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ILLUSTRATIONS  '"'^ 

*   -MAY  27  ictfi.; 


BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 


EXHIBITING 


THE    HISTORY    AND"    FATE     OF     THE 


FROM    THE 


EARLIEST    PERIOD    TO    THE    PRESENT    CENTURY; 


INCLUDING 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES    OF    TRANSLATORS,  AND    OTHER 
EMINENT    BIBLICAL    SCHOLARS. 

/ 


.. ^ 

BY    THE    REV.   JAMES    TOWNLEY, 

Author  of  '•'■Biblical  Anecdotes.''' 


VOL.  II. 


LONDON 


PRINTED    FOR     LONGMAN,    HURST,    REES,    ORME,    AND    BROWN, 
PATERNOSTER    ROW. 

1821 


Crompton,  Printer,  Hury, 
Lancashire. 


Ww^lraliOM^^ 


OF 


BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 


PART   SECOJVD    COJ>>rTINUED. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY. 


State  of  Society.  Council  of  Vienne.  Libraries.  Fi^ench 
Ferslon.  Raoul  de  Presles.  Jean  de  Flgnay.  Men- 
dlcant  Friars.  Alcholas  de  Lyra.  Petriis  Bercho- 
rlus.  Petrarch.  Germany,  Swedish  Version.  St. 
Bridget.  Polish  Version.  Hedwlge.  Danish  Ver- 
slo7:i.  Learned  Greeks.  Persian  Gospels.  Irish 
New  Testament.  Richard  Fltzralph.  Richard  de 
Bury.  Scripture  Paintings.  Old  English  Versions. 
John  de  Trevlsa.     IVicllf'. 

THE  state  of  society  at  the  commencement  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  was  peculiarly  unfavourable 
to  the  cultivation  of  Sacred  literature,  and  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures.  Pride  and  luxury  reigned  among  all  or- 
ders of  the  clergy,  and  induced  universal  ignorance  and 
profligacy.  Their  vices  were  the  subject  of  satire  in  every 
country  in  Europe.  In  Italy^  Petrarch  exposed  the  de- 
pravity of  the  papal  court :  and  in  England,  Chaucer 
satirized,  with  equal  severity,  the  corruptions  of  both  laity 
and  clergy.  Of  Avignon,  the  residence  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  Petrarch  writes  in  an  epistle  to  a  friend,  "In  this 
city  there  is  no  piety,  no  reverence  or  fear  of  God,  no  faith 
or  charity,  nothing  that  is  holy,  just,  equitable,  or  hu- 
mane. Why  should  I  speak  of  truth,  where  not  only  the 
houses,  palaces^  courts^  churcheS;  and  the  thrones  of  popes 
Vol.  II.  A 


*J  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

and  cardinals,  but  the  very  earth  and  air,  seem  to  teem 
with  lies.  A  future  state,  heaven,  hell,  and  judgment,  are 
openly  turned  into  ridicule,  as  childish  fables.  Good 
men  have  of  late  been  treated  with  so  much  contempt 
and  scorn,  that  there  is  not  one  left  amongst  them  to  be 
an  object  of  their  laughter."* 

The  poems  of  Chaucer  abound  with  invectives  against 
the  vices  of  the  clergy,  particularly  the  Plowman's  Tale, 
in  which  he  charges  them  with  ignorance,  cruelty,  cove- 
tousness,  simony,  vanity,  pride,  ambition,  drunkenness, 
gluttony,  and  lewdness:  an  example  or  two  will  suffi- 
ciently discover  the  tenor  of  the  poem. 

''Such  as  can  nat  ysay  ther  crede, 
With  prayer  shul  be  made  prelates; 
Nother  canne  thei  the  gospell  rede, 
Such  shul  now  weldin  hie  estates," 

****** 

''They  use  horedome  and  harlottrle. 
And  covetisc,  and  pompe,  and  pride, 
And  slothe,  and  wrathe,  and  eke   envie, 

And  sewine  sinne  by  every  side. 

****** 

As  Goddes  godenes  no  man  tell  might, 
Ne  write,  ne  speke,  ne  think  in  thought. 
So  ther  falshed,  and  ther  unright, 
Maie  no  man  tell  that  ere  God  wrought."  2 

Wiclif,  who  wrote  about  the  same  time,  says,  there 
were  "many  unable  curates  that  kunnen  not  the  Ten 
Commandments,  ne  read  their  Sauter,  ne  understond  a 
verse  of  it."^  Edward  III.  king  of  England,  addressed  a 
strong  remonstrance  to  the  pope,  against  his  encroach- 
ments, in  which  he  represented  that  "the  encouragements 
of  religion  were  bestowed  upon  unqualified,  mercenary  fo- 
reigners, who  neither  resided  in  the  country,  nor  understood 
its  language ;  by  which  means  the  ends  of  the  priesthood 
were  not  answered,  his  own  subjects  were  discouraged 
from  prosecuting  their  studies,  the  treasures  of  the  king- 

(1)  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  VIII.  p.  361. 

(2J  Chaucer's  Works,  by  Urry,  pp.  179.— 189,  fol. 

(3)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  the  Life,  &Cj  of  John  WicUffe,  D.  D.  p.  38. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  ti 

dom  were  carried  off  by  strangers,  and  the  jurisdiction  of 
its.  courts  baffled  by  constant  appeals  to  a  foreign  autho- 
rity, «^c."*  Lewis  Beaumont,  bishop  of  Durham,  was 
one  instance,  among  many,  of  the  necessity  of  Edward  s 
remonstrance.  He  was  a  veiy  lame  and  illiterate  French 
nobleman,  so  incapable  of  reading  and  spelling,  that  he 
could  not,  although  he  had  studied  them,  read  over  the 
bulls  announced  to  the  people  at  his  consecration.  At 
the  word  ^'Metropoliticce^'  he  paused,  tried  in  vain  to  re- 
peat it,  and  at  last  said,  "Soit  pour  dit!"^  Then  he 
csime  to '* Li  yEnigmate,''  this  puzzled  him  again;  ''Par 
St.  Louis,"  said  he,  "il  n  est  pas  courtois  qui  a  escrit  cette 
parole  ici."'  -f 

At  this  period,  robbery  was  the  reigning  vice  in  al! 
the  nations  of  Europe ;  and  the  robbers,  protected  by  the 
barons,  who  shared  their  booty,  plundered  all  who  came 
in  their  way,  without  distinction.  A  troop  of  these  plun- 
derers, commanded  by  Gilbert  Middleton,  and  Walter 
Selby,  assaulted  two  cardinals,  who  were  escorted  by  our 
illiterate  prelate,  and  his  brother  Lord  Beaumont,  attend- 
ed by  a  numerous  retinue  of  gentlemen  and  servants,  near 
Darlington.  The  cardinals  they  robbed  of  their  money 
and  effects,  and  then  permitted  them  to  proceed  on  their 
journey ;  but  carried  the  bishop  and  his  brother,  the  one 
to  the  castle  of  Morpeth,  and  the  other  to  the  castle  of 
Mitford,  and  detained  them  till  they  had  paid  certain 
sums,  as  ransoms.  The  same  unfortunate  prelate  had  his 
palace  afterwards  plundered  even  to  the  bare  walls,  by  Sir 
Joselin  Deinville.® 

Injurious  as  such  a  state  of  society  must  necessarily 
have  been  to  the  promotion  of  religion  and  learning,  vari- 

(4)  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  VIII.  p.  55. 
*  ''Suppose  that  said." 

+  *'By  St.  LquisI     It  could  be  no  Gentleman  whonvrote  tliis  staiT." 

(5)  Andrews'  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  f.  p.  425.    Loud.  1794^  4to, 

(6)  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  VIII.  p.  386, 
Andrews'  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  ut  sup^ 


4  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

ous  instances  occurred,  which  proved  that  in  an  age  of 
strife,  and  ignorance,  and  depravity,  there  were,  never- 
theless, some  who  duly  appreciated  the  Sacred  Writings, 
and  were  convinced  of  the  advantages  resulting  from  the 
study  of  the  Oriental  languages.  In  1311,  the  Council 
of  Vienne  passed  a  decree,  directing  that  the  Hebrew, 
Chaldee,  and  Arabic  languages,  together  with  the  Greek 
tongue,  should  be  taught  in  the  college  of  Rome,  and  in 
the  universities  of  Paris,  Oxford,  Bologna,  and  Salamanca. 
Schools  or  academies  wxre  also  erected  at  Cologne,  Or- 
leans, Cahors,  Perusia,  Florence,  and  Pisa;  and  opulent 
persons  founded,  and  amply  endowed,  particular  colleges 
in  the  public  universities,  in  which,  beside  the  monks, 
young  men  of  narrow  circumstances  were  educated  in  all 
the  branches  of  literature.  Libraries  were  also  collected, 
some  of  which  were  successively  augmented  by  the  gene- 
rous patrons  of  literature,  and  became  eminent  for  the 
number  and  value  of  the  books  which  they  contained.^ 
Sir  Richard  Whittington  built  the  library  of  the  Grey 
Friars,  now  called  Christ's  Hospital,  in  London,  which 
was  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  feet  long,  and  twelve 
broad,  (Pennant  says  thirty-one)  with  twenty-eight  desks, 
and  eight  double  settles  of  wainscot;  and  was  also  ceiled 
v/ith  wainscot.  In  three  years  it  was  filled  with  books  to 
the  value  of  ^556 ;  of  which  Sir  Richard  contributed 
^400,  and  Dr.  Thomas  Winchelsey,  a  fi-iar,  supplied 
the  rest.  About  the  year  1430,  one  hundred  marks  were 
paid  for  transcribing  Nicholas  de  Lyra's  Commentary  on 
the  Bible,  in  2  vols,  to  be  chained  in  this  library.  Leland 
(Script.  Brit,  p.  441.  et  Collectan.  iii.  p.  52,)  relates,  that 
Thomas  Walden,  a  learned  Carmelite  friar,  who  went  by 
order  of  Henry  V.  to  the  council  of  Constance,  and  died 
approved  in  1430,  bequeathed  to  the  same  library  as  many 
MSS.  of  authors,  written  in  capital-roman  characters,  as 

(7)  Fabricy,  Titres  Primitifs,  II.  p.  150, 
Mosheim's  Eccles«  Hist.  III.  p.  305*' 


FOURTEENTH    CENTUftY.  5 

were  then  estimated  at  more  than  two  thousand  pieces  of 
gold ;  and  adds,  that  this  library,  even  in  his  time,  ex- 
ceeded all  others  in  London,  for  multitude  of  books,  and 
antiquity  of  copies.® 

About  the  year  1320,  Thomas  Cobham,  bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, began  to  make  preparations  for  a  library  at  Oxford, 
but  dying  soon  after,  little  progress  was  made  in  the 
work,  until  1367,  when  his  books  were  deposited  in  it, 
and  the  scholars  permitted  to  consult  them  on  certain 
conditions,  A  dispute  arising  between  the  university  and 
Oriel  College,  it  was  not  finally  completed  till  about  the 
year  1411.  It  appears  to  have  been  the  first  Public  Libra- 
ry in  that  university.  It  was  at  first  called  Cobham  s 
Library,  but  in  1480,  the  books  were  added  to  Duke 
Humphrey's  collection ;' of  which  some  account  will  be 
found  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 

Another  public  library  was  established  at  Oxford,  in 
Durham  (now  Trinity)  College,  by  Richard  of  Bury, 
or  Richard  AuNGERViLLE,  bishop  of  Durham,  in  the  time 
of  Edward  III.  who  bequeathed  his  books  to  the  students 
of  this  college.  According  to  the  practice  of  those  times, 
these  books  were  preserved  in  chests,  till  the  year  1370, 
when  Thomas  Hatfield,  who  succeeded  Richard  of  Bury 
in  the  see  of  Durham,  built  the  library.'^ 

In  France,  Charles  V.  might  justly  be  considered  as 
the  founder  of  the  King's  Library,  now  deemed  one  of 
the  finest  in  Europe.  This  prince,  who  was  fond  of  read- 
ing, and  to  whom  a  book  was  an  acceptable  present, 
commenced  his  library  with  twenty  vohunes,  left  him  a^ 
a  royal  legacy  by  his  father!*    These  he  afterwards  aug- 

(8J  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  I.  pp.  291.  292. 

Pennant's  Account  of  London,  p.  198,  Lond.  1791,  4to. 

(9)  Chalmer's  Hist,   of  the    Colleges,  &c.  attached  to   the  University 

of  Oxford,  II.  p.  458.  Oxford,  1810,  8vo. 

(10)  Ibid,  ut  sup, 

*  In  the  British  Museum  there  is  a  beautiful  MS.  on  vellum,  of  a 
French  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  was  found  in  the  tent  of  Ring 
John,  father  of  Charles  V.  after  the  battle  of  Foictiers,  iu  which  he  had 


b  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

merited  to  nine  hundred,  '^a  very  large  number  for  a  time 
when  the  typographical  art  was  not  invented."  They  con- 
sisted of  books  of  devotion^  astrology,  physic,  law,  his- 
tory, and  romance;  a  very  few  ancient  authors  of  the 
classic  ages,  amongst  which  there  was  not  a  single  copy 
of  Cicero's  works ;  of  the  Latin  poets  only  Ovid,  Lucan, 
and  Boetius.  To  these  were  added  some  French  transla- 
tions of  the  Bible,  of  Augustin's  City  of  God,  of  Livy, 
of  Valerius  Maximus,  8^c,  Many  of  the  volumes  were 
most  superbly  illuminated  by  John  of  Bruges,  the  best 
artist  in  miniatures  of  that  time.  The  whole  were  depo- 
posited  in  three  chambers,  in  one  of  the  towers  of  the 
Louvre,  from  thence  called  La  Toure  de  la  Libraire,  the 
Tower  of  the  Library.  The  rooms  designed  for  their 
reception,  were,  on  this  occasion^  wainscotted  with  Irish 
oak,  and  ceiled  with  cypress  curiously  carved.  The  win- 
dows were  of  painted  glass,  fenced  with  iron  bars  and 
copper  wire.  The  English  became  masters  of  Paris  in 
1425,  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  regent  of  France,  sent 
into  England  the  principal  part  of  the  books,  valued  at 
two  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-three  livres."  A 
saying  related  of  Charles,  deserves  to  be  remembered: 
Some  persons  having  complained  of  the  respect  he  shewed 
to  men  of  letters,  who  were  then  called  clerks;  he  replied, 
"Clerks  cannot  be  too  much  cherished;  for,  so  long  as 
we  honour  learning,  this  kingdom  will  continue  to  pros- 
per ;  but,  when  we  begin  to  despise  it,  the  French  monar- 
chy will  decline." ^^ 

A  new  and  more  accurate  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
French,  was  also  undertaken  by  order  of  the  same  prince. 
The  versions  prior  to  that  period  had  generally  been 

been  taken  prisoner  by  Edward,  the  Black  Prince.  Wartori's  History 
of  English  Poetry^  III,  p.  204. 

(11)  Henault's  Chronological  Abridgment  of  the  Hist,  of  FrancCj  tran- 

slated by  Nugent,  I.  sub  ann.  1380.  p.  268, 
Warton's  Hist,  of  Engligh  Poetryj  I.  Diss.  2. 

