The decrees of the Council of Trent prevented the Roman Catholics from moving freely in the field of Biblical investigation, while the Protestants zealously carried out their researches in various directions. The Illyrian, Matthias Flacius, in his Clavis Scripturee Sacra', seu de Semitone Sacrament Literarunz, which was first printed at Basle, 1567, in folio, furnished an excellent work on Biblical hermeneutics; but it was surpassed by the Prole gomena of Brian Walton, which belong to his celebrated Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Lond. 1657, six volumes fol. These Prolegomena contain much that will always be accounted valuable and neces sary for the true criticism of the sacred text They have been published separately, with notes, by Archdeacon Wrangham, in 2 VO1S. Svo. Thus we have seen that excellent works were produced on isolated portions of Biblical introduction, but they were not equalled in merit by the works in which it was attempted to furnish a whole system of Biblical introduction.
The following Biblical introductions are among the best of those which were published about that period: Michaelis Waltheri Officina Biblica noviter adaprta, etc., Lipsim, first published in 1636 ; Abrahami Calovii Criticzes Sacer Biblicus, etc., Vi tembergx 1643 ; J. H. Hottinger, Thesaurus Philo logicus, sell Clavis Scripture Sacra, Ti,guri 1649 ; Johannis Henrici Heidegger, Enchiridion Bibliczem lEpons,Thuopedv,Tigurir681; Leusden, a Dutchman, published a work entitled Philologus Hebrews, etc., Utrecht 1656, and Philologus Hebrao-Grecus Generalis, Utrecht 167o. All these works have been frequently reprinted.
The dogmatical zeal of the Protestants was greatly excited by the work of Louis Capelle, a reformed divine and learned professor at Saumur, which appeared under the title of Ludovici Cap pelli Critica Sacra ; sive de variis qua' in veteris Testamenti libris occurrunt lectionibus librz sex. Edita °pore ac studio joannis Cappelli, auctoris Parisiis 165o. A learned Roman Catholic and priest of the Oratory, Richard Simon, who was born in 1658, and died in 1712, rightly perceived, from the dogmatical bile stirred up by Capelle, that Biblical criticism was the most effective weapon to be employed against the Protestantism which had grown cold and stiff in dogmatics. He there fore devoted his critical knowledge of the Bible to the service of the Roman Catholic church, and endeavoured to inflict a death-blow upon Protes tantism. The result, however, was the production of Simon's excellent work on Biblical criticism, which became the basis on which the science of Biblical introduction was raised. Simon was the first who correctly separated the criticism of the O. T. from that of the New. His works on Biblical introduction appeared under the follow ing titles Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament, Paris 1678. This work was inaccurately reprinted at Amsterdam by Elzevir in 1679, and subsequently in many other bad piratical editions. Among these the most complete was that printed, together with several polemical treatises occasioned by this work, at Rotterdam, in 1685, 4to :—Histaire Critique du Texte du Arouveazt Testament, Rotterdam 1689 ; Histoire Critique des Versions du Nouveau Testa ment, Rotterdam 1690 ; Histoire Critique des principaux Commentateurs du Nouveau Testament, Rotterdam 1693. By these excellent critical works Simon established a claim upon the gratitude of all real friends of truth ; but he was thanked by none of the prevailing parties in the Christian church. The Protestants saw in Simon only an enemy of their church, not the thorough investigator and friend of truth. To the Roman Catholics, on the other hand, Simon's works appeared to be destruc tive, because they demonstrated their ecclesiastical decrees to be arbitrary and unhistorical. The His
toire Critique du Vieux Testament was suppressed by the Roman Catholics in Paris immediately after its publication, and in Protestant countries also it was forbidden to reprint it. The Roman Catholic bishop Bossuet lamented that Simon had under mined the dogma of tradition, and had changed the holy fathers into Protestants. Simon, as an honest investigator and friend of truth, remained undis turbed; but kept aloof from both Roman Catholics and Protestants, by both of which parties he was persecuted, and died in 171.2, in a merely external connection with the Romish church.
The churches endeavoured, with apparent suc cess, to destroy Simon and his writings, in a host of inimical and condemnatory publications, by which the knowledge of truth was not in the least promoted. However, the linguistic and truly scientific researches of Pocock e; the Oriental school in the Netherlands ; the unsurpassed work of Humphry Hody, De Bibliorzim Textibus Origin al/bus Versionibus, etc., Oxoniae 17os, folio ; the excellent criticism of Mill, in his Novzim Testa mentum Gracunt cum Lectionibms Variantibus, Oxonix 17°7, folio ; which was soon followed by 1,Vetstein's Nomem Testamentum G1-01'11111 editionis recepte, cum Lectionibus Variantibus, Amstelodami 1751-52, folio, and by which even Johann Albert Bengel, who died in 1752, \vas convinced, in spite of his ecclesiastical orthodoxy (comp. Bengelii Ap pal-aloes Criticits Novi Testanzenti, p. 634, sq.); the Biblical works by Johann IIeinrich Michaelis, especially his Biblia Ifebraka ex Manuscripts et impressis Codicibus, Hake 1720 ; and Benjamin Kennicott's Vetus Testamentum Hebraic:ern cum variis Lectionibus, Oxonix [776, and the revival of classical philology;—all this gradually led to results which coincided with Simon's criticism, and shewed the enormous difference between historical truth and the arbitrary ecclesiastical opinions which were still prevalent in the works on Biblical intro duction by Pritius, Blackwall, Carpzov, Van Til, Moldenhauer, and others. Johann David Michaelis, who died in 1791, mildly endeavoured to reconcile the church with historical truth, but has been rewarded by the anathemas of the ecclesiastical party, who have pronounced him a heretic. By their ecclesiastical persecutors, Richard Simon was falsely described to be a disciple of the atheistical Spinoza, and Michaelis as a follower of both Simon and Spinoza. However, the mediating endeavours of Michaelis gradually prevailed. His Introduction to the New Testament appeared first as a work of moderate size, under the title of Johann David MichaelisEinleitung in die ail/lichen Schriften des Nalen Bundes, Gottingen 175o, Svo. It was soon translated into English. In the years 1765-66 Michaelis published a second and aug mented edition of the German original, in two volumes. The fourth edition, which received great additions, and in which many alterations were made, appeared in 17S8, in two vols. 4to. This edition vvas translated and essentially augmented by Herbert March, afterwards Bishop of Peter borough, and appeared under the title, Introduction to the New Testanzent, by John David Michaelis, translated from the fourth edition of the German, and considerably augmented, Cambridge 1791 1Sor, 4 vols. Svo. Michaelis commenced also an Introduction to the Old Testament, but did not complete it. A portion of it was printed under the title, Einleitung in die GOttlichen Schriften des Altai Bundes, Theil Abschnitt 1, Hamburg 1787.