Mind of the Church

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Folio 297–302

Letter S

S

Salonius, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul, having entered the desert scarcely ten years old, nourished among the hands of the holy hermits, and there trained through all the disciplines of spiritual matters by Honoratus, and Hilary of Arles, and Salvian — most holy and most learned men — and at last imbued with the divine Letters, together with his brother Veranius (afterward a bishop), by Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, published many excellent commentaries on the holy Scriptures; of whose number there still survive brief commentaries on the Proverbs [Parables] and on the Ecclesiastes of Solomon, to his brother Veranius, composed in the manner of a dialogue: in which, under the persons of Salonius and Veranius, various little questions about the several chapters are explained through questions and answers. The beginning of the former commentary is, Veranius: In what language are the Proverbs spoken? But the opening of the second commentary is, Veranius: By what names was Solomon called? He flourished under Valentinian and Marcian, in the year of the Lord 450.

Salvian, Bishop of the Church of Marseilles [so printed; Salvian was a presbyter of Marseilles], copiously furnished with divine and human literature, a master of the bishops of his time, wrote, in a Latin, clear, and terse discourse, many most praiseworthy little works; but among others he composed, in most elegant verse, a book From the beginning of Genesis up to the creation of the first man; and likewise one book of commentaries on the last part of Ecclesiastes, to Claudianus, Bishop of Vienne; he also composed [a book] τῶν ἀντικειμένων — that is, one book Of Passages set in opposition, from both Testaments. He flourished under the Emperor Zeno, in the year of the Lord 480.

Sancho de Porta [Sanctius de Porta], of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], a scholastic by profession, venerable both in life and in erudition, wrote, in a rude and simple discourse, on the Lections of the gospels and epistles mixed together — which are read in the Church throughout the Sundays of the whole year — two volumes of sermons, filled with pious morality. Volume 1 begins, Looking from afar. Volume 2, This is the day which [the Lord] made, etc.

Santes Pagninus [Sante Pagnini], of Lucca, of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], an Apostolic preacher, a man exceedingly learned in the divine Scriptures, and most skilled in the three tongues, but especially in Hebrew — when he had observed that that famous version of Jerome had, by the injury of the times and the carelessness of men, either in great part fallen away or in great part been corrupted, he too attempted to undertake a new translation of the whole Scripture, Leo X, Supreme Pontiff, urging [him on] and supplying the funds necessary for the work. Having therefore compared among themselves many, and those the most approved, exemplars of the Hebrews, with the greatest diligence and fidelity he could, he gave the whole Old Testament into Latin from the Hebrew truth, and restored the multitude of Hebrew names — which earlier interpreters had bent into Latin forms — to the utterance of the Hebrew tongue. And, that the reader might have the correct method of pronouncing in Hebrew, he placed accents over the Hebrew words, with certain numbers added in the margin of the whole volume, which would indicate how many verses — which the Jews call Pesukim [so printed Pesuchim] — were contained in each chapter of the Hebrew scripture. All of which he executed with such skilful care that the most skilled Rabbis of the Hebrews prefer his edition to all the translations which now exist, extolling it with many praises. He also translated, with no less praise, the whole New Testa-

…[he translated the whole New Testa]ment according to the Greek text; in which, just as also in the Old Testament, he strove to follow the authority of the Vulgate edition, the sense of the Greek context being preserved. And he dedicated his work to Clement VII, Supreme Pontiff.

To these he added one book On the interpretation of the Hebrew, Chaldaean, and Greek words contained in the sacred letters: in which, according to the idiom of each language, he set the proper interpretations, derivations, and their compositions, with the books and chapters of the divine scripture cited; where each word is contained, just as it was interpreted and expounded by him.

The same [Pagninus] gathered, from all the Hebrew dictionaries of the Rabbis, a huge Hebrew Lexicon — not undeservedly called the THESAURUS OF THE HOLY TONGUE — in which he assembled, in abundant plenty, all the riches and wealth of the holy tongue, for the use of those who aspire to the Hebrew skill of the sacred letters.