(12)  Henaalt.  ut  sup^ 


FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  7 

made  from  Comestor  s  Historia  Scholastica,  the  chief  of 
which  was  by  Guiars  cles  MouUns,  canon,  and  after- 
wards dean,  of  St.  Peter  of  Air,  begun  in  June^:  1291,  and 
completed  in  February  1294.  King  John  had  also  enjoin- 
ed John  de  Sy  to  translate  the  Scriptures  into  French, 
and  to  add  an  Exposition  of  them,  but  he  seems  to  have 
completed  only  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Five  Boohs  of 
Solomon,  Charles,  therefore,  with  that  wisdom  which 
characterised  his  reign,  formed  the  design  of  a  new  trans- 
lation of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Christina  de  Pisan,  =^  a 
female  poet  and  historian,  patronised  and  pensioned  by 
that  prince,  informs  us  that  he  "was  fond  of  books, 
and  by  his  liberality  procured  translations  of  the  best 
authors  into  French ;  especially  the  Bible,  which  he 
caused  to  be  translated  in  a  threefold  manner,  first  the 
Text  itself;  then  the  Text  accompanied  with  a  Gloss;  and 
lastly  an  Allegorical  Exposition ^  ^^ 

This  version  has  frequently  been  attributed  to  Nicolas 
Oresme,  bishop  of  Lisieux,  in  Normandy,  who  died  in 
1382.  Francis  Grude,  Sieur  de  la  Croix  du  Maine,  is  the 
earliest  writer  who  speaks  of  Oresme  as  the  person  de- 
puted by  the  king  of  France  to  translate  the  Scriptures 
into  the  vernacular  tongue.  In  his  "Bibliotheque  des 
Auteurs  <^c."  printed  at  Paris  in  1584,  fol.  he  affirms 
"II  a  traduit  la  Bible  de  Latin  en  Frangois;"  He  trans- 
lated the  Bible  out  of  Latin  into  French.  Le  Long  has 
however  proved  that  Raoul  de    Presles,  and  not  N. 

*  In  the  British  Museum,  among  the  Harleian  MSS.  No.  4431,  there 
is  a  large  volume,  containing  part  of  the  works  of  this  celebrated  female. 
It  is  a  velluna  MS.  written  in  a  small  Gothic  letter,  in  double  columns. 
On  the  recto  of  the  first  leaf,  in  a  large  hand,  is  the  following  autograph : 
Henri/,  Duke  of  Neu: castle  his  booke,  1676.  The  illuminations  are  by 
various  hands  :  a  beautiful  sketch  of  a  portion  of  the  principal  one  is 
copied  in  Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron^  p,  cxxxv,  which  repre- 
sents the  authoress  presenting  her  book  to  the  queen  of  France.  About 
the  period  of  the  composition  of  her  poems,  or  Balades,  the  Duke  de 
Berry  gave  her  not  less  than  200  crowns  for  a  set  of  them.  See  Dibdin's 
Bibliographical  Decameron^  I.  p.  cxxxiv. 
(13)  Le  LoDgj  Biblioth.  Sacra.  I.  cap,  iv.  pp.  321.  324.  Paris,  fol. 


8  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Oresme^  was  the  author  of  this  translation ;  and  accounts 
for  the  error  which  has  been  so  generally  adopted^  by  sup- 
posing that  La  Croix  du  Maine  misunderstood  a  passage 
in    the   Recueil    General   des   Rots,    et   des  affaires    de 
France  jusqii  a  Louis  XIIL  by  Jean  du  Tillet,  bishop  of 
Meaux,  in  which   he  says,  "Nicolas  Oresme,  a  learned 
man,  whose  council  and  advice  was  particularly  followed 
by  King  Charles  V.  translated  the  works  of  Aristotle  and 
Cicero,  and  many  others  out  of  Latin  into  French.     For 
the  king  greatly  loved  and  admired  letters  and  literary 
men.     He  also  commanded  the  holy  books   of  the  Bible 
to  be  diligently  and  truly  translated,  S^cr     But  though 
Bishop  Oresme,  and  the   Bible,  ai*e   both  mentioned  by 
Du  Tillet,  he  does  not  speak  of  Oresme  as  the  translator.^' 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is   indubitable  evidence  that 
Raoul  de  Presles  engaged  in  a  translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, at  the  request  of  the  king  ;  since  in  a  beautiful  illu- 
minated copy  upon  vellum,  in  folio,  of  an  old  French  trans- 
lation, we  meet  with  the  following  Prologue,  or  Preface. 
'To  the  most  excellent  and  mighty  Prince  Charles  V. 
'king  of  France;   I   Raoul  de  Praelle,  your  unworthy 
'servant  and  subject : 

"When  my  most  dread  and  sovereign  Lord  directed  me 
to  translate  the   Bible  into  French,  all  that  I  could  do, 
Avas  to  deliberate  whether  I  ought  to  undertake  it,  or  de- 
cline it.     On  the  one  hand,  I  considered  the  greatness  of 
the  work,  and  my  own  slender  ability  ;  and  on  the  other, 
that  there  was  nothing  I  either  could  or  ought  to  refuse  you. 
I,  moreover,  regarded  my  age,  and  my  unfortunate  disor- 
der, and  the  different  works  I  had  already  composed, 
namely,  the  Translation  and  Exposition  of  St.  Augustin  s 
City  of  God,  the  book  entitled  Compendium  Historiale^ 
another  called  Musa,  and  various  Epistles.     But  whilst  I 
debated  with  myself,  I  recollected  having  read,  that  hu- 
man nature,  (like  iron  which  is  valuable  when   in  use^ 

(14)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  cap.iy.  p.  320. 


•  FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  9 

but  if  disused  rusts  and  spoils,)  sustains  less  injury  in 
every  way  by  labour,  than  by  indolence,  I  judged  it  bet- 
ter to  be  exhausted  by  exercise,  than  consumed  by  idleness; 
for  according  to  the  Wise  Man's  saying,  leisure  without 
letters  is  death.  Let  me  therefore  entreat  your  Majesty 
graciously  to  accept  my  labours.  As  to  the  method  to  be 
pursued  in  my  translation  ;  where  I  conceive  abridgment 
is  necessary,  I  shall  give  the  substance  of  the  whole  ;  and 
where  I  perceive  a  repetition  of  the  same  thing  as  in 
Chronicles,  and  the  Second  Book  of  Esdras,  and  else- 
where, I  shall  retrench ;  I  shall  also  leave  out  many  names 
of  persons  and  places  where  they  would  be  unedifying 
S-nd  wearisome  to  the  reader ;  and  where  they  would 
scarcely  know  whether  they  were  proper  names  of  per- 
sons, or  of  their  fathers,  or  ancestors,  or  of  towns  or  cities; 
acting  in  these  things  according  to  your  command.  I 
intend  also  to  prefix  prefaces,  explaining  what  is  necessary 
respecting  the  design  of  the  books  ;  and  summaries  at 
the  beginning  of  the  chapters,  that  the  sense  of  them  may 
be  more  easily  comprehended  ;  and  to  distinguish  what 
is  not  in  the  Text,  by  a  line  drawn  underneath  ;  for 
without  explanations  the  Text  is  in  many  places  exceed- 
ing obscure,  particularly  to  the  laity,  who  are  not  versed 
in  Holy  Scripture.  And  let  nothing  that  I  have  under- 
taken be  imputed  to  pride,  but  let  your  command  be  my 
apology  in  all  and  every  thing." 

"Finally,  I  intreat  all  those  v/ho  may  see  this  work, 
when  they  discover  inaccuracies,  to  bear  with  my  defects; 
and  whatever  they  find  in  it  that  is  excellent,  to  ascribe 
it  to  our  Lord,  from  whom  cometh  evey  thing  that  is 
good ;  and  farther,  in  every  thing  relative  to  faith,  I  sub- 
mit to  what  is  dictated  by  the  (true)  faith  and  to  what  is 
held  by  our  holy-motlier  Church."^* 

From  this  very  rare  translation,  Le  Long,  in  his  "Bib- 
liotheca  Sacra,  has  given  considerable  extracts.^^    Neither 

(15)  Le  Long,  ubi  sup.         (16)  Ibid.  p.  319, 


10 

of  the  two  manuscripts,  from  which  the  extracts  are 
made,  is  perfect ;  both  of  them  terminating"  Avith  the 
Proverbs  of  Solomon  ;  and  the  first  leaf  of  the  former, 
which  originally  belonged  to  John  Duke  of  Berry,  brother 
to  King  Charles  V.  having  been  torn  away,  probably 
for  tlie  sake  of  its  ornamental  decorations  ;  and  the  latter 
being  v/ithont  the  Prologue. 

Raoul  de  Presles,  the  translator,  was  the  illegimate 
son  of  Raoul  de  Presles,  secretary  to  Philip  the  FaiVy  to 
Louis  X.  and  Philip  V.  and  who  founded  the  college  at 
Paris  which  bears  his  name.  He  embraced  the  profession 
of  the  law,  and  became  celebrated  for  his  various  and  learn- 
ed writings.  One  of  his  earliest  works  was  that  which  was 
denominated  JMusa,  written  in  Latin,  and  dedicated  to 
Charles  V.  It  is  an  ingenious  fiction,  on  the  means  of 
remedying  the  disorders  of  the  age.  About  the  year  1369, 
he  composed  a  Dissertation  on  the  Oriflame,  or  Royal 
Banner  of  the  Kings  of  France,  in  their  wars  against  the 
infidels.*  In  this  discourse  the  author  dwells  less  upon 
the  ancient  banner,  than  upon  the  necessity  of  imploring 
aid  from  Heaven,  when  engaged  in  warfare.  About  the 
year  1379,  he  was  employed  by  the  king  to  translate  Au- 
gustin's  City  of  God,  into  French,  and  had  a  considerable 

*  The  Orifiame  was  anciently  the  chief  standard  borne  by  the  kings 
of  France,  in  war.  Our  author  thus  defines  it :  "L'  Oriflambe,  c'  est 
a  savoir,  un  glaive  (uiie  lance)  tout  dore,  ou  est  attachee  banniere  ver- 
meille ;"  "The  Orifiame  is  a  gilded  iance,  to  which  a  vermilion,  or  flame 
coloured  banner,  is  affixed  ;"  hence  the  appellation  Auri-flamma,  from 
whence  the  corrupted  terms  On fiambe,  Olifiamma^  &c.  It  was  originally 
the  ensign  of  the  abi^ey  of  St.  Denis,  and  borne  by  the  counts  of  Vexin, 
who  held  that  earldom  as  a  fief  of  this  abbey,  with  the  obligation  of  lead- 
ing its  vassals  to  war,  and  defending  its  lands  and  privileges,  under  the 
title  of  Advocate.  In  peaceable  times  it  was  placed  on  the  tomb  of  St. 
Denis,  but  when  called  for,  to  be  borne  to  battle,  it  was  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  the  advocate,  by  the  abbot  himself,  who  accompanied  the 
delivery  of  the  standard,  with  certain  prayers. 

Vexin  being  ia  process  of  time  united  to  the  crown,  the  sovereign 
became  the  advocate  of  St.  Denis,  the  standard  was  accounted  sacred, 
and  borne  as  the  royal  banner.  The  ancient  cry  of  war,  by  the  French 
in  battle,  Mont  joie  St.  De?2i/s^  took  its  rise  from  this  circumstance* 
See  Du  Cange,  Gloss.  Lat.  v.  Aurifiamma*  Advocati  Eccksiarum, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  11 

pension  allowed  him  for  that  purpose.     This  translation 
he  commenced  in  1371,  and  completed,  with  the  addition 
of  a  Commentary  upon  it,  in  1375.     He  also  translated 
into  French,  a  book  entitled   the  Pacific  King,  supposed 
to  be  an  hfstorical  and  political  work,  probably  the  same 
as  the  Compendium  Historiale ;  another  of  his  works  was 
an  Abridgment  of  the  Somnium  Vij^darii,  or  Dream  of 
the  Orchard,  containing  a   dispute  betwixt   the  ecclesi- 
astics, the  temporalists,  and   seculars.     But  his  greatest 
and  most  important  undertaking  was  the  Translation  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  out  of  the  Latin  into   the  French, 
which  appeared  about  A.  D.  1377.     La  Croix  du  Maine 
saw  a  MS.  containing  De   Presles'   translations  of  the 
City  of  God,  and  of  the   Compendium  Historiale,  in  two 
large   volumes,    on  parchment.     The   former   of  these, 
accompanied  with  the  Commentary  upon  it,  was  printed 
at   Abbeville,   in  1486,    in  2  vols,  fol.   and  again   at 
Paris,   in  2  vols.   fol.      The    Abbeville    edition  is  ex- 
tremely scarce,  and     is    said    to   have    been  the  first 
book  printed  in  that  city,  though  Marchand  cites    the 
Somme  Rurale   of  Bouthellier,  which  was  printed  in  the 
same  year,  as  the  first  work  which  proceeded  from  the 
press  at  Abbeville.     La  Croix  du  Maine  likewise  notices 
a  MS,  copy  of  the  Abridgment  of'  the  Somnium  Viridarii, 
written  on  vellum,  and  preserved  in  the  library  of  the 
President  Fauchet,  at  Paris.     Of  the    Translation  of  the 
Bible,  the  indefatigable   bibliographer  Le  Long   never 
had   seen  more  than  the  two   copies   from   which  his 
extracts  are  taken. 

Raoul  de  Presles  was  made  Attorney  General,  in  1371 ; 
and  Master  of  Requests,  1373  ;  He  died  in  1382,  aged 
about  68  years." 

The  dissemination  of  the  Scriptures  appears  to  have 
been  a  favourite  object  with  Charles  V.  of  France.     For 

(17)  R.   de  Juvigny.     Les   Bibliotheques  Francoises  de  La  Croix   du 
Maine,  etdeDu  Verdier,  &c.  II.  pp,  347-^350,  Paris^  1772,  4to. 


12  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^^ 

before  Raoul  de  Presles  was  engaged  in  the  new  transla- 
tion of  the   Bible,  many  transcripts  had  been  made,   by 
his  order,  of  the  version  of  Guiars  des  Moulins.     Several 
of  these,  some  of  which  are  richly  illuminated  and  adorned 
with  exquisite  miniature  paintings,  and  formerly  belonging 
to  the  king,   and  his  brother  John   Duke  of  Berry,  are 
still  preserved  in  the  King's  and  other  libraries  of  France. 
Amongst  which   particular  mention  is  made  of  a  large 
Bible  in  two  volumes,  which  Charles  used  constantly  to 
carry  with  him}^     Molinseus,  or  according  to  his  French 
name,  Charles  du  Moulin,  in  his  work  on  the  Origin  and 
Progress  of  the  French  Monarchy,  says,   "He  caused  the 
Bible  to  be  translated  into  French,  and  not  only  into  the 
dialect  of  Paris,  but  also  into  the  dialects  of  Picardy,  Nor- 
mandy,and  the  other  provinces  of  the  kingdom,  that  every 
one  might  have  the  Scriptures  in  his  maternal  language, 
many  of  which  old  translations  are  still  extant,  with  the 
inscription  ^'By   the    command  of    Charles   the   Fifths 
Anthony  Du  Verdiers  says  the  same,  and  adds,  "I  possess 
one  of  these  copies,  written  on  parchment,  in  the  dialect 
of  Picardy."*®     It  is  probable  that  most  of  these  transla- 
tions, made  by  the  king's  order,  were  corrected  copies  of 
the  version   by   Guiars    des  Moulins,   since  none  appear 
in  the  provincial  dialects,  in   the   list  of  MSS.  given  by 
Le  Long,  except  those  of  that  version.     In  the  Cottonian 
Library,  in  the  British  Museum,  among  other  old  French 
MS.  copies  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  is  one 
of  an  uncertain  date,  with  the  title,  "L'  Evangel  translate 
de  Latine  en  franceys,  in  usum  Laicorum:"    "The  Gospel 
translated  from  the  Latin  into  French,  for  the  use  of  the 
laity."^" 

An  earlier  translation  than  that  of  Raoul  de  Presles 
had  been  made  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  contained 
in  the   Missal,  by  Jean  de  Vignay,  or  Du  Vignes,  at  the 

(IS)  Lehowg^ut  sup.  (IQMJsseriiHist.Dogmat.  p.  158.  Le  Long,  ut  sup, 
(^20)  Le  Long,  Lp318. 


POURTEENTH    CENTURY.  13 

request  of  Jane  of  Burgundy,   queen   of  King  Philip  of 
France/^^ 

Jean  de  ViGNAv/orDu  Vignes,  who  flourished  about 
A.  D.  1306,  was  an  hospitaller  of  St.  James  of  Haut-Pas, 
and  the  translator,  as  has  been  already  noticed,  of  De 
Voragine's  Golden  Legend,  and  De  Riga's  Speculum  Ec- 
clesice.  There  is  also  a  translation  by  him,  of  The  game 
of  Chess  moralized. 

