CHAP portions of the Bible. Men did, in fact, take a vast X amount of personal trouble with respect to the production of copies of the Holy Scriptures: and accomplished by head, hands, and heart, what is now chiefly done by paid workmen and machinery. The clergy studied the Word of God, and made it known to the laity and those few among the laity who could read had abundant opportunity of reading the Bible either in Latin or in English up to the Reformation period.

:

While, therefore, full justice is done to the men of the Reformation for their zeal in disseminating a knowledge of the Bible, let us be equally just towards those of preceding ages. Fair historical research will convince any investigator who is open to conviction that God has always had a large army of faithful servants engaged in making known-some in one way, some in another-the Word which He has revealed.1

The translation of the Bible is a work in which English divines have always shown an interest that does not seem to have been so keenly felt by those of other European nations, although it was evidently felt also in the East, judging by the vernacular translations that exist there. The great libraries of England contain many memorials of this zeal and interest, and further evidence respecting it is found in our histories. Notwithstanding the vast destruction of manuscripts by the Puritans,2 there still exist

1 Perhaps there is some ground for reproach in the fact that the Holy Bible had been beautifully printed in Latin, abroad, eighty years before any attempt was made to print it either in Latin or English in our country. But the art of printing made rather slow advance

in England at first and printed books were largly imported from France and Germany.

2"Yea, many an ancient MS. Bible," says Fuller, "cut in pieces to cover filthy pamphlets." Church History, ii. 246, ed. 1837.

X

Early and

many vernacular gospels, psalters, and complete CHAP Bibles of dates ranging from the ninth to the sixteenth century, relics that bear witness to extensive labours of which devouring time and fanatic igno- Mediaval English rance have spared but a representative portion. Bibles The earliest of these translations known to us now is one of the Psalter by Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne [A.D. 656-709]. The Venerable Bede [A.D. 672-735] made a translation, the extent of which is not recorded; but on the evening of his death he was engaged in finishing the gospel of St. John by the aid of an amanuensis. King Alfred [A.D. 849-941] is said to have translated the whole Bible; and it is certain that he executed some portions of such a translation. In the British Museum there is a magnificent interlinear copy of the Gospels, called the Durham Book, which is not more recent than the time of King Alfred, and there is another of the same age in the Bodleian Library at Oxford: a Psalter of the same period is in the Chapter Library at Salisbury (in Latin and Anglo-Saxon), and a Book of the Gospels, of rather later date, in Corpus Christi Library, Cambridge. Doubtless there are many more known to those familiar with our manuscript

treasures.

transla

Although these facts have been much lost sight of Cranmer during the last three centuries by all except anti.. on early quarians, they were well-known at the period of the tions Reformation, and are placed on record by Archbishop Cranmer in his preface to the "Great Bible" in the following words, with which he supports his arguments in favour of vernacular Bibles :

"If the matter should be tried by custom, we might also allege custom for the reading of the Scripture in the

X

CHAP vulgar tongue, and prescribe the more ancient custom. For it is not much above one hundred years ago since Scripture hath not been accustomed to be read in the vulgar tongue within this realm. And many hundred years before that, it was translated and read in the Saxons' tongue, which at that time was our mother's tongue: whereof there remaineth yet divers copies, found lately in old abbeys, of such antique manners of writing and speaking, that few men now been able to read and understand them. And when this language waxed old and out of common usage because folk should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain, and be daily found."

Perverted use of

Bibles

Similar testimony is borne likewise by Foxe, who writes,―

"If histories be well examined, we shall find both before the Conquest and after, as well before John Wickliffe was born as since, the whole body of the Scriptures by sundry men translated into this our country tongue."

The lawless political principles of Wickliffe, and vernacular the still more lawless ones of his followers, created a strong prejudice against vernacular translations of the Scriptures on the part of the rulers of England both in Church and State. The Bible was quoted in support of rebellion and of the wildest heresy : and even Archbishop Cranmer refers to and condemns a class of persons who thus "slandered and hindered the Word of God," in his preface just quoted.

