Index

A list of books that the Catholic Church held to be contrary to church doctrine, and thus forbidden to its members. The official name of the list was the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List of Forbidden Books. The first edition of the Index was published in the Netherlands in 1529, while the first to be published in Rome appeared during the Papacy of Paul IV in 1557.

The Index contained rules concerning the publication, selling, and reading of prohibited books. Those works placed on the Index were believed to endanger the faith of Christians, and be damaging to their moral and spiritual life. The works of Copernicus, for example, were placed on the Index and held to be contrary to the traditional idea that the earth lay at the center of the universe. Other authors whose works were condemned by the Index were Giordano Bruno, Desiderius Erasmus, Francis Bacon, John Calvin, Francois Rabelais, Martin Luther, and Niccolo Machiavelli. Authors could submit their works to the church for review, and were granted an opportunity to correct those passages that the authorities found to be in error. Anyone found publishing, reading or possessing the books on the Index were subject to excommunication, which meant separation from the church and a ban on attending the Mass.

In 1571 the church organized the Sacred Congregation of the Index, which dealt with books accused of errors, and published a list of corrections, the Index Expurgatorius, for books that were not deemed worthy of a complete ban. Some books were classified as forbidden, without any hope of being admitted by the church, while others were labeled “forbidden if not corrected” according to the list created by the Sacred Congregation.

The latest edition of the Index was published in 1948, and the church ended the authority of the list in 1966. The modern Curia, the administration of the Papacy, still includes an important department, known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, meant to uphold sound moral doctrine and suppress heretical or immoral teachings among its members.

See Also: Inquisition; Reformation, Catholic