V. GLOSSES AS COMMENTARIES
As
Scriptural commentaries there are two celebrated
glosses on the
Vulgate. The former is the
“Glossa Ordinaria”, thus called from its common use during the
Middle Ages. Its author, the German
Walafrid Strabo (died 849), had some
knowledge of Greek and made extracts chiefly from the
Latin Fathers and from the writings of his master,
Rabanus Maurus, for the purpose of illustrating the various senses – principally the literal sense – of all the books of
Holy Writ. This gloss is quoted as a high authority by
St. Thomas Aquinas, and it was known as “the tongue of
Scripture”. Until the seventeenth century it remained the favourite commentary on the
Bible; and it was only gradually superseded by more independent works of
exegesis. The “Glossa Ordinaria” is found in vols. CXIII and CXIV of
Migne, P. L. The second gloss, the “Glossa Interlinearis”, derived its name from the fact that it was written over the words in the text of the
Vulgate. It was the work of
Anselm of Laon (died 1117), who had some acquaintance with Hebrew and Greek. After the twelfth century copies of the
Vulgate were usually supplied with both these glasses, the “Glossa Ordinaria” being inserted in the margin, at the top and at the sides, and the “Glossa Interlinearis” being placed between the lines of the
Vulgate text; while later, from the fourteenth century onward, the “Postilla” of
Nicholas of Lyra and the “Additions” of Paulus Brugensis were added at the foot of each page. Some early printed editions of the
Vulgate exhibit all this
exegetical apparatus; and the latest and best among them is the one by Leander a S. Martino, O.S.B. (six vols. fol.,
Antwerp, 1634).
He not only accepted the Deutrocanicals as cannon he was also willing to open the list even wider. He argued for the divine nature of the Sibylline Oracles as a parallel revelation to the Bible.