A Record of Opposition to Bible Education

1179 Pope Alexander III forbade the Waldenses to preach, which preaching they were doing with a common-language translation of parts of the Bible.

1184 At the Synod of Verona, Italy, Pope Lucius III, supported by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, decreed the excommunication and handing over to civil authorities for punishment (usually burning) of all Bible-loving “heretics” who persisted in preaching or even thinking contrary to Catholic dogma.

1199 Pope Innocent III condemned the translation into French of the Psalms, the Gospels and Paul’s letters, and forbade meetings held in the bishopric of Metz, France, for the “reprehensible purpose” of studying the Scriptures. Any copies of these vernacular translations that could be found were burned by Cistercian monks.

1211 By order of Pope Innocent III, Bishop Bertram of Metz organized a crusade against all people reading the Bible in the vernacular, and any such Bibles found were duly burned.

1559 “[Pope] Paul IV put a whole series of Latin Bibles among the Biblia prohibita (prohibited books); he added that no Bible in the vernacular may be printed nor kept without the permission of the Holy Office. This amounted to prohibiting the reading of the Bible in any common language.”​—Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, Volume 15, column 2738.

1564 The fourth rule of the Index (of prohibited books) published by Pope Pius IV stated: “Experience has shown that if reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongue is permitted indiscriminately, due to the rashness of men, more harm than good arises therefrom.”

1590 Pope Sixtus V stipulated that no one could read the Bible in a common language without “special permission from the Apostolic See.”

1664 Pope Alexander VII put all vernacular Bibles on the Index of prohibited books.

1836 Pope Gregory XVI issued a warning to all Catholics that the fourth rule of the Index published in 1564 by Pius IV was still valid.

1897 In his Apostolic Constitution Officiorum Pope Leo XIII issued the following restrictions on the use of common-language Bibles: “All native-language versions, even those published by Catholics, are absolutely prohibited unless they have been approved by the Apostolic See or edited under the supervision of bishops, with explanatory notes taken from the Church Fathers and learned Catholic writers. . . . All versions of the Holy Books made by any non-Catholic writer whatsoever and in any common language are prohibited, especially those published by Bible societies, which have been condemned by the Pontiff of Rome on several occasions.”