The strenuous defence of the Holy Scripture, however, does not require that we should equally uphold all the opinions which every one of the Fathers, or which subsequent commentators have set forth in explaining it. It may be that, in commenting on passages where physical matters are in question, they have sometimes expressed the ideas of their own times, and have thus made statements which in these days have been abandoned as unfounded. In their interpretations, therefore, we must carefully note that which they lay down as belonging to faith, or as intimately connected with faith, or that in which they are unanimous. "In those things which do not come under the obligation of faith, the Saints were at liberty to hold divergent opinions, even as we ourselves are," says St. Thomas. In another place he says most admirably: "When philosophers are agreed upon a point, and that point is not contrary to faith, it is safer, in my opinion, neither to lay down such a point as a dogma of faith, even though it is perhaps so presented by the philosophers, nor to reject it as against faith, lest we thus give to the wise of this world an occasion of despising the doctrine of the faith." The Catholic commentator, although he should show that those facts of natural science which investigators affirm to be now in these days absolutely certain are not contrary to Scripture rightly explained, must nevertheless always bear in mind that much which has been held as proved and certain has afterwards been called in question and rejected. If writers on physics travel outside the boundaries of their own department, and carry their erroneous teaching into the domain of philosophy, let them be handed over by the theological commentator to philosophers for refutation.
The principles here laid down will apply to cognate sciences, and especially to history. It is a lamentable fact that there are many men who with great labor make and publish investigations on the monuments of antiquity, the manners and institutions of nations, and other illustrative subjects, and whose chief purpose in all this is too often to try to find mistakes in the sacred writings, and so to shake and weaken their authority. Some of these writers display not only extreme hostility, but also great unfairness. In their eyes a profane book or an ancient document is accepted without hesitation. Scripture, if they can only find in it a suspicion of error, is set down with the slightest possible discussion as being entirely untrustworthy. It is true, no doubt, that copyists have made mistakes in the text of the Bible. This question, when it arises, should be carefully considered on its merits. The fact, however, is not to be too easily admitted, but only in those passages where the proof is clear. It may also happen that the sense of a passage remains ambiguous. In this case, sound hermeneutical methods will greatly aid in clearing up obscurity. It is absolutely wrong, however, and it is forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. The system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards matters of faith and morals, and nothing beyond them, because (as they wrongly think) in a question of the truth or falsehood of a passage we should consider not so much what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it, cannot be tolerated. All the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical were written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. So far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but it excludes error as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the Supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church. It was solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent. It was finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of that Council: The Books of the Old and of the New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as they are enumerated in the decree of the same Council (Trent), and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, are to be received as sacred and canonical. The Church holds them as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed solely by human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority, nor only because they contain revelation without error, but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their Author. Hence we cannot say that, because the Holy Ghost employed men as His instruments, it was these inspired instruments who, perchance, have fallen into error, and not the primary Author. By supernatural power He so moved and impelled them to write—He was so present to them—that all the things which He ordered, and those things only, they first rightly conceived, then willed faithfully to write down, and finally expressed in adequate words and with infallible truth. Otherwise, it could not be said that He was the Author of the whole of the Sacred Scripture. Such has always been the persuasion of the Fathers. "Therefore," says St. Augustine, "since they wrote the things which He showed and said to them, it cannot be said that He did not write them. His members executed that which their Head dictated." St. Gregory the Great maintains: "Most superfluous it is to inquire who wrote these things;—we loyally believe the Holy Ghost to be the Author of the Book. He wrote it who dictated it to be written. He wrote it who inspired its execution."
It follows that those men who maintain that an error is possible in any genuine passage of the sacred writings, either pervert the Catholic notion of inspiration, or make God Himself to be the Author of error. So emphatically were all the Fathers and Doctors agreed that the divine writings, as left by the hagiographers, are entirely free from all error, that they labored earnestly, with no less skill than reverence, to reconcile one with the other those numerous passages which seem to be at variance—the very passages which in great measure have been taken up by the "higher criticism." The Fathers were unanimous in laying it down that those writings, in their entirety and in all their parts, were equally from the divineafflatus, and that God Himself, speaking through the sacred writers, could not set down anything that was not true. The words of St. Augustine to St. Jerome may sum up what they taught: "On my own part, I confess to your charity that it is only to those Books of Scripture which are now called canonical that I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to believe most firmly that no one of their writers has fallen into any error. If in these Books I meet with anything which seems contrary to truth, I shall not hesitate to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, or that I myself have not understood it."
But with all the weapons of the best of arts, fully and perfectly to fight for the holiness of the Bible is far more than can be looked for from the exertions of commentators and theologians alone. It is an enterprise in which we have a right to expect the co-operation of all Catholic men who have acquired reputation in other branches of learning. As in the past, so at the present time the Church is never without the graceful support of her accomplished children. May their services to the Faith ever grow and increase! There is nothing which We believe to be more needful than that truth should find defenders more powerful and more numerous than are the enemies whom it has to face. There is nothing which is better calculated to imbue the masses with homage for the truth than to see it joyously proclaimed by learned men who have gained distinction in some other faculty. Moreover, the bitter tongues of objectors will be silenced. At least they will not dare to insist so shamelessly that faith is the enemy of science when they see that scientific men, of eminence in their own profession, show towards the faith most marked honor and reverence.
