us seek grace, and let us seek it through Mary; because what she seeks she finds and she cannot he disappointed.' The following saints teach the same as St. Bernard: St. Ephrem, 'We have no other confidence than from you, O purest Virgin!' St. Ildephonsus, 'All the good things that the divine Majesty has determined to give them, he has determined to commit to your hands; for to you are entrusted the treasures and the wardrobes of grace.' St. Germanus, 'If you desert us, what will become of us, O life of Christians?' St. Peter Damian, 'In your hands are all the treasures of the mercies of God.' St. Antoninus, 'Who seeks without her aid, attempts to fly without wings.'
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection (The Necessity and Power of Prayer), Chapter 1, The Necessity of Prayer, Section 4 "The Intercession of the Blessed Virgin".

St. Lawrence Justinian asks: 'How can she (Mary) be otherwise than full of grace, who has been made the ladder to paradise, the gate of heaven, the most true mediatrix between God and man?'...

Again, the holy Church calls her ‘the happy gate of heaven;’ for as the same Saint Bernard remarks: ‘As every mandate of grace that is sent by a king passes by the palace-gates, so does every grace that comes from heaven to the world pass through the hands of Mary’ (Serm. iii. In Virg. Nat. D). Saint Bonaventure says that Mary is called ‘the gate of heaven, because no one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing by her’ (Exposit. in cap. I. Luc)."
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter V "To Thee Do We Sigh".

How great, then, should be our confidence in this Queen, knowing her great power with God, and that she is so rich and full of mercy, that there is no one living on the earth who does not partake in her compassion and favor. Our Blessed Lady herself revealed this to St. Bridget, saying: 'I am the Queen of heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just and the door through which sinners are brought to God.'
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter I "Hail Holy Queen", p 6.

All our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin...
-Pope Pius IX, in Ineffabilis Deus (The Immaculate Conception) Apostolic Constitution issued on December 8, 1854, Section titled "Hoped-For Results".

O Virgin most pure, wholly unspotted, O Mary, Mother of God, Queen of the universe, you are above all saints, the hope of the elect and the joy of all the blessed. It is you who have reconciled us with God, you are the only refuge of sinners and the safe harbor of those who are shipwrecked; you are the consolation of the world, the ransom of captives, the health of the weak, the joy of the afflicted and the salvation of all who have recourse to you, and we beg you to have pity on us.
-St. Ephrem of Edessa, in Prayer to Mary, Mother of Compassion.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily give you the just dues of praise and thanksgiving, you who by the wondrous assent of your will rescued a fallen world?

Accept, then, such poor thanks as we have to offer here, though they be unequal to your merit; and, receiving our vows, obtain by your prayers the remission of our offenses. Carry our prayers within the sanctuary of the heavenly audience and bring forth the gift of our reconciliation....

Take our offering, grant us our requests, obtain pardon for what we fear, for you are the sole hope of sinners. Holy Mary, help the miserable, strengthen the fainthearted, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God.
-St. Augustine of Hippo, in Thanksgiving and Prayer to Mary.

In that one Sacrifice [of the Cross], Mary, the first redeemed, the Mother of the Church, had an active part. She stood near the Crucified, suffering deeply with her Firstborn; with a motherly heart she associated herself with his Sacrifice; with love she consented to his immolation (cf. Lumen Gentium, p 58; Marialis Cultus, p 20); she offered him and she offered herself to the Father.
-Pope John Paul II, in his Angelus/Regina Coeli address of 1983 (quoted in "Mary, Coredemptrix: The Significance of Her Title in the Magisterium of The Church", by Rev. John A. Schug, O.F.M. Cap., and Dr. Mark I. Miravalle, S.T.D., "NIHIL OBSTAT" by Fr. James Dunfee -- Censor Librorum, "IMPRIMATUR" by Most Reverend Gilbert Sheldon -- Bishop of Steubenville, March 7, 1995).

(Continuing our catechesis on the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are considering her cooperation in the redemptive sacrifice of Christ)...Mary...co-operated during the event itself and in the role of mother; thus her co-operation embraces the whole of Christ's saving work. She alone was associated in this way with the redemptive sacrifice that merited the salvation of all mankind. In union with Christ and in submission to him, she collaborated in obtaining the grace of salvation for all humanity...In God’s plan, Mary is the 'woman’ (cf. John 2:4; John 19:26), the New Eve, united to the New Adam in restoring humanity to its original dignity. Her cooperation with her Son continues for all time in the universal motherhood which she enjoys in the order of grace. Trusting in this maternal cooperation, let us turn to Mary, imploring her help in all our needs.
-Pope John Paul II, in his General Audience of April 9, 1997, (quoted in "The Virgin Mary as Co-Redemtrix, Mediatrix and Advocate", by B.A. Robinson).

Clearly, to affirm a coredemptive relation on the Virgin's part to her Son at the Annunciation necessitates affirming the same on Calvary and in heaven, and vice-versa. That necessity is not mathematical, but rather the necessity based on what God has willed freely as the fixed, unchanging central counsel of salvation.

So projected the mediation of Virgin Immaculate, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, like that of her Son, necessarily is consummated on Calvary, and so is coredemptive....The virginity of Mary is the effective sign of the holy birth, holy life, and holy death of her Son terminating in the resurrection, and hence, if she is an actor at his birth and therefore in his anointing as Priest, so too is she an actor at his death and therefore in his consecration as Victim....

3) Because it is virginal, Mary not only offers, but is offered with her Son and Savior. Her heart is transfixed, as Simeon foretold. For this reason the redeemed are not only consecrated to Jesus through her, but also to her...one with Jesus as victim...One is not unjustified in discovering here the basis for the traditional twofold aspect assigned the Virgin's maternal mediation: our Mediatrix with Jesus to which corresponds consecration to Jesus through Mary; and with and under Jesus victim for sin our Mediatrix with the Father to which corresponds consecration to the Immaculate (Mary) and so to Jesus as victim for sin, because the most perfect sacrifice of praise offered to the Father....

"In this approach, then, there is no need, as Fr. Galot thinks, to distinguish types of merit or object of merit to justify Mary's role as Coredemptrix. In that sublime alliance of the hearts Jesus and Mary, Redeemer and Coredemptrix, together merit de condigno the same work, our salvation, according to an order willed from all eternity.

Because she is involved actively on Calvary in the work of salvation with and under her Son, and this redemptive work is a work of mediation, rightly is her subordinate role in this called coredemptive....

In conclusion: we may say that, in virtue of the divine salvific counsels ordaining a most perfect redemption, our Lady as Coredemptrix is included with Christ, the One Mediator. Under him she merits de condigno all which he merits...she alone is the Coredemptrix, not only offering, but in some way part of the sacrifice of Christ....the unique, coredemptive role of Mary on Calvary...the offering of the Virgin at Calvary and on her becoming part of the offering...
-Rev. Fr. Peter Damian M. Fehlner, F.F.I., professor of Catholic Theology, in Immaculata Mediatrix -- Toward a Dogmatic Definition of the Coredemption.

Let me take no pleasure in this world except where you find it. Grant that I may always bear your sorrows in my soul, putting my glory and delight in being crucified with Jesus and Mary.
-St. John Eudes, The Suffering of the Co-redemptrix.

...we find in Mary the end of the law and the fulfillment of the figures and oracles.
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #6.

Mary, though conceived and born without taint of sin, participated in a marvelous way in the sufferings of her divine Son, in order to be Coredemptrix of humanity.
-Pope John Paul II, in remarks made to pilgrims after his General Audience on September 8, 1982 (quoted in Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, V/3 (1982) 404, quoted by Arthur Burton Calkins, “Pope John Paul II’s Teaching on Marian Coredemption”, Mary Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate:Theological Foundations II, ed. Mark I. Miravalle, (Santa Barbara: Queenship Publishing, 1996), p122.

As she suffered and almost died together with her suffering and dying Son, so she surrendered her mother's rights over her Son for the salvation of the human race. And to satisfy the justice of God she sacrificed her Son, as well as she could, so that it may justly be said that she together with Christ has redeemed the human race.
-Pope Benedict XV, in Inter Sodalicia, Apostolic Letter of March 22, 1918.The Church Teaches, published by the Jesuit fathers of St. Mary's College, bears the Imprimi Potest, Nihil Obstat, and Imprimatur of the Catholic Church, pages 210-211.

O Mother of love and mercy who, when thy sweetest Son was consummating the Redemption of the human race on the altar of the cross, did stand next to Him, suffering with Him as a Coredemptrix...
-Pope Plus XI, in a Radio broadcast from Lourdes, April 28, 1935, Prayer of the Solemn Closing of the Redemption Jubilee, (L'Osservatore Romano, 29-30 April, 1935).

At Cana in Galilee there is shown only one concrete aspect of human need, apparently a small one of little importance ('They have no wine'). But it has a symbolic value: this coming to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of Christ's messianic mission and salvific power. Thus there is a mediation: Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself 'in the middle,' that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she 'has the right' to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary 'intercedes' for mankind.
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptoris Mater (On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church), Encyclical promulgated on March 25, 1987, #21.

The power thus put into her (Mary's) hands is all but unlimited. How unerringly right, then, are Christian souls when they turn to Mary for help...How rightly, too, has every nation and every liturgy without exception acclaimed her great renown, which has grown greater with the voice of each succeeding century. Among her many other titles we find her hailed as 'our Lady, our Mediatrix,' (St. Bernard, Serm.II in Adv. 4) 'the Reparatrix of the whole world,' (St. Tharasius, Orat. in Praesentatione) 'the Dispenser of all heavenly gifts.' (On Off. Graec., 8 Dec.)."
-Pope Leo XIII, in Adiutricem (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 5, 1895, #8.

Thus, in the Franciscan school there is to be found a particular insistence on a double mediatory role on the part of our Lady: not only with Christ, the Redeemer, on our behalf within the economy of salvation already established (subjective redemption, dispensation of graces already won), but with God the Father in view of the Incarnation and praise of God in the perfect sacrifice....

Thereby, in a felicitous comment of St. Maximilian on the Marian antiphon for the office of the Passion composed by St. Francis, Mary becomes, not merely by sanctifying grace, but by the grace of the Immaculate Conception, firstborn daughter of the Father, Mother of his Son and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her preservative redemption is the means of our liberation, because thereby she can be the Mother of the Redeemer at the Incarnation and our Mother as Coredemptrix, because our liberation from sin on Calvary is effected by her preservation, which there means coredemption. In a word: the one mediation of I Tim 2.5-6 includes both Redeemer and Coredemptrix...

3) Because it is virginal, Mary not only offers, but is offered with her Son and Savior...One is not unjustified in discovering here the basis for the traditional twofold aspect assigned the Virgin's maternal mediation: our Mediatrix with Jesus to which corresponds consecration to Jesus through Mary; and with and under Jesus victim for sin our Mediatrix with the Father to which corresponds consecration to the Immaculate (Mary) and so to Jesus as victim for sin, because the most perfect sacrifice of praise offered to the Father....

In conclusion: we may say that, in virtue of the divine salvific counsels ordaining a most perfect redemption, our Lady as Coredemptrix is included with Christ, the One Mediator.
-Rev. Fr. Peter Damian M. Fehlner, F.F.I., professor of Catholic Theology, in Immaculata Mediatrix -- Toward a Dogmatic Definition of the Coredemption.

The teaching of the Second Vatican Council presents the truth of Mary's mediation as 'a sharing in the one unique source that is the mediation of Christ himself.'
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptoris Mater (On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church), Encyclical promulgated on March 25, 1987, #38.

And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world (Eadmeri Mon. De Excellentia Virg. Mariae, c. 9) and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood....

Nevertheless, by this companionship in sorrow and suffering already mentioned between the Mother and the Son, it has been allowed to the august Virgin to be the most powerful mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with her Divine Son (Pius IX. Ineffabilis)....

We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace--a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us 'de congruo,' in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us 'de condigno,' and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #12-14.

Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.
-Pope Paul VI, in Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), promulgated on November 21, 1964, #62.

But in what way does Mary cooperate in the growth of the members of the Mystical Body in the life of grace? First of all, by her unceasing prayers inspired by a most ardent charity....she makes herself their Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix and Mediatrix. Of this intercession of hers for the People of God with the Son, the Church has been persuaded, ever since the first centuries, as testified to by this most ancient antiphon which, with some slight difference, forms part of the liturgical prayer in the East as well as in the West: 'We seek refuge under the protection of your mercies, oh Mother of God; do not reject our supplication in need but save us from perdition, O you who alone are blessed.'
-Pope Paul VI, Signum Magnum (The Great Sign), Encyclical promulgated on May 13, 1967.

And now lastly may the most benign Virgin Mother of God smile on this purpose and on these desires of ours; for since she brought forth for us Jesus our Redeemer, and nourished Him, and offered Him as a victim by the Cross, by her mystic union with Christ and His very special grace she likewise became and is piously called a reparatress. Trusting in her intercession with Christ, who whereas He is the 'one mediator of God and men' (1 Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His Mother the advocate of sinners, and the minister and mediatress of grace...
-Pope Pius XI, in Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation To The Sacred Heart), Encyclical promulgated on May 8th, 1928, #21.

St. Anselm reminds us that we may obtain mercy more quickly from Mary than from Jesus, because Jesus is also a judge who can punish, while Mary exercises mercy as a patroness. It is not as if Mary were more powerful than Jesus, for we know that Jesus Christ is our only Savior, and that He alone by His merits has obtained and obtains salvation for us. He reminds us: 'We often obtain more promptly what we ask by invoking Mary than by invoking Jesus. Her Son is lord and judge of all, and discerns the merits of each one; therefore, if He does not immediately grant the prayers of all, He is just. When however, the Mother's name is invoked, though the merits of the suppliant are not such as to deserve that his favor be granted, those of the Mother supply, that he may receive.' Many things are asked from God and are not granted; they are asked from Mary and are obtained. Now why is this? Because God has thus decreed to honor His Mother.
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter IV "To Thee Do We Cry, p 48.

It was fitting, first of all, that the eternal Father should create Mary free from the original sin because she was His daughter and His first-born daughter. She herself attests — 'Before all ages, in the beginning, He created me' (Sirach 24:9) — in a passage that is applied to Mary by the Sacred Interpreters, by the Holy Fathers, and by the Church herself. Whether she is the first-born on account of her predestination, together with her Son in the divine decrees before all creatures, or, as others say, the first-born of grace as predestined to be the Mother of the Redeemer after the provision of sin, all agree in calling her the first-born of God.
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in The Glories of Mary "Her Special Privileges".

We greet you, Daughter of God the Father!
-Prayer of Saint Louis de Montfort, titled "Abide with us, Immaculate Mother".

Let Us Pray.

Hail, Mary, Daughter of God the Father...
-Concluding Prayer of St. Louis Mary De Montfort, in "The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary".

God predestined her from all eternity to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word, and for that reason so highly distinguished her among all His most beautiful works in the triple order of nature, grace and glory, that the Church justly applies to her these words: 'I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures' (Ecclus. xxiv., 5).
-Pope Leo XIII, in Augustissimae Virginis Mariae (On the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 12, 1897, #1.

Mary was the only one who merited to be called the Mother as Spouse of God.
-St. Augustine of Hippo, in Sermons #208 (quoted by St. Alphonsus de Liguori in The Glories of Mary, p 304 (New York: Redemptorist, 1931).

...St Godfrey of Admont wrote that each person of the Godhead is Mary's lover.
-See the book by Michael O'Carroll, titled "'Spouse of God', Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary", p 158 (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1982).

...the mother of the Son of God can also be called in a special manner 'bride of the Father.' For, as mother she has received the Son of the Father through donation from His side as her Son; she possesses Him conjointly with the Father and is therefore connected with the Father by His Son as being hers also.
-Fr. Matthias Joseph Scheeben, in Mariology, vol. 1, p 174-175 ("nihil obstat" by Innocentius Swoboda, O. F. M. Censor Librorum, "imprimatur" by Josephus E. Ritter, S.T.D., Archiepiscopus).

Thus St. John Damascene, an outstanding herald of this traditional truth, spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and privileges....'It was fitting that she (Mary), who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions.'
-Pope Pius XII, in Munificentissimus Deus (Defining the Dogma of the Assumption), Encyclical promulgated on November 1, 1950, #21.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian was probably the first early Christian to refer to Mary as the Bride of Christ...He was followed by the likes of Saint Peter Chrysologus, Rupert of Deutz, and Godfrey of Admont.
-Michael O'Carroll, titled "'Spouse of God', Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary", p 333 (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1982).

...(Mary is) the unique bridal, permanent helpmate and associate of Christ, who is the Head of the whole Church and world, in the entire work of redemption...
-Fr. J. Kentenich, in Der Marianische Priester, p 38 (1941).

The relation of the mother to her divine Son must be traced not alone to the mother's natural activity, but primarily to the activity of her divine Son Himself, who makes and accepts her as His mother, and gives Himself to her as her Son....Consequently the relation of the mother to the divine Son appears as a marriage with His divine person. Here now the Bridegroom gives Himself to the bride as her Son and dwells in her in virtue of this gift.
-Fr. Matthias Joseph Scheeben, in Mariology, vol. 1, p 162-163 ("nihil obstat" by Innocentius Swoboda, O. F. M. Censor Librorum, "imprimatur" by Josephus E. Ritter, S.T.D., Archiepiscopus).

(The Divine Being) Who is so singularly with Mary is the Lord Whose most beautiful spouse Mary is.
-St. Bonaventure, quoted in "Virgin Wholly Marvelous: Praises of Our Lady by the Popes, Councils, Saints and Doctors of the Church", Editor is David Supple (Still River, MA: Ravengate, 1981): p 37.

