The Douay Testament : an episode in the history of the New Testament in Ireland

T#C« Hammond

The Douay Testament

181

OUR CHURCH SERIES.

THE DOUAY
TESTAMENT

An Episode in the History of the New
Testament in Ireland.

BY
Rev. T. C. HAMMOND, M.A.

Price

One Penny

Published by ''The Christian Irishman" Office,
Church House, Fisherwich Place, Belfast.

Copies can be had from above address or

the Sabbath School Society, Fisherwick Place,

Belfast.

**********xx***^^

E>S\B

THE DOUAY TESTAMENT.

An Episode in the History of the New Testament
in Ireland.

By Rev. T. C. HAMMOND, M.A.

IN the year 1819 a Committee of Pro-
testants and Roman Catholics met in
Dublin. The Earl of Meath occupied
the chair. Their object, as stated in
public advertisements that appeared in
" Saunder's Mews-Letter," Dublin, at
stated intervals during the year 1820, was-
te place within the reach of poorer
Roman Catholics a version of the New
Testament to which they would entertain
no conscientious objection. The first notice
appeared in "Saunder's News-Letter"
on January 7, 1820. It was then stated
that the issue of the New Testament was.
Id be without note or comment. The
advertisement of January 7 was followed
by another on January 11. In Both ad-
vertisements it is stated that the edition
"is in a state of great forwardness." Ac-
knowledgments of subscriptions towards
the issue of the Testament appear on Jan-
uarv 27, February 19, February 22. Appar-
ently with the object of further conciliating
Roman Catholic opinion there is promin-
ence given to the announcement that the
work is entrusted to Mr. Richard Coyne.
the official Roman Catholic publisher to the
Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and
to the College of Maynooth, the great
Roman Catholic Seminary for priests in
Ireland. The Committee announced its
intention of printing 20,000 copies of the
book. In London shortly afterwards a

similar society was established, and called
4 'the London Society for circulating the
'Roman Catholic Version of the New Testa-
ment without note or comment." It is
interesting to notice that the famous
William Wilberforce was a member of this
latter society. At a meeting held at the
Thatched House Tavern on June 11, 1820,
the London Society declared that it was
anxious to support the lt Dublin Roman
Catholic Testament Society," and adopt its
rules, " with some necessary local modi-
fications." It was then asserted that
twenty thousand copies of the New Testa-
ment had been printed, so that the Dublin
Society had at that date realized its project.

Careful inquiry has elicited the fact that
there are at least five different issues of
the Testament of 1820 in existence.

(1) There is what appears to be the first
bound copies. Pasted on the cover is a
declaration without heading: "I certify
that the sacred Text of the New Testa-
ment, in this Edition of it, is conformable
to that of former approved Editions, and
particularly to that of the Douay English
Version sanctioned by me, and published
by R. Cross, in the year 1791.

J. T. TROY, D.D.
Dublin, 9th February, 1820."

This is followed by a Translation of a
Rescript addressed by His Holiness Pius
VII. to the Vicars Apostolic of Great
Britain, dated "the 18th of April, Year of
Grace, 1820, of our Pontificate, 21."

The list of books of the New Testament
is printed at the back of the title page. The

3

address at toot of the title page reads : —
44 Dublin; Printed by R. Coyne, Catholic
Bookseller, 16, Parliament Street. 1820."
On the reverse is the order of books as
stated, and on the reverse of the last page
the names of the printer and the stereo-
typer, J. McGowan, Great Windmill St.,
London. A copy with these features is in
the possession of Rev. A. E. Hughes, Vicar
of St. James1, Clapham.

(2) A second copy in the possession of
the British and Foreign Bible Society has
a curious feature. It contains the words
"I certify," etc., as above pasted inside
the cover of the copy as already described,
but also a similar statement on the last
page of the Testament. A printed slip is
pasted on the title and inscribed, "And
sold by R. M. Tims, 85, Grafton Street,
and in London sold by Robert Henry C.
Tims, 21, Wigmore Street, Cavendish Sq.,
and Messrs. J. Nesbett & Co., Bernera
Street."

