Archiepiscopal Censure

S Ran Likely a signature or archival mark.

Not only have I myself carefully read these Vindications prepared by the Noble and Most Illustrious Mr. Wolfgang Ernst Heidel on behalf of the Steganography A treatise on secret writing, often misunderstood as magic. of the late Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim, but I also handed them over to three Theologians to be read. These men constantly asserted with one voice that they found nothing at all in those Vindications which opposes the Catholic faith and good morals even in the slightest degree. Since, therefore, the memory of Trithemius—to whom the holy Church of Mainz owes a good portion of its Ecclesiastical History—rightly ought to be pleasing to us, the permission for printing and circulating the present Treatise was obtained here all the more easily. This is especially true since its author, by the excellence of his talent and erudition, not only gives hope for more hidden knowledge, but even provides clear evidence of it. Thus I gave my judgment on the eve of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. February 1st.
In the year 1675.