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accordance with the Rescript on the preceding page, wherein his Holiness vouchsafes to sanction this translation of the Raccolta delle Indulgenze, it has been made from the thirteenth and last Roman edition, and contains all the latest Indulgences granted by our present beloved Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX., whose latest grant, conferred in this current year, and standing in this translation as No. 15, is subsequent to the last Roman edition itself.

No apology is required for presenting to all the faithful who speak the English language a book of prayers which has the highest sanction of the Church, and the use of which is not only authorised, but privileged in the highest degree, so as to entitle it to be called emphatically "The Church Prayer-Book of Private Devotion," as the Missal and the Breviary are her books of Public devotion. To a Catholic such a book speaks for itself, as the Church has given her formal approval of the pious practices and devotions contained in it by the privileges she has so abundantly accorded to them. If any apology is needed, it is from the translator to the Catholic public, for venturing to present to them in his own language words of prayer which the Church has adopted as her own; and this he would hardly have presumed to do, but for the high sanction given to the undertaking.

A few words, however, are necessary in explanation: first, of a few deviations he has permitted himself from the arrangement of the original in that part of the book which may be called its rubrical and historical portion; and secondly, of the sort