INDEXES

( Prohibitory and Expurgatory. ) The books generally bearing the title of Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes, are catalogues of authors and works either condemned in to to , or censured and corrected chiefly by expunction, i ued from the Church of modern Rome, and published by authority of her ruling members and societies so empowered. The Prohibitory Index specifies and prohibits entire authors or works, whether of known or of unknown authors. This book has been frequently published, with succe ive enlargements, to the present time, under the expre sanction of the reigning pontiff. It may be considered as a kind of periodical publication of the papacy. The other cla of indexes, the Expurgatory, contains a particular examination of the works occurring in it, and specifies the pa ages condemned to be expunged or altered. Such a work, in proportion to the number of works embraced by it, must be, and in the case of the Spanish indexes of the kind, is, voluminous. For a general history of these indexes the reader is referred to Mendham’s “Literary Policy of the Church of Rome.”