-the beginning of Edward the Third's reign; and in a version of the Psalms attributed to John Hyde, and preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, we have, probably, a revision of Schorham's work. Belonging to about the same period is a Ms. by Richard Rolle, a chantry priest, who died 1349. Having written a Latin commentary on the Psalms, he afterwards published an English version of the text, with an English commentary appended to it.

He lived in solitude, close by the convent of Hampole, a village about four miles from Doncaster; and there he carried on his studies and wrote his works, after invoking the muse with more of perseverance than genius or taste. He is known in the annals of our literature as the author of several theological pieces in Latin, and especially of the Prick of Conscience; a curious old English poem, of which the reader may find ample specimens in Warton's History of English Poetry.* His prose translation of the Book of Psalms is found in several manuscripts-the one in Sidney College claiming to be the original. The beginning of the first Psalm is translated thus :

"Blisful man, ye whilke way yede noght i ye counseyl of wicked, and in ye wey of sinfulle stode noght, and in ye chayr of pestilence he noght sate.”

Rolle, in his work of translation, was evidently bent upon doing good, and in a prologue he informs us that he sought no strange English, but what was easiest and most common, that he followed the letter of the Latin text as far as possible, and that, in expounding, "he followed the holy doctors, and aimed at reproving sin." This, as he further observes, was stated in order to meet the objections of

* Vol. ii. p. 43 et seq.

envious men, who might say that he did not understand. what he was doing, and was thereby injuring himself and others. A short comment or gloss is inserted after each sentence, which, in the simplest manner, explains the meaning of the passage; as, for example, after the third verse of the first Psalm it is said, "He shall not only be good in himself, but he shall be as a tree that is profitable to many, and noyand to none." Hampole's gloss, though substantially the same in all the manuscripts examined, is more concise in some than others.

A curious Ms. of this version, copied in the time of Henry VI., states that the work was undertaken at the request of Dame Margaret Kirkby, a lady recluse, living probably at Hampole; that the autograph Ms. by the author was attached to a tomb by chains, and that many copies, corrupted by the Lollards, were at the time in circulation. It is amusing to find this note respecting one of the MSS.: "Being disturbed, I forgot to add that this book evidently appears to have lain long in water. Thus the famous Durham Gospels in the Cottonian Library, Nero, D, iv., were recovered from the sea. So also the comment of Johannes de Lathbury was taken from the bottom of the sea, and the works of Mr. Frith found in the belly of a great fish."*

It may be mentioned here that the Hampole hermit, who, without any poetical genius, was fond of versifying, composed metrical paraphrases of the Lord's Prayer, and of selections from the Book of Job; but another and far more effective labourer in the vineyard was in Rolle's day preparing for his work. God was raising up Wycliffe to prepare an

Harl. Mss., described in Cat. ii. p. 244.

English version of the whole Bible, to feed the minds of those who pined with spiritual hunger. It cannot be said, indeed, that no man gave unto them, for we have seen that some diligent and faithful servants did convey refreshment, at least a few "crumbs from the Master's table; " but, at the best, it was a stinted supply. Gratefully do we trace remains of the least contributions of Scriptural knowledge among the relics of our old English literature; but it is painful to think that, after all, so little was done for the instruction of the people in the oracles of God. Happily, far different times have come over our country, and now by every cottager the Bible may be easily obtained. The night of those ages, as far as Scriptural knowledge was concerned,— to say nothing of other kinds of knowledge,-was illumined only by a pale moon, whose rays, darting from amidst thick clouds, and lighting up here and there the wide waste, we love to watch, and think how some travellers to eternity might catch these beams, and, guided by them, pursue the path of safety; but a bright morning long since dawned on our fathers, and we, thank God! are living in the brightness of the full noon-day.

OWERING above the pleasant town of Lutterworth, on the banks of the Swift, there stands the old Church of St. Mary, an interesting specimen of the pointed architecture of this country in the thirteenth century. What with the decay produced by time, and the mutilation occasioned by accident, it has lost much of its original beauty; but there are associations which invest it with a charm which the

skill of the architect could never impart. We look with feelings of peculiar veneration on that time-worn edifice, as we remember that there John Wycliffe preached and laboured, and that probably under the shadow of those walls he prosecuted his task of translating the Scriptures into the English tongue. The carved oak pulpit in which he taught, the table on which he wrote, the chair in which he died, and the robe, now torn and tattered, which he used to wear, are preserved as relics which cannot fail to operate as quickeners of the imagination. With

the aid of the portrait of his venerable form and face now hanging on the vestry wall, we can picture that true-hearted man, occupying the sacred desk, and proclaiming to his parishioners the gospel of Christ, and then retiring to

resume the study of the Word of God, and to write upon that oak table page after page of his memorable version! In 1372, Wycliffe became a theological lecturer at Oxford. In April, 1374, he was presented by the Crown to the