INTERLINEARIS of Anselm of Laon. These were compilations of
LITERATURE: Diestel, Geschichte des Alten Testaments, pp. 16– 148; Farrar, History of Interpretation, pp. 161–142; Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible, pp. 108–145; Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, pp. 35–44; Immer, Hermeneutics, pp. 31–36.
B. The Period of the Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, many, even of the clergy, lived in profound ignorance of the Bible. And insofar as they knew it, it was only in the translation of the Vulgate, and through the writings of the Fathers. It was generally regarded as a book full of mysteries, which could be understood only in a mystical manner. In this period, the fourfold sense of Scripture (literal, tropological, allegorical, and analogical) was generally accepted, and it became an established principle that the interpretation of the Bible had to adapt itself to tradition and to the doctrine of the Church. It was considered to be the acme of wisdom to reproduce the teachings of the Fathers, and to find the teachings of the Church in the Bible. The rule of St. Benedict was wisely adopted in the monasteries, and decreed that the Scriptures should be read, and with them, as a final explanation, the exposition of the Fathers. Hugo of St. Victor even said: "Learn first what you should believe, and then go to the Bible to find it there." And in cases in which the interpretations of the Fathers differed, as they often did, the interpreter was in duty bound to choose, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est. Not a single new Hermeneutical principle was developed at this time, and exegesis was bound hand and foot by traditional lore and by the authority of the Church.
This condition of things is clearly reflected in the works that were written during this period. The following are some of the most typical.
1. THE GLOSSA ORDINARIA of Walafrid Strabo, and the GLOSSA INTERLINEARIS of Anselm of Laon. These were compilations of literal, moral, and mystical fragments, interspersed with