La Censure d'Alfred Loisy (1903): Les Documents des Congrégations de l'Index et du Saint Office (review)

In December 1903, the Holy See formally condemned five books by Alfred Loisy. After much negotiation, Loisy submitted to the judgment against his works, but neither Loisy himself nor the Holy See considered the issues resolved. Four years later, Pope Pius X issued a syllabus and then encyclical identifying the chief errors of the modernists. This time, Loisy refused to submit, and he was excommunicated the following year.

Now, thanks to La Censure d'Alfred Loisy, scholars can read for themselves the nine documents of the official investigation that resulted in the condemnation of Loisy's books. The documents are well annotated, and helpful introductions to the volume provide a narrative context. The first introduction, by Claus Arnold, tells the story of the inner workings of the Congregation of the Index. The second introduction, by Giacomo Losito, describes the campaign of French antimodernists to engineer Loisy's condemnation.

Concern about Loisy's work dated back at least to 1893, in Rome as well as in France, but the formal investigation of his publications began in earnest in 1901. The Congregation of the Index initially concentrated on Loisy's "La Religion D'Israel" ("The Religion of Israel," 1900); four of the eight vota were dedicated to it. Of these, vota by David Fleming and Enrico Gismondi recommended against condemnation, while Laurent Janssens and Raphael Merry del Val argued for condemnation.

Early in the process, Loisy's defenders expected a favorable decision. But Louis Billot denounced Loisy's L'Évangile et l'Église (Paris, 1902) and was then invited to submit a formal votum on the new book. Not realizing the full danger, Gismondi defended Loisy's new book with a short votum. Made aware of Billot's hostile votum, Gismondi then submitted a second votum on L'Évangile et l'Église, which was extremely long and not particularly effective. Finally, Pie de Langogne produced an equally long Relatio surveying the arguments of the vota and offering his own (negative) commentary on the five of Loisy's books that were eventually placed on the Index.

Throughout this process, antimodernists in France pressed for Loisy's condemnation. Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne, archbishop of Paris, played a pivotal role in the first stages, but other members of the French hierarchy—particularly Charles François Turinaz and Adolphe Perraud—were also active. The story told in the two introductions and the documents themselves contributes much to our understanding of antimodernism, highlighting three aspects.

First, the movement that led to the indexing of Loisy's books in 1903 significantly predated the publication of his most famous work, L'Évangile et l'Église. But for L'Évangile et l'Église, Loisy's French opponents might not have succeeded in the condemnation of Loisy's works. Still, "The Religion of Israel" was the catalyst for their efforts.

Second, the political situation in France was not a significant consideration in the Roman response to Loisy's work before 1903. When Turinaz publicly attacked L'Évangile et l'Église in 1902, many conservative Catholics in France, including Cardinal Richard, feared the consequences of dividing a Church faced with an anticlerical government in France. But other French antimodernists believed the doctrinal issues at stake were too important to ignore, and the Roman Congregations apparently concurred.

Finally, the volume highlights the central role of Billot in the condemnation of Loisy's books, and annotations on his votum demonstrate its impact on Pius's eventual syllabus condemning modernist propositions.

For these and many other insights, students of modernism can be grateful for the publication of this volume.