he monarch who had so unscrupulously violated the treaty of Zurich,
and who was, besides, the chief hero of Gaeta, Naples, Castelfidardo and
Ancona. One of the most eloquent of Bishop Dupanloup's publications, the
one which, perhaps, has been the most generally read, exposes the
hollowness of this arrangement, which is known in history as the September
agreement.

(M98) The 8th of December, 1864, the tenth anniversary of the proclamation
of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, was marked by the publication
of the Encyclical, "quanta cura," and, together with it, the "Syllabus."
This great doctrinal act was a crushing reply to the erroneous assertions
of the time, as well as to the vain ideas of those politicians who boasted
that, through their efforts, the spiritual office no less than the
temporal sovereignty of the Pope was drawing to a close. The Encyclical
letter is addressed to all bishops in communion with the Holy See, and
through them to all the faithful throughout the world. It contains the
teachings of Pius IX., and the Popes, his predecessors, in opposition to
the errors of the present age--the mistaken ideas of natural religion;
religious indifference which, falsely assuming the name of liberty of
conscience and of worship, establishes the reign of physical force in the
place of law and justice; communism and socialism; the subjection of the
church to the state; and the independence of Christians in regard to the
Holy See.

The "Syllabus" consists of eighty propositions, which are a summary of the
false teachings of the enemies of the Catholic church, as found in the
periodical press, as well as in their writings of a more permanent
character. The first seven propositions briefly express the errors on
pantheism, naturalism, and absolute rationalism. All who have any
Christian belief, to whatever denomination they may adhere, must surely
acknowledge the justice of denouncing philosophers of the school of
Strauss, who insist that Christ is a myth, and His religion a system of
mythology.

From the eighth to the fourteenth proposition inclusively, are pointed out
and condemned the errors of modern rationalism. From the fourteenth to the
eighteenth, indifferentism and latitudinarianism are exposed. Throughout
the rest of the catalogue, secret societies and communism are condemned;
erroneous views, as regards church and state, natural and Christian
ethics, and Christian marriage are expressed and denounced. F