Chapter X

INDEXES OF THE NETHERLANDS, SPAIN, AND ITALY,
1569–1588

_1._ _1569._ _Antwerp._ Index, issued under the authority of an edict of the king:

_Philippi II. Regis Catholici Edictum, de Librorum prohibitorum Catalogo observando, una cum iis qui mandato Regiae Catholicae Majestatis, et illustriss. Ducis Albani, consiliiq., Regii decreto, prohibentur, suo quaeq. loco et ordine repositis._

This presents the Tridentine Index with certain titles interpolated, and with some additional lists.

The decree of Philip makes reference to the _Taxae_ of the Church of Rome. The wording is _Praxis et Taxa officinae poenitentiariae Papae_. Mendham speaks of a monograph (of which he possessed a copy reprinted from the Paris edition of 1520) entitled _Taxatio Papalis_, being an account of the _Tax-book of the United Church and Court of Modern Rome_, by Emancipatus. He states that Dr. Milner and other Catholic writers had asserted that “this vile book had no existence but in the imagination of heretics”; while Dr. Butler and others had taken the ground that the work was simply a “record of fees of office.”[159]

_2._ _1570._ _Antwerp._ _Philip II and Duke of Alva._ This is a reprint of the Index of 1569, with the exception that the Tridentine lists are given without interpolations. The lists following are the same as those of the previous year. After the edict of the King, printed in French, Flemish, and Latin, follow the words: _cum Appendice in Belgio ex mandato Regiae Cathol. Majestatis confecta_. The wording of the edict, which bears date February, 1564, emphasises the claim of the King that all censorship should emanate from his own authority. The execution of the edict is committed to the Duke of Alva and then to the governors of each province. The most essential provision is that within three months after the publication of the statute, all the condemned books should be burned, and possession of copies should, therefore, be unlawful. The responsibility for the compilation rests with Arius Montanus, the scholar who had edited the great polyglot Bible, published by Plantin.

All books partially condemned or appointed to be expurgated were to be brought to the magistrate of the place and corrected according to the judgment of the council. The usual penalties are added. The lists include titles in Latin, in French, in Flemish, and in Spanish. This Index includes the first index reference to the term _Taxae_, under the words _Praxis et Taxa officinae poenitentiariae Papae_. A specification of the application of the term _Taxa_ will be given later. The term appears originally to have been used to denote the official fees covering the cost of the censorship. Later, there was, however, some extension of its purport.

One detail in this Index of 1570 is the including in it of the lists of condemned Bibles and Testaments (with some additions) which had appeared in the Roman Index of 1559 but which had for some reason been omitted from the Tridentine Index.

The lists in this Antwerp appendix to the Trent Index were utilised without change by Quiroga for the Spanish Index of 1571, and also for the Index of Sixtus V. It is also stated in the edict that the selection for condemnation of certain books which had escaped the attention of the Tridentine compilers or which had been published since 1564, had been arrived at through the labours of a commission of learned and devout men, including certain bishops, inquisitors, deans, and doctors, who had been selected by the Duke. Reusch points out, however, that this scholarly commission could not have made a personal examination of all the books recorded, as the lists include a number of titles, copied from the catalogue of the Frankfort Book-Fair, of books which had been announced but not yet printed, and some of which never came into print.[160] This Antwerp Index is described as not doing credit, in respect to bibliographical or typographical accuracy, to the editor, Montanus, or to his learned associates. A number of the authors in Class I are entered under both surname and forename; the lists in all classes are characterised by repetitions and a variety of inaccurate spelling. In this Index appears for the first time in Class I the name of Stephanus, Robertus (the eldest son of Henry). Several of his books, such as the _Thesaurus Linguae Graecae_, the edition of the Psalms, the _Apology_ for Herodotus, had found place in previous Indexes. In the Index of Benedict XIV, 1756, the name of Robertus Stephanus is taken out of Class I, and the titles of the several books condemned are for the first time correctly printed. Under the heading _Duytschen Bücher_, are placed one or two English titles, including the _Psalms of David, in Enghelsche metre_, by Thomas von Sternholde, Lond. 1559.

