To the Editor of the "Nognt-Cumma Dany News"
Sm—I was very much impressed by the letter "of an erudite. peda-vogue who signs himself "Jaccar's Teacuza," but especially by his bit! Jof information that "i your belie {gerent correspondent isn't. expounding the Koran to-day instead of the Bible, he has the Vicar of Christ and a lot of Catholic saints to thank for it"
If he really wants to know, who which X doubt, I shall be glad to) help him, and point out "useful sources that will ald him to educate himself on more rational, _tess apoplectic, lines. The source from Which T propose to derive my infor motion is a volume—entitled "The Roman Catholic Church in Italy." a work written in 1903 by the Rev. Alexander Robertson, pp. This. book received letters of commends. tion from HA. Xing Victor Emmanuel Ti, from the then Premier, Cavaliere G. Zanardeli, and from the Minister of Public Instruction, 'Commendatore D. Nasi. Photographic reproductions of the first two letters: appear in the front of the book to discount the possibility of forgery. It is taken for granted, of course, that neither His' Majesty nor his Ministers would have approved of] mere Protestant canards foistered upon their credulity by second-rate sectarian propagandists. At any rate, let's hasten on to Lesson One.
First let it be stated that for translating the Bible into English s0 that every ploughboy might read it, Willinm Tyndale was, by order of the Roman Catholic Bfierarchy, first strangled and then burned at_the stake at Vilvorde, near Brussels, Belgium, October 6, 1596.
Next, open and avowed hostility to the Bible, and to all those who read the Bible appear as a monotonous refrain in numerous Pappl Bulla and Councils. As early as 960, Pope Nicholas I pronounced against both the Book and its readers: Gregory YE, in 1073, confirmed the ban.
Pope Innocent III issued a bull against the Waldenses, the first translators of the Bible into a ver-macular tongue, and commanded that all their books should be burned, particularly the Bible which they had translated into the Romanza language. In 1199 this hierarch compared the Bible to the sacred moun-fain, Sinai (Exodus 19: 12, 98), and declared that, "If a layman touches the Bible he is guilty of sacrilege fand should be stoned to death."
in 1220 the Council of Toulouse! forbade the reading of the Bible in any vernacular tongue. In 1504, Pio, TV, when confirming the decrees of! the Council of Trent, issued a Bull Jagainst the possession or reading. of the Bible. It was designed to stop the Reformation in Italy, and, coupled with the extermination of all, high and low, known to have: embraced it, had that effect, Prof. 'Salvatore Minocchi, a priest Florence, commenting on this in a eeture on the Bible given in Venice on February 6, 1006, said: "For two hundred years' the' Bible in Ttaly was an unknown book."
The famous bull "Unigenitus" 713) forbade the reading of the Bible; not merely particular Bibles, such as Protestant editions, but the Bible as such.
The fourth rule of the "Index Expurgatorius" forbids the reading! of the Bible, under the pretext that more harm than good comes from doing.
By the bulls of Pius IV and Ciement VII, Catholics are forbidden fo read the Bible without a special license, in writing, issued by" the bishop oF the "father inquisitors." [Catholics who read the Bible without ficance are told that they commit a Word, that slander Christ"—Moman Catholic "Tablet," December 17, 1853, p. 804). The same sentiments were expressed Gregory Martin, one of the translaters of the Douay Version of the Bible. One of his publications in 1582 at Rheims, "A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of the Holy. Scriptures by the Heretics of Our: Days" recorded that the Protestant Bibles were: "Not indeed God's Book, Word, or Scripture, but the! Devil's Word."
The hostility of the _Roman catholic Church to Bible. Societies well known. 1 quote from p. 216 of Dr. Robertson's.book:
Bishop Milner, in his "Supplementary Memoirs of English Catholics"" says: "Public crimes 0 Jon year by year_in proportion to the rosress of the Bible Societies" And Sine their foundation Popes Have vied with each other in the ferocity of the bulls they have _fulminated on) Sgainat them. 'Thus 'Pius Vil, in 1816, denounced them as pestilences to be arrested by any means "pos sible" and. Leo' XM, in 1805, as Straps and pitfais"" Pius' VI, in 1890, denounced all the Bibles that issued from their printing presses centres of pestiferous Infection, and. Gregory" XVI, in 1844,—cone demned the Societies, and instructed the priests to tear up all the Bibles that they. could Jay their hands on. The punishment indicted on any one found with a Diodati Bible was Incarceration in' the State prisons for an undefined period, The vilifying of Bible Societies became' a bad habit with Pius IX, surpassed all. his predecessors the use of ery. invective. It was "under his aegis that Count Gulcciardini, Guerra, Guarduccl, and many others were" banished. from 'Tuscany For reading the Bible. Tt was under his aegis that Francesco iMfadial and his wife' were arrested!
Florence, in August 1851, for roding the' Bible, were imprisoned the Bargello for Yen months, and then sent fo the galleys. it" was under his aegis that an Engi oman. Arthur Welker, was arrested for having a Bible' in his pocket, and was imprisoned.
From Dr. Robertson's bool we also learn that in 1003 Pope Leo getuatly issued an. Encyellca, }"Providentissimus Dens," "which! seemed to reverse the policy of his predecessors, by" permitting Feading of the Bible," However, mediately on iis issue secret' in. structions were given to the. priests {o do all in their power to hinder the distribution of the sacred volume, as the Bneyelical was issued only to gain favourable public. Protestant pinion in England and Americal in the autumn following the publica tion of the 'Biblical Bneyelieal Dr. Robertson " personally "saw: Testaments and portions " of Scripture, chiefly the Gospels, which had been given to peasants' in their homes and in the fields, collected and burned in front' of the village Considerations of space forbla my producing evidence of the corruption the contents and text of the Bible by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In 1548 the Council of Trent decreed that whosoever did not receive the Apocrypha as sacred and canonical, and did not hold tradition to be equal value with Scripture, "let him be anathema." The late Dr. West cott, in his "Bible in the Church" Fefers (Eh. ix) to this decree "a decision equally untrue morally and historically." "Again in Eh. x ho says, "It is afirmed that the (RE) Church has power not only to fix the extent of the Canon, but also to settle questions of text.' The eld of biblical study is definitely closed against all free research."
Finally, I wonder how many' Roman Catholic families in Shang-hal possess Bibles (any version) which are read by permission of their parish priest.
Shanghai, Mar, 11, The Pope's Position To the Baitor of the "Nonru-Cutna Dany News"
Su—H. C. Timpeney's courteous letter of to-day deserves a courteous reply. Ibs difficulty comes from a misunderstanding of the fact that the Pope is the head of an International organization, the Catholic Church, and hence' is obliged to remain neutral on non-Church questions unless called upon to arbitrate, as Fr. Lipman explained was done with much success in" former" times. Catholics in different nations have not this same obligation at all. The Mass of Thanksgiving in Shanghai wasn't ordered by the Pope. I understand it was said by on Italign priest in a church which Italians attend regularly, Have Ttalians not the same right to be thankful for their colonial victories as, for instance, the British for theirs?' Kipling's "Recesslonal" it written by an Italian would probably sound disgusting to an Englishman. "I make no attempt here to defend the Abyssinian conquest. From a moral point of view it is almost as present so-called "crusade" against Communism in China with its "Black-and-Tan" aftermath. The Pope preserved a splendid neutrality in the Abyssinian affair that disconcerted Taly's foes, who demanded that the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.