The Catholic Church and the Dutch Bible

Book excerpt: In The Catholic Church and the Bible: From the Council of Trent to the Jansenist Controversy (1564–1733), Els Agten studies the impact of Jansenism and anti–Jansenism on the ideas regarding vernacular Bible reading and Bible production in the Low Countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book provides a review of book censorship during this time. Furthermore, it analyses the ideas and the writings of ten protagonists, including theologians, Bible translators, ecclesiastical authorities and representatives of Port-Royal. In particular, the author demonstrates how, even as their opponents took a more cautious position, the Jansenists encouraged the laity, including women and children, to read the Bible without any restrictions.