Untitled - Monoskop

GRANT OF PRIVILEGE AND PERMISSION TO PRINT
Poncher, who had succeeded him as bishop of Paris, took exception to the
Preamble of a book on the seven penitential psalms, which they regarded as a
personal attack on themselves. The author, Geoffroy Boussard, was an old
and respected theologian in the College of Navarre, a former chancellor of the
church and University of Paris, and the present Dean of the Faculty of
Theology. In the Preamble, which took the form of a prayer to Christ,
Boussard denounced certain abuses rife in the church, among them the
plurality of benefices, of which the Ponchers were undeniably a glaring
example. Poncher's expostulations to the Faculty, which had evidently passed
the book as orthodox, had little result, 1 and he transferred his attack to the
Parlement, which had granted the publisher, Jean Olivier, a privilege for it
(PA 1522, 4). The Parlement sent for Olivier forthwith and questioned him
as to who had given him the Preamble and whether it had been added after the
grant of the privilege. Eventually
the Ponchers won their case in the
Parlement against Boussard, 2 and the Parlement was clearly anxious to claim
that, in granting a privilege for the book as a whole, it had not given its
approval to the offending Preamble. Had Boussard or his publisher really
slipped the Preamble in afterwards, whether deliberately or out of carelessness?
3 Or was the Parlement saving its face, in maintaining that it had not
included the Preamble in the privilege, having possibly assumed in reality
that something written by the Dean of the Faculty required no serious
scrutiny or that criticisms of the plurality of benefices were fair comment? . . .
Up to 1521, the Parlement treated applications for books on religion no
differently from those on any other subject. As has been seen, it had most of
the books submitted to it examined by a person of its own choice, and this
might on occasion call for the advice of a theologian. Henceforth the task of
determining whether a religious book was orthodox or not was the responsibility
of the Faculty of Theology or its representatives. An imprimatur horn the
Faculty did not, however, in itself entitle the applicant to be granted a
privilege, or constitute a condition for being granted one. The first publisher
known to have printed his visa from the Faculty of Theology verbatim in the
book concerned, as well as his Parlement privilege, was Claude Chevallon,
bringing out the fourteenth-century Reductorium morale of Pierre Bersuire
(PA 1522, 3).
It is evident from the terms of the visa that his first move was to
obtain the privilege from the Parlement in the usual way. Only then did he
submit the book to the Faculty, showing them the requete which he had made
to the Parlement and the reply of the Parlement. The Faculty appointed two
of its members, Noel Beda and Guillaume de Quercu, to act as censors, and
1
J.-A. Clerval, Registre des pro^es-verbaux de la Faculte de Theologie de Paris, i, 1505-1523 (1917),
327-3 > 337-8, notes 32, 33.
2 AN x i A 1525, ff. 23, 1 13, 185, 238 V .
3 The Preamble is printed in the first gathering of the book, as part of the 'prelims' (which would
be printed last), the main text beginning further on; but this is not conclusive, as it could be
regarded as part of the prefatory material.
I IO