Moreover, it is hardly credible, as Pope Benedict XIV points out, that anything an author might advance in his favor, should escape so many examiners without receiving due attention and emphasis.
The whole procedure is primarily not intended as a measure against the author, although pecuniary loss may ensue, but to protect the faithful. A condemnation is rather a warning to the would-be reader, than a punishment inflicted upon the author. It is not an act of jurisdiction. Were the author's personal views under investigation, he would be summoned personally before another tribunal and tried according to a method that would give him the amplest opportunity to defend himself.
These considerations also show that the condemnation of a book after its author's death is not unreasonable. A book remains what it is independently of its author. Nor would it change the nature of a book were the author afterwards to prove his orthodoxy to the satisfaction of the authorities, or to do penance in sackcloth and ashes,
