Roman Breviary

...absorbed, The text here follows from the previous page, discussing how errors had been "absorbed" into practice. lest any license for a new Breviary be permitted in the future, he Referring to Pope Paul IV (reigned 1555–1559). undertook to bring the whole method of reciting and singing the Canonical Hours The set of prayers (such as Matins, Lauds, and Vespers) recited by clergy at specific times of the day. back to the ancient custom and institution.

But when he afterwards departed this life before those things which he had so excellently begun were finished, and when the Council of Trent (which had previously been interrupted in various ways) was recalled by Pope Pius IV of pious memory, the Fathers in that salutary reformation established by the same Council thought to restore the Breviary according to the plan of Pope Paul himself. Therefore, whatever had been collected and elaborated by him in that sacred work was sent by the aforementioned Pope Pius to the Fathers of the Council at Trent. There, when the task had been given by the Council to certain learned and pious men to add the care of the Breviary to their other deliberations, as the conclusion of the Council was now pressing, the whole matter was referred to the authority and judgment of the Roman Pontiff The Pope. by a decree of the same Council. He [Pius IV] saw to it that the matter was completed, having summoned to Rome those same Fathers chosen for this duty and having added several suitable men from the City original: "Urbs." In Papal documents, "The City" always refers to Rome. to their number.

But when he had also "entered the way of all flesh," original: "viam universæ carnis ingresso." A common biblical idiom for dying. We, having been raised to the height of the Apostolate The office of the Pope, as successor to the Apostle Peter. by the disposition of divine mercy, although unworthy, were most urgently pressing on with the sacred work, having also employed other expert men for it. By the great kindness of God toward us (for so we accept it), we have seen this Roman Breviary completed.

Regarding the plan of its arrangement, having learned of it more than once from those very men who had been put in charge of the task, and understanding that in the making of the work they had not departed from the ancient Breviaries of the noble churches of the City and of our Vatican library, and furthermore that they had followed several serious writers in this genre—and finally, having removed those things which were foreign and uncertain—they omitted nothing of the proper essence of the ancient Divine Office The official set of daily prayers, hymns, and scripture readings of the Church.. We have approved the work and ordered it to be printed and published in Rome.

Therefore, so that the effect of this divine work may truly follow, by the authority of these presents, we first of all take away and abolish the new Breviary published by the aforementioned Cardinal Francis, Referring to Cardinal Francisco de Quiñones, whose simplified Breviary was popular for a time but eventually deemed too radical a departure from tradition. and in whatever Church, Monastery, Convent, Order, Military Order, and place of men and women, even those that are exempt: "Exempt" refers to religious orders or institutions that were usually answerable directly to the Pope rather than local bishops. whether permitted from its first institution or otherwise by this See. And we also abolish any other Breviaries, whether older or protected by any privilege...