lliterate society, the censorship of books would have slight
importance. Plato was perhaps the first to propose that the reading of
immoral and impious books be forbidden, but I am not aware that his
suggestion was acted upon either in the states of Greece or in pagan
Rome. Examples of the rejection of certain books by the early church
are not wanting. Paul induced the Ephesian sorcerers to burn their
books; certain fathers of the church advised against the reading of
heathen authors; [Sidenote: c. 496] Pope Gelasius made a decree on the
books received and those not received by the church, and Manichaean
books were publicly burnt.

[Sidenote: Fourth century]

The invention of printing brought to the attention of the church the
danger of allowing her children to choose their own reading matter.
[Sidenote: Printing] The first to animadvert upon it was Berthold,
Archbishop of Mayence, the city of Gutenberg. On the 22d of March,
1485, he promulgated a decree to the effect that, whereas the divine
art of printing had been abused for the sake of lucre and whereas by
this means even Christ's books, missals and other works on religion,
were thumbed by the vulgar, and whereas the German idiom was too poor
to express such mysteries, and common persons too ignorant to
understand them, therefore every work translated into German must be
approved by the doctors of the university of Mayence before being
published.

[Sidenote: June 1, 1501]

The example of the prelate was soon followed by popes and councils.
Alexander VI forbade as a detestable evil the printing of books
injurious to the Catholic faith, and made all archbishops official
censors for their dioceses. This was enforced by a decree of the Fifth
Lateran Council setting forth that {419} although printing has brought
much advantage to the church [Sidenote: May 4, 1515] it has also
disseminated errors and pernicious dogmas contrary to the Christian
religion. The decree forbids the printing of any book in any city or
diocese of Christendom without license from the local bishop or other
ecclesiastical authority.

This sweeping edict was supplemented by others directed against certain
books or authors, but for a whole generation the church left the
censorship chiefly to the discretion of the several national
governments. This was the policy followed also by the Protestants,
both at this time and later. [Sidenote: Protestant censorship]
Neither Luther, nor any othe