On 15 June 1520, Pope Leo X issued his bull Exsurge Domine, or Arise, O Lord, ordering Martin Luther to reject 41 errors or face excommunication. Leo X called for the public burning of any of Luther’s works containing these errors.*
Pope Leo X assigned the responsibility for publishing and distributing the bull in the Holy Roman Empire to Johan Eck. Eck was an adamant foe of Luther as well as the growing humanist movement in Germany. His presence combined with that of the harsh condemnations of Exsurge Domine caused much conflict in the Holy Roman Empire as both bishops and universities united against him. He was unable to publish the bull in several cities and indeed from a few was forced to flee for his life.
Martin Luther’s response to the bull of Leo X was to burn a copy of it along with several volumes of Canon Law, reportedly saying – “Because you have confounded the truth [or, the saints] of God, today the Lord confounds you. Into the fire with you!” On 3 January 1521, Leo X will excommunicate Luther with the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. The bull which Leo X intended to bring Luther back into union with the Catholic Church instead to drove him further away.
The bull Exsurge Domine in English
An image of the Vatican’s copy of this bull
*Historian Hans J. Hillerbrand has questioned whether the bull accurately presented the ideas of Luther in these condemnations. Moreover, Jimmy Akin has shown the degree of difficulty in ascertaining how serious the condemnation in particular regards to any one of these 41 reputed errors.
On 14 June 1966, Pope Paul VI abolished the Index of Prohibited Books which had first been established by Pope Paul IV in 1559.
Paul IV established the Index Liborum Prohibitorum as part of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Fearing that certain books might lead to the corruption of the faith and morals of the Catholic faithful, Paul IV wanted the Index to prohibit those writings deemed to contain errors of theology or morality. Works that would be listed on the Index included scientific works such as texts by Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei; philosophic works by Jean Paul Sartre and René Descartes; and literary works by Victor Hugo and John Milton. The writings of Saint Faustina were placed on the Index for twenty years, though the Vatican later determined that the writings were placed on the Index due to a faulty Italian translation of St. Faustina’s words.
Some works that one might think would be on the Index were not. For example, books that contained teaching explicitly contrary to Catholic doctrine were automatically forbidden for Catholics to read and some works did not end up on the list simply because no one denounced them. The works that were placed on the Index, often did so after much debate. Catholic authors who ended up on the Index had the opportunity to defend their writings or to modify and then re-publish their works.
By the mid-20th Century, it was becoming impossible for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to read all the books that were being published and the Index was less and less able to fulfill its function. Therefore, the Congregation stated that the Index would no longer be issued. Catholics are still encouraged to avoid those writings which might threaten faith or morality.
Authors who ended up on the Index of Prohibited Books
On 13 June 1691, an expedition of Spanish missionaries and explorers including Fr. Damian Massanet and Domingo Teran de los Rios, the leader of the expedition, arrived at the river and Payaya village which they would name “San Antonio” in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua whose feast is celebrated on this day.
Fr. Massenet wrote:
On this day, there were so many buffaloes that the horses stampeded and 40 head ran away. These were collected with the rest of the horses by hard work on the part of the soldiers. We found at this place the rancheria of the Indians of the Payaya nation. This is a very large nation and the country where they live is very fine. I called this place San Antonio de Padua, because it was his day. In the language of the Indians it is called Yanaguana [The Clean Water]….I ordered a large cross set up [on the 14th], and in front of it built an arbor of cottonwood trees, where the altar was placed. All the priests said mass…Then I distributed among them rosaries, pocket knives, cutlery, beads and tobacco. I gave a horse to the captain [the Payaya chief].
The first mission at San Antonio would not be established until 1718. This is the date usually understood as the founding of the city.
For more on this event
On 12 June 1915, Cardinal József Mindszenty was ordained to the priesthood in Csehimindszent, Austria-Hungary. Until 1941, he was known as József Pehm, but had adopted Mindszenty in honor of the village in which he was born.
