There is therefore nothing extravagant in the date which I have assigned to the Romaunt Version of the New Testament.

But allowing that such vernacular versions as those mentioned by Mapes, by Innocent III., and by Albericus, were made in the twelfth Century, we must prove that they did not all perish in ages of destruction and neglect.

The Council of Toulouse, in 12294, prohibited the use of the Romaunt Version; other provincial Councils did the same; and James, King of Arragon5 proclaimed a statute against it; and therefore it has been inferred that most of the copies were destroyed. But, however severe were the measures against perpetuating the Romaunt Version, I will now shew that we can trace the existence of copies of it, through different periods, up to the present time.

Vaissette records an inquisitorial process in 1237, at which persons were accused of reading the Gospel in the vulgar tongue in Languedoc; that is, in the Ro

maunt.

Reiner states (A. D. 1250) that there were people, es

4 "On defendit aux laïques d'avoir chez eux des livres de l'ancien et du nouveau Testament, excepté le Pseautier, le Breviaire, ou les heures pour l'office divin; qu'il n'étoit pas même permis de garder traduit en langue vulgaire." Vaissette, Hist. Gén. de Languedoc, Vol. ш. p. 383; sub anno 1229, de Con. de Toulouse.

"C'est la première fois que je trouve cette défense: mais nous pouvons l'expliquer favorablement, en disant que les esprits étoient tellement aigris, qu'on ne pouvoit arrêter les contestations qu'en ôtant les livres saints dont les hérétiques abusaient." Fleury, Hist. Eccl. Liv. 69, c. lviii. Vol. XVI. Paris, 1751.

5 “Statuimus ne aliquis libros veteris vel novi Testamenti in Romanico habeat." Le Long. Bib. Sac. I. p. 361.

6 Vaissette, Hist. de Languedoc, Vol. ш. p. 411. "On trouve dans les informations ou dans les jugemens... que les hérétiques, nommez vulgairement Vaudois dans le païs, lisoient l'Evangile en langue vulgaire." An. 1237.

pecially the Pauperes Lugdunenses, who had the whole of the New Testament and great part of the Old Testament in the vulgar tongue1.

Singularly enough, in the will of an Englishman, who died in 1345, there is express mention of a Romaunt Bible, "Etiam Bibulam (Bibliam ?) in Romanam Linguam translatam 2."

The reason assigned for putting forth a new edition of the French Bible in the reign of Charles V. of France, between 1364 and 1380, was to supplant the use of the Waldensian or Romaunt translation3; therefore copies of the latter were extant in 1380.

Seyssel, Archbishop of Turin, visited the Waldenses of Piedmont in the year 1517, and in his Treatise against them, he speaks of their use of Scripture in the vulgar tongue. Le Long, Raynouard, and Champollion-Figeac, identify the Romaunt with the Waldensian dialect.

In a MS. collection of Letters and other documents, relating to the mission of George Maurel (or Morel) and Peter Masson to Bucer and Ecolampadius in 1530, preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, (Class C. Tab. 5. No. 18. ex Bibl. Ussher.), there is frequent mention of vernacular books of the Old and New Testament, then possessed by

1 “ Audivi et vidi quendam rusticum idiotam, qui Job recitavit de verbo ad verbum; et plures, qui totum Novum Testamentum perfecte sciverunt." Reinerus contr. Valdenses, ex Bibl. Patr. Tom. IV. pars 2, p. 747. Paris, 1624. Item, quidquid predicatur, quod per textum Bibliæ non probatur, pro fabulis habent. Item, dicunt, quod sacra Scriptura eundem effectum habeat in vulgari, quem in Latino. Unde etiam conficiunt in vulgari et

66

dant Sacramenta.

66

Item, Testamenti Novi textum, et magnam partem Veteris vulgariter sciunt corde." Ibid. 751.

2 See Testamenta Eboracensia, p. 10, in Vol. ш., 1836, of the Publications of the Surtees' Society.

3 Du Tillet. Chron. Abrégé des Rois de France, tit. Charles V.,

by Simon, p. 212.

cited

4 See Claudii Seysselli adv. errores et sectam Waldensium disputationes. Paris. (1520.) fols. iv. V. vi.

the Waldenses; and texts quoted from these, correspond almost verbatim with passages in the Dublin copy of the Romaunt Version, of which I am now treating 5.

Perrin, in his "Histoire des Vaudois," published 1619, asserts that a New Testament, and many other manuscript Treatises, in the Waldensian language, were then in his. hands".

Archbishop Ussher eventually obtained the New Testament, (called the Dublin MS. in this volume), and most of the other books, papers, and parchments, which had belonged to Perrin7.

