Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/71

48 but it has been suggested^ as a teply^ that the number would probably effect quitQ a sufficient compensation. Hiose of unfreqnent recnnrence are by no means lightly charged. This class is perhaps the least authentic of the t?ro, having never appeared in any Roman edition, but, ex- cepting the first, in piotestant editions only; and being comparatively easy of access^ it is the less necessary to present a detailed account of its contents. The other class will occupy more of our attention : and this appears to be exhibited in the greater part of the remaining copies of the Tax®. At an events, in what degree this is the case will be submitted to the reader. Of what character the Taxae in the first known printed edition, that of 1471, aie, I am unable to determine from inspection. But from die circumstance, that they Login with the words, or title, et primo de Expectativis, which form the commencement likewise of one portion of the Taxs of Leo X. printed in 1514, I infer that, so far, they are, at least, substantially the same. From the limits of the book, how- ever, as already stated, it should appear to extend no farther than to that portion, and t/iat, in a mora oiontracted form. And it may here