Adam Tewahade
2/09/07
Any reader of Don Quixote knows that the power of words can go deep into the readers being. The sway that language has on Don Quixote is the way he figments his “knighthood.” All the grand tales of chivalry are imprinted into Don Quixote by his grand collection of books. This great conjurer of emotions known as the written word was not ignored by the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Just as the priest and barber burnt the source [the books] of all Quixote’s wild escapades (Cervantes 64), the leadership of the Catholic Church made sure that any word being written and published was contained as to not spark any possibility of dissent. The tool that instilled fear in writers, and readers alike, became known as the “Index liboroum prohibitorum”, translated as the List of Prohibited Books.
The events of 1517 that began what is called today “The Protestant Reformation” came out of a written work by Martin Luther titled the 95-Theses (Heneghan). In this work a list of grievances was directed towards the Church and their “lost ways.” As to prevent the heresy that became increasingly more popular, the Catholic Church came to the conclusion that a limitation was needed on expression. Since the inception of the printing press in 1453 (Shelley 275), the speed that information transferable became the great threat to Catholic rule. The response in 1559 was the creation of the Index by Pope Paul IV (Grendler). The edict called for a council of critics to create and periodically update a list of banned books that were disagreeable to the Catholic Church’s belief system (Grendler). The Holy Office of Rome spoke, and the protectorates of Spanish Catholicism answered (Mathes). By enforcing the censorship ordered by the Holy See, authors ranging from Erasmus, to Luther, and Calvin, were blocked from the hands of those living in Catholic states. Those authors that impinged on Catholic rule opened themselves up to prosecution, which sometimes ended in a practice that will later be discussed- excommunication.
Works Cited
1) Mathes, Michael W. Humanism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Libraries. Catholic Historical Review 82 (1996):
2) Heneghen. Secrets behind the Forbidden Books. America 192 (2005):22-27
3) Grendler, paul. Index of Prohibited Boks. The Oxford Encyclopedia of t he Reformation. Ed. Hans Hillerbrand. Oxford University Press, 1996.
4) Shelley, Bruce. Church History in Plain Language. New York: Word Publishing, 1995.
2/09/07
Any reader of Don Quixote knows that the power of words can go deep into the readers being. The sway that language has on Don Quixote is the way he figments his “knighthood.” All the grand tales of chivalry are imprinted into Don Quixote by his grand collection of books. This great conjurer of emotions known as the written word was not ignored by the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Just as the priest and barber burnt the source [the books] of all Quixote’s wild escapades (Cervantes 64), the leadership of the Catholic Church made sure that any word being written and published was contained as to not spark any possibility of dissent. The tool that instilled fear in writers, and readers alike, became known as the “Index liboroum prohibitorum”, translated as the List of Prohibited Books.
The events of 1517 that began what is called today “The Protestant Reformation” came out of a written work by Martin Luther titled the 95-Theses (Heneghan). In this work a list of grievances was directed towards the Church and their “lost ways.” As to prevent the heresy that became increasingly more popular, the Catholic Church came to the conclusion that a limitation was needed on expression. Since the inception of the printing press in 1453 (Shelley 275), the speed that information transferable became the great threat to Catholic rule. The response in 1559 was the creation of the Index by Pope Paul IV (Grendler). The edict called for a council of critics to create and periodically update a list of banned books that were disagreeable to the Catholic Church’s belief system (Grendler). The Holy Office of Rome spoke, and the protectorates of Spanish Catholicism answered (Mathes). By enforcing the censorship ordered by the Holy See, authors ranging from Erasmus, to Luther, and Calvin, were blocked from the hands of those living in Catholic states. Those authors that impinged on Catholic rule opened themselves up to prosecution, which sometimes ended in a practice that will later be discussed- excommunication.
Works Cited
1) Mathes, Michael W. Humanism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Libraries. Catholic Historical Review 82 (1996):
2) Heneghen. Secrets behind the Forbidden Books. America 192 (2005):22-27
3) Grendler, paul. Index of Prohibited Boks. The Oxford Encyclopedia of t he Reformation. Ed. Hans Hillerbrand. Oxford University Press, 1996.
4) Shelley, Bruce. Church History in Plain Language. New York: Word Publishing, 1995.