5 The following are a few passages selected from the MS. Class C. Tab. 5, No. 18, and compared with the Dublin MS. of the New Testament:

6 Perrin, Hist. des Vaudois, Part I. p. 57.

7 A letter from Usher to Lydyat, in 1611, speaks of his search after documents to throw light on the history of the Waldenses; and in July 1634, one of the Egerton family wrote thus of an interview which he had with archbishop Ussher:-" I had much private conference with him ; after dinner hee tooke mee into his closett, where, although there bee

and

The Collection is now preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and has been accurately described by Dr Todd in the British Magazine, Vol. xix.

Leger tells of the destruction of many of the Waldensian copies of Scripture, but asserts that he had been able to preserve one, which he had given to Morland1, Cromwell's ambassador to the Duke of Savoy, in 1655 ; and this copy Morland declared he had deposited in the Library of the University of Cambridge, in 16582.

Besides the two mentioned by Perrin and Leger, Le Long, in his "Bibliotheca Sacra," speaks of four other Romaunt copies; namely, one at Zurich; a second in the possession of Thomassin de Mazaugue, son of a senator of Aix; and two in the King's Library at Paris.

He thus describes them, having first stated that the Catalan, Piedmontese, and Provençal dialects, (that is to say, the language of the sub-Alpine Waldenses of Piedmont, Provence, and Dauphiné) are dialects of the Romaunt3.

"Biblia Lingua Romanensi.-Hoc vocari possunt nomine dialectus Pedemontana, Provincialis, Catalana, et Rhætica, quæ licet ex aliis vicinarum regionem linguis plurimas habeant locutiones, suam tamen originem videntur ducere

not verye many bookes, yet those that arc, are much used and imployed. Herein he shewed mee the whole workes of the Waldenses, which are verye rare; they cost him £22 sterling. They are in folio and octavo, about ten or twelve volumes. The language wherein they are printed is a miscellaneous language, mixt French and Spanish; these were sent him from a Councellor in Fraunce, as alsoe a copie of the plotts and designes and proceedings of the Inquisiteors in Fraunce." This statement is taken from the Christian Examiner, Vol. 11. p. 219.

1 Leger, Hist. des Eglises des Vallées de Piemont, pars 1, pp. 21, 22. 2 Morland, History of the Evangelical Churches of Piemont, p. 98. 3 Mr Champollion-Figeac has expressed the same opinion as Le Long. "Mais il ne faut pas oublier, que dans des temps peu reculés le Piemont n'eut d'autre langue que celle de la France meridionale, de l'Italie, et de l'Espagne, c'est a dire le Roman." Nouvelles Récherches sur les Idiomes Vulgaires de la France, par M. Champollion-Figeac, p. 24, note.

ex lingua Romana sequioris ævi, seu potius ex idiomate veteri Italico, Gallico, et Hispano, quod vulgo LANGUE ROMANCE appellatur, juxta hæc verba Caroli du Fresne du Cange in Glossario Latino ad Verbum ROMANCIUM: 'Romancium etiam appellant Hispani vulgare suum idioma, quod ut et Gallicum ac Italicum a Romano seu Latino sumat originem.’

"1. Novum Testamentum lingua Pedemontano-Vallensi per Barbetum quemdam seu ministrum Vallensem translatum. Codex in 12o scriptus post annum M.C. Bibl. Civica Tigurina, Ottius.

"2. Novum Testamentum ad usum Valdensium, sc. quatuor Evangelia, septem Epistolæ Canonicæ, quatuordecim Epistolæ Sancti Pauli, et Actus Apostolorum. Deinde Proverbia Salomonis, Ecclesiastes, Canticum Canticorum, priora decem capita Libri Sapientiæ, et quindecim priora Ecclesiastici. Codex spissus in 4o integer, in quo nihil deest, in membranis a quadrigentis annis circiter exaratus, at versio antiquior, Sicut ad me scripsit D. Thomassin de Mazaugue, filius Senatoris Aquensis, penes quem extat hoc exemplar, quod usui Valdensibus fuisse, multis probari potest argumentis, præsertim ex Oratione Dominica, quæ eadem est duobus verbis duntaxat mutatis ac in Codice Johannis Leger, pag. 40. Hist. Valdensium. Hoc exemplar etiam describit Epistola D. Remerville de S. Quentin, scripta anno 1704, et edita in collectione quæ vulgo dicitur Pièces Fugitives d'Histoire et de Littérature,' 2 parte, anni 1704. p. 270.

"3.

Novum Testamentum lingua Provinciali in 4o. Bibl. Regia Cod. 8086.

4.

Biblia Catalana.

Codex membranaceus optime

exaratus, 3 vol. in folio. Bibl. Regia Cod. 9831, 98334."

4 Le Long, Bib. Sac. Vol. 1. pp. 368, 9.