Libris orthodoxorum patrum, aliorumve fidelium, vel infidelium auctorum nondum rejectorum, quotquot interpretatione, typis, vel opera hæreticorum in lucem prodiere, definitum est, eas nullatenus legi, vel detineri posse, nisi prius licentia in scriptis habita ab Officio S. R. Inquisitionis, sive ab ejusdem sacri officii Commissariis, vel ab hæreticæ pravitatis Inquisitoribus seu ab eorum Vicariis. Vicariis. Hujusmodi vero licentia nulli hominum impertienda est nisi abrasis primum, vel adeo obliteratis, ut legi, vel percipi non possint, nominibus, cognominibus, annotationibus, scholiis, censuris, argumentis, summariis, et quibuscunque aliis vestigiis memoriæ, vel industriæ omninm eorum qui in prima classe, secundum cujusque elementi seriem in Indice sacri officii fuerint annotati. Quamprimum autem ejuscemodi codices ab hæreticis versi recogniti, vel editi, rursus per auctores probatæ fidei evulgentur, adeo, ut obtineri possint, omnis jom concessa licentia revocata, et penitus irrita censeatur.

This index is of about the same dimensions as that, better known, of Trent. It does not exhibit the name or authority of the reigning Pontiff in any part but not the slightest doubt can be entertained that it is to be ascribed to him; as is freely done in the Session of the Council of Trent, which discusses the subject of a new Index, ac

cording to the representation, not only of FRA PAOLO, as will be seen, but of PALLAVICINO*. If any confirmation of the fact were necessary, it might be supplied by CIACONIO, who, in his Vitæ, et Res Gestæ Pontificum, &c., under Paul IV., expressly records of him—ne aliquis hæreticus error piorum animis obreperet, Indicem librorum a se dam natorum, publicavit. In an Additio on the passage by VICTORELLI, are read the following rather important observations. De hac re Panvinius l. c. et narratio patrum ordinis Clericorum Regularium apud Caracciolum; fusius Caracciolus ipset, et

Ist. del Conc. di Trento, lib. xv., cap. 19.

In the life of Paul IV. by Caraccioli, there does not appear to be anything additional upon the subject; but the Narratio referred to, which is contained in a long letter of the regular clergy living at Rome, and writing in the very year when the Index was published, 1559, pp. 62-92, edit. Coloniæ, 1612, deserves rather more minute attention. Fuit item Christianæ Reipub. valde proficua prohibitio librorum quos herætici impiïque Autores sive Impressores ediderant, curaque quam Pontifex adhibet, ut libri pravis Scholiis, Notisve infecti fœdatique perpurgentur. Then comes the common-place tirade against heretics; after which the writers (although the singular is used) resume. Brevi itaque cum Dei auxilio, speramus, Sacra Doctorum Ecclesiæ Commentaria, Divinasque litteras, atque adeo omne genus libros, pravo dogmate purgatos, nobis fore reddendos. In LETI, or GILTIO ROGERI's Vita di Sisto V., is a notice of the Index before us, entitled to some consideration. Montalto, acting under the directions of Cardinal Alessandrino, afterwards Pius V., whom he, with one intervention, was to succeed, while at Venice in capacity of Commissary-General, received from his superior un grande Indice di Libri, che la soprema Inquisitione di Roma haveva riprovato, e dechiarati sospetti d' heresia, &c., enjoining him to prohibit, sotto gravi pene d' iscommunica, the reading or retaining them. The booksellers were ordered to give him a catalogue of their books,

Castaldus. Cardinalis Theatinus, sub Julio III. Indicem librorum non legendorum conficere cœperat; at Romanus Pontifex delectus, primus fuit, suo sæculo, qui universalem perniciosorum librorum indicem contexere, et ad usum revocare, studuit. Ante illum nulla Pontificia, aut Cæsarea lex, propositis pœnis, caverat, in universum, ne libri Hæreticorum, aut alii pestilentes legerentur. The Additio OLDOINI inserts in the list of the works of Paul IV. Indicem librorum prohibitorum primus omnium Paulus confecit*.

In my edition of the Index under consideration, which was bound up with an edition of that of Trent, at Bononia, 1564, a former possessor has marked with a pen all the alterations and additions, which are not many. The most remarkable peculiarity of this edition is the article already referred to, and which has disappeared from all subsequent editions, except the next but one, which will be noticed-Joannis Casæ Poemata.

There are some things, however, not undeserving of attention, connected with the insertion of the name, Desiderius Erasmus. It occurs

and, one refusing, the senate interfered with some vigour, and the nuncio was induced to advise Montalto to desist. Parte Prima, Libro iii., Ed. Losanna, 1669, Tom. i, pp. 170-173.

*Edit. ult., Tom. iii., coll. 812, 816, 840.

under the class of Auctores quorum libri, et scripta omnia prohibentur. And yet, after the name, the words follow-cum universis Commentariis, Annotationibus, Scholiis, Dialogis, Epistolis, Censuris, Versionibus, Libris et scriptis suis, etiam si nil penitus contra Religionem, vel de Religione contineant. This is somewhat of an illustration of the title, De omnibus Rebus et quibusdam aliis. But this is not all. Be it known, then, that in consequence of this proscribed writer's Dedication of the first edition of his Greek Testament, with Annotations, in 1516, to the reigning pope, Leo X., the head, infallible as by many he is believed, of the Roman church, directed to him a brief, which the editor has carefully inserted in the second, and in every subsequent edition of his Greek Testament, highly commending the lucubrations of his dear son, and proceeding thusQuas nuper a te recognitas, et pluribus additis annotationibus locupletatas, illustratasque fuisse certiores facti, non mediocriter gavisi fuimus, ex prima illa editione quæ absolutissima videbatur, conjecturam facientes, qualis hæc futura, quantumve boni, sacræ Theologiæ studiosis, ac orthodoxæ fidei nostræ sit allatura. Macte igitur, &c. How should we ever have been extricated from this collision of papal authority, had not the healing mediation interposed of the Spanish In

dex, published about half a century after, in 1612, and to be described in its place? In the Expurgatory division of that Index, and under the long article Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Opera, at the beginning of the censures on the sixth volume, we read the following words—Ad marginem Epistolæ Leonis P. P. X. ad Erasmum, quæ incipit, Dilecte fili, salutem, et habetur seq. pag. post inscriptionem hujus Tomi, adscribe: Dulcibus encomiis pius Pater nutantem ovem allicere conatur. There is another article possessing some peculiarity: it is Lib. inscrip. Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia. This Consilium was the result of an assembly of four cardinals, among whom was our Pole, and five prelates, by Paul III., in 1537, charged to give him their best advice relative to a reformation of the church. The corruptions of that community were detailed and denounced with more freedom than might have been expected, or was probably desired, so much so, that when one of the body, Cardinal Caraffa, assumed the tiara, as Paul IV., he transferred his own advice into his own list of prohibited books. The genuineness of this work, which was frequently reprinted, and of which I have an edition printed at Antwerp, in the succeeding year, 1538, is past the possibility of controversy; and stands forth as an act of self-con