The Commentaries of Scaliger on Theophrastus, published in 1566, appear in Class II. The schedule of prohibited Bibles and Testaments is in the main a repetition of that of Louvain of 1550.

_3._ _1571._ _Antwerp._ _King Philip II and the Duke of Alva._

_Index Expurgatorius Librorum qui hoc saeculo prodierunt, vel doctrinae non sanae erroribus inspersis, vel inutilis et offensivae maladicentiae fellibus permixtis, juxta Sacrae Concilii Tridentini Decretum, Philippi II. Regis Catholici, Jesu et auctoritate atque Albani Ducis concilio ac ministerio in Belgia concinnatus, Anno MDLXXI Antwerpiae ex officina Christophori Plantini, prototypographi Regii._

A “diploma” of the King then follows in Flemish. It expresses deep concern for the endangered orthodoxy of the King’s subjects and consideration also for their purses. On this ground, in place of condemning to the flames all the bad books, it subjects to a necessary purgation those which are corrigible. For the assistance of the prelates authorised to conduct such purgation, an _Index expurgatorius_ is provided. The Index was not to be published but the bishops were instructed to secure the assistance of selected booksellers in the different towns to whom, without the knowledge of any others, copies of this Index were to be intrusted. They were to communicate it to none but were enjoined themselves to discover in the books in their hands the places marked for correction, to expunge the condemned passages, or to cancel chapters or pages condemned _in toto_. After the expunged copies had received the approbation and the signature of the censor, the books were to be restored to the dealers. Copies which had already come into the possession of individual owners were to be delivered by them to the censors and were to be handed to the booksellers for similar correction. The introductory material closes with the following caution: _Cavetur etiam ne quis hunc indicem parte aliqua augeat, vel minuat neve ex impressis manuscriptum exprimate, citra gubernatoris et concilii auctoritatem_. This caution is followed by a selection of the Tridentine Rules and a general statement or explanation on the part of Montanus, who is the responsible editor.

A conference was held at Brussels in May, 1570, for the purpose of organising the work of revising the books to be expurgated. This conference also gave consideration to certain books ordered for correction by the Council of Trent, the list comprising chiefly editions of the Fathers printed with “misleading and pernicious notes and commentaries.” The Index, as finally prepared, was the work of a board of editors which was presided over by Bishop Sonnius, and to which Montanus was appointed as royal commissary (representative). The Index was printed in July, 1571, with edicts of King Philip and Duke Alva, and an introduction by Montanus. The cost of the work was borne by the King. The original edition is very scarce, but reprints have been issued by several of the Protestant publishers of Holland. It was also included with the Index of Quiroga, printed at Toledo in 1571.

The edict orders, under various penalties for disobedience, the delivery for correction of all existing copies of the books specified. No further copies of the unexpurgated editions are to be printed, sold, possessed, or read. New editions can be printed, under careful supervision, with the authorised text as expurgated. In each diocese, the bishop, or a representative appointed by the bishop, is to be furnished with a copy of the Index, and to be charged with the execution of its regulations. The copies of the Index must be read by none but the authorities. The expurgated editions must carry the notice of permission or of privilege. On the back of the title-page of the Index is printed: _Ducis Albae jussu ac decreto cavetur, ne quis praeter Prototypographum Regium hunc Indicem imprimat, neve ille aut quis alius publice vel private vendat, aut citra ordinariorum facultatem, aut permissionem habeat_. The schedule of books to be corrected is classified under the terms _deleatur_, _mutetur_, _corregatur_, _expurgetur_. The reports on the books examined are grouped in the Index under the headings: _legi possunt_; _nihil offendunt_; _nihil quia non legantur habere videntur_; _nullam religionis facit mentionem_; _nihil offendiculi habent contra pietatem vel bonos etiam mores_; _admissum est_; _totus liber rejiciatur ut est in catalogo_ (Index of 1570); _tollendi sunt, quia correctionem non admittunt_; _repurgatione dignum non censuimus_; etc.

