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Joseph PohleEschatologyChapter 1

Introduction; Death

Introduction

1. Definition. Eschatology is the crown and capstone of dogmatic theology. It may be defined as “the doctrine of the last things,” and tells how the creatures called into being and raised to the supernatural state by God, find their last end in Him, of whom, and by whom, and in whom, as Holy Scripture says, “are all things.”1

Eschatology is anthropological and cosmological rather than theological; for, though it deals with God as the Consummator and Universal Judge, strictly speaking its subject is the created universe, i.e., man and the cosmos.

The consummation of the world is not left to “fate.” God is a just judge, who distinguishes strictly between virtue and vice and metes out reward or punishment to every man according to his deserts. The rational creatures were made without their choice; but they cannot reach their final end without their cooperation. Their destiny depends upon the attitude they take towards the divine plan of salvation. The good are eternally rewarded in Heaven, the wicked are punished forever in Hell. In the latter God will manifest His justice, while in the former He will show His love and mercy. By dealing justly with both good and bad, He at the same time triumphantly demonstrates His omnipotence, wisdom, and holiness. Thus Eschatology leads us back to the theological principle that the created universe in all its stages serves to glorify God.2

The consummation of the world may be regarded either as in process (in fieri) or as an accomplished fact (in facto esse). Regarding it from the former point of view we speak of the “last things” (novissima), i.e., the events to happen at the second coming of our Lord. “The four last things of man” are Death, Judgment, Heaven (Purgatory), and Hell.3

The four last things of the human race as a whole are: the Last Day, the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Final Judgment, followed by the End of the World. These four events constitute so many stages on the way to the predestined state of consummation (consummatio saeculi), which will be permanent and irrevocable.

Division. In the light of these considerations it is easy to find a suitable division for the present treatise. The object of the final consummation is the created universe, consisting of pure spirits, human beings, and irrational creatures. The lot of the spirits (angels and demons) was determined forever at the very beginning of things.4 Man and the physical universe still await their consummation. Man, individually as well as collectively, occupies the centre of creation. Hence we may divide Eschatology into two parts: (1) The Eschatology of Man as an Individual, (2) The Eschatology of the Human Race.

General Readings: St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, Supplementum, qu. 69 sq.; Summa contra Gentiles, III, 1–63 (tr. by Rickaby, God and His Creatures, pp. 183–233, London 1905), and the commentators.

Mazzella, De Deo Creante, disp. 6, 4th ed., Rome 1908. — E. Méric, L’Autre Vie, Paris 1880; 12th ed., Paris 1900 (German tr., Das andere Leben, Mayence 1882). — Card. Katschthaler, Eschatologia, Ratisbon 1888. — F. Stentrup, S.J., Soteriologia, Vol. II, Innsbruck 1889. — Chr. Pesch, S.J., Praelectiones Dogmaticae, Vol. IX, 3rd ed., Freiburg 1911. — Atzberger, Die christliche Eschatologie in den Stadien ihrer Offenbarung im A. u. N. T., Freiburg 1890. — B. Tepe, S.J., Institutiones Theologicae, Vol. IV, pp. 680 sqq., Paris 1896. — P. Einig, De Deo Creante et Consummante, Trèves 1898. — B. Jungmann, De Novissimis, 4th ed., Ratisbon 1898. — J. Royer, Die Eschatologie des Buches Job unter Berücksichtigung der vorexilischen Propheten, Freiburg 1901. — W. Schneider, Das andere Leben; Ernst und Trost der christlichen Weltanschauung, 10th ed., Paderborn 1910. — Card. Billot, S.J., Quaestiones de Novissimis, 3rd ed., Rome 1908. — Prager, Die Lehre von der Vollendung aller Dinge, 1903. — Heinrich-Gutberlet, Dogmatische Theologie, Vol. X, Part II, Münster 1904. — J.E. Niederhuber, Die Eschatologie des hl. Ambrosius, Paderborn 1907. — J. Keel, Die jenseitige Welt, 3 vols., Einsiedeln 1868 sqq. — D. Palmieri, S.J., De Novissimis, Rome 1908. — Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 534–560, London 1901. — S.J. Hunter, S.J., Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. III, pp. 424–464, London 1894. — P.J. Toner, art. “Eschatology,” in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, pp. 528–534. — W.O.E. Oesterley, The Doctrine of the Last Things, London 1908. — M. O’Ryan, “Eschatology of the Old Testament,” in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol. XXVII, No. 509, 4th Series, pp. 472–486. — Charles, Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life in Israel, in Judaism, and in Christianity, London 1899 (to be read with caution).

