Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/29

 bears witness, defile the flesh, and despise dominion, and blaspheme majesty. They leave nothing scathless or uninjured of that which human and divine laws alike have wisely ordained to ensure the preservation and honor of life. From the heads of States to whom, as the Apostle admonishes, all owe submission, and on whom the rights of authority are bestowed by God Himself, these sectaries withhold obedience and preach up the perfect equality of all men in regard to rights alike and duties. The natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous nations, they hold in scorn; and its bond, whereby family life is chiefly maintained, they slacken, or else yield up to the sway of lust. In short, spurred on by greedy hankering after things present, which is the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith, they attack the right of property, sanctioned by the law of nature, and with signal depravity, while pretending to feel solicitous about the needs, and anxious to satisfy the requirements of all, they strain every effort to seize upon and hold in common all that has been individually acquired by title of lawful inheritance, through intellectual or manual labor, or economy in living. These monstrous views they proclaim in public meetings, uphold in booklets, and spread broadcast everywhere through the daily press. Hence the hallowed dignity and authority of rulers has incurred such odium on the part of rebellious subjects that evil-minded traitors, spurning all control, have many a time within a recent period boldly raised impious hands against even the very heads of States.

Such daring conduct on the part of disloyal individuals, which threatens the civilized community from day to day with even graver perils, and troubles the mind of all with anxious fears, draws its cause and origin from those venomous teachings which, like pernicious seed scattered far and wide among the nations, have produced in course