Papal Letters

PAPAL LETTERS. - A generic term used to indicate any kind of letter issued by the Roman Pontiff as a public person of the Church; the technical designation, used in the apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908, AAS, 1 [1909], p. 17), with reference to bulls and briefs, is that of Apostolic Letters. In ecclesiastical history, pontifical letters had various appellations.

I. LITTERAE HORTATORIAE OR MONITORIAE

Those that had an admonitory and exhortatory form, and not a truly legislative content. The first preserved is that of St. Clement; of the subsequent pontiffs, Soter (166-74), Eleutherius (174-89), Victor (189-99), Zephyrinus (199-217), Pontian (230-35), Lucius I (253-54), Stephen I (254-57), Sixtus II (257-58), Dionysius (259-68), only fragments survive. St. Hippolytus alludes to the decree of Callistus (217-22; Philosophumena, 9), St. Cyprian has preserved two letters of St. Cornelius (251-53) and St. Athanasius in the Apologia contra arianos two letters of Julius I (337-52).

II. LITTERAE PRAECEPTORIAE

Those in which the Pope manifested his legislative authority and which were later called Decretales (v. DECRETALI).

Because of their special value they were later called Auctoritates, since the Pope, by virtue of the primacy, has an authority over the whole Church. Thus Zosimus in the letter to the bishops of Gaul and Spain: «quam auctoritatem ubique nos misisse manifestum est» (PL 20, 670). And in cod. Vat. Pal. 574 of the Vatican Library, containing the ancient Gallican collection, the Constitutions bear the title: Auctoritas Innocentii Papae, auctoritas Zosimi Papae. St. Leo the Great establishes the equivalence between the Constitutions (that is, the letters) and the authorities (Ep. 19, chap. 1: PL 54, 733). Sometimes these letters are called by St. Leo (Ep. 11, chap. 4: ibid., 663) decreta, but this appellation is used especially in the Register of St. Gregory together with the designations: Statutes, Canonical Statutes, Ecclesiastical Statutes, Rules, Ecclesiastical Constitutions.

III. EPISTOLAE PACIS

Those which the Roman Pontiff sent to bishops, as an attestation of identical communion in faith. If a bishop was suspected of heresy or was denounced as such to Rome, he, in order to clear himself of these accusations, had to send the Pontiff a letter in which he attested the orthodoxy of his own doctrine. If the Pope considered this profession of faith sufficient, he sent him an epistola pacis. St. Leo the Great recalls only the title of such letters, but not their form (Ep., III, chap. 1, ibid. 1185).

IV. EPISTOLAE SYNODICAE O SYNODALES

Those that contain a profession of faith attesting the communion of doctrine between the Eastern and Western Church. The first to speak of letters of this kind is St. Gregory: «Hinc est enim, ut, quoties in quatuor praecipuis sedibus antistites ordinantur, synodales sibi epistolae vicissim mittant, in quibus se sanctam Chalcedonensem synodum cum aliis generalibus synodis custodire fateantur» (Reg. Ep., IX, 147: ed. L. M. Hartmann, II, Berlin 1899, p. 144, r. 24-26). And elsewhere he compares the authority of the first four councils to that of the four Gospels: «sicut sancti Evangelii quatuor libros, sic quatuor concilia suscipere et venerari me fateor» (Reg. Ep., 1, 24, ed. cit., I, Berlin 1887, p. 36, r. 19). Furthermore he recalls the synodal letters of Cyriacus of Constantinople (ibid., 6, 62; 7, 24; 30; 31) and of Isaac of Jerusalem (ibid., 9, 28). Only some of these pontifical letters have come down to our own day; among others, those worthy of being remembered are that of Anastasius II (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 746 [377]) and that of Pelagius I (ibid., 938 [618]). According to P. Ewald this usage already existed at the time of Pelagius I. According to Philipps these letters could also contain definitions in matters of faith. The letters of the pontiffs then passed into the medieval collections.

In the Middle Ages pontifical letters had other designations: worthy of special mention is the bull of the Crusade (v. CROCIATA, BOLLA della).

Such forms of letters are used also in our own day. Since 1920 the bulls that concern the canonization of saints are called «Decretal Letters» (Litterae decretales). At present the name Epistolae is used to indicate the letters that the Supreme Pontiff sends on the occasion of special recurrences; as for the centenary celebration of St. Anthony of Padua (AAS, 23 [1931], p. 71).

V. ENCYCLICALS

These are the letters that the Pope, for his ordinary and universal magisterium, addresses to the whole of Christendom, for the increase and protection of the spiritual life.

