Leicester Bible lacks a royal dedication, the Northampton copy contains one addressed to the most victorious prince King Henry the Eighth. Allusion is made in the first sentence to his "dearest first wife and most virtuous princess Queen Anne."

Mr. Fry says, in his volume on Coverdale, just referred to, that if his "views are correct, the copy of the Sacred Scriptures in the library at Castle Ashby is of the highest interest, since it must be regarded as the only example that is known to us of the first Bible in the English language surviving (except the map), exactly in the state in which it was issued in this country, and in the same year in which the printing of the text was finished."

Another Coverdale is in the possession of the Earl of Jersey, and was included in the Caxton Exhibition. We find on the title-page, "Biblia. The Byble, that is the Holy Scrypture of the olde and newe Testament faythfully translated into Englyshe, MDXXXVI.” Then follow the Scripture mottoes as they appear in the Northampton copy; and the colophon is the same as in the Leicester Bible, "Prynted in the yeare of our Lord MDXXXv., and fynished the fourth day of October." The dedication has the name of Queen Jane, who was married to Henry VIII., May 20, 1536. "It is, we believe," says Mr. Stevens, "the only copy known perfect as it came from the hands of the publisher, Nicolson, that is, with the title, reverse, blank, and the seven other preliminary leaves, together with the map, as added by Nicolson, while the rest of the volume is as it came from Van Meteren"-whom this authority, as we have seen, supposes, but without sufficient reason, to have had a main hand in the translation as well as the printing. At all events, the book as a whole issued

in this form from the warehouse of the well-known London printer who figured so early in the sale of English Bibles.

It is worth noticing that as Coverdale's work is the first instance of the entire collection of sacred writings, printed in English, being published as a single volume, the title prefixed is that of Biblia. It is a relic of Latin usage, not after the manner of Tyndale, who eschewed such words, and preferred the vernacular speech of his countrymen. "Bible" was a word used so early as the time of Purvey." Taken from Norman French, it had become thoroughly Anglicised; and it is curious to find it in Coverdale's titlepage, in a secondary position, as an explanation of Biblia, the more ecclesiastical term, because a Latin one. It may be mentioned here that in Coverdale's Bible Hebrew letters are introduced, forming the name Jehovah; and that Hebrew characters also are prefixed to divisions in the Book of Lamentations.

Coverdale embraces the Apocrypha in his translation, and places the Epistle to the Hebrews between the Third Epistle of John and the Epistle of James, James being followed by Jude and the Apocalypse. Though we find summaries at the beginning of books, there are no headings to each chapter, nor are chapters separated into verses; explanatory notes are also absent.

The blocks used in the title and in the body of the book at Antwerp, it is believed by Mr. Stevens, all passed into the possession of Nicolson, and can be traced in many books for many years in England. "Nicolson not only sold off this original edition in 1535 and 1536, but he immediately printed two other editions in English type,

See page 45.

the one in folio and the other in quarto, both bearing the date of 1537, though probably printed mostly in 1536.”*

The advertisement in the title-page of the first edition, "translated out of Douche and Latyn," expressed a fact. His Bible is a secondary translation, based on the Swiss Zurich version of Zwingle and Leo Juda, 1524, 1529. He also made use of the Vulgate and of Luther. "The Pentateuch," says Professor Westcott, "unless a partial examination has misled me, may be fairly described as the Zurich translation rendered into English by the help of Tyndale, with constant reference to Luther, Paginus, and the Vulgate."

Some of the renderings in this Bible are curious; for example, Gen. viii. 11, " She bare it [an olive leaf] in hir nebb,” a Scotch expression. Judg. ix. 53, “Cast a pece of a mylstone upon Abimelechs heade and brake his brane panne;" xv. 19, "Then God opened a gome tothe in the cheke-bone, so that water wente out;" xvii. 5, "An overbody cote" for ephod. 1 Sam. xxi. 13, "His slauerynges ranne downe his beerd." 1 Kings xxii. 34, “And shott the kynge of Israel betwene the mawe and the longes." Psa. xci. 5, "Thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night." Jer. viii. 22, "There is no triacle in Galaad." It is also a noteworthy fact that, although Coverdale follows Tyndale, he does not adhere to Tyndale's method of excluding old scholastic ecclesiastical terms. He has not only the word "repentance," but the word "penance' also; not only "elder," but " priest;" not only “love,” but "charity."+ charity." Amidst this inconsistency, however, he cleaves to the word "congregation," instead of "church." * Catalogue of Caxton Exhibition, p. 118.

+ In Coverdale's version, Rom. xiv. 15, we find "charity." In other places love " except Jude 12, when he has " your kindness."

What was the fate awaiting the volume?

The flattering dedication to the king, introduced into the book after its arrival in England, did not secure the royal favour. No licence was given for its circulation. Nor was it sanctioned by the spiritual, any more than the political authority of the realm. It lay open, notwithstanding the new title-page, to the censure expressed by Convocation in 1534 of all books of suspected doctrine, in the vulgar tongue, imprinted beyond the water. It came as much within the scope of ecclesiastical prohibition as did the translations of Tyndale. Moreover, about 1535, Cranmer was doing what he could to prepare for a new and authorized version, implying that such a one, at that time, did not exist. Instead of adopting Coverdale's, he arranged for executing one in England; and connected with this intention is the following amusing story. *

"He began with the translation of the New Testament, taking an old English translation thereof [whose was this? Tyndale's or Wycliffe's ?], which he divided into nine or ten parts, causing each part to be written at large in a paper book, and then to be sent to the best learned bishops and others, to the intent that they should make a perfect correction thereof. And when they had done, he required. them to send back their parts, so corrected, unto him at Lambeth, by a day limited for that purpose: and the same course, no question, he took with the Old Testament. chanced that the Acts of the Apostles were sent to Bishop Stokesley to oversee and correct. When the day came, every man had sent to Lambeth their parts corrected; only Stokesley's portion was wanting. My lord of Canterbury wrote to the bishop a letter for his part, requiring him to

*Strype's Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 48, Oxford edit.

It

deliver them unto the bringer his secretary. He received the archbishop's letter at Fulham, unto which he made this answer: ‘I marvel what my lord of Canterbury meaneth, that thus abuseth the people in giving them liberty to read the Scriptures, which doth nothing else but infect them with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour on my portion, nor never will. And therefore my lord shall have this book again; for I will never be guilty of leading the simple people into error.' My lord of Canterbury's servant took the book, and brought the same to Lambeth unto my lord, declaring my lord of London's answer. When the archbishop had perceived that the bishop had done nothing therein, ‘I marvel,' said he, that my lord of London is so froward that he will not do as other men do.' One Mr. Thomas Lawney stood by, and hearing my lord speak so much of the bishop's untowardness, said, 'I can tell your grace why my lord of London will not bestow any labour or pains this way. Your grace knoweth well that his portion is a piece of the New Testament. But he being persuaded that Christ had bequeathed him nothing in His Testament, thought it mere madness to bestow any labour or pain, where no gain was to be gotten. And besides this, it is the Acts of the Apostles, which were simple poor fellows, and therefore my lord of London disdained to have to do with any of them.' Whereat my lord of Canterbury, and others who stood by, could not forbear from laughter."

A different treatment from that of the first edition of Coverdale was vouchsafed to one afterwards. In 1536 Cromwell held a council; "the bishops and prelates attending as he was come in, rose up and did obeisance unto him as their Vicar-General, and he again saluted every one in their degree, and sat down in the highest place at