Mary, as united with the Logos, is taken into complete possession by him; the Logos, as infused and implanted in her, gives himself to her and takes her to himself as partner and helper, in the closest, strictest, and most lasting community of life.
-Fr. Matthias Joseph Scheeben, in Mariology, vol. 1, p 189 ("nihil obstat" by Innocentius Swoboda, O. F. M. Censor Librorum, "imprimatur" by Josephus E. Ritter, S.T.D., Archiepiscopus).

As the new 'daughter of Zion' Mary in fact is particularly suited to entering into the spousal Covenant with God. More and better than any member of the Chosen People, she can offer the Lord the true heart of a Bride.
-Pope John Paul II, in Mary Responds to God with Spousal Love, General Audience in May 1, 1996, #5.

Through her divine maternity, Mary in a certain way entered the divine family as a spouse who enters a royal home. With regard to the Father she became the first born daughter: I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures (Ecclus 24:5). With regard to the Son, she was a mother; with regard to the Holy Spirit, she was a bride.
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in The Glories and Virtues of Mary, p. 43.

...Unite, then, Venerable Brethren, your prayers with Ours, and at your exhortation let all Christian peoples add their prayers also, invoking the powerful and ever-acceptable intercession of the Blessed Virgin. You know well the intimate and wonderful relations existing between her and the Holy Spirit, so that she is justly called His Spouse. Her intercession was of great avail both in the mystery of the Incarnation and in the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.
-Pope Leo XIII, in Divinum illud Munus, Encyclical promulgated on May 9,1897, #14.

She (Mary) is a virgin who ‘keeps whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse’...The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation.
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptoris Mater (On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church), Encyclical promulgated on March 25, 1987, #5, 26).

Let us turn our gaze to Mary, Christ’s first disciple, Spouse of the Holy Spirit and Mother of the Church, who was with the Apostles at the first Pentecost, so that she will help us to learn from her fiat docility to the voice of the Spirit.
-Pope John Paul II, in his speech to the “World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities,” on May 27, 1998.

Let us praise and thank the Holy Spirit, Who took her for His spouse. R. Amen. Say an 'Our Father'.

-St. Joseph Calasanctius, Found in the Raccolta, quoted in "Mary:The Crown of Twelve Stars".

Hail, Mother and Virgin, imperishable temple of the Godhead, venerable treasure of the whole world, crown of virginity, support of the true faith on which the Church is founded throughout the entire world.

Mother of God, who contained the infinite God under your heart, whom no space can contain...
-St. Cyril of Alexandria, in Paean to Mary, Temple of the Godhead.

We greet you, Daughter of God the Father! We greet you, Mother of the Son of God! We greet you, spouse of the Holy Spirit! We greet you, dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity!
-Prayer of Saint Louis de Montfort, titled "Abide with us, Immaculate Mother".

Let Us Pray.

Hail, Mary, Daughter of God the Father; Hail, Mary, Mother of God the Son; Hail, Mary, Spouse of the Holy Ghost; Hail, Mary, Temple of the most Holy Trinity; Hail, Mary, my Mistress, my treasure, my joy, Queen of my heart; my Mother, my life, my sweetness, my dearest hope -- yea, my heart and my soul! I am all thine and all that I have is Thine, O Virgin blessed above all things! Let thy soul be in me to magnify the Lord; let thy spirit be in me to rejoice in God....Grant that for love of thee I may despise all earthly consolations and ever cling to those of Heaven until, through thee, His faithful spouse, Jesus Christ thy Son be formed in me for the glory of the Father. Amen.
-Concluding Prayer of St. Louis Mary De Montfort, in The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

God's honor required that He bestow upon His mother such holiness as would enable her worthily to fulfill the service she was to render Him and that through this most intimate association she might be brought to a holiness like to His own. Moreover, the love of God, whereby Mary in an unparalleled way becomes Daughter, Bride, and Sanctuary of the Divinity, requires that she be perfectly prepared for this association with God and, to that end, be raised to a participation in His perfection
-Fr. Matthias Joseph Scheeben, in Mariology, p 4 ("nihil obstat" by Innocentius Swoboda, O. F. M. Censor Librorum, "imprimatur" by Josephus E. Ritter, S.T.D., Archiepiscopus).

Mother of God, who contained the infinite God under your heart, whom no space can contain: Through you the Most Holy Trinity is adored and glorified, demons are vanquished, Satan cast down from heaven into hell, and our fallen nature again assumed into heaven.
-St. Cyril of Alexandria, in Paean to Mary, Temple of the Godhead.

Let us, first, consider the moral necessity of the intercession of Mary for priests; and secondly, the confidence which they ought to have in the prayers of this divine Mother....

Let us now pass to the confidence which we ought to have in the intercession of Mary, on account of her power and mercy.

I. As to her power. Cosmas of Jerusalem has called the intercession of our Queen not only powerful, but omnipotent. And Richard of St. Laurence has written: 'From the omnipotent Son the Mother was made omnipotent.'...

Let us always have recourse to this divine Mother, who knows not how to let any one who invokes her aid depart without consolation, says Blosius.
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in Dignity and Duties of the Priest or Selva, p 409, 414, 419 (edited by Rev. Eugene Grimm, published by the Redemptorist Fathers, copyright 1927 by Very Rev. James Barron, C.SS.R.)

I declare with the saints: Mary is the earthly paradise of Jesus Christ the new Adam, where he became man by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to accomplish in her wonders beyond our understanding. She is the vast and divine world of God where unutterable marvels and beauties are to be found. She is the magnificence of the Almighty where he hid his only Son, as in his own bosom, and with him everything that is most excellent and precious.

I say with the saints, the divine Mary is the terrestrial paradise of the New Adam [Jesus], where He was made flesh by the operation of the Holy Ghost, in order to work there incomprehensible marvels. She is the grand and divine world of God, where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable. She is the magnificence of the Most High, where He hid, as in her bosom, His only Son, and in Him all that is most excellent and most precious....

Mary, being altogether transformed into God by grace and by the glory which transforms all the saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God....

Be persuaded, then, that the more you look at Mary in your prayers, contemplations, actions, and sufferings, if not with a distinct and definite view, at least with a general and imperceptible one, the more perfectly you will find Jesus Christ, who is always, with Mary, great, powerful, active and incomprehensible - more than in Heaven or in any other creature. Thus, so far from the divine Mary, all absorbed in God, being an obstacle to the perfect in attaining union with God, there has never been up to this time, and there never will be, any creature who will aid us more efficaciously in this great work...
-St. Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort, in True Devotion to Mary, #6, 27, 165 (translated from the original French by Fr. Frederick William Faber, D.D., edited and annotated by the Fathers of the Company of Mary, copyright 1941, published by Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, Illinois, 61105, ISBN 0-89555-279-5, Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 85-50571, bearing the "Imprimi Potest", "Nihil Obstat" and "Imprimatur" of the Catholic Church).

Faithful to the religious example of our fathers, let us have recourse to Mary, our holy Sovereign. Let us entreat, let us beseech, with one heart, Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Mother. 'Show thyself to be a mother; cause our prayers to be accepted by Him Who, born for us, consented to be thy Son.'
-Pope Leo XIII, in Octobri Mense (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 22, 1891, # 6.

HAIL MARY, BELOVED DAUGHTER OF THE ETERNAL FATHER.

Hail MARY, admirable Mother of the Son. Hail MARY, faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Hail MARY, my Mother, my loving Mistress, my powerful sovereign. Hail, my joy, my glory, my heart and my soul. Thou art all mine by mercy, and I am Thine by justice. But I am not yet sufficiently Thine. I now give myself wholly to Thee without keeping anything back for myself or others. If Thou seest anything in me which does not belong to Thee, I beseech Thee to take it and make Thyself the absolute Mistress of all that is mine.
-St. Louis De Montfort, Prayer to Mary.

Jesus 'sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high' (Hebrews i. b.). Mary sitteth at the right hand of her Son -- a refuge so secure and a help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her protection. (Pius IX. in Bull Ineffabilis). -Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #14.

And so because Mary was the first born daughter of the Father, the perfect Mother of the Word, and the Beloved Spouse of the Holy Spirit, she became, in effect, a close relative of the Blessed Trinity when she was crowned Queen of the Universe by her Son.
-Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, Formation Letter, "Mary - 'Regina Angelorum', April, 2000.

Let all Christians, therefore, glory in being subjects of the Virgin Mother of God, who, while wielding royal power, is on fire with a mother's love.
-Pope Pius XII, in Ad Caeli Reginam (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary), Encyclical promulgated on October 11, 1954, #43.

St. Louis de Montfort explains the reason for this (Mary's Queenship over the heavenly angels). He says that Mary has authority over the angels as a reward for her great humility on earth. And so because of this God gave 'her the power and the mission of assigning to men the thrones made vacant by the fallen angels.' God, therefore, as St. Louis goes on to explain, 'made Mary queen of heaven and earth, the leader of his armies, the keeper of his treasury, the dispenser of his graces, the worker of his wonders, the destroyer of his enemies and the faithful associate in his great works and victories.'

Now there are some beautiful prayers from the Eastern Liturgies that express Mary's special position with regard to the angels. For example, a hymn for Morning Prayer in the Armenian Liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption reads: 'O Mother of God, you are born aloft in the triumphal cars of the Cherubim, with Seraphim for your escort and the arrayed army of heaven's hosts is prostrate before you.'...And so because Mary was the first born daughter of the Father, the perfect Mother of the Word, and the Beloved Spouse of the Holy Spirit, she became, in effect, a close relative of the Blessed Trinity when she was crowned Queen of the Universe by her Son.
-Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, Formation Letter, "Mary - 'Regina Angelorum', April, 2000.

...Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.....

The Blessed Virgin, sitting at the right hand of God to pray for us is hailed by another writer of that same era in these words, 'the Queen of mortal man, the most holy Mother of God.'

"St. Andrew of Crete frequently attributes the dignity of a Queen to the Virgin Mary. For example, he writes, 'Today He transports from her earthly dwelling, as Queen of the human race, His ever-Virgin Mother, from whose womb He, the living God, took on human form.'...

Likewise St. Germanus speaks to the humble Virgin in these words: 'Be enthroned, Lady, for it is fitting that you should sit in an exalted place since you are a Queen and glorious above all kings.' He likewise calls her the 'Queen of all of those who dwell on earth.'

She is called by St. John Damascene: 'Queen, ruler, and lady,' and also 'the Queen of every creature.' Another ancient writer of the Eastern Church calls her 'favored Queen,' 'the perpetual Queen beside the King, her son,' whose 'snow-white brow is crowned with a golden diadem.'

And finally St. Ildephonsus of Toledo gathers together almost all of her titles of honor in this salutation: 'O my Lady, my Sovereign, You who rule over me, Mother of my Lord...Lady among handmaids, Queen among sisters.'

The theologians of the Church, deriving their teaching from these and almost innumerable other testimonies handed down long ago, have called the most Blessed Virgin the Queen of all creatures, the Queen of the world, and the Ruler of all....

Furthermore, the Latin Church sings that sweet and ancient prayer called the 'Hail, Holy Queen' and the lovely antiphons 'Hail, Queen of the Heavens,' 'O Queen of Heaven, Rejoice,' and those others which we are accustomed to recite on feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 'The Queen stood at Thy right hand in golden vesture surrounded with beauty'; 'Heaven and earth praise thee as a powerful Queen'; 'Today the Virgin Mary ascends into heaven: rejoice because she reigns with Christ forever.'...

....Likewise, for many centuries past Christians have been accustomed to meditate upon the ruling power of Mary which embraces heaven and earth, when they consider the fifth glorious mystery of the rosary which can be called the mystical crown of the heavenly Queen.

Finally, art which is based upon Christian principles and is animated by their spirit as something faithfully interpreting the sincere and freely expressed devotion of the faithful, has since the Council of Ephesus portrayed Mary as Queen and Empress seated upon a royal throne adorned with royal insignia, crowned with the royal diadem and surrounded by the host of angels and saints in heaven, and ruling not only over nature and its powers but also over the machinations of Satan. Iconography, in representing the royal dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has ever been enriched with works of highest artistic value and greatest beauty; it has even taken the form of representing colorfully the divine Redeemer crowning His mother with a resplendent diadem.

The Roman Pontiffs, favoring such types of popular devotion, have often crowned, either in their own persons, or through representatives, images of the Virgin Mother of God which were already outstanding by reason of public veneration....

As We have already mentioned, Venerable Brothers, according to ancient tradition and the sacred liturgy the main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood....So with complete justice St. John Damascene could write: 'When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.'
-Pope Pius XII, in Ad Caeli Reginam (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary), Encyclical promulgated on October 11, 1954, #1, 16-17, 19-22, 30-34.

Pope Pius XII explains in an address on the Queenship of Mary, 'when the glorious Virgin Mary entered triumphantly into heaven and was elevated above the choirs of angels to the throne of the Most Holy Trinity.' And then Christ 'placed a triple crown of glory on her head, presented her to the heavenly court, seated her at his right hand and pronounced her Queen of the Universe.'...

In other words, because Christ is 'by nature and by right the King of the Universe…Mary is through him, with him, and in him, queen by grace, by divine association, by conquest and by singular election.' And so because of this her kingdom is not only 'as vast as her Son's, since nothing of his kingdom is excluded from hers,' but also 'the Church salutes her as sovereign and as Queen of the Angels and Queen of the Universe and encourages us to invoke her day and night with the words of the Salve Regina: 'Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.'
-Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, Formation Letter, "Mary - 'Regina Angelorum'", April, 2000.

O Virgin most pure, wholly unspotted, O Mary, Mother of God, Queen of the universe, you are above all saints, the hope of the elect and the joy of all the blessed.
-St. Ephrem of Edessa, in Prayer to Mary, Mother of Compassion.

The truth of the Assumption, defined by Pius XII, is reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which thus expresses the Church's faith: "Preserved free from all guilt of original sin, the Immaculate Virgin was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory upon the completion of her earthly sojourn. She was exalted by the Lord as Queen of the Universe...For the Mother of Christ is glorified as 'Queen of the Universe'.
-Pope John Paul II, in Redemptoris Mater (On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church), Encyclical promulgated on March 25, 1987, #41.

Since grace enhances our human nature and glory adds a still greater perfection to grace, it is certain that our Lord remains in heaven just as much the Son of Mary as he was on earth. Consequently he has retained the submissiveness and obedience of the most perfect of all children towards the best of all mothers....When therefore we read in the writings of Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine, Saint Bonaventure, and others that all in heaven and on earth, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God was pleased to give her is so great that she seems to have the same power as God. Her prayers and requests are so powerful with him that he accepts them as commands in the sense that he never resists his dear mother's prayer because it is always humble and conformed to his will....

Since the principal mystery celebrated and honoured in this devotion is the mystery of the Incarnation where we find Jesus only in Mary, having become incarnate in her womb, it is appropriate for us to say, 'slavery of Jesus in Mary', of Jesus dwelling enthroned in Mary, according to the beautiful, prayer, recited by so many great souls, 'O Jesus living in Mary'.
-St. Louis de Montfort, in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #27, 246.

We must perform all our actions for Mary, which means that as slaves of this noble Queen we will work only for her, promoting her interests and her high renown, and making this the first aim in all our acts, while the glory of God will always be our final end. In everything we must renounce self- love because more often than not, without our being aware of it, selfishness sets itself up as the end of all we work for. We should often repeat from the depths of our heart: 'Dear Mother, it is to please you that I go here or there, that I do this or that, that I suffer this pain or this injury.'
-St. Louis Marie de Montfort, in The Secret of Mary, #49.

All our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin -- in the all fair and immaculate one who has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world: in her who is the glory of the prophets and apostles, the honor of the martyrs, the crown and joy of all the saints; in her who is the safest refuge and the most trustworthy helper of all who are in danger; in her who, with her only-begotten Son, is the most powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix in the whole world; in her who is the most excellent glory, ornament, and impregnable stronghold of the holy Church; in her who has destroyed all heresies and snatched the faithful people and nations from all kinds of direst calamities; in her do we hope who has delivered us from so many threatening dangers....

Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race. And since she has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints, and even stands at the right hand of her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions in a most efficacious manner. What she asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard.
-Pope Pius IX, in Ineffabilis Deus (The Immaculate Conception) Apostolic Constitution issued on December 8, 1854, Section titled "Hoped-For Results".

Since faith is the foundation, the source, of the gifts of God by which man is raised above the order of nature and is endowed with the dispositions requisite for life eternal, we are in justice bound to recognize the hidden influence of Mary in obtaining the gift of faith and its salutary cultivation-of Mary who brought the 'author of faith' into this world and who, because of her own great faith, was called 'blessed.' 'O Virgin most holy, none abounds in the knowledge of God except through thee; none, O Mother of God, attains salvation except through thee; none receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.'
-Pope Leo XIII, in Adiutricem (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 5, 1895, #9.

Mary is the Virgin most faithful who by her fidelity to God makes good the losses caused by Eve's unfaithfulness. She obtains fidelity to God and final perseverance for those who commit themselves to her. For this reason St. John Damascene compared her to a firm anchor which holds them fast and saves them from shipwreck in the raging seas of the world where so many people perish through lack of such a firm anchor. 'We fasten souls,' he said, 'to Mary, our hope, as to a firm anchor.' It was to Mary that the saints who attained salvation most firmly anchored themselves as did others who wanted to ensure their perseverance in holiness.

Blessed, indeed, are those Christians who bind themselves faithfully and completely to her as to a secure anchor! The violent storms of the world will not make them founder or carry away their heavenly riches. Blessed are those who enter into her as into another Noah's ark! The flood waters of sin which engulf so many will not harm them because, as the Church makes Mary say in the words of divine Wisdom, 'Those who work with my help - for their salvation - shall not sin.' Blessed are the unfaithful children of unhappy Eve who commit themselves to Mary, the ever-faithful Virgin and Mother who never wavers in her fidelity and never goes back on her trust. She always loves those who love her, not only with deep affection, but with a love that is active and generous. By an abundant outpouring of grace she keeps them from relaxing their effort in the practice of virtue or falling by the wayside through loss of divine grace.
-St. Louis de Montfort, in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #175.

