Lamentabili

views updated

LAMENTABILI

A decree of the Holy Office (July 3, 1903), approved in forma communi by Pius X (July 4), which lists 65 condemned propositions. These cover, such areas as the Church's right to interpret Scripture, Biblical inspiration, the historicity of the Gospels, the meaning of revelation, the preservation of Christology, the fact of the Resurrection, the origin of the Church and the Sacraments from Christ, the objectivity of dogma, and dogma's harmony with history. Modernism, the movement aimed at, was officially so named in the encyclical pascendi (Sept. 8,1907). Some of the propositions have a sense not intended by many Modernist writers. But the decree purposely remains on an impersonal level, and the propositions are condemned precisely in the sense in which they are stated. The decree gives no precise qualifications to the various

assertions beyond the term "errors." The carefully worded propositions are by no means as conservative as a cursory reading might infer. Many of the condemnations contain echoes of a memoir on the writings of loisy prepared for Cardinal Richard of Paris to be submitted to the Holy Office. It is generally agreed that certain of the propositions also reflect the writings of G. tyrrell, E. le roy, and A. houtin.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Sedis 40 (1907) 470478. h. denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. a. schÖnmetzer (Freiburg 1932) 340166. Eng. tr. v. a. yzermans, All Things in Christ (Westminster, Md. 1954). j. riviÈre, Le Modernisme dans l'Èglise (Paris 1929).

[j. j. heaney]