A Finding List: Part 3.

Elizabethan Facts and Historical References

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z

I

Illustrations of Masonry William Preston (1742–1818) in his Past Master of the Lodge of Antiquity, Twelth Edition, London (1812) gives the progress of Masonry in the South of England from the Reign of Elizabeth to the Fire of London in 1666 which can be found in the Appendices Illustrations of Masonry.

Index of forbidden books It is well known that Francis I., signed Letters Patent for the suppression of printing. In 1624 an edict was promulgated in Paris which forbade any attack on the System of Aristotle under pain of death. The philosopher Ramus, for traversing some of Aristotle’s dicta, was cited as an enemy of religion, a disturber of the public peace, and a corruptor of the minds of youth. Copernicus (1473–1543) waited thirty years before he dared make public his discovery that the sun was the centre of our universe. Happily he died a few hours after the publication of his book, hence this “upstart astrologer,” this “fool who wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy” these were Luther’s terms escaped the deathly clutch of the Inquisition. For espousing the heresy of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno was burned in 1600. On hearing his doom, he uttered the memorable words, “You have greater fear in pronouncing this sentence than I have in receiving it.” Vanini (1585–1619) on being led forth from his prison to the hurdle for execution exclaimed: “Let us go, let us go joyfully to die as becomes a philosopher.” Before being burned, his tongue was torn out. In the words of an unsympathising onlooker “Vanini was ordered to put forth his sacrilegious tongue for the knife. He refused: it was necessary to employ pincers to draw it forth, and when the execution’s instrument seized and cut it off, never was heard a more horrible cry. One might have thought that he heard the bellowing of an ox which was being slaughtered.” For declaring that the earth revolved, Galileo was martyred in 1642. “Are these then my judges?” he exclaimed, on retiring from the Inquisitors whose ignorance astonished him. The priest who perused the posthumous manuscripts of this great philosopher, destroyed such as in his judgment were not fit to be known to the world. Descartes (1596–1650) was horribly persecuted in Holland. He was accused of Atheism and narrowly escaped being burned on an eminence favourably situated for observation by the Seven Provinces. The fate of one Bartholomew Hector, a poor glow-worm, was probably typical of a thousand others equally grim. Hector was a stationer and was burned for some unknown reason in 1555. He “died with admirable constancy, and edified the assistants and standers-by in such manner that he drew tears from their eyes.” Telesius Bernardino (1509–1588). The first two books of his major work, De Natura Juxta Propria Principia [On Nature According to Its Own Principles], were published in 1565, and the complete edition of nine books appeared in 1586. Although he had been encouraged in his writings by contemporary Roman Catholic popes, the above work and two of his minor works remained on the Roman Catholic Church Index of Forbidden Books from 1596 until 1900. Bacon has commended him as “the best of the novelists.”
The efforts of authority having failed to extinguish printing, there remained the expedient of muzzling. Clerical inquisitors were appointed at Madrid, Rome, Naples, Lisbon, and elsewhere. License to publish was refused to all works except those certified under the official Imprimatur as being innocuous. Unhappily, the ecclesiastical sages who sat in inquisition were frequently in vigorous disagreement among themselves. Some had a keener sense of heresy than others. The chief Inquisitor of the Netherlands lived to see his own writings proscribed by the Licenser at Rome, and the Inquisitor at Naples was so displeased with the Spanish Index that he maintained it had never been printed at Madrid. There was no concord among the Inquisitors, and the incrimination of one was followed by the retaliation of another. The books on cipher writing of Abbot Trithemius were condemned to the fire as works “full of diabolical mysteries.” Frederic II., Elector Palatine, ordered the original work of Trithemius, which was in his library, to be publicly burnt. An ambiguous sentence or even a word was sometimes sufficient to damn or indefinitely delay publications. The ineptitudes of the Licensers were incredible. Malebranche was unable to get approbation for his research after Truth because the Inquisitors were unable to understand it. It was eventually approved as a work on geometry. A book on trigonometry was condemned as heretical because the Trinity, a forbidden subject of discussion, was assumed to be included in trigonometry. A treatise on the Destruction of Insects was believed to be a covert allusion to the Jesuits, and was accordingly disallowed. Nani’s History of Venice was permitted because it “contained nothing against Princes.” Raleigh’s History of the World was condemned for being “too saucy in censuring the acts of Kings.” James I., proscribed Buchanan’s History and everyone was ordered to bring his copy “to be perusit and purgit of the offensive and extraordinare materis.” The malicious activity of this class was a constant menace to authors. The simplest expressions were construed as bearing sinister meanings. These “decipherers” as they were called, made it their trade to interpret names as disguises for great personages thereby libelled. No interpretation seems to have been too far-fetched to involve the writer in trouble. The phrase from Piers Penniles: “I pray you, how might I call you?” was interpreted into a covert attack by Nashe upon one of themselves whose name happened to be “Howe.” Nicholas Breton did not exaggerate when he wrote: “Who doth not find it by experience that points and commas oftentimes misread endanger oft the harmless writer’s head.” The punishments inflicted upon writers unable to prove their innocence were shameful in their severity. If suspects refused to confess the order ran: “You shall by authority hereof put them to torture in Bridewell, and by the extremity thereof draw them to discover their knowledge.” The rack and the Scavenger’s Daughter were used for the torturing of Alexander Briant to extort confession about a secret printing press. [Also see The use of torture.] The Advancement of Learning brought no honour to Bacon from his own countrymen. It was cashiered as an heretical and impertinent piece, and was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Bishop Goodman said that he would have written some reply to it if he “durst have printed it.” It is unnecessary to give further a list of English writers who suffered from the baneful effects of government repression as such a scroll would include the names of practically all our great writers until the concluding years of the seventeenth century.