Queen  Jane  also  ordered  several  of  the  early  Latin 
Christian  writers  to  be  turned  into  French,  and  for  this 
purpose  commissioned  the  archbishop  of  Rouen  to  under- 
take the  task.  But  finding  that  this  dignitary  did  not 
understand  Latin,  she  employed  a  Mendicant  Friar  to  ac- 
complish her  design.  For  at  this  period  the  Mendicant 
orders  had  risen  to  considerable  celebrity,  by  their  learn- 
ing and  diligence .^^ 

The  Mendicants  owed  their  rise  about  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  to  the  luxury  and  indolence  of 
the  Monastic  Orders,  which  rendered  it  necessary  to  adopt 
measures  for  remedying  the  disorders  created  by  their 
dissipation  and  licentiousness.  For  this  purpose  a  new 
order  of  religious  fraternity  was  introduced  into  the 
church,  the  members  of  which,  being  destitute  of  fixed 
possessions,  might  restore  respect  to  the  monastic  institu- 
tion, and  recover  the  honour  of  the  church,  by  the  seve- 
rity of  their  manners,  a  professed  contempt  of  riches,  and 
an  unwearied  perseverance  in  the  duties  of  preaching  and 
prayer. 

The  four  Orders  of  Mendicant,  or  Begging  Friars,  es- 
tablished by  a  decree  of  the  second  council  of  Lyons,  in 
1274,  were  the  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  Carmelites,  and 
Augustines,  or  Austins.  The  Franciscans  were  often 
styled  friars-minors,  or  minorites,  and  grey-friars ;  the 
Dominicans  were  generally  termed  friars-preachers,   and 

(^1)  Rigoly  de  Juvitrny,  Les  Bibliotheques  FrangoiseSj  I.  pp.  605,  606, 
(22)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II.  p.  UU 


14  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

sometimes  black-friars:  the  Carmelites  bore  the  name  of 
white-friars :  and  the  Austins,  of  grey-friars.  The  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans  were  the  most  eminent.  The  popes, 
among  other  immunities,  allowed  them  the  liberty  af 
travelling  wherever  they  pleased,  of  conversing  A^ith  per- 
sons of  all  ranks,  of  instructing  youth  and  the  people  in 
general,  and  of  hearing  confessions,  without  reserve  or 
restriction:  and  as  on  these  occasions,  which  gave  them 
opportunities  of  appearing  in  public  and  conspicuous  si- 
tuations, they  exhibited  more  striking  marks  of  gravity 
and  sanctity  than  were  observable  in  the  deportment  and 
conduct  of  the  members  of  other  monasteries,  they  were 
regarded  with  the  highest  esteem  and  veneration  through 
all  the  countries  of  Europe. 

In  the  mean  time,  they  acquired  the  most  extensive 
influence,  by  the  extraordinary  assiduity  and  success  with 
which  they  cultivated  the  various  branches  of  literature 
then  pursued.  Most  of  the  theological  professors  in  the 
university  of  Naples,  founded  in  1222,  were  chosen  from 
among  them.  They  were  the  principal  teachers  of  theolo- 
gy at  Paris ;  and  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  respec- 
tively, all  the  four  orders  had  flourishing  monasteries. 
The  most  learned  scholars  in  the  university  of  Oxford,  at 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  were  Franciscan 
friars :  and  long  after  that  period,  the  Franciscans 
appear  to  have  been  the  sole  support  and  ornament  of 
that  university.  Their  diligence  in  collecting  books  was 
proverbial ;  and  every  mendicant  convent  was  furnished 
with  what  was  considered  as  a  great  and  noble  library, 
("grandis  et  nobilis  libraria.")  They  were  the  revivers 
of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  and  obtained  the  merit  of 
having  opened  a  new  system  of  science;  which  too  soon 
degenerated  into  mere  scholastic  disputes,  and  unintelli- 
gible jargon.  The  Dominicans  of  Spain  applied  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  the  Oriental  languages,  and  Rabbi- 
nical literature ;  and  were  employed  by  the  kings  of  Spain, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  15 

in  the  instruction  and  conversion   of  the  numerous  Jews 
and  Saracens  who  resided  in  their  dominions.    To  literary- 
pursuits  they  joined  the  arts  of  popular   entertainment, 
and  were  probably  the  only  religious  orders  in  England 
who  acted  plays.   The  Creation  of  the  World,  annually 
performed  by  the  Grey  Friars,  at  Coventry,  is  still  extant. 
Gualvanei  de  la  Flamma,  who  flourished  about  the  year 
1340,  has  the  following  curious  passage  in  his  Chronicle  of 
the  ViCECOMiTES  of  Milan.  "In  the  year  1336,"  says  he,  "on 
the  Feast  of  Epiphany,  the  first  feast  of  the    three  kings 
was  celebrated  at  Milan,  by  the   convent  of  the  friars 
freachers.     The   three  kings  appeared  crowned,  on  three 
great  horses,  richly  habited,  surrounded  by  pages,  body- 
guards, and  an  innumerable  retinue.     A  golden  star  was 
exhibited  in  the  sky,  going  before  them.     They  proceeded 
to  the  pillars  of  St.  Lawrence,  where  king  Herod  was  re- 
presented  with   his   scribes   and   wise-men.    The  three 
kings  ask  Herod,  where  Christ  should  be  born:    and  his 
wise-men,  having  consulted  their  books,  answer  him,  at 
Bethlehem.     On  which  the  three-  kings  with  their  golden 
crowns,  having  in   their  hands  golden  cups   filled  with 
frankincense,   myrrh,  and  gold,  the  star  still  going  be- 
fore, marched  to  the  church   of  St.  Eustorgius,  with  all 
their  attendants ;  preceded  by  trumpets  and   horns,  apes, 
baboons,  and  a  great  variety  of  animals.     In  the  church, 
on  one  side  of  the  high  altar,   there  was  a  manger,  with 
an  ox  and  an  ass,  and  in  it  the  infant  Christ,  in  the  arms  of 
his  mother.     Here  the  three  kings  oflfer  their  gifts,  §c. 
The  concourse  of  the  people,  of  knights,  ladies,  and  eccle- 
siastics was  such  as  never  before  was  beheld."    During 
the   same  century  a  religious  drama  was  performed  at 
Eisenach^  in  Germany,  so  singular  in  its  design,  and  so 
fatal  in  its  eflfects,  that  it  well  deserves  to  be  noticed. 
The  mysteiy  of  the  Five  Wise  and  Five  Foolish  Vir~ 
GINS  was  exhibited  before  the  Margrave  Frederick.    The 
wise  virgins  were  represented  as  St.  Mary^  St,  Catharine, 


16  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

St.  Barbara,  St.  Dorothy,  and  St,  Margaret.  The  fool- 
ish virgins  applied  to  them  for  oil,  which  the  actor  inter- 
preted to  mean,  prayers  offered  to  them,  to  intercede  with 
God  in  behalf  of  the  suppliants,  that  they  might  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  marriage  supper,  i.  e.  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven :  but  the  Wise  refused  to  give  them  of  their  oil. 
The  Foolish  Virgins  were  now  thrown  into  an  agony  of 
distress,  they  knocked,  they  wept,  they  intreated,  but  all 
in  vain,  oil  was  denied  them,  and  they  were  commanded 
to  go  and  buy  for  themselves.  The  scene,  and  the  doc- 
trine it  insinuated  of  the  inutility  of  praying  to  the  saints, 
alarmed  the  prince,  and  threw  him  into  the  greatest  con- 
sternation: "Of  what  use,"  exclaimed  he,  "is  our  faith, 
if  neither  Mary  nor  the  other  saints  can  be  obtained  to 
pray  for  us?  To  what  end  so  many  meritorious  actions 
and  good  works,  that  by  their  intercession  we  might  ob- 
tain the  grace  and  favour  of  God  ?"  His  alarm  produced 
apoplexy,  which  in  four  days  terminated  his  life.  He  was 
buried  at  Eisenach.  (Adami  Vit.  Gobelin.  Person,  p.  3.) 

The  buildings  of  the  mendicant  monasteries,  especially 
in  England,  were  remarkably  magnificent.  These  frater- 
nities being  professedly  poor,  and  by  their  original  insti- 
tution prevented  from  receiving  estates,  the  munificence 
of  their  benefactors  was  employed  in  adorning  their 
houses  with  stately  refectories  and  churches.  Persons  of 
the  highest  rank  bequeathed  their  bodies  to  be  buried  in 
the  friary  churches,  which  were  esteemed  more  sacred 
than  others,  and  were  consequently  filled  with  sumptuous 
shrines  and  superb  monuments.  In  the  noble  church  of 
the  grey  friars  in  London,  finished  in  the  year  1325,  but 
long  since  destroyed,  four  queens,  beside  upwards  of  six 
hundred  persons  of  quality,  were  buried,  whose  beautiful 
tombs  remained  till  the  dissolution.  These  interments 
imported  considerable  sums  of  money  into  the  mendicant 
societies,  so  that  it  is  not  improbable  but  that  they  deriv- 
ed more  benefit  from  casual  charity,  than  they  would 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  17 

have  gained  from  a  regular  endowment.  The  Franciscans 
indeed  enjoyed  from  the  popes  the  privilege  of  distrihut- 
ing  indulgencies,  which  produced  a  valuable  indemnifica- 
tion for  their  vokmtary  poverty. 

For  the  space  of  nearly  three  centuries,  two  of  these  Men- 
dicant institutions,  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  ap- 
pear to  have  governed  the  European  church  and  state,  with 
an  absolute  and  universal  sway.  During  that  period, filling 
the  most  eminent  ecclesiastical  and  civil  stations,  teach- 
ing in  the  universities  with  an  authority  which  silenced 
all  opposition ;  and  maintaining  the  disputed  prerogative 
of  the  Roman  pontiff  against  the  united  influence  of  pre- 
lates and  kings,  with  a  vigour  only  to  be  paralleled  by 
its  success  ;  and  being,  before  the  Reformation,  exactly 
what  the  Jesuits  have  been  since.^^ 

At  the  time,  therefore,  when  Queen  Jane  of  France 
employed  a  Mendicant  friar  to  execute  the  translations 
of  certain  Christian  writers,  that  order  ranked  high  in 
literary  attainments,  and  produced  in  different  countries 
of  Europe,  learned  men,  whose  writings  acquired  them  a 
just  celebrity.  This  was  Petrus  de  Bruniquello,  bishop 
of  Civita  Nuova,  an  Austin  friar,  and  a  native  of  France, 
who  wrote  a  work,  in  which  all  the  Histories  of  the  Old 
AND  New  Testaments  were  reduced  to  Alphabetical  order; 
and  compiled  a  Commentary  on  the  Old  Testament.  ®* 
Nicholas  de  Lyra  also,  who  illustrated  this  period  by 
his  learning  and  writings,  particularly  claims  our  regard. 
He  was  born  of  Jewish  parents,  at  Lyre,  a  town  in  Nor- 
mandy, in  the  diocese  of  Evreux.  After  having  been 
inst^-ucted  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  in  Rabbinical  learn- 
ing, he  embraced  Christianity,  entered  among  the  Francis- 
cans at  Verneuil,  and  afterwards  studied  at  Paris,  where 
he  obtained  the  degree  of  Doctor,  and  taught  in  the  univer- 

(23)  See  Warton's  Hist,  of  Enj^lish  Poetry,  I.  pp.  288—294.  from  which 

the  above  account  of  the  Mendicants  is  principally  extracted. 

(24)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  II.  p.  900. 
Vol.  II.  B 


18  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE 


sity  with  great  credit.  By  his  merit  he  rose  to  the 
highest  offices  in  his  order,  and  gained  the  esteem  of  the 
great.  Queen  Jane,  wife  of  Philip  of  France,  appointed 
him  one  of  her  executors,  in  1325.  He  died  at  a  very 
advanced  age,  October  23rd.  1340.'* 

He  is  particularly  celebrated  for  his  Latin  Postill^e, 
or  brief  comments  on  the  whole  Bible,  which  are  allowed 
to  be  very  judicious.  The  following  is  the  judgment  of 
a  learned  foreign  critic:  "  The  Commentaries  of  De  Lyra 
not  only  manifest  industry,  but  display  considerable 
erudition,  and  deservedly  place  their  author  in  the  first 
rank  of  the  Biblical  expositors  of  his  day.  They  discover 
the  writer  to  be  skilled  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  to  be 
well  acquainted  with  Rabbinical  writings  ;  but  his  know- 
ledge of  the  Greek  not  being  so  extensive  as  that  of  the 
Hebrew,  his  commentary  on  the  New  Testament  does  not 
equal  that  on  the  Old,  in  felicity  and  accuracy.  Amongst 
the  Jewish  writers,  he  generally  follows  R.  Solomon 
Jarchi ;  and  frequently  applauds  him  in  his  notes.  In 
explaining  the  literal  sense  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  he 
excelled  most  of  his  contemporaries.  On  those  passages 
of  the  New  Testament  which  derive  illustration  from 
Jewish  antiquities,  he  has  thrown  considerable  light.  Un- 
shackled by  the  authority  of  the  Fathers,  he  thought 
for  himself,  as  his  works  sufficiently  discover  ;  though  he 
was  not  without  defects,  for  he  is  sometimes  inaccurate 
in  what  he  attributes  to  the  Jews  ;  and  sometimes  rashly 
and  incorrectly  adopts  the  Aristotelian  philosophy .^^" 

The  Notes  of  De  Lyra  were  appended  to  an  edition  of 
the  Latin  Vulgate,  printed  at  Rome,  in  1472,  in  7  vols, 
fol.  and  were  ihe^rst  comment  ever  printed.  They  were 
also  often  joined  to  the  Glossce  Or  dinar  ice,  or  a  Comment 
of  Walfridus  Strabus,  or  Strabo  ;  the  Additions  of  Paul, 
bishop   of  Burgos;  and   the   Replies  of  Matthias   Do- 

(25)  Jewish  Heposifory,  III,  p.  41.   Lond,  1815,  8vo. 

Simon,  Lettrps  Choisies,  IV.  p.  213.  De  Juvigny,  V.  p.  128. 

(26)  Walchius  in  LeLong,  Bib.  Sacra,  edit.  Masch.  pt.ii.  sec.  3.  p,  357, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  19 

ringh^  or  Thoringk ;  and  printed  with  the  Vulgate, 
or  Latin  Bible.  The  best  edition  is  that  of  Antwerp, 
1634,  6  vols.  fol.  They  are  incorporated  in  the  Biblia 
Maxima,  edited  by  Jean  de  la  Haye,  Paris,  1660,  19  vols, 
fol.  A  French  translation  was  published  at  Paris,  loll 
and  1512,  5  vols.  fol. 

De  Lyra  was  also  the  author  of  a  Disputation  against 
the  Jews,  published  by  Bratheringius,  at  Frankfort,  in 
1602  ;  and  translated  into  English  from  a  copy  prefixed 
to  the  Basil  edition  (1506,  torn.  7)  of  Lyra's  Commentary, 
by  a  Fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge,  and  printed 
in  the  Jewish  Repository  for  1815,  Lond.  8vo.  Another 
work  written  by  him,  and  subjoined  to  his  Biblia,  is  a 
Treatise  against  a  particular  Rabbi  who  made  use  of  the 
New  Testament  to  combat  Christianity.  Besides  which 
Le  Long  (tom.  2,)  mentions  a  Treatise  entitled  Liber 
different iariim  Veteris  et  Novi  Testamenti  cum  expUca- 
tione  nominum  Hebroeorum,  an  edition  of  which  was 
very  early  printed  at  Rouen,  in  8vo.  It  appears  to  have 
treated  of  the  difference  of  the  various  translations  from 
the  Hebrew,  S^e.  Other  writings  still  remain  unpublish- 
ed; and  Cave  (Hist,  Lit, J  notices  a  small  tract  or  two 
printed  with  the  works  of  others. 

