the Acts of the Martyrs; and a list of apocryphal and heretical books that
had been banned by the Councils and the Popes.
During the Middle Ages control over literature by the Church could be
exercised to a high degree owing to her temporal power and the relatively
small number of books. The laborious nature of hand copying meant that
only small numbers of books could be produced and only over a long
period of time. During these centuries the Church was particularly vigilant
over reproductions of the Sacred Scriptures. Heretical groups such as the
Albigensians, Waldensians, and the Lollards (Wycliffites) produced their
own vernacular versions of the Scriptures in order to support their novel
teachings. The Church, out of zeal for the authentic word of God, through
local and universal laws prohibited the reading of the Scriptures without the
appropriate safeguards (e.g., Toulouse 1229, Tarragona 1233, Oxford
1408).
However, with the invention of the printing press in Guttenberg in 1456 a
deluge of printed books flooded Europe. This made the examination of
each new book quite impractical. Nevertheless, in 1467 Pope Innocent VIII
decreed that all books treating on Christian doctrine be submitted to the
local Church authorities for examination and permission before publication
for general reading. The license to publish and the name of the local
Ordinary were to be printed at the beginning of each book. A similar decree
was issued by Pope Leo X at the Fifth Lateran Council on May 4, 1515 and
was addressed to the whole world. With the outbreak of the Protestant
Reformation, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) commissioned a group of
Fathers to draw up rules regarding prohibited books. These Tridentine
regulations remained in force for the next three hundred years and also
served as a guide to the average reader for any publications not condemned.
The first general list of forbidden books entitled Index was issued by Pope
Paul IV in 1557 and was soon followed by a new Index issued in 1564. In
1571, Pope St. Pius V established the Congregation of the Index to handle
all matters concerning Church evaluation of literature. It was responsible
for publishing updated editions of the Index and judging works referred to
it for final decision. In 1753, Pope Benedict XIV published new detailed
regulations governing the examination of suspected books: the examination
was to be carried out by two revisors, independent of each other, who were
well versed in the particular language of the book and the branch of
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