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{{Short description|Heretical theological stance}}
'''Modernism''' is, according to the teachings of the ], a ]. First condemned in ] by Pope ], Modernism is characterised by an unwillingness to accept defined Church ]s accompanied by claims for the possibility of the ] of dogma—a notion subtly distinct from ]'s teaching on the "development of ]".
{{for multi|the broader artistic and philosophical sense of the term|Modernism|other uses|Modernism (disambiguation)}}
{{Historical Christian theology}}


'''Modernism in the Catholic Church''' describes attempts to reconcile ] with modern culture,<ref></ref> specifically an understanding of the ] and ] in light of the ] and new philosophical and political developments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modernism was a term given by ], ]s, and ]s such as Pius X, to describe series of movements and beliefs of other Catholic and ] theologians, clergy, and ]s. It should be noted that almost none of the "modernists" used this label, or saw themselves as a unified group; it was applied to them by the popes and others.


The term ''modernism''—generally used by critics of rather than adherents to positions associated with it<section end="Modern" criticism="" of="" the="" catholic="" church="" transclusion="" />—came to prominence in ]'s 1907 ] '']'', where he condemned modernism as "the synthesis of all ]".<ref name=":0" />
Modernism in the Catholic Church is the result of certain ]s and schools of thought popular in the Catholic and Protestant Churches around the turn of the ]:


Writing in the '']'' in 1911, the ] Arthur Vermeersch gave a definition of modernism in the perspective of the Catholic ] of his time:<blockquote>"In general we may say that modernism aims at that radical transformation of human thought in relation to God, man, the world, and life, here and hereafter, which was prepared by ] and eighteenth-century philosophy, and solemnly promulgated at the ]."<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title= Modernism |encyclopedia= The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher= Robert Appleton Company |location= New York |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10415a.htm |access-date=8 June 2016 |last= Vermeersch |first= Arthur |date= 1911 |volume= 10}}</ref></blockquote>The modernist movement was influenced and accompanied by ] theologians and clergy like ] and ]. On the other hand, modernist theologians were critical of ] and engaged in ] against a Protestant understanding of Christianity, as in the famous attack of ] in ''L'Évangile et l'Église'' (1902) on ]'s ''Das Wesen des Christentums'' (1900).{{sfn|Poulat|1996|p=46-102}} The modernist movement has a parallel in the ] where the journal '']'' was founded in 1911.
*Textual Criticism of the ]. In other words, attempting to reevalute the meaning of the Bible by focusing on the text alone and ignoring what others have historically taught about it, especially with the assumption that the ]s described within couldn't possibly have happened, and attempting to piece together what really happened and why the writers might have written about what they did. This way of looking at the Bible became quite popular in the Protestant churches and found its way into Catholic churches. It was an offshoot of the concept of ], since that doctrine asserts an individual's ability to learn all that is necessary regarding religion by reading the Bible alone.


The controversy on modernism was prominent in French and British intellectual circles and, to a lesser extent, in Italy, but, in one way or another, concerned most of Europe and North America.{{sfn|O'Connell|1994}} Pope Pius X saw modernism as a universal threat which required a global reaction.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Reception and Application of the Encyclical Pascendi|last=Vian|first=Giovanni|pages=265–296|url=https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/libri/978-88-6969-131-7/un-mondo-modernista/|chapter=Un mondo modernista? Note a partire dai rapporti a norma della Pascendi}}</ref>
*] and other ] ideals. The ideal of secularism can be briefly summarised as holding that the best course of action in politics and other civic fields is that which flows from disparate groups' and religions' common understanding of the "good". By implication, Church and State should be separated, and the laws of the state should generally only cover the "common ground" of beliefs between the various religious groups that might be present&#8212;for example the prohibition of murder, etc. From the secularists' point of view, it was possible to distinguish between political ideas and structures that were religious and those that were not. Many Catholic theologians at the time did not believe that such a distinction was possible, arguing that all aspects of society had to be organized with the final goal of ] in mind. The roots of secularism can arguably be traced to those English philosophers who attempted to create a "universal religion" based on the "common denominator" of all other religions; it was largely spread through the secret societies of the Enlightenment, including the ]s, the ], and the ].


==Dimensions of the controversy over modernism==
*The modern ] systems, such as ]'s and ]'s. One of the main currents in modernist thought was to attempt to synthesize the ]/]/] and other features of certain modern systems of philosophy with Catholicism, in much the same way the Scholastics earlier attempted to synthesize ] and ] philosophy with Catholicism.


Although the so-called modernists did not form a uniform movement, they responded to a common grouping of religious problems which transcended Catholicism alone around 1900: first of all the problem of ], which seemed to render all historical forms of faith and tradition relative; secondly, through the reception of modern philosophers like ], ], and ], the neo-scholastic philosophical and theological framework set up by ] had become fragile. The assertion that objective truth is received subjectively is fundamental for the entire controversy.{{sfn|Portier|2013|p=xx (introduction)}} This focus on the religious subject engendered a renewed interest in mysticism, sanctity<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sanctity and Secularity during the Modernist Period: Six perspectives on hagiography around 1900|publisher=Société des Bollandistes|year=1999|isbn=9782873650070|editor-last=Barmann|editor-first=Lawrence|location=Paris|editor-last2=Talar|editor-first2=Charles J T}}</ref> and religious experience in general.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Modernisme, mystique, mysticisme|publisher=Honoré Champion|year=2017|isbn=9782745344496|location=Paris|editor-last=Losito|editor-first=Giacomo|editor-last2=Talar|editor-first2=Charles J T}}</ref> The aversion against a religious "extrinsicism" also led to a new hermeneutics for doctrinal definitions which were seen as secondary formulations of an antecedent (immanent) religious experience (]; cfr. also the Christian ] of Lucien Laberthonnière).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dio soggetto della storia: Loisy, Blondel, Laberthonnière|last=Losito|first=Giacomo|publisher=Loffredo Editore|year=2014|isbn=9788875646691|location=Naples}}</ref>
The combination of these three currents usually led to other conclusions which were common in Modernist thinking:


]
*That religion is primarily a matter of irrational emotions. Since textual criticism apparently taught that miracles did not really happen, and the philosophical systems in vogue at the time taught that the existence of ] and other things could never be known, then religion must be primarily caused and centered on the feelings of believers. This bolsters the claims of secularism in weakening any position supporting the favoring of one religion over the other in the state.
The controversy was not restricted to the field of philosophy and theology. On the level of politics, ] like the layman ] in France and the priest ] in Italy, but also the left wing of the ] and the Christian Unions in Germany, opted for a political agenda which was no more completely controlled by the hierarchy. Pope Pius X reacted by excommunicating Murri in 1909, by ] Sangnier's '']'' movement in 1910, and by issuing the encyclical {{lang|la|Singulari quadam}} in 1912 which clearly favoured the German Catholic workers' associations over and against the Christian Unions.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Curia romana e "Gewerkschaftsstreit": Prime considerazioni sull'origine dell'enciclica "Singulari quadam" (1912)|journal=Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa|last=Tacchi|first=Francesco|volume=54|pages=351–388|year=2018|issn=0035-6573}}</ref> Furthermore, antimodernists like Albert Maria Weiss {{Post-nominals|list=]}},<ref>{{Cite book|title=Modernismus und Antimodernismus im Dominikanerorden: Zugleich ein Beitrag zum "Sodalitium Pianum"|last=Weiss|first=Otto|publisher=Pustet|year=1998|isbn=9783791716190}}</ref> and the Swiss ],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Die "Schildwache": eine integralistisch-rechtskatholische Zeitung 1912-1945|last=Metzger|first=Franziska|publisher=Universitätsverlag Freiburg/Schweiz|year=2000|isbn=9783727812996|location=Fribourg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpsjsDFFq3cC&q=franziska+metzger+schildwache}}</ref> which were both favoured by Pius X, would even find "literary modernism" on the field of the Catholic '']'' which did not meet their standards of ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Katholische Laienemanzipation und römische Reaktion: Die Indexkongregation im Literatur-, Gewerkschafts- und Zentrumsstreit|last=Busemann|first=Jan Dirk|publisher=Schöningh|year=2017|isbn=9783657777891|location=Paderborn|doi=10.30965/9783657777891}}</ref>


In the eyes of the antimodernist reaction, the "modernists" were a uniform and secret sect within the Church. From a historical perspective, one can discern networks of personal contacts between "modernists", especially around ] and ]. On the other hand, there was a great bandwidth of opinions within the "movement", from people ending up in rationalism (e.g. Marcel Hébert,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Modernist as Philosopher: Selected Writings of Marcel Hebert|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|year=2011|isbn=9780813218793|location=Washington D.C.|editor-last=Talar|editor-first=Charles J. T.}}</ref> ], ], Salvatore Minocchi, and ])<ref>{{Cite book|title=Martyr to the Truth: The Autobiography of Joseph Turmel|last=Talar|first=Charles J. T.|publisher=Pickwick Publicationes|year=2012|isbn=9781610978378|location=Eugene OR}}</ref> to a mild religious reformism, even including neo-scholastic theologians like Romolo Murri.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Modernistica: horizons, physionomies, débats|last=Poulat|first=Émile|publisher=Nouvelles édition latines|year=2000|isbn=9782723301794|location=Paris}}</ref> This perception of a broad movement from left to right was already shaped by the protagonists themselves.<ref>{{Cite book|title=By Those Who Knew Them: French Modernists Left, Right, and Center|last1=Hill|first1=Harvey|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|year=2008|isbn=9780813215372|location=Washington D.C.|last2=Sardella|first2=Louis-Pierre|last3=Talar|first3=Charles J. T.}}</ref>{{sfn|Arnold|1999|p=245–250}}
== Evolution of dogmas ==


==Terminology==
The final overall teaching of Modernism, is that dogmas (what is taught by the Church and what its members are required to believe) can evolve over time, rather then being the same for all time. This aspect of thought was what made Modernism unique in the history of ] in the Church. Previously, a heretic (someone who believed and taught something different than what the rest of the church believed) would either claim that he was right and the rest of the church was wrong because he had received a new revelation from God, or that he had understood the true teaching of God which was previously understood but then lost. Both of those scenarios almost necessarily led to an organizational separation away from the Church (]) or the offender being ejected from the Church (]). With this new idea that doctrines evolve, it was possible for the modernist to believe that the old teachings of the Church ''and'' his new seemingly contradictory teachings were both correct&#8212;each had their time and place. This system allows almost any type of new belief that the modernist might want to introduce, and for this reason Modernism was labelled the "synthesis of all heresies" by Pope Pius X.


