as Jerome lamented in his time, they make common to the garrulous old woman, the doting old man, the wordy sophist, and to all men of every condition, provided only they can read, the art of understanding the Scriptures without an instructor; nay, which is absurdest of all, and almost unheard of, they do not even exclude unbelieving nations from participating in such instruction. 66 6 But, Venerable Brethren, you are not ignorant of the tendency of the proceedings of these societies. For you know full well the exhortation of Peter, the chief of the apostles, recorded in the sacred writings themselves, who, after praising the epistles of Paul, says that there are in them some things difficult to be understood, which they who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction; and immediately adds, You, therefore, my brethren, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, lest, deceived by the error of the foolish, you fall from your own stedfastness. Hence, it is clear to you, that even from the first age of the christian name, this art has been peculiar to heretics; that repudiating the traditionary word of God, and rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church, they either interpolate the Scriptures by hand, or pervert them in the explanation of their meaning. Nor, lastly, are ye ignorant #666 [But Jerome says, "The Lord will speak in the Scriptures of the people, in the Holy Scriptures, which Scripture is read to all the people, with the intent that all may understand it."-Jerome, Com. in Psalm lxxxvii. tom. 7, p. 259. (Parisiis, 1602.) He also says, "But the word of God omits the other things which they spontaneously discover, and feign as it were by an apostolical authority, without the authority and testimony of the Scriptures."-Com. in Aggeum. c. 1, tom. 5, p. 506. These quotations are not given with any intention to refer to the fathers as authorities where the word of God is concerned, but to show that they do not justify papal assumptions.]' how great diligence and wisdom are needed in order to transfer faithfully into another language the words of the Lord: so that nothing is more likely to happen than that in the versions of them multiplied by the Bible Societies, the most grievous errors may be introduced, by the ignorance or fraud of so many interpreters ;* errors which the very multitude and variety of the translations long conceal to the ruin of many.† To those societies, however, it matters liitle or nothing into what errors the persons who read the Bibles translated into the vulgar tongues, may fall, provided they be gradually accustomed to claim for themselves a free judgment of the sense of the Scriptures, to contemn the Divine traditions as taught by the fathers, and preserved in the Catholic church, and even to repudiate the church's direction. "To this end, these members of Bible Societies cease not to calumniate the church and this holy see of Peter, as if it had, for many ages, been endeavouring to keep the believing people from the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures; whilst there exist many and most perspicuous proofs of the earnest desire which, even in recent times, popes, and other Catholic dignitaries under their guidance, have felt, that nations of Catholics might be more carefully instructed in the written and traditionary words of God. To which head belong, in the first place, the decrees of the Council of Trent, in which not only is it enjoined on bishops, to provide for the more [It is hardly necessary to speak of the earnest endeavours of the Bible Society to procure faithful translations from the Hebrew and Greek originals.'] ↑ "The perversions and interpolations introduced by the church of Rome into its translations are well known. See the accounts of the Bourdeaux version, 1686, in particular. See Cramp's Text Book of Popery, 1839, p. 57. One specimen may suffice-" As they offered to the Lord the sacrifice of the mass," is the reading of Acts xiii. 2.' frequent announcement through each diocese of the sacred Scriptures and the Divine law, but enlarging the enactment of the Latteran Council, it is moreover provided, that in each church, whether cathedral or collegiate, of cities and considerable towns, there should be a theological prebend, which should be conferred solely on persons capable of expounding and interpreting the sacred Scripture. Respecting the subsequent constitution of the theological prebend on the plan of the above Tridentine enactment, and respecting the lectures to be delivered by the theological canon to the clergy, and even to the people, steps were taken in several provincial synods, particularly in the Roman Council of the year 1725, to which Benedict XIII., our predecessor of happy memory, had convened not only the sacred dignitaries of the Roman province, but also several of the archbishops, bishops, and other local ordinaries, under the immediate authority of this holy see. The same pontiff made several provisions with the same design, in the apostolical letters which he issued specifically for Italy and the adjacent islands. To you too, Venerable Brethren, who at stated periods have been accustomed to report to the apostolic see, upon the condition of sacred affairs in your respective dioceses, it is manifest, from the replies again and again given by our " Congregation of Council," to your predecessors, or to yourselves, how this holy see is wont to congratulate bishops, if they have theological prebendaries ably discharging their duty in the delivery of public lectures on the sacred writings, and never ceases to excite and assist their pastoral anxieties, if anywhere the matter has not succeeded to their wishes. "With regard, however, to Bibles translated into the vulgar tongues, it was the case even many centuries since, that in various places the holy dignitaries were obliged at times to exercise increased vigilance, when they discovered that versions of this sort were either read in secret conventicles, or were actively distributed by heretics. To this refer the admonitions and cautions issued by Innocent III., our predecessor of glorious memory, concerning assemblies of laics and women secretly held in the diocese of Metz, under a pretence of piety, for reading the Scriptures; and also the peculiar prohibitions of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, which we find to have been issued in France soon after; and in Spain previous to the sixteenth century. But greater precaution was needed afterwards, when the Lutheran and Calvinist Non-Catholics,* venturing to assail with an almost incredible variety of errors the unchangeable doctrine of the faith, left no means untried, to deceive the minds of the faithful by perverted explanations of the Scriptures, and by new translations of them into vulgar tongues, edited by their adherents. The lately discovered art of printing assisted them in multiplying and speedily spreading copies. Accordingly we read in the rules drawn up by the fathers chosen by the Council of Trent, approved by Pius IV., our predecessor of happy memory, and prefixed to the Index of Prohibited Books, a provision of general application that Bibles published in the vulgar tongue, should be allowed to no persons but those to whom the reading of them was judged likely to be productive of an increase of faith and piety.† To this rule, afterwards rendered more stringent, owing to the pertinacious frauds of the heretics, a declaration was at last attached by the authority of Benedict XIV., that the perusal of "Acatholici.' + "[See the preceding remarks.]' 66 6 + [The power of giving permission to read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was altogether withdrawn! And thus, the rule was made more stringent; and in this state it continued for more than 160 years!]' S such versions may be considered permitted, as have been published with the approbation of the apostolic see, or with annotations taken from the holy fathers of the Church or from learned and catholic men.t Meanwhile there were not wanting new sectaries of the Jansenist school, who, in a style borrowed from the Lutherans and Calvinists, scrupled not to reprehend these wise provisions of the Church and the apostolic see, as if the reading of the Scriptures were useful and necessary to every class of the faithful, at every time and in every place, and therefore could not be forbidden to any one by any authority whatever. This audacity of the Jansenists, however, we find severely reprehended in the solemn judgments which, with the applause of the whole Catholic world, were delivered against their doctrines by two popes of happy memory, viz. Clement XI., in the bull Unigenitus, of the year 1713; and Pius VI., in the bull Auctorem Fidei, of the year 1794. "Thus, therefore, before Bible Societies were formed, by means of the above decrees of the Church the faithful had been fortified against the stratagem of the heretics, which lies concealed under the specious plan of spreading the Holy Scriptures for general use. Pius VII., however, our predecessor of glorious memory, in whose time those societies arose, and who found that they were making great progress, failed not to oppose their endeavours, partly through his apostolic # 66 6 [Not permitted to all indiscriminately, but to such only as have licences to read them.]' 66 6 ተ [No version with the approbation of the apostolic see has ever yet been published in any language upon earth; not even in Italian ! Bibles with notes, therefore, are alone permitted to be read; (by none, however, without a licence ;) and in Rome, the only Bibles with notes are Martini's, in 25 small vols., and another in 15 vols. folio.]' |
