2. Reception of yerome's Version.—Tipough com menced and carried on under the sanction and encouragement of some of the most eminent autho rities in the church, the work of Jerome was far from being cordially accepted by the Christian community. Jerome himself is constantly com plaining, in his prefaces as well as in other parts of his writings, of the obloquy to which his under taking was exposed, and of the injurious treatment to which lie was himself subjected. Hc was vio lently attacked by Ruffinus, presbyter of Aquileia, who, amongst other charges, asserts that Ile was rnisled by one of his Hebrew teachers, whose name, Barhanina, he corrupts into Barabbas (` Plautino sale,' says Jerome in his reply), and compares Jerome to the Jews, who preferred Barabbas to Jesus. To this attack Jerome replied in his Apologia contra Ruffinum. At first, also, Augustine looked un favourably on the new version ; but afterwards he acknowledged its merits, and himself used it in his citations of Scripture (Epp. ad Hieron., 2S, 71, S2, S9; De Civ. Dei, xviii. 48; Ep. ad Ana'acem ; De Doct. Christ., iv. 7 ; Qumst. in Dent., 20, 24 ; in 70S., 7, 15, 19, 24, 25 ; Yid., 169 37, 47, 56). By others it was from the first cordially welcomed, and even during Jerome's lifetime it was in some churches publicly read. After his death the preju dices which had impeded its reputation gradually subsided, and in the time of Gregory the Great, about the end of the 6th century, it was in use, along with the old version, in the church of Rome, and was gradually rising above the latter in public esteem (Moral. in yob., Prf.) Somewhat later, Isidore of Seville attests that it was in general use in all the churches, because it was more true to the meaning and clearer in expression than the other (De offi eceles.,i. 12); and from the middle of the 7th century it may be regarded as the authorised version of the Western Church, though it was at no time indicated as such by any authoritative declara tion. The Psalter, however. in the older version, as corrected by Jerome (Psalterium Gallicanum), continued to be used, it being more difficult to introduce a new book for psalmody than one for reading. Some of the apocryphal books, as already mentioned, were also retained from the old version, and the N. T. remained as it was left by Jerome after simply revising the old translation. From its general reception this somewhat composite work came to be known as the editio Vulgata, i.e. (to use the words of Jerome in reference to the LXX.), ea'itio toto orbe Vulgata, the received and common text of Scripture, a title answering to the KoLvii &Sacra of the Greek Scriptures. This, which wa. at first used of the LXX., or the translation of the O. T. made from the LX X., was readily transferred thence to that of Jerome when it became current in the churches.
3. Histmy of Yerome's version till the invention bf printing. —The circumstances under which this version came into use could hardly fail to expose it to serious corruption, beyond that to which all unprinted documents are exposed from the ignor• ance or presumption of copyists. The use along with it of the old version supplied a constant temptation to alter the one from the other, and from this cause the version of Jerome became in course of time largely corrupted, especially in the parts of Scripture used for liturgical purposes. Roger Bacon asserts that it was corrupted also by the interpolation of passages taken from the offices of the church—Ab officio ecclesize multa accipiunt et ponunt in textu (Hody, p. 428). Parallel passages further offered an inducement to altera tion, and in this way many changes were made on the later version. It is even alleged that it was
altered to make it agree better with Joseplms (Hody, /. c.) Sometimes also it was deemed proper to introduce what seemed necessary to pre serve the orthodoxy of the translation ; thus, after the words videbo Deum ' (Job xix. 26) some one inserted salvatorem meurn,' because videtur facere ad fidem, et quia cantatur in ecclesia ' (Hugo, Carrectorium ; comp. Dcederlein, Littera risches Museum, St. i. 35).
From these various causes the text had become so cornipt that even in the time of Charlemagne it was felt to be necessary to make an attempt to revise it, so as to secure greater accuracy. This task was committed by that enlightened and mag nanimous prince to Alcuin, who, sornewhere about the year SO2, undertook it, and by comparing, it is said, the existing text with the originals, and pro bably also collating different MSS., sought to pro• duce a correct edition of the Latin Bible (Hody, p. 4o9). Alcuin says that he corrected all the books of the O. and N. T. examussim,' but under his idea of correcting ' was included the rectifying of the version itself where it seemed to him not ade quately to represent the original ; and the result of this was that under his hands the Vulgate was still further perverted from its original condition. We may doubt also how far his collation of MSS. was conducted on critical grounds, nor do we know how far it extended. Certain it is that the text of the Vulgate remained still so unsettled, that in the ith century it became necessary to subject it to another revision. This was undertaken by Lanfranc with the aid of other learned men ; but though a writer of the time says, multa ad unguem emendavit' (Rob. de Monte, ap. Hody, p. 416), his work was not much known out of Eng land, and accordingly in the next century anothei revision was undertaken by Cardinal Nicolaus.
Others engaged in the same work, and after the 12th century there began to be formed the so-called Efianorthetee or Correctoria Bibilea. Of these the earliest was that of the Abbot Stephanus, about the year 1150. Then followed that which the doctors of the Sorbonne issued for the use of their students, in which reference is made to an ancient MS. cited as Parisizes, and sometimes Correctio Parisiensis, from which corrected readings are taken (Simon, Hist. Grit., c. 9, p. 115) ; a copy of this Correctorium, consisting of four volumes folio, was in the library of the Abbey of Citeaux till the time of the Revolution. The attempt of the Archbishop of Sens to introduce this Correc torium into general use called forth an iaterdict of it from the Dominicans (A. D. 1256), who issued Correctoria of their own. Of these, that of Hugo a Sto. Caro is the one best known ; a copy of it exists in the library at Niimberg ; and in the Pauline Library at Leipzig there is another Domi nican Correctorium, specimens from which are given by Carpzov (Crit. Sac., p. 686). Other religious bodies, the Carthusians and the Francis cans, had also their special Correctoria (Hug, p. 278) ; a copy of one of the latter is in the library of the University of Freiburg, of which Hug (/. c.) gives an account. These Correctoria were prepared by noting on the margin of some MS. readings in which other MSS. differed from it, and appending short notes in which the readings were criticised. In determining which to prefer, the authors were guided rather by exegetical and dogmatical rea sons than by those of a critical kind ; and as they sometimes introduced the translations which they found in the Latin fathers, and also made new translations from the original, their labours often tended rather to deform than to correct the text of the Vulgate.