Canterbury, Arundel, thus describes the man and his work:

"This is that pestilent wretch of damnable memory, John Wycliffe, son of the old serpent, yea the forerunner and disciple of Antichrist; who, while he lived, walking in the vanity of his mind, not knowing how to direct his steps in the way of righteousness, chose not only to despise the sacred canons and admonitions of his fathers, but also to rend with the efforts of a viper the womb of his Holy Mother, as far as he was able. He, as the complement of his wickedness invented a new translation of the Scriptures into his mother tongue." 1

The transcription and circulation of the book seems, however, to have gone on apace from the very first. In spite of its stern proscription, we learn from Fox how, in the succeeding century

"Great multitudes tasted and followed the sweetness of God's holy word. . . Some gave five marks" (said to be equal to 40%. in our money) "some more, some less, for a book; some gave a load of hay for a few chapters of St. James or of St. Paul in English. To see their travails, their earnest seekings, their burning zeal, their readings, their watchings, their sweet assemblies, . . may make us now in these days of free profession to blush for shame."2

Strangely enough, this enthusiasm for the Wycliffite version did not result in the early production, even when possible, of a printed English Bible. "Before the end of the fifteenth century," says Canon Westcott,3 "Bibles had been printed in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, German, and Bohemian," while England had only her manuscripts.

About the year 1510 the lectures of Erasmus, then professor of Greek at Cambridge, drew thither William Tyndale, "to whom it has been allowed, more than any other man, to give its characteristic shape to the English Bible." The story of his life

1 "Novæ ad suæ malitiæ complementum, Scripturarum in linguam maternam translationis practica adinventa."-Wilkins's Concilia, iii. 350. See Boultbee's History of the Church of England, 320.

Fox, Acts and Monuments, vol. iv. p. 217.

History of the English Bible (p. 24), from which much of the account here given is abridged.

and adventures is of absorbing interest, but it cannot be related here. In 1525 appeared his Newe Testament in English, translated from the original Greek, and printed on the Continent, In this version were laid the foundation lines upon which every subsequent translator has fashioned his work. Like Wycliffe's translation, it was at once proscribed by the Church authorities. Six editions were actually published before 1530, but so fierce and systematic was the persecution, both now and afterwards, that

"Of these six editions, numbering perhaps fragment only, which was found about thirty 15,000 copies, there remains, of the first, one years ago attached to another tract; of the second, one copy, wanting the title-page, and, of the others, one or two copies which are not, however, satisfactorily identified." 4

The proscription of a printed volume, however, is a different matter from the proscription of a manuscript, and the book was indestructible. Before William Tyndale was martyred at Vilvorde in 1536, his "Newe Testament" had been twice carefully revised, and original translations of the Pentateuch and of the book of Jonah had been also published. Tyndale died, but the victory had been already won. In a solemn "Assembly," convened by Archbishop Warham in 1530, the general demand for an English Bible was acknowledged in the very terms in which such a translation was prohibited or postponed:

"The King, by the advice and deliberation of his Council, and the agreement of great learned men, thinketh in his conscience that the divulging of this Scripture at this time in the English tongue to be committed to the people should rather be to the confusion and distraction than to the edification of their souls."

Nor was it possible to postpone it long. In 1537 a complete translation of the Bible was set forth by Miles Coverdale, "with the king's most gracious license." Indeed, the publication of a like edition by Coverdale, two years before, had been tacitly

4 History of the English Bible, p. 37. 5 Wilkins's Concilia, iii. 736.

connived at, and the

translation actually dedicated to the king.

Almost simultaneously with the publication "under license" of Coverdale's Bible, there appeared a composite English Bible, commonly known as Matthew's Bible. This was made up of Tyndale's translation from Genesis to 2 Chronicles (only a small part of which had been published in Tyndale's life), Tyndale's revised New Testament, and the remainder of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha from Coverdale. On August 4th, 1537, Cranmer submitted this Bible, through Crumwell, to the king. On the 28th he writes to Crumwell as follows:

"These shall be to give you most hearty thanks that any heart can think, and that in the name of them all which favoureth God's word, for your diligence at this time, in procuring the king's highness to set forth the said God's word, and His Gospel by His Grace's authority. For the which act, not only the king's majesty, but also you, shall have a perpetual laud and memory of all them that be now, or hereafter shall be, God's faithful people and the favourers of His word. And this deed you shall hear of at the great day when all things shall be opened and made manifest." 1

Thus Tyndale's Bible, proscribed and publicly burnt in 1525, was practically authorised, just thirteen years later, by some of the very men under whom it had been condemned.

From this time forward the course was comparatively clear. "Matthew's Bible" was essentially a transitional work, and it became evident that a revised version was imperatively required for public use. The revision of the whole was wisely committed to Miles Coverdale, and in 1539-40 was published, in handsome folio, under the direct authority of Crumwell and the king, a series of editions, substantially the same, and commonly known and described as The Great Bible. The "authorisation" had meanwhile assumed a more definite form. king had issued injunctions, in 1537, through Crumwell, that

The

"Every parson or proprietary of any parish

church within this realm shall . . . provide a 1 Cranmer's Letters, 198. Parker Society.

book of the whole Bible both in Latin and English, and lay the same in the quire for every man that will to look and read therein, and shall discourage no man from reading any part of the Bible, either Latin or English, but rather comfort, exhort, and admonish every man to read the same as the very word or God, the spiritual food of man's soul."

