Schmitt C.B. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy
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Printing and censorship
47
anything tainted, however slightly, by heresy, and the lingering but
weakened
humanistic
belief
that
man could find
truth
amidst error. The
prohibitions and rules were generally sweeping and harsh, but a few offered
concessions;
books containing some error but whose
'chief
matter'
was
'good'
might be held in expurgated form. Texts accompanied by
concordances,
indexes and other scholarly apparatus prepared by heretics
might be held after expurgation. These moderations signified a grudging
awareness
that
Catholics and Protestants inhabited a common scholarly
world
based on Christian and pagan antiquity. Expurgation was the
compromise decreed by the Tridentine Index for those who wished to read
non-religious books written by Protestants. Numerous surviving copies of
sixteenth-century volumes with passages inked out by hand, or pages cut
out, or glued together, document the practice
of
expurgation. By the end of
the sixteenth century, printed expurgated texts were also common.
The
Index condemned heretical religious works and attacks on the
papacy.
It banned or ordered expurgated only a few philosophical works
judged
to be heretical, atheistic, materialistic, or objectionable in some
other way. (It is not always easy to determine the precise reasoning behind a
condemnation, although the general cause is usually clear.) The Tridentine
Index banned
three
titles of Lorenzo
Valla:
De libero arbitrio, De voluptate
and
De
falsa credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio. The last was
not a philosophical text but a historical, philological and legal attack on the
origins of papal temporal power. The Clementine Index (a revision
promulgated by Pope Clement
VIII
in 1596) ordered
three
works of the
natural philosopher Bernardino Telesio to be expurgated: his major work
De
rerum
natura
iuxta propria principia, and two minor ones,
Quod
animal
universum
ab unica animae substantia gubernatur and De somno. The Roman
Congregation
of the Index ordered Francesco Patrizi da Cherso to make
changes in his Nova de universis philosophia
(1591),
another work
of
natural
philosophy favouring Plato and attacking Aristotle. It later banned the
works
of Giordano Bruno. Part of the papal hostility towards innovative
natural philosophy in the last decade
of
the sixteenth century came from the
general climate of tension, as Catholic and Protestant powers moved
toward the Thirty
Years
War (begun
1618).
The papacy and some academic
circles
tended to see attacks on Aristotelian metaphysics and physics as
challenges
to Catholic doctrine.
The
Indexes also enunciated general rules
that
forbade a few works of
philosophical
interest, although not in traditional philosophical
fields.
The
Tridentine Index banned in general terms works
of
magic
and other occult
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4
8
The
conditions of enquiry
arts
- a prohibition widely ignored. The Clementine Index refined this
prohibition: it banned books or passages arguing
that
fate or fortune
determined man's actions and limited free
will.
Presumably this is why
Pomponazzi's
De
naturalium
effectuum
admirandorum
causis seu de incantatio-
nibus was banned at
that
time. The Clementine Index also ordered the
expurgation of
three
titles
of
Jean
Bodin: Daemonomania, De republica, and
Methodus
ad
facilem historiarum cognitionem. The latter two were works of
politics
and history, and may have fallen victim to another general rule, the
one prohibiting arguments in favour of raison
d'etat
and tyranny.
The
Tridentine Index with its prohibitions and rules for enforcement
provided the approach and structure for Catholic censorship. Governments
implemented prepublication censorship and regulation
of
the book
trade
on
the local
level
usually by means of an enforcement body of
civil
and
ecclesiastical
representatives supported by the police power
of
the state. The
French and Spanish monarchies asserted their traditional claims of
jurisdictional autonomy from Rome by assuming power over censorship
without reference to papal authority. Spain, for example, issued its own
Index librorum prohibitorum. But it was modelled on the Tridentine Index,
and the prohibitions were much the same. Other papal indexes
followed
through the next
three
and a half centuries, while individual decrees
banning new titles appeared between
official
revisions. The Index was
formally
abolished in 1966.
