43. Italian Writings, 1840–1876.—Of the works by Italian authors condemned during this period, the following may be noted as indicating the policy of the Congregation.

Lazzeretti, David, Opuscula omnia quocumque Idiomate edita, printed in 1876, prohibited in 1878. Lazzeretti represented a mystic school of thought. He had for a time been in favour with Pius IX.

Gravina, D. B., Su l’Origine dell’ Anima, printed in 1870, prohibited in 1875.

Nuytz, G. N., Juris ecclesiastici Institutiones, printed in 1844, prohibited in 1851. In this condemnation, the critics have taken the pains to specify certain propositions which are considered pernicious.

Zobi, Ant., Storia civile della Toscana, 1737–1848, prohibited in 1856.

Amari, Mich., Storia dei Musulmani in Sicilia, volume one, printed in 1845, prohibited in the same year. The following volumes of this work escaped condemnation.

Rusconi, Carlo, La Repubblica Romana del 1849, printed in 1849, prohibited in 1850.

Leva, Jus. de, I Jesuiti e la Repubblica di Venezia, printed in 1866, prohibited in 1873.

Cantu, E., Storia Universale, printed in 1858, prohibited in 1860.

Torti, Giov., Un Abisso in Roma, printed in 1864, prohibited (by the Inquisition) in 1865.

44. American Writings, 1822–1876.—The first work by an American author which finds place in the Index is a monograph by W. Hogan, a priest in Philadelphia, having to do with a controversy that had arisen concerning the Church of Saint Mary which Bishop Henry Conwell proposed to have consecrated as a cathedral. The action of the Bishop was contested in some fashion by the trustees acting on behalf of Hogan who wanted to retain his pastorate. Hogan’s pamphlet was condemned in 1822. Hogan finally gave up the contest and at the same time left the Catholic Church and married. In 1864, was placed upon the Index a translation, printed in New York, of a monograph by Fr. Hollick, entitled Guia de los Cassados o Historia Natural de la Generacion.

Draper, J. W., History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, printed (in New York) in 1874, prohibited (in a Spanish version) in 1876.

Canada is represented in the Index of this period by the titles of two year-books issued by a literary association in Montreal, which, printed in 1858–9, were prohibited in 1864. In the year 1858, at which time the association contained seven hundred members, a proposition, submitted at the instance of certain ecclesiastics in the membership, was brought up for consideration, under which all non-Catholic members were to be excluded and two Protestant journals were to be removed from the reading-room. This proposal was voted down, and on that ground and also on the further complaint that the library contained pernicious literature, the Catholic members were called upon to leave the association. One hundred and fifty left and instituted a Catholic French-Canadian institute. The majority of the original association issued a statement declaring that the library contained no unworthy books and that, in any case, the decision concerning its literature rested with the managers of the association. In April, 1858, Bishop Bourget issued a pastoral brief in which he reminded the members of the old association that the reading or possession of heretical books involved the penalty of excommunication, and that any books recorded in the Index were to be classed as heretical. The institute was instructed to recall its action, and if it refused, the Catholic members were ordered to resign, under penalty of excommunication. Two hundred Catholics disregarded the command of the Bishop and remained members. They explained that they did not assert the right to read forbidden books, but they did maintain their right to remain members of a society in whose collections such books might be contained. In 1864, these Catholic members took the pains to place before the Bishop a catalogue of the library with the request that he would indicate the books classed as pernicious and with the suggestion that these books should be placed in a separate collection. To this proposition the Bishop paid no attention, whereupon seventeen of the members made direct appeal to Pope Pius IX. From the Pope they received no reply, but in July, 1869, the Bishop, then in Rome, sent to Montreal a pastoral brief in which he reported that the Inquisition declared the work of the institution to be pernicious. He reported, further, that the annual volume of the Canadian institute for 1868 (in which volume were contained certain addresses on toleration and freedom of conscience) had been condemned and that any person possessing or reading this year-book or remaining in the institute had come into mortal sin and must be refused the sacraments. Later in the year, a second memorial was addressed to the prefect of the Propaganda by the Catholic members of the institute, in which they stated that they accepted without question the condemnation of the year-book. To this memorial no reply was received. The Bishop, however, declared in a report to the vicar-general that the submission rendered in this memorial was inadequate because the writers remained members of an institute in which was maintained the righteousness of religious toleration. In November, 1869, died a distinguished Catholic member of the institute named Guibord, a man whose life had been above reproach. The pastor and the other authorities refused to make burial of the body even without religious ceremonies. The widow secured a provisional interment in unconsecrated ground. She then instituted a suit demanding the right of burial in consecrated ground. The suit continued until after her death in 1873. In November, 1874, the judicial committee of the priory council in London decided that the body was entitled to burial in the consecrated ground of his pastoral church and decided further that the Church authorities must provide for the very considerable expenses of the suit. The re-burial took place in November, 1875, after the Church authorities had filed a protest and had ordered faithful Catholics to take no part in the ceremonies. The record is of value in the history of censorship proceedings as an example of the overriding by the authority of the State of a decision of the Church, in regard to a matter which had heretofore been held as belonging strictly within ecclesiastical control, namely the right of burial in consecrated ground. In 1870, a later annual giving the record of the conclusion of the process, was condemned by the Inquisition.[55]

The contributions to the Index from the literature of South America are for this period more considerable than those from the United States and Canada. The following titles indicate the direction of the censorship.

