Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/71

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 59 The publisher of the Cologne Bible writes also very beautifully on the reading of this holy book. ' All Christians,' he says, ' should read the Bible with piety and reverence, praying the Holy Ghost, who is the inspirer of the Scriptures, to enable them to understand them and to make them profitable to them for the salvation of their souls.' ' The learned,' he continues, ' should make use of the Latin translation of St. Jerome ; but the unlearned and simple folk, whether laymen or clergy, monks and nuns especially, in order to avoid the danger of idleness, which is the root of all evil, should read the German translations now supplied, and thus arm themselves against the enemy of our salvation. With this object in view, one who is a lover of human holiness did, out of a good heart, and at great cost and no sparing of labour, cause to be printed in Cologne, between the years 1470 and 1480, a transla- tion of the Holy Scriptures, which had been made many years before and used in MS. copies in monasteries and convents, and which also, long before this year 1470, had been printed and sold in the Oberland and in a few towns o° the Netherlands.' ' All, however,' he adds, ' who read the Bible in German should do it with humility, leaving unjudged what they cannot under- stand — in short, accepting it according to the interpre- tation which the Eoman Catholic Church has spread over the world.' In a little book entitled ' Useful and Consoling,' published in 1508, we read : ' Let all who read the Scriptures pray as follows : " Lord Jesus, enlighten my mind, that I may understand Thy word, and be led thereby to repentance and piety. Grant that my reading of the Holy Scriptures may advance me in the