learning in question, and who would pass judgment free from all
partisanship and in accordance with general Catholic dogma. Only when
both revisors were of the opinion that a book should be prohibited, was the
matter forwarded to the Cardinals of the Congregation for a final decision.
By the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) there were over three
thousand books on the Index. Some of the more famous individuals whose
works were listed included Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal,
Thomas Hobbs, John Locke, David Hume, John Milton, Francois Voltaire,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, Alexander Dumas,
Victor Hugo, Jeremy Bentham, Lord Acton, and Edward Gibbon. These
writers generally wrote in the fields of philosophy, history or fiction and
many were baptized Catholics. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII, taking into account
the changed social and literary conditions of the nineteenth century, again
revised the general rules of the Church’s book legislation and incorporated
them into the new Index of Forbidden Books published in 1900.
In 1904, Pope St. Pius X proposed a complete codification of canon law.
This was completed and approved by Pope Benedict XV on May 27, 1917.
Canons 1384-1405 related to book legislation. They were divided into three
classifications: prior censorship before publication; the prohibition of books
and the general classes of books prohibited; and the penalties assessed
against violator of the regulations. These canons remained in force until the
promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law in 1983. After the Second
Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI in 1966 abolished the Congregation of the
Index and the Index of Forbidden Books, replacing them with a set of
norms on the reading of books dangerous to Catholic faith and morality.
The present canons in the 1983 Code of Canon Law governing the
Church’s mission as censor include the following:
Can. 823 §1: “In order to safeguard the integrity of faith and morals,
pastors of the Church have the duty and the right to ensure that in the
writings or in the use of the means of social communication there
should be no ill effect on the faith and morals of Christ’s faithful.
They also have the duty and the right to demand that where writings
of the faithful touch upon matters of faith and morals, these be
submitted to their judgment. Moreover, they have the duty and the
right to condemn writings which harm true faith or good morals.”
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