(3) A book bearing the address on the
title page similar to that described above
in (1). On the reverse the word 44 Re-
commendation " printed at the head of Dr.
Troy's Certificate. The Certificate is
followed by the Rescript of Pius VII., and
at the bottom of the page a second title as
follows: — "Dublin: Printed by Richard
Coyne, 4, Capel Street, printer and book-
seller to the Royal College of St. Patrick,
Maynooth; and Publisher to the Roman
Catholic Bishops of Ireland." On the
reverse of the last page is found 44The
Order of the Books of the New Testament,
with their proper Names and Number of

their Chapters." There is no name of
printer or stereotyper on this last page in
this issue.

(4) There is a copy of this book in the
British Museum, re-bound, (3051. A.A.A.6)
which agrees with the copy first de-
scribed, but the words "I certify, etc.,"
without any heading appear in a slightly
smaller leaf than a blank leaf which has
been inserted between it and the cover.
The Rescript follows Dr. Troy's Certificate
on the same page. The reverse of this
page is quite blank. The title page has
the address 16, Parliament Street and the
date ,1820, similar to the issue described
in (lj. On the reverse of the title page is
printed Li The Order of the Books of the
New Testament," and underneath Coyne's
address as 4, Capel Street. There is no
imprint on the last page of the book.

(5) There is also what appears to have
become the standard issue, a blank leaf.
Then the title page with the address Dub-
lin : Printed by Richard Coyne, 4, Capel
Street, printer and bookseller to the Royal
College of Saint Patrick, Maynooth,; and
Publisher to the Roman Catholic Bishops
of Ireland. On the reverse of the title
page is printed "Recommendation," fol-
lowed by Dr. Troy's certificate, followed
by the Rescript of Pius VII. The address
in small italic type is reproduced as on the
title page. The Order of Books, etc., ap-
pears on the last page but two, and is
followed by a blank leal. There <is do
date on the title page.

As the New Testament itself had been
stereotyped no difference appears in the

text which runs from page 3 to page 3|i
in every issue.

Copies (3) and (5) are in the possession
of the Irish Church Missions. It is import-
ant to observe this fact as it gives evidence
of repeated issues, at least in bound form,
of this particular Testament.

The book was before the public for a
number of years.

The date of the first publication cannot
be fixed with certainty. On February 4,
1820, Mr. Randall MacDonald moved at a
meeting of the Kildare Place Society : " To
substitute the Douay Testament now in the
Press for the Protestant translation, in the
-case of Roman Catholic children." Dr.
Troy gave his recommendation five days
after, and evidently before the book had
been published.

Every known copy contains the Rescript
of Pope Pius VII. , which was sent to Dr.
Povnter, Vicar Apostolic, England, and
dated 18th April, 1820.

The first evidence of publication we have
been able to secure, is the resolution passed
at The Thatched House Tavern on 11th
-June, 1820. In 1823, a Mr. Tisdall had a
controversy with Rev. Michael Branagan,
the Parish Priest of Cortown. In the
course of discussion Mr. Tisdall writes:
"Now I have gone to the expense of getting
& number of Testaments of the Edition
printed by Coyne, and approved of by Dr.
Troy, which I am willing to lend to anyone
who wishes for them, or to sell at the low
price of one shilling each." (A reply to
a letter from the Rev. Michael Branagan,
P.P., p. 23. Richard Moore Tims, Dublin,
1823.)

