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[translation.]

ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR MOST HOLY LORD,
LEO XIII., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE.

lo all the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic

World holding Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Venerable Brethren : Health and Apostolic Benediction.

The hidden counsel of divine wisdom, which Jesus Christ, the Saviour

of men, was to accomplish on earth, had for its purpose that He, through

Himself and in Himself, should divinely restore the world which, so to

speak, had grown old with age and decay. This much is expressed in

that grand saying of St. Paul to the Ephesians, “ The mystery of his will

. . . to re-establish all things in Christ that are in heaven and on earth.”

And truly when Christ Our Lord set about fulfilling the commandment

given Him by His Father, He forthwith imparted to all things a new form

and beauty, banishing every trace of age and decay. For the wounds

which the sin of our first parent had inflicted on human nature He himself

healed
;
He brought back all men, by nature children of wrath, into favor

with God
;
He led into the light of truth those who were wearied with

long wanderings
;
He renewed to every virtue those who were worn out

by every kind of impurity
;
and, restoring them to the inheritance of

everlasting blessedness, he gave them a certain hope that their very body,

mortal and frail as it was, should one day be partaker of immortality and

heavenly glory. And that such wonderful blessings might endure on

earth as long as men existed, He constituted the Church to carry on His

work, and, looking forward to the future, commanded it to set in order

whatever in human society might have become confused, and to restore

whatever might have fallen into ruin.

But although this divine restoration, of which we have spoken, mainly

and directly concerns men who are in the supernatural order of grace,

nevertheless its precious and saving fruits have largely flowed into the

natural order also
;
the result of which, not only to individuals, but to

human society in general, has been no scanty measure of perfection in

all respects. For the Christian order being once established, it became

the happy lot of every man to learn and accustom himself to rest in the

fatherly providence of God, and to cherish that hope of heavenly help

which does not bring to confusion, from which follow fortitude, modera-

tion, constancy, the equability of a mind at peace, and many great virtues

1

* DsackTiJied



2 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII,

and noble deeds. And to domestic and civil society also there has come

a wonderful accession of dignity, stability, and honor. The authority of

rulers has been made more just and more holy
;
the obedience of peoples

readier and more easy
;
the tie between citizens closer

;
the rights of

property more secure. The Christian religion has attended to and pro-

vided for everything of acknowledged utility in a state, so that, according

to St. Augustine, it could not have contributed more to the welfare and

happiness of existence if the good and advantage of our mortal life had

been the sole end for which it came into being. We do not intend to
enumerate all the instances of this

;
but we desire to speak of domestic

life, of which the source and the foundation are in matrimony .

The origin of marriage . Venerable Brethren, is well known among all.

For, although the revilers of the Christian faith are loath to acknowledge

the constant teaching of the Church on this subject, and have been long

endeavoring to obliterate the record of all nations and all ages, they have

been unable to extinguish or weaken the strength and light of truth. We

are speaking of what is known to all and doubtful to none. When on the

sixth day of creation God formed man out of the slime of the earth, and

breathed into his face the breath of life, it was His will to give him a com-

panion, whom He brought forth wonderfully from the side of the man him-

self as he slept. And in this the design of God’s providence was that this

married pair should be the natural source of all mankind, and that from

them the human race should be propagated, and, by uninterrupted course of

procreation, be preserved to all time. And the union of the man and the

woman, in order more perfectly to correspond to the wise counsels of God,

bore upon its face two especial properties, noble above all, and, as it were,

deeply impressed and engraved, namely, unity and perpetuity. And we

see this announced and openly confirmed in the Gospel by the divine

authority of Jesus Christ, who declared to the Jews and to the Apostles

that marriage from its very institution was to be between two only, the

husband and the wife, that of two there was to be as it were one flesh

;

and that the nuptial bond was by the will of God so closely and strongly

woven that it cannot be unloosed or broken by any among men. A man
“ shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh. Therefore

now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined

together let no one man put asunder.” (Matt. xix. 5, 6.)

But this form of marriage, so excellent and admirable, began by degrees

to be corrupted and to die out among the heathen nations ; and it seemed

to be overclouded and darkened even in the Hebrew race. For among

the latter common usage had sanctioned the possession by each man of

more than one wife, and afterwards, when the indulgence of Moses had

conceded “to the hardness of their hearts” (Matt. xix. 8) the power of

repudiation, a door was opened to divorce. As to pagan society it is

scarcely credible how marriage became corrupted and disfigured, exposed

as it was to the flood of each people’s errors and most shameful desires.



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 3

Every nation, more or less, seems to have lost the idea and forgotten the

true origin of marriage, and consequently laws were in many places

enacted which seemed useful to the state rather than conformable to the

requirements of nature. Solemn ceremonies, invented at the will of

legislators, were the cause of the honorable name of wife, or the disgraceful

name of concubine, being given to women
;
and the authority of the rulers

of the state even took upon itself to decide who were and who were not to

be allowed to marry, the laws being, to a great extent, contrary to equity,

and resulting often in the commission of injustice. Moreover polygamy,

polyandry, and divorce were the cause of a great relaxation of the nuptial

tie. There was also a great disturbance of the mutual rights and duties

of married persons when the husband acquired dominion over the wife,

and commanded her, often without just cause, to go her way, while he

assumed to himself, in his propensity to unbridled and untamed lust, the

license to “ roam with impunity amongst women of servile condition or

infamous life, as if the guilt of sin depended on rank and not on the will.”