In her power may the Virgin Mother, who once cooperated through her love with the birth of the faithful into the Church, now be the means and guardian of our salvation.
-Pope Leo XIII, Brief of September 8, 1901: 21 Acta Leonis XIII, p. 159-160 (Quoted by Pope Pius XII in Le Pelerinage De Lourdes (Warning Against Materialism On The Centenary Of The Apparitions At Lourdes), Encyclical promulgated on July 2, 1957, #20.

Since faith is the foundation, the source, of the gifts of God by which man is raised above the order of nature and is endowed with the dispositions requisite for life eternal, we are in justice bound to recognize the hidden influence of Mary in obtaining the gift of faith and its salutary cultivation - of Mary who brought the 'author of faith' into this world and who, because of her own great faith, was called 'blessed.' 'O Virgin most holy, none abounds in the knowledge of God except through thee; none, O Mother of God, attains salvation except through thee; none receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.' (St. Germ. Constantinop., Orat. 11, in Dortnitione B.M.V.).
-Pope Leo XIII, in Adiutricem (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 5, 1895, #9.

There can be no doubt that by the merits of Jesus, Mary was made the mediatrix of our salvation - not, indeed, a mediatrix of justice, but of favor and intercession. St Bonaventure expressly calls her: 'Mary, the most faithful mediatrix of our salvation.'...

That it is most useful and holy to have recourse to the intercession of Mary can only be doubted by those who have not faith. But, what we intend to prove here, is that the intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation. We say necessary - not absolutely but morally....

In the office appointed to be said on the feasts of Mary, this same holy Church, applying the words of Ecclesiasticus to this Blessed Virgin, gives us to understand that in her we find all hope, 'In me is all hope of life and of virtue' (Eccl. xxiv. 25); in Mary is every grace, 'In me is all grace of the way and of the truth' (Ib.). In Mary, finally, we shall find life and eternal salvation: 'Who finds me finds life, and draws salvation from the Lord' (Prov. viii. 35). And elsewhere: 'They that work by me shall not sin; they that explain me shall have everlasting life' (Eccl. xxiv. 30, 31). And surely such expressions as these sufficiently prove that we require the intercession of Mary.
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter V "To Thee Do We Sigh", Section 1.

He who neglects the service of the Blessed Virgin will die in his sins. He who does not invoke thee, O Lady, will never get to Heaven. Not only will those from whom Mary turns her countenance not be saved, but there will be no hope of their salvation. No one can be saved without the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
-St. Bonaventure, "Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary," Ps.116; DDP, p. 413; IPM, p. 90; GM, p. 221, 170; SOR, p. 30, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 1: "The Book of Mary," Chapter 3: "Those Who Refuse to Honor Our Lady Will Be Lost").

St. John Damascene did not scruple to say to Mary: 'Pure and Immaculate Virgin, save me, and deliver me from eternal damnation.' St. Bonaventure called Mary 'the salvation of those who invoked Her.'...And shall we scruple to ask Her to save us, when 'the way of salvation is open to none otherwise than through Mary?' as a certain author remarks. And before him St. Germanus had said the same thing, speaking of Mary: 'No one is saved but through You.'...'And thus,' says Richard of St. Laurence, 'our salvation is in the hands of Mary'...The Venerable Raymond Jordano repeats the same thing: 'Our salvation is in Her hands.' Cassian speaks in still stronger terms. He says absolutely, 'that the salvation of all depends on their being favored and protected by Mary.' He who is protected by Mary will be saved; he who is not will be lost. St. Bernardine of Sienna thus addresses this Blessed Virgin: 'O Lady, since Thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through Thy hands, our salvation depends on Thee.' Therefore, Richard of St. Laurence had good reason for saying, that 'as we should fall into the abyss, if the ground were withdrawn from under our feet, so does a soul deprived of the help of Mary fall first into sin, and then into hell.' St. Bonaventure says, that 'God will not save us without the intercession of Mary.' And that 'as a child cannot live without a nurse to suckle it, so no one can be saved without the protection of Mary.' Therefore, he exhorts us 'to thirst after devotion to Her, to preserve it with care, and never to abandon it until we have received Her maternal blessing in heaven.' 'And who would ever know God,' exclaims St. Germanus, 'if it were not for Thee, O Most Holy Mary. Who would be saved?' Who would be free from sin?...

The following are the beautiful words in which he expresses himself 'There is no one, O most holy Mary, who can know God but through Thee; no one who can be saved or redeemed but through Thee, O Mother of God; no one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one who obtains mercy but through Thee, O filled with all grace.' And in another place, addressing Her, he says, 'No one would be free from the effects of the concupiscence of the flesh and from sin, unless Thou didst open the way to him.'

St. Bernard tells us that, as we have no access to the Eternal Father but through Jesus, so also we have no access to Jesus but through Mary. 'By Thee we have access to the Son, O blessed finder of grace, bearer of life, and Mother of Salvation, that we may receive Him by Thee, Who through Thee was given to us.' This is the reason given by the Saint why Our Lord has determined that all shall be saved by the intercession of Mary, and therefore he calls Her the Mother of Grace and of our salvation.
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter V "To Thee Do We Sigh".

However, consideration of a situation so pregnant with dangers must not depress your souls, Venerable Brethren. Instead...fly with greater confidence to the Mother of God. There, the Christian people have always sought chief refuge in the hour of danger, because 'she has been constituted the cause of salvation for the whole human race' (St. Irenaeus).
-Pope Pius XII, Ingruentium Malorum (On Reciting the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 15, 1951, #6.

Besides these recollections, moreover, as the sacred Mysteries pass by they cause our prayers to be transformed into impulses of entreaty that have an indescribable power over the heart of Mary. Yes, we fly to thee, we miserable children of Eve, O holy Mother of God. To thee we lift our prayers, for thou art the Mediatrix, powerful at once and pitiful, of our salvation.
-Pope Leo XIII, in Iucunda Semper Expectatione (On The Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 8, 1894, #8.

[Mary is called] the gate of heaven, because no one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing through her.
-St. Bernard (quoted in "The Virgin Mary as Co-Redemtrix, Mediatrix and Advocate", by B.A. Robinson).

A man is no true Christian if he has no devotion to the Mother of Jesus Christ and of all Christians. St. Anselm and St. Bonaventure assure us that it is impossible for persons who are not loved by the Mother of Christ to have any part with Him. Conversely, it is impossible for anyone to perish upon whom she looks with favor.
-St. John Eudes, Never Separate What God Has So Perfectly United.

Hence it follows, as We have already pointed out, that the Virgin is more powerful than all others as a means for uniting mankind with Christ. Hence too since, according to Christ Himself, 'Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee the only truly God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent' (John xvii., 3), and since it is through Mary that we attain to the knowledge of Christ, through Mary also we most easily obtain that life of which Christ is the source and origin.
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #8.

From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen....

We have recourse to Mary Our Queen, making known to her those sentiments of filial reverence which are not Ours alone, but which belong to all those who glory in the name of Christian....

Further: 'O just, O most blessed Joseph), since thou art sprung from a royal line, thou hast been chosen from among all mankind to be spouse of the pure Queen who, in a way which defies description, will give birth to Jesus the king.' In addition: 'I shall sing a hymn to the mother, the Queen, whom I joyously approach in praise, gladly celebrating her wonders in song...Our tongue cannot worthily praise thee, O Lady; for thou who hast borne Christ the king art exalted above the seraphim...Hail, O Queen of the world; hail, O Mary, Queen of us all.'

We read, moreover, in the Ethiopic Missal: 'O Mary, center of the whole world,...thou art greater than the many-eyed cherubim and the six-winged seraphim...Heaven and earth are filled with the sanctity of thy glory.'...

Let all Christians, therefore, glory in being subjects of the Virgin Mother of God, who, while wielding royal power, is on fire with a mother's love.
-Pope Pius XII, in Ad Caeli Reginam (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary), Encyclical promulgated on October 11, 1954, #1-2, 28-29, 43.

The power thus put into her hands is all but unlimited. How unerringly right, then, are Christian souls when they turn to Mary for help as though impelled by an instinct of nature, confidently sharing with her their future hopes and past achievements, their sorrows and joys, commending themselves like children to the care of a bountiful mother. How rightly, too, has every nation and every liturgy without exception acclaimed her great renown, which has grown greater with the voice of each succeeding century.
-Pope Leo XIII, in Adiutricem (On the Rosary), Encyclical promulgated on September 5, 1895, #8.

In the Heavens Mary commands the angels and the blessed. As a recompense for her profound humility, God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill with saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride. The will of the Most High, who exalts the humble (Lk. 1:52), is that Heaven, earth and Hell bend, with good will or bad will, to the commandments of the humble Mary, whom He has made sovereign of Heaven and earth, general of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels, restorer of the human race, Mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and triumphs....

The most infallible and indubitable sign by which we may distinguish a heretic, a man of bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the predestinate, is that the heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt and indifference for Our Lady, endeavoring by their words and examples to diminish the worship (or veneration) and love of her, openly or hiddenly, and sometimes by misrepresentation. Alas! God the Father has not told Mary to dwell in them, for they are Esaus....

There are several interior practices to true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the principle ones, stated compendiously: (1) to honor her as the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to esteem her and honor her above all the other saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man...
-St. Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort, in True Devotion to Mary, #28, 30, 115 (translated from the original French by Fr. Frederick William Faber, D.D., edited and annotated by the Fathers of the Company of Mary, copyright 1941, published by Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, Illinois, 61105, ISBN 0-89555-279-5, Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 85-50571, bearing the "Imprimi Potest", "Nihil Obstat" and "Imprimatur" of the Catholic Church).

Devotion to you, O Blessed Virgin, is a means of salvation which God gives to those whom he wishes to save.
-St. John Damascene (Quoted by St. Louis de Montfort, in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #40.

The pious and learned Jesuit, Suarez, Justus Lipsius, a devout and erudite theologian of Louvain, and many others have proved incontestably that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to attain salvation. This they show from the teaching of the Fathers, notably St. Augustine, St. Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Demascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure. Even according to Oecolampadius and other heretics, lack of esteem and love for the Virgin Mary is an infallible sign of God's disapproval. On the other hand, to be entirely and genuinely devoted to her is a sure sign of God's approval.
-St. Louis de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #40.

Those, alas! furnish us by their conduct with a peremptory proof of it, who seduced by the wiles of the demon or deceived by false doctrines think they can do without the help of the Virgin. Hapless are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honor to be paid to Jesus Christ!
-Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical promulgated on February 2, 1904, #15.

Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother.
-Fr. Frederick Faber, in Preface of True Devotion to Mary, by St. Louis De Montfort, p. xxii (published by Tan Books and Publishers Inc., copyright 1941 by the Fathers of the Company of Mary, Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 85-50571, ISBN 0-89555-279-5).

And with this love of our Mother Mary, I leave you, my readers, saying to you: Continue joyfully to honor and love this good Lady. Try also to promote the love of her wherever you can; and do not doubt that, if you persevere in true devotion to Mary, even until death, your salvation is assured.
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter "Her Special Privileges".

Truly are those souls to be pitied who abandon this defense, in ceasing their devotion to Mary, and no longer recommending themselves to her in times of danger. If the sun ceased to rise, says St. Bernard, how could the world become other than a chaos of darkness and horror? Applying this question to Mary, he repeats it, 'Take away the sun and where will be the day? Take away Mary, and what will be left but the darkest night? When a soul loses devotion to Mary, it is immediately enveloped in darkness, and it is in that darkness of which the Holy Spirit speaks in the Psalms: 'You bring darkness and it is night; then all the beasts of the forest roam about.' (104:20).
-St. Alphonsus Ligouri, in The Glories of Mary, Chapter II "Our Life, Our Sweetness", p 26-27.

Jesus honored her before all ages, and will honor her for all ages. No one comes to Him, nor even near Him, no one is saved or sanctified, if he too will not honor her. This is the lot of angels and of men.
-St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, International Center, Militia of the Immaculate, Rome, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 1: "The Book of Mary," Chapter 3: "Those Who Refuse to Honor Our Lady Will Be Lost").

St. Francis Borgia had great doubts about the salvation of those that have not a special devotion to Mary; because, according to St. Antonine, he who expects graces from God without the intercession of Mary attempts to fly without wings. St. Anselm has gone so far as to say: 'It is impossible to be saved if we turn away from thee, O Mary.' St. Bonaventure has said the same: 'He that neglects her will die in his sins.' Blessed Albertus Magnus says: 'The people that do not serve thee will perish.' And speaking of Mary, Richard of St. Laurence says: 'All those whom this ship does not receive are lost in the sea of this world.' But, on the other hand, he who is faithful in the service of Mary will be certainly saved. 'Oh Mother of God,' says St. John Damascene, 'if I put my confidence in you I shall be saved. If I am under your protection I have nothing to fear; for to be devoted to you is to have certain arms of salvation which God gives only to those whose salvation he wills in a special manner.'
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in Dignity and Duties of the Priest, p 413-414 (published by the Redemptorist Fathers, copyright Very Rev. James Barron, C.SS.R., 1927, bearing the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Catholic Church).

You (Mary) are the dispenser of all graces; our salvation is in your hands.
-St. Bernardine of Sienna (quoted by St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection (The Necessity and Power of Prayer), Chapter 1, The Necessity of Prayer, Section 4 "The Intercession of the Blessed Virgin").

Heretic Quotes About the Scriptures

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The Scriptures indeed is a divine book but it is a dead letter, which has to be explained, and cannot exercise the action which the preacher can obtain.
-Our Priesthood, by Rev. Joseph Bruneau, S.D.D., p 155, B. Herder Company, 1911 ("nihil obstat" by M.F. Dinneen, S.S.,D.D. -Censor deputatus, "imprimatur" by James Cardinal Gibbons -Archbishop of Baltimore, "Re-Imprimatur" by Michael J. Curley -Archbishop of Baltimore).

...(The Bible is) A dead and speechless book.
-Bertrand L. Conway, Question Box, p 67, The Columbus Press, 1913.

The simple fact is that the Bible, like all dead letters, calls for a living interpreter.
-The Faith of Millions, by Rev. John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D., p 155, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Ind., 1938, ("nihil obstat" by Rev. T. E. Dillon-Censor Librorum and "imprimatur" by John Francis Noll, D.D. -Bishop of Fort Wayne).

We confess that the Holy Scripture is imperfect, and a dead letter, until it is explained by the Supreme Pontiff, and allowed by him to be read by the laity.
-Roman Catholic Confessions for Protestants Oath, Article XXI, (Confessio Romano-Catholica in Hungaria Evangelicis publice praescripta te proposita, editi a Streitwolf), as recorded in Congressional Record of the U.S.A., House Bill 1523, Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, Feb. 15, 1913.

She (the Catholic Church) is not the child of the Bible, as many non-Catholics imagine, but its mother. She derives neither her existence nor her teaching authority from the New Testament.
-The Faith of Millions, by Rev. John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D., p 146, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Ind., 1938, ("nihil obstat" by Rev. T. E. Dillon-Censor Librorum and "imprimatur" by John Francis Noll, D.D. -Bishop of Fort Wayne).

She (the Catholic Church) is not the child of the Bible, as many non-Catholics imagine, but its mother. She derives neither her existence nor her teaching authority from the New Testament.
-The Faith of Millions, by Rev. John A. O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D., p 146, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Ind., 1938, ("nihil obstat" by Rev. T. E. Dillon-Censor Librorum and "imprimatur" by John Francis Noll, D.D. -Bishop of Fort Wayne).

The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.
-Universal Catholic Catechism, #100.

Since Scripture is the written word of God, its contents are Divinely guaranteed truths, revealed either in the strict or the wider sense of the word. Again, since the inspiration of a writing cannot be known without Divine testimony, God must have revealed which are the books that constitute Sacred Scripture. Moreover, theologians teach that Christian Revelation was complete in the Apostles, and that its deposit was entrusted to the Apostles to guard and to promulgate. Hence the apostolic deposit of Revelation contained not merely Sacred Scripture in the abstract, but also the knowledge as to its constituent books. Scripture, then, is an Apostolic deposit entrusted to the Church, and to the Church belongs its lawful administration. This position of Sacred Scripture in the Church implies the following consequences:

"(1) The Apostles promulgated both the Old and New Testament as a document received from God. It is antecedently probable that God should not cast his written Word upon men as a mere windfall, coming from no known authority, but that he should entrust its publication to the care of those whom he was sending to preach the Gospel to all nations, and with whom he had promised to be for all days, even to the consummation of the world. In conformity with this principle, St. Jerome (De script. eccl.) says of the Gospel of St. Mark: "When Peter had heard it, he both approved of it and ordered it to be read in the churches". The Fathers testify to the promulgation of Scripture by the Apostles where they treat of the transmission of the inspired writings.

