pressed; and in 1836 the University was removed to the Central College at Madrid, while some of the buildings were employed as riding-schools:-a most untoward fate for what the Spaniards lovingly called "the world's eighth wonder."

memory;

It is an old refrain of the moralists, that strong and enduring things grow up in silence. The great forces of nature will work on, upheaving a whole continent; and the inhabitants can scarcely be persuaded that such a thing has been, although they have carefully chronicled the winter's storm, and the summer's lightning. Silently, amidst the din of the hammers, rose up the Cardinal's great work, destined to be the crowning glory of Complutum, and, like the "last faint pulse of quivering light," to play over her walls after her sun had set. Men rightly condemn the Granada Mission as fanatical and cruel; the inquisitorship which Ximenes coveted has left an indelible blot on his and statesmen will scarcely pause to unravel his intrigues. But the Complutensian Polyglot vindicates the Cardinal's claim to be reckoned a pioneer in the paths of Biblical science. It is true that advanced criticism may smile at the so-called collation of manuscripts,-its practical efficiency being small: and so is the "Rocket "superseded by any engine that can draw an express train at its almost fabulous speed. But the man who built that first engine, now antiquated, was a greater engineer than the most exact imitator of a perfect model. In this one work, Ximenes approached originality as nearly as his cast of mind permitted.

The history of this pioneering effort has great interest for all who desire to avail themselves of the aids of that science of which it is the first triumph. The excessive labours connected with the building of Alcala, and the anxieties arising from affairs in Granada, overcame the iron frame of Ximenes. Fever set in, and all the regular practitioners were unable to check it; but what defied the pharmacopoeia of the physicians, yielded before the simples of a certain "wise woman," and the Primate of Spain owed his life to one who was thus rescued from fears of an auto-da-fé. The patient was still weakly when summoned to court. Masks and revels were the order of the day; for Philip and Joanna had been declared heirs to the crown. But, "a recreant from festivities which grieve the heart not festive," Ximenes pondered mournfully over the state of Bible-studies. Theologians no longer desired to drink at the fountain-head of the waters of life; scanty streamlets satisfied them. And not only was the spirit of study dead, but many difficulties were in the student's path. Manifold are the idioms of human speech; translations are necessarily faulty; the original is pregnant with life; the very names of the Old Testament are full of mysteries: even Christ is veiled in the words of the New :what a mine of wealth might be opened! and, if opened, the sight of this treasure hid in a field must stir men's hearts. So mused the Franciscan monk, himself an ardent student in less busy times. At this

VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES.

I

juncture, his mind reverted to Origen's Hexapla. The accounts extant of that lost work gave him the plan for his own undertaking, and threw over it the shield of patristic authority. If any impugned his acts, he could now find shelter beneath the shadow of antiquity, while the names of Jerome, Augustine, and Origen would form a tower of strength impregnable to ordinary assailants. If this did not secure immunity, the Pontiff would assuredly approve of his labours; and, surely, none could more joyfully receive the sacred books of the Christian religion, or welcome them with more friendly embraces, than His Holiness. Moreover, he would employ the ablest philologers; he would procure the most accurate and most ancient manuscripts from every quarter; while his University should supply the place of learned leisure for the editors.*

The enterprise was speedily begun; but years were required for its completion. Manuscripts were to be purchased from the Greeks, or borrowed from the Pope, and from the Doge of Venice; type had to be cast specially for the work; printers must be brought from Germany; and editors must be engaged of sufficient learning for the task. At last, this staff was assembled, and numbered some well-known names. Lebrissa, the founder of Spanish literature, sat beside Stunica, the waspish adversary of Erasmus; Guzman laid aside his classical commentaries, to embrace this nobler toil; and Demetrius the Greek -the Tischendorf of his day-paused in his travels to compare the manuscripts his industry had collected. Three learned Jewish converts had the Hebrew and Chaldee under their especial care; and sometimes auxiliaries were enlisted from the most promising of the students. Nor did Ximenes spare his revenues. He expended £25,000 on the work; a munificent sum in those days, and, if the present value of money be considered, one of the most princely gifts ever consecrated on the Christian altar. When the evening of the long and busy day of the patron's life set in, he would lounge on the window-sill of the room in which the editors laboured, and discuss with them some knotty point, displaying the zest of one who had formerly delighted in encountering similar difficulties. A fear haunted the old man, that death would cut short this labour; and he would continually exhort his friends to diligence, reminding them that he might be removed, or they might not be spared to finish their task.

