Page:1609 Doway Old Testament.pdf/4

TO THE ENGLISH READER. we shal repete the summe of al, that is there more largely

discussed. To this first question therfore we answer, that

both iust reason, & highest authoritie of the Church, iudge

it not absolutly necessarie, nor alwayes conuenient, that holie Scriptures should be in vulgar tongues. For being as

they are, hard to be vnderstood, euen by the lerned, reason

doth dictate to reasonable men, that they were not written,

nor ordayned to be read indifferently of al men. Experiēce

also teacheth, that through ignorance, ioyned often with

pride and presumption, manie reading Scriptures haue

erred grosly, by misunderstanding Gods word. Which

though it be most pure in it self, yet the sense being adulterated

is as perilous (saith Tertullian) as the stile corrupted. S. Ambrose

obserueth: that vvhere the text is true, the Arrians interpretation

hath errors. S. Augustin also teacheth, that here sies and

peruerse doctrines entangling soules, and throvving them dovvne

headlong into the depth, do not othervvise spring vp, but vvhen

good (or true) Scriptures are not vvel (and truly) vnderstood, and

vvhen that which in them is not vvel vnderstood, is also rashly

& boldly auouched. For the same cause, S. Ierom vtterly disallowed,

that al sortes of men & wemen, old & yong, presumed

to read: & talke of the Scriptures: wheras no articene,

no tradsman dare presume to teach anie facultie, which he hath not

first lerned. Seing therfore that dangers, & hurtes happen in

manie, the careful chief Pastores in Gods Church, haue alwaies

moderated the reading of holie Scriptures, according

to persons, times, and other circumstances; prohibiting

some, and permitting some, to haue and read them, in

their mother tongue. So S. Crysostom trāslated the Psalmes

& some other partes of holie Scriptures for the Armenians,

when he was there in banishment. The Slauonians

and Gothes say they haue the Bible in their languages. It

was translated into Italian by an Archbyshop of Genua.

Into French in the time of king Charles the fift: especially

because the waldensian heretikes had corruptly translated