The third Council of Carthage, generally be lieved to have been held in 397, at which Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage, presided, and at which Augus tine was present, consisting in all of forty-four bishops, adopted the same catalogue, which was confirmed at the fourth Council of Carthage, held in the year 419. The reference said to have been made from the third Council of Carthage, held in 397, to Pope Boniface, is a manifest anachronism in the copies of the acts of this council (see L'Abbe's Coxcili a), as the pontificate of Boniface did not commence before 417. It has been, there. fore conjectured that this reference belongs to the fourth council.
As St. Augustine had great influence at these Councils, it must be of importance to ascertain his private sentiments on this subject. He writes as follows in the year 397:—` The entire Canon of Scripture is comprised in these books. There are 5 of Moses, viz. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy ; i of Joshua, i of Judges, small book called Ruth, which seems rather to belong to the beginning of the Kingdoms, the 4 books of the Kingdoms, and 2 of the Remains, not following one another, but parallel to each other. These are historical books which contain a succession of times in the order of events. There are others which do not observe the order of time, and are unconnected together, as Job, Tobit, Esther, and Judith, the 2 books of Maccabees, and the 2 books of Ezra, which last do more observe the order of a regular succession of events, after that contained in the Kingdoms and Remains. Next are the Prophets, among which is i book of the Psalms of David, and 3 of Solomon, viz. Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes ; for these 2 books, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, are called Solomon's for no other reason than because they have a re semblance to his writings : for it is a very general opinion that they were written by Jesus the son of Sirach, which books, however, since they are admitted into authority, are to be reckoned among prophetical books. The rest are the books of those who are properly called prophets, as the several books of the t2 Prophets, which being found together, and never separated, are reckoned one book. The names of which prophets are these : Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. After these the four Prophets of large volumes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. In these 44 books is comprised all the authority of the Old Testament' (De Doctr. Christ.) [For the New, those he names are the same with those now received.] It has been, indeed, maintained that Augustine altered his opinion on the subject of the deutero canonical books in his Retractations (see Hender son On Inspiration, p. 495); but the only passage
in this work bearing on the subject, which we can discover, is that wherein he confesses his mistake in terming Ecclesiasticus a prophetical book.
Augustine has been also supposed to have testi fied to the inferior authority of these books, from his saying that one of them was read from the reader's place. The sentiment of the book of Wisdom is not to be rejected, which has deserved to be recited for such a long course of years from the step of the readers of the church of Christ, and to be heard with the veneration of divine authority from the bishop to the humblest of the laics, faith ful, penitents, and catechumens.' [MACCABEES.] What the result of the reference from Africa to the churches beyond the seas' may have been, we can only judge from the letter which is said to have been written on the subject by Innocent I., bishop of Rome, to St. Exupere, bishop of Toulouse, in the year 405. In this letter, which, although dis puted, is most probably genuine, Innocent gives the same catalogue of the books of the Old and New Testaments as those of the councils of Hippo and Carthage, omitting only the book of Esther.
The next catalogue is that of the Roman Coun cil, drawn up by Pope Gelasius and seventy bishops. The genuineness of the acts of this council has been questioned by Pearson, Cave, and the two Basnages, but vindicated by Pagi and Jeremiah Jones. The catalogue is identical with the preceding, except in the order of the books.
Some of the most important manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures which have descended to us were written soon after this period. The very ancient Alexandrian MS. now in the BriMh Museum con tains the following books in the order which we here give them, together with the annexed cata logue Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deutero nomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth ; 8 books. —King doms, 4; Remains, 2; 6 books.-16 Prophets, viz., Hosea, I ; Amos, 2 ; Micah, 3 ; Joel, 4 ; Obadiah, 5 ; Jonah, 6; Nahum, 7; Ambacum, 8; Zephaniah, 9; Haggai, '0; Zechariah, II; Malachi, 12; Isaiah, 13 ; Jeremiah, 14; Ezekiel, 15; Daniel, 16; Esther ; Tobit; Judith ; Ezra, 2; Maccabees, 4; Psalter and Hymns; Job ; Proverbs ; Ecclesi astes ; Canticles ; Wisdom ; Wisdom of Jesus Sirach ; 4 Gospels ; Acts, 1 ; 7 Catholic Epistles; 14 Epistles of Paul ; Revelation ; 2 Epistles of Cle ment; together * * * * books; Psalms of Solo mon.' These books are equally incorporated in all the manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate (which was originally translated from the Septuagint). Those which Jerome did not translate from the Hebrew or Greek, as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, were adopted from the older Latin version.