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Show DR. DE COSTA ON THE CUSTOM OF CHAINING BIBLES. Dr. De Costa, in the Catholic World Magazine for August, tells the story of the chained Bible at Erfurt in 1507: "No doubt that there was a chained Bible at Erfurt in 1507. Chained Bibles were found 200 years later, as chained directories are seen today in hotels. The Preface of the pre'-Luther German Bibles stated that the book was 'for the use of unlettered simple folk, lay and spiritual.' They were quoted freely free-ly in sermons; and when Luther's edition edi-tion appeared, Zwingle, a fellow-reformer, charged Luther with changing and mutilating the Word of God, which was deliberately done in the King James translation, as the revised edition edi-tion now shows. Much of Luther's translation was plagiarized. "The Bible was published in Rome before Luther was born, as well as in cities like Naples and Florence. The Popes contributed to get the Bible into circulation. In France and Spain many editions appeared, and it is estimated that 300,000 Bibles were in circulation when Luther 'discovered' the Bible in 1507. In 1311 Pope Clement had ordered or-dered the establishment of professorships professor-ships for the study of the Sacred Word; and Pius VI., in 1778, congratulated the Archbishop of Florence on his success In placing the Scriptures in the hands of the people in their own tongue, as the Scriptures 'ought to be left open to every one.'' The history of the Popes is a history of Bible advancement. Adam Clarke, the celebrated Methodist commentator, declared that the Benedictine Bene-dictine Calmet's was, 'without exception, excep-tion, the best commentary on the Sacred Sa-cred Writings ever published, either by Catholics or Protestants.' "Something like the facts of the case was recognized by an Anglican clergyman clergy-man at a recent missionary conference in New York. It was admitted that the giving of the Scriptures to the people peo-ple in their own language was the policy pol-icy of the Church down to the sixteenth century,, but that the Council of Trent, in 1546, took 'a fatal position' in opposition oppo-sition to the Scriptures. Here is another an-other of those falsehoods endowed with perennial youth. It is a case calling for a companion picture to that by Ward. We should have now 'the Chaining of the Bible at Trent.' " |