8+

THE REFORMATION SPREADS.

great progress in freedom. And, above all, the invention of printing in the fifteenth century had increased the facilities of intercourse between mind and mind. It is to be feared, too, that the vices of the clergy, including the very orders which had been instituted to strengthen the church, had become so gross as to produce general distrust. It is at least a significant fact, that much of the earlier literaure of nearly all modern languages consists of satires on their ignorance and immorality.

Under such circumstances the Reformation commenced.

In fifty years from the time when Luther renounced communion with the papacy, and burned the bull of Leo at the gates of Wittemberg, Protestantism had become predominant throughout half of Europe. In England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Saxony, Wirtemberg, the Palatinate, a large part of Switzerland, and all the northern Netherlands, the Reformation had triumphed Such a change within so brief a period is without a parallel in history. To what cause is it to be ascribed ?

To this question historians have given various replies. The northern nations of Europe, it is said, detested the dominion of men who, like the Italians, were aliens in blood and in language. The observances of the church were a burden which men were unwilling to bear. The large sums which, under different pretexts, were exacted by the court of Rome, were often felt to be an humbling, as well as a

CAUSES OF PROGRESS.

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costly tribute. The character of that court, moreover, and its representatives, could not fail to excite the disgust of a grave, devout, and earnest race. Such are the explanations which are sometimes given of the rapid progress of the Reformation; and no doubt all the circumstances thus enumerated had force among the early friends of the new theology. But other influences were at work; and it may be questioned whether those just named were the chief. France and Spain, for example, though not fond of the government of foreigners, continued submissive. England had for centuries disowned the temporal power of the pope, and declined to pay him tribute, without casting off, however, her spiritual allegiance. The vices of the court of Rome, moreover, are hardly sufficient to explain the ready reception given to a new faith. In fact, these explanations, true as far as they go, leave out of view the mightiest influence of all, the power of the Bible among the people.

The proof of this power is twofold. First, it was extensively circulated through a large part of Europe before the Reformation began, and the evidence of its circulation is, to all who understand the Bible, evidence of its influence. And, secondly, this circulation of the Bible was regarded with bitter hostility by the Romish church, and she ascribed to it most of the disasters which the Reformation introduced. This twofold proof we proceed to lay before our readers.

86

THE BIBLE. EARLY TRANSLATIONS.

The name of the inventor of printing is not certainly known; but it is agreed on all hands that the first book ever printed was the Latin Vulgate, and that it came from the press some time between the years A.D. 1450 and 1455. This edition is known among bibliographers as the Mazarin Bible, and there are not less than eighteen copies of it in the different libraries of Europe. It shows the spirit of the inventors that at the outset they attempted to print so large a work, and executed it with such astonishing success. It illustrates, too, the esteem in which Scripture was held. May we not regard it, moreover, as a token for good that the first-fruits of this new art were dedicated to the holiest cause, and placed on the altar of religion? By the year 1459, two copies of the Psalter had been printed, and in 1460 the Bible was printed in German, at Bamberg, by Pfiester. In 1462, Fust, who had been partner with Gutenberg, the probable inventor of the new art, published a second edition of the Bible in German, at Mentz, the town giving its name to the edition. Throughout the German empire there were published, between the year 1461 and 1470, seven editions of the Bible, of which five were in Latin and two in German.

In

1471, the Bible was printed in Italian, by Malermi, a Venetian, and two other editions of that or a different version were issued the same year; eleven editions in Italian are enumerated by Panzer as published before the close of the fifteenth century. A Flemish version appeared

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87

at Cologne in 1475, at Delft in 1477, at Gouda in 1479. A Valencian or Catalan version appeared at Valentia, in Spain, in 1478. Every copy of this edition, however, has been destroyed, though there is preserved a final leaf containing the names of the translator and printer.* This version owes its origin to the Christians of southern France. In Bohemia, where Huss laboured, manuscript copies of the Bible were largely multiplied after his martyrdom. As early as the year 1415, pope Pius the second (then known as Æneas Sylvius) remarks that it was a shame to the Italian priests of that age that many of them had not read the whole of the New Testament, whilst scarcely a Bohemian woman could be found who could not answer any question taken out of any part of the Bible.† From 1410 to 1488, no less than four different recensions of the entire Scriptures can be distinctly traced, and many more of the New Testament. About thirty-three copies of the whole Bible, and twenty-two of the New Testament, all written during this period, are still extant, having survived the bitterest persecution. In 1488, the whole Bible in Bohemian was printed, and between that date and 1804, as many as fourteen large editions issued from the press. It is an interesting addition to these facts to find that Ann, the queen of Richard the second of England, possessed copies of the Bible in Latin, German, and Bohemian-the first instance on record of a royal collector of these sacred books. Hallam, vol. i. p. 172. † Bagster: The Bible in every Land.

88

NUMBER OF EDITIONS.

Of the Bible in French we have also more than one edition. In 1477, a complete version was printed by an Augustinian monk at Paris.. Another edition, containing, however, only the historical parts of Scripture, was printed in 1487 by command of Charles the eighth; and between 1512 and 1530 a version was published at Antwerp by Jaques le Fevre. This book is the basis of all other French versions, Protestant as well as Roman Catholic. The ancient Sclavonic version was printed, as we have seen, at Montenegro, before the close of the fifteenth century-manuscript copies of all these versions existed much earlier than the date of printing. Polish and Danish versions also existed, though they were not printed till after the Reformation had begun. All these versions, it may be added, were made for the most part from the Latin Vulgate. They all preceded the Reformation, and all preceded the first published English Testament by Tyndale, (1527.)

Of the number of editions, and the consequent extent to which the Bible was circulated in the fifteenth century, it is less easy to speak; but there are facts which may serve to guide our conclusion. Panzer, the authority on this question, states that between the year 1450, the date of the invention of printing, and 1500, there were printed not less than ten thousand editions of different books. Some reckon as many even as fifteen thousand. Of these, ninetyone were editions of the Vulgate. Again: out of the twenty-four editions of different books