Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/85

then, is to comment upon Scripture? Who is to set up this rule? I, perhaps, or some other man? By no means. Every man has his own way of taking and seeing things, and represents them after his own ideas. That would be to give to the people as many systems of doctrines as there are heads in the world, and to produce inexplicable confusion, as indeed had already been done. No: it remains for the Holy Church alone to interpret Scripture, to determine the rule by which the souls of men are to be guided and governed. And what is the Church? It is not any single supreme head, or any particular member alone. No! it is all the holiest, most learned, and most experienced men of all times, who, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, have successively combined in building up that great, universal, and agreeing body, which has its great councils for its members to communicate their thoughts to one another, and for mutual edification; which banishes error, and thereby imparts to our holy religion a certainty and a stability such as no other profession can pretend to, and gives it a foundation, and strengthens it with bulwarks which even hell cannot overthrow. And just so it is with the text of the Sacred Scriptures. We have," he said, "the Vulgate, moreover, an approved version of the Vulgate, and of every sentence a commentary which the Church itself has accredited. Hence arises that uniformity of our teaching which surprises every one. Whether," he continued, "you hear me preach in this most remote corner of the world or, in the great capital of a distant country, are listening to the dullest or cleverest of preachers, all will hold one and the same language. A Catholic Christian will always hear the same doctrine: everywhere will he be instructed and edified in the same manner. And this is what constitutes the certainty of our faith, what gives us the peace and confidence by which we in life hold sure communion with