The term '']'' originally designated a current of thought within the Catholic Church that was influential in the 19th century, particularly in France, that aimed to reconcile the church with ]. It was largely identified with French political theorists such as ], ], and ].<ref> {{ISBN|9780521045483}}</ref> In the second half of the 19th century the term was also applied to theologians and intellectuals like ], ], ], and ] who wanted to reconcile the Catholic faith with the standards of modern science and society in general.
== Social/Anthropological causes of Modernism ==


In 1881, the Belgian economist ], a conservative Catholic layman, published a volume titled {{lang|fr|Le modernisme dans l'église d'après les lettres inédites de La Mennais}}. Périn was the first author to use the term ''modernism'' in a Catholic context – before him the Dutch ] ] had attacked the rationalist German theology of the Protestant ] as "modernism" ({{lang|nl|Het modernisme een fata morgana op christelijk gebied}}, 1871). For Périn, 'modernism' was a label for the attempts of Liberal Catholics to reconcile Catholicism with the ideals of the ] and of democracy in general. He saw a danger that humanitarian tendencies in secular society would be received within the Catholic Church. This "social" definition of Catholic modernism would be taken up again later by ]. Périn's usage of the term ''modernism'' was accepted by the Roman journal of the Jesuits, the semi-official {{lang|it|Civiltà Cattolica}}, which added the aspect of an exaggerated trust in modern science to this concept. When five ] books of the French theologian ] were placed on the ] in December 1903, the ]’s official paper ] distinguished between "modernity" and "modernism", which entailed heresy in religion, revolution in politics, and error in philosophy. The term ''modernism'' now began to replace older labels like 'Liberal Catholicism' or (especially in Germany) 'Reform Catholicism'.{{sfn|Arnold|2007|p=12–14}}
Catholic historians and theologians have social explanations as to why Modernism developed as it did and became so popular:


]
*Working with the modern philosophical systems was popular. It allowed theologians to work with non-Catholic philosopher contemporaries, and not to be looked down upon as "ancient" for their frequently exclusively ] philosophy.
The connection between 'Liberal Catholicism' and 'modernism' has been subject to controversial discussion. In 1979, Thomas Michael Loome stressed the continuity between the two and talked of a "vertical dimension" of the modernist controversy.{{sfn|Loome|1979}} This "invention of tradition" was criticized – amongst others – by ].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The modernist minefield|journal=The Month|last=Lash|first=Nicholas|volume=241|pages=16–19|year=1980}}</ref> It is clear, however, that the Joint Pastoral of the English episcopate against "Liberal Catholicism" (December 1900) did not only react on ], but also on the writings of the later "modernist" ]. The letter had been prepared in Rome and was inspired by ] who became Tyrrell's chief opponent under Pius X.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A View from Rome. On the Eve of the Modernist Crisis|last=Schultenover|first=David|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=1993|isbn=0823213595|location=New York|pages=65–158}}</ref> Furthermore, "modernists" like Tyrrell compared their own difficulties after the publication of {{lang|la|Pascendi}} with the difficulties of "liberal Catholics" like ] after ]. In December 1907, Tyrrell wrote to a German correspondent: "Is it not time to reconsider the pseudo-council of 1870 and to ask whether the ] were not, after all, in the right? {{lang|la|Ex fructibus eorum}} etc. may surely be used as a criterion of ]. Individuals, like myself, can afford to stand aloof as Döllinger did. But can multitudes live without sacraments and external communion? And yet now no educated man or woman will be able to remain in communion with Pius X."{{sfn|Arnold|1999|p=209–210}} Tyrrell was also inspired by the posthumous publication of ]'s ''History of Freedom and Other Essays'' in 1907.{{sfn|Loome|1979|p=40–48}}


==History of the modernist controversy==
*In the Americas, especially in the ], priests, bishops and theologians were surrounded by a culture and laity fully enraptured with the concept of secularism. Anti-Catholic uprisings in the early colonies and later caused a desire for priests and bishops to "fit in" and to "prove their loyality to the American way". Embarrassing encylicals such as the '']'' (which condemned most of the ammendments in the ]) were largely ignored by these priets and bishops. The modernistic trend of injecting secular values into Catholicism itself would allow for a much smoother relationship in these areas. Also, some argue, the downplaying of the doctrines taught by the Church contrary to the ] led them to be virtually unknown by succeeding generations of Catholics, causing newly ordained priests and bishops to almost automatically have secularist beliefs.
Although the so-called "Modernist Crisis"{{sfn|O'Connell|1994}} is usually dated between 1893 (the publication date of ]'s encyclical {{lang|la|]}}) and 1914 (the death of ]),{{sfn|Arnold|2007}}{{sfn|Vian|2012}} the controversy had, and continues to have, both a pre-history and a post-history.


===Pre-history: Liberal Catholicism in the 19th century===
*The evolution of dogmas theory, much like certain interpretations of being saved "sola fide", allows for a constant updating (critics would say "loosening") of standards of morality. As moral standards shifted heavily during the 20th century, previously a Catholic would have had to deny his faith to engage in some of the actions of his contemporaries. Now, citing that dogmas can change, it was possible to "update" Catholic ] while not being concerned with possible contradictions.


With notable exceptions like ] or the ]s, Catholic studies in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries had tended to avoid the use of ] because of its rationalist tendencies. Frequent political revolutions, the bitter opposition of "liberalism" to the Church and the expulsion of religious orders from France and Germany had made the church understandably suspicious of the new intellectual currents.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Donahue |first=John R. |date=18 September 1993 |title=Biblical Scholarship 50 years After Divino Afflante Spiritu |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/biblical-scholarship-50-years-after-divino-afflante-spiritu |access-date= |website=] |language=en}}</ref>
== Church officials' responses to Modernism ==


Following the ] and the subsequentt coming to power of the ], the ] had enacted harsh condemnations against ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and other popular philoosophies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pope Gregory XVI |author-link=Pope Gregory XVI |date= |year=1832 |title=Mirari Vos |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/greg16/g16mirar.htm |access-date= |website=Papal Encyclicals |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pope Pius IX |first= |author-link=Pope Pius IX |date= |year=1846 |title=Qui Pluribus |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9quiplu.htm |access-date= |website=Papal Encyclicals |language=en}}</ref> Non-Catholic Bible translations and interpretations had been met with similar scorn.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pope Pius VIII |author-link=Pope Pius VIII |date= |year=1829 |title=Traditi Humilitati |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius08/p8tradit.htm |access-date= |website=Papal Encyclicals |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pope Gregory XVI |first= |author-link=Pope Gregory XVI |date= |year=1844 |title=Inter Praecipuas |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/greg16/g16inter.htm |access-date= |website=Papal Encyclicals |language=en}}</ref>
Pope Pius X was the first to identify Modernism as a movement. He frequently condemned both its aims and ideas, and was deeply concerned by the ability of Modernism to allow its adherents to believe themselves strict Catholics while having a markedly different belief as to what that meant (a consequence of the notion of evolution of dogma). Due to this, he instituted the ] to force people to come to clear terms with what they believed. He also, more controversially, introduced a secret society called the ] to spy on ] to see if Modernism was being taught in them. Catholics reason that this had to be done because of the dangerous structure of modernist thinking.


]
Modernism continues to be condemned by the Church hierarchy, with ] and others having done much in recent decades to prevent its spread. It is generally accepted that measures taken under Pope Pius X led in several cases to injustices being perpetrated against ] Catholics, and the structures of ecclesial ] which characterised his period in office have long since disappeared.


In 1863, ] published {{lang|fr|Vie de Jésus}} (Life of Jesus). Renan had trained for the priesthood before choosing a secular career as a philologist and historian. His book described Jesus as {{lang|fr|un homme incomparable}} – a man, no doubt extraordinary, but only a man. The book was very popular, but cost him his chair of ] at the ]. Among Renan's most controversial ideas was that "a miracle does not count as a historical event; people believing in a miracle does." Renan's Jesus is a man of simple piety and almost unimaginable charisma whose main historical significance was his legion of followers.<ref name="Theiss">{{Cite web |last=Adam |first=Alex |date=2018-03-16 |title=The Pale Galilean: Ernest Renan, Jesus, and Modern History |url=https://themarginaliareview.com/pale-galilean-ernest-renan-jesus-modern-history/ |access-date= |website=The Marginalia Review of Books |language=en-US}}</ref>
]

In the same year, Church historian ] invited about 100 German theologians to meet in ] ({{lang|de|Münchener Gelehrtenversammlung}}, 1863)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Theologie, kirchliches Lehramt und öffentliche Meinung: Die Münchener Gelehrtenversammlung von 1863 und ihre Folgen|last1=Bischof|first1=Franz Xaver|publisher=Kohlhammer|year=2015|isbn=9783170289499|location=Stuttgart|last2=Essen|first2=Georg}}</ref> to discuss the state of Catholic theology. In his address, "On the Past and Future of Catholic Theology", Döllinger advocated greater academic freedom of theology within the Church, formulating a critique of ] and championing the historical method in theology.<ref></ref> Döllinger's friend ] gave two powerful speeches at the Catholic Congress in ] that year too, insisting that the church had to reconcile itself with civil equality and ].<ref>O'Malley, John W. ''Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church'' Harvard University Press 2019</ref><ref>Lecanuet, Edouard 1902, p. 356 : ''Discours de Malines'', 20-21 août 1863, Tome 3 : ''L'Église et le second Empire''.</ref>

On 8 December 1864 ] issued the encyclical {{lang|la|]}}, decrying what he considered significant errors afflicting the modern age. It condemned certain propositions such as: "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion{{nbsp}} constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control"; on civil law alone depend all rights of parents over their children, and especially that of providing for education; and that ] have no legitimate reason for being permitted.<ref></ref> Some of these condemnations were aimed at anticlerical governments in various European countries, which were in the process of secularizing education and taking over ], as well as suppressing religious orders and confiscating their property.<ref>] ''The Catholic Church in the Modern World'', (Doubleday, 1958)</ref> Attached to the encyclical was a {{lang|la|]}}, which had been condemned in previous papal documents, requiring recourse to the original statements to be understood. The ''Syllabus'' reacted not only to modern atheism, materialism, and agnosticism, but also to Liberal Catholicism and the new critical study of the Bible. It was also a direct reaction to Döllinger's speech in Munich and Montalembert's speeches in Malines.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Verso il sillabo: Il parere del barnabita Bilio sul discorso di Montalembert a Malines nell'Agosto 1863|journal=Archivum Historiae Pontificiae|last=Martina|first=Giacomo|volume=36|pages=137–181|year=1998}}</ref> Among the propositions condemned in the ''Syllabus'' were:

* "7. The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the Sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets, and the mysteries of the Christian faith the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the Old and the New Testament there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is Himself a myth."
* "13. The method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times and to the progress of the sciences." – Letter to the Archbishop of Munich, {{lang|la|Tuas libenter}}, December 21, 1863.
* "15. Every man is free to embrace and profess the Religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason." – Apostolic Letter, {{lang|la|Multiplices inter}}, 10 June 1851. Allocution {{lang|la|Maxima quidem}}, 9 June 1862.

The ] was held from December 1869 to October 1870. The council provoked a degree of controversy even before it met. In anticipation that the subject of papal infallibility would be discussed, many bishops, especially in France and Germany, expressed the opinion that the time was "inopportune". ] led a movement in Germany hostile to the definition of infallibility. In Döllinger's view, there was no foundation for this definition in Catholic tradition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Theologie und Geschichte: Ignaz von Döllinger (1799–1890) in der zweiten Hälfte seines Lebens|last=Bischof|first=Franz Xaver|publisher=Kohlhammer|year=1997|isbn=9783170148451|location=Stuttgart}}</ref> After the definition, Döllinger was excommunicated by the ] ] in 1871. Montalembert died before the end of the Council.

The dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, {{lang|la|]}}, tried to steer a middle way between ] and ]. It presented a concept of ] which highlighted the aspect of divine instruction by revelation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vaticani Concilii |date=1870 |title=Dei Filius |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/i-vatican-council/documents/vat-i_const_18700424_dei-filius_la.html |journal=] |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=481-493}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Handbuch der Fundamentaltheologie|last=Seckler|first=Max|publisher=UTB Kohlhammer|year=2000|isbn=9783825281717|location=Stuttgart|pages=41–61|volume=2|chapter=Der Begriff der Offenbarung}}</ref> The dogmatic Constitution {{lang|la|]}} addressed the primacy of the pope and rejected the idea that decrees issued by the pope for the guidance of the church are not valid unless confirmed by the secular power. It also declared ] when speaking '']'' on matters of faith and morals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vaticani Concilii |date=1870 |title=Pastor Aeternus |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-ix/la/documents/constitutio-dogmatica-pastor-aeternus-18-iulii-1870.html |journal=] |volume=6 |pages=40-47}}</ref> Other matters were deferred when ] and the Council was prorogued.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirch |first=Joseph |date=1912 |title=Vatican Council |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15303a.htm |journal=] |volume=15}}</ref> The Council remained formally open until 1960, when it was officially closed by ], in order to convene the ].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=First Vatican Council |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Vatican-Council |journal=]}}</ref>

The First Vatican Council's decisions were so controversial that they even caused a schism of some German, Swiss, Austrian and Dutch liberal Catholics, who broke away from the Vatican and merged with the ], who had maintained a somewhat precarious hierarchy in the Netherlands, into the ], which exists to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Old Catholic Church |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Old-Catholic-church |access-date= |website=] |language=en}}</ref>

===The beginning of the modernist controversy under Leo XIII===
]

], Pius IX's successor, wanted to advance ] in every way: he worked for a revival of ] as Christian philosophy, he encouraged the study of history and archaeology, and in 1881 he opened up the Vatican Archives for researchers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Catholicism and History: The Opening of the Vatican Archives| last=Chadwick| first=Owen| publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1976| url= http://fliphtml5.com/olzd/skgz/basic/104 |location=Cambridge| pages=97–103}}</ref> In 1887 he encouraged the study of the natural sciences, and in 1891 opened a new ].<ref></ref> Leo's response to the rationalist trend to undermine the authority of sacred scripture was for the Church to have its own trained experts. In 1893, with {{lang|la|]}}, Pope Leo gave the first formal authorization for the use of critical methods in biblical scholarship.<ref name=Prior> {{ISBN|9788876528255}}</ref> “Hence it is most proper that Professors of Sacred Scripture and theologians should master those tongues in which the sacred Books were originally written,{{sfn|Providentissimus Deus|loc=§17}} and have a knowledge of natural science.”{{sfn|Providentissimus Deus|loc=§18}} He recommended that the student of scripture be first given a sound grounding in the interpretations of the ] such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ],{{sfn|Providentissimus Deus|loc=§7}} and understand what they interpreted literally, and what allegorically; and note what they lay down as belonging to faith and what is opinion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Leo XIII |date=1893 |title=Providentissimus Deus |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_18111893_providentissimus-deus.html |journal=] |volume=26 |pages=269-292}}</ref>{{sfn|Providentissimus Deus|loc=§19}}

Although {{lang|la|]}} tried to encourage Catholic biblical studies, it also created problems. In the encyclical, Leo XIII excluded the possibility of restricting the ] to matters of faith and morals. Thus, he interfered in the lively discussion about biblical inspiration in France, where ], founder of the ], had opted for a more open solution in his article on {{lang|fr|La question biblique}}.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Monseigneur d'Hulst et la science chrétienne: Portrait d'un intellectuel|last=Beretta|first=Francesco|publisher=Beauchesne|year=1996|location=Paris|isbn=9782701013435|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuqDVKzGhHcC}}</ref> Not only exegetes of this ''école large'' were now in trouble, but also the prominent French theologian ] who worked for a thoroughly historical understanding of the Bible,<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Alfred Loisy. Études bibliques (1903)|journal=Handbuch der Bibelhermeneutiken. Von Origenes Bis zur Gegenwart|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/303589|last=Arnold|first=Claus|title=Handbuch der Bibelhermeneutiken |pages=593–602|publisher=De Gruyter|year=2016|editor-last=Wischmeyer|editor-first=Oda|location=Berlin/Boston|doi=10.1515/9783110330274-051 |isbn=9783110330274 }}</ref> in order to open up spaces for theological reform.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=De l'inerrance absolue à la vérité salvifique de l'Ecriture. Providentissimus entre Vatican I et Vatican II|journal=Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie|last=Beretta|first=Francesco|volume=46|pages=461–501|year=1999}}</ref> The Roman Congregation of the Index began to prepare a censuring of Loisy's main works, but until the death of Leo XIII in 1903 no decision was taken, as there was also considerable resistance within the ] against a premature judgment on matters of biblical interpretation.{{sfn|Arnold|Losito|2009}}

On the whole, official Catholic attitudes to the study of Scripture at the turn of the 20th century were of cautious advance, and a growing appreciation of what had promise for the future.<ref></ref> In 1902, Pope Leo XIII instituted the ], which was to adapt Catholic Biblical studies to modern scholarship and to protect Scripture against attacks.<ref>"Biblical Commission." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005</ref>

===Marie-Joseph Lagrange===
In 1890 the ], the first Catholic school specifically dedicated to the critical study of the bible, was established in ] by Dominican ]. In 1892 ] gave his official approval. While many of Lagrange's contemporaries criticized the new scientific and critical approach to the Bible, he made use of it. Lagrange founded the {{lang|fr|]}}, and his first articles drew sharp criticism, but Pope Leo was not inclined to discourage new ideas.<ref name=Becker></ref> As long as Pope Leo lived, Lagrange's work quietly progressed, but after Leo's death, an ultra-conservative reaction set in.<ref name=Becker/> The ] was considered suspect by the Vatican. Père Lagrange, like other scholars involved in the 19th-century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a modernist.<ref name=ecole></ref> In 1912 Lagrange was given an order for the {{lang|fr|Revue Biblique}} to cease publication and to return to France. The École itself was closed for a year, and then Lagrange was sent back to Jerusalem to continue his work.

=== Duchesne and Loisy ===
]
] was a French priest, philologist, teacher, and amateur archaeologist. Trained at the ] in Paris, he applied modern methods to church history, drawing together archaeology and topography to supplement literature and setting ecclesiastical events within the contexts of social history. Duchesne held the chair of ecclesiastical history at the ], and was frequently in contact with like-minded historians among the ]s, with their long history of critical editions of ].<ref>{{PD-notice}}</ref> Duchesne gained fame as a demythologizing critical historian of the popular, pious lives of saints produced by ] publishers.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvt5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Louis+Duchesne&pg=PA220 |page=220 |isbn=9789047402732 |title=Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice |last1=Strenski |first1=Ivan |date=November 2003 |publisher=BRILL }}</ref> However, his {{lang|fr|Histoire ancienne de l'Église}}, 1906–1911 (translated as ''Early History of the Christian Church'') was considered too modernist by the church at the time, and was placed on the ] in 1912.

]
] was a French Catholic priest, professor and theologian generally credited as the "father of Catholic Modernism".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alfred Loisy: Der Vater des katholischen Modernismus|last=Heiler|first=Friedrich|publisher=Federmann|year=1947|location=Munich}}</ref><ref name="LoisyB">{{BBKL|l/loisy|band=5|autor=Wolfgang Weiß|artikel=Loisy, Alfred Firmin|spalten=190-196}}</ref> He had studied at the Institut Catholique under Duchesne and attended the course on Hebrew by ] at the ]. Harvey Hill says that the development of Loisy's theories have to be seen also in the context of France's Church-State conflict, which contributed to Loisy's crisis of faith in the 1880s. In November 1893, Loisy published the last lecture of his course, in which he summed up his position on ] in five propositions: the ] was not the work of ], the first five chapters of ] were not literal history, the ] and the ] did not possess equal historical value, there was a development in scriptural doctrine, and Biblical writings were subject to the same limitations as those by other authors of the ancient world.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1507392 | jstor=1507392 | title=The Catholic Career of Alfred Loisy | last1=Boynton | first1=Richard Wilson | journal=The Harvard Theological Review | year=1918 | volume=11 | issue=1 | pages=36–73 | doi=10.1017/S0017816000012049 | s2cid=163885356 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Alfred Loisy and Modern Biblical Studies|last=Morrow|first=Jeffrey L.|publisher=The Catholic University of America Press|year=2019|isbn=9780813231211|location=Washington D.C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CeeEDwAAQBAJ}}</ref> When his attempts at theological reform had failed, Loisy came to regard the Christian religion more as a system of humanistic ethics than as divine revelation.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/40596 | doi=10.1353/cat.2003.0082 | title=The Politics of Modernism: Alfred Loisy and the Scientific Study of Religion (Review) | year=2003 | last1=Schultenover | first1=David G. | journal=The Catholic Historical Review | volume=89 | pages=114–115 | s2cid=143994770 }}</ref> He was excommunicated in 1908.<ref>] (Volume 17: 1969), pages 707–708. Article by Francis J. Hemelt of ]</ref>

=== The climax of the controversy under Pius X ===
]

], who succeeded Leo XIII in August 1903, engaged almost immediately in the ongoing controversy. Reacting on pressure from the Parisian Archbishop Cardinal ], he transferred the censuring of Loisy from the ] to the ]. Already in December 1903, Loisy's main exegetical works were censured.{{sfn|Arnold|Losito|2009}} At the same time the Holy Office began to prepare a syllabus of errors contained in the works of Loisy. Due to ongoing internal resistance, especially from the ], the papal theologian Alberto Lepidi {{Post-nominals|list=]}}, this Syllabus was published only in July 1907 as the decree {{lang|la|]}}, which condemned sixty-five propositions from the field of biblical interpretation and the history of dogma.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ex S. Congr. S. R. et U. Inquisitionis |author-link=Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition |date=1907 |title=Lamentabili Sane exitu |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10lamen.htm |journal=] |volume=40 |pages=470-478}}</ref>{{sfn|Arnold|Losito|2011}} {{lang|la|Lamentabili}} did not mention the term ''modernism'', and it seems that Pius X and his close collaborators like Cardinal ] and Cardinal ] were not satisfied with the document.