(Hieronymi Ep. ad Oceanum. Oper., tom. i., col. 459.) With this pre-

vailing licentiousness on the part of husbands, nothing could be more

wretched than the wife, who was reduced to such an abject condition that

she was considered a mere instrument provided for the purpose of satis-

fying the passions or producing offspring. Nor was it thought shameful

to buy and sell marriageable girls like chattels (Arnob. adv. gent. 4) ; the

power of inflicting capital punishment on the wife being sometimes given

to the parent and the husband. The families which owed their existence

to such marriages as these were necessarily either the property of the state

or owned as slaves by the father of the family, to whom the laws gave the

right, not only to conclude and dissolve their marriages at his will, but

even to exercise over them the monstrous power of life and death.

But at length a relief and remedy were divinely provided for all the

ignominious evils with which marriages had been defiled
;

for Jesus

Christ, the restorer of human dignity, and the perfecter of the Mosaic

laws, did not make the subject of matrimony His least or last care. He

ennobled the nuptials of Cana of Galilee by His presence, and made them

memorable by the performance of the first of His miracles
;
so that from

that day dates the beginning of the new holiness which descended upon

human marriage. Then He recalled matrimony to the nobility of its

primeval origin, both by reproving the abuses introduced by the Jews as

to both the plurality of wives and the privilege of repudiation, and by

teaching them above all that no one might put asunder that which God

had bound together by the chain of perpetual union. Therefore, after

solving the difficulties adduced from the Mosaic institutes, assuming the

part of a supreme lawgiver, He pronounced this decision in reference to

married persons: “ And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his

wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth

adultery
;
and he that shall marry her that is put away committeth

adultery.” (Matt. xix. 9.)



4 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

But the Apostles, heralds of God’s legislation, have more fully and in

greater detail delivered to memory and to writing those things which

have been decreed and established by divine authority in regard to mar-

riage. For to no other teaching than of the Apostles must be referred

what “ our Holy Fathers, the Councils, and the tradition of the Universal

Church have always taught” (Trid. sess. xxiv., in pr.), namely, that

Christ Our Lord raised matrimony to the dignity of a sacrament
;
that

He at the same time ordained that married people, guarded and protected

by the celestial grace provided by His merits, should derive holiness

from marriage itself; and in it, in a manner wonderfully resembling the

mystical union between Him and His Church, He perfected the love

which accords with nature (Trid. sess. xxiv., cap. 1, de reform, matr.) and

cemented the natural union of the man and woman more firmly in the

bonds of divine charity. “ Husbands,” Paul says to the Ephesians, “ love

your wives as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for

it, that He might sanctify it. . . . So also ought men to love their wives

as their own bodies, . . . for no man ever hated his own flesh
;
but

nourisheth and cherisheth it as also Christ does the Church
;
because we

are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause

shall a man leave his father and mother
;
and shall cleave to his wife, and

they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I speak in

Christ and in the Church.” (Ad Ephes. v. 25 et seq.) And in the same

manner we learn from the teaching of the Apostles that Christ com-

manded that the union and perpetual constancy which was required from

the first commencement of marriages should be held sacred and should

not at any time be violated. The same Paul says : “ But to them that

are married, not I, but the Lord commandeth that the wife depart not

from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be

reconciled to her husband.” (1 Cor. vii. 10, 11.) And again: “A
woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth, but if her

husband die she is at liberty.” (Ibid. v. 39.) For these causes, therefore,

matrimony has been made “ a great sacrament ” (Ad Eph. v. 32),

“honorable in all” (Ad Hebr. xiii. 4), pious, chaste, and venerable as

representing and signifying the most exalted mysteries. Nor is its

Christian perfection and completeness confined to those things which have

been mentioned. For in the first place something more exalted and

noble has been given to the conjugal union than it had before, inasmuch

as it was bid to look not merely to the propagation of the human race

but to the procreation of offspring to the Church, “ fellow-citizens with

the saints and the domestics of God ” (Ad Eph. ii. 19), “ that a people

may be begotten and trained to religion and to the worship of the true

God and of Our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Catech. Bom. cap. viii.). In

the second place the duties of both parties in marriage are defined and

their rights fully laid down. It is incumbent upon them to bear in mind

and understand that each owes to the other the greatest love, a constant



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 5

fidelity, and careful and assiduous support. The man is the chief of the

family, and the head of the woman, who nevertheless, inasmuch as she is

flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, should be subject to and obey the

man, not as a servant, but as a companion
;
and so neither honor nor

dignity is lost by the rendering of obedience. But let divine charity ever

regulate duty both in him who commands and in her who obeys, since

both are images, the one of Christ, the other of His Church and both of

God. For “ the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head

of the Church. . . . But as the Church is subject to Christ so also let

wives be to their husbands in all things.” (Ad Eph. v. 23, 24). As

regards children, they are bound to obey and be subject to their parents,

and to do them honor for conscience sake
;
and, on the other hand, every

care and forethought should be vigilantly exercised by parents to protect

their children and above all to train them to virtue : “ Fathers, bring

them ” (your children) “ up in the discipline and the correction of the

Lord.” (Ad Eph. vi. 4). Whence it may be understood that the duties

of married people are neither few nor light
;
yet to those who are virtuous

they become, by the grace imparted through the Sacrament, not only

easy to bear, but even a source of happiness.

