Reformers and Canons

After Augustine’s time and the councils of Hippo and Carthage (393 and 419, respectively), there was no serious challenge to the Old Testament canon---which included the Apocrypha---until the time of the Reformation (roughly 1517-1648).  Even then, the challenge was mild at first, when Wycliffe included the Apocrypha in his Bible but noted that it had second-tier status:

And whatever book in the old testament is outside of these twenty-five aforementioned books, shall be set among apocrypha, that is, without authority of belief. (Prologue, chapter 1).

 Zwingli, Luther, and Coverdale followed suit, including the Apocrypha but as an appendix.  

The Roman church, however, declined to make any distinction and declared the Vulgate to be the authoritative Bible, with no distinction in status between any books, at the Council of Trent in 1563:

But if any one receive not, as sacred and canonical, the said books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin vulgate edition; and knowingly and deliberately contemn the traditions aforesaid; let him be anathema.  (Fourth Session)

Meanwhile, Protestant denominations slowly distanced themselves from the Apocrypha: the Church of England included it in the 39 Articles of Religion (1562), but noted that it should not be used for doctrine. 

The issue was finally settled after 1804, when Bible Societies in England and Scotland resolved their differences over the Apocrypha by agreeing to neither distribute the Apocrypha themselves nor aid others in doing so.  As the Bible-buying public did not object, other publishers followed suit and nearly all English Bibles since have excluded the Apocrypha.

Augustine settles the Old Testament canon

After Jerome’s work on the Vulgate, there were few objections to the Old Testament canon until the Reformation.   Augustine (lived 354-430) was the next important Christian to weigh in, and he concluded that the traditional 66 books as well as the Apocrypha should be included; he was aware of Jerome’s criticisms but considered the opinion of the 70 elders of the LXX---which included the Apocrypha---to be weightier than even so great a scholar as Jerome.

Accordingly, among the canonical Scriptures he will judge according to the following standard: to prefer those that are received by all the Catholic churches to those which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller number and those of less authority. (On Christian Doctrine, Book ii, chapter 8)

Our times, however, have enjoyed the advantage of the presbyter Jerome, a man most learned, and skilled in all three languages, who translated these same Scriptures into the Latin speech, not from the Greek, but from the Hebrew. But although the Jews acknowledge this very learned labor of his to be faithful, while they contend that the Septuagint translators have erred in many places, still the churches of Christ judge that no one should be preferred to the authority of so many men… (City of God, chapter 43)

Significantly, the first church council to consider the question of the canon did not occur until 393, at the Council of Hippo, followed by the council at Carthage in 419.  Both councils affirmed the canon as Augustine had said: however, neither intended to make an authoritative statement.  Rather, they were endorsing the general consensus of the church.  “…because we have received from our fathers that those books must be read in the Church.” (Codex Canonum Ecclesiæ Africanæ)   The Apocrypha was fully included in all canon lists until the Reformation.