Therefore, in the summer of 1907, another document was prepared in a small circle around the Pope and already in September 1907, Pius X promulgated the encyclical {{lang|la|]}}, which formulated a synthesis of modernism and popularized the term itself. The encyclical condemned modernism as embracing every ].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Claus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXrFzQEACAAJ |title=La redazione dell'Enciclica Pascendi: studi e documenti sull'antimodernismo di Papa Pio X |last2=Vian |first2=Giovanni |date=2020 |publisher=Anton Hiersemann |isbn=978-3-7772-2035-2 |language=it}}</ref> {{lang|la|Pascendi}} described the "modernist" in seven "roles": as purely immanentist philosopher, as believer who relies only on their own religious experience, as theologian who understands dogma symbolically, as historian and biblical scholar who dissolves divine revelation by means of the historical-critical method into purely immanent processes of development, as apologete who justifies the Christian truth only from immanence, and as reformer who wants to change the church in a radical way. ], ], ] and ] are the keywords used by the Pope to describe the philosophical and theological system of modernism. The encyclical describes the modernist as an enemy of scholastic philosophy and theology and resistant to the teachings of the ]; their moral qualities are curiosity, arrogance, ignorance, and falsehood. Modernists deceive the simple believers by not presenting their entire system, but only parts of it. Therefore, the encyclical wants to reveal the secret system of modernism. {{lang|la|Pascendi}} contained also disciplinary measures for the promotion of scholastic philosophy and theology in the seminaries, for the removal of suspect professors and candidates for the priesthood, for a more rigid censuring of publications and for the creation of an antimodernist control group in every diocese.{{sfn|Arnold|2007|p=105–107}} All bishops and superiors of religious orders had to report regularly on the execution of these measures.{{sfn|Arnold|Vian|2017}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Pope Pius X |author-link=Pope Pius X |date=1907 |title=Pascendi Dominici gregis |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_19070908_pascendi-dominici-gregis.html |journal=] |volume=40 |pages=593-650}}</ref>

Pius frequently condemned the movement, and was deeply concerned that its adherents could go on believing themselves strict Catholics while understanding dogma in a markedly untraditional sense (a consequence of the notion of evolution of dogma). Therefore, in 1910, he introduced an ] to be taken by all Catholic priests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schepers |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0NDngEACAAJ |title=Streitbare Brüder: ein parallelbiographischer Zugriff auf Modernismuskontroverse und Antimodernisteneid am Beispiel von Franz und Konstantin Wieland |date=2016 |publisher=Ferdinand Schöningh |isbn=978-3-506-77790-4 |language=de}}</ref>

To ensure enforcement of these decisions, Monsignor ] organized, through his personal contacts with theologians and laymen in various European countries, a secret network of informants who would report to him those thought to be teaching condemned doctrine or engaging in political activities (like Christian Democratic Parties, Christian Unions) which were also deemed to be "modernist" because they were not controlled by the Catholic hierarchy. This group was called the {{lang|la|]}}, i.e. Fellowship of ], with the code name of {{lang|fr|La Sapinière}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poulat |first=Émile |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmERAQAAIAAJ |title=Intégrisme et catholicisme intégral: un réseau secret international antimoderniste: La "Sapinière," (1909-1921) |date=1969 |publisher=] |language=fr}}</ref> Its frequently overzealous and clandestine methods often hindered rather than helped the Church combat modernism.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Modernism (Roman Catholicism) |encyclopedia=] |publisher= |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Modernism-Roman-Catholicism |access-date= |date=8 December 2006}}</ref><ref>{{BBKL|b/benigni_u|band=20|autor=Thomas Marschler|artikel=Benigni, Umberto|spalten=113-116}}</ref> Benigni also published the journal {{lang|it|La Corrispondenza Romana}}/{{lang|fr|Correspondance de Rome}}, which initiated press campaigns against practical and social modernism throughout Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poulat |first=Emile |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjYvAAAAYAAJ |title=Catholicisme, démocratie et socialisme: le mouvement catholique et Mgr Benigni de la naissance du socialisme à la victoire du fascisme |date=1977 |publisher=] |isbn=978-2-203-29054-9 |language=fr}}</ref> Benigni fell out with Cardinal Secretary of State ] in 1911. The {{lang|la|Sodalitium}} was eventually dissolved in 1921. Recent research has stressed the ] character of Benigni's antimodernism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Valbousquet |first=Nina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CvDcDwAAQBAJ |title=Catholique et antisémite. Le réseau Mgr Begnini, 1918-1934 |publisher=] |year=2020 |isbn=978-2-271-13271-0 |language=fr}}</ref>

=== In America ===
]

With his slogan "Church and Age unite!",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Appleby |first=R. Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HiPZAAAAMAAJ |title="Church and Age Unite!": The Modernist Impulse in American Catholicism |date=1992 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-268-00782-9 |language=en}}</ref> Archbishop ] of ], became the hero of reformers in France (]), Italy<ref>{{Cite book|title=L'americanismo cattolico in Italia|last=Confessore|first=Ornella|publisher=Edizioni Studium|year=1984|isbn=9788838235047|location=Rome}}</ref> and Germany (]) in the 1890s. The modernist controversy in the United States was thus initially dominated by the conflict on "]", which after {{lang|la|Pascendi}} was also presented as a "forerunner" of modernism in Catholic heresiology.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Der Modernismus|last=Gisler|first=Anton|publisher=Benziger|year=1912|location=Einsiedeln|pages=27–222|chapter=1. Teil: Vorläufer des Modernismus. I. Buch. Der Amerikanismus}}</ref> "Americanism" was perceived as an influence of ] in the ], particularly regarding the concept of ]. Such tendencies alarmed Pope Leo XIII, who condemned them, at the urging of Archbishop Ireland's old opponent from ] Archbishop ], in the apostolic letter {{lang|la|]}} (1899).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Leo XIII |author-link=Pope Leo XIII |date=1899 |title=Testem benevolentiae Nostrae |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/la/letters/documents/hf_l-xiii_let_18990122_testem-benevolentiae.html |journal=] |volume=31 |pages=470-479}}</ref><ref> Vincent A. Yzermans (1988), ''Frontier Bishop of Saint Cloud'', Park Press, ]. Pages 175–176.</ref> Archbishop Ireland had to be extremely careful to avoid condemnation for his views.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Storch |first=Neil T. |date=1985 |title=John Ireland and the Modernist Controversy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3165660 |journal=] |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=353–365 |doi=10.2307/3165660 |jstor=3165660 |s2cid=162776098 |issn=0009-6407}}</ref>

Following the issuing of {{lang|la|Pascendi}}, the antimodernist measures were especially felt in the ]: The ''New York Review'' was a journal produced by ]. It printed papers by leading Catholic Biblical experts who were part of the newly emerging schools of ], which raised eyebrows in Rome. Around 1908, the ''Review'' was discontinued, ostensibly for financial reasons, although there is strong evidence that it was suppressed for modernist tendencies.<ref>DeVito, Michael J., "The New York Review (1905-1908)", (New York: United States Catholic Historical Society, 1977), Chapter 6</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Reception of Pascendi dominici gregis in North America|last=Talar|first=Charles J. T.|year=2017|publisher=Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia|doi=10.14277/6969-130-0/StStor-3-9}}</ref> Despite his support for modernization, Archbishop Ireland actively campaigned against modernism following the {{lang|la|Pascendi}} encyclical: this apparently inconsistent behavior stemmed from Ireland's concept of a "golden mean" between "ultraconservatism", rendering the Church irrelevant, and "ultraliberalism," discarding the Church's message.<ref name=":2" />

=== Post-history in the 20th and 21st centuries ===
After the pontificate of Pius X, there was a gradual abatement of attacks against modernists. The new ], who was elected to succeed Pius X in 1914, once again condemned modernism in his encyclical {{lang|la|]}}, but also urged Catholics to cease condemning fellow believers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Benedict XV |author-link=Pope Benedict XV |date=1914 |title=Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/it/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xv_enc_01111914_ad-beatissimi-apostolorum.html |journal=] |volume=6 |pages=565-581}}</ref> Nevertheless, theological antimodernism continued to influence the climate within the Church.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Nach dem Antimodernismus? Wege der katholischen Theologie 1918-1958|journal=Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte|volume=32|year=2013|hdl=10900/81807}}</ref> The ], until 1930 under the guidance of Cardinal ], continued to censure modernist theologians and rationalist exegesis was once again condemned by the Pontiff in his encyclical {{lang|la|Spiritus Paraclitus}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Benedict XV |author-link=Pope Benedict XV |date=1920 |title=Spiritus Paraclitus |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/it/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xv_enc_15091920_spiritus-paraclitus.html |journal=] |volume=12 |issue=10 |pages=385-423}}</ref>

In the 1930s, Loisy's ''opera omnia'' (“all works”) were placed on the {{lang|la|]}}. During ], French propaganda claimed that the ] was infested with modernism.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=La Guerre Allemande et le Catholicisme (1915): Catholic Theological War Propaganda and the Modernist Crisis|journal=Modernism|url=http://www.morcelliana.net/img/cms/Modernism/2017/01-Sommario.pdf|last=Arnold|first=Claus|volume=3|pages=193–212|publisher=Morcelliana|year=2017|location=Brescia}}</ref> Already in 1913 it had been claimed by the French academic ] that the Catholic ] in the mid-19th century, with its interest for the "organic development" of the church in history, was a "forerunner" of "modernism"<ref>{{Cite book |title= Jean-Adam Möhler et l'école catholique de Tubingue (1815–1840). Étude sur la théologie romantique en Wurtemberg et les origines germaniques du modernisme|last= Vermeil |first= Edmond |publisher= Colin |year= 1913 |location= Paris}}</ref> – a claim which has been debated ever since.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Die Katholische Tübinger Schule. Zur Geschichte ihrer Wahrnehmung|last= Warthmann |first= Stefan |publisher= Franz Steiner |year= 2011 |isbn= 9783515098564 |location= Stuttgart}}</ref>

Between World War I and the Second Vatican Council, ] {{post-nominals|post-noms=]}} was a "torchbearer of orthodox ]" against modernism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite encyclopedia|year=2011|title=Le eredità/2: i postumi della crisi modernista |encyclopedia=Treccani|publisher=l'Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/le-eredita-2-i-postumi-della-crisi-modernista-1914-1958_%28Cristiani-d%27Italia%29/|access-date=8 June 2016|last=Losito|first=Giacomo|language=it|trans-title=Inheritances / 2: The Aftermath of the Modernist Crisis }}</ref> Garrigou-Lagrange, who was a professor of philosophy and theology at the ], {{lang|la|Angelicum}}, is commonly held to have influenced the decision in 1942 to place the privately circulated book {{lang|fr|Une école de théologie: le Saulchoir}} (Étiolles-sur-Seine 1937) by ] {{post-nominals|post-noms=]}}<ref>On Chenu's role in intra-thomist controversies see {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3FY1gtVu37sC|title=Praeambula Fidei: Thomism and the God of the Philosophers|last=McInerny|first=Ralph|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|year=2006|isbn=9780813214580|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=108–125|access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref> on the Vatican's "Index of Forbidden Books" as the culmination of a polemic within the ] between the {{lang|la|Angelicum}} supporters of a speculative scholasticism and the French revival Thomists who were more attentive to historical hermeneutics, such as ] {{post-nominals|post-noms=]}}<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Première alerte sur le Saulchoir (1932)|journal=Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-des-sciences-philosophiques-et-theologiques-2012-1-page-93.htm#|last=Fouilloux|first=Étienne|volume=96|pages=93–105|year=2012|doi=10.3917/rspt.961.0093|s2cid=170242402 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

