country; but this pointed and posted remonstrance had filled Arundel, Braybrook, and their brethren with dread. They entreated the King, in name of the clergy, to return, intimating that the least delay might occasion irreparable damage. The followers of Wickliffe, they said, had made instance to set on foot a reformation -they had many friends in the kingdom, nay, in the Parliament itself, and the clergy were afraid they would proceed to action. Richard listened, immediately left the management of his war to the Earl of March, and returned. He took certain measures, it is true, to check the rising tide of sentiment, but still the Scriptures were not suppressed, nor was there one drop of blood shed for what "they called heresy," till the commencement of the next century, under Henry the Fourth.

At the conclusion, therefore, of the fourteenth century, we concede to Petrarch, or Boccaccio and his fellows, all that is demanded as to the revival of learning in Italy; nor has England any occasion to be ashamed of the contrast or distinction between the two countries. The pursuits of both were but in their infancy. In the former, "imagining that all knowledge was to be found in the ancient Masters," they were beginning to seek after Mount Parnassus and their old Romans; but in the latter they were in search of Mount Zion and the fishermen of Galilee. The Italian had become eager after the wisdom of Greece, and the nervous oratory of his forefathers; the Englishman, after the wisdom of God, and the course pursued by the first planters of Christianity. If any of our countrymen were looking to Greece at all, it might be only to such as had proved to "be the first-fruits of Achaia unto God;" and if to Rome, it was only to those in the imperial city, once so beloved, "whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world."

The manuscripts of Wickliffe's version complete, are numerous still; and perhaps not much less so than those of the New Testament separately, not to mention different pieces, or entire books of the translation. In examining some of these, whether in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, or in private collections, we have been struck with their legibility and beauty. They have all, indiscriminately, been called Wickliffe's version, but variations of expression are to be found in a few; and it is not so generally known that we possess two distinct versions, one under Wickliffe's own eye, and another a recension of the entire sacred text.

It is certainly a singular circumstance that this translation of Wickliffe has never been printed! The New Testament, it is true, was published by Mr. Lewis, in the year 1731, or three hundred

and fifty years after it was finished, and once more by Mr. Baber, in 1810; but the Bible entire, now four hundred and sixty-four years old, has never yet been published. By the time that Tyndale was born, indeed, it would not have been intelligible to the people at large; moreover, it was from the Latin Vulgate, and the period had arrived when the translation must be drawn from the original tongues. But still, even as a most interesting literary production, one could never have imagined that above twenty sovereigns would have sat on the throne of England since the invention of printing, before such a work had issued from the press. By Fabricius, a foreigner, as well as others, this has been often referred to as a national disgrace; but happily, the reproach, at last, is wiped away. Both these versions to which we have alluded are now published, printed in parallel columns, at the Oxford University press, and under the eye of Sir Frederick Madden and the Rev. J. Forshall, of the British Museum.6

Thus then, whatever darkness reigned, or enmity was shown in this country, throughout the whole of the next century, these precious volumes were preserved, and the surviving copies remain, like so many veritable torch-bearers for the time being. They may, and indeed must have shone often in secret, or at the midnight hour, and certainly not without effects, to be disclosed another day: but at all events, here is one palpable existing distinction between this country, and every other, at the moment. It is one which stands in the finest keeping with all that took place in the days of Tyndale. The favour of God, even at this early period, had already begun to place this Island in that conspicuous position which it was afterwards to occupy among the nations of Europe, with regard to the possession and the diffusion of His blessed Word.

Let this ever be regarded as the grand distinction of Britain. And while the Italian historian, down to the present hour, continues to rejoice in the triumph of literature and the arts upon his native soil, nearly five hundred years ago; let not the British Christian fall behind him in joy and gratitude over that contemporaneous triumph which at last led his country to a better hope and a brighter day. Let him rather compare the two countries now, and observe the too much neglected, but all-sufficient reason, for the prodigious distinction between the two.

No storm, however, arose in Italy, nor any cloud, to obscure the

The first, or earliest text, is from a manuscript of the late Francis Douce, Esq., now belonging to the Bodleian, at Oxford; the second is from MS. Reg. i., c. viii., in the British Museum.

rising sun of her classical literature. On the contrary, though Rome itself may still be troubled, that sun is only about to burst upon the country in all its splendour, and the men of Italy are to be allowed ample scope still, for above a hundred years, to do their utmost. Very different was the reception given by our forefathers, as a nation or as a government, to the voice of God. Here at home, in some resemblance to the visit paid by the Almighty to Elijah, there must, it seems, be first the wind, and then the earthquake, and then the fire, before ever the "still small voice" is heard with effect. Nay, and when once it comes through Tyndale's version, and is heard by the people, we shall find, however strange, that no official man in England will be able to divine from whence it came, or by what mysterious conveyance it had reached their ears!