Both  Wiclif,  and  Luther,  were  considerably  indebted  to 
the  PosTiLL^  of  Lyra.  The  author  of  the  Prologue  vLsuaily 
attributed  to  Wiclif,  says,  that  our  English  Reformer  con- 
sulted Lyra's  Commentary,  in  his  translation  of  the  Bible; 
and  of  Luther  it  has  been  affirmed. 

Si   Lyra  non  lyrasset, 

Lutherus  non  saltasset. 
*'  If  Lyra  had  not  harped  on  Profanation, 
Luther  had  never plannsd  the  Reformation."  27 

The  writings  of  our  author  exhibit  him  as  a  defender 
of  the  Novelty  of  the  Hebrew  voivel  points,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Rabbinical  opinion  of  their  antiquity.     "The 

(27)  Lewis's  Life  of  Wiclilte,  p.  73.  ^ 

Dr,  A.  Clarke's  Commentary,  Gen,  Pref,  p.  ?ij. 


20  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Points,"  says  he,"  are  not  an  essential  part  of  the  letters,' 
nor  were  they  in  being  when  the  Scriptures  were  written, 
but  were  invented  a  long  time  afterwards,  to  assist  in  read- 
ing, hence  the  rolls,  which  are  read  in  the  synagogues^ 
are  without  points."  They  also  inform  us  of  the  im- 
pious conduct  of  the  Jews  towards  the  Christians,  and 
the  Gospel.  Speaking  of  the  reasons  why  the  Jews 
do  not  embrace  Christianity,  he  observes,  "Many  turn 
away  from  the  faith  of  Jesus  for  a  threefold  cause.  One 
is,  on  account  of  the  fear  of  temporal  penury,  for  they  are 
always  avaricious  ;  and  in  their  law  an  abundance  of  tem- 
poral things  is  always  promised  ;  therefore  above  measure 
they  abhor  poverty.  Another  cause  is,  because  from  their 
cradle  they  are  nursed  in  hatred  to  Jesus  ;  and  they  curse 
the  Christian  Law,  and  the  worshippers  of  Jesus ,  in  their 
synagogues  every  day.  But  those  things  to  which  men  are 
accustomed  from  their  youth,  become  as  it  were  a  second 
nature-,  and  consequently,  they  turn  the  judgment  of  the 
understanding  from  the  truth  which  is  contrary  to  them. 
The  third  cause  is,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  and  depth 
of  those  things  which  are  proposed  to  be  believed  in  the 
Christian  faith ;  as  by  experience  they  know,  who  fre- 
quently confer  with  them  on  these  subjects.^^ 

Another  Franciscan  friar  of  note,  was  Petrus  Aure- 
OLUs  or  Oriel,  a  native  of  France,  and  archbishop  of 
Aix,  in  Provence.  He  was  called  the  Eloquent  Doctor. 
He  taught  publicly  in  the  university  of  Paris,  from 
A.  D.  1318  to  A.  D.  1321,  when  he  was  removed  to  the 
archiepiscopal  see.  In  1345,  he  wrote  Breviarium  Bih- 
liorum,  or  Compendium  of  the  Bible,  printed  at  Paris,  1508, 
8vo.  He  also  wrote  Commentaries  on  the  Four  Books  of 
Sentences,  and  other  works.  He  died  on  the  27th  of 
April,  but  in  what  year  is  uncertain.^ 

(28)  »ody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig.  lib.  iii.  pars.  ii.  p.  433, 
Jewish  Repository,  III.  p.  324. 

(29)  Cayei  Hist.  Lit.   App.  p.  22. 


FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  21 

Montfaucon,  in  his  Journey   through  Italy,  gives   us 

another  instance  of  the  attention  paid  to  learning  by  the 

Mendicant  friars.     At  Bologna,  he  was  shewn  a  very 

ancient  Hebrew  Bible,  with   this  inscription  prefixed: 

^This  Hebrew  Bible  was  given  by  brother  William 

^of  Paris,  of  the  order  of  Brother-preachers,  confessor 

Ho  the  most  illustrious  king  of  France,  to  the  monas- 

'tery  of  Bologna,  for  the  common  library  of  the  brethren, 

'in  honour  of  St.  Dominic,  ann,   1310,  the  day  before 

Hhe  ides  of  February.     Whosoever  reads  in  it  is  desired 

Ho  pray  for  him.     Amen.'^® 

But  learning,  though  principally  cultivated  by  the 
Mendicants,  was  not  entirely  restricted  to  thcfn;  tiiere 
were  some  belonging  to  the  other  monastic  orders,  who 
devoted  themselves  to  study.  Of  this  Petrus  Bercho- 
Rius,  or  Pierre  Bercheur,  was  an  instance.  He  was  a 
native  of  Poitou,  and  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Benedict. 
His  learning  was  various  and  extensive,  and  his  memory 
so  tenacious,  that  he  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  quote 
texts  and  authorities  from  the  Bible,  on  all  subjects, 
without  any  other  assistance.  He  became  prior  of  the 
convent  of  St.  Eloi,  at  Paris,  where  he  died,  and  was  bu- 
ried in  1362.  Of  his  writings,  which  are  voluminous, 
some  are  lost,  the  most  important,  however,  remain,  and 
are,  1.  Reductorium  Morale  utriusque  Testamenti ;  2.  Re- 
pertoriuni  Morale,  seu  Dictionarium  Morale;  and  3.  The 
Gesta  Romanorum,  He  is  also  known  to  have  been  the 
translator  of  Livy,  by  order  of  John,  king  of  France;  and 
in  that  office  to  have  invented  and  introduced  various 
words,  which  are  now  of  good  authority  in  the  French 
language.  A  MS.  of  this  translation  is  preserved  in  the 
Sorbonne,  at  Paris .^*    The  Reductorium  Morale  is  divided 

(30)  Montfaucon's  Journey  through  Italy,  p.  438. 

(31)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  II.  p.  634. 

Warton's  Hist,  of   English   Poetry,   III.   Dissert,   on  the   Gtsta 

Romanorum^  pp.  i. — vi.  Ixxxvi.  Ixxxvii. 
Lempriere's  Universal  Biography.  Lond.  1808,  4to. 


22  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

into  two  parts ;  the  first  of  which  contains  thirty-four 
books,  and  consists  of  allegorical  expositions  of  differ- 
ent passages  of  Scripture^  selected,  according  to  their 
order,  from  the  historical  and  prophetical  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  and  the  Apocrypha.  The  fol- 
lowing brief  extract  from  the  Exposition  of  Genesis  i. 
may  give  an  idea  of  the  work:  "/;z  the  heginning  God  cre- 
ated the  heavens  and  the  earthy  8^c. — "It  appears,  that  as 
God  exercised  himself  in  the  creation  of  the  great  world, 
so  he  continually  exercises  himself  in  the  creation  of  the 
little  world,  man,  and  in  the  formation  of  the  moral 
man,  I  say,  therefore,  that  the  light  is  faith,  the  firma- 
ment is  hope.  The  waters  above  (the  firmament)  are  trou- 
bles sent  by  God ;  the  waters  under  (the  firmament)  are 
temptations  arising  from  the  carnal  nature.  The  earth 
is  the  body;  herbs  and  trees  are  good  works ;  fruits  and 
seeds  are  virtues  and  meritorious  deeds.  Lights  signify 
discretion;  the  sun  is  divine  wisdom,  the  moon  worldly 
knowledge.  Fishes,  which  are  always  in  water,  signify 
devotion;  but  birds,  divine  contemplation;  cattle,  the 
help  and  assistance  of  the  poor;  reptiles,  compassion  for 
the  sufferings  of  others ;  beasts  signify  devils,  and  evil 
thoughts.  Man,  made  in  the  image  of  God,  designates 
the  formation  of  the  moral  man,  and  the  moral  perfec- 
tion of  the  mind.  Paradise  denotes  final  blessedness, 
and  the  consequent  glory.  This  I  say,  therefore,  that  in 
the  little  world,  that  is,  in  the  morally  perfect  man,  the 
first  thing  necessary  is  the  light  of  faith,  to  illuminate  the 
mind,  and  to  discover  the  truth;  and  to  dissipate  and 
confound  error  and  darkness:  hence  it  is  said.  Acts  ix. 
^ There  shined  round  about  him  a  light  from  heaven." 

The  2nd  part  of  the  Reductoriwn  Morale  treats  "De 
rerum  proprietatibus,"  (Of  the  properties  of  things,)  and  is 
a  curious  compendium  of  pneumatology,  natural  history, 
^^c.  It  is  divided  into  24  books,  in  which  every  sub- 
ject is  allegorized  after  the  inanner  of  the  preqeding 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  23 

exposition  or  commentary;  the  following  is  an  example: 
^^Of  Britain." 

^^Britain,  i.  e.  England,  is  a  large  island,  surrounded  by 
other  islands.  Near  it  is  one  called  Sllura,'^  the  soil  of 
which  is  so  obnoxious  to  serpents,  that  it  will  kill  any  ser- 
pent introduced  into  it;  and  the  inhabitants  extraordinary, 
for  they  wholly  discard  money,  and  the  use  of  it,  bartering 
one  thing  for  another,  procuriiig  necessaries  rather  by  ex- 
change than  purchase,  and  revealing  to  men  and  women 
the  knowledge  of  future  events.  By  that  island  I  under- 
stand religion,  especially  the  Mendicant  orders;  by  the 
soil  which  yields  sustenance  to  them,  the  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures,  which  opposes,  kills,  and  destroys  serpents, 
i.  e.  vices  and  temptations  i  they  are  also  accustomed 
not  to  value  money,  but  to  seek  necessaries  by  exchang- 
ing, that  is,  by  begging,  and  to  think  of  nothing  but 
futurity:  Wisd.  viii.  "She  knoweth  things  of  old,  and 
conjee tureth  aright  what  is  to  come." 

"According  to  Solinus,  there  was  formerly  in  Britain,  a 
temple  dedicated  to  the  goddess  Minerva,  where  the  per- 
petual fires  never  whitened  into  ashes,  but  when  suffered 
to  go  out  were  transformed  into  globes  of  stone.  Say, 
therefore,  if  you  please,  that  the  goddess  Minerva  is  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  whose  temple  is  the  conscience  of  a  righ- 
teous man,  in  which,  without  doubt,  the  fire  of  perpetual 
charity  ought  to  burn,  and  never  be  lost  in  the  ashes  of  sin- 
ners, but  transform  itself  into  the  stone  of  perseverance." 

The  Repertorium,  or  Dictionarium  Morale,  is  the  most 
valuable  of  the  works  of  Berchorius.  It  is  a  voluminous 
theological  dictionary,  in  which  all  the  words  of  the  Vul- 
gate version  of  the  Bible  are  alphabetically  arranged  and 
explained;  and  discovers  extensive  theological  knowledge, 
and  uncommon  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures.  The 
following  article,  selected  for  its  brevity,  will  serve  as  a 
specimen  of  the  work: 

*  One  of  the  Scilly  isJes, 


24  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

"Proverbium.  (Proverb.)  An  enigma,  or  parable,  i.  e. 
an  obscure  speech,  or  a  common  saying,  promulged  as 
a  law  or  rule,     A  proverb  is  used  for 

An  allegorical  proposition ; 

An  authentic  declaration; 

A  prophetic  enunciation; 

A  scornful  expression. 
It  is  taken  for  an  allegorical  proposition,  and  is  thus 
used  John  xvi.  where  it  is  said,  "Now  speakest  thou 
plainly,  and  speakest  no  proverb."  Also,  for  an  authentic 
declaration,  and  is  so  used,  1  Sam.  xxiv.  "As  saith  the 
proverb  of  the  ancients:  wickedness  proceedeth  from  the 
wicked."  Again  for  a  prophetic  enunciation,  as  Eccles. 
xxxix.  "He  will  seek  out  the  secrets  of  grave  sentences, 
{Vulg.  Proverbiorum,)  and  be  conversant  in  dark  para- 
bles." Also,  for  a  scornful  expression,  and  is  thus  used 
1  Kings  ix.  "Israel  shall  be  a  proverb,  and  a  by-word 
among  all  nation s."^^ 

These  works  have  been  repeatedly  printed;  the  edition 
from  which  the  above  translations  have  been  made,  is  in 
two  ponderous  folio  volumes,  printed  at  Cologne,  1620. 

The  Gesta  Romanorum  is  a  singular  compilation  of 
romances,  apologues,  and  stories.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  favourite  books  of  that  period;  and  seems  to  have 
been  "compiled  from  the  obsolete  Latin  chronicles  of  the 
later  Roman,  or  rather  German  story,  heightened  by  ro- 
mantic inventions,  from  legends  of  the  saints,  oriental  apo- 
logues, arid  many  of  the  shorter  fictitious  narratives  which 
came  into  Europe  with  the  Arabian  literature,  and  were 
familiar  in  the  ages  of  ignorance  and  imagination.  The 
classics  are  sometimes  cited  for  authorities;  but  these  are 
of  the  lower  order,  such  as  Valerius  Maximus,  Macrobius, 
Aulus  Gellius,  Seneca,  Pliny,  and  Boethius.  To  every  tale 
a  Momlizat'ion  is  subjoined,  reducing  it  into  a  Christian, 
or  moral  lesson.  Most  of  the  oriental  apologues  are 
(32)  Berctorii  Opera,  1,  pp,  1, 906;  et  II.  p,  ^59,  Colon.  Agrip.  1620, foU 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  25 

taken  from  the  ClerkaLls  DiscipUna,  or  a  Latin  dialogue 
between  an  Arabian  philosopher,  and  Edric  his  son,  ne- 
ver printed,  written  by  Peter  Aiphonsus,  a  baptized  Jew, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  collected 
from  Arabian  fables,  apothegms,  and  examples.  Some  are 
also  borrowed  from  an  old  Latin  translation  of  the  Cali' 
lah  u  Damnah,  a  celebrated  set  of  Eastern  fables,  to  which 
also  Aiphonsus  was  indebted."  This  popular  work  was 
one  of  the  very  early  printed  books,  several  editions  hav- 
ing been  published  before  A.  D.  15U0;  and  was  translated 
into  Dutch,  in  1484.  Wart  on  has  prefixed  a  learned 
"Dissertation"  on  the  Gesta  Romanorum,  to  his  "History 
of  English  Poetry,"  vol.  IIL  from  which  the  preceding 
remarks  are  taken. 

In  Italy,  classical  learning  began  to  revive,  principally 
by  the  exertions  of  Francis  Petrarch,  who,  as  an  elegant 
writer  has  said,  "rescued  his  country's  name  from  obscu- 
rity, and  rendered  it  the  admiration  of  Europe;  who 
sought  the  society  of  learned  foreigners,  and  was  among 
the  first  to  promote  the  cultivation  of  the  Greek  tongue; 
who,  himself  a  philosopher,  historian,  orator,  poet,  and 
philologist,  encouraged,  by  his  example,  every  liberal  pur- 
suit."^^  And  who,  had  he  not  disgraced  his  moral  cha- 
racter by  an  infamous  passion  for  Laura,  the  wife  of  Hu- 
go de  Sade,  lord  of  Saumane,  must  have  claimed  the  un- 
reserved applause  of  every  friend  to  literature  and  genius. 

Yet  with  all  his  ardour  and  enthusiasm  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  literature,  Petrarch  remained  so  ignorant  of  the 
Greek,  that  when  a  Greek  Homer  was  sent  him  from 
Constantinople,  he  lamented  his  inability  to  taste  its 
beauties.  But  his  defective  knowledge  of  that  copious 
tongue  was  occasioned  by  the  deplorable  darkness  of  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  and  not  by  his  own  indifference  or 
neglect.  For  such  was  the  lamentable  indifference  to 
the  study  of  the  Greek,  that  not  one  scholar  versed  ia 
(33)  BeriDgton's  Literary  Hist,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  410. 


26  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

that  language,  was  to  be  found  at  Rome.  It  was  reserved 
for  his  friend  Boccaccio,  or  Boccace,  to  enjoy  the  plea- 
sure, and  obtain  the  honour,  of  introducing  to  public  no- 
tice and  consequent  remuneration,  Leo,  or  Leontius 
PiLATUs,  the  first  Greek  lecturer  at  Florence.  This  was 
about  the  year  1360.  He  had  been  detained  at  Florence, 
when  on  his  way  from  the  East  to  Avignon,  by  the  advice 
and  hospitality  of  Boccaccio,  who  lodged  the  stranger  in 
his  house,  and  prevailed  upon  the  magistrates  to  elect 
him  a  member  of  their  academy,  and  to  settle  on  him  an 
annual  stipend.  The  appearance  of  the  lecturer  was 
disgusting.  He  was  clothed,  says  his  disciple,  (De  GeneaL 
Deorum.  lib.  xv.  cap.vii.)  in  the  mantle  of  a  philosopher,  or 
a  Mendicant ;  his  countenance  was  hideous ;  his  face  over- 
shadowed with  black  hair ;  his  beard  long  and  uncombed ; 
his  deportment  rustic ;  his  temper  gloomy  and  inconstant; 
nor  could  he  grace  his  discourse  with  the  ornaments,  or 
even  the  perspicuity,  of  Latin  elocution.  But  his  mind 
was  stored  with  a  treasure  of  Greek  learning;  history 
and  fable,  philosophy  and  grammar,  were  alike  at  his 
command.  The  inconstancy  of  his  disposition  led  him  to 
return  to  Constantinople,  after  having  filled  the  profes- 
sor s  chair  only  three  years.  Still  unsettled,  he  deter- 
mined to  revisit  the  country  he  had  left,  and  for  that 
purpose  embarked  on  board  a  vessel  destined  for  Italy, 
but  as  they  approached  the  shore,  the  ship  was  assailed 
by  a  tempest,  and  our  unfortunate  teacher,  who  had 
lashed  himself  to  the  mast,  was  stricken  dead  by  a  flash 
of  lightning.^* 

The  Theological  writers  in  Italy,  at  thi^  period,  were 
few,  and  their  writings  in  general  unimportant.  The  chief 
of  those  who  employed  their  pens  on  subjects  of  divinity, 
attempted  by  allegorical  and  mystical  comments,  to  illus- 
trate or  explain  the  Sacred  Writings ;  but  nothing  appears 
-^ — — ^ — ___ — . — . — ___ — _ — »—— — • 
(34)  Berington's  Literary  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  B.  y'u 
pp.   434-^36. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY,  27 

to  have  been  published  worthy  of  notice^  unless,  perhaps, 
the  Margarita  Biblica  of  Guido  de  Pileo^  a  Domi- 
nican friar,  bishop  of  Ferrara,  who  died  in  1331 ;  in  which 
the  author  has  endeavoured,  in  hexameter  verses,  to  give 
an  epitome,  and  allegorical  exposition  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament.  An  edition  of  it,  without  place  or  date, 
was  printed  in  the  very  infancy  of  the  typographical  art.^^ 

In  Germany,  Joannes  Rusbrochius,  a  native  of  Bra- 
bant, and  prior  of  the  monastery  of  the  priory  of  Viridis 
Vallis,  who  died  A.  D.  1380,  wrote  a  number  of  mystical 
works,  amongst  which  was  one  in  the  German  tongue. 
On  the  Tabernacle  of  Moses,  in  which  he,  in  his  way, 
explains  many  parts  of  the  books  of  Exodus,  Numbers,  and 
Leviticus,  The  whole  of  his  works  have  been  twice  print- 
ed at  Cologne;  first  in  1552,  in  fol.  and  again  in  1609, 4 to. 
In  these  editions  his  German  works  are  translated  into 
Latin.  About  the  year  1300,  a  prose  version  of  the 
Scriptures  was  made  into  Dutch,  but  the  author  is  not 
known.^® 

If  we  turn  to  the  North  of  Europe,  the  chief  occurrences 
that  interest  the  Biblical  scholar,  are  private  translations 
of  the  Scriptures  into  the  vernacular  language  of  Swe- 
den, and  Poland,  one  of  them  executed  at  the  request  of 
a  princess,  whose  name  has  been  deservedly  transmitted 
to  succeeding  ages ;  and  the  other  translated  by  the  no 
less  illustrious  princess  whose  name  it  bears.  St.  Birgit, 
or  Bridget,  was  the  daughter  of  Birger,  or  Birghes,  a 
prince  of  the  royal  blood  of  Sweden,  and  of  Ingeburgis, 
daughter  to  Sigridis,  a  lady  descended  from  the  kings  of 
the  Goths,  and  was  born  A.  D.  1302.  She  married  Ul- 
pho,  prince  of  Nericia,  in  Sweden,  who  died  in  1344,  in 
the  monastery  of  Alvastre.  After  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, she  founded  a  religious  order,  called  from  her  the 

(35)  Le  Long,  11.  p.  906. 

(36)  Cavei  Hist.  Lit.  App.  p^  57.  « 
Acta  Eruditorum.   An,  1733.   p.  62,  4to, 


28  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

Order  of  the  Brigittim,  or  Brigetthis;  and  built  the 
great  monastery  of  Wastein,  in  the  -diocese  of  Linco- 
pen,  in  Sweden.  At  her  request,  Matthias,  or  Mat- 
thew of  Sweden,  her  confessor,  and  canon  of  Linco- 
pen,  translated  for  her  use,  she  being  ignorant  of  Latin, 
the  Bible  into  Swedish,  accompanied  with  short  learn- 
ed annotations.  The  translator,  who  was  also  called 
Matthew  of  Cracow,  in  Poland,  probably  from  being  a  na- 
tiv^e  of  that  city,  was  afterwards  raised  to  the  see  of 
Worms,  where  he  died  in  1410.*  He  wrote  on  several 
theological  subjects,  such  as  the  mass,  eucharist,  ^c. 
Some  of  his  MSS.  are  said  to  be  still  preserved  in  diffe- 
rent libraries.  St.  Bridget  died  July  23rd,  1373.  Her 
pretended  Revelations  have  been  repeatedly  printed,  at 
Lubec  in  1492^  at  Nuremberg,  1521,  with  cuts,  much  es- 
teemed; at  Rome,  1521,  <Sfc.^'  No  copy  of  the  translation 
of  the  Scriptures,  which  she  procured,  is  now  to  be  found; 
but  in  the  library  of  the  university  of  Leipsic,  there  is  a 
MS.  in  12mo.  containing  the  Latin  Bible,  fairly  written, 
said   to  have  been  transcribed  with  her  own  hand.^® 

The  Polish  version  is  attributed  to  Hedwige,  daugh- 
ter of  Louis,  king  of  Hungary  and  Poland ;  or,  according 
to  some  writers  J  daughter  of  Casimir  the  Great.  She  was 
chosen  sovereign  Queen  of  Poland  in  1384,  and  her  pane- 
gyrists assure  us  that  "she  was  eminent  for  her  immense 
charities  to  the  poor,  her  liberality  to  churches,  monas- 
teries, and  universities ;  her  humility  and  aversion  to  pomp 
or  gaudy  apparel ;  her  meekness,  which  was  so  wonderful, 
that  in  so  exalted  a  station  she  was  utterly  a  stranger  to 
anger  and  envy  ;"  and  that  "she  read  no  books  but  such 
as  treated  of  piety  and  devotion ;  the  chief  being  the  Holy 

*  Messenius  places  his  death  about  A.  D.  1352;  and  says  he  was 
intimate  with  the  Dominicans  of  Stockholm,  among  whom  he  breathed 
his  last ;  but  Butler  professes  to  state  the  time  of  his  death  from  his 
epitaph.  See  Messenii  Scondia  Illustrata,  II,  tom.  IX.  cap,  ti.  43. 
Stockholm,  1700,  fol. 

(37)  Butler's  Lives,  X.  Oct,  S.  pp.  158—168. 
(3S)  Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  L  p.  240. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY,  29 

Scriptures,  Hcmilies  of  the  Fathers,  Acts  of  Martyrs,  and 
other  saints,  and  the  Meditations  of  St.  Bernard,  <J^c."'' 
In  1386,  she  married  Jagello,  a  pagan  duke  of  Lithu- 
ania, on  condition,  that  he  should  embrace  the  Christian 
faith,  and  establish  it  in  his  dominions.  At  his  baptism  he 
received  the  name  of  Vladislaus,  and  subsequently  per- 
suaded the  subjects  of  his  dutchy  to  make  profession  of 
the  Gospel.  Hedvvige  died  at  Cracow,  in  1399.*"  Johan- 
nes Lasicius,  in  his  work  De  Gentis  Franciscce  Gestis, 
lib.  i.  professes  to  have  seen  an  elegant  MS*  of  this 
translation.** 

In  the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen,  there  is  a  MS. 
(No.  8  of  the  MS8.  in  fol.  of  the  Thottian  catalogue,) 
formerly  in  the  possession  of  Count  Thott,  containing  a 
Danish  version  of  part  of  the  Old  Testament,  supposed 
to  have  been  made  in  the  thirteenth,  or  at  the  latest,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  following 
account  of  it  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ebe- 
nezer  Henderson,  who  favoured  me  with  a  valuable  MS. 
History  of' the  Danish  FersionSy  written  by  himself,  and 
to  which  this  work  will  be  principally  indebted  for  what 
relates  to  the  Biblical  History  of  Denmark. 

The  Danish  MS.  of  the  Old  Testament,  deposited  in  the 
Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen,  "forms  an  ordinary  folio, 
and  has  been  strongly  bound  in  wooden  boards,  covered 
with  skin.  It  has  already  suffered  considerable  damage 
by  its  exposure  in  a  humid  place,  and  is  fast  mouldering 
away  at  the  ends.  It  is  written  on  paper,  in  two  parallel 
columns.  Towards  the  beginning,  the  lines  marking  the 
space  to  be  filled  by  the  text,  have  been  drawn  with  ink, 
the  colour  of  which  is  considerably  paler  than  that  with 
which  the  text  itself  is  written;  but  the  rest  has  been 
ruled  with  a  leaden  pen.     The  text  forms  one  whole,  no 

(39)  Butler's  Lives,  X.  Oct.  17.  p.  425.  note. 

(40)  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  III.  p.  298. 

(41)  Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  1.  p,  439.. 


30 

blank  space  being  left  either  between  the  chapters  or  the 
books.  The  number  of  the  chapter  is  begun  on  the  same 
line  with  the  conclusion  of  the  preceding,  and  is  either 
longer  or  shorter,  according  to  the  space  that  was  to  be 
filled  up.  The  title  of  the  book  is  written  at  the  top  of 
the  page,  as  far  as  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
Exodus,  from  which  to  the  end  it  is  omitted.  The  initial 
letter  of  every  chapter  is  roughly  ornamented,  and  is  writ- 
ten with  a  kind  of  red  paint,  which  has  something  of  a 
glossy  surface,  resembling  wax.  The  same  material  is 
used  in  correcting  what  was  improperly  written,  and  in 
writing  the  titles  of  the  books  and  chapters.  It  is  also 
employed  in  punctuation,  which  consists  of  a  stroke  drawn 
transversely  through  the  line,  answering  to  the  more  com- 
mon stops;  and  where  any  remarkable  word  or  sentence 
begins,  a  red  stroke  is  drawn  through  the  first  letter  of 
the  word.  At  the  foot  of  the  page  are  a  number  of  pray- 
ers and  pious  effusions,  through  a  considerable  part  of 
Genesis,  but  they  are  the  work  of  a  later  hand.  The  first 
two  leaves,  and  part  of  the  third,  have  been  devoured  by 
the  tooth  of  time;  and  the  text  now  begins  Genesis  ii.  10. 
It  is  also  defective  from  Genesis  xxx.  36,  to  xxxi.  29, 
and  ends  with  2  Kings,  xxiii.  14." 

"The  version  is  done  exactly  according  to  the  Vulgate, 
and  faithfully  adopts  all  its  faults,  nor  can  this  be  matter 
of  surprise  to  those  who  know,  that  it  has  been  doubted 
by  those  best  acquainted  with  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
that  country,  whether  at  that  period,  there  were  any  of 
the  clergy  who  so  much  as  understood  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment, in  Denmark ;  and  that  many  of  the  ecclesiastics 
themselves,  had  not  an  opportunity  of  forming  any  ac- 
quaintance even  with  the  Vulgate.  The  translator  of  the 
Danish  version  has  not  only  in  general  servilely  followed 
the  Vulgate,  but  has  at  times  attempted  to  express  the 
derivation  of  the  Latin  words  in  his  version,  which  could 
not  fail,  in  many  instances,  to  render  it  ridiculous.    Thus 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  31 

the  Almighty  is  introduced  Genesis  xxvi.  5,  as  commend- 
ing* Abraham  for  making  use  of  wax  candles  in  the  observ- 
ance of  his  religious  rites.  The  Vulgate  has  Ceremoniasy 
which  this  translation  renders:  "Because  Abraham  obey- 
ed my  voice,  and  kept  my  charge  and  commandments, 
and  kept  feast-days  with  wax,  that  is,  wax-candles,  and 
laws."  The  same  rendering  occurs  also  in  several  other 
places.  In  Exodus  xxviii.  4,  the  Latin  terms  used  to 
describe  the  garments  of  the  priests,  are  explained  by  the 
sacerdotal  apparel  of  the  Romish  church.  Great  use  is 
made  of  synonymes  by  way  of  explication,  especially  in 
those  passages  in  which  Latin  words  are  introduced." 

"Translations  of  the  Prefaces  of  Jerom  are  introduced 
at  their  proper  places ;  and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  a 
passage  is  introduced  from  Peter  Comestor's  Histwna 
Scholastka.  Thus  the  story  respecting  the  grave  of  Joseph, 
is  related  after  Exodus  xiii.  19;  a  long  account  is  given 
of  the  infancy  and  youth  of  Moses  at  the  end  of  Num- 
bers xii.  and  at  the  end  of  1  Samuel  xxv.  a  comparison 
is  drawn  between  Saul  and  the  Devil,  and  one  between 
David  and  a  spiritual  man,  which  concludes,  'O  St* 
David  pray  for  us.  " 

A  full  account  of  this  MS.  is  given  by  Dr.  Woldike,  in 
the  2nd  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Copenhagen,  who  concludes,  from  the  size  of  the 
volume,  that  there  may  have  originally  been  two  more, 
comprising  the  whole  Bible;  but  Dr.  E.  Henderson 
remarks,  that  "the  abrupt  manner  in  which  this  fragment 
ends,  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  column  on  the  last 
page,  without  regard  to  any  division  in  the  Bible,  shews 
that  its  present  size  is  merely  accidental,  and  that 
either  the  original,"  (from  which  this  MS.  appears  to  be  a 
^^PyO  "has  not  extended  farther,  or  the  transcriber  has 
been  prevented  by  death,  or  some  other  unavoidable 
cause,  from  prosecuting  his  labour." 

Pontoppidan  (Annales  Ecclesiee  Danieee  Diplom.  T.  IV. 


32  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

p.  563,)  mentions  his  having  found  in  a  MS.  B.  Birche- 
rodii,  a  notice  respecting  an  order  issued  1671,  by  Chris- 
tian V.  to  print  a  very  ancient  MS.  of  the  Bible,  which 
was  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library,  and  which  he  sup- 
poses to  have  been  the  MS.  just  described ;  but  the  order 
appears  never  to  have  been  put  into  execution,  a  cirpum- 
stance  that  cannot  but  be  lamented  by  the  Biblical 
scholar,  as  the  MS.  is  evidently  in  a  state  of  decay. 

Among  the  Greeks  of  this  century,  Euthalius  Johan- 
nes Cantacuzenus,  and  Simon  Jatum.^us,  are  most 
worthy  of  notice.     Cantacuzenus,  born  in  Constantino- 
ple, was  bred  to  letters  and  to  arms,  and  admitted  to  the 
highest  offices  of  the  state.     The  Emperor  Andronicus 
loaded  him  with  wealth  and  honours ;  and  at  his  death,  in 
1341,  left  to  him  the  care  of  the  empire,  and  the  guardi- 
anship of  his  son  John  Paleologus,  then  only  nine  years  of 
age,  until  his  son  should  be  capable  of  assuming  the  reins 
of  government   himself.     This  trust  he  discharged   for 
some  time  with  the  utmost  fidelity  and  diligence,  till  the 
Empress  Dowager  and  her  faction,  having  proclaimed 
him  a  traitor,  he  was  led  to  listen  to  the  entreaties  of  the 
9-rmy  and  nobles,  and  to  assume  the  imperial  purple.     A 
civil  war  ensued,  in  which  Cantacuzenus  was  victorious. 
At  a  suitable  age  he  associated  the  young  Paleologus  with 
him  in  the  empire,  and  confirmed  the  union  by  giving 
him   his  daughter  in  marriage.     Jealousy  and  suspicion 
again  gave  rise  to  civil  commotions,  till,  weary  of  the 
troubles  of  sovereignty,  and  unwilling  to  continue  the 
contest,  Cantacuzenus  abdicated  his  share  in  the  empire, 
assumed  the  habit  of  a  monk,  and,  retiring  into  a  monas- 
tery, adopted  the  name  of  Joasaph,  or  Josaphat,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  the  duties  of  religion,  and  the  pursuits 
of  literature.     In  this  relinquishment  of  worldly  gran- 
deur, he  was  accompanied  by  his  wife,  who  entered  a 
mmnery,  and  changed  her  name  from  Irene  to  Eugenia. 
In  his  retirement  he  wrote  a  History  of  his  owntimesy  of 


FOURTEENTH    CfiNTllRY.  33 

which  a  splendid  edition,  with  a  Latin  translation,  was 
published  at  Paris,  in  3  vols,  folio,  1645.  An  Apology 
for  Christianity,  against  the  Mohammedans,  with  Four 
Boohs  in  Confutation  of  the  Errors  of  Mohammed  and  the 
Alcoran,  written  in  1360,  at  the  request  of  a  Christian 
monk,  who  had  been  converted  from  Mohammedanism; 
and  edited  by  Rudolph  Gualter,  who  translated  them  into 
Latin,  and  pubhshed  them  with  the  Greek,  at  Basil,  in 
1543,  fol.  and  afterwards  with  the  Alcoran,  in  1555.  And 
a  work  against  the  Jews,  designed  to  refute  their  errors. 
This  latter  work  is  also  sometimes  noted  as  Nine  Ser- 
mons against  the  Jews.  In  his  writings,  Cantacuzenus 
assumed  the  name  of  Christodulus.  The  time  of  his  death 
is  uncertain,  though  he  is  supposed  to  have  lived  many 
years  in  his  retirement.*^ 

Simon  or  James  Jatum.eus,  a  Dominican  friar,  a  native 
of  Constantinople,  flourished  about  the  close  of  this  centu- 
ry. He  was  first,  bishop  of  Geirace^  in  Calabria  Ultra,  in 
Italy,  and  afterwards  archbishop  of  Thebes,  in  Boeotia. 
His  knowledge  of  the  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  Hebrew  lan- 
guages, in  which  he  was  thoroughly  versed,  enabled  him 
to  form  from  the  best  and  most  correct  Greek  copies,  a 
regular  series  or  Harmony  of  the  whole  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  to  translate  it  into  Hebrew  and  Latin.  These 
versions,  with  the  Greek,  he  placed  in  three  parallel 
columns  on  each  page,  and  with  considerable  labour  and 
diligence,  disposed  them  with  so  much  exactness,  that 
each  version  answered  to  the  other,  line  for  line,  and  sen- 
tence for  sentence,  both  in  sense  and  words.  A  copy  of 
this  curious  Triglott-Harmony  was  formerly  kept  in 
the  library  at  Genoa.*^ 

Euthalius  Rhodius  was  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St. 

(-42)  Cavei  Hist.  Lit.    App.  pp.  37,  38. 

Fabricii  Delectus  Argumentorum,  &c.  p.  124.  Hamburg,  1725,  4to» 
r43)  Sixt.  Senens.  Biblioth.  Sanct.  lib.  iv.  p.  378. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  L  p.  6K 

Vol.  n.  C 


34  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Basils  who,  after  the  example  of  Cardinal  Hugo's  Latin 
work,  compiled  a  Greek  Concordance  of  the  Bible. 
Nothing  more  is  known  of  him,  except  that  he  lived  at 
the  commencement  of  this  cent  my  ;  **  nor  is  there  any 
copy  of  his  work  known  to  exist  at  present. 

Directing   our  views  Eastward,    we  find  a  Persian 
translation  of  the  Four  Gospels,  made  by  order  of  the 
Prince  Ibn  Sahm  Addaula  Ibn  Scirana.    The  following 
subscription  at  the  end  of  a  MS.  of  this  version,  is  cha- 
racteristic of  the  age  and  country  in  which  it  was  written. 
^These  Four  glorious  Gospels  of  Matthew,   Mark, 
'Luke,  and  John,  were   finished  in  the  city  of  CafFa,=^ 
'inhabited  by  Christians,  (prayers  being  performed,)  on 
'the  third  day  of  the  week,  the  ninth  of  the  month 
'Tamuz,  in  Latin  called  July,  in  the  year  of  Christ  the 

(44)  Sixt.Senens.  Biblioth.  Sanct.  lib.  iv.  p.  286. 

*  Caffa,  or  Cnfa,  is  a  city  and  port  town  of  the  Crimea.  It  was 
anciently  caUed  Theodosia^  and  since  it  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Russians,  this  name  has  been  restored  to  it.  It  is  at  present  chiefly 
inhabited  by  foreigners  of  different  religious  persuasions.  In  July  1815, 
a  Bible  Societij  was  established  in  that  city,  designed  particularly  to 
comprehend  in  the  sphere  of  its  operations,  the  countries  lying  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  On  that  occasion,  his  Excellency  Bronefsky, 
governor  of  the  city,  transmitted  to  the  Russian  Bible  Society,  a  commu- 
nication written  by  himself,  in  which  he  says,  "Abhazi,  Mingrellia,  and 
Anatolia,  being  in  the  closest  commercial  connection  with  Theodosia, 
present  a  wide  field  for  the  Bible  Society  proposed  to  be  in  that  city. 
It  is  \yell  known,  that,  in  former  times,  the  Abhazi  were  enlightened  by 
the  faith  of  Christ,  and  belonged  to  the  Greek  communion,  possessed 
their  own  bishops,  and  were  reckoned  to  the  Eparche  of  Alanie,  the  seat 
of  which  see  was  Theodosia,  and  afterwards  Phanagaria.  After  the 
fall  of  the  Greek  empire,  however,  the  nation  of  the  Abhazi,  like  the 
Circassians,  being  deprived  of  preachers,  and  not  possessing  a  written 
language,  returned  to  their  heathenish  customs,  and  at  last  many  of  them 
embraced  the  Mohammedan  religion.  Monuments  of  Christianity  exist 
to  the  present  time  among  them,  in  the  remains  of  churches,  for,which 
the  people  have  still  respect.  Another  proof  of  this  is  the  veneration 
which  they  have  for  the  form  of  the  cross.  Certain  of  the  Abhazian 
tribes,  in  the  vicinity  of  Annapa,  perform  their  religious  service,  which 
is  greatly  mixed  with  heathenism,  before  a  cross,  placed  upon  a  tree  ; 
or  they  simply  cut  out  the  form  of  the  cross  on  the  bark  of  the  tree,  and 
pray  and  offer  sacrifices  before  it."  See  the  Tzoelfth  Report  of  the  Bri* 
iish  and  Foreign  Bible  Society^  App,  No,  viii.  p,  13.  Load.  1816. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  35 

'Messiah^  1341,  by  the  hand  of  the  weakest  of  the 
'people  of  God,  Simon  ibn  Joseph  ibn  Abraham  al 
^Tabrizi.  May  the  God  of  those  that  fear  him  (i.  e.  of 
'the  Christians)  by  his  grace  and  providence  shew 
'mercy,  that  when  they  read  or  hear  this  (book  of  the) 
'Gospels,  they  may  say  a  Pater  Noster  and  Ave  Maria, 
'for  the  poor  writer,  that,  through  the  Divine  Mercy, 
'he  also  may  be  forgiven.  Amen.  And  this  (book  of 
'the)  Gospels  was  written  by  the  command  and  coun- 
'sel  of  his  lord  and  king,  (the  glory  of  princes  and 
'merchants,  and  the  honour  of  the  people  of  Christ,) 
'the  friend  and  brother  of  the  pure  church,  the  lord  and 
'prince  Ibn  Sahm  Addaula  ibn  Scirana,  surnamed 
'of  Teflis.  God  be  gracious  to  him  and  his  kindred. 
'Amen.*** 

"This  version,"  remarks  Dr.  A.  Clarke,  "was  made  most 
evidently,  by  a  Christian  of  the  Roman  Catholic  persua- 
sion, who  acted  under  the  most  predominating  influence 
of  his  own  peculiar  creed  \  for  it  is  not  only  interpolated 
with  readings  from  the  Fulgate,  but  with  readings  from 
rituals  and  legends''^^  It  was  printed  with  the  Latin 
translation  of  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  in  the  fifth  volume  of 
the  London  Polyglott,  from  a  MS.  belonging  to  the  learned 
Dr.  Pocock.  A  much  purer  and  more  simple  version  of 
the  Four  Gospels,  but  of  uncertain  date,  was  published, 
with aLatin  translation,  in  1657,  fol.  It  was  translated  into 
Latin,  and  prepared  for  the  press,  by  Mr.  Abraham  Whee- 
loc,  professor  of  Arabic  in  the  university  of  Cambridge, 
who  actually  began  to  print  it  in  1652;  but  dying  shortly 
after,  the  work  was  patronized  by  Thomas  Adams,  lord  may- 
or of  London,  and  finished  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Pierson, 
at  the  press  of  J.  Flesher.  It  seems  that  Mr.  Wheeloc 
had   designed  to  affix   critical   notes  to  each  chapter; 

.^45^  Waltoni  Proleg.xvi. 

(46)  Dr.  A.  Clarke's  Corameat.  Introduction  to  tU  Gospels  and  Ads 
oj  the  JpostUs,  p.  xs'xu 


36  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

but  as  the  regular  comment  appears  to  have  been  prepared 
no  farther  than  to  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  Matthew, 
the  notes  which  the  continuator  found  after  the  close  of 
that  chapter,  are  all  printed  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
work.*'  It  is  probable  the  former  version  was  made  from 
the  Si/riac,  the  latter  from  the  Latin  Vulgate. 

Another  version  of  the  Persian  Gospels  is  mentioned 
by  Le  Long.  It  was  transcribed  in  the  year  1388,  but  from 
an  original  of  much  older  date ;  and  was  sent  to  the  col- 
lege at  Rome,  from  Agra,  in  the  East  Indies,  by  Jeronymo 
Xaviei*,  a  Roman  catholic  missionary,  who  died  at 
Goa  in  1617.*' 

Returning  again  to  the  West,  a  singular  occurrence 
in  Ireland  claims  our  attention.  About  the  year  1358, 
Richard  Fitzralph,  archbishop  of  Armagh,  nossessed  a 
translation,  probable/  made  by  himself,  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  Irish.  According  to  the  information  of  Bale, 
quoted  by  Archbishop  Usher,  this  copy  was  concealed  by 
hijn  in  a  certain  wall  of  his  church,^  with  the  following 
note  :  "When  this  book  is  found,  truth  will  be  revealed 
to  the  world  ;  or  Christ  shortly  appear."  This,  observes 
the  narrator,  was  written  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  for  the 
book  was  found,  when  the  church  of  Armagh  was  repair- 
ing, about  the  year  of  Christ  1530.*^  No  vestige  of  this 
translation  is  supposed  to  remain;  though  Fox,  in  his 
Actes  and  Monumentes  of  the  Church,  vol.  I.  p.  511,  print- 
ed in  1570,  says,  "I  credibly  heare  of  certayne  old 
Irish  Bibles  translated  long  synce  into  the  Irysh 
tona".  whif'h  if  it  be  true,  it  is  not  other  lyke,  but   to  be 

(47>   Dr.  A.  Clarke's  Comnent.  i*62.yw/?. 
(48)  Le  Long,  Bihlioth.  Sacra.  I.  p.  133. 

*  A  curious  MS.  original  of  the  New  Testament,  (one  Gospel,  St, 
Mark,  wanting,)  found  walled  in  Loddington  church,  in  Northampton- 
shire, was  in  the  possession  of  Bishop  More,  who  had  borrowed  it  from 
the  Rev.  George  Tew,  the  rector,  but  never  returned  it ;  and  is  supposed 
to  be  now  in  the  Public  Library  at  Cambridge,  among  the  collection  of 
books  purchased  at  the  death  of  the  bishop  for  ^6000,  by  King  George  L 
and  presented  to  that  university.  Nichols's  Liter anj Anecdotes j  IX.  p.  612* 
(49;  Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  156, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.   .  37 

the  doing  of  this  Armachanus ;"  and  adds,  that  this  was 
^'  testified  by  certayne  Englishmen,  which  are  yet  aly ve, 
and  have  sene  it." 

Richard  Fitzralph,  or  Fitzraf,  ^^a  man,  worthy,  for 
his  Christian  zeal,  of  immortal  commendation,"  was 
brought  up  at  Oxford,  under  John  Bacon thorpe,  who 
was  called  the  resolute  doctor.  His  abilities  recommend- 
ed him  to  King  Edward  III.  by  whom  he  was  promoted, 
first  to  the  archdeaconry  of  Lichfield,  then  to  the  chan- 
cellorship of  Oxford,  and  afterwards  to  the  archbi- 
shopric of  Armagh,  in  1347.  He  was  the  severe  and  pro- 
fessed opponent  of  the  Mendicant  friars,  who,  by  their  ar- 
rogance and  encroachments  on  the  rights  of  the  clergy, 
had  created  very  general  disgust.  Being  cited  by  them 
to  appear  before  Pope  Innocent  IV.  he  defended  him- 
self in  the  presence  of  the  pontiff,  in  an  oration,  the 
substance  of  which  is  preserved  in  Fox's  Actes  and 
Monumentes,  vol.  I.  pp.  505 — 510.  In  this  discourse  he 
observes,  that  the  Mendicant  friars  entice  and  delude 
so  many  of  the  young  scholars  who  are  sent  to  the  uni- 
versities, to  enter  their  order,  that  "  laymen,  seeing  their 
children  thus  to  be  stolen  from  them,  refuse  to  send  them 
to  their  studies,  rather  willing  to  keep  them  at  home  to 
their  occupation,  or  to  follow  the  plough,  than  to  be  cir- 
cumvented and  defeated  of  their  sons  at  the  university, 
as  by  daily  experience  doth  manifestly  appear. — For 
w^iereas,  in  my  time,"  saith  he,  "there  were  in  the  univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  thirty  thousand  students,  now  are  there 
not  to  be  found  six  thousand."  And  thus  notices  the 
decay  of  learning  occasioned  by  their  monopoly  of 
books.  "These  begging  friars,  through  their  privi- 
leges obtained  of  the  popes  to  preach,  to  .hear  confes- 
sions, and  to  bury ;  and  through  their  charters  of  impro- 
priations, grow  thereby  to  such  great  riches  and  pos- 
sessions by  their  begging,  craving,  and  catching,  and 
intermeddling  in  church  matters^  that  no  hook  can  stir. 


38  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

of  any  science,  either  of  divinity,  law,  or  physic,  but  they 
are  able  and  ready  to  buy  it  up.  So  that  every  convent 
having  a  great  library  full  stuffed  and  furnished  with  all 
sorts  of  books,  and  there  being  so  many  convents  within 
the  realm,  and  in  every  convent  so  many  friars  increasing 
daily  more  and  more,  it  thereby  comes  to  pass,  that  very 
few  books,  or  none  at  all,  remain  for  other  students:"  of 
which  he  gives  this  instance,  "that  he  himself  sent  forth  to 
the  university,  four  of  his  own  priests  or  chaplains,  who 
sending  him  word  again  that  theij  could  neither Jind  the  Bi- 
ble, nor  any  other  good  profitable  book  of  divinity,  meet 
for  their  study,  therefore  were  minded  to  return  home  to 
their  country;"  and  .adds  further,  that  "he  was  sure^  one 
of  them  was  by  this  time  returned." 

The  opposition  of  the  good  archbishop  to  what  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  reigning  abuses  of  his  day,  brought  much 
trouble  and  persecution  upon  him.  Our  martyrologist 
tells  us,  that  in  a  certain  confession  or  prayer,  composed 
by  Fitzraiph,  and  of  which  he  himself  had  a  copy,  he 
relates  the  particulars  of  his  many  providential  deliver- 
ances out  of  the  hand  of  his  enemies,  and  almost  the 
whole  history  of  his  life,  especially  "how  the  Lord  taught 
him,  and  brought  him  out  of  the  profound  vanities  of 
Aristotle's  subtlety,  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  of  God." 
The  beginning  of  the  Prayer  in  Latin,  as  given  us  by  Fox, 
deserves  to  be  translated.  "To  thee  be  praise,  and  glory, 
and  thanksgiving,  O  Jesus,  most  holy,  most  powerful, 
most  amiable,  who  hast  said,  ^I  am  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life; — a  way  without  deviation, — truth  without  a 
cloud,  and  life  without  end.  For  thou  hast  shown  me 
the  way ;  thou  hast  taught  me  the  truth ;  and  thou  hast 
promised  me  the  life.  Thou  wast  my  way  in  exile  ;  thou 
wast  my  truth  in  counsel ;  and  thou  wilt  be  my  life  in 
reward." — After  this  quotation,  every  pious  character  will 
regret  that  the  honest  martyrologist  did  not  execute  the 
design  he  had  formed  of  publishing  the  whole  confession. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  39 

Fitzralph  remained  some  time  in  banishment,  and  died 
at  Avignon,  about  A.  D.  1360  ;  yet  such  was  the  charac- 
ter he  had  maintained,  that  on  hearing  of  his  death, 
a  certain  cardinal  openly  declared,  ^^A  mighty  pillar  of 
Christ's  church  was  fallen."  ^^ 

In  England,  one  of  the  principal  promoters  of  learn- 
ing was  Richard  de  Bury,  or  Aungerville,  bishop  of 
Durham,  who  was  born  in  1281,  and  died  in  1345.     A 
man  singularly  learned,  and  so  devoted  to  literature  that 
he  kept  transcribers,  binders,  and  illuminators  in  his 
palaces ;  and  expended  the  whole  of  his  ample  income  in 
purchasing  scarce  and  curious  manuscripts,  for  which 
purpose  he  employed  agents  not  only  in  England,  but  in 
Italy,  France,  and  Germany.     Beside  the  fixed  libraries 
w^hich  he  had  formed  in  his  several  palaces,  the  floor  of 
his  common  apartment  was  so  covered  with  books,  that 
those  who  entered  were  in  danger  of  trampling  on  them. 
By  the  favour  of  Edward  III.  he  gained  access  to  the 
libraries  of  the  principal   monasteries,   where  he   shook 
off  the  dust  from  various  volumes,  (all  MSS.  as  must 
necessarily    be    the    case    at     that   period,)   preserved 
in  chests  and  presses,  which  had  not  been  opened  for 
many  ages  ;  and  while  chancellor  and  treasurer  of  Eng- 
land, instead  of  the  usual  presents  and  new  years'  gifts 
appendant  to  his  office,  he  chose  to  receive  those  perqui- 
sites in  books. ^^     The  account  given  of  him  by  honest 
John  Stow,   in  his  Annales,  is  too  interesting  not  to  be 
transcribed  in  his  own  words.     "Richard  Bury,"  says 
he,  "is  somewhat  to  bee  remembred  for  example  to  other. 
He  was  borne  neere  Saint  Edmundshury.     By  his  father. 
Sir  Richard  Angaruill,  knight,  and  his  uncle.  Sir  John 
WiLLOWBY,  his  gouernour,  he  was  first  set  to  grammer 
schoole,  and  after  sent  to  Oxford,  from  whence  hee  was 
called  to  teach  Ed.  of  Windlesore,  then  prince  :  afterward 

(50)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  pp.  502— 5U.  Lond.  1570.  fpl, 

(51)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  I,  Diss.  2, 


40  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

this  Richard  was  made  principall  recieuer  to  Edwarde 
the  second  in  Gascoigne,  at  such  time  as  yoong  Edward 
with  his  mother  fledde  to  Paris,  whose  expenses  beginning 
to  faile,  the  said  Richard  came  to  them  priuily  with  a 
great  somme  of  money,  for  the  which  cause  he  was  pur- 
sued to  Paris,  where  hee  lay  hid  in  a  steeple  by  the  space 
of  seuen  dayes.  After  this  hee  was  made  cofferer  to  Ed- 
ward the  third,  then  treasurer  of  the  wardrobe,  then 
clarke  to  the  priuie  scale  by  the  space  of  fine  yeeres,  in 
the  which  time  twise  hee  went  to  Pope  John.  In  the  sixe 
and  fortieth  yeere  of  his  age  he  was  consecrated  bishoppe 
of  Durham,  then  was  hee  made  treasurer  of  England, 
and  after  chancellour,  since  the  which  time  hee  was 
sent  thrise  to  the  French  king,  to  claim  the  kingdome  of 
France,  and  after  that,  to  Antwerpe  and  other  places  in 
Brabant,  in  embassage  by  the  space  of  nine  yeeres.  He 
was  greatly  delighted  in  the  company  of  clearkes,  and 
liadde  alwayes  many  of  them  in  his  family,  among  whom 
were  Thomas  Bradwardine,  afterward  archbishoppe  of 
Canterbury,  Richard  fitz  Ralph,  archbishoppe  of  Arma- 
cham,  Walter  Burley,  John  Manditt,  Robert  Hol- 
COT,  Richard  Kilwington,  all  of  them  doctors  of  diui- 
nitie,  Richard  Wentworth,  or  Beniworth,  byshoppe 
of  London,  and  Walter  Segraue,  byshoppe  of  Chiches- 
ter. Euery  day  at  his  table,  hee  was  accustomed  to  haue 
some  reading :  and  after  dinner  daily  hee  would  haue 
disputation  with  his  priuate  clearkes,  and  other  of  his 
house,  except  some  vrgent  cause  hadde  let  him.  At  other 
times  hee  was  occupied,  either  in  seruice  of  God,  or  at 
his  bookes.  Weekely  he  bestowed  for  the  reliefe  of  the 
poore,  eight  quarters  of  wheat  made  into  bread,  besides 
the  ordinary  fragments  of  his  house.  Moreouer,  in  com- 
ming  or  going  from  Newcastle  to  Durham,  hee  bestowed 
sometimes  twelue  markes  in  almes,  from  Durham  to 
Stockton  eight  markes,  from  Durham  to  Aukland  fine 
jnarkes,  from  Durham  to  Middleham  an  hundred  shil- 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  41 

lings,  &c.  Hee  was  so  delighted  in  bookes,  that  he  hadde 
more  (as  was  thought)  then  all  the  byshoppes  of  Englande 
besides.  Hee  bestowed  many  rich  ornaments  on  the 
church  of  Durham.  Hee  builded  an  hall  or  house  in 
Oxford,  induing  it  with  reuenues  needefiill  for  his  schol- 
lers.  And  also  prouided  in  a  library  great  store  of  bookes,* 
for  the  vse  of  the  whole  universitie,  as  the  said  bishop 
writeth  himselfe  in  his  booke  entituled  'Philobiblos,'  and 
appoynted  the  maisters  of  the  hall  to  assigne  five  scholers 
for  keeping  of  the  common  library  ."^^ 

Yet  such  was  the  influence  of  the  general  contempt  in 
which  the  laity  were  held  by  the  clergy,  that,  whilst  this 
great  man  was  lamenting  the  total  ignorance  of  the 
Greek  language  among  his  clerical  brethren,  he  did  not 
scruple  to  affirm,  "Laici  omnium  librorum  communione 
indigni  sunt:"  "The  laity  are  unworthy  to  be  admitted 
to  any  commerce  with  books!"  A  sentiment  which  suffi- 
ciently discovers  the  profound  ignorance  which  must  have 
reigned  among  all  ranks  of  society,  the  clergy  excepted. 
With  very  different  feelings  will  the  reader  of  the  present 
day  peruse  his  opinion  of  boohs,  when  he  says,  ''  Hi  sunt 
magistri  qui  nos  instruunt  sine  virgis  et  ferula,  sine  verbis 
et  colera,  sine  pane  et  pecunia.  Si  accedis  non  dorniiunt ; 
inquiris  non  se  abscondunt;  non  remurmiirant  si  obeiTes ; 
cachinnos  nesciunt  si  ignores  :"  "These  are  teachers  who 
instruct  us  without  rod  or  ferula,  without  severe  expres- 
sions, or  anger,  without  food,  or  money.  When  we  come 
to  them,  they  are  not  asleep  ;  when  we  enquire  for  them, 
they  do  not  secrete  themselves  ;  when  we  mistake  them^ 
they  do  not  complain  ;  if  we  are  ignorant,  they  do  not 
despise  us."  The  treatise  from  which  these  passages  are 
selected,  was  written  with  reference  to  the  library  which 
he  bequeathed  to  the  university  of  Oxford.  It  is  entitled 
Philobiblos,  or  Philobiblion,  is  written  in  Latin,  in  a 

*  See  p.  5.  of  this  volume. 
(S2)  Stow's  Annales,  or  Generall  Chronicle  of  England,  pp.  240,  241. 
Loud.  1615,  fol. 


42  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

declamatory  style,  and  is  divided  into  twenty  chapters. 
In  this  work  he  laments  that  good  literature  had  entirely 
ceased  in  the  university  of  Paris,  which  he  calls  the  Para- 
dise of  the  World ;  and  says,  that  he  purchased  there  a 
variety  of  invaluable  volumes  in  all  sciences,  which  yet 
were  neglected  and  perishing.  This  learned  prelate  died 
in  1345,  at  his  palace  at  Auckland. ^^ 

In  lieu  of  books,  the  laity  appear  to  have  been  presented 
with  Paintings,  and  Theatrical  Entertainments.     Henry 
III.  who  was  a  most  munificent  encourager  of  the  fine 
arts,    kept   several   painters   constantly  in   his  service. 
One  chamber  in  the  palace  of  Winchester  was  painted 
green,  with  stars  of  gold,  and  the  whole  History  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,     In  one  room  in  the  palace  of 
Westminster,  and  in  another  in  the  Tower  of  London,  the 
history  of  the  expedition  of  Richard  I.  into  the  Holy 
Land  was  painted.     The  coronation,   wai-s,  marriages, 
and  funeral  of  Edward  I.  were  painted  on  the  walls  of  the 
great  hall,  in  the  episcopal  palace  in  Lichfield,  A.D.  1312, 
by  order  of  Bishop  Langton.     The  principal  churches 
and  chapels  were  furnished  with  representations  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  the  apostles,  and  other  saints  ;  and  the  walls 
of  some  of  them  almost  covered  with  Scriptural,  moral, 
and  allegorical  paintings,     Friar  Synieon,  who  wrote  an 
Itinerary  in  1322,  thus  describes  a  series  of  paintings  in 
the  royal  palace  at  Westminster  :  "Near  this  monastery" 
(of  Westminster)   "stands  the  most  famous  royal  palace 
of  England,  in  which  is  that  celebrated  chamber,   on 
whose  walls,  all  the  warlike  histories  of  the  whole  Bible  are 
painted  with  inexpressible  skill,  and  explained  by  a  regu- 
lar and  complete  series  of  texts,  beautifully  written  in 
French  over  each  battle,  to  the  no  small  admiration  of 
the  beholder,  and  the  increase  of  royal  magnificence." 
And  Falcondus,  the  old  historian  of  Sicily,  relates,  that 
at  an  earlier  period,  (about  A.  D.  1200,)  the  chapel  of  the 
(53J  Savage's  Librariauj  III.  pp.  38^40.  Load.  1809,  8yo. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  43 

royal  palace  at  Palermo,  had  its  walls  decorated  with  the 
History  of  the  Old  and  NeiC  Testament,  executed  in  beau- 
tiful Mosaic  work.^* 

The  Theatrical  Entertainments  of  this  period,  especially 
those  intended  to  represent  the  Miracles  and  Mysteries 
of  Scripture,  have  been  already  noticed;  it  is  therefore 
unnecessary  to  add  any  thing  more,  except  to  remark, 
that  even  on  such  occasions  as  the  triumphant  en- 
try of  a  king  or  queen  into  any  celebrated  city,  the 
pageants  were  almost  always  Scriptural  or  religious 
exhibitions. 

Under  these  circumstances.  Biblical  studies  were  but 
seldom  pursued,  particularly  during  the  former  part  of 
this  century.  Archbishop  Usher,  indeed,  assigns  a  trans- 
lation of  the  whole  Bible  into  English,  to  the  close  of 
the  preceding  century,  and  supposes  several  copies  of  it 
to  be  preserved  at  Oxford.  But  others  have  regarded 
these  copies  either  as  genuine^  or  corrected  ones  of  Wic- 
lifs  version,  or  of  that  said  to  have  been  made  by 
Trevisa .  Dr.  James  in  his  Treatise  of  the  Corruption  of 
Scripture,  conjectures  that  a  version  of  the  English  Scrip- 
tures existed  long  before  the  time  of  Wiclif.^^  These, 
however,  are  mere  suppositions;  nor  have  we  any  decisive 
proof  of  any  considerable  portion  of  the  Scriptures  being 
translated  into  the  modern  English,  earlier  than  about 
the  middle  of  this  century;  unless  the  old  Glossed  Bible, 
which  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  possesses,  and  of  which 
he  has  given  several  specimens  in  the  General  Preface 
to  his  Commentary,  should  be  considered  of  older  date. 
Some  translations  indeed  seem  to  have  been  made  of  the 
Psalter,  the  Church  Lessons,  and  Hymns^  and  of  some 
of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  but  they  do  not 

(64 j  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  VIII.  pp.  297—^99. 

Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II.  pp.  216,  217. 
(^bb)  See  Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  157.  and  Whartoni  Auctarium,  p.  424. 

James's  Corruption  of  Scripture,  p.  74.  aad  -Baber^S  Accouat  of 
English  Versions,  p.  UyU 


44 

appear  to  have  been  published,  being  in  all  probability 
made  for  the  translators'  own  use,  or  that  of  their  imme- 
diate connexions.  The  date  of  these  partial  translations 
cannot  be  accurately  ascertained,  since,  from  the  circum- 
stance of  being  anonymous,  the  only  way  of  judging  of 
their  age,  is  from  the  writing  and  language,  which  must 
necessarily  render  precision  impossible.*^  With  respect 
to  the  copy  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  A.  Clarke,  the  follow- 
ing important  communication,  with  which  I  have  been 
obligingly  favoured,  will  afford  ample  information. 

