Chapter VII: Examples of Condemned Literature (2)

=22. Contest concerning the Doctrine of Probability.=--During the rule of Benedict XIV, a sharp controversy arose between the Dominicans and the Jesuits in regard to the doctrine of Probability, the immediate cause being the publication of a treatise on morality by the Jesuit Benzi, which is described as “shameless.” The leading representative of the Dominicans was Concina (1687–1756), and of the Jesuits, Faure (1702–1779). Benedict XIV brought into his Index certain of the monographs by both authors, but the principal treatise of Concina, sharply condemned by the Jesuits, was not prohibited. Benedict took occasion, however, to instruct Concina to publish, over his signature, a comprehensive explanation of his treatise. Clement XIII prohibited the sermons of the German Jesuit, Neumayr, and, at the same time, a biography of Concina. Concina’s teachings against the doctrine of Probability were continued and developed by his associate Patuzzi (1700–1769). Patuzzi was replied to by Liguori (1696–1787), founder, in 1732, of the Congregation of the Redemptorists. Benedict XIV appears to have given his official acceptance to the doctrine of Probability as expounded by Liguori, the later edition of his treatise having been issued with a specific approval from the Pope. This approval secured, later, confirmation on the part of the Church as a whole, as, in 1839, Concina secured canonisation, and, in 1871, his name was included in the list of doctors of the Church, being, through this act, associated with St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas, and other pillars of the Church. After the giving of this honour, the Jesuits, under the lead of Ballerini, took the ground that certain of the conclusions of Liguori had been too rigorous and that the doctrine termed by him _Regni probabilismus_ must in order to be maintained, be interpreted in the sense of “ordinary probability.” The Jesuits came in this contention into controversy with the Redemptorists, who insisted upon the distinctive importance of the differentiation expressed by their founder. The treatise of Ballerini was however reprinted in Rome with a special privilege from the master of the palace.

=23. The Controversy concerning Usury, 1600–1800.=--In a long series of decrees from popes and from councils, the Church has announced its conclusion that the taking of interest, even although the rate should not be extortionate, comes under the head of the sin of usury. This contention was maintained constantly throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and the several classes of trade in which the taking of interest was a necessary factor, were condemned as not to be permitted by the Church. As a result of this policy, a number of legal treatises which undertook the defence of interest that was not exaggerated into extortion, were prohibited. There were also placed upon the Index certain other monographs in which the question had been treated from a purely academic standpoint. Under Benedict XIV, the controversy came to the front in connection with the publication of monographs by Broedersen, an ecclesiastic of Utrecht, and by the Marquis Sipio Maffei, in which ground was taken against the theories of the Church. Benedict XIV published, in 1745, an encyclical in which he confirms as the present utterance of the Church the old contention. The two treatises which had formed the text for the utterance of the Pope were, however, not prohibited. In fact that by Maffei was, in 1746, reprinted in Rome contemporaneously with a monograph by the Dominican Concina, in which Maffei’s conclusions were stigmatised as heretical. It is the conclusion of Reusch that the earlier Church view, while in theory confirmed by Benedict, had practically been abandoned. The controversy continued throughout the 19th century, and several of the later popes have taken the ground that the practice of taking interest that was not extortionate could be permitted until the question had received a final decision from the Holy See. During this latter period, only one work on the subject was placed on the Index, a monograph by Laborde, who was a sharp opponent of the earlier Church theory. No final conclusion of the issue has, however, ever been reached by the Church. It has probably been withheld because it would be difficult to frame a conclusion that would not either directly or indirectly constitute a reflection on the good judgment and wisdom of the earlier papal utterances.

In July, 1745, Benedict XIV instituted a special Congregation comprising four cardinals and clever theologians to give consideration to the subject of usury. The theologians included two Jesuits, one Dominican (Concina), and one Observant. The Pope himself presided over the sessions. The conclusions arrived at were published on the first of August in the form of three propositions. These were utilised by Benedict as the basis of the encyclical to the Italian bishops issued in November, 1745.

1. All return for the use of money given in the form of interest is to be classed as usury and characterised as unlawful.

2. One may not say that it is unlawful only to receive extortionate interest or to take interest from the poor.

3. It may be permitted for the lender to receive some return or compensation for his service from some person other than the borrower or person benefited; but it may not be permitted to make provision that such second person or guarantor should always be at hand.

In 1746, the year following the publication of the encyclical, Maffei had published a second edition of his treatise, which bears the imprint of the master of the palace. In a letter printed in this edition, Maffei writes that he had not as yet learned what had been the precise subject of condemnation in the encyclical. He was, however, of the opinion that he had been able in his treatise to anticipate the doctrine of the encyclical.

In the same year, Concina brought into print three essays in which he makes sharp criticism of the heresies of Broedersen and Maffei. These essays are dedicated to the pope. Muratori, writing in February, 1747, says: “A curious history is this! The Holy Father accepts dedication on the one hand from Concina and on the other from Maffei and yet neither the one nor the other is to be classed as unsound or heretical.”

After 1820, there arose also in France an active controversy on the question of interest. The earlier orthodox opinion adverse to the use of interest was maintained by Abbé Pages in his treatise _Dissertation sur le prêt à intérêt_, published in 1821. The contrary view was maintained by La Luzerne, Bishop of Langres, in his _Dissertations sur le Prêt de Commerce_, published in 1823 in five volumes, and by the Abbé Baronnat in _Le Prétendu Mystère de l’Usure Dévoilé_, published in 1822. In the course of the following half-century, the question was repeatedly brought from France and from Italy to the attention of the Inquisition. In 1873, the Congregation of Propaganda printed together the decisions that had been issued by the Inquisition on this subject between 1780 and 1872. The conclusion presented in 1873 is in substance as follows: Those who, under the authority of the law of the land, may take interest at a moderate rate (up to five per cent.), whether laymen or ecclesiastics, are not to be called to account in the confessional or otherwise for so doing until it has seemed wise to the Holy See to present a final conclusion in the matter. They must, however, hold themselves prepared at any time to accept and to abide by the final instruction of the Church.

