Denzinger EN 427
Ecumenical XII (against the Albigensians, Joachim, Waldensians etc.
The Trinity, Sacraments, Canonical Mission, etc.*
Chap. 1. The Catholic Faith
(Definition directed against the Albigensians and other heretics]
428 Firmly we believe and we confess simply that the true God is one alone, eternal, immense, and unchangeable, incomprehensible, omnipotent and ineffable, Father and Son and Holy Spirit: indeed three Persons but one essence, substance, or nature entirely simple. The Father from no one, the Son from the Father only, and the Holy Spirit equally from both; without beginning, always, and without end; the Father generating, the Son being born, and the Holy Spirit proceeding; consubstantial and coequal and omnipotent and coeternal; one beginning of all, creator of all visible and invisible things, of the spiritual and of the corporal; who by His own omnipotent power at once from the beginning of time created each creature from nothing, spiritual, and corporal, namely, angelic and mundane, and finally the human, constituted as it were, alike of the spirit and the body. For the devil and other demons were created by God good in nature, but they themselves through themselves have become wicked. But man sinned at the suggestion of the devil. This Holy Trinity according to common essence undivided, and according to personal properties distinct, granted the doctrine of salvation to the human race, first through Moses and the holy prophets and his other servants according to the most methodical disposition of the time.
429 And finally the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, incarnate by the whole Trinity in common, conceived of Mary ever Virgin with the Holy Spirit cooperating, made true man, formed of a rational soul and human flesh, one Person in two natures, clearly pointed out the way of life. And although He according to divinity is immortal and impassible, the very same according to humanity was made passible and mortal, who, for the salvation of the human race, having suffered on the wood of the Cross and died, descended into hell, arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. But He descended in soul, and He arose in the flesh, and He ascended equally in both, to come at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works, to the wicked as well as to the elect, all of whom will rise with their bodies which they now bear, that they may receive according to their works, whether these works have been good or evil, the latter everlasting punishment with the devil, and the former everlasting glory with Christ.
430 One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, * in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours. And surely no one can accomplish this sacrament except a priest who has been rightly ordained according to the keys of the Church which Jesus Christ Himself conceded to the Apostles and to their successors. But the sacrament of baptism (which at the invocation of God and the indivisible Trinity, namely, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is solemnized in water) rightly conferred by anyone in the form of the Church is useful unto salvation for little ones and for adults. And if, after the reception of baptism, anyone shall have lapsed into sin, through true penance he can always be restored. Moreover, not only virgins and the continent but also married persons pleasing to God through right faith and good work merit to arrive at a blessed eternity.
Chap.2.The Error of Abbot Joachim *
431 We condemn, therefore, and we disapprove of the treatise or tract which Abbot Joachim published against Master Peter Lombard on the unity or essence of the Trinity, calling him heretical and senseless because in his Sentences he said: "Since it is a most excellent reality-the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and it is not generating, nor generated, nor proceeding." * Thus he (Joachim) declares that Peter Lombard implies not so much a Trinity as a quaternity in God, namely the three Persons and that common essence as a fourth, openly protesting that there is no matter which is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; neither is there essence, nor substance, nor nature, although he concedes that the Father, and the Son. and the Holy Spirit are one essence, one substance, and one nature. But he says that unity of this kind is not true and proper, but is something collective and similar, as many men are called one people, and many faithful, one Church, according to the following: "Of the multitude believing there was one heart and one mind" (Ac 4,32); and, "He who clings to God is one spirit with him" (1Co 6,17); likewise, "He who . . . plants and he who waters are one" (1Co 3,8); and, "we are all one body in Christ" (Rm 12,5); again in the Book of Kings [Ruth]: "My people and your people are one" (Rt 1,16). Moreover, to add to this opinion of his he brings the following most powerful expression, that Christ spoke in the Gospel about the faithful: "I will, Father, that they are one in us as we are one, so that they may be perfected in unity" (Jn 17,22 f.). For not, (as he says), are the faithful of Christ one, that is, a certain one matter which is common to all, but in this way are they one, that is, one Church because of the unity of the Catholic faith; and finally one kingdom, because of the union of indissoluble love, as in the canonical letter of John the Apostle we read: "For there are three that give testimony in heaven, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one" (1Jn 5,7), and immediately is added: "And there are three who give testimony on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one" (1Jn 5,8), as is found in certain texts.
