In the eighteenth century, the liturgy had ceased to be a vital force in Catholicism. Admirably restored by St. Pius V, it had suffered the repeated assaults of Jansenism and Quietism.

The disciples of Jansenius had led the faithful away from the practice of the sacraments. The Quietists, who had claimed to reach God directly, had turned souls away from the liturgy, which is the intermediary determined by the Church between God and ourselves.

This was the period when triumphant Gallicanism was composing its diocesan liturgies, which resembled one another only in their anti-Roman character.

In Germany, Febronius, Auxiliary Bishop of Treves, was spreading his ideas; in Italy there was the work of Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, condemned with his council by Pope Pius VI in the bull Auctorem Fidei on August 28, 1794.

Auctorem Fidei?

“a forceful condemnation of the errors of the robber synod of Pistoia which had taken place in 1786 in Pistoia (Tuscany), Italy.

“Like the modernist Second Vatican Council . . . of the Novus Ordo Church, the synod of Pistoia introduced novelties under a veil of ambiguity, thus injecting the poison of error all the more cunningly into unwary souls.”!

Oh my. The word synod comes popping out, does it not? At the heart of our two most recent popes’ resurrecting this tried and untrue foundation of our current wave of change for the sake of what, progress??? They think so, to be sure . . .

All in all, liturgy came on hard times in the 18th century. It had been restored by Pius V two centuries earlier, but Jansenism and Quietism had done their damage, the first by discouraging people from mass and confession, the latter for its claim to do nicely without them, replaced by each using his or her personal pipeline to God.

Gallicanism was rampant, meaning that Gaul, now early-modern France, once divided into three parts, was now divided into many more, as each diocese went its anything-but-Roman way when it came to liturgy.

There was trouble also in Germany, where an auxiliary bishop was spreading bad ideas — a forceful condemnation of the errors of the robber synod of Pistoia which had taken place in 1786 in Pistoia (Tuscany), Italy.

Like the modernist Second Vatican Council (1962-65) of the Novus Ordo Church, the synod of Pistoia introduced novelties under a veil of ambiguity, thus injecting the poison of error all the more cunningly into unwary souls.

All this “anti-liturgical heresy” fit nicely with the chaos about to engulf all when the revolution broke out in France.

And in Italy the bishop of Pistoia, in Tuscany, was far enough off base to merit a special condemnation by Pius VI in his bull Auctorem Fidei in 1794.

Auctorem Fidei was issued by Pius VI, then exiled in France, in 1794, in condemnation of Gallican and Jansenist acts and tendencies of the Synod of Pistoia eight years previously, in1786.

It is important to note that Leopold II, grand duke of Tuscany (1765-90), pursued the ecclesiastical policy of his brother, Joseph II of Austria, assuming authority over church matters in his duchy.

In 1785, he sent fifty-seven articles to each bishop in Tuscany with orders to consider them in a diocesan synod, which he meant as preliminary to a national synod, when they were finally to be discussed.

The bishop of Pistoia, Scipio de’ Ricci, held his diocesan synod, and approved all fifty-seven of the duke’s articles, adding others in the same of similar import.

Among them were the following:

* All ecclesiastical authority comes directly from the members of the Church at large, whose commissioned ministers the pastors are. The pope is only ministerially head of the Church.

* Bishops do not depend on the pope for any jurisdiction in the government of their diocese. In diocesan synods parish priests have the same right of voting and deciding as the bishop.

* Reserved cases should be abolished. Excommunication has only an external effect.

* Civil rulers have the right to decide what’s a diriment (unviolable) impediment to matrimony and of dispensing from them.

* Bishops are not bound to make an oath of obedience to the pope before their consecration.

* Each church should have only one altar; the liturgy should be in the vernacular, and only one Mass should be celebrated on Sundays.

Leopold caused a national synod to be held at Florence in 1787, but he found the other bishops less pliant than Scipio de’ Ricci.

Nevertheless he continued assuming all ecclesiastical authority, prohibited all appeals to the pope, and even appointed bishops, to whom the pope of course refused canonical institution.

Finally, “Auctorem Fidei” was published, in which eighty-five articles taken from the Synod of Pistoia were catalogued and condemned. After publication of the Bull, Scipio de’ Ricci submitted.

In 1805 he achieved a meeting with Pius VII in Florence on his way to Rome from exile in France And asked in person for pardon amid reconciliation. He died repentant in 1810 in the Dominican convent of San Marco at Florence.

Sources?

APA citation. O’Riordan, M. (1907). Auctorem Fidei. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved October 19, 2018 from New Advent:

MLA citation. O’Riordan, Michael. “Auctorem Fidei.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 19 Oct. 2018.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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