Chapter IX: Censorship Regulations, 1550–1591145

1. Papal regulations concerning books, 1550–1591.
2. Censorship regulations in Bavaria, 1561–1582.
3. Censorship under Pius V and Gregory XIII, 1570–1585.

=1. Papal Regulations Concerning Books, 1550–1587.=--According to the _Bulla Coenae_, all persons who, without permission of the pope, read or possess copies of condemned books come under the penalty of excommunication, without the requirement of any specific action of the authorities. On this ground, the popes reserved to themselves the exclusive right to grant dispensation for the reading of such books, but this claim of the Curia was not always respected. Permits for the examination of books classed as heretical were given at different times by Charles V, Francis I, the Bishop of London, and others. Leo X himself empowered Cardinal Wolsey to grant such permits, according to his own judgment, to scholars engaged in preparing refutations of the Lutheran heresies. Caraffa complained that, in Venice, copies of certain condemned books were freely circulated and widely read.[146] The Dominican Carranza, later Archbishop of Toledo, secured in 1539 from Paul III, as a result of some clever disputations held in Rome, a dispensation for the reading of heretical books.

_1550, April._ _A Bull of Julius III_ revokes all dispensations at that time outstanding for the use of heretical books, on the ground that the privilege had been abused and had worked evil.[147] Bulls of similar purport were issued by Paul IV in 1558, in connection with the publication of his Index; by Pius IV in 1564 in connection with the Index of Trent; by Paul V in 1612; by Gregory XV in 1623; by Urban VIII in 1627.[148]

It is not surprising that with these difficulties placed in their way, the scholars of the Church found themselves not infrequently at a serious disadvantage in carrying on their controversies with its heretical opponents. As an example of a number of similar utterances may be cited the complaint of Girolamo Muzio, who had been actively engaged in suppressing heresy in Northern Italy. He writes in November, 1550, to the commissary-general of the Inquisition that his work was seriously hampered for want of the privilege of examining the texts of the heresies he was refuting. In March, 1551, the dispensation, for which he had made various applications, was finally granted.

_1551, June._ _A Brief of Julius III_ grants permission to the cardinals named as presidents of the Council of Trent to read the works condemned as heretical, and through personal converse with Protestants, to secure the fullest possible acquaintance with the grounds of their heresies.

_1561, March._ _A Brief of Pius IV_ gives to the legates at Trent a dispensation identical with that given by Julius III.[149] The letter to the individual legate specifies that the permission to examine heretical literature is granted on the ground of the Pope’s confidence in the strength of his piety and faith and in the trustworthiness of his scholarship. Similar dispensations were given to the Spanish delegates at Trent by the King of Spain.

_In 1568_, _Pius V_ sends Cardinal Comendon, with two bishops, to Germany to oppose the spread of Lutheran doctrines. They were charged to purify the German dioceses from heretical books, “which are perpetual instructors and solicit without intermission.” They were instructed further to engage learned men to write against the heretics and to print these orthodox and devout arguments in small books, which being sold at a low price or distributed without charge, should come into the hands of all. Pius promised to provide the funds required for this “missionary” publishing. This method of influencing the public had evidently been suggested by the enormous success of the Protestant presses of Wittenberg.

_1587._ _Sixtus V_ issues a Bull for the regulation of libraries in which is restated the penalty of the excommunication _latae sententiae_.

_1591._ _Clement VIII_ (in the _Instructio_ of his Index) authorises the bishop to grant such dispensations to trustworthy and faithful scholars, but for no periods exceeding three years.

2. Censorship Regulations in Bavaria, 1561–1582.

_1561._ _Duke Albrecht V_ appoints the first commission of censorship, putting at its head two Jesuits, Peltanus and Canisius.

_1562._ _Duke Albrecht_ orders the destruction of all pernicious and misleading books and pamphlets. The commission is directed to take the responsibility of determining which these are.

_1565._ _Duke Albrecht_ issues a general edict directing the prohibition of all heretical writings, and forbidding the sale of theological works in any but Catholic towns.[150]

_1566._ _The Ducal Commission of Censorship_ issues an _Index librorum prohibitorum_, and also a general catalogue of books which it is permitted to sell and to read within the duchy. The catalogue is printed in Munich by Adam Berg. The lists are restricted almost entirely to books on religion or theology. It is possibly the first attempt to guide, by official selection and injunction, the religious reading of a people.[151]

_1569._ _Duke Albrecht_ orders printed by Adam Berg, for the use of the monasteries of Bavaria, a special edition of the Index of Trent, to which is appended a list, compiled by his commission, of the books which are commended for use in the monastery libraries,--_Index selectissimum auctorum ex quibus integra bibliotheca constitui recte potest_. The volume contains a brief, written by Chancellor Eck, in which the heads of the monasteries are cautioned to purge and to reshape their collections according to the instructions given by the Tridentine Fathers. It is to be noted, however, that the list of works recommended include a number of titles which these same Fathers had condemned and prohibited. Certain further authors approved by the Bavarian censors find place in either Class I or Class II of the later Roman Indexes. In the same year, 1569, Berg prints, under authority of the Duke, an ordinance prescribing the texts that are to be used in the “Latin Schools” of the duchy, and presenting a list of Latin texts the use of which is prohibited.

