press as well as of Paradise."[1] In 1543 Caraffa issued an order that no book should be printed without leave from the Inquisition, and booksellers were, accordingly, required to send in catalogues. Brunet mentions, however, a list of prohibited authors, prepared by order of Charles V., which was printed at Brussels in 1540, and is the earliest of its kind. An Index generalis scriptoriim interdictorum was published by the Inquisition at Venice in 1543, and similar catalogues followed from the universities of Paris and Louvain. The first Index of the Court of Rome appeared in 1558, and was reprinted in 1559. The subject was discussed at the Council of Trent, who delegated the right of supervision to the Pope, and the result was the Index Tridentinus of Pius IV., the first strictly Papal Index, which was printed by Aldus at Koine in 1564. Thence began a long series of literary proscriptions, which was continued by the Congregation of the Index,[2] and of which one of the immediate effects was to drive printing to Switzerland and Germany. The right of dictating what books should or should not be read was a consequence of the claims of the Papacy over the conscience and morals of mankind ; and the vitality of persecution has been preserved within the Romish Church by the consistent exercise of such pretensions. The bibliography of these Expurgatory Indexes has been copiously treated.[3] Among the earlier victims were Galileo and Copernicus; and English literature is represented by such names as Gibbon, Robertson, Bacon, Hallam, Milton, Locke, "Whately, and J. Stuart Mill. In Spain the power of the Inquisition, provoked by the invasion of, Lutheranism, was wielded by Fernando de Valdes, whose catalogue of 1559 formed the model of that issued by Pius IV. in the same year. An edict of Philip II. was published at Antwerp in 1570, and a general Index of all books suppressed by royal authority appeared at Madrid in 1790. It is noticeable that Smith s Wealth of Nations has been proscribed in that country, " on account of the lowness of its style and the looseness of its morala" A list of books suppressed in France between 1814 and 1850 has been edited by Pillet. For the more general notices of prohibited literature, we refer our readers to Klotz s De Libris auctoribus suis fatalibus, 1761; to Struvius s Bibliotheca Hist. Litter, vol. iii. c. 9; to the Dissertations in the seventh volume of Schelhorn s Amoenitates Literarice, which contain much curious infor mation ; to Brunet s Livres Supprimes et Condamnes ; and to Peignot s Dlctionnaire Critique et Bibliographique des principaux Livres condamnes au feu, supprimes, ou censures, 2 vols., Paris, 1806. This last work is agreeably written, and gives a copious list of authorities on the subject; but its enumeration of principal works is far from complete,
and comparatively few English books are mentioned.A comprehensive account of works condemned or sup pressed in England has yet to be written, but an article in the Edinburgh Review[4] supplies some interesting materials on this subject. Peacock s Precursor, which the author burnt with his own hand, is an early instance, before the invention of printing. The "war against books,"[5] however, began under Henry VIII., the suddenness of whose breach with Rome is shown by the circumstance that, whereas in 1526 anti-popery books were condemned as heretical, in 1535 all books favouring popery were decreed to be seditious. Several of the early translations of the Bible were suppressed, Tyndal s version among others. As many copies of that work as the superior clergy could buy up, were publicly burnt at St Paul s on Shrove Tuesday, 1 527, Fisher, bishop of Rochester, preaching a sermon on the occasion. An edition of the Bible was suppressed for a misprint, the printer having omitted the word "not" in the seventh commandment, but a copy survives in the Bodleian. A general burning of unlicensed books was ordered by the king in 1530, the- Supplication of Beggars, a well-known invective against Wolsey, being included in the list. Another catalogue was issued in 1546 by proclamation, and the Act 3 and 4 Edward VI. made a raid against missals and books of devotion. The regulations of the Star Chamber in 1585 claimed the power of licensing and seizing books, and their scrutiny was as rigorous as that of the Inquisition. Never theless the reign of Elizabeth was fruitful in " schismatic and libellous tracts."[6] A notable offender was Cardinal Allen s Admonition, containing a furious attack on the queen, of which a copy remains in the British Museum ; and the famous Martin-Marprelate tracts raised a storm of opposition. In 1607DrCowell s Laiv Dictionary was burnt by order of the House of Commons, for its assertions of divine right in favour of James I. ; and the King s Book of Sports incurred the same fate at the hands of the Puritans in 1644. The persecutions of the Star Chamber include the punishment of Prynne for his Histriomastix, and the still more barbarous mutilation of Dr Alexander Leighton for his two works, The Looking Glass of the Holy War, 1624, and Zion s Plea against the Prelacy, 1628. Milton s EtKovo/cAao-r^? and the Defensio pro Populo Anglicano were suppressed after the Restoration. Defoe s Shortest Way with the Dissenters was burnt by Parliament in 1703; and sixty years later Wilkes s North Briton incurred the same fate. The last instance of authorized book-burning in Great Britain was in 1779, when the Commercial Restraints of Ireland considered, by the Hon. Hely Hutchinson, was given to the flames.
This branch of bibliography has a peculiar interest to the literary historian. It serves to indicate, for the most part, periods of political excitement or religious intolerance. Fortunately, however, the efficacy of persecution has been frustrated by the disseminating power of the press. Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas, is the reflection of Tacitus ; and experience has abundantly proved that it is easier to destroy an author than his book. Melancholy as are the records of literary martyrdom, there remains this satisfac tion that, in the main, the policy of oppression has defeated its own ends.
VII. Catalogues and Bibliographical Dictionaries.
those of the early printers, who, as booksellers, published sale-lists of their works, to attract the attention of the learned. The most ancient of these catalogi officinales the humble predecessors of Bohn s gigantic catalogue is a simple leaf, entitled Libri Greed impressi, printed by Aldus in 1498. The list consists of fourteen articles,
distributed into five classes, grammar, poetry, logic,- ↑ Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.
- ↑ A complete list of their catalogues is given in Fetzholdt s Bibl. Bibliogr. , " Verbotene Literatur."
- ↑ See the Index Librorum prohibitorum a Pontificis auctoritate, in usum UibliotheccB Bodleiance, by Tho. James, 1627 ; Francus, De Papistarum Indicibus, Leipsic, 1684 ; Thesaurus Bibliographicus ex Indicibus Librorum, prohibitorum congestus, Dresden, 1743. Carnot, in 1826, published a complete list of all books condemned by the court of Rome from the date of printing to 1825, with the dates and decrees of their condemnation. The best known, though not the latest, edition of the Index was issued by Pius VII. in 1819.
- ↑ " Suppressed and Censured Books" vol. cxxxiv. July 1871.
- ↑ See the final chapter in Disraeli s Amenities of LiUndure. A curious list of Lutheran works prohibited in England is given in Strype s Heel. Memorials, i. 165.
- ↑ The registers of the Stationers Company contain entries of books ordered for " immediate conflagration" in 1599. Sec A oles and Queries, 3d series, xii. 436. Volume ii. of Wood s A then. Oxon. was burnt at Oxford in 1693 by the apparitor of the university, for some alleged reflections on the memory of Lord Clarendon.
