Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-09

monks nuns and seminarists in gowns of
all shapes and cOlorS.
After the ceremony in the church.
which glittered with thousands Of lights.
a sumptuous banquet of 4so covers was
given In the refectory.
SAINT Anselmo College.
1t is there. on the top of the Aventine.
inside the imposing College of SAINT An
selmo that Father Francis Aidan Cas-
quet. abbot president Of the English Bene-
dictine congregation. occupies a modest
cell. and works indefatigably at the re-
vision Of the vulgate, one Of the most
important tasks ever undertaken.
His room is about twenty-four square
feet In size. with a part curta1ned on. pc
hind which is the bed and prize -dieu
standing before crucifix. The bare
space left contains nothing but square
wooden table, covered by an ordinary
cover. where the abbot works. sofa and
four straw bottomed. wooden chairs On
the walls is a picture OF Plus x standing
dressed In white with his red cap. From
his table Abbot Gasquet directs his colos-
sal undertaking. which. though attempted
In past centuries. has always failed. and
which 1t seems very daring 10 attempt
again. .-.,
AS is known. under the name OF "Vul-
gate" is comprised the translation into
Latin of all the books found in the He
brew Bible. made by ST. Jerome at the
the fifth centuries. 1t is interesting to
recall that ST. Jerome, when forty-five.
began to learn Hebrew from converted
Jew as remedy against tempt alton. In
his preface to the book Of Job. which is
the second part of the Bible which he
translated, the first being the four books
Of Kings. he speaks Of Jew OF LYDIA
whom he hired at great cost, and or
certain BaraninaS who came to him by
night for fear of his brother Jews: The
alleged apology of the doctrines OF Orlgen.
made by St. Jerome In one OF the pre1aces
of his translations, was the cause or
great theological struggle. which. In
| small proportion. has its analogy In our
day in the struggle for and against mod
ernish. st. Jerome had then as his chief
adversary and bitterest opponent his once
closest friend Rutinus.
ST Jerome finished his work In 400. His
version however which was ultimately
adopted the only one authorized by the
| Catholic Church. circulated through man
| uscript copies. which, as time passed, be-
| came less and less correct until the
scribes intrusted with copying Bibles
| composed the new editions according to
! their preferences. and the true translation
| of st. Jerome could scarcely be recog-
nized. especially as the original was no
| of revisions. Indeed. the attempts at re-
vising the many mistaken and independ-
ent translations. which in every century
were augmented by thousands. assumed
1
the hill Of the ages. 1t is impossible to
| chronicle all the tentative efforts in this
| direction. but the first worth mentioning
| was that of Alcuirn. the eminent York
| shire ecclesiastic teacher Of Charlemagne
i who published in ~ four centuries after
| ST Jerome revised text of the Vulgate
without. however. consulting the Greek
Reason for Revision.
Theodult Of Orleans. fifteen years be-
fore. had also begun an important work
S21. Lanfranc of Pavia. Italy. the strong
| Benedictine. who was appointed first
Archbishop of Canterbury after the con-
Quest. spoke OF the "barbarism of the ma
tons he was thus compelled to visit" and
! found time in his adventurous existence
| to dedicate some of his energy and erudi-
| ton to a revision of the many incorrect
! Bibles then circulating. Nicolau. the
| century. whom Lucius III appointed libra
| rian of the church because Of his perfect
| knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. left q
| most erudite volume on the corrections &c
| be made in the Bible. but soon il became
| evident that the work of collating and
correcting would be enormous. that the
| energy and life of one single Individual
| was not adequate to the task 1t was
| therefore. undertaken by corporations
which began to issue "Correctoria." suct
as the "Correctorium Parisiense." the
"Correctorium OF the Domnicans an6
that Of the Franciscans. but contem
poraneously the work of isolated scholar:
went on. especially notable being that Of
the illustrious Dutchman. Erasmus. who
used to say that his heart was Ca: holic
but his stomach was Lutheran" because
he could not eat fish. Cardinal XimeneS