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Faith And Literature: A Look At Book Censorship, Laura Cox

Honors Theses

For centuries, society has debated the issue of book censorship. Before Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press in 1455, the burning of hand-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, …