CENSORSHIP
521
CENSORSHIP
found in the erroneous Arabic edition. Pope Gregory
IX i 1231) merely suspended the use of these writings
until they had been minutely examined and cleared
of all suspicion (Du Plessisd'Argentr6, Collectio judi-
eiorum, I, 1, 133; Denifle, Chartularium Universitatis
Parisiensis I, 70, 13S). The Roman expurgation of
suspected books, so often unjustly held in ill repute,
had. therefore, no inglorious beginning under this
last-named great ecclesiastical legislator. In general,
it may be said that in the examination and prohibi-
tion of books Rome displayed wise moderation and
true justice, since it intended only to keep faith and
morals unpolluted. With the invention and spread
of typography began a new period in the censorship
of books. It was in the nature of things that the dis-
coveries and tendencies of the end of the fifteenth,
and commencement of the sixteenth, century should
very soon abuse the "divine art" of printing for
the purpose of multiplying and disseminating all
kinds of pernicious books. The religious disruption
of Germany had not yet begun when Home took pre-
cautionary measures by insisting on a preventive
censorship of all printed works. The beginnings of
tln> censorship just mentioned are nut to be traced In the Curia «>f Rome, but to Cologne, where we find it established in the university in the reign of Sixt 1 1- 1 V. In a Brief of is March, 147!!, this pope granted the fullest powers of censorship to the university, and praised it for having hitherto checked with such zeal the printing and selling of irreligious books. In 1 182 the Bishop of Wiirzburg enacted a law of censorship for his diocese; in 1485 ami I486 the Archbishop of Mainz did the same for his ecclesiastical province. Thus the way was paved for the Bull of Innocent VIII (17 Nov.. 1487), which universally prescribed the censorship of books and entrusted the bishops with its execution. Nevertheless, this first univer- sally binding papal edict of censorship remained un- heeded. We only hear of its being promulgated by Herman IV, Archbishop of Cologne. Consequently, in Venice, the papal legate, Nicold Franco, issued in 1491 an order of censorship for this republic. As early, however, as 1480 we find books published with the approbation of the Patriarch of Venice. The decree of 1491 ordered the censorship of theological and religious hooks only.
On 1 June, 1.501, followed the Bull of Alexander VI. an exact copy "f Innocent VIII's. but issued only for the ecclesiastical provinces of Cologne, Mainz, Trier, and Magdeburg. Finally. duritiL' the Lateran Council, Leo X promulgated, 3 May, 1515, the Bull "Inter sollicit udines". This is the first papal cen- sorial decree given for the entire Church which was universally accepted. All writings without excep tion were subjected toe n oi hip. The examination was entrusted to the bishops or to the censors ap-
1 bj them and to the inquisitor; in Home it appertained to the cardinal-vicar (q. v.) and the
er Saen Palatii. Printers offending against the 1 : i -a incurred the punishment of excommunica- tion; n ■ ■, w ere liable to a fine and had
their I ks destroyed by fire. After examination,
approb ■ be given free of charge and with- out delay, and this under pain of excommunication. Meanwhile the prohibition of I ks had been main- tained by the pope and the bishops as usual. In 1482 the Bishops of Wurzbure and Basle forbade certain printeel work- in their dioceses, and by a Bull of 4 August, 1487. Innocent VIII prohibited Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's nine hundred theses, printed al Rome in December, 1 186. This prohibition was rati- fied by Alexander VI in 1493. In Germany great excitement prevailed, it being the eve of the R mation. A book containing l "Humanism,
the " F.pistola 1 obscurorum virorum", was suppressed by a Brief of Leo X. 15 March. 1517. The case of Reuchlin's " Augenspiegel " was a long time pending
in Rome; the book was ultimately prohibited 23 June,
1520. Some days previous (15 June, 1520) Leo X
issued the Bull "Exsurge Domine ", by which all writ-
ings of Luther, even future ones, were forbidden under
pain of excommunication. Adrian VI again set forth
this prohibition in divers Letters of the year 1522,
and in 1524 Clement VII inserted in the Bull "Con-
sueverunt" {in ccena domini) a clause proscribing
under pain of excommunication all heretical writings,
notably those of Luther.
After being reorganized by Paul 111 (Bull of '21 July, 1542) the General Inquisition took charge of the supervision of books, chiefly in Home and Italy. Subsequent to a proclamation of 12 July. 1543, en- joining with special emphasis the suppression and censorship of books, this tribunal composed a cata- logue of forbidden books, which, together with a rather too rigorous decree (30 Pec.. 1558) and another that mitigated it, was promulgated in the reign of Paul IV. some days after the date just mentioned. Similar catalogues had been published since the twen- ties of the sixteenth century, by political as well as ecclesiastical authorities, particularly in England, the Low Countries, France. Germany, and Italy (Venice, Milan. Lucca). But the catalogue of the Inquisition of 15.59 was the first Roman list meant for tin' whole world; it was also the very first that bore the title "Index". This Roman catalogue, like all others published up to that time, contained almost exclu- sively works distinctly heretical or suspected of heresy; and since these were considered as already condemned and forbidden, especially by the Bull "In Ccena Domini", the catalogue seemed to be merely the de- tailed list or register, in short the "Index", of the prohibited books. This Index of Paul IV. however, contained one particularly rigorous enactment, viz.: that all books — published as well as to be published — of the writers mentioned in the catalogue (of the so- called first class); all books of the second and third class; an d even books thereafter published by print- ers of heretical works, wen- declared forbidden under the same most severe pains and penalties. \,, other entirely new enactments or regulations of censorship were contained in this edition. Later editions of the Index imitated this first one only in name. The typical Index for Roman decrees of this kind appeared soon after and abolished the too rigorous one of Paul IV.
During the fourth session (1546) of the Council of Trent the assembled Fathers, discussing the ( 'anon of Holy Scripture, insisted expressly on the censorship
of books, such as had been universally prescribed bj the Lateran Council, and on the sanctions therein decreed, especially with regard to books and writings treating of religious things, or, in their own words, ae a* rig. For members of religious orders wishing;
to publish works of this sort, examination and ap- probation of their writings on t he part of I heir supe- riors was prescribed, in addition to the approbate
the ordinary. Towards the end of the council the reorganization of thi md prohibition of
books was more particularly debated The result was the so-called "Index Tridentinus". which, however, was not published until 1564, by order of the council, along with a Brief of Pius IV; wherefore it is also called "Index of Pius l\ ". Besides a revised cata- logue of forbidden books this index contained, as a most important modification, ten general rules
com] 1 by the council, sino us the
"Tridentine Rules". First, these ten rules contain prohibitions (a) of all heretical and superstitious writing-; (b) of all immoral (obscene) books, t he old classics alone excepted, which, however, arc not to be used in teaching the young; (c) of all Latin ti tions of the Xew Testament coming from heretics. A peculiar statement is made wit h n or heads of sects sprung up since 1.51.5, whose names
