Very sad story

Someone in great pain, discomfort, or feeling hopeless is also not in a state to make a totally free act. Let me be clear though; the willful act of taking your own life especially to spurn or hurt another person or to spite God is a mortal sin and if there is no circumstances mitigating factors own's guilt is a hellish choice. Again the teaching of the Church or the Word of God had not changed.

Quote: FrGamble

Again the teaching of the Church or the Word of God had not changed.

So the Church is still burning witches,
holding inquisitions, and chasing down
anybody who has an English written
Bible, then?

Holding Inquisitions yes, the other stuff no. In fact I don't think anybody was ever chased down for having a Bible in English. Maybe you mean a poorly translated, opinion driven and misleading translation of the English Bible?

Quote: Face

WE, us people here, have advanced in psychology. God, He created it. He knows the rules, He knows how we react in all situations. How can our understanding change God's knowledge?

As I've said elsewhere, if you want to understand religion you ought to read "1984".

Quote: FrGamble

I don't think anybody was ever chased down for having a Bible in English.

That's because you have a poor understanding
of the history of your own church.

Quote: FrGamble

Holding Inquisitions yes, the other stuff no. In fact I don't think anybody was ever chased down for having a Bible in English. Maybe you mean a poorly translated, opinion driven and misleading translation of the English Bible?

Wycliffe and Tyndale's story are literally taught to every Protestant.

The first English version of the Bible, translated and published in 1380 by John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384). An Oxford theologian, Wycliffe The few Wycliffe Bible copies in existence were banned by a synod of clergy in Oxford in 1408. An edict was issued against any unauthorized translation of the Bible into English. Wycliffe was pronounced a heretic and in 1415, the Church Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe’s writings and ordered his bones to be dug out of the ground and to be burned.

On October 6, 1536, Englishman William Tyndale (c.1494-1536) was strangled by the civil executioner in Belgium and his dead body was burned at the stake.

Something must have happened in the next 70 years, because I believe that D-R was the first English translation sanctioned by the Catholic church.

The Douay-Rheims version, which predates the King James by a few years, was the standard Bible for English-speaking Catholics until the twentieth century.

Quote: FrGamble

In fact I don't think anybody was ever chased down for having a Bible in English.

The following is but a tiny excerpt from ROME AND THE BIBLE: TRACING THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS PERSECUTION OF THE BIBLE AND OF BIBLE BELIEVERS. They go into minute detail of how the Church tried everything possible to keep the Bible out of the hands of regular people, even the Latin Bibles. The Council of Trent in 1546 forbade any person to read the Bible without a license from a Catholic bishop or inquisitor. If you didn't have a license, you were thrown in prison just for reading a Bible.


"During the period when the Roman Catholic Church was in power, she did everything she could to keep the Bible out of the hands of the common people. It was illegal to translate the Bible into the common languages, even though most people could not read the official Catholic Bible because it was in Latin, a language known only to the highly educated...

Wycliffe, the vicar of St. Mary’s Church at Lutterworth, completed the English New Testament in 1380 and the Old Testament in 1382. He rejected many of Rome’s heresies, including the doctrine that the people should not have the Bible in their own language. Here is one of the powerful statements that he made to the Catholic authorities: “You say it is heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in English. You call me a heretic because I have translated the Bible into the common tongue of the people. Do you know whom you blaspheme? Did not the Holy Ghost give the Word of God at first in the mother-tongue of the nations to whom it was addressed? Why do you speak against the Holy Ghost? You say that the Church of God is in danger from this book. How can that be? Is it not from the Bible only that we learn that God has set up such a society as a Church on the earth? Is it not the Bible that gives all her authority to the Church?"

This is a lonnnng article, but it details the
lengths the Church went to trying to keep
the Bible all to itself.

http://www.wayoflife.org/database/persecutionofbible.html

Paco is always so fair and balanced. It was unauthorized translations that were the problem. Would you mind if I translated your posts into Italian and never ran them by you or if I twisted your words to sound more biased or prejudiced against Catholics (I'd have to use the tongue of Mordor to do that)?

I'd also like to point out that there were many official translations of the Bible in the vernacular during Wycliffe's time he just didn't like what it said or where it lead people, so he came up with his own version. Kind of like how the website you quote makes up its own version of history.

Quote: FrGamble

so he came up with his own version.

Where do you get this BS from? Wycliff's
translation was SO ACCURATE, it was the
main reference they used when doing
the King James version.

It wasn't that the Church was against only wrong
translations, they were dead set against
the public getting even the Latin version
done by the Church. Read the article I linked
to, it tells the whole story.

Quote: Evenbob

Read the article I linked to, it tells the whole story.

Quote: Matthew A. C. Newsome

So what was the real reason William Tyndale was condemned? Was translating the Bible into English illegal? The answer is no. The law that was passed in 1408 was in reaction to another infamous translator, John Wycliff. Wycliff had produced a translation of the Bible that was corrupt and full of heresy. It was not an accurate rendering of sacred Scripture.
Both the Church and the secular authorities condemned it and did their best to prevent it from being used to teach false doctrine and morals. Because of the scandal it caused, the Synod of Oxford passed a law in 1408 that prevented any unauthorized translation of the Bible into English and also forbade the reading of such unauthorized translations.
Catholic apologist

I am just as surprised as anyone. I always thought the Catholic church did not want an English bible!