II. HISTORY. CHAP. took the great work of his life something has been EXTERNAL said already. To the end he retained unchanged, or only deepened and chastened, his noble forgetfulness of self in the prospect of its accomplishment, with a jealous regard for the sincere rendering of the Scriptures. Before he published the revised edition of 1534 he had been sorely tried by the interference of Joye, which might, as he thought, bring discredit to the Gospel itself. The passage, with which he closes his disclaimer of Joye's edition reflects at once his vigour and his tenderness. There is in it something of the freedom and power of Luther, but it is charged with a simple humility which Luther rarely if ever shews....' My part,' Tyndale writes, 'be not in Christ if mine heart be 'not to follow and live according as I teach, and 'also if mine heart weep not night and day for 'mine own sin and other men's indifferently, be'seeching God to convert us all and to take his 'wrath from us and to be merciful as well to all 'other men, as to mine own soul, caring for the 'wealth of the realm I was born in, for the king 'and all that are thereof, as a tender-hearted mo'ther would do for her only son. 'As concerning all I have translated or other'wise written, I beseech all men to read it for that II. HISTORY. 'purpose I wrote it, even to bring them to the know- CHAP. 'ledge of the Scripture. And as far as the Scrip- EXTERNAL 'ture approveth it, so far to allow it, and if in any 'place the word of God disallow it, there to refuse 'it, as I do before our Saviour Christ and His con'gregation. And when they find fault let them shew 'it me, if they be nigh, or write to me if they be far 'off: or write openly against it and improve it, and 'I promise them, if I shall perceive that their reasons 'conclude I will confess mine ignorance openly. 'Wherefore I beseech George Joye, yea and 'all other too, for to translate the Scripture for 'themselves, whether out of Greek, Latin, or He'brew. Or, if they will needs,...let them take my 'translations and labours, and change, and alter, ' and correct and corrupt at their pleasures, and 'call it their own translations and put to their own 'names, and not to play bo-peep after George 'Joye's manner...But I neither can nor yet will 'suffer of any man that he shall go, take my trans'lation, and correct it without name, and make 'such changing as I myself durst not do, as I hope 'to have my part in Christ, though the whole world 'should be given me for my labour'. 1 'W. T. yet once again to the 'Christian Reader' in the N. T. of 1534. I cannot find this ad- СНАР. II. EXTERNAL HISTORY. § 2. COVERDALE. Tyndale's character is heroic. He could see 2. COVER- clearly the work to which he was called and pursue DALE. it with a single unswerving faith in GOD and in the powers which GOD had given him. It was otherwise with Miles Coverdale, who was allowed to finish what Tyndale left incomplete. The differences of the men are written no less on their features than on their lives. But our admiration for the solitary massive strength of the one must not make us insensible to the patient labours and tender sympathy of the other1. From the first Coverdale appears to have attached himself to the liberal members of the old party and to have looked to working out a reformation from within through them. As early as 1527 he was in intimate connexion with His early Crumwell and More2; and in all probability it was with More under their patronage that he was able to prepare for his translation of Holy Scripture. How long he thus laboured we cannot tell3. In 1529 he met connexion and Crumwell. Works published by the Parker 1 The later Puritanism of Co- to create impressions. 2 Anderson, I. p. 186. 3 In an undated letter to Crumwell he says, evidently in reference to some specific 'communication' from him, 'Now I begin 'to taste of Holy Scriptures ... II.. HISTORY. Tyndale at Hamburgh', and must have continued CHAP. abroad for a considerable part of the following EXTERNAL years up to 1536. In the meantime a great change had passed over England since the 'Bill' of 1530%. At the close of 1534 a convocation under the presidency of Cranmer had agreed to petition the king that he would 'vouchsafe to decree that a transla'tion of the Scriptures into English should be made 'by certain honest and learned men whom the king 'should nominate; and that the Scriptures so trans'lated should be delivered to the people according 'to their learning' Crumwell, who must have been well aware of the turn which opinion had taken, seems now to have urged Coverdale to com 'Nothing in the world I desire 'but books as concerning my 'learning: they once had, I do 'not doubt, but Almighty God 'shall perform that in me which 'he of his plentiful favour and ' grace hath begun.' Anderson fixes this in 1531. The letter however from style seems to be nearly contemporary with another addressed to Crumwell in 1527. 1 Foxe, Acts and Monuments, V. 120. I see nothing derogatory to Tyndale or improbable in Foxe's explicit statement that at this time Coverdale helped him in translating the Pentateuch; 2 See p. 54. 3 Strype, Cranmer, p. 34. It is uncertain whether it was after this resolution (as seems most likely), or not till after the corresponding resolutions of 1536, that Cranmer endeavoured to engage the bishops in a translation or revision of the English Bible [New Testament], of which attempt Strype has preserved an amusing anecdote: Cranmer, p. 48. II. CHAP. mit his work to the press. At any rate by 1534 EXTERNAL he was ready, as he was desired,' 'to set forth, (i. e. to print) his translation', and the work was finished in October, 1535. HISTORY. His Bible sent to the press. But up to the present time the place where it was printed is wholly undetermined, though most bibliographers agree that it was printed abroad. Various conjectures have been made, but when examined minutely they are found to be unsupported by any substantial evidence. The wood-cuts and type are certainly not those used by Egenolph of Frankfort, to which however they bear a very close resemblance'. On the other hand, no book printed by Froschover of Zurich has yet been found with more than the two larger kinds of type used in Three title- Coverdale's Bible. The question is further complicated by the fact that the title-page and preliminary matter were reprinted in a different (English) type, and the five remaining title-pages re pages. 1 The date is added in the edition of 1550. The words do not imply that he commenced it then. 2 Mr Fry on Coverdale's Bible of 1535, p. 32. On this point I have satisfied myself completely. 3 Mr Fry, .c. p. 28. It is right to add that I am convinced, on internal grounds, that Fros chover was the printer, though at present no satisfactory direct evidence of the fact can be adduced. Froschover, it may be added, printed the edition of 1550. 4 Probably, as Mr Fry shows, by Nycolson: .c. p. 20. In the same way the title-page and preliminary matter of the edition of 1550 printed abroad |