Praestantia Scripturae
Praestantia Scripturae is a motu proprio of November 18, 1907, in which Pope Pius X condemns the teachings of modernism again and imposes automatic excommunication as a punishment for the modernists .
Against the modernists and false exegeses
With sharp and clear words he condemned the modernists and announced that he would use all means to deprive them of any effect and meaning. He describes the followers of modernism as heretics and threatens them with severe measures. For this it says:
“Therefore, by virtue of Our Apostolic Authority, We repeat and reaffirm both that Decree of the Holy Roman Congregation ('Lamentabili Sane Exitu' of July 3, 1907) and Our Encyclical (' Pascendi Dominici gregis ' of September 8, 1907) by adding it the punishment of excommunication against the unruly. And We declare and order: If someone - what may God forbid - would go so far in his audacity that he defends any of the theses, opinions and doctrines which have been criticized in one of the two documents mentioned by Us above wanted, then his punishment is the [] imposed censorship of the automatically occurring excommunication, which automatically follows on from the deed. "
In this context he also refers to the encyclical Providentissimus Deus (1893) of his predecessor Leo XIII, in which the latter had already pointed out the importance of Bible study and exegesis . Since there was a danger of wrong interpretation of the Bible, Leo XIII. established the biblical commission with the Apostolic Letter Vigilantae studii memores . Therefore it is now necessary that the Biblical Commission must take action and also keep all heretical writings and publications away from the seminarians and the clergy .