“The old Index was never supposed to be binding on English Catholics and, indeed, its provisions were such that it was practically almost a dead letter on the Continent also.... The new Index is, however, formally declared to be applicable to all countries, and great has been the distress which through its publication arose in the minds of a multitude of timid and scrupulous believers.... Pressure was brought to bear upon Rome, which was forced at last to learn something of the condition of affairs in England, and finally supreme authority has had to draw in its horns and suffer it to be spread about in England that the new reformed Index does not apply here, and that in this happy country every condemned publication can be read, and any work on morals or religion published and circulated, without ecclesiastics having the power to prevent it.... Since the affair of the Index, however, a yet more monstrous act has been perpetrated. Any one who has taken any interest in Scripture knows that for many years past the text in the Epistle of St. John about ‘the three witnesses’ (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in heaven) has been regarded as a spurious addition. An application was lately made to Rome to know whether the authenticity of this well-known text might safely be called in question. The reply was that it might neither be denied nor called in question. Thus authority, in this last act, has shown an utter contempt for historical and critical truth, and that it desires its spiritual subjects should be left to believe that an absolutely unauthentic passage is an inspired statement written ‘by the finger of God.’... We live in a critical period. Dogmatic statements require special care when, thanks to the labours of such men as Harnack and Weiszäcker, so much light has been thrown on the genesis and history of dogma and the earliest condition of the Christian Church. But the diffusion of any such knowledge is but little perilous if only authority will refrain from self-destructive affirmations.... The advance of physical science necessarily carries with it changes in religious belief, as astronomy and geology unquestionably show. But changes in moral science and consequent modifications in human sentiment produce changes of far greater moment.... It is then above all things necessary that ecclesiastical authority should help in the elevation of popular ethical ideals, instead of trying, as the Catholic Church has in many cases already done, to retain these at a lower stage of development.... The scientific teaching now current about the Old and the New Testament, the history of dogma and of the beginnings of the Church, must doubtless disturb the minds of many faithful Catholics now as future discoveries in the field of physiology will disturb the minds of persons who are to come after us. We are and we wish