Complutensian Polyglot Bible

Latin

Venerable Brother and beloved son, greetings and apostolic blessing. Some time ago, through a report made to us by our venerable brother Bernardino, Bishop of Sabina, and our beloved son Egidio, Priest-Cardinal of the Title of Saint Matthew, we understood that among other works which Francisco Cardinal Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (1436–1517), the powerful Spanish statesman and Grand Inquisitor who funded this project of blessed memory, Priest-Cardinal of the Title of Saint Balbina, completed with the highest praise before he departed from human affairs, there exists a work of the New and Old Testament. Specifically, the New Testament is in Greek and Latin; and the Old Testament is in the aforementioned Greek and Latin, as well as in the Hebrew and Aramaic AramaicThe original text uses "Chaldaeo" (Chaldean), the traditional Renaissance term for the Aramaic language languages. This was composed by the same Cardinal Francisco with great sleepless nights and the consensus of learned men. About six hundred volumes or more were printed at the expense of the same Cardinal Francisco; but since the said Cardinal Francisco was snatched away by death suddenly after this printing, and our consent for the publication of the said work had not yet been sought, the work has been unable until now to reach the hands of scholars and the public benefit, to which it will be most fruitful. Furthermore, the will of the said Cardinal Francisco, noted in his testament, remains in part unexecuted, and it is to be fulfilled from the price for which the said volumes shall be sold. Therefore we, deeming it unworthy that such a work should lie hidden any longer to the loss of public utility, and that the pious and so imitable will of such a man should be frustrated of its due execution any longer, and wishing to come to the aid of both losses with the help of our provision: of our own accord original: motu proprio; a legal term indicating the Pope is acting on his own initiative and from our certain knowledge, approving the aforementioned work and granting that as such it may freely come into the light through the hands of scholars and others from now on, we command your discretion (you who, as we have heard, are among the executors of the said testament) through these writings: that you diligently take care to sell the aforementioned volumes for the best price that can be negotiated, even without the other executors of the said testament (if there be any), and that you cause the said will to be fulfilled from that price, according to the capacity of that same price. And lest any of the said volumes remain unsold, we inhibit each and every person, both ecclesiastical and secular, of whatever dignity, status, grade, order, and condition they may be—under the sentence of excommunication excommunicationA penalty that excludes a person from the sacraments and the spiritual community of the Church already pronounced, from which they cannot be absolved except by us ourselves or by our special mandate (except when at the point of death), and also under a penalty of one thousand gold ducats of the Chamber to be paid by each transgressor, which we apply in equal portions to the building of the Basilica of Saint Peter in the City Rome and to our Chamber—lest they presume in any way to buy the aforementioned work from anyone other than the person or persons deputed by you or either of you for that purpose, or to print it during this period, for a space of seven years to be calculated from the day the sale begins. If, indeed, they should not fear to bypass this prohibition by rashness (which God forbid), we grant by the tenor of these presents the license and faculty to you and each of you to denounce the aforementioned transgressors as excommunicated and to command them to be avoided as such, and to fine them individually with a penalty of five hundred such ducats, and to do whatever else is necessary or opportune in the matter, notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinances and any other things to the contrary. Given at Rome at Saint Peter’s under the Ring of the Fisherman The personal seal used by Popes for official correspondence, the 22nd day of March, 1520, in the eighth year of our Pontificate.