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 DECREE.

It has long been felt that the publication of a complete and authentic collection of the prayers and good works to which the watchful and beneficent generosity of the Roman Pontiffs has attached indulgences, would be very useful, not to say necessary, since the last collection, or Raccolta, neither appeared to be free from imperfection, nor, what is of more consequence, contained all the indulgences granted up to the present time. Now, it is very important that the faithful should know what indulgences have been granted, to what practices they have been attached, and on what conditions they can be gained; since our Lord Jesus Christ intrusted to his Church the dispensation of the heavenly treasure of indulgences, in order that the faithful might profit by them to pay, in this life, the debt of temporal punishment due to their own sins, or to relieve the suffering souls in purgatory.

These considerations having been duly laid before our Holy Father, Pope Pius IX., by the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Holy Relics, his Holiness kindly gave his consent and approval that an authentic collection of all the prayers and good works which have been enriched with indulgences up to the present time, should be