We can easily see, now, that the best remedy for

3 Jenkyns' Cranmer, ii. 105. A part of a Norman French Bible, beginning with Ezra and ending with Micah, exists in the library of E. Ayshford Sanford, Esq., at Nynehead Court, Somersetshire. Sir Frederick Madden dates it about

the year 1260, when Norman French was the vernacular of the higher classes in England. It is an illuminated folio, bound in oak.

4 Foxe's Saxon Gospels, Dedication.

the evils which thus attended the use of Bibles CHAP

X

Archbish

op Arun

translated by private men was the issue of an authorized version. Probably this was contemplated much earlier than is commonly supposed, for there is a reference to it even in the Constitution of Arch- del and English bishop Arundel, by which he prohibited the circula- Bibles tion of Wickliffe's translation. This famous Constitution is the seventh of thirteen which were set forth by a Provincial Synod of Canterbury, held at Oxford in 1408. After stating, on the After stating, on the authority of St. Jerome, the risk which was incurred in translating the Bible, lest the sense of the inspired writers should not be really given, it goes on to enact as follows:

"We therefore decree and ordain, that from henceforward no unauthorized person shall translate any portion of Holy Scripture into English, or any other language, under any form of book or treatise: neither shall any such book or treatise, or version made either in Wickliffe's time or since, be read either in whole or in part, publicly or privately, under the penalty of the greater excommunication, till the said translation shall be approved either by the bishop of the diocese, or if necessary by a provincial council."5

5 Wilkins' Concil., iii. 317. This constitution has been much misrepresented. It was interpreted by Lyndewood in the following words. "Ex hoc quod dicitur noviter compositus, apparet quod libros, libellos, vel tractatus in Anglicis vel alio idiomate prius translatos de textu Scripturæ legere non est prohibitum." This was written about A.D. 1430, and the words of so cautious a lawyer and so learned a divine as Bishop Lyndewood are clear evidence as to the existence of vernacular Bibles earlier than that of Wickliffe. Another great lawyer, Sir Thomas More, also writes: "The whole Bible was,

long before Wickliffe's days, by
virtuous and well learned men
translated into the English tongue,
and by good and godly people
with devotion and soberness well
and reverently read:" and "this
order neither forbad the transla-
tions to be read that were done of
old before Wickliffe's days, nor
condemned his because it was new,
but because it was naught."

On another occasion the same
learned and well-informed writer
says, "I have shewed you that the
clergy keep no Bibles from the
laity that can no more but their
mother tongue, but such transla-
tions as be either not yet approved

CHAP

X

Tyndale's translation of the

From Sir Thomas More's words, quoted in a note below, it is evident that vernacular Bibles of other translations than that of Wickliffe were thus authorized by bishops, for the use of laymen and women in their own dioceses, down to the time when the free use of the printing-press, and a new influx of private translators, suggested again the necessity of a properly authorized version of the whole of Holy Scripture.

As is well known, Tyndale's translation of the New Testament was printed in 1525 at Cologne, New Tes- and the first edition obtained some circulation; but A.D. 1525 the whole of the second edition was bought up by Archbishop Warham in 1526, before it had reached

tament

:

England and a later one in 1529 by Tunstal.7
There was much justification for this in the " pro-
logues," the "glosses," and the false renderings of
Tyndale's translation (the first alone occupying as
much space as the translation itself); but no doubt
Warham was one of those for whom the excuse
should be made which Cranmer wrote in his preface
to the "Great Bible," "therefore I can well think
them worthy pardon, which at the coming abroad of
Scripture doubted and drew back."
In 1530 Henry VIII. called together an assembly,

66

for good, or such as be already
reproved for naught as Wickliffe's
was. For as for old ones that were
before Wickliffe's days they re-
main lawful, and be in some folks
hands." Myself have seen and
can shew you Bibles fair and old
which have been known and seen
by the bishop of the diocese, and
left in laymen's hands and women's,
to such as he knew for good and
catholick folk that used it with
soberness and devotion."

6 In 1526 Archbishop Warham

complains of translations made by the Lutheran faction, "instilling pernicious and scandalous heresies into the minds of the simple, and profaning the hitherto unsullied majesty of the Holy Scriptures by nefarious and distorted comments." [Wilkins' Concil., iii. 706.]

7 He paid £66 9s. 4d. [£800 of modern money] for the copies, and some of the other bishops contributed towards the expense. See Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. ii. 87.