# The Holy See ceases the Index of Forbidden Books as a binding list

Date: 1966

## The fact

On 14 June 1966 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith notified that the Index no longer had the force of ecclesiastical law. [Machiavelli](/people/niccolo-machiavelli)’s name left a live prohibition list he never saw.

## Context

Abolition is a church-policy act centuries after 1559. It restores lawful Catholic access to a corpus; it does not undo 1576 slogans or 1924 Fascist praise.

Niccolò Machiavelli is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official or archival pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — historical Index competence (https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/index.htm; Holy See).

## Significance

Knowledge-access gain of the 1966 notification. High confidence on the policy change.

Knowledge-access gain of the 1966 notification. High confidence on the policy change.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is edu-[digital-learning-access](/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Niccolo Machiavelli: https://factrail.ai/people/niccolo-machiavelli

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/index.htm
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/mc-index-abolished-1966