Protestant censorship also became sterner after mid-century; it
followed
the same
pattern
as Catholic censorship with a few differences in emphasis
and organisation. First, because most Protestant religious leaders invested
the state with substantial authority over the church, the state naturally
assumed the leading role in censorship. The Peace of Augsburg of 1555,
which
had the
effect
of
creating a series
of
state Protestant churches presided
over
by prince or city council, heightened
civil
pre-eminence. Second, the
religious
divisions within Protestant ranks meant
that
other Protestant titles
as
well
as Catholic works were often prohibited. A Lutheran state might not
permit the publication of
Calvinist
books within its borders and
vice
versa;
both Lutheran and Calvinist states prohibited the books
of
Anabaptists and
Catholics.
Finally, because of the fragmentation of Protestant Europe, its
censorship failed to achieve the comprehensiveness of Catholic censorship:
Protestant states did not issue indexes and could not censor beyond local
political
boundaries. Perhaps Protestants censored the press less
effectively
than
did Catholics. This is only a surmise, because Protestant censorship has
been little studied.
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Printing and censorship
49
A
few examples
will
illustrate the
nature
of Protestant censorship. In
1543,
the
City
Council of Nuremberg ordered the expurgation of a
Catholic
philosophical work where it differed from Lutheran doctrine.
Even
tolerant Basle passed censorship decrees in the 1540s and
1550s,
and
occasionally
took punitive action. In
15
59 it exhumed and
burnt
the body of
the Anabaptist
David
Joris
along with his books. After the chartering
of
the
Stationers' Company (the printers' guild) in
1557,
the English crown had an
effective
tool with which to regulate the press. The Stationers' Company
not only licensed publications, but searched out and destroyed works of
sedition, whose definition included religious dissent. Under Elizabeth I, the
crown
suppressed Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Puritan publications. In
the
15
80s, the Estates General
of
the Netherlands forbade the publication of
'papist superstition'; it confiscated and
burnt
Socinian
15
books in 1598.
Protestant states did not promulgate indexes of prohibited books but did
issue decrees banning categories
of
books.
For example, the Lutheran Duke
Friedrich I (Beutelsbach) of Württemberg in 1601 banned the books of
Calvinists,
papists, Anabaptists and Schwenkfeldians.
16
Calvinist
Geneva probably controlled its press more tightly
than
any
other Protestant state. Or perhaps it only appears
that
way because the
Genevan
records have been studied more intensively. From 1550 on, the
Council
(the
civil
government) with the support of the Venerable
Company
of Pastors (the supreme authority of the Genevan Church)
oversaw
the press. The Pastors and faculty members of the Genevan
Academy
read manuscripts before they might be
printed.
Periodic visits to
the printing houses ensured compliance with regulations. The authorities
primarily sought to prevent the publication and diffusion of Catholic and
Anabaptist religious works. But the definition of'papist' included works of
canon law and the books
of
Thomas Aquinas, which could not be
printed
in
Geneva.
Nor were many Latin and Greek patristic
authors
published in the
second half of the sixteenth century. The Genevan authorities exercised
moral censorship which meant prohibiting the printing, and/or demanding
the destruction of existing copies, of the works of Rabelais, chivalric
romances, the Facetiae (humorous and lascivious tales)
of
Poggio
Bracciolini
and even the comedies of Terence and love poetry of
Ovid
at one time or
another.
Finally, the Genevan pastors tried to censor Calvinist intellectuals
outside Geneva.
15.
They were followers of Fausto Sozzini or Socinus (i 539-1604), who denied the divinity of Christ.
16.
Followers
of
Caspar Schwenkfeld
(1490-1561),
a
Protestant
mystic who first accepted,
then
rejected
Luther.
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50
The
conditions of enquiry
As
a result
of
censorship and the division
of
Europe along religious lines,
the press also fractured. Presses in Catholic areas such as Italy and Spain and
such German cities as Cologne and Ingolstadt did not publish the works of
Protestant writers even when the subject-matter was not religious. Presses
located
in Lutheran cities like
Leipzig,
Nuremberg and Wittenberg did not
publish the works of Catholics or Calvinists. And few
printers
anywhere
published the books of Anabaptist authors. The warring parties extended
the religious divisions back into the past as
well.
Presses in strongly Lutheran
or Calvinist cities did not often
print
authors
and books identified with the
Catholic
tradition
that
they had rejected, notably some patristic authors,
medieval
scholastics, and fifteenth-century Italian humanists.
