Kirchenakte Documented events from judgments, reports and church documents
1893-1910 · 17 years · show in timeline

Persecution of Modernism 1893 to 1910: Alfred Loisy is dismissed, placed on the Index and excommunicated; Pius X orders censors and secret Councils of Vigilance in every diocese and requires the anti-modernist oath from the clergy

The French priest and biblical scholar Alfred Loisy applied the historical-critical method to the Bible. In 1893, after an article on the biblical question, he was dismissed without explanation from the Institut Catholique in Paris. In December 1903 the Congregation of the Index placed five of his books on the Index. In 1907 Pius X condemned 65 propositions with the decree Lamentabili and Modernism with the encyclical Pascendi; he ordered censors and Councils of Vigilance meeting in secret in every diocese. On 7 March 1908 the Holy Office excommunicated Loisy. From 1910, candidates for ordination, confessors, parish priests, preachers and professors had to swear an oath against Modernism.

Period
1893-1910 (17 years)
Country
France, Italy, Vatican City
Institutions
Holy See
Holy Office
Congregation of the Index
Institut Catholique de Paris
Category
Heresy trials, Censorship
Level of evidence
A Primary source · what does this mean?
Persons
Alfred Firmin Loisy (French priest and biblical scholar, dismissed from the Institut Catholique in 1893, placed on the Index in 1903, excommunicated in 1908)

What happened to the people

How were they charged and sentenced?

  1. Loisy, born in Ambrières in 1857 and ordained priest in 1879, studied and taught at the Institut Catholique in Paris. His article on the biblical question and the inspiration of Scripture at the end of 1893 was immediately followed by his dismissal without further explanation. Shortly afterwards Leo XIII's encyclical Providentissimus Deus appeared, which made critical work so difficult that Loisy suppressed his periodical at the end of 1893.
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „was born at Ambrières in French Lorraine“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „ordained him priest in 1879“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „was immediately followed by Loisy’s dismissal, without further explanation, from the Institut Catholique.“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „Loisy himself suppressed his Enseignement at the end of 1893“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
  2. On 21 January 1903 Cardinal Richard, Archbishop of Paris, publicly condemned Loisy's book L'Évangile et l'Église. On 23 December 1903 Pius X ordered the publication of a decree of the Congregation of the Index, incorporating a decree of the Inquisition, condemning five of Loisy's books.
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „On the 21st of January 1903 Cardinal Richard publicly condemned the book“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „the pope ordered the publication of a decree of the Congregation of the Index, incorporating a decree of the Inquisition, condemning Loisy’s Religion d’Israël“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original

What happened to those affected?

  1. In January 1908 Loisy published his commentary on the synoptic Gospels and a critique of Lamentabili and Pascendi. On 14 February the Archbishop of Paris, Amette, forbade the faithful under pain of excommunication to read or defend the two books. Loisy declared that he could not honestly make the absolute retraction demanded. On 7 March 1908 the Holy Office pronounced the major excommunication against him.
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „On the 14th of February Mgr Amette, the new archbishop of Paris, prohibited his diocesans to read or defend the two books“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „it is impossible for me honestly and sincerely to make the act of absolute retractation and submission exacted by the sovereign pontiff“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „And the Holy Office, on the 7th of March, pronounced the major excommunication against him.“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
  2. With the motu proprio Sacrorum Antistitum of 1 September 1910 Pius X required candidates for higher orders, newly appointed confessors, preachers, parish priests, canons, bishops' staff, officials of the Roman congregations and superiors and professors in religious congregations to swear an oath rejecting the principal Modernist tenets. The Catholic Encyclopedia considers the doctrinal conclusions of Lamentabili and Pascendi infallible.
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 10 (1911), Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte
    „Still stronger is the tone of the Motu Proprio "Sacrorum Antistitum", of 1 September, 1910“
    Modernism, Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte. Original
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 10 (1911), Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte
    „all are obliged to swear according to a formula which reprobates the principal modernist tenets“
    Modernism, Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte. Original
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 10 (1911), Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte
    „they contain in their doctrinal conclusions the infallible teaching“
    Modernism, Artikel Modernism, päpstliche Akte. Original

Background

Response of the Church

  1. The decree Lamentabili of 2 July 1907 condemned 65 propositions. In the encyclical Pascendi of 8 September 1907 Pius X accused the Modernists of seizing chairs in seminaries and universities and turning them into chairs of pestilence. He obliged bishops to ban such books in their dioceses, ordered censors in all episcopal curias and required in every diocese a Council of Vigilance whose members were bound to secrecy about their deliberations and decisions and which watched over books, periodicals and social institutions.
    Evidence: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911), Artikel
    „condemned sixty-five propositions concerning the Church’s magisterium“
    Loisy, Alfred Firmin, Artikel. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi
    „They seize upon chairs in the seminaries and universities, and gradually make of them chairs of pestilence.“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi, Episcopal Vigilance Over Publications
    „We not only give him ample faculty to do so but We impose it upon him as a duty to do so.“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi, Episcopal Vigilance Over Publications. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi, Censorship
    „In all episcopal Curias, therefore, let censors be appointed for the revision of works intended for publication“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi, Censorship. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi
    „They shall be bound to secrecy as to their deliberations and decisions“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi
    „We entrust to the Councils of Vigilance the duty of overlooking assiduously and diligently social institutions as well as writings on social questions so that they may harbour no trace of Modernism“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi. Original
    Evidence: Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl, Enzyklika Pascendi, Schluss
    „Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 8th day of September, 1907“
    Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, Enzyklika Pascendi, Schluss. Original

See also

Original documents to read

  1. Church document
    Pius X., Heiliger Stuhl: Pascendi Dominici gregis, Enzyklika vom 8. September 1907, 8 September 1907. Original (retrieved 31 Oct 2026)

Scholarly literature and reference works

  1. Reference work
    Encyclopædia Britannica, 11. Auflage (1911): Loisy, Alfred Firmin, 1 January 1911. Original (retrieved 31 Oct 2026)
  2. Reference work
    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 10 (1911): Modernism, 1 January 1911. Original (retrieved 31 Oct 2026)
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