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Sedes Sapientiae Institute Curriculum

Areas covered:

A. TFP Studies
B. World History
C. Church History
D. History of Philosophy
E. Religion
F. Catholic Social Doctrine

A. TFP Subjects

Unit 1. Main TFP Studies
1. The American Commission" (a study of American public opinion and methods of Counter-Revolutionary action upon it);
2. Definition and study of tradition, family and property; how to defend these three values;
3. Definition of communism and leftism;
4. Study of TFP methods of action;
5. "The Industrial Revolution vs. Organic Society" (the shortcomings of a society based on the Industrial Revolution vs. the concepts of a Catholic society);
6. "Sacrality of the Order of the Universe" (the paradigmatic and hierarchical order of things that rules the whole universe);
7. "Innocence" (the ideal state of soul, that would correspond with the plans of God);
8. "Honor" (the highest behaviors of man);
9. "Angels" (the role of Angels in relation to man and creation);
10. Other topics of interest

Unit 2. Introduction to Dr. Plinio's Major Books
A. Revolution and Counter-Revolution (1959)
B. Land Reform - A Question of Conscience (1960)
C. The Church and the Communist State: The Impossible Coexistence (1964)
D. Unperceived Ideological Transshipment and Dialogue (1965)
E. The Nobility Book

Unit 3. Study of the American TFP's Major Manifestos
A. The American TFP's manifestos
B. "The Vatican Policy of Détente Toward the Communist Governments - For the TFP: To Take no Stand or to Resist?" (1974)
C. Message Against Self-Management Socialism (1982)
D. Communism and Anti-Communism in the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1990)

Unit 4. Ambiences, Customs, and Civilizations

B. World History

Unit 1. Ancient times
1. The Ancient Civilizations: Egypt - Syria & Babylon - The Persian Empire
2. Greece
3. Ancient Rome
4. A General Survey on Paganism
5. The Chosen People
6. The Coming of Christ and the Founding of the Church
7. The End of the Old Order
8. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
9. The Triumph of Christianity
10. The Barbarian Invasions

Unit 2. Islam
1. Mohammed's Life and Character
2. Doctrines of Islam
3. Causes of the Rapid Expansion of Islam
4. The Conquest of Spain and Southern Europe

Unit 3. The Middle Ages
1. The Conversion of the Barbarians
2. Charlemagne - The Carolingian Renaissance
3. The Feudal Society
4. The Holy Roman Empire
5. The Crusades - St. Louis IX
6. The Spanish "Reconquista" - St. Ferdinand of Castille
7. The Hundred Years War and the War of the Roses
8. The Medieval World: The Castle and the Cathedral - Knights & Monks - The Inquisition - The Universities - The Guilds
9. The Decadence: Court literature - The Troubadours - Jousts and Tournaments
10. The Great Heresies: Albigensians & Cathars - "Poverelli"

Unit 4. The Age of Expansion
1. The Great Discoveries - Portugal and the Conquest of the Ocean
2. The End of the Spanish "Reconquista" - Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille - The Conquest of Granada
3. Columbus: The New World

Unit 5. The Modern World
1. Humanism and The Renaissance
2. The Pseudo-Reformation
3. The Counter-Reformation - The Jesuits - The Council of Trent
4. The Age of Religious Wars (1559-1689)
5. The Cromwellian Revolution
5. Apogee of the House of Habsburg: Spain and the Empire
6. Louis XIV
7. Decadence of the Ancien Regime - The Age of Madame de Pompadour: The Encyclopedia

Unit 6. The Contemporary World
1. The French Revolution and Napoleon - 1789-1815
2. The Bourbon Restoration - The reorganization of Europe - Liberal Revolutions
3. The Age of Nationalism and Reform - 1850-1890
4. The Belle Époque: The End of the European Era - World War II
5. The Russian Revolution (1917)
6. Rise and Fall of Fascism and Nazism - World War II (1922-1945)
7. Communist expansion: Eastern Europe - China - South East Asia - Africa - Cuba

Unit 7. The Sixties and Seventies
1. The Church: II Vatican Council
2. In Temporal Society: May 1968: Sorbonne and the "hippie Revolution"
3. The Vietnam War

Unit 8. The Eighties and Nineties
1. The "Collapse" of the Communist World: Gorbachev, "Perestroika" and "Glasnost" - Walesa and "Solidarity"
2. The "Fall of Berlin Wall": The "End" of Communism

