THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.
There are few so foolish as to close their eyes against the brilliant rays of the mid-day sun, and, at the same time, to assert deliberately that the sun is not yet risen, and that the world is still enveloped in darkness.
Nevertheless, something like this has been done quite recently by an estimable Protestant nobleman, who has assured his Irish fellow-countrymen that the Catholic Church, before the Reformation, "neither furthered the interests of science nor disseminated the knowledge of God's written word".[ 1] There was a time, indeed, when such a calumny would have been received by the British public with applause, and when it would have been echoed from Protestant pulpits by the predecessors of Colenso, and by the ancestors of many who now hold a place in the councils of her Majesty. But that calumny has been long since abandoned, even by the enemies of our holy faith. Our assailants have laid aside the mask, and revealed to the world the important fact, that whilst they clamoured for the Bible, they were themselves its true enemies; and that, combating the Church, their secret aim was to sap the foundations of inspired truth, and thus undermine the very citadel which they pretended to defend. It is not in England alone, but in France and Italy, and throughout the whole continent, that this striking fact is seen. Everywhere society presents the singular phenomenon of a sifting of its elements; and whilst all that aspires to the supernatural life, or clings to revelation, virtue, or truth, is gathered into the bosom of our holy Church, all that is without the Catholic pale is hurried down the inclined plane of Protestantism, and cast into the abyss of infidelity and rationalism. And yet, in the face of this social miracle, a Protestant peer is bold enough to assert that the Catholic Church is opposed to the progress of science and inspired truth;—thus insulting the memory of his own illustrious forefathers, and outraging the feelings of his fellow-countrymen. It is not, however, as a matter of controversy that we wish to enter on the present inquiry: we wish to view it merely as a matter of pure historic truth. In a future number we hope to consider the relations of the Church to science; our remarks to-day will only regard her solicitude during the ante-Reformation period to diffuse among her children a salutary knowledge of inspired truth as contained in the Holy Scriptures.
1. The first question that naturally suggests itself is, did the Church seek to remove the sacred volume from the hands of her own ministers, that is, of those whom she destined to teach her faithful children, and to gather all nations into her hallowed fold? The whole daily life of these sacred ministers of itself responds to such a question. Ask their diurnal hours, or any page of the daily Liturgy of the Church; ask those beautiful homilies which were delivered day by day in the abbeys of Bangor, Westminster, or Certosa, all of which breathe the sweet language of the inspired text; ask the myriad children of St. Columban, who in uninterrupted succession, hour by hour, chanted the praises of God in the accents of holy writ; ask the countless sanctuaries which decked the hills and valleys not only of our own island, but of every land on which the light of Christian faith had shone—the peaceful abodes of those who renounced the world's smiles and vanities to devote themselves to the service of God, and whose every orison recalled the teaching and the words of inspired truth. Ask even the medieval hymns published by the present Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, which, though shorn by the editor of much of their Catholic beauty, yet bear in each remaining strophe a deep impress of the language and imagery of the Bible, and prove to conviction that, so devoted was the Church of the ante-Reformation period to the study of the inspired text, that the very thoughts of her clergy, their language, their daily life, seemed to be cast in its sacred mould.
2. About 1450, long before Lutheranism was thought of, the art of printing appeared in Europe. Now some of the first efforts, as well of the wooden types of Gutenberg, as of the more perfect models of Faust and Schoeffer, were directed to disseminate accurate editions of the Bible: "No book", says one of the leading Rationalists of Germany, "was so frequently published, immediately after the first invention of printing, as the Latin Bible, more than one hundred editions of it being struck off before the year 1520".[ 2] And yet the number of editions thus commemorated is far below the reality. Hain, in his late Repertorium Bibliographicum, printed at Tubingen, reckons consecutively ninety-eight distinct editions before the year 1500, independently of twelve other editions, which, together with the Latin text, presented the glossa ordinaria or the postillas of Lyranus. Catholic Venice was distinguished above all the other cities of Europe for the zeal with which it laboured in thus disseminating the sacred text. From the year 1475, when the first Venetian edition appeared, to the close of the century, that city yielded no fewer than twenty-two complete editions of the Latin Bible, besides some others with the notes of Lyranus. Many other cities of Italy were alike remarkable for their earnestness in the same good cause, and we find especially commemorated the editions of Rome, Piacenza, Naples, Vicenza, and Brescia.
3. Italy, however, was not only remarkable for the number of its editions; it deserves still greater praise for the solicitude with which it compared the existing text with that of the ancient manuscripts, and endeavoured to present to the public editions as accurate as the then known critical apparatus would allow. One or two editions deserve particular notice, and in our remarks we will take the learned Vercellone for our guide, in his Dissertazioni Accademiche (Roma, 1864, pag. 102, seq. 9).
