As regards Christian destruction, the apologist "Bede" posits:
"The Theodosian Code, a law book that collects all the Imperial Decrees and was published by Theodosius II in the early fifth century is quite explicit that the writings of certain heretics should be destroyed. Likewise, we find Pope Leo the Great ordering the burning of Manichean writings in Rome after he had found how far they had penetrated into his church. There can be no doubt that heretical Christian texts were lost in this way although the scale of destruction would have been quite modest. The idea of huge pyres of manuscripts burning in a city square is pure myth. Most heretical works perished due to neglect in that after they wore out there was no one left to copy them. Heretics would not have been able to afford expensive and long lasting vellum for their books so would instead have had to rely on fragile papyrus that simply does not last." [be]
In short, it is argued that the loss of pagan works is more due to the vagaries of time than to deliberate and systematic actions of the Church.
This censorship was not always effective, but it clearly had a major impact on both the survival of pagan and other "heretical" literature and culture, and freedom of thought in the Christian world. Few pagan works survive from early Roman collections [jf] and the Catholic Church did not abandon it's official Index of Prohibited Books until 1966 [de p260]. (Even Church fathers like Tertullian did not escape censure! [cc])
Finally, while it is clearly true that what pagan works do exist owe their survival to the efforts of enlightened Christian scholars, this was often done in the face of strict prohibition by the Church [de p361].
