The spread of indifferentist or rationalist theories could not fail to weaken the reverence that had been inculcated by the early Reformers for the Bible as the sole source of God's revelation to men. Acting upon Luther's principle of private judgment others, regardless of their inspiration and infallibility, undertook to subject the Scriptures to the authority of human reason. Faustus Socinus (1539- 1604), one of the founders of the Socinian sect, insisted that everything in the Scriptures that seems opposed to reason could not have come from God and should be eliminated. For some time while religious fervour was at its height both Lutherans and Calvinists held fast by their religious formularies and refused to accept the scriptural views of Socinus. But once dogmatic religion had been assailed by the new philosophico-rationalist school in England, Germany, and France the way was prepared for the acceptance of more liberal views. On the one hand, many of the extreme opponents of Christianity set themselves to point out the errors of the Bible, as a proof that it could not have come from God, while, on the other, many of the Protestant scholars, who still held by a divine Christian revelation, endeavoured to eliminate from it the supernatural without rejecting openly the authority of the Scriptures.
It was with this design that Jacob Semler (1725-91) formulated the Accommodation Theory, according to which Christ and His Apostles accommodated their actions and their language to the erroneous notions prevalent among the Jews in their time, and for this reason all that bordered upon the mysterious should be regarded merely as a surrender to contemporary superstition. Another method of arriving at a similar conclusion was adopted by Kant, who maintained that the Bible was written only to inculcate morality and to strengthen man's moral sense, and that all that is recorded in it must be interpreted by reason in the light of the object which its authors had in view.
With such liberal theories about the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures in the air it was almost impossible that the Catholic exegetists could escape the contagion. One of the ablest Catholic writers at the time, the French Oratorian /Richard Simon/ (1638-1712), was accused by his contemporaries of having approached too closely to the rationalist system in his scriptural theories. He was a man well- versed in the Oriental languages and well able to appreciate the literary and historical difficulties that might be urged against the inspiration and inerrancy of the Old Testament. He maintained that the Bible was a literary production, and that, as such it should be interpreted according to the ideas and methods of composition prevalent in the country or at the time in which the various books were written. His views were contained in his /Histoire Critique de Vieux Testament/ (1678) and his /Histoire Critique de Texte du Nouveau Testament/ (1689), both of which, though undoubtedly able works that have considerably influenced scriptural study amongst Catholics since that time, were severely criticised, and were condemned by the Congregation of the Index.
Another French Oratorian of the period, /Bernard Lamy/ (1640-1715), dealt with the introduction to the Scriptures in his two books /Apparatus ad Biblia Sacra/ (1687) and /Apparatus Biblicus/ (1696). As a professor of philosophy Lamy had stirred up already a strong opposition owing to his evident leanings towards Cartesianism, nor was he less unhappy in his scriptural studies. He questioned the historical character of the narrations contained in the books of Tobias and Judith, and contended that notwithstanding the decrees of the Council of Trent less authority should be attributed to the Deutero-Canonical than to the Proto-Canonical books of the Bible.
Amongst the leading scriptural commentators were /Le Maistre de Saci/ (d. 1684), a Jansenist, who published translations of the Old and the New Testament, the latter of which was put upon the Index; /Piconio/ (Henri Bernardine de Picquigny, 1633-1709) a Capuchin whose /Triplex Exposito in Sacrosancta D.N. Jesu Christi Evangelia/ (1726), has not been surpassed till the present day; /Louis de Carrieres/ (1622-1717), whose /La Sainte Bible en Francais avec un commentaire litteral/ founded on De Saci's translation was recognised as one of the simplest and best commentaries on the Scriptures; /Charles Francois Houbigant/ (1686-1783), also an Oratorian, who published an edition of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek text of the Deutero-Canonical books together with a Prolegomena, and /Dom Calmet/ (1672-1757), a Benedictine, who published in twenty-three volumes a commentary on the Old and New Testament accompanied by an introduction to the various books (1707- 1716).
In no department of theological science were greater advances made during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than in that of ecclesiastical history and historical theology. This was due largely to the labours and example of the Benedictines of St. Maur. Men like /Luc d'Achery/ (1609-1685), /Stephen Baluze/ (1630-1718), /Jean Mabillon/ (1632-1704), /Edmond Martene/ (1654-1739), /Ruinart/ (1657- 1709), /Muratori/ (1672-1750), /Bouquet/ (1685-1754), /Jean Hardouin, S.J./ (1646-1729), /Domenico Mansi/ (1692-1769), and the Orientalists Joseph /Simeon Assemani/ (1687-1768) and his brother /Joseph Aloysius/ (1710-82) laid the foundations of modern historical research, by their publication of correct editions of the Early and Middle Age writers and of the decrees of the various general, national, and provincial councils, as well as by the example which they set in their own scholarly dissertations of how historical materials should be used. In addition to the publication of collections of original sources, works like the /Gallia Christiana/, begun in 1715 by the Benedictines of St. Maur and continued by them till the Revolution, /Espana Sagrada/ begun by the Augustinian Enrique Florez in 1747, and the /Italia Sacra/ (1643-1662) of Ferdinand Ughelli contained a veritable mine of information for future historians. Of the historical writers of this period the ablest were /Louis Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont/ (1637- 1689), the author of the /Histoire des Empereurs pendant les six premiers Siecles/ and /Memoires pour servir a l'histoire eccl. des six premiers siecles/ (1693); /Claude Fleury/ (1640-1725) whose great work, /Histoire Ecclesiastique/ (dealing with the period from the Ascension till the Council of Constance, 1414) is marred only by the Gallican tendencies of its author, and /Natalis Alexander/ (Noel Alexandre, 1639-1724), a French Dominican who published an exceedingly valuable Church History under the title /Selecta Historiae Eccl. Capita/, etc., but which was condemned by Innocent XI. (1684) on account of the markedly Gallican bias under which it was composed.