The most famous edition of the fifteenth century was that of Rome in 1471. It was published under the guidance of John Andrew de Bossi, Bishop of Aleria, and was dedicated to Pope Paul II. The printers were Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Paunartz. Their press was in the princely palace of the illustrious Massimi family. Five hundred and fifty copies were struck off in the edition; and on the death of Pope Paul II., his successor, Sixtus IV., was its zealous patron.
The Venice edition of 1495 is also of great critical importance. The religious superior of the Camaldolese of Brescia superintended its publication. It consisted of four volumes in folio, and presented, together with the Latin Bible, the gloss and notes of Lyranus. This great work was dedicated to Cardinal Francis Piccolomini, who was soon after raised to the popedom under the name of Pius III. From its preface we learn that not only the best preceding editions, but also five ancient manuscripts, were made use of in preparing this edition.
Still more accurate, however, is another edition, published without name of place in 1476, but which Pauzer and Vercellone refer to the city of Vicenza. Its editor was the learned Leonard Acate. He first sought out with great care the most ancient and correct manuscript of the Latin text, and then he devoted all his care to have it accurately printed. In a short preface, he merely says: "Lector, quisquis es, si Christiane sentis, non te pigeat hoc opus sanctissimum ... Codex practiosissimus in lucem emendatissimus venit"; and it must be confessed that this statement was not made without reason, since, notwithstanding all the critical researches of the last four centuries, that edition still holds its place amongst the most accurate and most conformable to the ancient Latin text.
4. Thus, then, in regard to the Latin text at least, Lord Clancarty must admit that the Church in the ante-Reformation period was not negligent in disseminating the Bible. And here we must remark that Latin was the literary language of that age, and that whosoever could read at all, was sure to be versed in the Latin tongue. How justly, then, does Mr. Hallam, when speaking of this period, state: "There is no reason to suspect any intention in the Church of Rome to deprive the laity of the scriptures";[ 3] and how truthful are the words of another eloquent man: "The Catholic Church is not the enemy of the Bible. I affirm it, and I shall prove it.... She has been the guardian of its purity and the preserver of its existence through the chances and changes of eighteen hundred years. In the gloom of the Catacombs, and the splendour of the Basilica, she cherished that holy book with equal reverence. When she saw the seed of Christianity sown in the blood of the martyrs, and braved the persecutions of the despots of the world, and when those despots bowed before the symbol of Redemption, and she was lifted from her earthly humbleness, and reared her mitred head in courts and palaces, it was equally the object of her unceasing care. She gathered together its scattered fragments, separated the true word of inspiration from the spurious inventions of presumptuous and deceitful men, made its teachings and its history familiar to her children in her noble liturgy; translated it into the language which was familiar to every one who could read at all; asserted its divine authority in her councils; maintained its canonical authority against all gainsayers; and transmitted it from age to age as the precious inheritance of the Christian people. The saints whom she most reveres were its sagest commentators; and of the army of her white-robed martyrs whom she still commemorates on her festal days, there are many who reached their immortal crowns by refusing on the rack and in the flames to desecrate or deny the holy book of God".[ 4] And yet, if we are to believe Lord Clancarty, it is precisely this holy Church that is opposed to science and to the dissemination of the written word of God!
5. But perhaps Catholics were in dread at least of the original text of the sacred Scriptures, and placed some obstacles in the way of its diffusion. Here, again, we appeal to the testimony of facts. The only editions of the Old Testament which appeared in the original Hebrew language in the fifteenth century, were all printed beneath the shadow of the Inquisition in the Catholic land of Italy. Soncino, near Cremona, in 1488, Naples in 1491, and Brescia in 1494, are the cities to which belongs the glory of thus giving birth to the first editions of the Hebrew text. Bologna, too, was privileged in being the first to publish the Chaldaic paraphrase of Onkelos: its edition appeared in 1482; and for the next two editions, which appeared towards the close of the century, we are indebted to Catholic Portugal.[ 5]
As to the Greek text of the New Testament, its first edition was printed in 1514, under the auspices of an illustrious Spanish Franciscan, Cardinal Ximenes. Though the New Testament is only the fifth volume in the great Polyglot of Ximenes, yet it was first of all in order of time, its text being completed on the 10th of January, 1514. Five other editions followed in quick succession, in 1516, 1519, 1522, 1527, 1535, all bearing the name of Erasmus.[ 6] The only portions of the Greek text of the Old Testament that were printed in the fifteenth century all had their origin in Italy, and bear the date of 1481, 1486, and 1498.