It was a new thing for the church of Rome! On this ground, we can understand the delay in the publication of the Polyglot, which has given it a strange peculiarity; namely, that although the first printed, it was not the first published, New Testament. The publishing of this work was a heavy blow to the supremacy of the Vulgate, which

* These particulars are taken from the Prefaces to the Polyglot; and, if not repeating the ipsissima verba of the Cardinal, they express his opinion, and have his authority.

had been once the peculiar heritage of the common folk, (vulgus,) but was at last a sealed book to them:-for, although no vulgar tongue was used in the Polyglot, the spell of the church was broken by the introduction of the original Scriptures; and in the Old Testament a comparison was tacitly drawn between the Jewish and the Christian translations-the Septuagint and the Vulgate. We must not imagine, however, that it was to supply any popular want that Ximenes undertook this labour. Of all vulgar translations he would have said, as he did of Talavera's Arabic,-" It is casting pearls before swine."

Begun in 1502, to celebrate the birth of Charles V., the Polyglot was finished in the year of Luther's bold defiance of the Pope at Wittenberg. It contained six volumes, of which the last, or New Testament, was printed first. Here the Vulgate and Greek text stand side by side. There are no verses marked, and no accents. Besides the text, there are certain letters of Jerome's; dissertations on Paul's travels; a Greek grammar, and a lexicon. The printing is very beautiful, and the Cardinal's arms are blazoned on each title-page. The next volume, the fifth, contains an Introduction to the Old Testament, a Hebrew grammar and lexicon, and an explanatory list of Hebrew proper names. The remaining four comprise treatises on the origin of the ancient versions, on the method of interpretation, and the Pope's brief, authorizing the publication of the Polyglot. The Pentateuch is in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek, with three Latin translations. Each page is divided horizontally; the upper half is printed in three columns: nearest the back of the book is the Septuagint; outside, the Hebrew; in the middle, the Vulgate. The reason of this arrangement is given in the preface,—“ that, as our Lord was crucified between two thieves, the Latin version stands between the Synagogue and the Greek Church." The lower half of the page is divided into two columns, which are filled with the Targum of Onkelos and a Latin translation. The second volume has only three columns on a page, since the editors considered the Chaldaic text corrupt and full of fables. The third volume contains three columns where the canonical books, but only two where the apocryphal, are given. This arrangement is followed in the fourth volume.

When we remember that the work was new to those engaged in it, we are not surprised to find some blemishes; as, where a few words have slipped from the margin into the text. Nor is the comparatively modern date of their "most ancient manuscripts" any proof of want of skill on the part of the editors. In two places they acknowledge the

Some Romanists maintain that this applies to the churches, not to the versions. The words are: "Mediam autem inter has Latinam beati Hieronymi translationem, velut inter Synagogam et Orientalem Ecclesiam, posuimus; tanquam duos hinc et inde latrones, medium autem Jesum: hoc est, Romanam sive Latinam Ecclesiam collocantes."

influence exercised over them by the Vulgate; namely, in 1 John v. 7 and 8: for, when Erasmus inquired whether the pericope of the Three Witnesses was in their manuscripts, Stunica replied, "The copies of the Greeks are corrupted; ours contain the very truth." He further defended the omission of the closing part of verse 8, by the authority of the Lateran Council and Thomas Aquinas.* With these exceptions, the text reflects great honour on the editors, whose prejudices in favour of the Vulgate were as strong as an Alexandrian Jew's in favour of the Septuagint. The influence of this Polyglot was unrivalled, till the London Polyglot, edited by Brian Walton, threw it into the shade. Through the third edition of Stephens, based on the fifth of Erasmus, it exercised some influence on the received text of the New Testament; not much, however, on that of the Old.

