“The Index of Forbidden Books, still in effect as rigidly as ever,
proscribes all the controversial books, magazines, and other
publications of Protestants and others who oppose Romanism, and so
makes it impossible for Roman Catholics to know both sides of a
question … Roman Catholic students, therefore, in a real sense are
forbidden to think. They let the priests think for them. But the fallacy
of that system is that the priests too are forbidden to think. They too
are limited by the Imprimatur and the Index ” (pp. 363-364).
Basic assumptions underlie the Church’s control of reading. The Church is
the divinely instituted custodian of revelation and, therefore, it is her
solemn duty to interpret and protect the teachings of Christ for the welfare
of her members. The Gospel of Christ has been delivered “once and for all
to the saints” (Jude 1:3), and the Scriptures certainly warn Christians to be
wary of false doctrines and instructs the Church to be intolerant of them:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but
having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander
into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
“But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who
calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to
practise immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:20).
The earliest example of Christianity’s attitude towards profane or perverted
literature is found in the Acts of the Apostles, where citizens in Ephesus,
after their conversion to Christianity by St. Paul, burnt superstitious books
valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19). In subsequent early
Church writings we find the beginnings of a more formalized approach to
censorship. The Muratorian Canon (c. 170 AD) gives a list of those books
that belong to the New Testament and a group that should be excluded
from liturgical use. In 405 AD, Pope Innocent I wrote to the Bishop of
Toulouse outlining the total number of books which belonged to the Old
and New Testament canons and a number of apocryphal books that were
condemned. More importantly, in 496 AD, Pope Gelasius I published a
decree which was divided into three sections: a list of authentic books of
the Scriptures; a list of recommended readings from the Church Fathers and
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