Lafevre French Bible

PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH BIBLE

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December 30, 1999 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following article is from the book ROME AND THE BIBLE: TRACING THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS PERSECUTION OF THE BIBLE AND OF BIBLE BELIEVERS. To our knowledge, this is the first history ever published that details the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to the Bible through the centuries. It covers the Roman Catholic Inquisition from the 11th to the 19th centuries, particularly the role played by the Inquisition to keep translations of the Bible out of the hands of the common people. It contains the history of ancient separated Christians, including the Waldensians and the Lollards. The book could also be titled "The Bible Through the Centuries." It gives the history of the English Bible from John Wycliffe to William Tyndale, and the history of the Spanish, German, French, and Italian Bibles. It contains amazing biographies of royal queens who loved the Bible. It gives the decade-by-decade details of papal condemnations of 19th-century Bible societies and of Roman Catholic persecution in the 19th century. It describes the 20th-century phenomenon of Rome changing tactics and joining hands with the Bible societies. It answers the question: Has the Roman Catholic Church changed? The book contains 74 illustrations, many of which are from rare out-of-print books. 200 pages, 8.5X11, perfect bound $19.95 + $4 S/H. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail).

PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH BIBLE
By David W. Cloud
Copyright 1996, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail)

Bibles in the French language had existed from the middle of the twelfth century. These were made by the Albigenses of Southern France and the Waldenses (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, 1899, p. 208). We know very little about these Bibles, though. Coming to more modern times, the record becomes plain. In 1523 a French New Testament was published by Simon de Colines. The Old Testament appeared in 1528. "Like most efforts of the kind, it was bitterly opposed by the Roman Catholic authorities, and finally proscribed" (Beardslee, p. 211).

JACQUES LEFEVRE D’ETAPLES

Jacques Lefevre D’etaples [Faber Stapulensis] (1455-1536), a professor at the University of Paris, published a French New Testament in 1523 and the complete French Bible in 1528. Lefevre [or le Fevre] had turned from the wisdom of the world to the Bible at an advanced age. While engaged in collecting the legends of the saints and martyrs with the design of publishing these in chronological order, Lefevre became disgusted with these largely fictitious and unscriptural accounts. "The sublimity of the Word of God made him perceive the paltry nature of these fables. They now appeared to him no better than ‘brimstone fit to kindle the fire of idolatry.’ He abandoned his work, and throwing these legends aside, turned ardently towards the Holy Scriptures. … Lefevre, weaned from the fables of the Breviary, began to study the Epistles of St. Paul; the light increased rapidly in his heart, and he immediately imparted to his disciples that knowledge of the truth which we find in his commentaries. … The doctrine of justification by faith, which overthrew by a single blow the subtleties of the schoolmen and the observances of popery, was boldly proclaimed in the bosom of the Sorbonne. ‘It is God alone,’ said the doctor, and the vaulted roofs of the university must have been astonished as they re-echoed such strange sounds, ‘it is God alone, who by his grace, through faith, justifies unto everlasting life. There is a righteousness of works, there is a righteousness of grace; the one cometh from man, the other from God; one is earthly and passeth away, the other is heavenly and eternal; one is the shadow and the sign, the other the light and the truth; one makes sin known to us that we may escape death, the other reveals grace that we may obtain life. … Thus a new life and a new teaching had penetrated into the university of Paris" (D’Aubigne, III, pp. 339-40).

One of Lefevre’s converts, William Farel, became a key leader in the Protestant Reformation and established a Protestant government in Geneva prior to Calvin. As we will note further on, Lefevre was protected at times by Margaret, sister to King Francis I (1515-1547). Margaret was two years older than her brother. She loved the preaching of Lefevre and became a protector of him and of other Bible-believing Christians. At age thirty-five, Margaret, having been widowed, was wed to Henri d’Albret, titular King of Navarre. This was in 1548. Thus she inherited the title Queen of Navarre. J.H. Merle D’Aubigne described Margaret in his History of the Reformation, and we will include this brief biography of her life since very few Christians today have any information on this interesting woman:

