ed in inflicting that disgrace of which such a
punishment often formerly failed by very reason of its too
frequent application.

APPENDIX.

After the conspiracy, known as the Rye House Plot, to kill
Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York, the University of
Oxford ordered the public burning of books which ran counter to
the doctrine of the Divine right of kings. As the decree is a
literary and political curiosity of the highest order, and not
easily accessible, I here transcribe it from Lord Somers'
_Tracts_. The authors whose books were condemned are sometimes
referred to quite generally, so that some are difficult to
identify, but the following appear to be the principal ones that
incurred the fiery indignation of the University:--1.
Rutherford's _Lex Rex_; 2. G. Buchanan's _De Jure Regni apud
Scotos_; 3. Bellarmine's _De Potestate Papae_, and his _De
Conciliis et Ecclesia Militante_; 4. Milton's _Eikonoklastes_,
and his _Defensio Populi Anglicani_; 5. Goodwin's _Obstructours
of Justice_; 6. Baxter's _Holy Commonwealth_; 7. Dolman's
_Succession_; 8. Hobbes' _De Cive_ and _Leviathan_.

_The Judgment and Decree of the University of Oxford,
passed in their Convocation, July 21, 1683, against
certain pernicious books, and damnable doctrines,
destructive to the sacred persons of princes, their
State and Government, and of all Human Society._

"Although the barbarous assassination lately
enterprised against the person of his sacred majesty
and his royal brother, engages all our thoughts to
reflect with utmost detestation and abhorrence on that
execrable villainy, hateful to God and man, and pay our
due acknowledgments to the Divine Providence, which, by
extraordinary methods, brought it to pass, that the
breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, is
not taken in the pit which was prepared for him, and
that under his shadow we continue to live and to enjoy
the blessings of his government; yet, notwithstanding,
we find it to be a necessary duty at this time to
search into and lay open those impious doctrines, which
having been of late studiously disseminated, gave rise
and growth to those nefarious attempts, and pass upon
them our solemn public censure and decree of
condemnation.

"Therefore, to the honour of the holy and undivided
Trinity, the preservation of Catholic truth i