Sect. VI. §3.]

English Protestant Versions.

to the illiterate. Among the finest specimens of this pictorial instruction, we may mention the beautifully-executed windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge.1

1. WICLIFFE'S VERSION.

The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated out of the Latin Vulgat by John WICLIF, S.T.P. about 1378. To which is prefixt a History of the Translations of the H. Bible and N. Testament, &c. into English, both in MS. and print, and of the most remarkable Editions of them since the Invention of Printing. By John Lewis, M.A. London, 1731, folio; 1810, 4to.2

Nearly contemporary with John de Trevisa was the celebrated John Wiclif, or Wicliffe, who, about the year 1378 or 1380, translated the entire Bible from the Latin Vulgate into the English language as then spoken, not being sufficiently acquainted with the Hebrew and Greek languages to translate from the originals. Before the invention of printing, transcripts were obtained with difficulty, and copies were so rare, that, according to the registry of William Alnewick, bishop of Norwich, in 1429, the price of one of Wicliffe's Testaments was not less than four marks and forty pence, or two pounds sixteen shillings and eight-pence, a sum equivalent to more than forty pounds at present. This translation of the Bible, we are informed, was so offensive to those who were for taking away the key of knowledge and means of better information, that a bill was brought into the House of Lords, 13 Rich. II. A.D. 1390, for the purpose of suppressing it. On which the Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle, is reported to have spoken to this effect :-"We will not be the dregs of all seeing other nations have the law of God, which is the law of our faith, written in their own language." At the same time he declared in a very solemn manner, "That he would maintain our having this law in our own tongue against those, whoever they should be, who first brought in the bill." The duke was seconded by others, who said, "That if the Gospel, by its being translated into English, was the occasion of running into error, they might know that there were more heretics to be found among the Latins than among the people of any other language. For that the Decretals reckoned no fewer than sixty-six Latin heretics; and so the Gospel must not be read in Latin, which yet the opposers of its English translation allowed." Through the Duke of Lancaster's influence the bill was rejected; and this success gave encouragement to some of Wicliffe's followers to publish another and more correct translation of the Bible. But in the year 1408, in a convocation held at Oxford, by Archbishop Arundel, it was decreed by a constitution, "That no one should thereafter translate any text of Holy Scripture in English, by way of a book, or little book or tract; and that no book of this kind should be read, that was composed lately in the time of John Wicliffe, or since his death." This constitution led the way to great persecution, and many persons were punished severely, and some even with death, for reading the Scriptures in English. (Lewis's History, pp. 7, 8.)

No part of Wicliffe's version of the Scriptures was printed, until Mr. Lewis published the New Testament in folio, in the year 1731. În 1739, his history of translations was printed by itself in an octavo volume. Wicliffe's translation of the New Testament was handsomely re-edited in quarto, in 1810, by the Rev. Henry Hervey Baber, M.A., one of the Librarians of the British Museum; who prefixed a valuable memoir of the life, opinions, and writings of Dr. Wicliffe, and also an Historical Account of the Saxon and English Versions of the Scriptures, previous to the opening of the fifth century.

2. TYNDALE'S VERSION.

(1.) The Newe Testamente. M. D. xxvi. 8vo.

(2.) The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: published in 1526. Being the first translation from the Greek into English, by

1 There is a peculiar correspondence between the paintings of the same window, in the upper and lower divisions: for instance, in the upper division is painted a piece of history, taken from the Old Testament; and in the lower division, is painted some circumstance selected from the New Testament, corresponding to that above it from the Old.

2 The titles of this and the following English versions are given from the copies preserved in the library of the British Museum, with the exception of Hollybushe's New Testament, in p. 71., and the Anglo-Genevese Bible, in p. 75.

(E) 2

that eminent Scholar and Martyr, William TYNDALE. Reprinted verbatim: with a Memoir of his Life and Writings, by George Offor. Together with the Proceedings and Correspondence of Henry VIII., Sir T. More, and Lord Cromwell. London, MDCCCXxxvi. 8vo.