This Margaret, so beautiful, so full of wit, and living in the atmosphere of a corrupted court, was one of the first to be carried away by the religious movement then beginning in France. … Margaret, yet hesitating and wavering, in the midst of the depraved society that surrounded her, looked for support, and found it in the Gospel. She turned towards this fresh breath that was reanimating the world, and inhaled it with delight as an emanation from heaven. From some of the ladies of her court she learnt what the new doctors were teaching; they lent her their writings, their little books, called in the language of the time, ‘tracts;’ and spoke to her of the ‘primitive Church, of the pure Word of God, of worshipping in spirit and in truth, of christian liberty which shakes off the yoke of superstition and traditions of men to bind them closer to God alone.’ Erelong this princess conversed with Lefevre, Farel, and Roussel; their zeal, their piety, their purity of morals,—all in them struck her imagination …

Thus, in the midst of the brilliant court of Francis I. and of the profligate household of Louisa of Savoy, was accomplished one of those conversions of the heart which, although not thoroughly evangelical, are not the fruit of a mere aesthetical religion. Margaret subsequently recorded in her poems the different movements of her soul at this important period of her life; and in them we may trace the path she then trod. We find that the sense of sin had taken strong hold of her, and that she wept over the levity with which she had treated the scandals of the world.

Is there a gulf of ill, so deep and wide
That can suffice but e’en a tenth to hide
Of my vile sins?

… And erelong a sense of the love of God in Christ was shed abroad in her heart. Margaret had found faith, and her enraptured soul indulged in holy transports.

Word Divine, Jesus the Salvator,
Only Son of the eternal Pater,
The first, the last; of all things renovator,
Bishop and king, and mighty triumphator,
From death by death our liberator.
By faith we’re made the sons of the Creator.

In fact, the princess experienced, not long after, the truth of the saying, that all who will live godly in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution. At the court, they talked of Margaret’s new opinions, and the surprise was great. What! Even the sister of the king takes part with these people! For a moment it might have been thought that Margaret’s ruin was certain. She was denounced to Francis I. but the king, who was tenderly attached to his sister, pretended to think that it was untrue. Margaret’s character gradually lessened the opposition. Every one loved her, says Brantome: ‘she was very kind, mild, gracious, charitable, affable, a great alms-giver, despising nobody, and winning all hearts by her excellent qualities.’ …

The timid heart of the princess trembled before the anger of the king. She was constantly wavering between her brother and her Saviour, and could not resolve to sacrifice either. … However, such as she is, she is a pleasing character on the stage of history. … She is a star, slightly clouded no doubt, but shedding an indescribable and gentle radiance, and at the time of which I am treating her rays shone out still more brightly. It is not until later years, when the angry looks of Francis I. denounce a mortal hatred against the Reformation, that his frightened sister will screen her holy faith from the light of day" (D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, III, 1835, pp. 352-357).

A biographer of William Farel gives this portrait of Margaret: "And thus it would seem that the Princess Margaret was really converted to God. She did not cease to be a papist, nor did she follow the Lord fully in any way, for she knew Him but very dimly. Still we cannot but think of her as one who, after a sorrowful and doubtful course, will yet be found amongst the number of those who now sleep in Jesus. In any case it is certain that she used her influence with her brother, the king, on the side of the truth. She encouraged those who preached it, and, as far as she had power, she protected them from persecution and opposition" (Bevan, The Life of William Farel, p. 51).

One of Margaret’s poems, "Mirror of the Sinful Soul," "was so evangelical in tone, that it was honored by the doctors of the Sorbonne with their censure…" (Shelton, History of the Christian Church, III, p. 173, f1).

When Lefevre published his translation of the Four Gospels in 1522, he sent a copy to Margaret, requesting that she present them to her brother, King Francis, and to their mother. "Thus, probably, was the Word of God placed at that time (in 1522 and 1523) under the eyes of Francis I. and Louisa of Savoy. They came into contact with that Gospel which they were afterwards to persecute" (D’Aubigne, III, p. 380).

