Part 4

Returning to the old continent, the first country which we meet is our own beloved land. Now was the Bible _a sealed Book_ in our Catholic island, and were our sainted fathers enemies of, or strangers to, its inspired truths? Oh! ask the great apostle of North England, St. Aidan, whose disciples, as Bede informs us, "whether they were of the clergy or of the laity, were bound to exercise themselves either in reading the Scriptures or in learning the Psalms" (_Hist. Eccl._, iii. 5). Ask St. Livinus, "who", as his ancient biographer relates, "was trained up from his youth by his holy Master, Benignus, in singing David's Psalms, and reading the holy Gospels". Ask St. Columbanus, in whose "breast the treasures of the Holy Scriptures were so laid up, that within the compass of his youthful years he set forth an elegant exposition of the Book of Psalms" (_Vita, cap._ 2); or ask the Northumbrian King Alfred, of whom Bede again writes that, "residing in Ireland, he imbibed there celestial wisdom in his attentive soul, and became a man most learned in the Scriptures: having left his native country and his pleasant fields, that in diligent exile he might learn the mystery of godliness". St. Furse, from his youth, was taught to drink in heavenly wisdom at the sacred source of the inspired volume. St. Columbanus expressly exhorts his disciple Hunaldus to its diligent study: "Sint tibi divitiae, divinae dogmata legis" (_epist. ad Hunald._); St. Patrick himself teaches us that "meditation on the Sacred Scriptures gives strength and vigour to the soul"; "St. Kieran", as Dr. King learnedly writes, "when thirty years old, went to Rome and spent there twenty years reading the Divine Scriptures and collecting copies of them" (_Ch. Hist. of Irel._, i. 323): and as to St. Columba, we may adopt the words of the Campleton minister, who in his life of that great saint says: "His passion for studying the Scriptures was most intense, when the other parts of ministerial duty allowed him to indulge it. Thus we find him sometimes engaged for whole days and nights in exploring dark and difficult passages of Scripture, and accompanying his study and application with prayer and fasting" (_Life, etc._, by J. Smith, pag. 113). It was in the Latin version that all these saints usually meditated on the heavenly truths, and Bede does not hesitate to say that, though the Irish, Britons, Picts, and Angles had their own peculiar languages, yet, "by the meditation of the Scriptures", the Latin tongue became common to them all (_Hist. Eccl._, lib. i. cap. i.). How many noble monuments, too, remain to attest, at the same time, the artistic taste and the devotion of our Catholic fathers, in adorning and illustrating the books of Holy Writ! The _Domhnach Airgid_ is well known to the students of Irish Ecclesiastical antiquities; it is a MS. copy of the Latin text of the Gospels, described by Petrie as "perhaps the oldest copy of the Sacred Word now existing" (_Trans. R. I. A._ xviii. _Antiq._, pag. 17), and which, as Eugene Curry adds, "we have just reason to believe, was the companion in his hours of devotion of our Patron Saint, the apostle Saint Patrick" (_Lect._, pag. 321). This venerable text is encased in three distinct covers, the first or inner one being of yew, and probably coeval with the manuscript itself; the second of copper plated with silver whose interlaced ornaments indicate a period between the sixth and twelfth centuries; whilst the third or outer one, of the fourteenth century, is of silver plated with gold, being decorated with relievos of the crucifixion, of the Blessed Virgin, and the other Patrons of Ireland. Thus are all the ages of faith in our island, anterior to the Reformation, linked together in a holy union, to proclaim with one accord the love and devotion of our Catholic fathers for the inspired text. The _Cathach_, or vellum Book of Psalms, handed down from St. Columbkille, with its rich case of solid silver, is scarcely less interesting; and what shall we say of the Book of Kells, _i.e._, the Latin Gospels of St. Columba, "a manuscript (as Petrie remarks) which for beauty and splendour is not surpassed by any of its age known to exist" (_Round Towers_, pag. 203), and of which Westwood thus writes: "Ireland may justly be proud of the Book of Kells: it is unquestionably the most elaborately executed MS. of early art now in existence" (_Palaeog. Sac._). Besides these, there are _Dimma's Book_ and the _Gospels_ of MacDurnan, the _Psalter_ of St. Ricemarch, the _Evangeliarium_ of St. Moling, Bishop of Ferns, and the fragments of several Gospels, rivalling in point of ornament and accuracy the most precious MSS. of the Continent (_Ibid._). There is one copy of the sacred text which it is sad to miss from the collections of our Christian antiquities. It is the so-called Book of Kildare, which was publicly destroyed by the fathers of Protestantism in this country, but which has happily been described by Giraldus Cambrensis, a writer whom none will suspect of bias in favour of our Irish Church. We will give the original text of his description, which may not, perhaps, be easily accessible to the reader:--

