_The thryde Chapter._
(Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the baptyser cam and preached
in the wyldernes of Iury, saynge, Repent, the kyngedom of heven ys at
hond. Thys ys he of whom it ys spoken be the prophet Isay, whych
sayth: the voice of a cryer in wyldernes, prepaire ye the lordes waye,
and make hys pathes strayght. Thys Ihon had hys garment of camelles
heere, and a gyrdyll of a skynne about hys loynes. Hys meate was
locustes * and wyldhe ony.
* "Locustes are more then oware greshoppers, souche men vse to eate in
divres parties of the est" (marginal note).
(Matthew vi. 9-13.) O oure father which art in heven, halewed be thy
name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be fulfilled, as well in erth, as
hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve vs
oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them whych treaspas vs. Lede vs
nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from yvell. Amen. (Grenville
12179.)
Miles Coverdale.
Meanwhile a complete English Bible was being prepared by Miles Coverdale
(q.v.), an Augustinian friar who was afterwards for a few years
(1551-1553) bishop of Exeter. As the printing was finished on the 4th of
October 1535 it is evident that Coverdale must have been engaged on the
preparation of the work for the press at almost as early a date as
Tyndale. Foxe states (_op. cit._ v. 120) that Coverdale was with Tyndale
at Hamburg in 1529, and it is probable that most of his time before 1535
was spent abroad, and that his translation, like that of Tyndale, was
done out of England.
In 1877 Henry Stevens, in his catalogue of the Caxton Exhibition,
pointed out a statement by a certain Simeon Ruytinck in his life of
Emanuel van Meteren, appended to the latter's _Nederlandische Historie_
(1614), that Jacob van Meteren, the father of Emanuel, had manifested
great zeal in producing at Antwerp a translation of the Bible into
English, and had employed for that purpose a certain learned scholar
named Miles Conerdale (_sic_). In 1884 further evidence was adduced by
W.J.C. Moens, who reprinted an affidavit signed by Emanuel van Meteren,
28 May 1609, to the effect that "he was brought to England _anno_ 1550
... by his father, a furtherer of reformed religion, and he that caused
the first Bible at his costes to be Englisshed by Mr Myles Coverdal in
Andwarp, the w'h his father, with Mr Edward Whytchurch, printed both in
Paris and London" (_Registers of the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin
Friars_, 1884, p. xiv.). Apart from the reference to Whytchurch and the
place of printing, this statement agrees with that of Simeon Ruytinck,
and it is possible that van Meteren showed his zeal in the matter by
undertaking the cost of printing the work as well as that of
remunerating the translator. Mr W. Aldis Wright, however, judging from
the facts that the name of Whytchurch was introduced, that the places of
printing were given as London and Paris, not Antwerp, and lastly that
Emanuel van Meteren being born in 1535 could only have derived his
knowledge from hearsay, is inclined to think that the Bible in which J.
van Meteren was interested "was Matthew's of 1537 or the Great Bible of
1539, and not Coverdale's of 1535."[27]
It is highly probable that the printer of Coverdale's Bible was
Christopher Froschouer of Zuerich,[28] who printed the edition of 1550,
and that the sheets were sent for binding and distribution to James
Nicolson, the Southwark printer.[29] This first of all printed English
Bibles is a small folio in German black letter, bearing the title:
"_Biblia, The Bible_; that is, the Holy Scripture of the Olde and New
Testament, faithfully and truly translated out of Douche (German) and
Latyn into Englishe, M.D.XXXV." The volume is provided with woodcuts and
initials, the title-page and preliminary matter in the only two
remaining copies (British Museum and Holkam Hall) being in the same type
as the body of the book. A second issue of the same date, 1535, has the
title-page and the preliminary matter in English type, and omits the
words "out of Douche and Latyn"; a third issue bears the date 1536. A
second edition in folio, "newly oversene and corrected," was printed by
Nicolson, with English type, in 1537; and also in the same year, a third
edition in quarto. On the title-page of the latter were added the
significant words, "set forth with the Kynge's moost gracious licence."
Coverdale, however, was no independent translator. Indeed, he disavows
any such claim by stating expressly, in his dedication to the king, "I
have with a cleare conscience purely & faythfully translated this out of
fyue sundry interpreters, hauyng onely the manyfest trueth of the
scripture before myne eyes," and in the Prologue he refers to his
indebtedness to "The Douche (German) interpreters: whom (because of
theyr synguler gyftes and speciall diligence in The Bible) I haue ben
the more glad to folowe for the most parte, accordynge as I was
requyred."[30] These "fyue interpreters" Dr Westcott (_ibid._ p. 163)
identifies as Luther, the Zuerich Bible, the Latin version of Pagninus,
the Vulgate, and, in all likelihood, the English translation of Tyndale.
