Volume 1

The censorship of the church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature : a study of the history of the prohibitory and expurgatory indexes, together with some consideration of the effects of Protestant censorship and of censorship by the state / by George Haven Putnam.

  • George Haven Putnam
Date:
1906-1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The censorship of the church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature : a study of the history of the prohibitory and expurgatory indexes, together with some consideration of the effects of Protestant censorship and of censorship by the state / by George Haven Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    phasises the exceptional service rendered by Erasmus in this work to the study of sacred theology and to the maintenance of the true faith. A curious comment made upon this action of the Pope, in the Spanish Index of 1612, may be inserted here. In the expurg¬ atory division, under the article devoted to Erasmi Roterodami Opera, at the beginning of the censures on the sixth volume, is printed: Ad marginem Epistolae Leonis P. P. X. ad Erasmum, quae incipit, Dilecte Fili, salutem, et adscribe: Dulcibus encomiis pius Pater nutantem ovem allicere conatur (“With gracious com¬ mendations the Holy Father endeavours to attract [ win back ] the wandering sheep ”) P Another noteworthy detail in the Index of 1559 is the entry in the list of works condemned of the title Liber inscrip, consilium * * * de emendanda ecclesia. This Consilium was a report presented by an assembly of four cardinals (including the Englishman, Pole) and five prelates, which had been instructed by Pope Paul HI, in 1537, to give him counsel in regard to the reform of the Church. The report or Consilium was more outspoken (in regard to corruptions, etc.) than was considered desirable, and when one of the body, Cardinal Caraffa, assumed the tiara (as Paul IV) he caused his own Advice to be placed on the list of pro¬ hibited books. The Index of 1559 also contains a condemnation of the work by Aeneas Sylvius (after¬ wards Pius II), Commentaria de actis et gestis Concilii Basileen. In the Tridentine Index, this condemnation is modified to readfIn actis Aeneae Silvii prohibentur ea quae ipse in bulla retractationis damnavit. It is not out of order to assume that when a man has become a pope, he may be in a position to see things more 1 * Cited by Mendham, 48.
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