are the prospects which she cherishes, such are her aims, such her present acquisitions, and such the progressive course which she is encouraged by the late attainment of better power than that of argument to pursue; neither deficient in skill to improve her opportunities, nor negligent of any of the instruments which may forward her views. And among these, as far at least as concerns the retention of the empire, which she does, or may possess, there are few more suitable, and more effectually adapted to attain that object than the literary ones about to be examined in the present work.

The books generally bearing the title of PROHIBITORY and EXPURGATORY INDEXES are catalogues of authors and works, either condemned in toto, or censured and corrected, chiefly by expunction; issuing from the church of modern Rome, and published by authority of her ruling members or societies, so empowered.

It is of some importance to distinguish the titles above given, which signify things essentially different, but which are frequently confounded, both by papal and early writers, who ought to understand the subject best, and by modern ones very generally.

The Prohibitory Index specifies and prohibits entire authors, or works, whether of known or of

unknown authors. This book has been frequently published, with successive enlargements, up to the present time, under the express sanction of the reigning Pontiff. It may, indeed, be considered as a kind of periodical publication of the papacy; and no attempt or wish is discoverable to prevent its most extensive publicity, at least in countries professing the papal faith.

The other class of Indexes, the Expurgatory, whether united with the first or not, contains a particular examination of the works occurring in it, and specifies the passages condemned to be expunged or altered. Such a work, in proportion to the number of works embraced by it, must be, and in the instance of the Spanish Indexes of this kind, is, voluminous. In these, publicity was so little desired, that it was the chief thing guarded against. The earlier editions, in particular, were distributed with the utmost caution, as will incontrovertibly appear in the sequel; and were only intended for the possession and inspection of those, to whom they were necessary for the execution of their provisions. The reason is obvious. It certainly was little desirable, that the dishonest dealings of the authors of these censures should be known, either to those who were injured by them, and to whom they would afford the opportunity of justifying themselves; or to the world at

large, whose judgment they must know would, in many instances, be at variance with their own. And evidently it was not their interest to discover, and even officiously (as it were) to point out those very passages in the writings, not only of reputed heretics, but of reputed catholics, which expose the most vulnerable parts of their own system *. These apprehensions are sufficiently proved to have been well founded by the avidity with which the opportunity, whenever it occurred, was seized, by Protestants, of re-publishing these curious, as well as iniquitous, documents. And we can scarcely avoid feeling something like sympathy with the anger and invectives of those who, though frequently themselves smarting under the same lash, and yet the more for that very reason, are indignant, that the censures of their own brethren by these ecclesiastic critics should no sooner be published at Rome, Paris, or in Spain, than they are sent into the

*Their Indices Expurgatorii (for that use we may make of them) are very good common place books and repertories, by help of which we may presently find, what any author (by them censured) has against them. It is but our going to their Index, and by it we are directed to the book, chapter, and line, where any thing is spoken against any superstition or error of Rome; so that he who has the Indices (unless idle or ignorant) cannot want testimonies against Rome.'-Genuine Remains of Bp. BARLOW, Lond., 1693, pp. 70, 71. The author was well acquainted with the editions known in his time, particularly with those preserved at Oxford.

world afresh, and everywhere dispersed, by heretical editors, for the direct and most provoking purposes of proving, how little unity subsists among self-nominated catholics *. Independently, however, of their own importance, as furnishing almost the only copies of these productions accessible to Protestants, these re-impressions will not be the less valuable on the account just adverted to.

Both the prefaces and other accompanying matter of the protestant editors, as well as the additional matter to be found in the genuine and original Roman and Romanistic editions, contain much historical information of great value and importance. There have not, however, been wanting, in addition to these, many elaborate works professedly written upon the subject. Among these, perhaps the highest rank is claimed, as containing the fullest and most satisfactory account of these productions, by the comparatively

* See RAYNAUDI Erotemata de Malis ac bonis Libris, 4to., Lugd., 1653, p. 311. The title of the paragraph is-Suffixiones Catholicorum per Catholicos, scandalo hæreticis. The following is the sentence of which the sense is given above-Gebennæ in Speleo iniquitatis, & meretricis Calvinianæ Lupanari, vix ulla in Catholicos a Catholcis censura stringitur Romæ, Parisiis, & apud extremos Hispanos, quin mox ab eis recusa in hunc finem, ubique spargatur, ut animorum consensionem, (sicut ipsi maligne interpretantur,) inter Catholicos, nullam esse, palam faciant. The Constitutio of Benedict XIV. laments and confirms the same fact, as will appear in time -digladiantibus inter se Catholicis, &c.

early work of DANIEL FRANCUS, De Papistarum Indicibus Libb. Prohib. et Expurg. &c. Lipsiæ, MDCLXXXIV. 4to.; of which it is not the smallest praise, that it was compiled under peculiar disadvantages; for, with the evident merit of the work in view, it will scarcely be believed, that its indefatigable author had neither possession nor inspection of a single original edition of the earlier Indexes. Neither is it a slight testimony to the efficiency of this volume, that immediately upon its publication, as we are informed by the author himself, all the copies which were to be found at Francfort, were seized and conveyed away by the Imperial Commissary*-a fact which has produced the exceeding rarity of the work. Were we to specify any other treatise on the subject possessing peculiar merit, we should probably select that on the Mystery of the Indices Expurgatorü,' contained in a volume, entitled 'A Trea- ! tise of the Corruption of Scripture, Councils, and Fathers, by the Prelats, Pastors, and Pillars of the Church of Rome, &c. By THOMAS JAMES,' First Librarian of the Bodleian Library. The particular discussion begins at p. 372 of the 8vo. edition

*In a letter of Francus to be found in Schelhornii Amoenitates Litt. Tom. ult. pp. 608, 9. There is a copy in the British Museum, but not, I believe, in the Bodleian Library.