Article — Vermeersch, On Forbidden Books
Article 2
Books of apostates, heretics, schismatics, and any writers whatever, defending heresy or schism, or in any way overturning the very foundations of religion, are altogether prohibited.
66. By the superior law, with the quality of the writer more observed, all books of heresiarchs were proscribed, but of heretics at least those which expressly treated religion.1 Now, in this article, the writer or his mind is not regarded, provided the clause obtains. Now:
What is an apostate
1. An apostate, who, as is clear, is here understood as an apostate from the Christian faith,2 is anyone who not only the Catholic but the Christian faith externally (even secretly) and at the same time internally casts away completely, whether he passes over to the "errors of Mohammed, etc.," or merely becomes a perfect "free thinker." Avanzini, loc. cit., p. 8. Think, for example, of E. Renan, Laurent.
What is heresy
2. Understand heresy as an error opposed to a truth sufficiently proposed by the Church, whether through the ordinary magisterium or through a formal definition; namely, that error which, if externally proposed with pertinacity, makes one guilty of heresy in the canonical forum, and is punished by excommunication latae sententiae specially reserved to the Roman Pontiff through the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, n. 1.
Schism
3. Schism, taken perfectly, entails withdrawal from the communion of the universal Church, which practically will happen by rejecting the spiritual authority of the legitimate Supreme Pontiff. For if you refuse subjection to a legitimate Bishop, the schism will not be perfect unless you separate yourself from him because he himself preserves communion with the Roman Pontiff. Cf. Schmalzgrueber, book 5, title 8, n. 12.
To defend
4. To defend says more than to assert, or merely to praise without demonstration; rather, it is to uphold by reasons being added.
Foundations of religion
5. By the very foundations of Religion we understand only the truths which either found natural religion itself, or are necessary for an adult unbeliever so that he may be led to embrace the faith; but not at the same time the principal dogmas of the faith itself. These are less properly called the foundations of Religion, and are already touched by the earlier words of the article.3 These truths are: the existence of God, the spirituality of the soul, the force of proof of miracles, the motives of credibility in general, and anything of this kind.4
To overturn in any way
6. To overturn in any way, or in whatever way it is done. Therefore by a serious attack, or one made through ridicule; directly or indirectly, for example by defending universal skepticism, from which God can no longer be demonstrated; from formal intention or objectively, from the subject matter of the work. There are so many books of this kind from the philosophy of materialists, positivists, rationalists.
Earlier heretics
7. Already formerly it was likely that by the severe proscription of heretics, books of earlier heretics, such as Tertullian, Pelagius, and those of this kind, were not comprehended, so that the reading of such books was permitted especially to theologians and students of ecclesiastical sciences.5
The benign intention of our Constitution allows us to preserve this exception of the law. So the common opinion. Indeed, nothing seems to prevent us from saying the same of other heretics who are not now so ancient, indeed, but whose errors have plainly become obsolete and are merely historically reported without danger of contagion. We would say this of heretics prior to the Protestant Reformation.6 For the argument is similar. Of itself the danger has ceased; therefore the reason of the law has been removed, not in some particular case but commonly; indeed, at least in part, it has ceased contrariwise, since the reading of them brings very many advantages for investigating the ancient morals of Christians or philosophical systems.
Collection of Labbe, Migne
Therefore, without scruple, one can have the collections of Councils which take their name from Labbe; the collection of patrology of Migne,7 where these works are inserted so that the monuments of ecclesiastical tradition may be possessed more fully.
What of debates of Parliaments?
For a somewhat different reason, that is, because they are not books properly so called, and at the same time with parts which attack the faith they contain others by which it is defended, it is lawful also not to refer to proscribed works the reports of speeches and disputes which are customarily held in Parliaments, as they are set forth in a public periodical (Journal Officiel, Annales parlementaires), or in private collections, such as Questions actuelles. A certain force of usage is added.
1 From Rule 2 of the Index.
2 For they distinguish apostasy from faith, from order (for example the sacred order of the diaconate), from religion (from a regular order).
3 With us Hollweck, op. cit., p. 31; Péries, op. cit., p. 64, note 2; Planchard, Revue Théologique Française, loc. cit., n. 21.3; against Gennari, op. cit., p. 30, note 1; and Piat, Nouvelle Revue Théologique, vol. 30, p. 53, n. XIII.
4 But not the divinity of Christ, against Pennacchi, who otherwise agrees with us. Op. cit., n. 40.
5 Cf. Cardinal de Lugo, De Fide, disp. 21, n. 29.
6 Going farther, Boudinhon, op. cit., p. 316, thinks the same should be said of books and writings which defend Jansenism.
7 Cf. Pennacchi, op. cit., n. 39.