But Ranke's note upon a casual reference to this document in book I. ch. ii. § 2. of his History of the Papacy, completely disposes of the question of its genuineness, and therefore of its "seriousness" (to use one of Novus' phrases), when taken in conjunction with what has gone before.
"Consilium, &c.; printed more than once even at the time, and important as pointing out the evil, so far as it lay in the administration of discipline, precisely and without reserve. Long after it had been printed, the MS. remained incorporated with the MSS. of the Curia."
Were it not that the assertion of Novus is so roundly made, and in a form that is sure to adhere in the memories of readers sufficiently interested in the subject to notice his communication, it would have been enough to quote from one of the works he refers to, as containing copies of the Consilium, to expose the origin of his error; and this, now that I have shown it to be an error, I crave your permission to do. This, then, is what Brown says in his Appendix ad Fascicul. Rer. Expetend. et Fugiend. (commonly cited as Fascicul. vol. ii.), ed. 1690, pp. 230, 231.:
"Sæpius excusum est Consilium sequens, cum alibi, tum hic Londini, A.D. 1609, ex bibliothecâ Wilh. Crashavii, qui in Epistolâ dedicatoriâ ad Revmum D. Tobiam Matthæum Archiep. Eboracen. citat quædam è Commentariis Espencæi in Tit. cap. i. ad hoc Consilium ab omni fraudis et fictionis suspicione liberandum; quasi præsensisset Crashavius fore aliquando ut pro re, omnino ficta et falsa censeretur; cum id in novissimis Conciliorum editionibus desiderari, et astute suppressum esse viderat, ut est in admonitione suâ ad Lectorem. Sed longe aliter res habebit; suo enim de sorex prodidit indicio; et Cochlæus ipse (qui nesciit pro nobis mentiri, quantumvis in causâ suâ parum probus aliquando), hujusce Consilii fidem ab omni labe improbitatis vindicavit et asseruit in historiâ suâ de Actis et Scriptis Lutheri, ad annum 1539, fol. 312. &c. editionis Colonien. 1568. editum est præterea, hoc idem Consilium, Parisiis, publicâ authoritate, una cum Guliel. Durandi tractatu de modo Generalis Concilii celebrandi; Libello Clamengii de corrupto Ecclesiæ statu; Libello Cardinalis de Alliaco, de emendatione Ecclesiæ; et Gentiani Herveti oratione de reparandâ Ecclesiasticâ disciplinâ (quæ omnia, excepto primo, huic appendici inserentur), A.D. 1671. In hac nostrâ editione sequimur virum doctissimum et pium Hermannum Conringium; adhibitis multis aliis exemplaribus, quæ omniâ simul in hoc uno leges. Vin' autem, Lector, aliquid penitius de hoc Corsilio rescire? adisis [sic] P. Paulum Vergerium (invisum aliis sed charum nobis nomen), illiusque annotationes, in Catalogum hæreticorum consule, fol. 251. tomi primi illius operum Tubingæ editi, A.D. 1563, in 4to., et siquid noveris de reliquorum tomorum editione, nos Anglos fac, quæso, certiores. [It would seem that the need of your "N. & Q." was felt long before any one thought of supplying it.] Audi vero, interea, vel lege, Hermannum Conringium."
And this is what that "learned and godly" man says:
"Libellus ipse Cardinalis Capuani [Nicholas Schomberg], ut creditur, cura ad amicum in Germaniam missus, mox anno 1539, et populari nostrâ et suâ est linguâ per Lutherum et Sturmium editus. Eundem post vulgavit, cum acri ad Papam Paulum IV. (qui olim fuerat auctorum) præfatione, Petrus Paulus Vergerius, postquam Protestantium partibus accessisset."
I will not add to the length of this Note by any farther quotations; but I am bound to say that if those I have given do not satisfy Novus, he may expect to be overwhelmed by confirmations of them.
B. D. Woodward.
Bungay, Suffolk.