a very ancient Latin translation of the Bible; and the only one
the church of Rome acknowledges to be authentic. The ancient Vulgate of
the Old Testament was translated almost word for word, from the Greek of
the Septuagint. The author of the version is not known. It was a long
time known by the name of the Italic, or old version; as being of very
great antiquity in the Latin church. It was the common, or vulgar
version, before St. Jerom made a new one from the Hebrew original, with
occasional references to the Septuagint; whence it has its name Vulgate.
Nobilius, in 1558, and F. Morin, in 1628, gave new editions of it;
pretending to have restored and re-collated it from the ancients who had
cited it. It has since been retouched from the correction of St. Jerom;
and it is this mixture of the ancient Italic version, and some
corrections of St. Jerom, that is now called the Vulgate, and which the
council of Trent has declared to be authentic. It is this Vulgate alone
that is used in the Romish church, excepting some passages of the
ancient Vulgate, which were left in the Missal and the Psalms, and which
are still sung according to the old Italic version. St. Jerom declares
that, in his revisal of the Italic version, he used great care and
circumspection, never varying from that version but when he thought it
misrepresented the sense. But as the Greek copies to which he had access
were not so ancient as those from which the Italic version had been
made, some learned authors have been of opinion that it would have been
much better if he had collected all the copies, and, by comparing them,
have restored that translation to its original purity. It is plain that
he never completed this work, and that he even left some faults in it,
for fear of varying too much from the ancient version, since he renders
in his commentaries some words otherwise than he has done in his
translation. This version was not introduced into the church but by
degrees, for fear of offending weak persons. Rufinus, notwithstanding
his enmity to St. Jerom, and his having exclaimed much against this
performance, was one of the first to prefer it to the vulgar or Italian.
This translation gained at last so great an authority, by the
approbation of Pope Gregory I., and his declared preference of it to
every other, that it was subsequently brought into public use through
all the western churches. Although it was not regarded as authentic,
except by the council of Trent, it is certainly of some use, as serving
to illustrate several passages both of the Old and New Testament.
The two principal popish editions of the Vulgate are those of pope
Sixtus V. and Clement VIII.: the former was printed in 1590, after Pope
Sixtus had collected the most ancient MSS. and best printed copies,
summoned the most learned men out of all the nations of the Christian
world, assembled a congregation of cardinals for their assistance and
counsel, and presided over the whole himself. This edition was declared
to be corrected in the very best manner possible, and published with a
tremendous excommunication against every person who should presume ever
afterward to alter the least particle of the edition thus authentically
promulgated by his holiness, sitting in that chair, _in quâ Petri vivit
potestas, et excellit auctoritas_, [in which the power of Peter lived,
and his authority excelled.] The other edition was published in 1592, by
Pope Clement VIII.; which was so different from that of Sixtus, as to
contain two thousand variations, some of whole verses, and many others
clearly and designedly contradictory in sense; and yet this edition is
also, _ex cathedrâ_, [from the chair,] pronounced as the only authentic
one, and enforced by the same sentence of excommunication with the
former. Clement suppressed the edition of his predecessor; so that
copies of the Sixtine Vulgate are now very scarce, and have long been
reckoned among literary rarities. Our learned countryman, Dr. James, the
celebrated correspondent and able coadjutor of Archbishop Usher,
relates, with all the ardour of a hard student, the delight which he
experienced on unexpectedly obtaining a Sixtine copy; and he used it to
good and effective purpose in his very clever book, entitled “_Bellum
Papale_,” in which he has pointed out numerous additions, omissions,
contradictions, and glaring differences between the Sixtine and
Clementine editions. All the popish champions are exceedingly shy about
recognizing this irreconcilable conflict between the productions of two
such infallible personages; and the boldest of them wish to represent it
as a thing of nought. But it is no light matter thus to tamper with the
word of God.
