Horrendum illud scelus, Pius V
by VP
Posted on Friday August 31, 2018 at 01:00AM in Articles
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.
Rome: Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Mainardi, 1738, chap. 3, p. 33)