For further bibliographical data see Alger, A Critical History of the Doctrine of the Future Life, with Complete Bibliography by Ezra Abbott, New York 1871. For the early history of Eschatology see Atzberger, Die Geschichte der christlichen Eschatologie innerhalb der vornizänischen Zeit, Freiburg 1896.

Part I: Eschatology of Man as an Individual

Chapter 1: Death

1. Definition of Death. “Death,” in common as well as Scriptural usage, means the cessation of life.

a) There is a threefold life (physical, spiritual, and eternal), and hence there must be a threefold death.

(1) Physical death consists in the separation of the body from the soul;

(2) Spiritual death is the loss of sanctifying grace, caused by original or mortal sin;5

(3) “Eternal death” is a synonym for damnation. St. John calls damnation “the second death”;6 St. Paul, “eternal punishment,”7 “corruption,”8 “destruction.”9

St. Augustine says: “Though Holy Scripture mentions many deaths, there are two principal ones, namely, the death which the first man [Adam] incurred by sin, and that which the second man [Christ] will inflict in the judgment.”10 Here bodily death and the loss of sanctifying grace are comprised under one term, as an effect of original sin. Of course, the loss of sanctifying grace11 and eternal damnation can be called “death” only in a figurative sense.

b) Literally death means the cessation of bodily life, caused by the separation of the soul from the body.12 It is principally in this sense that Eschatology is concerned with death.

The Biblical names for death are as various as they are significant. Some are derived from the symptoms that attend the separation of the soul from the body; e.g. “dissolution,”13 “end,”14 “outcome,”15 “return to the earth,”16 etc. Others point to original sin as the cause of death; for instance, “work of the devil,”17 “the enemy,”18 “what God hath not made,”19 etc. Belief in immortality is more or less evident from such phrases as “sleep,”20 the “stripping off the earthly house of habitation,”21 the “laying away of this tabernacle,”22 “going to the fathers,”23 “resting from labor,”24 the “return of the spirit to God.”25 The latter class of appellations is by far the most important, since it presupposes belief in the immortality of the soul. While the body decays or returns to the dust from which it was formed, the soul lives on for ever. Its separation from the body is merely temporary: at the general Resurrection the two will be reunited.26

The state of the soul after its separation from, and until its reunion with, the body must not be conceived as an unconscious dream or a sort of semi-conscious “soul-sleep,” but as a purely spiritual life, accompanied by full consciousness and determined as to happiness or unhappiness by the result of the particular judgment held immediately after death.27

2. The Dogmatic Teaching of the Church. Divine Revelation teaches that: (1) Death is universal; (2) It is a result of sin; and (3) It ends the state of probation.

Thesis I: Death is universal. This proposition embodies the common teaching of Catholic theologians.

Proof. That death is universal we know from experience. Furthermore reason tells us that it is natural for man to be separated into his constituent elements, body and soul.

a) Physiology teaches that every body contains within itself the germs of dissolution and hence is doomed to die. When death comes as the result of old age, it is called “natural” or “physiological.”28 Sacred Scripture expresses a fact of ordinary and universal experience when it calls death “the way of all the earth”29 and teaches that “it is appointed unto men once to die.”30 Not even Christ and His Immaculate Mother were exempt from death.

b) Certain exceptional cases reported in Sacred Scripture give rise to the question whether the universality of death is metaphysical or merely moral, in other words, whether all men must die, or whether some escape the ordinary fate of mankind.