In one of her letters, Margaret leaves a fascinating picture of her relationship with the Bible. This love for the Scriptures is one of the key things which set her apart from her fellow Roman Catholics of that day:

"You ask me, my children, to do a very difficult thing—to invent a diversion that will drive away your ennuis [boredom]. I have been seeking all my life to effect this, but I have found only one true and perfect remedy, which is, reading the Holy Scriptures. In perusing them, my mind experiences it’s true and perfect joy; and from this pleasure of the mind, proceed the repose and health of the body. If you desire me to tell you what I do, to be so gay and so well, at my advanced age; it is because AS SOON AS I GET UP, I READ THESE SACRED BOOKS. There I see and contemplate the will of God, who sent his Son to us on earth, to preach that Holy Word; and to announce the sweet tidings, that he promises to pardon our sins and extinguish our debts, by giving us his Son, who loved us, and who suffered and died for our sakes. This idea so delights me, that I take up the Psalms, and sing them with my heart; and pronounce with my tongue, as humbly as possible, the fine hymns with which the Holy Spirit inspired David, and the sacred authors. The pleasure I receive from this exercise, so transports me, that I consider all the evils that may happen to me in the day, to be real blessings; for I place Him in my heart, by faith, who endured more misery for me. Before I sup, I retire in the same manner, to give my soul a congenial lesson. At night, I review all that I have done in the day; I implore pardon for my faults; I thank my God for his favours; and I lie down in his love, in his fear, and in his peace, my soul being free from every worldly anxiety. Lo! my dear children, what has, for a long while, made me so happy" (Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, I, p. 584, f42).

"Queen Margaret had well known what it was to be suspected, opposed, and hated, for her opinions. Montmorency, the Premier, had told the King that if he wished to exterminate heresy, he must begin with his own Court, and, especially, with his sister, the Queen of Navarre. Her table, however, was still the resort of those who loved the Scriptures, and there, in 1536, sat Lefevre, their translator into French …" (Anderson, I, p. 485, f42).

Margaret had one daughter by her second marriage, and this daughter, Jeanne d’Albret, "came forward to take an illustrious place among the Protestant heroines of the sixteenth century" (Shelton, III, p. 173).

Lefevre, though advanced in age when converted, yearned for his people to have the Scriptures in their own tongue. There had been French translations of the Scripture since the 13th century among the Waldensians (Norlie, The Translated Bible, p. 52). The 1487 translation by Jean de Rely, called the Great Bible, had been widely used (Ibid.). The 16th century, though, was God’s appointed time for fresh Bible translations to appear, many of which were based upon the Received Greek New Testament which had been printed near the beginning of that century. Lefevre and Pierre Robert Olivetan were two of God’s chosen instruments for this great task in the French language.

Lefevre was 68 years old when he completed his New Testament in French in 1523. At the time, Lefevre was living in Meaux, under the protection of William Briconnet, bishop of Meaux, who soon abandoned the Reformation cause, and in his will, commended his soul to "the Virgin Mary" (Bevan, p. 104). Lefevre’s New Testament "was read, or listened to, with great eagerness by the common people, where opportunity was given, as we learn from a letter of Lefevre to Farel" (Shelton, III, p. 172). His French Old Testament appeared five years later.

For his labor of love to the French people, the elderly Lefevre was hated and persecuted by the Romanist authorities. One thing that galled them particularly was his principle that all Christians should read the Scriptures. One of these angry authorities, Beda, exclaimed: "Does he not dare to recommend all the faithful to read the Scriptures? Does he not tell therein that whoever loves not Christ’s Word is not a Christian; and that the Word of God is sufficient to lead to eternal life?" (D’Aubigne, III, p. 385).

"The Sorbonne [the theological faculty of the University of Paris] condemned him as a heretic; he fled to Strasbourg (1525); Marguerite interceded for him; Francis recalled him and made him royal librarian at Blois and tutor to his children. In 1531, when Protestant excesses had angered the King, Lefevre took refuge with Marguerite in southern France, and lived there till his death…" (Durant, The Story of Civilization, VI, p. 502).

"The Sorbonne … declared war on printing and printers. A book written by a zealous papist entitled ‘Bourgeois de Paris’ chronicled the atrocities meted out to those who had found a living Saviour and a living Christ. This volume records that in the six months prior to June, 1534, twenty men and one woman were burnt alive. One of those was a printer whose sole crime was that of printing some of Luther’s writings, while another was a book seller who had sold the same. On the 26th February, 1535, the Sorbonne obtained from the king of France an act for the suppression of printing. Printing however by that time had developed nerves of steel and muscles of iron, and no puny act of any man could stop its triumphant march. Man could have as soon stopped the rising sun with a rush or with a reed as stop the flow of sheets, pamphlets and books from the printing presses of Europe" (Paisley, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, pp. 4,5).