With the second, and all subsequent editions of this "Great Bible," the name of Archbishop Cranmer is inseparably connected. The preface which does not appear in the first edition-was his handiwork, and the volume is, not uncommonly, referred to as "Cranmer's Bible." The titlepage of the fourth edition of the Great Bible shows alike the character claimed for it, and the historical importance which attaches to its publication :

"The Byble in Englyshe of the largest and greatest volume, auctorysed and apoynted by the commandemente of oure moost redoubted Prynce and Soveraygne Lorde Kynge Henrye the VIII. supreme heade of this his Churche and Realme of Englande; to be frequented and used in every churche win this his sayd realme accordynge to the tenour of his former iniunctions geven in that behalfe. Oversene and perused at the comaundemet of the kynges hyghnes, by the ryghte reverende fathers in God Cuthbert, bysshop of Duresme and Cum privilegio, 1541. Nicholas Bisshop of Rochester. Fynyshed in November anno mcccccxl. A Dno factu est istud."

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In one respect, at least, this Bible has a lasting interest for the Church of England. From it is taken the Psalter which is incorporated in our Prayer Book, and which it is impossible to suppose will ever be displaced. In its incomparable tenderness and sweetness we can yet find the spirit of him whose work it mainly is, full of humility and love, not heroic, or creative, but patient to accomplish, by God's help the task which had been set him to do, and therefore best in harmony with the tenour of our own daily lives."

After the publication of the Great Bible there was a pause of nearly twenty years. The reaction under Mary checked the work in England, but the enforced absence of many

Cranmer's Letters, 198, note.

of the English reformers gave them an opportunity which might not have been theirs under happier circumstances. Englishmen were, for the second time, driven to claim the shelter of a foreign home, in order to carry on work for God's glory and man's good which they dared not do in their own country. At Geneva, then the seat of a society of devoted and skilful biblical students, the work of translation went on more vigorously The result was the publication, in 1560, of the Geneva Bible, which was, for more than sixty years, the household Bible of the English people. The reasons for its popularity are not hard to discover. It was published at once in a smaller and there

than ever.

1

fore cheaper form than its predecessors; it substituted Roman type for black letter; its chapters were divided into verses; and a marginal commentary accompanied the text. Though dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, the Geneva Bible was never, in any sense save that of usage, "authorised in the Church of England. The controversial character of its marginal notes, which were deeply marked with the spirit of their Genevan birthplace, effectually prevented any such royal or episcopal imprimatur.2

The "Great Bible" was at first allowed to retain, under Elizabeth, the place it had held under Edward, as the authorized Bible for ecclesiastical

3

embellished volume, "cum privilegio regiae majestatis." Of the revisers eight were bishops, and from them the version derived its popular title. On its publication the Archbishop endeavoured to obtain an official recognition of it from the Queen.

"If your honour (Cecil) would obtain of the Queen's highness that this edition might be licensed and only (= alone) commended in public reading in churches, to draw to one uniformity, it were no great cost to the most parishes, and a relief to the printer for his great charges sustained. The Psalters might remain in quires, as they be much multiplied, but where of their own accord they would use this translation." "4

There is no evidence to show whether the Queen returned any answer to this petition. It was ordered, however, in

the "Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical" of 1571.

"That every Archbishop and Bishop should have at his house a copy of the Holy Bible of the largest volume, as lately printed at London. and that it should be placed in the hall or the large dinning-room, that it might be useful to their servants or to strangers."

It was also enjoined that each cathedral should have a copy, and the same provision was extended, "as far as it could be conveniently done," to all churches.5

By this means the "Bishops' Bible " seems soon to have displaced the "Great Bible" in most parish churches. But that was all. That it was never in favour with the people is evident, among other things, from a comparison of the various editions of the two current Bibles published between 1568 and 1611. The demand for the Genevan Bible more than quadrupled that for its rival.6

To this rivalry, however, is mainly due the Authorised Version of James I.,

which has held its place, almost unchallenged, for two centuries and a half. The history of its publication has been so often told within the last few months that it is unnecessary to repeat it here in any detail. It had its origin in the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, when the Puritan representatives pressed their demand for a new, or at least, a revised translation. The project, congenial to his disposition, was readily embraced by the King, though he showed a characteriste caution as to details. A wise selection of fifty-four scholars was made for the work, and elaborate rules were laid down for their guidance. In the preface, which modern printers have unaccountably omitted to publish, while they continue to reproduce the inferior "dedication," Dr. Miles Smith, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, gives, in the name of his colleagues, an interesting account of the revisers' work.

The volume was published from the press of R. Barker, in 1611. There is no occasion to say anything here of the incomparable merits of this "well of English undefiled." But one question connected with its publication has been the subject, this year, of keen inquiry and vigorous debate, and this it may be worth our while to examine with what care we can.

