Islamic states. In some, mostly Muslim states, censorship of the Bible exists today, such as in Saudi Arabia where the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles is illegal. Afghan Christians practice in secret. Bibles are not sold publicly.
Censorship of the Bible includes restrictions and prohibition of possessing, reading, or using the Bible in general or any particular translation of it. Violators of those Bible prohibitions have been punished by killing, imprisonment, forced labor, and banishment, as well as by burning or confiscating the Bible or Bibles used or distributed. Censorship of the Bible occurred in the past and is still going on today.
In the 20th century, Christian resistance to the Soviet Union's policy of state atheism occurred through Bible-smuggling.[1] The People's Republic of China, officially an atheist state, engages in Bible burning as a part of antireligious campaigns there.[2][3]
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum[a] of the Catholic Church included various translations of the Bible. In most cases, the bans on pious lay people possessing or using Bibles were related to vernacular Bible editions. Clerics were never forbidden to possess the Vulgate Bible translation in the Latin language. From the point of view of most Protestants, the topic mostly refers to historical prohibitions of the Catholic Church against reading or possessing Bibles, not of the Latin Vulgate translation, or in the case of the laity, possessing any Bibles at all, including the Vulgate. From a Catholic point of view, the censorship of the Bible was done both by restricting Bibles from those lacking instruction and by censoring translations thought to encourage deviations from official Catholic doctrines.[4]
Background [ edit ]
The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, a form of ancient Greek. The books were translated into several other languages, including Latin. From about AD 300 onward, Latin began to assert itself as the language of worship in Western Christianity. This was aided by the fact many European languages, called the Romance languages, are all descended from Latin. In contrast the earliest written Western Germanic languages date only from the 6th century. From AD 382-420, a new translation was made into the Latin vernacular, the Vulgate, which became the dominant translation for Western Christianity in the 7th-9th centuries. From about the 9th century it was regarded as the only valid Bible translation.[b] In Eastern Christianity, on the other hand, Greek remained dominant.
Bible smugglers [ edit ]
Modern censorship of the Bible has met with resistance from groups such as Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, and World Help, which supply Bibles for smuggling or directly smuggle the Bibles themselves into lands where the Bibles or their distribution are prohibited.
Individual Bible smugglers include Andrew van der Bijl, David Hathaway, and John White.
Diocletianic Persecution [ edit ]
During the Diocletianic Persecution, Bibles were targeted as part of a larger program intended to wipe out Christianity. On February 24, 303, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published.[5][c] Among other persecutions against Christians, Diocletian ordered the destruction of their scriptures and liturgical books across the entire Roman empire.[9][d]
During the Middle Ages [ edit ]
There were some controversies whether the translation in Old Church Slavonic was permissible. According to St. Methodius, he was officially allowed to use it by John VIII in 880. Yet Christians were forbidden to use the Old Church Slavonic translation by John X in 920 and by the Lateran Synod of 1059, with the synod being confirmed by Nicholas II and Alexander II. In a letter to Vratislav II of Bohemia dated 2 January 1080, Pope Gregory VII revoked his predecessors' permission to use the Slavonic language. The reason he gave was that "Not without reason has it pleased Almighty God that Holy Scripture should be a secret in certain places, lost, if it were plainly apparent to all men, perchance it would be little esteemed and be subject to disrespect; or it might be falsely understood by those of mediocre learning, and lead to error."[11][12][e]
Between 1170–80, Peter Waldo commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular "Romance" (Franco-Provençal).[13] He is credited with providing Western Europe the first translation of the Bible in a 'modern tongue' outside of Latin.[14]
In 1199, Pope Innocent III, writing in a letter to the bishop of Metz, banned the reading the Bible in private meetings (which he labeled as occultis conventiculis, or "hidden assemblies"). However, he noted that the desire to read and study the divine scriptures, was not to blame, but rather it was a recommended disposition. Since, however, the individual by himself apart from private meetings could hardly procure Bible texts, this ban was practically equivalent to a Bible ban for lay people.[15][f]
After the end of the Albigensian Crusade, the Council of Toulouse tightened the provisions against the heretics in this ecclesiastical province. The Inquisition was the first to work nationwide, and the University of Toulouse was founded, to which the Catholic Institute of Toulouse is also called. At the synod a general Bible ban was pronounced for lay people of this ecclesiastical province, only Psalterium and Brevier in Latin were allowed.[16][17][18][19]
We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old and New Testaments; unless anyone from the motives of devotion should wish to have the Psalter or the Breviary for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books."[20]
This quote was not repeated in 1233 at the Council held in Bréziers. Although sections of the Council Toulouse were used, this statement was omitted. In the course of a confirmation of the writings in 1215 at Fourth Council of the Lateran's condemnation of the writings of David of Dinant ordered Gregory IX. in 1231, to hand over all the theological books written in Latin to the diocesan bishops. At the Second Council of Tarragona (Conventus Tarraconensis) in 1234, the Spanish bishops, according to a decree of King James I of Aragon, declared that it was forbidden to anyone, to own a translation of the Bible. They had to be burned within eight days, otherwise, they were considered heretics.[21][22][23][24]
At the diocesan synod of Trier (Synodus Dioecesana Trevirensis) convened by Archbishop Theodoric II in 1231, alleged heretics called Euchites were described as having translated the scriptures into German:[25][26]
There was an unnatural heresy everywhere. In the year of 1231 in the same city and territory, heretics were perceived at three schools. And several of them belonged to that sect, and many of them were taught from the scriptures, which they had translated into German.
