NUMBER OF COPIES.

89

which were printed between the years 1461 and 1470, seven were editions, as we have seen, of the Scriptures. Combining these facts, it is not too much to say that before the labours of Luther had assumed a definite form, there must have been printed as many as one hundred and fifty editions of the Bible. Evidence of another kind corroborates this view. In 1559, the first index of books prohibited by "the church" was set forth by pope Paul IV: the index includes Bibles in all modern languages, and enumerates forty-eight editions, chiefly printed in countries still under the power of the church. Sixtyone printers are also put under a general ban, and all works from their presses are forbidden. In addition to this list, the council of Trent had a prohibited index of its own.

The number of copies printed in each edition must, of course, have varied. In a petition presented in 1472 by printers of that day to Sixtus IV., they complain of their poverty, and say it was brought upon them by printing so many books which they had not been able to sell. They state that of classic authors each edition generally consisted of two hundred and seventy-five copies, and that an edition of a theological work (including the Bible) consisted of five hundred and fifty. Reckoning moderately, therefore, one hundred and fifty editions of Scripture, and four hundred copies of each, it appears that there must have been as many as sixty thousand copies of the Scriptures printed, and circulated partly in Latin and

partly in the vernacular languages of central Europe, before the Reformation.

The fall of price in books, consequent on the art of printing, bore a proportion to the increase of their numbers, though, of course, the price was kept up for some time through the extended demand. In the middle ages, a manuscript was sometimes bought at the price of a considerable estate, and the sale or loan even of a book was often solemnly registered by public acts. When Louis XI. of France wished to borrow a manuscript from the library of the Faculty of Paris, he had to deposit one hundred golden crowns, and his treasurer sold part of the royal plate to make up the amount; this last fact occurred in the middle of the fifteenth century. Somewhat earlier the countess of Anjou bought a favourite book of Homilies for two hundred sheep and a hundred bushels of wheat and rye. A student of Paris, who had run through his property, raised a new fortune by pawning a manuscript "book of laws;" and a grammarian, who had been ruined by a fire, rebuilt his house with two small volumes of Cicero. In some of those instances, no doubt, the high price given is to be attributed to a temporary scarcity of the volumes, or to the peculiar value of certain copies. The common price, however, for a folio volume of no rarity in the fourteenth century, is reckoned by Lambinet as equal to twenty pounds sterling in modern money, and in this estimate Hallam seems to agree.

OPINIONS OF ROMISH CHURCH.

91

16

The invention of printing produced a great change. It took off at once four-fifths of the price, and in a few years the universities laid down a tariff of prices even lower. Though, therefore, there is still room to contrast our modern prices with even these-an English Bible for tenpence, and a Chinese Testament for sixpence-yet this great reduction must have brought the sacred books within the reach of thousands who had previously found it impossible to obtain them.

Modern inquiry has elicited similar facts in the history of our own country. In twentyeight years of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., upwards of a hundred editions of the Old and New Testaments seem to have been printed and circulated in England. We may safely ascribe to this cause therefore much of the progress of the principles of the Reformation, both in our own country and on the continent.

That this circulation of the Scriptures was extensive enough in the opinion of the authorities to do great mischief, is clear from the steps taken by them. To appeal to the New Testament was the heresy of all the reformed ; and in the case of the Waldenses, the Paterines, and others, the practice had been forbidden by successive councils. Nor had the spirit of the hierarchy undergone any extensive change. As early as 1486, Berthold, the archbishop of Mentz, issued a mandate, rebuking what he called "the abuse of printing," the "conversion of what was intended for the instruction of

92

OPINIONS OF ROMISH CHURCH.

mankind to their injury." "Already," says he "books on the duties and doctrines of religion are translated from Latin into German, and circulated among the people, to the disgrace of religion itself." "Can these men assert," he adds, "that our German language is capable of expressing what great authors have written in Greek and Latin on the high mysteries of the Christian faith? . . . . Certainly it is not, and hence they either invent new words, or use old ones in erroneous senses, a thing especially dangerous in sacred Scripture. For who will admit that men without learning, or women into whose hands these translations may fall, can find the true sense of the Gospels, or of the Epistles of St. Paul?.... But since this art was discovered in this city of Mentz-and we may truly say by Divine aid-and is to be maintained by us in all its honour, we strictly forbid all persons to translate, or circulate when translated, any books upon any subject whatever, until, before printing and again before their sale, such translations shall be approved by four doctors, under penalty of excommunication, the forfeiture of the books, and the payment into our exchequer of one hundred golden crowns. ."* In 1501, Alexander IV. issued a bull to the same purpose. He recites that many pernicious books had been printed in various parts of the world, and especially in the provinces of Cologne and Mentz, Treves, and Magdeburgh, and forbids all printers in those

* See the whole in Hallam, vol. i. p. 250.

DECISION OF COUNCIL OF TRENT.

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provinces to publish any books without the licence of the archbishops or their officials. It was clearly the translation of religious books, and especially of the Scriptures, that excited this alarm.

In confirmation of the same conclusion, we may add that at the council of Trent, in 1545, the very first discussion turned upon the sufficiency and place of the sacred volume. Several voices, including those of high dignitaries in the church, were loudly raised in favour of the Protestant view. "Nothing but Scripture;" "All that is necessary for salvation," they maintained," is given in the New Testament."* By a large majority, however, this opinion was overruled. "Written tradition, received through the church, must be regarded," they decided, "with like reverence as holy writ;" a decision which, it was well said, did half their work. The use of Scripture in the vernacular was then formally condemned, and the condemnation was afterwards drawn up and published by the pope in his own form. "As it is manifest," said he, "by experience, that if the use of the holy writers is permitted in the vulgar tongue, more evil than good will arise, because of the temerity of man; it is for this reason all Bibles are prohibited, with all their parts, whether they be printed or written, in whatever vulgar language soever; as also are prohibited all summaries or abridgments of Bibles, or of any books of the holy writings, although they * Ranke, book ii.