Wise Owl Wednesday #2 :: History of Censorship :: Part Two

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** Welcome to my new weekly feature, Wise Owl Wednesday, where you can butter up your brain with some children's literature facts - history, milestones, trivia ... stop by here to learn a little something about the amazing world of books for the young! **

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In honor of Banned Books Week (Sept. 25 - Oct. 2, 2010), I thought I would share the history of literary censorship.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did!!

Milestones in the History of Censorship (Part Two):

1497 - Works of Ovid and Dante were burned in Florence.
1559 - The Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquistion published the first Index of Forbidden Books, which were books thought to be dangerous to the morality of the Roman Catholic faith.  This publication was abandoned in 1996.
1624 - The Bible, translated by Martin Luther in 1534, was burned in Germany.
1660 - Charles II of England ordered that the Council for Foreign Plantations instruct natives, servants, and slaves of the British colonies in the precepts of Christianity by teaching them to read.  British slave owners, however, feared that literate slaves might find enlightening revolutionary ideas in books.
1683 - John Locke escaped from England to Holland because his theory of civil, religious, and philosophical liberty was considered too radical.

Source:  Through the Eyes of A Child: An Introduction to Children's Literature (5th Edition) by Donna E. Norton, copyright 1999 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.