Elder, William Henry, Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, to Archbishop John Mary Odin, C.M., New Orleans, Louisiana, 1864 October 21

He has never applied for permission to use the Roman Ordo because of the inconveniences for the missionaries in the backwoods areas. Often these men have to carry two or even three parts of the breviary in order to say all the hours. He would like to ask his clergy before asking for the permission. Archbishop Martin John Spalding is ill. Elder has read an instruction concerning clandestine marriages. He always understood that the Tridentine decree applied to Mississippi as part of the French and Spanish territories. Others say only to colonies and therefore only to Natchez, Biloxi, and other settlements. He asks Odin's interpretation of the law. He has an instruction on a difficult question of matrimony - on fictitious consent. He quotes a section of the response from Rome but he does not agree that it is practicable. He asks Odin's opinion. :: VI-2-h A.L.S. 3pp. 4to.