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with which they reckon, particularly in Papal countries, upon the reverence and submission, with which the formal and authentic announcement of pontifical judgment and decree, on subjects of literature, must be received by every faithful and obedient member of the Roman Church. The whole speculation, indeed, appears to have originated in the organised conspiracy in favour of Papal against all secular power, in which the Archbishop of Cologne was to have taken a conspicuous part — indeed, taken the lead.
I shall make the present publication interesting to readers whose approbation is of any value, by appending to it an infant Index of extreme rarity, and of importance as well as curiosity. It is a Venetian production of the year 1554.
By referring to my Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, pages 37 to 40, it will be seen, that Peter Paul Vergerio has attested and described four early Papal and Italian Catalogues of prohibited books, issued respectively from Venice, Florence, and Milan. The call for such attempted antidotes in the north of Italy seems to have arisen from its nearer