The persecutions in France forced many Bible believers into exile. Some settled in Basle, Switzerland, and established printing operations to publish Scriptures, as well as evangelistic and Bible study materials for the French people. "They felt the importance of scattering the Holy Scriptures and pious books in their country, still overshadowed with the gloom of superstition" (D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, III, p. 435). Lefevre’s New Testament was revised and republished, and colporteurs were secured to distribute the books from village to village and from house to house. "Thus as early as 1524 there existed in Basle a Bible society, a tract society, and an association of colporteurs, for the benefit of France" (Ibid., p. 437).

This only increased the hatred by the Catholic authorities. Beginning in 1525, many Christians were burned alive in France for denying Catholic doctrine. An alarm was raised against that which they labeled the "new learning," but which was really the old first century learning! Noel Beda, one of the chief French persecutors of the Bible, exclaimed: "Let us banish from France this hateful doctrine of grace" (D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, III, p. 449). "At the head of this conspiracy and of these clamours were Beda, Duchesne, and Lecouturier. These irreconcilable enemies of the Gospel flattered themselves they might easily obtain from public terror the victims that had been hitherto refused them. They instantly employed every device; conversations, fanatical harangues, lamentations, threats, defamatory writings, to excite the anger of the nation, and particularly of their governors. They vomited fire and flame against their adversaries, and covered them with the most scurrilous abuse. All means were good in their eyes; they picked out a few words here and there, neglecting the context that might explain the passage quoted; substituted expressions of their own for those of the doctors they criminated, and omitted or added, according as it was necessary to blacken their adversaries’ characters. … At the same time the pulpits resounded with lamentations, threats, and maledictions; prompt and exemplary punishments were loudly called for" (D’Aubigne, III, pp. 449,50).

The opportunity to physically punish the Bible believers came when the King was taken captive by Germany during battle and was confined for some months. Noel Beda immediately addressed the King’s mother, Louisa of Savoy, with these words: "All the writings of the heretics should be prohibited by a royal proclamation; and if this means does not suffice, we must employ force and constraint against the persons of these false doctors; for those who resist the light must be subdued by TORTURE and by TERROR."

Louisa sent word to Pope Clement VII and asked his advice. "The pope, delighted that he could wreak his vengeance in the ‘most Christian kingdom’ against a heresy that he could not destroy either in Switzerland or Germany, gave immediate orders for the introduction of the Inquisition into France, and addressed a brief to the parliament." The parliament responded by issuing a decree that trials should be conducted of those who were tainted with doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith. On May 20, 1525, the pope formally approved of these proceedings. Those who were suspected of harboring "heretical" doctrines were delivered up and condemned to be burned.

In August of the same year Beda aimed his inquisition guns at the Bible translator, Lefevre. He published a book in which he exclaimed: "What! Lefevre affirms that whoever places his salvation in himself will surely perish; while the man that lays aside all strength of his own, and throws himself entirely into the arms of Jesus Christ, will be saved! … Oh, what heresy! To teach the inefficacy of meritorious works! … What a hellish error! what a deceitful snare of the devil! Let us oppose it with all our might."

Lefevre fled to Strasburg, out of reach of those who were calling for his blood. The latter did not wait long before they found another victim. That same month a Gospel preacher named Schuch was burned in the town of Nancy. When he was arrested and tried, he had his Bible with him, and holding the same as he stood before his accusers, he preached to them out of the Scriptures and "meekly yet forcibly confessed Christ crucified." His words so incised his tormentors that "transported with rage, [they] rushed upon him with violent cries, TORE AWAY THE BIBLE FROM WHICH HE WAS READING THIS MENACING LANGUAGE, ‘and like mad dogs, unable to bite his doctrine, THEY BURNT IT in their convent.’" The man was immediately condemned to be burned alive, and the sentence was quickly carried out.