Therefore Christ, having renewed matrimony to such and so great an

excellence, intrusted and commended its entire discipline to the Church.

And she has exercised authority over the marriages of Christians at every

time and in every place, and has so exercised it as to show that it was her

own inherent right, not obtained by the concession of men, but divinely

bestowed by the will of her Author. How many and how vigilant were

the pains which she took to retain the sanctity of marriages, in order that

their inviolability might be preserved to them, is so well known that it

need not be pointed out. And we know that loose and free love was

forbidden by the sentence of the Council of Jerusalem (Act xv. 29), that

the Corinthian citizen was condemned for incest by the authority of St.

Paul (1 Cor. v. 5), and that the attempts of very many persons who

attacked Christian marriage, to wit, Gnostics, Manichseans, Montanists,

in the very beginning of Christianity, and within our memory Mormons,

St. Simonians, Phalansterians, and Communists, have been opposed and

rejected with the same vigor. In like manner the rights of marriage have

been made equal among all persons and the same for all, the ancient

distinction between slaves and the freeborn being put an end to (cap. de

conjug. serv.), the rights of husband and wife have been equalized
;

for, as

Jerome said (Oper., tom. i., col. 455), “ among us what is not lawful for

women is equally unlawful for men, and the same obligation results from

equal servitude,” and those same rights, tending to promote mutual good-

will and reciprocal kindness, have been firmly established
;
the dignity of

woman has been asserted and vindicated
;

it has been forbidden to a

husband to inflict capital punishment on an adulteress (Can. Interfectores,

et Can. Admonere, qusest. 2), or with a wanton unehastity to violate his



6 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

own plighted faith. And it is also very important that the Church, as

far as is right, has limited the power of fathers of families, so that their

sons and daughters when desirous of marriage should not have their just

liberty diminished (cap. 30, qusest. 3 ; cap. 3, de cognat spirit.') ; that she

has decreed that there could be no marriages between relations and

kindred within certain degrees (cap. 8
,
de consang. et affin.; cap. 1 , de

cognat, legati.), so that the supernatural love of married persons might

diffuse itself over a wider field
;
that she has taken care that marriages

should, as far as possible, be guarded against error, force and fraud (cap.

26, de sponsal.; capp. 13, 15, 29, de sponsal. et matrim.; et alibi). That

she has willed the holiness of the marriage-bed, the security of persons

(cap. 1. de convers. infid.; capp. 5, 6, de eo qui duxit in matr.), the decorum

of marriages (capp. 3, 5, 8, de sponsal. et matr. Trid. sess. xxiv. cap. 3,

de reform, matr.), the inviolability of religion (cap. 7, de divort.), to be

placed under proper safeguard. In fine, she has fortified that divine

institution so strongly and with such prudent laws, that no one can be a

just judge of things who does not understand that even with regard to the

subject of marriages the Church is the best guardian and protector of the

human race
;
and that her wisdom has victoriously survived both the flight

of time, the injuries of men, and the innumerable vicissitudes of states.

But, by the efforts of the enemy of the human race, there are not

wanting those who, as they ungratefully repudiate the other benefits of

redemption, in the same way either despise or altogether ignore the resti-

tution and perfection of marriage. It is the disgrace of certain of the

ancients that they were hostile to marriage in some respects
;
but much

more perniciously do those in our own time err who would entirely per-

vert its nature now that it has been made perfect and complete in all its

elements and parts. Of which the cause is chiefly to be found in this,

that the minds of many, being imbued with the opinions of a false

philosophy and a corrupt habit of mind, bear nothing so ill as to submit

and obey
;
and they labor with the greatest bitterness in order that not

only individuals, but families, and indeed the whole human race, may

proudly despise the authority of God. But since the fount and origin of

the family, and all human society, consists in marriage, they will in no

way allow it to be under the jurisdiction of the Church
;
nay, they en-

deavor to cast it down from all sanctity, and to drive it into the narrow

circle of those things which have been instituted by human authors, and

are regulated and administered by the civil law of nations. Whence it

necessarily followed that they have attributed to the rulers of the state all

jurisdiction over marriage, and granted none to the Church
;
and if she

at any time exercised power of that kind they affirm that this was done

by the indulgence of rulers, or unjustly. But now they say it is time that

those who rule the state should bravely vindicate their rights, and should

determine to direct according to their own will all matters relating to

marriage. Hence have arisen what are called civil marriages; hence



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 7

laws enacted concerning the causes which constitute an impediment ta

marriage
;
hence judicial sentences on conjugal contracts, as to whether

they have been entered upon rightly or wrongly. Lastly we see every

possible power of legislating and judging on this subject taken away from

the Church with so much determination that no account is any longer

taken either of her divine power or of the provident laws under which all

the nations, to whom Christian wisdom brought the light of civilization,

lived so many years.