α) Thus we are told that Henoch, the father of Mathusala, “was translated, that he should not see death”;31 he “walked with God, and was seen no more, because God took him.”32

Of Elias the prophet we read that, as he and his friend Eliseus were walking and talking together, “a fiery chariot and fiery horses parted them both asunder, and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”33

It seems certain that these two men are, as St. Augustine puts it, still “living in the same bodies in which they were born.”34 But there is no reason to suppose that they will escape the law of death. Since Tertullian’s time it has been a pious belief among Christians that Enoch and Elias are the two witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse,35 that they will reappear at the end of the world to preach penance and finally be “overcome by the beast,” i.e., die as martyrs to the faith.36

β) Concerning the just who will survive on earth at the second coming of our Lord, St. Paul teaches: “Behold I tell you a mystery: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed.”37 The Vulgate renders this passage differently: “We shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed.”38 But the Greek text has in its favor the famous Vatican codex, most of the uncial and practically all the cursive manuscripts and vernacular versions.39 Besides, the reading we have adopted is demanded by the context. “In the previous verse,” says Father Lattey, “St. Paul lays it down that the body in its present perishable condition cannot enter heaven. At once the difficulty arises about the just who are alive at the last day. St. Paul meets it by telling of a ‘mystery’; these just, it is true, will not die, but none the less their bodies will have to be glorified — all the just, living or dead, will be changed. When the dead rise incorruptible, we, the living, shall be changed; our corruptible bodies will put on incorruption. After that supreme moment, death will have lost all power over man; human bodies will be perishable no more.”40

This plausible interpretation is confirmed by the following passage in Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians: “For this we tell you as the Lord’s word, that we who live, who survive until the Lord’s coming, shall not precede them that are fallen asleep, … and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Thereupon we the living, who remain, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall be ever with the Lord.”41

It is but fair to add, however, that these two Pauline texts have been variously interpreted. St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, and apparently also Tertullian,42 taught that the just who survive on the last day shall be glorified without having died. St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and others held that they shall die and slumber a while before being summoned to the Last Judgment. The majority of Catholic divines, in view of St. Paul’s teaching that all who have sinned in Adam must die,43 prefer to steer a middle course.44 They hold that while all men must die, some will survive until immediately before the General Judgment. This teaching is favored by the Roman Catechism45 and many modern exegetes.

c) Whichever opinion one may prefer in regard to the question here at issue, it is certain that even if Henoch and Elias did not and never will die, the debt of death (debitum mortis) rests upon all the descendants of Adam. “It is held with greater probability and more commonly,” says St. Thomas, “that all those who are alive at the coming of our Lord, will die and rise again after a short while… . If, however, it be true, as others hold, that they will never die, … then we must say … that although they are not to die, the debt of death is none the less in them, and that the punishment of death will be remitted by God, since He can also forgive the punishment due for actual sins.”46 The only human beings exempt from this law are Jesus Christ and His blessed Mother, though they too, actually paid tribute to death.

Thesis II: Death in the present economy is a punishment for sin. This proposition embodies an article of faith.

Proof. It is the dogmatically defined teaching of the Church that our first parents were endowed with bodily immortality,47 but lost this prerogative for themselves and their descendants through sin.48

God solemnly forbade Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of a certain tree. “In what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.”49 By transgressing this command our first parents incurred death. Thus, in the words of the Apostle, “by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.”50 Therefore, “the wages of sin is death.”51

Long before St. Augustine, as the latter assured Julian,52 the Fathers considered the causal connection between sin and death to be an article of faith.53

The atonement wiped out sin and thereby enabled man to escape the “second death,” i.e., eternal damnation. But the gift of bodily immortality was not restored.54 It is true death loses the character of a punishment through Baptism, because, in the words of the Tridentine Fathers, “there is no condemnation to those who are truly buried together with Christ by Baptism into death.”55 But the debitum mortis remains as an effect of sin (poenalitas), which God wisely allows for the purification of the just. Only in the case of Christ and His Blessed Mother death was neither a punishment (poena) nor an effect of sin (poenalitas).56

Thesis III: Death ends the state of probation, that is, after death man can neither merit nor demerit. This thesis embodies what is technically called “doctrina catholica.”

