nacular translations. hibition is not absolute but relative. Relative prohibitions of this kind are nothing but a prudent circumspection against unfaithful versions, and that arbitrary interpretation which opens the way to errors of every kind; against the practice of exposing the inspired word without direction to the inexperience of youth and the intemperance of a corrupt imagination by which the sacred books, whose nature demands maturity of mind and purity of heart, are productive of great evil."*

For it is manifest that her pro

When these facts are taken into consideration, the action of the Catholic Church is fully explained, and has been even approved by candid Protestants. "It is," says Archbishop Spalding, "plainly a slander to assert that she forbids the reading of the Scriptures." Translations and expositions have been published in every country, and are easy of access to all who seek them. "In the United States Catholics have published at least as many editions of the Bible as any Protestant sect. These have appeared in every form, and may be had in every Catholic bookstore in the country, and are in the possession of most Catholic families."+

3. It seems now almost superfluous to reply at any

* Abauzit ap. Perrone, II. 1193.

+ Archbishop Spalding, I. 306.

length to the third pretence of the Reformers, that the whole system of the Catholic faith was built upon the ignorance of the Scriptures.

The argument of these lectures will show how plainly the inspired word supports the creed of the Church, and how the only existing infallible witness of truth maintains the inspiration of the sacred text. The Holy See would have had no motive to keep in darkness the Bible, which, according to its judgment, sustains by divine authority all its claims. And this interpretation, in accordance with Catholic tradition, is the uniform voice of all Christian antiquity. "Learn also diligently," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, A.D. 345, "and from the Church, which are the books of the Old Testament and which of the New, and read not to me anything of the uncertain books. Those only meditate on earnestly which we read confidently even in the Church. Far wiser than thou, and more devout, were the apostles and ancient bishops, the rulers of the Church, who have handed them down. Take thou and hold, as a learner, and in profession, that faith only which is now delivered to thee by the Church and sustained by all the Scripture.” * "To whom," says Tertullian, A.D. 195, "belongs the very faith? Whose are the Scriptures? By whom, and

* St. Cyril, Catech., §§ 33, 35.

through whom, and when, and to whom was that discipline delivered whereby men become Christians? For wherever the true Christian rule and faith shall be shown, there will be the true Scriptures, and the true expositions, and all the true Christian traditions." Every doctrine of the Catholic Church denied by Protestants has been the ancient and unchanging doctrine of the Christian fathers, who in their controversies with heretics have always appealed to the testimony of the Scriptures.

What we have already said confutes the accusation of wilful ignorance; as we have abundantly shown that the Church in every way encouraged the knowledge and study of the inspired word, which she preserved and delivered unto the successive ages of men. In real understanding of the Scriptures and devout study of their meaning the days before the Reformation far exceed our own; and of the learning and profundity of the great writers of the middle age every scholar must stand in admiration. They are the fountains of thought from which we must draw, for the comprehension of the spirit and letter of the sacred text. "The religious of the middle ages gave their whole life to the labor of copying and translating the Bible into the vulgar tongues of various na

* Tertullian, "De Præscr.," n. 15.

tions, that the unlearned might become the readers of the word of God. In the cloister they studied the Scriptures and elucidated them by their careful commentaries; in their schools they taught their pupils to understand them; in the universities their lectures embodied the results of their zealous studies and prayerful meditations; in their liraries the Bible lay open to the search of all who sought to scan the sacred record; in their churches Bibles were placed for the use of the laity, and concordances attached to facilitate their researches; when they mounted the pulpit it was to inculcate upon their hearers the duty of reading and meditating upon the Scriptures, and to preach those noble sermons which are gemmed with quotations from the inspired writings, and in which the language and imagery of Scripture appear in every line. No sooner had human skill devised a means of book-multiplication, whose rapidity of action surpassed the boldest dream of the ancient copyists, than they engaged at once its co-operation, and caused the Bible to issue in vast abundance from the press, in almost every tongue spoken in the Christian world." *

If it be still said that the Catholic Church is opposed to the diffusion of the Bible, there can be no

* Buckingham, p. 69.

chance of persuading those who are determined to believe a lie. Yet weak must be the cause which rests upon the propagation of falsehood.

If it be said that the Church opposes the action of modern Protestant Bible societies as dangerous to faith and morals, the answer is obvious. She opposes the circulation of any version not approved and examined by her pastors. And she objects in the strongest terms to the principle maintained by these associations, that the circulation of the Scriptures, without note or explanation, is the proper way to evangelize the world. Of this principle and its results we shall have more to say when we speak of the Protestant use of the word of God. Let the tree be judged by its fruits, and the principle by its effects.

Before closing this lecture we will, however, refer for a moment to the fact that the triumph of the Reformation led to the restriction of the Scriptures. The statute of Henry VIII. of England enacted that "no women not of gentle or noble birth, nor journeymen, artificers, or apprentices, should read the Bible or the New Testament in English, to themselves or others, openly or privately." And even Martin Luther, with all his inconsistencies, pays this tribute to the Church: "It was an effect of God's power that in the Papacy should have remained the text of the holy