Syllabus of Errors or project 2025: Giving to Caesar what belongs to God
THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. A.D. 1864 This document, though issued by the sole authority of Pope Plus IX., Dec. 8, 1864, must be regarded now as infallible and irreformable, even without the formal sanction of the Vatican Council. It is purely negative, but Indirectly it teaches and enjoins the very opposite of what it condemns as error. (Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Greek and Latin Creeds, with Translations, vol. 2 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890), 213) What authority attaches to this document? Cardinal Newman, in his defense of the Syllabus against Gladstone’s attack, virtually denied its dogmatic force, saying (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, p. 108), “We can no more accept the Syllabus as de fide, as a dogmatic document, than any other index or table of contents.” But the Syllabus is more than a mere index, and contains as many definitions and judgments as titles. Moreover, the papal infa...