The principles here laid down will apply to cognate sciences, and especially to history. It is a lamentable fact that there are many men who with great labor make and publish investigations on the monuments of antiquity, the manners and institutions of nations, and other illustrative subjects, and whose chief purpose in all this is too often to try to find mistakes in the sacred writings, and so to shake and weaken their authority. Some of these writers display not only extreme hostility, but also great unfairness. In their eyes a profane book or an ancient document is accepted without hesitation. Scripture, if they can only find in it a suspicion of error, is set down with the slightest possible discussion as being entirely untrustworthy. It is true, no doubt, that copyists have made mistakes in the text of the Bible. This question, when it arises, should be carefully considered on its merits. The fact, however, is not to be too easily admitted, but only in those passages where the proof is clear. It may also happen that the sense of a passage remains ambiguous. In this case, sound hermeneutical methods will greatly aid in clearing up obscurity. It is absolutely wrong, however, and it is forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. The system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards matters of faith and morals, and nothing beyond them, because (as they wrongly think) in a question of the truth or falsehood of a passage we should consider not so much what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it, cannot be tolerated. All the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical were written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. So far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but it excludes error as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the Supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church. It was solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent. It was finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of that Council: The Books of the Old and of the New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as they are enumerated in the decree of the same Council (Trent), and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, are to be received as sacred and canonical. The Church holds them as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed solely by human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority, nor only because they contain revelation without error, but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,