Which passage might be regarded as decisive of the question of genuineness, since Aleander was one of the _Cardinales delecti_ whose names are appended to the _Consilium_.
That Le Plat should insert a copy in his _Monument. ad Hist. Concil. Trident. potius illustr. spect._, may, perhaps, be considered an unsatisfactory argument; and the same will certainly be thought of the use of it by Sarpi. But Pallavicini is a witness not obnoxious to objections which apply to them, and he says:
"It happened by Divine Providence, that this _Consilium_ was published, since it showed what were in fact the deepest wounds in the discipline of the Church, ascertained with great diligence, and exposed with the utmost freedom by men of incomparable zeal and knowledge. And these were neither falsity of dogmas, nor corruption of the Scriptures, nor wickedness of laws, nor politic craft beneath the garb of humility, nor impure vices, as the Lutherans asserted; but too great indulgence towards violations and abrogations of laws, which Luther far more licentiously abrogated," &c.--Vide book IV. ch. v., at the end.
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.: