The apostolic letter in which Leo XIII gave the Holy See's judgement on the validity of Anglican ordinations, after a specially appointed commission had examined the question and the Pope had reviewed the practice of his predecessors. Rehearsing the constant discipline by which converted Anglican clergy had been ordained absolutely, and examining the Edwardine Ordinal itself, the letter concludes that the rite is defective in form, because its words do not signify definitely the order of the priesthood with its power to consecrate and offer the Body and Blood of the Lord, and defective in intention, because those who framed and used it deliberately set aside the Church's sacrificial priesthood. Leo XIII therefore declares ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rite to have been and to be absolutely null and utterly void, and the letter remains the Church's authoritative judgement on the question. The Holy See publishes the text in Latin.