Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #10: The Sons of Dominic by the Presbytery of Baltimore ©2007

The Presbytery of Baltimore (1812) The Sons of St. Dominic; a Dialogue Between a Protestant and Catholic.

ou think it a great stretch of generosity to acknowledge Leo X. as a great promoter of the sciences, and in particular of biblical learning, because you cannot overlook the share which that immortal Pope and his illustrious family, the Medicis, had in the restoration of letters; because you cannot forget that his name is essentially connected with the beautiful Hebrew Bible of Bomberg, with the Alcala Polyglott, with the new Latin version of the Dominican Sanctus Pagininus, the first made, since the revival of letters, from the Hebrew, and that of Erasmus from the Greek. But Leo X. had inherited that zeal from his predecessors, who constantly held forth every encouragement in their power to the study of the original sources of the Scriptures. From Pope St. Damasus, to whom we are indebted for the Vulgate, (that beautiful translation, made at his request, by St. Jerome on which your most learned authors have bestowed so well deserved encomiums,)* down to Leo X., even in the times most unfavourable to letters, we could adduce numerous instances of their zeal, and their continual appeals on that of Universities and religious societies for promoting and enlivening the study of the Oriental languages.

But was the knowledge of the divine Oracles concealed from the generality of Christians before the reformation? – This inculpation has been a hundred times refuted. We could mention more than forty councils, several of which were ecumenical, inculcating into the ministers of the altar, the sacred obligation, not only of daily resorting to them as to their own daily nourishment, but also of affording to the faithful every opportunity of acquiring a perfect knowledge of them. As to the reading of the Holy Scriptures by the laity, we challenge any one to quote any Ecclesiastical law by which it is generally interdicted; the most that our opponents may object, are some particular regulations adapted to certain times, places, or other circumstances; but which, if impartially examined, would appear perfectly consonant to the dictates of wisdom. The rule of the Index, for example, was published in 1564, in the midst of the strange convulsions occasioned in Europe by that fanatical appeal to an indiscriminate reading of the Scriptures, which the Reformers, after the example of ancient heresiarchs,* used as their principal engine to work up the minds to a general infatuation. We do not hesitate to transcribe it literally; it dreads not the judgment of wise and impartial readers. “Rule iv. among the constitutions of Pius IV. “Whereas experience makes it manifest, that, if the Sacred Writings be indiscriminately permitted to be read in vulgar idioms, many, on account of their rash presumption, derive from it more detriment than utility; let this matter be regulated by the judgment of the Bishop, who, with the advice of the Curate or Confessor of the petitioners, may permit the reading of Catholic versions to those whom he will judge to be so disposed as to receive from it no injury, but rather an increase of faith and piety.”

The wisdom of this provisional regulation, which even never had the character of a general law of the church, and was received only in some particular countries, would undoubtedly be very easily justified. A prudent and enlightened piety can only discover in it that solicitude of a true mother, who withdraws the knife from the hand of her imprudent children, when she dreads their turning it to their own damage, taking upon herself the care of cutting out their food and serving it up to them in a state which exposes them to no inconvenience.

This is very different from an attempt to conceal the Bible from the laity. Who does not know what a number of Latin editions of it were issued immediately after the invention of printing, when Latin was the language most generally used by persons of education? As to versions in vernacular tongues, most nations had their own, before that of Luther was published. Five or six had preceded, in France, the translation of Calvin, who, indeed, did nothing else, as well as his kinsman Olivetan, than adapt to his own opinions the French Catholic Bible of Louvain. The Popes, whilst they endeavoured to restrain that biblical phrenzy, encouraged learned men to publish new Catholic translations in opposition to erroneous ones. The English Bibles of Doway and Rheims were then opposed to those printed in England, where they succeeded one another with wonderful rapidity, and with variations ever adapted to the last opinions in fashion. The last, adopted under James I., becomes now the subject of the most serious discussions; we shall return to it in one moment. In France, besides the several new complete editions of the Bible, approved of and encouraged by the chief Pastors, they multiplied the publications of the most useful parts of it, and of extracts destined to convey what appeared in it best appropriated to general instruction and public prayer, without involving the common class of readers in the intricacies. I had almost said, the occasions of scandal, which some parts of the Bible may offer to weak minds, and on account of which the ancient Synagogue, before the Church, had thought it necessary to enact restrictive laws on their perusal. In other Catholic countries the same means were employed. Restrictions may, according to times and circumstances, have been more or less severe; but the general reproach made against the church on that subject, cannot be more splendidly refuted than by the letter of Pius VI. to the Archbishop of Florence, on the occasion of his Italian version of the Bible, before which, indeed, many others had been published by Bishops and Religious, even from a period anterior to the Reformation: (an imperfect notice of these may be read in the American Encyclopedia.) – The letter is as follows: –

"Pope Pius VI. to &c.

