p. 115 | The Bible in Rome

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 26, 1871

The Bible in Rome.

FATHER GAVAZZI recently delivered a lecture at Dublin in which the progress of Protestantism in Rome received particular attention. The first advance of the anti-Catholic movement in the Papal States was after the downfall of the first French Empire. Protestants were then permitted to practice their own worship outside of the city gates. Two English churches, two Scottish churches, and an American church, are still outside of Rome proper, and their edifices, says Gavazzi, resemble “old rough barns.” The Bible at that time was forbidden, and the Father in his discourse spoke of the frequent trials resulting from tourists carrying the sacred volume with them for private use. The change wrought by the loss of the temporal power is thus depicted in the lecture: “Now the Bible is a free book in Rome. We have eight colporteurs selling it without difficulty everywhere. (Applause.) They sell it publicly in the market-squares everywhere, and several thousand copies are already in circulation amongst the Romans. (Loud applause.) There is another great fact—namely, that an English lady has sold two thousand copies of the New Testament in a quarter exclusively occupied by Jews. (Hear.) That is a great triumph. (Applause.) More than that, I can point out to you a standing triumph which defies all the impotent rage of the pope. Do not forget that the Bible was in Rome the forbidden book. Now, when you enter Rome, and pass that great and beautiful square called the Corso, which is the largest in the city, the first thing you meet is a beautiful shop, neatly fitted up, with a large inscription in golden letters, ‘General Depot of the London Bible Society.’ (Enthusiastic cheers.) That is something. The Bible, once forbidden in Rome, is now sold in a large and beautiful depot, in the largest street, in immense variety, in all languages. (Applause.) That is something new and extraordinary for Rome. (Hear, hear.) But there is a culminating point in the transaction. That shop faces the Vatican, which stands on the other side. (Laughter and cheers.) Even without an opera-glass the pope can see the General Depot of the London Bible Society. (Loud laughter.)” Of Protestant churches we are told that there are now in Rome five regular congregations—two of the Free Church; of which Father Gavazzi is an evangelist; one of the Waldensians, and one of the Baptists. Throughout Italy there are also one hundred congregations, with ten thousand communicants and three hundred thousand catechumens.”—The Christian Union.