BIBLE, TRANSLATIONS OF
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BIBLIANDER
lation, have been printed with the common English version and the Greek text in parallel columns, with the authorities for the proposed changes, and the re- maining portions of the New Testament are rapidly ap- pearing. All these incipient revisions are placed in the hands of a linal college of revisers for the perfect- ing of the work designed for popular use. The plan provides for five or more members in the final col- lege. Rev. T. J. Conant, D.U., Rev. II. B. Hackett, D.D., in America, and Prof. Rodiger,of the University of Halle, Germany, have been announced as members of the final college. The revision of the Old Testa- ment is mainly committed to Rev. T. J. Conant, D.D., Rev. G. R. Bliss, D.D., and Rev. H. B. Hackett, D.D. Proverbs, Job, and part of Genesis have been pub- lished, and much of the remaining portion is maturing for the press. The Union has done much for foreign Scripture distribution, aiding largely the German, Karen, Spanish, Italian, Burman, and Siamese depart- ments. It has prepared and published new revisions of the Italian and the Spanish New Testament. The membership of the Union embraces about thirty thou- sand persons, including those who co-operate with it through the "Bible Revision Association" of Louis- ville, Kentucky, having the same objects and acting in concert with it. Thirty dollars constitute a person a member, and one hundred dollars a director for life. The Union meets annually in October, in New York. Its business is conducted by a board of thirty-three managers and five executive officers. The board meets monthly, and occupies the Bible Rooms, No. 3.r.0 Broome Street, N. Y. The receipts of the year 18C6 exceeded $-10,000. Four octavo volumes, 500 pages each, containing a republication of the official docu- ments of the Union, bring down its history to the pres- ent date (I860). The organ of the society is " The Bible Union Quarterly." On a controversy about the management of the society, see Judd, Review of the A m rican Bible Union (N. Y. 1857, 8vo), and the replies by the organs of the Union.
6. Biele Revision Association. See Ameri- can Bible Union (above).
Bible, Translations of. Sec Veesions.
Bible, Use of by the Laity. The Word of God is intended for the use of all classes of men. In the early ages of the Church its universal perusal was not only allowed, l at urged by bishops and pastors. It was not until the general reading of the Bible was found to interfere with the claims of the papacy that its "perils for the common mind" were discovered. As the use of Latin disappeared among the people, the Vulgate Bible became less and less intelligible to them, and this fact was early welcomed as an aid to the Bchemea of the Roman hierarchy. In the 11th century Gregory VII (Epigt. vii, 11 1 thanks God for it, as tend- ing to Bave the people from misunderstanding the Bi- ble. The reforming and heretical sects (Cathari, Al- bigenses, Waldenses, etc.) of the 1:2th and pith centu- ries appealed to the Bible in all their disputes, thus furnishing the hierarchy an additional reason for shut- tin- up the Word of God. In 1229, the Council of Tou- louse, in its 1 lib canon, "forbids the laity to have in
their 1 1 sion any copy of the books of the Old and
New Testament, except the Psalter, and such portions of tin mi .i- are contained in the Breviary, or the Hours of the Virgin; and most Btrictly forbids these works in the vulgar tongue." The Council ofTarracone (1242) ordered all vernacular versions to be brought to the bishop to be burnt. Similar prohibitions were issued from time to time in the next two centuries by bishops and synod-, especially in France and Germany, though with little direct effect. In the " Ten Rules concerning Prohibited Rooks," drawn up by order of the Council of Trent, and approved by Pius IV (Bucklev, Canons and Decrees of Trent, p, 864), we find the following: In Pule 111 versions, of O. T. may bo ■•allowed only
to pious and learned men at the discretion of the bish- op ;" in Pule IV it is stated that "if the sacred books be permitted in the vulgar tongue indiscriminately, more harm than utility arises therefrom by reason of the temerity of men." The bishop or inquisitor may grant permission to safe persons to read them ; all booksellers selling to unauthorized persons arc to be punished. The Jansenist movement in the 17th cen- tury, and especially the publication of Quesnel's N. T. in French 'Paris, 1699), gave rise to new stringency, of which the bull Unigenitus (q. v.) was the organ. In the 18th century there was a reaction, and the publica- tion and reading of vernacular versions was even en- couraged by the better class of Roman bishops. The establishment of the Bible Societies (q. v.) in the be- ginning of this century gave new alarm to the Roman hierarchy. Ordinances or encyclicals forbidding the diffusion of Protestant Bibles were issued by Pius VII (1816), Leo XII (1824), and Gregory XVI (1832). Though the animus of these encyclicals is hostile to the free use of the Bible, they yet do not, in terms, pro- hibit it. At this day it is well understood, and admit- ted by all intelligent Romanists themselves, that the laity are not only not required, but also not expected to read the Word of God for themselves by the Roman Church. For the earlier history of the question, see Arnauld, De la lecture de Vecriture sainte ; Hegelmeyer, Geschickie ds Bibelverbotes (1783); Van Ess, Ueb. d. no'hirendifje u. niitzHche Bibellesen (Leipz. 1808, 8vo) ; and for the later, Elliott, Delineation of Romanism, bk. i, ch. xvi.