Hardouin Vindicated
G.D.O'Bradovich III
May 8, 2015
Introduction
Jean Hardouin (1646-1729) was a prominent scholar who wrote the definitive history of the Church Councils. However, Hardouin is best remembered for his idea that history was created by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino abbey in the 14th century. Hardouin wrote that the writings of the Church Fathers, when understood correctly, would deny Christian faith while leading the reader to believe that ancient Fathers were themselves either atheists or deists.
Hardouin wrote that the “impious gang” created variants in Bibles so that future readers would question the authority of the Bible and defer to the writings of the Church Fathers. Hardouin maintains that the Latin Vulgate was in the hands of everyone and, therefore, was impossible to corrupt. The Council of Trent decreed that a new Bible based on the long established Latin Bible be issued. We have waited five centuries for this decree to be carried out and we will continue to wait as there was no tradition of a Latin Bible in the Roman Church.
Hardouin wrote that all the Greek Fathers wrote in the same dialect, save one who wrote in the Attic dialect, and there was no evolution or change in the language over the hundreds of years that the Fathers allegedly wrote. Hardouin mentions that the French language has changed in the centuries before his time and we have no reason to doubt this assertion. We are not competent Greek scholars so we can neither agree nor disagree that the Greek Fathers wrote in the same dialect. However, we can know whether or not if variants in the alleged writings of the Church Fathers have reached our time. We would expect variants due to scribal errors, which are commonplace when discussing the Bible, during the alleged centuries of copying and we would also expect variants due to changes in meaning of words in different times and places that are inevitable in a living language.
The early 18th century French Jesuit Hardouin could not be as forthcoming regarding Church history as the late 19th century English Edwin Johnson. Hardouin wanted to preserve the Roman Church, but not history as he received it. Hardouin does not mention variants in the writings of the Church Fathers, although he wrote that only one copy of each book was created. However, Hardouin maintains that the conspiracy was only able to be uncovered after the “Age of Printing” and the impious writings were discovered on library bookshelves.
Variant Spellings in English
Variant spellings of words are well attested by research in the Oxford English Dictionary for words in long use, such examples are “manne” (man), “shippe”, “shoppe” and “Criste” (Christ). We posses three signatures by Shakespeare, and all are spelled differently. Therefore, there were no accepted standard spellings for personal names up to and including the Elizabethan Era. From these examples, we have strong evidence that English existed before writing and before the age of printing. It is only after the age of printing that “correct spelling” took a hold on the mind of educators.
Variant Spellings in Biblical Manuscripts
There are thousands of component books of the Bible that possess variant spellings and additions and omissions of text. These variations are attributed to accumulated scribal error through the centuries. Hardouin wrote that the reason for the variants was a conspiracy to dispel belief in the accuracy of the Bible. Unfortunately, as we can understand the reasoning for each case, we can not determine which of these two explanations is correct.
Variant Spellings in the works of the Church Fathers
There are none to few variants in the hundreds of volumes of the Church Fathers. Hardouin maintains that there was only one copy of each book created by the “impious gang” in the 14th century. Historians assure us that the Church Fathers existed in the Greek east and the Latin west and we would expect that they would be quoting from different versions of the Bible found in various parts of the world. However, this is not the case. Throughout the centuries, their quotes of the same passage are identical, while we would expect them to copy from variant texts, if only occasionally. In the writings of the Church Fathers, we do not see evidence the evolution of written Greek or Latin as we observe the evolution in the English language during the last five centuries. Historians assure us that by the time of the Church Fathers, the Latin and Greek languages were long established. We presume that for an unspecified reason their spellings were also well established before the age of printing. How this uniformity was achieved is not explained nor do we know if the topic of uniform spelling before the age of printing has been addressed by scholars.
Variant Spellings in the Textus Receptus
There are no variants in spelling of words or omissions or additions in the texts in the five editions of the Textus Receptus. Each copy is identical to the remaining books from its respective edition. Each edition was printed, not copied by hand, and use of printings explains why no variants in either the spelling of words or the text itself exist.
Accepted Chronology
While Hardouin wrote that “impious gang's” activities dates from the 14th century, we maintain that he realized that the conspiracy was closer to his time, although he could not write that this fraud was recent without expanding the conspiracy to include the Roman Church and not only the Order of the Benedictines.
