"D" is for the Douay-Rheims Bible (First Catholic English Language Bible)

Shown above, the OCHF Library's copy of the Rheims New Testament

Below, page from the first edition Douay-Rheims Old Testament printed in 1609, followed by a page from the Rheims New Testament of 1600 showing the Lord's Prayer:

 

 

 

     The Douay-Rheims Bible derives from the Louvain Bible of 1547, which in turn was derived from the work of Jerome, c. 347-420 A. D., who translated much of the Septuagint and Hebrew texts into what was then a "modern" Latin version of the Bible intended to be a standardized version to replace the many variants of an older archaic form of Latin that existed at that time, the new translation also being needed because Latin had begun to replace Greek as the dominant language in some provinces of the Roman Empire.  The Louvain edition was in turn intended to be a new standardized version to replace the many variants of Jerome's work that had arisen over the course of over a thousand years since the original Vulgate Latin edition.  The Rheims New Testament was the first English Catholic translation to be completed--in 1562--followed by the Douay-Rheims Old Testament in two volumes in 1609 and 1610.  This translation is the product of the English College at Douai, France, a seminary founded by Roman Catholic alumni of the University of Oxford who migrated to Douai from England following the death of Catholic Queen Mary Tudor and the growing intolerance toward Catholicism.  The purpose of the seminary was to train priests to return to England in the hope of converting the English again to Catholicism.  The Douay-Rheims Bible was principally the work of Gregory Martin.  The Old Testament is said to have been ready at the same time as the New Testament, 1582, but was not printed until later because of insufficient funds.  The Douay-Rheims Bible preserves in its margin notes the flavor of the beautiful allegories of Augustine.  In the example above from the Douay Old Testament, the flowering rod of Aaron, Numbers 27:8, is interpreted as "a figure that our Blessed Lady should bear a son, and remain a Virgin" and, in the example from the New Testament, the bread spoken of in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:11, is referred to as "supersubstantial bread", is interpreted to mean "that we ask not only all necessary sustenance for the body, but much more all spiritual food, namely the blessed sacrament itself, which is Christ the true bread that came from heaven, and the bread of life to us that eat his body."  The Douay-Rheims version of the Bible remained the standard English Catholic Bible until its revision by Richard Challoner in 1749 and 1750.  As an historical side-note:  Of the more than 300 priests sent by the English College of Douai to Anglican England, about half were hanged until nearly dead, then drawn and cut into quarters.  The other half were imprisoned, and/or deported back to the continent.