432 We, however, with the approval of the sacred Council, believe and confess with Peter Lombard that there exists a most excellent reality, incomprehensible indeed and ineffable, which truly is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, at the same time three Persons, and anyone of the same individually; and so in God there is Trinity only, not a quaternity; because any one of the three Persons is that reality, namely, substance, essence or divine nature, which alone is the beginning of all things, beyond which nothing else can be found, and that reality is not generating, nor generated, nor proceeding, but it is the Father who generates, the Son who is generated, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds, so that distinctions are in Persons and unity in nature. Therefore, although "one is the Father, another the Son, and another the Holy Spirit, yet they are not different" * but what is the Father is the Son and the Holy Spirit entirely the same, so that according to the true and Catholic Faith they are believed to be consubstantial. For the Father from eternity by generating the Son gave His substance to Him according to which He Himself testifies: "That which the Father has given to me is greater than all things" (Jn 10,29). But it cannot be said that He (the Father) has given a part of His substance to Him (the Son), and retained a part for Himself, since the substance of the Father is indivisible, namely, simple. But neither can it be said that the Father has transferred His substance to the Son in generating, as if He had given that to the Son which he did not retain for Himself; otherwise the substance would have ceased to exist. It is clear, therefore, that the Son in being born without any diminution received the substance of the Father, and thus the Father and the Son have the same substance, and so this same reality is the Father and the Son and also the Holy Spirit proceeding from both. But when Truth prays to the Father for His faithful saying: "I will that they may be one in us, as we also are one" (Jn 17,22): this word "one" indeed is accepted for the faithful in such a way that a union of charity in grace is understood, for the divine Persons in such a way that a unity of identity in nature is considered, as elsewhere Truth says: "Be . . . perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5,48), as if He said more clearly, "Be perfect" in the perfection of grace "as your heavenly Father is perfect" in the perfection of grace, that is, each in his own manner, because between the Creator and the creature so great a likeness cannot be noted without the necessity of noting a greater dissimilarity between them. If anyone, therefore, shall presume to defend or approve the opinion or doctrine of the above mentioned Joachim, let him be refuted as a heretic by all.
433 Yet on this account we do not wish to detract from the monastery in Florence (whose founder is Joachim himself), since both the institution there is regular and the observance salutary, especially since Joachim himself has ordered all his writings to be assigned to us, to be approved or even corrected by the judgment of the Apostolic See, dictating a letter which he signed with his own hand in which he firmly confesses that he holds that Faith which the Roman Church, which (the Lord disposing) is the mother and master of all the faithful, holds. We reprove also and we condemn that very perverse dogma of the impious Almaricus, whose mind the father of lies has so blinded that his doctrine must be considered not so heretical as insane.
Chap. 3 . The Heretics[ Waldensian] *
[The necessity of a canonical mission]
434 Because some indeed "under the pretext of piety, denying his power" (according to what the Apostle says) (2Tm 3,5), assume to themselves the authority of preaching, when the same Apostle says: "How . . . shall they preach, unless they are sent?" (Rm 10,15), let all who, being prohibited or not sent, without having received authority from the Apostolic See, or from the Catholic bishop of the place, shall presume publicly or privately to usurp the duty of preaching * be marked by the bond of excommunication; and unless they recover their senses, the sooner the better, let them be punished with another fitting penalty.
Chap. 4. The Pride of the Greeks Against the Latins *
435 Although we wish to cherish and honor the Greeks who in our days are returning to the obedience of the Apostolic See, by sustaining their customs and rites in as far as we are able with the Lord, yet we do not wish nor are we able to defer to them in these things which engender danger to souls and which detract from ecclesiastical honor. For when the church of the Greeks with certain accomplices and their protectors withdrew itself from the obedience of the Apostolic See, the Greeks began to detest the Latins so much that among other things which they impiously committed to their dishonor, if at any time Latin priests celebrated Mass on their altars, they themselves were unwilling to sacrifice on these (altars), before they washed them, as if defiled on account of this (sacrifice by the Latin priests); these same Greeks presumed with indiscreet boldness to rebaptize those baptized by the Latins, and up to this time, as we have learned, certain ones do not fear to do this. Therefore, wishing to remove such scandal from the Church, on the recommendation of the Sacred Council, we strictly command that they do not presume such things in the future, conforming themselves as obedient sons to the holy Roman Church, their mother, so that there may be "one flock and one shepherd" (Jn 10,16). If anyone, however, shall presume any such thing, struck by the sword of excommunication, let him be deposed from every office and ecclesiastical favor.