Since there are no variants in the Church Father’s Biblical quotes, we must conclude that they possessed only one source. This one source without variations could only be after the first printed edition of the Textus Receptus in Greek in the year 1516. Therefore, the writings of the Church Fathers can not have existed the year 1516. The title of the first edition was “The New Teachings”, while subsequent editions were called “The New Testament”. This is strong evidence that as the greatest scholar of his time, Erasmus was unaware of a tradition called the “New Testament”. Hardouin must have been aware of Erasmus’ work on the New Testament and Luther’s subsequent adaptation of this work for his German Bible. Luther’s alleged involvement with the Augustinian order does not concern us. We believe that Hardouin was aware and believed that the Church Fathers must have been written after 1516, that is, in the 16th century, although he could not publish this idea without severe repercussions.
Our Proposed Chronology
Calvin died in the year 1564 and the Orthodox Church held a council in 1672 refuting and condemning Calvin’s teaching. We believe that the century between Calvin’s teaching and the council’s response is best explained by historians misdating Calvin’s death. If we transfer Calvin’s death to 1664, then the Council of 1672 becomes more reasonable in terms of the time, eight years, the teachings took for it reach the eastern Church and for them to convene a council.
By moving Calvin’s death forward one century, we must also move Erasmus forward by this amount and, therefore, the Textus Receptus dates from 1616 and the impious writings and non variant quotes in the Church Fathers must date, not from the 14th century or the 16th century, but from the 17th century, that is, the same century of Hardouin’s birth.
Conclusion
While the uncertainty of the dates of the lifetimes of Calvin, Erasmus and Luther remain, we are certain that the Biblical quotes from the writings of the Church Fathers can not predate Erasmus’ first edition of the Textus Receptus in the Greek Language, that is, these writings can only exist after the “Age of Printing”.
Addendum
Nietzsche gives us the following clues and our commentary follows:
“The gospels are invaluable as evidence of the corruption that was already persistent within the primitive community. “
Nietzsche believes the gospel are evidence of what we infer as philological corruption.
“These gospels cannot be read too carefully; difficulties lurk behind every word. “
Nietzsche expressly states that every word is difficult to understand. This understanding can not relate to the well known Koine Greek. This statement can only be true of a dialect of Greek.
“The gospels, in fact, stand alone. The Bible as a whole is not to be compared to them.”
Nietzsche makes it clear that the Greek of the remainder of the New Testament is different from the Gospels.
We quote from Wikipedia:
“Calabrian Greek was spoken throughout the whole of south Calabria until the 15th to 16th century, when it was gradually replaced by a Romance dialect (Calabrian), even though there are influences of Calabrian Greek on the grammar and in a large part of the latter's vocabulary. Moreover, a future tense does not exist in this dialect, this grammatical requirement being met by the use of the present tense. An important peculiarity is that it uses the Latin script and not the Greek.”
Utilizing the Latin script would be useful in creating the works of the Church Fathers in a known script and later transcribing them into the Greek script.
“Unfortunately this dialect has suffered due to the lack of a linguistic authority and the absence of a body of literature, with the language predominantly used in rural or pastoral environments.”
The dialect is the in the domain of the less educated- ”difficulties lurk behind every word”.
“It is important to highlight the presence of Calabrians in Humanism and in the Renaissance...the Greek scholars of this period frequently came from Calabria, maybe because of the influence of spoken Greek. The rediscovery of Ancient Greek in Western Christianity was very difficult because this language had been almost forgotten. In this period the presence of Calabrian humanists ...was fundamental.”
“The study of Ancient Greek, in this period, was mainly a work of two monks of the monastery of Seminara: Barlaam, bishop of Gerace, and his disciple, Leonzio Pilato.”
We recall that Barlaam was denounced by the Orthodox Church.
“Leonzio Pilato, .. was an ethnic Greek Calabrian... [and] was an important teacher of Ancient Greek and translator....”
“An annual festival called "Palea riza" (that means "Ancient Root" in Calabrian Greek and standard Greek) of World and Calabrian Greek music is held in Bova and other picturesque towns of the area.”
