The Catholic University Bulletin. Vol. XIV. January, 1908. No. I "Let there be progress, therefore; a widespread and eager progress in every century and epoch, both of individuals and of the general body, of every Christian and of the whole Church, a progress in intelligence, knowledge and wisdom, but always within their natural limits, and without sacrifice of the identity of Catholic teaching, feeling and opinion."-ST. VINCENT OF LERINS, Commonit, c. 6. PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY WASHINGTON, D. C. In two grave documents, the Syllabus of Errors, "Lamentabili sane exitu," and the Encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis," the Apostolic See has made known its attitude towards a number of opinions more or less immediately affecting the deposit of Catholic Faith.1 It has spoken with all desirable fullness and precision, with all the dignity becoming the supreme tribunal of Catholic belief, and with an earnestness befitting the occasion. Henceforth these opinions, in the eyes of believing Catholics, are reprehensible errors. And as these documents are addressed to all the faithful, there can be no doubt of their universal obligation nor of their far-reaching effects. Several of these errors, indeed, were never so clearly formulated as in this pontifical condemnation, as though the judge were much concerned in removing any doubt concerning the justice of his sentence. Only too often they have been couched in a timid and fugitive diction, and have gained a certain headway because they revealed not as yet of what spirit they were, nor how closely related they were to more ancient errors or to the great outlying body of modern religious error. But the Apostolic See, set by Jesus Christ as the head of the Church, and responsible at all times, not alone for the overthrow of full-fledged heresy and open schism, but also for 1The Encyclical of His Holiness Pius X on the Doctrine of the Modernists, Latin text and English version, with annotations by Thomas E. Judge, D. D., s. l. n. d. (Chicago, 1907.) their timely prevention, is never somnolent or apathetic. It is the seat of judgment for Catholics in all that pertains to the divine deposit of Faith committed to the care of the Church and not to individual conscience. From the days when St. Clement of Rome intervened with authority in the direction of the Church of Corinth, the Apostolic See has claimed in the Christian world the supreme "magisterium" or teachingoffice, and has had that claim allowed by a correspondingly universal "obedientia fidei; " not, indeed, without much opposition and conflict, though it has not therefore ceased at any time to assert and defend its high and unique office of Supreme Teacher. It would amount to an abdication of that office if the Apostolic See were indefinitely to tolerate symptoms and manifestations, more or less open and conscious, of a mental independence in the province of religious truth that is incompatible with Catholic Faith, however congenial it may be to the coalition of errors that for centuries has waged war against the immemorial concept of the Catholic Church and her office among men. The Time-Spirit never ceases to reveal itself, now covertly and again openly, but the Watchman of Israel is ever alert and ready to give a truthful response to those of the fold who ask him of the dangers of the night, whether near or far, transient or formidable. Nor is he circumscribed by formalities equivalent, on occasion, to impotency; he is free to use such language, tones and forms of communication as seem to him most appropriate to produce the intended effect, i. e. a full knowledge on the part of the faithful of the errors that he recognizes and which he makes known in terms that henceforth admit of no tergiversation or dissimulation. Huic Romanae ecclesiae semper licuit semperque licebit contra novitur increscentes excessus nova quoque decreta atque remedia procurare, quae, rationis et auctoritatis edita judicio, nulli hominum sit fas ut irrita refutare (Reg. Ep. Greg. VII, 11, 67; ed. Jaffé, 11, 188). These vigorous words of St. Gregory VII (1075) to Anno of Cologne reflect the intimate consciousness of responsibility and authority, based on the succession of Peter, that has always characterized the Roman Pontiffs, and to which |