tion is omitted in the two subsequent editions, printed the next year, 1570, at Antwerp. The title of both (for, although in contents identical, they are manifestly distinct and two, as an examination of the pages will at once discover, although so much alike that one description will adequately serve for both, as well indeed as for that which precedes, excepting the interpolations which are here abandoned) is, PHILIPPI II., Regis Catholici Edictum de Librorum prohibitorum Catalogo observando. Antwerpiæ. Ex officina Christophori Plantini MDLXX. Cum Privilegio, in 8vo. After that Edict, which we shall notice, follows the title of the Tridentine Index, exactly as in the original, with the addition, cum Appendice in Belgio, ex mandato Regia Cathol. Majestatis confecta. Same place and date. The edict, which appears in three languages, French, Flemish, and Latin, discovers that the Spanish monarch carefully reserved to himself, as a point of honour, to have every act of this nature emanate from his own authority: it discovers, too, that this provision was intended particularly for the part of his dominions which were situated to the north of Europe, the Netherlands; and the command to enforce its execution is directed, first to the Duke of Alva, and then to the governors of each province separately. The object of the whole is,

that within three months after the publication of this statute, all the condemned books should be burned, and all possession or sale of them after that time should be unlawful. All books partially condemned, or appointed to be expurgated, were to be brought to the magistrate of the place, and be corrected according to the judgment of the council, and fit persons, to whom a commission for that purpose was entrusted. The usual penalties are added. It is dated, Bruxelles, Feb. 15, 1569-the 17th for Naples. The Preface to the Appendix has nothing in it worthy of remark. It does no more than detail facts already known, and give, as the reason of the present appendix, the necessary incompleteness of the former Index; but carefully referring all to the supreme authority of the king. The deputation date from the same place as the royal decree, Sept. 1569. This list comprehends books in Latin, in French, in Dutch, and in Spanish. We have here, after a hundred years, the first allusion to the infamous Taxa of the church and court of Rome (when nearly thirty editions had issued from the bosom of the holy see, and she had been actively employed, for the same period, in finding out objects of literary reprobation), under the terms, Praxis, et taxa officina pænitentiaria Papæ. The description was probably meant to be unintelligible, as

it is *. Another characteristic peculiarity is, that the condemned Bibles and Testaments, which were dropped from the Tridentine Index, are here restored. And the whole closes with an extract from a decree of the fourth session of the Council of Trent under PAUL IIII. (should be III.), taking due care that printers shall not offend t.

*See TAXATIO PAPALIS, being an Account of the Tax-Books of the United Church and Court of modern Rome, &c. By EMANCIPATUS. pp. 46-48. This work contains large extracts from the unpublished MS. volume of the Taxe in the British Museum, and the principal division, of the Four, Taxa Sac. Penitentiariæ, from the rare Parisian edition of 1520. I have an edition of this division, printed apparently at Rome, which agrees almost verbatim with that just mentioned, and appears to be one of Leo X. As is plain from Dr. MILNER's ironical End of Controversy, Letter XLI., note 1, ed. 1824, where he ventures to touch upon the subject, but while he recognizes the Pope's Chancery, is prudently silent respecting the Penitentiary, which is quite a different thing, the champions of Rome are reduced to a formidable dilemma on the subject of this iniquity of their church. At one time it is the vile book,' which had no existence but in the invention of heretics, and was uniformly disavowed, abominated, condemned, by the innocents upon whom it was charged. But this plan of attack, and this position, could not-there were shrewd fears-be maintained. The assailants, therefore, on a sudden get to the other side of the fortress, and endeavour to undermine and blow it up with 'fees of office. Between the two the besiegers hardly know which method to choose, or rather to adhere to, not considering, themselves, so attentively as perhaps others will do for them, that the two parties, as far as their efforts are effectual, annoy, and must eventually destroy each other; for if the book is so vile as to be disowned, it cannot be so innocent as to contain only what morality allows. Mr. C. Butler has adopted the fees of officedefence: then he admits, which he cannot deny, the authenticity of the documents, with all their inseparable abominations. Utrum vis.

To somewhere about this period is to be referred the diligence of

The next Index to be examined is a most important one, and evidently originated in the provisions which have been noticed in the royal edict just given. The title is-INDEX EXPURGATORIUS Librorum qui hoc seculo prodierunt, vel doctrinæ non sanæ erroribus inspersis, vel inutilis et offensivæ maledicentiæ fellibus permixtis, juxta Sacri Concilii Tridentini Decretum, PHILIPPI II. Regis Ca

Pius V. in the extirpation of literary heresy. He sent Cardinal Comendon into Germany to oppose the Lutheran doctrine, with whom were joined two episcopal coadjutors. These he charged, above all things, to purify their dioceses from heretical books, which are perpetual instructors, and solicit without intermission. They were, moreover, to print in large quantities small books, which should dissipate error, and, being sold at a low price, might come into the hands of all. He promised money for the expense of printing, and to engage learned men to write against heretics, or perform other services for the recovery of souls ;-no had specimen and anticipation of a Tract Society. It is, however, faithfully extracted from a Life, in Spanish, of Pius V., by ANT. FUENMAYOR. Madrid, 4to., 1595, p. 53. We shall meet with urgent recommendations of the same pontiff to the Bohemians upon the same subject in a future part of this work. He was, indeed, as his biographer, meaning to praise him, affirms, a gran perseguidor de hereges. Lib. i., p. 24. There is a very curious fact concerning this pontiff, related by BARTOLI, in his Vita del Card. Bellarmino, Rom. 1678, p. 388. The Cardinal was engaged by him to superintend the printing of an authentic and faithful edition of the New Testament in Greek; but when it was upon the eve of performance, his Holiness changed his mind. Has there appeared a single edition of the Greek New Testament from the Vatican, or even the Roman press? Has a single edition of the Hebrew Old Testament issued from the apostolic city? Was the Vulgate jealous of the two great originals? Or, was it not enough that Ximenes, in placing the Vulgate in a column between them, had assimilated them to the two malefactors between whom the Saviour was crucified? This is his own representation.

MDLXXI.

tholici jussu et auctoritate, atque ALBANI DUCIS consilio ac ministerio in Belgia concinnatus, Anno Antwerpiæ, ex officina Christophori Plantini Prototypographi Regii. MDLXXI. 4to. The notice on the verso of the title-page begins to discover one of the peculiarities of this performance. Ducis ALBE jussu ac decreto cavetur, ne quis præter Prototypographum Regium hunc Indicem imprimat, neve ille aut quis alius publice vel private vendat, aut citra ordinariorum facultatem, aut permissionem habeat. The work, therefore, could not even be possessed without episcopal permission. A diploma of the king then follows in the Flemish language*, which is rendered intelligible to ordinary scholars by the version of it into Latin by JUNIUS, in his reprint of this Index. It expresses deep concern for the endangered orthodoxy of his subjects, and some for their purses; and therefore, instead of condemning all the bad books to the flames, the corrigible ones are subjected to a necessary purgation, which is to be performed by prelates and others so authorized; and for their assistance in this office, an Index Expurgatorius is drawn up and provided. Application by the

The Crevenna Catalogue, as quoted by Peignot, and the second part of the Bibliotheca Selecta of M. CHARLES MICHIELS, No. 2402, mention this Index as having a French preface; and the latter observes that it is accompanied by a portrait of the king.