Bible Reading Restrictions

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DEFENDING THE BRIDE

Why for a relatively short period of time did the Catholic Church place some restrictions on reading the Bible in the vernacular ?

The best Bibles were those written in the original Greek or St. Jerome’s Latin translation called the Vulgate since Latin was the common language of that time. The Catholic Church has always promoted the reading of those Catholic Bibles. Generally the Catholic Church has promoted the reading of the Bible in the vernacular. However, there have been short periods of time when she has placed some restrictions on the reading of those vernacular translations.

The restrictions could be compared to placing a metal fence around a playground next to a busy highway. It's purpose is to protect so that faithful may do so without suffering serious spiritual harm.
The key here is context.

Context is more than just the text. We have to get into the whole culture of that time.

Culture of AD 1500’s

There were just two classes of people then: those who could read, and those who could not read. Now, those who did read could read Latin, and, therefore, were perfectly content with the Scriptures in Latin. Those who could not read Latin could not read at all . . .

The whole mistake in peoples' minds arises, of course, from the supposition they make that Latin was then a dead language, whereas it was really a living one in every sense of the term, being read and spoken and written universally in Europe.

{James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, NY: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, rev. ed., 1917, pp. 89,91}

Proof that those who could read, could read Latin. Not only did the schools of that time teach Latin, but all the other subjects were also taught in Latin. See Proof

There were several problems with reading the Bible in the vernacular that required discernment, caution, and appropriate advise that the Bishop or Pope would need to give to those wanting to do so.

Modern Context Vs. AD 1500’s Context

It is not that a vast number of people of that time wanted to read the Bible in the vernacular. Now, there were some Protestants who were wanting to use their own specific
vernacular Bibles with their corrupted translations and corrupted footnotes to mislead otherwise faithful Catholics into revolting against the Catholic Church.

Those wanting to read the vernacular was a small number of people at that time. For several reasons it would have been a specialized study of a small number of people.

1. There were no “free” public schools at that time. The vast majority of people could not afford to hire a private tutor to teach them to read at all. So, giving a person of that time permission to read the Bible in English would have been about as meaningful as giving a modern American permission to read the Bible in Chinese

2. Most all those who could read could read Latin.

3. The Latin text much superior than the vernacular.

For example, sometimes the English language did not have an exact equivalent for the Latin or Greek text, so a “close” English word would have to be used. There was no word even close for “Evangelist” or “Evangelization” so the translators had to import that Latin based word into the English language.

By analogy consider a physician wanting to do heart surgery in the early 20^th century. It would have been rare so it would be prudent to place some restrictions on those wanting to do so to make sure that appropriate cautions were taken. Just as physical life would have been in jeopardy in that analogy, when it come to the Bible the spiritual life of both the teacher and the student was at stake. Even the Protestant “reformers” were noting the drastic problem of keeping their new followers in their new churches. The new sects were multiplying exponentially.

The general attitude of the Catholic Church toward Bible reading apart from those isolated times when heretics were endangering the spiritual welfare of others.

It says at the end of a Koberger Vulgate of 1477:

The Holy Scriptures excel all the learning of the world . . . All believers should watch zealously and exert themselves unremittingly to understand the contents of these most useful and exalted writings, and to retain them in the memory. Holy Scripture is that beautiful garden of Paradise in which the leaves of the commandments grow green, the branches of evangelical counsel sprout . . .

These words admirably describe the attitude which the Church in the Middle Ages held with regard to Holy Scripture . . .

First and foremost the study of the Bible was urgently enjoined on the priests . . . The Breviary and the Missal . . . are for the most part made up of words from Holy Scripture . . . Thomas a Kempis,( c. AD 1380 –1471) in agreement with the Fathers, compares the Word of Christ with the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and declares that without the Eucharist and the Holy Scriptures, his food and his light, life would be unbearable to him.

{Johannes Janssen, History of the German People From the Close of the Middle Ages, 16 vols., tr. A.M. Christie, St. Louis: B. Herder, 1910 (orig. 1891), v. 14, pp. 381-383}