Cardinal Mindszenty will spend much of his priesthood and religious life under the the persecution of the Nazis under Hitler and then under the persecution of the Communists after the end of the Second World War. On 8 February 1949, the Communist government of Hungary would sentence Cardinal Mindszenty to life imprisonment for treason after extracting from him a forced confession. On 12 February 1949, Pope Pius XII excommunicated anyone who had participated in the trial and conviction of the Cardinal.
On 30 October 1956, Cardinal Mindszenty would be released during the Hungarian Uprising. After the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to suppress the uprising, Mindszenty would seek asylum in the United States Embassy for fifteen years. On 28 September 1971, an agreement with Pope Paul VI led the Hungarian government to allow Mindszenty to leave Hungary in exchange for a Vatican agreement to declare Mindszenty a “victim of history” instead of “communism” and removing the excommunication imposed by Pius XII. Mindszenty would spend the rest of his life in Vienna, Austria. Mindszenty’s strong anti-communist views would cause problems in his relationship with the Vatican at this time which believed friendlier relations with the Soviet Union would help reduce the persecution of Catholics in Communist countries.
On 6 May 1975, Cardinal Mindszenty died. In 1991, his remains were repatriated to Esztergom, Hungary and buried in the Estrergom Basilica. There is a cause for his canonization.
For more on Mindszenty
On 11 June 1144, the Basilica of Saint Denis was completed and dedicated by Abbot Sugar in an area now part of Paris. The Basilica would become an important place of pilgrimage, the burial place of the French kings and the model of Gothic architecture in Northern Europe.
Saint Denis is the patron saint of France and, according to French tradition, was the first bishop of Paris. As such, his shrine at the Basilica of Saint Denis was a popular place for Catholics to visit.
Another reason for visiting the Basilica was to see the first major example of the “French Style” (Opus Francigenum) as it was known before it was more commonly called Gothic. Many of the memorable characteristics of the Basilica such as the Rose Window, the radiating chapels, and the flying buttresses had been used in Romesque style architecture before but Abbot Sugar was the first to pull these architectural characteristics all together. His placement of the Rose Window will be imitated in the construction of other French basilicas such as the Basilica of Chartres.
All but three of the French monarchs from the 10th century to 1789 are buried at the Basilica of Saint Denis. These monarchs were buried tombs containing effigies or images of the former king or queen contained in the tomb. Unfortunately, during the French Revolution the bodies of these monarchs were all removed from their tombs and buried in a common grave and after the revolution it was impossible to separate one body from another. Thus, the bodies of the French monarchs up to the French Revolution are now buried in a common ossuary. Fortunately, the effigies were preserved.
The art and architecture of Saint Denis
On 10 June 1190, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Saleph [also known as the Calycadnus] River near Antioch. Some accounts claim that he drowned while bathing. Other accounts state that after Frederick fell from his horse while crossing the river, his head hit some rocks and drowned.
Frederick, along with French king Philip Augustus and English King Richard the Lionheart was leading the armies of the Third Crusade in the hopes of re-capturing the city of Jerusalem from the Muslims and their leader Saladin. But with his death, the soldiers of the Third Crusade fell into chaos as rivalries between Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart split the Crusaders apart. Much of the army of Frederick I would return to Germany. Unable to preserve the body of Frederick I in vinegar, his son Frederick V of Swabia will have the body boiled to remove the flesh of of Frederick Barbarosa from his bones. This was a typical treatment of fallen Crusaders as it was easier to transport just the bones of a dead Crusader rather than the entire body. However, this practice will eventually be condemned by the Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. While Frederick V hoped to bury the bones of his father in Jerusalem, he will be unable to do so and instead the bones will be buried in the city of Tyre.
Richard the Lionheart and his soldiers would later attempt to retake Jerusalem, but fail. This failure would lead to a call for a fourth crusade a few years later.
One account of the death of Frederick I
On 9 June 1832, Pope Clement XVI issued his encyclical Cum Primum concerning the 1830-31 Polish uprising against Russian occupation.
Clement XVI condemned a rebellion against the “legitimate authority” by those operating “under the pretext of religion.” He urged the Polish Catholics to remain obedient to the Russian government in civil matters because “Your emperor will act kindly toward you; at no time will he deny his patronage for the good of the Catholic religion and he will always listen patiently to your requests.”