On the 19th of August 1525 the whole city of Nancy was in motion. The bells were tolling for the death of a heretic. The mournful procession set out. It was necessary to pass before the convent of the Cordeliers, who, rejoicing and expectant, had assembled before the gate. At the moment that Schuch appeared, Father Bonaventure, pointing to the carved images over the portals of the convent, exclaimed: ‘Heretic! Pay honour to God, to his mother, and to the saints.’—‘Ye hypocrites!’ replied Schuch, standing erect before these blocks of wood and stone, ‘God will destroy you, and bring your deceits to light!’

When the martyr reached the place of execution, HIS BOOKS WERE BURNT BEFORE HIS FACE; he was then called upon to retract; but he refused, saying: ‘It is thou, O God, who hast called me, and thou wilt give me strength unto the end.’ After this he began to repeat aloud the fifty-first psalm: ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness.’ Having mounted the pile, he continued to recite the psalm until the smoke and the flames stifled his voice (D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation, III, pp. 468,69).

SCHUCH’S BIBLE WAS BURNED WITH HIM (Bevan, p. 106).

Louis de Berquin, a young nobleman who had been converted to the Lord Jesus Christ and was diligently writing, translating, printing, and circulating Gospel books, was soon arrested, and would have been burned had Margaret not interceded for him. He was later martyred for his faith.

"Many printers were arrested, and for a time all printing was prohibited. … Francis declared that he would behead his own children if he found them harboring these blasphemous heresies. … six Protestants were burned to death in Paris by a method judged fit to appease the Deity: they were suspended over a fire, and were repeatedly lowered into it and raised from it so that their agony might be prolonged. Between November 10, 1534, and May 5, 1535, twenty-four Protestants were burned alive in Paris" (Durant, History of Civilization, VI, p. 505).

At this time the remnant of the Waldenses drew the ire of the Catholic authorities. "Cardinal de Tournon, alleging that the Waldenses were in a treasonable conspiracy against the government, persuaded the ailing, vacillating King to sign a decree (January 1, 1545) that all Waldenses found guilty of heresy should be put to death. … Within a week (April 12-18) several villages were burned to the ground; in one of them 800 men, women, and children were slaughtered; in two months 3,000 were killed, twenty-two villages were razed, 700 men were sent to the galleys" (Durant, VI, pp. 505,506). In 1546 a congregation in Meaux was broken up and fourteen of its members burned. That same year PETER CHAPOT WAS BURNED TO DEATH FOR BRINGING FRENCH BIBLES INTO FRANCE AND FOR SELLING THEM (Foxe, abridged, p. 100). The bitter persecutions continued under Henry II (1547-1559), who took the throne upon the death of Francis.

"An edict was issued in 1546 by the Roman Catholic authorities against Lefevre and his work, in which the following statement is found: ‘It is neither expedient nor useful for the Christian public that any translation of the Bible should be permitted to be printed; but that they ought to be suppressed as injurious.’ It was also ordered that any person possessing a copy of it should deliver it up within eight days" (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, pp. 211,12).

Many Bible believers were tormented and martyred in France during these days. Peter Chapot, for example, was arrested in 1546 when he brought Scriptures into France from Geneva and began distributing them. He was condemned and burned. Because of his bold testimony at the place of persecution, a decree was made that "all which were to be burned, unless they recanted at the fire, should have their tongues cut off. Which law diligently afterward was observed" (Foxe, unabridged, II, p. 133). Thirteen others were burned in Paris about this time. Stephen Polliot was also arrested in 1546 with a bag of Scriptures and Gospel books he was distributing. His tongue was cut out and he was burned, "his satchel of books hanging about his neck" (Foxe, unabridged, II, p. 134). Nicholas Nayle, a shoemaker, was arrested in Paris 1553 when he brought parcels of books to distribute among the believers. He was burned soon after his arrest. In 1554 Dionysius Vayre, who had smuggled many books into France, was arrested in Normandy. He was sentenced to be "burned alive, and thrice lifted up, and let down again into the fire" (Foxe, unabridged, II, p. 145). Bartholmew Hector, who made his living selling books, was arrested in 1556 and burned at Thurin.

Foxe’s unabridged Martyrology is a massive set of books, 3 volumes, 3227 pages, the three volumes together almost one foot in width, and each page 9 X 13.5 inches. Roughly 150 of these large pages are dedicated to an enumeration of just some of the French marytrs.

