Section 3: The Index of Forbidden Books

1. The whole of the Church’s organization against pernicious literature is generally called the Index. In this organization there are three principal parts—(a) the laws governing the censorship and prohibition of books, as set forth in the preceding two Sections, (b) the Congregation of the Index, which has lately been combined with the Congregation of the Holy Office, and (c) the Index of Forbidden Books, i. e., a list or catalogue of books which are expressly forbidden to Catholics. This list forms the second and larger part of the volume entitled “Index Librorum Prohibitorum,” which, up to the publication of the new Code, contained the entire ecclesiastical legislation relating to books. The general laws have now been superseded by the respective canons of the Code, but the list or catalogue remains in force, as revised under Leo XIII and re-edited under Pius X, and is being added to at irregular intervals.

2. The Church has always exercised the greatest vigilance in protecting her children against the dangers that lurk in unregulated reading. Lists of dangerous and therefore forbidden books were drawn up in various dioceses or provinces at a very early date. Pope Pontianus condemned the heretical writings of Origen. Leo the Great suppressed the books of the Priscillianists. Leo IX condemned the writings of Scotus Eriugena and Berengarius on the Holy Eucharist. The Council of Constance ordered all the books of John Hus to be publicly burnt. Leo X, in the Bull “Exsurge” (1520), condemned the earlier heretical writings of Luther.

The first Roman “Index of Prohibited Books” was published in 1559, under Paul IV. Each succeeding edition contained new titles. Leo XIII reorganized the ecclesiastical legislation in regard to forbidden books and revised the catalogue known as “Index,” giving it the form it still retains. A few dozen titles have been added since this revision (1900).

3. It is a mistake to assume that all forbidden books are on the Index. In matter of fact only a very small portion of the books proscribed by the natural law and by ecclesiastical decrees are mentioned in that catalogue. Nor does it contain the worst books in their respective classes, as some people imagine, but merely those which were at one time or another reported to the Holy See and formally condemned.

The clause “opera omnia” includes only those books of an author which treat of religious subjects or are forbidden by a general or a special decree of the Holy See, e. g., on account of their obscenity.¹ It does not include books published by the same author after the promulgation of the “opera omnia” decree, though they may justly be regarded as suspect and presumed to fall under some general decree, unless the writer has given signs of a change of mind.²

¹ See the Preface to the Index. If there is question of a Catholic and “it is established concerning some certain book of his that it is prohibited neither by any general decree nor by another special one, you would not rashly judge this book to be exempt from that general prescription.” (Ed. 3a, Rome 1911).

² Ibid.

The clause “donec corrigatur” has reference only to the manner of the prohibition, not to its effect.³

³ Ibid.

4. Laymen should guide themselves by the advice of their confessor in all matters pertaining to dangerous books and newspapers.⁴

⁴ S. C. Inquis., 1832, ad Episc. Helvet. The bishops of Switzerland had inquired: “Whether the faithful, with a safe conscience, can read newspapers or books which have not undergone the censorship of the Ordinary?” The answer was: “Let them have recourse to their confessor.” (Cfr. Ferreres, Compend. Theol. Mor., Vol. I, p. 418).

The confessor himself should follow the directions of the bishop and always remember the admonition of St. Alphonsus that in matters of this kind it is ordinarily safer to follow the stricter in preference to the more lenient opinion.⁵

⁵ “In this matter it is ordinarily expedient to follow the safer opinions.” Cfr. Ferreres, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 418.

READINGS.—J. B. Ferreres, Compendium Theol. Mor., Vol. I, pp. 417 sqq.—G. Péries, L’Index, Paris 1898.—J. Hilgers, S.J., Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, Freiburg i. B. 1904 (the opus classicum on the subject).—F. X. Betten, S.J., The Roman Index of Forbidden Books, 6th ed., St. Louis 1920 (a useful summary in popular style).—J. Hollweck, Das Kirchliche Bücherverbot, 2nd ed., Mayence 1897.

The Fathers of the First Provincial Council of Baltimore, in 1829, petitioned the Holy See for a prolongation of the Paschal season from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, inclusive. The petition was granted by the S. C. de Propaganda Fide, Sept. 26, 1830.¹ The concession reads: “granted the requested faculty,” without a time limit. It entered the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, in 1866,² and thus became a particular law for the United States. As such it would have to go according to can. 6, n. 1 of the new Code; but as the grant was originally made in the form of a faculty or an indult, and particular privileges and indults remain in force even after the promulgation of the Code, unless expressly revoked, our bishops may, and some of them do, continue to make use of this privilege of extending the Paschal season.

¹ Coll. Lac. Conc., t. III, col. 36.

² Coll. cit., t. VI, col. 464.