To the Reader
IN presenting to the English reading public "The Decrees of the Vatican Council" we make no apology for calling it the "best book" and most valuable religious relic left to the twentieth century by the nineteenth. It is somewhat surprising that collections of the "hundred best books," which usually begin with the Bible and generally include Marcus Aurelius, should give no place to the Acts of the General Councils; though mere literary works have done little beyond filling vacant hours, and these Acts have renewed the face of the earth.
Perhaps no General Council has been more naturally fitted than the Vatican Council to produce a masterpiece of religious thought and literature. No assembly of men since the time of Christ has ever been so representative of Christian and national thought. It is literally true to say that the Whitsun tongues of fire fell not on so many nations as were gathered together in Rome, July 18, 1870. Hardly one civilized or barbaric nation was unrepresented in the hierarchy. For the first time in the history of the Church every continent of the world sent its representative to bear witness to