But the naturalists and all those who, specially professing to worship

the deity of the state, are striving to disturb entire commonwealths with

these doctrines, cannot avoid the reproach of falsehood. For since mar-

riage has God for its author, and since it has been even from the beginning

a shadowing forth of the incarnation of the Word of God, therefore there

is in it something sacred and religious, not adventitious but innate, not

received from men but implanted by nature. Wherefore Innocent III

(cap. 8, de divort.) and Honorius III. (cap. 11, de transact), our prede-

cessors, were enabled to say, not unjustly nor rashly, that the sacrament

of marriage exists both among the faithful and among infidels. We call

to witness also the monuments of antiquity, and the customs and insti-

tutions of those nations which were the most cultivated and excelled in a

more refined knowledge of right and equity, in all of whose minds it was

a settled and foregone conclusion that the idea of marriage was connected

with religion and sanctity. For this reason marriages amongst them were

frequently accustomed to be performed with religious ceremonies, with the

authority of the pontiffs, with the ministry of priests, so great an influence

even on minds ignorant of Divine Revelation had the nature of things,

the memory of their origin, the conscience of the human race

!

Wherefore marriage, being by its own nature and meaning sacred, it is

consistent that it should be regulated and governed, not by the command

of rulers, but by the divine authority of the Church, which alone possesses

authority in sacred things. Then we must consider the dignity of the

sacrament, by the addition of which the marriages of Christians have be-

come in the highest degree ennobled. And, by the will of Christ, the

Church alone can and ought to legislate and decide concerning sacra-

ments, so that it is out of the question to attempt to transfer any, even the

smallest part, of her power to the governors of the state. Finally, there

is great weight, great force in history, by which we are clearly taught

that the legislative and judicial power of which we speak was wont to be

freely and continually exercised by the Church, even in those times when

it is vainly and foolishly pretended that the chiefs of the state were con-

senting and conniving thereto. For how incredible and absurd it is to

suppose that Christ Our Lord condemned the deep-rooted custom of po-

lygamy and of repudiation by a power delegated to Him by the governor

of the province or by the ruler of the Jews
;

or, in like manner, that the

Apostle Paul declared divorces and incestuous marriages to be unlawful



8 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

with the consent or by the tacit authority of Tiberius, of Caligula, or of

Nero ! Nor can any sane man be persuaded that so many laws were en-

acted by the Church regarding the sanctity and stability of marriage

(Can. Apost., 16, 17, 18), and regarding marriages between slaves and

free women (Philosophum. Oxon., 1851), by authority derived from the

Roman emperors, the deadliest enemies of the Christian name, who desired

nothing more earnestly than to extirpate by violence and blood the grow-

ing religion of Christ
;
more especially as the law which proceeded from

the Church differed so widely from the civil law that Ignatius the Martyr

(Epist. ad Polycarp. cap. 5), Justin (Apolog. mai., n. 15), Athenagoras

(Legat. pro Christian., nn. 32, 33), and Tertullian (De coron. milit., cap.

13) publicly denounced as immoral, and even adulterous, marriages which,

nevertheless, the imperial laws allowed. But when all power came into

the hands of the Christian emperors, the Supreme Pontiffs and the bishops,

assembled in council, continued always, with the same liberty and the

same knowledge of their own right, to command and to forbid in matri-

monial affairs as seemed to them to be useful and in conformity with the

requirements of the times, no matter how inconsistent it might be with

the civil institutions of the day. No one is ignorant that many rules were

made on the subject of impediments arising from obligations, vows, dis-

parity of worship, consanguinity, crime, or public decency, by the prelates

of the Church at the Councils of Elvira (De Aguirre, Cone. Hispan, tom.

i., can. 13, 15, 16, 17), Arles (Harduin., Act. Concil., tom. i., can. 11),

Chalcedon (Harduin., Act. Concil., tom. i., can. 16), Milevis (Harduin.,

Act. Concil., tom. i., can. 17), and other councils, which frequently are

far different from the decrees sanctioned by the imperial law, And so

far were princes from claiming any power for themselves in the matter

of Christian marriages, that they declared and acknowledged that that

power, in all its plenitude, was vested in the Church. In fact, Honorius,

Theodosius the Younger, and Justinian (Novel. 137) did not hesitate to

admit that in matters which concerned marriage they had no right to do

anything except as the guardians and defenders of the sacred canons.

And if they made any decrees regarding impediments to marriage, they

of their own accord explained the reason to be that they had taken this

upon themselves by the permission and authority of the Church (Fejer,

Matrim. ex. instit. Christ.; Pesth. 1835), whose decision they were ac-

customed to ask for and reverently to receive in disputes concerning the

legitimacy of children (cap. 3, de ordin. cognit.), concerning divorces

(cap. 3, de divort.), and, in fine, all matters having any kind of relation

to the matrimonial bond (cap. 13, qui jilii sint legit). Wherefore it was

most justly decreed by the Council of Trent that the Church has power

“ to define the impediments which make matrimony void, and that matri-

monial causes belong to the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical judges.” (Trid.,

sess. xxiv., can. 4.)