Edicts against the Bible believers were issued in 1549 and 1551. Inquisitors General were appointed in 1557. "Martyrdoms followed plentifully in the wake of the intolerant edicts" (Shelton, History of the Christian Church, III, p. 184). In 1562 a Huguenot congregation was destroyed at Vassy, and roughly sixty men, women, and children were killed, and one hundred wounded (Shelton, III, p. 192). The barbarous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre occurred in Paris in 1572, and twenty thousand or more were slaughtered in that blind religious rage. Under the reigns of Louis XIII (1610-1643) and Louis XIV (1643-1715), Bible-believing Christians suffered greatly. Under the latter king, 200,000 Christians were forced to flee France to avoid persecution. Even as late as the 19th century, under Napoleon, Catholic authorities in France were persecuting Protestants and other Bible believers. A decree dated October 31, 1854, forbade all religious meetings, and the Christians were forced to congregate secretly in the forests and fields (Blakeney, Popery in Its Social Aspect, pp. 114,115).

Thus we see how the Catholic authorities in France treated the French Bible and those who accepted it and it alone as the Word of God.

OLIVETAN FRENCH BIBLE

Robert Olivetan (c1506-1538) is the next man we meet in the history of the French Bible in modern times. According to the Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, Olivetan, who was born at Noyon in Picardy, France, was a cousin of John Calvin. He studied law at the University of Paris, and later at Orleans, and was converted to Protestantism. Later he influenced Calvin to adopt Protestant doctrines. Being suspected of Lutheranism by the Catholic authorities, he was forced to flee to Strassburg about 1528, and there he began the study of Hebrew and Greek. In 1532 Olivetan had made a journey with other men to northern Italy to preach the Gospel and to receive from the Waldenses the funds to print a French Bible (Daniel Lortch, Histoire de la Bible Francaise [History of the French Bible], p. 105; from an English translation appearing in Documentation on the Olivetan-Ostervald Bible by Curtis Gibson, p. 2). In 1533 Olivetan went to Geneva and "with the help of Lefevre’s translation began to translate the Scriptures into the French." This was printed in June 1535. Calvin wrote the preface. Olivetan moved to Italy and died there in 1538.

Theodore Beza and others in Geneva revised this translation and republished it in 1588. "They carefully compared the translation with the original Hebrew and Greek, but left its essential features unchanged" (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, p. 220).

It is a fascinating fact of history, already mentioned in passing, that the Olivetan New Testament was desired and funded by the Waldenses in Northern Italy. The translation project had been determined at the assembly held in Chamforans in October 1532, at which the Waldenses and various Protestants (including William Farel, already mentioned in the context of our history of the French Bible) had deliberated on doctrinal matters. "At the synod, the resolution was taken to translate and print both the Old and New Testaments, and, as this was to be done at the sole charge of the Vaudois [Waldenses], it was considered as their gift to the Churches of the Reformation. A most appropriate and noble gift! That Book which the Waldenses had received from the primitive Church—which their fathers had preserved with their blood—which their barbes [pastors] had laboriously transcribed and circulated—they now put into the hands of the Reformers, constituting them along with themselves the custodians of this, the ark of the world’s hopes. … The entire expense was defrayed by the Waldenses, who collected for this object 1,500 crowns of gold, a large sum for so poor a people" (Wylie, History of the Waldenses, pp. 61,62).

The Olivetan in its various editions became the Bible of French believers for three hundred and fifty years. The History of the French Bible gives this summary: "There you have the translation, revised many times, as we shall see, by which our churches of the French language have lived during more than three centuries, under the fire of persecution, in hiding places, on the slave ships, in the desert, and in the days of the revival of the nineteenth century. It is appropriate to salute with veneration the memory of the modest, conscientious, and learned Olivetan, who was far from, most assuredly, seeing the success of his work" (Histoire de la Bible Francaise, pp. 127-28; from an English translation appearing in Documentation on the Olivetan-Ostervald Bible by Curtis Gibson, p. 3). John Beardslee, in The Bible among the Nations, says, "Its hold upon the Protestant churches was so strong that it could not be superseded, although many new translations were offered" (p. 220).

