of every nation were ordered by the Council (Sess. XXIV, "De Ref.", c. vii). Content and authority The Council intended the projected Catechism to be the Church's official manual of popular instruction. The seventh canon, "De Reformatione", of Sess. XXIV, runs: "That the faithful may approach the Sacraments with greater reverence and devotion, the Holy Synod charges all the bishops about to administer them to explain their operation and use in a way adapted to the understanding of the people; to see, moreover, that their parish priests observe the same rule piously and prudently, making use for their explanations, where necessary and convenient, of the vernacular tongue; and conforming to the form to be prescribed by the Holy Synod in its instructions (catechesis) for the several Sacraments: the bishops shall have these instructions carefully translated into the vulgar tongue and explained by all parish priests to their flocks . . .". In the mind of the Church the Catechism, though primarily written for the parish priests, was also intended to give a fixed and stable scheme of instruction to the faithful, especially with regard to the means of grace, so much neglected at the time. To attain this object the work closely follows the dogmatic definitions of the Council. It is divided in four parts: I. The Apostles' Creed; II. The Sacraments; III. The Decalogue; IV. Prayer, especially The Lord's Prayer. It deals with the papal primacy, a point which was not defined at Trent; on the other hand, it is silent on the doctrine of indulgences, which is set forth in the "Decretum de indulgentiis", Sess. XXV. It states the common doctrine about servitude, allowed in some cases (prisoners of war, self-selling in extreme necessity, civil punishment): "To enslave a freeman, or appropriate the slave of another is called man-stealing" The bishops urged in every way the use of the new Catechism; they enjoined its frequent reading, so that all its contents would be committed to memory; they exhorted the priests to discuss parts of it at their meetings, and insisted upon its being used for instructing the people. To some editions of the Roman Catechism was prefixed a "Praxis Catechismi", i.e. a division of its contents into sermons for every Sunday of the year adapted to the Gospel of the day. The Catechism has not of course the authority of conciliary definitions or other primary symbols of faith;