Clement XI
From the Constitution, “Vineam Domini Sabaoth,” July 16, 1705
An Obsequious Silence in Regard to Dogmatic Facts
Source: Denzinger The Sources of Catholic Dogma 1957
Dz. 1350
In order that, for the future, every occasion of error may be prevented, and
that all sons of the Catholic Church may learn to listen to the Church herself,
not in silence only (for, “even the wicked are silent in darkness” [I Kings
2:9]), but with an interior obedience, which is the true obedience of an
orthodox man, let it be known that by this constitution of ours, to be valid
forever, the obedience which is due to the aforesaid apostolic constitutions is
not satisfied by any obsequious silence; but the sense of that book of Jansen
which has been condemned in the five propositions mentioned above, and whose
meaning the words of those propositions express clearly, must be rejected and
condemned as heretical by all the faithful of Christ, not only by word of mouth
but also in heart; and one may not lawfully subscribe to the above formula with
any other mind, heart, or belief, so that all who hold or preach or teach or
assert by word or writing anything contrary to what all these propositions mean,
and to what each single one means, we declare, decree, state, and ordain, with
this same apostolic authority, that all, as transgressors of the aforementioned
apostolic constitutions, come under each and every individual censure and
penalty of those constitutions.