Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/97

76 pnted as papal productions^ and with which^ in all their divisions^ they bear every mark and proof of strict alliance^ or fraternity. And^ after all, who has the benefit f If any confirmation of what has been ad- vanced in these pages were needed^ it imght be found in full weight in a well-known passage extant among the hterary labours of the cele- brated Claude d'Espense. Nothing can be more evident from that passage alone^ than that the writer had a particular view to the edition of the Taxae published in Paris, 1520 ; that he never once doubted of its being a genuiue pro- duction of Rome ; that, (although no friend to the Kefonuedj having been prompter to the Cardinal of Lorraine against them at the Col- loquy of Poissy,) he throws not out the sUght- est insinuation that the work, which he distin- guishes from the Centum Gravamina, proceeded from any heretical quarter ; that his informa- tion sufficiently guarded him against deception; and, more than all, that he speaks of the vhole production in terms of unquahfied repro- bation and disgust* But, however familiar the passage, the preceding observations prove, that it is of too much, both pertinency and impor- tance, not to be produced in a work like the