Vidaurre, Manuel Lorenzo de, Proyecto del codigo eclesiastico, printed (in Paris) in 1830, condemned in 1833. The author, a doctor of law of the University of Lima, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Peru. His “project” proposed certain rather radical changes in ecclesiastical regulations. Tratado sobre Denaciones, printed (in Madrid) in 1820, prohibited in 1833. In the same year were placed upon the Index three monographs by Vidaurre, one on the Bishop of Rome and the condition of the Church, the second on Celibacy, and the third on Confession.

Vigil, Francisco P. G. de, Defensa de la Autoridad de los Gobiernos y de los Obispos contra las Pretenciones de la Curia Romana, printed (in Lima) in 1848, prohibited in 1851. The author was a priest and at the time of his death Curator of the National Museum at Lima. The work, issued in six volumes, octavo, gives consideration to almost every detail of the organisation of the Church. Manual de Derecho Publico Eclesiastico, and Dialogos sobre la Existencia de Dios y la Vida futura, á la Juventud Americana, printed (in Lima) in 1863, prohibited in 1864. Vigil died in June, 1875. He had declined to submit himself to the condemnation of the Church and he was therefore refused the last sacraments. The Congress of Peru directed, however, that he should have the honour of a public funeral.

La Riva, J. F., El Espiritu del Evangelio comparado con las Practicas de la Iglesia Catolica, printed (in Lima) in 1867, prohibited in the same year.

Fotvárad, Carlos H. de, O Casamento civil, etc., printed (in Rio Janeiro) in 1858, prohibited in 1859. This monograph was written in reply to a treatise, published in Rio in 1858, by Canon de Campo. The author undertook to maintain the exclusive authority of the Church (as against the State) in all matters connected with marriage. Las Biblias falsificadas, etc., printed (in Rio) in 1867, prohibited in 1869. This was a further criticism of the utterances of de Campo.

D’Aranjo, M. R. (Bishop of Rio), Elementos dé direito Eclesiastico publico, etc., printed (in Rio) in 1857, prohibited in 1869. Compendio de Theologia Moral, printed (in Oporto) in 1858, prohibited in 1869.

Monte, Carmelo J. de, O Brazil Mystificado na Questao religiosa, printed in 1875, prohibited in 1876.

Mexico is represented in the Index of the period by a treatise entitled Conducta, the work of D. J. C. Portugal, Bishop of Michoachon, printed (in Mexico) in 1835, prohibited in 1840; and by two treatises of N. Pizarro, Catecismo Politico Constitutional, and Catecismo de Moral, printed in 1867, prohibited in 1869.

45. Periodicals, 1832–1900.—In 1832, the Congregation of the Index issued a declaration stating that the regulations of the Index of Trent (renewed in the succeeding Indexes) concerning ecclesiastical censorship, covered material printed in journals as well as that published in books. After the year 1848, however, the attempt to enforce in Rome ecclesiastical censorship, over the contents of journals as given up was impracticable. It was pointed out that no advantage could be secured in placing upon the Index journal issues of a back date, the reading of which had already been completed.

During the 18th century, however, various attempts were made to control the literary policy of journals the managers of which were within reach of ecclesiastical authority, and during the 19th century, censorship decrees were issued in regard to a number of journals which concerned themselves with ecclesiastical subjects. The only practicable measure to take against journals the articles in which are judged to be pernicious in their influence is to prohibit the faithful from reading or from possessing copies of the same. It has, however, been found convenient, in the cases in which such prohibitions appeared to be called for, to have the same issued and enforced, not by the Congregation, but by the local authorities.

After 1850, the Minister of the Interior in the papal States printed lists of the foreign journals the reading of which was forbidden.

1862. December. Adames, Apostolic Vicar of Luxemburg, declared in a pastoral letter that the publisher of the Courier de Luxemburg and his editors were excommunicated. The subscribers and readers of the journal were to be excluded from the sacraments on the ground that they were helping to support a work of Satan. The publisher took the matter into the courts, but the judges dismissed the complaint against Adames, taking the ground that his action was within his ecclesiastical and legal rights. (Vering, Archiv, X, 422, XII, 172.)

In 1863, the Patriarch of Venice and the ten Venetian bishops, in a pastoral letter, prohibited the reading of three journals specified.

1870. Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne, published an instruction against the Rheinische Merkur, with which instruction the Bishop of Mayence and the Capitular-Vicar of Münster concurred. The Bishop of Paderborn issued an edict forbidding, as a mortal sin, the possession of a copy of the journal. No action appears to have been taken by the publishers, possibly because the circulation of the Merkur was not seriously affected by these episcopal fulminations.

