Still Christian divines were glad enough to sit at the feet of Jewish scholars and learn from them the Hebrew tongue. In this way Jerome was enabled to make from the Hebrew a new translation of the Bible into Latin. It was called the _Vulgate_ (Latin Vulgata, for public use). It has remained the authorized translation of the Catholic Church to this day. NOTES AND REFERENCES. _The Holy Roman Empire_, Bryce; chapter ii and iii. (Burt, New York.) _Hypatia_, Kingsley. On the Emperor Julian's relations with the Jews, especially with regard to his proposition of rebuilding the Temple, see two articles in the _Jewish Quarterly Review_ vols. v. and x. _Theme for discussion_: What right had the _Eastern_ (Byzantine) Empire to the title "Roman?" Chronological Table. =JEWRY.= | =ROME.= | Hillel II Introduces fixed | Emperor Julian 361 Calendar into Palestine 359 | Completion of Palestinian | Division of Roman Empire 395 Talmud 409 | Extinction of Palestinian | Rome sacked 410 Patriarchate 425 | Death of Rabbana Ashi, | editor of Talmud 427 | Fall of Western Roman Completion of Babylonian | Empire 476 Talmud 500 | Persecution of Jews by | Mazdak, the Persia 500 | CHAPTER XXXV. THE TALMUD. The times were becoming so uncertain in Babylonia as well as in Palestine that the Jews felt it necessary now to collect and _write down_ their varied traditions and laws to insure their preservation. The sages could no longer trust the transmission by word of mouth; they could no longer rely on their memories, marvelous though these were. So they were reluctantly compelled to overcome their sentimental objection to writing down these traditions--which, as the very title, _Oral_ Law showed, should be transmitted from mouth to mouth, inscribed, as it were, only on the tablets of the mind. Perhaps, too, they felt that writing would crystallize the _Halachoth_ at the point where they were transcribed, into unchangeable decisions and prevent their further development. For while unwritten, they were fluid and could be modified from age to age. As a matter of fact, the writing down of the laws _did_ tend to crystallize them, and thus retarded the progressive growth of Jewish Law. The Gemara.