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.