At the synod of Béziers (Concilium Biterrense) in 1246[g] it was also decided that the laity should have no Latin and vernacular and the clergy no vernacular theological books.[27][28]
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor issued an edict against German interpretations of Scripture at the request of Pope Urban V 1369 in Lucca, This was in order that such interpreters would not seduce laymen and malevolent spirits to heresy or error.[29] Nevertheless, his son started the handwritten Wenceslas Bible in 1385.
In 1376, Pope Gregory XI ordered that all literature on the Bible should be placed under ecclesiastical direction. As a result, only the Vulgate and a few poor quality translations in national languages were tolerated.[30]
John Wycliffe (1330–1384), a theologian with pre-Reformation views, finished the first authoritative translation of the Bible from Latin into English in 1383. His teachings were rejected in 1381 by Oxford University and in 1382 by the church. For fear of a popular uprising Wycliffe was not charged. The translation of the Bible caused great unrest among the clergy, and for their sake, several defensive provincial synods were convened, such as the 3rd Council of Oxford (ended in 1408). Under the chairmanship of Archbishop Thomas Arundel, official positions against Wycliffe were written in the Oxford Constitution and Arundel Constitution. The latter reads as follows:[31]
[…] that no one in the future will translate any text of Scripture into English or into any other text than book, scripture or tract, or that such a book, scripture or tract be read, whether new in the time of said John Wycliffe written or written in the future, whether in part or as a whole, public or hidden. This is under the punishment of the greater excommunication until the bishop of the place or, if necessary, a provincial council approves the said translation. But those who act against it should be punished like a heretic and false teacher.
Unlike before, translations of liturgical readings and preaching texts (psalms, pericopes from the Gospels and Epistles) were now bound to an examination by church authorities. Individuals like William Butler wanted to go even further and also limit Bible translations to the Latin language alone. In 1401, Parliament passed the De heretico comburendo law in order to suppress Wycliffe's followers and censor their books, including the Bible translation. At the Council of Constance in 1415, Wycliffe was finally proclaimed a heretic and condemned as "that pestilent wretch of damnable memory, yea, the forerunner and disciple of anti-christ who, as the complement of his wickedness, invented a new translation of the Scriptures into his mother-tongue."[32] His helpers Nicholas Hereford and John Purvey were forced to recant their teachings, and his bones, as determined by the council were finally burned in 1428. However, his translation of the Bible along with 200 manuscripts were secretly preserved and read by followers, and have survived to the present day. However, Wycliffe's Bible was not printed until 1731, when Wycliffe was historically conceived as the forefather of the English Reformation.[33] The next English Bible translation was that of William Tyndale, whose Tyndale Bible had to be printed from 1525 outside England in areas of Germany sympathetic to Protestantism. Tyndale himself was sentenced to death at the stake because of his translation work. He was strangled in 1536 near Brussels and then burned.
From the printing press until the Reformation [ edit ]
Around 1440–1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with movable type, with which he produced the Gutenberg Bible. His invention quickly spread throughout Europe. In 1466 the Mentelin Bible was the first vernacular language Bible to be printed. It was a word-for-word translation from the Latin Vulgate.[34]
Pope Paul II (pontificate 1464–1471) confirmed the decree of James I of Aragon on the prohibition of Bibles in vernacular languages.[35] Under Isabella I of Castile and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon, the printing of vernacular Bibles was prohibited in Spanish state law. The Spanish Inquisition which they instituted ordered the destruction of all Hebrew books and all vernacular Bibles in 1497. This was five years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In 1498, the Inquisition stated that it was impossible to translate the Bible into a modern language without making mistakes that would plunge unskilled and especially new converts into doubts about faith.[36]
The complete translation of the Bible into a Romance language,[h] a transfer of the Vulgate into Valencian, was made by the Carthusian order general Bonifaci Ferrer (1355-1417) and was printed in 1478.
By letter of March 17, 1479, Sixtus IV authorized the rector and dean of the University of Cologne to intervene with ecclesiastical censors against printers, buyers and readers of heretical books. This authorization was approved by Pope Alexander VI. In several theological and non-theological books from this period a printing patent is included in the publications. From this time also printing patents of the Patriarch of Venice can be found. With the censorship of January 4, 1486 and an executive order of January 10, the Elector-Archbishop Berthold von Henneberg of Mainz can be considered a pioneer in censorship regulation in the German-speaking countries for Mainz, Erfurt, and Frankfurt. His censorship decisions did not concern secular topics, but instead targeted specific religious texts, especially translations from Latin and Greek into the German. Berthold was of the opinion that the German language was too poor to reproduce the precise and well-formulated Latin and Greek texts. Up to this time, no heretical writings had appeared printed in German, but since 1466 about ten relatively identical German Bible translations were completed. He commented:[37]
Divine printing makes the use of books accessible to the world for instruction and edification. But many, as we have seen, misuse this art out of lust for glory and greed for money, so that they destroy humanity instead of enlightening it. Thus, in the hands of the people, which are translated from Latin into German, libri de divinis officiis et apicibus religionis nostrae can be found for the reduction of religion and its peaks. The sacred laws and canons, however, are composed by wise and eloquent men with such great care and skill, and their understanding is so difficult that the duration of human life, even for the most discerning, is scarcely sufficient to cope with them. Nevertheless, some cheeky and ignorant people have dared to translate those writings into such poor ordinary German that even scholars are seduced by their work into great misunderstandings.
In 1490 a number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books were burned in Andalucía at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition.[38]
16th century [ edit ]
From 1516 to 1535, Erasmus of Rotterdam published several editions of his Novum Instrumentum omne. It was a double edition with both a new Latin version as well as the first print of the Greek text, which was reconstructed in a few places by back-translating Latin into Greek. In 1517 Luther published his Ninety-five Theses. In 1521 he was excommunicated with the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, declared a heretic, and issued the Edict of Worms. In 1522, the first translation of Luther's New Testament was published. It was translated on the basis of the Greek text of Erasmus. In 1534 the entire Holy Scripture was printed, completing the Luther Bible.
At the Council of Trent, both Luther's and Erasmus's writings were put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Later printed copies of the index explicitly banned their Bibles as well as any prior editions and in general all similar Bible editions:[39][40]
Is Lofi Girl a girl?
Lofi Girl streams are accompanied by an animation of a girl studying or relaxing who has come to be known as the Lofi Girl, the Lofi Study Girl, or...
Biblia cum recognitione Martini Luteri. […] Cum universis similibus Bibliis ubicunque excusis. […] Novum Testamentum cum duplici interpretatione D.[esiderius] Erasmi & veteris interpretis. Harmonia item Evangelica, & copioso Indice […] Cum omnibus similibus libris Novi Testamenti.
[…] along with all similar Bibles, wherever they may be printed. [...] [...] along with all similar New Testaments, wherever they may be printed.
The Edict of Worms against Luther was not enforced throughout the empire. In 1523, at the Reichstag in Nuremberg the papal nuncio Francesco Chieregati asked for the Holy Roman Empire to enforce the clause of the Lateran Council against printing any book without the permission of the local bishop or his representative. He also wanted the Edict of Worms to be enforced. Instead, on March 6, 1523, it was decreed that until the demanded church council could be held, local rulers themselves should ensure that no new writings were printed or sold in their territories unless they had been approved by reasonable men. Other writings, especially those of an insulting nature, were to be banned under severe punishment.
