The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

THE VULGATE. I99
the commission set to work with the help of twelve consultors.
Learned men were found, even outside Rome, who placed their
talents at the service of the commission. Thus the Benedic-
tines of the Badia in Florence, at the command of the Pope,
collated twelve Florentine codices, the monks of Montecassino
thirty-four, while another member of the Cassinese Congre-
gation, Ambrogio Ferrari, Abbot of S. Benigno at Genoa,
furnished critical notes on certain passages of the Bible.
The labours of the commission, however, made very slow
progress ; thus Arias Montanus at Antwerp, produced more
work on the Antwerp pol^'glot in a month than the Roman
commission on the Vulgate in a whole year.^ In the opinion
of Cardinal Colonna the reason for this was the diversity of
views among the members of the commission, some of whom
wished to change everything out of hand, while others wished
to treat everything as authentic- However, the work on
the Vulgate was never allowed to come to a complete stand-
still in the time of Pius V.
Steps were also taken in the time of Pius V. on the difficult
task of preparing an authentic edition of the codex of Canon
Law. The congregation set up in 1566 for the emendation
of the decretals of Gratian was composed of Cardinals Colonna,
Boncompagni, Sforza, Sirleto and Alciati, to whom Ferreri
and Carafa were afterwards added ; these had at first twelve
and afterwards fifteen lawyers to advise and assist them.'"*
' Coleccion de docum. indd., XLI. (1862), 178. Hopfl, ioi.
"Carafa to Salmeron, June 17, 1569, in Hopfl, 308 seq.
' AuGUSTiNi Theiner disquisltiones criticae in praecipuas
canonum et decretalium coUectiones, Rome, 1836, App. prima
3 seqq. A *brief of February 18, 1567 " pro cardinalibus deputatis
ad correctionem decreti Gratiani : facultas recipiendi e biblio-
theca Vaticana quoscunque libros opportunos facto chirographo
bibliothecario de iUis restituendis " in the Archives of Briefs,
Rome, I., 2, 1867b. A *brief of March 26, 1568 to the Bishop of
Plasencia renews the exhortation already sent to him under
Pius IV. to send to Rome for the purpose of correcting the decretals
of Gratian five unpubhshed councils of Toledo, and the most
correct manuscripts in his possession, for those already printed