N. Five propositions concerning the duel, condemned by Benedict XIV, in the Constitution Detestabilem, etc., November 10, 1752

1. A military man who, unless he offers or accepts a duel, would be held as fearful, timid, abject, and unfit for military offices, and therefore would be deprived of the office by which he sustains himself and his own, or would have to lack forever the hope of promotion otherwise due and merited by him, would be free from fault and punishment, whether he offers or accepts the duel.

2. They also can be excused who, for the sake of protecting honor or avoiding human contempt, accept a duel or challenge to it, when they know with certainty that the fight will not follow, as being about to be impeded by others.

3. A leader or officer of the military does not incur the ecclesiastical penalties laid down by the Church against duelists when he accepts a duel from grave fear of losing reputation and office.

4. It is lawful, in the natural state of man, to accept and offer a duel, for preserving fortunes with honor, when their loss cannot be warded off by another remedy.

5. The asserted licitness for the natural state can also be applied to the state of a badly ordered city, in which, namely, either by negligence or by malice of the magistrate, justice is openly denied.

Condemned and prohibited as false, scandalous, and pernicious.