Proof. Death ends the state of pilgrimage (status viae) and inaugurates the state of final consummation (status termini), which by its very definition excludes the possibility of further merit or demerit. It is true we cannot prove that this must necessarily be so; but we know it is so by virtue of a positive divine law.57

The impossibility of acquiring merits after death must not, however, be conceived as a cessation of free will. At their entrance into the status termini the Elect as well as the damned once for all decide either for or against God; but within the state thus definitively chosen, each retains full liberty of action.

a) As Christ ceased to acquire merits after His death, so a fortiori will man. Death inaugurates “the night when no man can work.”58 Ecclesiastes compares man in this respect with a tree: “If the tree fall to the south, or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be.”59 St. Paul says every man will be judged according as he hath done good or evil “in the body.”60 St. Cyprian teaches that no one can do penance or make satisfaction after death.61 St. Augustine declares: “It is in this life that all merit or demerit is acquired… . No one, then, need hope that he shall obtain after death that which he has neglected to secure here.”62 The Catholic Church has embodied this revealed doctrine in her dogma of the Particular Judgment.63

b) It is the opinion of St. Bonaventure, Ripalda, and Vasquez that the Elect in Heaven and the poor souls in Purgatory can merit and apply for the benefit of others certain praemia accidentalia. But this assumption is opposed to the analogy of faith. The power of intercession which the just wield in the world beyond is based entirely upon merits previously acquired in the state of pilgrimage.64

Hirscher’s view that those who have wavered for a long time between God and the world, and finally die in the state of mortal sin, will be allowed to make their final decision in the next world, is contrary to the dogmatic teaching of the Church.65

c) From what we have said it follows that nothing is so well calculated to demonstrate the hollowness of the world and to preserve us from becoming unduly attached to it, as the pious consideration of death. Our earthly life is merely a “pilgrimage,”66 a “journey,”67 and we are to make use of the things of this world only in so far as they aid, or at least do not hinder us in attaining our supernatural destiny.68 There is much in the thought of death to comfort us. Death ends all our sufferings and trials.69 But the hour when we shall be called hence is uncertain,70 and therefore we must watch and pray and strive always to be in the state of sanctifying grace. Mortal sin is the only thing that can prevent us from attaining our last end, which is the beatific vision of God.71 If we are in the state of grace we can face death unflinchingly.72 That the fear of death is so deeply ingrained in human nature,73 is owing partly to sin and partly to the instinct of self-preservation.74 The immortality which our first parents enjoyed in Paradise was a free gift and its loss is a punishment. Death and the fear of death are entirely natural.75 Nevertheless, the thought of death should not discourage, but rather incite us to spend the short span of existence granted us here below for the benefit of our own souls and those near and dear to us.76 We must not, because life is short, seek sinful pleasures after the example of the ancient pagans, who had no hope of Heaven.77 On the other hand, we should not despise the things of this world. It would be folly to neglect our earthly affairs in order to devote all our time to works of piety. Every loyal Catholic should, on the contrary, do his share in advancing the interests of true progress and culture and thereby help to disprove the oft-repeated calumny that the Church is inimical to the world.78 The more we accomplish in this world, if we have the right intention, the more confidently may we meet death. Ora et labora!

Readings: Ginella, De Notione atque Origine Mortis, Breslau 1868. — Card. Bellarmine, De Arte bene Moriendi, 1620 (German tr., Die Kunst zu sterben, by F. Hense, 2nd ed., Paderborn 1888). — C.M. Kaufmann, Die Jenseitshoffnungen der Griechen und Römer nach den Sepulkralinschriften, Freiburg 1899. — Idem, Die sepulkralen Jenseitsdenkmäler der Antike und des Urchristentums, Mayence 1900. — S.J. Hunter, S.J., Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. III, pp. 425–429.

