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An Anthology of Works and Information about

The Roman Catholic Church Condemnations
Of Freemasonry

(Compiled by Bro. Vincent Lombardo)

The most comprehensive account of the attitude demonstrated throughout the centuries by the Roman Catholic Church against Freemasonry is found at Catholic Church and Freemasonry.   In his paper titled "ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH LAW REGARDING FREEMASONRY" Bro. Reid McInvale, a full member of the Texas Lodge of Research, lists meticulously and masterly distills all papal pronouncements from the first papal Encyclical "In Eminenti" promulgated by Clement XII on April 28, 1738, to our days.

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You will find at the end of this page links to several sites where you can read the full text of those pronouncements, if you are willing to go through all those Bulls (!), Decretal Letters, Encyclicals, Apostolic Epistles, Apostolic Exhortations, Apostolic Constitutions, Moti Propii, Common Declarations, Allocutions, Papal Declarations, Papal Rescripts, and Letters.

We have not listed all those different types of pronouncements just to fill the page… but to bring to your attention the different "weight" each type carries, in descending order.

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Regarding that first encyclical, "In Eminenti", we deem appropriate to insert here the full text of a paper written by Bro. Leonardo Aquilino, where the inescapable conclusion is that "the first excommunication of the Freemasons had little to do with Masonry itself. It had to do with the succession to the position of Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was at the center of a controversial nomination to the position of Holy Roman Emperor. More importantly, it had to do with a major loss of territory and a consequential loss of revenue for the papacy".


 
The First Condemnation of Freemasonry
by the Catholic Church

 

(By Bro. Leonardo Aquilino,

Member of the R.Loggia Adriano Lemmi No. 400, Milano, Italy)

Presented: 6005

 

(Translated by Bro. Vincent Lombardo)

 

 

In 1115, Countess Matilda willed the region of Tuscany to the Pope. The cities of Florence, Siena, and Pisa rebelled and were the centre of major wars between Popes and Emperors for almost 400 years.

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In 1492, the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, fell gravely ill and asked for his last rites to be administered by a popular friar, Girolamo Savonarola who refused to absolve him for his life of luxury and excesses. To ensure his passage to heaven even without the friar's blessing, Lorenzo, before dying, had his 13-year-old son, Giovanni, named cardinal deacon (he was a cardinal but not an ordained priest). The de Medici influence declined after Lorenzo's death and the family was soon exiled.

Chaos and misery spread over the Italian peninsula with the arrival of an invading French army that brought along a new, terrifying and mysterious disease, very likely coming from the newly discovered Americas, called syphilis. Amid all this, Savonarola's influence grew. The people of Florence flocked to listen to the friar's words of penance and self-flagellation and took up his constant urging for a more Spartan life of self-denial. They banned Carnival festivities, burned books, and destroyed objects of art during the Bonfire of Vanities of 1497.

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Meanwhile, the teenaged cardinal de' Medici had carefully plotted a return to Florence. He had worked tirelessly to eliminate Savonarola and was instrumental in having the Inquisition torture and burn him at the stake as a heretic in 1498. At the age of 19 Giovanni de Medici could now quietly return to Florence with his family. He was a shrewd investor of his money, had great political skills and carefully established an impressive network of connections with the most powerful people of Europe. He was elected Pope at the age of 37 because of his family's immense wealth and the tax money Florence was going to bring to Rome. He was elected Pope on the 9th of March 1513 and was ordained a priest on the 15th of March ('til then he was only a deacon). Two days later, he was consecrated Bishop or Rome, and two days after that he was installed as Pope Leo X. The newly elected Pope soon embarked on a major fundraising campaign, with an unprecedented sale of indulgences, to complete work on St. Peter's Basilica, begun 70 years earlier and nowhere near completion. *

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The question of indulgences split the German princes causing some of them to support Martin Luther and the Reformation. The Hohenzollern family, later the Kaisers of the German Reich, boosted their fortunes by siding with the Pope in the sale of indulgences, while some members of the Habsburg family, and the current Emperor quietly sided with the protestants. Other powerful de' Medici family members included Clement VII, who was Pope at the time of the Anglican schism, Catherine de' Medici (queen of France), Marie de' Medici (Louis XIII's mother) and Pope Leo XI. Their Machiavellian ways caused the Church of Rome much grief, but they also saved it from bankruptcy time and again. Most importantly for our discussion here is the fact that the de' Medicis made the city of Florence a personal fiefdom of the papacy until 1737.

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At that time, a group of English noblemen had come to live in Florence.   They were former supporters of the Catholic James III of Scotland, who aspired to become King of England. His bid was unsuccessful and when he died, his supporters, called Jacobites, went into exile.   These noblemen formed the first Italian lodge in Florence in 1733.   Their leader was, oddly enough, a protestant, Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex, and afterwards Duke of Dorset.

At the same time, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI was planning for a successor.   Since only a man could be named Emperor, he arranged the marriage of his only daughter Maria Theresa to a relative who could be elected to replace him.   This relative was Francis Duke of Lorraine, a Freemason initiated in The Hague in 1731.   When the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gian Gastone de' Medici, died in 1737 without a successor, the occasion presented itself to make Bro. Francis even more worthy of the imperial scepter.   He was installed as Grand Duke of Tuscany while waiting to be named emperor.   He was a member of the Habsburg family and rival to the Hohenzollern family, staunch allies of the Pope.

