holy indulgences, has always obliged the faithful to do some good work, in specified circumstances of time, place, etc., it is necessary, in the third place, for the gaining of the indulgences, to perform, in person and with devotion, all the good works enjoined as to the time, manner, end, etc., according to the terms in which the indulgence is granted. If any of the works enjoined be omitted, either wholly or in some notable portion of them, be it through ignorance, or negligence, or inability; or if any one of the conditions of time, place, etc., prescribed, be not observed for any reason whatsoever, then—except in the case of a legitimate commutation—the indulgence in question is not gained.
It will be useful to mention here some general decisions of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences about the prayers assigned, as works to be performed, in the grants of indulgences. And, in the first place, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII., of holy memory, declared, Feb. 26, 1820, that the prayers prescribed for the gaining of indulgences may be said by two or more persons, alternately, as is done in saving the Rosary, the Litanies, the Angelus, the De Profundis, etc.
Concerning the Rosary, the Sacred Congregation declared, Jan. 22, 1855, that, “when the entire Rosary, or the third part of it, is said by several persons together, they can all gain the indulgences, even if all have not the beads in their hands; but it is enough that one of them hold the beads, to regulate the recital of the prayers, provided that all the others, laying aside
