Then follows the archbishop's commis sion to the censors—That no one in his province translate, print, or publish, any book in German, unless the censors pre viously read and approve its contents. And he directs them to refuse their appro bation to such works as offend religion or morals, or whose meaning cannot clearly be made out, and may give rise to error and scandal. To those works which they approve of they shall affix their approba tion, two of them jointly, in their own nandw riting.
There were works printed at Cologne in 1479 bearing the approbation of the rector of that university, and there is also an Heidelberg edition of 1480 of the book entitled Nosce teipsum,' which bears four approbation, one by Philip Rota, Doctor utriusque Juris, and another by Maffeus Girardo, Patriarch of Venice and Primate of Dalmatia. There was, how ever, no general system of censorship in the fifteenth century, which was an age of freedom for printing ; and it is a curious fact that the learned scholar Merula, in a letter to Isis friend Poliziano, dated 1480, expresses a wish that a previous censor ship should be established over all books, such as Plato recommends for his republic; " for," says Merula, " we are now quite overcome by a quantity of bad or insig nificant books." In 1501, Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia) issued a bull, in which, after sundry com plaints about the devil who sows tares among the wheat, he goes on to say that having been informed that by means of the art of printing many books and treatises, containing various errors and pernicious doctrines, have been and are being published in the provinces of Co logne, Mainz, Treves, and Magdeburg, lie by these presents strictly forbids all printers, their servants, and all who ex ercise the art of printing in any manner, in the above provinces, to print hereafter any books, treatises, or writings, without previously applying to the respective arch bishops, or their vicars and officials, or whomever they may appoint for the pur pose, and obtaining their licence free of all expense, under pain of excommunica Lion, besides a pecuniary fine at the discretion of the respective archbishops, bishops, or vicars-general. The bull pro vides for the books already printed and published, which are to be examined by the same authorities, and those containing anything to the prejudice of the Catholic faith are to be burnt.
At last, in 1515, the Council of the Lateran decreed that in future no books should be printed in any town or diocese, unless they were previously inspected and carefully examined, if at Rome by the vicar and the master of the sacred palace, and in the other dioceses by the bishop or those by him appointed, and by the in quisitor of that diocese or those by him appointed, and countersigned by their own hands gratis and without delay. Any book not so examined and counter signed was to be burnt, and the author or editor excommunicated.
Here, then, was the origin of the princi ple of a general censorship of the press, which has been ever since maintained by the Church of Rome in all countries where it had power to enforce it. The bishops were the censors in their respec tive dioceses ; but the tribunal of the inquisition, wherever the inquisition was established, were the censors ; they ex amined the MS. of every work previous to its being printed, and granted or re fused an Imprimatur' or licence at their pleasure. The inquisition mrreover sought after all books published ,eyond its jurisdiction, and having examined their contents, condemned those which were contrary to the doctrine or discipline of the Church of Rome, and of these it formed a list known by the name of Index of Forbidden Books,' to which it has made copious additions from time to time. There are several of these indexes, made at different times and in different places : the index of the Spanish Inquisi tion was different from that of Rome. Collections of these indices have been made. One of the latest is contained in the Dictionnaire Critique et Bibliographique des principaux Livres condamnes au Feu, empprimes on censures,' by Peignot, Paris, 1806. In countries where the Inquisition was not established, such as France, Eng land, and Germany, the bishops acted as censors and licensers of books, which they examined previous to printing, as to all matters concerning religion or morality. The censorship continued for a long time to belong to the ecclesiastical power, and even afterwards, when the civil power in various countries began to appoint royal censors to examine all kinds of works, the episcopal approbation was still re quired for all books which treated of religion or church discipline.