Footnotes

  1. Rom. XI, 36. ↩

  2. Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, 2nd ed., pp. 80 sqq., St. Louis 1916. ↩

  3. Cfr. Ecclus. VII, 40: “In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis.” ↩

  4. Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, 2nd ed., St. Louis 1916, pp. 340 sqq. ↩

  5. Cfr. Conc. Trident., Sess. V, can. 2: “peccatum quod est mors animae.” ↩

  6. Apoc. II, 11; XX, 6, 14; XXI, 8. ↩

  7. 2 Thess. I, 9. ↩

  8. Gal. VI, 8. ↩

  9. Phil. III, 19. ↩

  10. Opus Imperfect. c. Iulian., VI, 31: “Quamvis multae mortes inveniantur in Scripturis, duae sunt praecipuae: prima et secunda; prima est quam peccando intulit primus homo [Adam], secunda est quam iudicando illaturus est secundus homo [Christus].” ↩

  11. Cfr. 1 John V, 16. ↩

  12. Cfr. St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, XIII, 6: “separatio animae a corpore.” — Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 7 (Migne, P.G., IX, 500). ↩

  13. Phil. I, 23; 2 Tim. IV, 6. ↩

  14. Cfr. Matth. X, 22. ↩

  15. Heb. XIII, 7. ↩

  16. Gen. III, 19. ↩

  17. John VIII, 44. ↩

  18. 1 Cor. XV, 26. ↩

  19. Wisd. I, 13. ↩

  20. Job III, 13; Ps. XII, 4; Matth. IX, 24. ↩

  21. 2 Cor. V, 1. ↩

  22. 2 Pet. I, 14. ↩

  23. Gen. XV, 15, and elsewhere. ↩

  24. Apoc. XIV, 13. ↩

  25. Eccles. XII, 7. ↩

  26. V. below, Part II, Chapter 2. ↩

  27. V. below, Chapter 2. ↩

  28. Cfr. H. Kisbert, Der Tod aus Altersschwäche, Bonn 1908; Flint, Human Physiology, p. 849, New York 1888. ↩

  29. Jos. XXIII, 14; 3 Kings II, 2. ↩

  30. Heb. IX, 27: “Statutum est hominibus semel mori.” Cfr. Ps. LXXXVIII, 49: “Quis est homo, qui vivit et non videbit mortem?” ↩

  31. Heb. XI, 5. ↩

  32. Cfr. Gen. V, 24; Ecclus. XLIV, 16; XLIX, 16. ↩

  33. 4 Kings II, 11. ↩

  34. De Peccato Originali, II, 24: “Eliam et Henoch non dubitamus, in quibus nati sunt corporibus, vivere.” ↩

  35. Apoc. XI, 3 sqq. ↩

  36. Cfr. Tertullian, De Anima, 50: “Nec mors eorum reperta est, dilata scil.; ceterum morituri reservantur, ut Antichristum sanguine suo extinguant.” (Migne, P.L., II, 735). However, as this interpretation is contradicted by St. Jerome (Ep. 119 ad Minerv. et Alex., n. 4) and others, it is not entirely certain. ↩

  37. 1 Cor. XV, 51. ↩

  38. “Omnes quidem resurgemus, sed non omnes immutabimur.” ↩

  39. Cfr. C. Lattey, S.J., in the Appendix to the Westminster Version of 1 Cor.; Cornely, Comment. in I Cor., pp. 506 sqq., Paris 1890; Al. Schäfer, Erklärung der beiden Briefe an die Korinther, pp. 334 sqq., Münster 1903; J. MacRory, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians, P. I, pp. 251 sqq., Dublin 1915. ↩

  40. Cfr. C. Lattey, Appendix I to 1 Cor., p. 52. ↩

  41. 1 Thess. IV, 14 sqq. (Westminster Version). ↩

  42. De Resurrectione Carnis, 41, 42. ↩

  43. Cfr. Rom. V, 12 sqq. ↩

  44. Cfr. Oecumenius, in Migne, P.G., CXVIII, 894: “Istud ‘non omnes dormiemus’ hoc modo oportet accipere quod non dormiemus diuturna dormitione, ut opus sit sepulchro ac solutione ad corruptionem; sed brevem mortem sustinebunt, qui tunc reperientur.” ↩

  45. P. I, c. 12, qu. 4. ↩

  46. Summa Theologica, 1a2ae, qu. 81, art. 3, ad 1: “Probabilius et convenientius tenetur, quod omnes illi qui in adventu Domini reperientur, morientur et post modicum resurgent… . Si tamen hoc verum sit, quod alii dicunt, quod illi nunquam morientur, dicendum est quod … est tamen in eis reatus mortis. Sed poena aufertur a Deo, qui etiam peccatorum actualium poenas condonare potest.” ↩

