The censorship of the Church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature, volume 2 (of 2)Putnam, George Haven
History
The censorship of the Church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature, volume 2 (of 2)
Putnam, George Haven
Freedom of the press; Liberty of conscience; Prohibited books
Henricus Hovius printed in Liège, in 1569, an edition of the Index
of Trent in which (without any reference or specification) certain
additional names and titles have been inserted in the alphabetical
lists. The title-page states that the Index has been prepared under
the authority of King Philip, and in accordance with a decree of the
Duke of Alva. The new titles, probably added at the instance of the
divines of Louvain, are for the most part repeated in the Antwerp Index
of 1570. Reusch points out that this Liège Index is very carelessly
printed and is full of errors.
The prohibitions of the Trent Index were confirmed under the authority
of the diocesan synods of the Spanish Netherlands. One of the diocesan
edicts required the printers and booksellers each year to take an
oath of fidelity to the faith of the Church, in default of which the
license to print was to be forfeited. In 1589, the Synod of Tournai
prohibited the booksellers from possessing a copy of the _Index
librorum haereticorum_, a catalogue printed yearly for the use of
the Frankfort Book-Fair, which was based upon the lists of the Index
of Trent, but the titles in which were from year to year brought
down to date. The book-dealers were already beginning to realise the
value for their business of the labour expended by the Church in the
preparation of bibliographies of the books which were most likely
to prove of interest to the active minded people of the world. This
Frankfort catalogue of heretical books was the beginning of a series of
such catalogues in which the work of the Congregation of the Index and
of the Inquisition was taken advantage of (with material improvements
in the accuracy of the bibliography) to emphasise the value and to
further the circulation of the books which had been condemned by the
Church. The edict of the bishops who met at Tournai in 1589 appears to
have been the first expression of doubt on the part of ecclesiastical
authorities as to the effectiveness of the condemnations of the Index
in lessening the circulation and the influence of heretical literature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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