=24. Philosophical Writings, between 1750 and 1800, Condemned as Irreligious.=--In the Spanish Index, are prohibited all the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau. The Roman Index of 1824 includes the name of David Hume.

In February, 1778, Pius VI issues a general prohibition as follows: _Libri omnes incredulorum, sive anonymi sive contra, in quibus contra religionem agitur_. This prohibition, instead of being included in the _Decreta Generalia_, where similar decrees had heretofore been printed, is placed under the term _libri_. Connected with the decree, is the specification that the permission to read books of this class can be granted only by the pope himself. It is probable that this general prohibition did not prove particularly effective, as it was hardly possible for the average reader to be able at once to identify a work as irreligious in tendency or to have knowledge by name of all of the writers who were to be classed as unbelievers. The difficulty was naturally greater in the case of anonymous works.

In the Spanish Indexes of 1747 and 1790, the editors have indicated by a mark the books the reading of which is prohibited even to those who have secured permission for the use of works included in the general Index lists.

There was published in Paris an encyclopaedia under the title _l’Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonnée des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers, par la Société des Gens de Lettres_. It bore the names, as editors, of Diderot and d’Alembert. In 1759, at the time of the prohibition, seven volumes only had been published. The first two volumes, printed in 1751, had been condemned in 1752, under an order of the Council of the King; but two years later, the king issued a privilege for the continuation of the work. The papal brief states that the volumes first issued had been condemned and that the later issues, described as a revised edition, had been carefully examined by the Inquisition and again condemned on the ground that the teachings and propositions contained in them were false and pernicious and tended to the destruction of morality; and further that these teachings promoted godlessness and the undermining of religion. In 1759, the royal privilege under which the publication was being continued, was withdrawn. The editors and printers succeeded, however, in carrying on the work without coming into open conflict with the authorities, and by 1772, twenty-eight volumes had come into print.

In April, 1757, a decree of Louis XV prohibits, under penalty of death, the production and distribution of any writings against religion. There does not appear, however, to be on record any instance of the carrying out of this penalty.

The papal brief issued in 1759 in regard to the treatise of Helvétius, _De l’Esprit_, describes the book as “antagonistic to the Christian religion and to natural morality, and as maintaining the pernicious and damnable views of the Materialists and of the Epicureans,” and further, “as maintaining many godless and heretical propositions.”

In 1762, a prohibition of the Inquisition contains the title of _La petite Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire des Philosophes, oeuvre posthume d’un de ces Messieurs_. The entry is followed by the remark “_Ridiculum acri fortius et malius plerumque secat res_. Anvers, 1761.” This title probably refers to a reprint of some portions of the encyclopaedia. Between 1758 and 1800, were placed upon the Index at intervals practically all of the works of Voltaire, but, excepting in Spanish Indexes, the term _Opera omnia_ does not appear. In 1762, the treatise by Rousseau on education, entitled _Émile_, was prohibited by the Inquisition; and in the same year, the book was ordered by the Parliament of Paris to be burned. It was also censured by the Sorbonne and prohibited for France by the Archbishop of Paris. The work was also condemned by the Protestant authorities in Geneva.

In 1784, was prohibited, by a brief of Pius VI, a work issued under the title of _Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains ou Mémoires intéressants pour servir a l’Histoire de l’Humanité_. The author was Cornelius de Paw, a canon in Zante.

In 1761, the Congregation prohibits the French version of the essay by David Hume, _A Treatise on the Human Understanding_. This edition had been printed in Amsterdam in 1758, twenty years after the appearance of the original.

Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, printed in an Italian edition in 1776, was prohibited in 1783. The writings of Thomas Paine and Joseph Priestly escaped the attention of the compilers of the Roman Index, but the name of the latter author appears in the Spanish Index of 1806.

The writings of Frederick the Great of Prussia, as printed in Berlin, in 1750, under the title of _Oeuvres du Philosophe de Sans-Souci_, receive the compliment of prohibition by the Inquisition in 1760. The Spanish Index does not include the works but does find place for the _Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Maison de Brandebourg_.

=25. Works on Philosophy and Natural Science, 1800–1880.=--Among the works prohibited during the period in question in the department of philosophy and natural science, may be noted the following:

Villiers, Ch. de, _A Treatise on Kant_, printed in Paris in 1801, prohibited in 1817. An Italian edition of Kant’s _Critique of Pure Reason_, printed (in Rome) in 1821, prohibited in the same year.

Buhle, J. G., _Geschichte der neuern Philosophie_, printed in Leipsic, 1800–1805, prohibited (in the French and Italian versions) in 1828.

Tennemann, _Grundriss der Gesch. der Philosophie_, printed in Leipsic in 1812, prohibited (in the Italian version) in 1837, prohibited again (in a Polish version) in 1865.

Bentham, Jeremy. Of this author practically all the works find place sooner or later in the Index, but the term _Opera omnia_ has not been used.

Whately, Richard, _Elements of Logic_, printed in 1822, prohibited in 1851.

Mill, John Stuart, _Treatise on Liberty_, prohibited in 1851; _Principles of Political Economy_, printed in 1848, prohibited in 1850.

Darwin, Erasmus, _Zoönomy_, printed in 1794, prohibited in 1817. (_The Origin of Species_ and the other treatises by Charles Darwin, the grandson of Erasmus, have, curiously enough, escaped the attention of the Index authorities.)

Draper, J. W., _History of the Conflict between Religion and Science_, printed (in New York) in 1874, prohibited (in a Spanish version) in 1876.

Condorcet, the Marquis, _Esquisse d’un Tableau historique du Progrès de l’Esprit humain_, printed in 1804 as a division in a series of works comprising in all twenty-one volumes, prohibited 1827.

Condillac, Abbé de, _Cours d’Étude_, printed (in Paris) in 1773, prohibited in 1836.

Ahrens, Henri, _Cours du Droit Naturel_, printed in 1838, prohibited 1868.

