But we have not yet done with the influence of our martyred Translator. The providence of God, under the reign of Edward, will interpret how much more we owe to his memory, and whether the people of England did not testify their gratitude and veneration, as soon as they were let alone to act for themselves.

BOOK II.

From Edward VI. to the Commonwealth.

REIGN OF EDWARD.

MDXLVII.-MDLIII.

A REIGN, HOWEVER BRIEF, DISTINGUISHED IN BRITISH HISTORY, WITH REGARD TO THE PRINTING AND PUBLICATION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE.

B

HE storm has changed into a calm; so that in reviewing the Christianity of England from the sixteenth century there have been those, as there are still, who prefer to begin with the reign of Edward the Sixth; while others repudiate every event before the reign of Elizabeth. But whatever may be the inducement to

either preference, such parties must not expect to be acknowledged as possessing much, if any, energy of purpose in tracing effects to their cause; or any measure of that disposition which cannot be satisfied without accounting fully for circumstances, still existing before every eye. The reign of Henry the Eighth, whatever had been his personal character, was, in many respects, not only initial but germinant. Every day since has so testified; and the broad surface of the kingdom still bears witness to the weight and pressure of his sceptre. He left behind him certain marks, which are still acknowledged as memorials of his power.

It, therefore, becomes only so much the more observable, that the genuine or correct history of the English Bible has never allowed us, as it never allowed him, to come down and confound

the Sacred Volume, either with the ecclesiastical arrangements, so called, of his time, or with the fallible interpretations of erring men. No historical line could be more distinctly drawn, whether while the King and his advisers were arrayed against the Scriptures, or after they were overruled to admit them into England. Then, indeed, his Majesty himself became the remarkable instrument in not permitting the English Bible to be at all identified with the ecclesiastical body he had set up and sanctioned. Not only did he not consult it on this subject, but frowned upon his Bishops, when once presuming to sit in judgment upon the translation.

And now that the King is dead; now that the New Testament Scriptures have been reading for twenty years, and the Bible entire for nearly ten, not unfrequently in the face of the flames; now that we have escaped from what may be regarded as the grand tempest, we no longer require to proceed only year by year, as we have done; nor is it any longer necessary to notice the editions of the Scriptures in regular succession. We have, it is true, all this time been only laying the foundation, and in so doing feel perfectly conscious that we may have trespassed on the patience of certain readers; but more especially on that of any who have never been before aware of what a superstructure has been reared upon it. They have now before them the groundwork of infinitely the largest undertaking which Britain has to show, whether to her own people, or those of surrounding nations. When compared with it, everything else without exception, throughout this kingdom, is but local and limited.

With regard to the various editions issued from the press in the brief reign of King Edward, we have already hinted that no justice has ever been done to the subject. To say nothing of older historians, even so recently as the year 1792, his readers were informed by Newcome, Archbishop of Armagh,-nay, and as a proof of "earnest endeavour that the Word of the Lord might have free course and be glorified,”—that "during the course of this reign, that is," said the author, "in less than seven years and six months, eleven impressions of the whole English Bible were published, and six of the New Testament; to which may be added, an English translation of the whole

New Testament, paraphrased by Erasmus." This only shows how little attention has been paid to the subject, when a period so heart-stirring could be thus reported; but that the blundering statement should have been literally repeated up to this hour, and in our best introductions to the study, or the translations, of the Scriptures, is more surprising still.

We need not remind the reader that, instead of seven years and a half, Edward did not reign quite six and a half; but how stand the facts under this brief period? Why, that so far from only six editions of the New Testament, there were nearly thirty more; instead of eleven editions of the Bible entire, there were at least fourteen; and all these within the space of less than six years and a half, for Edward reigned no longer. In other words, instead of only nineteen distinct issues of the Scriptures, including Erasmus, as often so erroneously reported, we have ascertained about fifty; and as for the Bibles, all these editions issued from the press in less than four years, or from August 1549 to July 1553.

Such a period, therefore, well deserves a better survey, furnishing, as it does, several instructive and memorable results. With regard to the printing and circulation of the Sacred Volume in the days of Henry the Eighth, we have seen that it was throughout, at best, but a troubled scene, and distinguished for bitter persecution; the days of Edward the Sixth, when properly examined, stand altogether unrivalled, even by any subsequent reign, for non-interference with the Scriptures. Nay, the truth is, that in the history of England, it so happens that we have not another reign of a similar character to exhibit; it stands alone. It is, however, curious enough, that the reign of the most youthful sovereign that has ever since reigned in Britain, should have made the nearest approach, and promises before long to equal, and, it may be, far excel it. Meanwhile, even the present age would do well to look back and acquire a little wisdom from this early period; for, although a strict regard to impartiality has left us no choice but to record other things of Cranmer, which must ever be condemned, he will now. be entitled to a meed of praise, which his most partial admirers

1 Newcome's Historical View of English Biblical Translations, p. 64.

have either never observed, or, at least, never marked, as they might have done.

As there was none of that arrogance and impiety on the part of the Crown, with which Henry was ever insulting his subjects; talking to them, at one moment, as if they were children, or were to have no mind of their own; and at another, as if they had no right to form any opinion whatever for themselves; so, on the contrary, great liberty now prevailed in printing any one translation already made. No change for the better could then be greater. The last act of the father was to brand the name and memory of Tyndale: in the first Parliament held by his son, that act was repealed, and declared to be "utterly void and of none effect;" nay, the portrait of Edward will soon be seen and sold, in immediate conjunction with the name and translation of Tyndale.

Possessed of such power of control as Cranmer now enjoyed, one might have imagined that he would have pressed forward his own correction of Tyndale's version, and in superiority to all others. But there is no such personal leaning to be discovered -quite the reverse. The people had been left freely to make their choice, or declare their preference, and we shall soon see the result. Here, then, was one trait in Cranmer's character, and one which has never been pointed out, even by those who have sought to justify other steps which cannot be defended. True, it may be said that he was altogether engrossed with his Book of Homilies and his Catechism, with King Edward's Service Book, his Book of Articles, and the Reformatio Legum, to say nothing of his parliamentary and official engagements. This is granted, for such indeed was the course he chose to pursue; but still, had Cranmer been disposed to have interfered with the printing of the Scriptures, he certainly could have found time to have both discovered and exerted his power. On the contrary, with his name at the head of the Regency, and on such a subject possessing great sway, he appears to have acted with a degree of candour and liberality which has never been surpassed, nay, never equalled by any man in power ever since.

One important consequence has been, that we are able now to see at once what was the popular taste. Twenty-one years after the New Testament of Tyndale had been sent into England, an