A council of the Roman Catholic Church held in Trent, Italy, from 1545-1563. The Council of Trent is often referred to as the Counter-Reformation, and it was created specifically to stop the progress of the Protestant Reformation. Like the Spanish Inquisition, the Council of Trent rooted out heretics of the Catholic Church (i.e. Protestants), and they, too, had a hand in censoring and suppressing books. The Council created the Index of Prohibited Books, which listed texts that Catholics were forbidden to read. Milton refers to the Council of Trent multiple times in Areopagitica, and he implies that Parliament’s Licensing Order of 1643 is just as oppressive as the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent Quotes in Areopagitica
The Areopagitica quotes below are all either spoken by The Council of Trent or refer to The Council of Trent. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Areopagitica
Quotes
We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient state, or polity, or church, nor by any statute left us by our ancestors elder or later; nor from the modern custom of any reformed city or church abroad; but from the most antichristian council, and the most tyrannous inquisition that ever enquired. Till then books were ever as freely admitted into the world as any other birth: the issue of the brain was no more stifled than the issue of the womb: no envious Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man’s intellectual offspring; but if it proved a monster, who denies, but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into the sea
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The Council of Trent Term Timeline in Areopagitica
The timeline below shows where the term The Council of Trent appears in Areopagitica. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Areopagitica
...“Christians.” Books they believed to be heretical “were examined, refuted and condemned in the general councils,” and only then were books “prohibited or burnt by authority of the emperor.” Early councils...
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...the papal court to a stricter policy of prohibiting.” This continued, and the Council of Trent and the Spanish Inquisition “together brought forth or perfected those catalogues and expurging indexes that...
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...ancient state, or policy, or church.” Licensing can be found only in “the most antichristian council, and the most tyrannous inquisition that ever enquired.” Up to that point, books were “freely...
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...is not to be “deficient, ye must reform it perfectly according to the model of Trent and Seville, which I know ye abhor to do,” Milton says.
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