"Inter universa Kyldariae miracula nil mihi miraculosius occurrit, quam liber ille mirandus, tempore virginis Brigidae (ut ajunt) Angelo dictante conscriptus. Continet hic liber quatuor Evangelistarum juxta Hieronymum concordantiam, ubi quot paginae fere sunt, tot figurae diversae variisque coloribus distinctissimae. Hic majestatis vultum videas divinitus impressum: hinc mysticas Evangelistarum formas: nunc senas, nunc quaternas, nunc binas alas habentes, hinc aquilam, inde vitulum, hinc hominis faciem, inde bovis, aliasque figuras pene infinitas, quas si superficialiter et usuali more minus acute conspexeris, litura potius videbitur quam ligatura; nec ullam attendens prorsus subtilitatem, ubi nihil tamen praeter subtilitatem. Sin autem ad perspicacius intuendum oculorum aciem invitaveris, et longe penitius ad artis arcana transpenetraveris; tam delicatas et subtiles, tam actas et arctas, tam nodosas et vinculatim colligatas, tamque recentibus adhuc coloribus illustratas notare poteris intricaturas, ut vere haec omnia Angelica potius quam humana diligentia jam asseveraveris esse composita. Haec equidem quanto frequentius et diligentius intueor, semper quasi novis obstupeo, semperque magis ac magis admiranda conspicio" (_Topogr. Hib._, ii. 38, pag. 730).

Even the continental libraries retain many Scriptural monuments of the Irish Church, though the designation of Anglo-Saxon MSS. commonly given to them, has withdrawn them from that careful investigation which they otherwise would have obtained from our antiquarians: such are, for instance, the Psalter of St. Ouen, at Rouen; the Gospels of St. Gatien, at Tours; of Mac Regol, at Oxford; of St. Germain de Pres; besides the Book of St. Chad, and many others mentioned by Westwood in his _Palaeographia Sacra_ (London, 1845). The Gospels of St. Boniface, in Fulda, are now generally supposed to have come from the Irish school: and equally venerable are the _Evangelia_ of St. Kilian, still preserved in Wuerzburg. The last page of this precious text is tinged with the blood of this great Irish martyr, and on his festival (8th July) it is still solemnly exposed upon the altar during the celebration of the Holy Mysteries (See _Appendix A_ to Report on the _Foedera_, published by the Record Commission, for a long notice and fac-simile of the writing of this MS.). In Italy, the Book of St. Silas is preserved in his tomb at Lucca; a fragment of St. Caimin's _Psalter_ may be seen in Rome; and St. Cathaldus's Gospels are enclosed in his shrine at Tarento. The library of St. Gall, in Switzerland, possessed for centuries many old Irish manuscripts, amongst which are mentioned by Von Arx, "_Quatuor Evangelia; Evang. S. Joannis; Epistolae S. Pauli; liber Prophetarum_; et plura fragmenta", all which are styled _Codicis Scottici_ in a catalogue of the ninth century (_Monumenta Germ. Historica._ tom. 2, pag. 66 et 78). The monastery of Bobbio, however, was distinguished above all others for the richness of its store of manuscripts: it was founded by Irish Religious in the seventh century, and for a long subsequent period was the great literary mart of North Italy, and a cherished resort of Irish pilgrims. From the present of books made to this monastery by an Irish ecclesiastic named Dungall, we may judge how abundant were the Biblical treasures of our island before the tenth century. The ancient list of these books is published by Muratori, and it comprises not only the _Evangelium plenarium_, and _Psalterium_, and other Books of Scripture, but also the commentaries of Origen, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Ambrose, Bede, Cassiodorus, and Albinus; the poems of Fortunatus, Paulinus, Arator, Prudentius, and Juvencus; the Ecclesiastical History of Hegesippus; and one work with the curious title, "librum quendam Latine Scotaicae linguae", which probably means a treatise in Latin on the Irish language (See Muratori, _Antiqq. Ital._, iii. 818). Such collections of books, once so abundant in our island, were deliberately pillaged and destroyed, first by the pagan Danes, and again by the Protestant maligners of our country, under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. In a preceding article, "The See of Cork", we have given a specimen of the Scriptural books preserved in an humble Franciscan convent in Youghal in 1490; and Dr. Reeves, in his Essay on the Culdees, gives us a short notice of another Irish library in the twelfth century, in which the Gospels and copies of other portions of the Sacred Scripture hold their usual place (_Transact. of R. I. A._, Dublin, 1864, pag. 249). Even during the sad era of the desolation of our island, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the labours of Irishmen on the continent in illustrating the sacred text, won for them a distinguished fame; whilst the testimonies collected by Boerner (_Le Long_, ii. 369) further prove that at home a version of the Sacred Scripture into the Irish language was achieved long before the so called Reformation, being generally attributed to Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh, who died in 1360. We must be pardoned, if, as we fear, we dwelt too long on the venerable monuments of our early Church.

