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ously turned by the President, Archbishop Courtenay, into a good rather than an evil omen, as presaging the purging of the kingdom by the condemnation of heresy, though not without trouble and great agitation. Pontius Pilate and Herod are made friends to-day," was Wycliffe's own bitter comment on the union against him between the prelates and the monastic orders long at deadly feud; "since they have made a heretic of Christ, it is an easy inference for them to count simple Christians heretics."

§ 6. His Death.-Contrary however to his own expectations, Wycliffe was allowed to die in peace. Retiring to his quiet rectory of Lutterworth, to which he had been presented by the king in the year of the Bruges Conference, he pursued his accustomed work of teaching and preaching. The end came very suddenly. On 28th December 1384, he was suddenly struck with paralysis while hearing mass, and passed quietly away on the last day of the year. Admirable," says the old Church historian Fuller, "that a hare so often hunted with so many packs of dogs should die at last quietly sitting on his form.

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After his death a petition was presented to the Pope that Wycliffe's bones should be disinterred from their resting-place in Lutterworth Churchyard; but the Pope to his credit took no action, and it was left to the Council of Constance thirty years later (4th May 1415) to pronounce Wycliffe “the leader of heresy in that age,’ and to order his books to be burned and his remains removed from consecrated ground. Not till 1428 however was the order carried out, when the remains having been burned to ashes were cast into the Swift that passes by Lutterworth on its way to the Avon. Thus "this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over."

CHAPTER III

THE WYCLIFFITE VERSIONS

1. Wycliffe, the first English translator of the Bible. 2. Purvey's revision. 3. Relation of the Wycliffite versions. 4. Dependence on the Vulgate. 5. Comments and notes. 6. Homely diction. versions.

7. Reception of the

§ 1. Wycliffe the first English translator of the Bible. In the preceding chapter we saw how Wycliffe succeeded in giving to the English people the whole Bible in their native tongue. We have now to turn to some particulars regarding his translation and the work of his immediate followers; and the question at once meets us, Was Wycliffe actually the first to translate the Bible into English? The contrary is sometimes stated. Sir Thomas More, writing about 1530, asserts that "the whole Bible was long before his (Wycliffe's) days by virtuous and well-learned men translated into the English tongue," and adds that he himself had seen "Bibles fair and old written in English"; but it must be kept in view that at the time More was writing to depreciate as far as possible Wycliffe's and Tindale's work, and that in all probability the copies which he claims to have seen were actually the work of Wycliffe or his followers. While again, the assertion of King James's translators in their Preface that "much about that time, even in our King Richard the Second's days, John Trevisa translated them (the Scriptures) into English," seems to rest on a very slender foundation. Until, then, clearer evidence to the contrary is forthcoming, to

Wycliffe's translation must be awarded the honour of being at the time "not only the one translation of the whole of the Scriptures into English which had ever been made, but actually by a hundred years the first translation into a European language."1 Nor is it out of place to remark here that Wycliffe may in consequence be regarded as the father of our later English prose. As a hundred and fifty years later Luther's German version of the Bible gave a fresh impetus to all German literature, so to the clear, homely English of Wycliffe's Bible and tracts may be traced the beginning of that native prose literature of which we are justly so proud.

§ 2. Purvey's Revision.-Nor can we doubt, to pass to a second point, that, like Luther again, Wycliffe spent much of his leisure after his retirement in revising and correcting his version. Death carried him off, however, in the midst of his labours, and it was left to his friend and assistant, John Purvey, to complete this revision. It was issued in the year 1388, with a long and most interesting Prologue. "A simple creature," so Purvey writes, "hath translated the Bible out of Latin into English. First, this simple creature had much travail, with divers fellows and helpers, to gather many old Bibles, and other doctors, and common glosses, and to make one Latin Bible some deal [partly] true. And I pray, for charity and for common profit of Christian souls, that if any wise man find any default of the truth of translation, let him set in the true sentence and opening of Holy Writ, but look that he examine truly his Latin Bible. . . . Lord God! since at the beginning of faith so many men translated into Latin, and to great profit of Latin men, let one simple creature of God translate into English, for profit of English men. Therefore a translator hath great need to study well the sentence, both before and after, and look that such equivalent words accord with the sentence, and he hath need to live a clean life, and be full devout in prayers, and have not his wit occupied about worldly things, that the Holy Spirit,

1 Burrows, Wiclif's Place in History, p. 20.

...

author of wisdom, and knowledge, and truth, direct him in his work, and suffer him not to err. By this manner, with good living and great travail, men may come to true and clear translating, and true understanding of Holy Writ, seem it never so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to know well, and keep well Holy Writ, and suffer joyfully some pain for it at the last! Amen."

The

§ 3. Relation of the Wycliffite Versions.Apart from its personal interest this Prologue has proved of great assistance to scholars in enabling them to distinguish between what we may call the earlier version, Wycliffe's own version, and the later, the revision by Purvey. Both these versions were anonymous. peril of Bible-translation at that period was too great to admit of translators putting their names to their work, and in consequence there was for long much confusion between the two versions, and in several well-known works, such as Bagster's Hexapla, the later revision is actually printed as Wycliffe's own. But a careful comparison of this Prologue with Purvey's other writings, and an examination of the later translation on the principles there laid down, prove beyond a doubt that he was the author of it, while the "English Bible late translated to which he makes reference can only be Wycliffe's version of 1382. It would be interesting, if our space permitted, to print parallel extracts from the two versions as showing the nature of the changes which Purvey introduced; but in the meantime we must content ourselves with simply giving a short extract from each, printing it exactly as it was first written. Here is how in the earlier version Wycliffe rendered the Lord's Prayer :

MATT. vi. 9-13 (WYCLIFFE, 1382)

Oure fader that art in heuenes, halwid be thi name; thi kyngdom cumme to; be thi wille don as in heuen and in erthe; gif to vs this day oure breed ouer other substance; and forgeue to vs oure dettis,

Amen.

as we forzeue to oure dettours; and leede vs not in to temptacioun, but delyuere vs fro yuel. From Purvey we may take a few verses from Philippians ii :—

PHIL. ii. 5-11 (PURVEY, 1388)

And fele ze this thing in zou, which also in Crist Jhesu; that whanne he was in the forme of God, demyde not raueyn,1 that hym silf were euene to God; but he lowide hym silf, takinge the forme of a seruaunt, and was maad in to the licknesse of men, and in abite 2 was foundun as a man. He mekide 3 hym silf, and was maad obedient to the deth, 3he, to the deth of the cross. For which thing God enhaunside1 hym, and 3af to hym a name that is aboue al name; that in the name of Jhesu ech kne be bowid, of heuenli thingis, of ertheli thingis, and of hellis; and eche tunge knouleche, that the Lord Jhesu Crist is in the glorie of God the fadir.

In neither case, it will be observed, is there any division into verses, but in the originals reference was facilitated by means of letters of the alphabet inserted at intervals in the margin.

§ 4. Dependence on the Vulgate. It would lie altogether beyond our present aim to attempt anything like a critical examination of the two Wycliffite versions; but one great, though unavoidable, defect which distinguished them may be noted. Both were translations of a translation. Neither Wycliffe nor Purvey translated directly from the original Hebrew and Greek texts, but based their work on the Vulgate or Latin Bible then in general use, or rather, as Purvey tells us, on a Latin text made as accurate as possible by a comparison of "many old Bibles," but still only some deal [partly] true." All the errors therefore into which the Latin text had fallen are here reproduced; and further, the translators' anxiety to keep as closely as 3 Humbled. 4 Exalted.

I Rapine.

2 Habit.