Humanum genus
| Humanum genus Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII |
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| Date | 20 April 1884 |
| Argument | On Freemasonry |
| Encyclical number | 14 of 85 of the pontificate |
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Humanum genus is a papal encyclical promulgated on 20 April 1884 by Pope Leo XIII.
Released in the ascent of the industrial age, Marxism, and the aftermath of the September 20, 1870, Capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy military forces from the Papal States, Humanum genus is principally a condemnation of Freemasonry. It states that the late 19th century was a dangerous era for the Roman Catholic Church, largely due to numerous concepts and practices it attributes to Freemasonry, namely naturalism, popular sovereignty, and the separation of church and state.
Some of the strictures found in Humanum genus still remain in force today.
Following the French withdrawal of its military garrison in Rome in the anticipation of the Franco-Prussian War, the 1870 Capture of Rome itself was a major battle within the long process of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento, marking the final military defeat of the Papal States under Pope Pius IX by the Kingdom of Italy.
This unification of the Italian peninsula by King Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy ended the approximate 1,116 year temporal reign (AD 754 to 1870) of the Papal States by the papacy.
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