But
some presses transcended religious boundaries. The Plantin press of
Antwerp,
a Catholic city, published numerous scholarly titles
of
Protestant
authors
and the occasional Protestant religious work. The Basle press was
the most open in the Protestant world, thanks to a cosmopolitan tradition
and distinguished printers. Long after the religious differences had split
Europe, Basle presses published the opera omnia of such major fifteenth-
century Italian humanists as Giovanni and Gianfrancesco Pico (printed in
1557
and again in
1572—3
and
1601),
Giovanni Pontano (1566) and Lorenzo
Valla
(1540), as
well
as a limited number of the works
of
sixteenth-century
Italian Catholic scholars. Basle also published in 1554 the condemnation of
Servetus'
execution and plea for religious tolerance written by the Savoyard
Protestant biblical scholar Sebastien Chateillon (Castellio). It was a
milestone in the history of toleration. Frankfurt and Strasburg presses
printed
a few scholarly works written by contemporary Catholic scholars.
For example, some of the medical works of Girolamo Mercuriale (1530—
1606),
who held the chair of medicine at the University of Padua, were
printed
in Frankfurt, and the historical works
of
Carlo
Sigonio (c. 1520—84),
who
taught at
Bologna,
were
printed
in Strasburg. Moreover, the works on
natural
philosophy and logic by Italian Catholic scholars such as Andrea
Cesalpino
and Jacopo Zabarella enjoyed a substantial
fortuna
in the editions
printed
in Protestant Germany.
Frankfurt in particular continued to be an open printing and distribution
centre. Andreas Wechel, a French Calvinist refugee of humanistic tastes,
and his successors presided over the major Frankfurt press which published
learned works by
authors
of varying religious backgrounds including
Giordano Bruno.
Above
all, Frankfurt continued to host the major
bookfair
where printers,
authors
and individual buyers from all over
Europe gathered every six months. An imperial book commission
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Printing and censorship
5i
attempted to bar the entry of Protestant books to the fair, but with
indifferent results. Only in the seventeenth century, through a combination
of
political, religious and economic pressures, did the fair decline.
'libertas philosophandi
The
political and religious divisions seldom touched philosophy directly
but had significant indirect
effect
on learning. Professors and university
students
were expected to conform outwardly to the local religion. Pope
Pius IV in 1564 issued a
Bull
requiring all university teachers and
students
in
Catholic
lands to profess Catholicism as a condition for teaching and
receiving
degrees. The
Bull
was not always enforced; Protestant
students
from
England, Germany and elsewhere continued to study at Italian
universities and found
ways
to circumvent the
Bull.
But professors had to
conform.
Universities in Protestant Europe might also demand
that
a scholar
adhere to a credal statement; as a result they barred Catholics and scholars
from
other Protestant communions. Overall, the free movement of
professors and
students
characteristic of earlier education was circum-
scribed.
Intellectuals might hold any heterodox conclusions they wished pri-
vately,
but could not articulate them in lecture hall or in
print
without risk
of
dismissal or worse. When philosophical
views
contradicted religious
orthodoxy, the consequences for the speaker could be tragic. Geneva
burnt
Michael
Servetus at the stake in 1553 for his anti-Trinitarian
views,
and
Rome
burnt
Giordano Bruno in 1600 as an
unrepentant
materialist and
heretic. But such notorious examples of repression were not the norm. A
great deal
of
freedom
of
enquiry existed so long as speculation did not touch
essential religious doctrine, or the scholar did not publish his
views.
Religious
differences affected the reception of ideas as
well.
Before the
Reformation, new scholarship sooner or later spread across Europe winning
adherents
if others found it convincing and useful. Now the scholar's
religious
commitment became a factor, although not the only one, in
determining the acceptance
of
his learning. Petrus Ramus was a somewhat
unorthodox French Huguenot (i.e., Calvinist) with a combative person-
ality.
His religious
views,
especially after his
murder
in the St
Bartholomew's
Day Massacre of
1572,
probably helped spread his
logic
and
rhetoric in some lands and check it elsewhere. But the
pattern
was not
uniform. His works had great influence in Germany and the Protestant
Netherlands, especially in circles touched by Calvinism. His method
prevailed
in Puritan England, Scotland and New England, and attracted
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52
The conditions of enquiry
some other English followers. As might be expected, Ramus had less
influence in France after 1572, and hardly any in such Catholic countries as
Italy and Spain. But Calvinist Geneva also ignored Ramism, because
Calvin
and Theodore
Beza
had detested him.
