Article 40

When the examination has been completed, if nothing seems to stand in the way of the publication of the book, the Ordinary, in writing and entirely gratis, should grant to the author the license of publishing it, to be printed at the beginning or at the end of the work.

Discretion of the Bishop

116. 1. If nothing seems to stand in the way of the publication of the book. Therefore the faculty of denying approval is greater for the Ordinary than that of reprobating a book already published. Which books can be reprobated by him, we saw above, n. 102.

But in order that he not concede the faculty of publishing, it is enough that a truly just cause stand in the way, for example, of protecting peace, concord, of awaiting opportuneness.

At the same time, however, if nothing seems to stand in the way, he must concede the license. He cannot at will give or deny a faculty which in itself is to be given, unless something stands in the way.

Yet the reasons for rejection are to be indicated

2. From the rescript of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, September 3, 1898, if the book seems capable of correction or expurgation, the Ordinary must indicate to the writer the reasons why he was unwilling to approve the book. This is an equitable disposition, and one by which arbitrary rejections are guarded against.

Whether remuneration of the censor is excluded?

3. Necessary gratuitousness does not exclude, strictly speaking, congruous remuneration for the labor of the censor. Yet provision for the decent sustenance of the censor will be better made by another arrangement. Cf. Desjardins,¹ Peries,² Pennacchi.³

What if the faculty is given orally?

4. The faculty must be given in writing. Yet one which has been conceded only orally does not therefore become null, or without effect. Pennacchi, cited work, n. 77.

How the obtained faculty is to be expressed

5. You will ask whether the obtained faculty must be published in the very words by which it was given, or whether it is enough to use a formula by which it is clearly and distinctly indicated whose license was obtained?

C. Gennari⁴ and Hollweck⁵ hold the former; and formerly it was thus resolved.⁶ They argue from the text by which the license, which was given in writing, is said to be printed; and from the fact that otherwise it could not authentically be established concerning the license obtained.

Dilgskron,⁷ Genicot,⁸ Pennacchi,³ Wernz⁹ admit the latter, as quite sufficient for the end of the law; and consonant with the character of this Constitution, by which the solemnities have been made simpler. And this is confirmed by practice. Wherefore the law is obeyed if a secular man uses this or a similar formula: "with the permission of the Ordinary of such a diocese"; but a regular: "by the license of the Superiors of the Order and of the Ordinary of such a place."

Whether it can sometimes be suppressed

6. Formerly, if a just cause, for example lest the public utility of the book be impeded, demanded this, they admitted that, with the Bishop consenting, the obtained faculty could be suppressed.¹⁰ We are not compelled to be more severe today. And unless the omission, unduly made, is going to be for scandal or seems to contain contempt of authority, it does not seem to introduce grave guilt.

Gravity of the obligation

¹ Etudes, t. 71, p. 366.

² Pp. 205, 206.

³ Cited work, n. 77.

⁴ Monit., cited place, p. 112.

⁵ Cited work, p. 58.

⁶ Cf. Albitius, cited work, chapter 30, n. 125, or Arndt, cited work, n. 209, p. 296.

⁷ Analecta Ecclesiastica, 1897, p. 228.

⁸ Cited work, I, 459.

⁹ N. 121, note 109.

¹⁰ Dilgskron, in the same place, citing De Brabandere, II, 1348.