CHAPTER I.

VULGAR TONGUE."-" THE VULGATE." ARCHBISHOP FITZ RALPH.-QUEEN ELIZABETH. -ARCHBISHOP O'DONNELL'S IRISH TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. -OPPOSITION OF THE PAPACY.

into Irish.

HE Irish Bible, that is, the Bible in the Irish language, is my subject; and the first part of its history is obvirusly how it came to be in that language-that is to say, the history of its translation

When God was pleased to give His Word, to reveal His will to men, it was, in the first instance, given in the "vulgar tongue"that is, in the language understood by the people to whom He gave it. The holy men whom God inspired for the purpose, spoke and wrote in the tongue of the people-the "vulgar tongue." The first or original language of the Old Testament was Hebrew, because that was the vulgar, the common or the native tongue of the people to whom the Word was given.

The original language of the New Testament was Greek-the most universal language of the day-into which also had been translated the Old Testament, in the version called "The Septuagint" so that in this language the whole Word of God could be best and most extensively known in those days.

In process of time, the Latin language became almost universal, and the Bible was translated into that tongue; and that translation, symbolizing in its title the principle for which Protestants contend, was called "The Vulgate," for the very reason that the Latin was then the vulgar or common tongue -the language in which the Bible could be best and most extensively understood at that Deriod.

In that language-the Latin-the ancient Irish Christians heard and read, like the Bereans of old, the Scriptures to such an extent as to become the most Bible-reading people in the world in those times. It was the glory of the land, and they were praised for it throughout Christendom.

When Latin ceased to be the universal language-the vulgar tongue-as the old Roman Empire fell to pieces, it became necessary to have the Bible translated into other languages. But this good work was hindered and neglected throughout Christendom by the general decay of religion and learning, from various causes.

It is well known to every student of Irish history, that such decay in Ireland was owing to the Danish invasions, and the wars and devastations which followed, when schools and colleges, books and teachers were swept away, and great ignorance and moral darkness soon followed- a "total eclipse," as the historian of the Irish Bible has it, "throughout the island which was once the luminary of the Western world."

The first effort made in Ireland to translate the Holy Scriptures into the Irish language, of which we have any trace or tradition, was that of Richard Fitz Ralph, who was Primate of all Ireland A.D. 1347-about the middle of the 14th century-of whom Dr. Monck Mason, in his "Memoir of the Irish Version of the Bible," writes:

"In the 14th century, nearly 900 years after the decease of St. Patrick, there succeeded to him in the Archiepiscopal chair of Armagh, a distinguished prelate, who was far in advance of his age: this was Richard Fitz Ralph, styled also Armachanus, from his see. He was born in Dundalk, and was educated at Oxford, of which University he was Chancellor, A.D. 1333. In 1347 he was raised to the Primacy of all Ireland. He travelled to Avignon to preach before the Pope, Innocent VI., against the mendicant friars, who were the grievous curse of that

age from that city he never returned. He is said to have translated the New Testament into the Irish tongue; and Bale has noticed (Script. Brit., cent. xiv., p. 216) a curious tradition respecting this version-that it was concealed by Fitz Ralph in a wall of his cathedral in Armagh, with the following note in Latin:-'When this book shall be discovered, truth shall be made manifest to the whole world, or Christ shall soon appear;' and further, that it was found about the year 1560, when the cathedral of Armagh was being repaired."

This was the period of the Reformation, when "truth" was "made manifest," if not to the "whole world," to Europe. With this exception, we hear of nothing else having been done during those middle or dark ages from the Danish inundation until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was not until then that any real effort was made to secure to the people of this land the inestimable blessing of having the Word of God in their own tongue. The Bible in Latin had long ceased to be the vulgate-the language understood by the people -and the first step to have it in the Celtic tongue was in A.D. 1571, in the 13th year of Queen Elizabeth's reign. That Great Queen had in Ireland a great Viceroy, called the "Good Lord Deputy," Sir Henry Sydney, the friend and playfellow of the pious King Edward VI.; and this excellent man so urged the necessity of this work on his Royal Mistress, that she sent over a fount of Irish type, and other instruments for the press, "in hope that God in His mercy would raise up some to translate the New Testament into the mother tongue." These were entrusted to John Kearney, Treasurer, and Nicholas Walsh, Chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin; and they began the work and set about translating the New Testament. Walsh became Bishop of Ossory, and was murdered in Kilkenny by a man named Dollard, whom he had prosecuted for a great crime. His place was supplied by O'Donnell, who took up the translation, and had the New Testament printed at last, in A.D. 1602. In the dedication he gives the following account:

"Thus was the weight of the burden thrown upon my weak shoulders, that God might

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manifest His power through weakness. Under which burden how carefully and conscionably I have groaned, they only can judge that confer this text with the original Greeke, unto which I tyed myself as of dutie I ought, having laboured therein, in all sinceritie as in the presence of God the Judge of all to express the text truly and fully, without detraction or addition, save only in such places where the necessitie of the phrase or sentence require it to give the full sense. Which necessarie additions, for want of a diverse character, are distinguished with these marks []; and notwithstanding the manifold stumblingblocks that Sathan in his wonted malice had cast in the way, and the small encouragement that I received, yet the hope of future blessings by reason of your Majestie's College, lately erected near Dublin (where this worke was begun, and continued for some time), and the fervent zeal and Christian affection of Sir William Usher, your Majestie's faithful servant, and Clarke of your Councell Generall in your Highnesses Realme of Ireland (who, following the steps of his religious father, willingly undertook the greatest part of the charges of this impression), did greatly kindle mine affection to follow the work with all earnestness, and that in a time of blacknesse, and darkness, and tempest, wherein all hope of proceeding was in a manner cut off."

This was in the year 1602, seven years be. fore the appointment of O'Donnell to the Archbishopric of Tuam. The following short account of him in page 16 of the "Memoir," will not be without interest:

"Archbishop Daniel, or O'Donnell, was o native of Kilkenny, and one of the first three scholars nominated by the original charter of Trinity College, Dublin; he was elected a Fellow about the year 1596, and consecrated Archbishop of Tuam A.D. 1609. Sir James Ware informs us that he was indeed a man of distinguished learning.' His version, therefore, which was made from the original Greek, was holden in well-merited estimation, and was confessedly free from any Romanist taint. He also translated into Irish the Book of Common Prayer, which was printed A.D. 1608, in a small folio volume. He died in 1628."

O'Donnell's translation of the Bible