inspired, as it was, more by ecclesiastical shrewdness than by Christian
piety. The saint himself at the end of his life fell out with his
friends and especially with the cardinal protector. He felt himself too
much the gallant knight of his lady Poverty to make himself a tool of
ecclesiastical policy. He detected a spirit of worldliness, and in his
last will he warned his monks not to yield themselves to it.
Nevertheless, the cardinal when promoted to be Pope ordered Saint
Francis, two years after his death, to be worshipped as a saint, in a
bull of canonisation very characteristic for the style of this time,
filled as it is with Biblical allusions. "From this bull," says one of
Saint Francis' recent biographers, "you learn much more about the
history of David and the Philistines than about the life of Saint
Francis."
But the spirit of Saint Francis reacted even more after his death.
One part of his followers insisted upon the strict rule of having
no possessions at all; they treated the other part, which permitted
possessions in common, as a set of worldly apostates from the master's
ideals, far from the law of the gospel. And as the church authorities
decided in favour of the less strict group, the spiritual party, as
they called themselves, openly rebelled against the church, while the
emperor, being on bad terms with the Pope, granted them his protection.
From the book of Revelation they deduced that the official church
was the great Babylon and the Pope the antichrist. So even this
movement, started by the Bible, ended partly as a non-conformist
anti-ecclesiastical undertaking.
But the main part of the Franciscans, or Friars, as they are called
from the Italian _frari_ (brothers), kept to the straight line of
ecclesiastical discipline, and, together with the other order founded
nearly at the same time by Saint Dominic the Spaniard for the special
purpose of repelling heresy, they became the powerful army of the church
directed against all non-conformist movements such as the Waldensians
and Albigensians. Both orders made themselves at home at the
universities--at this period Bologna and Paris, later Oxford and
Cambridge--and soon became very influential. They had rich monasteries
and great libraries, and made Bible study their favourite subject. It is
a remarkable contrast between Saint Francis, who, having only one book,
a New Testament, gives this away in order to help a poor widow, and the
great stores of books in the convents of Saint Francis' fraternity. The
saint himself did not wish his monks to possess, privately, anything,
not even a Psalter, and now they owned huge Bibles and commentaries and
read and studied like any scholar of the secular clergy. Saint Francis
did not wish scholarship among his brethren; it was to him something
worldly, opposed to the true principles of poverty. Now members of his
order sat in the chairs of the universities and were among the leading
teachers of the church.
It is due to the Friars that Bible study is again favoured at the
mediaeval universities. But even these Friars were taken away from the
Bible by the current tendency toward scholasticism. Dogmatics,
systematics, dialectics were what everybody wanted. The curriculum of a
student of theology required first a training in Biblical studies, then
he had to go to attend lectures on the _Sententiae_, as they called the
text-book for systematics. Likewise the professor was bound first for
two or three years to teach Biblical matters before he could touch upon
systematics. In a number of German universities there still remain some
traces of this mediaeval regulation. But we are told that both professors
and students hurried on to get rid of their Bible course as quickly as
possible in order to reach the higher level of dialectics and
systematics. The Bible among these theologians was a text-book for the
junior classes, but not held in great esteem as compared with the
treasured text-book of the senior classes, the _Liber sententiarum._
It is no wonder that a reaction against this system of scholasticism was
stimulated by the Bible itself. Two streams we may distinguish, both
starting within the boundaries of the church and of ecclesiastical
theology, both inclined to overflow these boundaries, and both ending in
non-conformist movements.
One stream is represented by the mystics. They are pious people, led by
high-church preachers, Master Eckhard, Tauler, Suso, and others. These
preachers are given to thorough study of the Bible. But their allegory
turns out to be far different from that traditional with the fathers.
