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Bible Distribution by the Roman Catholic Church

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 63.

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Bible Distribution by the Roman Catholic Church

By L. L. C.

The real position of the Roman Catholic Church in the matter of the distribution of Holy Scripture is shown in the decree of the Council of Toulouse, 1229 A. D. We quote a careful translation:—
Let not laymen have the books of Scripture, except the Psalter and the divine office; but let them not have these books in the vernacular.
We also forbid laymen being permitted to have the books of the Old or the New Testament, unless perchance some one out of piety wishes to have the Psalter or the breviary for divine offices, or the hours of blessed Mary. But we most strictly forbid their having the above-mentioned books, translated into the vernacular.— Labbe and Cossart's “History of the Councils,” Vol. XI, part 1, col. 430, Decree of the Council of Toulouse, chap. 14.
The church whose motto is Semper idem has been forced by public opinion to modify its position on this point. Sometimes it is claimed that the Roman Church does not keep the Bible from the common people, but that the present Pope approves the wide distribution of the Scriptures. Attention has been called in the Catholic press to a papal letter, dated June 15 of this year, and addressed to Dr. Korum, Bishop of Treves, in which the prelate is earnestly commended for his work in wide distribution of the Scriptures. But as America of November 20 rightly comments, “It is to be noted, however, that it is not the mere distribution of the Bible the Holy Father approves, but the spreading of the Bible accompanied by the proper explanation;” and these explanatory notes must be accepted unconditionally as the real meaning of the Bible text. Such is not the Protestant idea of Bible study. The Protestant method is exemplified by the noble Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things [preached by Paul] were so.” Even the prophets searched “what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.”
L. L. C.