 

At that time the Pope was Lorenzo Corsini named Clement XII.   He had been elected Pope in 1730 at the age of 78.   He was of ill health and often bedridden with gout.   He became totally blind during the second year of his pontificate.   His nephew, Cardinal Neri Corsini was effectively running the affairs of state, which by 1738 had taken a turn for the worse.

 

The Spanish armies had invaded the Italian peninsula and had conquered the kingdom of Naples and Sicily.   The Emperor Charles VI had declared his sovereignty over the cities of Parma and Piacenza and had installed his son-in-law and future emperor, Bro. Francis of Lorraine as Grand Duke of Tuscany.   While it was materially impossible for the Pope and his nephew to raise an army to reclaim Parma and Piacenza and to reassert the papal influence over Naples and Sicily, something had to be done and could be done to get back the city of Florence.   The papal bull In Eminenti (*) was issued the 28th of April 1738 for this very reason.   How much the 86-year-old Clement XII, gout stricken, bedridden and totally blind had to do with it is unknown.   In the bull the Pope forbade Catholics to become Masons under the punishment of excommunication.   The Florentine lodge, made up mostly of British expatriates dissolved itself and the English noblemen returned home or sought refuge from the Inquisition in friendlier places.   The secretary, Bro. Tommaso Crudeli and a few other Italian brethren were arrested and reportedly tortured. The new Grand Duke,   Bro. Francis of Lorraine did nothing to help the brethren in distress.  

 

He didn't want to jeopardize his upcoming nomination as Emperor, especially since he understood perfectly well the implications: the excommunication was indirectly intended for him, a member of the despised Habsburg family, who had taken away from the Church the important tax base of the city of Florence, and who happened to be a Mason.

Relief for Bro. Crudeli and the other brethren in distress came from the Grand Lodge of England that contributed 21 pounds to help the families of the prisoners.  Their freedom was obtained by the Duke of Newcastle, British Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Robert Walpole, on urgings from Charles Sackville Earl of Middlesex and Duke of Dorset and former master of the Florentine lodge.   The Duke of Newcastle asked the government of Florence to release Crudeli from prison.   The Grand Duke quickly washed his hands of the matter and told the British envoy to talk to the Inquisition.   The Inquisitor politely replied that he did not understand why Prime Minister Walpole was interested in freeing from prison people who were not British subjects.   Finally after two unsuccessful attempts, Newcastle put his arguments forward with the new Pope Benedict XIV, who released Crudeli in 1741 after a convoluted deal was brokered between the dying Habsburg Emperor Charles VI, the king of Prussia, Frederick Hohenzollern, and the British government.   Florence would be returned to the papal state after the death of the Grand Duke Francis of Lorraine.

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As you can see brethren, the first excommunication of the Freemasons had little to do with Masonry itself.   It had to do with the succession to the position of Grand Duke of Tuscany.   It was at the centre of a controversial nomination to the position of Holy Roman Emperor.   More importantly it had to do with a major loss of territory and a consequential loss of revenue for the papacy.

(*)   For the full text of the papal bull "In Eminenti" go to: IN EMINENTI

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Not strictly pertinent to our topic: "the Roman Catholic Church Condemnations of Freemasonry," but indicative of the vagaries of the Church throughout the centuries, and popes compelled by greed and thirst for power, you may find interesting reading the treatment given by the Catholic Church to the Knights Templar (The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known in French as Ordre du Temple or Templiers) from pope Innocent II (March 29, 1139) to pope Clement V (May 2, 1312). — See these Bulls here: List of papal Bulls

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Some Masonic authors have tried to link the persecution and disbandment of the Templar to Freemasonry, but there are no known historical documents supporting this notion. We will do further research and deal with this theory as soon as possible under another page: Legends.

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Links to sites where you can read the full text of some of the above papal pronouncements:

 

Interesting to read is the commentary on the above bull found at: Syllabus of Pius IX

Providas Romanorum is an Apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope Benedict XIV on May 18, 1751.   This Constitution condemned Freemasonry on the grounds of its naturalism, demand for oaths, secrecy, religious indifferentism, and possible threat to the church and state.   It confirmed the previous constitution In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula.   It specifically forbids Roman Catholics from seeking membership in any Masonic group.

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Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo is a Papal Constitution promulgated by Pius VII in 1821.   It stated that Freemasons must be excommunicated for their oath bound secrecy of the society and conspiracies against church and state.   It also linked Freemasonry with the Carbonari, an anti-clerical revolutionary group active in Italy.   It is said that the Carbonari affected a love of the Catholic religion; however, the true goals of the Carbonari were said to be:

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  1. Religious indifference

  2. Disestablishment of the church and total religious freedom

  3. The profanation of Jesus Christ through their ceremonies

  4. To scorn, and perhaps replace the sacraments of the church

  5. To plot against Papal primacy.

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All members of the Carbonari were excommunicated, along with those who kept Carbonari secrets and those promoting Carbonari literature.

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Quo Graviora is an apostolic Constitution issued by Pope Leo XII in March 13, 1826, in which he decreed the prohibition of membership in Masonic Lodges in perpetuity.

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Traditi Humilitati is a Papal Encyclical issued by Pope Pius VIII.   It laid out the program for his pontificate. Although not mentioning freemasonry, it has been cited by later anti-Masonic publications of the Catholic Church because it condemned those "who think that the portal of eternal salvation opens for all from any religion."

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ETSI NOS (On Conditions in Italy) is a Papal Encyclical promulgated by Pope Leo XIII in 1882, complaining about the way in which post-unification Italy (spearheaded by Bro. Giuseppe Garibaldi) denigrated the role of the Church.

For more articles about Anti-Masonry, visit these sites:

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