1871. Under instructions of Pius IX, a circular letter was issued by Cardinal Vicar Patrizzi to the pastors or parish priests directing them to forbid to their parishioners the reading of certain Roman journals. The list included La Libertà, Il Capital, Il Tempo, La nuova Roma, La Vita Nuova, and six others. Disobedience to this order was to be classed as a grievous sin. In 1873, a papal brief gave certain general instructions in regard to journals. It pointed out that these were covered by rules 2 and 7 of the Index. Papers were to be considered sheet by sheet, simply as open books. Permission might be accorded to a person to whom the information was necessary, to read in heretical or dangerous papers the political or financial articles, but the permission should be strictly limited to these portions of the journal.

In 1882, September, the Patriarch of Venice prohibited in like manner the reading of Il Veneto Christiano, and of Fra Paolo Sarpi, as “godless, blasphemous, and heretical productions.” The Patriarch declared that the publisher and those who read these journals with belief were excommunicated.

1885. February. The Archbishop Magnasco, of Geneva, condemned the Epoca. Editor, publisher, distributor, and readers were alike condemned to excommunication. Whoever buys or reads a number, or gives it to another, has committed mortal sin.

46. The Roman Question, 1859–1870.—Between the years 1859–1861, a number of monographs and volumes, chiefly by French writers, were brought into print that had to do with the question of the political authority of the Papacy. These French theories brought out a full measure of criticism and condemnation. Among the works thus reproved was a treatise by La Guérronnière, La France, Rome et l’Italie, printed in 1861, in regard to which Cardinal Antonelli issued a specific condemnation. No single title of the group is, however, to be found in the Index. The monograph by La Guérronnière expressed, as was well understood, the views of the Emperor Napoleon III, and had probably been written at the Emperor’s suggestion. A companion volume was published about the same time by Edmund About and this also was sharply condemned not only by Cardinal Antonelli but also by a number of the French bishops, including Dupanloup. The list of the Italian controversial publications on this question is also considerable. The earlier works had to do simply with the political authority of the pope, but since 1870, a number of writers have given attention to the desirability, on the ground of the welfare of Italy and also of that of the Church universal, of the reconciliation of the Papacy with the Government of the United Italy. These writings were met with sharp condemnation on the part of Pius IX and Leo XIII and of the supporters of the civil authority of the Papacy, but in only few instances was action taken in regard to them by the Congregation of the Index.

47. The Council of the Vatican, 1867–1876.—The conclusions reached by the council held in the Vatican in 1867 resulted in the publication of a number of controversial works of which certain titles found their way into the Index. The more important of these are the following:

Michelis, Fr., Fünfzig Thesen über die Gestaltung der kirchlichen Verhältnisse der Gegenwart, printed in 1867, condemned in 1868.

Renouf, Le Page, La Condamnation du Pape Honorius, printed in 1868, prohibited in the same year.

“Janus” (the name adopted for the moment by Döllinger) Der Papst und das Concilium, printed in 1869, prohibited in the same year.

Wallon, Jean, La Vérité sur le Concile, printed in 1872, prohibited in 1873.

Dupanloup, Archbishop, Testament Spirituel de Montalembert, and La Cour de Rome et la France, printed in 1871, prohibited in 1872.

Pressensé, Le Concile du Vatican, printed in 1872, prohibited in 1876.

In 1870, the general Congregation published a protest, signed by a number of members of the council, calling for the specific condemnation of a series of newspapers, articles, and pamphlets in which the work of the council had been criticised. The secretary of the Congregation of the Index reported, however, that it did not seem wise to take action. During the years 1871 and 1872, were, however, condemned by the Inquisition a number of periodical articles on the work of the council by such authors as Lord Acton, Berchtold, Friedrich, Ruckgaber, Schulte, Zirngiebl, and others.

48. Example of a License.—A license given by the inquisitor-general of Spain to Dr. Andrew Sall in June, 1652, states that he was permitted to keep and to read prohibited books for use in connection with the writing of any doctrinal or devotional books or treatises. The holder of the license was charged with the duty of giving information to his Grace of any censurable propositions that he might find in books, ancient or modern, which might not already have been comprehended in the expurgatory Index. The license was marked as duly entered in the record of licenses, the page (Number 138) giving indication of a considerable series of licenses outstanding. These instruments were renewed from year to year. Dr. Sall relates that with the second grant came a complaint that he had reported no censurable propositions. He had excused himself by saying that he had not had in his hands any Protestant books; but he gave specification of some perverse and apparently heretical doctrines he had found in certain books which were approved and were much in use with themselves. He gave as an example citations from the Commentaries on Esther by de Murcia:

Etiam Deus Op. Max. proposita ante oculos morte in meliora contendat; and

Etiam demon morte ante oculos constituta contendit in meliora.[56]

Sleumer gives the following example of the form in force to-day (1906) for an application for the permission to read forbidden books.

“To the very reverend Vicar-General of the diocese: The undersigned respectfully request permission for the reading of certain books which have been specifically forbidden in the Index or which in their class come under the general provisions of the Index. The requirement is based upon the following grounds:...

“The undersigned feels assured that the proposed use of this forbidden literature may be made by him on these grounds without any undermining of his faith or any interference with his conscientious duty to the Holy Church.”[57]