rule and source of faith. The Anglicans profess that the three creeds--the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene, and the Athanasian-are to be accepted and believed, but only because they can be proved from Scripture. In recent times, however, many Anglicans acknowledge the necessity of tradition as a source of faith, though some are loath. to call it by its proper name.

A. Holy Scripture.

60. The Holy Scriptures contain the word of God.

We have already shown that the Mosaic revelation is to be found in the books of Moses, and that the Christian revelation is contained in the Gospels (21, 29). Under the name of Scriptures we here understand all the books of the Old and New Testaments without exception.

1. That the Scriptures contain the word of God we are assured by divine authority and sometimes expressly by the writers of the sacred books themselves, as when Moses and the prophets, for instance, declare that certain truths have been revealed to them by God. If the Scriptures, as is the case particularly in the New Testament, were written by men whose teaching was co ifirmed by miracles, and who were thus proved as messengers of God, or by those who were their fellowlaborers, and aught and wrote under their supervision, we would have sufficient evidence that all they contain is divine revelation-the word of God.

2. The Church always considered the Scriptures as one of the two sources of faith. To convince ourselves of this fact we need only open the works of the fathers and ecclesiastical writers, all of whom draw their arguments in support of the Church's doctrine from the Scriptures. The heretics themselves, by endeavoring to base their errors on Holy Writ, confess this universal conviction.

61. The Holy Scriptures are the word of God.

Many other books- for instance, catechisms-contain, but are not, the word of God; just as a letter may contain a king's words and yet not be the king's letter. Holy Writ is the word of God, or, as the fathers term it, a letter addressed to us by God. To prove that a letter is the king's, it is necessary to show that the king is truly its author. To prove that Scripture is God's writing, we must prove God to be its author.

1. The Scriptures were always known in the Church as the Divine Writings (cf. Concil. Carthag. III. A.D. 397). Nor was it on account of their contents that they bore this name. For this name was given to the books as such, not to their contents. Besides, a book that treats of God, of divine truths and favors, cannot for that reason alone be called divine. The Scriptures were expressly designated as God's Writing, as God's handwriting (S.Aug. in ps. 144, n. 17). They are, therefore, the word of God.

2. God is expressly called the author of the Scriptures. The Council of Florence (decret. pro Jacob.) declares that the Church" acknowledges one and the same God as the author of the Old and the New Testament," i.e., of the books of the Old and New Testaments. The Council of Trent likewise, in its decree on the canonical Scriptures, calls God the author of both Testaments. Now, if God is the author of the Scriptures, they are His word. Whatever they contain, therefore, is ipso facto God's word.

62. The Holy Scriptures are the word of God in virtue of divine inspiration.

One may be the author of a work by adopting another's sentiments and making them his own, as a sovereign can make a document, composed by another, his own by his approval and signature, or by composing it personally, or through another, to whom he may have summarily suggested it. It is in this latter sense that God is the author of Holy Writ. He has, therefore, not only preserved the immediate authors from error by His assistance, but also inspired them, i.e., so influenced their minds and wills, in the choice of their subjects and its execution, that in virtue of this divine guidance He may justly be said to be the author of the Sacred Writings. Hence God is their primary author, while the inspired writer is only secondary and subordinate.

1. The Council of Florence in the decree above quoted, after having called God the author of both Testaments, immediately adds: "For by inspiration of the Holy Ghost the saints of both Testaments have spoken; whose books [the Church] accepts and reveres." The books are divine, therefore, and God is their author, because they were written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It is in the same sense

that the Council of Trent calls God the author of both Testa ments; for since it repeats the word auctor, which occurs in the Florentine decree, there can be no doubt that it understands it in the usual sense.

The Council of Trent does not insist so much on inspiration, because Protestants did not deny the divine origin of the Scriptures, but rather the veneration due to tradition, which was therefore to be particularly defended against them. For the rest, no doubt exists on the meaning of the decree, for by the very fact that it puts the Scriptures on an equal footing with tradition, which it expressly declares to be dictated by the Holy Ghost, the council plainly shows that it holds the sacred books to be inspired.

The Vatican Council (de fide c. 2), definitely teaches that "the Church holds them [the sacred books] to be holy and canonical, not because they were composed exclusively by human activity and afterwards sanctioned by the Church's authority, nor solely because they contain revelation without error; but because they were written by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and have God for their author, and as such have been intrusted to the Church."

