Roman Breviary

...they realized [the texts] had been corrupted and were in need of revision, and through their learning and piety, they restored them. Since this was carried out by them with great precision and indeed with no small benefit—so that out of that previous inconvenience no little usefulness has arisen—We have commanded that it be printed and published by our Vatican Printing Press original: "Typographia Vaticana"; the official printing office of the Holy See as accurately as possible.

Furthermore, so that its use may be preserved in all parts of the Christian world for all future times, we decree that the Breviary Breviarium The liturgical book containing the daily prayers, hymns, and readings of the Catholic Church itself may be printed within our beloved City [Rome] only at the same Vatican Press and nowhere else. Outside of the City, however, we permit it to be printed according to the exemplar now published by the said Press, and not otherwise, under this law: namely, that any printers wishing to print it are allowed to do so, provided they first request and obtain in writing the license of our beloved sons, the Inquisitors of heretical depravity Inquisitores hæreticæ pravitatis The ecclesiastical officers tasked with protecting Catholic doctrine from heresy in those places where they are stationed; or, where they are not present, the license of the Local Ordinaries Ordinarii locorum The local bishop or his equivalent who holds authority over a specific territory.

Otherwise, if any printers or booksellers Bibliopolæ presume to print or sell the said Breviary in any form hereafter without such a license, those printers and booksellers residing outside of our Ecclesiastical State Status Ecclesiasticus The Papal States; territories under the direct sovereign rule of the Pope shall incur the sentence of excommunication excommunicatio latæ sententiæ An automatic excommunication that follows the commission of an act without the need for a formal trial, from which they cannot be absolved by anyone except the Roman Pontiff, unless they are at the point of death. Those residing within the beloved City and the rest of the Ecclesiastical State shall, by that very act and without further declaration, irredeemably incur a penalty of five hundred gold ducats a valuable gold coin used throughout Europe to be paid to the Apostolic Chamber, as well as the loss of all their books and printing types, which shall also be surrendered to the said Chamber.

And nevertheless, we perpetually interdict and prohibit the use of these same Breviaries to be printed or sold by them hereafter without such a license, among all places and peoples, under the same penalties. Furthermore, the Inquisitors or Local Ordinaries, before they grant such a license, must most diligently compare the Breviaries to be printed by the printers (both before and after they have been printed) with this Breviary revised by our authority and now published. They must not allow anything to be added or taken away, and they must attest with their own hand in the original license that the comparison has been made and that the texts agree in every way. A copy of this license shall always be printed at the beginning or at the end of every Breviary.

If they should act otherwise—namely, the Inquisitors—they shall incur the penalty of being deprived of their offices and being disqualified from obtaining them or others in the future. Bishops original: "Antistites" and Local Ordinaries shall incur suspension from divine offices and an interdict from entering a church. Their Vicars The administrative deputies of a Bishop shall similarly incur the penalty of being deprived of their offices and benefices, and disqualification from holding others in the future, and furthermore, the penalty of excommunication without further declaration, as stated above.

However, out of Apostolic kindness, taking into account the protection from loss for poor clergy and other ecclesiastical persons, as well as any printers and booksellers, we similarly permit and grant that those who currently have Breviaries already printed in their possession may keep, use, and sell them respectively. Notwithstanding any licenses...