This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... by the Roman Church. Little by little, English and German works on modern religious views were translated and put on sale in the chief book-stores of Rome. While great care has been observed that heretical literature be kept from the reach of the priests, ideas and views once set in motion cannot be completely smothered. The results of modern Biblical criticism have found their way into the hands of not only the cultured laity but also the cultured prelates. One of the evident results of Protestantism in Italy has been the publication of the Gospels and the Book of Acts in the Italian language by the Society of St. Gerolamo, which was organized for that special purpose within the Roman Church itself. Several popes prior to 1889 had declared it to be a sin for the laity to read the Bible. As late as 1869, persons were arrested within the papal states for presuming to read the Bible, even in family worship. Travelers were searched as they entered Rome, and if they possessed Bibles, the books were confiscated. Both Pope Pius ix and Leo xiii declared ex cathedra that it was unlawful for Catholics to read the Bible. But in 1898 Leo xiii sanctioned the establishment of the Society of San Gerolamo, for the above-mentioned purpose, and in the preface of that publication each Catholic is promised one hundred days' indulgence if he reads the gospel each day. What brought about the change in attitude? It certainly was not the conviction that the Gospels are an indispensable help to the religious life. The change was caused by the Protestant propaganda, the preaching in season and out of season that the preachers were not proclaiming their own thoughts but the word of God. With time this had its impression. Faithful Romanists insisted on having the...