It was announced in Rome on Monday that Monseigneur Duchesne's
well-known " Histoire Ancienne de l'Eglise" had been put upon the Index. This action on the part of the Vatican comes as the climax of a long campaign of oppression against the author, which was described in these columns in an article on December 30th, 1911. The book on its original appearance in French not only received the official imprimatur but a warm personal commendation from the Pope himself, and became a text-book in the French seminaries. It was only on the appearance of an Italian translation that objec- tions were raised, upon which the author at once withdrew the translation. Shortly afterwards the French bishops forbade the further use of the original in the schools. The present action of the authorities is a deplorable example of the intoler- ance and inconsistency which characterize the policy of the Vatican at the present time.
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