Part IV. On the Prior Censorship of Books and their Prohibition

(St. Alphonsus, Theologia Moralis, book I, Appendix III.)¹

¹ Cf. Hilgers, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher; Wernz, Ius Decretalium, III, nn. 96-131; Sleutjes, De prohibitione et censura librorum; Vermeersch, De prohibitione et censura librorum.

I. The Church has the right: 1° of requiring that the faithful not publish writings which she herself, by her judgment, has not previously reviewed; 2° of prohibiting, for a just cause, writings published by anyone from being read or retained. This is clear both from can. 1384, § 1, and from the end of the Church, which was instituted so that she might lead the faithful to God and the heavenly fatherland; hence she has the right and duty of removing dangers to faith and morals from her own. There is added the fact that the Church has continually used the said rights, especially after the invention of the art of printing. Namely, several Supreme Pontiffs established several rules by which that matter would be ordered, until Leo XIII, by the constitution Officiorum ac Munerum,¹ thoroughly ordered that subject anew; the new Code of Canon Law, title XXIII, canons 1384-1405, retained and presents that constitution in inverted order and with a few changes.

¹ 25 Jan. 1897.

II. The Code, just like the constitution Officiorum ac Munerum, distinguishes two things, censorship and prohibition of books. The former regards writings to be published by the faithful, and is the review of a writing to be published by ecclesiastical authority; as such it regards primarily persons, namely the faithful, and secondarily things or books. The latter concerns writings already published by anyone, and therefore directly refers to the things themselves or writings, and forbids reading and other acts about which something will be said later. For the rest, with respect to the interpretation of this title of the Code, observe:

1. There is question only of writings to be published or already published, or rather to be multiplied or already multiplied by type or other means; and indeed, if there is question of prior censorship, to be multiplied for common use, so that they are truly going to be made public, but not for private use, even of many. For the rest, it does not matter whether the work has been multiplied by type or by polygraph or lithography. It suffices - and this is the criterion - that it can be bought by all.

2. The things prescribed under this title concerning books are applied to daily publications, periodicals, and any other published writings, unless something else is clear (can. 1384, § 2). But something else is clear if, for example, the canon expressly distinguishes books from other writings, as happens in can. 1386. Moreover, in the case in which it is clear that there is discussion of books as distinct from other writings, under the name of book comes a literary work multiplied by type, as was explained under 1, and which is of a certain bulk, suppose 160 pages in octavo. Therefore a letter or sermon published separately, small pamphlets, and daily papers or journals are excluded; but not periodical publications, whether taken separately, provided they are of sufficient bulk, or bound into fascicles and thus constituting the required unity.

3. The interpretation of laws concerning censorship and prohibition of books should be made as in other laws, that is, neither broadly as in privileges, nor strictly as in penalties. There are indeed some who think that a broad interpretation is required, so that doubts are to be resolved in favor of the law; but this is clear from no source. Yet observe that many things can be prohibited by natural law which are not prohibited, or are only doubtfully prohibited, by positive law.

With these things premised, we shall speak first about prior censorship, then about prohibition of books, and finally about penal sanctions.