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mandato S. M. Clementis VIII. in eam causam præstituta fuerunt.
I give a translation in English of the above, that the English reader may have an accurate notion of the simple and unqualified love of the present head of the Roman Church for the Scriptures, and for their most extensive and unfettered diffusion.
"Notice.
"Since the Sacred Congregation has been certainly informed, that the most sacred books of the Scriptures have in some places been printed in the Vulgar tongue, because the most salutary laws on that subject are not observed, and since it may thence be apprehended, such is the conspiracy of wicked men, particularly in these times, that errors, clothed in the sanctified garb of the Divine oracles, may be mischievously insinuated; the same Sacred Congregation has determined again to recall to the memory of all, what has been elsewhere decreed, namely, that no vernacular versions of the Scriptures are to be permitted, but such as have beenapproved by the Apostolic see, or are accompanied with annotations taken out of the Holy Fathers of the Church or learned and Catholic men, (from the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, June 15, 1757,) [in the addition to the Rules of the Index:] besides,
