[1026] The famous Cymbalum Mundi, by Bonaventure des Periers, published in 1538, which, while it continued extremely scarce, had the character of an irreligious work, has proved, since it was reprinted, in 1711, perfectly innocuous, though there are a few malicious glances at priests and nuns. It has always been the habit of the literary world, as much as at present, to speak of books by hearsay. The Cymbalum Mundi is written in Dialogue, somewhat in the manner of Lucian, and is rather more lively than books of that age generally were.
[1027] Des Trois Vérités contre les Athées, Idolatres, Juifs, Mahumetans, Hérétiques, et Schismatiques. Bourdeaux, 1593. Charron has not put his name to this book; and it does not appear that he has taken anything from himself in his subsequent work, De la Sagesse.
Wierus, De Præstigiis. 53. I hardly know how to insert, in any other chapter than the present, the books that relate to sorcery and demoniacal possessions, though they can only in a very lax sense be ranked with theological literature. The greater part are contemptible in any other light than as evidences of the state of human opinion. Those designed to rescue the innocent from sanguinary prejudices, and chase the real demon of superstition from the mind of man, deserve to be commemorated. Two such works belong to this period. Wierus, a physician of the Netherlands, in a treatise, “De Præstigiis,” Basle, 1564, combats the horrible prejudice by which those accused of witchcraft were thrown into the flames. He shows a good deal of credulity as to diabolical illusions, but takes these unfortunate persons for the devil’s victims rather than his accomplices. Upon the whole, Wierus destroys more superstition than he seriously intended to leave behind.
Scot on Witchcraft. 54. A far superior writer is our countryman, Reginald Scot, whose object is the same, but whose views are incomparably more extensive and enlightened. He denies altogether to the devil any power of controlling the course of nature. It may be easily supposed that this solid and learned person, for such he was beyond almost all the English of that age, did not escape in his own time, or long afterwards, the censure of those who adhered to superstition. Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft was published in 1584.[1028] Bodin, on the other hand, endeavoured to sustain the vulgar notions of Witchcraft in his Demonomanie des Sorciers. It is not easy to conceive a more wretched production; besides his superstitious absurdities, he is guilty of exciting the magistrate against Wierus, by representing him as a real confederate of Satan.
[1028] It appears by Scot’s book that not only the common, but the more difficult tricks of conjurers were practised in his time; he shows how to perform some of them.
Authenticity of Vulgate. 55. We may conclude this chapter, by mentioning the principal versions and editions of Scripture. No edition of the Greek Testament, worthy to be specified, appeared after that of Robert Stephens, whose text was invariably followed. The council of Trent declared the Vulgate translation of Scripture to be authentic, condemning all that should deny its authority. It has been a commonplace with Protestants to inveigh against this decree, even while they have virtually maintained the principle upon which it is founded—one by no means peculiar to the church of Rome—being no other than that it is dangerous to unsettle the mind of the ignorant, or partially learned in religion; a proposition not easily disputable by any man of sense, but, when acted upon, as incompatible as any two contraries can be, with the free and general investigation of truth.
Latin versions and editions by Catholics. 56. Notwithstanding this decision in favour of the Vulgate, there was room left for partial uncertainty. The council of Trent, declaring the translation itself to be authentic, pronounced nothing in favour of any manuscript or edition; and as it would be easier to put down learning altogether than absolutely to restrain the searching spirit of criticism, it was soon held that the council’s decree went but to the general fidelity of the version, without warranting every passage. Many Catholic writers, accordingly, have put a very liberal interpretation on this decree, suggesting such emendations of particular texts as the original seemed to demand. They have even given new translations; one by Arias Montanus is chiefly founded on that of Pagninus, and an edition of the Vulgate, by Isidore Clarius, is said to resemble a new translation, by his numerous corrections of the text from the Hebrew.[1029] Sixtus V. determined to put a stop to a license which rendered the Tridentine provisions almost nugatory. He fulfilled the intentions of the council by causing to be published in 1590 the Sistine Bible; an authoritative edition to be used in all churches. This was, however, superseded by another, set forth only two years afterwards by Clement VIII., which is said to differ more than any other from that which his predecessor had published as authentic; a circumstance not forgotten by Protestant polemics. The Sistine edition is now very scarce. The same pope had published a standard edition of the Septuagint in 1587.[1030]
[1029] Andrès, xix. 40. Simon, 358.
[1030] Andrès, xix., 44. Schelhorn, Amœnit. Literar, vol. ii. 359, and vol. iv. 439.
By Protestants. 57. The Latin translations made by Protestants in this period were that by Sebastian Castalio, which, in search of more elegance of style, deviates from the simplicity, as well as sense, of the original, and fails therefore of obtaining that praise at the hands of men of taste for which more essential requisites have been sacrificed;[1031] and that by Tremellius and Junius, published at Frankfort in 1575, and subsequent years. It was retouched some time afterwards by Junius, after the death of his coadjutor. This translation was better esteemed in Protestant countries, especially at first, than by the Catholic critics. Simon speaks of it with little respect. It professedly adheres closely to the Hebrew idiom. Beza gave a Latin version of the New Testament. It is doubtful whether any of these translations have much improved upon the Vulgate.