The Index Of Forbidden Books

by Unknown

The question of the obligatory force of the Index has been peculiarly trying to conscientious priests, as it raises practical doubts and scruples, not only in the confessional, but also with regard to the direction of schools, societies, and literary circles, which require guidance in the choice of their reading and in their patronage of popular libraries. As a rule it is difficult to get a copy of the Index, for it is printed officially only by the S. Congregation, and not found in the ordinary book markets. That is probably an advantage, inasmuch as it prevents restless hunters for scruples (in themselves or in others) from making trouble where there need be none. But then, even when one has a copy of the official Index, and knows what books are proscribed, the further and more acute question arises: What is one to do in the matter of expurgating his library; or what to suggest in answer to a friend's queries, if he has a library; or, how far to admonish the enterprising Catholic booksellers whom one happens to know and who may claim to be honest enough; or what to do with the Christmas presents that come in the shape of forbidden books from well-meaning department-store patrons who show their benevolence by sending brightly-bound volumes sold at a bargain during the season — a beautiful fit for the new bookcase, but too heterodox to square with one's sense of duty to and reverence for what is contained in the Preface to the Index?

It will be helpful to the general reader if we make a recent book on this subject by Dr. Hurley the text of our further remarks, for he answers a good many of the above doubts, and does so in a way that is likely to bring peace of mind to the over-anxious inquirer, without forcing him into the position of seeming to be inconsistent. His interpretation of the Rules of the Index follows the principle that, where any rule admits of a twofold meaning, the more lenient one is always to be accepted as being more in accordance with the wish of the legislator.

The Universal Binding Force Of The Index

There can be no doubt about the fact that the Index has universal binding force in the sense that it does not admit of any territorial distinction or exception. The books censured by the Index Congregation are injurious to sound Christian faith and good morals. That stamps them as forbidden everywhere although there may be distinctions in regard to the degree of harm they do in different circumstances. Arsenic is poison all the world over, and destroys animal life, albeit there are people who can take it, under abnormal conditions, without its appearing to hurt them. Yet despite the practice of Tyrolese mountaineers and vain women, doctors will not let one be fed with the drug; and unless one has eczema or lepra or some such acute ailment, they will forbid its use, and the Department of the Public Health will not allow it to be sold unauthorized, and will make physicians responsible for its being given to minors. In other words, the Church acts with the same consistency with which the government puts poisons and noxious ingredients generally on the index of forbidden foods. For it is the office of the Church to protect her subjects against the influences that injure the soul.

But while the prescriptions of the Index are universal in their application, they are disciplinary and not doctrinal in their nature. That is to say, they are to be applied with a certain discretion (which cannot be extended to matters of doctrine), so as not to do injury where they are meant to do good. Men are not intended to be governed by printed forms of law, though they may be taught by such. They are directed in practice by the intelligence that makes use of the law to maintain good conduct. As in civil government we have not only constitutions and laws to regulate public life, but also judges and executive officers with whom it lies to adapt the law to proper use according to time, place, persons, and circumstances; so in the Church. The bishop in his diocese, the pastor in his parish, the guide of conscience in the tribunal of penance, each is supposed to observe and follow the written law, but with such discretion and prudence as will conserve the vital powers of moral and spiritual life in the community, no less than in the individual.

This point of view suggests to the thoughtful superior often a degree of tolerance or silence, where the imprudent zeal of a junior would bawl forth the letter of a written law, and violate the fundamental precept of conservative charity, the first characteristics of which are, according to St. Paul, that it is benignant, patient. There are a thousand books forbidden by the rules of the Index for every one that is nominally mentioned in its specific list; and it is the spirit of the Index to protest against every bad book, whether named or not, that can harm the minds and hearts of the faithful.