The conclusion is thus told by Gomez :-"On July 10th, 1517, Arnold William Brocarius, the printer, dressed his son in holiday garb, struck off the last sheet, and sent it by the youth to Ximenes. The aged prelate lifted up his hands, and said, 'I render thanks to Thee, O Christ Most High, because Thou hast brought to its desired end this work, which I have undertaken with so much labour.' Then, turning to his friends, 'Of the many arduous things I have done for my country, there is nothing on which you should congratulate me [so much] as on finishing this Bible. It opens the sacred fountains of religion when they are most needed.'" No judgment is more accurate than this. The Polyglot is the best of all his deeds. By it he has gained a place among the benefactors of men. We would fain go farther, if truth permitted, and rank him with Erasmus, who said of the New Testament, "I would the youth at the plough should sing something hence;" or with Tyndale, whose last thought, in Vilvorde Castle, was to give the Gloucestershire peasants God's truth in their own dialect. It was not so; this Polyglot was for the priesthood. We take the half, and remember what Hesiod said about the man who does not know how good the half is. When Ximenes had once printed his Polyglot, any one could reprint what he would. The treasures of the Cardinal had become the property of every scholar in Europe. Thus it appears that something is due to the leading and often tyrannical men of those former days. From "the eaters," to adopt Samson's riddle, " came forth meat;" and "out of the strong came forth sweetness."

* See Tregelles on the Printed Text.

Not his last thought only for we find Tyndale, at a comparatively early date, roused by the boldness of a Romish theologue, who, pressed by argument, declared, "We were better to be without God's laws, than the Pope's !" It was this that drew forth the memorable words of the young Reformer: "I defy the Pope and all his laws; and, if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than you do."-EDITORS.

117

THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF "THE GLORY OF THE LORD."

EZEK. XI. 23; XLIII. 4.

FROM the earliest period of sacred history, God's presence was frequently manifested to men by a flame of fire, or a luminous cloud, which the Jews ultimately called "the Shechinah,"-this term being derived from a root signifying to dwell. Such was the flaming sword which, after the fall, guarded the entrance of the garden of Eden; (Gen. iii. 24 ;)—such was the lamp of fire which passed between the pieces of Abraham's sacrifice; (Gen. xv. 17;)-and such, especially, was the pillar of cloud, and of fire, that went before the Israelites when they left Egypt, and journeyed through the wilderness of Sinai. (Exod. xiii. 21, 22.) After the erection of the tabernacle, "the cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the Glory of the Lord filled the sanctuary." And, though at a later period the ark of the covenant appears to have been regarded as the visible symbol of the Divine presence with the people, (1 Sam. iv. 22,) yet, immediately, when Solomon's temple was dedicated, "the Glory of the Lord filled the house of God;" "so that the priests could not stand to minister, by reason of the cloud." (2 Chron. v. 14.)

It was, doubtless, in condescension to His people's weakness, and to prevent their lapsing into idolatry, that God thus granted a visible sign of His presence. But there were dark seasons, when, in consequence of their unfaithfulness, it was temporarily withdrawn, and when the entire nation of the Jews was given up as a prey to surrounding enemies. Such an occasion was that which Ezekiel sorrowfully marked, when he saw the cherubim leaving the temple in Jerusalem, and bearing with them the Glory of the Lord. "Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the Glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the Glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city." (xi. 22, 23.) Was this, then, a final abandonment of the Jewish people? Happily, it was not: for, at a later period, the same prophet beheld a vision of the new temple, superior in every respect to the former one; and the Glory of the Lord entering that temple from the mountain on the east, the Mount of Olives, on which he had seen it linger when it departed. (xliii. 1-4.)

These facts are suggestive of important lessons to the Israel of God under the brighter economy of the Gospel; and some of these lessons it is the object of our paper to unfold.

The departure of the Divine Glory was a most admonitory and mournful event. From the day that the temple was dedicated by Solomon, the Shechinah dwelt between the cherubim in the holiest place; and though none could enter that inner shrine except the high