Cousin, _Cours d’Histoire de la Philosophie_, printed in 1827, prohibited in 1844. This is the only one of the long series of works by this author that finds place in the Index. Cousin was induced by his friends Sibour and Maret, for the purpose of preventing the threatened condemnation of his works by the Congregation of the Index, to write a letter to the Pope. He writes, under date of April 30, 1836, in substance as follows: “As Your Holiness has already been informed, I am myself a devout upholder of the Christian faith and I place all my hopes for the future of mankind upon the maintenance and extension of Christianity. I can but be troubled that my views have been placed in a false light and I have attempted to produce a philosophical treatise which should be entirely free from the possibility of reproach and in the preparation of which I have secured the counsel of scholarly divines. If it may be the case that, notwithstanding my own watchful care and the aid of these scholarly advisers, certain passages which could cause concern to Your Holiness have escaped attention, I will ask that these may be indicated to me. I am more than anxious to correct or to eliminate any expressions or statements that may be open to criticism from the point of view of the Church. My sole purpose is to do all that may be practicable to perfect the text of these modest writings of mine.”

Comte, Auguste (†1857), _Cours de Philosophie Positive_, printed in Paris in 1864 with an introduction by Littré, prohibited in the same year. No one of the other works by Comte finds place in the Index. Littré had sharp controversies with Dupanloup in 1863, and was characterised by the Archbishop as an atheist, but no one of Littré’s writings was formally condemned.

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe, _Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise_, printed (in Paris) in 1863, prohibited in 1866. This work had, in 1864, been condemned by the French Academy as tending to undermine the belief in the freedom of the will, the sense of personal responsibility, and morality in general.

Legrand, Jacques, _Recherche des Bases d’une Philosophie Pratique_, printed in 1864, prohibited the same year.

Mangin, Arthur, _L’Homme et la Bête_, printed in 1872, prohibited the same year.

Figuier, Louis, _Le Lendemain de la Mort ou la Vie Future selon la Science_, printed 1871, prohibited 1872.

A collection of essays by Tyndall, Owen, Huxley, Hooker, and Lubbock, translated into French, together with certain papers by Raymond, edited by the Abbé Moigno, on the general subject-matter of science and faith, was printed in Paris in 1875 and prohibited in the same year. Connected with the prohibition is a statement that the notes of Moigno on Tyndall and the other naturalists meet the approval of the Congregation.

Leopardi, Giacomo, _Operetti Morali_, printed 1827, prohibited, with a _donec emendatum_, in 1850.

Spaventa, Bernardo, _Opera omnia_, printed between the years 1861 and 1874.

Vera, Auguste, _Opera omnia_ in each and every version. These two writers had given instruction in the Hegelian philosophy. Vera’s works had appeared in Italian, French, and English editions.

Ferrari, Gius., _Opera omnia_, prohibited 1877. The chief work of this author, _Essai sur le Principe et la Limite de la Philosophie d’Histoire_, had been printed as early as 1837 and had for forty years escaped condemnation.

Settembrini, Luigi (a third Neapolitan Hegelian), _Lezioni di Letteratura Italiana_, printed in 1868, prohibited in 1874.

Sicilinoni, Pietro (professor of philosophy in Bologna), a series of works printed between the years 1878 and 1887, placed upon the Index from year to year immediately after their publication.

[Sidenote: Historical Works]

Ranke, L., _Die Römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat, im XVI^{ten} und XVII^{ten} Jahrhundert_, printed in 1835, prohibited in 1841.

Hume, David, _History of England_, printed in 1761, prohibited in 1823.

Robertson, William, _History of Charles the Fifth_, printed in 1762, prohibited (in a French edition) in 1777.

Goldsmith, Oliver, _History of England_, printed in 1770, prohibited (in an Italian edition), with a _d.c._, 1823.

Roscoe, William, _Biography of Leo X_, printed 1805, prohibited, in both the English and Italian versions, in 1825.

Hallam, Henry, _View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages_, printed in 1818, prohibited (in the Italian edition) in 1833. _Constitutional History of England_, printed in 1824, prohibited 1827.

Beugnot, A., _Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident_, printed in 1835, prohibited in 1837.

Sismondi, J. C. L. S. de, _Histoire du Moyen-Age_, printed in 1812, prohibited in 1817. The prohibition covers, however, only the first eleven volumes. The sixteenth volume, which contains the noteworthy chapter on the pernicious effects produced on Italy by the casuistical morality of the Church of Rome, escaped condemnation.

Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, printed in 1859–1873, condemned in 1874, both in the German original and in the Italian version.

Mignet, F. A., _Histoire de la Révolution Française_, printed in 1824, prohibited 1825.

Ségur, Comte de, _Galerie Morale et Politique_, printed in 1817–1823, prohibited 1826.

Jobez, Alph., _La France sous Louis XV_, printed 1865–1867, prohibited 1868.

Le Bas, Phil., _L’Univers Pittoresque_, printed in 1851, prohibited in 1853. The reprehensible chapters in this descriptive work were those giving an account of the religions of the world.

Munks, _La Palestine, Description géographique, historique, et archéologique_, printed 1845, prohibited in 1853.

_Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de la France_, edited by Le Bas and Rénier, printed, in twelve volumes, 1840–1845, prohibited (in a separate decree) in 1853.

The prohibitions of this period include a long series of French, German, and Italian encyclopaedias, universal dictionaries, gazetteers, etc., in addition to those specified.

Lalande, J. L. de, _Voyage en Italie_, printed in 1769, prohibited in 1820. It is possible that one reason for placing on the Index, so many years after the date of its appearance, this particular book was the association at a later date by the author with the _Dictionnaire des Athées_ which was compiled by Maréchal. This latter work, however, curiously escapes the attention of the Index compilers.

Didier, Ch., _Rome souterraine_, printed in 1833, prohibited in 1835. It is proper to point out that this work has to do, not with the Catacombs, but with the secret societies of Rome.

Viardot, Louis, _Les Musées d’Italie_, printed in 1842, prohibited in 1865. A later work by this author on the Jesuits, the bishops, and the pope, apparently much more serious in its subject-matter, escapes attention.

