Salvation in the Vernacular: The New Testament of Mons and Post-Tridentine Piety

Abstract

In 1667, a group of intellectuals associated with the monastery of Port-Royal printed and distributed a new version of the New Testament in French. This article places their translation within the broader context of post-Tridentine devotional practices, and describes the polemics that followed the publication. The Port-Royal ideal of devotion placed the text of the Scriptures at its foundation. This ideal and its enactment in publishing an accessible Bible aroused criticism and drove Antoine Arnauld to publicly defend and justify the project. Critics condemned the doctrine of universal access to the Bible, the encouragement of women and simple people to read Scripture, and the very method of translation adopted by Port-Royal. The Port-Royal authors considered the ‘fidelity’ of a translation to require the resultant text to be easily intelligible. But the translators’ focus on accessibility was not limited to language; they pursued the publication of their work in a variety of formats to promote its distribution and use among a wide section of the literate society.