"(2) The transmission of the inspired writings consists in the delivery of Scripture by the Apostles to their successors with the right, the duty, and the power to continue its promulgation, to preserve its integrity and identity, to explain its meaning, to use it in proving and illustrating Catholic teaching, to oppose and condemn any attack upon its doctrine, or any abuse of its meaning. We may infer all this from the character of the inspired writings and the nature of the Apostolate; but it is also attested by some of the weightiest writers of the early Church. St. Irenaeus insists upon these points against the Gnostics, who appealed to Scripture as to private historical documents. He excludes this Gnostic view, first by insisting on the mission of the Apostles and upon the succession in the Apostolate, especially as seen in the Church of Rome (Haer., III, 3-4); secondly, by showing that the preaching of the Apostles continued by their successors contains a supernatural guarantee of infallibility through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost (Haer., III, 24); thirdly, by combining the Apostolic succession and the supernatural guarantee of the Holy Ghost (Haer., IV, 26). It seems plain that, if Scripture cannot be regarded as a private historical document on account of the official mission of the Apostles, on account of the official succession in the Apostolate of their successors, on account of the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised to the Apostles and their successors, the promulgation of Scripture, the preservation of its integrity and identity, and the explanation of its meaning must belong to the Apostles and their legitimate successors. The same principles are advocated by the great Alexandrian doctor, Origen (De princ., Praef.). "That alone", he says, "is to be believed to be the truth which in nothing differs from the ecclesiastical and and Apostolical tradition". In another passage (in Matth. tr. XXIX, n. 46-47), he rejects the contention urged by the heretics "as often as they bring forward canonical Scriptures in which every Christian agrees and believes", that "in the houses is the word of truth"; "for from it (the Church) alone the sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world". That the African Church agrees with the Alexandrian, is clear from the words of Tertullian (De praescript., nn, 15, 19). He protests against the admission of heretics "to any discussion whatever touching the Scriptures". "This question should be first proposed, which is now the only one to be discussed, `To whom belongs the faith itself: whose are the Scriptures'?. . .For the true Scriptures and the true expositions and all the true Christian traditions will be wherever both the true Christian rule and faith shall be shown to be". St. Augustine endorses the same position when he says: "I should not believe the Gospel except on the authority of the Catholic Church" (Con. epist. Manichaei, fundam., n. 6).

"(3) By virtue of its official and permanent promulgation, Scripture is a public document, the Divine authority of which is evident to all the members of the Church.

"(4) The Church necessarily possesses a text of Scripture, which is internally authentic, or substantially identical with the original. Any form or version of the text, the internal authenticity of which the Church has approved either by its universal and constant use, or by a formal declaration, enjoys the character of external or public authenticity, i.e., its conformity with the original must not merely be presumed juridically, but must be admitted as certain on account of the infallibility of the Church.

"(5) The authentic text, legitimately promulgated, is a source and rule of faith, though it remains only a means or instrument in the hands of the teaching body of the Church, which alone has the right of authoritatively interpreting Scripture.

"(6) The administration and custody of Scripture is not entrusted directly to the whole Church, but to its teaching body, though Scripture itself is the common property of the members of the whole Church. While the private handling of Scripture is opposed to the fact that it is common property, its administrators are bound to communicate its contents to all the members of the Church.

"(7) Though Scripture is the property of the Church alone, those outside her pale may use it as a means of discovering or entering the Church. But Tertullian shows that they have no right to apply Scripture to their own purposes or to turn it against the Church. He also teaches Catholics how to contest the right of heretics to appeal to Scripture at all (by a kind of demurrer), before arguing with them on single points of Scriptural doctrine.

"(8) The rights of the teaching body of the Church include also that of issuing and enforcing decrees for promoting the right use, or preventing the abuse of Scripture. Not to mention the definition of the Canon (see CANON), the Council of Trent issued two decrees concerning the Vulgate (see VULGATE), and a decree concerning the interpretation of Scripture (see EXEGESIS, HERMENEUTICS), and this last enactment was repeated in a more stringent form by the Vatican Council (sess. III, Conc. Trid., sess. IV). The various decisions of the Biblical Commission derive their binding force from this same right of the teaching body of the Church. (Cf. Stapleton, Princ. Fid. Demonstr., X-XI; Wilhelm and Scannell, 'Manual of Catholic Theology', London, 1890, I, 61 sqq.; Scheeben, 'Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik', Freiburg, 1873, I, 126 sqq.).
-The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, “Scripture”, Section V, Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912 by Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

The belief in the Bible as the sole source of faith is unhistorical, illogical, fatal to the virtue of faith, and destructive of unity.
-The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, "Protestantism", Section III A - Sola Scriptura ("Bible Alone"), Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912 by Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

The [first] objective [or formal] principle (of Protestantism) proclaims the canonical Scriptures, especially the New Testament to be the only infallible source and rule of faith and practice, and asserts the right of private interpretation of the same, in distinction from the Roman Catholic view, which declares the Bible and tradition to be co-ordinate sources and rule of faith, and makes tradition, especially the decrees of popes and councils, the only legitimate and infallible interpreter of the Bible.
-The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, "Protestantism", Section I, 1 - Sola Scriptura ("Bible Alone"), Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912 by Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

The task of interpreting authentically the Word of God has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church.
-Vatican Council II, "Dei Verbum," ch. 2:10; ed. Fr. Austin Flannery, OP, Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Co., 1975, p. 755, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 3: "True Faith Can Be Found Only in the Catholic Church").

This is the goal too of the crafty Bible Societies which renew the old skill of the heretics and ceaselessly force on people of all kinds, even the uneducated, gifts of the Bible. They issue these in large numbers and at great cost, in vernacular (language of the people) translations, which infringe the holy rules of the Church. The commentaries which are included often contain perverse explanations; so, having rejected divine tradition, the doctrine of the Fathers and the authority of the Catholic Church, they all interpret the words of the Lord by their own private judgment, thereby perverting their meaning. As a result, they fall into the greatest errors. Gregory XVI of happy memory, Our superior predecessor, followed the lead of his own predecessors in rejecting these societies in his apostolic letters. It is Our will to condemn them likewise.
-Pope Pius IX, Qui Pluribus (On Faith And Religion), Encyclical promulgated on November 9, 1846, #14.

Moreover, regarding the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, even many centuries ago bishops in various places have at times had to exercise greater vigilance when they became aware that such translations were being read in secret gatherings or were being distributed by heretics. Innocent III issued warnings concerning the secret gatherings of laymen and women, under the pretext of piety, for the reading of Scripture in the diocese of Metz. There was also a special prohibition of Scripture translations promulgated either in Gaul a little later or in Spain before the sixteenth century. But later even more care was required when the Lutherans and Calvinists dared to oppose the changeless doctrine of the faith with an almost incredible variety of errors. They left no means untried to deceive the faithful with perverse explanations of the sacred books, which were published by their adherents with new interpretations in the vernacular. They were aided in multiplying copies and quickly spreading them by the newly invented art of printing. Therefore in the rules written by the fathers chosen by the Council of Trent, approved by Pius IV,'s and placed in the Index of forbidden books, we read the statute declaring that vernacular Bibles are forbidden except to those for whom it is judged that the reading will contribute 'to the increase of faith and piety.' Because of the continued deceptions of heretics, this rule was further restricted and supplemented by a declaration of Benedict XIV: for the future the only vernacular translations which may be read are those which 'are approved by the Apostolic See' or at least were published 'with annotations taken from the holy Fathers of the Church, or from learned and Catholic authors.'...

Now, however...We learned from reports and documents just received that a number of men of various sects met in the city of New York last year on June 12 and founded a new society called Christian League. Their common purpose is to spread religious liberty, or rather an insane desire for indifference concerning religion...the societies have concentrated on these people so that they will bring corrupt, vernacular Bibles here and secretly spread them among the faithful. They will also distribute other evil books and pamphlets composed with the aid of some Italians or translated into Italian in order to alienate the minds of the readers from the Holy Church and from obedience to it. Among these they designate particularly the Histoire de la reformation by Merle d'Aubigne and Fostes de la Reforme en Italie by John Cric....

Therefore, taking counsel with a number of Cardinals, and weighing the whole matter seriously and in good time, We have decided to send this letter to all of you. We again condemn all the above-mentioned biblical societies of which our predecessors disapproved. We specifically condemn the new one called Christian League founded last year in New York and other societies of the same kind, if they have already joined with it or do so in the future. Therefore let it be known to all that anyone who joins one of these societies, or aids it, or favors it in any way will be guilty of a grievous crime. Besides We confirm and renew by Our apostolic authority the prescriptions listed and published long ago concerning the publication, dissemination, reading, and possession of vernacular translations of sacred Scriptures. Concerning other works of any writer We repeat that all must abide by the general rules and decrees of Our predecessors which are found in the Index of forbidden books, and indeed not only for those books specifically listed, but also for others to which the aforementioned prohibitions apply.

Thus, We emphatically exhort you to announce these Our commands to the people accredited to your pastoral care; explain them in the proper place and time, and strive mightily to keep the faithful sheep away from the Christian League and other biblical societies, as well as away from their followers. Also take from the faithful both the vernacular Bibles which have been published contrary to the sanctions of the Roman Pontiffs and all other books which are proscribed and condemned.
-Pope Gregory XVI, Inter Praecipuas (On Biblical Societies), Encyclical promulgated on May 8, 1844, #4, 9, 11 & 12.

If we must choose between the Holy Scriptures of God, and the old errors of the church, we should reject the former.
-Johnan Faber (a defender of the Papacy) cited in History of The Reformation, by Merle d'Aubinge, book 11, Chapter 5, Paragraph 9.

Like two sacred rivers flowing from paradaise, the Bible and divine tradition contain the word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on acount of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe.
-Catholic Belief, by Joseph Faa di Bruno, p 45.

Heretic Quotes About Catholic Church and its Dogmas

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Not least among the blessings which have resulted from the public and legitimate honor paid to the Blessed Virgin and the saints is the perfect and perpetual immunity of the Church from error and heresy. We may well admire in this the admirable wisdom of the Providence of God, who, ever bringing good out of evil, has from time to time suffered the faith and piety of men to grow weak, and allowed Catholic truth to be attacked by false doctrines, but always with the result that truth has afterwards shone out with greater splendor, and that men's faith, aroused from its lethargy, has shown itself more vigorous than before.
-His Holiness Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King, December 11, 1925, #22.

For both the juridical mission of the Church, and the power to teach, govern and administer the Sacraments, derive their supernatural efficacy and force of the building up of the body of Christ from the fact that Jesus Christ, hanging on the Cross, opened up to His Church the fountain of those divine gifts, which prevent her from ever teaching false doctrine and enable her to rule them for the salvation of their souls through divinely enlightened pastors and to bestow on them an abundance of heavenly graces.
-Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ), Encyclical promulgated on June 29, 1943, #31.

Therefore, let those who wish to be saved come to this pillar, to this foundation of the truth which is the Church; let them come to the true Church of Christ which, in her Bishops and in the Roman Pontiff, the supreme head of all, possesses the uninterrupted succession of apostolic authority, which has never had anything more closely at heart than to preach, to preserve, and to defend with all her strength the doctrine announced but the Apostles on the order of Jesus Christ; who...strengthened by the testimony and the wise writings of the Fathers, has sent down roots and still flourishes in all the countries of the earth, brilliant in the perfect unity of her faith, of the sacraments and of her spiritual sacred government....Let all those who oppose Us remember that heaven and earth will pass away, but that not one of Christ's words can pass away, that nothing can be changed in the doctrine which the Catholic Church has received from Jesus Christ to preserve, to defend, and to preach.
-Pope Pius IX, in 1847, (quoted in "Papal Teachings: The Church", by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, St. Paul Editions, Boston, 1962, par. 196).

And just as this one Church cannot err in faith or morals...
-The Catechism of Trent, Article IX : "I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints".

The faith shall never vary in any age, for one is the faith which justifies the Just of all ages. It is unlawful to differ even by a single word from apostolic doctrine.
-Pope St. Leo the Great, Magno Munere, Epistle 82 to Emperor Marcian, PL 54; FOC, pp.113, 356; Sermon LXIII, PL 54:353; SS, vol. 2, p. 150, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

The Catholic Faith is such that nothing can be added to it, nothing taken away. Either it is held in its entirety, or rejected totally. This is the Catholic faith, which, unless a man believes faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.
-Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi, PTC:761, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Nothing can ever pass away from the words of Jesus Christ, nor can anything be changed which the Catholic Church received from Christ to guard, protect, and preach.
-Pope Pius IX, Ubi Primum, quoted in "Our Glorious Popes", published by Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cambridge, MA: 1955, p. 157, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Nothing ever changes in the eternal Catholic doctrine.
-Pope John Paul II, LOR, #49, December 9, 1992, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Nothing new is to be allowed, for nothing can be added to the old. Look for the faith of the elders, and do not let our faith be disturbed by a mixture of new doctrines.
-Pope St. Sixtus III, De Jejun., sermon CXXIX; also Epistle to John of Antioch, VIII:7, FOC, p.,185-186, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Let nothing of the truths that have been defined be lessened, nothing altered, nothing added; but let them be preserved intact in word and in meaning.
-Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

For it is not allowable for anyone to change even one word nor allow one syllable to be passed over..
-St. Cyril of Alexandria, Epistle 55, PG 77:292, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Wherefore, if there be revealed to us anything new or different, we must in no way give consent to it, not even though it were spoken by an angel."
-St. John of the Cross, "The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. ed., Washington: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Under no circumstances can we conceive of the possibility of change, of evolution, or of any modification in matters of faith. The Creed remains always the same.
-(Pope Paul VI, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

The faith which God has revealed has not been proposed like a theory of philosophy, to be elaborated upon by human understanding, but as a divine deposit to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared. Therefore, that sense of sacred dogmas is to be kept forever which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and it must never be deviated from on the specious pretext of a more profound understanding. Let intelligence, and science, and wisdom increase, but only according to the same dogma, the same sense, the same meaning. If anyone shall have said that there may ever be attributed to the doctrines proposed by the Church a sense which is different from the sense which the Church has once understood and now understands: let him be anathema.
-First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, ch. 4, DNZ:1800; "On Faith," ch. 4, Canon 3, DNZ:1818, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

Our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church. We must hold this for certain: that the faith of the people at the present day is one with the faith of the people of past centuries. Were this not true, then we would be in a different church than they and, literally, the Church would not be One."
-St. Thomas Aquinas, On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, Q. #14, art. 12, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955, (quoted in The Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 6: "The Book of Sentimental Excuses", Chapter 4: "The Dogmas of Faith Admit No Alteration Whatsoever").

To the one true (Catholic) Church of Christ, We say, that stands forth before all, and that by the will of its Founder will remain forever the same as when He Himself established it for the salvation of all mankind.

The Mystical Spouse of Christ has in the course of the centuries remained unspotted, nor can it ever be contaminated.
-Pope Pius XI, Pontifex Maximus, in Mortalium Animos (The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical promulgated on January 6, 1928.

The Spouse of Christ cannot commit adultery; she is incorrupt and modest, she knows one house, she guards with chaste modesty the holiness of one room.
-St. Cyprian, De Cath. Ecclesiae Unitate, #6 (Quoted by Pope Pius XI, Pontifex Maximus, in Mortalium Animos (The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical promulgated on January 6, 1928.

[It is error to believe that] Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are superior to the Church in deciding questions of jurisdiction.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section VI, Errors About Civil Society, Considered Both in Itself and in its Relation to the Church, #54.

[It is error to believe that] In the case of conflicting laws enacted by the two powers (Church and civil), the civil law prevails.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section VI, Errors About Civil Society, Considered Both in Itself and in its Relation to the Church, # 42.

[It is error to believe that] The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section VI, Errors About Civil Society, Considered Both in Itself and in its Relation to the Church, #55.

The doctrines of the Catholic Church are entirely independent of Holy Scripture.
-Familiar Explanation of Catholic Doctrine, Rev. M. Muller, p.151.

Once he does so (joins the Catholic church), he has no further use for his reason. He enters the Church, an edifice illumined by the superior light of revelation and faith. He can leave reason like a lantern at the door.
-Explanation of Catholic Morals, A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals, by John H. Stapleton, p 76, Benziger Brothers, NY, 1913.

Obey blindly , that is, without asking reasons. Be careful, then, never to examine the directions of your confessor....In a word, keep before your eyes this great rule, that in obeying your confessor you obey God. Force yourself then, to obey him in spite of all fears. And be persuaded that if you are not obedient to him it will be impossible for you to go on well; but if you obey him you are secure. But you say, if I am damned in consequence of obeying my confessor, who will rescue me from hell? What you say is impossible.
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, True Spouse of Christ, p 352, Benziger Brothers, NY.

There is only one remedy for this evil (an over scrupulous conscience), and that remedy is absolute and blind obedience to a prudent director. Choose one, consult him as often as you desire, but do not leave him for another. Then submit punctiliously to his direction. His conscience must be yours for the time being. And if you should err in following him, God will hold him, and not you responsible.
-Explanation of Catholic Morals, A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals, by John H. Stapleton, p 24, Benziger Brothers, NY, 1913.

[It is error to believe that] Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section III, Indifferentism, Latitudinarianism, #15.

[It is error to believe that] Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship. -Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section X, Errors Having Reference to Modern Liberalism, #78.

[It is error to believe that] Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section X, Errors Having Reference to Modern LiberalismI, #79.

This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it....a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice.
-Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism), Encyclical promulgated on August 15, 1832, #14 & 15.

[It is error to believe that] The (Catholic) Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect.
-Pope Pius IX, The Syllabus (of Errors), Issued in 1864, Section V, Errors Concerning the Church and Her Rights, #24.

Do not hold aloof from the Church; for nothing is stronger than the Church. The Church is thy hope, thy salvation, thy refuge.
-St. John Chrysostom, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. IX, Introduction to the Two Homilies on Eutropius, Homily II.

He who thinks he can remain a Christian by his own efforts, deserting the institutional bonds of the visible hierarchical Church, is deceiving himself. The fact remains that God established His Church as a bridge over which we must pass, leading from our unhappy lot to His salvation.
-Pope Paul VI, Mystici Corporis, PTC:1022 ff. 59, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 4: "The Book of Christians", Chapter 1: "Only Catholics Can Be Christians").

Heretic Quotes About Priests

2009-06-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

The priest does really and truly forgive sins in virtue of the power given to him by Christ.
-Joseph Devarbe's Catechism, p. 279.

Sins can be forgiven only through the Sacraments when duly administered; hence, it follows that both priests and Sacraments are the instruments which Christ makes use of to accomplish in us the pardon of sin and the grace of justification.
-Catechism of Trent, p. 115, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 3: "The Sacraments Administered by the Priests Are Necessary for the Salvation of All Mankind").

