“This record shows plainly that the Roman pontiffs have always taken exceptional pains to protect human society from errors of opinion and from influences inimical to morality, and to combat those causes of disaster and ruin to the community which are engendered and distributed from pernicious literature. Good results attended this action as long as, in the administration of public affairs, the Divine law had control of the directing and the prohibiting, and as long as the temporal Rulers of States were in accord with the sacred Authority. “As to what followed, no one is ignorant. When, in the progress of the ages, the conditions of society had gradually changed, the Church modified with discretion the application of its authority, because, with full understanding of the character of the times, it saw that these regulations were of assistance and service for the guidance of mankind. Several of the rules of the Index, which appeared no longer to be pertinent, were either abolished by decree, or the books therein forbidden were permitted under conditions and with wise judgment on the ground of the increasing importance of antiquarian researches. Of more recent occurrence is the action of Pius IX instructing the archbishops and bishops to modify materially the strictures of Rule V. In addition, in view of the approaching important Vatican Council, Pius IX confided to a group of learned men the task of making a fresh examination of all the rules of the Index with instructions to report as to what action might be necessary in regard to them. They unanimously agreed that certain changes ought to be made. The majority of the Fathers frankly avowed that they were of the same opinion and they submitted to the council a similar recommendation. There are extant letters concerning this matter from the bishops of France, whose opinion was unanimous as to the necessity for immediate action in order that these rules and the entire Index should be framed in an entirely different manner, which would render the regulations better suited to our age and easier to observe. Similar counsel was received from the bishops of Germany, who united in recommending that the rules of the Index should be submitted to a new examination and revision. A great number of the bishops in Italy and in other countries were in accord with this conclusion.