ersonal act which involves the
exercise of man's intellect and free will. The truth is, personal
judgment flows from what constitutes man a rational being, and there
is no power under heaven that can alienate personal judgment from
man, nor can man, if he would, disappropriate it. The cause of all
the trouble at the Diet of Worms was not personal judgment, for
neither party put that in question. The point in dispute was the
right application of personal judgment. Catholics maintained, and
always have and always will maintain, that a divine revelation
necessitates a divine interpreter. Catholics resisted, and always
will resist, on the ground of its incompetency, a human authority
applied to the interpretation of the contents of a divinely-revealed
religion. They consider such an authority, whether of the individual
or the state, in religious matters an intrusion. Catholics insist,
without swerving, upon believing in religion none but God. . . . To
investigate and make one's self certain that God has made a
revelation is of obligation, and consistent with Christianity. But as
a divine revelation springs from a source above the sphere of reason,
it necessitates a divinely authorized and divinely assisted
_interpreter_ and teacher. This is one of the essential functions of
the Church."

That the use of the Scriptures is not, and cannot be made the
ordinary means for making all men Christians, was plain to Isaac
Hecker for other reasons than the essential one thus clearly stated.
For, if such were the case, God would bestow on all men the gift to
read at sight, or cause all to learn how to read, or would have
recorded in the Book itself the words, "Unless a man reads the Bible,
and believes what he reads, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,"
or their plain equivalent; whereas the Bible, as we have it now, did
not exist in the apostolic days, the most glorious era of the
Christian Church. Such is Father Hecker's argument in a powerful
article in _The Catholic World_ for October, 1883. He continues:

"But suppose that everybody knew how to read, or all men were gifted
to read at first sight; suppose that everybody had a copy of the
Bible within his reach, a genuine Bible, and knew with certitude what
it means; suppose that Christ himself had laid it down as a rule that
the Bible, without note or comment, and as interpreted by each one
for himself, is the ordinary way of receiving the grace of
salvation--which is the v