At a time that a vast number of bad books, which most grossly attack the Catholic religion, are circulated, even among the unlearned, to the great destruction of souls, you judge exceedingly well, that the faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures; for, these are the most abundant sources, which ought to be left open to every one, to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are so widely disseminated in these corrupt times. This you have seasonably effected, as you declare, by publishing the Sacred Writings in the language of your country, suitable to every one’s capacity; especially when you shew and set forth, that you have added explanatory notes, which, being extracted from the holy Fathers, preclude every possible danger of abuse: thus you have not swerved from the laws of the Index. &c -- At Rome, on the calends of April, 1778."

The precaution approved of and recommended by the Pope, of adding explanatory notes to the text, offers to the faithful the invaluable assurance of never being led astray by their own spirit, whilst they have, for the meaning of the difficult passages, the authority of that church, who, they well know, will not suffer any translation ever to be put into their hands, which might expose their faith and piety to any danger. How different, in this respect, the situation of dissenting societies! You may read in the Amer. Encyclop. art. Bible, an extract of the reclamations raised against the authorised English translation of James I. by a number of eminent Protestant writers, such as Symonds, Geddes, Campbell, Bishop Newcome, &c.

"Let any competent scholar study the Bible in the original languages, and then pronounce whether our authorised version is not capable of amendment in numberless places, many of which may be considered as very important. Some mistakes, among many that may be deemed small, are so considerable as to deprive Christianity of much self-evidence, and furnish the sceptic with its most formidable weapons. If the faith and practice of illiterate persons, are sometimes affected by the present version, the defects must be rectified.”

We wish much success to the correctors; but let them take care not to suffer themselves to be led farther than they at first might contemplate. The north of Europe, for the last half century, affords them terrible examples of the excesses into which the uncontroled licentiousness of Biblical revisers must ultimately tend. A picture of them may be seen in the History of sects, cited in the Dialogue, Tom. 2. -- By dint of grammatical refinement and sound criticism, men have arrived such a degree, that they see in the Bible nothing more than a moral book, more or less ornamented with metaphors and allegories. Semler, Basedow, Steinbart, &c. reduce J. C. to the simple condition of a human moralist: they assert that dogmas were, from the beginning, only an abuse of figurative expressions; that the Christian religion is only the natural law, accommodated by J. C. to the capacity of the people, &c. -- As early as 1788, professor Muller denounced that unbridled tendency to Socinianism or to Deism; his colleagues answered to him by a torrent of abuse. In 1796, Denis, in his Introduction to the Knowledge of Books, was still more pointed against that disposition of ministers to extricate themselves from the shackles of their creed. – Since the year 1760, the new Exegesis, or Sacred Criticism, has been continually fighting its way, with ever encreasing progress, against what they contemptuously denominate the ancient Orthodoxy, moralising and allegorising every thing in Scripture, and tending to exhibit the new covenant under the light of a second temporary dispensation, which is to disappear, as soon as reason, in its meridian splendour, will dispel from over the world the clouds of Bibliolatry and Christolatry. Such nearly are the expressions of Henke,* Bauer,** Doderlein,*** &c.

Already the new professions, the catechisms themselves adopt the same spirit. – That of Vernes under the title of Catechism, for the use of all Christian communions, which has been lately adopted by the Consistory of the reformed churches in France, has swept off, from the Christian doctrine, the trouble some dogmas of Original Sin, the Trinity, Incarnation, the Eternity of punishments, the Sacraments, &c. – So far has the progress of religious reform already advanced, as certainly not to stop in such a flattering career. Fair specimens of what we may anticipate are daily exhibited to us, even here, in publications, and in discourses delivered from the pulpit, and in conventions. –

Stigian smoake of the pit that is bottomlesse.