ABSTRACT
The decree concerning the edition and the use of sacred texts adopted by the Council of Trent in its fourth session on 8 April 1546 was sometimes understood as prohibiting any emendation of the Vulgate version of the Scripture. The Synod demanded that the Vulgate be considered authentic in all liturgic matters, on account of its long-standing usage and approbation in the Catholic Church. By such an ordaining, did the Council only attempt to secure the authority of the Vulgate in the doctrinal controversies, or did it rather aim at condemning corrections of the standard Latin version introduced in conformity with the Hebrew and Greek originals? Was the Tridentine decree propounding a merely juridical meaning of the authenticity of the Vulgate, or did it state that the Vulgate was absolutely in accordance with the divine inspiration of the Holy books? If the second option was the right one, then not only a critical study of the Bible was made impossible, but moreover any vernacular version elaborated from the original languages of the Bible had to be suspected of heresy.
