p. 1 | PAPAL INFALLIBILITY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 25, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 33.

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

IN 1546 the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, concerning the Holy Scriptures, did "ordain and declare that the same old and Vulgate edition which has been approved by its use in the church for so many ages, shall be held as authentic, in all public lectures, disputations, sermons, and expositions, and that no one shall dare or presume to reject it, under any pretense whatever."

Thus were the words of the original Hebrew and Greek set aside for a Latin translation, made by Jerome in the latter part of the fourth century, and which even Jerome "did not," according to the learned Roman Catholic Dr. Jahn, "invariably give what he himself believed to be the best translation of the original," for fear of giving "umbrage to his readers by too wide a departure from the Established Version." Dr. Jahn again says: "Sometimes, too, he has substituted a worse in place of the old translation." This version of Jerome's, says the same author, "became corrupted with many errors," because of its being multiplied throughout the Latin Church.

Attempts were made by Charlemagne and Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, to correct some copies of the Vulgate, but their work seemed to have had limited effect. In 1540 Robert Stephens printed an edition of the Vulgate Version, with the various readings of three editions, and fourteen manuscripts. Other readings were added by Hentenius, in 1547. In 1580 and 1585 other editions were published, with many more various readings.

Well, the Vulgate Version was held by the Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-63, as "authentic."

But as there were so many various readings in the various editions and manuscripts, it became necessary to prepare an "authorized edition." This was done under Pope Sixtus V., the pope himself correcting the proofs. In 1590 an edition was published at Rome by his infallible papal authority, as the authentic and unalterable standard of Scripture.

But it was soon discovered by scholars that this edition contained many errors, notwithstanding the infallible bull which accompanied its publication, enjoining its universal reception, and forbidding the slightest alterations, under pain of anathema.

But what was to be done now? Either the infallible authority must be maintained, and this fallible edition, with its thousands of errors, held as infallible, or the pope must be admitted to be fallible by correcting the mistakes. Well, the Papacy thought it would correct the mistakes and save its reputation to infallibility also. The corrupt edition was therefore called in, at least all of the copies which could be obtained, and Pope Clement VIII. issued in 1592 a corrected edition, declaring it, by a similar bull to that of Sixtus V., to be the authentic and unalterable standard.

There are two copies of the earlier edition in existence, one in the Bodleian library, Oxford, England, and the other in the royal library at Cambridge. The learned Dr. James, at one time keeper of the Bodleian library, compared these two "authentic translations of Sixtus V. and Clement VIII., and exposed in a book, which he called "Bellum Papale" (Papal War), 2,000 of the variations, some of whole verses, and decidedly contradictory. See Dowling’s "History of Romanism," book 7, chapter 2.

This is a sample of Rome’s "infallibility." How many of the laity know anything about it? How many of the priests know it? It is this same "unchanging," "infallible" system which is bidding for favor to-day, at whose feet are fawning so many Protestants. Would that all Protestants knew the "more sure word of prophecy," which has faithfully portrayed this apostate power.