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."s 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, 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 that the best remedy for the year 1260, when Norman French was the vernacular of the higher classes in England. It is an illuminated folio, bound in oak. Foxe's Saxon Gospels, Dedication. X the evils which thus attended the use of Bibles CHAP translated by private men was the issue of an authorized version. Probably this was contemplated much earlier than is commonly supposed, for there is Archbish op Aruna 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 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 Wilkins' Concil., iii. 317. This constitution has been much misre presented. 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 On another occasion the same 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 tament Archbishop Warham in 1526, before it had reached for good, or such as be already • 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.] 27 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. i. 87. CHAP X Authorized consisting of the two archbishops, "and also a sufficient number of discreet, virtuous, and welllearned personages in divinity, as well of either of the universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as also Version chosen and taken out of other parts of his realm, A.D. 1530 projected giving unto them liberty to speak and declare plainly their advices, judgments, and determinations," respecting books imported from abroad, and containing doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England; and also as to "the admission and divulgation of the Old and New Testaments translated into English." This commission was called, says the subsequent proclamation, because it had "Come to the hearing of our said sovereign Lord the King, that report is made by divers and many of his subjects, that it were to all men not only expedient, but also necessary to have in the English tongue both the New Testament and the Old." It was decided for not at once un it "By them all, that it is not necessary the said Scripture to Reasons be in the English tongue, and in the hands of the common people; . . . and that having respect to the malignity of this dertaking present time, with the inclination of the people to erroneous opinions, the translation of the New Testament and the Old into the vulgar tongue of English should rather be the occasion of continuance or increase of errors among the said people, than any benefit or commodity towards the wealth of their souls." But the document continues to the effect that when the dangers arising from these heretical opinions have passed away— "His Highness intendeth to provide that the Holy Scripture shall be by great, learned, and Catholic persons, translated into the English tongue, if it shall then seem to His Grace convenient to be."8 8 Wilkins' Concil., iii. 740. CHAP X Members of the Commission of A. D. 1530 Immediately after this proclamation Archbishop Warham set forth a paper stating in detail what had been determined, and the particular errors condemned in "The Wicked Mammon," "The Revelation of Antichrist," the "Sum of Scripture," "The Supplication of Beggars," and some other books; which ended with a "bill in English to be published by the preachers," a kind of homily in which the clergy were made to endorse the royal proclamation. In this are words confirming the intention expressed in the proclamation, as follows: "Exhorting and moving you, that in consideration his Highness did there openly say and protest that he would cause the New Testament to be by learned men faithfully and purely translated into the English tongue, to the intent he might have it in his hands ready to be given to his people, as he might see their manners and behaviour meet, apt, and convenient to receive the same, that ye will so detest these pernicious books, so abhor these heresies," &c. &c. From this last document and the one preceding it that the commission consisted of— appears |