The Clergy Is the Devil’s Best Instrument to Spread Heresy

Liberalism is greatly aided – unfortunately all-too-commonly – by the fact that some ecclesiastics are found to be infected by this error. In such cases, the strange logic of some persons immediately transforms the opinion or actions of a given cleric into a weighty argument. Spanish Catholics have had most deplorable experiences of this kind throughout History. It is fitting, then – while maintaining all due respect – to touch upon this point and ask with sincerity and good faith: Can there also be ministers of the Church tainted with Liberalism?

Yes, dear reader, alas, there can indeed be liberal ministers of the Church. There are fierce adherents of this sect, there are mild ones, and there are those who are merely corrupted by its influence. Exactly as it happens among the laity.

A minister of God is not exempt from paying the wretched tribute to human frailty; consequently, he has often paid that tribute to errors against the Faith.

And what is so remarkable about this, given that there has scarcely been a heresy in the Church of God that was not championed or propagated by some cleric? Indeed, it is a historical fact that no heresy has ever caused significant trouble or flourished in any century without first securing the devotion of clerics.

The apostate cleric is the primary instrument the Devil seeks for this work of rebellion. He needs to present the heresy as having some measure of authority in the eyes of the unwary; for this, nothing serves him better than the endorsement of a minister of the Church. And since, unfortunately, the Church never lacks clerics whose morals have become corrupted (the most common path to heresy) or who are blinded by pride (another very frequent cause of all error), heresy has never lacked ecclesiastical apostles and abettors, whatever form it may have taken inside Christian society....

[Fr. Sardà y Salvany then goes on for two pages to list the major heresiarchs who were bishops and priests, beginning with Judas and ending with clerical leaders in France, Italy and Spain after the French Revolution.]

Several of these bishops called for – and many applauded in their pastoral letters – the iniquitous expulsion of the Society of Jesus. Even today, in various Spanish Dioceses, there are known instances of clergy who have apostatized and, quite naturally and logically, immediately married.

Let it be noted, then, that from Judas to ... [our times], the lineage of Church ministers who betray their Master and sell themselves to heresy continues unbroken.

Alongside and in opposition to the tradition of truth, there exists within Catholic society a tradition of error: In contrast to the apostolic succession of faithful ministers, Hell maintains a diabolical succession of perverted ministers. This should scandalize no one. In this regard, let us recall the words of the Apostle who did not fail to warn us: "There must be also heresies: so that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among yout." (1 Cor 11:19)

Excerpts from El Liberalismo es Pecado, Barcelona: Librería y
Tipografía Católica, 1887, Chap XXVIII, pp 113-17
Posted on August 1, 2026