We have conceded to Italy the precedence which she claims, as the revivalist of classical learning; and truly the first buds of promise in the fourteenth, were as nothing to the full-blown garden of the fifteenth century. In the first years of its commencement, individual natives of Greece were finding their way into that country, nay, from about the year 1395, their language was taught in Florence and Venice, in Milan and Genoa, by Emanuel Chrysoloras. The Pontiff chosen in 1409, Alexander V., was a Grecian by birth. The whole lives of Italian scholars, we are told, were now devoted to the recovery of ancient works, and the revival of philology; while the discovery of an unknown manuscript was regarded, says Tiraboschi, "almost as the conquest of a kingdom." But "that ardour which animated Italy in the first part of the fifteenth century, was by no means common to the rest of Europe. Neither England, nor France, nor Germany, seemed aware of the approaching change." So says Mr. Hallam, in perfect harmony with Sismondi. Learning, indeed, such as it was, had even begun to decline at Oxford, but the Eastern empire was now hastening to its end, and in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople. Long, therefore, before the close of the century, the roads to Italy will be crowded with many a traveller, and among the number we shall find that Englishmen, though the most distant, were not the last to hasten after classical attainments. Native Italians, we are perfectly aware, have been jealous of our ascribing too much to the event just hinted, but there can be no question that, in its consequences, it proved the first powerful summons to Europe to awake. On the sacking of Constantinople, we know of five vessels at least, that were loaded with the learned men of Greece, who escaped into Italy. Of course they brought their most valued treasure, or their books, with them; and thus by one and another, as well as the eager Italian himself, a stock of manu

script was accumulated on Italian ground, which was just about to be honoured with a reception, very different, indeed, from that of being slowly increased by the pen of the copyist! Italy thus became the point of attraction to all Europe. But how singular that the scholars of the West, as with common consent, should hasten to this one country for that learning, over the effects of which, the chief authority there, though so pleased at first, was afterwards to bewail, nay, to mourn for ages, or to the present hour!

While, however, Italian scholars were thus busy, and leaving the Pontiff to fight his own battles, they were but little aware of what was preparing for them elsewhere. They were in fact more ignorant of this, than the Western scholar had been of their thirst for learning; and was there no indication here, of but one guiding, one all-gracious power?

The Invention of Printing.

An obscure German had been revolving in his mind, the first principles of an art, applicable to any language on the face of the earth, which was to prove the most important discovery in the annals of mankind. At the moment when they were storming Constantinople in the East, he was thus busy; spending all his substance, in plying his new art with vigour upon a book, and upon such a BOOK! Neither Kings, nor Pontiffs, nor Councils had been, or were to be, consulted here; nor was he encouraged to proceed by one smile from his own Emperor, or from any princely patron.

No mechanical invention having proved so powerful in its effects as that of printing, it is not wonderful that so much research has been bestowed on the history of its origin and progress. The precise order in which some particular cities first enjoyed its advantages, still continues to afford room for minute criticism, but the progress of inquiry has reduced the field of controversy to a very narrow compass. A better history of the art, indeed, and more especially of its curious and rapid progress throughout Europe, may, and should still, be written; but the general results already ascertained, have now approached to such accuracy, as to suggest and justify several important and striking reflections. These results demand our notice at the close of the century, as they will be found to involve one important bearing on the subsequent history of the Sacred Volume, when it came to be first printed in the vernacular tongue.

MENTZ, in the Duchy of Hesse (Mayence or Mainz), on the left bank of the Rhine, and four hundred miles from Vienna, may be regarded as the mother city of printing; and although three individuals shared the honour of perfecting the art on the same spot, if

not under the same roof, the invention itself is due to only one man. Henne Gænsfleisch, commonly called John Gutenberg, (Anglicé, Goodhill,) the individual referred to, was born in Mentz, not Strasburg, as sometimes stated, about the year 1400; but, in 1424, he had taken up his abode in the latter city as a merchant. About ten years after this, or in 1435, we have positive evidence that his invention, then a profound secret, engrossed his thoughts; and here, in conjunction with one Andrew Dritzehen and two other citizens, all bound to secrecy, Gutenberg had made some experiments in printing with metal types before the year 1439. By this time Dritzehen was dead; and in six or seven years more, the money embarked being exhausted, not one fragment survives in proof of what they had attempted. Gutenberg, returning to his native city in 1445-6, found it absolutely necessary to disclose his progress. More money was demanded, if ever he was to succeed; and having once opened his mind fully to a citizen, a goldsmith of Mentz, John Fust, he engaged to co-operate by affording the needful advances. At last, therefore, between the years 1450 and 1455, for it has no date, their first great work was finished. This was no other than the Bible itself!-the Latin Bible. Altogether unknown to the rest of the world, this was what had been doing at Mentz, in the West, when Constantinople, in the East, was storming, and the Italian "brief men," or copyists, were so very busy with their pens. This Latin Bible, of 641 leaves, formed the first important specimen of printing with metal types. The very first homage was to be paid to that SACRED VOLUME, which had been sacrilegiously buried, nay, interdicted so long; as if it had been, with pointing finger, to mark at once the greatest honour ever to be bestowed on the art, and infinitely the highest purpose to which it was ever to be applied. Nor was this all. Had it been a single page, or even an entire sheet which was then produced, there might have been less occasion to have noticed it; but there was something in the whole character of the affair which, if not unprecedented, rendered it singular in the usual current of human events. This Bible formed two volumes in folio, which have been "justly praised for the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register, the lustre of the ink." It was a work of 1282 pages, finally executed—a most laborious process, involving not only a considerable period of time, but no small amount of mental, manual, and mechanical labour; and yet, now that it had been finished, and now offered for sale, not a single human being, save the artists themselves, knew how it had been accomplished! The profound secret remained with themselves, while the entire process was probably still confined to the bosom of only two or three!