INDEPENDENCE INDEX. 



53 



editions were at first printed, and the greater part of 

 the copies, even of later editions, (e. g., of the Latin 

 Bible of 1462), those are particularly sought after, 

 which issued from presses that printed but little on 

 parchment; e. g., Schweinheim and Pannarz at 

 Rome, by whom only six parchment editions are 

 known to have been published. 



8. Finally, there are some particular collections or 

 series, which collectors pride themselves particularly 

 on possessing ; e. g., the six Greek works (Antholo- 

 gia, Apollb'nius, Rhodius, Euripides, Callimachus, 

 Gnomee, Musaus), printed in capitals by Alopa at 

 Florence (1494 96), or the Greek works printed at 

 Milan with a very round type, of which Laskaris 

 (1476) is the first, and Suidas (1499) the last. 



Editions from celebrated presses of the fifteenth 

 century are also highly valued ; e. g., those of 

 Schweinheim and Pannarz, and the English printers 

 Caxton, Pynson, and Wynkyn. 



For information concerning the incunabula, see 

 Panzer's Annales Typographic!, together with his 

 Annals of German Literature, which together con- 

 tain the most complete catalogue, to the- year 1536. 

 Mattaire's Annals are far less complete, but they 

 come lower down, and enter rather more into details. 

 Serna Santander's Dictionnaire BiUiographitjue choisi 

 du 15 Siecle (Brussels, 1805, 3 vols.), is a useful 

 work on the most interesting incunabula. It con- 

 tains much information on the incunabula of Spain 

 and the Low Countries, which is wanting in Panzer. 

 Besides these works, we may find accounts of parti- 

 cular incunabula, in the local histories of printing 

 (especially in AudifFredi's works on Roman and 

 Italian printing), in the accounts of some particular 

 printers of the fifteenth century (Guttenberg, Jenson, 

 Aldus, Giunti), and in the works which, treat of the 

 incunabula of some single libraries, as those of Fossi, 

 Dibdin, (Bibliotheca Spencer iana), &c. 



INDEPENDENCE, in politics; the sovereignty 

 of a people or country, as distinguished from a 

 former dependence upon another country. When a 

 successful attempt is made, by a portion of a people 

 subject to a common government, to establish a 

 separate government for itself, the struggle is 

 generally closed by the acknowledgment of its inde- 

 pendence on the part of the government from wliich 

 it has seceded, though, in some cases, a complete 

 separation is effected without any such acknowledg- 

 ment, when the old government is too weak to under- 

 take anything effective against the revolted provinces 

 or colonies, and yet will not formally renounce its 

 authority over them. In such a case, it cannot be 

 supposed that such an acknowldgement is necessary 

 to entitle the new state to be treated by other powers 

 as independent. This was the case with the United 

 Provinces and Spain, the latter not acknowledging 

 the former for a long series of years. The South 

 American republics, too, have not yet been acknow- 

 ledged by Spain, but no one can doubt their inde- 

 pendence. The just rule would seem to be, that a 

 colony or province is independent whenever it 

 declares itself so, and is able to maintain its inde- 

 pendence, or is left in undisturbed enjoyment of it. 

 In a complicated political system, like that of Europe, 

 the acknowledgment of independence on the part of 

 the old government, is diplomatically important ; and 

 without it, other European states are averse to enter 

 into political relations with the new state. 



INDEPENDENTS ; a Protestant sect in England 

 and Holland, which originated towards the end of 

 the sixteenth century, during the reign of queen 

 Elizabeth. The Independents declared the cere- 

 monies of the Anglican church popish abuses, and 

 heathenish. They agreed only in this point, differing 

 among themselves on many points of doctrine- The 



most zealous sect were the Brownists, whose founder, 

 Robert Brown (q. v.), in 1580, attacked the disci- 

 pline and ceremonial of the church of England, as 

 unchristian. The name Independents is derived from 

 the circumstance that each congregation formed an 

 independent community, subject neither to bishops 

 nor elders, nor any other ecclesiastical powers ; the 

 minister was elected and dismissed by the votes of 

 the congregation, and every member had a right to 

 preach. The principles of church government incul- 

 cated by the Independents, spread rapidly, and 

 became a subject of alarm to the government ; some 

 were arrested, some executed, and many fled the coun- 

 try. The sect survived in England, under the name 

 of Congregationalists; but the principles of Brown 

 were modified. The name of Brownists they dis- 

 claimed, calling themselves Congregationalists, and 

 consider John Robinson (q. v.) their founder. In 

 the civil wars of England during the seventeenth 

 century, the Independents formed a powerful party. 

 See Cromwell, Britain, and Puritans. The English 

 Independents now differ from other Protestant sects 

 in rejecting any formula of faith, requiring only a 

 profession of belief in the gospel; and their pastors 

 are not ordained. Among them are several dis- 

 tinguished men. 



INDEX. A scientific work becomes doubly 

 valuable by a well arranged and complete index, 

 made under the eyes of the author, which saves the 

 reader an immense expense of time. A scientific 

 work of value is a book of reference, and a book of 

 reference without an index is like a chest with a 

 troublesome lock, which tries our patience whenever 

 we attempt to open it. The plan of some newspapers 

 to issue a general index at the end of each year, 

 deserves much commendation, and ought to be imi- 

 tated by every editor who considers his journal worth 

 preserving. 



By the Roman Catholic church, index is used 

 absolutely, to designate the catalogues, or list of 

 books prohibited by ecclesiastical authority, on ac- 

 count of the heretical opinions supposed to be con- 

 tained in them, or maintained by the authors or 

 editors of them. The catalogue, or list of books 

 absolutely prohibited, is simply called the Index, or 

 Index Librorum prohibitorum; but when the list, or 

 catalogue, is of books allowed to be read, after cor- 

 rection or alteration, agreeably to the orders of the 

 papal authorities, it is termed Index expurgatorius , 

 and, in the later indexes, the words donee corrigantur 

 are subjoined to certain works, in order to render a 

 separate expurgatory index unnecessary. (Townley's 

 Essays on various Subjects of Ecclesiastical History, 

 page 133.) The beginning of the prohibitory index 

 is to be found in Gratian's Collection, being a 

 prohibition to read pagan books by the council of 

 Carthage, held about 400. The emperors also pro- 

 hibited the reading of certain books. Constantine, 

 for instance, prohibited the reading of the works of 

 Arius. The popes, too, used to order obnoxious 

 books to be burned. The books of whole sects are 

 sometimes prohibited in a mass. The invention of 

 printing in the middle of the 15th century, caused a 

 rapid multiplication of books, and induced the papal 

 hierarchy to prevent, if possible, the circulation of 

 any which might prove injurious to the interest of 

 the Romish church. Hence originated imprimaturs 

 (q. v.), or official permission to print works; and the 

 promulgation and diffusion of the doctrines of the 

 reformation, in the following century, increased the 

 determination of the powerful adherents of popery 

 to suppress and to destroy all the books tinctured 

 with Lutheranism, or maintaining any of the peculiar 

 opinions held by the reformed churches. In 1546, 

 in pursuance of an edict of the emperor Charles V., 



