and in the Italian in the same type as the prayers, are nevertheless not of obligation, as it appears from the words of the grants preceding them that they are only inserted for the convenience of the reader. Such, for instance, is the case with the meditations for the Via Crucis, where it is expressly said, "The pious reader may use any other devotions which are more to his mind." Again, in the Indulgence for the commemoration of our Lady's Delivery, the Indulgence is granted to the recitation of the forty Ave Maria, not to the words said before them, which may be used or not ad libitum. So with the meditations, or rather heads of meditations, to be used in saying the "Chaplet of our Lord," in the notices preceding which it is said, that "It is not necessary either to read or recite the short meditations which follow;" so with the Rosary and several other Chaplets. The same also is the case with the "Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity," in the notice of which it is expressly said, that "any one may use any form he pleases, provided only it expresses and explains the particular motives of each one of these theological virtues." In all these cases it is manifest that no criticism can be exercised on the fidelity of the translation as affecting the validity of the Indulgences to be gained, as the choice of the words is left entirely free. The case, however, is quite different in those other prayers where the intention of the Pope granting the Indulgence is to include the very words of the prayer; then the sense of those words must be kept, otherwise the Indulgence will not be gained. Yet even here, to judge from the versions which are given in certain cases in the Raccolta itself, considerable latitude of expression is admissive, so long as the sense is preserved. Take, for instance, the well-known prayer Eccomi: the Plenary Indulgence is here given to those who shall recite this prayer before a crucifix; and it is manifest, by a Latin version of it being given in the Raccolta, that the same Indulgence follows the saying as well of the Latin version as of the Italian original. Tet no fresh grant is mentioned as having ever been made to the Latin version; so that if the Plenary Indulgence is to be gained by saying it, it must be in virtue of its being a faithful translation. That it is so may certainly be presumed, for it is printed at Rome in the
