In a work entitled _Church History of the English from the year 1500_, published under the name of Dod, (according to Mendham the real name of the author was Tootell), mention is made of a Council of Reformation. In chapter ix, pages 94 and 95, an extract is given from certain regulations framed by this council during the last decade of the 16th century. The wording is as follows: “Publick and private libraries must be searched and examined for books, as also all bookbinders, stationers and booksellers’ shops; and not only Heretical Books and Pamphlets but also prophane, vane, lascivious and other such hurtful and dangerous poysons, are utterly to be removed, burnt and suppressed, and severe order and punishment appointed for such as shall conceal these kind [_sic_] of Writing; and like order set down for printing of good things for the time to come.” * * * * * “The earlier editions of the Index expurgatory,” says Mendham, “were distributed with the utmost caution and were intended only for the possession and the inspection of those to whom they were necessary for the execution of the provisions. The reason is obvious. It certainly was little desirable that the dishonest dealings with the authors here censured should be known, either to those who were injured by them and to whom they would offer the opportunity of justifying themselves; or to the world at large whose judgment they must know would in many instances be at variance with their own. And evidently it was not to their interest to discover and to point out those very passages and writings, not only of reputed heretics but of reputed Catholics, which exposed the most vulnerable parts of their own system.”[179] “The _Indices Expurgatorii_ are very good commonplace books and repertories, by help of which we may presently find, what any author (who has fallen under censure) has against them [_i.e._ the Catholics]. We are directed through the Index to the book, chapter, and line, where anything is spoken against any superstition or error of Rome; so that he who has the _Indices_ cannot want for testimonies against Rome.”[180] In an article printed in 1861, in the _Katholik_ of Mayence, the writer says: