The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

THE TWO BIBLES.387their respective houses, and if they find them maintain anything repugnant to,the Catholic faith, to admonish them ; and if they continue obstinate, to expelthem." " In regard," said the sixth Constitution, " the new roads in religion aremore dangerous to travel than the old ones," the primate, careful for the safety ofwayfarers, proceeded to shut up all the new roads thus: " we enjoin and require thatno book or tract, written by John Wicliffe, or any other person either in Wicliffe'stime or since, or who for the future shall wirte any other book upon a subject indivinity, shall be suffered to be read either in schools, halls, or any other placeswithin our Province of Canterburry, unless such books shall first be examined bythe University of Oxford or Cambridge," &c. The infraction of this enactmentsubjected the offender to prosecution, " as one that makes it his business to spreadthe infection of schism and heresy." [Collier, i., bk. vii., p. 626.]The seventh Constitution began thus: " 'Tis a dangerous undertaking, as St.Jerome assures us, to translate the Holy Scriptures. We therefore decree andordain," it continued, " that from henceforward no unauthorised person shalltranslate any part of Holy Scripture into English, or any other language, underany form of book or treatise. Neither shall any such book, treatise, or version,made either in Wicliffe's time or since, be read, either in whole or in part, publiclyor privately, under the penalty of the greater excommunication, till the saidtranslation shall be approved either by the bishop of the diocese or a provincialcouncil, as occasion shall require." [Ibid]No such authorisation was ever given. Consequently all translations of theSacred Scriptures into English, or any other tongue, and all reading of the Wordof God in whole or in part, in public or in private, were by this Constitutionproscribed, under the penalty of the greater excommuncation.~The charateristic of the Reformation as distinguished from primitiveChristianity was its power of originating social action. It put forth in nations aninfluence of a kind so powerful that nothing like it is to be found in any previousage of the world. As the Gospel [Editor: the good tidings], in early times, held onits way among the nations, it called one individual here and another there to be itsdiciple. Those whom it thus gathered out of the mass it knit into a holy brotherhood,an evangelical Church. Still, though a great multitude, comprehending men ofevery kindred and toungue, these disciples remained blended with their severalnationalities: they did not stand out before the world as a distinct social andpolitical community. They were a spiritual kingdom only. When the magistratepermitted them the open profession of their faith, they thankfully accepted theprivilege ; when they were denied it, they were content to die for the Gospel :they never thought of combining to demand as a right the open and unchallengedprofession of their faith.But the Reformation, by quickening and evolving the social instinct in man,brought with it a new order of things. It gave birth not merely to regeneratedindividuals, like primitive Christianity, but to regenerated societies. No doubt theGospel [Editor: the good tidings] in the sixteenth century began where the Gospelin the first century had begun, with the renewal even of the individual ; but it