Vulgate

a translation of the Scriptures into Latin. This translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, after spending his life in the study of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and in travel, shut himself up with companions in a monastery at Bethlehem and gave thirty-four years to writing and translating. The Vulgate was made up, in part, by adopting or revising versions of some books and by translating others from the original Hebrew and Greek. Jerome began with the Gospels in 383. He died in 420. Inasmuch as the version of Jerome differed from the versions in use, he was execrated as one tampering with the inspired word, but finally the Vulgate was adopted by the Christian church. As copies were multiplied, necessarily in manuscript, variations crept in. After the invention of printing efforts were made to issue an edition free from errors. The Clementine Vulgate, issued under the authority of Pope Clement in 1592, just a hundred years after the discovery of the New World, was declared the official Bible of the Catholic church. This put an end to the "intolerable confusion of texts." The Latin of the Vulgate is said to be colloquial--such as was used by educated people of the day rather than the classical Latin used by the authors read in college. Nevertheless the Vulgate is praised for literary quality. The first translation from the Vulgate into English was the Wyclif Bible. The next was the Douai Bible. The latter is the version used by English speaking Catholics. See Bible