England next claims our attention. Forty years ago a member of its Established Church did not hesitate to write that during the Catholic ages, "the Bible was a sealed Book ... there is good reason for believing that the great mass of men never heard that such a book was in existence" (Soames' _Hist. of Reformation in England_). Yet surely it was not so in the ages of Bede and Alcuin. The holy Caedmon presented to his contemporaries an Anglo-Saxon metrical paraphrase of the Bible, a portion of which we have seen translated into English and re-issued from the press in our own days. Fragments of many other Anglo-Saxon versions have also been preserved, some of which bear the classic names of _Bede_, _Athelstan_, _Aeldred_, _Aelfric_, and King Alfred. The publication of these works has long engaged the attention of our antiquarians, from the early edition by Marshall, in 1665, to that of Dr. Thorpe, in 1842. After the Norman Conquest, French and Latin were for three centuries the literary languages of England; no sooner, however, was the English language formed, than we find it employed in presenting to the faithful the teaching of the inspired volume. An old MS. in the Imperial Library of Vienna commemorates an exposition of the Gospels in the writer's possession, "in vetustissimo Anglico, quod vix aliquis hominum jam viventium sufficienter intelligeret" (_Appendix A to Record Commission Report_, pag. 232). Usher in his day referred the first English version to the year 1290. Trevisa, who died before 1360, also translated "Biblia Sacra in vernaculam", as Anthony Wood informs us (_Antiq. Oxon._, ii. 95). It was only some years later that Wicleff's version appeared; and though some English writers refer it to 1367, the German Rationalist, Reuss, marks its date as 1380 (_Die Gesch. der Heilig. Schriften_, Brunswick, 1853). For an interesting and detailed account of the more recent Catholic translations in English, we must refer to the learned _General Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures_ (Dublin, 1852) by our venerated Primate. At present it will suffice to mention one which is but little known to English biblical readers. It was the work of an Irish Priest, the Rev. Cornelius Nary, who, whilst administering the Parish of St. Michan's in the city of Dublin, found leisure to compose several valuable treatises, and especially to translate the New Testament from the Latin Vulgate, comparing it with the original Greek, and with several ancient translations into other languages. This version was printed in 1718: a few years later the author's name was on the list of those presented to the Holy See by the chapter of Dublin, when soliciting a successor to their deceased Bishop, Dr. Edward Murphy; he died full of years, deeply lamented by his spiritual children, in 1738.

