Index Librorum Prohibitorum

• 1. Printing Press And Censorship Origins

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  Johannes Gutenberg refined moveable type and the printing press in the 15th century. This mechanism changed how information could be disseminated to the public. Books once rare and kept carefully in a small number of libraries became mass-produced. The rapid circulation of ideas alarmed both churches and governments across Europe during the 16th century. Protestant Reformation generated large quantities of polemical new writing by and within both Catholic and Protestant camps. Religious subject matter was typically the area most subject to control. Governments established controls over printers across Europe requiring them to have official licenses to trade and produce books. In 1546 printer and writer Étienne Dolet was burned at the stake for atheism. The French crown tightly controlled printing through measures like the 1551 Edict of Châteaubriant which included provisions for unpacking and inspecting all books brought into France. The 1557 Edict of Compiègne applied the death penalty to heretics and resulted in the burning of a noblewoman at the stake. Printers were viewed as radical and rebellious with 800 authors, printers and book dealers being incarcerated in the Bastille.

• 2. Establishment Of The Tridentine Index

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  The first Roman Index was printed in 1557 under the direction of Pope Paul IV but then withdrawn for unclear reasons. A new index finally appeared in 1559 banning the entire works of some 550 authors. The Pauline Index felt that the religious convictions of an author contaminated all his writing. The work of the censors was considered too severe and met with much opposition even in Catholic intellectual circles. After the Council of Trent had authorised a revised list prepared under Pope Pius IV the so-called Tridentine Index was promulgated in 1564. It remained the basis of all later lists until Pope Leo XIII published his Moderatio Indicis librorum prohibitorum in 1897. The blacklisting of some Protestant scholars meant obedient Catholic thinkers were denied access to works including botanist Conrad Gesner's writings or those of Martin Luther and John Calvin. Among the inclusions was the Libri Carolini a theological work from the 9th-century court of Charlemagne which was published in 1549 by Bishop Jean du Tillet.

• 3. Evolution Of The Sacred Congregation

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  In 1571 a special congregation was created called the Sacred Congregation of the Index. This body had the specific task to investigate those writings denounced in Rome as being not exempt of errors. They updated the list of Pope Pius IV regularly and made lists of required corrections when a writing needed expurgation rather than absolute condemnation. Several times a year the congregation held meetings where they reviewed various works and documented discussions. Each work was scrutinized by two people between meetings before collective decisions were made at gatherings. Ultimately the pope approved works being added or removed from the Index using documentation from these meetings. An update to the Index came via Pope Leo XIII in the 1897 apostolic constitution known as the Ne multum. Subsequent editions graded authors according to their supposed degree of toxicity marking specific passages for expurgation instead of condemning entire books. The Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition later became the Holy Office and since 1965 has been called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Congregation of the Index merged with the Holy Office in 1917 by the Constitution of Pope Benedict XV.

• 4. Notable Figures And Scientific Conflicts

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  Galileo Galilei faced condemnation in 1633 after his astronomical theories conflicted with Church doctrine. Johannes Kepler's Astronomia Nova published in three volumes from 1618 to 1621 appeared on the Index from 1621 to 1835. Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781) also found its way onto the list alongside philosophers like Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. René Descartes went on the Index in 1663 while the French government prohibited teaching Cartesianism in schools during the 1670s. The general prohibition of works advocating heliocentrism was removed from the Index in 1758 though two Franciscan mathematicians had published an edition of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1742 assuming heliocentrism could not be explained without it. Some scientific theories contained in early editions have long been taught at Catholic universities despite initial bans. Charles Darwin's works were never included contrary to popular misconception. The first woman placed on the list was Magdalena Haymairus in 1569 for her children's book Sunday Epistles on the whole Year put into hymns.

• 5. Political Entanglements And State Power

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  Many actions of the congregations carried definite political content leading to overtly political titles being placed on the Index. A history of Bohemia by Marqvardi Freheri published in 1602 appeared on the list because it advocated independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire rather than attacking the Church directly. The Prince by Machiavelli entered the Index in 1559 after being blamed for widespread political corruption in France. Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century scorning and rejecting all dogmas of the Catholic Church made the list. Markedly absent from the Index was Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf which was studied for three years but decided against inclusion because the author was a head of state. The Holy Office justified this decision by referring to chapter 13 of Paul the Apostle's Epistle to the Romans regarding state authority coming from God. Later the Vatican criticized National Socialism in the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge issued in March 1937 about challenges facing the church in Nazi Germany.

• 6. Abolition And Modern Moral Obligations

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  The last edition of the Index to be published appeared in 1948 containing 4,000 titles censored for various reasons including heresy moral deficiency and sexual explicitness. On the 7th of December 1965 Pope Paul VI issued the Constitution Pastor Bonus reorganizing the Holy Office as the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Index was not listed as part of the newly constituted congregation's competence leading to questioning whether it still existed. Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani pro-prefect of the congregation responded negatively indicating change would come soon. A June 1966 notification announced that while the Index maintained its moral force teaching Christians to beware of writings endangering faith and morality it no longer had the force of ecclesiastical positive law with associated penalties. On the 14th of June 1966 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed these changes stating books should be avoided regardless of absence of written law against them. The canon law of the Latin Church still recommends works concerning sacred scripture or theology be submitted to judgment of local ordinary typically the bishop if they concern religion or morals.