People feared that the development of print could lead to the growth of dissenting ideas because print and popular literature encouraged many distinctive interpretations of religious faith and ideas.

Menocchio, a miller in Italy, gave a new interpretation of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation which made the Roman Catholic Church angry. As a result, he was executed when the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas.

Troubled by such an incident, the Roman Catholic Church imposed severe controls over publishers and book-sellers, and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.