In the early days the Church had to direct her attention largely to the many so-called apocryphal books, falsely claimed to have been inspired by God and to form part of Holy Scripture. In 496, Pope Gelasius issued his famous decree, in which he enumerates the true books of the Bible, a number of the writings of the Fathers, (which he recommends,) together with a short list of apocryphal and heretical books, the reading of which he forbids. In 745, by order of the Pope, a Roman synod examined and forbade a number of superstitious books sent by St. Boniface, who had found them among the Germans. In fact, already in those days the entire present-day book legislation of the Church existed in all its essential features, though there were few written decrees. It seems the loyal Christian’s duty of avoiding bad books, and the power of the Church to prohibit them, were held to be so self-evident that the need of written laws was not felt. The necessity of watching over the mental food of the faithful became more urgent when, in the fifteenth century, was invented _printing_, which popes and bishops hailed as a “divine art” and eulogised as the greatest blessing of God’s providence in the natural order. It spread rapidly. Before the year 1500, the city of Rome alone had one hundred and ninety printing establishments. The oldest of them, in the first seven years of its existence, produced not less than twenty-eight works in forty-seven editions, the total number of pages being one hundred and twenty-four millions. As to the moral quality of the books printed at that period, a German, Wimpheling, writes with pardonable pride in 1507: “We Germans practically control the whole intellectual market of civilized Europe; _the books, however, which we bring to this market are for the most part high-class works, tending to the honor of God, the salvation of souls, and the civilisation of the people_.” How soon, alas, was this to change! Even while these words were written, the evil was already striking root, and steps had been taken by the civil as well as by the ecclesiastical power, to prevent the printing and spreading of noxious books. But it was not until the beginning of the so-called Reformation that the boundless increase of heretical and other pernicious literature called for radical and extensive measures. They began in 1520 with the solemn condemnation of Luther’s doctrine and the prohibition of his writings. About that time the first indexes or catalogues of forbidden books appeared. They were not issued by the popes, but emanated mostly from bishops, provincial councils, or universities. The civil power was expected to enforce them. In some cases the princes themselves or the magistrates of cities and republics issued their own indexes, in full harmony and after consultation with the clergy.