INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITO RUM. The Index of Prohibited Books, com monly spoken of as the a specific list of books which ecclesiastical authority pro hibits Catholics from reading. This article will briefly give the history of the Index, the right of censorship claimed by the Catholic Churcit, and the exercise of ,that right.
I. History of the Index, -The first Roman i Index appeared 1559, under Paul IV, long after civil authority had instituted censorship and lists of prohibited writings. The latest Index is that of Leo XIII, a fifth edition or which was published in 1911, at the order of Pius X. Until recently this list of prohibited books was drawn up under the supervision of the Congre gation of the Index; and a' book was put on the Index by decree of the Congregation of the Roman Inquisition, or of the Holy Office, or of the Index. On 25 March 1917, Pope Bene dict XV, by Motu Proprio, merged the Congre gation. of the Mdex kito that Alf the Holy Office. Hence this latter Congregation, whose purpose is to safeguard Catholic teaching in faith and morals, now has charge of the editing of the Index. As a rule, the books contained in this authoritative list were written by Catholics.
Precisely because the authors were in com munion with the Church, explicit condemnation by a Roman Congregation was called for. On account of the relatively small Catholic popu lation in English speaking countries, very few books in that language have been put on the Index. In the general laws of the Church, ample provision is made against the reading of non-Catholic books opposed to Catholic faith and morals. To read books that have been put on the Index or otherwise prohibited by the Holy See, one must obtain either a general or a particular permission from the competent ecclesiastical authority. As the Index is only one element of the legal practice of the Catholic Church in the matter of censorship, it is im portant here to state what right the Church claims in this sphere of her activity and how she exercises this right.
II. The Right of Censorship. (1) In Civil every full formed society, the uni tive principle is authority. This principle vivi fies into a living whole, organizes into a social organic unity, the various elements that would else be independent, separate, disparate, hostile, mutually destructive entities. Authority has for its object those means, which are necessary to the very, existence and well being of the social organism whereof it is the vitalizing and unifying principle. One such means is the cen
sorship of the press. Legitimate authority, in every full formed society, may exercise censor ship of the press, as a necessary means to the end for which the social organic unity exists. This censorship is twofold,— anticipatory or repressive—according as it is exercised before or after the publication of the matter censored. By anticipatory censorship, the authority of a nation at war prohibits the publication of all news that may help the enemy, requisitions wire less stations, commandeers the cable and tele graph, censors private letters, and dictates what things shall not be published by the press. By repressive censorship, the same legitimate au thority punishes as criminal the use of the mails for treasonable propaganda, and suppresses pub lications that have printed prohibited matter. All this obtains in civil censorship.
(2) In the Ecclesiastical censor ship is like to civil, but in a different sphere of activity. The Catholic Church claims to be not a civil society, but a full formed spiritual society,— a social organic unity, whose members have the same spiritual aim, no matter how they are at variance in civil aims; a living social organism, unified and vitalized by the same principle of spiritual authority, no matter how they differ in the civil authority that unites them into civil societies. To the members of this spiritual society, supreme authority in mat ters of faith and morals is an attribute of the Pope, the successor of Saint Peter in the Apostolic See. Upon this supreme authority, as upon an adamantine rock, is builded the whole fabric of the Church; unto this supreme jurisdiction is granted the tremendous divine power of binding and loosing, to be exercised either directly or indirectly in regard to all who belong to the spiritual organic unity of the Church. °Thou art Kipha (a Rock), and upon this Kipha I. shall build my Church; arid the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and what soever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven?' (Matthew xvi, 18-19). This power of binding and loosing, be it vested supremely in the Pope or subordinately in any other member of the hierarchy, includes the right of both anticipatory and repressive nen• sorship of printed matter, as a means necessary to the attainment of the spiritual end proposed by the Church.