Among the authors whose texts were largely expurgated under the specifications given in this Index and in accordance with rules 2, 5, 8 of the Tridentine, were Gesner, Camerarius, Ramus, and Münster. Certain others who had by the Tridentine compilers also been placed in Class I, were, with but trifling eliminations, placed in the permitted class, but still others were, without any correction at all, freed from the ban.[161]

This Antwerp Index found but little acceptance in Rome, although some of its material was later utilised by Brasichelli. In Spain, on the other hand, it was accepted as authoritative and, as stated, was made the basis of the Index issued in 1586, by Quiroga. The Spanish Inquisition, however, extended and enlarged the expurgations, so that while the work of the Antwerp editors is presented in a moderate sized quarto, the Index of Sotomayor, issued in 1640, requires, for practically the same list of authors, a portly folio.

In this Index was included the _Missa Latina_, with preface by Illyricus, condemned on the ground of the preface and of what are described as “offensive additions.” It was reprinted by Francis Junius in 1586. The editor states in his preface that the expurgatory correctors had not contented themselves with excising certain statements that impressed them as erroneous, but had substituted (as if part of the original text) other phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs, making a sense entirely different from that of the author.[162]

Montanus remarks naïvely in his introduction that many of the pious authors of the expurgated books, who had died and who in the future world had come to know the truth, would, if they could return to earth, be very ready to be thankful to their censors. Especially would this be true of those writers whose works as originally issued had been without blemish, but the later editions of which had called for censorship to eliminate pernicious notes and commentaries. Living authors might in like manner have cause for gratitude to the censors, who had through their labours rendered valuable and available books which otherwise it would have been necessary to suppress; and, adds Montanus, certain authors had written to express their appreciation of the service.

The larger part of the work of preparing the expurgated text came upon the theological faculty of Louvain. In May, 1570, for instance, the Louvain divines took up the task of correcting the notes and comments of Erasmus on Irenaeus, Jerome, and Augustine. Their report was presented in November of the same year. Later in the year, they were engaged upon the complete works of Erasmus, a more serious undertaking. The list of expurgations for Erasmus covers twenty-three pages. Among the divines who took part in this work was Henry Boxhorn who afterwards became a Protestant. The writings of Reuchlin and Bertram were confided to the faculty of Douai. The latter gave special trouble to the expurgators in connection with his book, _De Corpore et Sanguine Domini_, which called for a full measure of analysis and elimination. The critique upon this book takes the ground that, “It was in order,” in judging of the ancient Catholics, “to bear with many errors, to extenuate, excuse, and even by some ingenious device to deny” (what the old author has affirmed) “and to fabricate a convenient interpretation for any statements which could be objected to in controversy as unsound.” Reusch speaks of the convenient form in which the expurgated texts were presented by these Antwerp editors, who in a number of cases printed in full (properly indicated by the type) the sentences which were to be cancelled, while the Spanish editions give of these sentences only the first and last words. A copy of the Antwerp Index was submitted in due course by Duke Alva to the Pope, Pius V. Montanus writes from Rome, in November, 1571, that the work was not favourably received by the authorities, who inclined to the opinion that the Antwerp editors had taken undue liberties with the classification and conclusions arrived at by the Fathers of Trent.[163]

In 1572, Gregory XIII, in instructing the Congregation of the Index to prepare a new Index, recalled any authorisations previously given to faculties or other bodies for the expurgation of books. As a result, the Index of Antwerp remains, excepting those prepared in Spain, and the single one of the kind issued in Rome, the only expurgatory Index in the series.

_4._ _1580._ _Parma._--_Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Apud Erasmum Viotum. Parmae. 1580. Concessu Superiorum._

This Index was prepared as a supplement to, or continuation of, the Index of Trent, and in accordance with the instructions given in the Tridentine preface to bishops and to local inquisitors. The Indexes of Liège, 1569, Antwerp, 1570, Lisbon, 1581, and Munich, 1582, were also compiled as a result of these instructions of 1564; but this of Parma is the only Italian example.

