In October 1950, the Holy Father, addressing a Congress of Religious, explained the positions of religious and seculars, especially religious and secular clergy, in the Church. One sentence in the important and far-reaching document is the following: ‘It is of divine institution that clergy should be distinct from lay-people. Between these two grades is the state of the religious life, of ecclesiastical origin.’ ‘Inter’ duos hos grains religiosae vitae status intericitur … ecclesiastica origine dejluens… .’ (A.A.S., 1951, p. 27). Many of us then received a first impression that the Pope was reversing a teaching which we had regarded as traditional, and with some the impression seems to have lingered. The purpose of this article is to enquire whether it is true in any sense that Christ founded the religious life and what Pius XII really said in 1950.