Chap. ii. June 23. Sept. 12. which was commenced on a splendid scale by Regnault. Coverdale pressed forward the enterprise with all haste, for even from the first they were 'daily threatened and 'looked ever to be spoken withal.' By September he could inform Crumwell that Your Lordships work of 'the Bible...goeth well forward, and within four months 'will draw to an end by the grace of Almighty God.' Three months later when the text was almost finished the danger of interruption to the printing became imminent. Coverdale conveyed as much of the Bible as was ready to Crumwell by the help of Bishop Bonner, Dec. 13. ambassador at Paris, that if 'the rest were confiscated ' yet this at least might be safe.' In four days more the expected inhibition came. An order from the inquisitor general for France forbade the further progress of the work and the removal of the printed sheets. Coverdale and Grafton made their escape, but not long after returned to Paris and conveyed presses, types and workmen to London, and even rescued a large quantity of the condemned sheets-four great-dry vats' fullwhich had been sold to a tradesman as waste paper, instead of being burnt. Thus that which had seemed to be for the hindrance of Crumwell's design really forwarded it permanently in a wonderful manner by introducing into England the materials and men best suited to carry it out. The Bible, henceforth known as the Great Bible1, was finished in April, but without the sion to print and export is added the provision: 'Dummodo quod sic im'primetis et excudetis sincere et pie, quantum in vobis erit, citra ullas 'privatas aut illegitimas opiniones impressum et excussum [excusum] 'fuerit....' This clause was of course sufficiently wide to admit of the interference of the inquisition. 1 I have ventured to keep this name as a general title for the group of Bibles including Crumwell's Bible (1539) and the six later issues with Cranmer's Preface (1540-1), though it must be carefully borne in mind that these seven issues do not give the same text, however like they may be externally. The text of Chap. ii. critical and explanatory commentary which Coverdale had designed'. While the revision was going forward he had 'set in a private table the diversity of readings 'of all texts [Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Latin] with such 'annotations in another table, as shall doubtless eluci'date and clear the same, as well without any singularity ' of opinions as all checkings and reproofs.' And when it was drawing to a close, he writes regretfully: 'Pity it 'were that the dark places of the text, upon which I 'have always set a hand() should so pass unde'clared. As for any private opinion or contentious 'words, as I will utterly avoid all such, so will I offer the 'annotations first to my said Lord of Hereford [Bonner], 'to the intent that he shall so examine the same, afore 1539 is quite distinct from that of 1 A copy of this edition on vellum It is worthy of remark that this Bible has no dedication. The titlepage said to have been designed by Holbein―represents (at the top) the king giving the Bible (Verbum Dei) to Crumwell and Cranmer: they in turn (on the sides) distribute it among ecclesiastics and laymen: at the bottom a crowd is listening to a preacher. Labels with various texts &c. issue from the mouths of the chief figures. The composition includes many other details and will repay a careful examination. It is well described in the Historical Account, p. 92. The reference of 'Coverdale's Bible' to the Bishops by the king, and their confession that there were no heresies to be maintained there by, appears to refer to this edition (Fryth, p. 78). See p. 64. In a preliminary explanation of signs some account is given of the delay in the publication of the notes: 'We have also (as ye may see) added many hands both in the margin 'of this volume and also in the text, 'upon the which we purposed to 'have made in the end of the Bible '(in a table by themselves) certain 'godly annotations: but forasmuch 'as yet there hath not been sufficient 'time ministered to the king's most 'honourable Council for the over'sight and correction of the said 'annotations, we will therefore omit 'them till their more convenient leisure, doing now no more but 'beseech thee, most gentle reader, 'that when thou comest at such a 'place where a hand doth stand... and thou canst not attain to the meaning and true knowledge of 'that sentence, then do not rashly presume to make any private in'terpretation thereof, but submit thyself to the judgment of those 'that are godly learned in Christ 'Jesus.' 6 Chap. ii. they be put in print, if it be your Lordship's good 'pleasure that I shall do so.' But Coverdale's regret was ineffectual. The various marks which he designed remained in the text of several editions of the Great Bible, but nothing more than a general explanation of their import was ever given. The volume of 'anno'tations' was deferred till a more convenient occasion, which never came. But in the mean time a complete English text of the Scriptures was provided for public use, which by an injunction framed beforehand Crumwell, Sept. 1538. as the king's vice-gerent, required should be set up in some convenient place in every church throughout the kingdom before a specified day1. 