And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priest and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse to give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it.
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p. 27.

Were the Redeemer to descend into a church, and sit in a confessional to administer the sacrament of penance, and a priest to sit in a confessional, Jesus would say over each penitent: 'Ego te absolvo,' the priest would likewise say over each of his penitents, 'Ego te absolvo,' and the penitents of each would be equally absolved.
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p. 34.

Before dealing with the proofs of revelation afforded by the Bible and tradition, certain preliminary points must first be decided. Of these the most important is that the Church intends the Mass to be regarded as a 'true and proper sacrifice', and will not tolerate the idea that the sacrifice is identical with Holy Communion. That is the sense of a clause from the Council of Trent (Sess. XXII, can. 1): 'If any one saith that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God; or, that to be offered is nothing else but that Christ is given us to eat; let him be anathema.
-The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Sacrifice of the Mass", Section I, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

If the Mass is to be something more than an Ober-Ammergau Passion Play, then not only must Christ appear in His real personality on the altar, but He must also be in some manner really sacrificed on that very altar.
-The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Sacrifice of the Mass", Section II, C, i, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

...Only when the priest is there can we have our altar and our tabernacle and our Jesus. Only the priest can put Jesus there for us...Jesus wants to go there, but we cannot bring him unless you (priests) first give him to us....

This is one of the reasons you are called 'another Christ'.
-Mother Teresa, addressing attendants at the Worldwide Retreat for Priests in Paul VI Audience Hall, Vatican City, October, 1984.

...the power of the priest is the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world....thus the priest may be called the creator of the Creator...
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p 33.

Power of Consecrating: The supreme power of the priestly office is the power of consecrating. 'No act is greater,' says St. Thomas, 'than the consecration of the body of Christ.' In this essential phase of the sacred ministry, the power of the priest is not surpassed by that of the bishop, the archbishop, the cardinal or the pope. Indeed it is equal to that of Jesus Christ. For in this role the priest speaks with the voice and the authority of God Himself. When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of Consecration, he reaches up into heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man.

It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. For, while the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man - not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ the Eternal and Omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.

Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vicegerent of Christ on earth! He continues the essential ministry of Christ; he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially found of applying to the priest is that of 'alter Christus.' For the priest is and should be another Christ.
-Faith of Millions, by John O'Brien, Ph.D., LL.D., p 268-269 ("nihil obstat" by Rev. T. E. Dillon-Censor Librorum and "imprimatur" by John Francis Noll, D.D. -Bishop of Fort Wayne).

Our Lord was immolated on Calvary. He offers Himself again every morning at the altar by the hands of His priest. The sacrifice of the Mass is essentially the same as that of the Cross. What share has the priest in that sacrifice ? Where does he find the victim ? Ubi est victima, could he, like Isaac of old, ask when ascending the steps of the altar. Listen : Hoc est corpus meum, says this priest bending over a small piece of bread. What happens? Agnoscite quod agitis: The divine Victim is present: Ave verum corpus! 'Hic est calix sanguinis mei,' continues the priest: We adore the divine Victim sacrificed to God. Agnoscite quod agitis. The priest says: Hoc est corpus meum, he has to say it for the validity of the consecration. Meum! But it is not he who says these words; his voice indeed we hear, but he is only the instrument of the Sovereign Priest: our Lord speaks through His minister. The glory of this minister consists precisely in disappearing, in allowing Jesus to act through his personality: Sacerdos alter Christus.This Christ now offering Himself to God by the hands of the priest is the same Christ who is in heaven. Same happiness, same power, same majesty. He is performing the same acts, offering the same adorations, the same thanksgiving, the same prayers. He, the object of the beatitude of the elect, is now in the hands of the priest: Agnoscite quod agitis. But if really the priest causes our Lord to be present on the altar, if he offers Him, whilst Jesus is now in heaven, have we not to conclude that it is from the very bosom of the Father that the priest draws this divine Victim? Agnoscite quod agitis.
-Our Priesthood, by Rev.Joseph Bruneau, S.D.D., 149-151 ("nihil obstat" by M.F. Dinneen, S.S.,D.D. -Censor deputatus, "imprimatur" by James Cardinal Gibbons -Archbishop of Baltimore, "Re-Imprimatur" by Michael J. Curley -Archbishop of Baltimore).

...we find in the obediance to the words of his priests -- Hoc est Corpus Meum -- God Himself descends on the altar, that he comes whenever they call him, and as often as they call him, and places himself in their hands, even though they should be his enemies. And after having come, he remains, entirely at their disposal; they move him as they please, from one place to another; they may, if they wish, shut him up in the tabernacle, expose him on the altar, or carry him outside the church; they may, if they choose, eat his flesh, and give him for the food of others. 'Oh, how very great is their power!'
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p 26-27.

And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of his priest and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse to give absolution, provided the penitent is capable of it.
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in Duties and Dignities of the Priest, p 27.

Innocent III has written: 'Indeed, it is not too much to say that in view of the sublimity of their offices the priests are so many gods.'
-St. Alphonsus De Liguori, in The Dignity of the Priesthood, p 3.

A priest is truly another Christ living and walking on earth. He takes Christ's place, represents his person, acts in his name and exercises his authority.
-St. John Eudes, (quoted in "Living With the Heart", Pastoral Letter of Bishop François Thibodeau, Eudist, Bishop of Edmundston for the Feast of Pentecost, June 3, 2001 and the Four Hundredeth Anniversary of the Birth of Saint John Eudes (Nov. 14, 1601).

Let them (those separate from the Catholic Church) not think that the way of life or salvation exists for them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests...For they cannot live outside, since there is only one house of God, and there can be no salvation for anyone except in the Church.
-St. Cyprian: "Letters 61:4.

Just as no man can enter any place without the help of him who has the keys, so no one is admitted to Heaven unless its gates be unlocked by the priests to whose custody the Lord gave the keys.
-Catechism of Trent, p. 286, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 2: "No One Can Be Saved Who Refuses Obedience to the Pastors of the Church").

You must submit yourself faithfully to those who have charge of divine things, and you must look to them for the means of your salvation.
-Pope St. Gelasius I, RCH, vol. 1, p.147, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 3: "The Sacraments Administered by the Priests Are Necessary for the Salvation of All Mankind").

For if any one will consider how great a thing it is for one, being a man, and compassed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to draw nigh to that blessed and pure nature, he will then clearly see what great honor the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests; since by their agency these rites are celebrated, and others nowise inferior to these both in respect of our dignity and our salvation. For they who inhabit the earth and make their abode there are entrusted with the administration of things which are in Heaven, and have received an authority which God has not given to angels or archangels...and what priests do here below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the sentence of his servants. For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He has given them when He says, 'Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain they are retained?' What authority could be greater than this? 'The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son?' But I see it all put into the hands of these men by the Son. For they have been conducted to this dignity as if they were already translated to Heaven, and had transcended human nature, and were released from the passions to which we are liable....For transparent madness it is to despise so great a dignity, without which it is not possible to obtain either our own salvation, or the good things which have been promised to us. For if no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate through water and the Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of those holy hands, I mean the hands of the priest, how will any one, without these, be able to escape the fire of hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the victorious?
-St. John Chrysostom, Treatise on the Priesthood, Book III, #5, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. IX.

Therefore, follow the bishops and priests. Apart from them, there is nothing that can be called a church. Anyone outside is impure; he is worse than an infidel. In other words, anyone who acts apart from the bishop and the priests and deacons does not have a clean conscience. For, all who belong to God and to Jesus Christ are with the bishop. Make no mistake about it: no one who follows another into schism inherits the kingdom of God.
-St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans, VII:2, TAF, vol. I, p. 82; FOC, p. 124; Epistle to the Philadelphians, ch. 3, II:3; Epistle to the Trallians, ch's. 2 & 7; PG 5:643 ff, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 2: "No One Can Be Saved Who Refuses Obedience to the Pastors of the Church").

...submit yourself to the bishops and seek from them the means of your salvation.
-Pope Gregory XVI, Commissum Divinitus (On Church and State), Encyclical promulgated on May 17, 1835, #8.

Through priests, God communicates His grace to the faithful in the Sacraments. In a word, without priests, we cannot be saved!
-St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: "The Book of Obedience", Chapter 3: "The Sacraments Administered by the Priests Are Necessary for the Salvation of All Mankind").

Juan Antonio Llorente's File of Inquisition

2009-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain
Juan Antonio Llorente
John Lilburne Company 1967
(reprint of John Lilburne 1823 English edition)

"Although a tribunal has existed for more than three hundred years in Spain, invested with the power of prosecuting heretics, no correct history of its origin, establishment, and progress has been written.
Writers of many countries have spoken of Inquisitions established in different parts of the world, where the Roman Catholic faith is the religion of state, and yet not one is worthy of confidence. The work of M. Lavallée, entitled the "History of the Inquisitions of Italy, Spain, and Portugal," and published in 1809, has only added to the historical errors of the authors who preceded him. The Spanish and Portuguese writers on the same subject deserve no higher credit; and have not detailed, with accuracy, the circumstances which led to the establishment of this dreadful tribunal. These writers even differ in their statements of the period of its origin, and place it between the years 1477 and 1484. One affirms, with confidence, that the latter date is the true one, because in that year the regulations of the tribunal were enacted; another decides that it originated in 1483, because in that year Thomas Torquemada was appointed inquisitor-general by the Pope.

The inquisition of Spain was not a new tribunal created by Ferdinand V and Isabella, the queen of Castile, but only a reform and extension of the ancient tribunal, which had existed from the thirteenth century.

No one could write a complete and authentic history of the Inquisition, who was not either an inquisitor or a secretary of the holy office. Persons holding only these situations could be permitted to make memoranda of papal bulls, the ordinances of sovereigns, the decisions of the councils of the "Supréme," of the originals of the preliminary processes for suspicion of heresy, or extracts of those which had been deposited in the archives. Being myself the secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid, during the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, I have the firmest confidence in my being able to give the world a true code of the secret laws by which the interior of the Inquisition was governed, of those laws which were veiled by mystery from all mankind, excepting those men to whom the knowledge of their political import was exclusively reserved. A firm conviction, from knowing the deep objects of this tribunal, that it was vicious in principle, in its constitution, and in the laws, notwithstanding all that has been said in its support, induced me to avail myself of the advantage my situation afforded me, and to collect every document I could procure relative to its history. My perseverance has been crowned with success far beyond my hopes, for in addition to an abundance of materials, obtained with labour and expense, consisting of unpublished manuscripts and papers, mentioned in the inventories of deceased inquisitors, and other officers of the inquisition, in 1809, 1810, and 1811, when the Inquisition in Spain was suppressed, all the archives were placed at my disposal; and from 1809 to 1812 I collected everything that appeared to me to be of consequence in the registers of the council of the Inquisition, and in the provincial tribunals, for the purpose of compiling this history.

Never has a prisoner of the Inquisition seen either the accusation against himself, or any other. No one was ever permitted to know more of his own cause than he could learn of it by the interrogations and accusations to which he was obliged to reply, and by the extracts from the declarations of the witnesses, which were communicated to him, while not only their names were carefully concealed, and every circumstance relating to time, place, and person, by which he might obtain a clue to discover his denouncers, but even if the depositions contained any thing favourable to the defence of the prisoner. The maxim on which this was founded, is, that the accused ought not to occupy himself but in replying to the chief points of his accusation, and that it was the province of the judge afterwards to compare the answers that he had made with those which had been given favourable to his acquittal. Philip Limborch and many more of veracity have erred in their histories, from their ignorance of the method of conducting an inquisitorial trial. Those authors relied wholly on the accounts of prisoners, who knew nothing of the ground-work of their own case; and the details of Eymerick, Paramo, Pegna, Carena, and some other inquisitors, are too limited to yield the necessary information.

These facts make me hope that I shall not transgress the bounds of propriety when I say, that I only can give a true history of the Inquisition, as I only possess the materials necessary for the undertaking.

I have read the most celebrated trials of the modern Inquisition, and the details given by me differ essentially from those of other historians, not excepting those in Limborch, who is the most exact of them. The trials of Don Carlos of Austria, prince of the Austurias, of Don Bartholomew Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, and of Antony Perez, the first minister and secretary of Philip II, have been greatly illustrated in many important particulars.

I have established the truth of that which concerns the Emperor Charles V; Jeanne of Albret, queen of Navarre; Henry IV king of France, her son, and of Margaret of Bourbon the sovereign duchess of Bar, her daughter; of Don James of Navarre, son of Don Carlos, prince of Biana, surnamed the Infant of Tudela; of John Pic de Mirandola; of don John of Austria, son of Philip IV; of Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, and grandson of Charles V; Don Philip of Arragon, son of the Emperor of Morocco; of Ceasar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, and relation of the king of Navarre; of Jean Albret, duke of Valentinois, peer of France; of Don Peter Louis Borgia, last grand-master of the military order of Montesa, and of many other princes against whom the Inquisition exercised its power. The lover of history will find the details of the trials of seven archbishops, twenty bishops, and a great number of learned men, among whom are many of the members of the Council of Trent, who were unfortunately suspected of entertaining or favouring the Lutheran doctrines. To this list I have added the suits instituted by the holy office against many saints, and other personages, held in reverence by the Church of Spain, and also of many literati persecuted by this tribunal. These, for the sake of perspicuity, I have divided into two classes; the first class comprises those learned theologians who were accused of Lutheranism, for having, in their seal, corrected the text of Bibles already published, or Latin translations from the Greek and Hebrew editions. The second class consists of those learned men, designated by the holy office under the title of False Philosophers, and who were persecuted for having manifested a wish to destroy in Spain, superstition and fanaticism.

This history will make known numberless attempts perpetrated by the inquisitors against magistrates who defended the rights of sovereign authority, in opposition to the enterprises of the holy office and the court of Rome; and which enables me to state the trials of many celebrated men and ministers who defended the prerogatives of the crown, and whose only crimes were having published works on the right of the crown, according with the principles of jurisprudence. These trials will display the Counsellors of the Inquisition carrying their audacity to such a height, as to deny that their temporal jurisdiction was derived from the concession of their sovereign, and actually prosecuting all the members of the council of Castile, as rash men, suspected of heresy, for having made known and denounced to the king this system of usurpation. In addition to these intolerable acts, will be found accounts of their assumption of superiority over viceroys, and other great officers of state. I have also shewn, that these ministers of persecution have been the chief causes of the decline of literature, and almost the annihilators of nearly all that could enlighten the people, by their ignorance, their blind submission to the monks who were qualifiers, and by persecuting the magistrates and the learned who were anxious to disseminate information. These monks were despicable scholastic theologians, too ignorant and prejudiced to be able to ascertain the truth between the doctrines of Luther and those of Roman Catholicism, and so condemned, as Lutheran, propositions incontestably true.

The horrid conduct of this holy office weakened the power and diminished the population of Spain, by arresting the progress of arts, sciences, industry, and commerce, and by compelling multitudes of families to abandon the kingdom; by instigating the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors; and by immolating on its flaming shambles more than three hundred thousand victims!! So replete with duplicity was the system of the inquisitors-general, and the council of this holy office, that if a papal bull was likely to circumscribe their power, or check their vengeance, they refused to obey, on the pretext of its being opposed to the laws of the kingdom, and the orders of the Spanish government. By a similar proceeding, they evaded the ordinances of the king, by alleging that papal bulls prevented them from obeying, under pain of excommunication. Secrecy, the foe of truth and justice, was the soul of the tribunal of the Inquisition; it gave to it new life and vigour, sustained and strengthened its arbitrary power, and so emboldened it, that it had the hardihood to arrest the highest and noblest in the land, and enabled it to deceive, by concealing facts, popes, kings, viceroys, and all invested with authority by their sovereign. This holy office, veiled by secrecy, unhesitatingly kept back, falsified, concealed, or forged the reports of trials, when compelled to open their archives to popes or kings. The Inquisitors constantly succeeded, by this detestable knavery, in concealing the truth, and facilitated their object by being careful not to number the reports. This was practiced to a great extend in the trials of the archbishop of Toledo, of the Prothonotary, and others.

Facts prove beyond a doubt, that the extirpation of Judaism was not the real cause, but the mere pretext, for the establishment of the Inquisition by Ferdinand V. The true motive was to carry on a vigorous system of confiscation against the Jews, and so bring their riches into the hands of the government. Sixtus VI sanctioned the measure, to gain the point dearest to the court of Rome, an extent of domination. Charles V protected it from motives of policy, being convinced it was the only means of preventing the heresy of Luther from penetrating into Spain. Philip II was actuated by superstition and tyranny to uphold it; and even extended its jurisdiction to the excise, and made the exporters of horses into France liable to seizure by the officers of the tribunal, as persons suspected of heresy! Philip III, Philip IV, and Charles II, pursued the same course, stimulated by similar fanaticism and imbecility, when the re-union of Portugal to Spain led to the discovery of many Jews. Philip V maintained the Inquisition from considerations of mistaken policy, inherited from Louis XIV, who made him believe that such rigour would ensure the tranquillity of the kingdom, which was always in danger when many religions were tolerated. Ferdinand VI and Charles III befriended this holy office, because they would not deviate from the course that their father had traced, and because the latter hated the freemasons. Lastly, Charles IV supported the tribunal, because the French Revolution seemed to justify a system of surveillance, and her found a firm support in the zeal of the inquisitors-general, always attentive to the preservation and extension of their power, as if the sovereign authority could find no surer means of strengthening the throne, than the terror inspired by an Inquisition.

During the time I remained in London, I heard some Catholics affirm that the Inquisition was useful in Spain, to preserve the Catholic faith, and that a similar establishment would have been useful in France.

