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PART SECOND.
XIII. How far One may be led by the Protestant Principle, that "the Bible is the Rule of Faith."
— Were the Bible, interpreted according to one's pretended inspiration, the Rule of Faith, then every reader is bound in conscience to believe and do whatever he finds in his Bible.
Now, on the supposition of this principle, which is undeniably the grand principle of Protestantism, Protestants must needs approve all the abominations and impure follies of all those sects, so-called evangelical, who, from the Anabaptists to the Mormons, have dared to sanction their infamy with misunderstood texts of the Scripture. Aye, more; they are bound to acknowledge as legitimate brothers, in sooth, as true and logical Protestants, all those Mormons and Anabaptists and vile Sectarians who are the shame of humanity.
What impurities have not been committed under the sanction of those words of the Lord "increase and multiply"! A host of sectarians, following in the wake of the Anabaptists of Munster, have on the authority of those words, dared to legitimate polygamy. On some such misapplication of a text from the Gospel, Luther, Bucerus, and Melancthon have permitted Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, to have two wives.
In the name of the Bible, of the Word of God, Luther at first incited the German peasantry to revolt against their rulers, and then, frightened at his own work, he persuaded the princes to massacre the peasants. John of Leyden found in his studies of the Bible that he should marry eleven women at once. Hermann felt himself clearly designated in the Bible as the Envoy of the Lord. Nicholas learned from it that there was no necessity of anything connected with faith, and that we must live in sin in order that grace may abound. Sympson pretends to find in the Scriptures an ordination that men should walk in the streets stark naked, to teach the rich a lesson that they must divest themselves of everything. Richard Hill justified, with the Bible in hand, adultery and manslaughter as deeds never failing to work out some good purpose, especially when joined to incest, in which case more saints are added to the earth and more blessed to the heavens!
Even on the avowal of honest Protestants, no crime or abomination has ever failed to find its pretended justification in some scriptural text interpreted outside the authority of the Church.
What must we think of a principle leading to such consequences?
XIII. How far One may be led by the Protestant Principle, that "the Bible is the Rule of Faith."
— Were the Bible, interpreted according to one's pretended inspiration, the Rule of Faith, then every reader is bound in conscience to believe and do whatever he finds in his Bible.
Now, on the supposition of this principle, which is undeniably the grand principle of Protestantism, Protestants must needs approve all the abominations and impure follies of all those sects, so-called evangelical, who, from the Anabaptists to the Mormons, have dared to sanction their infamy with misunderstood texts of the Scripture. Aye, more; they are bound to acknowledge as legitimate brothers, in sooth, as true and logical Protestants, all those Mormons and Anabaptists and vile Sectarians who are the shame of humanity.
What impurities have not been committed under the sanction of those words of the Lord "increase and multiply"! A host of sectarians, following in the wake of the Anabaptists of Munster, have on the authority of those words, dared to legitimate polygamy. On some such misapplication of a text from the Gospel, Luther, Bucerus, and Melancthon have permitted Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, to have two wives.
In the name of the Bible, of the Word of God, Luther at first incited the German peasantry to revolt against their rulers, and then, frightened at his own work, he persuaded the princes to massacre the peasants. John of Leyden found in his studies of the Bible that he should marry eleven women at once. Hermann felt himself clearly designated in the Bible as the Envoy of the Lord. Nicholas learned from it that there was no necessity of anything connected with faith, and that we must live in sin in order that grace may abound. Sympson pretends to find in the Scriptures an ordination that men should walk in the streets stark naked, to teach the rich a lesson that they must divest themselves of everything. Richard Hill justified, with the Bible in hand, adultery and manslaughter as deeds never failing to work out some good purpose, especially when joined to incest, in which case more saints are added to the earth and more blessed to the heavens!
Even on the avowal of honest Protestants, no crime or abomination has ever failed to find its pretended justification in some scriptural text interpreted outside the authority of the Church.
What must we think of a principle leading to such consequences?
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre