Sanctuarium profanis occlusum, sive, de ss. bibliorum prohibitione in lingua vulgari seu vernacula tractatus

This is that zeal which the saints always had for the veneration of mysteries, and for the preservation of sacred things far from all profanation and contempt; which urges me to represent such a use of scripture, which is ordered by the statutes of Councils, by the decrees of Pontiffs, and which obliged me to oppose myself to an indiscreet license, injurious to the majesty of Holy letters, which permits the discretion of the common people to have books of Religion, and subjects celestial oracles to rashness and ignorance. I truly believe that I cannot go astray by pressing in the footsteps of such men, nor can I hold a safer path, among so many ways that diverge from the truth, and among the dense shadows of this abyss into which I enter, than that which so many Saints have trodden; nor can I more worthily treat so noble an argument (such as this one about Holy Scripture) than by speaking with the mouth of those who, because of the innocence of their lives, deserved to receive understanding directly from heaven, and who knew its excellence and dignity more than all others.

One of the more common and general Maxims among the Holy Fathers is that it is not permitted to expose sacred things to common hands, nor to scatter the secrets of Religion among the crowds. Do not give what is holy to the profane multitude, says St. Dionysius original: "S. Dionys.", in the last chapter of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; who, writing to the faithful, also testifies that it was forbidden to expose the prayers and invocations of the mysteries of the Church in writing, nor the effects which God works through them, because of the danger that they might be publicized. Hence the illustrious Bishop of Orleans, Gabriel L'Aubespine original: "Gabriel Albafpinæus", the light of our age, infers that there were many secrets which the primitive Church hid, not only from the initiated and Catechumens, but even from the faithful, so as to exempt them from the vilification and contempt of those who most easily neglect common things and those worn out by daily use. Indeed, if the nascent Church so solicitously veiled the mysteries, if it did not permit speaking of the effects and ceremonies of Baptism, nor—