C. Church History

Unit 1. Preparation of the World for the Coming of Christ
1. The Fullness of Time
2. The Roman Empire
3. The Jews in the Empire

Unit 2. The Primitive Church
1. The Birth of Christianity: The Evangelization of the Palestinian Jews
2. The Spread of Christianity in the East Mediterranean basin and St. Paul the Apostle
4. The Community of Rome
5. The Apostolic Fathers
6. The First Heresies -Jewish Gnosticism - The end of Judeo-Christianity

Unit 3. The Age of the Martyrs
1. The Persecutions from Nero to Decius
2. The Persecutions from Decius to Valerian
3. The Persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius
4. Christian Literature of this Period
A. Eastern Writers: Clement and Origen
B. Western Writers: St. Justin, Tertulian, St. Cyprian, and St. Hippolytus
5. General Survey of the Persecutions
A. The Sufferings of the Martyrs
B. How Martyrs Were Honored: The Catacombs
C. Results of the Persecutions
a. The Number of the Martyrs and the Value of Their Testimony
b. The Spread of Christianity

Unit 4. The Triumph of Christianity
1. Constantine and the Edict of Milan
2. Arianism
3. Julian the Apostate
4. The End of Paganism in the Empire
5. The Latin Literature of the Fourth Century: St. Jerome and St. Ambrose

Unit 5. The Fall of Rome
1. The Barbarian Invasions
2. The Church and the Barbarians
3. St. Augustine - Doctrinal Disputes: Donatism and Pelagianism
4. St. Benedict of Nursia, Patriarch of Western Monasticism

Unit 6. The Church in the Early Middle Ages
1. The Conversion of Clovis an his Franks - The Merovingians
2. Charlemagne - The Carolingians
3. Decline of the Carolingian Empire and of the Papacy
A. Disruption of the Empire
B. Decline and Enslavement of the Papacy: Formosus and Stefen VI -The House of Theophylact - Otto the Great and the Papacy - The Tusculan Dictatorship

Unit 7. The Greek Schism
1. Origin of the Estrangement between East and West
2. Cesaro-papism - The Court Bishops
3. The Council in Trullo
4. The Iconoclast Heresy
5. The Coronation of Charlemagne
6. The Photian Schism
7. The Final Separation

Unit 8. The Age of St. Gregory VII
1. Cluny's Movement of Reform
2. St. Gregory VII and his struggle with Emperor Henry IV over the investiture of bishops

Unit 9. Knights and Monks
1. The Crusades and the Military Orders - Orders for the Ransom of Captives
2. Revival of Monasticism: St. Bruno and the Carthusians - Citeaux
3. St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Arbiter of Christendom
4. Reforming the Secular Clergy: St. Norbert and the Premonstratensians

Unit 10. The Papacy and the Empire
1. Hadrian IV and Alexander III - Frederic Barbarossa - The Seventeen Year's Schism
2. Apogee of the Papacy: Blessed Innocent III

Unit 11. The Medieval Heresies
1. The New Manichean or Albigensian Heresy
2. The Waldensians
3. The Medieval Inquisition

Unit 12. The Mendicant Orders
1. St. Dominic - The Preaching Friars: Custodians of the Purity of Doctrine
2. St. Francis of Assisi - The Order of Friars Minor
3. The Mendicant Orders and the Apogee of the Scholastic Philosophy - The Great Doctors: St. Albert the Great - St. Thomas Aquinas - St. Bonaventure

Unit 13. Destruction of the Christian Commonwealth of Europe
1. Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair
2. The Bull Unam Sanctam
3. The Sacrilegious Outrage at Anagni

Unit 14. The "Babylonian Captivity" of the Popes
1. The Popes in the grip of the French Kings
2. The Trial and suppression of the Templar Knights
3. St. Catherine of Sienna and Gregory XI - The Return to Rome
4. Consequences of the "Babylonian Captivity"

Unit 15. The Great Schism of the West
1. Rise and Progress of the Schism
2. Wycliffe and Hus
3. Council of Constance - The End of the Schism

Unit 16. The Church during the Renaissance
1. Humanism - Is there a "Christian Humanism"?
2. The Renaissance Popes
A. "Political Popes"
B. Patrons of Art
3. Savanarola
4. On the Eve of the Protestant Revolt