They care for God and the soul, and for nothing else in the world. Their
favourite text-book is Canticles: the Christian soul as the bride of God
or of Christ. This mysticism sometimes comes into collision with the
sacramental view of the church. Being in complete spiritual union with
God, the mystic wished no outward sign; piety was love, not creed. The
church instinctively felt that where these ideas were prevailing the
whole ecclesiastical system was in danger, and tried to stop the
movement. But by this very opposition the movement became more
anti-ecclesiastical than it had been before. The mystic circles withdrew
themselves from the superintendence of the church, they read the Bible,
they read the books of their spiritual fathers, and they became more and
more sure of their own mystical theory as opposed to the doctrine of the
church.
The second stream is still more important. Some theologians reading the
works of Saint Augustine discovered that the present church doctrine was
not what it pretended to be, the true representation of the doctrine of
the fathers, that there was a large difference between the real
tradition of the old church and the scholastic doctrines of their own
time. And, as they went on, they found that the Bible, viewed according
to the interpretation of the fathers, did not support the theories of
the modern scholars. So they departed from scholasticism and built their
own systems on the basis of the Bible as interpreted by Saint Augustine.
It was a general movement; men of this kind were found in many places.
It is difficult to say how far they were dependent one upon another.
Some were quiet men of letters; some gained high positions, like John
Gerson, who was elected chancellor of the University of Paris; others
were aggressive reformers. Mixing in politics, these became leaders of
an anti-hierarchical and at last anti-ecclesiastical movement. We are
not concerned here with the political side of the question, which
sometimes seems to be predominant. Thus in England John Wycliffe stirred
up a long-lived struggle. Influenced by his writings John Huss in
Bohemia entered on a campaign for true Christianity which instead led to
a national Czech movement. In 1409 the German students of the University
of Prague left the city and moved to Leipzig. After the martyrdom of
their hero at Constance in 1415 the Hussites became an aggressive
national and militant party, constantly invading and devastating
Germany. It needed shrewd politics and the united forces of the empire
to keep them back from the Silesian and Saxon frontiers.
As so often happens in history, at the end it is hard to recognise the
causes which have led to the result. In spite of all political
appearances it is true that it was really the Bible which stirred up
these two movements, the Wycliffite and the Hussite. The proof is given
in the fact that both Wycliffe and Huss not only were fond of reading
the Bible, but both tried also to make their people familiar with the
Bible by procuring translations into the vernacular. In this way they
aimed to provide the laity with the evidence of this one true authority
and so to protect them against the adulteration of Christianity due to
scholasticism and hierarchy.
The circulation and influence of the English version made by
Wycliffe--or, as some scholars think, at Wycliffe's instance--is shown
by the fact that in spite of persecution and destruction one hundred and
seventy copies are still preserved, one hundred and forty of which
belong to a second revision, made by a younger friend of Wycliffe's,
John Purvey (Plate XIV). It was the first English translation of the
whole Bible, a good specimen of English, but, like most mediaeval
translations based upon the Latin Vulgate, preserving the faults of that
version and adding others of its own. There are numbers of Czech Bibles
in existence, both in manuscript and in print, but not yet thoroughly
studied. It is remarkable that in this Hussite Bible, as well as in some
German translations of the same time, readings are found which go back
to the very earliest period of textual development. They belong to the
southern branch of French tradition and are supplied probably by Latin,
French, or Italian copies which came from Lyons or Milan. This is clear
evidence that it was through the Waldensians that the Bible spread in
the vernacular of Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, and that the later
movements, while originating independently, were in close relation with
the earlier ones. It is the Bible which not only stirred all these
movements but connected them one with the other.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV--WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE
(Brit. Mus. Egerton, 617-8)
A beautiful copy in folio of the first edition; it is interesting to
compare Egerton, 1171, a small octavo copy of the second edition,
written for private use.
From "Fac-similes of Biblical Manuscripts." By permission of the
Trustees of the British Museum.]
