Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-06
D'. Thomas Sunday Erening SermomC Crit
lei.

iciEed.
To the Editor of the Globe:
Permit me to make few remarks ON
DR.. Thomas discourse of last Sunday. DIR.
Thomas misunderstands the import of tho
1rldentlne decree concerning the vulgate.
Inc decree was merely a precautionary
measure rendered necessary by the peculiar
circumstances of the sixteenth century.
Ihe principle of private Judgment in
interpreting the Bible, as introduced by
the innovators of the sixteenth century.
implied the right of every one to compile
from the writings hitherto considered
sacred, Bible of his own, by selecting
or rejecting from the received scriptures
whatever pleasedIhis fancy most. Luther,
acting on this principle, set aside the
Epistle of st. ia mes. Professionalism logi-
cally left biblical criticism at the mercy of
what Sidney Smith calls "a nest of conse-
Grated cobblers." On the other hand, the
newly discovered art of printing had
brought to light many Latin versions, the
work of Catholic scholars, containing
various readings derived from different
manuscripts. Chaos would have been the
| result had not the church, the custodian of
divine revelation, issued the decree by
| which she defined anew the canon of scrip
ture and pronounced the vulgate tho
| authentic Latin version. By that decree
the Catholic church once more spared tho
Bible to tho children of men.
In declaring the Latin vulgate authentic
the council did not pronounce it free from
fault or beyond criticism. DR.. William
Smith, a Protestant authority of much
renown, to whose dictionary of the Bible
DR.. Thomas seems to have been somewhat
indebted for the matter of his
discourse, grasps the meaning
of the decree when he writes:
'The wording of the decree itself contains
| several marks of the controversy from
which it arose, and admits of q far more
liberal construction than later CLOSES
have affixed to it. In affirming the au-
thority of the ''old vulgate'' it contains no
estimate of the original texts. The
| question decided is simply the relative
! merits of the current Latin versions Isl OK
| omnibus Latinis versionibus qu@ circum-
| feruntue X X J, and this only in ref
erence to public exercises. The object con-
templated is the advan tage (utilitas) of the
church, and not anything essential to its
constitution" Nor does the decree i'm
| pede the progress of biblical study. for, as
Dr. Smith truly observes, sit was further
| enacted, as check t. the license of print
ers, that holy scripture, but especially the
old and common (vulgate) edition. levi
IDENTIFY without excluding the original
texts) should be printed as correctly as
| possible"
DIR. Maclaine, another eminent Protest
ant authority, in note to his translation
of Mosheim says: eff we consult the can
ons of the council of Trent, We shall find
that the word authentic is there explained
in terms less positive and offensive than
those used by DR.. Mosheim. Nor is it
strictly true that the vulgate was declared
by this council as production beyond the
reach of criticism or csnsure, since, as we
| learn from Fra Paolo, it was determined
that this version should be corrected, and a
new edition of it published by persons ap-
pointed for that purpose
| No wonder. that the subsequent actions of
the Roman pontiffs in editing the vuIgate,
! should be an enigma to one who misunder-
| stands the meaning of the Tridentine de-
cIee. They never claimed for their work
| freedom from all faults and exemption
from criticism. They claimed, as does the
church to-day. that of all tho Latin YER
sions the vulgate is the most corr ect, most
| in accordance with the ancient manu-
| scripts, and exercising their authority as
| supreme rulers of the church they COM
manded that the vulgate be used in all the
| Dublic offices of the church.
This explanation of the meaning of the
decree, taken from Protestant authors Of
| weight is answer sufficient to the several
columns of encyclopaedia lore on the his
tory of the vulgate, which appeared in
Mondays GLOBE. To point out the mac
curacies in the entire discourse would weary
your readers. The one in Cardinal Bellar-
mine is, however, too glaring to be passed
over in silence. DR.. Thomas in two places
calls Bellarmine Frenchman. Bellar-
mine was an Italian. CATHOLIC.