Nor let any one be led astray by that distinction so sedulously urged

by regalists, according to which they separate the nuptial contract from



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 9

the sacrament, in order that while judgment respecting the sacraments is

reserved to the Church, they may give over the contract to the authority

and decision of the civil power. For a distinction, or rather a disjunction,

of this nature cannot be established
;
inasmuch as it is manifest that in

Christian matrimony it is not possible to separate the contract from the

sacrament, and, therefore, that there cannot be a true and legitimate con-

tract without its being, on that very account, a sacrament. For Christ

Our Lord raised matrimony to the dignity of a sacrament
;
and matri-

mony is the contract itself, provided only that it be lawfully made. In

addition to which, matrimony is a sacrament for this reason, that it is a

sacred sign conveying grace, and presenting an image of the mystic

nuptials of Christ with the Church. But the form and figure of these is

expressed by that bond of perfect unity by which man and wife are joined

together, and which is nothing else but matrimony itself. Therefore it is

evident that every lawful marriage between Christians is in and by itself

a sacrament
;
and nothing can be more opposed to truth than that the

sacrament is but an ornamental addition, or a character imparted from

without, which may be separated and disjoined from the contract at will.

Wherefore it is neither established by reasoning nor proved by historical

evidence that authority over Christian marriage is rightly given to the

state. And if in this matter the right of others has been violated, no one

can say that it has been violated by the Church.

And would that the teachings of the naturalists, so full of falsehood and

injustice, were not equally fruitful in mischiefs and calamities. But it is

easy to perceive what evil the profaning of marriages brings about, and

how much it is likely to inflict upon the whole of human society. For in

the beginning it was divinely ordained that we should find those things

instituted by God and by nature more useful and more salutary in pro-

portion as they remain whole and immutable in their original condition

;

since God the Creator of all things well knew what was expedient for the

establishment and preservation of each, and so ordained all by His will

and judgment that each should have its appropriate development. But if

the temerity or the wickedness of men seek to change and to disturb the

order of providence, then indeed even things which have been most wisely

and most advantageously instituted begin to be injurious, or cease to be

beneficial, either because by change they have lost the power of doing

good, or because it is the will of God to punish in this manner the pride

and audacity of men. They who deny the sanctity of marriage, and cast

it, stripped of all sanctity, into the order of profane things, pervert the

fundamental principles of nature, and, while they fight against the counsels

of divine providence, at the same time to the extent of their power destroy

its work. Wherefore it is not wonderful that from such insane and im-

pious attempts there springs a crop of evils than which nothing can be

more pernicious to the salvation of souls and the safety of the state.

If it be considered to what the divine institution of marriage tends, it

will be very evident that it was the will of God to comprise in it the most



10 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

abundant sources of public happiness and security. And plainly, mar-

riages, besides that they are intended for the propagation of the human

race, tend to make the life of married people more virtuous and more

happy
;
and this in several ways, as, • by mutual assistance to relieve ne-

cessities, by constant and faithful love, by the community of all possessions,

and by the celestial grace that goes forth from the sacrament. And the

same causes are most powerful in promoting the welfare of families
;
for

marriages, as long as they are in accordance with nature and fitly corres-

pond with the designs of God, possess a power to confirm a spirit of con-

cord among parents, to promote the good education of children, to temper

paternal power by proposing the example of the power of God, to make

sons obedient to their parents, servants to their masters. From such

marriages states may justly expect a progeny of citizens who will be ani-

mated with virtuous sentiments, imbued with the love and fear of God,

and will deem it their duty to obey just and legitimate authority, to love

all, to injure none.

These fruits, so many and so great, holy matrimony produced so long

as it retained the attributes of sanctity, of unity, and of perpetuity, from

which it derived all its fertile and salutary force
;
nor can it be doubted

that it would still have produced similar and equal results if at all times

and in all places it had been in the power and care of the Church, which

is at all times the most faithful guardian and vindicator of those attributes.

But because, ere long, in various places the law of men was made to take

the place of the divine and natural law, not only did that most exalted

form and conception of marriage which nature had impressed, and, as it

were, engraved, on the minds of men, begin to be obliterated, but even in

Christian marriages its power, the source of such great blessings, was,

through the wickedness of men, greatly weakened. For what benefit can

nuptial unions confer from which the Christian religion, which is the

parent of all good, and which fosters the greatest virtues, exciting and urg-

ing to everything which adorns a generous and exalted soul, is banished ?

When it is put aside and rejected marriage must needs be made a slave

to the corrupt nature of man and the passions, which are the worst of

rulers, protected only by the weak defense of natural virtue. Manifold

evil, derived from this source, has resulted not only to private families,

but to nations also. For when the salutary fear of God is removed, and

when that alleviation of troubles which is to be found nowhere more

effectual than in the Christian religion is taken away, it often and naturally

happens that the duties and obligations of marriage appear almost in-

tolerable
;
and many inordinately desire the loosening of the bond, which

they imagine to have been tied by human law and choice, if difference of

disposition, or quarrels, or infidelity on the part of one or the other, or

mutual consent, or any other cause make them think it expedient. And

if the law denies satisfaction to the wantonness of their desires, they ex-

claim that the laws are unjust, inhuman, and opposed to the rights of



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 11

free citizens, and that some provision must be made for their abolition

and the introduction of milder laws to facilitate divorce.

