in rebns fidei et morum ad a9dificationem doctrinas Christianaa pertinentium, Sacram Scripturam ad suas sensus contorquens con tra eum sensum, quern tenuit et tenet sancta mater Ecclesia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretatione Scripturarum Sancta- rum, aut etiam contra unanimem consensum patrum ipsam scrip- turam sacram interpretari audeat, etiarasi hujus modi interpre- tationes nullo unquam tempore in lucein edendae forent. Qui contravenerint, per ordinarios declarentur et poenis a jure statutis puniantur." Bellarmin ^ says : " Non ignorabat Deus multas in Ecclesia exorituras difficultates circa fidem, debuit igitur judicem aliquem Ecclesise providere. At iste judex non potest esse Scrip- tura, neque Spiritus revelans privatus, neque princeps secularis, igitur princeps ecclesiasticus vel solus vel cei'te cum consilio et con- sensu coepiscoporum."
From this view of the obscurity of Scripture it follows that the use of the sacred volume by the people, is discountenanced by the Church of Rome, although its use has never been prohibited by any General Council. Such prohibitions, however, have repeat- edly been issued by the Popes ; as by Gregory VII., Innocent III., Clemens XI., and Pius IV., who made the liberty to read any ver- nacular version of the Scriptures, dependent on the permission of the priest. There have been, however, many Romish prelates and theologians who encouraged the general reading of the Bible. The spirit of the Latin Church and the effects of its teaching, are pain- fully manifested by the fact that the Scriptures are practically in- accessible to the mass of the people in strictly Roman Catholic countries.
The Latin Vulgate.
4. The fourth point of difference concerns the authority due to the Latin Vulgate. On this subject the Council of Trent (Sess. 4), says: "Synodus considerans non parum utilitatis accedere posse Ecclesiae Dei, si ex omnibus Latinis editionibus quae circum- ferentur, sacrorum librorum, quaenam pro authentica habenda sit, innotescat: statuit et declarat, ut hgec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio, quae longo tot seculorum usu in ipsa Ecclesia probata est, in pub- licis lectionibus, disputationibus, praedicationibus et expositionibus pro authentica habeatur et nemo illam rejicere quovis praetextu au- deat vel praesumat." The meaning of this decree is a matter of dispute among Romanists themselves. Some of the more modern and liberal of their theologians say that the Council simply in- tended to determine which among several Latin versions was to be 1 De Verbo Dei, iii. 9, torn. i. p. 151, d. ut sup.
108 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. V. - R. C. R. of Faith.
used in the service of the Church. TIict contend that it was not meant to forbid appeal to the original Scriptures, or to place tKe Vulgate on a par with them in authority. The earlier and stricter Romanists take the ground that the Synod did intend to forbid an appeal to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and to make the Vul- gate the ultimate authority. The language of the Council seems to favor this interpretation. The Vulgate was to be used not only for the ordinary purposes of public instruction, but in all theolog- ical discussions, and in all works of exegesis.
§ 3. Tradition.
The word tradition (TmpaSooW) means, (1.) The art of deliver- ing over from one to another. (2.) The thing delivered or com- municated. In the New Testament it is used (a.) For instructions delivered from some to others, without reference to the mode of de- livery, whether it be orally or by writing ; as in 2 Thess. ii. 15, " Hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle ; " and iii. 6, " Withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us." (6.) For the oral instructions of the fathers handed down from generation to generation, but not contained In the Scriptures, and yet regarded as authoritative. In this sense our Lord so frequently speaks of " the traditions of the Pharisees." (c.) In Gal. i. 14, where Paul speaks of his zeal for the traditions of his fathers, it may include both the written and unwritten in- structions which he had received. What he was so zealous about, was the whole system of Judaism as he had been taught it.
In the early Church the word was used in this wide sense. Ap- peal was constantly made to " the traditions," i. e., the instruc- tions which the churches had received. It was only certain churches at first which had any of the written instructions of the Apostles. And it was not until the end of the fii'st century that the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were collected, and formed into a canon, or rule of faith. And when the books of the New Testament had been collected, the fathers spoke of them as c(mtaining the traditions, i. e., the instructions derived from Christ and his Apostles. They called the Gospels " the evangelical tradi- tions," and the Epistles " the apostolical traditions." In that age of the Church the distinction between the written and unwritten word had not yet been distinctly made. But as controversies arose, and disputants on both sides of all questions appealed to *' tradition," i. e., to what they had been taught ; and when it was