and the Vatican text. Clement VIII. (1592-1605) published his edition of
the revised Breviary in 1602; and thirty years afterwards Urban VIII,
(1623-1644) issued a new and further revised edition, which is
substantially the Breviary we read to-day. He caused careful correction
of errors which had crept in through careless printing; he printed the
psalms and canticles with the Vulgate punctuation, and he revised the
lessons and made additions. He established uniformity in texts of Missal
and Breviary. But the greatest change made in this new edition was in
the Breviary hymns, which were corrected on classical lines by Urban
himself aided by four learned Jesuits (see Note, Hymns, p. 259).

"The result (of their labours) has always given rise to very different
judgments and for the most part unfavourable. It seemed to be
exceedingly rash to regard as barbarous the hymns of men like
Prudentius, Sedulius, Sidonius, Apollinaris, Venantius, St. Ambrose, St.
Paulinus of Aquileia and Rabanus Maurus and to desire to remodel them
after the pattern of Horace's Odes.... It is only fair to give them the
credit, that out of respect for the wishes of Urban VIII. they treated
these compositions with extreme reserve, and while they made some
expressions clearer they maintained the primitive unction in a large
number of passages" (Baudot, The Roman Breviary, part iii., chap. ii.).

The commission appointed by Clement VIII. in his work of revision and
reform included Baronius, Bellarmine and Gavantus. The commission of
Urban VIII. included, amongst other famous men, the famous Irish friar
minor, Luke Wadding (1588-1657).

The need of revision, rearrangement and reform of the Breviary was in
the mind of every Pope, and nearly every one of them took some step to
perfect the historic book. In the eighteenth century Benedict XIV.