Seeing, then, that those men can do so much for the progress of religion on whom the goodness of God has bestowed, together with the grace of the faith, great natural talent, let such men, in this most savage conflict of which the Scriptures are now the object, select each of them the branch of study which is best adapted to his circumstances, and endeavor to excel therein, and thus be prepared to repel with effect and credit the assaults on the word of God. It is our pleasing duty to give deserved praise to a work which certain Catholics have taken in hand—that is to say, the formation of societies, and the contribution of considerable sums of money, for the purpose of aiding certain of the more learned in the pursuit of their study to its completeness. Truly, an excellent method of investing money! It is an investment most suited to the times in which we live! The less hope of public patronage there is for Catholic study, the more ready and the more abundant should be the liberality of private persons. Those to whom God has given riches will thus use them to safeguard the treasure of His revealed doctrine.
In order that such labors may prove of real service to the cause of the Bible, let scholars keep steadfastly to the principles which we have in this Letter laid down. Let them loyally hold that God, the Creator and the Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures—and that therefore nothing can possibly be proved, either by physical science or by archeology, which can be in real contradiction with the Scriptures. If apparent contradictious should be met with, every effort should be made to meet them. Theologians and commentators of solid judgment should be consulted as to what is the true or the most probable meaning of the passage in discussion. Adverse arguments should also be carefully weighed. Even if the difficulty is not after all cleared up, and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned. Truth cannot contradict truth. We may be sure that some mistake has been made, either in the interpretation of the sacred words, or in the polemical discussion itself. If no mistake can be detected, we must then suspend judgment for the time being. There have been objections without number perseveringly directed against the Scriptures for many a long year. These have been proved to be futile, and they are now never heard of. Interpretations not a few have been put on certain passages of Scripture (not belonging to the rule of faith or morals), and these have been rectified after a more careful investigation. As time goes on mistaken views die and disappear. Truth remaineth and groweth stronger for ever and ever. Wherefore, as no one should be so presumptuous as to think that he understands the whole of the Scriptures—in which St. Augustine himself confessed that there was more that he did not know than that which he did know—so, if one should come upon anything that seems incapable of solution, he must take to heart the cautious rule of the same holy Doctor: "It is better even to be oppressed by unknown but useful signs than to interpret them uselessly, and thus to throw off the yoke of servitude only to be caught in the nets of error."
As regards those men who pursue the subsidiary studies of which We have spoken, if they honestly and modestly follow the counsels and commands which We have given—if by pen and voice they make their studies fruitful against the enemies of the truth, and useful in saving the young from loss of faith—they may justly congratulate themselves on worthy service to the Sacred Writings, and on their having afforded to the Catholic religion that aid which the Church has a right to expect from the piety and from the learning of her children.
Such, Venerable Brethren, are the admonitions and the instructions which, by the help of God, We have thought it well, at the present moment, to offer to you on the study of the Sacred Scriptures. It will now be for you to see that what We have said be held and observed with all due reverence, that so we may prove our gratitude to God for the communication to man of the words of His wisdom, and that all the good results which are so much to be desired may be realized, especially as they effect the training of the students of the Church, which is matter of Our own great solicitude and of the Church's hope. Exert yourselves with glad alacrity, and use your authority, and your persuasive powers, in order that these studies may be held in just regard, and that they may flourish in the seminaries and in the educational institutions which are under your jurisdiction. May they flourish in the completeness of success, under the direction of the Church, in accordance with the salutary teaching and the example of the Holy Fathers, and the laudable traditions of antiquity. As time goes on, let them be widened and extended as the interests and glory of the truth may require—the interests of that Catholic Truth which comes down from above, the never-failing source of the salvation of all peoples. Finally, We admonish with paternal love all students and ministers of the Church always to approach the sacred writings with the most profound affection of reverence and of piety. It is impossible to attain to a profitable understanding thereof unless, laying aside the arrogance of "earthly" science, there be excited in the heart a holy desire for that wisdom "which is from above." In this way the mind which has once entered on these sacred studies, and which has by means of them been enlightened and strengthened, will acquire a marvellous facility in detecting and avoiding the fallacies of human science, and in gathering and utilizing solid fruit for eternal salvation. The heart will then wax warm, and will strive with more ardent longing to advance in virtue and in divine love. "Blessed are they who examine His testimonies; they shall seek Him with their whole heart."
And now, filled with hope in the divine assistance, and trusting to your pastoral solicitude—as a pledge of heavenly graces and in witness of Our special good will—to all of you, and to the clergy, and to the whole flock which has been intrusted to you, We most lovingly impart in our Lord the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at St. Peter's, at Rome, the 18th day of November, 1893, the sixteenth year of Our Pontificate.
LEO PP. XIII.