VI–X. Interpreter's regeneration; languages; incorrupt judgment; will free of vicious affections
VI. The interpreter's condition is his regeneration and illumination wrought by the Holy Spirit, whom the heavenly Father gives to those who ask (Luke 11:13; 1 Cor. 2:10–16; Jas. 1:5, 17; 2 Tim. 2:15). From this one gathers how rare good interpreters are, and how many thrust themselves into this divine office with more boldness than wisdom. Physicians promise what belongs to physicians; craftsmen handle craftsmen's tools; Scripture alone is the art everyone claims. We write poems, learned and unlearned, everywhere. A chatty old woman, a raving old man, a wordy sophist — the whole world presumes upon it, tear it, teach it before they learn it, as Jerome complains to Paulinus.
VII. Instruction is of intellect, judgment, and will. VIII. The intellect must be perfected by knowledge of the necessary languages and of the things that a discipline sets out by a sure method. Knowledge of languages is necessary for the interpreter (1 Cor. 14:13–14), because each has its properties that must be carefully noted in translating. Hence the Egyptians are praised for learning the Canaanites' tongue (Isa. 19:18). It is absurd for the Holy Spirit's language to be to the interpreter like a flute that makes a sound but without mind — and for the prophet to be to a German like a Turk or an Indian, to each of whom the other is a barbarian. Jerome and Augustine knew this of old; among later writers Luther, and Bellarmine himself, affirms that Augustine was deceived by mere ignorance of Hebrew. An encyclopedia of things supplies the needed knowledge and the way of knowing and teaching (Titus 1:9; Col. 2:4).
IX. A good interpreter's judgment should be uncorrupted, aiming straight at the truth (1 Tim. 5:21; Gal. 2:14). Monkish theology, by contrast, sees nothing in the Scriptures but cowls and wooden shoes, as Luther testifies. X. The sacred interpreter's will should be free from vicious affections, lest against the intellect's dictate he calumniate the truth.
Latin
VI. Conditio interpretis est illius regeneratio & illuminatio facta per Spiritum sanctum, quem Pater coelestis dat petentibus. Confer Luc. 11.13. & 1. Cor. 2.10-16. Jac. 1.5.17. 2. Tim. 2.15. Ex quo colligitur, quam rari sint boni interpretes & quam multi audacia majore, quam sapientia in divinum hoc munus se intrudant. Quod medicorum est promittunt medici, tractant fabrilia fabri, sola Scripturarum ars est, quam sibi omnes vendicant: scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Hanc garrula anus, hanc delirus senex, hanc sophista verbosus, hanc universi praesumunt, lacerant, docent antequam discant, ut queritur Hieronymus epistola ad Paulinum. VII. Instructio est intellectus, judicii & voluntatis. VIII. Intellectus perfici debet cognitione necessariarum linguarum & rerum, quas disciplina certa methodo exponunt. Linguarum notitia interpreti necessaria est, 1. Cor. 14.13.14. quia singulis suae sunt proprietates, quae in vertendo probe notandae sunt. Hinc & Aegyptii laudantur, quod discant linguam Chanaanorum Es. 19.18. Absurdum est linguam Spiritus sancti interpreti esse instar tibiae aut fistulae, quae sonum edit, at sine mente sonum; & prophetam instar Turcae aut Indi Germano, cui uterque barbarus est. Agnoverunt hoc in antiquis Hieronymus & Augustinus: in junioribus Lutherus, & ipse Bellarminus lib.1. de pontifice Rom. cap.10. affirmat Augustinum ex sola ignorantia linguae Hebraeae esse deceptum. Encyclopaedia vero rerum necessariam scientiam subministrat & sciendi, docendique modum, Tit. 1.9. Col. 2.4. IX. Judicium boni interpretis sit adiapthoron, incorruptum, quod ad veritatem recta collimet. 1. Tim. 5.21. Gal. 2.14. Contra monachica theologia nihil in Scripturis videt nisi cucullas & calopodia, teste Luthero. X. Voluntas interpretis sacri a vitiosis affectibus sit libera, ne contra intellectus dictamen, veritatem calumnietur.