But the legislators of our times, while they profess themselves tenacious

and studious of the same principles of right, cannot even, though they

desire it ever so much, guard themselves from that wickedness of men of

which we spoke
;
wherefore the times must be yielded to, and the faculty

of divorce granted. History herself declares the same thing. For, to

pass by other instances, towards the end of the last century, in that con-

flagration rather than disturbance of France, when all society was pro-

faned and God was set aside, it was decided that the severance of married

couples should be ratified by the laws. And many wish those same laws

to be revived at this time, because they would have God and the Church

driven from our midst, and removed from intercourse with human society,

foolishly supposing that the last remedy for the great increase of corruption

in morals is to be sought in laws of this description.

It is scarcely necessary to say of how much evil divorce is productive.

It is the fruitful cause of mutable marriage compacts
;

it diminishes mutual

affection
;

it supplies a pernicious stimulus to unfaithfulness
;

it is injurious

to the care and education of children : it gives occasion to the breaking

up of domestic society
;

it scatters the seed of discord among families
;

it

lessens and degrades the dignity of women, who incur the danger of being

abandoned when they shall have subserved the lust of their husbands.

And since nothing tends so effectually as the corruption of morals to ruin

families and undermine the strength of kingdoms, it may easily be per-

ceived that divorce is especially hostile to the prosperity of families and

states
;
for divorce springs from the corrupt morals of nations, and, as

experience teaches, opens the way and the door to more vicious habits of

private and public life. And these evils will appear to be all the more

serious if we consider that no restraint will be strong enough to confine

the faculty of divorce, when once conceded, within fixed and foreseen

limits. The force of example is very great, and greater still that of lust.

From these exciting causes it must result that the desire of divorce, daily

creeping on further, will invade the minds of a large number of persons,

like a malady spread by contagion, or a flood of water that has burst

its barriers.

These things surely are clear of themselves, but they become clearer

by recalling past events. As soon as the way for divorce began to be

rendered safe by law, dissensions, jealousies, separations enormously in-

creased, and so shameful a manner of living was arrived at that those

very persons who had been the defenders of such separations repented of

what they had done, and unless they had in time sought a remedy in

laws of a contrary character there would have been cause for fear lest the

commonwealth itself should rush headlong to destruction. The ancient

Homans are said to have looked with horror on the first example of di-

vorce
;
but ere long the sense of honesty began to be blunted in their



12 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

minds, modesty with its controlling power to die out, and nuptial fidelity

to be violated with so great license that what we read in some writers

seems to have a striking semblance of truth, namely, that women had

become accustomed to count years, not by the change of consuls, but by

the change of husbands. In like manner among Protestants, at first, in-

deed, the laws had sanctioned divorce for certain causes, and those, to say

the truth, not many in number
;
but it has been found that these causes

have, through the near connection of things resembling one another, in-

creased to such an extent among the Germans, Americans, and others,

that they whose understandings were not blunted considered the boundless

depravation of morals and the insufferable rashness of the laws as deeply

to be lamented. Nor was it otherwise in states called Catholic, in which,

if at any time the severance of marriage ties was admitted, the multitude

of inconveniences which ensued far exceeded the expectations of legislators.

For the wickedness of very many persons led them to turn their minds to

all sorts of malice and fraud, and by means of cruelty, by injuries, by

adulteries, to invent causes for dissolving with impunity that bond of

matrimonial union of which they were tired
;
and this with so great detri-

ment to public honesty that all judged it necessary that the laws should

as soon as possible be amended. And who will doubt but that the laws

favoring divorce will be followed by wretched and calamitous results

wherever they may happen to be revived in our own age ? Certainly the

contrivances or decrees of men have not the power to change the natural

character and conformation of things; wherefore they bring a small

amount of wisdom to bear on the public welfare who think that the

genuine theory of marriage can be perverted with impunity, and, setting

aside all sanctity of religion and of sacrament, seem to wish to disfigure

and deform matrimony more shamefully than even the institutions of the

heathen were wont to do. And, therefore, unless their counsels change,

families and society will constantly have to fear for themselves lest they

be hurled most miserably into that universal strife and conflict which has

long since been proposed by the flagitious bands of socialists and com-

munists. Hence it is clear how unsuitable and absurd it is to expect

public welfare from divorce, which will issue rather in the certain dis-

solution of society.

It must, therefore, be confessed that the Catholic Church has consulted

best for the common good of all people in guarding with constant attention

the sanctity and perpetuity of marriage. Nor is little gratitude due to

her for having openly remonstrated against the civil laws that for a

hundred years past have been sinning in this particular (Pius VI., epist.

ad episc. Lucion., 28 Maii, 1793; Pius VII., litter, encycl. die 17 Febr.

