times unduly influenced by dogmatic considera- tions. While he recognized the importance of the Greek and Latin versions, he leaned somewhat too confidently en the Massoretic text as the as Hebraica.' He opposed the authority cit the Bible to that of the Church, yet in de- termining the canonicity and relative value of loks he depended largely upon his own sub- jective judgment. His German version is an admirable achievement and exercised a great influence on the interpretation of the Bible among Protestants. Philip Melanchthon (died 1560) and Johannes Brentius (Brenz, died 1570) possessed a good equipment for exegetical work. L'lrich Zwingli (died 1531) and Johannes (Ecolampadius (Hausschein, died 1531) were also sober and capable exegetes. But easily the foremost interpreter of the Bible in the six- teenth century was John Calvin (died 1564). His knowledge of Hebrew may have been less than Luther's, but his exegesis is freer from ir- relevant digressions, observes more keenly the connection of thought, and attempts to explain what needs explanation. Philologically the com- mentaries of Johannes Mercerus I Mercier, died 1570) are of great value. Less important are those of Theodore Beza (died 1605). Among the more radical interpreters of the time Andreas Bodenstein Carlstadt (died 1541). Johannes Denck (died 1529), Sebastian Castalio (Chateil- lon. died 1563), and Michael Servetus ( died 1553) deserve to be mentioned. Carlstadt wrote dis- criminatingly on the canon, and his remarkably keen literary criticism led him to reject the Mosaic authorship of parts of the Pentateuch. Denck interpreted the Bible as an expression of the spirit that enlightens every man, and instead of Church or Bible, made the Christian conscious- ness the ultimate judge of truth. His transla- tion of the prophets was valued and used both by Luther and in the Zurich Bible. Chateillon recognized the true character of Canticles and urged its exclusion from the canon. In editing Saute- Pagninus's Latin translation, Servetus expressed in notes some very advanced ideas. During the seventeenth century marked con- tributions to biblical interpretation were made by Catholic scholars, especially by members of the Society of Jesus and the Oratorians. Among the former, Bento Pereira. in 1600, and Jacques Bonfrere, in 1625, called attention to post- Mosaic material in the Pentateuch. Athanasius Kircher (died 1680) laid the foundations of our knowledge of Coptic and began to use it for the elucidation of the Bible. Cornelius a Lapide (van den Steen, died <i'-i~) prepared a learned commentary on the whole Bible. Two lathers ■ ■i the Oratory, Jean Morin (died 165!)) and Richard Simon (1638-1712), rendered distin- guished services to biblical science, the former chiefly by his Samaritan studies and his recog- nition of the late date of the vowel points, t he latter bj hi- excellenl critical history of the Old Te i iment i 1678), in which he set forth the evi i gainst i h.- Mosa ic ant borship of the Pentati rich. Of importance was also the publica- ii.i'l le • I o of the I'aiis polyglot in 1 i. The comments of Catholic interpretei such a- lie nnel de Sa i 'lied 1598 i . ilhelm K-tius (died 1613), an, I Thin (died 1636) were -I together by Jean de la Baye in his Biblia Magna (1643) and Biblia Maxima (1660), ants, Johannes Druaius i van den Driesche, died 1616) ; Johannes Piscator I Fischer, died 1626) ; Joseph Scaliger (died 1609), who first brought Israel's history into connection with the history of Semitic antiquity; Hugo Grotius (de Groot, died 1645), whose sober exegesis eliminated a mass of supposed Messianic prophecies; Louis de Dieu (died 1642) ; Johann Heinrieh Hottinger (died 1667) ; Samuel Bochart (died 1669) ; Sebastian Schmidt (died 1696); and August Pfeiffer (died 1698) by their works contributed to the understanding of the Bible. The most learned Hebraists of the time were Johann Buxtorf (died 1629) and his son, Johann Buxtorf (died 1664). Their con- tention for the high age of the vowel-points in- fluenced deeply theological thought. It is the chief merit of Louis Cappel (died 1658) that he upheld the truth, now universally recognized, against their error. In England Bryan Walton (died 1661), the editor of the London polyglot; the eminent Orientalists Edmund Castle (died L685) and Edward Pocock (died 1691); John Pearson (died 1686), one of the editors of the great compilation Critici Karri (1660) : -Matthew Poole (died 1679), editor of -the Synopsis Criti- corwm (1669-76); John Selden (died 1654); John Lightfoot (died 1675), the student of rab- binic lore; John Spencer (died 1693). who first viewed Hebrew ritual in the light of the cu-toms of other nations; Thomas Hoboes (died 1679), whose Leviathan (1651) paved the way for a more fruitful literary criticism ; and Charles Blount (died 1693), who showed the disparity between the account of creation in Genesis and the facts discovered by science— all rendered service in biblical interpretation. Possibly the most important contributions of Catholic scholars in the eighteenth century were made by Charles Francois Houbigant (died 1783), whose Latin translation was made for the first time throughout from a Hebrew text, amended by conjectural criticism (1753); Jean Astruc (died 1766), who in the same year pub- lished his epoch-making conjectures as to the documents used by Moses in the composition of Genesis; Augustine Calmet (died 1757), who published the first Bible dictionary; and Alex- ander Geddes (died 1802), who first embodied in a commentary (1792-97) the results of Pentateu- chal documentary analysis. The intense study of natural science in England caused the critical inquiries of the Deists. After Herbert and Blount it. was especially Anthony Collins (died 1729), the first in modern times to recognize that Daniel was written in the Maccabsean age, though Piscator perceived that the events of this time were referred to and John Toland (died 1722 1. whose labors advanced biblical science. On the other hand, the Quaker movement devel- oped a conception of religious liberty and a reli- ance upon subjective judgment from which bibli- cal interpretation ultimately derived gnat ben tlit . For the appreciation of Hebrew poetrj Robert Lowth's treatise upon the subject in 1753 was of utmost importance. The Bible edition of Benjamin ECennicott (1776-80), together with its necessary supplement, G. 15. de Rossi's I aria Leo Hones ( 1784-88), made it evident that all extant manuscripts represent substantially the same texl recension. The still indispensable edition "f the Greek Bible by Holmes and Parsons (1798 |S27| was also begun in this century. J. Cleri- cus (le Clerc did L736) made the Continent ■ '■
