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- We also want to prohibit all and each of our subjects who are not learned, from bringing and selling not only the uncatholic and forbidden books but also good Bibles. We further request that people who still have any Bibles or other forbidden or other seductive books should deliver them to their pastors or pastors within a fortnight from the announcement of this call; wherever such things are eventually discovered, we will proceed against them with appropriate sharpness ... (en)
- It is also necessary to watch over the societies of those who publish new translations of the Bible in every vulgar language, against the sane rules of the Church, whereby the texts are astutely distorted into aberrant meanings, according to the moods of each translator. These versions are distributed free of charge everywhere, with exorbitant costs, even to the most ignorant, and often perverse writings are inserted in them so that readers drink a lethal poison, where they thought they were drawing the waters of healthy wisdom. For some time the Apostolic See has warned the Christian people against this attack on the faith, and has condemned the authors of such a great misfortune. To this end, all the rules established by decision of the Council of Trent were recalled once again, as well as what was laid down by the Congregation of the Index itself, for which the vernacular versions of the sacred texts must not be allowed, unless approved by the Holy See, and accompanied by comments taken from the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church. (en)
- For this purpose, then, the heretics have been accustomed to make their low and base machinations, in order that by the publication of their vernacular Bibles, they may, each one, treacherously insert their own errors wrapped in the more holy apparatus of divine speech. "For heresies are not born", St. Augustine used to say, "except when the true Scriptures are not well understood and when what is not well understood in them is rashly and boldly asserted." But, if we grieve that men renowned for piety and wisdom have, by no means rarely, failed in interpreting the Scriptures, what should we not fear if the Scriptures, translated into every vulgar tongue whatsoever, are freely handed on to be read by an inexperienced people who, for the most part, judge not with any skill but with a kind of rashness? (en)
- For you should have kept before your eyes the warnings which Our predecessors have constantly given, namely, that, if the sacred books are permitted everywhere without discrimination in the vulgar tongue, more damage will arise from this than advantage. Furthermore, the Roman Church, accepting only the Vulgate edition according to the well-known prescription of the Council of Trent, disapproves the versions in other tongues and permits only those which are edited with the explanations carefully chosen from writings of the Fathers and Catholic Doctors, so that so great a treasure may not be exposed to the corruptions of novelties, and so that the Church, spread throughout the world, may be of one tongue and of the same speech. [...] (en)
- […] that no one in the future by his own authority will translate any text of Holy Scripture into the English tongue or any other, into any other by way of book or treatise. Nor let any such a book or treatise be read, whether new in the time of said John Wycliffe written or written in the future, be read in part or whole, in public or in private, under the punishment of the greater excommunication, till that translation has been approved by the bishop of the place or, if necessary, a provincial council. But those who transgress this should be punished like a heretic and false teacher. (en)
- You have noticed a society, commonly called the Bible society, boldly spreading throughout the whole world. Rejecting the traditions of the holy Fathers and infringing the well-known decree of the Council of Trent, it works by every means to have the holy Bible translated, or rather mistranslated, into the ordinary languages of every nation. There are good reasons for fear that they will produce a gospel of men, or what is worse, a gospel of the devil! (en)
- Divine printing makes the use of books accessible to the world for instruction and edification. But many, as we have seen, misuse this art out of lust for glory and greed for money, so that they destroy humanity instead of enlightening it. Thus, in the hands of the people, which are translated from Latin into German, libri de divinis officiis et apicibus religionis nostrae can be found for the reduction of religion and its peaks. The sacred laws and canons, however, are composed by wise and eloquent men with such great care and skill, and their understanding is so difficult that the duration of human life, even for the most discerning, is scarcely sufficient to cope with them. Nevertheless, some cheeky and ignorant people have dared to translate those writings into such poor ordinary German that even scholars are seduced by their work into great misunderstandings. (en)
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