Chap. 5. The Dignity of the Patriarchs *
436 Renewing the ancient privilege of the patriarchal sees, with the approval of the sacred universal synod, we sanction that after the Roman Church, which by the ordering of the Lord before all others holds the first place of ordinary power as the mother and teacher of all the faithful of Christ, the (Church of) Constantinople holds the first, Alexandria the second, Antioch the third, and Jerusalem the fourth place.
Chap. 21. The Obligation of Making Confession and of its not being Revealed by the Priest, and the Obligation of Receiving the Sacrament at least in Paschal Time.*
437 Let everyone of the faithful of both sexes, after he has arrived at the years of discretion, alone faithfully confess all his sins at least once a year to his own priest, and let him strive to fulfill with all his power the penance enjoined upon him, receiving reverently the sacrament of the Eucharist at least in Paschal time, unless by chance on the advice of his own priest for some reasonable cause it shall be decided that he must abstain from the precept temporarily; otherwise both while living let him be barred from entrance to the church, and when dying let him be deprived of Christian burial. Therefore, let this salutary law be published frequently in the churches, lest anyone assume a pretext of excuse in the blindness of ignorance. Moreover if anyone from a just cause shall wish to confess his sins to another priest, let him first ask and obtain permission from his own priest, since otherwise that one (the other priest) cannot absolve or bind him. Let the priest, however, be discreet and cautious, so that skilled by practice "he may pour wine and oil" (Lc 10,34) on the wounds of the wounded, diligently inquiring into both the circumstances of the sinner and the sin, by which prudently he may understand what kind of advice he ought to give to him, and, using various experiments to save the sick, what kind of a remedy he ought to apply.
438 Moreover, let him constantly take care, lest by word or sign or any other way whatsoever he may at any time betray the sinner; but if he should need more prudent counsel, he should seek it cautiously without any mention of the person, since he who shall presume to reveal a sin entrusted to him in confession, we decree not only must be deposed from priestly office but must also be thrust into a strict monastery to do perpetual penance.
Chap. 41.The Continuation of Good Faith in Every Precept *
439 Since "everything . . . which is not from faith is a sin" (Rm 14,23), by synodal judgment we define that no precept either canonical or civil without good faith has any value, since that which cannot be observed without mortal sin must in general be rejected by every constitution and custom. Therefore, it is necessary that he who lay down a rule at no time be conscious of anything wrong.
Chap. 62 . The Relics of the Saints *
440 Since, because certain ones expose the relics of saints for sale and exhibit them at random, the Christian religion has often suffered detraction; so that it may not suffer detraction in the future, we have ordered by the present decree that from now on ancient relics may by no means be exhibited or exposed for sale outside a case. Moreover let no one presume that newly found relics be venerated publicly, unless first they have been approved by the authority of the Roman Pontiff
The Matter of the Eucharist *
[From the letter "Perniciosus valde" to Olaus, Archbishop of Upsala Dec. 13, 1220]
441 An exceedingly pernicious abuse, as we have heard, has arisen in your area, namely, that in the sacrifice water is being used in greater measure than wine; when according to the reasonable custom of the general Church more of wine than of water should be used. And so to your brotherhood through the apostolic writings we order that in the future you do not do this, and that you do not allow it to be done in your province.