Unit 17. Luther and Lutheranism
1. Luther's Early Life
2. A Very Well Planned Publicity Campaign: The 95 Theses - The Intervention of Rome - The Leipzig Disputation
3. Under the Ban of the Church and Empire -The Support of German Princes and Nobles
4. First Results of Luther's Revolutionary Teachings: Thomas Münzer and the Anabaptists - The Peasant's War
5. Organization of the Lutheran State Churches
6. Charles V and the Lutheran Revolution - The Word "Protestants" - The Augsburg Confession - The League of Schmalkalden - The Peace of Augsburg
7. Lutheranism Beyond the Limits of the Empire
A. Scandinavia
B. Zwingli and the Reformation in Switzerland

Unit 18. Calvinism
1. Calvin and his Doctrines
2. Calvinism in Switzerland
3. Calvinism in France
A. The Huguenots
B. French War of Religion - Saint Bartholomew's Night
C. Henry IV - The Edict of Nantes
4. Calvinism in Germany, the Netherlands, and Scotland

Unit 19. Anglicanism
1. Henry VIII: "Head of the Church of England"
2. Edward VI: Triumph of Protestantism
3. Mary Tudor: The Catholic Reaction
4. Elizabeth: Triumph of Anglicanism

Unit 20. The Catholic Counter-Reformation
1. The End of the Roman Renaissance
2. Spain, the superpower of the time promotes the Catholic Reaction
3. Paul III Reforms the Papal Court
4. St. Ignatius Loyola Founds the Society of Jesus
5. Missions and Missionaries in the Far East
6. Mission and Missionaries in the New World

Unit 21. Jansenism
1. Baius
2. Jansenius and the Jansenism
3. Port Royal - Blaise Pascal

Unit 22. Royal Absolutism - Gallicanism - Josephinism
1. The Church and Royal Absolutism
2. Gallicanism
3. Josephinism

Unit 23. Rationalism and "Enlightenment"
1. The Rise of Rationalism in England - Freemasonry
2. Rationalism in France - The Encyclopedists
3. Rationalism in Other Countries
4. Suppression of the Jesuits: Choiseul and Madame de Pompadour - Aranda - Pombal
5. Clement VII Condemns Freemasonry

Unit 24. The Church During the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire
1. The Material and Moral Status of the Church in France on the eve of the Revolution
2. The Abolition of the Privileges and the Secularization of Ecclesiastical Goods
3. The Establishment of the New Church
A. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy: Jurors and Non-Jurors
B. Laws of Exceptions Against the Non-Jurors - Resistance and Fall of the King
C. The September Massacres
4. The Terror
A. Persecution
B. Dechristianization; New Revolutionary Forms of Worship
C. War With the Holy See: Occupation of Rome and Exile of Pius VI
5. Napoleon and the Holy See
A. The Concordat of 1801 - The Organic Articles
B. The Coronation of Napoleon
C. Spoliation of the Papal States: Pius VII Prisoner at Savona
D. Napoleon's Divorce and Second Marriage
E. The Council of 1811 and the Concordat of Fontainebleau
6. The Church in the Rest of Europe

Unit 25. The Church from Pius VII to Blessed Pius IX
1. The Catholic Revival
A. The Holy Alliance
B. The Restoration of the States of the Church
C. The Restoration in France
D. Catholic Emancipation in England - The Oxford Movement
E. Belgium, a Catholic Kingdom
F. Gregory XVI
a. The Scholastic Revival
b. Condemnation of Liberalism - The "L'Avenir" Group: Lacordaire, Lamennais and Montalembert
G. The Catholic Awakening in Germany
2. Pius IX: Liberalism vs. Ultramontanism
A. Liberal Beginnings - Flight to Gaeta and Conversion - Return to Rome and Reaction
B. The Proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
C. Liberals vs. Ultramontanes -
D. The Vatican Council - Proclamation of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility
E. The Spoliation of the Pontifical Territories - The End of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes
F. The "Kulturkampf" in Germany

Unit 26. From Leo XIII to Benedict XV
1. Pontificate of Leo XIII
A. Restoration of the Scholastic Studies
B. The Anglican Ordinations
C. "Americanism"
D. The "Ralliement"
E. The "Social Question"
F. The Great Encyclicals2. St. Pius X: The Warrior Pope
A. The Pope and the anti-clerical French Republic
B. The Condemnation of Modernism
a. Philosophical and Theological Modernism: Encyclical Pascendi
b. Social Modernism: Notre Charge Apostolique
C. The Restoration of Gregorian Chant
C. The Codification of Ecclesiastical Laws
D. The Pope of the Catechism and the Holy Eucharist
3. The Pontificate of Benedict XV
A. The Pope and World War I
B. The Apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima
C. The 1917 Code of Canon Law

