§ 1. For a while now, indeed,
Sixtus Pope V, of happy memory, our predecessor, inflamed with zeal for
justice, issued a constitution against those procuring abortion of fetuses, both
animated and inanimate, and their most grave partners in crime and
accomplices, as well as against those who would hinder women's fertility and
provide potions or poisons of sterility. This constitution was promulgated on
the 29th day before the Kalends of November, in the third year of his
pontificate, by which, beyond various spiritual and temporal penalties, among
other things, he also promulgated the sentence of excommunication against them,
and reserved to himself and his successors alone the faculty of absolving, as
more fully contained in the same constitution. (Pope Gregory XIV, Sedes
Apostolica, May 31, 1591)
The Latin translated as "both animated and
inanimate" is "tam animati quam inanimis."
