32.

 His unceasing reading of the Bible and his painstaking study of each book - nay, of every phrase and word - gave him a knowledge of the text such as no other ecclesiastical writer of old possessed. It is due to this familiarity with the text and to his own acute judgment that the Vulgate version Jerome made is, in the judgment of all capable men, preferable to any other ancient version, since it appears to give us the sense of the original more accurately and with greater elegance than they. The said Vulgate, "approved by so many centuries of use in the Church" was pronounced by the Council of Trent "authentic," and the same Council insisted that it was to be used in teaching and in the liturgy.[⁵¹] If God in His mercy grants us life, we sincerely hope to see an amended and faithfully restored edition. We have no doubt that when this arduous task - entrusted by our predecessor, Pius X, to the Benedictine Order - has been completed it will prove of great assistance in the study of the Bible.