Amongst some of the most noted authorities on Canon Law during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were /Benedict XIV./ (1675-1758) many of whose treatises are regarded as standard works till the present day; /Pirhing/ (1606-1679), a Jesuit, professor at Dillingen and Ingolstadt and well known as a theologian and canonist; /Reiffenstuel/ (1641-1703), a Bavarian Franciscan for some time professor at Freising, the author of several theological works, and unequalled as a Canonist in his own day; /Van Espen/ (1649-1728) professor at Louvain, a strong supporter of Gallicanism and Jansenism, whose great work /Jus Canonicum Universum/ is marred by the pro- Gallican proclivities of its author; /Schmalzgrueber/ (1663-1735), a Bavarian Jesuit, professor of Canon Law at Dillingen and Ingolstadt, who in addition to treatises on such subjects as Trials, Espousals, Matrimony, and the Regular and Secular Clergy, published a work covering the entire Canon Law (/Jus Eccl. Universum/), and the Italian /Lucius Ferraris/ (d. 1763), whose /Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica/ went through several editions in the author's own lifetime and has been republished more than once since his death (latest edition 1899).
In the department of sacred oratory the palm must undoubtedly be awarded to the French Church. /Jacques-Benigne Bossuet/[5] (1627- 1704), in many senses the greatest of the French preachers, was the son of a lawyer at Dijon. Even in his early youth he was remarkable for his mastery of the Bible and classical authors. He studied at the University of Paris, and after remaining two years under the spiritual education of St. Vincent de Paul was ordained a priest in 1662. He returned to Metz, in the cathedral of which he held a canonry, and where his abilities as a preacher and a controversialist soon attracted attention. He was appointed preceptor to the Dauphin of France, an office which he held from 1670 to 1681, when he was consecrated Bishop of Meaux. As bishop he took part in the Assembly of the French Clergy (1681-82) and, though himself not such an extreme defender of Gallicanism as many of his contemporaries, he is credited generally with having been the author of the famous Declaration of the Clergy, known as the Articles of the Gallican Church. At the invitation of Louis XIV. he composed a treatise in defence of these articles, /Defensio Declarationis/, etc., published after his death (1730). As an orator Bossuet was far ahead of the preachers of his time, and as a writer and controversialist he had few equals. His untiring energy and ability are vouched for by the number of able works that proceeded from his pen. Of these the most instructive and best known are the /Discours sur l'histoire Universelle/ (1681), and the /Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes/ (1688-89). His want of firmness, however, in his relations with the court, leading him as it did to show a sympathy which he could not have felt in his heart towards Gallicanism, his failure to move a finger to stay the ravages of Jansenism, his want of zeal for the spiritual care of his diocese, in marked contrast with the energy which he displayed when seeking to score a personal triumph over Fenelon and other less known adversaries, cannot be forgotten by any one who wishes to arrive at an impartial estimate of Bossuet's character.
/Fenelon/[6] (1651-1715), the great contemporary and rival of Bossuet, was sent as a youth for his education to the Universities of Cahors and Paris. Later on he returned to the seminary of Saint Sulpice then presided over by M. Tronson the superior of the Sulpicians, to whose wise and prudent counsels the future Archbishop of Cambrai was deeply indebted. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he was sent to preach to the Huguenots, upon whom his kindness and humility made a much more lasting impression than the violence resorted to by some of the officials of Louis XIV. Later on he was appointed preceptor to the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV., for whose education he composed the /Fables, Telemaque/, etc., and on the completion of his work as tutor he was nominated Archbishop of Cambrai (1695). Hardly had he received this honour than he was involved in a controversy on Quietism, which controversy cost him the friendship of Bossuet and the patronage of Louis XIV., by whom he was banished from the French court. But Fenelon found much at Cambrai to console him for what he had lost in Paris. In every sense of the word he proved himself a model bishop, visiting his parishes regularly, preaching in his cathedral and throughout his diocese, and always affable to those who came in contact with him whether they were rich or poor. Unlike Bossuet he never feared to speak out boldly against Jansenism and Gallicanism. As a preacher and a master of French literary style he was inferior to Bossuet, but as a man and as a bishop he was incomparably his superior. In addition to his works on literary and political questions he wrote voluminously on theology, philosophy, and the spiritual life.
The opposition to Scholasticism, that manifested itself in the writings and teaching of so many Humanists, grew more accentuated in the universities, especially after the establishment of ecclesiastical seminaries had led to the withdrawal from the universities of a great body of the clerical students. For centuries philosophy and theology had gone hand in hand, the former supplying the rational basis for the acceptance of revelation, the latter providing the necessary restraint upon the vagaries of human thought. The principal of individual judgment, proclaimed by the early Reformers and received so enthusiastically by their followers, had as its logical consequence an exaggeration of the powers of the human mind at the expense of authority, with the result that scepticism, atheism, and materialism, found favour in learned circles.