The Necessity of Preserving Theological Terminology and Tradition *
[From the letter "Ab Aegyptiis" to the theologians of Paris, July 7, 1228]
442 "Touched inwardly with sorrow of heart" (Gn 6,6), "we are filled with the bitterness of wormwood" (cf. Lam. Lm 3,15), because as it has been brought to our attention, certain ones among you, distended like a skin by the spirit of vanity, are working with profane novelty to pass beyond the boundaries which thy fathers have set (cf. Prov. Pr 22,28), the understanding of the heavenly page limited by the fixed boundaries of expositions in the studies of the Holy Fathers by inclining toward the philosophical doctrine of natural things, which it is not only rash but even profane to transgress; (they are doing this) for a show of knowledge, not for any profit to their hearers; so that they seem to be not taught of God or speakers of God, but rather revealed as God. For, although they ought to explain theology according to the approved traditions of the saints and not with carnal weapons, "yet with (weapons) powerful for God to destroy every height exalting itself against the knowledge of God and to lead back into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ" (cf. 2Co 10,4 f.), they themselves "led away by various and strange doctrines" (cf. Heb. He 13,9) reduce the "head to the tail" (cf. Deut. Dt 28,13) and they force the queen to be servant to the handmaid, that is, by earthly documents attributing the heavenly, which is of grace, to nature. Indeed relying on the knowledge of natural things more than they ought, returning "to the weak and needy elements" of the world, which they served while they were "little" and "serving them again" (Ga 4,9) as foolish in Christ they feed on "milk and not solid food" (He 5,12 f.), and they seem by no means to have established "the heart in grace" (cf. Heb. He 13,9); and so despoiled of their rewards "plundered and wounded by their natural possessions * they do not reduce to memory that (saying) of the Apostle which we believe they have already frequently read: "Avoiding the profane novelties of words, and the oppositions of knowledge falsely so called, which some seeking have erred concerning the faith" (cf. 1Tm 6,20 f.). "O foolish and slow of heart in all things" which the protectors of divine grace, namely "the prophets" the evangelists and the apostles "have spoken" (cf. Luke Lc 24,25), since nature in itself cannot (work) anything for salvation unless it is helped by grace [see n. 105, 138]. Let presumers of this kind speak, who embracing the doctrine of natural things offer the leaves and not the fruit of words to their hearers, whose minds as if fed with husks remain empty and vacant; and their soul cannot be "delighted in fatness" (Is 55,2), because thirsty and dry it cannot drink "from the waters of Siloe running with silence" (cf. Is. Is 8,6) but rather from those which are drawn from the philosophical torrents, of which it is said: "The more they are drunk, the more the waters are thirsted for, because they do not bring satiety, but rather anxiety and labor. And while by extorted, nay rather distorted, expositions they turn the sacred words divinely inspired to the sense of the doctrine of philosophers who are ignorant of God, "do they not place the ark of the covenant by Dagon" (1S 5,2), and set up the image of Antiochus to be adored in the temple of the Lord? And while they try to add to faith by natural reason more than they ought, do they not render it in a certain way useless and empty since "faith does not have merit for one to whom human reason furnishes proof?" * Finally, nature believes what is understood, but faith by its freely given power comprehends what is believed by the intelligence, and bold and daring it penetrates where natural intellect is not able to reach. Will such followers of the things of nature, in whose eyes grace seems to be proscribed, say that "the Word which was in the beginning with God, was made flesh, and dwelt in us" (Jn 1) is of grace or of nature? As for the rest, God forbid that a "most beautiful woman" (Ct 5,9), with "eyes painted with stiblic" (2R 9,30) by presumers, be adorned with false colors, and that she who "girded with clothes" (Ps 44,10) and "adorned with jewels" (Is 61,10) proceeds splendid as a queen, be clothed with stitched semi-girdles of philosophers, sordid apparel. God forbid that "cows ill favored" and consumed with leanness, which "give no mark of being full would devour the beautiful" (Gn 41,18 ff.) and consume the fat.
443 Therefore, lest a rash and perverse dogma of this kind "as a canker spreads" (2Tm 2,17), and infects many and makes it necessary that "Rachel bewail her lost sons" (Jr 31,15), we order and strictly command by the authority of those present that, entirely forsaking the poison mentioned above, without the leaven of worldly knowledge, that you teach theological purity, not "adulterating the word of God" (2Co 2,17) by the creations of philosophers, lest around the altar of God you seem to wish to plant a grove contrary to the teaching of the Lord, and by a commingling of honey to cause the sacrifice of doctrine to ferment which is to be presented "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1Co 5,8). But content with the terminology established by the Fathers, you should feed the minds of your listeners with the fruit of heavenly words, so that after the leaves of the words have been removed, "they may draw from the fountains of the Savior" (Is 12,3); the clear and limpid waters which tend principally to this, that they may build up faith or fashion morals, and refreshed by these they may be delighted with internal richness. *
Condemnation of Various Heretics *
[From the form of anathema published Aug. 20, I229 MI
444 "We excommunicate and anathematize... all heretics": the Cathari, the Patareni, the Pauperes of Lyons, the Passagini, the Josephini, the Arnoldistac, the Speronistae, and others, "by whatever names they may be known; having different faces indeed, but "tails coupled to each other" (Jg 15,4), because from vanity they come together at the same point." *
The Matter and Form of Ordination *
[From the letter to Olaus, Bishop of Lyons, Dec. 9, 1232]
445 When a priest and deacon are ordained, they receive the imposition of a hand by corporal touch, by the rite introduced by the Apostles; and if this shall be omitted, it must not be partially repeated, but at an established time for conferring orders of this kind, what through error was omitted must be carefully supplied. Moreover, the suspension of hands over the head must be made, when the prayer of ordination is uttered over the head.