He published besides, in imitation of Tyconius and Augustine, one book whose title is ISAGOGE [Introduction] TO THE SACRED LETTERS: in which he gathered from the ancient fathers many rules, highly necessary for expounding obscure phrases, figurative locutions, and the mystical senses of the divine scriptures. Its beginning is, That the Hebrew tongue was…

He also composed eighteen books of a similar subject, filled with an admirable abundance and variety of all heavenly matters, which he entitled ISAGOGAE for understanding the mystical senses of sacred scripture, because in them he treats of the mystical and spiritual senses of the sacred words according to the series of the letters, expounding almost the whole divine Scripture mystically under the pretext of this occasion. He was incited to this labor, as he himself indicates, by the example of St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, who gathered a book of not-dissimilar subject, entitled ON THE DIVINE FORMULAS, from many monuments of the ancients. The beginning of the work is, Seven demons.

He gathered likewise, not without great labor, a huge work on the Pentateuch, distinguished into six large volumes, called the SILVER CHAIN [Catena Argentea]: in which he wove together the expositions of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins, as if with certain links inserted into one another.

With similar industry he also gathered a Silver Chain on the whole Psalter, cut into three parts.

Likewise, on the whole of Psalm 118, a Grammatical explanation of the Hebrew words, most useful to beginners of the holy tongue, which is annexed to the Hebrew Institution [grammar] of the same author. He dies at Lyons in the year of the Lord 1541, and was buried there, in a marble tomb in the middle of the choir of the sacred church of the Preachers [Dominicans].

Sangrinus the Englishman, or Angelo Sangrino [Angelus Sangrinus], a not-ignoble poet, Abbot of Monte Cassino, composed a Paraphrase on the Psalter, wrought in various kinds of meter, which begins, O how blessed [is he] whom I foretell.

The Seventy-two Interpreters, Hebrews by nation, most wise and most holy men, first of all — as Philo and Epiphanius write — translated into the Greek tongue the whole Old Testament (which among the Jews was kept in twenty-two books),1 at the urging of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt; who, since he greatly desired to build at Alexandria a Library celebrated in the whole world, commanded Demetrius of Phalerum, a most learned man, set over his Library, to procure from the whole world of lands as many volumes as he could — men being distributed through suitable places, who, with no reckoning of expense or labor, should both buy and transcribe the books. When therefore he had heard from those who had been sent that there were extant at Jerusalem the sacred Laws of the Jews, worthy of the royal Library, if they could be translated into Greek from the Hebrew tongue in which they were written, he brought a petition to the king, that he should summon Hebrew interpreters together with those books, who might faithfully transcribe them into Greek speech. This petition being accepted, the king wrote letters to Eleazar, the pontiff of the Jews, that from every tribe he should send to him six men — instructed indeed in the best morals, venerable in age, and most learned in the meditation of the Law itself — together with the Law of the Jews, so that, with many [men] interpreting with every keenness of mind and choosing some concordant [reading], they might accomplish a matter worthy of so great an effort.

When therefore six men from each of all the tribes of the Jews, sent by Eleazar, had come to the king, and he feared that they might not translate plainly and candidly the truth inserted in the divine volumes, but might of set purpose conceal some [part], he ordered them each to be kept in separate cells on the island of Pharos, and, placed there apart, to translate the same [text]. But by divine counsel it came about that they all, with the same words, the same names, and the same sentences, from beginning to end, turned the twenty-two volumes of the Old Instrument [Testament]; so that the king, and the Gentiles themselves, might manifestly recognize that those divine Scriptures had been translated not by human but by divine prompting — which Ptolemy the king, embracing with the highest joy, dedicated to his Library.

But it must be known that these seventy-two interpreters passed over, in their translation, many testimonies of the Prophets concerning Christ and the holy Trinity2 — not indeed out of carelessness or malice, but by a pious and prudent counsel, and that they kept silent for no light reasons. In the first place, because, since they were translating before the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, they could not know many of the mysteries of the Christ to come, not yet fully perceived in those ages — God so disposing that all the mysteries of his divinity should be reserved to be disclosed, at the rising of the Evangelical light, by the splendor of Christ. And so, what they either did not know, or did not fully know, or translated in doubtful and ambiguous sentences, or passed over entirely — preferring rather to keep a good silence about things unknown than, by speaking of things they did not know, to pronounce ill. Then, lest they should scandalize King Ptolemy, they concealed many things about the Son of God and about his coming, lest perhaps the king, hearing that God has a Son, should suppose that the Jews, according to the dogma of Plato, held a twofold godhead