The Romanists generally hold the Vulgate of the New Testament preferable
to the common Greek text; because it is this alone, and not the Greek
text, that the council of Trent has declared authentic: accordingly that
church has, as it were, adopted this edition, and the priests read no
other at the altar, the preachers quote no other in the pulpit, nor the
divines in the schools. Yet some of their best authors, F. Bouhours for
instance, own, that among the differences that are found between the
common Greek and the Vulgate, there are some in which the Greek reading
appears more clear and natural than that of the Latin; so that the
second might be corrected from the first, if the holy see should think
fit. But those differences, taken in general, only consist in a few
syllables or words; they rarely concern the sense. Beside, in some of
the most considerable, the Vulgate is authorized by several ancient
manuscripts. Bouhours spent the last years of his life in giving a
French translation of the New Testament according to the Vulgate. It is
probable that at the time the ancient Italic or Vulgate version of the
New Testament was made, and at the time it was afterward compared with
the Greek manuscripts by St. Jerom, as they were then nearer the times
of the Apostles, they had more accurate Greek copies, and those better
kept, than any of those used when printing was invented.
“Highly as the Latin Vulgate is extolled by the church of Rome,” says
Michaëlis, “it was depreciated beyond measure at the beginning of the
sixteenth century by several learned Protestants, whose example has been
followed by men of inferior abilities. At the restoration of learning,
when the faculty of writing elegant Latin was the highest accomplishment
of a scholar, the Vulgate was regarded with contempt, as not written
with classical purity. But after the Greek manuscripts were discovered,
their readings were preferred to those of the Latin, because the New
Testament was written in Greek, and the Latin was only a version; but it
was not considered that these Greek manuscripts were modern in
comparison of those originals from which the Latin was taken; nor was it
known at that time, that the more ancient the Greek manuscripts and the
other versions were, the closer was their agreement with the Vulgate.
Our ablest writers, such as Mill and Bengel, have been induced by F.
Simon’s treatise to abandon the opinion of their predecessors, and have
ascribed to the Latin Vulgate a value perhaps greater than it deserves.”
the church of Rome acknowledges to be authentic. The ancient Vulgate of
the Old Testament was translated almost word for word, from the Greek of
the Septuagint. The author of the version is not known. It was a long
time known by the name of the Italic, or old version; as being of very
great antiquity in the Latin church. It was the common, or vulgar
version, before St. Jerom made a new one from the Hebrew original, with
occasional references to the Septuagint; whence it has its name Vulgate.
Nobilius, in 1558, and F. Morin, in 1628, gave new editions of it;
pretending to have restored and re-collated it from the ancients who had
cited it. It has since been retouched from the correction of St. Jerom;
and it is this mixture of the ancient Italic version, and some
corrections of St. Jerom, that is now called the Vulgate, and which the
council of Trent has declared to be authentic. It is this Vulgate alone
that is used in the Romish church, excepting some passages of the
ancient Vulgate, which were left in the Missal and the Psalms, and which
are still sung according to the old Italic version. St. Jerom declares
that, in his revisal of the Italic version, he used great care and
circumspection, never varying from that version but when he thought it
misrepresented the sense. But as the Greek copies to which he had access
were not so ancient as those from which the Italic version had been
made, some learned authors have been of opinion that it would have been
much better if he had collected all the copies, and, by comparing them,
have restored that translation to its original purity. It is plain that
he never completed this work, and that he even left some faults in it,
for fear of varying too much from the ancient version, since he renders
in his commentaries some words otherwise than he has done in his
translation. This version was not introduced into the church but by
degrees, for fear of offending weak persons. Rufinus, notwithstanding
his enmity to St. Jerom, and his having exclaimed much against this
performance, was one of the first to prefer it to the vulgar or Italian.
This translation gained at last so great an authority, by the
approbation of Pope Gregory I., and his declared preference of it to
every other, that it was subsequently brought into public use through
all the western churches. Although it was not regarded as authentic,
except by the council of Trent, it is certainly of some use, as serving
to illustrate several passages both of the Old and New Testament.