To
cite
another
example, Catholic scholars edited a significant number of
Christian patristic
authors
and medieval theologians in the second half of
the sixteenth century. Rome encouraged them, no doubt hoping
that
their
scholarship would provide support for Catholic doctrines. And, indeed, the
Thomist revival became an essential
part
of
Spanish philosophy at this time.
But
the religious factor should not be over-emphasised: Protestant intellec-
tuals also participated in patristic and medieval studies by the end of the
sixteenth century. And other learning, such as Aristotelian studies,
transcended confessional lines.
Despite religious and political differences, men of learning maintained
scholarly
contact. The notion
that
an iron curtain of religious differences
separated them is simply not
true.
Communication was not always easy and
might require discretion, but it went on. The Catholic Mercuriale and the
Protestant Theodore Zwinger corresponded and exchanged books in the
1570s
and 1580s.
17
Pinelli, a Catholic bibliophile and amateur scholar of
wide
interests, maintained an extensive and friendly scholarly correspon-
dence with several Protestants.
18
They included Charles De L'Ecluse
(Clusius,
1526—1609),
a distinguished botanist whose most
important
works
were published by the Plantin Press, Andreas Dudith (Duditius, 1533—89), a
Hungarian astronomer and mathematician who also wrote anti-papal
tracts, and
Justus
Lipsius, who even visited Pinelli in Padua.
In similar fashion, traffic in prohibited books between Catholic and
Protestant lands flourished despite elaborate censorship machinery de-
signed to prevent it.
Book
smuggling was so widespread
that
it might more
accurately be termed 'the clandestine
trade',
i.e. a kind of adjunct to the
lawful
commerce. Members
of
the book
trade
bought prohibited books in
Frankfurt and
then
shipped them, along with innocent volumes, through
the normal channels. The carrier, the man who accompanied shipments of
books
over long distances, hid a few contraband volumes among
hundreds
of
permissible books. Then he found ways to circumvent the inspection of
his merchandise when he reached his destination: a lackadaisical inspector, a
bribed
official
or a false title page eased their passage.
International
contacts
and local influence also helped. In 1574, Pinelli wrote a revealing letter to a
17.
Rotondò 1973, pp. 1449-50. 18. Rivolta 1933, pp.
xxii-xxiii,
xl,
xiv-xix.
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Printing and censorship
53
friend in Paris, asking him to obtain some books for him, and then to
arrange to ship them via Frankfurt into Italy through Venetian territory,
rather
than
by another route
—
'because here in
Venice
I have the father
inquisitor who is my friend. And he
will
give
me immediately everything
that
is not truly pernicious in its total substance, which might not happen
with
other inquisitors.'
19
Thanks to such friends, Pinelli acquired prohib-
ited books and made them available to scholars who needed them.
The
concept of freedom of enquiry did not exist in the Renaissance.
There was no historical precedent, and it was too much to expect from men
who
went through the bitter upheaval of Reformation and Counter-
Reformation. Certainly the religious and, to a lesser extent, the political
divisions
seriously impaired free expression. The philosopher was freer to
express heterodox
views
before the Reformation
than
after; a few
intellectuals suffered grievously from the religious split, and an indetermi-
nate
number were inhibited. Nevertheless, men found
ways
to circumvent
censorship. The philosophical heritage of an optimistic
view
of man's
potentiality favoured an open search for learning; it continued to
live
throughout the Renaissance era. Eventually, in the late seventeenth and the
eighteenth centuries, scholars developed a
full
principle of freedom of
enquiry.
19.
Pinelli
1574:'.
. . perche qui in
Vinegia
ho il padre inquisitore, ch'e mio amico. et mi rendera subito
ogni
cosa, quando non sia veramente perniciosa in tota substantia, che non m'avverrebbe con altri
Inquisitori'. The letter is dated 5 August
1574.1
am indebted to William
McCuaig,
who discovered
it and provided me with a transcript.
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II
THE RENAISSANCE CONCEPT OF
PHILOSOPHY
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