…[a twofold] godhead, and worship two Gods — [the Jews] whom [Ptolemy] therefore held in great esteem, because they were said to worship only one God. Finally, they kept silent about many other mysteries besides these, lest they should betray all the mysteries of their faith to the heathen, deeming it unworthy — according to Christ’s saying — to give the holy thing to dogs, and to cast pearls before swine. For these most just causes, then, many things were omitted by the seventy-two interpreters, which gave to later interpreters an occasion for preparing new editions. Now the names of these seventy-two interpreters,3 according to the order of the twelve Hebrew Tribes, collected by Aristeas, are these:

All these seventy-two men flourished together in the times of Eleazar, pontiff of the Jews, and of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt, in the 124th Olympiad, 350 years before the birth of Christ. Whose history was written by Aristeas, the shield-bearer of the aforesaid King Ptolemy, in a book On the LXXII interpreters, published specially to Philocrates, his brother; Philo also in the second book On the life of Moses; Josephus likewise in the twelfth book of the Jewish Antiquities; Epiphanius too, bishop of Salamis, in the book On weights and measures; and St. Jerome in many of his little works — from which authors we have taken these few [things]. Nor do I think it should be passed over that Philo, in the book already cited, writes that there was once among the Jews so great a veneration of this translation that most of them were accustomed to cross over each year to the island of Pharos, to honor with a solemn celebration the place in which the interpretation of the divine Law had first been published, and to give thanks to God for so great a benefit. The same Philo testifies also that the whole Old Testament was translated by the LXX interpreters, although Josephus reports that only the Pentateuch was translated by them. Francisco Ximénez [Cardinal Cisneros] gave this whole edition of theirs to Latin ears [in the Complutensian Polyglot].

Serafino da Feltre [Seraphinus Cumiranus Feltrensis], of the regular family of the Minorites [Franciscan Observants], most exercised in the holy Scriptures, gathered from all the books of divine Scripture two Volumes of passages which seemed to conflict among themselves — one on the passages of the Old Testament apparently conflicting, the other on the contrary passages of the New Testament; in which, no less piously than learnedly, he dissolved and settled the apparent conflicts of the divine Scriptures according to the opinion of the orthodox Fathers. The title of the work is, A Reconciliation of the Common Passages of the whole sacred Scripture which seem to conflict among themselves. He still lives, celebrated among the learned of his religion, in the year of the Lord 1566.

Serapion, bishop of the Egyptian city of Thmuis [μύεως — so printed; = Θμούεως], renowned in the confession of Christ under Constantine Augustus (whose huge and most noble work against the Manichaean, written in the Greek tongue, I lately read) — and who, on account of the elegance of his wit, earned the surname of THE SCHOLASTIC, especially dear to the great Antony the Monk, once a monk and Abbot, having under him about ten thousand monks living by their own labor — wrote one book On the titles of the Psalms. He flourished under Constantius Augustus, in the year of the Lord 340.

Sertorius Fortanerius [Sertorio Fortanieri], Archbishop of Ravenna, Patriarch of Grado, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of the Order of Minors [Franciscan], from a Welsh town of England [so printed “ex oppido Angliae Galensi”; doubtful], composed on almost all the holy Scriptures many volumes of scholastic explanation. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1356.

Severianus, bishop of Gabala — which is a city of Syria — learned and eloquent, was often called to Constantinople by John Chrysostom and the Emperor Arcadius, to deliver sacred sermons in the Church; and Chrysostom lent him his own church while he [himself] was being driven into exile, venerating in him not only doctrine but also the merit of his life. But he [Severianus], commending himself to the people more than was fitting, supplied fuel for discord between himself and John [Chrysostom]; yet, when Chrysostom had returned from exile, he came back again into favor with him. This man, among the other monuments of his wit, left on Genesis several Homilies, of which fourteen, not yet translated from the Greek, are kept at Vienna in the Brassican Library. He also left commentaries on the epistle to the Galatians. Oecumenius, in his commentaries on the first epistle to the Corinthians, cites fifty-eight volumes of his sermons. He flourished in the year of the Lord 400.