1809, et Const, dat. die 19 Iul. 1817 ; Pius VIII., litt. encycl. die 29 Maii,

1829
;
Gregorius XVI., Const, dat. die 15 Augusti, 1832

;
Pius IX.,

alloc, habit, die 22 Sept. 1852)
;
for having smitten with anathema the

pernicious heresy of Protestants concerning divorce and repudiation (Trid.,



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 13

sess., xxiv., can. 5, 7) ; for having in many ways condemned the dis-

solution of marriages practiced by the Greeks (Concil. Floren., et Instr.

Eug. IV. ad Armenos
;
Bened. XIV., Etsi pastoralis, 6 Maii, 1742) ; for

having decreed those nuptials to be null and void which were contracted'

under the condition that they might at some time or other be dissolved

(cap. 7, de condit appos.) ; lastly, for having even from the earliest ages

repudiated the imperial laws which perniciously favored divorce and the

breaking off of the marriage contract (Hieron., epist. 79 ad Ocean; Am-

bros., lib. viii., in cap. 16 Lucse, n. 5 ; August., de nuptiis, cap. 10). In

truth, whenever the Supreme Pontiffs resisted most powerful princes de-

manding with threats to have divorces granted by themselves ratified by

the Church, they are to be regarded as having combated not only for the

integrity of religion but also for the security of the human race. On

which account all posterity admires the proofs of an invincible mind af-

forded by Nicholas I. in conflict with Lothaire
;
by Urban II. and Paschal

II. struggling against Philip I., King of France
;
by Celestine III. and

Innocent III. against Alfonso of Leon and Philip II. of France; by

Clement VII. and Paul III. against Henry VIII., and lastly by the holy

and brave Pontiff, Pius VII., against Napoleon I., uplifted by prosperity

and the greatness of his empire.

This being the case, all rulers and administrators of public affairs, if

they wished to follow reason and wisdom, and to be really useful to the

people, ought to have preferred to let the sacred laws of matrimony re-

main intact, and to apply the proffered assistance of the Church to the

guardianship of morals and the prosperity of families, rather than to cast

upon the Church itself the suspicion of hostility, and charge it falsely and

unjustly with the violation of civil rights.

And that all the more, because, as the Catholic Church can in no respect

depart from religious duty and defence of its rights, so is it habitually in-

clined to kindness and indulgence in all things which can be made to

consist with the integrity of its rights and the sanctity of its duties. For

which reason it has never determined anything respecting matrimony

without having due regard to the state of the community and to the con-

dition of populations
;
nor has it on one occasion only, mitigated, as far

as it could, the prescriptions of its own laws when there were just and

grave causes for such a modification. The Church itself likewise does not

ignore or deny that the sacrament of marriage, since it is directed towards

the preservation and increase of human society, has a relationship and

intimacy with human matters, which are consequences, indeed, of matri-

mony, but belong to the civil order
;
and the rulers of the state rightly

take cognizance and judge of these. But no one doubts that Jesus Christ,

the Founder of the Church, willed the sacred power to be distinct from

the civil power, and each power to be free and unhampered in the conduct

of its own affairs
;
yet with this addition, which is expedient for each and

for the interests of all men, namely, that there should be a union and



14 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

concord between them, and that in those things which are, though in

different ways, matters of common right and judgment, the one to which

human affairs are committed should depend suitably and fittingly on the

other, to which are intrusted the things of Heaven. But in an agreement,

or harmony, as it were, of this description is contained not only the best

mode of operation of each of the two powers, but also the most opportune

and efficacious means of helping the human race in what appertains to

the conduct of human life and the hope of everlasting salvation. For, as

we showed in former Encyclical Letters, the intelligence of men, if it

agrees with Christian faith, is much ennobled and comes forth much better

armed for the avoidance and repulsion of error, and faith in its turn

borrows no small assistance from intelligence
;

so, in like manner, if the

civil authority agrees amicably with the sacred power of the Church, a

great increase of usefulness accrues of necessity to both. For the dignity

of the one is amplified, and under the guidance of religion the government

will never be unjust; while to the other are supplied protection and de-

fence for the public good of the faithful. Therefore, moved by the con-

sideration of these things, as we have at other times earnestly, so now

again at the present time we urgently exhort princes and men in authority

to concord and friendship
;
and we are the first to extend to them, as it

were, our right hand with paternal benevolence, offering the assistance of

our supreme power, which is the more necessary at this time in proportion

as the right of sovereign rule is, in the opinion of men, weakened, as if it

had received a wound. For the minds of multitudes being inflamed with

riotous liberty, and casting off with nefarious boldness every restraint of

government, even the most legitimate, public safety requires that men

should associate to prevent the injury of both powers, injury which im-

pends not merely over the Church, but also over civil society itself.

But while we strongly advise a friendly union of wills and dispositions,

and pray God, the Prince of Peace, that He would infuse the love of

concord into the minds of all men, we cannot refrain, Venerable Brethren,

from exhorting yourselves more and more to use your diligence, your zeal

and vigilance, which we know to be very great. As far as you can at-

tain it by efforts and by your authority, strive with diligence that among

the people intrusted to your fidelity the entire and uncorrupted doctrine

be retained which Christ the Lord and the apostolic interpreters of the

heavenly will have delivered, and which the Catholic Church herself has

religiously preserved and commanded the faithful in Christ to preserve

through all ages.

