Antithesis.
Antithesis.
§ 495. In Dial. 3. contra Hosium, vol. 1, Opera, f. 201, Vergerius quotes a statement from Hosius: “We have found from experience that those translations of Holy Writ into the vernacular language of any nation have brought much disadvantage to the Church of God.” Bellarmine sets up the state of the question in this way (De verbo Dei, bk. 2, c. 15):
To be sure, the Catholic Church does not completely forbid vernacular translations, because in the Index librorum prohibitorum, published by Pius IV, we see in Rule 4 that those are permitted to read books of this sort who can use them fruitfully and profitably, that is, those who have obtained the faculty from their ordinary. Nevertheless it is forbidden that this be granted everywhere without discrimination and that the Scriptures be read or sung publicly and in the common usage of the Church in vernacular languages. Rather, let us be content with those three languages that Christ honored in the inscription on the cross (John 19[:20]) and that, in the agreement of all, surpass all other languages in antiquity, breadth, and gravity, and finally in which the divine books were originally written by their authors, namely, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
However, against Bellarmine we should note how Clement VIII declared the rule of his predecessor, Pius IV, to be inviolate. The censorship of Clement VIII puts it this way (Castig. indic. lib. prohibitorum): “Regarding the writing of Rule 4 of Pope Pius IV of blessed memory, one should note that through this printing and publication no new power is being given to the bishops nor is freedom being given to the inquisitors or supervisors of the rules to emend, read, and keep vernacular Bibles or other parts of Holy Scripture, of the Old as well as of the New Testament, published in any common tongue, and in addition, historical summaries and compendia of these same books of Holy Scripture written in any popular language. This rule we must keep inviolate.”