Sigebert, a monk of Gembloux, of the Benedictine order, a Gaul by nation, a most celebrated poet of his time, and worn [versed] from his youth in the divine Scriptures, wrote on the book of Ecclesiastes in hexameter verse, 1 book. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1110.

Simon of Afflighem [Simon Affligeniensis], a Benedictine monk, distinguished for erudition in the divine Scriptures and for the holiness of his conduct, terse and elegant in speech, wrote brief commentaries on Ezekiel; and the same man abridged the 33 books of the commentaries of Blessed Gregory on Job, and reduced them to the number of ten small volumes; in the year of the Lord 1300.

Simon the Englishman, of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], gathered a Postil on the four major Prophets, and on the books of the Maccabees, [and] on the Proverbs of Solo-

…[Simon the Englishman gathered a Postil] on the Proverbs of Solomon, and on the biblical prefaces of St. Jerome.

Simon of Cascia [Simon à Cassia], from the town of the Hernici, of the Order of Hermits [Augustinian], learned and eloquent, illustrated with a prophetic spirit, published a notable work On the deeds of the Savior, digested into fifteen books; in which he brilliantly expounded the whole history of the four Evangelists, arranged in the order of a single narration, according to the historical and mystical understanding. Its beginning is, From the good and above the good. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1340.

Simon Atumano [Simon Iatumaeus], first bishop of Gerace, and soon archbishop of Thebes, a Constantinopolitan by fatherland, learned in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and exercised by continual reading in the divine Scriptures, reduced into one the series of the whole New Instrument [Testament] from the most corrected Greek codices, with the highest diligence; and then he turned it also into Hebrew and into Latin, interpreting most faithfully word for word. Finally he arranged these three editions in three columns on each page with such industry that line answered most aptly to line, and word to word, placed opposite one another, as much in sense as in word. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1400.

Simon Corroy [Simon Corroyus], of the Celestine order, composed a Monotessaron on the Gospels, which he called the EVANGELICAL PANDECT, beginning, Who first. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

Simon of Speyer [Simon Spirensis], of the Carmelite order, a theologian of Paris, wrote a scholastic Postil on Paul, delivered by him as lectures at Cologne, in the year of the Lord 1340.

Sixtus of Siena [Sixtus Senensis], of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], least among the ecclesiastical declaimers — although I long and much refused to insert mention of my ignoble and obscure name into this catalog, yet it was necessary for me (my friends so wishing) to note briefly in this place my unlearned labors, and [those] scarcely worthy of any commemoration, after the example of Jerome, Gennadius, Honorius, and Trithemius, who in the catalogs of writers published by them reviewed their own lucubrations.4 I have written, then, up to the present forty-sixth year of my age, and 1566 of human salvation, the following volumes upon the divine letters:

Sixtus Vicedominus [Sisto Vicedomini], of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], a native of Como, a Theologian by profession, so joined with the studies of sacred Theology the riches of all the sciences and the ornaments of eloquence, that in the Ecumenical assembly [General Chapter] of the Dominican commonwealth, held at Bologna in the year 1564, he did not hesitate — though quite young — to propose in public disputations ἐν κυκλοπαιδείαν, that is, the Circular [encyclopedic] and perfect comprehension of all the disciplines, all the heads of the Academies being challenged into the arena; to whom, when he had responded with the highest erudition — both to the several things asked and to the objections raised — and with equal elegance of discourse, he obtained for himself a great glory of wisdom and of eloquence. He, now at Verona, expounding the disputative or scholastic part of Theology in the school of St. Anastasia the martyr, and narrating to the people the other part of Theology — which embraces the interpretation of the holy volumes — writes also excellent explanations on various books of divine Scripture; from which we shortly expect [to come] into the light most ample Commentaries on the epistle to the Romans, elaborated by a compendious method of exposition.

Smaragdus, Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Michael, a man distinguished for erudition in the divine Scriptures, wrote commentaries on the Psalter, and — on the Epistles and Gospels which are read through the year — brief and perspicuous expositions, whose beginning is, Epistle is a Greek word. He flourished in the year of the Lord 680 [so printed; Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel belongs rather to the early 9th century].