On the whole it may be said that the list of books forbidden by the S. Congregation of the Index offers merely landmarks and indications and warnings when it censures particular volumes that are brought to or call for its special notice. Herein the Church acts like a parent who punishes the child when its fault is notable and known, and who seeks thereby to prevent any similar future wrong act, whether it become known or not. Hence the Index list is not to be used as a sort of whip to lash a reading public into close quarters, lest it expose itself to the cold blasts that are sure to benumb its intellectual and moral life, but rather as a thermometer which we consult, in order to counsel the use of proper garments to meet the chilling influence, and yet to remain unhurt by it. In a nation of illiterates the Index is directly meant to guide the class of exceptional students; in a land where everybody reads and where the noxious and forbidden literature meets one at every turn in daily life, we must do what we can to avoid and counteract its influence on us and our people, especially when it is not within our power or right to banish or destroy the proscribed books. Probably the easiest and the most practical way to carry out the understood intention of the Holy See, inasmuch as it avails itself of the services of the Index, would be to preach sound Catholic doctrine on the duties we owe to keep our minds rightly informed and our hearts free from the contamination of bad literature in general; to see that we have good teachers for our children, by being interested in our schools, and well-prepared to catechize the young; finally, to provide good literature, which our people, especially the growing generation, could peruse without being allowed to forget that there are natural virtues which are no less necessary than confession and which one often learns from books that are not professedly Catholic or religious.

Study Of The Index

Keeping in mind the fact that the Index, although penal in some of its phases, has for its main purpose to supply us with a barometer, as it were, of Catholic orthodoxy, and hence is not to be perpetually invoked as printed evidence that people are excommunicated, priests will find the study of its contents of great value as an educational medium for themselves. Dr. Hurley, who serves as a good guide, writes not hastily; on the contrary, if anything, he is occasionally overcautious lest he offend against preconceived notions about the force of the Index rules. He has also taken account of the literature of the subject published in recent years, though he chiefly adheres to Pennacchi, wherever the interpretation of P. Esser, O.P., writer of the Introduction to and editor of the Index of 1897, is not itself sufficiently decisive. Of Mr. George Haven Putnam's two volumes, the only other work on the subject written in English, Dr. Hurley could hardly have made any use, since, though not controversial, Mr. Putnam's judgments of the motives of Catholic legislation are lather adverse to the Church, as we pointed out in our review of the book some time ago. Two important books of recent date our author might have consulted to advantage. They are the Jesuit Father P. Hilger's, and the Abbe Lucien Choupin's volumes, to which we refer in another article of this number. The two authors would have furnished Dr. Hurley with additional data and illustrations, although their opinions could not have had any appreciable influence on his method of exposition, or altered the temperate expression of his views.

Dr. Hurley's Commentary is prefaced by a sympathetic foreword from his Ordinary, Bishop Clancy of Elphin, who points out the advantages of such a work for English-speaking priests. The order of topics in the volume is suggested by the text of the Legislation itself. We have first the Bull Officiorum ac Munerum of Leo XIII, then the Decreta Generalia de Prohibitione et Censura Librorum; finally, the Constitution of Benedict XIV (1753) which the new Index legislation has in a measure incorporated in its code. In a succinct historical introduction, the author makes us familiar with the gradual development of the Index from the early days of organized Church administration down to the time of the Council of Trent. Dr. Hurley traces the origin of the Congregation of the Index, as a distinct branch of disciplinary administration, to the growing facilities for diffusing literature among the masses who could not discriminate between wholesome and unwholesome reading. We learn the methods of organization and the manner of procedure of the S. Congregation before it places a work on the Index, and we are told what has brought about the recent changes in that method. It is both interesting and instructive to find with what care the S. Congregation takes up the examination of works which are suspected of errors, especially when there is question of the author's personal orthodoxy.² In conclusion, the author states the general canons upon which his interpretation is based, and then takes up in regular order each rule of the Index, and explains it.

