According to Alanus, the Blessed Virgin Mary reportedly made fifteen specific promises to Christians who pray the rosary. The fifteen rosary promises range from protection from misfortune to meriting a high degree of glory in heaven. A commonly printed pamphlet of the promises carries the imprimatur of Patrick J. Hayes who was Archbishop of New York from 1919 to 1938. The pamphlet may possibly be an excerpt from an earlier work carrying Hayes’ imprimatur. Such an imprimatur would have been issued following the issuance of a "nihil obstat" (meaning nothing obstructs) by a censor who reviewed the material to determine if it contradicted Catholic teaching. Under the rules of Canon Law, neither a "nihil obstat" nor an "imprimatur" would necessarily reflect the personal opinion of either the censor or the archbishop regarding the document reviewed. It was Hayes' predecessor, John Cardinal Farley, who issued an imprimatur for the edition of the "Catholic Encyclopedia" that holds the rosary promises as not historical.