The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-05-24
THE SACRED TEXT COULD BE
RECOVERED FROM THE WRIT.
INGS OF THE FATHERS AND
SCHOOLMEN.

Were the Bible lost, says the Rev.
DR.. Barry, in his Tradition of Scrip
ture, it has been declared with not
more energy than truth, we might re-
cover it's text from the writings of
our Catholic Fathers and medieval
schooImen. Their works, which I'LL
great libraries, are made up to large
extent of commentaries on Scripture,
and are everywhere STEPPED in it's Ian
guage and ideas. Beginning with st.
Clement of Rome, st. Justin, st.
Iraeneus, Tertullian, and Clement of
Alexandria-from about 95 A. D. to
the first decade of the third century
we find the Old Testament quoted in
all parts of the Church, and the New
gradually acknowledged. The African
Church if it did not produce, yet re
ceived from an early date (before 200
A. d. the Old Latin version cele-
brated by Tertullian, used by Saint
Cyprian and ST. Augustine. In the
Eastern Church, the Septuagint was
familiar to all divisions from the days
of the Apostles.
For the Middle Ages, st. Gregory
the Great, st. Bernard, St. Thomas
Aquinas, and ST. Bonaventure are
representative men, says DR.. Barry.
But the undying merit of those thou
sand years consists in the fact that by
devout monks and nuns the very
words of Scripture were preserved to
us in beautiful manuscripts, such as,
towards their close and on the eve of
the Renaissance, Thomas a Kempis
left for our use and admiration. Cath
olic Doctrine stayed itself on the
Bible; preaching went back to it:
Missal and Breviary Pontifcal Rites,
Papal documents and Canon Law were
efforts on grand scale to digest it's
teachings and apply them. Catholic
art drew its favorite subjects from
Holy Writ, the literature, proverbs
and daily conversation of all classes,
during this long period, show that
Christians were familiar with its mar
ratives in striking degree.
From the paintings which are still
extant in Roman Catacombs, to the
mosaics of st. Marks, Venice, or the
Cappena Palatina in Palermo, from
the primitive religious schools of
Siena, Florence, Cologne, Holland, as
we'll as from every phase of ecclesia-
tical architecture down to the bible
of Amiens" and the frescoes of the
Sistine, it is evident that eyes, mind
and heart could take their fill of that
inspired story. Learning and sane
tity welded pen, pencil, chisel, brush
every instrument that conveys thought
or evokes beauty in order that Gods
written word should be known and
loved. The Middle Ages had their
Bible in stone, on Illuminated parch.
ment, in stained glass. 1t was deliv'
cred from the lips of popular preach
ers, reflected in the poetry of the
Holland, of Dante, of Fra Jacopo, ex-
pounded on the walls, gates and pave
ments of innumerable churches. 1t
was recited in monasteries by day and
night, quoted in parliaments, rhymed
and sung by minstrels, so that never,
perhaps, was it more universally
known.
DR.. Barry takes us through the
earliest periods when the Bible -four
ished in particular versions, (e. G,
BID, to those which were produced in
1920. All the vast literature, he says
was founded on the Latin Vulgate
though in the second half of the
thirteenth century, an attempt was
made by some English scholars to
translate from the original Hebrew
Between 1856 and 1900, ninety-eight
complete versions were printed under
Catholic authorization The Reforma
ton, says the Doctor, which traced its