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Roman Catholic Romanticism THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 86
the English Version of the New Testament, p. 89, cf. also p. 88, London, 1870). Be that as it may, it is certain, on the other hand, that this phase of the objection to the Protestant Bible has now lost much of its interest and cogency. It is not here the place to discuss the relative merits of the " Authorized " and of the Douay version, which through episcopal authority has become the accepted translation for the use of English-speaking Roman Catholics. Each has its points of superiority and its defects. It is worthy of note, however, that some of the alleged faulty renderings mentioned above have been emendated by the revisers of 1881.
A further and more serious objection on the part of Roman Catholics to the use of the Protestant Bible is based on the difference as regards the Scriptural canon. The so-called " apocryphal " or deutero-canonical books, which Roman Catholics (on the authority of the Church) accept as having the same divine authority as the other portions of Holy Writ, have been excluded from the King James version since the edition of 1826, whence arises the Roman Catholic contention that the Protestant Bible is a truncated version and materially incomplete. Apart from the question of authority which finally determines the Roman Catholic position in such matters, it is pertinent to note that such an eminent and independent scholar as Charles A. Briggs (General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, chap. v., " The Canon of Scripture," New York, 1899) is inclined to accept the larger traditional canon as defined by the Council of Trent. But whatever the scientific merits of the controversy, this and the above-mentioned reasons may serve to render intelligible the attitude of Roman Catholics who have opposed the reading of the Bible in the public schools. JAMES F. DRISCOLL.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RESTRICTION OF BIBLEREADING BY THE LAITY: The traditional and official attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward Sacred Scripture and its use was formulated in the fourth session of the Council of Trent (Apr. 8, 1546) the main enactments of which were reaffirmed by the Vatican Council (q.v.). After declaring the substance of divine revelation to be contained in Holy Writ and in the unwritten (i.e., non-inspired) ecclesiastical traditions (in libris scriptis, et sine scripto traditionibus), the council formally accepted the traditionally received books of the Old and New Testaments with all their parts as contained in the Latin Vulgate (decreeing at the same time that a new, and as far as possible accurate, edition of the same be prepared; see BIBLE VERSIONS, A, II., 2, § 5), and further enacted that this version, which was declared a substantially correct translation of the original Scriptures, should henceforth be considered as the official text to be appealed to in all theological discussions, and for general use in the Church. At that time, as for centuries before, Latin was the official and liturgical language of the Church, and the Fathers of the council, in thus making the Vulgate the standard text, had no intention of declaring a preference for it over the original Hebrew or Greek, but wished simply to affirm its substantial conformity with the
latter, and to confer upon it for practical purposes an official authority with reference to the other existing Latin translations. Underlying these and similar enactments is the fundamental Roman Catholic doctrine that the authority of the living Church-not the letter of Scripture-is the proxi mate rule of belief, and that the Church is the di vinely appointed custodian of Holy Writ, the sole authoritative interpreter of its meaning in all mat ters pertaining to faith or morals. In her capacity of guardian the Church assumes the duty of pre serving the substantial purity of the original text, and likewise claims the right of supervision and di rection whenever it is question of translating the Scriptures into any of the modern languages. As these vernacular versions formed an important factor of the controversies and the disturbed relig ious conditions of the sixteenth century, it was de creed by the Council of Trent that no such trans lation might be used by the laity unless it had the sanction of ecclesiastical authority, and were pro vided with suitable notes for the proper understand ing of difficult and disputed passages. This re strictive legislation still retains force of law, though the reasons justifying it are obviously less cogent now than in the days of early Protestantism when so much stress was laid by the Reformers on the right of private interpretation. The Latin Vulgate is still retained as the basis of all authorized trans lations, though free recourse may be had to the Hebrew and Greek by way of comparison and eluci dation. In this as in similar matters, Roman Catho lic authority, while professing due respect for the conclusions of critical scholars, seeks above all to maintain the consensus of Christian tradition. See BIBLE-READING BY THE LAITY, RESTRICTIONS ON. JAMES F. DRISCOLL.BIBLIOGRAPHY: Acts et Dereta Concilli Tridentini. Seeaio IV.; H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, Freiburg. 1908; The Catholic Church and the Bible, London, 1908.
ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE. See PAUL THE APOSTLE, II., 3, §§ 5-7.
ROMANTICISM: The name of a movement which especially affected literature, art, religion, and theology in the last half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. It arose on
a background of three other moveThe Back- meats which had much in common with ground. one another, Classicism, Humanism, and the Enlightenment. (1) Classicism, which has retained its place ever since the revival of learning, has adhered to those forms of expression which prevailed in the creative periods of Greece and Rome. It was an attitude of mind, a method of literary and artistic activity formed on the severe models of ancient thought, characterized by energy, freshness, purity, proportion, restraint, objectivity, i.e., subserviency to nature, and reverence for the authority of long-established types. (2) Humanism (q.v.)-another name for the Renaissance in Italy, 1350-1425-turned away from metaphysics, from scholastic logical formulas as defined by the Church, from the despotism of the Church as claiming exclusive right to absorb human interests, from the division of knowledge into that of the " Two ways "-supernatural and natural, re-