10. Now all these great works appeared before a single attempt was made by Protestants to publish a Polyglot Bible; they all appeared under the patronage of the clergy, and show the ever active solicitude of the Catholic Church to promote a true Christian interpretation, and to diffuse an accurate text of the Sacred Scriptures. Even in regard to versions into the various modern languages, Catholics were ever foremost in the field. Of these we will speak on a future day, but we cannot close this article without commemorating another characteristic Biblical work of the ante-Reformation period, which might be justly styled the "_Polyglot of the illiterate_", and which is commonly known by the name of _Biblia Pauperum_. This consisted of a series of prints presenting the facts of prophecy of the Old law, and generally accompanied with the representation of their fulfilment in the facts of the New Testament. Some of the very first xylographic efforts were devoted to diffuse these _Biblia Pauperum_, and several editions appeared in the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century.[10] Even before the art of printing was discovered, this ingenious sort of Polyglot, suited to the illiterate, of whatsoever nation they might be, was diffused through the monasteries and Catholic sanctuaries of Europe. It was indeed a tedious labour to achieve such a work with the pen; but for the monks of the middle age such works were a labour of love. It was only in our own day, however, that the existence of such manuscripts has been fully proved. The learned Heider, in his _Christian Typology_ (Vienna, 1861), first announced their discovery in the Viennese archives; and in 1863 a complete edition was published by him, aided by Albert Camesina, from a manuscript of the fourteenth century. ALPHA. THE SEE OF DOWN AND CONNOR. The united dioceses of Down and Connor present many themes of special interest to the student of the ecclesiastical history of our island, and have engaged more than any other diocese of Ireland the attention of Irish antiquarians. Suffice it to mention the learned work of Dr. Reeves, entitled _Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, etc._, published in 1847, and presented by the author to the Irish Archaeological Society. Nevertheless, even in this favoured see, the succession of bishops, as published by Ware and Harris, and subsequently adopted, with few variations, by Reeves and Cotton, abounds with errors and anachronisms; and hence, that the reader may learn to receive with caution the statements even of our most esteemed antiquarians when they are unsupported by ancient records, we propose to present a more accurate list of the bishops of this see, from the arrival of the English, down to the close of Elizabeth's reign.