Withholding the Bible?

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ptisme said:
Hi, I have an Evangelical Protestant friend who told me the reason (or one of them) for the reformation was because the church of Rome withheld the bible from it’s people and wouldn’t allow it to be translated into other languages. Is there any truth to this and does anyone have a link to more information? Thanks in advance, PT.
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Reading the Bible Encouraged

St. John Chrysostom (344/354 - 407)

“To become adult Christians you must learn familiarity with the scriptures” [On the Letter to the Ephesians - Education of Children.]

“But what is the answer to these charges? ‘I am not,’ you will say, ‘one of the monks, but I have both a wife and children, and the care of a household.’ This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world, and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine. So, far worse even than not reading the scriptures is the idea that they are superfluous. Such things were invented by the devil.” [St. John’s Second Homily on Matthew section 10 (which is sometimes labeled as section 5.) ]

Saint Augustine (354-430 AD)

"Holy Scripture is invested with supreme authority by reason of its sure and momentous teachings regarding the faith. Whatever, then, it tells us of Enoch, Elias and Moses – that we believe. We do not, for instance, believe that God’s Son was born of the Virgin Mary simply because He could not otherwise have appeared in the flesh and ‘walked amongst men’ – as Faustus would have it – but we believe it simply because it is written in Scripture; and unless we believe in Scripture we can neither be Christians nor be saved. [S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 3, 6.]

“These things are true; they are faithfully and truthfully written of Christ; so that whosoever believes His Gospel may be thereby instructed in the truth and misled by no lie.” [S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 8.]

The two citations above are also quoted by Pope Benedict XV in his encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus sections 25 and 27.

**Pope St. Gregory I (died 604) **

“The Emperor of heaven, the Lord of men and of angels, has sent you His epistles for your life’s advantage—and yet you neglect to read them eagerly. Study them, I beg you, and meditate daily on the words of your Creator. Learn the heart of God in the words of God, that you may sigh more eagerly for things eternal, that your soul may be kindled with greater longings for heavenly joys.” [Letters, 5, 46. (EnchBibl 31)]

St. Isidore (560-636)

“Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us… If a man wants to be always in God’s company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us.

“All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection. By reading we learn what we did not know; by reflection we retain what we have learned.

“Reading the holy Scriptures (the Bible) confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man’s attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God.

“Two kinds of study are called for here. We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them. A man must first be eager to understand what he is reading before he is fit to proclaim what he has learned.

“The conscientious reader will be more concerned to carry out what he has read than merely to acquire knowledge of it… Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart. It makes a great noise outside but serves no inner purpose. But when God’s grace touches our innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart.” [Office of Readings, April 4…(Lib.3,8-10: PL 83, 679-682)]
 
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153 AD)

“The person who thirsts for God eagerly studies and meditates on the inspired Word, knowing that there, he is certain to find the One for whom he thirsts.” [Commentary on the Song of Songs, Sermon 23:3.]

Decree of the Council of Trent (April 8, 1546)

“ The holy synod] following the examples of the orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety and reverence all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament-seeing that one God is the Author of both…” [Session 4, April 8, 1546.]

**Saint Teresa of Avila (1515 -1582 AD) **

“Within this majesty I was given knowledge of a truth that is the fulfillment of all truths. I don’t know how to explain this because I didn’t see anything. I was told without seeing anyone, but I clearly understood that it was Truth telling me: ‘This is no small thing I do for you, because it is one of the things for which you owe Me a great deal, for all the harm that comes to the world comes from its not knowing the truths of Scripture in clarity and truth; not one iota of Scripture will fall short.’ To me it seemed I had always believed this, and that all the faithful believed it. He told me: ‘Alas, daughter, how few there are who truthfully love me! For if they loved me, I would reveal to them my secrets. Do you know what it is to love Me truthfully? It is to understand that everything that is displeasing to me is a lie. By the beneficial effects this understanding will cause in your soul you shall see clearly what you now do not understand.’” [La Vida, ch. 40, #1.]

**Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) **

Pope Benedict instructed the bishops of the Papal States that “In ecclesiastical chant care must be taken to insure that the words are perfectly and easily understood…”

He quoted the 1565 Synod of Cambrai:

“What is sung in choir is destined to instruct the faithful…”

and the 1536 Council of Cologne:

“the most important part is made up precisely of the recital of the words of the prophets, the apostles, the Epistle, the Creed, the Preface or the act of thanksgiving, and the Our Father. On account of their importance these texts like all the others must be sung clearly and intelligibly.” [Pope Benedict XIV, “Annus qui” 19 February AD 1749]

Pope Pius 6th (April 1st 1778 AD)

“BELOVED SON : Health and apostolic benediction. At a time that a vast number of bad books, which most grossly attack the Catholic religion, are circulated even among the unlearned, to the great destruction of souls, you judge exceedingly well, that the faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures : for these are the most abundant sources which ought to be left open to every one, to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are widely dis¬seminated in these corrupt times : this you have seasonably effected, as you declare, by publishing the sacred writings in the language of your country, suitable to every one’s capacity …

Given at Rome, on the calends of April, 1778, the fourth year of our pontificate.”

(Letter to the Most Rev. Anthony Martini, Archbishop Of Florence, on his Italian translation of the Bible which is printed in Haydock’s Bible, revised by the Very Reverend Dr. Husenbeth, 1884 AD.)

**Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903 AD) **

“The solicitude of the apostolic office naturally urges and even compels us…to desire that this grand source of Catholic revelation (the Bible) should be made safely and abundantly accessible to the flock of Jesus Christ”

“… For sacred Scripture is not like other books. Dictated by the Holy Ghost, it contains things of the deepest importance, which in many instances are most difficult and obscure. To understand and explain such things there is always required the ‘coming’ of the same Holy Ghost; that is to say, His light and His grace…It is absolutely wrong and forbidden either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of holy Scripture or to admit that the sacred writer has erred… and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration is not only essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true.” [Providentissimus Deus ( Nov. 18, 1893)]
 
zz912 said:
The only instances where the Church (actually it was specific bishops in local dioceses) forbid reading the Bible was in response to faulty and dangerous translations that were being spread. It was never a universal restriction for the whole Church, and was in response to danger for the people.

A person who didn’t know better, reading a faulty translation can start to believe heresy and end up leaving the Church and put their immortal soul in jeopardy.

The most widely know example usually brought up is related to the Albigensian/Manichean heresy in France. There were Bibles and pamphlets (usually just single books of the Bible or sections of books) that were very faulty translations that were helping to spread the heresy.
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That has been my understanding as well, it wasn’t the Bible that was with held, but the justifiable concern that people might make erroneous and incorrect translations that was being addressed. Those were forbidden so as not to lead people astray or to come to their own conclusions and no longer be led by the teachings of the Church.

They wanted to make sure that only the correct translations were being put forth.
 
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