The 1529 Diet of Speyer limited its decrees essentially to repeating the resolutions of 1523 Diet of Augsburg. On May 13, 1530, the papal nuncio gave the Emperor a memorandum which recommended that the Edict of Worms and the bull of Leo X was to be implemented by imperial decree and on pain of punishment. Following the Protestation at Speyer at the conclusion of the Reichstag on November 19, 1530, it was decided that nothing should be printed without specifying the printer and the printing location. The nuncio's request had failed.
As part of the 1541 Diet of Regensburg which set the terms of the Regensburg Interim, the rule against publishing insults was repeated.
England [ edit ]
In 1534, the Canterbury Convocation requested that the king commission a new translation of the Bible by suitable persons and authorize the reading of the new translation. Although the king did not designate translators, new translations appeared from 1535 and afterwards. In 1536 and 1538 Thomas Cromwell prescribed that Coverdale's translation of the Bible was to be placed in every church. These Bibles were to be printed in a large size and chained to prevent theft. This translation came to be called the "Great Bible" or "Chained Bible."
Index Librorum Prohibitorum [ edit ]
Around this time, the papal Index Librorum Prohibitorum began to be developed. At the 1548 Diet of Augsburg, which pronounced the terms of the Augsburg Interim, the ordinance against insults was repeated and the previous provisions were extended to include the name of the author or poet. In addition, books were to be checked before printing by the "ordinary authority of every place." There was a sentiment against that which was "rebellious and ignominious or unruly or obnoxious to the Catholic Doctrine of the Holy Christian Church." The already printed books of Luther were to be suppressed. The Holy Roman Imperial Fiscal official was to intervene against the offending authorities. After the 1555 Peace of Augsburg ended the Augsburg Interim and increased religious freedom by declaring cuius regio, eius religio, the papal Index Librorum Prohibitorum was only observed as law in Catholic territories.
General Rules in the Roman Index [ edit ]
Pius IV (pontificate 1559–1565) also added general rules to the Index Romanus. In the first printed and published version of 1559, there are 30 Latin editions of Scripture, 10 New Testament editions, and two short general rules for Bibles in foreign languages.
At the 18th meeting of the Council of Trent on 26 February 1562, it was decided to work out general indexing rules. On December 3 or 4th, 1563, the Council decided to submit its proposal, the Decretum de indice librorum, to the Pope for final adaptation. With the bull Dominici gregis custodiae the Index tridentinus was published on March 24, 1564 by the Pope. In it all the writings of all heresiarchs (all Reformers) were included on the index, regardless of whether they contained theology, religious words, or descriptions of nature. Especially on Bibles, Rules 3 and 4 came into play:
Rule 3.
The translations of older ecclesiastical writers (for example, Church Fathers) published by authors of the first class are allowed if they do not oppose the sound doctrine. Translations [in Latin] by scholars and pious men of Old Testament books originating from first-class authors may be authorized by bishops, but only as explanations of the Vulgate for understanding the Scriptures and not as Bible texts. On the other hand, translations [in Latin] of the New Testament are not to be permitted by first-class authors, because reading them does not bring much benefit to the readers. Instead, such translations pose much danger. Commentaries by First Class authors, on the condition they are associated with such Old Testament or Vulgate translations, may be allowed for use by pious and learned men after theologically suspect men have been dealt with by theological faculties or the Roman Inquisition. This is especially true of the so-called Bible of the Vatablus. Forewords and Prolegomena are to be removed from the Bibles of Isidore Clarius; But let no one take the text of the text of the Vulgate.[41]
Rule 4. Since experience teaches that if the reading of the Bible in the vernacular is permitted to all without distinction more harm than good results because of the audacity of men, the judgment of the bishop and inquisitor should be decisive with respect to vernacular translations. The reading of the Bible in vernacular translations by Catholic writers may be permitted at the judgement of the applicable counselor or confessor. The counselor or confessor may permit the reading of such translations when they realize that reading such translations can bring no harm, but instead will augment faith and piety. This permission should be given in writing. He who reads or has read a Bible in the vernacular without such permission should not be able to receive absolution from his sins until he has delivered the Bible translation to the bishop. Booksellers who sell or otherwise procure Bibles in the vernacular to those who lack permission shall be required to pay for books for the bishop to use for religious purposes. Other punishments may be given according to the nature of the offense, with penalties that expire at a set time. Members of Religious orders may not read and buy such Bibles without the permission of their superiors.[41]
