He is able, however, fairly to make out his main contention, that for the century succeeding the Protestant Reformation, the will or desire on the part of the Protestants to establish a censorship of literature was just as emphatic as that of the authorities of Rome; and that if their efforts were only partially successful, it was through no want of conviction on their part that such efforts were required for the maintenance of what they considered to be the true Faith. He is able to make good the further contention that these examples of Protestant censorship present a much larger series of inconsistencies than could be found in the record of the Index of the Church of Rome; even though one should for the purpose of the comparison include under the Church Index, in addition to those printed in Rome, the Indexes that emanated from Madrid, Louvain, and Paris. He also makes his point good in regard to the political Index. He is able to show that, as far at least as the edicts of the State were concerned, these were more bitter, more comprehensive, and more regardless of literary interests than those of the Church. What he does not emphasise is that these political edicts were very much more spasmodic and temporary in their influence, and that, as a fact, they had very little continued effect on the literary development of the communities which were responsible for them. A political censorship becomes of necessity the football of political parties and is therefore not to be maintained with any measure of consistency or justice. The multiplicity and changeableness of the religious doctrines of the reformers gave to the so-called Protestant censorship an inconsistent and contradictory character which is not to be paralleled under any epoch of Roman supervision of literature. A censorship of this kind is the natural product of the fissure of creeds. Hermann Wagener, writing in Berlin in 1864, remarks that all the measures of the State thus far attempted to protect the public against pernicious influences from the printing-press, are open to the criticism that their action is purely negative. On the other hand, as he points out, the censorship policy of the Catholic Church, while on the one hand prohibitory, on the other asserts positive and constructive principles for the literary and intellectual development of the community by wholesome and wise methods.