G. Forty-five propositions condemned by Alexander VII, by the decrees of the General Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, Sanctissimus Dominus noster, etc., September 24, 1665, and March 18, 1666

Thursday, September 24, in the year 1665.

Our Most Holy Lord heard, not without great grief of his soul, that several opinions relaxing Christian discipline and bringing destruction to souls, partly antiquated ones raised up again, partly newly coming forth, and that supreme license of wanton minds, were growing more from day to day; by which, in matters pertaining to conscience, there had crept in a mode of opining altogether alien from evangelical simplicity and the doctrine of the Holy Fathers, and if the faithful were to follow it in practice as a right rule, an immense corruption of Christian life would creep in. Wherefore, lest at any time the way of salvation, which the supreme truth God (whose words remain unto eternity) has defined to be narrow, should happen to be widened, or rather perverted, unto the destruction of souls, the same Most Holy Lord, that he might call back the sheep entrusted to him from such a spacious and broad way (by which one goes to perdition), according to his pastoral solicitude, into the right path, the examination of those same opinions, etc.

1. A man is never bound at any time of his life to elicit an act of Faith, Hope, and Charity by force of the divine precepts pertaining to those virtues.

2. A gentleman challenged to a duel can accept it, lest he incur among others the mark of timidity.

3. The opinion asserting that the Bull Cæna prohibits only the absolution of heresy and other crimes when they are public, and that this does not derogate from the faculty of Trent, in which there is speech concerning occult crimes, was seen and tolerated in the year 1629, July 18, in the consistory of the Sacred Congregation of the Most Eminent Cardinals.

4. Regular prelates can, in the forum of conscience, absolve any seculars whatsoever from occult heresy and from the excommunication incurred on account of it.

5. Although it is evident to you that Peter is a heretic, you are not bound to denounce him if you cannot prove it.

6. A confessor who, in sacramental Confession, gives to the penitent a paper to be read afterward, in which he incites him to venery, is not judged to have solicited in Confession, and therefore is not to be denounced.

7. A mode of avoiding the obligation of denouncing solicitation is if the solicited person confesses with the solicitor; the latter can absolve him without the burden of denouncing.

8. A priest can licitly receive a doubled stipend for the same Mass, by applying to the one asking even the most special part of the fruit corresponding to the celebrant himself; and this after the decree of Urban VIII.

9. After the decree of Urban, a priest to whom Masses to be celebrated are handed over can satisfy through another, a smaller stipend having been conferred on him, while another part of the stipend is retained for himself.

10. It is not against justice to receive a stipend for several Sacrifices, and to offer one Sacrifice. Nor is it even against fidelity, even if by a promise, even confirmed by oath, I promise the one giving the stipend that I will offer for no other.

11. Sins omitted or forgotten in Confession on account of an instant danger of life or on account of another cause, we are not bound to express in a following Confession.

12. Mendicants can absolve from cases reserved to Bishops, without the faculty of the Bishops having been obtained for this.

13. He satisfies the precept of annual Confession who confesses to a regular presented to the Bishop, but unjustly rejected by him.

14. He who makes a voluntarily null Confession satisfies the precept of the Church.

15. A penitent can by his own authority substitute for himself another, who may fulfill the penance in his place.

16. Those who have a benefice with cure of souls can choose for themselves as confessor a simple priest not approved by the Ordinary.

17. It is lawful for a religious or cleric to kill a calumniator threatening to spread grave crimes concerning himself or concerning his religion, when another mode of defending is not available; as it does not seem to be available if the calumniator is prepared publicly and before most grave men to impute the aforesaid things either to the religious himself or to his religion, unless he is killed.

18. It is lawful to kill a false accuser, false witnesses, and even a judge from whom an unjust sentence is certainly imminent, if by another way the innocent man cannot avoid harm.

19. A husband killing by his own authority his wife caught in adultery does not sin.

20. Restitution imposed by Pius V upon beneficed clerics not reciting is not owed in conscience before the declaratory sentence of a judge, because it is a penalty.

21. One having a collative chaplaincy or any other ecclesiastical benefice, if he is devoted to the study of letters, satisfies his obligation if he recites the Office through another.

22. It is not against justice not to confer ecclesiastical benefices gratis; because the collator, conferring those ecclesiastical benefices with money intervening, does not exact that money for the collation of the benefice, but as for a temporal emolument which he was not bound to confer upon you.

23. One breaking the fast of the Church, to which he is bound, does not sin mortally unless he does this from contempt or disobedience, for example because he does not wish to subject himself to the precept.

24. Effeminacy, sodomy, and bestiality are sins of the same lowest species; and therefore it suffices to say in Confession that one procured pollution.

25. One who has had copulation with an unmarried woman satisfies the precept of Confession by saying: I committed with an unmarried woman a grave sin against chastity, without explaining copulation.

26. When litigants have for themselves equally probable opinions, the judge can receive money for giving sentence in favor of one rather than another.

27. If a book is by some junior and modern author, the opinion ought to be judged probable, provided it is not established that it has been rejected by the Apostolic See as improbable.

28. The people do not sin, even if without any cause they do not receive a law promulgated by the Prince.

Thursday, March 18, in the year 1666.

Prop. 29. On a fast day, one who several times eats some little thing does not break the fast.

30. All officials who labor bodily in the republic are exempted from the obligation of the fast, nor ought they to make themselves certain whether the labor is compatible with the fast.

31. Absolutely all those who make a journey by riding are excused from the precept of fasting, however they make the journey, even if the journey is not necessary, and even if they complete a journey of one day.

32. It is not evident that the custom of not eating eggs and milk foods in Lent obliges.

33. Restitution of fruits on account of the omission of the Hours can be supplied by any alms whatsoever which the beneficiary previously gave from the fruits of his benefice.

34. One reciting the paschal Office on Palm Sunday satisfies the precept.

35. By one Office someone can satisfy a double precept, for the present day and for the following day.

36. Regulars can in the forum of conscience use their privileges, which have been expressly revoked by the Council of Trent.

37. Indulgences granted to Regulars and revoked by Paul V are today revalidated.

38. The mandate of Trent made to a priest (sacrificing from necessity with mortal sin) to confess as soon as possible is counsel, not a precept.

39. That particle as soon as possible is understood: when the priest will confess in his own time.

40. It is a probable opinion which says that a kiss had on account of carnal and sensible delight, which arises from the kiss, with the danger of further consent and of pollution excluded, is only venial.

41. A concubinary is not to be obliged to cast out a concubine, if she would be too useful for the enjoyment of the concubinary, commonly regalo, while, if she were lacking, he would live life too painfully, and other dishes would affect the concubinary with great weariness, and another maidservant would be too difficult to find.

42. It is lawful for one lending to exact something beyond the principal, if he binds himself not to seek back the principal until a certain time.

43. An annual legacy left for a soul does not last more than ten years.

44. With regard to the forum of conscience, when the guilty party has been corrected and his contumacy has ceased, the censures cease.

45. Books prohibited until they are expurgated can be retained until they are corrected after diligence has been applied.

All condemned and prohibited at least as scandalous.