In 1699, a provincial synod of Naples had declared that editions of the Scriptures in the vernacular were not to be possessed or read, even with the authorisation of the bishops, because an Apostolic mandate had taken from the bishops the authority to grant such permission. The editions of the Scriptures prepared by the Catholic divines for the use of the faithful appear for the great part to have been made up with carefully selected citations, the selections being restricted to the portions which were not doctrinal. Care was taken also to omit certain of the stories and historical episodes in the Old Testament which were considered to be not edifying or wholesome in their teaching. Hilgers contends that under the present policy of the Church, each Catholic is, as far as the Church is concerned, at liberty to utilise in his home reading the text of the entire Bible. The spiritual protectors of the faithful emphasise, however, the importance of securing for each division of the Scriptures the interpretation of the Church and the guidance of those who are made responsible for the shaping of sound doctrine. CHAPTER III THE MONASTIC ORDERS AND CENSORSHIP, 1600–1800 1. The Monastic Orders 1600–1800. 2. The Jesuits 1650–1800. 3. The Dominicans 1510–1600. 4. The Casuists 1600–1610. 5. The Seculars and the Regulars 1600–1700. =1. Writings on the Monastic Orders.=--The Index contains the titles of a long series of writings having to do with the Orders of the Church. Certain of these are controversial in character, raising contentions against the whole system of the Orders or against the work or the character of particular Orders. The larger portion of the number are, however, the work of members of the Orders who have undertaken, in an exaggerated and improper manner, to maintain unfounded claims for their own Orders or to point out the defects of their rivals, or which are devoted to petty differences and strifes that have arisen between the Orders. The _Decreta Gen._, ii, 12, contain a prohibition, dated 1568, of the printing or of the distribution in written form of any works that have not secured the approval of the Index Congregation, which have to do with the controversy concerning the actual succession of the Sons of St. Francis, or concerning the detail of the true form of the hood worn by the saint. The _Decreta Gen._, iii, 8, print the prohibition, issued in 1663, of all reproductions of the inscriptions on the pictures of St. Francis and St. Antonio of Padua, which inscriptions may undertake to specify the form of the garments worn by the saints or in which any reference may be made to the true and legitimate succession from these saints.