6

This is evidence that in March, 1823,
€oyne was still selling the Testament. We
further gather from an incidental refer-
ence (Ibid. p. 27) that Father Branagan
admitted that the Rescript of Pope Pius
VII. "did recommend the reading of the
Scriptures, and was suppressed for that
very reason because the Church dis-
approved of it." It is difficult to under-
stand this reference to the Rescript unless
we conjecture that Father Branagan had
early knowledge of Christie's abortive
effort to issue a Bible in weekly numbers
in which the letter of Pope Pius VI. took
the place of the Rescript of Pope Pius VII.
The first number of the new Bible appeared
on 26th July, 1823. (Rhemes and Douay.
p. 399. Cotton. Oxford Press, 1855.)

Still later the Rev. Wm. Hennings, P.P.,
Killarcaran, Co. Galway, writes to the Kil-
dare Place Society on 12th November,
1824 : "I have borrowed some Testaments
without note or comment until I can get a
supply of my own from Dublin, as I could
not get them to purchase in this neigh-
bourhood." The Rev. Richard Pope quoted
from the Testament on 18th January, 1825,
at a discussion concerning the London
Hibernian School Society. He mentioned
the fact that the Testament had the ap-
proval of Dr. Troy. (Speeches delivered
at a meeting in the town of Sligo, etc. p.
13. Dublin. Richard Moore Tims, 1825.)

The facts would have then been too re-
cent to permit a public and published
statement of this sort to pass without
contradiction.

The last testimony to be adduced is still
more remarkable. In his evidence given

before the Commissioners of Education in
1825, Archbishop Kelly said :— "They (the
Irish Roman Catholic Bishops) have
acceded to the wishes of the Kildare Street
Society so far as to admit a revision of the
Douay Testament without note or com-
ment, being used in that school, but it is-
not used or read except under the im-
mediate direction of the Roman Catholic
clergyman." (Report, p. 775.) The evidence
of the officials of the Kildare. Street Socieu
identifies this New Testament with the
edition first issued in 1820. Dr. Troy died
on May 11, 1823, and at that time the Testa-
ment without notes was circulating fairly
widely. As far as can be gathered, after
an attack on "the indiscriminate circu-
lation of the Scriptures" which began
indeed in 1820 before the issue of the
Testament, but was renewed with vigour
from 1824-26. the sale of this Testament
ceased.

Roman Catholic writers are greatly dis-
turbed by this evidence of a certified' copy
of the New Testament without notes. They
have made several attempts to discredit it.

Mr. P. O'Reillv, Executive Secretarv of
The Catholic Truth Society of Ireland
wrote to "The Anglo-Celt" : "The version
of the New Testament is that prepared by
the late Archbishop Troy, who had it
ready with notes when he died. The
edition above referred to has been pub-
lished without notes." It is not necessary
to point out that these statements are both
wrong and misleading.

The Rev. E. J. Quigley in "The Irish
Ecclesiastical Record " of August, 1930,
improves on this misleading version by

8

still further blunders. He asserts: — "A.
Cork bookseller, Macnamara, printed in
monthly parts a Bible, having received
from Dr. Troy his sanction to the Cork
publication, revised by Rev. P. A. Walsh.
The Cork bookseller^ became bankrupt,,
and his Dublin printer, a Protestant,
suffered. Gumming appealed to Coyne,
the Catholic bookseller and publisher, to
allow Coyne's name on this edition of the
Bible. Coyne consented, and in 1816 the
volume appeared. The Bible Society
bought up the typed plates of Macnamara,
and Gumming, the Protestant, hewed off
the setting of the notes, and issued the
Douay Testament without note or comment.
And the little green covered volumes sold
by Bible hawkers in fairs and markets is
the edition condemned by Dr. Troy. Its
title page contain two lies, Dr. Troy's im-
primatur, and Coyne's name as printer."

Dr. Salmon dryly remarks : — " One can
generally judge what a man is likely to do
by observing what he thinks other people
Likely to do." (Infallibility of the Church.
p. xv. Murray, 1923). We hope for Mr.
Quigley's sake that the remark is not
applicable to his case.

Why are Roman Catholics so anxious to
declare that the book is not what it seems?

1

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