all Protestant denominations claim it." But how do they claim it? Surely not merely as a source of "general and ethical religious instruction," but as the document which is supposed to prove their particular religious tenets. It is as true now as centuries ago what the Reformed theologian Werenfels expressed in his famous distich:
Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua.
The tenets of his private creed.
And, strange to tell, each reads so well
The selfsame words all doctrines spell.
Hence it is unreasonable to expect that the Bible will ever be taught without "sectarian" bias, or that in future it will be taught by Protestants without "antagonizing the Roman Catholics."
The objections of Catholics to the reading of the Bible in undenominational schools which are frequented by Catholic children, may briefly be summed up as follows: First, the Catholics must ask which translation of the Bible is to be used. Is it to be the Catholic Rheims and Douay version? To this the Protestants would undoubtedly object. Then the Protestant Bible? Against this the Catholics must protest. For the Bible of King James contains numerous errors of translation — this was candidly admitted by the authors of the Revised Version[1] — errors by no means insignificant, errors which, to a great extent, consist in rendering the Bible so as to
- ↑ On this subject see the beautiful little book Chapters of Bible Study, by the Reverend H. J. Heuser (New York, 1895), especially chapter XX.
