Saint Pius V, Pope and Confessor, A.D. 1572
by VP
Posted on Monday May 05, 2025 at 01:00AM in Saints
Tridentine Latin Mass, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Raleigh NC
"On July 14, 1570, the Pope published the reformed missal by the Bull Quo primum, still printed at its beginning. The Bull commands that this missal alone be used wherever the Roman
rite is followed. No one, of whatever rank he be, shall use any other.
"All rites from other missals, however old, hitherto observed, being in
future left out and entirely abandoned, Mass shall be sung or said
according to the rite, manner and standard which is given in this
missal; nor in celebrating Mass shall anyone dare to add or recite other
ceremonies οι prayers than those that are contained herein." That made
an end of the mediæval derived rites. But the Pope made
one important exception. The Bull allowed any rite to be kept that
could show a prescription of at least two centuries. This rule saved
some modified uses. A few dioceses, as Lyons, kept and still keep their
local forms; so also some religious orders, notably the Dominicans,
Carmelites and Carthusians. What is much more important is that the
exception saved what was left of really independent rites at Milan and
Toledo" The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy By Adrian Fortescue 1914
- Papal Bull: Horrendum illud scelus ( August 30, 1568) Saint Pius V
"That horrible crime, on
account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire
through divine condemnation, causes us most bitter sorrow and shocks our
mind, impelling us to repress such a crime with the greatest possible
zeal. Quite opportunely the Fifth Lateran Council [1512-1517] issued this
decree: "Let any member of the clergy caught in that vice against
nature, given that the wrath of God falls over the sons of perfidy, be
removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery"
(chap. 4, X, V, 31).
So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with
greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest
incitement to sin, and so as to more severely punish the clerics who are
guilty of this nefarious crime and who are not frightened by the death
of their souls, we determine that they should be handed over to the
severity of the secular authority, which enforces civil law.
Therefore, wishing to pursue with greater rigor than we have exerted
since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or
member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an
execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every
clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit,
and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be
immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as
mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into
this abyss."
