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Trent and the Latin Vulgate, a Louvain Project?
The decree, by which the Latin Vulgate had been promulgated as the authentic Bible version of the
Church on 8 April 1546, has demonstrably been influenced by the work De ecclesiasticis scripturis et
dogmatibus (1533) written by the Louvain theologian John Driedo. At the same time, the Council
expressed the hope that a critical revision of the Vulgate be realized as soon as possible, a task that
was immediately taken in hand by the Louvain scholar John Henten. The Bibla Vulgata Lovaniensis,
published in 1547 by Bartholomew van Grave, served for the years to come as the most important
version of the Latin Vulgate. An emended version of the castigatio Lovaniensis, edited by the scholar
Francis Lucas ‘of Bruges’, was published by Christopher Plantin in 1574 and again in 1583. It served
as a basis for the papal Vulgate committees in Rome that eventually issued the Sixto-Clementine
Vulgate (1590-92) as the official version of the Church. This paper intends to shed light on Trent’s
Latin Vulgate Project, which can be considered to a large degree as a Louvain Project.
Wim François graduated as a doctor of theology (Ph.D. S.T.D.) at the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven, with a dissertation on Vernacular Bible Translations in the Low Countries (1477-1553): A
Church Historical and Theological Approach (2004). This dissertation was awarded the Msgr.
Charles De Clercq-prize for its “important original contribution to the religious history of
Flanders”.
François is currently research professor of the Special Research Fund of the KU Leuven. His field of
research is the history of Church and theology in the Early Modern Era (1450-1650). He is, more
specifically, investigating the place of vernacular Bible reading in the life of the faithful in the period
concerned. In addition, he is doing research into the Bible commentaries edited by the Louvain and
Douai theologians during the Golden Age of Catholic biblical scholarship (1550-1650), with a
particular focus on the Augustinian inspiration of the said commentaries. He has published several
articles and book chapters with regard to the topics concerned. His book on The Catholic Church and
the Dutch Bible: From Devotio Moderna to the Council of Trent is accepted for publication in Brill’s
Series in Church History.