As the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments without distinction are declared by the councils, by the holy fathers, and by the apostles themselves, to be inspired, we are not free to admit that certain portions of them are not inspired, or that they contain some erroneous facts or statements on matters of minor importance. Hence the Council of Trent and that of the Vatican declare the books of both Testaments "as they are contained in the Vulgate, with all their parts, to be holy and canonical." Hence the holy fathers have been always careful to reconcile even the slightest apparent contradictions in the sacred text.

Since whatever is contained in the Scriptures is divine truth, o God's word, it follows that every item of them is matter of divine faith. If, however, in the Scripture narrative it is sometimes related that some person made a false statement, that statement itself does not, therefore, become true; but it is true and a matter of divine faith that the statement was made as narrated.

2. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to read the Scriptures, with which the latter as a Jew by birth was familiar from infancy, because "all Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice" (2 Tim. iii. 16).

The Apostle here refers especially to the books of the Old Testament, and attributes the profit to be derived from them to their inspiration; therefore he supposes at least the Old Testament, of which there is question in particular, to be inspired of God.

3. Christian antiquity bears witness to the inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The fathers declare them to be spoken, dictated, written by God; whilst he who refused to accept the Scripture as God's word was considered by them as an infidel (cf. S. Iren. adv. haeres, II. c. 28; S. Greg. in Job praef. c. 1; S. Aug. in ps. 144, n. 17, Euseb. hist. eccl. v. c. 28).

63. The canon of the Scriptures is composed of those books of the Old and New Testaments contained in the authentic Latin version called the Vulgate.

1. As canonical books the Church designates those inspired writings recognized by it as such, and received into its catalogue or canon of inspired books. The fact that a book is inspired can be known only on divine authority. For God alone, who speaks through the writer, can give full assurance of this fact. But as the Church received directly from the apostles the entire deposit of faith, so it received also from . them the inspired writings of the Old and New Testaments. Hence the canon of the Scriptures forms also part of the Church's imperishable deposit.

Though the divine character of most of the books of the Old and New Testaments was at all times universally acknowledged, yet in certain countries there was, in the beginning, some doubt whether some of the canonical books had been handed down by the apostles as inspired. These latter were called deutero canonical, while the others received the name proto-canonical. The bishops and the faithful were the more cautious in receiving genuine inspired writ ings, because others of uncertain authority, called apocryphal, had obtained circulation. The infallible teaching of the Church alone could remove all doubts. However, we find the same canon estab lished by the Synod of Hippo (393) and by that of Carthage (397). published by Innocent I. (402-417) as that existing in the Roman Church, and finally confirmed and enjoined by the Councils of Florence and Trent.

(1) The canonical books of the G Testament are :

a. Twenty-one historical books: viz., the five books of Moses called the Pentateuch-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the book of Josue, that of Judges, that of Ruth; the four books of Kings; two books of Paralipomenon; the book of Esdras; the book of Nehemias (also called the second book of Esdras); the books of Tobias, Judith, and Esther; and the two books of the Machabees.

b. Seven didactic books: the book of Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus.

c. Seventeen prophetic books: the books of the so-called four greater prophets-Isaias, Jeremias (to which is usually added that of his disciple Baruch), Ezechiel, and Daniel; those of the twelve minor prophets-Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, and Malachias.

(2) The canonical books of the New Testament are:

a. The four gospels of SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. b. The Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke.

c. Twenty-one epistles of the apostles: fourteen of St. Paulone to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon, one to the Hebrews; one of St. James, two of St. Peter, three of St. John, one of St. Jude.

d. The Apocalypse, or Revelations, of St. John.

The Council of Trent (Sess. IV.) anathematizes those who "refuse to accept as holy and canonical the above-named books, with all their parts, as they are usually read in the Catholic Church, and are contained in the ancient Latin version." Thus the substantial integrity of the sacred books is at the same time declared; for the books as we now possess them are divine and canonical only inasmuch as they are identical with those inspired by the Holy Ghost.

2. The council at the same time declares the ancient Latin version, or Vulgate, to be authentic. A translation is authentic when it agrees with the original. The Vulgate, therefore, by the very fact of its being called authentic, is declared to be substantially identical with the original text.

And justly so; for a version of the Scriptures which was in general use in the Church, partly from the first and partly from the fifth and sixth centuries, and which was regarded as one of the two sources of faith, could not be preserved in such a state as to endanger the Church's deposit of faith; and since the Church has its doctrine, not only from Scripture, but also from tradition, and from its ordinary preaching and usages, any change of the Scriptures contrary to tradition would have been at once detected. The com