These persons were deceived, by believing that it was sufficient for people to be good Catholics not to have any fear of the holy office. They knew not that nine-tenths of the prisoners were deemed guilty, though true to their faith, because ignorance or malice of the denouncers prosecuted them for points of doctrine, which were not susceptible of heretical interpretation, but in the judgment of an illiterate monk, is considered erudite by the world, because he is said to have studied the theology of the schools. The Inquisition encouraged hypocrisy, and punished those who either did not know, or would not, assume the mask. This tribunal wrought no conversion. The Jews and Morescoes, who were baptized without being truly converted, merely that they might remain in Spain, are examples which prove the truth of this assertion. The former perished on the pyres of the Inquisition, the latter crossed into Africa with the Moors, as much Mahometans as their ancestors were before they were baptized.

I conclude with declaring, that the contents of this history are original, and that I have drawn my facts with fidelity, from the most authentic sources, and might have greatly extended them." pp. xi - xix

"The popes employed great influence they had gained over general opinion, to extend and preserve their dominion. Pepin and Charlemagne did not forsee how fatal their example would prove to their successors, when they solicited Stephen II to release the French from their oath of fidelity to Childric III. When the doctrine, that a pope possessed the power of releasing subjects from their oath of fidelity, was once established, it became necessary that kings should endeavour to conciliate the popes. Succeeding events shew that this doctrine was favourable to the rise of the Inquisition." p. 7

"It is necessary to mention several maxims which had been introduced into the ecclesiastical government, and which had passed at that time for incontestable truths. The first of these opinions was, that it was necessary not only to punish obstinate heretics with excommunication, but to employ it against every species of crime, which abuse was carried to such a height that Cardinal St. Peter Damian reproached Pope Alexander with it. According to the second maxim, if an excommunicated Christian persisted for more than a year in refusing to submit and demand absolution, after having been subjected to a canonical penance, he was considered as an heretic. The third maxim held that it was a meritorious act to prosecute heretics, and apostolical indulgences were granted as a recompense for this service to the cause of religion.
These maxims, and several others which prevailed during the fourth epoch, prepared the minds of the people for the establishment of the Inquisition, which was destined to persecute heretics and apostates." p. 9

"The assassination of Peter de Castelnau had excited among the Catholics the greatest indignation against his murderers. Arnauld took advantage of this moment to execute the orders which he had received from the pope. He commissioned the twelve monks, and others who he had associated, to preach a crusade against the heretics, to grant indulgences, to note those who refused to engage in the war, to inform themselves of their creed, to reconcile the converted, and place all obstinate heretics at the disposal of Simon de Montfort, commander of the crusaders. This was the beginning of the Inquisition in 1208.
Pope Innocent III died on the 16th of July, 1216, before he had succeeded in giving a permanent form to the delegated inquisition: the continuation of the war against the Albigenses, and the opposition which he met with from the bishops in the Council of Lateran, were perhaps the causes of his failure. Honorius III, who succeeded him, prepared to finish his undertaking.

Innocent had sent St. Dominic de Guzman to Toulouse, that he might choose one of the religious orders approved by the church, for the institution which he intended to form. He preferred that of St. Augustine; and on his return to Rome with his companions, Honorius approved his choice on the 22nd of December, 1216.

St. Dominic also established an order for laymen. This order has been designated as the Third Order of Penitence, but most commonly as the Militia of Christ, because those who were members of it fought against heretics, and assisted the Inquisitors in the exercise of their functions; they were considered as part of the inquisitorial family, and on that account bore the name of Familiars. This association afterwards gave rise to that which was called the Congregation of St. Peter Martyr; it was approved by Honorius, and confirmed by his successor Gregory IX. Another association was formed in Narbonne, which also bore the name Militia of Christ; it was soon after blended with the third order of St. Dominic. Honorius having formed a constitution against heretics, the Emperor Frederic II gave it the sanction of civil law at his coronation. In 1224 the Inquisition already existed in Italy under the ministry of the Dominican friars, which is proved by an edict of the Emperor Frederick against heretics at Padua. The efforts of the Inquisition in Narbonne had not succeeded according to the expectation of the pope, who imputed its failure to the negligence of Cardinal Conrad, whom he recalled, and sent Cardinal Roman in his place. The importunity of this legate induced Louis VIII, King of France, to place himself at the head of an army to march against the nobles who protected the Albigenses. But Louis died in the same year, and the pope followed him, without having succeeded in giving a permenant form to the new tribunal which had been introduced into France.

Gregory IX, who ascended the pontifical throne in 1227, finally established the Inquisition: he had been the zealous protector of St. Dominic and the intimate friend of St. Francis d'Assiz. Cardinal Roman was more fortunate than the legates who preceded him: the nobles, weary of a war which lasted twenty years, wished for peace. The Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII, after the death of his father, who had begun the war, reconciled himself to St. Louis and the church in a Council of Narbonne, and promised to drive the heretics from his domains.

In 1229 another council was held at Toulouse. The decrees were nearly the same as those made at the Council of Lateran and Verona, except that laymen were then first prohibited from reading the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. In the succeeding year, many other edicts were published, increasing in severity; but it appears that these rigorous measures failed in effect, as the heresy of the Albigenses penetrated even to the capital of Christendom." pp. 14-16

Llorente lists various categories of actions which could lead to a suspicion of heresy (itself a crime) by the Inquisition:
"A species of blasphemy, which was called heretical, belonged to this class of crimes; it was committed against God or his saints, and shewed in the offender erroneous opinions of the omniscience of other attributes of the Deity. It rendered the blasphemer liable to be suspected of heresy, as the inquisitor might consider it a proof that his habitual thoughts were contrary to the faith.

The second species of crime which caused a suspicion of heresy, was sorcery and divination. If the offenders only made use of natural and simple means of discovering the future, such as counting the lines in the palm of the hand, they came under the jurisdiction of a civil judge; but all sorcerers were liable to be punished for heresy by the Inquisition, if they baptized a dead person, re-baptized an infant, made use of holy water, the consecrated host, the oil of extreme unction, or other things which proved the contempt or abuse of the sacraments and the mysteries of religion.

The same suspicion affected those who addressed themselves to demons in their superstitious practices. A third crime was the invocation of demons. Nicholas Eymerick informs us that, in his office of inquisitor, he had procured and burnt, after having read them, two books which treated of that subject; they both contained an account of the power of demons, and of the mode of worshipping them. The same author adds, that in his time a great number of trials for this crime took place in Catalonia, and that many of the accused had gone so far as to worship Satan, with all the sign, ceremonies, and words of the Catholic religion.

A fourth sort of crime which caused suspicion of heresy, was, to remain a year, or longer, excommunicated without seeking absolution, or performing penance which had been imposed. The Popes affirmed that no Catholic, irreproachable in his faith, could live with so much indifference under the censure of the church.

Schism was the sixth case where heresy was suspected; it may exist either without heresy or with it. To the first class belongs all schismatic, who admit the articles of faith, but deny the authority of the Pope, as head of the Catholic church, and vicar of Jesus Christ. The second is composed of those who hold the same opinions as the first, and also refuse to believe in some of the articles, such as the Greeks, who hold that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father, and not from the Son.

The Inquisition also proceeded against concealers, favourers, and adherents of heretics, as being suspected of professing the same opinions. The seventh class was composed of all those who opposed the Inquisition, and prevented the inquisitors from exercising their functions.

The eighth class comprehended those nobles who refused to take an oath to drive the heretics from their states. The ninth class consisted of governers of kingdoms, provinces and towns, who did not defend the church against heretics, when they were required by the Inquisition. The tenth class comprised those who refused to repeal the statutes in force in towns and cities, when they were contrary to the measures decreed by the holy office. The eleventh class of suspected persons, were all lawyers, notaries, and other persons belonging to the law, who assisted heretics by their advice, or concealed papers, records, and other writings, which might make their errors, dwellings, or stations known. In the twelfth class of suspected, were those persons who have given ecclesiastical sepulture to known heretics. Those who refused to take an oath in the trials of heretics when they were required to do it, were also liable to suspicion. The fourteenth class, were deceased persons who had been denounced as heretics. The Popes, in order to render heresy more odious, had decreed that the bodies of dead heretics should be disinterred and burnt, their property confiscated, and their memory pronounced infamous. The same suspicion fell upon the writings which contained heretical doctrines, or which might lead to them. Lastly the Jews and Moors were considered as subject to the holy office, when they engaged Catholics to embrace their faith, either by their writings or discourse.

Although all the persons guilty of the crimes above mentioned were under the jurisdiction of the holy office, yet the Pope, his legates, his nuncios, his officers, and familiars were exempt, and if any of these were denounced as heretics, the inquisitor could only take the secret information and refer it to the Pope. Bishops were also exempt, but kings had not that privilege." p. 21-23

"When a priest was appointed an inquisitor by the Pope, or by a delegate of the holy see, he wrote to the king, who issued a royal mandate to all the tribunals of the towns where the inquisitor would pass to perform his office, commanding them, on pain of the most severe penalties, to arrest all the persons whom he should mark as heretics, or suspected of heresy, and to execute the judgments passed upon them. The same order obligated the magistrates to furnish the inquisitor and his attendants with a lodging, and to protect them from insult and every inconvenience. When the inquisitor arrived at the town where he intended to enter upon his office, he officially informed the magistrate, and required his attendance, fixing the time and place.
The commander of the town presented himself before the delegate, and took an oath to put in force all the laws against heretics. If the officer or magistrate refused to obey, the inquisitor excommunicated him; if he made no difficulty the inquisitor appointed a day for the people to meet in the church, when he preached, and read an edict which commanded that all information should be given within a certain period. The inquisitor afterwards declared that all who should voluntarily confess themselves heretics, should receive absolution, and be subjected to a slight penance, but that those who were denounced should be proceeded against with severity.

If any accusations took place during the interval, they were registered, but did not take effect until it was known that the accused would not come voluntarily before the tribunal. After the expiration of the period allowed, the informer was summoned; he was told that there were three ways of proceeding to discover the truth, accusation, information, and inquisition, and was asked to which he gave the preference; if he chose the first, he was invited to accuse the denounced person, but at the same time to consider that he was subject to the law of retaliation, if he was found to be a calumniator. This manner of proceeding was adopted by very few persons; the greater number declared, that fear of the punishments with which the holy office menaced those who did not inform against heretics was the cause of their appearance, and they desired that their information might be kept secret, on account of the danger they incurred of being assassinated if they were known.

The inquisitor interrogated the witnesses, assisted by the recorder and two priests, who were commissioned to observe if the declarations were faithfully taken down, and to be present if they acknowledged all that was read to them. If the crime or suspicion of heresy was proved in the information, the criminal was arrested and taken to the ecclesiastical prison. After his arrest, he was examined, and his answers compared with the testimony of the witnesses. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy, it was in vain for him to assert that he was innocent of the others; he was not permitted to defend himself, because his crime was proved. He was asked if he would abjure the heresy of which he acknowledged himself guilty. If he consented, he was reconciled, and the canonical penance was imposed on him with some other punishment; if he refused, he was declared an obstinate heretic, and was delivered up to secular justice, with a copy of his sentence.

If the accused denied the charge, and undertook to defend himself, a copy of the process was given to him, but without the names of the accuser or the witnesses, and with every circumstance omitted which might lead to their discovery.

The accused was asked if he had enemies, and if he knew their motives for hating him. He was also permitted to declare that he suspected any particular person of wishing ruin him. In either case the proof was admitted, and the inquisitor considered it in passing judgment. The inquisition sometimes asked the accused if he knew certain persons; these individuals were the accusers and witnesses; if he replied in the negative, he could not afterwards challenge them as enemies; in the course of time, every one concluded that these persons were the accuser, and the witness and the custom was abandoned. The accused person was also permitted to appeal to the Pope, who rejected or admitted his appeal, according to the rules of justice. There was no regular proceeding before the Inquisition, and the judges did not fix a time to establish proof of the facts. After the replies and defence of the accused, the inquisitor and the bishop of the diocese, or their delegates, proceeded to pass sentence without any other formalities. If the accused denied the charges, although he was convicted or strongly suspected, he was tortured to force him to confess his crime; or if it was thought that there was no necessity for it, the judges proceeded to pass the final sentence.

If the crime imputed to the accused was not proven, he was acquitted, and a copy of the declaration given to him, but the name of his accuser was not communicated. If he had been calumniated, he was obliged to clear himself publicly by the canonical method, in the town where it had taken place; he afterwards abjured all heresy, and received the absolution ad cautelam for all the censures which he had incurred. In order to proportion the punishment to the suspicion, it was divided into three degrees, named slight, serious, and violent.

The person who was declared to be suspected, though in the least degree, was called upon to renounce all heresies, and particularly that of which he was suspected. If he consented, he was reconciled, and was subject to punishments and penances; if he refused, he was excommunicated, and if he did not demand absolution, or promise to abjure after the space of one year, he was considered as an obstinate heretic, and proceeded against as such. If the accused was a formal heretic willing to abjure, and not guilty of having relapsed, he was reconciled with penances.

A person was considered as relapsed if he had already been condemned, or violently suspected of the same errors. The abjurations were made in the place where the inquisitor resided, sometimes in the episcopal palace, in the convent of Dominicans, or in the house of the inquisitor, but most generally in the churches. The Sunday before the ceremony, the day on which it was to take place was announced in all the churches of the town, and the inhabitants were requested to attend the sermon, which would be preached by the inquisitor against heresy. On the appointed day the clergy and the people assembled round a scaffold, where the person slightly suspected stood bare-headed, that he might be seen by every one. The mass was performed, and the inquisitor preached against the particular heresy which was the cause of the ceremony; he announced that the person on the scaffold was slightly suspected of having fallen into it, and read the process to the people; he concluded by saying, that the culprit was ready to abjure. A cross and the Bible was given to the offender, who read his abjuration, and signed it, if he could write; the inquisitor then gave him absolution, and imposed upon him those penances which were thought most useful.

When the suspicion of heresy was violent, the auto-da-fe took place on a Sunday, or festival-day, and all of the other churches were closed, that the concourse of people might be greater in that where the ceremony had to be performed. The offender was warned, not only to be a good Catholic for the future, but to conduct himself in such a manner as not to be accused a second time; as, if he relapsed, he would suffer capital punishment, although he might abjure and be reconciled. If the offender was suspected in the highest degree, he was treated as an heretic, and wore the habit of a penitent during the ceremony; it was composed of brown stuff, with a scapulary which had two yellow crosses fastened on it.

If the suspected person was to clear himself from calumny by the canonical method, the ceremony was also announced before it took place, and he was obliged to take an oath that he was not an heretic, and to produce twelve witnesses who had known him for at least ten years, to swear that they believed his affirmation to be true. He then abjured all heresies.

If the accused was repentant, and demanded to be reconciled after having relapsed, he was to be delivered over to secular justice, and was destined to suffer capital punishment. The inquisitors, after having passed judgment on him, engaged some priests, who were in their confidence, to inform him of his situation, and induce him to demand the sacrament of penance and the communion. When these ministers had passed two or three days with the prisoner, an auto-da-fé was announced; the sentence was read which delivered the culprit over to secular justice, and recommended the judges to treat him with humanity.

If the accused was an impenitent heretic, he was condemned, but the auto-da-fé was never celebrated until every means had been tried to convert him; if he was obstinate, he was delivered up to the justice of the king, and burnt. If the unfortunate heretic had relapsed, it was in vain for him to return to the true faith; he could not avoid death, and the only favour shewn him was, that he was first strangled, and afterwards burnt. Those who escaped from the prisons, or fled to avoid being arrested, were burnt in effigy." pp. 24-29

"The war against the Albigenses was the first cause of the establishment of the Inquisition, and the pretended necessity of punishing the apostasy of the newly-converted Spanish Jews, was the reason for introducing it in a reformed state." pp. 30-31

pages 40-42 list the articles in the Spanish law reinstituting the Inquisition under Torquemada.

"It is an incontestable fact in the history of the Spanish Inquisition, that it was introduced entirely against the consent of the provinces, and only by the influence of the Dominican monks." p. 46

On pages 48-52, Llorente lists the new articles of the code of 1488 then remarks,
"Such were the laws of the holy office in Spain. This code caused the emigration of more than a hundred thousand families useful to the state, and the loss of many millions of francs which were spent at the court of Rome, either for the bulls which it expedited, or by those who repaired thither to solicit their absolution from the Popes. The holy see was far from complaining of this practice, as it brought immense sums to the treasury, and no person himself with his money before the apostolical penitentiary, failed of obtaining the absolution he solicited, or an order for absolution elsewhere.

This conduct displeased the inquisitors: depending on the protection of Ferdinand and Isabella, they expostulated with the Pope, who annulled the absolutions already granted, thus deceiving those who had spent the greatest part of their fortunes in endeavouring to obtain them. He then promised new pardons on new conditions, contrary to the engagement he had entered into with Ferdinand, to abolish every means of appeal to the Court of Rome. Such was the constant practice of the holy see during the thirty years after the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain." pp. 52-53

"According to Mariana, eight hundred thousand Jews quitted Spain, and if the Moors, who emigrated to Africa, and the Christians who settled the New World, are added to the number, we shall find that Ferdinand and Isabella lost, through these cruel measures, two millions of subjects." p. 55

In Chapter IX, pp. 59-71, Llorente details the procedures of the Inquisition. Passing over the Inquiry and Censure of the Qualifiers stages, we come to the prisons, of which Llorente writes,

"Prisons
When the qualification has been made, the procurator-fiscal demands that the denounced person shall be removed to the secret prisons of the holy office. The tribunal has three sorts of prisons, public, intermediate, and secret. The first are those were persons are imprisoned, who are not guilty of heresy, but of some crime which the Inquisition has the privilege of punishing: the second are destined for those servants of the holy office who have committed some crime in the exercise of their functions, without incurring suspicion of heresy. Those who are detained in these prisons are permitted to communicate with others, unless they are condemned to solitary confinement. The secret prisons are those where all heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, are confined; they can only communicate with the judges of the tribunal.