Much might be said on the many versions which were made throughout the continent during the ante-Reformation period. In the French language there is extant a version of the books of _Kings_ and _Maccabees_, which is referred by Le Long to the eleventh century. Several MSS. of the Psalms are also still preserved, which are placed by Wharton as early as the twelfth century, and Hallam in express terms attests that "we find translations of the _Psalms_, _Job_, _Kings_, and the _Maccabees_, into French, in the eleventh or twelfth century". Guyars de Moulins, a priest and canon of St. Pierre d'Aire, about the year 1290, translated into French and completed the _Historia Sacra_ of Peter Comestor. This work is not, as Horne describes it, "a popular abstract of sacred history", but comprises the historical and moral books of the Old and New Testament; and we have said that de Moulins completed the work of Comestor, because his version embraces the whole of the sacred writings of the Old and New Testament. It was not, however, a mere translation of the Sacred Scripture; here and there notes and commentaries are added, and these are found to vary in several MSS., as if they were inserted to suit the various controversies which arose in the French Church. The first printed text was the New Testament, which was published in folio, in Lyons, in 1478, being translated into French by two Augustinian friars, Julian Macho and Pierre Farget. A copy of this edition is still preserved in the public library of Leipsic (_Reuss_, pag. 446). The version of de Moulins was very soon after also printed in a quarto edition, whilst its _Editio Princeps_, carefully revised by Jean de Rely, afterwards Bishop of Angers, was published in Paris under the auspices of Charles VIII., in 1487. It passed through fourteen other editions in Paris and Lyons alone, before the year 1546. We may also refer to this ante-Reformation period the version of James Le Fevre, of Estables, who is better known by his Latin name of Faber Hapulensis, and who undertook a new translation of the Bible in 1512. This work, especially with the corrections of the Louvain divines, acquired considerable popularity, and more than forty different editions of it appeared before the year 1700. Even before any French Protestant version of the Sacred Scripture appeared, another French Catholic translation was made by Nicholas de Leuse, a doctor of Louvain, and was printed at Antwerp in 1534. The first Protestant version was published at Neufchatel in the following year.

Perhaps in Germany at least, the native land of Protestantism, the holy Bible was a sealed book to the children of the Catholic Church? No, it was far otherwise. As early as the tenth century Notker Albulus, abbot of the monastery of St. Gallus, translated into German the book of _Psalms_; and a century later most of the other inspired books were translated by William of Ebersberg, in Bavaria, and other religious whose names have not been handed down to us (_Reuss_, pag. 439). In the succeeding centuries several other translations appeared, so much so, that the author of the Cologne version, printed in 1480, was able to affirm in his preface that he availed himself "of a variety of different versions, which were made and circulated both in Lower and Upper Germany, before printing came into use". The first printed German Bible issued from the Mentz press in two volumes in folio about 1462. Other editions seem to have followed soon after; for, in the next earliest edition which is now known, viz., that of Augsburg, in 1477, the editor was able to commend the accuracy of his version, and eulogize it "prae omnibus aliis antea impressis Bibliis Germanicis". So rapid was the diffusion of the printed text, that from 1477 to 1490, this city of Augsburg alone gave five different editions. The city of Nuremberg gave proofs of equal fecundity, having published distinct editions in 1477, 1480, and 1483. The editor of this last edition laid claim to special elegance of type and accuracy of text, "prae omnibus antea impressis Germanicis purius, clarius, et verius"; and, it would seem, justly, for David Clement, who examined the edition, thus describes it: "I saw that magnificent edition in the library of the Duchess of Nuremberg; the paper, the ornamented letters, the illuminated figures so well drawn and engraved around, all so delightful to behold, giving a most pleasing idea of the degree of perfection to which the art of printing had already arrived, and this only thirty years after the invention of movable types". The other chief cities of Germany, Cologne, Lubeck, Halberstadt, Strasburg, and Mentz, had also their distinct editions; and before the year 1500--that is to say, many years before the appearance of Lutheranism--thirty editions of the entire Scriptures were in circulation in the vernacular language of Germany.

We will give but a rapid glance at the versions of Poland, Spain, and Bohemia, that we may be able to devote more space to one country which is especially dear to every Catholic heart. The first Polish version was made about 1390, by order of St. Hedwige, wife of the famous Duke of Lithuania who was chosen king under the name of Ladislaus IV. About the same time a second translation is said to have been made by Andrew Jassowitz. Another version of the Psalter, and a fragment of a translation of the Old Testament made in 1455, are commemorated by Graesse in his _Litter. Hist._, v. 484. Translations of the Bible into Spanish are spoken of by the national writers, during the reign of James I. of Arragon, in the thirteenth century, and again under John II. of Leon, about 1440. The first printed edition appeared in 1478, and another edition, of 1515, is referred by Graesse (loc. cit.) to a Carthusian monk, named Boniface Ferrer. As regards Bohemia, MM. Schaffarik and Palacky commemorate a translation of the Gospel of St. John, made as early as the tenth century (_Boehm. Denkm._, an. 1840). A Bohemian Psalter bears date 1396. Huss in one of his controversial tracts speaks of the New Testament as already extant in the Bohemian language. The translation of the whole Bible into Bohemian was achieved at Dresden in 1410, as Dobrowsky proves (_Slovanka_, Th. 2), and we find printed editions at Prague in 1488, at Cutna in 1498, and at Venice in 1506 and 1511. Even Denmark had its translation of the Sacred Scriptures, and a version of the historical books of the Old Testament was made in 1470, as Molbek and Grimm inform us.

