had caused several governments which considered it a threat to their own security to cause such associations to be "prudently eliminated". An expressed danger was the private rules that bound members, "that they do not hold by either civil or canonical sanctions." As a result, all Catholic participation in Masonry was prohibited, and bishops were to proceed against it "as well as inquisitors for heresy...calling upon the aid of the secular arm," as it was under suspicion of heresy, partly because of its already notorious secrecy. That Catholics are still prohibited from joining Masonic organizations was confirmed in 1983 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Catholic secret societies, which mirrored Freemasonry but were technically distinct from it so as to avoid the Papal Bull banning Catholics from it, sprang up in response, notably the Order of the Pug in Germany. See also Papal Documents relating to Freemasonry Anti-Masonry Christianity and Freemasonry Papal ban on Freemasonry Clarification concerning status of Catholics becoming Freemasons References External links In eminenti Catholicism and Freemasonry 1738 works 18th-century papal bulls Documents of Pope Clement XII 1738 in Christianity