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
The Bishop Gapi, in 1711, prohibits the entire
work on the ground that a number of dogmas and disciplinary articles
were considered in it in a Jansenist or even a Protestant sense. The
prohibitions had the effect, as was usually the case, of increasing the
repute and the circulation of the work, which was repeatedly reprinted.
A treatise by Antoine Arnauld on frequent communion, published in 1643,
was promptly denounced by the Inquisition although it had secured the
approval of the French bishops. In 1645, the Abbé Bourgois succeeded
in securing a cancellation of the judgment of the Inquisition. A
century later, a Jesuit reply to Arnauld’s treatise, written by Pichon,
came into the Index. In 1647, the Inquisition prohibited a volume by
Martin de Bircos written in support of the doctrines presented by
Arnauld. Martin speaks of the Apostles Peter and Paul as the “two
leaders” of the early Church, which constituted the chief ground for
the condemnation of the book, the authorities maintaining that the
subordination of Paul to Peter was the only sound doctrine. Since the
time of Benedict XIV, a general prohibition stands in the _Decreta
Gen._ under the term _libri_, of all writings maintaining any
opinion adverse to the supremacy of Peter.
_Controversies Connected with the Jansenist Contests._ During the
17th century, were prohibited a number of writings appearing outside
of France and the Netherlands, which, while not classed directly as
Jansenist, were concerned with the doctrine of Grace. In 1673, a
treatise by the Augustine Noris (who was made a cardinal in 1695,
and who died in 1704) on Pelagianism and the doctrine of Grace, was
repeatedly condemned by the Jesuits and the Franciscans as containing
Jansenist heresies. The volume was brought to Rome for investigation
three times, and each time was declared to be sound in its orthodoxy. A
number of other works which were denounced before the Roman authorities
by the Jesuit leaders, on the ground of containing Jansenist heresies,
the Congregation refused to condemn. The authors were in large part
Dominicans and Augustinians who had brought into print the traditionary
doctrine of Grace as taught in their own schools. Cardinal Bona
complained that during these years every one who was not a Molinist
was denounced by the Jesuits as a Jansenist. The Spanish Dominican,
Gonzalez de Rosende, and the French Oratorian Jeunin, are the only
theologians of note who come into the Roman Index during this period.
The Congregation condemned, in 1722, a censure of the faculty of Douay
in which the Dominicans, Contenso and Massoulié, had been accused of
being Jansenists. The edition of the work of St. Augustine, edited
by the Benedictines of St. Maur, was accused of being tainted with
Jansenism, but the work succeeded in securing the approval of the
Roman authorities. In 1704, a brief of Clement XI condemned a volume
by Launoy, printed after the author’s death, in which the Augustinian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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