Unit 27. The Pontificate of Pius XI
1. The Foreign Missions
2. The Mexican Persecution - The Epopee of the Cristeros
3. The Lateran Treaty
4. The Spanish Republic fights Against the Church
5. Fascism, Nazism, and Communism
6. "Catholic Action"
7. The Great Encyclicals

Unit 28. The Pontificate of Pius XII
1. The Pope and the War (1939-1945)
A. The Pope, Fascism and Nazism
B. The Pope and the Jews
2. The "New Theology" - Teillard de Chardin - The Worker Priests
3. Three Major Encyclicals
A. Mystici Corporis Christi (1943): The Church as "Mystical Body" of Jesus Christ - Errors on the Constitution of the Church
B. Mediator Dei (1947): Errors on Liturgy (the "Liturgical Movement)
C. Humani Generis (1950): Errors on Philosophy and Theology - Condemnation of Naturalism and Evolutionism
4. The Dogma of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary (1950)
5. Addresses, Allocutions and Broadcast Messages

Unit 29. The Pontificate of John XXIII
1. Overview of his life
A. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli before the election
B. The Smiling Pope
2. "Mater et Magistra" and "Pacem in Terris"
3. The Beginning of the Liturgical Reform
4. Preparation and Opening of the Second Vatican Council

Unit 30. The Pontificate of Paul VI
1. Overview of his life
A. Giovanni Battista Montini before the election
a. Vatican Career
b. Archbishop of Milan
B. Paul VI
2. The Reform of the Church in the 20th Century
A. Continuation of the Council
B. Ecumenism
C. The Reform of the Roman Curia
D. Liturgical Reform - The "Novus Ordo Missae"
3. Encyclical Humanae Vitae and Other Documents

Unit 31. The Second Vatican Council
1. The Event
2. The Documents
3. The Consequences

Unit 32. From Vatican II to Our Days

D. Philosophy

Unit 1. Philosophy
1. Definition, object, method
2. Comparison with theology
3. Comparison with practical sciences
4. Natural wisdom and supernatural wisdom
5. Greek philosophy
6. Christian philosophy

Unit 2. Logic Foundations
1. Object, method, finality
2. Rules of reasoning (syllogism)
3. Error in reasoning (fallacy)
4. Judgment
5. Truth, error
6. Certainty, opinion, guessing, doubt
7. Causality
8. Cause and occasion
9. Analogy, comparison, metaphor, symbolism
10. Classification of sciences

Unit 3. Cosmology
1. Quantities
2. Matter and form
3. "Materia prima," "material secunda"
4. Localization, extension, height, weight
5. Time, eternity, eviternity

Unit 4. Anthropology and Psychology
1. The living being
2. Origin of life, creationism, evolutionism
3. Reproduction and maintenance of species
4. The human composite: soul and body
5. The vegetative soul, sensitive soul, and the spiritual soul
6. Potencies of the soul (intelligence, will)
7. Potencies of the composite (sensibility)
8. The proper object of intelligence: truth
9. The proper object of will: goodness
10. Sensible Knowledge
11. Intellective knowledge
12. Intelligence, and sensible perception
13. Sensible memory and intellectual memory
14. Instincts, tendencies and inclinations
15. Comparison with animals
16. Freewill and determinism
17. Emotion, sentiment, passion
18. Pleasure and pain
19. Animal behavior

Unit 5. Metaphysics
1. Ontology (object: the study of being)
2. The being in itself
3. The characteristics of the being: the transcendentals
4. The being is, one, truthful, good
5. The problem of evil
6. Evil as non-being or incomplete being
7. Evil and Divine Providence
8. Real and potential being; reason's being
9. Potency and act
10. The four causes: formal, material, efficient, final
11. Instrumental cause, exemplar cause
12. Happiness, definition, characteristics

Unit 6. Aesthetics
1. What is beauty
2. Elements of beauty
3. Objectiveness and subjectiveness in beauty
4. Beauty as a mean to virtue and contemplation
5. Ugliness
6. Aesthetic beauty, ugliness and perfection of the being

