ing of Scripture (excepting the portions con-
tained in the Breviary and the Psalter) without
priestly permission and supervision. Similar
prohibitions were repeated at the S^-nod of Tou-
louse (1229), in its fourteenth canon, and with
regard to Wiclif, at the Synod of Oxford (1382).
Ultimately, the recognized Latin version, or Vul-
gate, was more and more decidedly made the sole
authorized Church version. Indeed, as early as
1233, the Synod of Tarragona in its second
canon ordered that no one, either priest or
layman, should retain in his possession a copy of
the Romanic translation of the Bible. As, how-
ever, it soon appeared that little could be effected
by such prohibitions, milder measures were em-
ployed. The Council of Trent (1545-63) at its
fourth session (April 8, 1546) passed a decree
concerning the canonical Scriptures, which gave
a list of the books which were received, made
the vulgate Latin version the sole authoritative
source of quotation, and threatened with punish-
ment those who presumed to interpret the Scrip-
tures contrary to the sense given them by the
Fathers. But notliing was determined with
regard to Bible-reading among the laity. This
was first done in the publication of the first
Index Libroriim Proltibitorum (Rome, 1564),
which enjoined the necessity of obtaining written
permission of the bishop before a lay person
could read the Bible in the vernacular. After-
wards, the rules of the Church, placing the use
of the Scriptures under the supervision of the
bishops, were more and more strictly defined.
The publication of the New Testament with piac-
tical annotations by Paschasius Quesnel (1687)
gave occasion to the Roman Catholic Church to
speak more definitely on the reading of the Bible
by the laity in the bull Unigenitus Dei Filius
(1713). Xew ordinances were issued by Pope
Pius VII. in his brief to the Archbishops of
Onesen and Mohilev (1816) against translations
formerly authorized: again, by Leo XII., in his
condemnation of Bible societies (1824), bv Pius
VIII. ( 1829 ) , Gregory XVI. ( 1844 ) , and by Pius
IX., who, in his famous tii/llabus of Errors
(1864, sec. iv.), classes Bible societies among the
pests of modern times! Leo XIII. . as a profound
Bible student, advocates the reading of the Scrip-
tures in his Encyclical of November 18, 1893,
upon "The Study of the Bible." The various
ordinances of the Roman Catholic Church imply
that it is dangerous to give the Bible freely to
the laity, and that therefore no vernacular ver-
sions ought to be used without interpretations
taken from the Fathers, and an especial Papal
sanction.
The position of the Greek Church is somewhat different. It has passed no. plain prohibition of Bible translations to the laity, without Church guidance, as the Latin Church has. But in three of the questions appended to the Eit/hteen De- crees of the fiynod of Jerusalem, otherwise called The Confession of Dositheiis (1672), which re- late to the Scriptures, it answers in the nega- tive the quesljon whether it is permitted to all Christians to read the Bible, ^t then goes on to explain that only those who had given it special study were able rightly to interpret it. .gree- ably to the spirit of this prohibition. Czar Nicho- las I. in 1820 suppressed the society for the circulation of the- Russian vernacular transla- tion of the Bible, allowed bv Czar Alexander I. in 1813.
BIBLE ANTIQ'UITIES, .n BIB'LICAL AECH.a;OL'OGY. A study which has for its object enlightenment as to the religious, social, and political conditions, the arts and sciences, manners and customs, geography, topography, etc.. of the Jews and other peoples mentioned in the Bible. It falls into to main sections — the Old and the Xew Testa^nent. The Old-Testament field, from its historic extent and variety, fur- nishes far the greater amount of material. Al- though the antiquities of the Hebrews themselves form the centre of these studies, the trend of investigation and discovery during the past cen- tury has given an ever-increasing importance to their relations with other nations, and the light thrown upon the Bible from these sources has been xmexpectedly full. Egypt, Babylonia, As- syria ; the Hittites, Phoenicians. Syrians, Per- sians — all have furnished a large quota of ma- terial. The cosmogony of Cienesis and the account of the Deluge are being compared with the corresponding legends of the early Baby- lonians ; the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt has been tested by excavations and Egyptian documents ; the official historic annals of the .Assyrian kings, where they record operations in • Tudaea and Samaria, can now be used to compare with the texts of Kings and Chronicles, and even the capture of Xineveh. the times of Daniel, and the last days of Babylon. The Hittites, casually mentioned in the Old Testament, are found to have been a powerful confederacy; excavations have disclosed the antiquities of these and other tribes among whom the Hebrews came to settle. Plwenician studies have helped to show the prim- itive form of the Hebrew alphabet and language. In short, the old supplements to the Bible text, such as the writings of Josephus and Philo, the Targums. and the Talmud, no longer retain their exclusive importance. Palestine itself has been thorovighly explored and surveyed, and many old sites identified. The English Palestine Ex- ploration Fund and the German Palastina-Ver- ein have done the most systematic collective work, and have published maps, surveys, and periodical reports and new contributions. The American association for the same purpose was at work only a few years, but such Americans as Selah Jlerrill and Frederick Bliss have done dis- tinguished service. There has been organized a school of Oriental studies in Palestine, to study biblical archa?ologj' and to work in exploration and excavation. A corpus of Semitic inscrip- tions is published by the French Academy of Inscriptions, and will furnish all such original material. JIuch attention is of course paid to archaeology in the Bible dictionaries, especially in the larger ones of William Smith, T. K. Che^^-ne ( Encyclopwdin Bihlico ) , and James Hast- ings. See articles Assykia; Babylon; Baby- lonia; P.LESTIXE ; the cross references under Arch.*:oi.ogy. and the biblical geographical ar- ticles generally.
BIBLE CHRIS'TIANS. See Methodi.sm.
BIBLE OF THE POOR. See Biblia Pau- peris.
BIBLE SOCI'ETY. A religious society, hav- ing exclusively for its object the translation and difTusion of the Sacred Scriptures. Such asso- ciations must be regarded as a natural form of expression of Christian benevolence, acting ac- cording to the principles of Protestantism, and
