Our Authorized Bible Vindicated - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

only were such translations in existence long
before the Vulgate was adopted by the Papacy, and
well established, but the people for centuries
refused to supplant their old Latin Bibles by the
Vulgate. “The old Latin versions were used longest
by the western Christians who would not bow to
the authority of Rome -- e. g., the Donatists; the
Irish in Ireland, Britain, and the Continent; the
Albigenses, etc.”[17]
God in His wisdom had invested these Latin
versions by His Providence with a charm that
outweighed the learned artificiality of Jerome’s
Vulgate. This is why they persisted through the
centuries. A characteristic often overlooked in
considering versions, and one that cannot be too
greatly emphasized, needs to be pointed out in
comparing the Latin Bible of the Waldenses, of the
Gauls, and of the Celts with the later Vulgate. To
bring before you the unusual charm of those Latin
Bibles, I quote from the Forum of June, 1887:
“The old Italic version into the rude Low Latin
of the second century held its own as long as Latin
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