The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

X. Prohibited Books Condemned by Roman Index

The leaders of the Counter Reformation in Italy were determined on more than the dispersion of Protestant communities or the martyrdom or banishment of missionaries of evangelical thought. They resolved to destroy the “seed and seed-bed”—the cultivation of independent thought and scholarship—and so to “extirpate” all traces of the Reformation. The Inquisition in Italy and Spain attacked the schools of learning and the libraries in which the learning of the past was stored. ⁴¹ PFF2 481.3

Torquemada, already mentioned as Inquisitor-General of Spain, had served as an example, burning six thousand volumes at Salamanca in 1490 on the pretext that they taught sorcery. The burning of heretical writings had been in vogue throughout the Middle Ages. The bishops, universities, and, of course, the Inquisition had long endeavored to discover and destroy writings deemed dangerous to the dogmas of the church. But after printing was invented the task was more difficult. The edict of the archbishop of Mainz (1486), prompted by the number of Bibles printed in the vernacular, sought to establish a censorship of books. ⁴² PFF2 482.1

In 1547 Sixtus IV ordered the University of Koln to see that no books were printed without previous license, with penalties for infraction. By a constitution of Leo X, approved by the Fifth Lateran Council, ⁴³ no book could be printed in Rome which had not been expressly sanctioned by the papal vicar and master of the palace, and in other places by the bishops and Inquisitor of the district. And that was confirmed by the Council of Trent. ⁴⁴ PFF2 482.2

Some uniformity was necessary for the condemnation of books, and this led to lists of prohibited works (Louvain, 1546 and 1550; Koln, 1549; Sorbonne, 1544 and 1551, et cetera). Paul IV drafted the first papal Index in 1559. It listed sixty-one printers and prohibited the reading of any books printed by them. It also gave a long catalog of authors, all of whose writings were forbidden. The Council of Trent appointed a commission which drafted a set of rules governing a new papal index of prohibited books. This new Index was published by Pius IV in 1564. The Congregation of the Index (a special commission of cardinals to deal with the question of prohibited books) was instituted by Pius V in 1571. Although it was distinct from the Inquisition, it worked along with it. ⁴⁵ PFF2 482.3

In the ten rules drawn up by the Trent commission, all writings of the most noted Reformers were absolutely prohibited and all religious writings of any other heretic. The Vulgate was declared the only authorized version, and the vernacular versions were to be allowed only to certain authorized persons, under restrictions. Books dealing with controversies between Catholics and heretics were placed under the same restrictions as vernacular Bibles. Books in the nature of lexicons, concordances, and the like, reproducing the work of heretics, had to pass the strictest censorship and expurgation before publication. ⁴⁶ The Index, however, had little effect north of the Alps, in the lands of the Reformation. Even in France, papal Germany, and northern Italy a succession of daring colporteurs carried prohibited tracts, Bibles, and religious literature throughout the lands. ⁴⁷ PFF2 483.1

The Index of 1564 remained the standard index, regarding both rules of censorship and inclusiveness of its lists, until the revision in 1897 by Leo XIII, ⁴⁸ with other books added from time to time. The Congregation of the Index, which had become a permanent institution, undertook to pass a final opinion upon all publications-a task beyond accomplishment. But it was a powerful weapon in the arsenal of militant Catholicism. PFF2 483.2

Such was the essence of the Counter Reformation. PFF2 483.3