Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 84

THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY AND THE BIBLE (Part 2)

The Bible was meant by God for all persons seeking salvation. It was not until the general reading of the Bible was found to interfere with the claims of the papacy that the Hierarchy discovered in the people's study of the Bible "perils for the common mind". Hence it has been, not the guardian, but the suppressor of the Bible.

In 1229 the Council of Toulouse (France) "forbids the laity to have in their possession any copy of the books of the Old and New Testament, except the Psalter, and such portions of them as are contained in the Breviary, or the Hours of the Virgin; and most strictly forbids these works in the vulgar tongue". In 1242 the Council of Tarragona (Spain) condemned the Waldenses who made the first French Bible translation, ordering vernacular versions brought to the bishop to be burnt. "Ten Rules Concerning Prohibited Books" were drawn up by order of the Council of Trent in 1562, and approved by Pope Pius IV. They allowed versions of the "Old Testament" "only to pious and learned men at the discretion of the bishop"; and, "if the sacred books be permitted in the vulgar tongue indiscriminately, more harm than utility arises therefrom."

In 1687 the French priest, Quesnel, brought out a translation called the "New Testament in French, with Moral

Reflections". Its notes urged Bible study for all. In 1713 Pope Clement XI's bull entitled Unigenitus was directed against Quesnel's translation and its notes, condemning 101 propositions from it. Here was direct proof, by an "infallible" pope, that the Hierarchy hides the Bible from the people.

With the nineteenth century came the Bible societies, in Great Britain (1804), Germany (1806), Switzerland (1812), Finland (1812), Russia (1813), Holland (1813), Sweden (1814), Denmark (1814), Norway (1815), France (1818), and the United States (1808). Such societies reached a climax in 1884 with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the most faithful upholder and publisher of God's Word, and the most bitterly opposed today by the Hierarchy. Such Bible movement mightily alarmed the Vatican Hierarchy, and ordinances or encyclicals followed.

From the bull of Pius VII, issued June 12, 1816, to the primate of Poland, we quote: "... remedy and abolish this pestilence as far as possible. . . . The Bible printed by heretics is to be numbered among prohibited books, conformably to the rules of the INDEX [Expurgatorius]"

The same pope, in 1819, issued his "infallible" bull against the use of the Scriptures in the schools of Ireland. It says: "Information has reached the ears of the sacred congregation that Bible Schools, supported by the funds of the heterodox, have been established in almost every part of Ireland; in which the inexperienced of both sexes are invested with the fatal poison of depraved doctrine. . . . Do you labor with all your might to keep the orthodox youth from being corrupted by them —an object which will, I hope, be easily effected by the establishment of Catholic schools throughout your diocese."

Pope Pius VII thus disclosed the Hierarchy's real aim in setting up parochial schools in Great Britain and America, namely, to keep Catholic youth from getting their eyes opened to the Hierarchy's un-Scriptural claims and practices.

Later, in 1825, Leo XII said in a bull to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland: "It is no secret to you, venerable brethren, that a certain society, vulgarly called the Bible Society, is audaciously dispreading itself through the whole world. . . . This society has collected all its forces, and directs every means to one object: —to the translation, or rather to the perversion, of the Bible into the vernacular languages of all nations."

Still later Pope Pius IX expressed anguish of heart at the scattering of the written Word of God, saying, "Accursed be those very crafty and deceitful societies called Bible Societies, which thrust the Bible into the hands of the inexperienced youth."

In 1886, at the Roman Catholic Plenary Council of Baltimore (Maryland, U.S.A.), presided over by James Cardinal Gibbons, it was decreed that an approved Bible should be permitted in Catholic schools of the United States. It was not actually the Bible that was wanted in the schools, but merely a display of liberty to have it there. Such arms American Catholics with the argument that they are not forbidden the Bible. We have yet to hear of the Bible as being in the parochial schools and readings made therefrom.

In certain editions of the Douay Bible version one will find (toward the front) communications from several popes, which grant indulgences of so many days from "Purgatorial" suffering to Catholics making a daily reading of such edition of the Holy Scriptures. The evidence is that few members of that sect heed such encouragement, even if possessing a copy of said Bible. Catholic Bible editions are accompanied by footnotes which give the clergy explanation on touchy Scripture verses, which it would be a "sin" for the Catholic reader to ignore.

By claiming to be the sole interpreter of the Scriptures the Hierarchy keeps a tight rein on even such Catholics as it grants the privilege to read its approved Bible version. Said a Toledo (Ohio) priest in a sermon in February, 1943:

"The Catholic Church made the Bible; she has preserved it; and she interprets it. Others may read the Holy Scriptures —and they are urged to do so —but beyond this they have no right whatever in regard to it. Almighty God has placed this precious heritage exclusively in the hands of his Catholic church." (Toledo Blade, March 1, 1943) Thus it is argued that the Bible is an authority only in Catholic hands. In other words, 'You cannot trust what you read for yourself in the Bible; your powers of reason dare not be active while reading it.' The argument is that there must be an infallible earthly authority to interpret the Bible, and that authority is the Roman Catholic sect.

From the foregoing survey of history it is definitely proved that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the deadly foe of the truth of the Holy Bible; that it endeavored to conceal the Bible truth from the people by letting it lie hid under the shroud of dead languages; that only when forced to it by the production of the Bible by other hands and its circulation in popular languages did the Hierarchy allow for the translation of the Scriptures in the people's vernacular, and that only by Catholic authorities and with Hierarchy approbation; and that the readers of the Scriptures may draw no conclusions from the Scriptures themselves except in harmony with the traditions and rule of the Hierarchy.