CATHOLIC CHURCH.

An extremely rare and very nice copy of this set of decrees of the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, the fundamental event in the Catholic Church’s fight against the Protestant Reformation, issued with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the catalogue of books banned by the Church, greatly expanded by Clement VIII in 1596. It was first published in this format by Rouillius in 1604. Divided according to the sessions in which they were decided, the decrees of the council include rulings on the doctrines of marriage, purgatory, the veneration of saints and holy images, indulgences, the Eucharistic rite and transubstantiation, confession and penitence, etc., with a particularly virulent attack on the reformed doctrine of justification through faith alone. Also included is the decree establishing an index of prohibited books.

The second part is the expanded index itself, the ‘classic example of censorship’ (PMM, p. 49), which runs to thousands of authors. Included are the additional decrees issued by Popes Pius IV and Clement VIII, and the ten rules of the Index. These set out the ‘arch-heretics’ of the Reformation, including Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc., the prohibitions against Hebrew books, magical books, etc. However, a later observation on the prohibition of Hebrew books notes that printing of the Talmud and Hebrew scriptural books that are not inimical to Christian religion are allowed. There is also a specific observation on the books of Jean Bodin, noting that only specific editions of certain works have been banned. There follow instructions on the enforcement of the rules, with sections on the correction and printing of banned books, requiring booksellers and printers to take oaths before bishops and inquisitors. These finish with a specific example of how banned authors, when edited, may be saved from the list: Conrad Gessner, formerly banned, now expurgated and permissible.

Other texts and authors include works by Erasmus, George Buchanan, Henry VIII – though noting that his work against Luther is allowed – Savonarola, Marsilio Ficino, Leonard Fuchs the botanist, Paracelsus, works with prefaces or additions by Luther and Melanchthon, etc., the English Lollards Sir John Oldcastle and John Purvey, English protestants including John Rogers and John Jewell, Lorenzo Valla’s exposure of the forged Donation of Constantine, all the works of Pietro Aretino, any edition of Polydore Vergil bar one, and several works printed by the Estienne family.

Achille Nicolas Baillot de Courtelon was recorded in 1742 in Parisian notarial records as an employee of the Fermes du Roi, the institution in charge of imposing taxes and controlling customs during the Ancien Régime. It is possible, therefore, that he carried this copy of the Index – admittedly outdated but still enforceable – to identify imports of banned books into France.