At the beginning of the 1930s, Congar read the {{lang|fr|Mémoires}} of Loisy and realised that modernism had addressed problems in theology which were still not resolved by neo-scholastic theology. Chenu and Congar, two protagonists of the {{lang|fr|]}},{{sfn|Mettepenningen|2010}} began to prepare a dossier on this topic. In 1946, Congar wrote to Chenu that neo-scholastic theology had already begun to "liquidate" itself on a daily basis and that the Jesuits were among the fiercest "liquidators".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Journal d'un Théologien (1946-1956)|last=Congar|first=Yves|publisher=CERF|year=2005|isbn=9782204065313|location=Paris|pages=24|editor-last=Fouilloux|editor-first=Étienne}}</ref> Congar's {{lang|fr|Chrétiens désunis}} was also suspected of modernism because its methodology derived more from religious experience than from syllogistic analysis.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR0sAAAAIAAJ|title=Chrétiens désunis: principes d'un "oecuménisme" catholique|last=Congar|first=Yves|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=1937|series=Unam sanctam|volume=1|location=Paris|language=fr|trans-title=Disunited Christians: Principles of a Catholic "Ecumenism"|access-date=8 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Modernism|encyclopedia=The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism|publisher=Harper Collins|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DmZB8fy_wcC|access-date=8 June 2016|date=1995|editor-last=McBrien|editor-first=Richard P.|edition=1st|page=304|isbn=9780060653385}}</ref>

A first relaxation of the strict anti-modernist measures imposed on biblical scholars by Pius X came in 1943: on that year, ] issued the encyclical {{lang|la|]}}, regulating the issue of Biblical exegesis. The encyclical inaugurated the modern period of Roman Catholic ] by encouraging the study of ] (or 'lower criticism'), pertaining to text of the Scriptures themselves and transmission thereof (for example, to determine correct readings) and permitted the use of the ] (or 'higher criticism') to be informed by ], ], and ] on the historical circumstances of the text, hypothesizing about matters such as authorship, dating, and similar concerns.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Pius XII |author-link=Pope Pius XII |year=1943 |title=Divino afflante Spiritu |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu.html |journal=] |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=297-325}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Soulen |first1=Richard N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fZMtoU7s8EC |title=Handbook of Biblical Criticism |last2=Soulen |first2=R. Kendall |publisher=] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-227-17037-3 |page=49 |language=en}}</ref> Catholic Biblical scholar ] {{Post-nominals|list=]}} described the encyclical as a "] for biblical progress".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Raymond Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ui8OAQAAMAAJ |title=The New Jerome Biblical Commentary |last2=Fitzmyer |first2=Joseph A. |last3=Murphy |first3=Roland Edmund |date=1990 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-13-614934-7 |page=1167 |language=en}}</ref>

Despite his cautious openings on the issue of biblical criticism, Pius XII was suspicious of the new theological trends, which he feared could cause a modernist revival: in 1950, he published the encyclical '']'', in which he condemned "certain new intellectual currents" in the Church, accusing them of relativism and attacking them for reformulating dogmas in a way that was not consistent with Church tradition and for following ] that deviated from the teachings of ''Providentissimus Deus'', ''Spiritus Paraclitus'' and ''Divino afflante Spiritu''. The encyclical specifically accused these new "trends" of having embraced the modernist heresy condemned by Pius X in ''Pascendi Dominici gregis''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Pius XII |author-link=Pope Pius XII |year=1950 |title=Humani Generis |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html |journal=] |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=561-578}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Viotto |first=Piero |date=2016 |title=Filosofia E Teologia Nella Corrispondenza Henri De Lubac - Jacques Maritain |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26504860 |journal=Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica |volume=108 |issue=4 |pages=1013–1026 |jstor=26504860 |issn=0035-6247}}</ref> The encyclical did not mention any particular theologian but was widely interpreted as a condemnation of the ''Nouvelle théologie'' and was followed by an anti-modernist purge in '']'' and Fourvière.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lubac |first=Henri de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccMlAQAAIAAJ |title=Mémoire sur l'occasion de mes écrits |date=1998 |publisher=] |isbn=978-2-204-07916-7 |language=fr}}</ref>

Following the election of ] and the calling of the ], anti-modernist polemics declined and many theologians associated with the ''Nouvelle théologie'' were gradually rehabilitated and many of them took part in the Council with the qualification of '']''. However, ] once again condemned modernism in his encyclical '']'' (1964), calling it "an error which is still making its appearance under various new guises, wholly inconsistent with any genuine religious expression" and described it as "an attempt on the part of secular philosophies and secular trends to vitiate the true teaching and discipline of the Church of Christ".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Paul VI |author-link=Pope Paul VI |year=1964 |title=Ecclesiam Suam |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam.html |journal=] |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=609-659}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ecclesiam Suam (August 6, 1964)|author=Pope Paul VI |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam.html|at=Paragraph 26|access-date=2023-01-30 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref> Despite this, the Oath Against Modernism was abolished on 17 July 1967 by the ] with the approval of Paul VI.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sacra Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei |author-link=Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith |year=1967 |title=Formula deinceps adhibenda in casibus in quibus iure praescribitur Professio Fidei, loco formulae Tridentinae et iuramenti antimodernistici. |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19670717_formula-professio-fidei_en.html |journal=] |volume=59 |pages=1058}}</ref>

Following the Council, the more ] of ''Nouvelle théologie'' had important careers in the Church: ], ] {{Post-nominals|list=]}}, ] {{Post-nominals|list=]}} and ] {{Post-nominals|list=]}} were made cardinals by ], while Joseph Ratzinger was elected as ] in 2005. The same could not be said for the more ], who were gradually marginalised due to their extreme views: ] was stripped from his theological license by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979 for questioning ], while ] {{Post-nominals|list=]}} was repeatedly condemned by the Congregation and even by Pope Paul VI himself (encyclical '']'') due to his heterodox views about ] and the ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pope Paul VI |author-link=Pope Paul VI |date=1965 |title=Mysterium Fidei |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_03091965_mysterium.html |journal=] |volume=57 |pages=753-774}}</ref>

References to modernism continue to be frequent among conservative and ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/modernism|title=Modernism|website=Catholic Answers|access-date=2019-12-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.saintaquinas.com/modernism_intro.html|title=The Seven Great Threats to the Catholic Church in Modern America|website=www.saintaquinas.com|access-date=2019-12-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/manifestations-modernism/|title=Manifestations of Modernism|website=www.catholicculture.org|access-date=2019-12-30}}</ref>