6. It is time, however, to refer to the first great Biblical Polyglots—those vast repertories devised by master minds, and which, presenting in parallel columns the original texts of the Old and New Testaments, together with the various ancient versions, are an incalculable aid in the study of Biblical criticism and in the interpretation of the sacred books. Even in the publication of these great works Protestants only came to glean where the Catholics had already reaped an abundant harvest. It was the privilege of the illustrious order of St. Dominick to give to the world the first Polyglot edition of a portion of the sacred text. It was entitled "Psalterium Hebraicum Graecum, Arabicum, et Chaldaicum cum tribus Latinis Interpretationibus et Glossis". From the dedication we learn that its author was "Fr. Augustinus Giustiniani ord. Praed. Episcopus Nabiensis", who inscribes this fruit of his learned labours to the reigning pontiff, Leo X. It was in the Giustiniani palace in Genoa that this Polyglot was printed, under the immediate superintendence of the bishop himself, and from the same city he addressed its dedication to Pope Leo on 1st August, 1516. An extract from this dedicatory letter will best serve to show that the sentiments of the Catholic bishops of the ante-Reformation period were far different from what the Earl of Clancarty would wish us to suppose. It thus begins:
"Scio Pater Beatissime, perlatum ad aures tuas jam diu laborasse nos quo utrumque sacrae legis instrumentum quinque praecipuis linguis in unum redactum corpus ederemus: opus nimirum ut meis viribus impar ita nostrae professioni vel maxime congruens. Nihil enim aeque sacerdoti convenit quam sacrarum litterarum expositio et interpretatio.... An vero noster hic labor fructum aliquem sit pariturus in Catholica matre Ecclesia cui ipse digne praesides libuit periculum facere hoc Davidico psalterio quod ex toto opere nunc quasi delibamus tuo dicatum nomini".
The learned linguist, Baptista Fliscus, was requested by Giustiniani to revise the text of the oriental versions, and sending his list of corrections, he prefaces it with the following words:
"Tu vero perge divinum complere negotium et quod Psalterio Davidico tribuisti confer caeteris quoque sacrae Scripturae partibus ut eâ tot nationum auribus accommodatâ invitetur universus orbis ad tantarum rerum notitiam.... Tum Leo ipse Pont. Max. cui tu opus ipsum dicasti pro sua erga omnes benignitate et munificentia non deerit tibi quoque in cunctis operi necessariis praesertim adeo utiliter navanti operam ei cujus vices gerit in terris".
Surely such expressions breathe sentiments far different from those of hostility to the dissemination of the genuine text of the Sacred Scriptures.
7. The second and far more important Polyglot was prepared under the guidance and published at the expense of a Franciscan prime minister of Spain, the illustrious Cardinal Ximenes. This great work, which was begun in 1502, was completed only a few weeks before the death of the Cardinal in 1517. When the son of the printer entered the apartment of Ximenes, "bearing the last sheets of the Polyglot, the aged Cardinal exclaimed: "I give thee thanks, O Lord! that thou hast enabled me to bring to the desired end the great work which I undertook". And then turning to those around him, he added: "Of the many arduous duties which I have performed for the benefit of the country, there is nothing on which you ought to congratulate me more than on the completion of this edition of the Bible".[ 7] This Polyglot comprises all the books of the Old and New Testaments in their original text, together with various ancient versions. Its expense was wholly defrayed by the Cardinal, who spared no pains to render it as complete as human efforts could effect. His biographer especially commemorates how on one occasion he gave the sum of £2,000 for seven ancient Hebrew manuscripts which were made use of in printing the Hebrew text; and the whole expense of the publication amounted to £25,000, which at that period was equivalent to four times that sum at the present day. "He made researches on all sides", writes Hefele, "for manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments, and sometimes was obliged to purchase them at an enormous expense, while others generously hastened to lend them for his use, amongst whom must be mentioned Pope Leo X. This pontiff honoured and revered Ximenes, and still more he loved the fine arts. He therefore generously supported him in the publication of the celebrated Polyglot. In return Ximenes dedicated the work to his Holiness, and in the introduction gave him public thanks in these words: 'Atque ex ipsis exemplaribus quidem, Graeca Sanctitati Tuae debemus, qui ex ista Apostolica Bibliotheca antiquissimos tam Veteris quam Novi Testamenti codices perquam humane ad nos misisti': i.e. 'To your Holiness we are indebted for the Greek manuscripts. You have sent us with the greatest kindness the copies both of the Old and New Testament, the most ancient that the apostolic library possessed".[ 8] In the introductory remarks to the various volumes, the learned editor more than once acquaints us with the motives which impelled him to this gigantic undertaking, and repeats the same expression of gratitude to the reigning pontiff for the kind assistance afforded him. Thus in the prolegomena he writes: "No translation can fully and exactly represent the sense of the original, at least in that language in which our Saviour himself spoke. It is necessary, therefore, as St. Jerome and St. Augustine desired, that we should go back to the origin of the sacred writings, and correct the books of the Old Testament by the Hebrew text, and those of the New Testament by the Greek text. Every theologian should also be able to drink of that water 'which springeth up to life eternal', at the fountainhead itself. This is the reason, therefore, why we have ordered the Bible to be printed in the original language with different translations. To accomplish this task we have been obliged to have recourse to the knowledge of the most able philologists, and to make researches in every direction for the best and most ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts". Again, in the preface to the New Testament, we read: "Illud lectorem non lateat non quaevis exemplaria impressioni huic archetypa fuisse sed antiquissima emendatissimaque ac tantae praeterea vetustatis ut fidem eis abrogare nefas videatur quae sanctissimus in Christo Pater et Dominus Nester Leo X. Pontifex Max. huic instituto favere cupiens, ex Apostolica Bibliotheca educta misit ad Reverendissimum D. Cardinalem Hispaniae".