  47. Cfr. Syn. Milev., A.D. 416, can. 1. ↩

  48. Cfr. Syn. Arausic. II, can. 2; Conc. Trident., Sess. V, can. 2. ↩

  49. Gen. II, 17; cfr. Gen. III, 19. ↩

  50. Rom. V, 12. ↩

  51. Rom. VI, 23; cfr. 1 Cor. XV, 21, 22. ↩

  52. Contra Iulian., l. II. ↩

  53. For the teaching of the Fathers on this point see Ginella, De Notione atque Origine Mortis, Breslau 1868; for the post-Augustinian period, cfr. Casini, Quid est Homo?, ed. Scheeben, pp. 59 sqq., Mayence 1862. See also Pohle-Preuss, God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, pp. 286 sqq. ↩

  54. Cfr. Rom. V, 18 sqq. ↩

  55. Conc. Trident., Sess. V, can. 5. ↩

  56. See Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 72 sqq., and Mariology, pp. 72 sqq. ↩

  57. That this law is both congruous and in accordance with nature is convincingly shown by Ripalda, De Ente Supernaturali, disp. 77. ↩

  58. Cfr. John IX, 4; Matth. XXIV, 42; XXV, 13. ↩

  59. Eccles. XI, 3: “Si ceciderit lignum ad austrum aut ad aquilonem, in quocunque loco ceciderit, ibi erit.” ↩

  60. 2 Cor. V, 10. ↩

  61. Ad Demetr., 25: “Quando istinc excessum fuerit, nullus iam poenitentiae locus, nullus satisfactionis effectus: hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur.” ↩

  62. Enchiridion, c. 110: “Nemo se speret, quod hic neglexerit, cum obierit, apud Deum promereri.” The unanimous teaching of theologians on this point is well developed by Ripalda, De Ente Supernaturali, disp. 77, sect. 1 sqq. ↩

  63. See below, Chapter 2, on the Particular Judgment. ↩

  64. Cfr. St. Thomas, Comment. in Sent., III, dist. 18, qu. 1, art. 2: “Beati non sunt in statu acquirendi secundum aliquid sui; et ideo nec sibi nec aliis merentur, quia, quod impetrant modo nobis, contingit ex hoc quod prius, dum viverent, meruerunt ut hoc impetrarent.” ↩

  65. Hirscher’s error is refuted by Father Joseph Kleutgen, S.J., in Die Theologie der Vorzeit, Vol. II, 2nd ed., pp. 437 sqq., Münster 1872. ↩

  66. 2 Cor. V, 6. ↩

  67. Jos. XXIII, 14; Wisd. III, 3. ↩

  68. Wisd. V, 1 sqq. ↩

  69. 2 Cor. IV, 16 sqq.; Apoc. XIV, 13. ↩

  70. Matth. XXIV, 42; Luke XII, 39 sq., and elsewhere. ↩

  71. Cfr. Luke XXI, 34. ↩

  72. Phil. I, 21 sqq. ↩

  73. 2 Cor. V, 4; Heb. II, 15. ↩

  74. Cfr. St. Augustine, Serm., 173, c. 1: “Mortem horret non opinio, sed natura.” ↩

  75. Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 1a2ae, qu. 164, art. 1: “Mors est naturalis propter conditionem naturae et poenalis propter amissionem divini beneficii praeservantis a morte.” ↩

  76. Cfr. Eccles. IX, 10. ↩

  77. Cfr. Reisacker, Der Todesgedanke bei den Griechen, Trèves 1862; F. Hettinger, Apologie des Christentums, Vol. II, 9th ed., P. I, pp. 13 sqq., Freiburg 1907. ↩

  78. Cfr. Leo XIII, Encyclical “Immortale Dei,” Nov. 1, 1885: “Inertiae desidiaeque inimica Ecclesia magnopere vult, ut hominum ingenia uberes ferant exercitatione et culturi fructus.” Cfr. A.A. Cataneo, Vorbereitung auf einen guten Tod, 3 vols., Ratisbon 1888–91; Weber, Evangelium und Arbeit, Freiburg 1898. ↩

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