In 325, A.D., censorship appeared with a new face:
the Catholic Church. Thaleia, a poetic expression of an
unothodox view of the nature of Christ was the first writing to
be banned by the Catholic Church. The Council of Nicaea also exiled
the book's author, Arius. The Church was at the center of book
banning for centuries, and the Bible itself was at the center
of much of the controversy. For instance, the first English translation
of the Bible, made by William Tyndale in 1525, was damned as "pernicious
merchandise" by the clergy. Tyndale was burned at the stake
in 1546, and in 1555 all of his books were banned by Queen Mary
for being against the Catholic faith (Haight,
12-13).
In 1559, Pope Paul IV issued the first Index
Librorum Prohibitorum, a specific list of books that the Catholic
Church prohibited Catholics from reading. Because the Catholic
faith dominated the intellectual life of Europe through these
centuries, this list had a significant impact. In 1949, the list
still had 255 titles on it (Burke,
52). Pope Paul VI terminated the Index in 1966 (Haight,
16).
Desiderius Erasmus, noted for making good use
of Johan Gutenberg's printing press, had all of his work condemned
by the Index of 1559 (Haight,
9). The significant increase in the number of banned books
in the 16th century probably has to do with both the Index
and the printing press, putting Erasmus in the center of things.
For more information and illustrations, check http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/bannedbooks/variouscountries.html.
Why did the Catholic Church ban so many books?
The Church, as "the custodian of divine revelation,"
had the responsiblity "to interpret the teachings of Christ"
and therefore had to control the reading material of Catholics
(Burke, 3). The practice protected
the innocent, as Plato wanted to do, but it also invested much
power in the authorities who decided what could and could not
be read. Was anything similar happening across the Atlantic, where
the colonies were in the process of becoming the United States?
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