XXIV.]

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foreigners, ignorant of the very language which they were printing. He pleads the amount of capital embarked in the enterprise, and the popularity of the book as tempting others to republish it," There are that will, and doth go about the printing of the same worke agayne in a lesser letter, to the intent that they may sell their little books better cheap than I can sell these great, to the utter undoing of me, your orator, and all these my creditors." He tries to frighten his patron by the prophecy that rivals will falsify the text, and not set out the book for God's glory, as may appear by the former Bibles which they have set forth, which have neither good paper, letter, ink, nor correction. Especially was he afraid of "Douchemen (Germans) dwelling within the realm, who can neither speak good English, nor write none, who yet will both print and correct such an edition, and who are so covetous that they will not bestow twenty or forty pounds on a learned man as editor." He calls himself a "poor young man" who will be ruined by such rival editions. Then he piously suggests, with a keen eye to business and to a rapid sale, that every abbey should have six copies, "that they may look on the Lord's law," "none but those of the papistical sort," however, being compelled to have them; and he concludes, "then I know there should be enough found in my lord of London's diocese to spend away a great part of them, and so should this be a godly act worthily to be had in remembrance while the world. doth stand. The sicknes is bryme1 about, or else I would wait upon your lordship."2 To this request, so simple in its terms, so cautious in its selfward suggestions, veiled, however, by such professions of disinterested patriotism, and Christian zeal, no response seems to have been made, at least none has been preserved. Yet, if the suspicions of Grafton were correct as to the contemplated reprint of the "dreaded lytle bookes," the project seems to have been checked, perhaps by Crumwell's command. We should have rejoiced, however, at seeing a Bible of smaller form put into circulation for popular use, since, as long as it was kept in the shape of a

1 Brime means fierce, as in Langtoft, "Richard wexe full brime."

2 Cotton MSS., Cleopatra E. V., fol. 340.

large and heavy folio, it could be possessed only by a mere fraction of the nation. The age of hand-bibles had not come, the period was one of transition, and men were still feeling toward a more perfect version. But a decided advance had now been made; for that Bible was now in the country which was to supply the basis of all subsequent revisions. The edition of Matthew or Rogers of 1537 became on revision the Great Bible in 1539-1540, it on revision took the name of the Bishops' Bible in 1568, and the Bishops' Bible, on being again revised, took its lasting place as our English Bible in 1611.

CHAPTER XXV.

A REVISED edition of Matthew's Bible was published in 1539. The editor, Richard Taverner, was born at Brisley, Norfolk, about 1505, and was one of the young men selected by Wolsey for his college at Oxford. He was imprisoned with others in its cellar for reading Tyndale's New Testament. But he was soon released on account of his singular musical accomplishments;1 and giving himself to the study of law, he was admitted to the Inner Temple. He next attached himself to Secretary Crumwell, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and in 1537 occupied a position of honour and responsibility as clerk of the signet to the king. Two years afterwards, in 1539, his edition of the Bible appeared, and his connection with Crumwell may have suggested to him such a Biblical work. The title bears that it was "newly recognized with great diligence after most faythful exemplars." 2 The edition was printed in London, in folio and quarto,3 while the first Great Bible was at press on the Continent, and during the same year were issued two editions of the New Testament, in folio and quarto also. His New Testament was again printed in 1540 in 12mo, and his Old Testament formed part of a Bible published in 1551. After that period

1 Dalaber says (see p. 166), "I stood at the quire door and heard Mr. Taverner play."

Bale speaks of it as recognitio seu potius versio. De Illustr. Viris, p. 698.

in order that poorer people who could not purchase a whole Bible might be able to buy a fragment.

4 Taverner also published in 1540 Postills on the Epistles and Gospels. Reprinted, ed. Cardwell, Oxford,

3 This edition was printed in parts 1841.

his edition sank into such neglect that it had no appreciable influence on any subsequent revision.