The lists, which contain 460 names, were undoubtedly utilised by Sixtus V, in the preparation of his Index, as a number of the errors in the names have been repeated verbatim. The Parma lists are full of blunders, and the names of the authors and titles of the books are curiously mixed together. The compilers have had access to certain English material and have thought it important, for instance, to include a condemnation of the Bible of Miles Coverdale, of which but few copies could have been within reach of readers in Italy. The entry reads: _Millo Couerdallus pro falsa translatione noui testamenti et prologis in quaedam loca ejusdem_.

The works of some of the Fathers are included, which works it was probably intended to condemn in some heretical edition, but the edition not being specified, the condemnation covers the teachings of the Father himself, as in the entry _Tertuliani Opera_.

At the close of the alphabetical schedule, is given a list (without alphabetical arrangement) of twenty-one heretics. The list fails to present certain of the assured heresiarchs, such as Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, but does include Melanchthon, Erasmus, and the Paris publishers, Henri and Robert Estienne.

This Index of Parma had not been included in any of the earlier records of censorship in Italy, and had even escaped the attention of the indefatigable Vergerio. Its existence was unknown to Reusch in 1884, at the time of the completion of his great history, and it is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, not mentioned by any of the other writers on censorship. A single copy was discovered in 1887 by Ludwig Rosenthal, and, at his instance, a reprint, edited by Reusch, was issued in Bonn in 1889.

_5._ _1581._ _Lisbon._ _Inquisitor-General._ In 1568, Cardinal Henry, at that time Regent, published in Portugal the decree of the Council of Trent. The Cardinal became King in 1578, and in that year he had published a Portuguese version of the Trent Rules, together with a newly compiled list of books prohibited for Portugal. According to Reusch, no copies of this Portuguese Index are known. In 1581, Portugal came under the rule of Philip II, and in that year, the Inquisitor-General, Dalmeida, published a reprint of the Index of Trent, together with a supplementary list of prohibited books. The title reads:

_Index librorum ... comprobatus. Nunc recens de mandato Illust. ac Rev. D. George Dalmeida, Metrop. Archiep. Olyssipon. totiusque Lusitanicae ditionis Inquis. General. in luce editus. Addito etiam altero Indice eorum Librorum qui in his Portugaliae Regnis prohibentur, cum permultis aliis ad eandem Librorum prohibitionem spectantibus, ... Olyssipone, excudebat Antonio Reberius._

The edict of the Inquisition announces the imposition of the penalty of the _excommunicatio latae sententiae_ for any disobedience of the regulations. The new lists comprise about 160 titles. A number of these new titles became of more than local importance as they were taken over by Quiroga and also by Sixtus V. The work of the Lisbon compilers was in part based upon Valdes. Among the new names may be noted: Jerome Cardan, Georgius Venetus, Crinitus and Amatus Lusitanus. Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_, Bocardo’s _Orlando Imamorato_, and Dante’s _Divine Comedy_ are grouped together in Class II. These three titles were, however, not repeated by the compilers of Sixtus. The _Utopia_ of Thomas More and the _Praise of Folly_ of Erasmus are placed together in Class II. Quiroga, in repeating the _Utopia_, places it with books to be permitted if corrected.

_6._ _1583._ _Madrid._ _Inquisitor-General Quiroga._ In 1583, the Inquisitor-General Quiroga, on the strength of his apostolic authority, orders the preparation of a new catalogue of prohibited books. The edict states that, by reason of the great increase and wide circulation of heresies, the catalogues heretofore published are no longer sufficient. The Inquisition has therefore determined to prepare a new and comprehensive list of books which have been condemned, and with such lists to publish a series of general authoritative regulations for the control of the printing and the reading of books. Quiroga utilised for the compilation of the Index representatives of the three universities and a number of other scholars. The regulations prohibit, under the penalty of the _excommunicatio latae sententiae_, the reading or the possession (either in bookshops or in private collections) of the books specified, or of any books containing the pernicious and heretical doctrines described in the general classification. To the secretary of the Inquisition, as consideration for his labour in the compilation of this Index, were assigned the “rights” for its publication. It may well be doubted, however, whether this publishing privilege brought to the secretary any very substantial return; as excepting in the case of the Tridentine, no one of the series of Indexes appears to have secured any remunerative sale.