'A domino factum est 'istud' is the worthy motto with which it concludes. 1 There cannot be the least doubt that the 'Bible of the largest volume 'in English' was the edition being prepared in Paris. No one who has seen Coverdale's, Matthew's and Crumwell's Bibles together would hesitate as to the application of the description: the Bible and the injunction corresponded and were both due to the same man. I cannot agree with Mr Anderson in supposing Matthew's Bible to have been intended: II. 34, in spite of Strype, Cranmer, I. 117. The date by which the Bible was to be procured was left blank. At the time when the injunctions were drawn up, the interruption of the printing could not have been definitely foreseen. Similar proclamations were issued by the king in May 1540 immediately after the publication of the second (Cranmer's) Great Bible; and again in May 1541, after the publication of the third, which bore the names of Tunstall and Heath. Anderson, II. pp. 131, 142. It may be added that Cranmer in his injunctions for the clergy of the diocese of Hereford (between May and November 1538) requires that every one 'shall have by the 2 One passage which occurs at 'With what judgment the books of the Old Testament are to be 'read. ...The books of the Old Testa- cause they be as it were a manner Chap. ii. The Great Bible Crum well's work. Cranmer prepares a the second edition. There is no evidence to shew that Cranmer had any share in the first preparation of the Great Bible, or even that he was acquainted with the undertaking. The selection of Coverdale for the execution of the work, and Coverdale's correspondence, distinctly mark it as Crumwell's sole enterprise. But Cranmer was not slow in furthering it. By the autumn of the same year arrangements were completed for the printing of a new edition in London with the help of the materials obtained from Paris; and the archbishop had drawn up a preface for it, Preface for which he had transmitted to Crumwell for the approbation of the king. By a strange coincidence Crumwell received from Henry on the very day on which Cranmer wrote to him to make a final decision about the price, &c., the absolute right of licensing the publication of Bibles in England for five years. Thus all difficulties were removed from the way, and the Bible with the Preface of the archbishop was finished in April 1540. Subsequent Two other editions followed in the same year (July: November, the title-page is dated 1541): and three more in 1541 (May: November: December). These six editions all have Cranmer's prologue, but the third and fifth bear the names of Tunstall and Heath upon the title-page, who are said to have 'overseen and 'perused' the translation 'at the commandment of the King's Highness.' The cause of this nominal revision is obvious. Crumwell had been disgraced and executed Nov. 14. editions. July 28. in July. The work which he had taken so much to heart was naturally suspected; and thus the open sanction of two bishops, prominent among the party opposed to him, was required to confirm its credit. And so it was that at last by a strange irony 'my lord of 'London' authorised what was in a large part substantially the very work of Tyndale, which he had before condemned and burnt1. The variations in the texts of these editions of the Great Bible will be considered afterwards. But one important change was made in the original design of the book which requires to be noticed now. Coverdale, as we have seen, looked upon the notes as an important part of the work, and the reference to them was retained through three editions. With the fall of Crumwell all hope of publishing a commentary disappeared, and the 'pointing hands' were removed. It is not difficult to understand the objections to Coverdale's design, and a > narrative which Foxe has preserved will explain the influence which led to its suppression. > 'Not long after [the death of Crumwell],' he writes, 'great complaint was made to the king of the trans'lation of the Bible, and of the Preface of the same, ' and then was the sale of the Bible commanded to be 'stayed, the bishops promising to amend and correct it, 'but never performing the same. Then Grafton was for four years: March 1542 (II. p. 152). 1 The expense of these editions was defrayed, as seems certain, by 'Antony Marler a haberdasher' of London, who presented to Henry a magnificent copy on vellum, with an autograph inscription, which is preserved in the British Museum. Mr Anderson quotes a minute of the Privy Council bearing on his privileges with regard to the sale, dated April 1541 (II. p. 142), and a patent for printing the Bible alone 2 Of April 1539: April 1540: For the relation between the texts Chap. ii. The pro posed Notes given up. |