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

182 OF READING THE SCRIPTURES."a pestilence," which it behoves him "-to remedy andaboHsh ;" " a defilement of the faith, eminently dangerousto souls."" He congratulates the primate, to whom his letteris addressed, on the zeal he had shown " to detect andoverthrow the impious machinations of these innovators ;"and represents it as an episcopal duty to expose " the wickednessof this nefarious scheme," and openly to publish" that the Bible printed by heretics is to be numberedamong other prohibited books, conformably to the rulesthe index ;for it is evident from experience, that the holyScriptures, when circulated in the vulgar tongue, have,through the temerity of men, produced more harm thanbenefit."* Thus, in the solemn judgment of the Church ofRome, expressed through her chief organ, the Bible hasdone more evil than good, and is beyond comparison theworst book in the world. There is only one other beingwhom Rome dreads more than the Bible, and that is itsAuthor.The same Pope issued a bull in 1819 on the subject ofthe circulation of the Scriptures in the Irish schools. Hespeaks of the circulation of the Scriptures in the schools asa sowing of tares ; and that the children are thereby infestedwith the fatal poison of depraved doctrines ; and exhorts theIrish bishops to endeavour to prevent the wheat being choJcedhy the tares.'\'In 1824 Pope Leo XII. published an encyclical letter,in which he adverts to a certain society, vulgarly termed theBible Society, as spreading itself throughout the wholeworld ;and goes on to term the Protestant Bible the " Gospelof the Devil." The late Pope Gregory XVI., in hisencyclical letter, after referring to the decree of the Councilof Trent, quoted above, ratifies that and similar enactmentsof the Church :— " Moreover, wo confirm and renew the de-of* Given at Rome, June 29th, 1816 ; and addressed to the Archbishopof Gnczn, primate of Poland.+ M'Gavin's Protestant, vol. i. p. 2G2, Sth ed.