Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures

Of the holy Scriptures.

Two excellent rules does Saint Paul prescribe to Christians for their direction in the ways of God: the one, that they be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is; the other, that they be not more wise than behoveth to be wise, but be wise to sobriety. And that we might know the limits, within which this wisdom and sobriety should be bounded, he elsewhere declareth, that not to be more wise than is fitting, is not to be wise above that which is written. Hereupon Sedulius (one of the most ancient writers that remaineth of this country birth) delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule: Search the Law, in which the will of God is contained; and this for the later: He would be more wise than is meet, who searcheth those things that the Law does not speak of. To whom we will adjoin Claudius another famous divine, (counted one of the founders of the University of Paris) who for the illustration of the former, affirmeth that men therefore err, because they know not the Scriptures; and because they are ignorant of the Scriptures, they consequently know not Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God: and for the clearing of the latter, bringeth in that known canon of Saint Hierome: This, because it has not authority from the Scriptures, is with the same facility contemned, wherewith it is avowed.

Neither was the practice of our ancestors herein different from their judgement. For as Bede touching the latter, recordeth of the successors of Colum-kille the great saint of our country, that they observed only those works of piety and chastity, which they could learn in the prophetical, evangelical, and apostolical writings: so for the former, he specially noteth of one of the principal of them, to wit, Bishop Aidan, that all such as went in his company, whether they were of the clergy, or of the laity, were tied to exercise themselves, either in the reading of Scriptures, or in the learning of Psalms. And long before their time, it was the observation which Saint Chrysostome made of both these islands: that although you did go to the Ocean, and those British Isles, although you did sail to the Euxine Sea, although you did go to the southern quarters; you should hear ALL men every where discoursing matters out of the SCRIPTURE, with another voice indeed, but not with another faith, and with a different tongue, but with an according judgement. Which is in effect the same with that which venerable Bede pronounceth of the Island of Britain in his own days, that in the language of five nations it did search and confess one and the same knowledge of the highest truth, and of the true sublimity; to wit, of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins. Which last although he affirmeth by the meditation of the Scriptures to have become common to all the rest: yet the community of that one among the learned, did not take away the property of the other four among the vulgar, but that such as understood not the Latin, might yet in their own mother tongue have those Scriptures, wherein they might search the knowledge of the highest truth, and of the true sublimity. Even as at this day in the reformed churches, the same Latin tongue is common to all the learned in the meditation and exposition of the Scriptures; and yet the common people for all that, do in their own vulgar tongues search the Scriptures, because in them they think to have eternal life. For as by us now, so by our forefathers then, the continual meditation of the Scriptures was held to give special vigor and vegetation to the soul (as we read in the book attributed to Saint Patrick, of the abuses of the world:) and the holy documents delivered therein, were esteemed by Christians as their chief riches; according to that of Columbanus, Sint tibi divitiae, divinae dogmata legis. In which heavenly riches our ancient Scottish and Irish did thrive so well, that many worthy personages in foreign parts were content to undergo a voluntary exile from their own country, that they might more freely traffic here for so excellent a commodity. And by this means Altfrid King of Northumberland, purchased the reputation of a man most learned in the Scriptures. Scottorum qui tum versatus incola terris, Coelestem intento spirabat corde sophiam. Nam patriae fines & dulcia liquerat arva, Sedulus ut Domini mysteria disceret exul. As Bede writeth of him, in his poem of the life of our countryman Saint Cuthbert.

So when we read in the same Bede of Furseus, and in another ancient author of Kilianus, that from the time of their very childhood, they had a care to learn the holy Scriptures: it may easily be collected, that in those days it was not thought a thing unfit, that even children should give themselves to the study of the Bible. Wherein how greatly some of them did profit in those tender years, may appear by that which Boniface the first Archbishop of Mentz, relateth of Livinus (who was trained up in his youth by Benignus in the singing of David's Psalms, and the reading of the holy Gospels, and other divine exercises) and Jonas of 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 the Psalms, by whose industry likewise afterward, the study of God's Word was so propagated; that in the monasteries which were founded according to his rule beyond the Seas, not the men only, but the religious women also did carefully attend the same, that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures they might have hope. See for this, the practice of the virgin Bitihildis lying upon her death bed, reported by the same Jonas, or whoever else was the author of the life of Burgundofora.

