80 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



rabbis he made, chiefly from the Hebrew and Chaldaic, his 

 final translation of the Old Testament. Jerome's translations 

 are the substance of the Latin Vulgate, the volume entitled 

 first place in an\' collection of modern books. It may be 

 traced with but little change through more than fifteen 

 centuries. It is the authorized version of the Catholic 

 church, and besides that, every Bible issued since its first 

 engrossment has profited by its influence. And it is little 

 short of a crime to forget that the one name indelibly 

 stamped on this great book, to which we all are debtors, is 

 the name of St. Jerome. 



There are fragments of the gospels, translated in the 

 fourth century by Bishop Ulfilas, from Greek into Gothic. 

 Although of but secondary aid in tracing transmission of the 

 scriptures, they are perhaps more highly prized than any 

 other manuscripts preserved in Europe. Apart from them, 

 little or no other written record is left of the Goths, whose 

 prowess contributed so much to the overthrow of the Roman 

 empire ; for soon after this translation was made the Gothic 

 language became virtually extinct. In his 5'outh Ulfilas was 

 held as a hostage at Constantinople. There he learned Latin 

 and Greek, and formed plans for giving to his countrymen a 

 version of the gospel in their own tongue. The Codex 

 Argenteus, preserved at Upsala, in Sweden, contains most of 

 the gospels ; and but little more of the translation by Ulfilas 

 has been preserved. That manuscript is within a hundred or 

 a hundred and fifty years as old as the original translation. 

 Its linguistic value can hardly be overrated. Without it, 

 Grimm's comparative grammar in its present complete form 

 would have been impossible. And it moreover furnishes in a 

 Low German tongue nearest akin to our own, a version of the 

 gospels more than five hundred years older than any we have 

 left us written in early English speech. 



Only a few scripture translations into what an old writer 

 quaintly calls " The birth-speech of the English people," are 

 found in the Anglo-Saxon period of the English language. 

 In Latin psalters, in fragments and paraphrases of the 