Interestingly, Fred wants us to:
“Think of that Greek city in Southern Italy which one day a year still celebrates Greek festivals…”
Jean Hardouin (1646-1729) was a prominent scholar who wrote the definitive history of the Church Councils. However, Hardouin is best remembered for his idea that history was created by Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino abbey in the 14th century. Hardouin wrote that the writings of the Church Fathers, when understood correctly, would deny Christian faith while leading the reader to believe that ancient Fathers were themselves either atheists or deists.
Hardouin wrote that the “impious gang” created variants in Bibles so that future readers would question the authority of the Bible and defer to the writings of the Church Fathers. Hardouin maintains that the Latin Vulgate was in the hands of everyone and, therefore, was impossible to corrupt. The Council of Trent decreed that a new Bible based on the long established Latin Bible be issued. We have waited five centuries for this decree to be carried out and we will continue to wait as there was no tradition of a Latin Bible in the Roman Church.
Hardouin wrote that all the Greek Fathers wrote in the same dialect, save one who wrote in the Attic dialect, and there was no evolution or change in the language over the hundreds of years that the Fathers allegedly wrote. Hardouin mentions that the French language has changed in the centuries before his time and we have no reason to doubt this assertion. We are not competent Greek scholars so we can neither agree nor disagree that the Greek Fathers wrote in the same dialect. However, we can know whether or not if variants in the alleged writings of the Church Fathers have reached our time. We would expect variants due to scribal errors, which are commonplace when discussing the Bible, during the alleged centuries of copying and we would also expect variants due to changes in meaning of words in different times and places that are inevitable in a living language.
The early 18th century French Jesuit Hardouin could not be as forthcoming regarding Church history as the late 19th century English Edwin Johnson. Hardouin wanted to preserve the Roman Church, but not history as he received it. Hardouin does not mention variants in the writings of the Church Fathers, although he wrote that only one copy of each book was created. However, Hardouin maintains that the conspiracy was only able to be uncovered after the “Age of Printing” and the impious writings were discovered on library bookshelves.
Variant Spellings in English
Variant spellings of words are well attested by research in the Oxford English Dictionary for words in long use, such examples are “manne” (man), “shippe”, “shoppe” and “Criste” (Christ). We posses three signatures by Shakespeare, and all are spelled differently. Therefore, there were no accepted standard spellings for personal names up to and including the Elizabethan Era. From these examples, we have strong evidence that English existed before writing and before the age of printing. It is only after the age of printing that “correct spelling” took a hold on the mind of educators.
Variant Spellings in Biblical Manuscripts
There are thousands of component books of the Bible that possess variant spellings and additions and omissions of text. These variations are attributed to accumulated scribal error through the centuries. Hardouin wrote that the reason for the variants was a conspiracy to dispel belief in the accuracy of the Bible. Unfortunately, as we can understand the reasoning for each case, we can not determine which of these two explanations is correct.
Variant Spellings in the works of the Church Fathers
There are none to few variants in the hundreds of volumes of the Church Fathers. Hardouin maintains that there was only one copy of each book created by the “impious gang” in the 14th century. Historians assure us that the Church Fathers existed in the Greek east and the Latin west and we would expect that they would be quoting from different versions of the Bible found in various parts of the world. However, this is not the case. Throughout the centuries, their quotes of the same passage are identical, while we would expect them to copy from variant texts, if only occasionally. In the writings of the Church Fathers, we do not see evidence the evolution of written Greek or Latin as we observe the evolution in the English language during the last five centuries. Historians assure us that by the time of the Church Fathers, the Latin and Greek languages were long established. We presume that for an unspecified reason their spellings were also well established before the age of printing. How this uniformity was achieved is not explained nor do we know if the topic of uniform spelling before the age of printing has been addressed by scholars.
Variant Spellings in the Textus Receptus
There are no variants in spelling of words or omissions or additions in the texts in the five editions of the Textus Receptus. Each copy is identical to the remaining books from its respective edition. Each edition was printed, not copied by hand, and use of printings explains why no variants in either the spelling of words or the text itself exist.
Accepted Chronology
While Hardouin wrote that “impious gang's” activities dates from the 14th century, we maintain that he realized that the conspiracy was closer to his time, although he could not write that this fraud was recent without expanding the conspiracy to include the Roman Church and not only the Order of the Benedictines.
