The Council of Trent on Suspected and Pernicious Books

Council of Trent (1545–1563).
Canones, et decreta sacrosancti oecumenici et generalis Concilii Tridentini sub Paulo III, Iulio III, Pio IIII., pontificibus max.
Rome: Paulus Manutius, 1564. (19461)

In this first standard edition of the official decrees of the Council of Trent, the necessity of an organized approach to censorship was clearly stated in the summary of the eighteenth Tridentine session:

"It has been noticed that the number of suspected and pernicious books, wherein an impure doctrine is contained and is disseminated far and wide, has in these days increased beyond measure, which indeed has been the reason that many censures have been published out of a godly zeal in diverse provinces, and especially in the fair city of Rome; and yet no salutary remedy has availed against so great and pernicious a disorder; thus, [the Council] has thought it good that Fathers specially chosen for this inquiry shall carefully consider what ought to be done in the matter of censures and of books."