as godless and as damnable the theory that the pope could release any subject from obedience to his rightful sovereign. Finally, they were called upon to declare the belief that neither the pope nor any other authority could release them from this oath. In 1608, James wrote a defence of the oath, which was printed in a Latin version prepared by Henry Savile. In 1609, this treatise was prohibited by Paul V under the penalty of _excommunicatio latae_, etc. A further prohibition was issued by the Inquisition some months later. A treatise by William Barclay, a Scotch Catholic, printed in 1609 (after the death of the author), presents the arguments against the authority, either direct or indirect, of the pope in secular matters. This was duly condemned in Rome in 1610 and in Paris in 1612. It formed the text for the famous treatise by Bellarmin, _Tractatus de potestate summi Pont. in rebus temporalibus_. The treatise written by the Benedictine, Thomas Preston, under the nom-de-plume of Roger Widdrington, _Apologia Card. Bellarmini pro jure principium adv. suas ipsius rationes pro auctoritate papali_, etc., printed in London in 1611, was prohibited in Rome in 1613 in a general decree. In 1614, the Index of the Congregation issued a special decree prohibiting this work together with a second treatise of the same author. Later, were placed on the Index a further group of essays by Widdrington. Sarpi published in April, 1614, an analysis of the two earlier books of Widdrington, giving high praise to the scholarly authority of the author’s conclusions. These had an immediate bearing upon the contention of the Venetian Republic to control, without interference from the pope, its own civil affairs. In 1680, sixty divines of the Sorbonne rendered a judgment to the effect that the Catholics in England could with a safe conscience swear loyalty to King James and accept the oath of allegiance. A monograph making record of this judgment, printed in London, in 1681, under the title of _English Loyalty Vindicated by the Divines_, or a _Declaration of Three-score Persons of the Sorbonne for the Oath of Allegiance_, was, in 1682, prohibited by the Inquisition. A monograph that secured a wide circulation, being printed in fact thirty-five times in fifteen years, under the title of _An Abuse Misrepresented and Represented_, escaped formal condemnation, although it took strong ground in behalf of the English contention. In 1760, the theological faculties of Paris, Louvain, Douay, Valladolid, Salamanca, and Alcala united in a declaration to the effect that the pope possessed in England no authority over civil affairs and had no power to release the subjects of the English king from the oath of allegiance, and that no Catholic was under obligation to accept instructions from the authorities of the Church that would interfere with this allegiance. In 1853, Professors Russell, Patrick Murray, and others of the Catholic College of Maynooth