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.