La messa all’Indice delle opere di Henry More (1695-1697)

Between 1695 and 1703 the Congregation for the Index examined and banned Henry More’s Opera omnia (1675-1679). Platonic, in favor of Copernicanism and modern science, Anglican of religion and anti-papist in politics, More provided many reasons for suspicion in the eyes of the Roman censors. Platonism, perceived in itself as a threat to the hegemony of scholastic culture, was combined in More with elements of the magical-hermetic and Kabbalistic tradition, which the Church had in part already censored in Italian philosophers inspired by that same tradition. This essay analyzes the first two of the five assessments that were composed by Index censors and that led to the condemnation of More’s works. Of these unpublished texts, the transcript is given in the appendix.