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"Erasmus in the 16th C and Richard Simon in the 17th stand out as remarkable figures of scriptural criticism in the Classical period. Richard Simon never ceased to call into question Erasmus’s practices, principles and theology; on the one hand, he looked severely on the work of a translator who was not versed in Hebrew or in the pricinciples of criticism; on the other, he admired Erasmus as a man of letters with extensive knowledge of Antiquity and as one who had attempted the over-ambitious task of translating and paraphrasing the New Testament. Simon, like his contemporaries, in addition to Erasmus’s boldness in combatting abuses, especially noted his constant reservations regarding Saint Augustine and Augustinism, a theological position that the former Oratorian always maintained.