Censura gubernativa, Iglesia e inquisición en el siglo XVIII

Abstract

Government censorship in Eighteenth Century Spain was another means of the Spanish Enlightenment policy. Until mid-century both powers of Church and State were balanced; from Charles Ill's reign on the censorship of the Consejo de Castilla tried to control and restrict not only the traditional power of the Inquisition, but also the intellectual output of the country, either ideological —criticism on the Crown's policy— or cultural-publishing religious works. It is important to notice that many members of the clergy collaborated with the State in that task; and also that, after the French Revolution, the Inquisition regained its previous role. In the last decade of the Seventeenth century the irreconcilable clash between the advocates and the critics of the Inquisition became evident.