The Invalidity of Marriage Subject to Conditions *
[From fragments of the Decrees n. 104, about the years 1227-1234]
446 If conditions contrary to the nature of marriage are inserted, for example, if one says to the other: "I contract marriage with you, if you avoid the generation of children," or "until I find another more worthy by reason of reputation or riches," or, "if you surrender yourself to adultery for money," the marriage contract, however favorable it may be, is lacking in effect; although some conditions appended in matrimony, if they are disgraceful or impossible, because of its esteem, are to be considered as not added.
The Matter of Baptism *
[From the letter "Cum, sicut ex" to Sigurd, Archbishop of Nidaros, * July 8, 1241]
447 Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present that, since according to evangelical doctrine it is necessary "to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit" (Jn 3,5) they are not to be considered rightly baptized who are baptized in beer.
Usury *
[From a letter to brother R. in fragments of Decree n. 69, of uncertain date]
448 He who loans a sum of money to one sailing or going to market, since he has assumed upon himself a risk, is [not] to be considered a usurer who will receive something beyond his lot. He also who gives ten solidi, so that at another time just as many measures of grain, wine, and oil may be payed back to him, and although these are worth more at the present time, it is probably doubtful whether at the time of payment they will be worth more or less, for this reason should not be considered a usurer. By reason of this doubt he also is excused, who sells clothing, grain, wine, oil, or other wares so that at a set time he receives for them more than they are worth at that time, if, however, he had not intended so to sell them at the time of the contract.
Ecumenical XIII (against Frederick II)
He did not send out dogmatic decrees.
The Rites of the Greeks *
[From the letter "Sub Catholicae" to the Bishop of Tusculum, of the Legation of the Apostolic See among the Greeks, March 6, 1254]
449 1. And so concerning these matters our deliberation has resulted thus, that Greeks of the same kingdom in the anointings, which are made with respect to baptism, should hold to and observe the custom of the Roman Church. -- 2. But the rite or custom which they are said to have, of anointing completely the bodies of those to be baptized may be tolerated, if it cannot be given up or be removed without scandal, since, whether or not it be done, it makes no great difference with regard to the efficacy or effect of baptism. -- 3. Also it makes no difference whether they baptize in cold or in hot water, since they are said to affirm that baptism has equal power and effect in each.
450 4. Moreover, let bishops alone mark the baptized on the forehead with chrism, because this anointing is not to be given except by bishops, since the apostles alone, whose places the bishops take, are read to have imparted the Holy Spirit by the imposition of the hand, which confirmation, or the anointing of the forehead represents. -- 5. Also all bishops individually in their own churches on the day of the Lord's Supper can, according to the form of the Church, prepare chrism from balsam and olive oil. For the gift of the Holy Spirit is given in the anointing with chrism. And particularly the dove, which signifies the Spirit Himself, is read to have brought the olive branch to the ark. But if the Greeks should wish rather to preserve their own ancient rite in this, namely, that the patriarch together with the archbishops and bishops, his suffragans and the archbishops with their suffragans, prepare chrism at the same time, let them be tolerated in such a custom of theirs.
451 6. Moreover no one may merely be anointed with some unction by priests or confessors for satisfaction of penance -- 7. But upon the sick according to the word of James the Apostle (Jc 5,4) let extreme unction be conferred.
452 8. Furthermore in the application of water, whether cold or hot or tepid, in the sacrifice of the altar, let the Greeks follow their own custom if they wish, as long as they believe and declare that, when the form of the canon has been preserved, it is accomplished equally by each (kind of water).--9. But let them not preserve the Eucharist consecrated on the day of the Lord's Supper for a year on the pretext of the sick, that with it they may obviously communicate themselves. It may be permitted them, however, in behalf of the sick themselves, to consecrate the body of Christ and to preserve it for fifteen days, but not for a longer period of time, lest through its long preservation, perchance by a change in the species, it be rendered less suitable to receive, although the truth and its efficacy always remain entirely the same, and never by any length of time or the mutability of time do they grow weak. -- 10. But in the celebration of solemn and other Masses, and concerning the hour of celebrating these, as long as in the preparation and in the consecration they observe the form of words expressed and handed down by the Lord, and (as long as) in celebrating they do not pass the ninth hour, let them be permitted to follow their own custom.