These prisons are not, as they have been represented, damp, dirty, and unhealthy; they are vaulted chambers, well-lighted, not damp, and large enough for a person to take some exercise in. The real horrors of the prison are, that no one can enter them without becoming infamous in public opinion; and the solitude and the darkness to which the prisoner is condemned for fifteen hours in the day during the winter, as he is not allowed light before the hour of seven in the morning, or after four in the evening. Some authors have stated, that the prisoners were chained; these means are only employed on extraordinary occasions, and to prevent them from destroying themselves.

First Audiences
In the first days following the imprisonment of the culprit, he had three audiences of monition, or caution, recommending him to speak the truth, without concealing anything that he has done or said, or that he can impute to others, contrary to the faith. He was told that if he followed this recommendation he would be treated leniently; but in the contrary case, he would be proceeded against with severity. Until then the prisoner is ignorant of the cause of his arrest; he is only told that no person is taken to the prisons of the holy office without sufficient proof that he has spoken against the Catholic faith, and, therefore, it is for his interest to confess his crimes voluntarily. Some prisoners confessed themselves guilty of the crimes stated in the preparatory instruction; others acknowledged more, others less; generally, the prisoners declared that their consciences did not reproach them, but that they would endeavour to recollect the faults which they had committed if the accusations of the witnesses were read to them.

The advantages of the confession were, that it lessened the duration of the trial, and rendered the punishments inflicted on the accused less severe when the reconciliation took place. Whatever promises might be made to the prisoners, they could not avoid the disgrace of the san-benito and auto-da-fé, or preserve their honour or their property, if they acknowledged themselves formal heretics.

Another custom of the Inquisition was to examine the prisoners on his genealogy and parentage, in order to discover by the registers of the tribunal if any of his family had been punished for heresy, supposing that he might have inherited the erroneous doctrines of his ancestors. He was also obliged to recite the Pater, the Credo, and other forms of Christian doctrine, because the presumption that he had erred in his faith was stronger, if he did not know them, had forgotten them, or if he made mistakes in the repetition. In short, the Inquisition employed every means, and neglected nothing in the trials of the prisoners, to make them appear guilty of heresy, and all this was done with an appearance of charity and compassion, and in the name of Jesus Christ.

Charges
When the ceremony of the three first audiences is finished, the procurator-fiscal forms his act of accusation against the prisoner, from the preliminary instruction. Although a semi-proof only exists, he reports the facts in the depositions as if they were proved; and what is still more illegal, he does not reduce the articles of his requisition to the number of facts, but following the practice in forming the extracts of the propositions for the act of qualification, he multiplies them according to the variations in the statements; so that an accusation which ought to be reduced to one point, contains five or six charges, which appear to indicate that the accused has advanced so many heretical opinions on different occasions, without any foundation but the different manner in which each witness relates the conversation.

This mode of proceeding produces the worst effects; it confuses the prisoner where the charges are read to him, and if he has not coolness and intelligence, he imagines that several crimes are imputed to him, and replies, for instance, to the third article, and relates the facts in different words from those which he employed in answering the second; this variation taking place in each article, he sometimes contradicts himself, and thus furnished the fiscal with fresh accusation against him, for he is accused of not adhering to truth in his replies.

Torture
Although the prisoner has confessed all that the witnesses deposed against him in the first audience, yet the fiscal terminates his requisition by saying, that he is guilty of concealment and denial, that he is, therefore, impenitent and obstinate, and demands that the question shall be applied to the accused.

It is true, that it is so long since torture has been inflicted by the inquisitors, that the custom may be looked upon as abolished, and the fiscal only makes the demand in conformity to the example of his predecessors, yet it is equally cruel to make the prisoners fear it.

In former times, if the inquisitors judged that the prisoner had not made a full confession, they ordered him to be tortured; the object was to make him confess all that formed the substance of the process. I shall not describe the different modes of torture employed by the Inquisition, as it has been already done by many historians: I shall only say that none of them can be accused of exaggeration. When the accused acknowledged the crimes imputed to them, during the torture, they were obliged the next day to ratify or retract their confession upon oath. Almost all confirmed their first statement, because they were subjected to the torture a second time if they dared to retract.

Requisition
The requisition or accusation of the procurator-fiscal was never given to the prisoner in writing, that he might not reflect on the charges in prison and prepare his replies. The prisoner is conducted to the audience-chamber, where a secretary reads the charges, in the presence of the inquisitors and the fiscal; between each article he calls upon the prisoner to reply to it instantly, and declare if it is true or false.

It is evident that this proceeding is intended to embarrass the prisoner, by compelling him to reply without previous reflection. Such stratagems are allowed in other tribunals where the prisoners are guilty of homicide, theft, or other offenses against society; but it must be allowed that it is against the spirit of Christianity to employ them where zeal for religion and the salvation of others seem to be the motives for acting.

Defence
When the charges and the accusation have been read, the inquisitors ask the prisoners if he wishes to make a defence; if he replies in the affirmative, a copy of the accusation and the replies is taken. He is then required to select the lawyer whom he wishes to employ for his defence, from the list of those belonging to the holy office. Some prisoners required permission to seek a defender out of the tribunal, a pretension which is not contrary to any law, particularly if the lawyer has taken an oath of secrecy; yet this simple and natural right has seldom been granted by the inquisitors.

It is of little consequence to the accused to be defended by an able man, as the lawyer is not allowed to see the original process, or to communicate with his client. One of the notaries draws up a copy of the result of the preliminary instruction, in which he reports the deposition of the witnesses, without mentioning their names, or the circumstances of time or place, and (what is more extraordinary) without stating what has been said in defence of the persons who, having been summoned and interrogated by the tribunal, have persisted in affirming that they knew nothing of the subject on which they were examined. This extract is accompanied by the censure of the qualifiers, and the demand of the fiscal for the examination, and the accusation, and the replies of the accused. This is all that is given to the defender in the audience-chamber, where the inquisitors have commanded him to attend. He is then obliged to promise to defend the prisoner if he thinks that it is just to do so; but, in the contrary case, that he will use all the means in his power to persuade him to solicit his pardon of the tribunal, by a sincere confession of his sins, and a demand to be reconciled to the church.

Those who have acquired any experience in criminal proceedings, are aware of the great advvantages which may be derived from the comparison of the testimony of the witnesses in the defence of the accused; but the direction given to the proceedings by the Inquisition is such, that the lawyer can rarely find any means of defence but that which arises from the difference and variations in the depositions on the actions and words imputed to the prisoner.

As this is not sufficient, (because the semi-proof exists,) the defender generally demands to see the prisoner, that he may inquire if it is his intention to challenge the witnesses, to destroy either in part, or entirely, the proof established against him. If he replies in the affirmative, the inquisitors order proceedings to prove the irregularity of the witnesses.

Proof
It is then necessary to separate all the original declarations of the witnesses from the process, and send them to the places which they inhabit to receive a ratification. This takes place without the knowledge of the prisoners, and as he is not represented by any person during this formality, it is impossible that the challenge of a witness should succeed, even if he was the greatest enemy of the prisoner. If the witness was at Madrid at the time of the instruction, and afterwards went to the Philippine Isles, the course of the trial was suspended, and the prisoner was obliged to wait till the ratification arrived from Asia. If he demanded an audience, to complain of delay, he was answered with ambiguity, that the tribunal could not proceed with greater haste, as it was occupied with particular measures.

The prisoner made his challenge of the witnesses by naming those whom he considered as his enemies, giving his reasons for mistrusting them, and writing on the margins of each article the names of those persons who could attest the facts which are the causes of the challenge. The inquisitors decree that they shall be examined, unless some motive prevents it.

As the prisoner is not acquainted with the proceedings, he often accuses persons who have not been summoned as witnesses. The article in which they are mentioned is passed over with those of the witnesses who have not deposed against him, or who have spoken in his favour. Thus he encounters his accusers only by chance.

It sometimes happens that the procurator-fiscal secretly obtains the proof of the morality of the witnesses, in order to destroy the effect of the challenge; and as this is more easy to accomplish than the measures taken by the prisoner, they are generally rendered useless, because in doubtful cases the inquisitors are always disposed to depend upon the witness, if he is not known to be the declared enemy of the accused.

Publication of the Proofs
When the proof is established, the tribunal publishes the state of the trial, the deposition, and the act of judgment. But these terms are not to be understood in the common sense, since the publication was only an unfaithful copy of the declarations and other facts contained in the extract formed for the use of the defender. A secretary reads it to the prisoner in the presence of the inquisitors; after each article he asks him is he acknowledges the truth of what he has just heard; he then reads the declarations, and if the prisoner has not yet alleged anything against the witnesses, that privilege is given to him, because after hearing the deposition he is generally able to designate the person who has made it.

This reading is only a fresh snare, for if the least contradiction is perceived, he may be considered guilty of duplicity, concealment, or a false confession, and the tribunal may refuse to grant the reconciliation, although he demand it, and even condemn him to relaxation.

Definitive Censure of the Qualifiers
After this ceremony the qualifiers are summoned, who receive the original writing of the sentence passed in the summary instructions, with the extract of the replies of the prisoner in his last examination, and the declarations of the witnesses which were communicated to him. They are commissioned to qualify the propositions a second time, to examine his explanation, and to decide if his replies have destroyed the suspicion of heresy which he had incurred, or if he had confirmed it, and was to be looked upon as a formal heretic.

Every one must be sensible of the importance of this censure, since it led to the definitive sentence; yet the qualifiers scarcely took the trouble to hear a rapid perusal of the proceedings; they hastily gave their opinion, and this was the last important act in the proceedings, as the rest was a mere formality.

Sentence
The trial was then considered as finished. The diocesan in ordinary was convoked, that with the inquisitors he might decide upon the proper sentence. In the first ages of the holy office these functions were confided to consulters: these were doctors of law, but as they could only give their opinion, and as the inquisitors pronounced the definitive sentence, the latter always prevailed if they chanced to differ. The accused had the right of appealing to the Supreme Council, but appeals to Rome were more frequent. The inquisitors of the provinces were afterwards obliged to submit their opinion to the council modified and reformed it; their decision was sent to the inquisitors, who then established the judgment in their own names, although it might be contrary to their previous opinion. This proceeding rendered the office of the consultors useless, and it was discontinued.

Although the prisoner was acquitted, he was not acquainted with the names of his denouncers and the witnesses. He rarely obtained a more public reparation than the liberty of returning to his house with a certificate of absolution.

Execution of the Sentence
The nature of the punishments inflicted by the Inquisition has been already described; it is, therefore, only necessary to remark that the sentences were not communicated to the victims until the commencement of the execution, since the condemned were sent to the autos-da-fé, either to be reconciled or given over to secular justice; on leaving the prison the familiars attired them in the sans-benito, with a paper miter on their heads, a cord round their necks, and a wax taper in their hands.

When the prisoner arrives at the place of execution, his sentence is read, and he is then reconciled or relaxed, which means, that he is condemned to be burnt by the justice of the king.

San-benito
The San-benito was a species of scapulary, which only descended to the knees, that it might not be confounded with those worn by some monks; this motive also made the inquisition prefer common woolen stuff of a yellow colour with red crosses for the San-benito. Such were the penitential habits in 1514, when Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros altered the common crosses for those of St. Andrew. The inquisitors afterwards had a different habit for each class of penitents.

Those who abjured as slightly suspected of heresy, wore the scapulary of yellow stuff without the cross. If he adjured as violently suspected, he wore half the cross; if he was a formal heretic he wore it entire. There were also three different kinds of garments for those who were condemned to death. The first was, for those who repented before they were sentenced. It was a simple yellow scapulary with a red cross, and a conical cap, dominated Caroza, which was formed of the same stuff as the San-benito, and decorated with similar crosses.

The second was destined for those who had been condemned to be burnt, but who had repented after their sentences, and before they were conducted to the autos-da-fé. The San-benito and the Caroza were made of the same stuff. On the lower part of the scapulary a bust was painted, in the midst of a fire, the flames of which were reversed, to shew that the culprit was not to be burnt until he had been strangled. The Caroza was painted in the same manner.

The third was for those who were impenitent. It was similar to the other, with a bust, and the flames in the natural direction, to shew that the person who wore it was to be burnt alive; grotesque figures of devils were also painted on the San-benito and Caroza." pp. 62-71

Regarding forbidden books: "The Pope added, that he was informed that a great number were in the possession of librarians and private persons, particularly the Spanish Bibles mentioned in the catalogue, and the Missal and Diurnal in the supplement." p. 103

"In the year 1558 the terrible law of Philip II was published, which decreed the punishments of death and confiscation for all those who should sell, buy, keep, or read, the books prohibited by the holy office; and, to ensure the execution of this sanguinary law, the index was printed, that the people might not allege ignorance in their defense." pp. 105-106

"If any person presumed to buy, keep, or read prohibited books, he rendered himself liable to be suspected of heresy by the inquisitors, although it might not be proved that he became an heretic from such reading: he incurred the punishment of major excommunication, and was proceeded against by the tribunal: the result of this action was the absolution ab cautelam.
During the last years of the eighteenth century, no person has been imprisoned for reading prohibited books, unless he was convicted of having advanced or written heretical propositions." pp. 111-112

"The Inquisition also prohibited pictures, medals, prints, and a number of other things, with as much severity as books. Thus fans, snuff-boxes, mirrors, and other articles of furniture, were often the cause of great troubles and difficulties to those who possessed them, if they happened to adorned with a mythological figure which might be considered as indecent." pp. 112-113

"The inquisitor-general, who perceived the necessity of arresting the progress of Lutheranism in Spain, in concert with the Council of the Inquisition, several new articles in addition to the annual edict. These articles oblige every Christian to declare, if he knows or has heard of any person who has said, maintained, or thought that the sect of Luther is good, or that his partisans will be saved, and approved or believed any of his condemned propositions: for example, that it is not necessary to confess sins to a priest, and that it is sufficient to confess to God; that neither the Pope or the priests have the power of remitting sins; that the body of Jesus is not actually present in the consecrated host; that it is not permitted to pray to saints, or expose images in churches; that faith and baptism are sufficient for salvation, and that good works are not necessary; that every Christian may, although not of the priesthood, receive the confession of another Christian, and administer the sacrament to him; that priests and monks my lawfully marry; that God did not establish the regular religious orders; that the state of marriage is better and more perfect than that of celibacy; that there ought to be no festivals but the Sabbath, and that it is not sinful to eat meat on Friday, in Lent, or on other fast-days." pp. 113-114

"Bernardin de Tobar is less known, but Peter Martyr d'Angleria mentions him among the learned men of the sixteenth century, and John Louis Vives, a learned man of that age, says in writing to Erasmus, "We live in a difficult time; it is dangerous either to speak or to be silent; Vergara, his brother Bernardin de Tobar, and several other learned men, have been arrested in Spain." p. 116

"Although, during the period of which I have related the history, there were fewer Judaic heretics than in former times, yet there were many more than might be supposed. Of this number was Mary de Bourgogne, who was born at Saragossa: her father-in-law was a native of Burgundy, of Jewish extraction. A New Christian slave, (who had renounced the law of Moses, to obtain his liberty, and was afterwards burnt as having relapsed,) in 1552, denounced Mary de Bourgogne, who resided in the city of Murcia, and had attained her eighty-fifth year. This man deposed that, before his conversion, some person asked him if he was a Christian; he replied that he was a Jew, and that Mary then said to him: You are right, for the Christians have neither faith nor law. It will no doubt appear incredible, but the trial proves that in 1557 she was still in prison,waiting until sufficient proof was found to condemn her. After having waited in vain, the inquisitors commanded that Mary should be tortured, though she then ninety years old, and the council had decreed that in such cases the criminal should only be intimidated by the preparations. The inquisitor Cano says, that the moderate torture was applied, but such were the effects of this gentle application, that the unfortunate Mary ceased to live and suffer in a few days after.
The inquisitors took advantage of some expressions which escaped from the unfortunate woman during the torture, to condemn her as a Judaic heretic, in order to confiscate her property which was considerable. Her memory, her children, and her descendants in the male line were declared infamous, her bones and effigy were burnt, and her property confiscated." pp. 170-171

"The first auto-da-fé in Mexico took place in 1574; it was celebrated with so much pomp and splendor, that eye-witnesses have declared that it could only be compared to that of Valladolid in 1559, at which Philip II and the royal family attended. A Frenchman and an Englishman were burnt as impenitent Lutherans; eighty persons were reconciled, and subjected to different penances. The Inquisition of Carthagena was not established at this period; it was founded in 1610 by Philip III." p. 190

"This affair proves that the inquisitors considered it a much greater crime to pretend to be an alguazil of the Holy Office, than to bear false-witness, and to cause the death of a man, the confiscation of his property, and the condemnation of his posterity to infamy!" p. 211

". . . it would be a task beyond the strength of one man to read all that have accumulated in the archives." p. 212

"A good cause becomes bad when falsehood is employed in its defence: the true history of the Inquisition, is sufficient to shew how much it merits the detestation of the human race, and it is therefore useless to employ fictions or satire." p. 216

"Yet there are Englishmen who defend the tribunal of the holy office, as a useful institution, and I have heard an English Catholic priest speak in its defense. I represented that he did not understand the nature of the tribunal; that I was not less attached to the Catholic religion that he, or any inquisitor might be; but that if the spirit of peace and charity, humility and disinterestedness, inculcated by the Holy Scriptures, is compared with the system of severity, craft, and malice, dictated by the laws of the holy office, and the power possessed by the inquisitors (from the secrecy of their proceedings) of abusing their authority in defiance of natural and divine laws, the orders of the Popes and the royal decrees, it will be impossible not to detest the tribunal as only tending to produce hypocrisy." pp. 224-225

