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