The rules were reprinted in each version until the reform in 1758. Believers were forbidden to make, read, own, buy, sell or give away these books on the basis of excommunication.[42]
With this addition, the rule remained valid until 1758. How it was dealt with in each country was different. In a Catholic country like Bavaria, it was state law. In particular, booksellers had their licenses revoked for violating it. In contrast, in Württemberg, a refuge of Protestantism, the index functioned more like a blacklist. But it also found application in elite Catholic schools in secularized France until the 20th century. In general, secularized France almost never used the Roman Index.[41][43]
17th–18th centuries [ edit ]
Unigenitus [ edit ]
In 1713 Clement XI issued the bull Unigenitus dei filius in order to fight against Jansenism. The bull condemned 101 excerpts from the work Réflexions morales by Pasquier Quesnel, including the following propositions:[44]
It is useful and necessary at all times, in all places and for everyone, to explore and get to know the spirit, the piety and the secrets of the Scriptures.[45][i]
The obscurity of the Holy Word of God is not a reason why laymen should excuse themselves from reading it.[k]
The Lord’s day ought to be hallowed by Christians by readings of piety, and, above all, of the Holy Scripture.[l]
It is injurious to wish that a Christian draw back from that reading.[m]
To snatch the New Testament from the hands of Christians, or to keep it closed to them by taking away from them this manner of understanding it, is to close to them the mouth of Christ.[n]
To forbid to Christians the reading of the Holy Scriptures, especially the Four Gospels, is to forbid the use of light to the sons of light, and to cause them to suffer a certain kind of excommunication.[o]
This bull was controversial among the French clergy for various reasons. Among the reasons it was controversial was that it condemned various sentences from the Bible and the Fathers of the Church. But the 1719 bull Pastoralis officii threatened excommunication on all who did not submit to Unigenitus dei filius.[46] The Lateran Council confirmed Benedict XIII's bull Unigenitus dei filius.[47]
Punishments against violators [ edit ]
As part of a program of persecution against the Salzburg Protestants, in 1731, Leopold Anton von Firmian – Archbishop of Salzburg as well as its temporal ruler as Count, ordered the wholesale seizure and burning of all Protestant books and Bibles.[48]
On May 27, 1747 Jakob Schmidlin ("Sulzijoggi") was hanged as the leading head of a Bible movement in the canton of Lucerne in Galgenwäldli on the Emme. His corpse was burned along with a Luther Bible. He is considered the last Protestant martyr of Switzerland. Where his farm stood, a pillar was erected. Of over 100 co-defendants of this movement (from Ruswil, Wolhusen, Werthenstein, Menznau, Malters, Kriens, and Udligenswil), 82 of them were also punished, mostly with perpetual banishment. Since the Bible was at the center of this movement and violations of censorship rules against the use and possession of Bibles was one of the offenses committed by the convicted, after the trial the authorities issued a decree that included a general prohibition on laymen having Bibles:[49]
We also want to prohibit all and each of our subjects, who are not taught, not only from selling the uncatholic and forbidden books, but also good Bibles and their distribution in any way. We will see to it that any Bibles or other forbidden or other seductive books to date should be delivered to their pastors or pastors within a fortnight from the announcement of this call, or wherever sooner or later such things would be found behind them, we will be against those with all proceed with appropriate sharpness ...
19th–20th centuries [ edit ]
In 1816, Pius VII sent two breves concerning the Bible societies. One to the archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland (Nimio et Acerbo, June 29), and another to the archbishop of Mohilev (Magno et acerbo, September 3[50]). Both breves are very strongly against the translations in vernacular of the Bible which were not approved by the Catholic Church and letting untrained laypeople read the bible.[51] Magno et acerbo reads:[52][51]
For you should have kept before your eyes the warnings which Our predecessors have constantly given, namely, that, if the sacred books are permitted everywhere without discrimination in the vulgar tongue, more damage will arise from this than advantage. Furthermore, the Roman Church, accepting only the Vulgate edition according to the well-known prescription of the Council of Trent, disapproves the versions in other tongues and permits only those which are edited with the explanations carefully chosen from writings of the Fathers and Catholic Doctors, so that so great a treasure may not be exposed to the corruptions of novelties, and so that the Church, spread throughout the world, may be "of one tongue and of the same speech. [...]
