Cases 1 & 2: Books of Religion and Science
Books of Religion and Science
Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. (Acts xix.19)
At first glance, it might seem rather curious to juxtapose the banned works of religion and science, but the fact is that the great divide between these two disciplines did not actually occur until the late fifteenth century. Previous to that moment, asserting that theology was itself the “Queen of the Sciences” would have raised few scholarly eyebrows. It was only with the invention of the printing press that the Church began to lose control of human thought and learning, including the sciences. Now, new ideas would no longer be confined to the arid atmosphere of the scholastic lecture hall. They could be replicated and spread throughout a rapidly fracturing Christendom – and the press would aid in the actual shattering of that cultural and religious hegemony. In 1557, with the authority of Pope Paul IV, the Inquisition drew up the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. It was generally understood that “no layman may read or possess any of them without special permission granted only for single books and in urgent cases.” Thus it remained until 1966.
The Reformation and the Renaissance produced a long line of humanist thinkers who, by returning to the Hebrew and Greek sources, discovered new ways of understanding the world around them. Luther, Tyndale, Copernicus and Galileo began an individualistic revolution to which the twenty-first century is still heir. Of course, it was not just Catholics who perceived this threat to the established order by these intellectuals. Protestants too actively censored those writers who did not reflect the newly reformed doctrines of Christianity in their theology and science.
Fundamentally, censorship opposes those subjects that are most taboo for the citizens of a given time and place. While today’s taboos focus principally on sex, for the past five hundred years they have been associated with humans and their relationship with God and His creation. Luther and Galileo challenged that relationship, as would Kant, Darwin and Draper in their turn. Most recently Salman Rushdie has done the same in the Islamic world and for his “heresy” he has suffered a fate not unlike that of Tyndale and Galileo, or the Jesuit missionaries in the England of Elizabeth I. In the final analysis, the ideas and values any society forbids “reflect its deepest fears and commitments, and their defences and challenges define its cultural frame.” Ironically, when religious authorities declare what the populace should not read they generally leave a permanent legacy of what was truly important to our ancestors. In and of itself, however, the problem with religious censorship is its futility. The “verdict of time” tends to mock the judgments of censors and always furthers the popularity of the works. It is worthy of note that there was never an equivalent in the Protestant world to the Roman Index. In fact, Bodley’s first Librarian regularly used to scan the Roman Index carefully to know precisely which books and which editions should actually be bought for his library.
Martin Luther (1483-1546). Piæ ac doctæ in psalmos operationes. Basileæ: Adamus Petri, 1521.
This book is based on the second series of lectures that Luther delivered on the Psalter prior to the Diet of Worms. It was printed by Adam Petri in March, only weeks before Luther actually proceeded to that historic meeting at which his movement would be condemned by the Imperial Court. Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in 1520 and all of his writings were banned. They were included in the first Roman Index of 1558-59 and remained there until the 1930 edition though, as one commentator wrote in 1952, the ban remained in effect “for heretics of the sixteenth century, such as Luther and Calvin, for their errors are still influential”.
William Tyndale (d. 1536). The Newe Testament. Antwerp: M. Emperowr, 1534.
By 1524, England was the only major European country that did not have a printed vernacular edition of the Bible. Under Henry VIII only the Latin Vulgate translated by St Jerome (ca. 340-420) was permitted. In 1525-26 Tyndale, priest and humanist reformer, produced the first English New Testament at Cologne, of which only two complete copies are extant. This 1534 edition represents a careful revision of that earlier work. His translation from the original Greek was immediately condemned by the bishops of England who feared the unsettling power of Lutheranism. In 1535 Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp where he was working on a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. He was taken to Brussels, and in the following year was strangled and burned at the stake. The diminutive size of this Testament, however, meant that it could be easily hidden and passed from hand to hand, ensuring its survival. Some ninety per cent of the King James Version of the New Testament was taken directly from this text.
Judah ben Samuel (ca. 1150-1217). Sefer ha hasidim. Bolonya : Avraham ha-Kohen b. k. mo. ha-r. Mosheh ha Kohen, 5298 [1537 or 1538 C.E.].
This book of the ethical teachings of the Jewish Hasidei Ashkenaz movement is noteworthy for the clear expurgation marks that the censor has made throughout. In many places, such as on the page displayed, however, another hand has reintroduced the offending texts that refer to the cross, converts to Christianity, and the person of Jesus. Its censorship was not limited to church censors. Nineteenth century Russian officials made other bizarre changes so that the word for ‘priests’, for example, was replaced with a Jewish homonym meaning ‘clothes’ rendering the meaning of whole sections entirely senseless.
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Basileæ : Ex Officina Henricpetrina, 1566.
This book remained unchallenged by authorities for fifty years after its first publication. It was not until 1616, when the extrapolations of both Kepler and Galileo became popular, that the work found its way onto the Roman Index. Its fundamental “error” was in teaching heliocentrism (which would be condemned by the Church in 1633) as a certainty and not just as a theory. Throughout the eighteenth century Catholic scholars cautiously began to reintroduce the Copernican position, but it was not until 1834 that the title was finally dropped from the Index.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). Epitome astronomiæ Copernicanæ. Lentijs ad Danubium : Excudebat J. Plancus, 1618-22.
Like Copernicus and Galileo, Kepler was convinced of the truth of the heliocentric theory – a conviction that would see him too run afoul of the Roman censors. Unlike Galileo, however, the Lutheran Kepler would never be personally subjected to their punishments. By the end of the sixteenth century he had succeeded in persuading the faculty at the University of Tübingen that the Copernican theory was accurate. South of the Alps it was another matter. His work was first included on the Roman Index of 1664 and remained there until 1834. In spite of the hardships caused by the opposition mounted by some Lutheran and Roman clergy, Kepler remained optimistic that the theory of heliocentrism would eventually be commonly accepted by the masses.
The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. London : Robert Barker, 1631.
Known as “The Wicked Bible”, this 1631 printing by Robert Barker, became notorious for its omission of the word “not” from Exodus 22:14, so that the passage reads “Thou shalt commit adultery”. Not surprisingly, the whole impression was recalled, and Barker was fined £300 for his offence. It seems likely that the error was intentionally caused by a partisan of one of Barker’s professional enemies, the printer Bonham Norton. Some one thousand copies were printed before the order for their destruction was issued – an order that was vigorously enforced, making this particular copy of the Bible among the rarest in the world.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico e copernicano. Florence : B. Landini, 1632.
In this volume Galileo confirmed the thesis that the earth revolved around the sun. His research led to further speculation about the elliptical orbit of the planets and to the theory of the finite nature of the universe. The year following its publication Galileo was imprisoned in Rome on a charge of heresy and the Dialogo was formally condemned in 1634. Galileo was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life until his death in 1642. His name remained on the Index until 1835, though he was not officially rehabilitated by the Church until 1992.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882). On the Origin of Species. London : J. Murray, 1859.
Darwin’s opinions on the “descent with modifications” of a wide variety of organisms challenged the prevailing belief in an orderly creation by God in six days, and seemed to imply that God’s work was imperfect and subject to change. While this book was banned at Trinity College (Cambridge) its greatest opponents have long been found among American fundamentalists. By the end of the 1920s, the text had been proscribed in four states while more than twenty others considered the same action. The “Scopes Trial” of 1925 is perhaps the most famous incident involving challenges to Darwin’s theory, though as late as the 1990s it still had to be taught along side biblical creationism in Arkansas, Louisiana and Kansas.