Casnicdorus {liutitutio, etc., chs. xii.-xiv., c. 544 A.D.) gives Jerome's (Ueb.) Can., then Augustine's, and finally the Can. of the antiqua (ra7W!^afio, which represents Lat. usage before Jerome, \iz. t:n-<Jb ; Ps, Sol 5 (Pr, Wis, Sir, Ec, Ca); Prophets ; Job, To, Est, Jth, 1. 2 Es, 1. 2 Mac. The two groups are to be noted. "Tile divergence of the three listfl from each other seems to cause the writer no trouble.
Similar to this is the list of the Decretwrn Gelani, which, if it is that of the Synod of 382, is the first otlicial Can. ot the Eoman Church. It puts Wis, Sir with Solomonic books, /far with Jer, and ends with an ' order of histories,' which is our second group, as follows : Job, To, 1. 2 Es, Est, Jth, 1. 2 Mac.
The nextofBclal OT Can. was that of the African Councils of Uippo (393) and Carthage (397) : Gn-Ch, Job, Ps, Sol 6, 12 prophets. Is, Jer, Dn, Ezk, To, Jth, Est, 1. 2 Es, 1. 2 Mac. Here Job is separated from the second group and put m its old connexion with Ps, Pr. These councils were dominated by Augustine, whose weight on the side of Church tradition over- bore the influence of Jerome's learning. Augustine stands for the Catholic principle as determining the Can. {de doct. ii. 8, 12), even when he feels the objections, e.g. to Wis and Sir, that the ancient Church bos received them is decisive (de civ. xvii. 20, 1). Augustine gives, in d€ doct. ii. 8, 13, a list of 44 books of 0*1 — 22 historical, made by adding to Gn-Ch, as a secondary list, our second group : Job, To, Est, Jth, 1. 2 Mac, 1. 2 Es. ; and 22 prophetical, made by prefixing to the 16 prophets our first group: Ps, Pr, Ca, Ec, Wis, Sir. In his last book, how- ever (SpectUum), he seems inclined to put the A. at the end of OT Can., separating Wis, Sir from group 1, and Job from group 2. This may reveal a growing sense of the secondary authority or security of the A.
InTwcent I. of Rome, in a letter to the Bishop of Toulouse
f405), gives a list in which the two groups still appear : On-4 K with Hu); Prophets; Solomon 5, Pe ; 'of histories,' Job, To, Est, Jth, 1. 2 Mae, 1. 2 Es, 1. 2 Ch.
The outcome of the matter in the Lat. Church was the Vulg., and the leading MS of it (Cod. Amiatinus, c. 700) gives, in the name of Jerome, a list identical with that sanctioned at Trent (see the list at the beginning of this article). The order is nearer to that of Augustine in de doct. ii. 8 than to that of the Council of Hippo. The secondary group of histories follows the primary (Gn-Ch), and the group of poetry follows it, preced- ing the prophets. Job, however, is put between the two, BO that it might belong either to history or poetry, and 1. 2 Mac are separated from the group and put at the end — a partial compromise between the topical place given to this group by Augustine, and the more chronological place assi'Tied it in the Old Latin, and at Hinpo. The result is that the A. are found chieliy in the middle of OT, distinguished in no way from other books. Until the decree of Trent, however, it was still possible to regard the A. as of inferior authority, and, when can. was understood to mean authoritative, even as not in the Canon. Tlie middle ages furnished some followers of Jerome (e.g. Hugo of St. Victor, d. 1140; Peter of Clugny, d. 1156; Nicolaus of Lyra, d. 1340) who tnticipate the view of Cardinal Ximenes (1437-
1517), who says in the Preface to the great Cora- plutensian Poiyglott, that the a*" books are outside uf [ he Canon, auci are received by theChurchasuseful reading, not as authoritative for doctrine. Erasmus (1467-1536) ulso follows Jerome, though expressing himself with his usual reserve and formal sub- mission to the judgment of the Church. ' Whether the Church receives them as possessing the same authority as the others, the spirit of the Church must know,' Cardinal Cajetan, Luther's opponent at Augsburg (1518), would interpret the decisions of Councils and Fathers by Jerome.
Though the Vulg. Canon had been reaffirmed by Pope Eugenius IV. and put forth as a decree of the Council of Florence (1439), it is not probable that the Roman Church would have taken the decisive step of 1545, against the views of its own best scholars, if it had not been for Luther. The Council of Trent declared the Vulg. to be in all parts of equal authority, and definitely rejected the efforts of Ximenes and others to put the A. in a separate class, 'ecclesiastical' or 'deutero-can.' In the Bibliotheca Sancta of Sixtus Senensis the case is correctly stated. The distinction of Proto- can. and Deutero-can. or ecclesiastical books is given (to the latter class belong, in OT, Est, To, Jth, Bar, Ep. Jer, Wis, Sir, Ad. Dn, 1 and 2 Mac ; in NT, Mk le'-*", Lk 2-2«-« Jn 7*^-8", He, Ja, 2 P, 2 and 3 Jn, Jude, Rev), but the distinction has only historical signiticance. These books, it is said, were not known till a late period ; were even formerly held by the Fathers to be a'^ and not can. ; were at first permitted to be read only before catechumens (Athan.asius), then before all believers (Ruhnus), but only for edification, not for the con- firmation of doctrine ; but were at last adopted among Scriptures of irrefragable authority.