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

IRISH PRIESTS AND BIBLE. 183crecs recited above, delivered in former times by apostolicauthority, against the publication, distribution, reading, andpossession of books of the holy Scriptures translated intothe vulgar tongue." That this hostility to the Word ofGod is not confined to the occupant of the Vatican, but pervadesthe entire body of the Romish clergy in all parts ofthe world, is evident from the recent well-authenticated instancesof the burning of Bibles by priests in Belgium, inIreland, and in Madeira. Not less significant is the fact,stated in evidence before theCommissioners of Education,that among the four hundred students attending the Collegeof Maynooth, there we^e not to be found more than tenBibles orTestaments; while every student was required toprovide himself with a copy of the works of the JesuitsBailly and Delahogue.* Dr Doyle, in his instructions topriests regarding Kildare Place Society, says, that if theparents sent their children to a Bible school, after thewarning of the priest, " they would be guilty of mortal sin ;"'''or if any of them suffered their children to go to an Hibernianschool, he should think it proper "to withhold the sacramentfrom them when dying ;" and he adds, " the Scripturesbeing read and got by heart, is quite sufficient in orderto make the schools obnoxious to us."*!-And to the use ofthe Bible without note or comment in these schools, LordStanley directly attributes their failure : the priests, says he,exerting " themselves with energy and success against asystem to which they were in ^^^inciple opposed."]: Thehostility of the priests " does not appear to be against theversions of Protestants only, but against Scripture itself;as is manifest from their decided opposition to a Catholicversion [the Douay], without note or comment, which theBible Society proposed printing for the use of Catholics,but which was absolutely refused by their clergy?" ]\lrNowlan, in a debate with some Protestant clergymen in* Ireland in 1S46-7, p. 33. By Pliilip Dixon Hardy, 31, R. I. A.f Idem.+ Lord Stanley's Letter to the Duke of Leinster.