(3.) The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By William TYNDALE, the Martyr. The original Edition, 1526, being the first vernacular Translation from the Greek; with a Memoir of his Life and Writings. To which are annexed the essential variations of Coverdale's, Thomas Matthew's, the Genevan, and the Bishops' Bibles, as marginal readings. By J. P. Dabney. Andover and New York, 1837. 8vo.

In England, as in other parts of Europe, the spread of the pure doctrines of the Reformation was accompanied with new translations into the vernacular language. For the first printed English translation of the Scriptures we are indebted to William Tyndale, who, having formed the design of translating the New Testament from the original Greek into English (an undertaking for which he was fully qualified), removed to Antwerp in Flanders for this purpose. Here, with the assistance of the learned John Fry, or Fryth, who was burnt on a charge of heresy in Smithfield, in 1552, and a friar, called William Roye, who suffered death on the same account in Portugal, he finished it, and in the year 1526 it was printed either at Antwerp or Hamburg, without a name, in a middle-sized 8vo. volume, and without either calendar, references in the margin, or table at the end. Tyndale annexed a "pistil" at the close of it, in which he "desyred them that were learned to amende if ought were found amysse." Le Long calls this "The New Testament translated into English, from the German Version of Luther;" but for this degrading appellation he seems to have no other authority besides a story related by one Cochlæus 3, an enemy of the Reformation, with a view of depreciating Tyndale's translation. Many copies of this translation having found their way into England, in order to prevent their dispersion among the people, and the more effectually to enforce the prohibition published in all the dioceses against reading them, Tonstal, bishop of London, purchased all the remaining copies of this edition, and all which he could collect from private hands, and committed them to the flames at St. Paul's cross. The first impression of Tyndale's translation being thus disposed of, several other editions were published in Holland, before the year 1530, in which Tyndale seems to have had no interest, but which found a ready sale, and those which were imported into England were ordered to be burned. On one of these occasions, Sir Thomas More, who was then chancellor, and who concurred with the bishop in the execution of this measure, inquired of a person, who stood accused of heresy, and to whom he promised indemnity on consideration of an explicit and satisfactory answer, how Tyndale subsisted abroad, and who were the persons in London that abetted and supported him: to which inquiry the heretical convert replied, “It was the Bishop of London who maintained him, by sending a sum of money to buy up the impression of his Testament." The chancellor smiled, admitted the truth of the declaration, and suffered the accused person to escape. The people formed a very unfavourable opinion of those who ordered the word of God to be burned, and concluded that there must be an obvious repugnance between the New Testament and the doctrines of those who treated it with this indignity. Those who were suspected of importing and concealing any of these books, were adjudged by Sir T. More to ride with their faces to the tails of their horses, with papers on their heads, and the New Testaments, and other books which they had dispersed, hung about their cloaks, and at the standard in Cheapside, to throw them into a fire prepared for that purpose, and to be fined at the king's pleasure. When Tonstal's purchase served only to benefit Tyndale, and those who were employed in printing and selling successive editions of his Testament, and other measures for restraining their dispersion seemed to have little or no effect, the pen of the witty, eloquent, and learned Sir Thomas More was employed against the trans

1 Though Wicliffe's translation is prior in point of time, no part of it was printed before the year 1731.

2 Specimens of Tindal's translation of the New Testament, as well as of the other early English translations of the Old and New Testament, are given (together with concise bibliographical descriptions) in the Appendix to the Rev. Dr. Cotton's "List of Editions of the Bible, and of Parts thereof," &c. pp. 85-140.