453 18. Moreover concerning fornication which an unmarried man commits with an unmarried woman, there must not be any doubt at all that it is a mortal sin, since the Apostle declares that "fornicators as adulterers are cast out from the kingdom of God" (1Co 6,9).
454 19. In addition to this we wish and we expressly command that the Greek bishops in the future confer the seven orders according to the custom of the Roman Church, since they are said to have neglected or to have hitherto omitted three of the minor ones with respect to those to be ordained. But let those who already have been so ordained by them, because of their exceedingly great number, be kept in the orders thus received.
455 20. Because according to the Apostle "a woman if her husband is dead is freed from the law of her husband" so "that she has the free power of marrying whom she will in the Lord" (cf. Rom. Rm 7,2 1Co 7,39), let the Greeks in no measure reprehend second or third or even later marriages; nor should they condemn but rather approve them between persons who otherwise can licitly be united to one another in marriage. Priests, however, should not by any means bless those who marry a second time.
456 23. Finally, since Truth in the Gospel asserts that "if anyone shall utter blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, neither in this life nor in the future will it be forgiven him" (cf. Matt. Mt 12,32), by this it is granted that certain sins of the present be understood which, however, are forgiven in the future life, and since the Apostle says that "fire will test the work of each one, of what kind it is," and " if any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire" (1Co 3,13), and since these same Greeks truly and undoubtedly are said to believe and to affirm that the souls of those who after a penance has been received yet not performed, or who, without mortal sin yet die with venial and slight sin, can be cleansed after death and can be helped by the suffrages of the Church, we, since they say a place of purgation of this kind has not been indicated to them with a certain and proper name by their teachers, we indeed, calling it purgatory according to the traditions and authority of the Holy Fathers, wish that in the future it be called by that name in their area. For in that transitory fire certainly sins, though not criminal or capital, which before have not been remitted through penance but were small and minor sins, are cleansed, and these weigh heavily even after death, if they have been forgiven in this life.
457 24. Moreover, if anyone without repentance dies in mortal sin, without a doubt he is tortured forever by the flames of eternal hell.--25. But the souls of children after the cleansing of baptism, and of adults also who depart in charity and who are bound neither by sin nor unto any satisfaction for sin itself, at once pass quickly to their eternal fatherland.
Errors of William of St. Amour (concerning Mendicants) *
[From Constit. "Romanus Pontifex," October 5, 1256]
458 They have published, I say, and they have rushed forth into wicked falsehoods out of an excessive passion of soul, rashly composing an exceedingly pernicious and detestable treatise. After this treatise was carefully read, and opportunely and rigidly examined, and a complete report concerning it was made to us by these, because in it (there are) some perverse and wicked things: against the power and authority of the Roman Pontiff and of his bishops; some against those who overcome the world with its riches by voluntary indigence, and for the sake of God beg in very strict poverty; others even against those who, ardently zealous for the salvation of souls and caring for sacred interests, bring about much spiritual progress in the Church of God and make much fruit there;
459 moreover, certain statements against the salutary state of the poor or religious mendicants, as are the beloved sons, the Brother Preachers and Minor, who in the vigor of spirit after abandoning the world with its riches, aspire to their heavenly fatherland alone with all effort; and because also we find many other disagreements, certainly worthy of confutation and lasting confusion clearly contained; and because, too, this same treatise was a festering center of great scandal and matter of much disturbance, and induced a loss of souls, since it distracted the faithful from ordinary devotion and the customary giving of alms and from conversion and entrance into religion,
We by the advice of our Brethren, by Apostolic authority have thought that this same book which begins thus: "Behold seeing they will cry from abroad," and which according to its title is called "a brief tract concerning the dangers of most recent times" as something wicked, criminal, and detestable, and the rules and documents handed down in it as wicked, false, and impious, must be rejected, and must be condemned forever, and we rigidly command that whoever has that treatise will take care to burn it and entirely destroy it immediately in whole and in any of its parts within eight days from the time at which he shall know of such a rejection and condemnation of ours.
Denzinger EN 427