The two principal popish editions of the Vulgate are those of pope
Sixtus V. and Clement VIII.: the former was printed in 1590, after Pope
Sixtus had collected the most ancient MSS. and best printed copies,
summoned the most learned men out of all the nations of the Christian
world, assembled a congregation of cardinals for their assistance and
counsel, and presided over the whole himself. This edition was declared
to be corrected in the very best manner possible, and published with a
tremendous excommunication against every person who should presume ever
afterward to alter the least particle of the edition thus authentically
promulgated by his holiness, sitting in that chair, _in quâ Petri vivit
potestas, et excellit auctoritas_, [in which the power of Peter lived,
and his authority excelled.] The other edition was published in 1592, by
Pope Clement VIII.; which was so different from that of Sixtus, as to
contain two thousand variations, some of whole verses, and many others
clearly and designedly contradictory in sense; and yet this edition is
also, _ex cathedrâ_, [from the chair,] pronounced as the only authentic
one, and enforced by the same sentence of excommunication with the
former. Clement suppressed the edition of his predecessor; so that
copies of the Sixtine Vulgate are now very scarce, and have long been
reckoned among literary rarities. Our learned countryman, Dr. James, the
celebrated correspondent and able coadjutor of Archbishop Usher,
relates, with all the ardour of a hard student, the delight which he
experienced on unexpectedly obtaining a Sixtine copy; and he used it to
good and effective purpose in his very clever book, entitled “_Bellum
Papale_,” in which he has pointed out numerous additions, omissions,
contradictions, and glaring differences between the Sixtine and
Clementine editions. All the popish champions are exceedingly shy about
recognizing this irreconcilable conflict between the productions of two
such infallible personages; and the boldest of them wish to represent it
as a thing of nought. But it is no light matter thus to tamper with the
word of God.
The Romanists generally hold the Vulgate of the New Testament preferable
to the common Greek text; because it is this alone, and not the Greek
text, that the council of Trent has declared authentic: accordingly that
church has, as it were, adopted this edition, and the priests read no
other at the altar, the preachers quote no other in the pulpit, nor the
divines in the schools. Yet some of their best authors, F. Bouhours for
instance, own, that among the differences that are found between the
common Greek and the Vulgate, there are some in which the Greek reading
appears more clear and natural than that of the Latin; so that the
second might be corrected from the first, if the holy see should think
fit. But those differences, taken in general, only consist in a few
syllables or words; they rarely concern the sense. Beside, in some of
the most considerable, the Vulgate is authorized by several ancient
manuscripts. Bouhours spent the last years of his life in giving a
French translation of the New Testament according to the Vulgate. It is
probable that at the time the ancient Italic or Vulgate version of the
New Testament was made, and at the time it was afterward compared with
the Greek manuscripts by St. Jerom, as they were then nearer the times
of the Apostles, they had more accurate Greek copies, and those better
kept, than any of those used when printing was invented.
“Highly as the Latin Vulgate is extolled by the church of Rome,” says
Michaëlis, “it was depreciated beyond measure at the beginning of the
sixteenth century by several learned Protestants, whose example has been
followed by men of inferior abilities. At the restoration of learning,
when the faculty of writing elegant Latin was the highest accomplishment
of a scholar, the Vulgate was regarded with contempt, as not written
with classical purity. But after the Greek manuscripts were discovered,
their readings were preferred to those of the Latin, because the New
Testament was written in Greek, and the Latin was only a version; but it
was not considered that these Greek manuscripts were modern in
comparison of those originals from which the Latin was taken; nor was it
known at that time, that the more ancient the Greek manuscripts and the
other versions were, the closer was their agreement with the Vulgate.
Our ablest writers, such as Mill and Bengel, have been induced by F.
Simon’s treatise to abandon the opinion of their predecessors, and have
ascribed to the Latin Vulgate a value perhaps greater than it deserves.”