QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

New Zealand Tablet, 2 August 1906, Page 12

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

AN INQUIRER'S DIFFICULTIES

The following further re -lies are given to the inquiries of a non-Catholic friend (' Enlightenment p i). They will probably abo be round to be of interest to the general reader • — VI. " Was- Purgatory confirmed in the Council of Trent in 1563 ? ' The Council of Trent, and, before it, the Council of Florence, defined that ' theic is a Purgatory, and that the souls detained there are helieti by the prayers of the faithful and, above all, by Ih*e acceptable sacrifice of the altar. 1 Further than tins the defined doctrine of the (. hurch does not go. The doctrine of a middle sUte of purification is sufficiently implied in the general principles of the Holy Scriptures. Compare, for instance the pinciples enunciated in I. John, iii, 2-3 ; Hebrews x, <>, JO; xii, 14; Philippiar.s, i, C>. Some find a reference to Purgatory in Matthew, xn, 32 v. 26 and I Corinthians, hi, 10. The belief in Purgatory 'is very clearly set forth ny Clement of Alexandria ('Strom'., vi, 14 ; iv, 18 ; \ii, (5) ; an. l in the genuine and contemr»° ra , rr i y - els of St " Por P cUla - martyr (at the dawn of the third century, in the ye<ir 203). Moreover the belief in Purgatory is bound un with the practice of prayin X i r ■ v „, (lca(l ' which 1h " Catholic inherited from the .Jewish Church. The Jewish belief is clearly indicated in 11. Maccabees x.i, 12 s 1(| . The early Christian habit of pravine; for the dead is too well Known to require illustration here. It was, for instance, mentioned as a matter of course by Ihe i cry lirst Christian who has left Latin writings (Tcrtullian. *De Coron.', 3) And the beautiful praxes i, )r (j, e (icad in use jn lhe car , liturgies anl in the Catacombs are sufficiently known Many Protestants pr a y for the dead. Here is a n exolll /nn n oi ll o h i,? Vl Vcn<m Stalev ' s ' Manual' for Angli'lt is m.ite rioht to jrav f,, r the departed, if we have a good hope that they died in God's favor If we remember that lhev are still .» a P ] aCe of waiting it is natural to pray for them. The Jews regularly who Hrn.Tlh" 5 in th - ir public Services - and o«r Lorif who attended those services, must hav e often joined in, them lie nowhere rebuked the practice. In St Paul's words- The Lord grant unto him that he may fmd mercy of thn Lord in that d a y » (H Tim i m J>m pare *i..h terse 10)-we h W ra n examn i of Wayer for The departed 'The context seems to show that (W si phorus was dead when St. Paul wrote these words ' We may here state that De Wette, Huther a nd other of 7o:? o^ ■X<?Y M ™ »««» Wby a. cwu prohibit the abuse of the Bible. And the nrnhihHi™ lliillli

(2) the-xj ar», as everyone knows, parts of the Bible that are unsuited to the young, and parts which ' the unlearned and the unstable ' may, as the Apostle 1 says wrest to their own destruction '. The two principles set forth above are fixed, evident, and invariable, and are accepted by the overwhelming majority of all Christian people. For the .promotion of faith and piety, Catholics have ever been exhorted to read the Bible. The Standard Catholic version is the Vulgate. There has never at any time been any restriction placed upon the reading of the Vulgate by the Church or a ny Pope or Council. On the contrary, the devout reading of it was ever strongly commended. And be it noted that in the middle ages (including the period of the Council of Toulouse) every one wno was able to read was able, as a matter of course, to read the Latin Vulgate. A closer supervision was naturally re-quired for versions in the vulgar tongue that were made by private persons, and not (as the Polish and many other translations) by the command, or under tne approval of, the Pope or other competent ecclesiastical authority. A similar supervision is exercised in regard to the versions of the Scripture that are permitted in Protestant Churches. Only certain versions are allowed to be used, and i n Great Britain no one may print or publish the Authorised Version without a license from the Crown. Ten years after his break with Rome, and while his phase of vmt ™ atio *yas in full swing, a statute of Henry vi H '• ( . F S nry T,-^ II1 -l ?4'? 4 ' 35 ' c - J ) contained this pr<£ i \ \ he Blble shall not be r «ad in English in any church. No women or artificers, prentices, journeymen serving-men of the degree of yeomen or under husbandmen or laborers, shall read the New Testament in English.' And Luther anathematised the Zwinghan translation, Zwinglius the Lutheran, Molinaeus condemned Cahin's juid Beza's, aud Tyndale's scandalously corrupt translation was condemned by English reformers ami in due course its use was forbidden in the liturgy of the Anglican Church. nf ii A h S I? 6 d J V «r ly .- a PP ointe<l guardian and expounder of the Sacred Writings, it is the duty of the Catholic Church to protect against error or abuse those who would wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction. Her attitude with, regard to Bible-read-ing m the Vulgate or official version has never varied. It lias always been one of warm commendation Her discipline has varied with regard to the pcrular readme of Scriptures in the vulgar toneue No prohibition of any kind was ever issued against i t until cci tain dangers of the middle ages' maa c legislation in the matter urgently necessary. That danger was created by the wild fanatics Inown as the Albigenses, who spread among the faithful in the province of Toulouse a new French version of the Scriptures packet! with corrupt and fanatical interpretations and appeals To remedy this exceptional disease, the Coun£id£ T? .?T' *? 122J> ;, ad °P tcd an exceptional reliSrv vttt U ?\ ?°,, the lcn - ih of the Reformer Henry VIII., and totally prohibit the use of the Bible nP n gar 4 lon^e .1o Ihe vast body of the peopie. On the contrary, it left them the Vulgate, which every reader of the day could understand. It did not S \°a* Vh, P f°- h / bit Vl6V 16 USC ° f lhe proJ)er French versions to the laity ; for it specifically permitted and ?rv°w^V' he u « se ° f the DSalms - Th ' s was a tempo^l ary legislation to meet an exceedingly grave and desperate situation. Various changes have taken plaJe sfnee then in the discipline of the Church with regard to ver-sions-in the vulgar tongue, of which an enormousdumber of copies were issued under Catholic auspices in £ snort period ttiat ensued between the invention of print! ?nn < I re J lX1 f OUS oll . ltio " known as the Reforma- |' on -. A prudent ami loving father,' says Brownson forbids his child who has a morbid appetite or a sfckW constitution, to eat of a certain kind of food exS "nder the direction of the family physician lest the child sTlould be injured by it. Can yo U therefore say Kfniv h J , proh '?, lts the use " f tha.t kind of food ? Cer!Sn L i i A i l yy ° U Can - Say is ' that while l» e concedes the use, he takes precautions against the abuse ' Popes Gregory XIII., Clement VIII., Pius IV., P? v V iS-

(Conclusion in next issue,)