The Books Condemned

In forming a judgment upon the merits of the Index institution Catholics have no difficulty. They readily recognize the justice and wisdom of the Church's action in condemning the writings of apostates, heretics, and schismatics. In the same category may be classed certain books by non-Catholics which, treating ex professo of religious subjects, may not be distinctly hostile to the Church of Christ, nevertheless contain false views of God's teaching, either in regard to faith (revelation) or the moral law. Such books are calculated to corrupt minds that are too immature to form an independent judgment; and, whatever may have been the intention of their writers, the Church, as the guardian of her children, is bound to warn these against such contamination.

Popular Religious Books By Non-Catholics

There is, however, a large and growing number of books which treat of religious subjects and which are written by non-Catholics who admire the stoic moral philosophy of men like Plato or Mark Aurelius, because their doctrine makes for the cultivation of the natural virtues of truthfulness, kindness, purity, thrift, and justice. Is a Catholic guilty of violating the rules of the Index, if he reads such books? Our author would answer in the negative, because, although these books may do a certain amount of harm, they are not comprised under the terms of the law, which refers to books treating ex professo of religion. Works that come under this express censure would have to be of a more or less distinctly doctrinal character. They are of this character, without doubt, when their writer states clearly his tenets, confirms them by reasons and arguments, and endeavors to answer or explain away the contrary teaching. It is in the specious reasoning of an author who teaches false doctrine that the danger of corrupting the minds of those who are not prepared by sufficient knowledge to discern the error and answer it, lies for the young and uneducated. Accordingly works which deal with religious topics, although such works contain false views, but mentioned obiter, and without any show of making an argument in their favor, do not come under the censure, unless, indeed, they have been condemned separately by special decree, either because they contained some particularly dangerous doctrine, or because certain conditions of time, place, or personality happen to connect the book with some popular movement, which makes it a danger to the faithful.

Editions Of The Bible

An important feature of the Index legislation is that which concerns the reading of unauthorized editions and translations of Sacred Scripture. There is an instinctive feeling among Catholics against the use of the so-called Protestant Bible, even though we should admit that the modern editions issued by the Bible Societies do good to those who attend to the spiritual lessons contained therein, since the Christian reader who seeks edification and instruction need not advert to the scattered differences and omissions to which the catechist and the controversialist justly attach a doctrinal importance. But the Index rules forbid the indiscriminate use among Catholics of Protestant editions, even of what is called the original text, of the Bible. Persons devoted to the study of theology or of Sacred Scripture, either in colleges or privately, are exempted from this rule; but an interpretation of the S. Congregation (21 June, 1898) makes it clear that this exemption is not to be extended to diocesan seminaries. There only Catholic editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts should be used as the regular books in class.

The restriction, though it may at first sight seem strange, has a good reason behind it. Why should we in the seminaries, who make a continual professional study of the original tongues, not possess and use a text which is perfectly reliable, without having to resort to editions by non-Catholics, unless it be for the purpose of critical comparison? The rule actually tends to foster the publication of original texts under Catholic patronage.

The Index rules prohibit especially and expressly the use of translations of the Bible, which have not the ecclesiastical authorization, whether they are published by Catholics or by Protestants. An edition, even without notes, approved by the Holy See, may be read by all. Editions, which have the approval of the bishop, must be provided with annotations taken from the Christian Fathers and from other authorized interpreters. The purpose of this regulation is self-evident since defective translations of the Bible in the hands of the Catholic people might easily lead to misinterpretation of the inspired doctrine. But they are not forbidden to those who make a special study of the Sacred Scriptures, whether in class or privately. It may be noted, too, that the casual possession or reading of such Bibles as bear a Protestant imprint, or of any other book included in the general scope of the Index prohibition, cannot always be said to constitute a violation of the disciplinary law of the Church. The obligation imposed thereby is a moral obligation which may not be ignored, either in public acts of ecclesiastical jurisdiction covering the subject, or as a general principle in the direction of souls; but which must not be forced into absurd extremes of intolerance. The question might arise as to how far the last-mentioned rule applies to books that contain merely selections from the Bible, or paraphrases, Bible histories, and commentaries in which a large proportion of the translated text is reprinted. In the opinion of Dr. Hurley this class of works is not included in the restriction, since it does not come under the designation of editions, but rather under that of treatises on the Bible.