In 1569, the Duke commits to the Jesuits the task of purging the ducal library from pernicious books. In the same year was instituted a general inspection or investigation of conditions throughout the duchy (_allgemeine Landesvisitation_), which continued for two years. The inspectors were enjoined to give special attention to the bookshops as well as to libraries, private as well as public, and to see that all heretical, pernicious, and non-Catholic books were eliminated and the copies destroyed. They were also to take measures to stop the distribution of heretical and godless pamphlets and tracts (_flügschriften_).[152]

_1580._ _Duke William V_ issues an edict directing the immediate delivery to the pastors or magistrates of all copies of heretical books. Persons in whose possession are found any copies of proscribed books are to be so thoroughly punished that thousands shall profit by their example. The effects of deceased persons are to be searched for godless literature. No reading of prohibited books is permitted even to ecclesiastics or magistrates.

_1582._ _Duke William_ confirms the authority given to the papal Nuncio, Ninguarda, formerly Vicar-General for Germany of the Dominicans, to issue an Index, which was printed at Munich. It contains the text and the lists of the Index of Trent, and certain additional titles of “heretical, pernicious, or suspicious books.” The greater number of the books had come into print since 1564, but the Bavarian compiler had found some three hundred objectionable authors of earlier date who had escaped the attention of the Indexers of Trent. The additions all find place in Class I. They possess some continued importance as with hardly an exception they were later included in the Index of Sixtus V. These three hundred names of pernicious authors, all of whose writings are thus placed under condemnation, had been taken by Ninguarda from the catalogue of the Frankfort Book-Fair, for the years 1568–1581. The greater number were transcribed from the divisions headed: _Protestantium Theologorum Scripta de rebus sacris_ and _Der Protestierenden Theologen Teutsche Schriften_, but there are also citations from the divisions of history, philosophy, and poetry. In this manner, the lists of the Roman Index have been made to include, mingled in with the well-known names of the great teachers of Protestant doctrine, the names of unknown authors whose writings were of trifling importance and of no theological or controversial significance. They might well have felt complimented at the distinction of such an association. It was the case also that certain books announced in these publishers’ catalogues never came into publication. Their “authors” secured none the less the honour of a general condemnation, in Class I, not only in the local Index of Munich, but in the Sistine Index of Rome addressed to the whole Christian world. The names are naturally, in the main, German and Swiss, but there are a few French and English, such as de Loquis, Petrus Ramus, Beza, John Parkhurst, Thomas Dranta (under the poets). The Duke gave orders that copies of this Index must be placed in all monasteries and with all priests, confessors, and deacons. The Nuncio gave authority to the bishops to appoint commissaries charged with the work of carrying out the regulations of the Index.[153]

In August, 1581, the Jesuit Peter Canisius wrote to Duke William, referring with approval to the Index then in preparation, and adds the recommendation that a _Censor Librorum_, to be appointed by the Duke and the bishops, should be sent to Munich, Ingolstadt, Straubing, Burghausen, and other places where annual fairs were held, to examine the books offered for sale, and particularly those imported, and to inspect all libraries, both public and private. They were to have authority to confiscate and to destroy all copies of books condemned or likely to prove pernicious.[154] He suggests further the desirability of an Index published as a serial from year to year. This idea of Canisius was, some twenty years later, carried out, though not in Bavaria. From 1606 to about 1619 was published in Mayence a yearly list, prepared for the use of booksellers in Catholic States, and presenting titles selected from the annual catalogue of the Frankfort Fair. The title was: _Index novus librorum imprimis Catholicorum theologorum aliorumque celebrium auctorum quarumcunque facultatum et linguarum, causas religionis tamen non tractantium ... pro Italia ceterisque nationibus confectus_. The first issue includes a preface from Leuchtius, _Sedis Apost. librorum revisor_, an authorisation from Paul V, and a privilege from the emperor. The Index is devoted to the titles of books the reading of which is permitted.[155]

3. Censorship under Pius V and Gregory XIII, 1570–1585.

_1570._ _Pius_ gives instructions for the preparation of a new _Index expurgatorius_, but the plan was not carried out.

