The Glossa ordinaria of the Bible.
The Glossa ordinaria of the Bible.
The Glossa ordinaria of the Bible and the gloss on the Jus canonicum always had great authority in the Roman Church. The author of the Glossa ordinaria was Alcuin, according to Antoninus (part. 3, tit. 4, c. 15) and Ganguinus (Histor. Franc., bk. 4, c. 1), or it was [Walafrid] Strabo Fuldensis around AD 840, according to Trithemius. In the prologue of the gloss, he discusses the canonical and noncanonical books and numbers them the same way as we do in our churches. The words are as follows: “Because many people do not pay much attention to Holy Scripture, they think that all the books that are contained in their Bibles must be revered and adored with equal reverence. They do not know how to distinguish between the canonical and noncanonical books that the Hebrews count among the apocryphal books. Thus they often seem ridiculous to the learned,” etc. The author of that gloss confirms his opinion with the authority of Origen, Jerome, and Rufinus. In the preface to each of the apocryphal books, he repeats this: “Here begins the Book of Tobit, which is not in the canon”; “Here begins Ecclesiasticus, which is not in the canon”; etc. The authority of the gloss is recommended in the preface to the volumes of the councils [tomorum conciliorum].