Though not endowed with the strength and originality of mind that
characterized Tyndale's work, Coverdale showed great discrimination in
the handling and use of his authorities, and moreover a certain delicacy
and happy ease in his rendering of the Biblical text, to which we owe
not a few of the beautiful expressions of our present Bible.
The following extracts from the edition of 1535 may serve as examples of
his rendering:--
_The first psalme._
(i. 1-2.) Blessed is že man, že goeth not in the councell of že
ungodly: že abydeth not in the waye off synners, & sytteth not in že
seate of the scornefull. But delyteth in the lawe of že Lorde, &
exercyseth himself in his lawe both daye and night.
_The gospell of S. Mathew._
(iii. 1-4.) In those dayes Ihon the Baptyst came and preached in the
wildernes of Jury, saynge: Amende youre selues, the kyngdome of heuen
is at honde. This is he, of whom it is spoken by the prophet Esay,
which sayeth: The voyce of a cryer in že wyldernes, prepare the
_Lordes_ waye, and make his pathes straight. This Ihon had his garment
of camels heer, and a lethren gerdell aboute his loynes. Hys meate was
locustes and wylde hony.
It should be added that Coverdale's Bible was the first in which the
non-canonical books were left out of the body of the Old Testament and
placed by themselves at the end of it under the title _Apocripha_.
Matthew's Bible.
The large sale of the New Testaments of Tyndale, and the success of
Coverdale's Bible, showed the London booksellers that a new and
profitable branch of business was opened out to them, and they soon
began to avail themselves of its advantages. Richard Grafton and Edward
Whitchurch were the first in the field, bringing out a fine and
full-sized folio in 1537, "truely and purely translated into English by
Thomas Matthew." Thomas Matthew, is, however, in all probability, an
alias for John Rogers, a friend and fellow-worker of Tyndale, and the
volume is in reality no new translation at all, but a compilation from
the renderings of Tyndale and Coverdale. Thus the Pentateuch and the New
Testament were reprinted from Tyndale's translations of 1530 and 1535
respectively, with very slight variations; the books from Joshua to the
end of Chronicles are traditionally, and lately also by external
evidence,[31] assigned to Tyndale and were probably left by him in the
hands of Rogers. From Ezra to Malachi the translation is taken from
Coverdale, as is also that of the Apocryphal books. John Roger's own
work appears in a marginal commentary distributed through the Old and
New Testaments and chiefly taken from Olivetan's French Bible of 1535.
The volume was printed in black letter in double columns, and three
copies are preserved in the British Museum. In 1538 a second edition in
folio appeared; it was reprinted twice in 1549, and again in 1551. It is
significant that this Bible, like Coverdale's second edition, was "set
forth with the kinges most gracyous lycence," probably with the
concurrence of Cranmer, since he, in a letter to Cromwell, begged him to
"exhibit the book unto the king's highness, and to obtain of his grace
... a licence that the same may be sold and read of every person,
without danger of any act, proclamation or ordinance, heretofore granted
to the contrary."[32] And thus it came to pass, as Dr Westcott
strikingly puts it, that "by Cranmer's petition, by Crumwell's
influence, and by Henry's authority, without any formal ecclesiastical
decision, the book was given to the English people, which is the
foundation of the text of our present Bible. From Matthew's
Bible--itself a combination of the labours of Tyndale and Coverdale--all
later revisions have been successively formed" (op. cit. p. 71).
Taverner.
Meanwhile the successful sale of Matthew's Bible, the private venture of
the two printers Grafton and Whitchurch, was threatened by a rival
edition published in 1539 in folio and quarto by "John Byddell for
Thomas Barthlet" with Richard Taverner as editor. This was, in fact,
what would now be called "piracy," being Grafton's _Matthew Bible_
revised by Taverner, a learned member of the Inner Temple and famous
Greek scholar. He made many alterations in the Matthew Bible,
characterized by critical acumen and a happy choice of strong and
idiomatic expressions. He is, perhaps, the first purist among the
Biblical translators, endeavouring, whenever possible, to substitute a
word of native origin for the foreign expression of his
predecessors.[33] His revision seems, however, to have had little or no
influence on subsequent translators, and was only once, in 1549,
reprinted in its entirety. Quarto and octavo editions of the New
Testament alone were published in the same year, 1539, as the original
edition, and in the following year, 1540, the New Testament in
duodecimo. The Old Testament was reprinted as part of a Bible in 1551,
but no other editions are known than those named.
