The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

1 72 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION.not interpret the Scriptures but according to the consent ofthe fathers,—an oath which it is impossible to keep otherwisethan by abstaining altogether from interpretingseeing the fathersScripture,are very far indeed from being at one intheir interpretations. " How often has not Jerome beenmistaken V said Melancthon to Eck, in the famous disputationat Leipsic ;" how frequently Ambrose ! and how oftentheir opinions are different ! and how often they retracttheir errors V* The Council of Trent decreed, that " noone confiding in his own judgment shall dare to wrest thesacred Scriptures to his own sense of them, contrary to thatwhich hath been held, and still is held, by holy MotherChurch, whose right it is to judge of the true meaningand interpretation of the sacred writ." And they furtherenact, that if any disobey, they are to be denounced by theordinaries, and punished according to law.-j-In accordancewith that decree is the following article in Pope Pius'screed :— " I receive the holy Scripture according to thesense which holy Mother Church (to whom it belongeth tojudge of the true sense of the holy Scriptures) hath heldand doth hold ; nor will I ever receive and interpret itotherwise than according tothe unanimous consent of thefathers."* " Without the authority of the Church," saidBailly the Jesuit, " I would believe St Matthew no morethan Titus Livius." So great was the fervour for theChurch, of Cardinal Hosius, who was appointed presidentof the Council of Trent, that he declared, in one of his polemicalwritings, that were it not for the authority of theChurch, the Scriptures would have no more weight thanthe fables of iEsop.| Such are the sentiments of modernPapists. Dr INIilner devotes one of his letters to show that" Christ did not intend that mankind in general should learnhis religion from a book."§ " Besides the rule," says he,* D'Aubign^'s History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 71.+ Concil. Trid. sess. iii.J Bayle's Dictionary, art. Hosius.§ JMiiuer s End of Controversy, letter viii.