tiplication of manuscript books reached a high degree of efficiency,
and the Ars Amatoria was a contributory cause of the banishment
of Ovid from Rome by Augustus. When the Empire became Chris-
tianized much of the literary heritage of pagan times was lost to
posterity either through deliberate destruction or neglect.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the production of manu-
scripts was largely carried on by monks and confined to biblical
and devotional works. Any infraction of the Church's control of
thought and belief was dealt with as a matter of course by the
ecclesiastical authorities. Originally they relied on admonition and
excommunication but gradually fines, imprisonment, and the stake
were added to the sanctions. With the revival of learning, books
of theological speculation which did not meet with the approval
of authority began to appear. Quite early, in 1120, Peter Abelard
Introductio ad Theologium was deemed to be heretical and con-
demned to be burned by the Synod of Soissons. As the Reformation
approached, the number of suspect and unorthodox books in-
creased, and the translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular
which appeared were especially offensive to authority. The power
of princes and of the great nobles sometimes gave protection to
humbler men. For instance, it was the protection of John of Gaunt
that enabled Wycliffe, who produced the first English Bible, to die
a natural death at Lutterworth in 1384, leaving the Church to
wreak a futile vengeance on his remains. Freedom, however, was
uncertain and exceptional; and intellectual speculation and the
dissemination of knowledge were dangerous pursuits.

When printing was invented in the fifteenth century the Church,
apprehending the threat to her domination over thought and be.
lief, endeavored to intensify her control over books, and in 1557
the Inquisition under Pope Paul IV drew up the first Index Libro-
rum Prohibitorum. This Index should not be confused with the
Index Librorum Expurgatorius, a projected catalogue, never pub-
lished, of works allowed to be read after the deletion or amendment
of specified passages. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum has been
revised from time to time and now ¹ lists some four thousand books
forbidden throughout the world and in every translation. No lay-
man may read or possess any of them without special permission
granted only for single books and in urgent cases. The latest edition

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