SCHEDULE OF INDEXES WHICH WERE ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH, OR WHICH, HAVING BEEN COMPILED BY ECCLESIASTICS, WERE PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATE.
No two schedules of Church Indexes or even of papal Indexes could be prepared that would be in precise accord with each other. An Index of one date would be reissued some years later with a later date, but sometimes without change of text; in the majority of instances, these later issues carried with them supplements in which were summarised the prohibitions of the years succeeding the original issue. The above schedule, which may be taken as approximately complete, is intended to cover only those Indexes which were issued under the authority of the Church or under the joint authority of the Church and the State, and which, having included, in addition to the classified lists of books condemned, separate “constitutions,” decrees, or briefs, may be accepted, at least for purposes of reference, as constituting each a separate Index publication.
The form at present in use for the application, to be addressed to the Pope himself, for a permission, to remain in force during the lifetime of the applicant, for the reading of prohibited books is as follows:
Beatissime Pater,
N.N., magister [praeceptor, professor ...] diocesis N. ad pedes Sanctitatis Vestrae provolutus devotissime petit, ut sibi ad conscientiae suae tranquillitatem in studiis et pro munere suo implendo (vel in honestorum studiorum subsidium) concedatur facultas legendi omnes libros a S. Sede prohibitos, etiam ex professo contra religionem tractantes.
Et Deus. x x x
Ad Sacram Congregationem Indicis,
Romae
Concillaria Apostolica