Liberty of the Press II

Liberty of the Press

BY JAMES H. ANDERSON, OF THE GENERAL BOARD Y. M. M. I. A.

II.

— Press Censorship in History. From a very early period, books supposed to be hurtful to the interests of government, of religion, or of morality, have been condemned to the flames, or sometimes censored by particular tribunals, and often suppressed. Frequently the death sentence was imposed upon writers and dispensers of books that came under the ban of ecclesiastical or secular authorities. Heathen antiquity supplies some instances of the burning of obnoxious books Tacitus mentions a history of ;

Crementius Cordus which the Roman Senate, to flatter Tiberius, condemned because it designated Caius Cassius as the last of the Romans; Eusebius records how Diocletian caused copies of the Scriptures to be burned. The early churches which succeeded the primitive Church of Christ, in the garb of Christianity, displayed intolerance equal to that of the heathen, to say the least. The charge of heresy was a ready instrument in destroying or preventing the publication of works alleged to be injurious to the faith. Writings continued to increase among the people, and church councils began the issuance of lists of prohibited books. The Council of Nicea condemned to the flames the works of Arius the writings of Nes- ;

torius met the same fate at the Council of Ephesus pagan works ;

were prohibited at the Council of Carthage in 400 A. D. in 494 ;

a list of forbidden books was issued in a decree of a council at Rome in the 13th century the works of Aristotle were condemned ;

by the Romish church. These are a few of a vast number of similar instances. With the acquisition of more convenient and cheaper materials for bookmaking prior to the 15th century, there was awak-

ened a persistent demand and effort for liberty of the press, which grew stronger as the means for expressing thought in written

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form became more and more available. But the contest was so unequal that an ecclesiastical or governmental censorship was quite effectual in whatever direction the wielders of that power elected to apply it. Not all of the books condemned at that time, however, or subsequently, would escape interdiction in the present day on the ground of their immoral or seditious character. With the invention of printing and the resultant augmentation of book production, and later when the religious discussions of the Reformation caused a great demand for books, the struggle for liberty of the press became a definitely pronounced issue, never to be abandoned by the adherents of freedom. But none of the ruling powers would tolerate a free press, and censorial operations were carried on by both ecclesiastical and civil authorities in a more extensive form than ever before. Special directions were issued in 1515, by the Lateran Council, against printing books not previously approved.

The chief rigors which history records as against condemned books and their authors began with the Inquisition in the 16th century. In 1543, Caraffa issued an order that no book should be printed without leave from the Inquisition. In 1540, Charles V had published at Brussels a list of prohibited authors ; a similar list was issued by the Inquisition at Venice in 1543, and the Court of Rome did likewise in 1558. The forbidden list issued through the Inquisition in 1557, by Pope Paul, included the works of the "heresiarchs"— Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others—no matter what the subjects; and, in 1564, Pius IV issued the first papal index of prohibited books. Milton's protest was against the appointment of clerical censors by the Lateran Council at Rome, in 1515. In Spain the power of the Inquisition under Fernando de Valdez, directed chiefly against Lutheranism, was no less effective in curtailing the liberty of the press than a similar power exercised in other Catholic countries. "The right of dictating what books should or should not be read was a consequence of the claims of the papacy over the consciences and morals of mankind, and the vitality of persecution has been preserved within the Romish church by the consistent exercise of such right." Among the earlier victims were Galileo, Copernicus, Bruno, Gibbon, Robertson, Bacon, Hallam, Milton, Locke, Whately, and John Stuart

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Mill. The civil officers were not less severe than were ecclesiasts, each seeming to vie with the other in displaying a cruel, unbridled exercise of authority. By this long series of literary proscriptions, printing in continental Europe was practically confined at that time to Switzerland and Germany. During the same period the book-producers in Great Britain were little, if any, better off than their compeers upon the continent. Under the war against books instituted by Henry VIII in 1526, anti-popery books were destroyed as heretical, and their authors received extreme punishment; in 1535, by the precipitate change of attitude on the part of that king, books and authors favoring popery came under an equally severe ban. Others, too, suffered. Several translations of the Bible were suppressed, Tyndal's version being among those consigned to a public burning in 1527. A general burning of unlicensed books was ordered by the king in 1530. In 1546 Edward VI made a raid on missals and books of devotion. The Star Chamber in 1585 was as rigid as the Inquisition, and its barbarism against books and authors was continued as late as the mutilation of Dr. Alexander Leighton in 1628. In 1607 Dr. Cowell's law dictionary was burned by order of the House of Commons for assertions of divine right in favor of James In 1644 Puritans publicly burned the King's Book I.

of Sports. After the Restoration, two of Milton's works were suppressed. Defoe's writings were burned in 1703, by order of Parliament. The last general official book-burning in Great Britain was in 1779. But in Britain and her colonies, as well as in continental Europe, the censorship still remained, rigid as ever, when the power which held it chose to make use thereof. For centuries the authors and publishers of books had led in the struggle for the liberty of the press, and had made great headway, but the victory seemed still afar off. Another champion in the classification of the great agency of the press, the Newspaper, had come into existence from the closing years of the 18th cen- ;

tury it has held the leadership on the field of battle for human freedom of thought and the ; triumph has been complete in almost

every part of the earth. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, pamphlets, etc., were freely resorted to for unrestrained expression among the people, of cenbecause of the ease of their production, and the difficulty

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soring press publications less pretentious than books in bulk and quality. In the 18th century, pamphlets became the popular form of literature ; political writing was confined almost entirely to these; controversies religious and political were intense in most civilized countries. This form of literature retarded rather than aided the liberty of the press, since, because of its character, the censorship increased in severity, and had substantial reason therefor. Pamphlets became audacious, cruel, and dangerous; indeed, the inciting due to these publications in France produced the worst features of the Revolution of 1789 which culminated in the Reign of Terror. Covering the same period, magazines also were a prolific form of general literature, upon political, religious, social, and financial subjects. Low-priced, in the latter part of the 18th and early part of the 19th century, they became especially unwholesome, and the struggle between these on the one side and the censorship, police and law officers on the other was especially sharp and disagreeable. Newspapers, as such, came into existence in Germany near the close of the 15th century, but it was not until the 17th century that they grew to be an important factor in public life. Theirs was a constant struggle, and many were suppressed for giving more news of current events than civil or ecclesiastical officers deemed advisable. The early order of newspaper development in various countries was practically as follows Germany, Belgium, :

England, France, Sweden, Scotland, Denmark, the North American colonies (first at Boston, Massachusetts), Ireland, Italy, Spain, Norway, and later in other countries.The four oldest existing newspapers are the Frankfurter Journal (Germany since 1615), Paris Gazette (France, 1631), Stockholm Post (Sweden, 1643), and London Gazette (England, 1665).

(conclusion in next number)

President Frank J. Hewlett, of the South African Mission, writes that all is well with the elders in sunny Africa. They are in splendid health and spirits. The Mutual in Kimberley is using the M. I. A. manual, "Science and the Gospel," and in Woodstock the organization is using the manual, "The Making of a Citizen." The members are enjoying their lessons to the fullest extent.

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