Ciocci, Raffaelle, _A Narrative of Iniquities and Barbarities practised at Rome in the 19th Century_, printed (in a French version) in 1841, prohibited in 1845. The author was formerly a Cistercian and had been librarian of the papal College of San Bernardo. It is not surprising that his work failed to secure the approval of the Roman authorities.

La Châtre, Maurice, _Histoire des Papes; Les Crimes, Meurtres ... des Pontifes Romains, depuis S. Pierre jusqu’ à Gregoire XVI_, printed in 1842–1845, prohibited in 1848.

[Sidenote: General Literature]

Among the noteworthy works under the heading of general literature may be cited the following:

Sue, Eugene, _Mystères de Paris_, printed in 1843, prohibited in 1852; _Le Juif Errant_, printed in 1845, prohibited in 1852. Later in the same year, Sue’s name was placed upon the Index connected with the term _Opera omnia_. In 1864, the list of French authors all of whose works were prohibited includes the following names: Balzac, Champfleury, Dumas the elder and Dumas the younger, Feydeau, Murger, Sand, Soulié, and Stendhal. The name of Flaubert appears in the same year in connection with two only of his romances. The volume of the Abbé Michon, published anonymously under the title _Le Maudit_, was prohibited in the year of its publication, 1864, and the later volumes issued as by the author of _Le Maudit_ were prohibited as they appeared. Since 1864, the compilers of the Index have given comparatively little attention to French fiction.

In 1834, the _Chansons_ of Béranger were prohibited. Some of these had been printed as far back as 1815. Additional titles from French literature are as follows:

Lamartine, Alph. de, _Souvenirs d’un Voyage en Orient_, printed in 1835, prohibited in 1836.

Hugo, Victor, _Notre Dame de Paris_, printed in 1831, prohibited in 1834; _Les Misérables_, printed in 1836, prohibited in 1864.

The famous volumes by Ferd. Fabre, _Lucifer_ and _L’Abbé Grand_, curiously enough escape condemnation.

The selections of this period from German literature are inconsiderable. They include:

Lessing, _Erziehung des Menschen-geschlechts_, prohibited 1835.

Heine, H., _Reisebilder_, printed in 1834, prohibited in 1836; _De la France_, printed in 1833, prohibited in 1836; _De l’Allemagne_, printed in 1835, prohibited 1836; _Gedichte_, printed in 1844, prohibited in 1845.

In 1855, Mrs. Stowe’s _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ was prohibited, under some special instruction, as far as its sale in the papal States was concerned. The title does not find place in the Index.

The small group of Spanish and Portuguese works includes the following titles:

Torres, _Quentos en verso Castilano del Remédo de la Melencholia_, prohibited 1824.

Tressera, _El Judio Errante_, prohibited 1864.

The long series of anti-clerical romances by Benito, Perez, and Galdós escape condemnation.

Stockler, _Poezias Liricas_, printed in 1820, prohibited in 1836.

The Italian list includes:

Foscolo, Ugo, translation of Sterne’s _Sentimental Journey_, printed in 1817, prohibited in 1819; _La Commedia di Dante_, illustrated, printed in 1830, prohibited in 1845.

Zaccheroni, G., an edition of Dante’s _Inferno_ with notes, printed in 1838, prohibited (as far as the introduction and the notes are concerned) by the Inquisition in 1840. The larger number of the commentaries on Dante are condemned as printed.

Guerrazzi, Dom., _L’Assedio di Firenze_, printed in 1830, prohibited in 1837. His later romances, _Isabella Orsini_ and _Beatrice Cenci_, were prohibited promptly on publication, the former in 1844, the latter in 1854.

Niccolini, G. B., _Arnaldo da Brescia_, printed in 1844, prohibited the same year.

Bossie, Conte Luigi, _Della Istoria d’Italia Antica e Moderna_, printed in Milan, 1819–1822, in nineteen volumes, prohibited in 1824. The same author produced a translation of Roscoe’s _Life of Leo X_, which was promptly condemned some twenty years after the prohibition of the same work in the original.

Botta, Carlo, _Storia d’Italia del 1729 al 1814_, ten volumes, printed in 1824, prohibited in 1826. Botta had gained the name of “the Italian Tacitus.” His son, Vincenzo Botta, was well known in New York as a man of letters, between the years 1850 (he was one of the exiles of ’48) and 1880.

Rossetti, Gabrielle, _Sullo Spirito anti-Papale_, etc., printed in 1832, prohibited 1833; _Iddio a l’Uomo_, printed in 1836, prohibited 1837.

The Spanish and Portuguese group of general literature of this period includes the following titles:

Llorente, J. A., _Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition de l’Espagne_, printed in Paris in 1820, prohibited in 1822. The author, who was the Secretary-General of the Inquisition, had been banished from Spain in 1812. His history, written in Spanish, was translated under his own supervision.

_Historia Completa des Inquisiçoes de Italia, Hispagnia e Portugal_, printed (anonymously) in 1822, prohibited in 1825. This is probably a translation of the _Histoire de l’Inquisition of Lavalée_ printed in Paris in 1809, and prohibited in 1819. The histories of the Inquisition, whether written from the Dominican point of view or from that of their opponents, found their way in great part into the Index.

=26. The Synod of Pistoja, 1786.=--In 1794, the conclusions arrived at by the Diocesan Synod held at Pistoja at the instance of Bishop Ricci, were condemned by the Bull _Auctorem Fidei_ of Pius VI. In this Bull, were censured specifically eighty-five propositions. The Pope condemns and prohibits, under penalty of excommunication, the printing, distribution, or reading of any editions or translations of the acts of the synod and of all works written in defence of these acts. It is doubtless through oversight that this very sweeping condemnation does not find place in the Index. Certain publications reporting the conclusions of the synod had been already specifically prohibited; while certain further works, the subjects of which were connected with the issues raised by the synod, were prohibited in later years, in certain instances as late as 1817. For these later prohibitions, the statement was added that the works were already condemned under the Bull _Auctorem Fidei_.

