I named so many examples of translations of Biblical text into the common language of the people, if you don't believe me why don't you pick one you can't seem to verify and I would be glad to go over the historical facts and documentation with you. There have been billions of Catholics over almost 2000 years and readings of the Word of God have taken places at Catholic masses for almost 2000 years. That is an historical fact. For most of the history of the Church the masses were illiterate. Bibles were scarce, and it would be a rarity should some private individual want to own a Bible. When a Catholic named Gutenberg developed the printing press that changed things. There was much animosity between Catholics and Protestants, and unfortunately it has been mostly one-way animosity in recent times, for some reason a lot of false stories against Catholics are still told today and there is a lot of hatred toward Catholics. I spoke with a Catholic lady who had no animosity toward Protestants, but she remembered as a little girl how the Protestants chained the doors of her Catholic Church shut and they had to have mass out in the rain and cold. Many countries still have Guy Fawkes Day, celebrating the murder of a Catholic, and I have twice been in foreign countries that day and it was rather chilling. My mom got to her Catholic elementary school one day and the American flag was taken down and the KKK flag flying in its' place. I have heard the stories that Catholics chained the Bible in the Church so no Catholics could read it, your secret language for only priests was a whopper too, that the pope claimed to be God, etc. Again, if there is some specific item I posted that you doubt I could go over the documentation with you, but I've experienced the tactic of simply launching more accusations every time I refute misinformation.
Look lets start with the facts and not misinformation and lies. During the time of the reformation the Roman Catholic Church forbade anyone from owning and reading the bible for themselves accept the Priests in which it was only read in the church and was spoken in the Latin language to the majority of uneducated people who never understood a word of it. Let's get our historical facts right and stop with the misinformation.
Romes Persecution of the Bible
The Council of Trent (1545-1564) placed the Bible on its list of prohibited books, and forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Roman Catholic bishop or inquisitor. The Council added these words: "That if any one shall dare to read or keep in his possession that book, without such a license, he shall not receive absolution till he has given it up to his ordinary."
Rome's attempt to keep the Bible from men has continued to recent times. Pope Pius VII (1800-1823) denounced the Bible Society and expressed shock at the circulation of the Scriptures. Pius VII said, "It is evidence from experience, that the holy Scriptures, when circulated in the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of men, produced more harm than benefit."
Pope Leo XII called the Protestant Bible the "Gospel of the Devil" in an encyclical letter of 1824. Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) railed "against the publication, distribution, reading, and possession of books of the holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar tongue." Pope Leo XII, in January 1850, condemned the Bible Societies and admitted the fact that the distribution of Scripture has "long been condemned by the holy chair." (
Catholic Encyclopedia)
During the period when the Roman Catholic Church was in power, she did everything she could to keep the Bible out of the hands of the common people. It was illegal to translate the Bible into the common languages, even though most people could not read the official Catholic Bible because it was in Latin, a language known only to the highly educated.
Consider some of the laws Rome made against Bible translation. These began to be made in the 13th century and were in effect through the 19th.
(1) Pope Innocent III in the year 1215 issued a law commanding “that they shall be seized for trial and penalties, WHO ENGAGE IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE SACRED VOLUMES, or who hold secret conventicles, or who assume the office of preaching without the authority of their superiors; against whom process shall be commenced, without any permission of appeal” (J.P. Callender, Illustrations of Popery, 1838, p. 387). Innocent “declared that as by the old law, the beast touching the holy mount was to be stoned to death, so simple and uneducated men were not to touch the Bible or venture to preach its doctrines” (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, VI, p. 723).
(2) The Council of Toulouse (1229) FORBADE THE LAITY TO POSSESS OR READ THE VERNACULAR TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE (Allix, Ecclesiastical History, II, p. 213). This council ordered that the bishops should appoint in each parish “one priest and two or three laics, who should engage upon oath to make a rigorous search after all heretics and their abettors, and for this purpose should visit every house from the garret to the cellar, together with all subterraneous places where they might conceal themselves” (Thomas M’Crie, History of the Reformation in Spain, 1856, p. 82). They also searched for the illegal Bibles.
(3) The Council of Tarragona (1234) “ORDERED ALL VERNACULAR VERSIONS TO BE BROUGHT TO THE BISHOP TO BE BURNED” (Paris Simms, Bible from the Beginning, p. 1929, 162).
(4) Inquisitor General Thomas Torquemada in 1483 the infamous began his reign of terror as head of the Spanish Inquisition; King Ferdinand and his queen “PROHIBITED ALL, UNDER THE SEVEREST PAINS, FROM TRANSLATING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE INTO THE VULGAR TONGUES, OR FROM USING IT WHEN TRANSLATED BY OTHERS” (M’Crie, p. 192). For more than three centuries the Bible in the common tongue was a forbidden book in Spain and multitudes of copies perished in the flames, together with those who cherished them.
(5) The Constitutions of Thomas Arundel, issued in 1408 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in England, too, laws were passed by the Catholic authorities against vernacular Bibles made this brash demand: “WE THEREFORE DECREE AND ORDAIN THAT NO MAN SHALL, HEREAFTER, BY HIS OWN AUTHORITY, TRANSLATE ANY TEXT OF THE SCRIPTURE INTO ENGLISH, OR ANY OTHER TONGUE, by way of a book, libel, or treatise, now lately set forth in the time of John Wyckliff, or since, or hereafter to be set forth, in part of in whole, privily or apertly, upon pain of greater excommunication, until the said translation be allowed by the ordinary of the place, or, if the case so require, by the council provincial” (John Eadie, The English Bible, vol. 1, 1876, p. 89). Consider Arundel’s estimation of the man who gave the English speaking people their first Bible: “This pestilential and most wretched John Wycliffe of damnable memory, a child of the old devil, and himself a child or pupil of Anti-Christ, who while he lived, walking in the vanity of his mind … crowned his wickedness by translating the Scriptures into the mother tongue” (Fountain, John Wycliffe, p. 45).
