Inter praecipuas machinationes

{{Short description|1844 papal encyclical by Gregory XVI}}

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{{Infobox papal document|title=Inter praecipuas|type=Encyclical|pope=Gregory XVI|language of title=Latin|translation of title=Among the major|signature date=8 May 1844|Papal coats of arms=C o a Gregorius XVI.svg|subject=Church and state|number=9 of 9|web_en=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/greg16/g16inter.htm|before=Inter ea}}

{{lang|la|Inter praecipuas machinationes}}, or On Biblical Societies, was an encyclical issued by Pope Gregory XVI on 8 May 1844, condemning Protestant translations of the Bible.

Following the examples of Pius VII, Leo XII, and Pius VIII, Gregory condemns Bible societies for their distribution of unapproved Bible editions.{{cite book |last1=Dievenkorn |first1=Sabine |last2=Levin |first2=Shaul |title=[Re]Gained in Translation II: Bibles, Histories, and Struggles for Identity |date=26 February 2024 |publisher=Frank & Timme GmbH |isbn=978-3-7329-0790-8 |page=65 |language=en}} He accuses the Christian League, in New York, of "inciting sedition",{{cite book |last1=Noll |first1=Mark A. |title=America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-762346-6 |page=321 |language=en}} converting Catholic Italian immigrants to Protestantism by encouraging them to form their own interpretations of the Bible.{{cite book |last1=Schuck |first1=Michael Joseph |title=That They be One: The Social Teaching of the Papal Encyclicals, 1740-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-0-87840-489-6 |page=16 |language=en}}

Many American Protestants saw Gregory's position as conceding that Catholic doctrines were unbiblical.{{cite book |last1=Stanley |first1=Christopher D. |title=The Colonized Apostle |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-0-8006-6854-9 |page=194 |language=en}} Protestant groups like the Plymouth Brethren took the encyclical as evidence that Catholic countries were in need of their missionary labor.{{cite book |last1=Eaton |first1=Kent |title=Protestant Missionaries in Spain, 1869–1936: "Shall the Papists Prevail?" |date=3 June 2015 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-9411-9 |page=25 |language=en}}