Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita Honors Theses Carl Goodson Honors Program 2009 Faith and Literature: A Look at Book Censorship Laura Cox Ouachita Baptist University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Information Literacy Commons Recommended Citation Cox, Laura, "Faith and Literature: A Look at Book Censorship" (2009). Honors Theses. 238. https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/238 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 1 INTRO For centuries, society has debated the issue of book censorship. Before Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press in 1455, the burning ofhand-scribed books destroyed limited copies and guaranteed they would not be read. With the printing press, books could be produced in greater numbers; yet, printed speech was still a commodity that could be controlled. In 1517, Pope Leo X condemned Martin Luther's Ninety Five Theses, an early example of religious censorship of materials deemed dangerous or subversive. Political censorship quickly followed when Emperor Charles V issued the Edict ofWorms, containing a "Law ofPrinting" which banned the printing, copying, sale, or reading of Luther's writings (Foerstel xi). Beginning in 1564, the Catholic papacy promulgated its Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books). Compiled by the Holy Inquisition in Rome, the Index listed the books and authors Catholics were prohibited from printing or reading.