If, however, the Catholic Church were hostile to the sacred Scriptures, we should naturally suppose that in Italy, at least, little enthusiasm should have been displayed in the diffusion of the Bible in the vulgar tongue; for Italy was more immediately subject to the influence of the Holy See; in its centre stood the capital of the universal Catholic world--the new Jerusalem of the Church--the See of Peter. Nevertheless, of all European countries, Italy was, perhaps, the most remarkable for the diffusion of the sacred text during the ante-Reformation period. Jacopo de Voragine, Bishop of Genoa, who died in 1298, was the first to translate the Scriptures into the Italian tongue, and thus his version dates before Dante and the other great masters of the language. New translations by Nicholas de Neritono, of the Dominican Order, Pietro Arighetto, Cavalca, and others, followed soon after; and so rapid was the diffusion of the sacred text, that, as Lamy informs us, the archives of Florence alone contain forty manuscripts belonging to the fourteenth century, all presenting various portions of the Bible in the Italian tongue (_De Eruditione App._, page 308, _seqq._). The discovery of the art of printing was hailed in Italy with special delight. Sweynheyne and Paunartz, under the auspices of Cardinal Cusa, hastened thither with the newly-found treasure, and Rome was the first city that welcomed them within its walls. Various editions of the Bible, the classics, and the Fathers, soon appeared; indeed, before the year 1500, almost every city of Italy had one or more printing presses in operation, but, above all, the names of the great Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, and the "Palazzo Massimi" in Rome, record to posterity the religious patronage and princely munificence which welcomed the German artists to the divinely favoured patrimony of the successors of St. Peter.

Three editions of the Bible in the Italian tongue appeared in the year 1471. The first bears the name of Nicholas Malermi, a religious of the Order of Camaldoli. The closing words of the Second volume fix its precise date: "Impresso fu questo volume nel l'alma patria de Venetia nell' anno de la salutifera incarnatione del Figliolo de l'eterno et omnipotente Dio, MCCCCLXXI, in Kalende di Augusto per Vendelino Spira". This version was subsequently repeated in new editions, and is still esteemed for the purity of its language, being described by the latest writer on this subject as written. "vel miglior secolo della nostra lingua" (Vercellone, _Dissert. Roma_, 1864, pag. 100). The Second Venetian edition of 1471, was printed "per Nicolo Jenson in calende di Ottobre", and by some inexperienced modern observers was supposed to be merely a reprint of the former text: it is, however, quite distinct, and the best judges of the present day are of opinion that this version is from the pen of Cavalca, a Tuscan writer of the golden age, who flourished in the fourteenth century. It is cited 160 times in the last edition of the Crusca (Florence, 1843), under the title _Volgarizzamento di Pistole e di Vangeli_, and some manuscripts of it are extant, which date back to the close of the fourteenth century (Curioni, "_Sui due Primi Volgarizzamenti_", etc., Milan, 1847; and Sorio in _Archiv. Eccles._ Firenze, 1864, vol. i. pag. 297). A. third Italian version appeared in Rome in the same month of October, 1471, in two volumes folio: many writers have described it as the version of Malermi; but Maffei, who diligently compared both texts, pronounced it to be a distinct and independent version. No fewer than eleven complete editions of these several versions appeared before the year 1500, and more than forty editions are reckoned before the appearance of the first Protestant edition of the Bible in the Italian language. Some of these editions, too, deserve the name of distinct versions, on account of various alterations and improvements made in the text, and all appeared under ecclesiastical sanction; thus, for instance, an edition of Venice, in 1477, bears the name of "Fratre Marino del Ordine di Predicatori, de la sacra pagina professore umile".