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.