=13. Fraudulent Indulgences.=--After 1603, prohibition was made, first by the Inquisition and the Congregation of the Index, and later by the Congregation of Indulgences, of a number of books, monographs, and sheets in which indulgences are recorded which either had never been granted or which had been garbled from their original text. Many of the false indulgences owe their existence to the general superstition and stupidity of the people, and it is to be noted that it has been necessary, from the beginning of the 17th century until the present day, to continue to make disavowal of certain of the most fabulous and absurd of the series. Cardinal Baronius writes January 20, 1601, to Antonio Talpa[50]: “Last evening I had occasion to apply to the Pope for a general indulgence. I found to my surprise that the Pope had decided thereafter to give no general indulgences for a single person or for a specific place. I praised him for this conclusion; for it is the case that many wrong uses have crept into the general use of indulgences. I have had occasion more than once to call the attention of the Congregations to these abuses and in so doing have had the support of many of the more thoughtful of my associates.” In the _Decreta Generalia_ of Benedict XIV, there are four specifications concerning indulgences. In the Index of Benedict are forbidden, under the term _compendio_, four Italian indulgence records, and under the term _indulgentiae_, eleven similar publications. Under the term _sommario_, the entries include twelve Italian works, and under the term _ablass_, one German issue. Indulgence publications are also recorded under such terms as: _diario_, _dovizie_, _folium_, _giornali_, _notizia_, and _orazioni_. The entries are also sometimes made under the names of the publishers or editors, as, for instance, in the names of Dumensis and Lorenzo. It is the conclusion of Reusch, however, that but a very small proportion of the literature of this class finds place in the Index. In the _Decreta Generalia_ (iii) are recorded for instance all indulgences which had been issued before the decree of Clement VIII of 1598, _de forma indulgentiarum pro corona, grana seu calculi, cruces, et imagines sacrae_; all indulgences which had been issued before the Bulls of Clement VIII in December, 1604, and of Paul V, May, 1605, and November, 1610, to orders, brotherhoods, etc. As late as 1856, a decree of the Congregation of Indulgences was communicated to the bishops in which attention is called to a long series of fraudulent indulgence announcements which had been issued in comparatively recent years in Italy, for the most part in Florence and which are ordered to be condemned. Of the false indulgences so specified, is one credited to Pius V in which, in consideration of a certain prayer, the beneficiary was to have as many indulgences as would be equal “to the stars in the Heaven, the grains of sand in the