Council of Trent

"That henceforth sacred Scripture . . . be printed in the most correct manner possible; and that it shall not be lawful for any one to print, or cause to be printed, any books whatever on sacred matters without the name of the author; or in future to sell them, or even to possess them, unless they shall have been first examined and approved of by the [local bishop]."

"By giving back to the Book [the Bible] its supremacy and its renown, Luther and the other ‘reformers’ committed the inexpiable error of separating it from the Tradition that had safeguarded its text and had contributed so much to its understanding. Once it became the only source of faith and of spiritual life for man, the Bible afforded the means for doing without the Church . . . The Catholic Church . . . reacted through the protective measures taken by the Council of Trent [1545-1563], which, among other things, forbade the faithful from reading versions of the Holy Scriptures in common languages unless they had been approved by the Church and contained commentaries in line with Catholic Tradition. . . . It became commonplace to hear people repeat that ‘a Catholic should not read the Bible.’"