An appendix listed prohibited editions of the Bible, specifying that all translations in common tongues were forbidden.

Although local bans had previously been in effect, “with these provisions affecting all of Catholicism, the church made its first official pronouncement against printing, reading, and possessing the Holy Book in the vernacular,” according to Gigliola Fragnito, a teacher of modern history at the University of Parma, Italy.

Prepared by the Congregation of the Index and promulgated by Clement VIII in March 1596, the Index was blocked at the request of the Holy Office until such time as it was made more peremptory in banning all Bible reading in the tongues of common people.

The Bible in Common Languages

The history of the Index reveals that of all “infected books,” one in particular worried ecclesiastical authorities​—the Bible in the common tongue. In the 16th century, “approximately 210 editions of whole Bibles or New Testaments” were listed by the Indexes, explains specialist Jesús Martinez de Bujanda. During the 16th century, Italians were known as enthusiastic readers of the Bible. Yet, the Index, with its rigorous prohibition of the Scriptures in the vernacular, radically altered this nation’s relationship with God’s Word. “Forbidden and removed as a source of heresy, in the minds of Italians the Holy Scriptures ended up being confused with the writings of heretics,” says Fragnito, who adds: “The way of salvation for Catholic populations of southern Europe was through the catechism,” and “a childish people was preferred to a religiously mature people.”

Only in 1757 did Pope Benedict XIV authorize the reading of ‘vernacular translations of the Bible approved by the Apostolic See.’