=27. The Festival of the Heart of Jesus.=--In 1697 and again in 1729, the Congregation of Rites recalled the authorisation for a specific office for the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and in 1704, was prohibited the treatise by the Jesuit Croiset, written in defence of this office. Under Clement XIII in 1765, the office was again authorised, and under Pius IX, the festival in honour of the Heart of Jesus was made a general usage. This special act of adoration had originated with the Jesuits; those who opposed it were classed as Jansenists. The office came, however, into question with a good many Churchmen other than Ricci and his friends; and a number of the most important of the treatises written against it were published under Clement XIV in Rome.

=28. Theological Writings of French, German, and English Catholics, 1758–1800.=--But one important work of theology printed in France, _Theologia Lugdunensis_, came upon the Index during the last decade of the 18th century. From England, the single title of the same period covers a book of worship, and from Germany, were prohibited, in addition to the writings already referred to, a volume by Isenbiehl and several treatises by Stättler, Meyer, and Oberrauch. During these years, were published in England a number of works by Catholic authors which had to do with the controversies of the time, such as the Oath of Allegiance, the re-institution of the hierarchy of bishops, etc., but no one of these writings is recorded in the Index. The single English work above referred to was published in London, in 1767, under the title _The Catholik Christians’ New Universal Manual, being a true spiritual guide for those who ardently aspire to salvation_. The book contains the entry, _Permissu superiorum_, which did not prevent its prohibition in 1770. On the other hand, the writings of Charles Dodd, J. Berington, Alexander Geddes, George Cooper, and Bishop Butler, the teachings of which would hardly have met the approval of the Holy See, escaped condemnation.

=29. The French Revolution.=--The _Constitution Civile_ of the clergy, framed in 1780, and the Defence of the same issued a year later by the so-called Constitutional Bishops, were promptly condemned by briefs of Pius VI, but they do not find place in the Index. The acts of the national councils of 1797 and 1801 were condemned in like manner but these titles also escaped the attention of the Index compilers. The practice on the part of the Index editors in regard to the recording of legislative acts appears not to have been consistent. In 1817, for instance, a collection of the acts and declarations of the Italian bishops and chapters, which had been printed in 1811, was placed upon the Index although the subscribers and compilers of the same had made recantation of the opinions expressed.

The long series of revolutionary writings and of anti-Church writings which came into print in France after 1789 were in large part recorded by the Spanish Inquisition but in the Roman Indexes are represented by only a few titles.

In July, 1797, the Congregation of the Index publishes its last decree for the century. The authors whose books are condemned include Stättler, Oberrauch, Tamburini, and Zola; in addition to these, there is a series of German theological and juristical theses which the students of Freiburg had defended between the years 1786 and 1794. The last work prohibited by the Inquisition during the 18th century is a treatise by Guadagnini.

The first prohibition of the 19th century condemns a monograph by a Greek theologian, printed in Corfu in 1800. The Congregation of the Index resumed its activities in 1804 after a suspension of more than seven years. In decrees issued in 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1808 were condemned a number of French and Italian writings that had to do with the Revolution. The imprisonment in June, 1809, of Pius VII again brought to a close the operations of the Roman Congregations. The Pope returned to Rome in May, 1814, and in August, 1815, the Inquisition resumed its supervision of literature. The work of the Congregation of the Index was, however, not taken up till January, 1817. In this year, a list of prohibitions was issued covering a number of works that had been published in France and in Italy between 1796 and 1815.

The two briefs that Pius VI had issued in March and in April, 1781, for the condemnation of the so-called Civil Constitution of the French clergy, were declared by the “constitutional” party in the Church to be apocryphal. It was pointed out that the second brief, while dated in Rome, April 13th, was distributed in Paris April 14th, from which detail, it came to be known as the “Miraculous Brief.” In a brief issued in 1792, the Pope calls attention to this statement as one of the insults coming from France. The Index of 1806 contains, printed as an appendix, a list of the books prohibited from 1804 to 1806. The more important names in this list are those of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Mirabeau, Dulaurens, and La Fontaine.

=30. The French Concordat of 1801.=--In August, 1801, a Bull of Pius VII records the provisions of the Concordat that had been arrived at between Napoleon and himself. Under the Concordat, the number of the French bishoprics was reduced from a hundred and fifty-six to sixty and a new division of the dioceses was provided for. In a brief bearing the same date, the Pope calls for the resignation of all the French bishops, and in November of 1801, he issues a second Bull, declaring those bishops who had not resigned to be deposed, and fixing the limits of the new bishoprics. In 1803, thirty-six bishops present a protest against these regulations. This protest was widely circulated and served as the text for a long series of monographs in which were brought into discussion various questions relating to the Concordat. In 1817, a second Concordat was put into force between the Papacy and Louis XVIII. In 1822, a long series of writings which took ground against the authority of this Concordat were placed upon the Index.

=31. Protestant Theological Writings, 1750–1884.=--The selections for condemnation, in the last years of the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th century, of works by Protestant theologians appears to have been made with no greater consistency and with no more assured principles than had been apparent in the selection of Protestant writings of an earlier date. The following titles may be noted:

Michaelis, J. D., _Introduction to the New Testament_, published in 1750, condemned in 1827.

Strauss, _The Life of Jesus_ (_Das Leben Jesu_), published in 1835, prohibited 1838.

Bauer, _Streit der Kritik mit Kirche und Staat_, published in 1844, prohibited in 1845.

Bunsen, _Hippolytus and his Age_, published 1852, prohibited 1854.

Maurice, F. D., _Theological Essays_, published 1854, prohibited 1854 (the entry in the Index is under the word “Denison”).

Stroud, _The Physical Causes of the Death of Christ_, published 1847, prohibited 1878.

Morgan, Lady, _Italy_, prohibited 1822.

Waldie, _Rome in the Nineteenth Century_, published 1820, prohibited 1826.

Blunt, James, _Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs in Modern Italy and Sicily_, published 1823, prohibited 1827. The difficulty with Mr. Blunt’s treatise was the connection made by him between certain ceremonies and practices of the Roman Church and the earlier Pagan usages.