==Notable persons involved in the Modernist controversy==
*] (1838–1918), ]. Considered one of the leaders of ], he later turned against modernism.
*] (1840–1901), church historian, "Liberal Catholic"
*] (1843–1922), priest and philologist; one of his books was placed on the {{lang|la|]}}
*] (1850–1906), German theologian
*] (1857–1940), priest and theologian, excommunicated for his views in 1908 and his ''opera omnia'' were placed on the {{lang|la|Index}}. Later became an agnostic and a secular scholar at the {{lang|fr|]}}.
*] (1859-1943), priest and church historian, excommunicated in 1930 and his opera omnia placed on the ''Index'' in 1931.
*] (1861–1909), expelled from the ] in 1906 for his views and excommunicated in 1908
*] (1863–1942), English nun, close friend of Tyrrell, and a participant in the modernist movement as well as one of its first historians and critics; some of her works were placed on the ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum''
*Salvatore Minocchi (1869–1943), priest and biblical scholar, ] in 1908, later left the priesthood and became an agnostic.
*] (1861–1929), historian of dogma
*] (1852–1925), philosopher of religion
*] (1856–1916), English essayist and biographer
*] (1865–1933), French literary scholar, sometime Jesuit, and Catholic philosopher<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roditi|first=Edouard|date=1946|title=Henri Brémond: Poetics as Mystagogy|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|volume=4|issue=4|pages=229–235|doi=10.2307/426531|issn=0021-8529|jstor=426531}}</ref>
*] (1859–1939), historian of dogma in Munich<ref>{{Cite book|title=Katholischer Historismus? Zum historischen Denken in der deutschsprachigen Kirchengeschichte um 1900: Heinrich Schrörs – Albert Ehrhard – Joseph Schnitzer|last=Klapczynski|first=Gregor|publisher=Kohlhammer|year=2013|isbn=9783170234260|location=Stuttgart}}
</ref>
*] (1867–1931), Barnabite priest, preacher
*] (1867–1944), editor of the cultural and religious journal '']''
*] (1881–1946), who as a scholar of the ] and of religious philosophy, was a leader in the Italian modernist movement and was excommunicated in 1925<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buonaiuti, Ernesto, 1881-1946. |title=The programme of modernism : a reply to the encyclical of Pius X, Pascendi dominici gregis |date=1908 |publisher=T. Fisher Unwin |isbn=0-7905-7208-7 |oclc=689131918}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* ] comedian ] parodied the Modernist trend of the Post-] ] while appearing on the ] television show '']'' between 1979 and 1982. On the show, Morgan played a range of comic characters, including Father Trendy, a trying-to-be-cool ]-], who wore an Elvis haircut, a leather jacket and who was given to drawing ludicrous parallels between religious and non-religious life in two-minute 'sermons' to the camera. Morgan created the character as a ] of ], a left-wing ] priest who was trying to be the chaplain to the show business community in ].
* In the episode "The Bishop's Gambit" of the British TV series '']'' (season 1, episode 7), Prime Minister ] discusses candidates for an Anglican bishopric with Cabinet Secretary ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751836/|title=IMDb Yes, Prime Minister (TV Series) The Bishops Gambit|website=] |access-date=2020-08-12}}</ref> The Church Commissioners have suggested a candidate who is a "modernist". Sir Humphrey later explains to the PM that "modernist" is ecclesiastical code for an ] and ] ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751836/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu|title=IMDb: Yes, Prime Minister (TV Series) The Bishops Gambit. Quotes|website=] |access-date=2020-08-12}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Catholicism}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite book|title=The Liberal Catholic Movement in England: The 'Rambler' and its Contributors, 1848-1864|last=Altholz|first=Josef L.|publisher=Burns & Oates|year=1962|location=London}}
*{{Cite book|title=Katholizismus als Kulturmacht. Der Freiburger Theologe Joseph Sauer (1872-1949) und das Erbe des Franz Xaver Kraus|last=Arnold|first=Claus|publisher=Schöningh|year=1999|isbn=9783506799913|location=Paderborn}}
*{{Cite book|title=Kleine Geschichte des Modernismus|last=Arnold|first=Claus|publisher=Herder|year=2007|isbn=9783451291067|location=Freiburg}}
*{{Cite book|title=La censure d'Alfred Loisy (1903). Les documents des Congrégations de l´Index et du Saint Office (Fontes Archivi Sancti Officii Romani 4)|last1=Arnold|first1=Claus|publisher=Libreria editrice vaticana|year=2009|location=Vatican City|last2=Losito|first2=Giacomo}}
*{{Cite book|title="Lamentabili sane exitu" (1907): Les documents préparatoires du Saint Office|last1=Arnold|first1=Claus|publisher=Libreria editrice vaticana|year=2011|location=Vatican City|last2=Losito|first2=Giacomo}}
*{{Cite book|title=The Reception and Application of the Encyclical Pascendi: The Reports of the Diocesan Bishops and the Superiors of the Religious Orders until 1914|last1=Arnold|first1=Claus|last2=Vian|first2=Giovanni|publisher=Edizioni Ca' Foscari|year=2017|isbn=9788869691300|location=Venice|url=https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-131-7/|doi=10.14277/978-88-6969-130-0}}
*{{Cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0CEOAAAACAAJ| title = Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the XXth Century
| last = Amerio
| first = Romano
| publisher = Sarto House
| year = 1996
| isbn = 9780963903211
| location = Kansas City, Missouri
|author-link=Romano Amerio|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8enYAAAAMAAJ|title=Il Modernismo Tra Cristianitā e Secolarizzazione: Atti Del Convegno Internazionale Di Urbino, 1-4 Ottobre 1997|publisher=QuattroVenti|year=2000|isbn=9788839205452|editor-last=Botti|editor-first=Alfonso|series=Studi e testi|volume=6|language=it|trans-title=Modernism between Christianity and Secularization: Proceedings of the International Conference of Urbino, 1–4 October 1997|access-date=8 June 2016|editor-last2=Cerrato|editor-first2=Rocco}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wXjZAAAAMAAJ|title=Romolo Murri e i murrismi in Italia e in Europa cent'anni dopo: atti del Convegno internazionale di Urbino, 24-26 settembre 2001|publisher=QuattroVenti|year=2004|isbn=9788839206817|editor-last=Botti|editor-first=Alfonso|series=Studi e testi|volume=7|language=it|trans-title=Romolo Murri and the Murrismi in Italy and in Europe One Hundred Years Later: Proceedings of the International Conference of Urbino, 24–26 September 2001|access-date=8 June 2016|editor-last2=Cerrato|editor-first2=Rocco|editor-last3=Biagioli|editor-first3=Ilaria}}
*{{Cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5hrAAAACAAJ| title = One Hundred Years of Modernism: A History of Modernism, Aristotle to the Second Vatican Council
| last = Bourmaud
| first = Dominique
| publisher = Angelus Press
| year = 2006
| isbn = 9781892331434
| location = Kansas City, Missouri
| oclc = 72871306
|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyfreedoma00actogoog|title=The History of Freedom and Other Essays|last=Dalberg-Acton|first=John Emerich Edward|publisher=Macmillan and Co., Ltd.|year=1907|editor-last=Figgis|editor-first=John Neville|location=London|author-link=John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|access-date=8 June 2016|editor-last2=Laurence|editor-first2=Reginald Vere}}
*{{Cite book|title=Transcendence and Immanence: A Study in Catholic Modernism and Integralism|last=Daly|first=Gabriel|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1980|isbn=9780198266525|location=Oxford}}
*{{Cite book
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Po39sgEACAAJ
| title = Studies in Modernism
| last = Fawkes
| first = Alfred
| publisher = Forgotten Books
| location = London
|date=17 July 2015| oclc = 3307790
|access-date=8 June 2016|orig-year=1913| isbn = 9781331562054
}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cRURAQAAIAAJ|title=Newman et Blondel: tradition et développement du dogme|last=Gauthier|first=Pierre|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=1988|isbn=9782204028547|series=Cogitatio fidei|volume=147|language=fr|trans-title=Newman and Blondel: Tradition and the Development of Dogma|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0ssAAAAIAAJ|title=The Catholic Church in the Modern World: A Survey from the French Revolution to the Present|last=Hales|first=Edward Elton Young|publisher=Doubleday|year=1960|series=Image Books|volume=95|location=Garden City, New York|author-link=E. E. Y. Hales|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQnZAAAAMAAJ|title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century|last=Hales|first=Edward Elton Young|publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode|year=1954|edition=2nd|location=London|author-link=E. E. Y. Hales|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpczAAAACAAJ|title=Blondel y la crisis modernista: análysis de "Historia y dogma"|last=Izquierdo|first=César|publisher=Ediciones Universidad de Navarra|year=1990|isbn=9788431310998|edition=Illustrated|series=Colección teológica de la Universidad de Navarra|volume=71|location=Pamplona|trans-title=Blondel and the Modernist Crisis: Analysis of "History and Dogma"|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=015XHt7sAm0C|title=Catholicism Contending with Modernity: Roman Catholic Modernism and Anti-Modernism in Historical Context|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=9780521770712|editor-last=Jodock|editor-first=Darrell|location=Cambridge|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|title=Liberal Catholicism, Reform Catholicism, Modernism: A Contribution to a New Orientation in Modernist Research|last=Loome|first=Thomas Michael|publisher=Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag|year=1979|isbn=3786706603|series=Tübinger theologische Studien|volume=14|location=Mainz}}
*{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=etbeBAAAQBAJ | title = Nouvelle Théologie - New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II | last = Mettepenningen | first = Jürgen | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780567299918 | location = New York| oclc = 676696271| access-date = 8 June 2016}}
**Cf. {{Cite news|url=http://content.yudu.com/A1pb81/TheTablet/resources/24.htm|title=Shock of the new|last=Kerr|first=Fergus|date=2 October 2010|access-date=8 June 2016|newspaper=]|publisher=DeSales Media Group, Inc.|page=24}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1fnY64FfWUC|title=Critics on Trial: An Introduction to the Catholic Modernist Crisis|last=O'Connell|first=Marvin Richard|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|year=1994|isbn=9780813208008|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book |title= Divided Friends: Portraits of the Roman Catholic Modernist Crisis in the United States |last= Portier |first= William L. |publisher= CUA Press |year= 2013 |isbn= 9780813221649}}
*{{Cite book |title= Histoire, dogme et critique dans la crise moderniste |last= Poulat |first= Émile |publisher= Albin Michel |year= 1996 |isbn= 9782226084644 |location= Paris}}
*{{Cite book|title=Providentissimus Deus|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_18111893_providentissimus-deus.html|publisher=Leo XIII|date=18 November 1893|ref={{SfnRef|Providentissimus Deus}} }}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMWMAAAACAAJ|title=In the Murky Waters of Vatican II|last=Sinke Guimarães|first=Atila|publisher=Tan Books and Publishers|year=1999|isbn=9780895556363|edition=2nd|series=Eli, Eli, Lamma sabacthani?|volume=1|access-date=8 June 2016}}
*{{Cite book|title=Il modernismo. La Chiesa cattolica in conflitto con la modernità|last=Vian|first=Giovanni|publisher=Carocci|year=2012|isbn=9788843063444|location=Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29F2tgAACAAJ&q=il+modernismo.+la+chiesa+cattolica+in+conflitto+con+la+modernit%C3%A0}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hygtAAAAMAAJ|title=Blondel et le modernisme: la philosophie de l'action et les sciences religieuses, 1896-1913|last=Virgoulay|first=René|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=1980|isbn=9782204015097|location=Paris|access-date=8 June 2016}}

==External links==
* Bourmaud, Fr. Dominique,
*{{Cite book
| isbn = 9781304416186
| last = Garrigou-Lagrange
| first = Réginald
| author-link = Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
| title = The Essence & Topicality of Thomism
| year = 2013
| publisher = Lulu.com
| url = http://216.27.62.241/shop/réginald-garrigou-lagrange-op/the-essence-topicality-of-thomism/hardcover/product-21199740.html}} — ], explains why Thomism is the solution to the present crisis of Modernism in the Church.
* , Leo XIII, 18 November 1893
* , Pius X, 3 July 1907
* , Pius X, 8 September 1907
*: Essays with bibliography arranged by subjects, headed "Note: Most of the works dealing with Modernism are sympathetic to the Modernists, and students should maintain a critical stance towards the assigned readings."
*
*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Modernism}}
{{Modernism in the Catholic Church}}
{{History of Catholic theology}}
{{Traditionalist Catholicism}}
{{Beliefs condemned by the Catholic Church}}
{{Authority control}}

]
]

Latest revision as of 15:32, 4 December 2024

Heretical theological stance For the broader artistic and philosophical sense of the term, see Modernism. For other uses, see Modernism (disambiguation).
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Modernism in the Catholic Church describes attempts to reconcile Catholicism with modern culture, specifically an understanding of the Bible and Sacred Tradition in light of the historical-critical method and new philosophical and political developments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The term modernism—generally used by critics of rather than adherents to positions associated with it—came to prominence in Pope Pius X's 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis, where he condemned modernism as "the synthesis of all heresies".

Writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1911, the Jesuit Arthur Vermeersch gave a definition of modernism in the perspective of the Catholic heresiology of his time:

"In general we may say that modernism aims at that radical transformation of human thought in relation to God, man, the world, and life, here and hereafter, which was prepared by Humanism and eighteenth-century philosophy, and solemnly promulgated at the French Revolution."

The modernist movement was influenced and accompanied by Protestant theologians and clergy like Paul Sabatier and Heinrich Julius Holtzmann. On the other hand, modernist theologians were critical of Protestant theology and engaged in Catholic apologetics against a Protestant understanding of Christianity, as in the famous attack of Alfred Loisy in L'Évangile et l'Église (1902) on Adolf von Harnack's Das Wesen des Christentums (1900). The modernist movement has a parallel in the Church of England where the journal The Modern Churchman was founded in 1911.

The controversy on modernism was prominent in French and British intellectual circles and, to a lesser extent, in Italy, but, in one way or another, concerned most of Europe and North America. Pope Pius X saw modernism as a universal threat which required a global reaction.

Dimensions of the controversy over modernism

Although the so-called modernists did not form a uniform movement, they responded to a common grouping of religious problems which transcended Catholicism alone around 1900: first of all the problem of historicism, which seemed to render all historical forms of faith and tradition relative; secondly, through the reception of modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Maurice Blondel, and Henri Bergson, the neo-scholastic philosophical and theological framework set up by Pope Leo XIII had become fragile. The assertion that objective truth is received subjectively is fundamental for the entire controversy. This focus on the religious subject engendered a renewed interest in mysticism, sanctity and religious experience in general. The aversion against a religious "extrinsicism" also led to a new hermeneutics for doctrinal definitions which were seen as secondary formulations of an antecedent (immanent) religious experience (George Tyrrell; cfr. also the Christian personalism of Lucien Laberthonnière).

Romolo Murri (1870–1944)

The controversy was not restricted to the field of philosophy and theology. On the level of politics, Christian Democrats like the layman Marc Sangnier in France and the priest Romolo Murri in Italy, but also the left wing of the Centre Party and the Christian Unions in Germany, opted for a political agenda which was no more completely controlled by the hierarchy. Pope Pius X reacted by excommunicating Murri in 1909, by dissolving Sangnier's Le Sillon movement in 1910, and by issuing the encyclical Singulari quadam in 1912 which clearly favoured the German Catholic workers' associations over and against the Christian Unions. Furthermore, antimodernists like Albert Maria Weiss OP, and the Swiss Caspar Decurtins, which were both favoured by Pius X, would even find "literary modernism" on the field of the Catholic belles-lettres which did not meet their standards of orthodoxy.

In the eyes of the antimodernist reaction, the "modernists" were a uniform and secret sect within the Church. From a historical perspective, one can discern networks of personal contacts between "modernists", especially around Friedrich von Hügel and Paul Sabatier. On the other hand, there was a great bandwidth of opinions within the "movement", from people ending up in rationalism (e.g. Marcel Hébert, Albert Houtin, Alfred Loisy, Salvatore Minocchi, and Joseph Turmel) to a mild religious reformism, even including neo-scholastic theologians like Romolo Murri. This perception of a broad movement from left to right was already shaped by the protagonists themselves.

