one name by all, and then the terms old and new version would be laid aside."

§ 71.

CRITICAL ATTEMPTS TO CORRECT THIS VERSION.

b

In the beginning of the ninth century, about 802, Alcuin, at the command of Charlemagne, amended this version, although, as it appears, he did not follow genuine critical principles. This is shown by various authorities. Thus Baronius says, "It had come to pass that it [the Vulgate edition] had become corrupted and full of errors, through the fault of the numerous scribes that had copied it. Charles, bearing this but ill, took great pains that it should be published as correctly as possible, and restored to its original integrity and value. He committed the work to Albinus, [Alcuin,] that he might accomplish it." Charles himself says,

• Baronius, Annal. ad An. 231, (see § 47:) Accidit post Gregorii tempora, ut quoniam duæ simul vulgatæ editiones, vetus et nova, dissensionum ac contentionum interdum ministrarent occasionem..... Sed divino afflante Numine provisum est optimeque consultum, ut ad ecclesiasticum communem usum una ex duabus, quæ usui omnibus esset ecclesiis, conflaretur, quæ communis omnibus atque vulgata uno nomine a cunctis diceretur, explosa illa Veteris et Novæ nomenclatura. For the doubts of Catholic writers respecting the author of the Vulgate, see Hody, p. 547, sqq.

See Capitular. Reg. Franc. bib. vi. c. xxvii. Siegebert Gemblac. ad An. 790, and De Script. eccles. [See, also, Charlemagne's Constitutio de Emendatione Librorum, &c., in Ideler, Leben und Wandel Karls des Gros; Ham. 1839, vol. ii. p. 120, sq., and p. 199, sqq., published, also, in Baluze, Capit. vol. i. p. 203.]

sen

* Baronius, Annal. ad An. 778: Acciderat, ut ipsa multiplicium librariorum exscribentium vitio mendis obsita jam vilesceret. Quod periniquo animo ferens Carolus, ut quam emendatissima ederetur, in pristinamque vindicaretur integritatem atque splendorem, studio propensiori curavit...... Opus Albino delegavit, ut absolveret. See, also, Alcuin. Ep. ad Gislam, prefixed to lib. vi. Comment. in Joannem.

"It has always been our care to improve the state of our churches by sleepless study; to repair the temple of letters, now fallen to decay through the sloth of our predecessors; and, by our own example, to excite as many others as possible to the study of the sacred books; and, God aiding us in all things, we have now carefully corrected all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which had become corrupted through the unskilfulness of transcribers." ["It seems probable," says Hug, "from his language, that Charles himself assisted in making the correction. The Vulgate, thus amended, was introduced to all the churches of France, by the

G

a

[Carolus, Dei fretus auxilio Rex Francorum et Langobardorum ac Patricius Romanorum, religiosis lectoribus nostræ ditioni subjectis. Cum nos divina semper domi forisque clementia, sive in bellorum eventibus, sive in pacis tranquillitate custodiat, etsi rependere quicquam ejus beneficiis tenuitas humana non prævalet, quia est inestimabilis misericordiæ Deus noster, devotas suæ servituti benigne approbat voluntates. Igitur quia curæ nobis est ut nostrarum Ecclesiarum ad meliora semper proficiat status, obliteratam pæne majorum nostrorum desidia reparare vigilante studio literarum satagimus officinam, et ad pernoscenda studia liberalium artium nostro etiam quos possumus invitamus exemplo. Inter quæ jampridem universos veteris ac novi instrumenti libros, librariorum imperitia depravatos, Deo nos in omnibus adjuvante, examussim correximus. Accensi præterea memoriæ venerandæ Pippini genitoris nostri exemplis, qui totas Galliarum Ecclesias Romanæ traditionis suo studio cantibus decoravit, nos nihilominus sollerti easdem curamus intuitu præcipuarum insignire serie lectionum. Denique quia ad nocturnale officium compilatas quorundam casso labore, licet recto intuitu, minus tamen idoneo, reperimus lectiones, quippe quæ et sine auctorum suorum vocabulis essent positæ, et infinitis vitiorum anfractibus scaterent, non sumus passi nostris in diebus in divinis lectionibus inter sacra officia inconsonantes perstrepere solœcismos, atque earundem lectionum in melius reformare tramitem mentem intendimus. Idque opus Paulo Diacono, familiari clientulo nostro, elimandum injunximus, scilicet ut studiose Catholicorum Patrum dicta percurrens, veluti ex lectissimis eorum pratis certos quosque flosculos legeret, et in unum quæque essent utilia quasi sertum aptaret. Qui nostræ Celsitudini devote parere desiderans, tractatus atque sermones diversorum Catholicorum Patrum perlegens, et optima quæque decerpens, in duobus voluminibus per totius anni circulum congruentes cuique festivitati distincte et absque vitiis nobis obtulit lectiones. QuaVOL. I.

35

royal command. Thus Charles decrees, 'It is our will, and we order and command our legates (missis) that genuine copies of the canonical books be had in the churches, as we have frequently commanded in another capitulary." "a

Baronius says, "The Vulgate was amended from the more ancient and true sources." Hody thinks it was corrected by comparing it with the Hebrew and Greek originals, as well as from the best Latin manuscripts. Alcuin, in his own commentaries, corrects Jerome's version by the Hebrew original.]'

