Outline History

VATABLUS, vii'ta-blue, FRANCISCUS (FRANCOIS WATEBLED, GASTEBLED, OUATEBLE): French Hebraist and theologian; b. at Gamaches (85 m. n.w. of Paris), Picardy; d. at Paris Mar. 16, 1547. He was for a time pastor at Bramet in Valois, after which Francis I. appointed him professor of Hebrew at the College de France, later making him also abbot of Bellozane. He died in the Roman Catholic faith. During his lifetime Vatablus published nothing, his Latin translation of Aristotle's Meteorologica appearing at Lyons in 1548 and his version of the Parva Naturalia being appended by G. Duval to his edition of Aristotle (Paris, 1619). From the lecture-notes of the numerous scholars of Vatablus, Robert Stephens drew the material f or the notes which he added to his edition of the Bible of Paris, 1545, though it would seem that to the annotations of Vatablus he added others from vari-

144

ous sources. The notes of Vatabius on the Psalms, incorporated in the Triber Psalmorum Davidis printed by Stephens in 1557, were reedited, with the notes of Hugo Grotius, by G. J. L. Vogel in his Francisei Vatabli annotationes in Psalmos (Halle, 1767). The Sorbonne sharply assailed the Stephens edition of 1545 as heretical and inclining toward Lutheranism; while the Salamanca theologians, on the contrary, esteemed the work so highly that they issued a revision of it in their Latin Bible of 1584.

H. L. Strack.

Bibliography: A. Cahnet, BsblioEhBque sacrie, iv. 1 sqq., Paris, 1730; G. G. JBCher, Allpemeines GeZelarten-Lesikon, iv. 1486, 10 parts, Leipsic, 175P-1819; Biographic unC- oeraelle, lavii. 589 sqq.; Liohtenberger, BSR, mi. 307.

1. Outline History

The name Vatican is applied both to the palace of the pope at Rome, and to the papal administration in its official relations with temporal powers. The term is derived from the situation of the palace on the Vatican Hill (on the right bank of the Tiber), which, even as late as the time of Aurelian, formed no part of the city of Rome. During the classical period it was notoriously insalubrious (Tacitus, Hist., ii. 93), and even its wine was regarded as poisonous. Nevertheless, Caligula commenced the building of a circus there, and Nero completed it. Here occurred the mar- tyrdom of many early Christians, and here, according to t;edition, St. Peter himself suffered crucifixion; to this is due the selection of the Vatican as the residence of the succes sors of St. Peter. The earliest traces of the Vatican palace thus far known were comprised in an epis copia erected by Symmachus (498-514), and suc cessive pontiffs added to the structures until Nicho las III. (1277-80), who was the founder of the Vatican in its historic form. It had been a resi dence of the popes since the pontificate of Leo IV. (847-855), who enclosed it with strong walls; and after the exile at Avignon (1308-78), during which the older palace of the Lateran had been burned, the Vatican became the chief papal palace. Pope after pope added to the buildings, or substituted new for old, until the result was marvelous. To Nicholas V. (1447-55) is due the foundation of the famous Vat ican Library; Sixtus IV. (1471-84) built the re nowned Sistine Chapel, with Michelangelo's frescoes of the Prophets and the Last Judgment; Julius II. (1503-13) commenced the celebrated Vatican Museum; Leo X. (1513-21) employed the services of Raffael, and Paul III. (1534-49) and Julius III. (1550-55) of Michelangelo. The real palace of the popes was built by Sixtus V. (1585-90), though it was not completed until the pontificate of Clement VIII. (1592-1605); and among other noteworthy popes to whom important pares of the present Vat ican are due were Urban VIII. (1623-44), Pius VI. (1775-99), and Pius VII. (1800-23). The most ancient portion, however, is not in the Vatican itself, but in the old crypt of St. Peter's, where are portions of the basilica erected by Constantine the Great, as well as the oldest monument of all, the tomb of St. Peter, constructed by popes Linus and Anacletus (67-86).

VATICAN.

1. Outline History