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Show BISHOP GRIMES Church Jealously Guards Scriptures. Hold Highest Rank in Her Councils. Distinguished Distin-guished Convert Says Catholic Liturgy and Sacrifice of Mass Taken From Scriptures. Scrip-tures. Foolish Writing's as to Scarcity of Bibles. Distinguished Writers Show h the Fallacy. To Miy that the Catholic Church over undcr-Yfth"'1' undcr-Yfth"'1' 'he Bible is a fallacy as wickedly asserted Jt: it is false, lias she not always taught that it is i,ne ,f the two groat sources of revealed truth from Mie derives the materials of her faith and leaching ' Has she no1 solemnly declared that we (.uiii'it lie irue children of the Church aye, that Vl I'iinii'it lie saved except we love and revere the Jlil.ii- .mimI every part of the Bible as the word of i;,,,! llimef f Did she not. for centuries before : tiic invention of printing- order-thousands of her 0!inie.l nnd holiest priests and monks to spend tlieir livo in translating and transcribing; the Bible from ihe learned languages in which it was iirst jrf iiiu-'l. and this in letters of gold and on costliest ii!ivhiiient and most elaborate binding, which is tveii. now-a-days. the admiration of all who have Men them in the Vatican, the British Museum and ether preat libraries of Europe I In her great councils coun-cils ine not the Bible always hold the place of holier before the Altar of God in the midst of the ji.eiii!iy of her Cardinals and Patriarchs, Bishops, Algols nnd Priests ? At every solemn Mass is not the P.oek of (tospels borne in procession to a place ..f holier in the sanctuary, surrounded by lighted lurches, incensed with hallowed fire, and during the hiding of the Gospel do not. all high and low, young win! old. stand up with the deepest reverence, whilst hi the end it is kissed by the Pontiff or Prelate or Friesi who presides? Did she not. as soon as printing print-ing was invented, employ it to spread abroad the S.irred Scriptures ; Docs she not oblige everyone ef her Nicred ministers, under pain of mortal sin, to devoie mere than an hour every day to the reading read-ing ef the Bible by the recitation of the Divine One. lii sides bis morning meditation, his daily Mass and I iriva;e studies, which constantly bring the Bible I lief ore his mind and his heart? Where will you I tii:d Catholics treating the word of God with aught I hefleriiig on disrespect? Are they ever known to iwe the page of the Bible to vTap up articles of i-niiii'ieree? Never will they employ them for pro-fmi". pro-fmi". much les for vile or degrading purposes. Sneaking of ihe marvellous manner in which the Catholic Church knows how to weave the Holy Writing in her Liiurgyj a distinguished convert, the hit e (.'anon Oakley, says: ''rho. who charge the Church with neglect of the Holy Scriptures have hut little notion of the iover with 'which she brings its sacred contents to 1'ejir upon the illustration of every subject relating t" the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the de-rii!'l!"-nt of external worship. It' is not too much 1" -ny that the Bible assumes a new character as seen ih rough ibis medium, and that if any form ei public worship in existence deserve the epithet ef Scriptural more than another, it is the Catholic Liturgy. Besides the Epistles and Gospels pre-seii!,f.,i pre-seii!,f.,i f,,r daily use. the Introit. Offertory and Communion of the Holy Mass are usually taken ' from Scripture, and bring, as it were, to a point thoe doctrinal and moral truths which would other-' wi-e bear but a ireneral application. It has also I " en ihe jjory (if the Catholic Church to exhibit hi ihe P.rcviary. and other of her office books, the J iiKii vellous versatility of the Psalms. In that treas ury of devotional riches, the Church rinds ma-i' ma-i' rials f..r u- illustration of ' every subject which -oiin- witin'n the scope of her teaching. Let the :e! r call to mind the Matins of the three latter "" - ef Holy Week, or of the Feasts of Pentecost Corpus Christi, or again, the Office of the fie,. Xiie same subject might still further be illustrated il-lustrated from the offices of the Pontifical, among '"hieh may refer more particularly to that for i: consecration of a church; a specimen of lit-jirgical lit-jirgical power of which it may almost be said that i alone sufficient to prove by internal evidence -iic lb vine character of the Church to which it be- loi;gs, Jt js rU). fnf thi portion of the Church's lv"ik. in the illustration of Holy Scripture, comes tin.h r the cognizance of her clergy rather than of i her children uj large. But it is partially brought iniMer ihe notice of the laity by means of transla-' transla-' ''on in the vernacular, and. for the fest, they will 'Jo'ihilcss. be prepared to accept the evidence derived "'''in ii on llle authority of tliose before whom that videiic.; is s,, continually brought in the discharge "f iheir official duties." To his "History of the Reformation of the lmrch of England," the author, a Protestant cler-f-'.ym.tn. candidly confesses "there has been much V'M Mid foolish writing about the scarcity of the Iki'lo in the agi -eceding the Reformation. The are iha' ii clergy and monks were daily I !'