I apologize for the break in posting. I was hoping to keep things more regular. I have, however, been very busy. Later today, I hope to announce the publication of the first-ever English translation of St. Robert Bellarmine’s De Romano Pontifice, books 1-2. Books 3-5 are planned for next month, depending on the editors.

It is interesting. After I produce a rough draft, which isn’t usually as hard on grammar as on punctuation, I then go and edit and reformulate a bit. Then the editor gets it and I get it back with a ton of red. Most of it is punctuation. The problem is when you are looking at a book from the 1580s, you tend to use the punctuation you are looking at unless you can consciously stop and think about what you’re doing, which is hard when your managing making the English work. Usually, it is that commas and semicolons are in the exact opposite places they ought and things of that sort.Then there is the Oxford comma. I love the Oxford comma, no one else does. Then there are the differences between US and UK spelling, and I get mixed up as I admire UK English and so wish we used it over here. (btw, now would be a good time to apologize to any UK readers of my work for not using what I consider your superior style in spelling and punctuation).

Then I run spell check, which is tedious because of the large number names that you have to either add or skip, then I format it for a proof copy, then I read it over again. Then I control F and look for the common spelling errors as a result of my typing speed, such as hte for the, and the like, and surprisingly I always get at least one, even after all the aforesaid labor! Then I normally give things like this to my wife, because, though she is not theologically trained, she is sharp and has a good sense for what people will understand, and make further recommendations which are usually very good, unless it’s on an area of technical terminology or something. That saved my tail with the last Bellarmine translation, because I do my own translations from the fathers, and a few of them made sense to me because I looked at the Latin and the Greek and it made sense, but in plain English it was too harsh, so I had to discipline myself to take a careful look. The frustrating thing is I do the work of about five people who are normally involved in the production of the book, including the cover design.

At any rate, I hope to make this announcement later in the day, once the proof is approved and the Amazon page loads. You can also buy it direct from me, and I will have that page linked up as well.

Thanks to all for the prayers and support for the Robert Bellarmine project. I know most people will buy the book for Book II, Chapter 30 (loss of papal office), but that is a minor point. On that note, a sedevacantist e-mailed me demanding to know if I translated that particular section correctly. The cheek! One can rest assured that while I may make an error, I will never mis-represent something in translation. You will find that section better than it is currently found online.

But don’t get mired in a 7 page explication out of a 330 page book! There are so many amazing things in here. In fact, in the wikipedia page on Papal primacy, they list a number of arguments against Papal primacy as though they were unanswerable, yet they are all refuted by Bellarmine in this book. Things like did the African Bishops reject papal authority in the Sixth Council of Carthage? Did Peter go to Rome? The chronology and history of Peter. That only the Bishop of Rome has been held to be the head of the whole Church. Every argument is grounded in Scripture and the Fathers. Bellarmine also injects a good bit of humor into the book. For instance: “Illyricus (a Lutheran) has published a book on this subject, which is filled with lies, abuse, and besides two arguments.”

I might even have a special deal for all readers of this website.