although it could not openly resist the royal prerogative, in practice it continued to condemn books in secret without giving a hearing to the authors, and to a great extent rendered the submission to the King a mere formality after the publication of the edict of prohibition. It is Lea’s conclusion that, as a result of the long series of contests, the State gradually succeeded in asserting for its own protection the power of sovereignty, and did not hesitate to exercise the function which had at first been relegated exclusively to the Inquisition. In 1751, an issue arose between Spain and Rome over the Catechism of Mesengui. In this case the Spanish and Roman censors were in accord. The contest represented an attempt on the part of King Carlos III to free the throne from the domination of the Inquisition. The catechism in question was contained in six volumes entitled _Exposition de la Doctrine Chrétienne_. It was published in 1744 and was placed on the Index in 1757. It proved particularly obnoxious to the Jesuits and, at the instance of their general, Ricci, it was again condemned under a formal Bull. The main ground for the antagonism to the book was its utterances in regard to the claim of the popes to supremacy over sovereigns. Its condemnation was virtually a challenge to all the monarchs of Europe. King Carlos forbade the publication of the Bull in Spain; the inquisitor-general, in defiance of the royal authority, caused the Bull to be distributed throughout the churches and convents of Spain. A royal edict of 1762 ordered that no Bull or papal letter issued from Rome should be published without having been first presented to the King by the nuncio and having been approved. This edict was withdrawn in 1763 under pressure brought to bear upon the King by his confessor, but it was reissued in 1768. With the close of the reign of Carlos, the royal edict fell, however, into abeyance, and the Inquisition again secured for itself full control of the matter of censorship.