Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/138

 1 28 Journal of Philology. doubtful, is it not established beyond any question that the law of Henry VIII. had precedents enough in mediaeval history? Did Mr Buckingham, for instance, never hear of the important council of Toulouse in 1229 ? Lot us remind him that the 14th canon absolutely condemns the use of vernacular translations, and forbids the laity to read the sacred books in almost any form whatever : " Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Testamenti aut Novi laici permittantur habere, nisi forte Psalterium vel Breviarium pro Divinis officiis, aut Horas beatoe Mnrke aliquis ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne prsemissos libros habeant in vulgari translates arctissime inhibomus." Labbe, Concil. xi. 430. A still more stringent order was put forth by the provincial synod of Narbonne, which met at Beziere in 1246. When writing of the former, Fleury (Liv. lxxix. s. 58) says, with manifest embarrassment : " C'est la premiere fois que je trouve cette defense ; mais nous pouvons l'expliquer favorablement, en disant que les esprits etoient tellement aigris, qu'on ne pouvoit arreter les contestations qu'en otant les livres saints dont les horetiques abu soient." Be the worth of this apology what it may, one thing is at least established, viz. that Mr Buckingham has altogether misdated the com- mencement of the war against vernacular translations. How or why a writer who is well-informed on other points of mediaeval antiquities, could have been guilty of this grievous oversight, we do not care to pronounce. If he had fairly weighed the records of the period, he would have been constrained to admit, that from the growth of the Paulicians, Cathari, and Waldenses, all vernacular translations of the Bible, good and bad alike, were far too commonly regarded with suspi- cion. A distinguished man like Gerson, who in many points had shewn himself superior to his age, resisted the translation and diffusion of the Scriptures as a whole : and others (such, for instance, as the canon of Leicester, WyclifFe's adversary,) argued that to give the Bible in the vulgar tongue to laymen and to women, was to cast the " evangelical pearl" before swine. If, notwithstanding this repugnance, it was actually translated into many of the European languages, and, thanks to Mr Buckingham, we know it was, our inference is the very opposite of his. We see in the vern:i- cular translations a fresh proof that better principles continued to diffuse themselves in many members of the Church, the logical result to which thoy pointed being the Reformation.] C. II. History of the Christian Church to the Pontificate of Gregory the Oreat y by James Craioie Robertson, M.A., Vicar of Bokesbourne. London, Murray, 8vo. pp. 528. [Mr Robertson, in one respect, has more than realized his purpose. Ho only professes to supply us with "a readable introduction" to the early history of the Church ; but with his volume in our hands wo are dis- posed to rank it somewhat higher. It is written by a man who under- stands the bearings of his subject, and exhibits more than ordinary skill in the construction of his materials : but the features we select for special