frequent announcement through each diocese of the sacred Scriptures and the Divine law, but enlarging the enactment of the Latteran Council, it is moreover provided, that in each church, whether cathedral or collegiate, of cities and considerable towns, there should be a theological prebend, which should be conferred solely on persons capable of expounding and interpreting the sacred Scripture. Respecting the subsequent constitution of the theological prebend on the plan of the above Tridentine enactment, and respecting the lectures to be delivered by the theological canon to the clergy, and even to the people, steps were taken in several provincial synods, particularly in the Roman Council of the year 1725, to which Benedict XIII., our predecessor of happy memory, had convened not only the sacred dignitaries of the Roman province, but also several of the archbishops, bishops, and other local ordinaries, under the immediate authority of this holy see. The same pontiff made several provisions with the same design, in the apostolical letters which he issued specifically for Italy and the adjacent islands. To you too, Venerable Brethren, who at stated periods have been accustomed to report to the apostolic see, upon the condition of sacred affairs in your respective dioceses, it is manifest, from the replies again and again given by our e Congregation of Council,” to your predecessors, or to yourselves, how this holy see is wont to congratulate bishops, if they have theological prebendaries ably discharging their duty in the delivery of public lectures on the sacred writings, and never ceases to excite and assist their pastoral anxieties, if anywhere the matter has not succeeded to their wishes.

"With regard, however, to Bibles translated into the vulgar tongues, it was the case even many centuries since, that in various places the holy dignitaries were obliged at times to exercise increased vigilance, when they discovered that versions

of this sort were either read in secret conventicles, or were actively distributed by heretics. To this refer the admonitions. and cautions issued by Innocent III., our predecessor of glorious memory, concerning assemblies of laics and women secretly held in the diocese of Metz, under a pretence of piety, for reading the Scriptures; and also the peculiar prohibitions of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, which we find to have been issued in France soon after; and in Spain previous to the sixteenth century. But greater precaution was needed afterwards, when the Lutheran and Calvinist Non-Catholics,* venturing to assail with an almost incredible variety of errors the unchange able doctrine of the faith, left no means untried, to deceive the minds of the faithful by perverted explanations of the Scriptures, and by new translations of them into vulgar tongues, edited by their adherents. The lately discovered art of printing assisted them in multiplying and speedily spreading copies. Accordingly we read in the rules drawn up by the fathers chosen by the Council of Trent, approved by Pius IV., our predecessor of happy memory, and prefixed to the Index of Prohibited Books, a provision of general application that Bibles published in the vulgar tongue, should be allowed to no persons but those to whom the reading of them was judged likely to be productive of an increase of faith and piety.† To this rule, afterwards rendered more stringent, owing to the pertinacious frauds of the heretics, a declaration was at last attached by the authority of Benedict XIV., that the perusal of

# 66 6 Acatholici.'

+"[See the preceding remarks.]'

[The power of giving permission to read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was altogether withdrawn! And thus, the rule was made more stringent; and in this state it continued for more than 160 years!]'

S

such versions may be considered permitted,* as have been published with the approbation of the apostolic see, or with annotations taken from the holy fathers of the Church or from learned and catholic men.t

666

Meanwhile there were not wanting new sectaries of the Jansenist school, who, in a style borrowed from the Lutherans and Calvinists, scrupled not to reprehend these wise provisions of the Church and the apostolic see, as if the reading of the Scriptures were useful and necessary to every class of the faithful, at every time and in every place, and therefore could not be forbidden to any one by any authority whatever. This audacity of the Jansenists, however, we find severely reprehended in the solemn judgments which, with the applause of the whole Catholic world, were delivered against their doctrines by two popes of happy memory, viz. Clement XI., in the bull Unigenitus, of the year 1713; and Pius VI., in the bull Auctorem Fidei, of the year 1794.

"Thus, therefore, before Bible Societies were formed, by means of the above decrees of the Church the faithful had been fortified against the stratagem of the heretics, which lies concealed under the specious plan of spreading the Holy Scriptures for general use. Pius VII., however, our predecessor of glorious memory, in whose time those societies arose, and who found that they were making great progress, failed not to oppose their endeavours, partly through his apostolic

* 66 6

[Not permitted to all indiscriminately, but to such only as have licences to read them.]'

[No version with the approbation of the apostolic see has ever yet been published in any language upon earth; not even in Italian! Bibles with notes, therefore, are alone permitted to be read; (by none, however, without a licence ;) and in Rome, the only Bibles with notes are Martini's, in 25 small vols., and another in 15 vols. folio.]'

nuncios, partly by epistles and decrees issued by different congregations of cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and partly by his two papal briefs which he addressed to the Archbishops of Gnesna and Mohilow. Afterwards Leo XII., our predecessor of happy memory, assailed those same designs of the Bible Societies in his Encyclical Letter, addressed to all the dignitaries of the Catholic world, on the 5th May, 1824; and the same thing was again done by our immediate predecessor of equally happy memory, Pius VIII., in his Encyclical Letter, issued the 24th May, 1829. We, too, who with far inferior merit have succeeded to his place, have not omitted to exercise our apostolical solicitude upon the same object, and among other things have taken steps to recall to the memory of the faithful the rule formerly enacted concerning translations of the Scripture into the vulgar tongues.

"We have, however, great cause to congratulate you, Venerable Brethren, that, at the impulse of your own piety and wisdom, and confirmed by the above letters of our predecessors, you have never neglected when necessary to admonish the Catholic flock to beware of the snares laid for them by the Bible Societies. From these efforts of the bishops, in conjunction with the solicitude of this supreme see of Peter, it has resulted, under the Lord's blessing, that certain incautious Catholics who were imprudently encouraging Bible Societies, seeing through the fraud, immediately withdrew from them; and the remainder of the faithful have continued nearly untouched by the contagion which threatened them from that quarter.

"Meanwhile the biblical sectaries were possessed with the confident hope of acquiring great credit, by inducing in any manner unbelievers to make a profession of the Christian name by means of reading the Holy Scriptures published in their own tongue, innumerable copies of which they caused to be

distributed through their countries, and even to be forced on: the unwilling, by means of missionaries, or agents in their employ. But these men thus endeavouring to propagate the Christian name contrary to the rules instituted by Christ himself, found themselves almost always disappointed, with the exception that they were able sometimes to create new impediments to Catholic priests, who, proceeding to these nations with a commission from the holy see, spared no exertions to beget new sons to the Church, by the preaching of the word of God, and the administration of the sacraments,* prepared even to shed their blood amidst the most exquisite torments for the salvation of the heathen, and as a testimony to the faith.

"Amidst these sectaries, thus frustrated in their hopes, and reviewing with sorrowful hearts the immense amount of money already spent in publishing and fruitlessly distributing their Bibles, some have lately appeared, who, proceeding upon a somewhat new plan, have directed their machinations towards making their principal assault on the minds of the Italians, and of the citizens of our very city. In fact, from intelligence and documents lately received, we have ascertained that several persons of different sects met last year at New York in America, and on the 12th of June formed a new society, entitled "The Christian Alliance," to be increased by new members from every nation, or by auxiliary societies, whose common design. shall be to introduce religious liberty, or rather an insane desire of indifference in religion, among the Romans and other Italians. For they acknowledge that for several centuries, the institutions of the Roman and Italian race have had such

* " [The manner in which popish missionaries have accommodated their religion to heathen prejudices, and the merely nominal profession required of their so-called converts, have been fully exposed.]'

"The rules of this society fully show the exaggerations and misstatements here made.'