For this purpose, then, the heretics have been accustomed to make their low and base machinations, in order that by the publication of their vernacular Bibles, (of whose strange variety and discrepancy they, nevertheless, accuse one another and wrangle) they may, each one, treacherously insert their own errors wrapped in the more holy apparatus of divine speech. "For heresies are not born," St. Augustine used to say, "except when the true Scriptures are not well understood and when what is not well understood in them is rashly and boldly asserted." But, if we grieve that men renowned for piety and wisdom have, by no means rarely, failed in interpreting the Scriptures, what should we not fear if the Scriptures, translated into every vulgar tongue whatsoever, are freely handed on to be read by an inexperienced people who, for the most part, judge not with any skill but with a kind of rashness?
Leo XII's Ubi primum (3 May 1824) also did not exhibit any liberal attitudes, stating: "You have noticed a society, commonly called the Bible society, boldly spreading throughout the whole world. Rejecting the traditions of the holy Fathers and infringing the well-known decree of the Council of Trent, it works by every means to have the holy Bible translated, or rather mistranslated, into the ordinary languages of every nation. There are good reasons for fear that (as has already happened in some of their commentaries and in other respects by a distorted interpretation of Christ’s gospel) they will produce a gospel of men, or what is worse, a gospel of the devil!"[53]
Pius VIII's Traditi humilitati nostrae (1829) states:[54]
It is also necessary to watch over the societies of those who publish new translations of the Bible in every vulgar language, against the sane rules of the Church, whereby the texts are astutely distorted into aberrant meanings, according to the moods of each translator. These versions are distributed free of charge everywhere, with exorbitant costs, even to the most ignorant, and often perverse writings are inserted in them so that readers drink a lethal poison, where they thought they were drawing the waters of healthy wisdom. For some time the Apostolic See has warned the Christian people against this attack on the faith, and has condemned the authors of such a great misfortune. To this end, all the rules established by decision of the Council of Trent were recalled once again, as well as what was laid down by the Congregation of the Index itself, for which the vernacular versions of the sacred texts must not be allowed, unless approved by the Holy See, and accompanied by comments taken from the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church.
In 1836, Gregory XVI eliminated the relief made back in 1757. His encyclical letter Inter praecipuas of 1844 spoke out against vernacular Bibles of the Bible societies.[55] Hans-Josef Klauck considers when commenting this encyclical that that "there is a deep wisdom in the previous Catholic practice to forbid the independent reading of the Bible in the vernacular to laymen, or only to allow it with considerable caution, because they ultimately threaten to undermine the teaching authority of the Church."[56]
Is there brass inside a piano?
Ash and walnut wood, ivory, brass, high carbon steel, wool felt and aluminium are other very common materials found in piano manufacture. tension...
Pius IX wrote in 1846 his encyclical Qui pluribus against "the most impudent Bible societies, which renewed the ancient artifice of the heretics and translated the books of the Divine Scriptures, contrary to the most sacrosanct rules of the Church, into all national languages and often provided twisted explanations."[57]
The situation in Nice was very different from the situation in the Duchy of Tuscany. The duchy had a reputation for being liberal during the rule of Leopold II, even prior to 1849. There were three Protestant churches within the duchy: one English, one Scottish and one French. The French Protestant church held fairs in the Italian language. After the brief period during the republic the subsequent counter-revolution, the liberal climate changed to conservative. On May 18, 1849, 3,000 copies of a Catholic Italian translation of the Bible were confiscated and burned under the orders of Antonio Martini, the Archbishop of Florence, even though they had been printed with permission. Persecution of Protestants increased. In 1851, services in Italian were outlawed. The possession of a Protestant Italian Bible alone was considered sufficient evidence for conviction. The most prominent prisoner was Count Piero Guicciardini, who was arrested with six others. They had met on May 7, 1851, the day before his voluntary departure for religious exile, and read the Scriptures together. He was therefore sentenced to six months imprisonment for blasphemy, which was then converted into exile.[58][59][60]
