This classic is organized as follows: Preface Introduction I. Some Errors Removed II. The Making of the Old Testament III. The Church Precedes the New Testament IV. Catholic Church Compiles the New Testament V. Deficiencies of the Protestant Bible VI. The Originals, and their Disappearance VII. Variations in Text Fatal to Protestant Theory VIII. Our Debt to the Monks IX. Bible-reading in the ‘Dark Ages’ X. Where then are all the Medieval Bibles? XI. Abundance of Vernacular Scriptures before Wycliff XII. Why Wycliff was Condemned XIII. Tyndale’s Condemnation Vindicated by Posterity. XIV. A Deluge of Erroneous Versions XV. The Catholic’s Bible XVI. Envoi

IF all were true that is alleged against the Catholic Church in her treatment of Holy Scripture, then the proper title of these papers should be ‘How we got’, but ‘How we have not got the Bible’. The common and received opinion about the matter among non-Catholics in Britain, for the most part, has been that Rome hates the Bible-that she has done all she could to destroy it—that in all countries where she has held sway she has kept the Bible from the hands of the people—has taken it and burned it whenever she found anyone reading it. Or if she cannot altogether prevent its publication or its perusal, at least she renders it as nearly useless as possible by sealing it up in a dead language which the majority of people can neither read nor understand. And all this she does, (so we are told), because she knows that her doctrines are absolutely opposed to and contradicted by the letter of God’s written Word—she holds ­and propagates dogmas and traditions which could not stand one moment’s examination if exposed to the searching light of Holy Scripture. Aeterna Press

This little book about the Bible grew out of lectures which the writer delivered on the subject to mixed audiences. The lectures were afterwards expanded, and appeared in a series of articles in the Catholic press 1908-9, and are now with slight alterations reprinted. Their origin will sufficiently account for the colloquial style employed throughout. There is, therefore, no pretence either of profound scholarship or of eloquent language; all that is attempted is a popular and, as far as possible, accurate exposition along familiar lines of the Catholic claim historically in regard to the Bible. It is candidly controversial without, however, let us hope, being uncharitable or unfair. Friends had more than once suggested the reissue of the articles; and it appeared to the writer that at last the proper moment for it had come when the Protestant world is jubilating over the Tercentenary of the Authorised Version. Amidst the flood of literature on the subject of the Bible, it seemed but right that some statement, however plain and simple, should be set forth from the Catholic side, with the object of bringing home to the average mind the debt that Britain, in common with the rest of Christendom, owes to the Catholic Church in this connection. Henry G Graham