Censor In Rome a magistrate who took  the census of record or "the people and their property. There were two censors, and they were first appointed in 443 B.C. Gradually other powers were given to them. They began to look after the finances, to care for the temples and to forbid practices regarded as harmful to the State.

      For long the Church had a censorship of books, and to-day the Roman Catholic Church has censors who place books they regard as harmful on the Index. In Great Britain there is no censorship of literature or of the Press; but persons can be punished for publishing indecent or libellous matter. There is a censor­ship of the theatre and no play can be publicly produced unless it has been passed by the examiner of plays. There is a film censorship by an unofficial body appointed by the trade. In 1928 the Irish Free State set up a board of censors with power to forbid the publication of anything considered immoral. In time of war censors are invariably appointed and all written and printed matter must be submitted to them before being published. Letters from the seat of war are also censored.