BY THE LAITY. The Roman Catholic and Prot estant churches differ on this point, in that the former prints authorized translations and re quests the faithful to restrict their reading to them, and makes all their translations from the Latin Vulgate text : whereas, the latter as such authorizes no version, adopts no standard text, but encourages every one to read translations which are made directly from the Hebrew and Creek originals. In the earliest times we find no evidence of any prohibition of Bible-reading by the laity. On the contrary, as the foundation on which the Church was built, and the sole source of religions knowledge, the reading of the Mille formed an essential part of the in struction communicated by pastors to their con gregations; and the greatest orators of the Church--especially Chrysostom and Angustine continually reminded their hearers that private reading and study of the Scriptures should fol low attendance on public services. This great tact is by no means contradicted by the warn ings found here and there in the Fathers against the abuse or mistake of the meaning of Scrip ture; these warnings rather imply that Scrip ture-reading was among the laity. The gradual widening of the distinction. or rather the separation, between the clergy and the laity, was the work of the Middle and, among other means of preserving traditions inviolate and maintaining, the exclusive character and sacred authority of the hierarchy, the Bible was held in the background, even while there was no direct prohibition of its common use. In IOSO Gregory VII. ordained that Latin should lie the universal language of Catholic worship, and consequently excluded all vernacular read ings of Scripture in public as Again, with regard to the Waldenses, Innocent III., in 1199, prohibited the private possession and read ing of Scripture (excepting the portions con tained in the Breviary and the Psalter) without priestly permission and supervision. Similar prohibitions were repeated at the Synod of Tom louse (1229). in its fourteenth canon, and with regard to \Viclif, at the Synod of Oxford (1382). Ultimately, the recognized Latin version. or Vul gate, was more and more decidedly made the sole authorized Church version. Indeed, as early as 1233, the Synod of Tarragona in its second canon ordered that no one, either priest or layman. should retain in his possession a copy of the Romanic translation of the Bible. As, how ever, it soon appeared that little could be effected by such prohibitions. milder measures were em ployed. The Council of Trent (1545-63) at its fourth. session (April S. 1546) passed a decree
concerning the canonical Scriptures, which gave a list of the books which were received, made the vulgate Latin version the sole authoritative source of quotation. and threatened with punish ment those who presumed to interpret the Scrip tures contrary to the sense given them by the Fathers. But nothing was determined with regard to Bible-reading among the laity. This was first done in the publication of the first Index Librorum Prohibitor,' az (Rome, 1564), which enjoined the necessity of obtaining written permission of the bishop before a lay person could read the Bible in the vernacular. After wards, the rules of the Church, placing the use of the Scriptures under the supervision of the bishops, were more and more strictly defined. The publication of the New Testament with prac tical annotations by Paschasius Quesnel (16S7) gave occasion to the Roman Catholic Church to speak more definitely on the reading of the Bible by the laity in the bull Unigenit us Dei FiliuS (1713). New ordinances were issued by Pope Pius V1I. in his brief to the Archbishops of Gnesen and Mohilev (1816) against translations formerly authorized; again, by Leo Xl1., in his condemnation of Bible societies (1824), by Pius VIII. (1829), Gregory XVI. (1844), and by Pius IX., who. in his famous Syllabus of Errors (1864, sec. iv.). classes Bible societies among the pests of modern times! Leo XIII.. as a profound Bible student, advocates the reading of the Scrip tures in his Encyclical of November 18. 1893, upon "The Study of the Bible." The various ordinances of the Roman Catholic Church imply that it is dangerous to give the Bible freely to the laity. and that therefore no vernacular ver sions ought to be used without interpretations taken from the Fathers. and an especial Papal sa net ion.
The position of the Greek Church is somewhat different. It has passed no. plain prohibition of Bible translations to the laity, without Church guidance, as the Latin Church has. But in three of the questions appended to the Eighteen Pe crecs of the Synod of Jerusalem. otherwise called rhe Confession of llositheus (1672), which re late to the Scriptures. it answers in the neg,a !lye the quest.ion whether it is permitted to all Christians to read the Bible. then goes on to explain that only those who had given it special study were able rightly to interpret it. Agree ably to the spirit of this prohibition. Czar Nicho las I. in 182(1 suppressed the society for the circulation of the Russian vernacular transla tion of the Bible, allowed by Czar Alexander I. in 1813.