be excused as pardonable, and to be scored on the account rather of that age, than of the author himself." Or in the eloquent words of Mr. Froude: "The peculiar genius—if such a word may be permitted—which breathes through it-the mingled tenderness and majesty—the Saxon simplicity — the preternatural grandeur — unequalled, unapproached, in the attempted improvements of modern scholars-all are here, and bear the impress of the mind of one man, William Tyndal."

CHAPTER VII

MILES COVERDALE

1. Early years. 2. Description of Bible of 1535. Coverdale as a translator. 4. Specimens of translation. 5. New editions.

6. Closing years and death.

WHEN in 1530 Warham's Assembly formally condemned the use of Tindale's New Testament,1 all hope of an authorised vernacular translation was not thereby destroyed. On the contrary, it was at the same time distinctly stated that the King had been led to take this step lest "the divulging of this Scripture at this time in the English tongue" should tend rather to the people's "further confusion and destruction than the edification of their souls"; but that he himself would have the New Testament "by learned men faithfully and purely translated," and so ready to be given forth at a more convenient season. It may be questioned whether Henry ever really contemplated the fulfilment of his promise; but in any case it was not forgotten by others. Towards the close of the same year a singularly noble letter was addressed to him by Hugh Latimer, in which the bold reformer called upon the King to implement his promise "even to-day before to-morrow." "And take heed," so he continued, "whose counsels your Grace doth take in this matter, that you may do that God commandeth, and not that seemeth good in your own sight without the Word of God; that your Grace may be found acceptable in His sight, and one of the members of His Church; and, according to the office

1 See above, p. 28

that he hath called your Grace unto, you may be found a faithful minister of His gifts, and not a defender of His faith; for He will not have it defended by man or man's power, but by His Word only, by the which He hath evermore defended it, and that by a way far above man's power, or reason, as all the stories of the Bible make mention."

To the same end, a few years later, a Convocation presided over by Cranmer, the recently-appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, petitioned that "His Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Sacred Scriptures should be translated into the English tongue by certain honest and learned men, named for that purpose by His Majesty, and should be delivered to the people according to their learning. We are not told the result of this petition-possibly, in the then heated and divided state of public opinion, it may never have been presented to the King at all; but, emboldened by its tone, Cranmer set about the work of translation himself, dividing the Bible into different parts, and soliciting the aid of the most learned bishops and others. His project came to nothing; but meanwhile there had been quietly working away on the Continent a scholar whose labours were to have a marked influence on the whole future of Bible-translation. His name was Miles Coverdale, and his story, so far as bearing upon the subject before us, is quickly told.

§ 1. Early Years.-Miles Coverdale was born in the year 1488 in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and is described as "from his childhood given to learning, wherein he profited much." At a fitting age he was attached to the Augustine Monastery at Cambridge, from which we find him writing, probably in 1527, to Cromwell, into whose good graces he had got: "For now I begin to taste of Holy Scriptures; now, honour be to God! I am set to the most sweet smell of holy letters."

Shortly afterwards Coverdale united himself with the reforming party, and in consequence, in 1529, had to cross the Channel for safety. According to Foxe, he joined Tindale at Hamburg, "and helped him in the

translating of the whole five books of Moses." Opinions vary as to how far this statement is to be literally understood; there can, however, be little doubt that about this time the two scholars did meet, and that Coverdale's zeal in the work of translation received a fresh impulse. The result was seen when in 1534, acting apparently on the advice of Cromwell, who saw the turn that things were taking, he was ready "to set forth" his translation, and on 4th October 1535 the first complete printed English Bible was issued. For it will be kept in view that Wycliffe's Bible, though complete, was only in MS.; and that Tindale's, though printed, was complete only so far as the New Testament was concerned. All that we can learn therefore regarding this volume cannot fail to be of interest. The astonishing thing is that so much of its history is still, to a great extent, matter of conjecture.

§ 2. Description of Bible of 1535.-In size Coverdale's Bible was a small folio, printed, probably at Zurich, in angular black type, fifty-seven lines going to each page. The original title ran as follows :—

"Biblia, The Bible: that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latyn into Englishe,

MDXXXV.

The English printer, however, into whose hands the sheets had passed, for some reason substituted a new title-page of his own in which all reference to "Douche and Latyn" was omitted. He also added several extra pages of preliminary matter, including a Dedication to the King, couched, according to the custom of the times, in terms of most fulsome flattery, and a Prologue to the Christian Reader. Both Dedication and Prologue

were signed by Coverdale.

The body of the book was divided into six parts. 1. Genesis to Deuteronomy. 2. Joshua to Esther. 3. Job to Solomon's Ballads (the Song of Solomon). 4. Isaiah to Malachi including the apocryphal book of Baruch. 5. The Apocrypha omitting the Prayer of

Manasseh. 6. The New Testament. Each book was accompanied by a summary of its contents arranged according to chapters, while a short Preface was attached to the Apocrypha, in which the following noteworthy words occur : "But whosoever thou be that readest Scripture, let the Holy Ghost be thy teacher, and let one text expound another unto thee. As for such dreams, visions, and dark sentences as be hid from thy understanding, commit them unto God, and make no articles of them; but let the plain text be thy guide, and the Spirit of God (which is the author thereof) shall lead thee in all truth."

§ 3. Coverdale as a Translator.—When we pass to the internal character of the version, the first point that meets us is the position of Coverdale as a translator. Did he, like Tindale, as is sometimes asserted, go direct to the original texts, or was his work founded on the translations of others? His own words leave no doubt as to the answer. For not only have we his statement on the original title-page that he translated 'out of Douche [German] and Latyn"; but in his Dedication to the King he speaks of having "with a clear conscience purely and faithfully translated this out of five sundry interpreters "-now generally identified with Luther, the Zurich Bible, the Vulgate, a Latin version by Pagninus, and in all probability Tindale. It would lie altogether beyond our present purpose to attempt to indicate Coverdale's special obligation to each of these. But he himself has thrown an interesting sidelight on his relative dependence which deserves notice. In his Prologue to the Christian Reader, after referring to the Latin translations from which he had received help, he goes on to speak of "the Dutch interpreters,

1 The summary for example of Matt. v. ran: "In this chapter and in the two next following is contained the most excellent and loving Sermon of Christ on the Mount: Which sermon is the very key that openeth the understanding into the law. In this fifth chapter specially He preacheth of the viii. beatitudes or blessings, of manslaughter, wrath and anger: of adultery, of swearing, of suffering wrong, and of love even towards a man's enemies."