3 In Actis Martini Lutheri, ad an. 1526, p. 132.

lator; and the bishop granted him a licence, or faculty, dated March 7. 1527, to have and to read the several books which Tyndale and others published; and at his desire Sir Thomas composed a dialogue, written with much humour, and designed to expose Tyndale's translation, which was published in 1529. In this dialogue, he alleges, among other charges, that Tyndale had mistranslated three words of great importance, viz. the words priests, church, and charity; calling the first seniors, the second congregation, and the third love. He also charges him with changing commonly the term grace into favour, confession into knowledge, penance into repentance, and a contrite heart into a troubled heart. The Bishop of London had, indeed, in a sermon, declared, that he had found in it no less than 2000 errors, or mistranslations; and Sir Thomas More discovered (as he affirmed) about 1000 texts by tale, falsely translated. In 1530, a royal proclamation was issued, by the advice of the prelates and clerks, and of the universities, for totally suppressing the translation of the Scripture, corrupted by William Tyndale. The proclamation set forth, that it was not necessary to have the Scriptures in the English tongue, and in the hands of the common people; that the distribution of them, as to allowing or denying it, depended on the discretion of their superiors; and that, considering the malignity of the time, an English translation of the Bible would rather occasion the continuance or increase of errors, than any benefit to their souls. However, the proclamation announced the king's intention, if the present translation were abandoned, at a proper season to provide that the Holy Scriptures should be by great, learned, and catholic persons, translated into the English tongue, if it should then seem convenient. In the mean time, Tyndale was busily employed in translating from the Hebrew into the English the five books of Moses, in which he was assisted by Myles Coverdale. But his papers being lost by shipwreck in his voyage to Hamburg, where he designed to print it, a delay occurred, and it was not put to press till the year 1530. It is a small Svo., printed at different presses, and with different types. In the preface he complained, that there was not so much as one i in his New Testament, if it wanted a tittle over its head, but it had been noted and numbered to the ignorant people for a heresy, who were made to believe, that there were many thousand heresies in it, and that it was so faulty as to be incapable of amendment or correction. In this year he published an answer to Sir Thomas More's dialogue, containing his reasons for the changes which he had introduced into his translation. The three former editions of Tyndale's English New Testament being all sold off, the Dutch booksellers printed a fourth in this year, in a smaller volume and letter. In 1531, Tyndale published an English version of the prophet Jonah, with a prologue, full of invective against the church of Rome. In 1534, was published a fourth Dutch edition, or the fifth in all, of Tyndale's New Testament, in 12mo. In this same year, Tyndale printed his own edition of the New Testament in English, which he had diligently revised and corrected; to which is prefixed a prologue; and at the end are the pistils of the Old Testament, closing with the following advertisement, "Imprinted at Antwerp, by Marten Emperour, anno M.D. xxxiv.” Another edition was published this year, in 16mo., and printed in a German letter. Upon his return to Antwerp, in 1534, King Henry VIII. and his council contrived means to have him seized and imprisoned. After a confinement of about a year and a half he was condemned to death by the emperor's decree in an assembly at Augsburg; and in 1536, he was strangled at Vilvorde (or Villefort), near Brussels, the place of his imprisonment, after which his body was reduced to ashes. He expired, praying repeatedly and earnestly, “ Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Several editions of his Testament were printed in the year of his death. "His papers seem to have remained in the hands of his friends; at least so much of them as contained translations of the Old Testament from Joshua to Chronicles inclusive, with prefaces to several different books of Scriptures." Some writers on the History of English Bibles, have asserted that Tyndale had little or no skill in the Hebrew language, and therefore probably translated the Old Testament from the Latin: but Mr. Walter has proved, by a copious and elaborate collation of particular instances, that this able and pious martyr for the word of God was fully competent to translate, and did actually execute his translation, directly from the Hebrew original, and not from the German Version of Luther. (Letter to Bp. Marsh, pp. 43-52. 75-90.) Few first translations, says the late Dr. Geddes, will be found preferable to Tyndale's. It is astonishing, says this writer, how little obsolete the language of it is, even at this day; and in point of perspicuity, and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity of style, no English version has yet surpassed it. (Prospectus for a new translation of the Bible, p. 88.)

The LONDON reprint of the first edition of Tyndale's version of the New Testament, published in 1836, is very neatly executed, and is an exact reprint of an unique and perfect