Director quarumdam Ephemeridum Catholicarum, quæ typis cuduntur Neo Eboraci, a Sacra Rituum Congregatione declarari petiit num prohibitum sit in libris nuncupatis Devotionis textui latino Ordinis Missæ, ac præsertim Canonis, addere versionem in lingua vulgari? Sacra vero Rituum Congregatio, referente infrascripto Secretario, audito voto R. P. D. Laurentii Salvati S. Fidei Promotoris, declarare censuit : Libros eorumque versiones in lingua vernacula, de quibus agitur, a canonicis præscriptionibus et Apostolicis Decretis, Episcoporum auctoritati omnino reservari; ideoque licitum non esse Fidelibus horum uti editionibus, nisi istæ expressam præseferant Episcoporum adprobationem. Atque ita declaravit die 4 Augusti, 1877. (5703, Neo Eboracen.)

The director of a certain Catholic journal published in New York, petitioned the Sacred Congregation of Rites to declare if it were forbidden (in books of devotion) to add a translation in the vernacular to the Latin text of the Ordinary of the Mass, and particularly to the Canon. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, after hearing the opinion of the Rev. Lawrence Salvati, Promoter of the Faith, declared through the undersigned Secretary: "that books of the kind under consideration, and translations of them in the vernacular are entirely reserved, by the canonical regulations and Apostolic decrees, to the authority of the bishops; and that, therefore, it is unlawful for the faithful to use any edition of the same unless it bear the express approbation of the bishops." And so it was declared August 4th, 1877. (5703, New York).

INTRODUCTION.

HE fact that five thousand copies of

TH

this little manual have been sold is an indication of the service it has rendered in enabling the laity to understand better the sublime function whose ceremonies it describes. The many letters of congratulation received upon this attempt to present in an attractive form this portion of the liturgy is at once a satisfaction and an incentive. The mere reading of the ceremonies and prayers will throw light upon the symbolical meaning where disquisitions would be dry and meaningless. It is not deemed necessary, therefore, to enlarge upon the ceremonies, further than to call attention to the principal divisions. The function may properly be divided

into the preliminary examination, the consecration proper, and the investiture. The first part includes the form of ascertaining solemnly that the Bishop Elect has the right to Episcopal consecration; of receiv. ing his oath of submission to the Holy See, the centre of unity; and of inquiring into the orthodoxy of his faith. The form of oath embodied in this manual is that prescribed for the Bishops of the United States in the Second Council of Baltimore. In the examination the Bishop Elect is made to profess categorically his belief in the different matters of faith that have been particularly attacked by heretics, especially the doctrine of the Incarnation. These preliminaries having been duly gone through with, the Mass is begun, its simultaneous celebration by Consecrator and Bishop Elect betokening the unity of their faith.

Immediately after the Gradual or Tract, the Consecration ceremony begins with the solemn announcement by the Consecrator of the awful duties of a Bishop. The different rites and prayers sufficiently indicate their purpose. The majesty of the plain chant in the Litanies, the Veni Creator, and the Preface is perhaps unsurpassed by any other portion of the liturgy.

The Consecration ceremony proper being finished, the new Bishop is invested with the crosier and ring proper to the Episcopal order, the prayers and admonitions accompanying the investiture clearly indicating their uses and purposes.

The Mass proceeds with the Consecrator and new Bishop celebrating in unison at the same altar. After the Communion (the new Bishop communicating both of the Sacred Host and Precious Blood) the new Bishop receives the mitre and gloves,