Sophronius, nobly learned in Greek and Latin letters, most intimate with St. Jerome, translated into Greek the Latin edition of the whole Old Instrument [Testament] which Jerome had translated from the Hebrew truth. This Greek translation, as appears from the Collectanea of Procopius the Sophist on the Octateuch, many Greek expositors — Jerome’s name being also cited — illustrated in their commentaries. He flourished under Theodosius Augustus, in the year of the Lord 400.

Stephen the Englishman [Stephanus Anglicus; = Stephen Langton], formerly the ornament and rector of the University of Paris, studious and learned in the divine Scriptures, and in Aristotelian philosophy second to none in his time, gloriously taught Theology for many years, and was the first to begin expounding sacred Scripture morally; and hence the custom grew up that the masters of scholastic Theology should open the divine books in the schools more lucidly and easily. He wrote, therefore, on the sacred Letters many excellent expositions, but especially on the Octateuch, [books] of commenta-

…[he wrote on the sacred Letters many excellent expositions, but especially on the Octateuch] eleven books of commenta-[ries], and on the sixteen prophets sixteen books, in style and feeling not ungrateful, as appears from his fragments recently published by Tilmann the Carthusian in the Tomes of Allegories. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1200.

Stephen Langton [Stephanus Langion], the Englishman, Cardinal-Presbyter of St. Chrysogonus, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote on the Octateuch twelve books, and on all the epistles of Paul 14 books. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1228. Whether this one is different from the Stephen above, I do not sufficiently know.

Stephen Paris [Stephanus Paris], of Orléans [Aurelianensis], Bishop of Avellino [Abellunensis], doctor of Theology, of the Order of Preachers, wrote in elegant discourse upon that [text], The Word was made flesh, a prolix exposition, very suited to preachers through Advent, and arranged by lections, whose beginning is, To piety and religion: likewise one book of Lenten sermons. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

Stephen Poloniacus [Stephanus Poloniacus], a Frenchman, of the Order of Preachers: a Postil on John I have seen in the Dominican library at Lyons, thus beginning, In his hands he hides the light.

Stephen, a Paris doctor. He put out a scholastic Postil on the epistle to the Romans and to the Hebrews, of whom Vincentius Bandellus [Vincenzo Bandelli] makes mention in his treatise On the Conception.

Strabo the Monk, English by nation, of Cambridge [Cantabrigensis] by homeland, brother of the Venerable Bede the presbyter, and gatherer of his studies, learned and pious, wrote on the whole book of Genesis commentaries not ignoble, which he gathered from the sayings of the orthodox Fathers, in imitation of his brother, with diligent skill, in the year of the Lord 750.

Strabus [Walahfrid Strabo], monk of the monastery of Fulda, German by nation, once the hearer and scribe of Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz: a man abundantly polished in secular literature, most skilled in the divine Scripture, and delighting in the varied and assiduous reading of the ancient authors — among other little works, in which with clear and succinct discourse he illustrated certain particular books of the sacred Law, he also gathered, in imitation of his teacher, from the sayings of the holy fathers (their names being appended), commentaries on the whole sacrosanct Bible:5 which they now call the GLOSSA ORDINARIA [the Ordinary Gloss], afterwards enriched by many other later writers and by various opinions of the ancient doctors. He flourished under Louis Augustus [Louis the Pious], in the year of the Lord 840.

Sylvester Prierias [Sylvester Mazzolini], of Piedmont [Pedemontanus], of the Order of Preachers, gathered from the commentaries of St. Thomas a scholastic Postil on the Gospel lections of the whole year, which he entitled the GOLDEN ROSE [Aurea Rosa], with questions added not altogether to be despised, in the year of the Lord 1510.