-.-i !i'i largo t "f the Bible, and had them 3 s; i'ed up in t :r i ory by constant recitation; a ihat they mad H-; -e of Holy Scripture in i pir-nchino. so th ..i n a modern Bible reader is iiBtonished at lh -v.. ler of quotations and rofer-n"ices rofer-n"ices cjained i,. .n -dicval sermons; that count-'r-- eojijes of th'- Ijible were written out by the j surprising industry uT cloistered scribes; that many 1"s..ps ,,f comir.nit.nrie3 were written, whieh are si, S(H11 tn j-u 0f pjous anfJ wise thoughts; ' ii all laymen who could read were. asa rule, pro-Vi,h pro-Vi,h (1 with their Gospels, their Psalter, or other . ' voiional portions of the Bible. Men did. in fact, 1:dc a vast nmount of trouble with respect to the iTodueiion of -opies of the Holy Scriptures, and -'eornplished by. head, hands and heart, what is n,,v chiefly don by paid workmen and machinery. The clergy studied the word of God, and made it known to the laity, and those few among the laity yl'.o could read had abundant opportunity of read-itr read-itr the Bible, cither in Latin or in English, up to 'i"' time i the Reformation period." (Rev. J. IT. JHimO. Tt has been ascertained that two and twenty oifTerent versions of tle Bible existed in the various tcngues of Europe before the birth of Luther. More " " " Continued on Page 5. ' ! I BISHOP GRIMES Continued from Page 1. than seventy editions of the entire Bible in vernacular ver-nacular tongues were printed during the seventy j-ears. intervening from 14(50 to 1530, the time of Luther's traciation. The Bible was printed twenty times in German before Luther's translation appeared ap-peared in that year, 1530. In his literature of Europe, Hallam tells us that two copies of a German Bible, printed in 14G6, are preserved in the Senatorial Library at Leipsic. The Mazarin Bible is considered the earliest complete book published. It was printed in Latin about 1455. A German edition of the Bible, published in 1460, is the earliest book printed with metal type, and on both sides of the leaf. In his learned work, "The Dark Ages," Dr. Maitland, an' Anglican divine, estimates that fifty editions of the Bible were published in Latin before Luther saw the light of day. "To say nothing," he writes, "of parts of the Bible or of books whose place is uncertain, we know of at least twenty editions edi-tions of the whole Latin Bible printed in Germany alone before Luther was born." "Before Luther was born," he continues, "the Bible had been printed print-ed in Rome, Naples, Florence and Placenza, and Venice alone had furnished eleven editions." Sickendorf, a biographer and disciple of Luther, mentions three German editions of the Bible published pub-lished at Wittemberg, in 1470, 1483 and 1490. In his "History of Germany," Menzel says : "Before "Be-fore the time of Luther the Bible had already been translated and printed in both High and Low Dutch." Throughout the middle ages the Bible was the great popular book of Europe. Dr. Maitland Mait-land says: "That the very literature of the time is written in the words and phrases of Scripture." Our oldest specimens of the Gothic tongue are fragments of Bishop Uphilas' Scriptural translar tion, written in the fourth century. Anglo-Saxon translations of parts of the Bible were made by the Venerable Bede and King Alfred. Al-fred. In the fburteenth century, John of Trevisa, made a full English translation. The Protestant Biblical scholar. Bishop Usher, states that the first French translation of the Bible was made in 1478. It was successively republished sixteen times before 1546. He also, mentions a Flemish translation by Merland, in 1220. Seven editions of this version were printed before Luther's Lu-ther's translation appeared. The complete Bible in Spanish was edited by Boniface Ferrer, in 1405. The first polyglot edition edi-tion of the Sacred Scriptures is due to the Spaniards. Span-iards. This edition was printed in six different languages at Madrid, in 1515, under the auspices of Cardinal Ximenes. A Bohemian Bible was published pub-lished at Prague in 1488. There are Danish authorities au-thorities who state that the Icelanders had an entire en-tire translation of the Scriptures in the thirteenth centuryl Reuss says, "No book -was so frequently published, pub-lished, immediately after the first invention of printing, as the Latin Bible, more than 100 editions of it being struck off before the year 1520. In his "History of the Middle Ages," Hallam says: "In the eighth and ninth century, when the Vulgate had ceased to be generally intelligible, there is no reason to suspect any intention in the Church to deprive the laity of the Scriptures. Translations were freely made into the vernacular languages, and, perhaps, read in Churches." In 1877, Mr. II. Stevens published at South Kensington, a list of Bibles in the Caxton exhibition. exhibi-tion. He says: "This catalogue will be very useful use-ful for one thing at any rate, as disproving the popular fable about Luther's finding the Bible for the first time at Erfurt in 1507. Not only are there many editions of the Latin Vulgate long anterior an-terior to that- time, but there were actually nine German editions of the Bible 'in the Caxton exhibition exhi-bition earlier than 1483, the year of Luther's birth, and at least three more before the end of the century." cen-tury." As a Protestant -writer in the Church Quarterly Review puts it : "The notion that the people in the Middle Ages did not read the Bible is not simply a mistake; it is one of the most ludicrous and grotesque gro-tesque blunders" (1, Oct., 1879). In the midlde ages the great bulk of the people were unable to read; what then did the Catholic Church, in order that the great mass of the flock should be familiarized with the truths recorded in the inspired pages of Holy Writ? Some years ago, a well known writer, Dr. Barry, says: "That he was in the French city of Amiens, and in the exceedingly ex-ceedingly beautiful Cathedral, which was nearly six hundred years old, there were 10,000 figures carved in wood, which had been called by, some persons, per-sons, 'The Bible of Amiens.' These figures represented repre-sented the history of the Old and New Testament in the most vivid fashion. They were there for everybody to see and understand, whether he could read printing or not. This 'Bible of Amiens,' thus setting before the people the stories of Holy Scripture, Scrip-ture, was finished in 1509, some years before Luther Lu-ther began his reformation,, and surely it would have been labor thrown away for the sculptor to have carved these 10,000 figures representing the stories of Scripture, if the people had not heard of the Scriptures themselves. It was quite evident that they had been carved, because the people were familiar with the stories they illustrated, which people had been taught. - The 'Bible of Amiens' is only one specimen of many devices adopted by the Church for teaching the people the truths " of Iloly Writ during the centuries they could not read." We can go back to the time when the Church was, so to speak, underground the Church of the Catacombs there we shall see surviving to this day pictures on the walls' representing stories from the Old Testament. Does the Catholic Church really encourage the reading . of the TJible among the laity as well as amongst the clergy? We affirm, most emphatically, that she does, provided the translations bear the imprimatur of the Bishop, and that they are edited with explanatory explana-tory notes. On the title page of many English Catholic Bibles we read the letter of Pope Pius VI, to the Archbishop of Florence, April, 1778: "At a time when a vast number of bad books 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 everyone, to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are so widely disseminated in these corrupt times." -n t,er-o2n the saintJy Pius VII, wrote to the English Bishops, exhorting them to encourage their people to read the Holy Scriptures; "for nothing," he said, "can be more useful, more consoling, and more animating, because they serve to confirm the faith, to support the hope, and to influence the charity of the true Christian." The late Pontiff Leo XIII published most magnificent Encyclicals on the study of Holy Scriptures, Encyclicals, which have, won the admiration and gratitude of even distinguished dis-tinguished non:Catholics. Whilst urging upon the clergy a thoroughly scientific -study of the Bible, he says: "The solicitude of. the Apostolic Office naturally urges, and even compels us, not only to desire- that this great source of Catholic revelation revela-tion should be made safely and abundantly accessible accessi-ble to the flock of Jesus Christ, but also not to suffer any attempt to defile or corrupt it.' A few years later, he granted an indulgence to all Catho- ; lies who will spend fifteen minutes a day in the devout de-vout reading of the Gospels of Jesus Christ. Within our own days the Sovereign Pontiff has j founded in the City of Rome the "Biblical Insti- j tute" to promote the study of the Holy- Scriptures j according to the most perfect scientific methods, accepting gladly all the real results of modern dis- j covery and erudition, and pledging itself to pro- j mote 'the scientific study of every branch of scriptural scrip-tural knowledge. And now, dearly beloved Brethren and Children in Jesus Christ, let us consider the far more congenial con-genial subject of the "Excellence of the Reading and Study of the Holy Writ.' ' Within the inspired pages of Holv Writ we can hear tho cry rung out from the r.ffiieted soul, and the answer of a merciful God to that suffering creature's crea-ture's cry. Within its pages, penned during a period of three thousand years or more, every doubt meets its solution; every vice its chastisement; chastise-ment; every virtue its reward; every sorrow it comfort and consolation. ! i |