In the Austrian Empire, the Patent of Toleration was published on October 13, 1781. In addition, on June 22, 1782, and October 12, 1782, Joseph II issued court decrees explicitly authorizing the import and printing of Protestant books and stipulating that previously confiscated publications should be returned as long as they were not abusive towards the Catholic Church.[61] These decrees were usually followed, but the reforms were not always followed everywhere throughout the empire. In 1854 in Buda the police seized 121 Bibles found in a Protestant congregation and reduced 120 of them to pulp in a paper mill. In return the congregation was given 21 kreuzers due to the value of the books as pulp as well as the one remaining Bible, "which is enough for the pastor."[62]
On December 7, 1859, in front of the Archbishop's Palace in Santa Fe de Bogotá in the then Granadine Confederation a great bible burning took place.[63][64]
On January 25, 1896 Leo XIII issued new rules for the Roman Index with the Apostolic constitution Officiorum ac Munerum.[65] It was published on January 25, 1897. It generally contained some more relaxed rules and no longer automatically included all the books written by Protestants. It namely states:[66][67]
CHAPTER I. Of the Prohibited Books of Apostates, Heretics, Schismatics, and Other Writers 1. All books condemned before the year 1600 by the Sovereign Pontiffs, or by Ecumenical Councils, and which are not recorded in the new Index, must be considered as condemned in the same manner that have formerly been, with the exception of such as are presently permitted by General Decrees. 2. The books of apostates, heretics, schismatics, and all writers whatsoever, defending heresy or schism, or in any way attacking the foundations of Religion, are altogether prohibited. 3. Moreover, the books of non-Catholics, ex professo treating of Religion, are prohibited, unless they clearly contain nothing contrary to Catholic Faith. 4. The books of the above-mentioned writers, not treating ex professo of Religion, but only touching incidentally upon the Truths of Faith, are not to be considered as prohibited by Ecclesiastical Law unless proscribed by special Decree. CHAPTER II. Of Editions of the Original Text of Holy Scripture and of Versions not in the Vernacular 5. Editions of the Original Text and of the ancient Catholic versions of Holy Scripture, as well as those of the Eastern Church, if published by non-Catholics, even though apparently edited in a faithful and complete manner, are allowed only to those engaged in Theological and Biblical Studies, provided also that the Dogma of Catholic Faith are not impugned in the Prolegomena or Annotations. 6. In the same manner and under the same conditions, other versions of the Holy Bible published by non-Catholics, whether in Latin or in any other dead language, are permitted.
Brittany [ edit ]
The first New Testament translation into Breton was published in 1827 by Protestants after the Catholic Church refused its publication.
United States [ edit ]
In 1842, a Jesuit priest named Telman was responsible for the burning of a number of "Protestant" Bibles in Champlain, New York.[68]
Nazi Germany [ edit ]
In late August 1933, authorities used 25 trucks to transport about 70 tonnes of Watch Tower literature and Bibles to the city's outskirts and publicly burned them[69] as part of a larger program of Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany. Later on, in July 1935, state governments were instructed in July 1935 to confiscate all Watch Tower Society publications, including Bibles.
On November 9 and 10, 1938, thousands of Hebrew Bibles were burned in multiple communities in Germany as part of a program of persecution against Jews.[71]
Canada [ edit ]
In 1955, police seized Bibles and other literature when raiding a house while Jehovah's Witnesses were worshiping there. The Jehovah's Witnesses successfully sued in response.
