Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:29:43.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Renaissance Attitudes to New Testament Apocryphal Writings: Jacques Lèfevre d'Étaples and His Epigones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Irena Backus*
Affiliation:
Institutd'Histoire de la Réformation, Université de Genéve

Abstract

The standard medieval view of New Testament Apocrypha was that they were Christian writings (related to matters treated in the canonical books of the Bible), which had to be treated with caution and often dismissed as heretical. A list of the Apocrypha figured in the [Pseudo-]Gelasian Decree. In the Renaissance, for authors such as Lèfevre d'Etaples, Nicholas Gerbel and many others, the term assumed a multiplicity of meanings, both positive and negative. This article shows that although no attempts were made in the early 16th century to bring N. T. Apocrypha together into a corpus, the editors' ambivalent and complex attitude to texts such as the Laodiceans or Paul's Correspondence with Seneca led to their definitive marginalisation and encouraged their subsequent publication (by Fabricius and others) as corpora of dubious writings.

Type
Studies
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bardenhewer, O. Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur. Vol. I. Freiburg, 1913.Google Scholar
Bedouelle, Guy. Lefivre d'Aaples et ('intelligence des Ecritures. Geneva, 1976.Google Scholar
Bedouelle, Guy. “Lefevre d'Etaples, Jacques.” In Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans Hillerbrand. 2:414-16. New York, 1996.Google Scholar
Berger, Samuel. Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siecles du Moyen-Age. Nancy, 1893.Google Scholar
Büchle, Adolf. Der Humanist Nikolaus Gerbel aus Pforzheim. Durlach, 1886.Google Scholar
Fabricius, Johann Albert. Codex apocryphus Noui Testamenti collectus castigatus testimoniisque censuris et animaduersionibus illustratus aJ'eA'o F'o S.S. Theol. D. Professore Publ. Et h.t. Gymnasii rectore. Editio secunda emendatior et tertio etiam tomo separatim venali aucta. Hamburg, sumptu viduae Beniam. Schilleri et Joh. Christoph. Kisneri, 1719.Google Scholar
Friedberg, A., ed. Corpus iuris canonici. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1879.Google Scholar
Geerard, M., ed. Clauis Apocryphorum Noui Testamenti. Turnhout, 1992.Google Scholar
Gerbel, Nikolaus. Pastoris nuntii poenitentiae visiones quinque… Argentorati, 1522.Google Scholar
Gounelle, Rémi. “Sens et usage d'apocryphus dans la Legende dorée.” Apocrypha 5 (1994): 189210.Google Scholar
Hidrenymus, Frank, ed. Griechischer Geist aus Basler Pressen. Basel, 1992.Google Scholar
Insequentia in hoc libro continentur … Vienna, 1514.Google Scholar
Junod, Eric. “Apocryphes du Nouveau Testament. Une appellation erronée et une collection artificielle. Discussion de la nouvelle definition proposed par “W. Schneemelcher.” Apocrypha 3 (1992): 1746.Google Scholar
Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques, ed. Contenta. Epistola ad Rhomanos … Linus de passione Petri et Pauli. Paris, 1512; 2d ed., 1515.Google Scholar
Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques, ed. Liber trium virorum et trium spiritualium virginum…Mechtildis virginis libri quinque. Paris, 1513.Google Scholar
Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques, ed. Propiorum recreatione… Recognitiones Petri apostoli. Complementum epistole Clementis. Epistola Anacleti. Paris, 1504.Google Scholar
Lienard, E. “Alcuin et les Epistolae Senecae et Pauli.” Revue beige dephilologie et d'histoire 20 (1941): 589-98.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, J. B.. St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. Oxford, 1879.Google Scholar
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Opera. Basel, 1557.Google Scholar
Poupon, Gérard. “Les Actes Apocryphes des Apôtres de Lefèvre a Fabricius.” In Les Actes Apocryphes des Apotres. Christianisme et mondepai'en, 2529. Geneva, 1979.Google Scholar
Rice, Eugene, ed. The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefevre d'litaples and Related Texts. New York, 1972.Google Scholar
Sichardus, Johannes, ed. Diui Clementis Recognitionum libri x … Basel, 1526.Google Scholar