1513
A.D.
“Since therefore in our days — which we report with sorrow — the sower of tares, the ancient enemy of the human race, has dared to sow over and to increase in the field of the Lord certain most pernicious errors, always rejected by the faithful, concerning especially the nature of the rational soul, namely that it is mortal, or one in all men; and since some, rashly philosophising, affirm that this is true at least according to philosophy: desiring to apply fitting remedies against a plague of this kind, with the approval of this sacred Council we condemn and reprove all who assert that the intellective soul is mortal, or one in all men, and those who call these things into doubt — since it not only truly exists of itself and essentially as the form of the human body, as is contained in the canon of Pope Clement V of happy memory, our predecessor, issued in the general Council of Vienne, but is also immortal, and, according to the multitude of the bodies into which it is infused, individually multiplicable, multiplied and to be multiplied. And since truth in no way contradicts truth, we define that every assertion contrary to the truth of the illumined faith is altogether false; and we most strictly forbid that it be lawful to teach otherwise; and we decree that all who adhere to assertions of such error are to be shunned and punished in every way as detestable and abominable heretics and unbelievers, sowing most damnable heresies and undermining the catholic faith.”
Cum itaque diebus nostris (quod dolenter referimus) zizaniae seminator antiquus humani generis hostis, nonnullos perniciosissimos errores, a fidelibus semper explosos, in agro Domini superseminare et augere sit ausus, de natura praesertim animae rationalis, quod videlicet mortalis sit, aut unica in cunctis hominibus; et nonnulli temere philosophantes secundum saltem philosophiam verum id esse asseverent; contra huiusmodi pestem opportuna remedia adhibere cupientes, hoc sacro approbante Concilio damnamus et reprobamus omnes asserentes animam intellectivam mortalem esse, aut unicam in cunctis hominibus, et haec in dubium vertentes cum illa non solum vere per se et essentialiter humani corporis forma exsistat, sicut in canone felicis recordationis CLEMENTIS Papae praedecessoris nostri in (generali) VIENNENSI Concilio edito continetur verum et immortalis, et pro corporum, quibus infunditur, multitudine singulariter multiplicabilis, et multiplicata et multiplicanda sit. … Cumque verum vero minime contradicat, omnem assertionem veritati illuminatae fidei contrariam omnino falsam esse definimus et, ut aliter dogmatizare non liceat, districtius inhibemus: omnesque huiusmodi erroris assertionibus inhaerentes veluti damnatissimas haereses seminantes per omnia ut detestabiles et abominabiles haereticos et infideles, catholicam fidem labefactantes, vitandos et puniendos fore decernimus.