of its
teachers, like his predecessors, but also to destroy the sacred
writings upon which the faith of the Church was founded, and whose
character and claims were beginning at this time to be generally
recognised. The Alexandrine Codex--which is placed first on the list
of uncial manuscripts, and therefore distinguished by the letter
A--belongs undoubtedly to a more recent time. It is said by tradition
to have been written by a noble Egyptian martyr named Thecla about the
beginning of the fifth century, and was sent as a present to Charles
I. by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, who brought it
from Alexandria. It is now one of the greatest treasures of the
British Museum. The voice of tradition is confirmed by internal
evidence, for it has only two columns in a page, while capital letters
of different sizes abound, and vermilion is frequently introduced--all
marks of the period indicated.

How or when the Codex Vaticanus was brought to the Vatican Library is
a matter that is altogether involved in obscurity. It probably formed
part of the library in the Lateran Palace, which goes nearly as far
back as the time of Constantine, and was transferred along with the
other contents of that library to the Vatican in 1450 by Pope Nicholas
V. We first hear of it distinctly in a letter written to Erasmus in
1533 by Sepulveda; although there is a somewhat obscure reference to
it a few years earlier in the correspondence of the Papal librarian
Bombasius with Erasmus. A Roman edition of the Septuagint portion
based upon the Vatican MS. appeared in 1587. After that period to 1780
it was several times collated; among others, by Bartolocci, the
Vatican librarian; by Bentley, who employed for the purpose the Abbate
Mico and Rulotta; and by Birch of Copenhagen, who travelled under the
auspices of the King of Denmark. Along with many of the best
sculptures and most valuable art-treasures of the Vatican, the
precious Codex was taken to Paris in 1810 by order of Napoleon
Buonaparte, that unscrupulous robber of foreign palaces and churches
for the aggrandisement of his own capital; and while there it was
carefully examined by the celebrated critic, J.L. Hug, who was the
first to determine, from the nature of its materials and its internal
evidence, its very great antiquity. When it was restored, along with
the other spoils of the great Roman Palace, it was sealed up by its
jealous possessors, and could no longer be consulted fo