In the eleventh century, Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, undertook a new emendation. Thus Robertus de Monte says, "Since the Scriptures were greatly corrupted by the errors of transcribers, he (Lanfranc) desired to correct all the books of the Old and New Testament, and also the writings of the Fathers, after the orthodox faith; and, accordingly, he carefully amended many of those [copies] which we use day and night in the service of the church; and this he did, not only with his own hands, but also with those of his pupils. . . . All the church throughout the western world,

rum textum nostra sagacitate perpendentes, nostra eadem volumina auctoritate constabilimus, vestræque religioni in Christi Ecclesiis tradimus ad legendum. Ideler, l. c. p. 199, sqq.

Alcuin says, that he "corrected the divine history at the command of the king." See Hody, p. 410.] Caroli M. Præf. Homiliarum Pauli Diaconi; Spiræ, 1482; Colon. 1530, 1539, 1557.

a

Hug, § 121.

b [Com. in Gen. xxv. 8: Quomodo convenit Abrahæ tam sancto viro, quod dicitur et deficiens mortuus est? Responsum in Hebræo non habetur deficiens, sed a LXX. interpretibus additum est. See this, and other instances, in Hody, p. 409.] See Hug's comparison of Von Speyer's MS. of Alcuin's edition, § 123.

both the French and English, rejoices that it is illuminated by the light of this emendation.""

In the twelfth century, Cardinal Nicolaus, deacon of St. Damasus, and a good Hebrew scholar, undertook to make a new emendation of the Vulgate. He says, "Looking over the libraries, I was unable to find any correct copies of the Scriptures; for even those which were said to be corrected by the most learned men, differed so much from one another, that I found almost as many different manuscripts as copies." [But this statement applies only to Rome, where, perhaps, the text of Alcuin's emendation was not received; though Roger "it was horribly corrupted," in France and

Bacon says,
England, in his time.]

About this time, also, there appeared the so called Epanorthotæ, or Correctoria Biblica, by which attempts were made to establish the true text. But these were not purely critical, but rather exegetical works. [From these Correctoria, says Eichhorn, which are valuable monuments for the critical history of the text of the Latin version, it is evident that the old manuscripts of the Latin version differed far more than the critical editions of the same version; that many of the present readings were formerly declared spurious, and that we cannot hope to recover the genuine text.]"

• Robertus de Monte, in his Accessionibus ad Siegebert. ad An. 1089, in Hody, p. 416.

[Nicolaus, De sac. Scrip. emendat., in Hody, p. 417.]

Correctorium Biblicum of Abbot Stephen, about 1150. (See Hody, p. 418. Histoire Litt. de la France, vol. ix. p. 123, sqq.) Correctorium Sorbon.; Paris. (See R. Simon, Hist. Crit. des Verss. du N. T. ch. ix. p. 114. Döderlein, Litter. Mus. vol. ii. p. 197, sqq.) Correctorium Hugonis a Sanct. Caro, about 1236. (See Hug, 1. c. Rosenmüller, Handbuch, vol. iii. p. 263, sqq. Döderlein, l. c. p. 14.) See other Correctoria of the Dominicans.

d [Eichhorn, § 336. Eichhorn does not treat this subject with his usual

.....

Roger Bacon, in his epistle to Clement IV., speaks of the rashness with which corrections were made in the text. 66 Every reader, even in the lower order of the clergy, corrects as he pleases; and the same is done by the preachers. . . Each one changes what he does not understand. But the preachers, especially, have thrust themselves in, to aid in this correction; and now, for twenty years and more, they have presumed to make their own corrections, and insert them in the Scripture. But afterwards they make new alterations to contradict the old, and now others vacillate still more than their predecessors, not knowing where they are. From this cause their correction is the worst of corruptions, and God's text is destroyed.""

......

[Again, Bacon says, "The text is, for the most part, horribly corrupted, . . . . . . and it is doubtful where it is corrupted... And so doubts arise from the disagreement of the correctors; for the correctors, or rather the corrupters, throughout the world, are almost as numerous as the readers; for every one has the presumption to change what he does not understand, a liberty not to

copiousness. He declares the version valuable for Protestants as well as Catholics, but does not enter upon the merits or the history of it.]

a

Quilibet lector in ordine Minorum corrigit, ut vult, et similiter apud Prædicatores...... et quilibet mutat quod non intelligit....... Sed Prædicatores maxime intromiserunt se de hac correctione, et jam sunt viginti anni et plures, quod præsumpserunt facere suam correctionem et redegerunt eam in scriptis. Sed postea fecerunt aliam ad reprobationem illius, et modo vacillant plusquam alii, nescientes ubi sint. Unde eorum correctio est pessima corruptio et destruitur textus Dei. See, also, Correctorium Bibliæ, cum difficilium quarundam dictionum luculenta interpretatione per Magdalium Jacobum, Gaudensem, Ordinis Prædic.; Col. 1508, 8vo. (Carpzov, Crit. sac. p. 685, sqq. Rosenmüller, 1. c. p. 262.) On a Correctorium of the Dominicans in MS., at the Pauline library in Leipzig, see Carpzov, p. 694, sqq.; on another, in the Academical library, at Freiburg, see Hug, 1. c § 125.