The Quiroga Index contains no reference to that of Trent, but the Tridentine lists were largely utilised in its compilation, and the fourteen “rules” of Quiroga were evidently based upon the Ten Rules formulated in 1564. In the Spanish rules, however, the authority of the Inquisition is throughout substituted for that of bishops and theological faculties. Books prohibited in one version are to be held as prohibited in all versions, a modification repeated later by Clement VIII. There is a general prohibition of issues in the vernacular of any portions of the Scriptures. The largest schedule in Quiroga is that of works in Latin, comprising fifty-seven pages. The other lists give titles in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Flemish, and German in the order of importance specified. The lists of Valdes were in large part repeated, and those of Antwerp and Lisbon were also drawn upon. The Quiroga served in its turn as the basis for the Index of Sixtus V, the next in order from Rome.

In connection with the introduction of a number of works by good Catholics, the editors have addressed the following “Note to the Reader”:

“The prohibition of certain books bearing the names of writers
well known throughout the Christian world as devout believers
is not to be construed as a condemnation of the men themselves
or as a charge that they have fallen from the true faith.
In some cases heretical writings have falsely been issued
under their names; in others, heretical publishers or editors
have connected with the original text (in itself, orthodox)
heretical notes, comments, or interpolations; and in yet others,
writings addressed to scholars and suited only for scholarly
understandings have been printed in the language of the common
folk and circulated in such fashion as to cause mischief and
error to unlearned believers, unskilled in matters of doctrine;
and, finally, there are works which, while of service in the
period in which they were issued and for the special purpose for
which they were prepared, have fulfilled their mission and ought
now to be withdrawn and cancelled.”

Among the authors whose names are connected with this note are Fisher (Bishop of Rochester), More, Osorio, Luis de Granda, Cajetanus, Tapper, etc.

Quiroga’s list of Italian writers includes the following entry:

_Petrarca, los sonetos siguentes, Del’ empia Babylonia, Otro Fiama del ciel. Otro Fontana di dolore. Otro L’avara Babylonia._

Petrarch’s name does not appear in the Index of Paul IV or in that of Pius IV. It is to be found in that of Sixtus V, 1590, but in subsequent Roman Indexes it has been dropped. The later Spanish Indexes have perpetuated, however, this condemnation of the Florentine poet.

The character of the criticism of the Church which Petrarch had expressed in certain of these objectionable sonnets and which, while extenuated by the Roman censors, had aroused the indignation of those of Madrid, is indicated in the following lines:

_Fontana di dolore, albergo d’ira,
Scola d’errori; e tempio d’heresia,
Gia Roma, hor Babilonia, falsa e ria,
Per chi tanto si piagne, e si sospira._

_7._ _1584._ _Toledo._ _Quiroga._ _Index Librorum Expurgatorum._ The original is reported as exceedingly scarce. The work is known through the reprint in Bonn, 1601, and that in Hanover, 1611. Mendham reports[164] that the Earl of Essex brought to Thomas Bodley a copy that he had secured, at the taking of Cadiz, from the library of Bishop Osorius. This was the text utilised by Thomas James (first librarian of the Bodleian) for the edition printed at Bonn. Llorente states[165] that the work of compiling the Index was done by the Jesuit, Juan de Mariana. The introduction states that the task has been undertaken as a beginning and with the hope that it may serve as a suggestion to godly and learned men to continue the all-important work of the purging of literature; for there are many books calling for expurgation, because on the one hand the heretics are always busying themselves with the task of corrupting the writings of accepted authors; while on the other, it is borne in mind that the heretics themselves have produced works which can be made of service for science or for scholarship, when they have been freed from pernicious passages or errors. Pains should, therefore, be taken so to plan the necessary corrections that these can be made with the smallest possible expenditure of labour or of money.

