“Heresy and Error”:
The Ecclesiastical Censorship of Books, 1400–1800
An Exhibition at Bridwell Library, September 20 – December 17, 2010
|
 THE
INDEX OF PROHIBITED BOOKS |
The
Index
librorum
prohibitorum (“Index of
Prohibited Books”) was a direct outcome of the
Concilium Tridentinum, or Council of
Trent, the ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic
Church that convened from 1545 to 1563. The
Tridentine councilors reasserted many traditional
dogmas that had been challenged by Protestant
reformers, including transubstantiation,
justification by good works, and the role of the
Virgin Mary as intercessor. In 1546, the fourth
Tridentine session determined which books of the
Latin Bible were canonical and decreed that only the
Catholic Church was authorized to interpret
Scripture. In 1562, the eighteenth session mandated
that a special conciliar commission would examine
the growing problem of heretical literature. The
Council’s action resulted in the publication of the
first Tridentine Index librorum
prohibitorum in 1564. Although it had been
preceded by Spanish indexes beginning in 1551 and
the Pauline Index published in Rome in 1559,
the Tridentine Index, backed by the authority
of the Council of Trent, initiated four centuries of
rigorous censorial control within Catholic realms.
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