Dum Acerbissimas

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DUM ACERBISSIMAS

An apostolic letter of Pope Gregory XVI issued on Sept. 26, 1835, condemning the teaching of Georg her mes that all theological investigations must be founded on positive doubt. In this brief His Holiness, recalling that he had already had to condemn errors of others, stated that he had ordered the books of Hermes to be investigated by skilled theologians. They found them to contain grave errors concerning the nature of faith, Sacred Scripture, tradition, revelation, the magisterium of the Church, the motives of credibility, and the arguments for the existence of God; about God's essence, holiness, justice and liberty, and the purpose of God's works; and concerning the necessity of grace, original sin, and the state of the first parents. For this reason the writings of Hermes were condemned and to be placed on the Index of prohibited books.

Bibliography: h. denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. a. schÖnmetzer (Freiburg 1963) 273840.

[w. f. hogan]