sition to it, is inexplicable under existing circumstances, on any hitherto discovered principles of psychology. "I have believed, therefore have I spoken," is the Catholic answer to the enquirer about his motives for adhering to this rather than to that principle; and for being a member rather of Catholicity than of Protestantism -easy, luxurious, wealthy, unrestrained Protestantism. "I have believed."

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Chapter the Tenth.

On the Zeal of Catholics in Transcribing and Circulating the Sacred Scriptures, and the Grounds of Opposition to the Bible Society.

CONTENTS.

Catholic Zeal in Transcribing, Translating, and Spreading the Sacred Scriptures, attested by Protestants, and evidenced by a Multiplicity of Manuscripts in the various Libraries of Europe, &c.-Continuation and Extension of this Zeal after the Discovery of the Art of Printing.-Bibles published in every Ancient and nearly every Modern Language.-Continuous proofs of this point.-Zeal and favour of the Popes.-Catholic Commentators as contrasted with Protestant Annotators.-Origin of the Protestant Idea respecting Catholic Opposition to the Scriptures.-Origin of the Index, and History of the Fourth Rule.-This Rule both Wise and Truthful, and conformable to the Apostolic Teaching.-Even Protestants approve of the Principle advocated in the Fourth Rule.—Modification of the Rule under altered circumstances.-Causes of the Opposition of the Pontiffs to the Bible Society.-These Causes just and commendable.-Antagonism of the Members of the Bible Society.-This Antagonism clearly demonstrated.-Conclusion.

In order to poison the public mind, the enemies of Catholicity incessantly repeat the cry that we are opposed to the written word. They would have the people believe that to them the world is indebted for the Bible; that to others

it is a sealed, an inhibited book; and that, therefore, does Rome condemn the Bible Societies, because Rome is opposed to the Bible. Need I tell any scholar, that here there are as many misrepresentations as ideas? But all are not scholars for the benefit of such as are not, I will briefly expose the calumny.

1° The world is not indebted to Protestantism for the Bible. Long before this religion was heard of, the Bible was known, and circulated in the languages of Greece and Rome. It was circulated in these languages so long as they were the languages of civilization and of literature. Earnestly and devotedly did Catholics toil and labour in transcribing the sacred volumes; and so great was the number of copies thus produced by manual labour, one by one, that there was no country, no city, no cathedral or monastic establishment which was not possessed of the Bible. Each copy became the parent of others; and the amount of Bibles existing prior to the discovery of printing will appear really wonderful to any one who bears in mind the labour and expense of transcription. "The Bible, it is true, was," as Merryweather observes, "an expensive work, but it can scarcely be regarded as a rare one; the monastery was indeed poor that had it not, and when once obtained the monks took care to speedily transcribe it. Sometimes they only possessed detached portions, but when this was the case they generally borrowed of some neighbouring and more fortunate monastery the missing parts to transcribe, and so complete their own copies.' Occasionally I have met with instances where, besides several Biblia optima, the monasteries enjoyed Hebrew codices and translations, and numerous copies of the

66

1 Merryweather's Bibliomania in the Middle Ages, p. 24.

Gospels. We must not forget, however, that the transcription of a Bible was a work of time, and required the outlay of much industry and wealth. Brother Tedynton, a monk of Ely, commenced a Bible in 1396, and was several years before he completed it. The magnitude of the undertaking can scarcely be imagined by those unpractised in the art of copying; but when this monk saw the long labour of his pen before him, and looked upon the well-bound strong clasped volumes, with their clean vellum folios and fine illuminations, he seemed well repaid for his years of toil and tedious labour.

Kings and nobles offered the Bible as an appropriate and generous gift, and bishops were deemed benefactors to their Church by adding it to the library." And, indeed, whoever is acquainted with the works of Griesbach, Bentley, Michaelis, Mill, Simon, Kennicott, Wetstein, Blanchini, and Scholz on the numerous manuscripts of the Sacred Scripture; whoever has directed his attention to the manuscript collections of the Bible in the Vatican, Ambrosian and Magliabecchian libraries in Italy, and to those which France possesses in the Mazarin, St. Genevieve, and royal libraries of Paris; whoever has visited the libraries of Venice, of Vienna, Stuttgard, and Göttingen, or those of the Bodleian and British Museum, or of Trinity College, Dublin; not to refer at greater length to the various col

2 Ibid, 26, 27. Several striking remarks on the subject in hand may be seen in the same work at pp. 54, 61, 68, 70, 88, 97, 109, 119, 130, 131, 133, 140, 158-9, 161, 177, and seqq. Dr. Maitland in his "Dark Ages" has anticipated Merryweather's remarks. So far from discovering that the Bible was an unknown book, he maintains that the evidence is all the other way; and he lashes D'Aubigny for his insensate ignorance or bigotry, or both.

lections which exist in nearly every city in Europe ;1 whoever has read the writings of the bishops, priests, monks, and lay historians of the middle and previous ages down to the era of the discovery of printing; nay more, whoever is acquainted with even the plays and the mysteries enacted here and elsewhere, will be struck by the amount of toil displayed in copying, in circulating, in studying, and in interpreting the sacred word.2

3

Nor did this zeal cease with the discovery of printing,a discovery, like most others, by which society has been so greatly benefited,-made by Catholics. Hallam proves that the Bible was the first book printed (Hist. of Literature, vol. i, p. 96), and soon it was published in nearly every language. In the year 1488, a complete edition of the Bible in Hebrew appeared at Soncino, in the Cremonese territory in the duchy of Milan; and at Brescia in 1494. This edition was made use of by Luther (See I. G. Palm. de codicibus quibus Lutherus usus est). Soon, too,

1 See De Rossis' Varia Lectiones for a complete list of Hebrew MSS.; also Kennicott's Dissertatio præliminaris, and the seventh and following volumes of the Classical Journal, for a list of the same class of MSS. existing in Britain at the present period. About the Greek MSS. the reader may receive much information from Griesbach, Bentley, and Scholz; and Le Long, Blanchini, &c., may be usefully consulted in reference to the old MSS. in other languages.

2 For an account of the reverence formerly shown to the Holy Scriptures, and the care and expense lavished on the Bible, the reader may consult Zaccaria, Dissertatione di Storia Eccles. vol. vii, 276.

3 The observations of his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, regarding one class of discoveries and by one country, have been too much for Protestant England. Hence the comments on his speech at Leeds, but without the text. I might add, that Father Fabri, S.J, was unquestionably the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. See Paulian's Dict. de Physique. Art. Fabri.