Seymour, Hobart, _A Pilgrimage to Rome_, printed 1851, prohibited 1851. The title is entered under “Pilgrimage.”

Whately, Archbishop, _Introductory Lessons on Christian Evidences_, an Italian version printed in 1850 and prohibited in the same year.

The treatise by John Poynde, _Popery in Alliance with Heathenism_, the publication of which (in 1835) brought out some sharp controversial letters from Wiseman, escaped the attention of the Index compilers.

The more noteworthy of the French titles in the Indexes of this period are the following:

Bruitte, Edouard, abbé and professor of philosophy, _Mes Adieux à Rome_, published in 1844, prohibited in 1844.

Mourette, _Le Pape et l’Évangile_, published in 1844, prohibited in 1845. This latter was also prohibited in Paris.

Coquerel, Athanase, (†1868), _Le Christianisme experimental_, published in 1847, prohibited in 1850. No other of the series of writings by this famous Protestant preacher nor any of those of his son, Athanase Josue, find place in the Index.

Bugnoin, T. R., _Catéchisme de l’Église du Seigneur_, published in 1862, prohibited in 1863.

Martig, Emm., _Manuel d’Histoire religieuse a l’Usage des Écoles_, published at Geneva in 1877, prohibited in 1878.

D’Aubigné, _l’Histoire de la Réforme du Seizième Siècle_, printed, in an Italian edition, in 1847, prohibited in 1852.

The list of Italian and Spanish publications contains few names that would be familiar to English readers.

Bianchi, Angiolo, _Biographia di Fra Paolo Sarpi_, printed (in Brussels) in 1836, prohibited in 1844; _Del Pontificato di S. Gregorio il grande_, printed (in Milan) in 1844, prohibited in 1853.

Boni, Filippo de, _Del Papato_, printed in 1850, prohibited in 1852.

Castro, Adolpho de, _Historia des los Protestantes Españoles_, printed in 1851, prohibited in the same year.

=32. Writings concerning the Eastern Church.=--The larger number of the works under this heading the titles of which come into the Index of the 19th century, are the production of the “United Armenians.” The addition of a group of monographs by Polish writers is doubtless due to the fact that during the reign of Pius IX, the consultor of the Congregation was a Pole, Peter Semenenko. The Bull issued by Pius IX in July, 1867, under the title of _Reversurus_, in which it had been ordered that the procedure of worship of the Armenians should be reconstituted, resulted in a schism in this division of the Church. Between the years 1872 and 1873, three monographs by Ormanian and one by Casangian, written in opposition to this Bull, are placed upon the Index. The list also includes the following:

Pichler, A., _Die kirchliche Trennung zwischen Orient und Occident_.

The Greek Church of Russia is represented in the Index of this time by but one or two titles:

Tolstoy, Dimitri, _Le Catholicisme Romain ou Russe_, published in 1864, prohibited in 1866. This work stands in the Index under the entry “Dimitri.” The entry is connected with the reference _Opus praedamnatum ex reg. II. ind._ This entry indicates that, prior to 1870, the Russians were already classed as heretics.

Pociej, Joh. (Chancellor of the Cathedral at Chelm), _O Jezusie Chrystusie_ (a study of the record of the early Christians), printed in 1852 (with the approval of the Church authorities at Warsaw), prohibited in 1857.

The record of the proceedings of a Synod of Melchites, held in 1810, in Beyrout, with the approval of the papal delegate, Gandolfi, was condemned in 1835 by a brief of Gregory XVI. The record had been printed in Arabic and was not likely therefore to have secured an extended circulation in Catholic States.

In 1851, was prohibited an Italian version of the _Critical History of the Greek and Russian Church_ by Josef Schmitt, which had been published in Mayence in 1840. In 1868, was prohibited a work by the English writer, Edmund S. Ffoulkes, which had been published in London in 1865 under the title, _Christendom’s Divisions, a Philosophical Sketch of the Divisions of the Christian Family in East and West_. The work had been sharply criticised by Manning, but it does not appear that Manning had made any formal denunciation of the same to Rome.

=33. The Theologians of Pavia, 1774–1790.=--In 1774, the Austrian Government instituted a theological faculty in the University of Pavia. In 1783, the Emperor Joseph II transferred to Pavia, for use in the newly instituted _Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum_, the collections belonging to the old _Collegium Germanicum_ of Milan. The divines of the theological faculty of Pavia came to be classed as Jansenists. The classification appears to have been based not so much upon their teaching of the Augustinian doctrine of Grace as upon their own sharp antagonism to the theories and practices of the Jesuits. These divines contended openly that the so-called Jansenist heresy was a phantom, and they also undertook the defence of the Church of Utrecht. They were, further, opponents of the doctrines taught by the Jesuits in regard to morality; they were in sympathy with the claims of the Gallican Church, and, finally, they maintained stoutly the necessity for reforms within the Catholic Church on the lines indicated by the Synod of Pistoja. In the years succeeding 1781, were placed upon the Index the titles of a number of writings by these theologians and by others who had accepted their views. Among these writers may be mentioned the following: Pietro Tamburini, Giuseppe Zola, Count Th. Trautmannsdorf, Canon Litta, and G. B. Guadagnini. The treatise by Trautmannsdorf on Toleration, condemned in 1783, the author found desirable to disavow in order to secure his appointment as bishop.

=34. French, Dutch, and English Writings, 1817–1880.=--In 1825, a report was laid before the French Minister of the Interior concerning certain writings classed as irreligious or immoral which had been published between the years 1817 and 1824. The list included various editions of the complete works of Voltaire and of Rousseau, together with a number of issues of their separate volumes. There were no less than eight editions of the _Système de la Nature_, by d’Holbach, and four of the _Lettres Persanes_. It was complained that these pernicious books were being sold so cheaply that they were brought within the reach of the masses of the people and were bringing about widespread evil. The _Tartuffe_ of Molière, sold for five sous, had at once reached a sale of one hundred thousand copies. In 1821, Étienne Antoine, Bishop of Troyes, in a pastoral letter writes: “We renew all the censorship orders issued, between the years 1782 and 1785, by the clergy of France, and the individual orders issued by the archbishops of Paris, in which these works were condemned as godless and sacrilegious, and as tending to undermine morals and the State. We prohibit, under the canonical law, the printing or sale of these books within the territory of this diocese, and we charge the vicar-generals to enforce this regulation and to see to the carrying out of the necessary penances for all who make confession of disobedience to these regulations.” The authority of the Church of France appears to have been considered as sufficient for the control of the matter. No application was made to have these books again placed upon the Index.