Such, then, were the sentiments, such the solicitude, of the reigning Pontiff and of the Franciscan Cardinal in publishing the great Complutensian Polyglot—for it is thus it was styled, from the city of Complutum, better known by the modern name of Alcalà, in which it was printed. Still, if we are to credit the assertion of Lord Clancarty, they were the enemies of science, and opposed to the dissemination of the Word of God! How far more justly was the character of Ximenes appreciated by the two Protestant historians, Robertson and Prescott. The former writes: "The variety, the grandeur, and the success of his schemes, leaves it doubtful whether his sagacity in council, his prudence in conduct, or his boldness in execution, deserve the highest praise". The latter, still more to the point, observes: "The Cardinal's Bible has the merit of being the first successful attempt at a Polyglot version of the Scriptures ... Nor can we look at it in connection with the age, and the auspices under which it was accomplished, without regarding it as a noble monument of learning, piety, and munificence, which entitles its author to the gratitude of the whole Christian world".[ 9]
8. Even these two great works did not suffice for the Catholic Biblical scholars of that age. Another still more perfect Polyglot soon followed the Complutensian edition. It was published at Antwerp in 1569-1572, under the auspices of Philip II. of Spain, and under the superintendence of Cardinal de Spinoza. The most learned men of the age concurred to complete this edition, and amongst its editors are named Sanctes Pagnini, Arias Montanus, Raphaelengius, and others.
9. The Polyglot of Le Jay, published at Paris, though later in point of time, surpassed all preceding editions in magnificence, and is generally reputed one of the most costly and splendid works that ever issued from the press. The booksellers of London offered the editor large sums of money, besides other advantageous terms, on condition that it should be called the London Polyglot. This offer, however, was contemptuously received by Le Jay, and this immense work appeared at his own individual expense solely, under Catholic auspices, and for the first time, in addition to the other texts, presented to the world the Samaritan Pentateuch.
10. Now all these great works appeared before a single attempt was made by Protestants to publish a Polyglot Bible; they all appeared under the patronage of the clergy, and show the ever active solicitude of the Catholic Church to promote a true Christian interpretation, and to diffuse an accurate text of the Sacred Scriptures. Even in regard to versions into the various modern languages, Catholics were ever foremost in the field. Of these we will speak on a future day, but we cannot close this article without commemorating another characteristic Biblical work of the ante-Reformation period, which might be justly styled the "Polyglot of the illiterate", and which is commonly known by the name of Biblia Pauperum. This consisted of a series of prints presenting the facts of prophecy of the Old law, and generally accompanied with the representation of their fulfilment in the facts of the New Testament. Some of the very first xylographic efforts were devoted to diffuse these Biblia Pauperum, and several editions appeared in the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century.[ 10] Even before the art of printing was discovered, this ingenious sort of Polyglot, suited to the illiterate, of whatsoever nation they might be, was diffused through the monasteries and Catholic sanctuaries of Europe. It was indeed a tedious labour to achieve such a work with the pen; but for the monks of the middle age such works were a labour of love. It was only in our own day, however, that the existence of such manuscripts has been fully proved. The learned Heider, in his Christian Typology (Vienna, 1861), first announced their discovery in the Viennese archives; and in 1863 a complete edition was published by him, aided by Albert Camesina, from a manuscript of the fourteenth century.
Alpha.