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14 To Rusticus, in his Three Capital Offences^ &c. I am indebted for an important reference to Muratori's Antiq. Ital. Med. ^Evi. ed. Milan, 1738j &c. and therein to torn. v. coll. 711, &c« containing a Dissertation De Indulgentiarum Origine» where the learned Komanist affirms, that in process of time, men dedicated to God reduced the entire redemption of penances to pecuniary mulcts, which for the most part they did not allow to escape from their own hands." In col. 741 is the following parallel passage— one of those, no doubt, which were not very acceptable to Benedict XIV. — Qnare ex quo Canones Poeuitentiales in Occidente prodienmt, et invecta fidt forma ejnsmodi Re-* demptionis : multis, ne dicam plerisque, c clero via lata aperta est ad sunm sibi commodum procurandum, non minus quam alienum. But his most important communication is, the Pe-* nitential Canons of the Monastery at Bobbio, near Fiacen^, entitled Poenitentifie Uitw e Codd. MSS. Monasterii Bobiensis, pp. 723, &c. There the rate of compensation, H a peni- tent cobid not &st, was 26 solidi for one year's fasting, if rich, or 3, if poor — ^with a great deal more to a similar pnrpose* The usual enormities are included.