Nine days after the death of Sixtus V, the College of Cardinals suspended the sale of the Sixtine Vulgate and later ordered the destruction of the copies.

The Council of Trent decreed the Vulgate authoritative[2] and "authentic" on 8 April 1546,[3] and ordered it to be printed "quam emendatissime"[a] ("with the fewest possible faults").

[2] Three pontifical commissions were successively charged to elaborate the text of the edition of the Vulgate for which the Council of Trent had requested publication.

[6] In 1566[9][10] or 1569,[11] another commission was appointed by Pope Pius V (Congregatio pro emendatione Bibliorum[12]) to produce an official edition of the Vulgate.

[10] The commission was under the presidency of Cardinal Carafa,[19][20] and was composed of Flaminius Nobilius, Antonius Agellius, Lelio Landi, Bartholomew Valverde, and Petrus Morinus.

[21] The commission worked on the basis of the 1583 edition by Franciscus Lucas Brugensis of the Leuven Vulgate[22] and "[g]ood manuscripts were used as authorities, including notably the Codex Amiatinus".

[30] Sixtus was helped in his editing work by a few people he trusted, including Toledo and Rocca but excluding the members of the commission and Carafa.

This edition of the complete work of St. Ambrose produced by Sixtus is regarded as the worst ever published; it "replaced the readings of the manuscripts by the least justified conjectures".

[38] The full title of the Sixtine Vulgate is: Biblia sacra Vulgatae Editionis ad Concilii Tridentini praescriptum emendata et a Sixto V P. M. recognita et approbata.

[36][34] The bull stipulated "that it was to be considered as the authentic edition recommended by the Council of Trent, that it should be taken as the standard of all future reprints, and that all copies should be corrected by it".

However, it is unclear whether this was a printing error or an editorial choice, "as the passage was cited by moral theologians to substantiate the view that husbands may annul vows of chastity taken by their wives without their consent".

[45] Thomson states that in many cases Sixtus V merely restored the reading of the 1583 Leuven Vulgate compared to the Codex Carafianus.

He adds that the reason Sixtus V did so was because his goal was "to oppose heresy, not to arouse suspicions that the hitherto generally accepted text was corrupt".

Metzger believes that the inaccuracies may have been a pretext and that the attack against this edition had been instigated by the Jesuits, "whom Sixtus had offended by putting one of Bellarmine's books on the 'Index',[g] and took this method of revenging themselves".

[48] Quentin suggests that this decision was due to the fact that the heretics could have used against the Catholic Church the passages of the Bible which Sixtus V had either removed or modified.

[49] After Sixtus V's death, Robert Bellarmine wrote a letter in 1602 to Clement VIII trying to dissuade him from resolving the question of the auxiliis divinae gratiae by himself.

[34] Eberhard Nestle suggests that the revocation was really due to the influence of the Jesuits, whom Sixtus had offended by putting one of Bellarmine's books on the Index Librorum prohibitorum.

[19] Kenyon writes that the Sixtine Vulgate was "full of errors", but that Clement VIII was also motivated in his decision to recall the edition by the Jesuits, "whom Sixtus had offended".

[61][25] Faced with about six thousand corrections on matters of detail, and a hundred that were important, and wishing to save the honour of Sixtus V, Bellarmine undertook the writing of the preface of this edition.

[62][h] According to Quentin, "a slight possibility remains that Sixtus V, who we know worked until the last day of his life to purge his Bible of the printing mistakes it contained, had let slip a few words which were heard by his familiars, one of whom was Angelo Rocca, giving the impression that he was planning a new edition".

[63] Scrivener notes that to avoid the appearance of a conflict between the two popes, the Clementine Bible was published under the name of Sixtus, with a preface by Bellarmine.

This preface asserted that Sixtus had intended to publish a new edition due to errors that had occurred in the printing of the first, but had been prevented from doing this by his death, and that now, in accordance with his desire, the work was completed by his successor.

[19] The full name of the Clementine Vulgate was: Biblia sacra Vulgatae Editionis, Sixti Quinti Pont.

iussu recognita atque edita[40][36][38] (translation: "The Holy Bible of the Common/Vulgate Edition identified and published by the order of Pope Sixtus V".

[38] Nestle notes: "It may be added that the first edition to contain the names of both the Popes [Sixtus V and Clement VIII] upon the title page is that of 1604.

Hastings points out that "[t]he regular form of title in a modern Vulgate Bible — 'Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis Sixti V. Pont.

But, in the presence of the Sovereign Pontiff, I demonstrated that this edition should not be prohibited, but only corrected in such a way that, in order to save the honor of Sixtus V, it be republished amended: this would be accomplished by making disappear as soon as possible the unfortunate modifications, and by reprinting under the name of this Pontiff this new version with a preface where it would be explained that, in the first edition, because of the haste that had been brought, some errors were made through the fault either of printers or of other people.

He created a Congregation to quickly revise the Sistine version and to bring it closer to the vulgates in circulation, in particular that of Leuven.

[...] After the death of Gregory (XIV) and Innocent (V), Clement VIII edited this revised Bible, under the name of Sixtus (V), with the Preface of which I am the author.