VI
THE BIBLE TRAINS PRINTERS AND TRANSLATORS (1450-1611)
We have been led in the last chapters far back into the Middle Ages. Now
we approach the great time of discoveries. It is difficult to say who
made the most important discovery, Columbus crossing the Atlantic to
find a new world, in which a new civilisation was to arise, or Gutenberg
inventing the art of printing and thereby revolutionising the world of
intellectual life and consequently the history of the Bible.
During the last centuries of the Middle Ages the Bible had been much
copied. At the University of Paris booksellers, helped by some scholars,
undertook to issue a special edition for the benefit of the students.
This Paris edition, easily recognised by its fine type of handwriting
and its blue and red decoration, became the standard Bible text for men
of learning. At the same time many a pious member of the Fraternity of
the Common Life, which was founded by Gerhard de Groot at Zutphen (in
Holland), copied the Bible in his miserable cell with great skill. The
monasteries began to have large collections of Bible editions. There
were large copies consisting of four or eight volumes in folio, for use
in chapel, and smaller ones, in one volume, for private reading. We know
of a regulation made for all monasteries of the Order of Saint
Augustine, that in the catalogues of their libraries all Bibles should
be put under the letter A. There was no need for such a regulation in
the pre-Carolingian time, when a monastery would scarcely have one
complete Bible.
But now let us try to realise what it meant that each copy should be
made by itself, the writer painting (as we may say) letter by letter,
and this through hundreds and thousands of pages. The copyists showed
wonderful skill. Some of these manuscripts look exactly like printed
books; one letter is just like the other; no slipping of the pen!
Nevertheless it was inevitable that the copyist should make mistakes
from time to time. He dropped a letter, a word, even a line;
unconsciously he changed the order of the words. He brought in something
which he happened to have in his mind. When he was familiar with his
Bible, some parallel confused him. It is only natural that in copying a
book of this size even the best copyist should make some hundreds of
blunders; the next copyist would introduce other hundreds, sometimes
even by an unhappy attempt at correcting the blunders of the former. So
it went on till in the end the text became filled with mistakes. Of
course, there was a remedy. After having finished the copy the writer
himself or some one else was expected to compare it carefully with the
original and correct all the blunders. But from personal experience in
reading proofs we know how easily a real blunder escapes our attention.
One ought to go over a proof-sheet three times at least in order to
avoid all mistakes. So we cannot wonder that the Bibles copied by hand
contained errors, and considering all the difficulties it is surprising
that the copies were most of them so nearly correct.
* * * * *
It was Johann Gutenberg, a native of Mainz, residing some time at
Strassburg as a silversmith, then again returning to Mainz, who made the
great discovery that several copies could be printed at once by using
letters cut out of wood or metal. People had used woodcuts before his
time. Engraving large blocks of wood with pictures and letters, they
printed the so-called block-books, as a cheap substitute for illuminated
manuscripts. Gutenberg's great idea was that instead of using a woodcut
block for the page one might compose a page by using separate, movable
letters, putting them together according to the present need, then
separating them and using them again. We are not interested here in the
technical part of the work; imperfect as it was, it was surely a great
advance. Now one got a hundred copies, two hundred, or even more without
any difference between them. When the proofs had been corrected
carefully the Bible was sure to have as few mistakes as possible; and if
the printer still found some errors, he could easily correct them for
the whole edition by adding a printed list of errata, or necessary
corrections, at the end of the volume. It was only by printing that
uniformity of text became possible.
