The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-04-16
BISHOP GRIMES
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times in German before Luther's translation APP
peared in that year, 1880.
In his literature of Europe, Haam tells us that
two copies of German Bible, printed in 1866, are
preserved in the Senatorial Library at Leipsc. The
Mazarin Bible is considered the earliest complete
book published. 1t was printed in Latin about
1855.
A German edition of the Bible, published in
1860, is the earliest book printed with metal type
and on both sides of the leaf.
In his learned work. "The Dark Ages" DR..
Maitland, an Anglican divine estimates that fifty
editions of the Bible published in Latin before
Luther saw the light of day. TO say nothing" he
writes, "of parts of the Bible or of books whose
place is uncertain we know of at least twenty edi
tions of the whole Latin Bible printed in Germany
alone before Luther was born" Before Luther
was born" he continues, "the Bible had been print
ed in Rome, Naples, Florence and Pacenza, and
Venice alone had furnished eleven editions"
Sickendorf biographer and disciple of Luther
mentions three German editions of the Bible pub
lished at Wittemberg, in 1870 1888 and 1890
In his History of Germany" Mcneil says: "Be
fore the time of Luther the Bible had already been
translated and printed in both High and Low
Dutch" Throughout the middle ages the Bible
was the great popular book of Europe DR.. Matt
land says: "That the very literature Of the time
is written in the words and phrases OF Scripture
Our oldest specimens of the Gothic tongue are
fragments of Bishop Uphilas' Scriptural transla-
Anglo-Saxon translations of parts of the Bible
were made by the Venerable Bede and King AL
fred In the fourteenth century, John of Trevisa,
made full English translation.
The Protestant Biblical scholar, Bishop Usher,
states that the first French translation of the Bible
was made in 1918. 1t successfully republlshed
sixteen times before 1916 He also mentions
Flemish translation by Merland, in 1920. Seven
editions of this version were printed before Lu-
theirs translation appeared
The complete Bible in Spanish edited by
| Boniface Ferrer, in 1905. The first polygot ed-
ton of the Sacred Scriptures is due to the Span
iards. This edition printed in six different
languages at Madrid, in 1915, under the auspices of
Cardinal Ximenes. Bohemian Bible was pub
lished at Prague in 1888. There are Danish au-
thorities who state that the Icelanders had en-
tire translation of the Scriptures in the thirteenth
century.
Reuss says, 'No book was so frequently pub
lished, Immediately after the first invention of
printing as the Latin Bible more than 100 editions
of it being struck off before the year 1920.
In his History of the Middle Ages" Hallam
says: "In the eighth and ninth century, when the
! Vulgate had ceased to be generally Ineligible,
there is reason to suspect any intention in the
! Church to deprive the laity of the Scriptures.
TRANSACTIONS were freely made into the vernacular
languages ard, perhaps read in Churches"
In 1877 Mr. H. Stevens published at South
Kensngton, a list of Bibles in the Caxton exhibi-
full for one thing at any rate, as disproving the
popular fable about Luthers finding the Bible for
the first time at Erfurt in 1907. Not only are
there many editions of the Latin Vulgate long an
terror to that. time, but there were actually nine
German editions of the Bible in the Caxton exhi-
bition earlier than 1883, the year of Luthers birth,
and at least three before the end of the cen
fury"
As Protestant writer in the Church Quarterly
Review puts it: "The notion that the people in the
Middle Ages did not read the Bible is not simply
a mistake; it is of the most ludicrous and gro
tesque blunders" q, Oct, 1879.
In the middle ages the great bulk of the people
were unable to read; what then did the Catholic
Church, in order that the great of the flock
should be familiarized with the truths recorded in
the inspired pages of Holy Writ! Some years ago,
a well known writer DR.. Barry, says: "That he
was in the French city of Amiens, and in the ex-
ceedingly beautiful Cathedral, which was nearly
six hundred years DID, there were 10000 figures
carved in wood which had been called by some per-
sons, The Bible of Amiens.' These figures repre-
scented the history of the Old and New Testament
| in the most vivid fashion. They were there for
everybody to see and understand, whether he could
read printing or not This Bible of Amiens' thus
setting before the people the stories of Holy Scrip
ture, was finished in 1909, years before Luz
Their began his reformation and surely it would
have been labor thrown away for the sculpto to
have carved these 10000 figures representing the
the Scriptures themselves. 1t was quite evident
that they had been carved, because the people were
familiar with the stories they illustrated which
people had been taught The Bible of Amiens is
only one specimen of many devices adopted by the
Church for teaching the people the truths of HOLY
Writ during the centuries they could not read"
We go back to the time when the Church
was, so to speak, underground Church of the
Catacombs- we shall see surviving to this
day pictures on the walls representing stories from
the Old Testament.
Does the Catholic Church really encourage the
reading of the Bible among the laity as we'll as
amongst the clergy2
We affirm. most emphatically, that she does
provided the translations bear the mprmatur Of
the Bishop and that they are edited with explana-
tory notes. On the title page of many English
Catholic Bibles we read the letter of Pope Pins
vi, to the Archbishop of Florence, April, 177s
AT time when vast number of bad books arc
circulated even among the unlearned, to the great
destruction of souls, you Judge exceedingly well
that the faithful should be excited to the readino
of the Holy Scriptures; for these are the mos
abundant sources which ought to be left open t.