As for the edition of the Scriptures used in these parts at those times: the Latin translation was so received into common use among the learned, that the principal authority was still reserved to the original fountains. Therefore does Sedulius in the Old Testament commend to us the Hebrew verity (for so with Saint Hierome does he style it:) and in the New correct oftentimes the vulgar Latin according to the truth of the Greek copies. For example: in (1 Corinthians 7:34) he reads as we do, There is difference between a wife and a virgin; and not as the Rhemists have translated it out of the Latin. (Romans 12:19) he reads, Non vosmetipsos vindicantes, not avenging your selves: where the vulgar Latin has corruptly, Non vosmetipsos defendentes, not defending your selves. (Romans 3:4) where the Rhemists translate according to the Latin, God is true: he shows that in the Greek copies it is found, Let God be true, or, let God be made true. (Romans 15:17) he notes that the Latin books have put glory for gloriation. (Galatians 1:16) where the Rhemists have according to the Latin, I condescended not to flesh & blood: he says, that in Graeco melius habet (for so must his words be here corrected out of Saint Hierome, whom he follows) the Greek has it better, I conferred not. (Romans 8:3) where the Rhemists say of God, according to the Latin translation, that of sinne he damned sinne in the flesh: Sedulius affirms, that verius habetur apud Graecos, it is more truly expressed in the Greek books; that for sinne he damned sinne in the flesh. Lastly, where the Rhemists translate after their Latin copy (Galatians 5:9), A little leaven corrupteth the whole paste: he says it should be, leaveneth, (as we have it) and not corrupteth, as it is ill read in the Latin books. So where they translate by the same authority (Galatians 6:1), Instruct such an one in the spirit of lenitie: Claudius, following Saint Hierome, affirms that it is better in the Greek, Restore or Perfect him. And where they make Saint Peter say (Matthew 16:22), Lord, be it far from you: he notes, that it is better in the Greek, Lord, favor your self.

In the Old Testament I observe that our writers do more usually follow the translation taken out of the Septuagint, than the Vulgar Latin, which is now received in the Church of Rome. So, for example, where the Vulgar Latin has (Isaiah 32:4), The tongue of the stammerers (or mafflers, as the Doway Translation would have it englished) shall speak readily and plainly: in the Confession of Saint Patrick we find it laid down more agreeably to the Greek lection: The stammering tongues shall swiftly learn to speak peace. And in his Epistle to Coroticus or Cereticus (Malachi 4:2), You shall dance as calves loosed out of bands: where our common Latin has, You shall leap as calves of the herd. And (Job 20:15-16), The riches which he shall gather unjustly, shall be vomited out of his belly, the Angel of death draws him. He shall be mulcted with the wrath of dragons: the tongue of the Serpent shall kill him. where the Vulgar Latin reads: The riches, which he has devoured, he shall vomit out, and God shall draw them forth out of his belly. He shall suck the head of Aspes, and the Vipers tongue shall kill him. The same course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations. But Gildas the Briton in some books, (as Deuteronomy, Isaiah and Jeremy, for example) uses to follow the Vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew; in others (as the books of Chronicles, Job, Proverbs, Ezekiel, and the small Prophets) the elder Latin translated out of the Greek, as also long after him his countryman Nennius, in reckoning the years of the age of the world, follows the LXX. And Asser alleges the text (Genesis 4:7), If you offer aright, and does not divide aright, you sin; according to the Greek reading: whereas the Vulgar Latin has it, If you do well, shall you not receive again? but if you do ill, shall not your sin forthwith be present at the door?

Of the Psalter there are extant four Latin translations out of the Greek, (namely the old Italian, the Roman, the Gallican, and that of Millayne:) and one out of the Hebrew, composed by Saint Hierome: which though it be now excluded out of the body of the Bible, and the Gallican admitted in the room thereof; yet in some manuscript copies, it still retains his ancient place. Three whereof I have seen myself in Cambridge, the one in Trinity, the other in Benet, and the third in Jesus College Library: where this translation out of the Hebrew, and not the Vulgar out of the Greek, is inserted into the context of the Bible. In the citations of Gildas, and the Confession of Saint Patrick, I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed, rather than the Gallican: in the quotations of Sedulius, on the other side, the Gallican rather than the Roman. Claudius speaking of a text in the 118th. (or as he accounts it, the 117th.) Psalm, says, that where the LXX. Interpreters did translate it, O Lord save me, it was written in the Hebrew, Anna Adonai Osanna: which our Interpreter Hierom (says he) more diligently explaining, translated thus; I beseech you, O Lord, save I beseech you. Before this translation of Saint Hierome, I have seen an Epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton; who by Caradoc of Lhancarpan is commended for the godliest, wisest, and greatest clerk that had been in Wales many years before his time, his father Sulgen Bishop of Saint Davids only excepted, who had brought him up, and a great number of learned disciples. He having in this Epigram said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greek, that they did darken the Hebrew rays with their Latin cloud: adds of Saint Hierome, that being replenished with the Hebrew fountain, he did more clearly and briefly discover the truth; as drawing it out of the first vessel immediately, and not taking it at the second hand. To this purpose thus expresses he himself; Ebraeis nablam custodit littera signis: Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit, innumeros Linguâ variante libellos; Ebraeumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina. Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labrasaporem. Sed sacer Hieronymus, Ebraeo fonte repletus, Lucidius nudat verum, breviusque ministrat. Namque secunda creat, nam tertia vascula vitat.

Now for those books annexed to the Old Testament, which Saint Hierom calls Apocryphal, others Ecclesiastical; true it is that in our Irish and British writers some of them are alleged as parcels of Scripture, and prophetical writings; those especially that commonly bore the name of Solomon. But so also is the fourth book of Esdras cited by Gildas, in the name of blessed Esdras the Prophet; which yet our Romanists will not admit to be Canonical: neither do our writers mention any of the rest with more titles of respect than we find given to them by others of the ancient Fathers, who yet in express terms do exclude them out of the number of those books which properly are to be esteemed Canonical. So that from hence no sufficient proof can be taken, that our ancestors did herein depart from the tradition of the Elder Church, delivered by Saint Hierome in his Prologues, and explained by Brito (a Briton, it seems, by nation, as well as by appellation) in his commentaries upon the same; which being heretofore joined with the Ordinary Glosse upon the Bible, have of late proved so distasteful to our Popish Divines, that in their new editions (printed at Lyons anno 1590. and at Venice afterward) they have quite crossed them out of their books.

Yet Marianus Scotus (who was born in Ireland in the 1028th year of our Lord) was somewhat more careful to maintain the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his forefathers. For he in his Chronicle, following Eusebius and Saint Hierom, at the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus writes thus: Hitherto the divine Scripture of the Hebrews contains the order of times. But those things that after this were done among the Jews, are represented out of the book of the Maccabees, and the writings of Josephus and Aphricanus. But before him, more plainly, the author of the book de mirabilibus Scripturae (who is accounted to have lived here, about the year 657.) In the books of the Maccabees, however some wonderful things be found, which might conveniently be inserted into this rank; yet will we not weary ourselves with any care thereof, because we only purposed to touch in some measure a short historical exposition of the wonderful things contained in the divine canon. As also in the apocryphal additions of Daniel, he tells us, that what is reported touching the lake (or den) and the carrying of Habakkuk, in the fable of Bel and the Dragon, is not therefore placed in this rank, because these things have not the authority of divine Scripture.

And so much concerning the holy Scriptures.