Terminology

The term Liberal Catholicism originally designated a current of thought within the Catholic Church that was influential in the 19th century, particularly in France, that aimed to reconcile the church with liberal democracy. It was largely identified with French political theorists such as Felicité Robert de Lamennais, Henri Lacordaire, and Charles Forbes René de Montalembert. In the second half of the 19th century the term was also applied to theologians and intellectuals like Ignaz von Döllinger, St. George Jackson Mivart, John Zahm, and Franz Xaver Kraus who wanted to reconcile the Catholic faith with the standards of modern science and society in general.

In 1881, the Belgian economist Charles Périn, a conservative Catholic layman, published a volume titled Le modernisme dans l'église d'après les lettres inédites de La Mennais. Périn was the first author to use the term modernism in a Catholic context – before him the Dutch Calvinist Abraham Kuyper had attacked the rationalist German theology of the Protestant Tübingen School as "modernism" (Het modernisme een fata morgana op christelijk gebied, 1871). For Périn, 'modernism' was a label for the attempts of Liberal Catholics to reconcile Catholicism with the ideals of the French Revolution and of democracy in general. He saw a danger that humanitarian tendencies in secular society would be received within the Catholic Church. This "social" definition of Catholic modernism would be taken up again later by Integralism. Périn's usage of the term modernism was accepted by the Roman journal of the Jesuits, the semi-official Civiltà Cattolica, which added the aspect of an exaggerated trust in modern science to this concept. When five exegetical books of the French theologian Alfred Loisy were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in December 1903, the Holy See’s official paper L'Osservatore Romano distinguished between "modernity" and "modernism", which entailed heresy in religion, revolution in politics, and error in philosophy. The term modernism now began to replace older labels like 'Liberal Catholicism' or (especially in Germany) 'Reform Catholicism'.

George Tyrrell (1861–1909)

The connection between 'Liberal Catholicism' and 'modernism' has been subject to controversial discussion. In 1979, Thomas Michael Loome stressed the continuity between the two and talked of a "vertical dimension" of the modernist controversy. This "invention of tradition" was criticized – amongst others – by Nicholas Lash. It is clear, however, that the Joint Pastoral of the English episcopate against "Liberal Catholicism" (December 1900) did not only react on St. George Jackson Mivart, but also on the writings of the later "modernist" George Tyrrell. The letter had been prepared in Rome and was inspired by Rafael Merry del Val who became Tyrrell's chief opponent under Pius X. Furthermore, "modernists" like Tyrrell compared their own difficulties after the publication of Pascendi with the difficulties of "liberal Catholics" like Ignaz von Döllinger after Vatican I. In December 1907, Tyrrell wrote to a German correspondent: "Is it not time to reconsider the pseudo-council of 1870 and to ask whether the Alt-Katholiks were not, after all, in the right? Ex fructibus eorum etc. may surely be used as a criterion of Ultramontanism. Individuals, like myself, can afford to stand aloof as Döllinger did. But can multitudes live without sacraments and external communion? And yet now no educated man or woman will be able to remain in communion with Pius X." Tyrrell was also inspired by the posthumous publication of Lord Acton's History of Freedom and Other Essays in 1907.

History of the modernist controversy

Although the so-called "Modernist Crisis" is usually dated between 1893 (the publication date of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Providentissimus Deus) and 1914 (the death of Pope Pius X), the controversy had, and continues to have, both a pre-history and a post-history.

Pre-history: Liberal Catholicism in the 19th century

With notable exceptions like Richard Simon or the Bollandists, Catholic studies in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries had tended to avoid the use of critical methodology because of its rationalist tendencies. Frequent political revolutions, the bitter opposition of "liberalism" to the Church and the expulsion of religious orders from France and Germany had made the church understandably suspicious of the new intellectual currents.

Following the French Revolution and the subsequentt coming to power of the Conservative Order, the Magisterium had enacted harsh condemnations against liberalism, rationalism, pantheism, panentheism, deism, indifferentism, socialism, communism and other popular philoosophies. Non-Catholic Bible translations and interpretations had been met with similar scorn.

Ernest Renan

In 1863, Ernest Renan published Vie de Jésus (Life of Jesus). Renan had trained for the priesthood before choosing a secular career as a philologist and historian. His book described Jesus as un homme incomparable – a man, no doubt extraordinary, but only a man. The book was very popular, but cost him his chair of Hebrew at the Collège de France. Among Renan's most controversial ideas was that "a miracle does not count as a historical event; people believing in a miracle does." Renan's Jesus is a man of simple piety and almost unimaginable charisma whose main historical significance was his legion of followers.

In the same year, Church historian Ignaz von Döllinger invited about 100 German theologians to meet in Munich (Münchener Gelehrtenversammlung, 1863) to discuss the state of Catholic theology. In his address, "On the Past and Future of Catholic Theology", Döllinger advocated greater academic freedom of theology within the Church, formulating a critique of neo-scholastic theology and championing the historical method in theology. Döllinger's friend Charles de Montalembert gave two powerful speeches at the Catholic Congress in Malines that year too, insisting that the church had to reconcile itself with civil equality and religious freedom.

On 8 December 1864 Pope Pius IX issued the encyclical Quanta cura, decrying what he considered significant errors afflicting the modern age. It condemned certain propositions such as: "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion  constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control"; on civil law alone depend all rights of parents over their children, and especially that of providing for education; and that religious orders have no legitimate reason for being permitted. Some of these condemnations were aimed at anticlerical governments in various European countries, which were in the process of secularizing education and taking over Catholic schools, as well as suppressing religious orders and confiscating their property. Attached to the encyclical was a Syllabus Errorum, which had been condemned in previous papal documents, requiring recourse to the original statements to be understood. The Syllabus reacted not only to modern atheism, materialism, and agnosticism, but also to Liberal Catholicism and the new critical study of the Bible. It was also a direct reaction to Döllinger's speech in Munich and Montalembert's speeches in Malines. Among the propositions condemned in the Syllabus were:

  • "7. The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the Sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets, and the mysteries of the Christian faith the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the Old and the New Testament there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is Himself a myth."
  • "13. The method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times and to the progress of the sciences." – Letter to the Archbishop of Munich, Tuas libenter, December 21, 1863.
  • "15. Every man is free to embrace and profess the Religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason." – Apostolic Letter, Multiplices inter, 10 June 1851. Allocution Maxima quidem, 9 June 1862.

The First Vatican Council was held from December 1869 to October 1870. The council provoked a degree of controversy even before it met. In anticipation that the subject of papal infallibility would be discussed, many bishops, especially in France and Germany, expressed the opinion that the time was "inopportune". Ignaz von Döllinger led a movement in Germany hostile to the definition of infallibility. In Döllinger's view, there was no foundation for this definition in Catholic tradition. After the definition, Döllinger was excommunicated by the Archbishop of Munich Gregor von Scherr in 1871. Montalembert died before the end of the Council.

The dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Dei Filius, tried to steer a middle way between rationalism and fideism. It presented a concept of revelation which highlighted the aspect of divine instruction by revelation. The dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus addressed the primacy of the pope and rejected the idea that decrees issued by the pope for the guidance of the church are not valid unless confirmed by the secular power. It also declared papal infallibility when speaking ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals. Other matters were deferred when the Italian infantry entered Rome and the Council was prorogued. The Council remained formally open until 1960, when it was officially closed by Pope John XXIII, in order to convene the Second Vatican Council.

The First Vatican Council's decisions were so controversial that they even caused a schism of some German, Swiss, Austrian and Dutch liberal Catholics, who broke away from the Vatican and merged with the Jansenists, who had maintained a somewhat precarious hierarchy in the Netherlands, into the Old Catholic Church, which exists to this day.

The beginning of the modernist controversy under Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII, Pius IX's successor, wanted to advance what he understood as the true Christian science in every way: he worked for a revival of Thomism as Christian philosophy, he encouraged the study of history and archaeology, and in 1881 he opened up the Vatican Archives for researchers. In 1887 he encouraged the study of the natural sciences, and in 1891 opened a new Vatican Observatory. Leo's response to the rationalist trend to undermine the authority of sacred scripture was for the Church to have its own trained experts. In 1893, with Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo gave the first formal authorization for the use of critical methods in biblical scholarship. “Hence it is most proper that Professors of Sacred Scripture and theologians should master those tongues in which the sacred Books were originally written, and have a knowledge of natural science.” He recommended that the student of scripture be first given a sound grounding in the interpretations of the Fathers such as Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Augustine and Jerome, and understand what they interpreted literally, and what allegorically; and note what they lay down as belonging to faith and what is opinion.

Although Providentissimus Deus tried to encourage Catholic biblical studies, it also created problems. In the encyclical, Leo XIII excluded the possibility of restricting the inspiration and inerrancy of the bible to matters of faith and morals. Thus, he interfered in the lively discussion about biblical inspiration in France, where Maurice d'Hulst, founder of the Institut Catholique de Paris, had opted for a more open solution in his article on La question biblique. Not only exegetes of this école large were now in trouble, but also the prominent French theologian Alfred Loisy who worked for a thoroughly historical understanding of the Bible, in order to open up spaces for theological reform. The Roman Congregation of the Index began to prepare a censuring of Loisy's main works, but until the death of Leo XIII in 1903 no decision was taken, as there was also considerable resistance within the Roman Curia against a premature judgment on matters of biblical interpretation.

On the whole, official Catholic attitudes to the study of Scripture at the turn of the 20th century were of cautious advance, and a growing appreciation of what had promise for the future. In 1902, Pope Leo XIII instituted the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which was to adapt Catholic Biblical studies to modern scholarship and to protect Scripture against attacks.

Marie-Joseph Lagrange

In 1890 the École Biblique, the first Catholic school specifically dedicated to the critical study of the bible, was established in Jerusalem by Dominican Marie-Joseph Lagrange. In 1892 Pope Leo XIII gave his official approval. While many of Lagrange's contemporaries criticized the new scientific and critical approach to the Bible, he made use of it. Lagrange founded the Revue Biblique, and his first articles drew sharp criticism, but Pope Leo was not inclined to discourage new ideas. As long as Pope Leo lived, Lagrange's work quietly progressed, but after Leo's death, an ultra-conservative reaction set in. The historical-critical method was considered suspect by the Vatican. Père Lagrange, like other scholars involved in the 19th-century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a modernist. In 1912 Lagrange was given an order for the Revue Biblique to cease publication and to return to France. The École itself was closed for a year, and then Lagrange was sent back to Jerusalem to continue his work.

Duchesne and Loisy

Louis Duchesne, 1899

Louis Duchesne was a French priest, philologist, teacher, and amateur archaeologist. Trained at the École pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, he applied modern methods to church history, drawing together archaeology and topography to supplement literature and setting ecclesiastical events within the contexts of social history. Duchesne held the chair of ecclesiastical history at the Institut Catholique de Paris, and was frequently in contact with like-minded historians among the Bollandists, with their long history of critical editions of hagiographies. Duchesne gained fame as a demythologizing critical historian of the popular, pious lives of saints produced by Second Empire publishers. However, his Histoire ancienne de l'Église, 1906–1911 (translated as Early History of the Christian Church) was considered too modernist by the church at the time, and was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1912.