1. Origin

Etymologically it comes from the Greek ἐν εὐαέλος (circle), that is, a circular letter. They were used by princes to make their will known to the people, or by magistrates to promulgate laws. In the first centuries of the Church, such letters were sent by the supreme pontiffs and by primates to the faithful to strengthen them in the faith; for this specific purpose they received the name Clericae; later, if they were addressed to all the faithful, they were called catholic «non quod de rebus ad catholicam Ecclesiam pertinentibus agerent, sed a voce καθόλος (universus) quod scilicet ad universos Christi fideles dirigebantur» (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, ch. 17). The latter had various forms; they were called denuntativae, if they denounced to all Christians the names of heretics and of the excommunicated; declarativae, if besides the names of the heretics and their error they also contained the profession of faith; indicativae, if, used in times of persecution, they reported the names of the martyrs so that they might be honored by the faithful (Eusebius, ibid., IV, ch. 15, reports that of the church of Smyrna on the martyrdom of St. Polycarp); paschales, in which the bishop of Rome announced the day of Easter; enthronisticae, were the letters that newly elected bishops sent to the people. Eusebius (ibid., IV, ch. 23) recalls some catholic letters of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth. The collection of these episcopal letters was called Encyclia or Enkyclia: thus Pelagius II tells us in one of his letters to the bishops of Istria. Only very late did the word "encyclical" receive a specific meaning, indicating only the most important communications that the Roman Pontiff addresses to the whole of Christendom. In the Greek Church even today the letters that the Patriarch addresses to the whole patriarchate are called "encyclicals," when they concern questions pertaining to his own church and his own rite. In the Latin Church the letters that local Ordinaries address to their faithful are called only "Pastoral Letters."

The Anglicans, following the Roman usage, give the name of encyclicals to the circular letters of the Primate of England; by the opening words Sapius officio is indicated the letter of the bishops of Canterbury and York sent to their colleagues in the episcopate, in reply to the letter Apostolicae curae of Leo XIII (Sept. 13, 1896), on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations. Today the letters that the Sacred Congregations address to all bishops on subjects concerning the discipline of the Church or its worship do not come under the name of encyclicals. Thus the letter of July 21, 1899 of the Congregation of Rites for the increase of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, addressed to all the bishops of the world, bears the designation of "circular letter." The first pope who reserved this designation for a determined form of pontifical letter was Benedict XIV in the Ubi primum of Dec. 3, 1740 (Epistola encyclica et communitoria ad omnes episcopos). Subsequently the word Communitoria was no longer used. Perhaps the Pontiff, in giving this new designation, which was to be perpetuated in the future, had in mind the pamphlet of Bencini that had appeared a few years earlier. In the 18th century and in the early years of the 19th century encyclicals were very rare, whereas they multiplied in the following period down to our own days.

2. Form

They differ from other letters only from the technical standpoint and in that they generally contain doctrinal teachings. They must therefore be considered as simple apostolic letters that are addressed to the bishops of the whole world or only to those of a given nation. Thus, for example, the Vix pervenit (Nov. 1, 1745) of Benedict XIV, on usury and other dishonest gains, was addressed to the Italian bishops; the Iam pridem nobis (1886) was addressed to the bishops of Prussia on the conditions of the Church in Germany, and the Permoti nos (1895) was addressed to the bishops of Belgium on the social question and the union of Catholics. At other times they are addressed directly to all the faithful. Generally the following inscription is used: To the venerable brothers Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the whole Catholic world who have grace (peace) and communion with the Apostolic See, followed by the name of the Pope with the words: Venerable brothers, greeting and apostolic benediction. They are usually written in Latin: this task belongs to the Secretariat of Latin Letters and of Briefs to Princes (apost. const. Sapienti consilio June 29, 1908, III, 5: AAS, 1 [1909], p. 17; can. 264 CIC); rarely are they written in the vernacular: Chiamati dalla divina provvidenza (1831) of Gregory XVI; Vi è ben nato (1887), Dall'alto (1890), Au milieu (1892) of Leo XIII; Mit brennender Sorge (1937) and No es muy concordia (1937) of Pius XI. Today it is customary also to add the title of the subject that is treated. This generally concerns the universal Church and in some cases particular Churches; in the second case the letter is addressed to the Church concerned, although the decisions and principles can be applied, under the same conditions, to all the faithful.

3. Value

Encyclicals, in general, do not contain ex cathedra definitions that include the character of infallibility, but often there are in them obligatory directives for all the faithful, especially when the Pope condemns errors or summarizes the teaching of the Church on a determined subject. This obligatory character derives from the ordinary and universal magisterium, founded on the primacy that the Roman Pontiff has over the whole Church; therefore, although the propositions are not infallible and definitive, they nevertheless possess a special authority, because of the source from which they emanate. For infallibility, moreover, there is lacking the form and the external conditions of definitions, and also the will of the Pope to define.

4. Division

Today the practice has become established of grouping various encyclicals that concern the same subject under a single designation. The principal divisions are: dogmatic, which contain neither definitions nor juridical norms, but condemn errors that are beginning to creep into the Church; exhortatory, when they are addressed to the whole world so that with renewed fervor special favors may be implored from heaven.

Giuseppe Damizia