The thirteenth rule of the Quiroga Index of 1583 directs that any heresies or errors that may be found in new books are at once to be reported to the Inquisition, but that the reader must not take upon himself the responsibility of cancelling the passages or of burning the copies. The expurgation of the books whose titles are given in the Index is to be undertaken only by those delegated by the Inquisition for the purpose. The schedule of heresiarchs (chief heretics) contains seventy-six names. The list was reduced by Sandoval to eighteen names. These may be specified if only to indicate the basis of the Spanish classification of heresy: Wyclif, Huss, Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin, Beza, Carlstadt, Osiander, Brenz, Bucer, Oecolampadius, Servet (Servetus), Stancarus, Pacimontanus, Schwenkfeld, Rotmann, Georgius. In the Roman Indexes, only that of Sixtus presents a similar list.

Class I constitutes a large division in the Quiroga Index. The compilers find deserving of condemnation the entire works of a number of authors of whose writings only single books appear in the Tridentine lists. It was probably less troublesome to put an author once for all in the class of heretics than to incur the labour of examining all of his productions.

In Class II, I may note the name of Theophrastus Paracelsus (1541) connected with his _Libri tres Chirurgiae_. One of the three books was permitted in the expurgated edition. In later Indexes, Paracelsus is reproved because his writings contain so many magic and cabalistic names which are hardly to be understood.

_8._ _1588._ _Naples._ _F. Gregorius Capucinus._ In 1588 was published at Venice a handbook for confessors, prepared by F. Gregorius, a Capucin monk. It bears the title: _Enchiridion Ecclesiasticum sive Praeparatio pertinens ad Sacramentum Poenitentiae et Sacri Ordinis, Editum a R. P. F. Gregorio Capucino Neapolitano uno ex Deputatis Patribus pro Revisione Librorum in Civitate Neapolitana ... cum Privilegio S. Fran. Inst. Regu. Fr. Min. Venetiis ... H. Polo Typographo Venito imprimente_.

The volume possesses no official character, but is referred to by Mendham[166] as important because of its references to forbidden and expurgated books. Gregorius takes occasion to caution his readers against the _Index expurgatorius_ of Quiroga as unsound, because Quiroga fails to condemn the works of Molinaeus and Raymond Lullus, and does not make sufficient excisions in the _Practica Papiensis_ of Petrus de Ferrariis. In the succeeding Spanish Indexes, we find, as might be expected, a condemnation and prohibition of the _Enchiridion_ of Gregorius.

This Naples Index is described as very scarce. A copy is, however, contained in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

The catalogue or Index forming the second division of the work begins on page 146 under the title of _Libri Corrigendi_. The preface to the catalogue makes clear its connection with the general subject of the work. It begins as follows: _Quomodo Confessor potest cognoscere, si poenitens tenetur ad aliquot placatum, ob lectionem librorum, qui sunt a Catholicis editi, sed sunt infecti et prohibiti ob interpositionem haereticorum, qui se interposuerunt indictis libris, et aliorum qui sunt adnotati et prohibiti in Indice Romano vel Tridentino.... Hoc potest cognosci ex sequenti lista; sed est quaedam adnotatio, sive memoria edita, A. M. R. D. D. Johanne Franciso Lombardo_, etc. _Post longum studium contra libros haereticorum._

Capucino adds, after presenting his list:

“Finally, avoid carefully a certain book entitled _Index
of Books to be Expurgated_, printed at Madrid by Alphonso
Gomez in the year 1584, since we must rather believe the
statement false that it was printed in such a city and by the
said Alphonso, and also the statement that it was printed and
published by the body of the supreme Catholic senate. And
among other erroneous or heretical passages contained in it is
that which says that some of the works of Carolus Molinaeus, a
heretic of the first class, may be permitted without correction.”

The editor was not successful in securing for this theory of interpretation the approval of the Inquisition, and was himself, in 1590, brought to the stake at Salamanca as a heretic. Llorente[167] states that at the same _auto da fe_, Torquemada caused to be burned many Hebrew Bibles and six thousand other volumes.