The Great Bible, 1539.
It will have been observed that the translations of Holy Scripture which
had been printed during these years (1525-1539) were all made by private
men and printed without any public authority. Some of them had indeed
been set forth by the king's licence, but the object of this is shown by
the above-quoted letter of Archbishop Cranmer to Cromwell, touching
Matthew's Bible. It is "that the same may be sold and read of every
person ... until such time that we, the bishops, shall set forth a
better translation, which I think will not be till a day after
doomsday." This letter was written on the 4th of August 1537, and the
impatient words at the end refer to an authorized version which had been
projected several years before, and which was, in fact, at that very
time in preparation, though not proceeding quickly enough to satisfy
Cranmer. In the year 1530, Henry VIII. had issued a commission of
inquiry respecting the expediency and necessity of having "in the
English tongue both the New Testament and the Old" (Wilkins' _Concilia_,
iii. 737). This commission reported against the expediency of setting
forth a vernacular translation until there was a more settled state of
religious opinion, but states that the king "intended to provide that
the Holy Scripture shall be, by great, learned and Catholic persons,
translated into the English tongue if it shall then seem to His Grace
convenient to be" (ib. 740). The Convocation of Canterbury refreshed the
royal memory on the subject by petitioning the king on the 19th of
December 1534 "that His Majesty would vouchsafe to decree, that the
Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue ... and ...
delivered to the people according to their learning" (_ibid._ 770). The
subject was again before Convocation in 1536,[34] but the detailed
history is lost to us--all that is known being that Cromwell had placed
Coverdale at the head of the enterprise, and that the result was an
entirely new revision, based on Matthew's Bible.[35] Coverdale consulted
in his revision the Latin version of the Old Testament with the Hebrew
text by Sebastian Muenster, the Vulgate and Erasmus's editions of the
Greek text for the New Testament.
Concerning the printing of this authorized Bible more details are known.
Cromwell had planned the work on a large scale, too large evidently for
the resources of the English presses, for it was determined that the
printing should be entrusted to Francis Regnault, a famous Paris
printer. At the request of Henry VIII., a licence was granted to
Regnault for this purpose by Francis I., while Coverdale and Grafton
were sent over in 1538 to superintend the work as it passed through the
press. The work was pressed forward with all speed, for, as Coverdale
writes to Cromwell, they were "dayly threatened" and ever feared "to be
spoken withall."[36] Indeed, when the printing was far advanced, on the
17th of December 1538, its further progress was interdicted by the
Inquisitor-general for France, and orders were given to seize the whole
of the impression. Coverdale and Grafton left Paris quickly, but soon
returned, rescued a great number of the finished sheets, "four great
dry-vats" full of them having been sold to a haberdasher instead of
being burnt--and conveyed types, printing-presses and workmen to
England. Thus the volume which had been begun in Paris in 1538 was
completed in London, the colophon stating that it was "Fynisshed in
Apryll, _Anno_ M.CCCCC.XXXIX." It is a splendid folio Bible of the
largest volume, and was distinguished from its predecessors by the name
of _The Great Bible_. The title-page represents Henry VIII. giving the
"Word of God" to Cromwell and Cranmer, who, in their order, distribute
it to laymen and clerics, and describes the volume as "truly translated
after the veryte of the Hebreue and Greke texts by že dylygent studye of
dyverse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tongues. Prynted
by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch." "Certain godly annotations,"
which Coverdale promised in the Prologue, did not, however, appear in
the first issue, nor in any of the following. This was the first of
seven editions of this noble Bible which issued from the press during
the years 1539-1541,--the second of them, that of 1540, called
_Cranmer's Bible_ from the fact that it contained a long Preface by
Archbishop Cranmer, having the important addition "This is the Byble
apoynted to the vse of the churches" on the title-page. Seventy years
afterwards it assumed the form ever since known as the _Authorized
Version_, but its Psalter is still embedded, without any alteration, in
the Book of Common Prayer.
For the sake of comparison the following extracts from St Matthew are
given, according to the edition of 1539.
