Gregory opened the letter with an explanation regarding his delay in issuing a general encyclical. The encyclical voiced support for Christian freedom, upheld the ecclesiastical supremacy of the papacy and raised concerns over too-close alliances between clergy and government. It denounced those who advocated a
married clergy: "We ask that you strive with all your might to justify and to defend the
law of clerical celibacy as prescribed by the
sacred canons, against which the arrows of the lascivious are directed from every side." He also denounced those who advocated divorce, and secret societies that sought to overturn the legitimate governments of the Italian states. The pope attacked religious indifferentism, defined as the opinion that one religion is as good as another, which he saw as the basis for the argument for liberty of conscience. He saw it as the state's duty to curtail false, immoral doctrines, and so denounced freedom to publish indiscriminately.
Owen Chadwick explains Gregory's perspective: "To provide legally that writers or speakers shall be free to promote what is not true or to utter words that declare that racial prejudice, or
paederasty, or pornography, or adultery, or murder not to be sins, cannot be what God demands of any State". He stated, "Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again? The encyclical satisfied neither Lamennais's supporters nor his detractors. ==Later developments==