Unit 7. Ethics
1. Object, method
2. Origin and nature of Law
3. Law and Moral
4. Eternal Law, Natural Law, Positive Law
5. Ethical principles are objective
6. Freewill, condition of morality
7. Conscience perceives morality, does not create it
8. Conscience cause immediate, the law, cause primary of morality
9. Relativism, its absurd
10. The characteristics of natural law: universality, a temporality, obligatoriness
11. Analysis of the moral act: the nature of the act, the intention, the circumstances

E. Religion

Unit 1. Dogma (The Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed)
1. Faith in General: Nature and Necessity of Faith - Object and Rule of Faith - Mysteries - Holy Scripture - Tradition - Qualities of Faith

Unit 2. Morality (The Ten Commandments and the Commandments of the Church)

Unit 3. Means of Sanctification (Sacraments, Sacramentals, Prayer, Penance and Good Works)

Unit 4. Liturgy

F. Catholic Social Doctrine

Unit 1. Preliminaries: The Catholic Social Doctrine
A. Concept
B. Object
C. Method
D. Sources

Unit 2. The Nature of Man: Elements of a Christian Anthropology
1. Man, a microcosmic being
2. Man, a rational animal
3. Man, a social being
4. Man, a free being, with a moral conscience
5. Man, made in the image and likeness of God
6. Man, as an individual person
7. Man, as a sinner
8. Man, redeemed by Christ and called to eternal life

Unit 3. The Law
1. The Eternal Law
2. The Natural Law
3. The Human Law
4. Rights and Duties
5. Social Justice and Social Charity

Unit 4. The Nature of Society
1. Definition
2. Division: Natural and Supernatural - Perfect and Imperfect - Free and necessary

Unit 5. The Four Basic Principles of the Christian Social Order
1. Principle of Solidarity
2. Principle of The Common Good
3. Principle of Subsidiarity
4. Principle of Authority

Unit 6. The Organic Society
1. Definition
2. Doctrine
A. Hierarchy of values
B. Application of the Principle of subsidiarity
C. The intermediary bodies
3. A Historical example: The Middle Ages
A. Hierarchic political organization: The feudalism
B. Intermediary bodies
a. The University
b. The Municipal Corporations
c. The Guilds of traders, craftsmen, shepherds
d. The German guilds
e. The Confraternities
4. Current examples
A. Artistic, cultural, sportive, social entertainment, etc. organizations
B. Charitable or Non-profit organizations
C. Economic, financial institutions or agencies, etc.

Unit 7. The Family: Foundation of Society
1. Family: The First Natural Society
2. Marriage
A. Its nature
B. Indissolubility and Divorce
C. Fecundity and Birth control
3. Family and State
A. Family Fundamental Rights
B. Salary, Housing and Education
4. Dangers For The Family

Unit 8. Work in a Christian perspective
1. The Christian meaning of work and profession
A. Work as necessity
B. Work as Shaping and mastering the Earth
C. Work and Profession as Service
D. Work as Penance and Expiation
E. Work as the glorification of God
2. Work and Leisure
A. The problem of free time
B. Leisure and cultural development
C. Leisure and the Worship of God
3. Working and Professional Conditions in Industrial Society
A. Characteristic Features of the Modern Working and Professional World
a) The wage system
b) Mechanization, Rationalization , Automation
c) Personnel Management
d) The Social Function of the Entrepreneur
e) Job security
B. Conclusions from the Viewpoint of Christian Work and Professional Ethics

Unit 9. The Economy - General view
1. The Economic order according to the ideas of Liberalism
A. The economic Liberalism
B. Capitalistic Reality
C. Neoliberalism
2. The Economic order according to the ideas of Socialism
A. Utopian Socialism
B. Marxist Socialism
C. Liberal-Democratic Socialism

Unit 10. The Economy in a Christian Society
1. Purposes of economic life
2. Private Ownership as the Foundation of the Economic Order in a Christian Society
A. Refutation of common errors
B. The Natural-Law Character of Private Ownership
3. Individual and Social Functions of Private Ownership
4. Ethics in Economics
5. The State in Economic Life

Unit 11. The Origin, Nature and End of the State
1. The Origin of the State - The State a Natural Institution
2. The End of the State
3. Authority, Its Origin and Nature
4. Political Life and Forms of Government

Unit 12. The Community of Nations
1. Foundations of International Relations
2. War and Peace

______________________

Important note:

This outline presents a vast array of topics. The intention of this course is not to exhaust them all entirely, but to cover as much as possible during the year.