considerable series of Indexes compiled under the direction of kings, princes, universities, local inquisitors, and local ecclesiastics. The fact that the work came to be carried on by a number of authorities of varying character and with certain inevitable differences of purpose, of policy, and of method, caused the results to be more or less inconsistent and incongruous. An obedient believer, whose desire was simply to accept and be guided by the instructions of the authorities, might easily have found himself not a little perplexed at the conflicting instructions that came to him in regard to this matter of pernicious literature, in the two centuries between the Index of Louvain and that of Benedict XIV. An example of the effect produced by this Index on the mind of one Roman scholar is given in a letter written in January, 1559 (immediately after the publication of the Index) by Latinus Latinius to Andrea Masius[123]: “Why should you be planning for the publication of any new works at a time when nearly all the books which have thus far appeared (_qui adhuc sunt editi_) are being taken away from us? It seems to me that at least for some years to come, no one among us will dare to write anything but letters. There has just been published an Index of the books which, under penalty of excommunication, we are no longer permitted to possess. The number of those prohibited (particularly of works originating in Germany) is so great that there will remain but few. On this ground, I advise you to put to one side your variants of the Bible and the translation of Demosthenes. Faernus has been devoting some days to the ‘purifying’ of his library; I shall begin to-morrow going over my own collection so that nothing may be found in it which is not authorised. Should I describe the process as a shipwreck or a holocaust of literature? In any case this [censorship] must have the result of deterring many of your group from the production of books, and will serve as a warning to the printers to be cautious in making selections for their presses.” It may be understood, although it is not specifically so stated, that the books delivered over to the bishops or inquisitors were burned. Natalis Comes writes (possibly with some rhetorical exaggeration), “There was everywhere such a conflagration of books, that one was reminded of the burning of Troy. Neither private nor public libraries were spared, and many were nearly emptied.... In all the cities of Italy, readers were mourning for their lost treasures.”[124] A letter from Bologna dated February 11, 1559, says: “The prescriptions of the Index are obeyed here. Nothing is permitted but the _Thesaurus linguae latinae_ and the _Commentaries_ of Dolet. Of the writings of Erasmus, one is permitted to retain nothing but one or two of the translations [of the Fathers] and in these the name of the translator must be cancelled.”[125]