which are developed and applied as the individual comes into contact with society and with the State.
The Syllabus was accompanied by an Encyclical, or circular letter of His Holiness, addressed to "all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops in communion with the Apostolic See." The tenor of the Encyclical, wherein the Holy Father commands all the children of the Catholic Church to hold every doctrine condemned by the Holy See as unlawful to be upheld or defended, coupled with subsequent declarations, leave Catholics no room to doubt that, in passing censure on each and every one of these propositions, the Pope claims intellectual obedience on the ground of his infallibility.
To explain from proper sources and in as easy a shape as possible, the sense wherein the condemnations were intended to be made, is the object of my present essay. To do this, I shall first give the Syllabus translated in full; next I shall say a word or two on what are called the "minor censures," etc., so as to convey an idea of what the Church means to do when she stamps a proposition with such or such a theological censure; and shall then pass to review the Syllabus in detail. Ignorance of its nature, caused by the most violent misrepresentation, has raised a storm against it in the public mind of our country; but nine-tenths of the condemnations it contains would be as heartily subscribed to by Protestants as by Catholics.