Dupuis, Ch. Fr., _Origine de tous les Cultes_, printed 1794, prohibited, 1818. An abridgment of this work, printed in 1798 and reprinted in a number of editions thereafter, escaped condemnation.

Volney, J. F., _Les Ruines ou Méditations sur les Révolutions des Empires_, printed in 1799, prohibited in 1821. This book was also strongly condemned in the Spanish Indexes. An Italian translation, printed in 1849, escaped the Index.

Pigault, Le Brun, _Le Citateur_, printed in 1803, prohibited in 1820. This work contains some bitter assaults on the Bible and on the dogmas of Christianity. Reiffenberg states that, in 1811, Napoleon, in a state of irritation with a brief of Pius VII, gave instructions for the distribution to the public, free or at a nominal price, of ten thousand copies of _Le Citateur_, but there is no record that these instructions were carried out. A Spanish version of the book, printed in London in 1816, was prohibited in Spain in 1819.

_Essai historique sur la Puissance temporelle des Papes_, printed in Paris in 1818, prohibited in 1823. No author’s name is connected with any of the several editions of this treatise, but the introduction to the original issue states that the work was translated from a Spanish manuscript found at Saragossa.

After the Restoration, negotiations were in train during a series of years for a modification of the provisions of the Concordat of 1801. A series of controversial publications bearing upon the Concordat were placed upon the Index as they appeared.

Constant, Benjamin, _De la Religion Considerée dans sa Source_, etc., printed in 1824–1831, in five volumes, prohibited in 1827.

Gandolphy, Peter, _A Defence of the Ancient Faith, or Exposition of the Christian Religion_, printed (in London) in 1813, prohibited in 1818. Gandolphy was a priest of the Catholic Church and at the time of this publication had charge of the Spanish Chapel in London. The book had been promptly condemned by Pointer, Apostolic Vicar in London. Gandolphy journeyed to Rome and succeeded in securing for his book the approval of the master of the palace and a certificate giving him the authority to state that his book had been approved by the Holy See. On the strength of this certificate, he placed copies again on sale. Pointer secured from the Inquisition instructions to confirm the prohibition, and as this was still ignored by Gandolphy, the latter was suspended. After some years of controversy, the difficulty was finally adjusted by the correction of the text according to the specifications of Pointer.

Earle, Charles J., _The Forty Days, or Christ between His Resurrection and Ascension_ and _The Spiritual Body_. These were printed in 1876 and 1878 and were prohibited in 1880. Earle had in 1851 been converted to Romanism.

In 1857, an association was instituted in England “for the promotion of the unity of Christendom.” Its special purpose was to bring together the members of the Catholic, the Greek, and the English Churches. The members of the society accepted the obligation to make a daily prayer to this end. Cardinal Patrizzi declared in the name of the Inquisition, in a letter addressed, September, 1864, to the English bishops, that Catholics were forbidden to take part in this association. In 1866, Archbishop Manning confirmed this prohibition. Patrizzi had condemned in his first letter the _Union Review_, which was the organ of the society, but the _Review_ was not placed on the Index. A series of essays on the reunion of Christendom, written by members of the society, and edited by F. G. Lee, was placed on the Index in 1867.

=35. Writings of German Catholics, 1814–1870.=--During the 19th century, were placed upon the Index a larger proportion than in the earlier period of the writings of the Catholics of Germany, but the selection of the works so distinguished appears as heretofore to have been arrived at with no very definite policy or principle. It is evident that the books were not selected on the ground either of their relative heresy, of their scholarly importance, or of their popular influence. It seems probable that the condemnation of any particular work was dependent upon the accident of its title being brought to the attention of the Congregation. The names of a few of the more noteworthy authors in the list are specified below.

Wessenberg, Vicar-General of Constance, _Die deutsche Kirche_, printed in 1806, condemned by a brief of Pius VII, in 1814.

Dannemayer, _Institutiones Historiae Ecclesiasticae_, printed (in Vienna) in 1780, prohibited in 1820.

Rechberger, _Enchiridion Juris Eccles. Austriaci_, printed in 1809, prohibited in 1819.

Reyberger, _Institutiones Ethicae Christ._, printed in 1805–9, prohibited 1834.

Bolzano Bernhard (professor of geology in Prague), _Stunden der Andacht_, printed in 1813, prohibited in 1828. It was largely on the ground of this work, which was published anonymously, that Bolzano was deposed from his professorship. _Lehrbuch der Religions-Wissenschaft_, printed in 1813, prohibited 1838.

Brendel, Sabold, professor of law in Würzburg, _Handbuch des kath. und protest. Kirchenrechts_, etc., printed in 1823, prohibited in 1824. Brendel retained his professorship but was later ordered to give up instruction in canon law.

Theiner, Anton., _Die katholische Kirche in Schlesien_ (published anonymously), printed in 1826, prohibited the same year.

Müller, Alexander, _Handbuch des kath. und protest. Kirchenrechts_, printed 1829–1832, prohibited in 1833. It would appear that very few of the treatises on canon law or ecclesiastical jurisprudence were so written as to meet the approval of the Index authorities.

Hirscher, J. B., a treatise on the mass, entitled _Missae Genuinam Notionem Eruere_, etc., printed in 1821, prohibited in 1823.

Drey, G. S. von, a treatise on confession, entitled _Diss. Hist. theol. Originem et Vicissitudinem_, etc., printed, in 1815, prohibited in 1823.

