XXVI.]

PRIVILEGE OF AN ENGLISH BIBLE.

371

This statement is corroborated by a document found in the State Paper Office, and printed by Collier : Englishmen have now in hand in every church, and place, and almost every man, the Holy Bible and New Testament in their mother tongue, instead of the old fabulous and fantastical books of the Table Round, Lancelot du Lake, Huou de Bourdeux, Bevis of Hampton, Guy of Warwick, &c., and such other, whose impure filth and vain fabulosity the light of God has abolished utterly." 1

"1

1 Ecclesiastical History, vol. IX, p. 162, London, 1852.

CHAPTER XXVII.

DURING

URING the autumn of this year (1539), preparations were made for the printing of a new edition at home, Parisian types and workmen being still kept in London. Cranmer was naturally busy about the work, for he felt that it needed some special superintendence. His own mind was opening more fully to the light, and amidst the perplexing secular intricacies and anxieties attaching to his office, and the political combinations which he had daily to deal with in that period of change, he resolved on securing for the Bible an unimpeded circulation. To the volume in progress, which often goes under his name, he composed a preface which, through Crumwell, was to be submitted to the king. On this matter he writes to the vicegerent, on the 14th of November, 1539, a sensible and practical letter, asking whether the preface to the Bible had got the royal approval, and discussing the price of the prepared volume. The archbishop settled it at 13s. 4d., which Crumwell had thought rather high, and the publisher naturally rather low. But Berthelet and Whitchurch were willing to fix it at 10s. on condition that they alone were to print and publish it. It is certainly a very strange coincidence that, on the 14th November, 1539-the date of Cranmer's letter-Crumwell got from

1 Mr. Hunt (Religious Thought in England, vol. I, p. 33), gives this hypothetic proof or illustration of Cranmer's moderate Calvinism, "If we are to take the notes on the Great Bible, known as Cranmer's

Bible, to be his, which certainly we ought to do." But the Great Bible is specially marked by the total absence of all notes, the pointing hands indicating a purpose unfulfilled.

the king a patent, conferring on him the sole and unlimited power of licensing the printing and publication of English Bibles for the next five years. The early and curious patent, so distinct and precise in its terms, runs to the following effect

'Henry the Eighth, &c. To all and singular prynters and sellers of bookes within this our realme, and to all other officers, mynisters, and subjectes, these our Letters hearyng or seeyng, Greetyng

We let you witt, that beyng desirous to have our people at tymes convenyent geve themselves to th' atteynyng of the knoulege of Goddes Worde, whereby they shall the better honour hym, and observe and kepe his commaundements, and also do their duties the better to us beyng their prince and soveraign lord; and considering that as this oure zeale and desire cannot by any meane take so good effecte, as by the graunting to theym the free and lyberall use of the Bible in oure oune maternall English tongue; so onles it be forseen, that the same passe at the beginnyng by one Translation to be perused and considerid, the frailte of menne is suche, that the diversitie thereof maye brede and brnyge forthe manyfolde inconvenyences, as when wilfull and hedy folks shall conferre upon the diversitie of the said Translations: We have therfore appoynted oure right trusty and welbeloved counsellour the lorde Crumwell, keeper of our pryvye scale, to take for us, and in oure name, special care and charge, that no manner of persone or persones within this our realme shall enterprise, attempt, or sett in hand, to print any Bible in the English tonge of any maner of volume, duryng the space of fyve yeres next ensuyng after the date hereof, but only suche as shall be deputid, assignid, and admitted, by the said lord Crumwell. Willing and commanding all maires, shirefes, bailiffes, constables, and all other oure officers, ministres, and subjectes, to be ayding to our said counsailour in the execution of this oure pleasure, and to be conformable in the accomplishment of the same, as shall apperteigne." 1

1 Wilkins, Concilia, vol. III, p. 846. Burnet, Records, vol. I, pt. ii, p. 283.

The preface was ready by was not published till the The story, which most pro

This proclamation, which in these days had the force of law, ends with the peremptory per ipsum regem;1 is quite autocratic, and wholly ignores Council, Convocation, and Parliament. It bases itself on the king's sole and sovereign will, and interposes the full royal authority against all resistance. There were probably some existing circumstances which suggested the royal incisiveness. The Bible about which Cranmer corresponded with the Privy Seal, was still delayed in publication, and one reason given by Fulke is, that Henry consulted the bishops, and that these mitred critics did not commit themselves by a hasty response. November; but the volume April of the following year. bably refers to this Bible, is told by Fulke. "I myself, and so did many hundreds beside me, heard that reverend father, M. Doctor Coverdale, of holy and reverend memory, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, upon occasion of some slanderous reports that then were raised against his translation, declare his faithful purpose in doing the same; which after it was finished, and presented to the king, Henry VIII, of famous memory, and by him committed to divers bishops of that time to peruse, of which (as I remember) Stephen Gardiner was one; after they had kept it long in their hands, and the king was diverse times sued unto for the publication thereof, at the last, being called for by the king himself, they redelivered the book, and being demanded by the king what was their judgment of the translation, they answered that there was many faults therein. 'Well,' said the king, 'but are there any heresies maintained thereby?' They answered, there were no heresies they could find maintained thereby. If there be no heresies,' said the king, 'then, in God's name, let it go abroad among our people.'2 According to this judgment of the king and the bishops, M. Coverdale defended his translation, confessing that he did now himself espy some faults, which, if he might review it once over again, as he had done twice before, he doubted not but to amend; 1 Rymer's Fœdera, vol. XIV, p. 2 Defence of Translations of the Bible, p. 98, Parker Society ed.

649.

XXVII.]

CRANMER'S PROLOGUE.

375

but for any heresy, he was sure there was none maintained by his translation." Coverdale's statement about reviewing his version "twice before" describes the work which he had done on the Bibles of 1539 and 1540. The reference cannot be to the Diglott; and it can scarcely be to the two editions (6 overseen and corrected," of his own first translation which were published in 1537, for the changes in these are so very few and slight, that the process could not with any propriety be called "reviewing."

But though the Bibles of 1539 and 1540 were not wholly of his first translation, as they included a large portion of Tyndale's work, they were the result of a genuine revision carried out by him, but not with uniform closeness through all the books of Scripture. Coverdale was certainly the editor of the second Great Bible, as well as of the first one. Fulke in his "Defence of English Translations" from the attack of Gregory Martin, thus replies to his opponent's loose reference to various editions," I guess that the Bible of 1562 is that which was of Dr. Coverdale's translation,"1 and in another place, he calls it, "Master Coverdale's Bible of 1562."2 Now, the Bible of 1562 was a reprint of the Great Bible of 1540. Gregory Martin singles out the Great Bible in one passage as "the Bible authorized by the Archbishop, and read all king Edward's time in their churches and (as it seemeth by the late printing again, anno 1562) a great part of this queen's reign."

Cranmer's prologue is judicious in its choice of topics, and quiet but earnest in spirit and language. Thus it opens: "Concerning two sundry sorts of people, it seemeth necessary that something be said in the entry of this book, by way of a preface or prologue; whereby hereafter it may be both the the better accepted of them which hitherto could not well bear it, and also the better used of them which heretofore have misused it. For truly some there are that be too slow, and need the spur; some other seem too quick, and need more of the bridle. Some lose their game by short shooting; some by

1 Defence of Translations of the Bible, p. 68, Parker Society ed.

Do., p. 548.

3 Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions, &c., p. 11, Rheims, John Fogny, 1582.