Vulgate
the edition of the Latin Bible which, having been sanctioned by the usage of many ages in the Roman Church, was pronounced "authentic" by the Council of Trent. The name was originally given to the "common edition" of the Septuagint used by the Greek Fathers, and thence transferred to the "Itala" or the "Old Latin" version of both Old and New Testaments current during the first centuries in the Western Church.
It finally passed to the present composite work, which gradually took the place of the "Old Latin." The relation of the component parts of this venerable version to the original texts will be best VULGATE understood by a description of the work of St.
Jerome, from whose hand it mainly proceeded. In the time of Pope Damasus, toward the end of the 4th century, the text of the "Old Latin," the origin of which is lost in obscurity, had fallen into considerable confusion. It was a very literal representation of the Greek, rude in style and full of provincialisms.
Every one, it seems, who had a smattering of Greek, thought fit to make alterations; and so great became the variety of recensions that it is still a matter of dispute whether there was not at their basis a number of independent translations rather than a single version often retouched. To remedy the evil Jerome, at the request of Damasus, A. D. 382, undertook a revision of the New Testament. He corrected the Gospels thoroughly, though with great caution, and the rest more cursorily, rily, with the aid of Greek codices which were then reputed ancient and The critical value of the result as a primary witness to the Greek text in its best state in the 4th century has recently been generally recognized. nized. Jerome next turned his attention merely cor- VULPIUS agint as an inspired version, and Jerome's departure from that version appeared to be a dangerous innovation.
It won its way by degrees, and by force of its intrinsic worth. Gregory the Great says that in his time the Roman See made use of both versions. Venerable Bede speaks of St. Jerome's as "our edition tion"; and soon the "Old Latin" fell into disuse and neglect, so that, notwithstanding the keen researches of scholars, Old Testament cannot now be made up a complete copy of the pre-Hieronymian from the surviving fragments.
In the course of the Middle Ages the Vulgate necessarily contracted some cor- Charlemagne, with the aid of Alcuin, took pains to procure and disseminate a pure text; and later on, with and some of the religious orders compiled the same object, the University of Paris us rected the Latin from the "common edi-gians (first under the care of Henten of tion" of the Greek, and this revision, called the "Roman Psalter," completed was introduced by the Pope into the Roman liturgy, and is to this day used in the Ambrosian or Milan rite and Peter's at Rome. Shortly after Jerome made a more thorough revision by the aid of Origen's rigen's Hexapla; and it is this , the so-called "Gallican Psalter," which is now read in the Vulgate.
After the death of Damasus, Jerome was induced by the urgency of private friends to undertake a more serious task, a new translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. This he accomplished in Palestine , where he had perfected himself in Hebrew with the assistance of learned Jews, during the years A. D. 390- 405. To this work he added a free translation of the books of Tobit and Judith from the Chaldee version of the original Hebrew, now lost. The other books of the Greek canon, afterward incorporated with the rest of his work-viz. Wisdom, , and Maccabees were left by him untouched; and these, with, in a somewhat less degree, the Psalms and the New Testament, are of special value to the linguist, preserving as they do, quite apart from their Grecisms, many lexical and grammatical forms, relics of the dialect of the people, which are not found in the classical or literary language. The new translation met at first with much opposition. The Fathers had been accustomed to regard the Septuwith their corrections. The numerous "Correctoria," or lists of common errors editions printed in the 15th century were of no critical value, but in the first half of the following century several attempts thoritative text, the most important ediwere made to provide a revised and autions being those of R. Stephens (1528, and later) and of the Louvain theolo- Malines in 1547, and secondly with the co-operation of Lucas of Bruges and the printer Plantin, 1574). Meanwhile the carrying out of the Tridentine decree, that the Vulgate should be printed as corpossible, was undertaken by the Popes, who appointed commissions of cardinals and learned men for the purpose. Nearly 40 years passed, however, close. Sixtus V. in 1590 first issued the before their labors were brought to a long-expected work, together with a bull i received as "true, lawful, authentic, and in which he ordered this edition to be unquestioned "; but he had of his own judgment made many important changes sion, and these met with so little apin the readings proposed by the commisproval that the edition was after Sixtus' death almost immediately recalled, the work again submitted to a papal congre- 1592 as the authoritative text by Clement gation for revision, and finally is VIII. This Clementine Bible differed from the Sixtine in some 3,000 readings.
A few of were corrected lly issued in in a second impression in 1593; and others, again, in the third and last offiard all copies should be conformed. cial impression of 1598, to which standof 1598, to which stand- (völ'pe-us), a German writer; born in