“Heresy and Error”: The Ecclesiastical Censorship of Books, 1400–1800 An Exhibition at Bridwell Library, September 20 – December 17, 2010 | |||||
EARLY CENSORSHIP IN ENGLAND |
In 1643, after a brief period
of uncensored printing in England, the Presbyterian
majority in the Parliament reinstated mandatory
licensing as a means of censoring books before
publication. That same year, church authorities
ensured that the poet John Milton was refused a
license to publish a controversial essay in favor of
the right to divorce. In response, Milton composed
the pamphlet entitled Areopagitica (after the
ancient Athenian court of Areopagus), considered by
many to be the most eloquent defense of the freedom
of the press ever written. Defiantly published
without license, Milton’s pamphlet calls for the
“liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely
according to conscience,” observing that “Who kills
a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but
he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.” |
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