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
Hilgers points out that the Church is naturally much more concerned
with the protection of the morality and of the spiritual nature of the
people than with any formal intellectual development such as is to be
secured from the study of the so-called classics. If a classical work,
for instance, teaches that suicide is praiseworthy or is defensible,
it is the duty of the Church to keep such work out of the hands of the
believers. In like manner, the Church prohibits writings of any kind
which make defence of the propriety of divorce or which make reference
to divorce as if it were a necessary condition of society. The Church
can further give its approval either formally or tacitly to no work
which attacks the inspiration of the Scriptures or the binding force of
scriptural doctrine, and must bring its condemnation upon any writer,
however great he may be, whether Catholic or Protestant, historian
or litterateur, philosopher or theologian, whose utterances tend to
undermine faith in the word of God.[184]
There are, however, not a few expressions of opinion from Catholic
sources which are by no means in accord with the conclusions reached
by Father Hilgers as to the wisdom and beneficence of the literary
policy of the Church of Rome. These critics have pointed out that
the censors, whether in Rome, Madrid, or Paris, had been so seriously
concerned with matters of doctrine, that they had given small measure
of attention to publications of a scandalous character, and the
influence of which was _contra bonos mores_.
[Sidenote: Sleumer on the Index]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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