Robert Witham

[5] From a doctrinal standpoint, Witham sought to guard against the liberalizing influences of Jansenism from surrounding French institutions.

By the time of his death in 1738, he had paid off the College debt, increased the student body, staffed the faculty with capable masters, and modernized the campus.

His 23-year administration is considered one of the greatest at Douay [5] English-speaking Catholics had long relied upon the 1582 Rheims translation of the New Testament.

In his To the Reader introduction he praises the accuracy of the existing Rheims translation, but adds that it “perhaps follow’d too scrupulously the Latin” and in the intervening years “many words and Expressions …..[have] become obsolete, and no longer in use.” The wording of the title page of his second edition published later the same year(illustration opposite), makes it clear that Witham intended simply to update the Rheims Version, not produce a new translation.

A recent study of sample citations from Matthew [8] shows several unique changes from the Rheims, e. g., Adultery for fornication (5:32), Prodigies for wonders (24:24), and Aspect for countenance (28:03).

Despite his earlier criticism of Nary, Witham made many of the same changes from Rheims, e.g., Food for meat (03:04), storm for tempest (16:03), inner Rooms for closets.

Although that change was even repeated by Richard Challoner in his 1749 edition and hardly seems controversial today, it caused a continuing debate among Catholics well into the 19th century.

Several Bibles and Testaments published in the next century would make extensive use of them, including the famous Haydock series beginning in 1811 and continuing to the present day.