The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

CONGREGATION OF THE INDEX. 203
of biblical criticism, is indissolubly linked with his own.
He encouraged the efforts of the Cologne Carthusian, Surius,
to lay the sound foundations of hagiography. Rudely
awakened from its sleep by the Centuriators of Magdeburg,
historical criticism began to attempt its first flights in reply,
at the hands of Cathohc writers, and here too it was Pius V.
who, in answer to the request of Hosius, sought to organize
this form of defence against Protestant attacks.^
Pius V. also had a share in another way in laying the solid
foundations of the structure upon which, under the influence
of the Council of Trent, the life of the Church was to be built
anew. To the already existing cardinalitial congregations
of the Inquisition and the Council, he added a third in the
Congregation of the Index of prohibited books. The first
and eighth Tridentine prescriptions on the Index had called
for the correction of certain classes of books, but so far no
inquisitor or bishop had taken any steps to comply with this
demand. On November gth, 1570, he gave instructions to
Manriquez, the Master of the Sacred Palace, at the same time
giving him the fullest powers to carry out his task.^ This act
in itself implied the power to form a special congregation of
the Index, but the actual congregation of Cardinals was only
appointed in the March of the following year, and held its
first meeting on March 27th, 1571.^ Yet another congregation,
1 Cf. supra p. 129. EiCHHORN, Hosius, II., 463. On December
16, 1567, Philip II. asked the Pope for permission to print the work
of the Franciscan, Michele de Medina, against the Centuriators.
Corresp. dipl., II., 273 seq.
^ The motu proprio is printed in Hilgers, 510-513.
^ Santori, Diario XXIII. , 322 (March 5, 1571). Report of
Antonio Posio, the first secretary of the Congregation of the Index,
in Hilgers, 513. *Avviso di Roma of September 9, 1570, Urb.
104 1, p. 338b, Vatican Library : the censorship of theological
and philosophical books is no longer to be in the hands of the
Cardinals, but of the Master of the Sacred Palace. *Avviso of
October 13, 1571, Urb. 1042, p. 131b, ibid. ; the Pope has ap-
pointed four Cardinals to draw up a new Index ;
Martial, Proper-
tius, etc. " si leveranno via." On July 17, 1568 (State Archives,