The censorship of the Church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature, volume 1 (of 2)Putnam, George Haven
History
The censorship of the Church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature, volume 1 (of 2)
Putnam, George Haven
Freedom of the press; Liberty of conscience; Prohibited books
_In 1561_, _the Sorbonne_ placed under condemnation the writings of
Bishop Jean Monluc of Valence (charged with Calvinistic tendencies)
and resolved, against the protests of the Bishop and the Queen Regent,
to include his name in the Index; but after 1561, no further Index was
published by the Sorbonne. Monluc was condemned as a heretic by Paul IV
and by Pius V, but his writings do not find place in the Roman Index.
His sermons were, however, included in the Antwerp and Valdes Indexes
of 1559.
_In 1561_, a commission appointed by King Philip, under the authority
of Paul IV, took under consideration a series of thirty-one utterances
of Carranza, submitted by his opponents as evidence of his heresies.
The list was later increased to over one hundred by selections from
his confiscated papers. The report of the commission, apparently
not conclusive, was referred to the Council of Trent. Carranza had
published in Antwerp, in 1558, in a volume dedicated to King Philip,
_Commentaries on the Commandments, the Sacraments, and Faith and Good
Works_. The book was placed on the Valdes Index of 1559, but did
not find place in the Roman Index until forty years later.[157] The
author, after trial by the Spanish Inquisition, was imprisoned and
harshly treated, although the University of Alcala and a number of the
ecclesiastics of Spain, including the Archbishop of Granada, declared
the teachings of Carranza to be orthodox and valuable. The university
was, as a result of this utterance of the faculty, placed by Valdes
under excommunication, and subjected to a fine of twenty ducats. It
was forbidden to exercise any censorship over books except with the
approval of the Inquisition. In 1562, Pius IV, on the recommendation of
the Council, sent by a special nuncio to King Philip a brief directing
that the imprisoned Archbishop be delivered to Rome, together with
the records of his case. Philip declined to acknowledge the Pope’s
authority in the matter, and refused to permit the publication in
Spain of a brief so injurious to the dignity of his realm. The matter
continued to be discussed in the Council at Trent, and was also taken
up by the commission of the Index. The Archbishop of Prague was a
leader among those protesting against the arrogance of Spain in a
matter which concerned the welfare and the policy of the Church as a
whole. The treatise of Carranza did not find place in the Trent Index.
In 1566, Cardinal Ghislieri became Pope as Pius V. He demanded the
deposition of Valdes as Inquisitor-General and seconded the appointment
of Espinosa as coadjutor with authority to act separately. Camovani,
Bishop of Ascoli, was sent to Spain as Nuncio extraordinary with
instructions not to return without Carranza and the records of the
proceedings. In the brief given to the Nuncio, the Pope complains that
Carranza had now been in prison for seven years, and that specification
of the charges against him had never been sent to the Head of the
Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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