With such liberal theories about the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures in the air it was almost impossible that the Catholic exegetists could escape the contagion. One of the ablest Catholic writers at the time, the French Oratorian /Richard Simon/ (1638-1712), was accused by his contemporaries of having approached too closely to the rationalist system in his scriptural theories. He was a man well-versed in the Oriental languages and well able to appreciate the literary and historical difficulties that might be urged against the inspiration and inerrancy of the Old Testament. He maintained that the Bible was a literary production, and that, as such it should be interpreted according to the ideas and methods of composition prevalent in the country or at the time in which the various books were written. His views were contained in his /Histoire Critique de Vieux Testament/ (1678) and his /Histoire Critique de Texte du Nouveau Testament/ (1689), both of which, though undoubtedly able works that have considerably influenced scriptural study amongst Catholics since that time, were severely criticised, and were condemned by the Congregation of the Index.
Another French Oratorian of the period, /Bernard Lamy/ (1640-1715), dealt with the introduction to the Scriptures in his two books /Apparatus ad Biblia Sacra/ (1687) and /Apparatus Biblicus/ (1696). As a professor of philosophy Lamy had stirred up already a strong opposition owing to his evident leanings towards Cartesianism, nor was he less unhappy in his scriptural studies. He questioned the historical character of the narrations contained in the books of Tobias and Judith, and contended that notwithstanding the decrees of the Council of Trent less authority should be attributed to the Deutero-Canonical than to the Proto-Canonical books of the Bible.
Amongst the leading scriptural commentators were /Le Maistre de Saci/(d. 1684), a Jansenist, who published translations of the Old and the New Testament, the latter of which was put upon the Index; /Piconio/(Henri Bernardine de Picquigny, 1633-1709) a Capuchin whose /Triplex Exposito in Sacrosancta D.N. Jesu Christi Evangelia/ (1726), has not been surpassed till the present day; /Louis de Carrieres/ (1622-1717), whose /La Sainte Bible en Francais avec un commentaire litteral/founded on De Saci's translation was recognised as one of the ******st and best commentaries on the Scriptures; /Charles Francois Houbigant/(1686-1783), also an Oratorian, who published an edition of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek text of the Deutero-Canonical books together with a Prolegomena, and /Dom Calmet/ (1672-1757), a Benedictine, who published in twenty-three volumes a commentary on the Old and New Testament accompanied by an introduction to the various books (1707-1716).
In no department of theological science were greater advances made during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than in that of ecclesiastical history and historical theology. This was due largely to the labours and example of the Benedictines of St. Maur. Men like /Luc d'Achery/ (1609-1685), /Stephen Baluze/ (1630-1718), /Jean Mabillon/ (1632-1704), /Edmond Martene/ (1654-1739), /Ruinart/ (1657-1709), /Muratori/ (1672-1750), /Bouquet/ (1685-1754), /Jean Hardouin, S.J./ (1646-1729), /Domenico Mansi/ (1692-1769), and the Orientalists Joseph /Simeon Assemani/ (1687-1768) and his brother /Joseph Aloysius/(1710-82) laid the foundations of modern historical research, by their publication of correct editions of the Early and Middle Age writers and of the decrees of the various general, national, and provincial councils, as well as by the example which they set in their own scholarly dissertations of how historical materials should be used. In addition to the publication of collections of original sources, works like the /Gallia Christiana/, begun in 1715 by the Benedictines of St.
Maur and continued by them till the Revolution, /Espana Sagrada/ begun by the Augustinian Enrique Florez in 1747, and the /Italia Sacra/(1643-1662) of Ferdinand Ughelli contained a veritable mine of information for future historians. Of the historical writers of this period the ablest were /Louis Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont/ (1637-1689), the author of the /Histoire des Empereurs pendant les six premiers Siecles/ and /Memoires pour servir a l'histoire eccl. des six premiers siecles/ (1693); /Claude Fleury/ (1640-1725) whose great work, /Histoire Ecclesiastique/ (dealing with the period from the Ascension till the Council of Constance, 1414) is marred only by the Gallican tendencies of its author, and /Natalis Alexander/ (Noel Alexandre, 1639-1724), a French Dominican who published an exceedingly valuable Church History under the title /Selecta Historiae Eccl.
Capita/, etc., but which was condemned by Innocent XI. (1684) on account of the markedly Gallican bias under which it was composed.