To the Editor of the "Nonru-CHiNA Dany NEWS"
SSim—I was very much impressed by the letter of an erudite peda-vogue who signs himself "JACKIE'S CTrAcHER, but especially by his bit Eft information that "if your belli-ut correspondent isn't expound-the Korat to-day instead of the ible, he has the Vicar of Christ ud & lot of Catholic saints to thank Btor it" If he really wants to know, Biwhich I doubt, I shall be glad to p him, and point out useful }owrces that will aid him to educate Éhinselt on more rational, less Wüipóplecti, lines. The source from hich I propose to derive my infor-motion is a volume entitled "The Roman Catholic Church in Italy," a work written in 1903 by the Rev.
lr Robertson, pp. This received letters of.commendajon from HM. King Victor Em-III, from the then Premier, here G. Zanardelli and from the Minister of Public Instruction, re D. Nasi. Photographic productions of the first two letters appear in the froni^Ot the book to discount the possibility of forgery. It is taken for granted, of course, that neither His Majesty mor 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 so that every ploughboy might read it, William Tyndale was, by order of the Roman (Catholic Hierarchy, first [strangled and then burned at the 5 at Vilvorde, -near Brussels, peBelgium, October 6, 1536.
"Next, open and avowed hostility o the Bible, and to all those who ead the Bible appear as a monotonous refrain in numerous Papal Bulls and Councils. As early as 860, WPope Nicholas I pronounced against Both (he Book and its readers; WGregory YN, in 1073, confirmed the 7 Pope Innocent WI issued a bull against the Waldenses, the first Mtranslators of the Bible into a vercular tongue, and commanded that their books should be burned, icularly the Bible which they d translated into the Romanza
pared the Bible to the sacred moun-this Heres com-tain, Sin! (Exodus 19: 12, 18), and declared that, "If a layman touches the Bible he is guilty of sacrilege id should be stoned to death."
In 1229 the Council of Toulouse rate the reading of the Bible in ly vernacular tongue. In 1564, Pio TY, when confirming the decrees of Council of Trent, issued a Bull nst the possession or reading of Bible. It was designed' to stop ihe Reformation in Italy, and, Heoupled with the extermination of l, high and low, known to have embraced it, had that effect. Prof.
lvatore Minocchi, a priest in commenting on this in a on the Bible given in Venice n February 6, 1909, said: "For two hundred years the Bible in Italy an unknown book."
The *famous bull "Unigenitus"
713) forbade the reading of the ible; not merely particular Bibles, ich as Protestant editions, but the Bible as such.
The fourth rule of the "Index Expurgatorius" forbids the reading lof the Bible, under the pretext that more harm than good comes from 9 doing.
By the bulls of Pius IV and Cleut YW, Catholics are forbidden Tead the Bible without a special nse, in writing, issued by the bishop or the "father inquisitors." Catholics who read the Bible without licence are told that they commit a (mortal sin."
(Rev) Dr. Cahill declared that e would rather the Catholic should id {he worst books of immorality the Protestant Bible—that for-of God's Word, that slander of Christ"—(Roman Catholic "Tablet,"
mber-17, 1853, p. 804). The same sentiments mere expressed by ory Martin, one of the translaters of the Douay Version of the uble. One of his publications in 1582 at Rheims, "A Discovery of the manifold Corruptions of the Holy eriptures by the Heretics of Our Days" recorded that the Protestant Bibles were: "Not indeed God's "Word, or Scripture, but the 's Word."
The hostility of the Roman Catholic Church to Bible Societies well known. I quote from p. 216 pf Dr. Robertson's book:
Bishop Milner, in his "Supplementary—Memoirs. of English Catholics," says: "Public crimes go n year by year in proportion to the of the Bible Societies." And their foundation Popes have led with each other in the ferocity f the bulls they have fulminated gainst them. Thus Pius VIL in 16, denounced them as pestilences D be arrested by any means posble" and Leo XII, in 1825, as ps and pitfalls." Pius YW, in B0, denounced all the Bibles that from their printing presses as outres of pestiferous infection," d Gregory XVI, in 1844, coned the Societies, and instructed priests to tear up all the Bibles hat they could lay their hands on he punishment inflicted on any one Mound with a Diodati Bible was recration in the State prisons an undefined period (The vilifring of Bible Societi became a bad habit with Pius 1X, o surpassed all his predecessors [n the use of fiery - invective. It under his aegis that Count jardine, Guerra, Guarducci, and ty others were banished from Bcany for reading the Bible. It under hi gis at Francesco iai and his wife were arrested fin Florence, in August 1851, for Ir ling the Bible, were imprisoned lin; the Bargello for ten months, and -sent to the gall It was Iso under his aegis that an English oran, Arthur Walker, was ested for having a Bible in his pocket, and was imprisoned.
From Dr. Robertsons book we 0 learn that in 1893 Pope Leo DEI actually issued an Encyclical, "Providentissimus Det which ^to reverse the policy of his
reading of the Bible. However, immediately on its issue secret indecessors, by permitting the {structions were given to the priests do all in their power to hinder the distribution of the sacred volume, the Encyclical was issued only to gain favourable public Protestant Opinion in England and America! In the autumn, following the publication of the Biblical Encyclical Dr. Robertson personaly 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 church.
Considerations of space forbid my producing evidence of the corruption of the contents and text of the Bible by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Th 1546 the Council of Trent decreed that whosoever did not receive the Apocrypha as sacred and canonical, and did not hold tradition to be of equal value with Scripture, "let him be anathema." The late Dr. Westcott, in his "Bible in the Church" refers (Eh. ix) to this decree as: "fa decision equally untrue morally and historically." Again in Eh. x he says, "It is affirmed that the (R.C) Church has power not only to fix the extent of the Canon, but also to settle questions of text. The field of biblical study is definitely closed against all free research."
Finally 1 wonder how many Roman Catholic families in Shanghai possess Bibles (any version) which are read by permission of their parish priest.
Shanghai, Mar. 11.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.