Take especial care of this, that the people abound in precepts of Christian

wisdom, and always retain in memory that marriage was instituted in the

beginning, not by the will of man, but by the authority and command of

God, and was sanctioned entirely under this law, that it should be of one

to one
;
and that Christ, the author of the new covenant, translated that

alliance into a sacrament, and, as far as regards the bond, ascribed to



Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII. 15

His Church the lawgiving and judicial authority. In which matter the

greatest care must be taken lest the mind be led into error by the fal-

lacious conclusions of adversaries, who would take away this power from

the Church. In like manner it ought to be recognized by all, that if any

union of man and woman among the faithful of Christ be contracted with-

out the sacrament it is wanting in the force and character of a true

marriage
;
and although it be effected in agreement with the civil laws,

yet it can have no greater value than that of a rite or custom introduced

by the civil law
;
but it must also be remembered that such things only

can be ordered and administered by the civil law which are the con-

sequences of marriage in the civil order, and which it is evident cannot

be produced except a true and legitimate cause for them, namely, a nuptial

bond, really exists. It is, in the highest degree, of importance that the

married should fully understand and recognize the truth of these things

;

which ought indeed to be accepted and understood, so that they may in

this matter comply with the laws
;
for the Church does not refuse, but on

the contrary wills and hopes that the due effects of marriage should be

preserved intact in all respects, and that no detriment may be entailed on

the offspring. In such confusion of opinions, however, which daily ad-

vance, this also is necessary to be known, that it is not in the power of

any one to dissolve the bond of a marriage solemnized and consummated

among Christians
;
and that they are guilty of a crime who, being man

and wife, whatever cause may be alleged, wish to entangle themselves in

a new matrimonial bond before the first is broken by death. But if

things have gone so far that living together seems to be insupportable

any longer, then indeed the Church allows one to live apart from the

other, and all care being taken and remedies applied to the condition of

the married couple, she studies how she may mitigate the inconveniences

of separation, nor does she ever cease to labor for the re-establishment of

concord, or despair of bringing it about. But these are extremities to

which it would be easy not to descend if married persons were not actu-

ated by lust, but, having duly considered both the duties and the elevated

motives of matrimony, came to it with proper dispositions, and wedlock

were not preceded by a continuous series of offences displeasing to God.

To sum up all in a few words, marriages will be blessed with peaceful and

quiet constancy if the wedded pair draw their breath and life from the

power of religion, of whose gift it comes that the mind is strong and un-

conquerable, and by whose existence personal faults, if such exist, dis-

crepancy of habits and dispositions, the weight of maternal cares, the toil

and anxiety about the education of children, the attendant labors of ex-

istence, and adverse circumstances may be borne, not only with moderation,

but even willingly and gladly.

Care ought also to be taken lest alliances be lightly sought with those

who are strangers to the Catholic name and faith, for it can scarcely be

hoped that minds which are at variance in respect of religious doctrine



t

«• <*/

1

16 Translation of the late Encyclical of Leo XIII.

should be in accord on other matters. Indeed it is most evident that

marriages of this kind should be avoided from the fact of their giving

occasion to forbidden communion in sacred things; they create danger

to the religion of a Catholic spouse, they are a hindrance to the good

education of the children, and very frequently they dispose the mind to

become accustomed to take equal account of all religions, and to lose sight

of the distinction between true and false. In the last place, since we

thoroughly understand that no one ought to be an alien from our charity,

we commend those, Venerable Brethren, to your authority, faith, and

piety, who, being indeed extremely wretched, are carried away by the

tide of their lusts, and, being altogether unmindful of their own salvation,

live contrary to law and right not united in a bond of lawful wedlock.

Let your skill and diligence be employed in recalling such to their duty

;

and do you in. every way strive, both by yourselves and with the inter-

position of good men, that they may perceive that they have acted wickedly,

that they may do penance for their sin, and may turn their minds seriously
iti

*
„

towards proper nuptials celebrated with Catholic rites.

You easily perceive, Venerable Brethren, that these instructions and

precepts respecting Christian marriage, which we have resolved to com-

municate to you, pertain strictly no less to the preservation of civil society

than to the everlasting salvation of men. May God grant, therefore, that

the more weight and importance these instructions have, the more they

may find everywhere minds docile and prompt to obey. On this account

let us all alike, with suppliant and humble prayer, implore the aid of the

Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, that, by exciting minds to the

obedience of faith, she may show herself to men as their mother and

helper. Nor let us implore with less earnestness Peter and Paul, the

princes of the Apostles, the conquerors of superstition, the sowers of the

seed of truth, that they may preserve the human race from the deluge of

returning errors by their most powerful patronage.

Meanwhile, as pledge of heavenly gifts and witness of Our singular

good-wiU, We from the heart impart to you all, Venerable Brethren, and

to the people intrusted to your vigilance, Our apostolic benediction.

Given at Borne, at St. Peter’s, on the tenth day of February, in the

year 1880, the second year of Our Pontificate.

Leo PP. XIII.

JOHN MURPHY & CO. PRS. BALTO.