volume, and forwarded it to Cromwell. "I understand," says the archbishop afterwards, in a letter addressed to the powerful minister of state, "that your lordship, at my request, hath not only exhibited the Bible which I sent unto you to the king's majesty, but also hath obtained of his grace that the same shall be allowed, by his authority, to be bought and read within this realm.”* Probably Cromwell's influence with Henry at that time had much to do with the obtaining of a royal sanction for the work, in the much-coveted words, "Set forth with the Kinges most gracyous lycence.”

As so large a part of the new Bible consisted of Tyndale's translation, and as Henry could scarcely fail to be ignorant of that fact, it is the more surprising that, after condemning Tyndale's version, the king should now be found openly giving to it the sanction of his gracious licence. The Prologue to the Romans had been condemned separately, and was not to be easily overlooked; and the most superficial inspection would have shown the boldness of the notes with which the text was copiously furnished. He may have been glad to act independently of the bishops. But however this might be, by Cranmer's petition, by Cromwell'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 the present Bible. From Matthew's Bible-itself a combination of the labours of Tyndale and Coverdale-all later revisions have been successively formed.†

Just about the time when Matthew's Bible appeared, in the year 1537, there occurred, according to documents in the * Cranmer's Works, Parker Society, Letter 197.

+ West cott, History of the English Bible, p. 94.

L

State Paper Office, some curious incidents in connection with our history. "A circle of Protestants at Wincanton, in Somersetshire, wrote to Cromwell, complaining of the curate, who would not teach them, or preach to them, but 'gave his time and attention to dicing, carding, bowling, and cross waster.' In their desire for spiritual food they applied to the rector of the next parish, who had come occasionally and given them a sermon, and had taught them to read the New Testament; when suddenly, on Good Friday, the unthrifty curate entered the pulpit, where he had set no foot for years, and admonished his parishioners to give no credence to the new-fangled fellows which read the new books. They be like knaves and Pharisees,' he said; they be like a dog that gnaweth a marry-bone, and never cometh to the pith; therefore avoid their company; and if any man will preach the New Testament, if I may hear him, I am ready to fight with him incontinent;' and, ‘indeed,' the petitioners said, 'he applyeth in such wise his school of fence so sore continually, that he feareth all his parishioners.' So the parish clerk at Hastings made a speech to the congregation on the faults of the translation. 'It taught heresy,' he said; 'it taught that a priest might have a wife according to God's law. He trusted to see the day that the book called the Bible, and all its maintainers and upholders, should be brent.'"*

These circumstances indicate the welcome given to the Scriptures on the one hand, and the opposition made to them on the other; whilst all this was going on, demands for copies of the English version increased.

In the year 1538 a New Testament in Latin and English appeared under the name of John Hollybush,

* Froude's History of England, vol. iii. p. 237.

though the English version is Coverdale's, printed page for page from Nicolson's second edition; and in the same year an edition in Latin and English was published by Grafton and Whitchurch, containing corrections by Coverdale, of an edition published by Nicolson during Coverdale's absence from London. It contains a dedication to Cromwell, in which Coverdale deplores that so many errors existed in that edition.

In the year 1539 another edition of Matthew's Bible came forth, from the press of Byddell and Bartlett, at the sign of the "Sun," in Fleet Street, edited by Richard Taverner, who dedicated the volume to the king, remarking that his grace never did anything more acceptable to God than the act of licensing the most sacred Bible, containing the “unspotted and holy word of God." He informs us, in his preface, that as the printers were desirous to have the Bible come forth as faultless as the shortness of the time for the recognising of the same would permit, they desired him to overlook and peruse the whole copy, and amend the same according to the true examplers, which, according to his talent, he had gladly done. He introduces a running commentary in the text, thus departing from a course previously pursued: this is the more remarkable as he was a layman; and it affords an instance of an unordained member of the Church of England undertaking not only to translate the Scriptures, but to give an interpretation of their meaning. Taverner was a strange genius. He was of the Inner Temple, where he loved to display his pedantry by citing the law in Greek. In the reign of Edward he became a preacher by royal licence, and sometimes appeared in the pulpit dressed in a damask gown, velvet bonnet, and gold chain, in which uncanonical attire he delivered a discourse before the youthful sovereign! In

the reign of Elizabeth he resumed his pulpit exercises, and when High Sheriff of Oxfordshire he preached before the university, wearing, in addition to his other unclerical dress, a sword by his side. "Surely," says Fuller, "Surely," says Fuller, "preaching now ran very low, if it be true what I read, that Mr. Tavernour, of Water Eaton, in Oxfordshire, High Sheriff of the county, gave the scholars a sermon in St. Mary's, with his gold chain about his neck, and his sword by his side, beginning with these words, Arriving at the Mount of St. Mary's, in the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, and carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation.'

The vanity and eccentricity of the editor might have been thought to disqualify him for the office he undertook, but the dedication is worthy of a wise and prudent and honest man, and favourably contrasts with that which proceeded from the pen of Coverdale. He truly said, "This one thing I dare full well affirm, that amongst all your majesty's discoverings, your highness never did anything more acceptable unto God, more profitable to the advancement of true Christianity, more unpleasant to the enemies of the same and also your grace's enemies, than when your majesty licensed and willed the most sacred Bible, containing the unspotted and lovely word of God, to be in the English tongue set forth to your highness's subjects."

*Fuller's Church History, vol. ii. p. 459.

ROMWELL, Earl of Essex, for some time the chief minister and favourite of Henry,-with all his ambition and pride, his unprincipled conduct, and his reckless obstinacy, was a man who professed, and perhaps felt, veneration for the Scriptures. It is said that in his youth, as he was travelling from Rome to England, he made Erasmus's Testament his constant companion, relieving the tediousness of his journey by committing to memory the whole of the

translation. It might be that impressions of the beauty and worth of the Scriptures, derived from his studies on that journey, led to the favour which this distinguished statesman manifested towards their translation in the days of his palmy power. Certainly, to Cromwell is to be attributed the patronage, the pecuniary assistance, and the obtaining of a royal sanction, which enabled Coverdale to execute the task of bringing through the press the Great Bible in the years 1538 and 1539, Coverdale