The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-05-28
JOHN NJ. FARLEY.
Archbishop of New York.
THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH.

The Arena. down in Boston, is the official Or
gan of American radicasm, if any such has ex-
lstcucc. If any person has a bold heresy that he
wishes to propagate. he talks it to that periodical
Every palc-purplc frowsy Of the very advanced
fnds roostlng place In It's pages, and frequently
of the host of ancient accusations squat in
Its odd corners. n writer in the current number
asserts, among other things, that Luther first gave
the Bible to the world and that the Catholic church
has always tried to keep the Scriptures from the
people
The Catholic Times of London rather curiously
has an editorial refuting statement almost sim
liar. Since the charge is frequently made. 1T
may be we'll to present an effective answer in brief
compass. Citing Gigot's Biblical Lectures" as
authority the Times thus dSposes of the asser-
tion
Before the first Protestant version was sent
forth into the world there appeared eghty-four
printed editions of Holy Writ in the ancient Ian
Suage; sixy-two in Hebrew, of which twelve we're
of the Old Testament entire, and fifty of selected
portions; and twenty-five III Greek. of which three
were of the Old Testament, twelve Of the New
Testament and seven of separate portions of the
Scriptures. In the Latin. which occupied a special
position as being the universal language of the
educated mon of the time, there were published
5i3 editions. Of which Is were of the entire Bible,
60 Of the New Testament and 1913 of separate
books Of the inspired writings In the modcren
languages there were issued 1873 editions. of which
1o4 were of the entire Bible, comprising twenty
IN Italian, twenty-siX in French. nineteen in Flem-
18Th. two in Spanish six in Bohemian. one in Sla-
ronic and thirty in German and ninetT-four OF
single portions of Holy Writ. consisting chiefly of
copies of the New Testament and the Psalms In
ALL including the Poygot printed at the cost o;
Cardinal Ximcncs SIC editions of the Bible. Of
which 19s were in the languages Of the laity. had
issued from the press with the sanction and at the
instance Of the church, in countries where she
roencd supreme. before Iuthers German version
of the Bible appeared in 1874"
Considering that the art of printing was not
lHQ wears old when Luther's Bible appeared, it.
must be admitted that the church not mig
gardly in putting the Bible before the laity. Be
fore the invention of printing, look at the thou
sands OF copies of the Scriptures which the monks
patiently copied out by hand in writing egiblc
2 print There was toll and moro than toll.
it has often occurred to Us that a telling arSu-
mcut against the pretended antiquity Of Profess
autsm could be formulated by asking the sects
why if they existed they never put The Bible into
thc hands of the people" prior 10 the coming Of
Luther The Gnostcs in the first century did not
hesitate to circulate their destructive forgeries.
The numerous other heretics who followed he11
did in like manner. But if MethodiStS existed. /
why were they so clipinallv inactive. Why were
The hypothetical Baptists still as MICE 1t will Hot
do TO point TO Wycliff and Coverdnle They were
modcrns. The simple truth Is orthodox Protest |
'uti,m has 30 antiquity at all. It did not put |
ortiz for the reason that il had no existence. if |
i did exist. ii never took pains 10 write out the /
Bible word by word and letter ht letter and give it
the people in the veTnacular. Why did It leave
FL The toll of translating and copying 10 5hc
monks III the scriptoriums Now World, Chicago.