Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-30
BIZ shop ireland to DR.. Thomas.

BIZ shop ireland to Dr. Thomas.
! To the Editor of the Globe:
Rev. DR.. Tn omas says in his late note
"As Bishop Ireland has admitted that tn
WI lgate may be revised, and as he agree:
with Cardinal Manning, who says that the
| revision may extend to all mistakes OF
translation and Transcription a very
broad field indeed! quite enough to cover
all for which I have contended, it will not
be necessary, unless the bishop takes some
new position, to examine the tert of the
Latin vulgate." To say simply and IN
conditionally that admit that 'the vul-
gate may be revised, is to misrepresent
my words. I need only to transcribe a
few lines from my note of Dec %, to
show how unfairly am quoted by Mr..
Thomas, and how difficult it is for me to
force upon him fair quotation of my
words. I had occasion to correct him in
the self-same mistake and I remarked
There may be some day in the future a
revision of the vulgate. But the revision
will make no substantial changes; it will
not leave out whole passages. The re-
mace
substantial changes. Mr.. Thomas should
put my statements as I enuntiate them.
before his readers, and not give as mine
what Is the very contrary of my words.''
Cardinal Manning fares as badly at
the hands of Mr.. Thomas. To admit that
revision of the vulgate may extend to
all mistakes of translation and trans
eription,' would, indeed, open before Mr..
Thomas very broad field. Unfortunately
for Mr.. Thomas the context from which
those words are extracted circumscribe
very much the field; Mr.. Thomas omits
conveniently the context. The cardinal
says: at (the church, has hitherto only
declared thevulgate to be authentic, and that
as have already shown, with the relative
or respective authenticity which does not
exclude the errors of translators or SUBJ
scribers." The words ''as l have already
shown" refer us to previous paragraph
where his meaning of relative authenticity
Is given, and where we see how far errors of
'transiators' and transcribers may be adj
mitted to exist in the vulgate: 4 Il
The authenticity is not absolute, extending
TO jots and TITLES; but relative or respec-
tive, extending to the substance and to all
the chief parts of the text-that is, to the
doctrine of faith and morals, and to all the
histories, facts and sayings which are con-
tanned in it,
That the Vulgate may be revised in
minor matters of no substantial importance
is what Cardinal Manning says, and what
I, as Catholic theologian, hold.
l beg to express the hope that Mr..
Thomas, in his promised lectures on the
"Papacy" and on the "Apocrypha,' will
quote fairly and correctly from the Fathers,
and other ecclesiastical writer's, to whom
he may have occasion to refer, and that,
for the greater satisfaction of all con-
cernsd, he Will indicate the books and
chapters from which the quotations may
be derived.
The lecture on the "Apocrypha" will afford
him the occasion of replying to my Oft
repeated question What is Mr.. Thomas
test for deciding whether book is entitled
or not to place in the canon? As he will
exclude from his canon the Deutero- canon
ical books of the Old Testament, it will be
necessary to state why he include in his
canon the Deutero- canonical books of the
New Testament, Or, indeed, why he consid-
ere sany book of the New Testament to
be inspired.
take as granted that since he is not
permitted to give his own Interpretation of
the DEGREES of our councils, and that he
must quote correctly and impartially my
Mr.. Thomas abandons the
second part of his original thesis-that
The decree of Trent Sin regard to the au-
thenticity of the old vulgate texts broad
defiance to Christian scholarship"
Rev. Mr.. Thomas complains that resort |
has been had to personalities; that the |
has been dragged down into |
he mud. should be sorry had any word |
lropped from my pen that would allow
such complaints. am not conscious that |
have stepped aside one iota from the
subject matter of the controversy. hope he
Toes not consider me guilty OF ''personali-
les" because demanded of him that he
hould quote my statements correctly, and
hat blamed Webster's dictionary for
having led him to believe that the word
0euterO Canonical means a canon of in1e-
'ior authority. JOHN IRELAND.
st. Paul. Dec. 80, 1882.