Pius II, 1458-1464

[From the Bull "Exsecrabilis,"* Jan. 18; in the ancient Roman opinion 1459; that of today 1460]

The execrable and hitherto unheard of abuse has grown up in our day, that certain persons, imbued with the spirit of rebellion, and not from a desire to secure a better judgment, but to escape the punishment of some offense which they have committed, presume to appeal to a future council from the Roman Pontiff, the vicar of Jesus Christ, to whom in the person of the blessed PETER was said: "Feed my sheep" [John 21:17], and, "Whatever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven" [Matt. 16:19]. . . . Wishing therefore to expel this pestiferous poison far from the Church of Christ and to care for the salvation of the flock entrusted to us, and to remove every cause of offense from the fold of our Savior . . . we condemn all such appeals and disprove them as erroneous and detestable.

[Condemned in the letter "Cum sicut," Nov. 14, 1459]

(1) That the world should be naturally destroyed and ended by the heat of the sun consuming the humidity of the land and the air in such a way that the elements are set on fire.

(2) That all Christians are to be saved.

(3) That God created another world than this one, and that in its time many other men and women existed and that consequently Adam was not the first man.

(4) Likewise, that Jesus Christ suffered and died not for the redemption because of His love of the human race, but by the law of the stars.

(5) Likewise, that Jesus Christ, Moses, and Mohammed ruled the world by the pleasure of their wills.

(6) And that the same Lord our Jesus is illegitimate, and that He exists in the consecrated hosts not with respect to His humanity but with respect to His divinity only.

(7) That wantonness outside of matrimony is not a sin, unless by the prohibition of positive laws, and that these have not disposed of the matter well, and are checked by ecclesiastical prohibition only from following the opinion of Epicurus as true.

(8) Moreover that the taking away of another's property is not a mortal sin, even though against the will of the master.

(a) Finally that the Christian law through the succession of another law is about to have an end, just as the law of Moses has been terminated by the law of Christ.

Zaninus, Canon of Pergamum, is said to have presumed to Affirm these propositions"in a sacrilegious attempt against the dogmas of the holy Fathers and later to assert them rashly with polluted lips,"but afterwards to have freely renounced "these aforesaid errors."

[From the Bull "Ineffabilis summi providentia Patris," Aug. 1, 1464]

. . . By apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents we state and ordain that none of the aforesaid Brethren (Minors and Preachers) hereafter be allowed to dispute, to preach, to make a statement either publicly or privately, concerning the above mentioned doubt, or to persuade others, that it may be heretical or a sin to hold or to believe that the most sacred blood itself (as is set before us) in the three days of the passion of the same Lord Jesus Christ from the divinity Himself was or was not divided or separated in some way, until beyond a question of a doubt of this kind what must be held has been defined by us and the Apostolic See.