The Classics

In respect of the reading of the Classics which treat of delicate subjects, the reading of which tends to corrupt the mind and heart, yet which have a certain merit of elegance of diction and are recommended as models of rhetorical expression, the S. Congregation wishes them to be kept out of the hands of the young, who are to use, if any, only expurgated editions. Teachers of classics have, of course, in this connexion, such freedom as their office appears to demand. Some interpreters include under this prohibition certain Greek and Latin classics, which are commonly studied in colleges. Pennacchi maintains that the requirement of expurgated editions for collegians applies only to those classics, which treat ex professo of topics that are offensive to modesty and good morals. This distinction between ex professo teaching and that which is said merely obiter, that is, introduced by way of illustration, as in romances, novels, and poems, might be said to apply in general to the books forbidden by the Index under the head of immoral, irreligious, superstitious, and socialistic literature. When a book is not merely irreligious but anti-religious it partakes more or less of this ex professo character, and its indiscriminate reading is therefore prohibited to those who have no excuse for doing so, in the duty or wish to combat the evil. The same principle must guide those who are called upon to denounce to the proper authority noxious books, which they know to be injurious to faith and morals.

The Duty Of Reporting

The terms of the Index rules (XXVII) imply that every Catholic has a duty to make known the existence of literary poison sources, which destroy the intellectual and moral life of our brethren. There are, however, degrees in this obligation. On the whole, the obligation rests on the officials and guardians of the faith and of the purity of morals, with whom the Church lodges a special commission and duty of trust, to which they are bound to respond in justice. For the rest, on the part of the faithful it is a duty of charity the exercise of which requires discretion, lest by seeming to serve charity in a minor duty we violate the same virtue in other and more serious respects. The Index rules expressly state that it is the office of the Ordinaries, before all others, to watch over the production and uses of literature in their dioceses and therefore to proscribe in the first place, and to bring to the notice of the Holy See, in the second place, any book that is likely to infect the fold. But there may be others, delegates and censors specially appointed, on whom the duty of denouncing mischievous literature devolves. The beneficial influence of such guardianship must commend itself to any thinking person who has the welfare of souls at heart. It preserves the religion of Christ to the people, just as the prudent watchfulness of a Department of Public Health will preserve the sanitary conditions of the community.

An important phase of the guardianship, which the Church exercises over the souls of the faithful, through the administration of the Index Congregation, is the right and duty of local censorship. There are certain books, dealing with distinctive aspects of general Church administration and liturgical service, the censorship of which the Holy See reserves to itself. Such are the transactions and decisions of the S. Congregations in matters that are doctrinal, or disciplinary matters of universal application. There is also a special rule of censorship in favor of authors residing in Rome. For the rest, the bishops are deputed to select suitable persons to act as censors. This censorship in its different applications is a subject that demands separate treatment as involving definite duties and cautions on the part of the clergy, both as writers and as editors.

Notes

1 A Commentary on the Present Index Legislation. By the Rev. Timothy Hurley, D. D. With a Preface by the Most Rev. Dr. Clancy, Bishop of Elphin. Dublin, Belfast and Cork: Brown and Nolan. 1907. Pp. 252.

2 Dr. Hurley, referring to this point, uses the phrase "special care, however, is taken lest any injustice be done a Catholic author" (p. 39), which leaves the false impression that less care is used in condemning non-Catholic authors. What is meant is that, whilst great care is taken in every case, doubts about the orthodoxy of a writer, since they are specifically odious, are not readily admitted in the mind of the judges, but an erroneous expression implying a heterodox view is ordinarily construed as a slip, which may be corrected. "Donec corrigatur," accordingly suggests that, while the book is in error, the author is not condemned until he shows himself to be contumacious by insisting on his statements and refusing to correct them.

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