“In general, the Church has always allowed the reading of the Bible in the vernacular, if it was desirable for the spiritual needs of her children; she has forbidden it only when it was almost certain to cause serious spiritual harm.”
(Catholic Encyclopedia, Scriptures)
Ah...the good old days of the Index...
Don't read the words of God...They are sure to mess you up, if you are a Mormon, a Muzlimaniac or a Catholic...
Now who do you suppose would give Catholics the advice to not read the words of God???
Ah...the good old days of the Index...
Reading the Word can cause *spiritual harm*? Who knew?
Are they serious?
Who in their right mind could even consider that reading the inspired, Holy Spirit breathed, Word of the living God could cause spiritual harm?
The other option, of course is to not read the inspired, Holy Spirit breathed, Word of the living God. And that would NOT cause spiritual harm?
The depth of the deception of the enemy is staggering.
Did i post this" It does not show up in my comments
I think some Traditional RCs are asking, where is the Inquisitions when you need them, and i can understand why, but that is not how the N.T. effected obedience and discipline of Scriptural doctrinal deviations, nor were they always doing only that.
See here for more in the issue of access to the Bible by the laity in the common tongue.
What is also relevant in this issue is the degree of magisterial perspicuity, and the priority placed on enabling the common people, who heard Jesus gladly, (Mk. 12:37) to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, (Col. 3:16) as directly from the assured word, the Scriptures, as Rome expanded as a Roman-type bureaucracy.
Most people were illiterate, but rather than do as the puritans, with their “old deluder satan act, which provided for schools so that the people be not take advantage of through ignorance, The basic policy that later developed was one that was akin to “a dumb soldier is a good soldier,” despite the grace promised to those who study the Scriptures, best to only let the professions have direct access to the sword of the Spirit, which was usually limited even to them, and let them deal with opponents, and let the laity only receive directly from Scripture what little they did in church, than risk heresies based on misuse of knowledge. A valid concern, but which presupposes Rome was irreproachable by laity, and only made them more vulnerable to the very thing they sought to protect them from]
., as it relates to the RC claim as to the magisterium preventing confusion. While it is understandable that not everything can be addressed, or always promptly, the continued lack of coherence as to no less a matter as to whether the laity could read the Bible can be seen as revealing
From the Catholic Encyclopedia page (http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=10624) which your quote came from, we read,
(1) During the course of the first millennium of her existence, the Church did not promulgate any law concerning the reading of Scripture in the vernacular. The faithful were rather encouraged to read the Sacred Books according to their spiritual needs (cf. St. Irenæus, "Adv. haer.", III, iv).
(2) The next five hundred years show only local regulations concerning the use of the Bible in the vernacular. On 2 January, 1080, Gregory VII wrote to the Duke of Bohemia that he could not allow the publication of the Scriptures in the language of the country. The letter was written chiefly to refuse the petition of the Bohemians for permission to conduct Divine service in the Slavic language. The pontiff feared that the reading of the Bible in the vernacular would lead to irreverence and wrong interpretation of the inspired text ( St. Gregory VII, "Epist.", vii, xi).
The second document belongs to the time of the Waldensian and Albigensian heresies. The Bishop of Metz had written to Innocent III that there existed in his diocese a perfect frenzy for the Bible in the vernacular. In 1199 the pope replied that in general the desire to read the Scriptures was praiseworthy, but that the practice was dangerous for the simple and unlearned ("Epist., II, cxli; Hurter, "Gesch. des. Papstes Innocent III", Hamburg, 1842, IV, 501 sqq.)....
It is only in the beginning of the last five hundred years that we meet with a general law of the Church concerning the reading of the Bible in the vernacular. On 24 March, 1564, Pius IV promulgated in his Constitution, "Dominici gregis", the Index of Prohibited Books . According to the third rule, the Old Testament may be read in the vernacular by pious and learned men, according to the judgment of the bishop, as a help to the better understanding of the Vulgate.
The fourth rule places in the hands of the bishop or the inquisitor the power of allowing the reading of the New Testament in the vernacular to laymen who according to the judgment of their confessor or their pastor can profit by this practice.
Sixtus V reserved this power to himself or the Sacred Congregation of the Index, and Clement VIII added this restriction to the fourth rule of the Index, by way of appendix.
Benedict XIV required that the vernacular version read by laymen should be either approved by the Holy See or provided with notes taken from the writings of the Fathers or of learned and pious authors. It then became an open question whether this order of Benedict XIV was intended to supersede the former legislation or to further restrict it.
This doubt was not removed by the next three documents: the condemnation of certain errors of the Jansenist Quesnel as to the necessity of reading the Bible , by the Bull "Unigenitus" issued by Clement XI on 8 Sept., 1713 (cf. Denzinger, "Enchir.", nn. 1294-1300); the condemnation of the same teaching maintained in the Synod of Pistoia, by the Bull "Auctorem fidei" issued on 28 Aug., 1794, by Pius VI ; the warning against allowing the laity indiscriminately to read the Scriptures in the vernacular, addressed to the Bishop of Mohileff by Pius VII, on 3 Sept., 1816.
But the Decree issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Index on 7 Jan., 1836, seems to render it clear that henceforth the laity may read vernacular versions of the Scriptures, if they be either approved by the Holy See, or provided with notes taken from the writings of the Fathers or of learned Catholic authors. The same regulation was repeated by Gregory XVI in his Encyclical of 8 May, 1844.
In general, the Church has always allowed the reading of the Bible in the vernacular, if it was desirable for the spiritual needs of her children; she has forbidden it only when it was almost certain to cause serious spiritual harm.