"The ancient laws of the holy office had been almost entirely forgotten, and the inquisitors merely followed a kind of routine in transacting their affairs. The inquisitor-general Valdés found it necessary to remedy this evil, and as a multitude of extraordinary cases had occurred since the publication of the Codes of Torquemada and his successor Deza, which had obliged the inquisitors to publish supplements and new declarations, he resolved to frame a new code, composed of those laws which experience had shewn to be useful. This edict was published at Madrid, on the 2nd of September, 1561; it was composed of eighty-one articles, which have been, till the present time, the laws by which the proceedings of the Inquisition have been regulated." p. 227

"The opinions of Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant reformers, were not disseminated in the other cities in Spain with the same rapidity as at Seville and Valladolid; but there is reason to believe that all Spain would soon have been infected with the heresy, but for the extreme severity shewn towards the Lutherans." p. 253

"On the 25th of February, 1560, the inquisitors of Toledo celebrated an auto-da-fé, in which several persons were burnt, with some effigies, and a great number subjected to penances. This auto-da-fé was performed to entertain the new queen, Elizabeth de Valois, the daughter of Henry II, King of France. It is rather surprising that this melancholy ceremony was chosen to amuse a royal princess of thirteen years of age, and who in her native country had been accustomed to brilliant festivals, suitable to her rank and age." p. 269

"The custom of celebrating one general auto-da-fé every year, was so well established, that when the inquisitors of Cuença, in 1558, gave up a man to secular justice, in a particular auto-da-fé, it was doubted if the rules of the holy office permitted it; and though the council decided in the affirmative, the custom of reserving all the condemned persons for the general auto-da-fé, prevailed, unless any very particular circumstance, made it necessary to deviate from it." p. 275

"Among the many evils which the Inquisition had inflicted on Spain, the obstacles which it opposes to the progress of the arts and sciences, and literature, are not the least deplorable. The partisans of the holy office have never allowed this, yet it is a certain truth. The apologists, of whom I speak, maintain, that the Inquisition only opposes the invasion of heretical opinions, and leaves those who do not attack the doctrines of the faith, in perfect liberty, -- consequently, that it does not influence the arts and sciences. If this pretension was just there are many excellent works which might be read, and which are only prohibited because they contain doctrines opposed to the opinions of the scholastic theologians.
St. Augustine was certainly a very zealous partisan of religion in its greatest purity. Yet he made a great distinction between a dogmatic proposition and one not defined. He acknowledged that in the second case a Catholic was free to maintain the argument for, or against, according to the dictates of his reason. St. Augustine did not suppose that the freedom of opinion would be opposed by such theological censures, as the qualifiers of the holy office have established in modern times. They have had great influence on the prohibition of books, and even on the condemnation of their authors. They are employed against the first, on pretense that they contain propositions favourable to heresy, ill sounding, savouring of heresy, fomenting heresy, or tending to heresy; against the authors in declaring them suspected of having adopted heresy in their hearts.

In the present time the qualifiers have extended the prohibitions, by saying that the books contained propositions offensive to persons of high rank, seditious, tending to disturb public tranquillity, contrary to the government of the state, and opposed to the obedience which has been taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles." pp. 277-278

"Since the establishment of the holy office, there has scarcely been any man celebrated for his learning, who has not been prosecuted as a heretic." p. 279

Colonel Lehmanawsky Against Spanish Inquisition

2009-05-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Destruction of the Spanish Inquisition

Founded in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition was not finally abolished until 1834

In 1809 Colonel Lehmanowsky was attached to that part of Napoleon’s army which was stationed at Madrid. While in the city, the Colonel used to speak freely among the people what he thought of the Priests and Jesuits, and of the Inquisition. It had been decreed by Napoleon that the Inquisition and Monasteries should be suppressed, but the decree was not executed. Months had passed away, and the prisons of the Inquisition had not been opened. One night, about ten or eleven o’clock, as Col. Lehmanowsky was walking one of the streets of Madrid, two armed men sprang upon him from an alley. He instantly drew his sword, put himself in a posture of defense, and while struggling with them, he saw at a distance the light of the French patrols - mounted soldiers, who carried lanterns. He called to them in French, and, as they hastened to his assistance, the assailants took to their heels, and escaped, not, however, before he saw, by their dress, that they belonged to the guard of the Inquisition.

He went immediately to Marshall Soult, the Governor of Madrid, told him what had taken place, and reminded him of the decree to suppress the Inquisition. Marshall Soult replied that he might go and destroy it. The Colonel told him that his regiment (the 9th Polish Lancers) was not sufficient for such a service, but if he would give him two additional regiments, the 117th and another, he would undertake the work. The 117th Regiment was under the command of Col. De Lile, who, like Col. Lehmanowsky, became a minister of the Gospel and pastor of an Evangelical Church in Marseilles. The troops required were granted, and Col. Lehmanowsky proceeded to the Inquisition, which was situated about five miles from the city. It was surrounded with a wall of great strength, and defended by a company of soldiers. When he arrived at the walls, he addressed one of the sentinels, and summoned the holy fathers to surrender to the Imperial army, and open the gates of the Inquisition. The sentinel, who was standing on the wall, appeared to enter into conversation for a moment with someone within, at the close of which he presented his musket and shot one of Col. Lehmanowsky’s men. The Colonel then ordered his troops to fire upon those who appeared on the walls.

"It was soon obvious," says Col. Lehmanowsky, "that it was an unequal warfare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered with the soldiers of the Holy Office. There was also a breastwork upon the wall, from behind which they discharged their muskets. Our troops were in the open plain and exposed to a destructive fire. We had no cannon, nor could we scale the walls, and the gates successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. I could not retire and send for cannon to break through the walls without giving them time to lay a train for blowing us up. I saw that it was necessary to change the mode of attack, and directed some trees to be cut down and trimmed, to be used as battering rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, as numerous as could work to advantage, and brought to bear upon the wall with all the power which they could exert, while the troops kept up a fire to protect them from the fire poured upon them from the walls. Presently they began to tremble, a breach was made, and the Imperial troops rushed into the Inquisition.

Here we met with an incident which nothing but Jesuitical effrontery is equal to. The Inquisitor-General and the Father Confessors, in their priestly robes, came out of their rooms, as we were making our way into the interior of the Inquisition, and with long faces, their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of the attack and defense and had just learned what was going on. The addressed themselves in the language of rebuke to their own soldiers, saying, ‘Why do you fight our friends, the French?’ Their intention, no doubt, was to make us think that this defense was wholly unauthorized by them, hoping, if they could make us believe that they were friendly, they should have a better opportunity, in the confusion of the moment, to escape. Their artifice did not succeed. I caused them to be placed under guard, and all the soldiers of the Inquisition to be secured as prisoners. We then proceeded to examine all the rooms of the stately edifice.

We passed through room after room: found all perfectly in order, richly furnished, with altars and crucifixes, and wax candles in abundance, but could discover no evidence of iniquity being practiced there-nothing of those peculiar features which we expected to find in an Inquisition. We found splendid paintings, and a rich and extensive library. Here was beauty and splendor, and the most perfect order on which my eyes had ever rested. The architecture, the proportions, were perfect. The floors of wood were scoured and highly polished. the marble floors were arranged with a strict regard to order. There was everything to please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste. Where, then, were those horrid instruments of torture of which we had been told, and where were those dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive? We searched in vain. The holy fathers assured us that they had been belied; that we had seen all; and I was prepared to give up the search, convinced the Inquisition was different from all others of which I had heard.

But Colonel De Lile was not so ready as myself to give up the search, and said to me: ‘Colonel, you are commander today, and as you say, so must it be; but, if you will be advised by me, let this marble floor be examined. Let water be brought and poured upon it, and we will watch and see if there is any place through which it passes more freely than others.’ I replied to him, ‘Do as you please, Colonel,’ and ordered water to be brought. The slabs were large and beautifully polished. When the water had been poured on the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the Inquisitors, a careful examination was made of every seam in the floor, to see if the water passed through. Presently, Col. De Lile exclaimed that he had found it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the water passed through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands were now at work for further discovery. Officers with their swords, and soldiers with their bayonets, sought to clear out the seam and pry up the slab; others, with the butt of their muskets, struck the slab with all their might to break it, while the Priests remonstrated against our desecrating the holy and beautiful house!

While thus engaged, a soldier struck a spring, and a marble slab flew up. Then the faces of the Inquisitors grew pale as did Belshazzar when the handwriting appeared on the wall. They trembled all over. Beneath the marble slab, now partly up, there was a staircase. I stepped to the altar and took one of the candles, four feet in length, which was burning, that I might explore the room below. As I was doing this, I was arrested by one of the Inquisitors, who laid his hand gently on my arm and with a very demure look said, ‘My son, you must not take those lights with your bloody hand; they are holy.’ ‘Well’ I said, ‘I will take a holy thing to shed light on iniquity; I will take the responsibility. I proceeded down the staircase. As we reached the foot of the stairs, we entered a large square room-The Hall of Judgment. In the center of it was a large block and a chain fastened to it. On this they had been accustomed to place the accused, chained to his seat. On one side of the room was an elevated seat-The Throne of Judgment. This the Inquisitor General occupied, and on either side were seats, less elevated, for the holy fathers when engaged in the solemn business of the Holy Inquisition. From this room we proceeded to the right, and obtained access to small cells, extending the entire length of the edifice. here saddening sights presented themselves.

These cells were places of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of Inquisitorial hate were confined year after year, till death released them from their sufferings, and there their bodies remained until they were completely decayed, and their rooms had become fit for others to occupy. Flues or tubes, extending to the open air, carried off the effluvia. In these cells we found the remains of those who paid the debt of nature: some of them had been dead apparently but a short time, while of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of the dungeon.

The Inquisition put their victims to the ‘question’ - they tortured them. If found guilty they were handed over to the secular authorities to be ‘relaxed’ - that is, burned to death.

In other cells we found living sufferers, of both sexes and of every age, from threescore years down to fourteen or fifteen years, all naked as when born into the world, and all in chains! Here were old men and aged women who had been shut up for many years. Here, too, were the middle aged and the young man and the maiden of fourteen years old!" The soldiers immediately went to work to release these captives from their chains, and took from their knapsacks their overcoats and other clothing, which they gave to cover their nakedness. They were exceedingly anxious to bring them out to the light of day; but Col. Lehmanowsky, aware of the danger, had food given to them, and then brought them gradually to the light, as they were able to bear it.

"We then proceeded to explore another room on the left. Here we found instruments of torture of every kind which the ingenuity of men or devils could invent.

The first was a machine by which the victim was confined, and then, beginning with the fingers, every joint in the hands, arms, and the body, was broken or drawn one after another, until the victim died.

The second was a box in which the head and neck of the victim were so closely confined by a screw, that he could not move in any way. Over the box was a vessel from which one drop of water a second fell upon the head of the victim. Every successive drop, falling on precisely the same place, soon suspended circulation, and put the sufferer in the most excruciating agony.

The third was an infernal machine, laid horizontally, to which the victim was bound. The machine was then placed between two beams, in which were scores of knives, so fixed that, by turning the machine with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was torn from his limbs all in small pieces.

The fourth surpassed the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with arms extended, ready to embrace its victim. Around her feet a semicircle was drawn. The victim who passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which caused the diabolical engine to open; its arms clasped him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly embrace."

Col. Lehmanowsky said that the sight of these infernal engines of cruelty kindled the rage of the soldiers to fury. They declared that every inquisitor and soldier of the Inquisition should be put to torture. Their rage was ungovernable. The Colonel did not oppose them. They might have turned their arms against him if he had attempted to arrest their work. They began with the holy fathers. The first they put to death in the machine for breaking joints. The torture of the inquisitor, put to death by the dropping of water on his head, was most excruciating. The poor man cried out in agony to be taken from the fatal machine. The Inquisitor-General was brought before the infernal engine called "The Virgin." He begged to be excused. "No!" said they, "you have caused others to kiss her, and now you must do it." They interlocked their bayonets so as to form large forks, and with these they pushed him over the deadly circle. The beautiful image instantly prepared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and he was cut into innumerable pieces. Col. Lehmanowsky said he witnessed the torture of four of them; his heart sickened at the awful scene, and he left the soldiers to wreak their awful revenge on the last guilty inmates of that prison-house of hell.

In the meantime it was reported through Madrid that the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot. And, oh, what a meeting was there-it was like a resurrection! About a hundred, who had been buried for many years, were now restored to life. There were fathers who had found their long-lost daughters, wives were restored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, and parents to their children; and there was some who could recognize no friend among the multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can describe.

When the multitude had retired, the Colonel caused the library, paintings, furniture, etc., to be removed; and having sent to the city for a wagon load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults beneath the building, and placed a slow match in connection with it. All had withdrawn at a distance, and in a few moments there was a joyful sight to thousands. The walls and turrets of the massive structure rose majestically toward the heavens, impelled by the tremendous explosion, and fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins--

THE INQUISITION WAS NO MORE!

Quotes from Inquisition

2009-05-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

"Even if my own father would a heretic, I would gather the wood to burn him."
-Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa later known as Pope Paul IV; Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"I believe in the truth of the Holy Scriptures, but I do not believe the authority of the pope or his councils as they are merely human beings."
-Baldo Lupetino(1496-1552), Roman Catholic priest executed for heresy, Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"I say that the Church deviates from the truth in so far as it says that a man could not do anything in any way good on his own, since nothing praiseworthy can proceed from our corrupt infected nature except to the extent that the lord God gives us his grace... the Roman Catholic Church is a particular Church and no Christian should restrict himself to any particular Church. This Church deviates in many things from truth."
-Pomponio Algerio (1531-1556); Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"As it is completely absurd and improper in the utmost that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal servitude, can under the pretext that pious Christians must accept them and sustain their habitation, are so ungrateful to Christians, as, instead of thanks for gracious treatment, they return contumely, and among themselves, instead of the slavery, which they deserve..."
-Pope Paul IV; Cum nimis absurdum, 1555.

"Once these books are removed it was soon resulted that the more the Jews are without that wisdom of their rabbis so much the more they would be prepared in disposed and recieving the faith in the wisdom of the word of God."
-Pope Paul IV, edict for burning Talmud(book of Jews); Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"We are of the opinion that no tribunal is of more honorable of works with greater zeal for the glory of God than the Inquisition. And we have therefore resolved to refer everything to it, that is connected to the articles of faith or can be brought in to relation with them."
-Pope Paul IV; Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"On this day, the student Pomponio went to his death in Piazza Navona. He displayed so much steadfastness in the face of death that everyone was in awe.
-Anonymous(Venetian Ambassador) on the death of Pomponio Algerio, boiled to death as a heretic; Secret Files of Inquisition(The War of Ideas) video.

"My firm conviction that the Inquisition was vicious in principle, in its constitution and in the laws, induced me to collect every document I could procure. To give the world a true code the secret laws of the Inquisition, which was veiled by mystery of all mankind."
-Juan Antonio Llorente, Secretary General of Madrid Inquisition; Secret Files of Inquisition(The End of the Inquisition) video.

"These cells were places of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of Inquisitorial hate were confined year after year, till death released them from their sufferings, and there their bodies remained until they were completely decayed, and their rooms had become fit for others to occupy. Flues or tubes, extending to the open air, carried off the effluvia. In these cells we found the remains of those who paid the debt of nature: some of them had been dead apparently but a short time, while of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of the dungeon."
-Colonel Lehmanowsky, Napoleon's French officer (During the search for Spanish Roman Catholic Inquisition's site).

"We then proceeded to explore another room on the left. Here we found instruments of torture of every kind which the ingenuity of men or devils could invent."
-Colonel Lehmanowsky, Napoleon's French officer (During the search for Spanish Roman Catholic Inquisition's site).

"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters. The Inquisition is a brutish and absurd organization which its effort to quell civil disobedience has now created obstacles to a freer society.
-Francisco de Goya, famous French painter; Secret Files of Inquisition(The End of the Inquisition) video.

"We then proceeded to explore another room on the left. Here we found instruments of torture of every kind which the ingenuity of men or devils could invent.

The first was a machine by which the victim was confined, and then, beginning with the fingers, every joint in the hands, arms, and the body, was broken or drawn one after another, until the victim died.

The second was a box in which the head and neck of the victim were so closely confined by a screw, that he could not move in any way. Over the box was a vessel from which one drop of water a second fell upon the head of the victim. Every successive drop, falling on precisely the same place, soon suspended circulation, and put the sufferer in the most excruciating agony.

The third was an infernal machine, laid horizontally, to which the victim was bound. The machine was then placed between two beams, in which were scores of knives, so fixed that, by turning the machine with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was torn from his limbs all in small pieces.

The fourth surpassed the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with arms extended, ready to embrace its victim. Around her feet a semicircle was drawn. The victim who passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which caused the diabolical engine to open; its arms clasped him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly embrace."
-Colonel Lehmanowsky, Napoleon's French officer (During the search for Spanish Roman Catholic Inquisition's site).

"In other cells we found living sufferers, of both sexes and of every age, from threescore years down to fourteen or fifteen years, all naked as when born into the world, and all in chains! Here were old men and aged women who had been shut up for many years. Here, too, were the middle aged and the young man and the maiden of fourteen years old!"
-Colonel Lehmanowsky, Napoleon's French officer (During the search for Spanish Roman Catholic Inquisition's site).

"If anyone maintained that the opinion of the Earth moves is heresy and if afterward demonstration and observation would proved that it does move, into what embarrasment would have brought himself and the Holy Church."
-Galileo Galilei, during the Inquisition trial of Galileo; Secret Files of Inquisition(The End of the Inquisition) video.

"Both the powerful and the powerless tried to steal this boy from me and accused me of being barbarous... but they failed to recognized, that I, too, am his father. I have the right and duty to what I did to this boy and even if necessary, I would do it again."
-Pope Pius IX, Papal abduction of Edgardo Mortara; Secret Files of Inquisition(The End of the Inquisition) video.