The censorship having been thus established, the next step was to form a list of books prohibited by the Inquisitors appointed for that purpose.  The Sorbonne in Paris drew one up for their own use, and even presented a petition to Francis I. that publication through the press should be forbidden altogether.[112] A royal edict to this effect was actually promulgated in 1535.  Charles V. commissioned the University of Louvain in 1539 to furnish a similar catalogue, proclaiming at the same time the penalty of death for all who read or owned the works of Luther in his realms.[113] The University printed their catalogue with Papal approval in 1549.

[Footnote 111:  Llorente, vol. i. p. 281.]

[Footnote 112:  Christie’s Etienne Dolet, pp. 220-24.]

[Footnote 113:  Llorente, vol. i. p. 463.]

These lists of the Sorbonne and Louvain formed the nucleus of the Apostolic Index, which, after the close of the Council of Trent, became binding upon Catholics.  When the Inquisition had been established in Rome, Caraffa, who was then at its head, obtained the sanction of Paul III. for submitting all books, old or new, printed or in manuscript, to the supervision of the Holy Office.  He also contrived to place booksellers, public and private libraries, colporteurs and officers of customs, under the same authority; so that from 1543 forward it was a penal offence to print, sell, own, convey or import any literature, of which the Inquisition had not first been informed, and for the diffusion or possession of which it had not given its permission.  Giovanni della Casa, who was sent in 1546 to Venice with commission to prosecute P. Paolo Vergerio for heresy, drew up a list of about seventy prohibited volumes, which was printed in that city.[114] Other lists appeared, at Florence in 1552, and at Milan in 1554.  Philip II. at last, in 1558, issued a royal edict commanding the publication of one catalogue which should form the standard for such Indices throughout his States.[115] These lists, revised, collated, and confirmed by Papal authority, were reprinted, in the form which ever afterwards obtained, at Rome, by command of Paul IV. in 1559.

[Footnote 114:  In the year 1548.  The MS. cited above (p. 192) mentions another Index of the Venetian Holy Office published in 1554.]

[Footnote 115:  Sarpi, Ist. del Conc.  Tial, vol. ii..p. 90.]

The Tridentine Council ratified the regulations of the Inquisition and the Index concerning prohibited books, and referred the execution of them in detail to the Papacy.  A congregation was appointed at Rome, which, though technically independent of the Holy Office, worked in concert with it.  This Congregation of the Index brought the Tridentine decrees into harmony with the practice that had been developed by Caraffa as Inquisitor and Pope.  Their list was published in 1564 with the authority of Pius IV.  Finally, in 1595 the decrees embodying the statutes of the Church upon this topic were issued in print, together with a largely augmented catalogue of interdicted books.  This document will form the basis of what I have to say with regard to the Catholic crusade against literature.