The important fact for our present investigation is that it was the
Bible which Gutenberg chose to be the first printed book. This fact
illustrates the estimation in which the Bible was held. It shows at the
same time the demand for Bible copies; the printer felt sure that it
would sell and pay. It was an enormous enterprise to put the fresh,
inexperienced art of printing straightway at a task so big as this. It
took four years to print the first Bible, from 1453 to 1456. While
working at it Gutenberg had to try some smaller things which would bring
him money immediately, school-books, letters of indulgence, and so on,
but his main care was given to the Bible. It contained six hundred and
forty-one leaves, with two columns on each page, and forty-two lines in
each column (Plate XV). The initials were not printed, but were supposed
to be illuminated by hand; a small letter was printed in the free space
to indicate what kind of letter the illuminator had to paint. Probably
not more than one hundred copies were printed, a third part of them on
parchment. Out of the thirty-one copies which have been preserved, or,
to speak more accurately, are known as such, ten are luxuriously printed
on parchment and illuminated, each in a different way, but all very fine
and costly. It is obvious that Gutenberg put into this printing not only
a great amount of labour but much money, too; and there was no assurance
that it would come in again in a short time. Like many ingenious
discoverers and inventors, he was no business man; he was always in need
of money. So when his first Bible was not yet finished one of his
creditors, John Fust, of Mainz, took all his apparatus from him and,
associating himself with an apprentice of Gutenberg's, Peter Schoeffer by
name, brought the printing of the first Bible to completion, thus
depriving the inventor of the financial success as well as of the glory.
But Gutenberg was not discouraged. He immediately began, with a new set
of letters, the printing of a second Bible, containing thirty-six lines
in each column and so amounting to eight hundred and eighty-one leaves
in size. He printed it in the years 1456 to 1458. Again his rivals, Fust
and Schoeffer, published, in 1462, a third Bible, called sometimes the
Bible of Mainz. It has forty-eight lines in each column.
Thus the printing of the Bible was inaugurated. The new art quickly
spread all over Germany, and printing-presses were established at
Strassburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Basel, Cologne, Luebeck, and many other
places. The art entered France and England with less success, the
government in both countries being partly opposed to it and partly
trying to make it a royal privilege. Good printers worked at Paris and
Lyons. The most splendid presses were at Venice, where the Doge
championed the new art even against attacks from Rome. Before the year
1500 ninety-two editions of the Latin Bible were issued by these various
presses, according to Mr. Copinger, who possessed the largest collection
of printed Bibles. (He registers four hundred and thirty-eight editions
of the Latin Bible during the sixteenth century.) In addition to these
we have a great number of printed Bibles in the vernacular of Germany,
France, Italy, Bohemia, and so on. There was a sudden outpouring of
Bibles. But we must not overestimate the circulation. These editions
contained scarcely more than two hundred copies each; they were most of
them in large folio, very unwieldy, and the price was enormous, though,
of course, not so high as it is now, when for one copy of Gutenberg's
first Bible $20,000 is paid. The Bible was not available for the average
man. We know of scholars copying for themselves the Bible or the New
Testament from a printed Bible. The clergy were rather opposed to this
printing. They did not in the least encourage the printers; on the
contrary, they tried to cause as many difficulties as possible.
Therefore the circulation was a limited one. Copies were bought by
churches for their services, by princes, and by very rich merchants, as
to-day a splendid work is bought more as a luxury than as something for
daily use. One cannot say that at this period the Bible, even by
printing, acquired a circulation among the people.
[Illustration: PLATE XV--GUTENBERG'S FIRST BIBLE
(42 lines, Mainz, 1453-1456)
Copy at Leipzig, on parchment, beautifully illuminated. The capitals
are painted by hand, but indicated by small printed letters.
From "Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst." Published by
Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld, Germany.]
This was accomplished only through the Reformation. It was Luther's
German translation which made the printed Bible popular and caused a
number of similar translations. In order to make the Bible what it was
destined to be, the book of the people, the printer and the translator
had to work together.
In former times many Protestants held the view that Luther rediscovered
the Bible, which had been almost entirely forgotten. They thought that
there had been a meagre transmission of the Bible and no translation
into the vernacular at all. This view, of course, is untenable. We have
seen what a circulation the Bible had in the last century before the
Reformation, and that it had been translated into almost every
vernacular. Nevertheless, Luther's version is a landmark in the history
of translation; it marks a new period and represents the beginning of a
new sort of translation.