Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/304



298 THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

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they labored earnestly, with no less skill than reverence, to reconcile with each other those numerous passages which seem at variance â€” the very passages which in a great meas- re .lmy.e J)eeji.,-taken up by the "higher criticism"; for 'they were unanimous in lajdngit down that those writings, in their entirety and in all their parts were equally from the afflatus of Almighty God, and that God, speaking by the sacred writers, could not set down anything that was not true. The words of St. Augustine to St. Jerome may sum up what they taught: "On my own part I confess to your charity that it is only to those books of Scripture which are now called canonical that I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to believe most firmly that none of their writers has fallen into any error. And if in these books I meet anything which seems contrary to truth I shall not hesitate to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, or that I myself do not understand." ^

But to undertake fully and perfectly, and with all the weapons of the best science, the defence of the Holy Bible is far more than can be looked for from the exertions of commentatoi's and theologians alone. It is an enterprise in which we have a right to expect the co-operation of all those Catholics who have acquired reputation in any branch of learning whatever. As in the past, so at the present time, the Church is never without the graceful support of her accomplished children; may their service to the Faith grow and increase! For there is nothing which We believe to be more needful than that truth should find defenders more powerful and more numerous than the enemies it has to face; nor is there anything which is better calculated to impress the masses with respect for truth than to see it boldly proclaimed by learned and dis- tinguished men. Moreover, the bitter tongues of objectors will be silenced, or at least they will not dare to insist so


 * Ep. Ixxvii. 1, et crebrius alibi.