annot be demonstrated, and which
make up the greater part of Scripture, cannot be examined by reason, and
cannot therefore be explained or interpreted by this rule; whereas, on
the contrary, by following our own method, we can explain many questions
of this nature, and discuss them on a sure basis, as we have already
shown, by reason and example. Those matters which are by their nature
comprehensible we can easily explain, as has been pointed out, simply by
means of the context.

Therefore, the method of Maimonides is clearly useless: to which we may
add, that it does away with all the certainty which the masses acquire
by candid reading, or which is gained by any other persons in any other
way. In conclusion, then, we dismiss Maimonides' theory as harmful,
useless, and absurd.

As to the tradition of the Pharisees, we have already shown[3] that it
is not consistent, while the authority of the popes of Rome stands in
need of more credible evidence; the latter, indeed, I reject simply on
this ground, for if the popes could point out to us the meaning of
Scripture as surely as did the high priests of the Jews, I should not be
deterred by the fact that there have been heretic and impious Roman
pontiffs; for among the Hebrew high-priests of old there were also
heretics and impious men who gained the high-priesthood by improper
means, but who, nevertheless, had Scriptural sanction for their supreme
power of interpreting the law. (See Deut. xvii. 11, 12, and xxxviii. 10,
also Malachi ii. 8).

However, as the popes can show no such sanction, their authority remains
open to very grave doubt, nor should any one be deceived by the example
of the Jewish high-priests and think that the Catholic religion also
stands in need of a pontiff; he should bear in mind that the laws of
Moses being also the ordinary laws of the country, necessarily required
some public authority to insure their observance; for, if everyone were
free to interpret the laws of his country as he pleased, no state could
stand, but would for that very reason be dissolved at once, and public
rights would become private rights.

With religion the case is widely different. Inasmuch as it consists not
so much in outward actions as in simplicity and truth of character, it
stands outside the sphere of law and public authority. Simplicity and
truth of character are not produced by the constraint of laws, nor by
the authority of the state, no one the whole world over c