(6) Pope Leo X (1513-1521), who railed against Luther’s efforts to follow the biblical precept of faith alone and Scripture alone, called the fifth Lateran Council (1513-1517), which charged that no books should be printed except those approved by the Roman Catholic Church. “THEREFORE FOREVER THEREAFTER NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PRINT ANY BOOK OR WRITING WITHOUT A PREVIOUS EXAMINATION, TO BE TESTIFIED BY MANUAL SUBSCRIPTION, BY THE PAPAL VICAR AND MASTER OF THE SACRED PALACE IN ROME, and in other cities and dioceses by the Inquisition, and the bishop or an expert appointed by him. FOR NEGLECT OF THIS THE PUNISHMENT WAS EXCOMMUNICATION, THE LOSS OF THE EDITION, WHICH WAS TO BE BURNED, a fine of 100 ducats to the fabric of St. Peters, and suspension from business for a year” (Henry Lea, The Inquisition of the Middle Ages).
(7) Council of Trent in 1546, these restrictions were repeated by the which placed translations of the Bible, such as the German, Spanish, and English, on its list of prohibited books and forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Catholic bishop or inquisitor.
Following is a quote from Trent:
“…IT SHALL NOT BE LAWFUL FOR ANYONE TO PRINT OR TO HAVE PRINTED ANY BOOKS WHATSOEVER DEALING WITH SACRED DOCTRINAL MATTERS WITHOUT THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR, OR IN THE FUTURE TO SELL THEM, OR EVEN TO HAVE THEM IN POSSESSION, UNLESS THEY HAVE FIRST BEEN EXAMINED AND APPROVED BY THE ORDINARY, UNDER PENALTY OF ANATHEMA AND FINE prescribed by the last Council of the Lateran” (Fourth session, April 8, 1546,
The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Translated by H.J. Schroeder, pp. 17-19). -
Original source
These rules were affixed to the Index of Prohibited Books and were constantly reaffirmed by popes in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. These prohibitions, in fact, have never been rescinded. It is true that the Council of Trent did not absolutely forbid the reading of the Scriptures under all circumstances. It allowed a few exceptions. The priests were allowed to read the Latin Bible. Bishops and inquisitors were allowed to grant license for certain faithful Catholics to read the Scriptures in Latin as long as these Scriptures were accompanied by Catholic notes and if it was believed that these would not be “harmed” by such reading.
In practice, though, the proclamations of Trent forbade the reading of the Holy Scriptures to at least nine-tenths of the people. Rome’s claim to possess authority to determine who can and cannot translate, publish, and read the Bible is one of the most blasphemous claims ever made under this sun.
The attitude of 16th century Catholic authorities toward the Bible was evident from a speech Richard Du Mans delivered at Trent, in which he said “that
the Scriptures had become useless, since the schoolmen had established the truth of all doctrines; and though they were formerly read in the church, for the instruction of the people, and still read in the service, yet
they ought not to be made a study, because the Lutherans only gained those who read them” (William M’Gavin,
The Protestant, 1846, p. 144). It is true that the Bible leads men away from Roman Catholicism, but this is only because Roman Catholicism is not founded upon the Word of God!
Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605) confirmed the Council of Trent’s proclamations against Bible translations (Eadie, History of the English Bible, II, p. 112) and went even further by forbidding licenses to be granted for the reading of the Bible under any conditions (Richard Littledale, Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome, 1924, p. 91).
(8) The restrictions against ownership of the vernacular Scriptures were repeated by the popes until the end of the 19th century:
Benedict XIV (1740-1758) confirmed the Council of Trent’s proclamations against Bible translations (Eadie, History of the English Bible, II, p. 112) and issued an injunction “that no versions whatever should be suffered to be read but those which should be approved of by the Holy See, accompanied by notes derived from the writings of the Holy Fathers, or other learned and Catholic authors” (D.B. Ray, The Papal Controversy, p. 479).
The above Historical evidence and the dark ages of the Roman Catholic Church continued well past the times of the reformation. I haven't even started yet but happy to provide more historical facts if you would like me to.
Do you need more historical references showing the Roman Catholic Church's persecution of the bible past the time of the reformation? Please stop with the misinformation. The above quotations are generally from the Roman Catholic Church itself during the time of the reformation. These were called the "Dark ages" because the Roman Catholic Church tried to
lock and hide away the bible from the people and it was because of the Protestant reformation and the re-writing of the bible into the languages of the people and the printing of the bible for the people that anyone of us today even has a bible! This had nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church. Happy to show that this mindset of the Roman Catholic Church continued well past the reformation. Are you interested? Perhaps we can have a whole thread devoted to this topic.
For now though I will stop here as I do not want to take away from the OP. All you have posted in response is your opinion unsupported by any facts. Anyhow I believe God's people are in every Church. In fact protestants came from and out of the Roman Catholic Church because of the Catholic Church was hiding God's Word from His people. However according to Jesus and scripture, (not Apocrypha) the hour is coming and now is that the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. God is calling us all back to the bible (His Word) and out from following man-made teachings and traditions that break the commandments of God. This is a question that only each one of us can answer for ourselves. God is calling all of us. The question we must all answer for ourselves is who will we choose to believe and follow; God or man? Only God's Word is true and we should believe and follow it over the teachings and traditions of men that lead us away from the Word of God to break the commandments of God *Romans 3:4; Acts of the Apostles 5:29 and Matthew 15:3-9.
Take Care.