Many Polish Catholics felt this encyclical to be a betrayal, that Clement XVI had preferred to support the non-Catholic Russian Emperor over the Pole who had long defended the Catholic Church. Thus, the encyclical severely damaged relations between the Polish Catholics and the Vatican. Indeed some historians argue that a restoration of Polish Catholic faith in the Vatican did not return until the papacy of Pope John Paul II.
Gregory XVI did not condemn the Polish rebellion directly. Instead he offered general condemnation against any attack on “legitimate authority”. Clement XVI had witnessed first-hand the effects of revolution in 1831 in the Papal States. He had depended on the support and assistance of the Austrian Empire to restore his authority and had come to oppose all revolution wherever it took place.
Moreover, Clement XVI hoped that by trying to show that the Vatican supported Russian political authority, Tsar Nicholas I would permit the free exercise of the Catholic faith in Poland. Clement believed that Nicholas was in full control of Poland and calling for further resistance to Russia would be hopeless and only encourage further repression. The best policy would be to attempt to convince Nicholas of Polish loyalty in the hopes that he would not act against the Polish Church. This hope was not fulfilled and when Nicholas I continued to attack the Catholic Church in Poland, Clement XVI became much more critical of Russia saying in 1836 that “Catholicism has no more greater and more cruel foe than Nicholas I”.
See “Metternich, Pope Gregory XVI, and Revolutionary Poland, 1831-1842” by Alan J. Reinerman in The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 603-619 available here in .pdf format
On 8 June 793, the Viking Age began with a raid upon the Benedictine monastery at Lindisfarne in northern England. The monastery was an important center of learning in Europe. Sources at the time described the raid in dramatic terms:
In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and on June 8th the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne.
and
Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. . . .The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets.
During the raid, the monks were killed in the monastery, drowned in the sea or carried off into slavery. The reported savagery of the attack would help establish the traditional image of Vikings as bloodthirsty warriors in the minds of Europeans.
The Vikings would assault Lindisfarne several times seeking wealth and eventually the monks would be forced to flee the monastery in 875. Benedictine monasteries were not designed to withstand severe attacks, which also made them preferable targets by the Vikings. The monks would return in 1093 and remain until the monastery was suppressed in 1536 under Henry VIII.
Lindisfarne
On 7 June 1304, Pope Benedict XI excommunicated Guillaume de Nogaret, the minister of French king Philip IV, and several Italians who had played a part in the seizure and abuse of Pope Boniface VIII in the bull Flagitiosum scelus. Boniface and Philip had come into serious conflict regarding the power of the papacy versus the power of the secular ruler. This conflict had led Boniface to issue the bull Unam Sanctum proclaiming that salvation required that one be subject to the Roman pontiff and Philip to send Guillaume and his army to arrest Boniface in the hopes of putting him on trial. While Boniface had escaped, he died soon after regaining his freedom.
Benedict after a pontificate of only eight months and while there was some suspicion that Guillaume may have had him poisoned, there is no direct evidence for this. After Benedict’s death, Clement V will become pope and under French pressure will lift the excommunication of Guillaume de Nogaret. Guillaume will also be very active in Philip IV’s persecutions of the Knights Templar.
On 5 June 1822, Bishop John England of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina began the first Catholic newspaper in the United States called United States Catholic Miscellany.
Bishop England began the newspaper as a means of defending the Catholic faith and the Irish in the face of attacks from the Nativist movement which opposed what it considered foreign and anti-American influence in the United States.
United States Catholic Miscellany was a weekly newspaper which explained and defended Catholic teaching, reviewed books, published biographies of famous Catholics and informed its readers about events related to religion. Its subscription reached a height of 1,030.
When South Carolina seceded from the United States in 1860, United States Catholic Miscellany changed its name to Catholic Miscellany and in 1861 to Charleston Catholic Miscellany. On 11 December 1861, a fire destroyed the offices of the newspaper and it ceased publication, but it would much later be revived and is now known as The Catholic Miscellany – the official newspaper of the Diocese of Charleston.
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