Since there are no variants in the Church Father’s Biblical quotes, we must conclude that they possessed only one source. This one source without variations could only be after the first printed edition of the Textus Receptus in Greek in the year 1516. Therefore, the writings of the Church Fathers can not have existed the year 1516. The title of the first edition was “The New Teachings”, while subsequent editions were called “The New Testament”. This is strong evidence that as the greatest scholar of his time, Erasmus was unaware of a tradition called the “New Testament”. Hardouin must have been aware of Erasmus’ work on the New Testament and Luther’s subsequent adaptation of this work for his German Bible. Luther’s alleged involvement with the Augustinian order does not concern us. We believe that Hardouin was aware and believed that the Church Fathers must have been written after 1516, that is, in the 16th century, although he could not publish this idea without severe repercussions.
Our Proposed Chronology
Calvin died in the year 1564 and the Orthodox Church held a council in 1672 refuting and condemning Calvin’s teaching. We believe that the century between Calvin’s teaching and the council’s response is best explained by historians misdating Calvin’s death. If we transfer Calvin’s death to 1664, then the Council of 1672 becomes more reasonable in terms of the time, eight years, the teachings took for it reach the eastern Church and for them to convene a council.
By moving Calvin’s death forward one century, we must also move Erasmus forward by this amount and, therefore, the Textus Receptus dates from 1616 and the impious writings and non variant quotes in the Church Fathers must date, not from the 14th century or the 16th century, but from the 17th century, that is, the same century of Hardouin’s birth.
Conclusion
While the uncertainty of the dates of the lifetimes of Calvin, Erasmus and Luther remain, we are certain that the Biblical quotes from the writings of the Church Fathers can not predate Erasmus’ first edition of the Textus Receptus in the Greek Language, that is, these writings can only exist after the “Age of Printing”.
Addendum
Nietzsche gives us the following clues and our commentary follows:
“The gospels are invaluable as evidence of the corruption that was already persistent within the primitive community. “
Nietzsche believes the gospel are evidence of what we infer as philological corruption.
“These gospels cannot be read too carefully; difficulties lurk behind every word. “
Nietzsche expressly states that every word is difficult to understand. This understanding can not relate to the well known Koine Greek. This statement can only be true of a dialect of Greek.
“The gospels, in fact, stand alone. The Bible as a whole is not to be compared to them.”
Nietzsche makes it clear that the Greek of the remainder of the New Testament is different from the Gospels.
We quote from Wikipedia:
“Calabrian Greek was spoken throughout the whole of south Calabria until the 15th to 16th century, when it was gradually replaced by a Romance dialect (Calabrian), even though there are influences of Calabrian Greek on the grammar and in a large part of the latter's vocabulary. Moreover, a future tense does not exist in this dialect, this grammatical requirement being met by the use of the present tense. An important peculiarity is that it uses the Latin script and not the Greek.”
Utilizing the Latin script would be useful in creating the works of the Church Fathers in a known script and later transcribing them into the Greek script.
“Unfortunately this dialect has suffered due to the lack of a linguistic authority and the absence of a body of literature, with the language predominantly used in rural or pastoral environments.”
The dialect is the in the domain of the less educated- ”difficulties lurk behind every word”.
“It is important to highlight the presence of Calabrians in Humanism and in the Renaissance...the Greek scholars of this period frequently came from Calabria, maybe because of the influence of spoken Greek. The rediscovery of Ancient Greek in Western Christianity was very difficult because this language had been almost forgotten. In this period the presence of Calabrian humanists ...was fundamental.”
“The study of Ancient Greek, in this period, was mainly a work of two monks of the monastery of Seminara: Barlaam, bishop of Gerace, and his disciple, Leonzio Pilato.”
We recall that Barlaam was denounced by the Orthodox Church.
“Leonzio Pilato, .. was an ethnic Greek Calabrian... [and] was an important teacher of Ancient Greek and translator....”
“An annual festival called "Palea riza" (that means "Ancient Root" in Calabrian Greek and standard Greek) of World and Calabrian Greek music is held in Bova and other picturesque towns of the area.”
Interestingly, Fred wants us to:
“Think of that Greek city in Southern Italy which one day a year still celebrates Greek festivals…”