Introduction to this Blog

Overview



1. Title page of 1564 edition, published in Venice.



This blog will deal with the issues of censorship, specifically with regard to the Catholic Church and its Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books). This first post is intended as an introduction to the blog as a whole, and also to give a brief overview of religious censorship, to set the scene for the rest of the material to be presented here. The next two posts will be about the history of the Index, the first from its beginnings in the 16th century up to the beginning of the 19th century, and the second from then until the last imprint of the Index in 1966 (the final edition was the 20th in 1948). In the fourth post, I will look at the different types of works included in the Index over time, a topic which will be continued in the fifth post as well, by exemplifying some specific works by well-known authors. The final content post will look at the ongoing impact and relevance of the list to the Church today - although the list is no longer published and reading books on the list no longer attracts penalties, it is still regarded as having moral force, as indicated in l'Osservatore Romano in its issue from the 15th June 1966.

Censorship and Religion

Censorship involves the supervision of press to prevent any abuse, perceived or real. Censorship may be either civil or ecclesiastical, and may be exercised either before publication, which involves the examination of the work by people authorised to comment on the content (this is known as censura praevia), or after publication, which typically involves the discovery of undesirable content in such a work (known as censura repressiva).

There is a long history of religious censorship pre-dating Christianity - both pagans and Jews were involved in the censorship of various works, typically relating to what was perceived as being morally offensive. After the conversion of various peoples to Christianity, for example the conversion of the people of Ephesus, books regarded as part of the old ways were burned. With the advent of beliefs seen as heretical such as the Arian heresy, censorship became more obvious, a state of affairs which became increasingly frequent during the Middle Ages, with the rise of such sects as the Hussites.

This particular trend included prohibiting the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, the practice being oddly enough one of the great appeals of the Protestant movement. With the rise of Protestantism, censorship in the Catholic Church became more and more organised - all writings of Martin Luther for example, both present and future, were banned by Papal Bull on 15th June 1520. The Inquisition was made the authority for censorship of publication by Papal Bull of 21st July 1542 after its reorganisation by Pope Paul III.

References

Hilgers, J 1908, 'Censorship of Books', The Catholic Encyclopedia, viewed 30 March 2011 on New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03519d.htm

L'Osservatore Romano, 15 June 1966, Year 106, number 136, page 1.