by Sue Ann Whitston

MALS program, University of Michigan Dearborn

download a copy of this paper: The Index of Banned Books

image courtesy the Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University

The Index of Banned Books [editor: Index librorum prohibitorum] saw conflicts and misunderstandings during its history. Though Galileo’s Dialogue did not appear on the list until 1664, the Index of Banned Books began as the Muratorian Canon in C. AD. 170. The Canon declared which New Testament books would be excluded from liturgical usage. Two sources provide conflicting origins. One source, the New Catholic Encyclopedia, placed the composition date during the pontificate of Pius I (AD 14-155) because of the poorly phrased Latin, suggesting a translation from Greek.1 In the second source, Roy Hoover stated Marcion believed the Jewish scriptures should be elim­in­ated from the Christian institutions following the Bar Kochba Rebellion. This kindled the church to determine which secular writings should be placed in the Canon. Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, selected twenty books. The number fluctuated until 631 C.E. when the Roman Emper­or Constan­tine sent a letter to Eusebius to print fifty Bibles. This action settled the debate of what would appear in the New Testament, culled from gospels, dialogues/revelations attributed to Jesus, Jesus’ birth, Acts of the Apostles, homilies and other secular material. The Council of Trent accepted the official Roman Catholic Canon April 8, 1546.2 Since the Protestant Canon differed from the Catholic Canon, a conflict in ideas continued into the present. Essentially, the Muratorian Canon was the first Index of Banned Books. The Inquisi­tion under Pope Paul IV in 1557 wrote the first Index. In 1571, a committee of cardinals and a prelate, under Pope Pius V, estab­lished The Assembly on the List of Banned Books. Starting with 22 rules, the committee drafted sixteen, divided into four groups: books written against the Catholic faith, books on superstitions and false moral values, books by anonymous authors and printers whose content could damage the Christian faith, and books inflicting damage on ecclesiastical or civilian repu­tations.3 In other words, The Assembly scrutin­ized what people could read, avoiding anything detrimental to what the Catholic Church believed at the time. This was wrong. Unless there were changes, the Index of Banned Books could wield an injustice on people learning. Read the full post »