China [ edit ]
When the economic reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping created greater openness to the West, Christians of various affiliations began smuggling Bibles and Christian literature into China.[p] The CCP viewed the recipients of those Bibles as engaging in illegal activity in violation of the principle of not accepting aid from Western sources.[74]
The 1973 Ko-Tân Colloquial Taiwanese Version New Testament, confiscated in 1975. It is open to Acts 2 :14–17
Taiwan [ edit ]
For two years in the 1950s, churches were banned from using Chinese Bibles written with Latin letters instead of Chinese characters. The ban was lifted with an encouragement to use Chinese characters. A 1973 Taiwanese translation of the New Testament was the product of cooperation between Protestants and Catholics. It was confiscated in 1975, also for using Latin letters.[75]
Russia [ edit ]
In Russia, the activities of the Bible Society in Russia were greatly limited after Czar Nicholas I placed the society under the control of Orthodox church authorities. Following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, no Bibles were published until 1956, and even then the circulation was limited until the 1990s.[76]
Soviet Union [ edit ]
Aldis Purs,[q] wrote that in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic as well as the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic, some evangelical Christian clergy attempted to resist the Soviet policy of state atheism by engaging in anti-regime activities such as Bible smuggling.[1]
The Marxist-Leninist atheistic and antireligious legislation of the Soviet Union "discouraged religious activity to the point that it was essentially forced out of public life."[77] A team led by Ken Howard engaged in Bible smuggling into the USSR and later, published copies of the Bible through screen-printing methods "using fabric smuggled in as curtain material or worn as petticoats, [which] allowed pages to be printed without being noticed."[77] Seventy-five operations were established throughout the USSR, with more than one million pages being printed.[77] In 2021, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. erected an exhibit on this Bible smuggling and screen-printing activity of Ken Howard and his team.[77]
21st century [ edit ]
Islamic states [ edit ]
In some, mostly Muslim states, censorship of the Bible exists today, such as in Saudi Arabia where the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles is illegal.[78]
Afghanistan
Afghan Christians practice in secret. Bibles are not sold publicly.[79]
Libya
Importing & distributing bibles is illegal, as is evangelism.[80]
Malaysia [ edit ]
The Prime Minister clarified in April 2005 that there was no ban on Bibles translated into Malay, although they are required to be stamped with a disclaimer "Not for Muslims".[81] The word translated in English as "God" is translated as "Allah" in some Malay Bibles, which is illegal as non-Muslims are prohibited from using the term "Allah."[82] In March 2010, the Malaysian Home Ministry seized 30,000 Malay language bibles from a port in Kuching, Sarawak.[83]
A lawsuit was filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur against the Government of Malaysia at the High Court of Malaya to seek a declaratory relief that the word "Allah" should not be exclusive to Islam. However, in 2014 the Federal Court of Malaysia ruled that non-Muslims could not use the term "Allah," and 321 Bibles were subsequently seized.[84][85]
Maldives
According to the UK government, it is an offense to import Bibles into the Maldives due to local Islamic religious laws.[86]
Somalia
Christians practice in secret, and it is illegal to own a Bible.[80]
U.S. military [ edit ]
In 2009, the U.S. military burned Bibles in the Pashto and Dari languages, which were seemingly intended for distribution among the locals, which is in breach of regulations which forbid "proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice".[87]
U.S. schools [ edit ]
Likewise, when the use of the Bible by staff in U.S. public schools was restricted (along with teacher-led prayers), this prohibition was also commonly referred to as a "Bible ban".[88]
Books of the sacred scriptures cannot be published unless the Apostolic See or the conference of bishops has approved them. For the publication of their translations into the vernacular, it is also required that they be approved by the same authority and provided with necessary and sufficient annotations. With the permission of the Conference of Bishops, Catholic members of the Christian faithful in collaboration with separated brothers and sisters can prepare and publish translations of the sacred scriptures provided with appropriate annotations.
Russia [ edit ]
In 2015, Russia banned importation of the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.[90][91] On May 5, 2015, customs authorities in Russia seized a shipment of religious literature containing Ossetian-language Bibles published by Jehovah's Witnesses. Russian customs officials in the city of Vyborg held up a shipment of 2,013 Russian-language copies of Bibles on July 13, 2015. Customs authorities confiscated three of the Bibles, sent them to an "expert" to study the Bibles to determine whether they contained "extremist" language, and impounded the rest of the shipment.[92]
China [ edit ]
The state-owned Amity Press is the only publisher allowed to print Bibles in China that are not for export. The quantity printed is restricted, and the sale or distribution of Bibles is limited to officially sanctioned churches, with online sales having been recently cracked down upon.[93][94][95][96]
The Associated Press reported in September 2018 that the current suppression program in China includes the burning of Bibles.[2]
Singapore [ edit ]
Singapore has banned Bibles and other literature published by the publishing arms of the Jehovah's Witnesses. A person in possession of banned literature can be fined up to S$2,000 (US$1,333) and jailed up to 12 months for a first conviction.[97]
In February 1995, Singapore police seized Bibles during a raid and arrested 69 Jehovah's Witnesses, many of whom went to prison.[98][99] In March 1995, 74-year-old Yu Nguk Ding was arrested for carrying two "undesirable publications", one of them a Bible printed by the Watch Tower Society.[100]
Join almost HALF A MILLION Happy Students Worldwide
Pianoforall is one of the most popular online piano courses online and has helped over 450,000 students around the world achieve their dream of playing beautiful piano for over a decade.
Piano Guidance
Photo: Katerina Holmes
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion