Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-335) and index
"That great and immoderate liberty of lying" -- The index and the English -- Roman law -- The Christian transmission of Roman law Iniuria -- The law of all civility -- Defendents' rights and poetic justice -- Hermeneutics, history, and the delegitimation of censorship -- Intent -- Ideological censorship
"In this study of the reciprocities binding religion, politics, law, and literature, Debora Shuger offers a profoundly new history of early modern English censorship, one that bears centrally on issues still current: the rhetoric of ideological extremism, the use of defamation to ruin political opponents, the grounding of law in theological ethics, and the terrible fragility of public spheres."--Jacket