_1572._ _Gregory XIII_ issues a Bull directing the production of an _Index expurgatorius_ on the lines of that published in Antwerp. The work was, however, delayed so that it was not until 1590, five years after Gregory’s death, that this Roman Index appeared.

During the reigns of both Pius and Gregory, however, attention was given to the production of expurgated editions of the works of a number of authors, such as Erasmus, Boccaccio, Polydorus, Vergilius, Zasius, Harphius, etc. Under Pius, condemnation was ordered for the teachings of Bajus, but this did not bring any new titles into the Index. In 1569, Guido Zanetti de Fano was put under arrest for heretical teaching. The Senate of Venice demanded that the trial should take place in Venice. The Pope Pius replied that the civil authorities had no proper concern with matters of heresy, except to carry out in due course the verdicts or judgments given by the Church.[156]

_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. The Pope ordered the Spanish Inquisition, under penalty of the _excommunicatio latae_, to release Carranza without further delay. The inquisitors were also directed to deliver the records to the Nuncio, within three months’ time, or to send them in sealed packages to Rome within three months. The penalty for disobedience was excommunication. Carranza reached Rome in 1567. He was then again given the privilege of confession but not of communion. The trial records were never delivered complete. Those that reached Rome in November, 1568, and February, 1570, filled twenty-four folio volumes of 1000 to 1200 pages each. The investigation of the business was assigned by the Pope to a commission of seventeen. The translation from Spanish into Latin and reading of the records consumed four years. Pius died in 1572, before the commission had completed its work.

The Letters of Pius V, edited by F. Goubau, were printed in Antwerp in 1640, under the title _Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Pont. Max. Epistolarum Libri Quinque_. They are referred to by Mendham as important in the evidence presented of the strenuous and unremitting efforts of Pius to incite Charles IX and his mother to the extirpation of heresy, efforts of which the Massacre of St. Bartholomew may be considered as the chief result.

In April, 1576, eighteen years after the original accusation and arrest of Carranza, the final judgment in his case (based upon the report of the commission) was announced by Gregory XIII. Carranza was pronounced to have laid himself open to the charge of heretical utterances (_vehementer suspectus de haeresi_). He was ordered to disavow and recant all heretical opinions, and particularly those expressed in sixteen citations from his writings. He was then to be absolved from further censure or condemnation. He was suspended for five years from authority in his archbishopric, but was to be paid from its treasury an annual stipend of one thousand ducats. He was to make his sojourn in the Dominican monastery of Veyano. Carranza fulfilled the first obligations of his sentence; but while preparing for his return journey, he sickened and died, aged seventy-three years. He declared with his last utterances that he had never held or taught heretical doctrines. He accepted, however, without protest, the judgment of the Pope; and forgave all his enemies. The statements which he was required to recant specifically included:

“The Church of the present day does not possess the same measure of authority that belonged to the early Church.”

“In the early Church, the Communion was administered in both forms.”

“The appointment of the bishop required an election by the clergy and the approval of the people.”

“The election of the pope required the approval of the emperor.”

“Priests were permitted to marry.”

“Bishops excommunicated heretics but did not burn them,” etc.

_In 1566_, _Pius V_ appointed a commission of five cardinals, who associated with them twelve scholars, for the preparation of a new edition of the _Corpus Juris Canonici_. The commission bore the name of _Congregatio de emendatione decreti Gratiani_, and came to be known as _Correctores Romani_. The work appeared in 1582, with two briefs (1580, 1582) of Gregory XIII directing that this edition should thereafter be the sole authority, and prohibiting the printing of it with notes or interpretations.

_In 1570_, were printed revised editions of the Book of the Mass and the Breviary. Pius issued a Bull forbidding, under penalty of excommunication, the further printing of liturgies except with special privilege. The Bull permitted, however, the reprinting and the use of liturgies that had been used for not less than two hundred years. Of the Breviary of Cologne, which belonged to this class, an edition was printed in 1576, with a privilege from Gregory XIII.[158]

_In 1583_, the famous treatise of Scaliger, _De Emendatione Temporum_, received the honour of a special condemnation from Gregory XIII. Gregory had some years earlier authorised the publication, without the name of the author, of an expurgated edition of the _Adagia_ of Erasmus. In 1575, at the instance of the Congregation, Gregory ordered that all works by heretical authors which had been authorised for publication in expurgated editions should be printed without the names of their authors.