Gehringer, _Liturgik und Theorie der Seelsorge_, printed in 1848, prohibited in 1850.

Hermes, George, _Die philosophische Einleitung in die christ. katholische Theologie_, printed in 1819, prohibited in 1831. The other writings by this author, together with a long series of treatises by his followers, were for the most part prohibited. It was contended by the Hermessians, as it had formerly been contended by the Jansenists, that the specific errors on the ground of which the condemnations had been arrived at did not as a matter of fact exist in the writings of Hermes. In May, 1837, six years after the death of Hermes, Professors Braun and Elvenich journeyed to Rome for the purpose of securing a fresh examination of the works of Hermes and of establishing their orthodoxy, but after a series of conferences, they failed to secure the recall of condemnation.

Günther, A., _Peregrins Gastmahl, Janusköpfe für Philosophie und Theologie_, and a group of similar writings published between 1830 and 1843, were condemned together in 1857. The Congregation of the Index began in 1851 to give special attention to Günther. In 1852, instructions were given by Pius IX to the bishop of Wurzburg to prohibit the teaching of the theories that had become known as the philosophy of Günther.

Trebisch, Leop. (classed as a follower of Günther), _Die christliche Weltanschauung in ihrer Bedeutung für Wissenschaft und Leben_, printed in 1858, prohibited in 1859.

Frohschammer, J., _Ueber den Ursprung der menschlichen Seelen_, printed in 1854, prohibited in 1857. The work of Frohschammer was brought upon the Index by the influence of the Jesuit Kleutgen. It is recorded that the secretary of the Congregation asked Dr. Döllinger, who was at the time in Rome, to induce Frohschammer to submit himself and to recall his treatise, but no such action was taken by the author. His later treatises, _Einleitung in die Philosophie_, _Der Grundriss der Metaphysik_, and _Ueber die Freiheit der Wissenschaft_, were prohibited together in 1862. He was suspended from his functions in 1863, and in 1871, placed under excommunication. In the introduction to the papal brief of 1863, Pius writes that he had learned with great sorrow that a number of the theologians and instructors in philosophy having chairs in the Catholic institutions of Germany had permitted themselves to bring into their teachings an unwarranted license of thought and of expression. The works through which these teachings were distributed to the general public were in many cases carrying most pernicious errors. These works, in so far as they had been examined and reported upon, the Pope had therefore ordered to be placed on the Index.

Oischinger, Paul J. N., who appears to have belonged to the same theological group with Frohschammer, is recorded as the author of a long series of philosophical works, only one of which was placed upon the Index: _Die spekulative Theologie des H. Thomas von Aquin_, printed in 1859, prohibited in 1859. Oischinger maintains that Thomas had wrongly comprehended a number of the most important divisions of the dogma of the Church.

Pichler, Aloys, _Geschichte der kirklichen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und Occident_, printed in 1865, prohibited in 1866. _Die Theologie des Leibnitz_, printed in 1869, prohibited in 1870.

=36. La Mennais.=--The writings of Abbé La Mennais had, even before 1830, brought out in France some measure of criticism. They had, however, secured the approval of Leo XII. After the Revolution of July, 1830, the opinions of La Mennais and his associates were condemned in Rome as in more ways than one pernicious. In August, 1832, Gregory XVI, in the encyclical entitled _Mirari_, condemned the ecclesiastical and political opinions presented in the journal issued by La Mennais and his associates under the title _L’Avenir_. No one of the writers was mentioned by name, but in a letter by Cardinal Pacca accompanying the encyclical, they were informed that the condemnation applied to their work. They all submitted themselves to the authority of the Church. After some negotiations, La Mennais, in December, 1833, gave his signature to a formula which had been sent from Rome for the purpose. A few months later, however, he brought into print a monograph entitled _Paroles d’un Croyant_, through the declarations in which he made a direct breach with Rome. In June, 1834, he received, through a separate encyclical, sharp condemnation. A year later, the Congregation placed on the Index the treatise _Affaires de Rome_ and the subsequent writings were prohibited promptly on their appearance. The earliest publication of La Mennais, issued in 1809 under the title _Réflexions sur l’État de l’Eglise en France pendant le XVIII^{me} Siècle et sur la Situation actuelle_, was promptly suppressed by the imperial police, but was not placed upon the Index. The _Essai sur l’Indifférence en matières de Religion_, published in 1817–1820, was sharply criticised in France but was not condemned in Rome. The monograph _De la Religion Considérée dans ses Rapports avec l’Ordre Politique et Civile_, printed in 1826, was condemned by a number of the bishops and the author was sentenced by the courts to the payment of a large fine.

The journal _L’Avenir_, previously referred to, had for its purpose the maintenance of the independence of the Gallican Church against the encroachments of the Ultramontanes, and also the final separation of Church and State. The publication of the journal was suspended by the Government in 1831, and Lacordaire and Montalembert journeyed to Rome to present the case of its editors. A _Mémoire_ written by Lacordaire was delivered in February, 1832, to Cardinal Pacca. In this, the memorialists asked the pope to have thorough investigation made of their purpose and actions and to give permission for the continuation of their work. After some weeks, Pacca gave decision on behalf of the pope that, while the good service rendered in the past by the memorialists was fully acknowledged, he found ground for grave disapproval of their later actions in stirring up controversies which tended to bring the authority of the Church into disrepute. While the matter was under consideration, an appeal came to Rome from thirteen of the bishops of France, asking the pope to confirm the condemnation of _L’Avenir_ and specifying fifty-six propositions which were in themselves sufficient ground for its condemnation. This memorial secured later the support of fifty further French bishops. In September, 1832, La Mennais and his associates sent to Rome an acknowledgment of the decision of the pope and made promise that the journal _L’Avenir_ should no longer be printed. In May, 1833, the pope sent to the Archbishop of Toulouse a brief in which he made reply to the memorial of the bishops. He pointed out that in the encyclical he had presented the sound and final doctrine of the Church and that he had taken measures to prevent the further circulation of the pernicious opinions complained of by the bishops.