Symmachus, the third Greek interpreter of the Scriptures, a Samaritan by nation, of the number of the wise men of Samaria, when he could not by his ambition obtain the principate among his own people, in indignation defected to the Jews, and among them, having been made a proselyte, was again circumcised with a second circumcision.6 For this was the custom among the ancient Hebrews, that those who fled from the Jews to the Samaritans, and in turn from the Samaritans to the Hebrews, should be circumcised anew, aided by the help of a certain medical traction instrument which they call a Spatister: by which indeed they would draw the little skin of the pudendum over the glans, and, with agglutinative [plasters] applied round about, would draw the foreskin over again upon the now-bared glans, and the drawn-over [foreskin] they would circumcise afresh. Of which matter Paul, making mention in the first epistle to the Corinthians,7 says: Is anyone called being circumcised? let him not draw the foreskin over to himself; is anyone in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.8 Although Jerome, weighing that which is read in the first [book] of Maccabees, And they made themselves foreskins,9 affirms that this is to be understood not of the fathers themselves, but of their sons. This Symmachus, therefore, when after being circumcised again he was living in dishonor among the Jews, went over to the Christians, and embraced the heresy of the Ebionites: according to whose dogmas he wrote also commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, endeavoring thence to confirm his own impiety, by which he contended that Christ had been a mere man — occasion being taken from the carnal generation which is recited at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. By him, therefore, was the third translation of divine Scripture so put out, that in it not word-for-word (which Aquila had done) but sense-for-sense was expressed. He flourished under the Emperor Septimius Severus, in the year of the Lord 190.

The Syriac Edition [Syra Editio], which the Greek Fathers often expound together with the other Greek and Latin editions, is believed by some to be the Chaldaic translation, called by the Jews Thargum [Targum], that is, Paraphrase, and once not only familiar but vernacular to them, while they inhabited the land of promise, and even now of the highest authority among them: which, though in many places it is clearer than the Hebrew text itself, is yet found to be conflated in no small part of itself from the translation of the Seventy interpreters in the places that are most obscure. Jacobus [James], Bishop of Christopolis, asserts that the author of this translation was Jonathan ben Uzziel [Ionathan Abenuziel] the Jew, who in the twenty-first year of Octavius Augustus — that is, in the 21st year before Christ was born — translated the whole Old Instrument [Testament] into the Chaldaic, or Syriac, tongue, expressing sense-for-sense rather than word-for-word. The same Bishop relates also, in his exposition of the twentieth Psalm, that this Jonathan explained in his Targum many mysteries concerning the divinity of Christ and the holy Trinity — as in his edition of the second Psalm: in which, while he was illustrating in paraphrase that sentence, The Lord said to me, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee, etc., he wrote thus:

These two, the Father and the Son, are three in one third person, namely in the Holy Spirit: and these three are one — one, I say, in substance, one in essence, and one God.

And while Jonathan was committing these things to writing, suddenly a voice was brought to him from heaven, saying: Who is this that dares to reveal my secrets to the nations? Then Jonathan: I, O Lord, said he, have dared to attempt this for the reverence and glory of thy name. These things [says] the Bishop of Christopolis — whether they be so, I leave to others to inquire. Plainly it is certain that these words are not to be had in the Chaldaic interpretation of the Psalms which is now in circulation. The Jews report that the Targum [was made] by three most skilled Rabbi-

…[the Targum was composed] by three most skilled Rabbi-[s] — Onkelos, Jonathan, and Joseph — of whom Onkelos translated the Pentateuch alone; Jonathan, the Pentateuch and the Prophets, both former and latter; but Joseph, the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and Esther. Francisco Ximénez [Jiménez de Cisneros] the Cardinal, in the preface to the Complutensian edition, teaches that this Chaldaic translation faithfully answers to the Hebrew truth in the five books of Moses alone, but that in the other divine volumes it is corrupt, and in many places besprinkled with mere fables and with the trifles of the Talmudists.

Footnotes

  1. The seventy-two interpreters, first of all, translated the whole Old Testament into the Greek tongue. ↩

  2. The LXX interpreters, for three reasons, passed over many things concerning the Trinity and Christ. ↩

  3. The names of the seventy-two interpreters of sacred Scripture. ↩

  4. Hitherto I have seen nothing of all the works of Sixtus of Siena except the Bibliotheca Sancta. ↩

  5. The author of the Ordinary Gloss is Strabus. ↩

  6. Symmachus, the Greek interpreter of the Scriptures, was twice circumcised. ↩

  7. 1 Cor. 7:18. ↩

  8. The Vulgate edition has “let him not draw over the foreskin” (non adducat praeputium). ↩

  9. 1 Macc. 1:16. ↩

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Sixtus of Siena, O.P., “Letter S,” in The Catholic Expositors of the Divine Volumes, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/bibliotheca-sancta-iv/016-letter-s/.

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