Alfred Loisy

Alfred Loisy was a French Catholic priest, professor and theologian generally credited as the "father of Catholic Modernism". He had studied at the Institut Catholique under Duchesne and attended the course on Hebrew by Ernest Renan at the Collège de France. Harvey Hill says that the development of Loisy's theories have to be seen also in the context of France's Church-State conflict, which contributed to Loisy's crisis of faith in the 1880s. In November 1893, Loisy published the last lecture of his course, in which he summed up his position on biblical criticism in five propositions: the Pentateuch was not the work of Moses, the first five chapters of Genesis were not literal history, the New Testament and the Old Testament did not possess equal historical value, there was a development in scriptural doctrine, and Biblical writings were subject to the same limitations as those by other authors of the ancient world. When his attempts at theological reform had failed, Loisy came to regard the Christian religion more as a system of humanistic ethics than as divine revelation. He was excommunicated in 1908.

The climax of the controversy under Pius X

Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X, who succeeded Leo XIII in August 1903, engaged almost immediately in the ongoing controversy. Reacting on pressure from the Parisian Archbishop Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, he transferred the censuring of Loisy from the Congregation of the Index to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. Already in December 1903, Loisy's main exegetical works were censured. At the same time the Holy Office began to prepare a syllabus of errors contained in the works of Loisy. Due to ongoing internal resistance, especially from the Master of the Sacred Palace, the papal theologian Alberto Lepidi OP, this Syllabus was published only in July 1907 as the decree Lamentabili sane exitu, which condemned sixty-five propositions from the field of biblical interpretation and the history of dogma. Lamentabili did not mention the term modernism, and it seems that Pius X and his close collaborators like Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val and Cardinal José de Calasanz Vives y Tutó were not satisfied with the document.

Therefore, in the summer of 1907, another document was prepared in a small circle around the Pope and already in September 1907, Pius X promulgated the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, which formulated a synthesis of modernism and popularized the term itself. The encyclical condemned modernism as embracing every heresy. Pascendi described the "modernist" in seven "roles": as purely immanentist philosopher, as believer who relies only on their own religious experience, as theologian who understands dogma symbolically, as historian and biblical scholar who dissolves divine revelation by means of the historical-critical method into purely immanent processes of development, as apologete who justifies the Christian truth only from immanence, and as reformer who wants to change the church in a radical way. Agnosticism, immanentism, evolutionism and reformism are the keywords used by the Pope to describe the philosophical and theological system of modernism. The encyclical describes the modernist as an enemy of scholastic philosophy and theology and resistant to the teachings of the Magisterium; their moral qualities are curiosity, arrogance, ignorance, and falsehood. Modernists deceive the simple believers by not presenting their entire system, but only parts of it. Therefore, the encyclical wants to reveal the secret system of modernism. Pascendi contained also disciplinary measures for the promotion of scholastic philosophy and theology in the seminaries, for the removal of suspect professors and candidates for the priesthood, for a more rigid censuring of publications and for the creation of an antimodernist control group in every diocese. All bishops and superiors of religious orders had to report regularly on the execution of these measures.

Pius frequently condemned the movement, and was deeply concerned that its adherents could go on believing themselves strict Catholics while understanding dogma in a markedly untraditional sense (a consequence of the notion of evolution of dogma). Therefore, in 1910, he introduced an anti-modernist oath to be taken by all Catholic priests.

To ensure enforcement of these decisions, Monsignor Umberto Benigni organized, through his personal contacts with theologians and laymen in various European countries, a secret network of informants who would report to him those thought to be teaching condemned doctrine or engaging in political activities (like Christian Democratic Parties, Christian Unions) which were also deemed to be "modernist" because they were not controlled by the Catholic hierarchy. This group was called the Sodalitium Pianum, i.e. Fellowship of Pius (V), with the code name of La Sapinière. Its frequently overzealous and clandestine methods often hindered rather than helped the Church combat modernism. Benigni also published the journal La Corrispondenza Romana/Correspondance de Rome, which initiated press campaigns against practical and social modernism throughout Europe. Benigni fell out with Cardinal Secretary of State Rafael Merry del Val in 1911. The Sodalitium was eventually dissolved in 1921. Recent research has stressed the antisemitic character of Benigni's antimodernism.

In America

Archbishop John Ireland (1838−1918)

With his slogan "Church and Age unite!", Archbishop John Ireland of Saint Paul, Minnesota, became the hero of reformers in France (Félix Klein), Italy and Germany (Herman Schell) in the 1890s. The modernist controversy in the United States was thus initially dominated by the conflict on "Americanism", which after Pascendi was also presented as a "forerunner" of modernism in Catholic heresiology. "Americanism" was perceived as an influence of classical liberalism in the Catholic Church in the United States, particularly regarding the concept of separation of Church and State. Such tendencies alarmed Pope Leo XIII, who condemned them, at the urging of Archbishop Ireland's old opponent from Minnesota Archbishop John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti, in the apostolic letter Testem benevolentiae nostrae (1899). Archbishop Ireland had to be extremely careful to avoid condemnation for his views.

Following the issuing of Pascendi, the antimodernist measures were especially felt in the Archdiocese of New York: The New York Review was a journal produced by Saint Joseph's Seminary. It printed papers by leading Catholic Biblical experts who were part of the newly emerging schools of Biblical criticism, which raised eyebrows in Rome. Around 1908, the Review was discontinued, ostensibly for financial reasons, although there is strong evidence that it was suppressed for modernist tendencies. Despite his support for modernization, Archbishop Ireland actively campaigned against modernism following the Pascendi encyclical: this apparently inconsistent behavior stemmed from Ireland's concept of a "golden mean" between "ultraconservatism", rendering the Church irrelevant, and "ultraliberalism," discarding the Church's message.

Post-history in the 20th and 21st centuries

After the pontificate of Pius X, there was a gradual abatement of attacks against modernists. The new Pope Benedict XV, who was elected to succeed Pius X in 1914, once again condemned modernism in his encyclical Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, but also urged Catholics to cease condemning fellow believers. Nevertheless, theological antimodernism continued to influence the climate within the Church. The Holy Office, until 1930 under the guidance of Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, continued to censure modernist theologians and rationalist exegesis was once again condemned by the Pontiff in his encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus.

In the 1930s, Loisy's opera omnia (“all works”) were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. During World War I, French propaganda claimed that the Catholic Church in Germany was infested with modernism. Already in 1913 it had been claimed by the French academic Edmond Vermeil that the Catholic Tübingen School in the mid-19th century, with its interest for the "organic development" of the church in history, was a "forerunner" of "modernism" – a claim which has been debated ever since.

Between World War I and the Second Vatican Council, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP was a "torchbearer of orthodox Thomism" against modernism. Garrigou-Lagrange, who was a professor of philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, is commonly held to have influenced the decision in 1942 to place the privately circulated book Une école de théologie: le Saulchoir (Étiolles-sur-Seine 1937) by Marie-Dominique Chenu OP on the Vatican's "Index of Forbidden Books" as the culmination of a polemic within the Dominican Order between the Angelicum supporters of a speculative scholasticism and the French revival Thomists who were more attentive to historical hermeneutics, such as Yves Congar OP

At the beginning of the 1930s, Congar read the Mémoires of Loisy and realised that modernism had addressed problems in theology which were still not resolved by neo-scholastic theology. Chenu and Congar, two protagonists of the Nouvelle théologie, began to prepare a dossier on this topic. In 1946, Congar wrote to Chenu that neo-scholastic theology had already begun to "liquidate" itself on a daily basis and that the Jesuits were among the fiercest "liquidators". Congar's Chrétiens désunis was also suspected of modernism because its methodology derived more from religious experience than from syllogistic analysis.

A first relaxation of the strict anti-modernist measures imposed on biblical scholars by Pius X came in 1943: on that year, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu, regulating the issue of Biblical exegesis. The encyclical inaugurated the modern period of Roman Catholic Biblical studies by encouraging the study of textual criticism (or 'lower criticism'), pertaining to text of the Scriptures themselves and transmission thereof (for example, to determine correct readings) and permitted the use of the historical-critical method (or 'higher criticism') to be informed by theology, Sacred Tradition, and ecclesiastical history on the historical circumstances of the text, hypothesizing about matters such as authorship, dating, and similar concerns. Catholic Biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown SS described the encyclical as a "Magna Carta for biblical progress".

Despite his cautious openings on the issue of biblical criticism, Pius XII was suspicious of the new theological trends, which he feared could cause a modernist revival: in 1950, he published the encyclical Humani generis, in which he condemned "certain new intellectual currents" in the Church, accusing them of relativism and attacking them for reformulating dogmas in a way that was not consistent with Church tradition and for following biblical hermeneutics that deviated from the teachings of Providentissimus Deus, Spiritus Paraclitus and Divino afflante Spiritu. The encyclical specifically accused these new "trends" of having embraced the modernist heresy condemned by Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis. The encyclical did not mention any particular theologian but was widely interpreted as a condemnation of the Nouvelle théologie and was followed by an anti-modernist purge in Le Saulchoir and Fourvière.

Following the election of Pope John XXIII and the calling of the Second Vatican Council, anti-modernist polemics declined and many theologians associated with the Nouvelle théologie were gradually rehabilitated and many of them took part in the Council with the qualification of peritus. However, Pope Paul VI once again condemned modernism in his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam (1964), calling it "an error which is still making its appearance under various new guises, wholly inconsistent with any genuine religious expression" and described it as "an attempt on the part of secular philosophies and secular trends to vitiate the true teaching and discipline of the Church of Christ". Despite this, the Oath Against Modernism was abolished on 17 July 1967 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Paul VI.

Following the Council, the more conservative supporters of Nouvelle théologie had important careers in the Church: Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean Daniélou SJ, Yves Congar OP and Henri de Lubac SJ were made cardinals by Pope John Paul II, while Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. The same could not be said for the more liberal members, who were gradually marginalised due to their extreme views: Hans Küng was stripped from his theological license by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979 for questioning papal infallibility, while Edward Schillebeeckx OP was repeatedly condemned by the Congregation and even by Pope Paul VI himself (encyclical Mysterium fidei) due to his heterodox views about Christology and the eucharist.

References to modernism continue to be frequent among conservative and traditionalist Catholics.

Notable persons involved in the Modernist controversy

In popular culture

  • Irish comedian Dermot Morgan parodied the Modernist trend of the Post-Vatican II Catholic Church in Ireland while appearing on the RTÉ television show The Live Mike between 1979 and 1982. On the show, Morgan played a range of comic characters, including Father Trendy, a trying-to-be-cool hippie-priest, who wore an Elvis haircut, a leather jacket and who was given to drawing ludicrous parallels between religious and non-religious life in two-minute 'sermons' to the camera. Morgan created the character as a satire of Father Brian D'Arcy, a left-wing Passionist priest who was trying to be the chaplain to the show business community in Dublin.
  • In the episode "The Bishop's Gambit" of the British TV series Yes Minister (season 1, episode 7), Prime Minister Jim Hacker discusses candidates for an Anglican bishopric with Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby. The Church Commissioners have suggested a candidate who is a "modernist". Sir Humphrey later explains to the PM that "modernist" is ecclesiastical code for an atheist and Marxist Anglican clergyman.

See also

References

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