Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/28

5 plished it may be ascertained by any one^ who will give himself the pains of comparing the present with preceding disquisitions. It would be invidious and irksome, to enter into any detaUed exposure of the deficiencies of his predecessors, although occasion will necessarily occur of stating some instances^ when the works of the authors come to be described. It is proper to observe^ that the subject of exami- nation and discussion in this tract is, not the diflSerent collections, all or any, of Tax», inno- cent in themselves or relative to innocent mat- ters, which are extant in abundance in various parts of the Bullarium Magnum, and of which, generally speaking, as the authors need not be ashamed, so they studied not concealment. Happy for Rome, if nothing more serious could be objected to her. The reader, therefore, is to be upon his guard against any attempt to amuse and delude him by an ostentatious and affectedly triumphant reference to these harm- less documents* It is not necessary, nor compatible with the proposed limits of the present work, to state, very formally or at length, the Origin of the Tax», particularly the Penitentiarias, which are obviously of the mala importance : some b2