Page:The Roman index of forbidden books.djvu/34

26 and, if necessary, condemnation of books. The new Congregation of the Index of Forbidden Books was planned and devised by St. Pius V in 1571, and was formally established in the following year by his successor, Gregory XIII. Henceforward the Holy Office confined its activity concerning objectionable books to the most important cases, as when, in 1903, it proscribed the works of the French priest Loisy, which practically denied the supernatural character of Holy Writ.

But the bulk of the work was performed by the Congregation of the Index, from which indeed more than eighty percent of all prohibitions of individual books have emanated. This Congregation consisted of seven or ten cardinals with about thirty consultors, many of whom were bishops. Besides passing on books which were submitted to it for decision, it also had to register all condemnations pronounced by either the Holy Office or the Pope himself, and to see that they were duly entered in the new editions of the Index.