Was the "Authorised Version" of 1611 ever "authorised" at all? and if so, what did its authorisation im ply? At first sight the facts seem to be quite clear. The title-page speaks for itself. The Book is said to be "newly translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesty's special command. Appointed to be read in churches." But when we turn to the records, ecclesiastical or civil, of the year 1611, no trace is discoverable of any public and formal sanction given to the new

This connection of the See of Gloucester with the history of the English Bible has been now revived in the indefatigable labours of the present Bishop as Chairman of the N. T. Revision Company.

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version, either by Parliament, or by Convocation, or by the Privy Council, or by the King. The present Lord Chan cellor, having had his attention called to the subject by the Bishop of Lincoln, comments upon this point with great care, arguing-(1.) That the authorization" may probably have been by order in council; (2.) that, if so, the record of the order probably perished in a fire which took place at Whitehall on January 12th, 1618; (3.) That it is unlikely that the king's printer would have inserted on the title-page the words "appointed to be read in churches" if the fact were not really so. (Times, June 3, 1881.)

And the argument seems unanswerable, so far as it goes. But a further question remains; granted that, before the insertion of these six words upon the title-page, some order must have been given by some one, authorising the public use of the new version; does it necessarily follow that the order was compulsory and not merely permissive? The original order, whatever it was, or by whomsoever given, has perished, and it is only by indirect evidence that we can gather what its terms may have been. This evidence, as I hope to show, is not confined to the words so often quoted from the title-page of the original edition. It is, I think, of three sorts (1.) The actual title-pages of the early editions. (2.) The quotations from Holy Scripture in the published sermons and books of the succeeding half century. (3.) The official " inquiries " made by bishops and others during the same period, together with any contemporary or subsequent allusions to the new translation.

absent from the title-pages of eight at least, among the editions of the first few years.

All, therefore, that can be said with certainty is that the printer, in issuing the first editions of the New Translation, sometimes, but not always, added to its title-page the words "Appointed to be read in Churches." The formula, to whatever Act or Order it referred, was apparently his own, or, at all events, we have no evidence to the contrary. Its exact interpretation must therefore be determined from such other evidence as we are able to collect.

It may be worth noticing, in this connection, that the title-page of the first book of Homilies, published in 1547, runs as follows:- "Certaine sermons or Homilies appoynted by the kinge's majestie to be declared and redde by all persones uicars or curates every Sōday in their churches where thei have cure. Anno 1547." Subsequent editions have a similar title. In 1623, for example, when the two books of Homilies were published for the first time in one volume, the title runs thus: "Certaine sermons or Homilies appointed to be read in churches In the time of the late Queene Elizabeth of famous memory, and here thought fit to be reprinted by authority from the king's most excellent Majestie." The six words in question, thererefore were prefixed to the Homilies as well as to King James's Bible. How far the order was, in their case, compulsory, is apparent from the rubric which directs, "Then shall follow the sermon or one of the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be set forth by authority." The Rubric of 1549 ran as follows: "After the creed ended shall follow the sermon or Homily, or some portion of one of the Homilies, wherein," &c.

The authorisation of the Homi

1 Viz.: Second folio, 1611; 8vo, 1612; folio, 1613; 4to, 1613; 8vo, 1613; Blackletter 4to, 1613; N. T. 12mo, 1611; N. T. 4to, 1612. For the details of this statement, and for several other particulars, I am indebted to the help of Mr. Fortescue, of the British Museum.

lies, then, which, like the King's Bible, were "appointed to be read in churches," was distinctly permissive, and not compulsory. It was always open to the duly licensed priest to substitute a sermon for the "appointed" Homily. A similar instance, perhaps even more to the point, may be found in the concurrent use, during the last century, of alternative versions of the metrical Psalter, two at least of which were "allowed by authority." 2

(2.) I pass to the second point, the evidence derived from the quotations of Holy Scripture by preachers and others in the years which followed the issue of the Authorised Version. I have examined more than fifty sermons preached between the years 1611 and 1630, and I find the results to be briefly as follows. In twenty-seven of these sermons the preacher takes his text from the Genevan Version, and in five from the Bishops' Bible. Of the remainder, only about one half quote from the Authorised Version, the texts of eleven sermons being apparently translated or adapted by the preacher himself. Among those who preach from the Genevan Version are the following:-Bishop Andrewes (in 1618-22-23-24); William Laud, then Bishop Designate of St. David's (in 1621); Bishop Carleton, of Chichester (in 1624); Bishop Hall (in 1613 and 1624); Dean Williams, of Salisbury (in 1619); besides many others of less note. The Bishops' Bible is used by Bishop Andrewes (in

The following words appear on the titlepages of Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalter for at least 200 years :-"Set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches, of all the people together, before and after morning prayer, as also before and after Sermons, and moreover in private houses, for their godly solace and comfort, laying apart all ungodly songs and ballades, which tend onely to the nourishing of vice and corrupting of youth."

Tate and Brady's P'salter (first published in 1696), has the following:-"At the Court at Kensington, Dec. 3, 1696. . . . His Majesty

is pleased to order in Council. that the said New Version be, and the same is hereby allowed and permitted to be used in all churches, chapels, and congregations as shall think fit to receive the same."