Early History of the Index

Precursors

Newton's Principia with the imprimatur of Samuel Pepys.

The papal power to condemn and censor heretical works was first formalised by Pope Leo X in 1515 during the Fifth Lateran Council. Before this however, there was an even earlier attempt to formalise control over publications. Prior to the age of print, there was a book containing a list of authentic books of scripture, a list of recommended readings, and a list of heretical and apocryphal books forbidden to believers. Once the printing press appeared, the church clearly realised that it could cause problems, as Pope Innocent VIII in 1467 decreed that all books needed to be approved before they could be published. This is the ostensible origin of the imprimatur (literally 'it may be printed'), permission generally given by the local bishop. This decree showed foresight, as Martin Luther was to nail his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517, and within weeks his material had been widely disseminated from publishers in Leipzig, Nuremberg and Basel.


Index auctorum et librorum prohibitorum


However, it was not until 1559 that the first Index, known as the Pauline Index after Pope Paul IV, was issued. Officially entitled the Index auctorum et librorum prohibitorum (Index of prohibited authors and books), this precursor to the later Index was seen as controversial and excessively restrictive. All books by Protestant reformers, including Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and others were banned, as were any translations of the Vulgate Bible (as mentioned in the previous post, the preserve of Protestants), and anything deemed heretical, superstitious, immoral or obscene. The Talmud and Koran were also banned. Additionally, there were many works which were seen to have questionable sections, which needed censoring before publication due to content which conflicted with church teachings. Many classical authors, including Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero and many others were included on this list (known as the expurgatio list) because their writings included pagan themes. Books translated by Protestants and even books published in cities that were considered Protestant were also filtered or even banned.


Council of Trent 1562

Pius IV 1499-1565. By Bartolomeo Passarotti

The controversy generated by this first Index was rectified at the Council of Trent in 1562, at which a commission was appointed to draft a new Index. The council closed before the commission's task was complete, but Pope Pius IV continued the work, which culminated in the publication of the Tridentine Index of 1564, published in Rome by Paulus Manutius. All later editions of the Index were based on the Tridentine Index. From 1571 until 1917, the Index was managed by the Sacra congregatio indicis librorum prohibitorum (Sacred Congregation of the Index of Prohibited Books), a body formed specifically to keep the Tridentine Index up-to-date and to determine whether a book needed to be (or remain) banned completely, or merely needed correction or purging before publication.


Commentary


Research for this post was somewhat awkward; I had found a few bits and pieces for the first post, which turned out to be quite useful, and was also told about some other resources which I had not found by a reference librarian from Moonee Valley Libraries (this was the result of my query for one of the discussion board topics). One thing that all of the resources have in common though, is that they do not really deal much with the centuries in the middle - they give information (often quite detailed) about the 16th century advent of the Index, and then again about the 20th century end, but very little in between times. As I can only work with what is available, this is reflected in this post, and will be in the next post as well. I can only suppose that those intervening centuries were fairly uneventful, with the successive editions of the Index being updated by the congregatio indicis without any fanfare - I am sure that if there were any real controversies, the information would be out there, as everyone loves a scandal.


References


Doyle, B 1997, 'Note on an index worth shelving', U.S. Catholic, May 1997, p. 36.


Halsall, P c1998, 'Index librorum prohibitorum, 1557-1966', Modern History Sourcebook, viewed 11 April 2011: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indexlibrorum.html


Heneghan, T 2005, 'Secrets behind the forbidden books', America, 02 February 2005, pp. 222-227.


Hilgers, J 1910, 'Index of Prohibited Books', The Catholic Encyclopedia, viewed 11 April 2011 on New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07721a.htm


'Index librorum prohibitorum', Timeline Index, viewed 11 April 2011: http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/776

Schlumpf, H 2010, 'Does the church still ban books?', U.S. Catholic, October 2010, p. 46.