Editing Index Librorum Prohibitorum (section)

==Scope and impact==
[[File:Titelkupfer Index librorum prohibitorum.jpg|thumb|This 1711 illustration for the {{lang|la|Index Librorum Prohibitorum}} depicts the Holy Ghost supplying the book-burning fire.]]

===Censorship and enforcement===
The ''Index'' was not simply a reactive work. Roman Catholic [[author]]s had the opportunity to defend their writings and could prepare a new edition with necessary corrections or deletions, either to avoid or to limit a [[Ban (law)|ban]]. Pre-publication censorship was encouraged.{{Citation needed|date=June 2017}}

The ''Index'' was enforceable within the [[Papal States]], but elsewhere only if adopted by the civil powers, as happened in several Italian states.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rl96-_JKQvkC&pg=PA236 Stephen G. Burnett, ''Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era''] (Brill 2012 {{ISBN|978-9-00422248-9}}), p. 236</ref> Other areas adopted their own lists of forbidden books. In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], book censorship, which preceded the publication of the ''Index'', came under the control of the Jesuits at the end of the 16th century, but had little effect, since the German princes within the empire set up their own systems.<ref name=Febvre/> In France it was French officials who decided what books were banned<ref name=Febvre>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9opxcMjv4TUC&pg=PA245 Lucien Febvre, Henri Jean Martin, ''The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800''] (Verso 1976 {{ISBN|978-1-85984108-2}}), pp. 245–246</ref> and the Church's ''Index'' was not recognized.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=W7ZKc_okFDkC&pg=PA11 John Michael Lewis, ''Galileo in France''] (Peter Lang, 2006 {{ISBN|978-0-82045768-0}}), p. 11</ref> Spain had its own {{lang|la|Index Librorum Prohibitorum et Expurgatorum}}, which corresponded largely to the Church's,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jJnyxg3xxTEC&pg=PA48 C. B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Kessler, ''Renaissance Philosophy''] (Cambridge University Press, 1988 {{ISBN|978-0-52139748-3}}), p. 48</ref> but also included a list of books that were allowed once the forbidden part (sometimes a single sentence) was removed or "expurgated".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HKcrSTBD0W8C|title=Index librorum prohibitorum et expurgatorum|date=17 October 1612|publisher=apud Ludouicum Sanchez|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===Continued moral obligation===
On 14 June 1966, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded to inquiries it had received regarding the continued moral obligation concerning books that had been listed in the Index. The response spoke of the books as examples of books dangerous to faith and morals, all of which, not just those once included in the Index, should be avoided regardless of the absence of any written law against them. The Index, it said, retains its moral force "inasmuch as" ({{lang|la|quatenus}}) it teaches the conscience of Christians to beware, as required by the natural law itself, of writings that can endanger faith and morals, but it (the Index of Forbidden Books) no longer has the force of ecclesiastical law with the associated censures.<ref>"Haec S. Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei, facto verbo cum Beatissimo Patre, nuntiat Indicem suum vigorem moralem servare, quatenus Christifidelium conscientiam docet, ut ab illis scriptis, ipso iure naturali exigente, caveant, quae fidem ac bonos mores in discrimen adducere possint; eundem tamen non-amplius vim legis ecclesiasticae habere cum adiectis censuris" (''Acta Apostolicae Sedis'' 58 (1966), p. 445).  Cf. [http://cctld.it/storia/informazione/index/notificatio_14_6_66.pdf Italian text published, together with the Latin, on ''L'Osservatore Romano'' of 15 June 1966])</ref>

The congregation thus placed on the conscience of the individual Christian the responsibility to avoid all writings dangerous to faith and morals, while at the same time abolishing the previously existing ecclesiastical law and the relative censures,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35670|title=Dictionary: POST LITTERAS APOSTOLICAS|website=www.catholicculture.org}}</ref> without thereby declaring that the books that had once been listed in the various editions of the Index of Prohibited Books had become free of error and danger.

In a letter of 31 January 1985 to Cardinal [[Giuseppe Siri]], regarding the book ''[[The Poem of the Man-God]]'', Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (then Prefect of the Congregation, who later became [[Pope Benedict XVI]]), referred to the 1966 notification of the Congregation as follows: "After the dissolution of the Index, when some people thought the printing and distribution of the work was permitted, people were reminded again in {{lang|it|[[L'Osservatore Romano]]}} (15 June 1966) that, as was published in the {{lang|la|[[Acta Apostolicae Sedis]]}} (1966), the Index retains its moral force despite its dissolution. A decision against distributing and recommending a work, which has not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralize the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/poem_of_the_man.htm |title=Poem of the Man-God |website=EWTN |access-date=April 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303213410/http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/poem_of_the_man.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

===Changing judgments===
The content of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum saw deletions as well as additions over the centuries. Writings by [[Antonio Rosmini-Serbati]] were placed on the Index in 1849 but were removed by 1855, and [[Pope John Paul II]] mentioned Rosmini's work as a significant example of "a process of philosophical enquiry which was enriched by engaging the data of faith".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio_en.html Encyclical ''Fides et raptio''], 74</ref> The 1758 edition of the Index removed the general prohibition of works advocating [[heliocentrism]] as a fact rather than a hypothesis.<ref>McMullin, Ernan, ed. The Church and Galileo. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 2005. {{ISBN|0-268-03483-4}}. pp. 307, 347</ref>

Some of the scientific theories contained in works in early editions of the ''Index'' have long been taught at [[Catholic Universities|Catholic universities]]. For example, the general prohibition of books advocating heliocentrism was removed from the ''Index'' in 1758, but two [[Franciscan]] mathematicians had published an edition of [[Isaac Newton]]'s {{lang|la|[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia Mathematica]]}} (1687) in 1742, with commentaries and a preface stating that the work assumed heliocentrism and could not be explained without it.<ref>John L.Heilbron, ''Censorship of Astronomy in Italy after Galileo'' (in McMullin, Ernan ed., ''The Church and Galileo'', University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 2005, p. 307, IN. {{ISBN|0-268-03483-4}})</ref>