2.The mediaeval period did nothing independently to advance
the study of Introductory method; the latter received its first
impulse to new life from Humanism and the Reformation. Here
the Roman Church leads the van. The "Isagoge" [Introduction]
of St Pagninus († 1541), dating from the year 1536, is still
quite mediaeval in character; while, on the other hand, the
"Bibliotheca Sancta" of Sixtus Senensis († 1599), which first
appeared in 1566, and was repeatedly reprinted and reissued
down to the eighteenth century, can be described as an attempt
in the direction of a history of Biblical literature, even though
the larger part of its pages is still occupied with hermeneutical
matter and the history of the interpretation. On the Pro-
testant side the long line of the Reformers is inaugurated by
A. Rivetus († 1651) with his "Isagoge" (appeared 1627), in
which, in consequence of its author's strict reforming ideas of
inspiration, all discussion of the questions of Special Introduction
is, by the premisses, excluded as meaningless; and by the
Lutheran M. Walther († 1662), whose "Officina biblica noviter
adaperta" (appeared 1636), which is dependent upon Sixtus
Senensis, though it is marked by a strong dogmatic bias, yet, in
a manner entirely consonant with a history of the literature, sets
forth the whole Introductory method with a clearer distinction
of General from Special Introduction, and must therefore be
recognised as the first "Introduction" in the modern sense.

3.A new direction was given to investigation by the appear-
ance of Criticism on the scene, which first came in contact with
the Bible in the guise of the so-called "lower criticism." Its
gifted pioneer was the French reforming theologian L. Cappellus
(† 1658), who was the first to achieve, with anything like exact-
ness and clearness, and on a consistently high level, a purely
scientific philological treatment of the O.T. In his "Arcanum
punctationis revelatum" ( 1624) he strikingly demonstrated the
unoriginal character of the punctuation of the Hebrew text,
and also showed in the "Critica Sacra" ( 1650) that the con-
sonantal text of the O.T. had been handed down in a form that
was by no means free from uncertainty and error. Side by
side with Cappellus stands J. Morinus († 1659), with his two
volumes of "Exercitationes biblicae" (appeared 1633 and 1660).
Tendencies in the direction of the so-called "higher criticism"

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