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

—nor explaining the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed before those who were not yet perfect in the Faith; if it did not give the faculty of beholding the Sacrament of Baptism, nor even of approaching the Holy Font (as the Holy Dionysius original: "SS. Dionys." in the Treatise on Baptism, and Cyril original: "Cyrill" in book 7 against Julian, and Laodicean Council canon 19 teach). If penitents were kept from the Episcopal sermon, if even from the faithful the prayers, invocations, and effects of the Sacraments were hidden; shall Holy Scripture, which unlocks the essential words of the Holy mysteries, and enunciates their prerogatives and excellences with such force and energy, be published and permitted indifferently to the discretion of Jews and Christians, faithful and infidels, the strong and the weak, him who is perfected and him who is beginning? And shall I be guilty of injury today, while I close the sanctuary to the profane, and order the unworthy to go far from here?

Perhaps that voice (PROFANE) will offend the delicate ears of some, and will strike minds too tender, which weigh words more than things. But I have used that very voice with which St. Dionysius, when he calls the multitude profane, and with which St. Gregory Nazianzen and Clement of Alexandria original: "Clem. Alex." do, while they say that this is to trample underfoot and profane sacred things, to render them common; with which also the Poet original: Likely referring to Horace's "Odi profanum vulgus" speaking of the people as a profane crowd, and I do nothing else in this than to follow the common manner of speaking, which testifies that the familiarity of men and the common use of things brings about contempt. Therefore, that voice "Profane" corresponds to that other "Common," so that they do not incongruously seem to be joined, especially because by "Common" I do not only intend to speak of the dregs of the rabble, who crawl under the feet of others; but I include in that the proud, the reckless, the impure, the ignorant, the weak, the curious, the indiscreet; in short, all those who are incapable and unworthy to handle sacred things, whether they be men or women, old or young, rich or poor, great or small. To this class of men I close the sanctuary, and I say that for them the Holy Bibles are justly interdicted. For one should not think that I wish to render this prohibition absolute—