(Matthew iii. 1-4.) In those dayes came Iohn the Baptyst, preaching in
the wyldernes of Iewry, saying, Repent of the life that is past, for
the kyngdome of heauen is at hande, For thys is he, of whom the
prophet Esay spake, which sayeth, the voyce of a cryer in the
wyldernes, prepare ye the waye of the lorde: make hys pathes strayght.
Thys Iohn had hys garment of camels heer And a gyrdell of a skynne
aboute hys loynes. His meate was locustes and wylde hony.
(Matthew vi. 9-13.) Oure father which art in heauen, halowed be thy
name. Let thy kingdome come. Thy will be fulfilled, as well in erth,
as it is in heuen. Geue vs this daye oure dayly bred. And forgeue vs
oure dettes, as we forgeue oure detters. And leade vs not into
temptation: but delyuer vs from euyll. For thyne is the kyngdom and
the power, and the glorye for euer. Amen.
Meanwhile the closing years of Henry VIII.'s reign were characterized by
restrictive measures as to the reading and use of the Bible. Tyndale
Version was prohibited by an act of parliament, 1543; at the same time
it was enacted that all notes and marginal commentaries in other copies
should be obliterated, and that "no woman (unless she be a noble or
gentle woman), no artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under
the degree of yeomen ... husbandmen or labourers" should read or use any
part of the Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.[37]
William Whittingham.
In 1546 Coverdale's Bible was included in the proscription, the _Great
Bible_ being the only translation not interdicted. During Edward VI.'s
reign there was a brief respite, but with the accession of Mary the
persecutions of the English Bible and its friends were renewed. Cranmer
suffered martyrdom at the stake, as John Rogers had done before him.
Other prominent reformers, amongst them Coverdale, sought refuge in
Geneva, the town of Calvin and Beza, where they employed their enforced
leisure in planning and carrying out a new revision of the Bible. The
first fruits of these labours was a New Testament issued in June 1557,
with an introduction by Calvin, probably the work of William
Whittingham.[38] The volume, in a convenient quarto size, printed in
clear Roman type, and provided with marginal annotations, gained
immediate popularity in England, where a Bible suited for household
demands had long been needed. It was the first Bible which had the text
divided into "verses and sections according to the best editions in
other languages."[39]
The Genevan Bible.
Whittingham's enterprise was, however, soon superseded by an issue of
the whole Bible, which appeared in 1560, the so-called _Genevan Bible_,
popularly also known as the _Breeches Bible_, from its rendering of Gen.
iii. 7, "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches."
This edition was mainly due to the combined efforts of William
Whittingham, Anthony Gilby and Thomas Sampson, and the expenses towards
printing and publication were borne by members of the congregation at
Geneva. It represented in the Old Testament a thorough and independent
revision of the text of the _Great Bible_ with the help of the Hebrew
original, the Latin versions of Leo Judae (1543), Pagninus (1528),
Sebastian Muenster (1534-1535), and the French versions of Olivetan. The
New Testament consisted of Tyndale's latest text revised to a great
extent in accordance with Beza's translation and commentary. The changes
introduced by the Genevan translators were, as a rule, a great
improvement, and the version received a ready welcome and immediate
popularity, not only on account of its intrinsic merits, but because of
its handy size, usually that of a small quarto, and of its being
printed, like Whittingham's New Testament, in a readable Roman type
instead of black letter. Like this earlier publication, it had the
division of the chapters into verses, and a marginal commentary which
proved a great attraction to the Puritans. The popularity of the Genevan
Bible was so great that between 1560 and 1644 at least 140 editions of
it were published,[40] and this in spite of its not being allowed for
use in the churches.
In 1576 the New Testament of the Genevan Bible was again revised by
Lawrence Tomson and provided with a new commentary mainly translated
from Beza. It soon became popular and even replaced the Genevan New
Testament in later editions of this Bible.
The Bishops' Bible.
Some time after the accession of Queen Elizabeth an attempt was made to
improve the authorized _Great Bible_, and in this way to challenge the
ever growing popularity of the Calvinistic _Genevan Bible_. The
initiative was taken by Archbishop Parker, about 1563-1565, who,
according to Strype (Parker i. 414) "took upon him the labour to
contrive and set the whole work a going ... by sorting out the whole
Bible into parcels ... and distributing these parcels to able bishops
and other learned men, to peruse and collate each the book or books
allotted them ... and they to add some short marginal notes for the
illustration or correction of the text."