Tracts & Letters (Vol 3) - Calvin - II - Tract 1 continued

Required reading
Tracts and Letters (Volume 3) by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading up to (but not including) the 'First decree of the fifth session of the Council of Trent'.

My summary
We continue to read the decrees of the council of Trent and Calvin's antidotes to them.

Today we start with Calvin's antidote to the prefatory discourse of the Council in which Calvin takes a broad swipe at the basic problems of the Roman Catholic church.  Thus the Council is not positioned to condemn the Protestants.

Then the second session gives a decree ordering the Catholics in Trent to behave piously, including fasting, attending mass etc.  Calvin's antidote briefly  decries these Roman Catholic practices.

The third session gives a decree affirming the Apostle's creed which Calvin thinks the members of the Council should be ashamed to affirm.

The fourth session decrees that the Latin Vulgate is the official collection of Sacred Books and gives commands concerning their interpretation and printing.  Of course Calvin objects to the use of the Vulgate and even cites known translation errors contained within it.

What grabbed me
I loved Calvin's antidote to the fourth session, particularly his encouragement to check the originals: 'In condemning all translations except the Vulgate, as the error is more gross, so the edict is more barbarous. The sacred oracles of God were delivered by Moses and the Prophets in Hebrew, and by the Apostles in Greek. That no corner of the world might be left destitute of so great a treasure, the gift of interpretation was added. It came to pass — I know not by what means, but certainly neither by judgment nor right selection — that of the different versions, one became the favourite of the unlearned, or those at least who, not possessing any knowledge of languages, desired some kind of help to their ignorance. Those, on the other hand, who are acquainted with the languages perceive that this version teems with innumerable errors ; and this they make manifest by the clearest evidence. On the other hand, the Fathers of Trent contend, that although the learned thus draw the pure liquor from the very fountain, and convict the infallible Vulgate of falsehood, they are not to be listened to. No man possessed of common sense ever presumed to deprive the Church of God of the benefit of learning. The ancients, though unacquainted with the languages, especially with Hebrew, always candidly acknowledge that nothing is better than to consult the original, in order to obtain the true and genuine meaning. I will go further. There is no man of ordinary talent who, on comparing the Vulgate version with some others, does not easily see that many things which were improperly rendered by it are in these happily restored. The Council, however, insists that we shall shut our eyes against the light that we may spontaneously go astray. '

Sadly, what Calvin says above about the Roman Catholics and their Vulgate could be said about some Protestant brothers and the King James Version.

Next week's reading
Continue Tract I (Canons and decrees of the council of Trent, with the antidote) by reading up to (but not including) the section beginning 'On the sixth session of the Council of Trent' (which is Calvin's antidote to the sixth session).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.