Between 1696 and 1707, the Olivetan translation was revised by David Martin, a native of Languedoc. He was forced to flee from France because of persecution, and he was later the pastor of the Walloon Church at Utrecht, in Holland. "His aim in revision was chiefly literary, removing obsolete and objectionable words and idioms, and replacing them with those in common use" (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, p. 221).

In 1864 the Bible Society of France separated from the Bible Society of Paris because of the modernism of the latter. The first article of the newly formed Bible Society recalls the chief doctrinal issue which caused this separation: "The Bible Society of France is founded on the faith in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and in their infallible authority in religious matters." The Bible Society of France propagated French versions based on the Received Text and "without the apocrypha."

In 1881 this Bible Society issued a version of the complete Olivetan Bible called the Frossard Edition of the Ostervald Bible. Frederic Ostervald, a Swiss pastor, had published his first revision in 1724 and the final revision in 1744. Pastor Charles L. Frossard completed a revision of the Ostervald New Testament in 1869, and it was published by the Bible Society of France in 1872.

In the foreword to the Frossard-Ostervald, the Bible Society of France made this important statement: "We possess, in the translation of the Bible, reviewed by J.F. Ostervald, A VERSION WHOSE ORIGINS ARE INTIMATELY A PART OF THE VERY ORIGINS OF THE REFORMATION, and its history with that of our French churches. Its language has been up to this day that of all our seminaries, theologians, debaters, and catechists. HER WORDINGS FILL FOR THREE CENTURIES ALL THE PROTESTANT WRITINGS. Many times reviewed and corrected, from Olivetan to Ostervald, she acquired for herself under the latter name a favor without equal, took her place in all our temples, in all our homes, in all our memories, and has not ceased since that time to be at the same time the most offered and the most asked for, even up to this hour and since the propagation of the new translations of moderate price. It is in fact, our true and only ecclesiastical and popular version" (emphasis added) (Foreword to the first edition, 1881 Frossard-Ostervald; translation into English from Documentation on the Olivetan-Ostervald Bible by Curtis Gibson, p. 4). Recently we were pleased to learn that the Frossard edition of the Ostervald French Bible is being put back into print by Baptist missionaries who are concerned for the pure word of God in this important language.

The Olivetan was not seriously challenged until the late 19th century when the Louis Segond and the John Darby versions appeared. The latter versions contain many textual departures from the Received Text underlying the Olivetan and other faithful Protestant versions and represent a serious departure from the old Reformation text which was molded in the fires of persecution. Segond was a professor at Lausanne, Switzerland, and he published an entirely new French version in 1873. "It often reveals an evident dislike of old doctrines and a determination to weaken them by translations needlessly offensive to the reader" (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, p. 225). The introduction to the 1885 Darby version stated, "We have abandoned the text called by the Elzevirs, without any acceptable foundation, Received Text."

SACY FRENCH BIBLE

In 1667 and 1668 a new French Bible was published by the brothers Antoine and Louis Isaac le Maitre de Sacy. It was widely distributed by the English Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It was condemned by Pope Clement IX and by Innocent XI (Beardslee, The Bible among the Nations, p. 215).

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The following article is from the book ROME AND THE BIBLE: TRACING THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ITS PERSECUTION OF THE BIBLE AND OF BIBLE BELIEVERS. To our knowledge, this is the first history ever published that details the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to the Bible through the centuries. It covers the Roman Catholic Inquisition from the 11th to the 19th centuries, particularly the role played by the Inquisition to keep translations of the Bible out of the hands of the common people. It contains the history of ancient separated Christians, including the Waldensians and the Lollards. The book could also be titled "The Bible Through the Centuries." It gives the history of the English Bible from John Wycliffe to William Tyndale, and the history of the Spanish, German, French, and Italian Bibles. It contains amazing biographies of royal queens who loved the Bible. It gives the decade-by-decade details of papal condemnations of 19th-century Bible societies and of Roman Catholic persecution in the 19th century. It describes the 20th-century phenomenon of Rome changing tactics and joining hands with the Bible societies. It answers the question: Has the Roman Catholic Church changed? The book contains 74 illustrations, many of which are from rare out-of-print books. 200 pages, 8.5X11, perfect bound $19.95 + $4 S/H. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail).