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Index librorum prohibitorum. Index
auctorum. |
| The Index librorum prohibitorum, a comprehensive list of books banned by the Catholic Church, was first published under the auspices of Paul IV in 1559. It forbade the possession and reading of Muslim, Jewish, and Protestant heresies, attempted to suppress internal assaults on the faith such as Erasmus' and Luther's calls for reforms, and prohibited those works that threatened the authority of ecclesiastical leaders because of populist or mystical themes. After 300 editions and more than four hundred years, the Index was finally abolished in 1966. On the page shown here, works banned by the Catholic Church included a Protestant tract (Acta cum Protestantibus Francofurti), a discussion of alchemy (Alchimia Purgatorii), and the Qur'an (Alchoranus Mahometis). |