Taverner was reputed to be a good Greek scholar, "it being his humour to quote law in Greek." His Bible has a distinctive character of its own. The Old Testament is Matthew with some variations; many of the marginal notes are changed; and he closely followed Tyndale in the New Testament. He unfolds his purpose in his dedication to the king, and thanks him for licensing the Bible: "This one thing I dare well affirm, that amongst all your majesty's deservings your highness never did thing more acceptable unto God, more profitable to the advancement of true Christianity, more unpleasant to the enemies of the same, and also to your grace's enemies, than when your majesty licensed and willed the most sacred Bible containing the unspotted and lively Word of God to be in the English tongue set forth to your highness' subjects.

Wherefore, the premises well considered, forasmuch as the printers hereof were very desirous to have the Bible come forth as faultless, and emendably as the shortness of time for the recognizing of the same would require, they desired me, for default of a better learned, diligently to overlook and peruse the whole copy, and in any case I should find any notable default that needed correction, to amend the same, according to the true exemplars, which thing according to my talent I have gladly done." He understood the difficulty and importance of translation: "It is a work of great difficulty so absolutely to translate the Holy Bible that it be faultless," that he "feared it could scarce be done of one or two persons, but rather required both a deeper conferring of learned wits together, and also a juster time and longer leisure." This edition has no woodcuts, and there are very few notes.

Taverner's1 scholarship appears on every page in many

1 Taverner had a license to preach from Edward VI, and did preach. Queen Elizabeth made him high sheriff of Oxford in 1569. In civilian costume, and with a sword by his side, he preached to the students

from the pulpit of St. Mary's. Died 14th July, 1577. Bale, writing in 1557, says of him, "Nescio an vivat adhuc." Wood (Athenæ, Oxon, vol. I, p. 182) has preserved a specimen of his alliterative conceits in his ser

CHANGES MADE BY TAVERNER.

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minute touches, for he does justice to the article, as in Gal. v, 27, "hath the husband." He often follows the Greek order of expression, and is eager to find Saxon equivalents and idioms for rarer terms and combinations. Some of his alterations are pithy in character-Matt. xxii, 12, "had never a word to say”; 34, "stopped the Sadducees' mouths." But the clause "this cup is the New Testament in my blood," 1 Cor. xi, is omitted, and some copies have a slip of paper with the omitted words pasted over the place. The disputed clauses, 1 John v, are printed in a smaller type. In Gen. xliii, 11, the older phrase of Tyndale and Coverdale, "a curtesye baulme," is altered into "a quantity of baulme"; but he retains another archaism in Acts xii, 19, commanded the keepers to depart"-to be put to death. The very peculiar term in 2 Kings xxiii, 5, Kemurims in Coverdale, Taverner changed into "religious persons"; the Great Bible having "ministers of Baal"; the Genevan, "Chemerim," with a note as in the original Matthew. The Authorized Version has, in the place referred to, "idolatrous priests"; in Hosea x, 5, simply "priests"; but in Zeph. i, 4, it has "Chemarims." Taverner, in his usual English, prefers "residue" to "remnant," and "forthwith" to "by and bye." Some of his changes are kept in the Authorized Version, as "parables" for " " for "similitudes"; "because of their unbelief," Matt. xiii, 58; "ninety and nine," xviii, 12; "lodged,” xxi, 17; "throne," xxiii, 23; "of many shall wax cold," xxiv, 12; "a stranger,” xxv, 35; “passover,” xxvi, 17; “guilty of death,” 66; "ye have a watch," xxvii, 65; "the Israel of God," Gal. vi, 16; "I stand in doubt of you," iv, 20-last clause, "in a doubt," Tyndale and Matthew. Gal. iii, 6, is identical with this version, Tyndale having "ascribed," but he preserves the

mons: "Arrived at the mount of St. Mary's, on the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation." The pulpit of St.

Mary's was then of stone, and a wooden pulpit was put in its place during the chancellorship of Dr. John Owen. For his edition of the English Bible Taverner was imprisoned after Crumwell's death, but he was soon released.