GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. n 



to whom are added other ecclesiastics as consultors 

 and as secretary. The Congregation of the Index, to 

 which reference will hereafter be made, was in- 

 stituted not long after the Council of Trent, by Pope 

 St. Pius V., and has for its duty, as its name implies, 

 the pointing out to the faithful people such books 

 as they ought to abstain from reading. The chief 

 consultor of the Index is the " Master of the Apos- 

 tolic Palace/' whom I shall have occasion to mention 

 more than once in connection with that Dialogue 

 of Galileo which brought him into such serious 

 disgrace at Eome. 



The Congregation of the Inquisition I need hardly 

 say, not to be confounded with the Spanish tribunal 

 of that name, which was founded at an earlier period, 

 nor with similar tribunals in other countries was 

 erected in 1542 by Pope Paul III., and besides the 

 other officials attached to it, had certain theologians 

 called "qualifiers," whose duty it was to give an opinion 

 to the Congregation on questions submitted to them. 



These two Congregations, as well as several others 

 which it is not necessary to enumerate, still exist, 

 their functions being somewhat modified by the 

 changing circumstances of the age. Their action 

 is for the most part confined to matters of discipline, 

 but they sometimes have questions of doctrine and 

 moral obligation referred to them by the Pope, from 

 whom, of course, they derive all authority that they 

 possess. 



I do not here undertake to show the advantage 



