Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/151



HUMAN LIBERTY. 145

never venture to affix such a calumny on the Church as to assert that she is the foe to mdi\ddual and pubhc Uberty. But many there are who follow in the footsteps of Lucifer, and adopt as their own. his rebellious cry, "I will not serve"; and consequently substitute for true liberty what is sheer and most foolish hcense. Such, for instance, are the m.en belonging to that widely spread and powerful organization, who, usurping the name of liberty, style themselves Liberals.

What Naturalists or Rationalists aim at in pliilosophy, that the supporters of Liberalism, carr}^ing out the princi- ples laid down by Naturalism, are attempting in the domain of morality and poUtics. The fundamental doctrine of, Rationalism is the supremacy of the human reason, which, refusing due submission to the divine and eternal reason,- -., , proclaims its own independence, and constitutes itseli ' / the supreme principle and source and judge of truthf Hence these followers of LiberaHsm deny the existence of any di\ine authority to which obedience is due, an4 proclaim that every man is the law to himself; frona which arises that ethical system which they style inde- pendent moraUty, and which, under the guise of liberty, exonerates man from any obedience to the commands of God, and substitutes a boundless license. The end of all this it is not difficult to foresee, especially when society is in question. For, when once man is firmly persuaded that he is subject to no one, it follows that the efficient cause of the unity of civil society is not to be sought in any principle external to man, or superior to him, but simply in the free will of individuals ; that the authority in the State comes from the people only; and that, just as every man's individual reason is his only rule of life, so the collective reason of the community should be the supreme guide in the management of all public affairs. Hence the doctrine of the supremacy of the greater number, and that all right and all duty reside in the majority But, from what has been said, it is clear that all this is in con-

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