Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
The assertions by Roman Catholic apologists have consisted of alleging their Mother Church is the preserver, defender and transmitter of God’s Holy Word.
However, their historical practical definition of preserving and defending was perverted into that of ‘removing’ and ‘punishing.’ Removing access to God’s Word and punishing those who dared read or possess Holy Writ in the vernacular.
Their idea of ‘transmitting’ God’s Word is no less perverted.
To ‘transmit’ is to cause to communicate something to others.
Thus, this priest and his Church would have us believe sharing knowledge of the Gospel and Holy Writ, whether preached or written, was among the many God-given privileges by which she was blessed and for which she should be highly honored.
But this assertion is patently false.
Rather than eagerly make Scriptures readily available to the common folk unable to read or understand Latin, the Roman Catholic authorities proscribed translations made into the common languages. Nor was preaching by the laity to be tolerated.
The Waldenses proved to be an ever-painful thorn in the side of the Catholic hierarchy for their insistence in using vernacular translations by which to spread the Gospel, as well as the means to refute the false teachings of Romanism.
According to several hostile accounts which may be found in the numerous translations of Inquisitional documents by recognized experts, universally considered authorities on medieval ‘heresy,’ Waldes of Lyons, the founder of the Waldensian movement which bears his name, in 1170 commissioned two Catholic priests to translate and transcribe “many books of the Bible,” in addition to several writings of the early church fathers which he divided into topics.
Inquisitor Stephen of Bourbon testifies:
“When this citizen [Waldes] had poured over these texts and learned them by heart, he resolved to devote himself to evangelical perfection, just as the apostles had pursued it. Selling all his possessions in contempt of the world he broadcast his money to the poor and presumptuously arrogated to himself the office of the apostles. Preaching in the streets and the broad ways the Gospels and those things he had learned by heart, he drew to himself many men and women that they might do the same, and he strengthened them in the Gospel. He also sent out persons even of the basest occupations to preach in the nearby villages. Men and women alike, stupid and uneducated, they wandered through the villages, entered homes, preached in the squares and even in the churches, and induced others to do likewise.
“Now when they had spread error and scandal everywhere as a result of their rashness and ignorance, they were summoned before the archbishop of Lyons, whose name was John, and were forbidden by him to concern themselves with expounding the Scriptures or with preaching. They, in turn, fell back on the reply made by the apostles. Their leader, assuming the role of Peter, replied with his words to the chief priests: ‘We ought to obey God, rather than men’ – the God who commanded the apostles to ‘Preach the gospel to every creature.’” (Wakefield & Evans, 1969; Heresies in the High Middle Ages, 209-210.)
Cambridge Professor Deansley relates,
“[T]here was no doubt that the right of the laity to draw inferences from a knowledge of the New Testament gained through translations was the foundation of the Waldensian position. The Waldensian lower classes, like the [Catholic] lower classes, could not read: but extraordinary stress was laid on memorizing parts of the New Testament…….As is often the case with those who have not been taught to read, their power of memory was very great, and all the Sunday gospels would often be learned by heart.” (Deansley, Margaret, 1920. The Lollard Bible, 28.)
Once sufficient proficiency in the vernacular gospels and epistles was mastered, refutation of the many unbiblical Catholic doctrines became commonplace when debating priests. Their opponents accused the Waldenses of arguing falsely from the Scriptures, since it was the Bible alone from which they proved the Catholic doctrines spurious.
“It was for this reason that vernacular bibles and vernacular scriptures were burned by inquisitors and prohibited by archbishops and provincial synods wherever Waldensianism spread: not because the translations were themselves regarded as false or heretical, as was the case with Reformation versions.” (ibid. 30-31.)
NEXT: Roman Catholic decrees prohibiting vernacular translations.