It is certainly not in order to hold the Jesuits responsible for the general censorship policy of Rome. The direction of the Roman censorship has never been in Jesuit hands. The first secretary of the Congregation of the Index was a Franciscan, while all the succeeding secretaries have been Dominicans. Hilgers does not mention one detail in regard to which this Dominican control of the Congregation has doubtless been important: of the books on the Index which were the work of members of the great Catholic Orders, those of the Jesuits equal in number all of the others together. One cause for this was probably the fact that this Order included a larger proportion of educated workers. The literary interests of the Jesuits were greater and so also was the number of books produced by them. During the second half of the 18th century, the censorship commissions instituted by the State were given powers under which the authority of the censorship bodies of the Church was materially modified and restricted. In Austria, a number of Indexes were compiled by these civil commissions, and in Bavaria one such Index was published. These Indexes have importance chiefly because they represent a claim made on the part of the State to control certain matters which, according to the ecclesiastics, properly belonged within the exclusive domain of the Church. In 1752, Maria Theresa, for the purpose of checking the distribution throughout the Austrian dominions of Protestant writings, issued an edict ordering all Catholics to submit to their confessors the copies of religious books in their possession. The confessors were to retain all doubtful works and to return the others duly certified with their signatures and with an ecclesiastical seal. In 1756, the bookbinders were instructed to deliver to the parish priests copies of any Protestant writings placed in their hands for binding. In 1753, the examination of books that were already in print, together with the censorship of works submitted for the purpose of securing a printing permit, was transferred from the University of Vienna to a censorship commission which was charged with the work both of censorship and revision. This commission was appointed under the imperial authority and remained in existence until 1848. It issued from time to time catalogues of prohibited books. Books were in part prohibited unconditionally, and in part with the restriction that they should be placed only in the hands of scholars who had secured from the police authorities a special permission for their use. In 1754, was published the first Austrian Index. It bears the title _Catalogus librorum rejectorum per Concessum censurae_. After 1758, the lists bore the title of _Catalogus librorum a Commissione Aulica prohibitorum_.