442-459, for Paulus Manutius's life at Rome.] [Footnote 146: _op.

cit._ pp.

184-216.] It remains to notice the action of the Index with regard to secular books in the modern languages.

I will first repeat a significant passage in its statutes touching upon political philosophy and the so-called _Ratio Status_: 'Item, let all propositions, drawn from the digests, manners, and examples of the Gentiles, which foster a tyrannical polity and encourage what they falsely call the reason of state, in opposition to the law of Christ and of the Gospel, be expunged.' This, says Sarpi in his Discourse on Printing, is aimed in general against any doctrine which impugns ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the civil sphere of princes and magistrates, and the economy of the family.[147] Theories drawn from whatever source to combat Papal and ecclesiastical encroachments, and to defend the rights of the sovereign in his monarchy or of the father in his, household, are denominated and denounced as _Ratio Status_.

The impugner of Papal absolutism in civil, as well as ecclesiastical affairs, is accounted _ipso facto_ a heretic.[148] It would appear at first sight as though the clause in question had been specially framed to condemn Machiavelli and his school.