WATTENBACH. _Deutschland’s Geschichtsquelle._ 4 vols. Leipsic, 1879. WELSCHINGER, HENRI. _La Censure sous le premier Empire._ Paris, 1882. WERNER, E. _Gesch. der Apost. Lit._ 3 vols. Leipsic. ---- _Thomas von Aquin._ Leipsic. WHITE, ANDREW D. _A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom._ 2 vols. New York, 1896. WIDDRINGTON, ROGER. _A Theological Disputation concerning the Oath of Allegiance._ By R. W. London, 1613. WIEDEMANN, THEO. _Die Kirchliche Büchercensur in der Erzdiocese._ Wien. Vienna, 1873. WIESNER, A. _Denkwürdigkeiten der oesterreichischen Censur vom Zeitalter der Reformation._ Stuttgart, 1847. WILKINS, DAVID. _Concilia Magnae Britanniae._ 4 vols. London, 1639. WOLF, O. _Bibliotheca Hebraica._ Munich, 1830. ZACCARIA, F. A. _Storia Polemica delle proibizione de’libri._ Rome, 1774. CENSORSHIP CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY: THE INDEX AND CENSORSHIP In any investigation of the development of literary production and of the relations of the producers of books with the reading public, it is necessary to give consideration to the influence exerted upon literary activities, and upon the actual effectiveness of literature, by the censorship and the restrictive measures instituted by the Church. Church censorship may be said to have begun as early as 150, with an edict issued by the Council of Ephesus, in which the _Acta Pauli_ (an unauthenticated history of the life of St. Paul) was condemned and prohibited. During the centuries following, a number of similar edicts or mandates were published by councils, by individual ecclesiastics, and by civil officials acting at the instance of the authorities of the Church, under which edicts the faithful were cautioned against the pernicious influence of various works classed as heretical, and the heretics who had been concerned in the production and circulation of such writings were threatened with penalties ranging from confiscation of property to imprisonment, excommunication, and death. A schedule of these decrees and edicts will be found in a later chapter. The revolution in the methods of the production and distribution of literature brought about by the invention of printing in the middle of the 15th century, had, as an immediate result, an enormous increase in the influence upon the shaping of popular opinion of the written, or rather of the printed word, that is, of thought in the form of literature. The work of the printers was at first welcomed by the rulers of the Church. They convinced themselves that the Lord had placed at their disposal a valuable instrument for the spread of sound doctrine and for the enlightenment of believers, and with this conviction, they found funds for the support of a number of the early printers and kept their presses employed in the production of works of approved theological instruction.