Page 265 . Causes of the French Revolution . --On the far-reaching consequences of the rejection of the Bible and of Bible religion , by the people of France , see H . von Sybel , History of the French Revolution , b . 5 , ch . 1 , pars . 3-7 ; Henry Thomas Buckle , History of Civilization in England , chs . 8 , 12 , 14 ( New York , 1895 , vol . 1 , pp . 364-366 , 369-371 , 437 , 540 , 541 , 550 ); Blackwood ' s Magazine , vol . 34 , No . 215 ( November , 1833 ), p . 739 ; J . G . Lorimer , An Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church in France , ch . 8 , pars . 6 , 7 .
Page 267 . Efforts to Suppress and Destroy the Bible . --The Council of Toulouse , which met about the time of the crusade against the Albigenses , ruled : " We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the Old and New Testament . . . . We forbid them most severely to have the above books in the popular vernacular ." " The lords of the districts shall carefully seek out the heretics in dwellings , hovels , and forests , and even their underground retreats shall be entirely wiped out ." --Concil. Tolosanum , Pope Gregory IX , Anno . chr . 1229 . Canons 14 and 2 . This Council sat at the time of the crusade against the Albigenses .
" This pest [ the bible ] had taken such an extension that some people had appointed priests of their own , and even some evangelists who distorted and destroyed the truth of the gospel and made new gospels for their own purpose . . . ( they know that ) the preaching and explanation of the Bible is absolutely forbidden to the lay members ." --Acts of Inquisition , Philip van Limborch , History of the Inquisition , chapter 8 .
The Council of Tarragona , 1234 , ruled that : " No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language , and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree , so that they may be burned lest , be he a cleric or a layman , he be suspected until he is cleared of all suspicion ." --D. Lortsch , Histoire de la Bible en France , 1910 , p . 14 .
At the Council of Constance , in 1415 , Wycliffe was posthumously condemned by Arundel , the archbishop of Canterbury , as " that pestilent wretch of damnable heresy who invented a new translation of the Scriptures in his mother tongue ."
The opposition to the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church has continued through the centuries and was increased particularly at the time of the founding of Bible societies . On December 8 , 1866 , Pope Pius IX , in his encyclical Quanta cura , issued a syllabus of eighty errors under ten different headings . Under heading IV we find listed : " Socialism , communism , clandestine societies , Bible societies . . . . Pests of this sort must be destroyed by all possible means ."
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