the Psalms were rendered into Anglo-Saxon; and about the same time, Bede, during his last illness, translated the Gospel of St John. The narrative of the completion of this work is given by an eye-witness, Cuthbert, a scholar of Bede, in a letter to a fellow-scholar, and is in itself so beautiful a picture of the early monastic life, that it may be quoted in abstract. Bede had been ill for some weeks. About Easter (A. D. 735), he felt that his end was approaching, and looked forward to it with ceaseless gratitude, 're'joicing that he was counted worthy thus to suffer.' He quoted much from Holy Scripture; and one fragment of Saxon poetry, which he recited and may have composed, was taken down by Cuthbert'. But he was chiefly busy with two English translations of Excerpts from Isidore, and of the Gospel of St John. Ascension-day drew near. His illness increased, but he only laboured the more diligently. On the Wednesday, his scribe told. him that one chapter alone remained, but feared that it might be painful to him to dictate. 'It is easy,' Bede replied, 'take your pen and write quickly.' The work was continued for some time. Then Bede directed Cuthbert to fetch his little treasures from his casket (capsella), 'pepper, scarves (oraria) and incense,' that he might distribute them among his friends. And so he passed the remainder of the day till evening in holy and cheerful conversation. His boy-scribe at last found an opportunity to remind him, with pious importunity, of his unfinished task: 'One sentence, dear master, still 1 The original is given in Gale, Hist. Angl. Script. III. 152, and by Wright, Biographia Literaria, I. p. 21, from whom I borrow a literal translation: Before the necessary journey no one becomes more prudent of 'thought than is needful to him, to Intro duction. Other oll English 'remains unwritten.' 'Write quickly,' he answered. The boy soon said, 'It is completed now.' 'Well,' Bede replied, 'thou hast said the truth: all is ended. Take my 'head in thy hands, I would sit in the holy place in which 'I was wont to pray, that so sitting I may call upon my 'Father.' Thereupon, resting on the floor of his cell, he chanted the Gloria, and his soul immediately passed away, while the name of the Holy Spirit was on his lips'. In the next century Alfred prefixed to his laws a transtranslations. lation of the Ten Commandments, and a few other fragments from the book of Exodus; and is said to have been engaged on a version of the Psalms at the time of his death (A. D. 901). In the tenth century, or a little later, the four Gospels were translated apparently for public use; and two interlinear translations, probably of an earlier date, into other English dialects, are preserved in Latin Manuscripts, which shew at least individual zeal. Of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Esther, and parts of other books were translated about the tenth century. All these translations, with the possible exception of Bede's3, were only se 1 Cuthbert's letter is given in Bede's Eccles. Hist. Præf. c. ii. Tom. VI. P. 15, ed. Migne. 2 One of these noble MSS. is in the British Museum (the Lindisfarne (St Cuthbert's) Gospels, Cotton, Nero, D. IV.); and the other is in the Bodleian (the Rushworth (Mac Regol's) Gospels, Bodl. D. 24). I am not acquainted with any satisfactory description of the MSS. of the common Anglo-Saxon Version; nor yet with any general account of the relation in which the several copies stand to one another. In this respect Thorpe's edition is most unsatisfactory. Three distinct types of the text of St Matthew with various readings from four other manuscripts have been published by Mr C. Hardwick (Cam bridge, 1858), who so far finished the work begun by Mr J. M. Kemble. At present Mr W. W. Skeat is engaged on completing an edition of the four Gospels, which will supply the critical introduction in which Mr Hardwick's work is wholly deficient. 3 Bede at least was acquainted with Greek, and in his Retractationes (Act. Ap. Præf.) he notices the variations of a Greek manuscript of the Acts which he had collated from the ordinary Latin text. From the read. ings cited there is every reason to believe that his manuscript was the Græco-Latin copy of the Acts in the Bodleian known as the Codex Laudianus (E). Compare Mill, N. T. Prolegg, 1022 ff. condary translations from the Latin, but none the less they reveal the thoughts with which men's hearts were stirred. And there was no hindrance to their execution. On the contrary, the number of the labourers who took part in the work shews that it was of wide popularity. Introduction. followed. But the effort was as yet premature. England had still to receive a new element of her future strength; and for her the time of discipline was not over. The Norman invasion, which brought with it the fruits of Romanic thought and culture, checked for a while the spontaneous development of religious life. Nevertheless fragmentary translations of Scripture into Norman-French shew that the Bible was popularly studied, and in the end the nation was richer by the delay. Nor may it be forgotten even in this relation that the insularity of the people furthered its characteristic growth; for while it remained outside the Roman empire yet it shared in the spiritual strength which came at that time from an intimate union with the Roman See. Thus the nation preserved throughout its progress the features of its peculiar constitution, and at the same time was brought within the influence of Catholic discipline and sympathy. It would be out of place to follow out here the action and reaction. of these special and general powers upon the English type of medieval Christianity; but the recognition of their simultaneous working is necessary for the understanding of the history of the English Bible. For three centuries they acted with various and beneficent results. At length in the 14th century the preparatory work of The Papal discipline the Papacy was ended and its dissolution commenced. of Europe completed in The many nations and the many churches began from that time to define their separate peculiarities and functions. The time of maturity was now ready to follow 14thcentury. Introduction. The history of the English Bible: 1. external, 2. internal. on the time of tutelage: a free development was sufficiently prepared by a long discipline'. It is then at this point that the history of the English Bible properly commences, a history which is absolutely unique in its course and in its issue. And this history is twofold. There is the external history of the different versions, as to when and by whom and under what circumstances they were made; and there is the internal history which deals with their relation to other texts, with their filiation one on another, and with the principles by which they have been sucessively modified. The external history is a stirring record of faithful and victorious courage: the internal history is not less remarkable from the enduring witness which it bears to that noble catholicity which is the glory of the English Church. I No notice has been taken of the metrical paraphrases and summaries of parts of Scripture, as that of Cadmon († c. 680) on parts of Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel; of Orm (c. 1150) on the Gospels and the Acts; and the 'Sowlehele' (c. 1250). These, though they paved the way for translations of the Bible, cannot be reckoned among them. |