The herald., 1896-09-07
1t Is an Open Book to Roman
Catholics
REV. P. c. YORKE'S LECTURE
He Refu!es Som. Supsrs!itions OF Long
Standing
The S.riptures Ars Not the O,ly Source Of
Divine In,piration-The Church
as Teacher

"The Chained Bible" was the subject
of Rev. p. c. Yorke's lecture at st. VII
biana's cathedral last evening. The rev.
erened gentleman was in splendid voice
and delivered discourse as logical as
it was eloquent. The fame of the lee
turer as a controversialist and his
reputation as defender of the Catholic
faith as against the assaults Of the
American Protective association and
other Protestant proscriptive societies,
attracted a large audience who gave
close attention to every word he ut
tered. The proceeds of the lecture, which
were for the benefit of the poor of the
parish, amounted to a neat sum.
Father Yorke commenced his lecture
by saying that it was common belief
among Protestants that the Catholic
church Is the special enemy of the Holy
Scriptures; that if there is anything that
the priests hate more than another 1t
is the Bible. Much money is spent by
Protestants to distribute Bibles. Bibles
are even left in the pews of Catholic
churches that benighted Catholics may
read the word and be converted from
the errors of their ways This supersti-
tion is very widespread, and like all
superstition is at variance with the
facts of the case.
If the Catholic church is so bitterly
opposed to the Bible, why did it not
during the 1900 years it had absolute
power destroy it altogether? Far from
the church being opposed to the Bible
and being at variance with the Holy
Scriptures, it is to her and her alone
that the friends of the Bible owe it's
preservation.
The Christian religion elaine to be
revealed religion. Christianity is not a
system of religion, but message or rev.
elation from God to man. Both Catho-
lies and Protestants hold that in max
ing this revelation to man God used hu-
man instruments. The prophets, apos-
ties and evangelists received their
knowledge of God. The Bible is made up
of number of books which are believed
to be inspired. The men who wrote them
are believed to have put down that
which God wished us to believe and do.
The Protestant theory is that all the
revelation we have from God, all the
found in the Bible. The Catholics hold
that outside the Bible there is means
of revelation.
Whether God inspired any man to
write book is known only to God Him.
self. Therefore, whether this book or
that of the Bible Is inspired can only be
known by God telling us. The Bible Is
made up Of many books and is the litera-
ture of 5000 or 1000 years. There is not
book Of the Bible in which the claim Is
made that it Is inspired.
The .holics have in their Old Testa-
ment seven more books than the Protest
ants. The Protestant Bible had FORM
arlU hod mn hnnkS than IT has
The Protestant Bible of today is a mutt
lated version of the Scriptures.
Modern science has taken up the Bible
1t has gone into Egypt and dug up in
scriptions in language not read for 1900
years. 1t has gone into Babylonia and
read inscriptions on bricks. Comparative
philology shows that the books of the
Bible were not all written by the men
whose names they bear. AS Geology
shows that the crust of the earth is
formed of stratum upon stratum of mat
ter, so the Bible has its strata of author
ship. No one knows fr" certain of any
book of the New Testal who was it's
author or when it was written.
The unrest in religious circles. owing
to modern criticism. leads to infidelity
and cuts the ground from under Protest
antism. The Catholic church has moth
ing to fear from the researches of sci
ence of modern criticism, because the
DIDle Is HOl HeT IIldSltI, Dul Sle Is lHS
interpreter of the Bible.
In Protestant theory the Bible is
thrown to us for us to make what we can
of it. The Catholic church comes to men
and says: DO not judge me by what
books l bring or what has been written
of me. You must take me as you would
take Jesus Christ himself. l claim to
give you certainty I am infallible in
my utterances. For 1900 years the world
has been filled with my labors.'
Referring to the charge that the Bible
was rare book previous to the Protest
ant reformation, and that Martin Lu-
ther stumbled across it accidentally, the
speaker said: Did it ever occur to
those who talk of the Bible having been
rare book before the reformat ton, that
all books were rare before the invention
of printing!"
1t was the lazy and despised monks
who were accused of concealing the
Bible and keeping the people in ignor-
ance of 1T, that preserved it and copied
it by hand on parchment at great sac
rifice of time and labor 1t Is true that
it was written in Latin and Greek, but
up to the time of Luther there was no
such thing as modern language with a
literature.
1t is strange thing that Luther, who
was born in 1883 and had all the educa-
tional advantages of those times, did not
'"hicIS oSi oSS q SoPy VI the 6lDle De-
fore 1907. An edition of the Bible was
issued from the German imperial press
as early as 1852, and nine separate edi-
tions were printed before Luther was
born. Before Luther published his own
version twenty-seven editions, exem-
plars of which remain to this day, were
printed in Germany. So far as Germany
Is concerned the Catholic church has no
reason to hang her head for suppressinr
the Bible
In Italy as early as 1921 the Bible was
translated into the Italian language
There were in 1471, lkfore the first Pro-
testant Bible crossed the Alps, forty
editions of the Catholic Bible in Italy.
In Spain translation of the Bible into
Spanish was made as early as 14O5. II
was reprinted in 1873, and in 1915 the
Bible was printed in Spanish with the
| consent OF the Inquisition In France
the first translation was made in 147S.
and before French Protestant Bible
appeared eighteenCatholic editions were
circulated.
With regard to reading the Bible I'm IN
the Reformation there were no regriat
ions. At the time of the Reformation
rules were made forbidding its use ex-
cept under certain restrictions, but this
was a purely disciplinary decree and
was abrogated about 100 years ago. dog
matte Professionalism having died out.
If every Protestant must have a
Bible what an awful mistake God AL
mighty made in suppfessing the good
book so long. About the beginning of
the present century some persons who
wanted to improve on God fornad a