Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/295



THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 289

thereby pretend directly to demonstrate dogmas of faith, but used it as a means of promoting virtue and piety, such as, by their own experience, they knew to be most valu- able. The authority of other Church interpreters is not so great; but the study of Scripture has always continued to advance in the- Gfamrh, ^nd, therefo re, these- commen t taries also have theiF own honorable place, and are serv- iceable in many ways for the refutation of assailants and the explanation of difficulties. But it is most unbe- coming to pass by, in ignorance or contempt, the excellent

work w hich CathohcS hg yp l^ft. in nVmnrIn ^ jHiil III liiTTA

recourse to the wo rk of non-Cathol ics â€” and to seek in them, to the detriment oi sound doctrine and often to the peril of faith, the explanation of passages on which Catholics long ago have successfully employed their talent and their labor. For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometime s be of use to the_ ^pâ€¢'â€¢h^^l^V- student, he shoul d^lievertlieless. bear well in mind â€” a s the i*atners also teach m numerous passages ^ â€” that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only know the bark of sacred Scripture, and never attain its pith.

Most desirable is it, and most essential, that the whole teaching of theology should be pervaded and animated by the use of the d ivine _ Word of God. That is what the Fathers and tEe"greatest theologians of all ages have de- sired p.nd reduced to practice. It is chiefly out of the' sacred writings that they endeavored to proclaim and estabhsh the_Articlesj)f Faith and^ the tru ths therewit h connected, and it was m'them, together with divine tra - di tioiiTt hat they tound the refutation of heretica Terfo r, and the reaso'hableness, the Li'uein(iamilg, and the mutual relation of the truths of Catholicism. Nor will any one wonder at this who considers that the sacred books hold

' Cfr. Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 16; Orig. de princ. iv. 8; in I.evit. hom. 48; Tertull. de praescr. 15, seqq.; S. Hilar. Pict. in Matth. 13, 1.