"  Of  my  large  MS.  English  Bible,  about  which  you  in- 
quire, I  can  only  say,  that  I  have  reason  to  believe  it  to 
be  earlier  than  the  time  of  Wiclif.  I  reason  thus  from 
the  latfguage,  which  is  of  an  older  cast,  and  likewise  the 
orthography  and  construction  of  the  sentences.  In  many 
respects  the  New  Testament  in  it,  is  dissimilar  from  the 
copies  I  have  seen  ascribed  to  Wiclif.  Whether  these 
have  been  amended,  corrected,  and  altered,  in  later  times, 
and  mine  is  one  of  those  which  has  undergone  no  revisal, 
but  is  just  as  Wiclif  originally  made  it,  I  cannot  say. 
This  is  merely  a  possible  case ;  and  if  the  supposition  be 
founded,  that  mine  is  IFicllf's  translation,  it  must  neces- 
sarily follow,  that  all  those  which  I  have  seen,  and  which 
Lewis  has  collated,  have  been  consido^ahli/  altered;  and 
that  there  is  not  so  old  a  copy  of  Wiclif  remaining  as  my 
own.  I  am  led  to  think  that  some  of  those  copies  exa- 
mined by  Lewis,  are  not  Wiclifs;  else  those  which  he 
has  principally  followed,  are  much  altered  from  the  origi- 
nal. My  conclusion,  however,  is  simply  this.  Either 
mine  is  before  Wiclif's  time,  because  it  differs  so  much 
from  the  copies  generally  ascribed  to  Wiclif;  and  from 
the  text  published  by  Lewis  in  1731  :  or  that  text,  and 
these  from  which  it  is  taken,  have  been  revised  and  alter- 
ed from  Wiclif  s  original,  and  mine  is  one  of  those  which 
has  not  undergone  such  a  revision." 
(56)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  the  English  Translations  of  the  Bible,  p,  17» 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  45 

^^In  what  year  my  MS.  was  written,  I  cannot  tell: — 
the  writing  and  orthography  are  old  enough  for  at  least 
fourscore  years  before  Wiclif,  who  began  his  translation 
in  1378,  but  that  mine  could  not  be  written  twenty  years 
later  than  that,  is  absolutely  evident  from  this  circum- 
stance, that  it  most  evidently  appears  to  have  been  illu- 
mhiated  for  Thomas  of  IVoodstoch^  brother  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  and  Edward  the  Black  Prince;  and  youngest  son 
of  Edward  III.  as  it  bears  his  arms  in  a  shield  at  the  be- 
ginning of  Proverbs :  arms  which  appear  on  his  monu- 
ment in  Westminster  Abbey;  the  singular  hordure  of 
which  was  never,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  worn  by  any  after 
his  time.  Now  this  Thomas  of  Woodstock  was  smother- 
ed between  two  feather  beds,  at  Calais,  by  Thomas  Maw- 
bray,  earl  marshal  of  England,  September  8th,  1397,  at 
the  command  of  Richard  II.  this  prince's  nephew.  How 
long  before  1397  this  book  was  written,  I  cannot  tell;  but 
it  must  have  been,  in  the  nature  of  things,  several  years 
before  this  time."  ^^I  am^,  yours  truly, 

A.   CLARKE." 

The  earliest  translator  of  any  part  of  the  Scriptures 
into  English,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  with  whose 
name  we  are  acquainted,  was  Richard  Rolle,  an  hermit 
of  the  order  of  St.  Augustin,  who  resided  in  or  near 
Hampole,  in  Yorkshire,  whence  he  is  sometimes  called 
Richard  of  Hampole,  or  Richard  Hampole.  He  wrote  seve- 
ral Latin  theological  tracts,  both  in  prose  and  verse.  His 
Stimulus  Consclentlce,  or  Pricke  of  Conscience,  was  writ- 
ten first  in  Latin  prose,  and  afterwards  translated  into 
English  rhyme.  Warton  (Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  y6\.  I. 
pp.  256 — 266,)  has  given  several  specimens  of  this  work, 
so  celebrated  in  its  day,  but  which,  he  remarks,  "has  no 
tincture  of  sentiment,  imagination,  or  elegance."  Rolle 
was  also  the  author  of  Annotations,  or  Commentaries,  on 
die  Psalms-,  the  Hymns  of  the  Old  Testament,  used  in  the 


46  BIBLICAL   LITRATURE, 

services  of  the  church;  part  of  the  book  of  Job;  the  Song 
of  Solomon ;  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah ;  the  Revela- 
tion; the  Lord's  Prayer;  and  the  Athanasian  and  Apos- 
tles Creeds;  beside  several  other  theological  works." 
Some  of  the  annotations  are  more  properly  poetical  pa- 
raphrases, than  commentaries.  His  principal  work  was 
an  English  version  of  the  Psalms.  To  this  he  prefixed 
a  prologue,  in  which  he  thus  speaks  of  the  nature  of  his 
undertaking:  "In  this  werke  I  seek  no  straunge  Ynglys, 
bot  lightest  and  communest,  and  swilk  that  is  most  like 
unto  the  Latyne:  so  that  thai  that  knawes  noght  the  La- 
tyne  be  the  Ynglys  may  com  to  many  Latyne  wordis. 
In  the  translacione  I  felogh  the  letter  als-mekille  as  I 
may,  and  thor  I  fyne  no  proper  Ynglys  I  felogh  the  wit 
of  the  wordis,  so  that  thai  that  shalle  rede  it  them  thar 
not  drede  errynge.  In  the  expownyng  I  felogh  holi  doc- 
tors. For  it  may  comen  into  sum  envious  mannes  bond 
that  knowys  not  what  he  suld  says,  at  wille  say  that  I 
•wist  not  what  I  sayd,  and  so  do  bar  me  tille  hym  and  tille 
other."^^  The  Rev.  H.  H.  Baber,  in  his  Historical  Ac- 
count of  the  Saxon  and  English  Versions  of  the  Scriptures, 
prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Wiclifs  New  Testament,  has 
selected  the  xxiii.  Psalm  as  a  specimen  of  this  translation, 
from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum. 

^•Our  Lord  gouerneth  me,  and  nothyng  to  me  shal 
wante:  stede  of  pasture  thar  he  me  sette.  In  the  water 
of  the  hetyng  forth  he  me  brougte :  my  soul  he  turnyde." 

"He  ladde  me  on  the  stretis  of  rygtwisnesse  :  for  his 
name." 

"For  win  gif  I  hadde  goo  in  myddil  of  the  shadewe  of 
deeth  :  I  shal  not  dreede  yueles,  for  thou  art  with  me." 

"Thi  geerde  and  thi  staf :  thei  haue  coumfortid  me. 
Thou  hast  greythid  in  my  sygt  a  bord  :  agens  hem  that 
angryn  me." ^ 

(57)  Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  A  pp.  p.  33. 
Le  Long,  II   p.  932. 

(58)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  the  English  Translations  of  the  Bible,  p,  13. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  47 

^^Thou  fattide  myn  lieiid  in  oyle  ;  and  my  chalys  drun- 
kenyng  what  is  cleer." 

^^And  till  mercy  shal  folewe  me  :  in  alle  the  dayes  of 
my  lyf." 

"And  that  I  wone  in  the  hous  of  oure  lord  in  the 
lengthe  of  dayes.'' 

The  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  if  we  must  judge  of  it 
from  the  following  extract  given  by  Levris,  was  excessive- 
ly dry  and  insipid: — Psalm  ii.  1.  '^IVhi gnastlde  the folke? 
and  the  jniple  thoughte  ydil  thoughtisP  The  prophete 
snybbyng  hem  that  shulde  turmente  crist  seith,  ivhiP  as 
hoo  seith,  what  enchesun  hadde  thei  ?  sotheli  none  but 
yuel  wille  for  he  contrariede  her  ivele  ly wing  in  werk  and 
word,  the  folke  thei  were  tha  knyghtis  of  rome,  that 
crucified  crist,  thei  gnastide  aghen  hym  as  bestis  wode 
without  resoun:  and  the  puple  that  was  the  iuwes. 
thoughte  in  ydel  that  is,  in  vayne  was  ther  thoughte 
whan  thei  wend  have  holde  crist  evere  deed  that  thei 
myghte  not  doo  for  thi  in  vayne  thei  trauelide  as  eche 
man  doth  that  thoruh — pryde  and  ypocrisye  weneth  to 
hude  cristis  lawful  ordenaunce."  • 

The  Translation  is  evidently  made  from  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate; and  the  gloss,  or  comment,  formed  after  the  model 
of  the  mystical  and  allegorical  expositions  of  that  age.^® 

An  extract,  translated  from  his  tract  De  Emendatione 
Peccatoris,  will  give  a  more  favourable  idea  of  his  theolo- 
gical writings : 

"If  you  desire,"  says  he,  "to  attain  to  the  love  of  God, 
and  to  be  influenced  with  the  desire  of  heavenly  joys,  and 
to  be  brought  to  the  contempt  of  earthly  things,  be  not 
negligent  in  reading  and  meditating  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  especially  those  parts,  of  them  which  inculcate  mora^ 
lity,  and  teach  us  to  beware  of  the  snares  of  the  devil; 
where  they  speak  of  the  love  of  God,  and  of  a  contempla- 
tive life;  but  leave  the  more  difficult  passages  to  dispu- 
(59J  Lewis,  ut  sup^ 


48 

tants,  and  ingenious  men,  who  have  been  long  exercised 
in  sacred  doctrines." 

"This  method  assists  us  greatly  to  improve  in  what  is 
good.  In  these  we  ascertain  our  failings  and  our  improve- 
ments; in  what  things  we  have  offended,  and  in  what  we 
have  not;  what  we  should  avoid,  and  what  we  should 
practise.  They  discover  most  skilfully  the  macliinations 
of  our  enemies;  they  inflame  us  to  love,  and  move  us  to 
tears ;  and  thus  prepare  for  us  a  delicious  feast,  if  we 
delight  in  them  as  in  all  riches.  But  let  us  not  be  urged 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  by  any  desire  of  the 
honour  or  favour  of  men,  but  only  by  a  design  of  pleasing 
God,  that  we  may  know  how  to  love  him,  and  that  we 
may  teacli  our  neighbour  the  same,  and  not  that  we  may 
be  considered  as  learned  by  the  people.  Nay,  we  ought 
rather  to  conceal  our  learning  than  to  exhibit  it  to  our 
own  praise,  as  says  the  Psalmist :  'Thy  Word  have  I  hid 
in  my  heart,'  (that  is,  from  vain  exhibition,)  ^that  I  might 
not  sin  against  thee.'  Psalm  cxix.  11.  Therefore  let  the 
cause  of  our  speaking  be  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  edifi- 
cation of  our  neighbour,  that  we  may  fulfil  that  Scripture, 
'His  praise  shall  be  continually  in  my  mouth;'  Psalm 
xxxiv.  1.  which  is  done  when  we  do  not  seek  our  own 
praise,  nor  speak  contrary  to  his  glory." ^" 

The  piety  of  the  author  caused  him  to  be  regarded  as  a 
saint ;  and  on  the  termination  of  his  mortal  sufferings, 
in  1349,  he  was  buried  in  the  convent  of  Hampole.  At 
a  later  period,  Henry  Parker,  Lord  Morley,  a  nobleman 
and  poet,  who  died  an  old  man  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  VHI.  and  who  has  been  mentioned  by 
Bishop  liale,  as  the  author  of  certain  Tragedies  xmd 
Comedies,  by  which  was  probably  meant  Mysteries  and 
Moralities,  gave  a  proof  rather  of  his  piety,  than  taste,  by 
presenting  to  the  Princess  Mary,  as  a  new  year's  gift, 
Hampole's   Commentary   on   the  Seven  Penitential 

(OO)   Biblioth,  Pat,  XXVI.  cap.  ix,  p,  614.      '■  ■ 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  49 

Psalms.  This  MS.  with  his  Epistle  prefixed,  is  still 
preserved  among  the  Royal  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum.*'* 
John  de  Trevisa,  who  flourished  towards  the  close 
of  this  century,  has  also  been  enumerated  among  the  first 
translators  of  the  Bible  into  English.  He  was  born  at 
Caradoc,  in  the  county  of  Cornwall^  and  educated  at 
Oxford.  His  learning  and  talents  gained  him  the  patron- 
age of  Earl  Berkeley,  who  appointed  him  his  chaplain, 
and  presented  him  to  the  vicarage  of  Berkeley,  in  Glou- 
cestershire. He  was  also  canon  of  Westbury,  in  Wilt- 
shire. Warton,  in  his  History  of  English  Poetrij,  vol.  I. 
p.  343,  speaks  of  him  as  having  been  a  great  traveller ; 
and  Ant.  Wood  (Antiq.  Oxon.)  says,  "He  was  a  man  of 
extensive  erudition,  and  of  considerable  eloquence;  and 
one  of  the  first  who  laboured  to  polish  his  native  language, 
and  rescue  it  from  barbarism."  At  the  request  of  his 
munificent  patron,  he  engaged  in  the  translation  of 
several  Latin  w^orks  into  English,  particularly  "Hig- 
dens  Polychronlcon','''  "  Bartholomaius  De  Proprleta- 
tlhus  Rerumr  "  Vegetius  De  Arte  Mdltari ;'"  and 
"i^gidius  Romanus  De  Reglmlne  Prhiclpumr  beside 
some  others  of  inferior  note.  The  most  complete  collec- 
tion of  his  writings  is  in  a  ponderous  MS.  folio  volume, 
written  upon  vellum,  and  preserved  among  the  Harleian 
MSS.  No.  1900,  in  the  British  Museum.  This  volume 
contains  several  Tracts,  of  which  the  following  have  been 
mentioned :  \.  A  Dialogue  between  a  Soldier  and  a  Cler- 
gyman, (viz.  Lord  Berkeley  and  the  author  Trevisa.) 
2.  A  Translation  of  a  Latin  Sermon  of  Radulf,  or  Fttz- 
Rauf,  archbishop  of  Armagh,  Nov.  8th,  1357,  against 
Mendicant  friars.  3.  The  Booh  of  Methodius  Patarensls, 
^'of  the  begynnyng  of  the  world  and  the  Rewmes  bitwixte, 
of  Folkis,  and  the  end  of  Worldes— which  the  noble  man 
Syent  Jerom  F  his  werkes  prysed."  4,  5.  Two  Alpha- 
betical Indexes  to  the  Poli/chronlcon.      6.  Dialogue^ 

(61)  Wartou's  Hist,  of  Eoglish  Poetry,  ill.  p.  85. 
Vol.  II.  D 


50  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

Translations.  This  Dialogue,  between  a  Clergyman  and 
his  Patron^  (viz.  Trevisa  and  Lord  Berkeley)  discusses 
the  Utility  of  Translations  in  general,  and  of  that  of  the 
Polychronicon,  to  which  it  was  first  prefixed,  in  particular. 
The  following  extract  from  it  will  exhibit  his  mode  of 
reasoning: 

"The  Clerke.  The  latyn  is  bothe  good  and  fayre; 
therfore  it  nedeth  not  to  haue  an  Englysshe  translacyon. 

"The  LoRDE.  A  blere  eyed  man  but  he  were  all  blynde 
of  wytte  myght  se  the  solucyon  of  this  reason.  And 
though  he  were  blynde  he  myght  grope  the  solucyon. 
But  yf  his  feelynge  hym  fayled.  For  yf  this  reason  were 
ought  worthe,  by  suche  maner  arguynge  me  myght  proue 
that  the  threscore  and  thyne  interpretours  and  Aquyla, 
Symachus,  Theodocion,  and  Origines,  were  lewdli*  occu- 
pyed  whan  they  translated  holy  wryte  out  of  hebrewe 
into  grece,  and  also  that  Saynte  Jherome  was  lewdly 
occupyed  when  he  translated  holy  wryte  out  of  hebrewe 
into  latyn.  For  the  hebrewe  is  both  good  and  fayre  and 
I  wryte  by  inspyracyon  of  the  holy  goost.  And  all  these  for 
theyr  translacyons  ben  hygely  preysed  of  all  holy  chirche." 

Also  holy  wryte  in  latyn  is  bothe  good  and  fayr.  And 
yet  for  to  make  a  sermon  of  holy  wryte  all  in  latyn  to  men 
that  can  Englysshe  and  noo  latyn,  it  were  a  lewde  dede, 
for  they  be  neuer  the  wiser.  For  the  latyn  but  it  be  tolde 
them  in  Englysshe  what  it  is  to  mene.  And  it  maye  not 
be  tolde  in  Englysshe  what  the  latyn  is  to  mene  with- 
out translacyon  out  of  latyn  into  Englysshe.  Thenne  it 
nedeth  to  haue  an  Englysshe  translacyon,  and  for  to 
kepe  it  in  mynde  that  it  be  not  forgeten  it  is  better  that 
suche  a  translacyon  be  made  and  wryten  than  sayd  and 
not  wryten  and  so  this  forsayde  lewde  reason  shol  de- 
mene  no  man  that  hath  any  wytte  to  leve  the  makyng  of 

Englysshe  translacyon." 

*********** 

*  Lewd,  ignorant;  hence^  perhaps,  /etiod-maW;,  a  layman,  +  Probably 
the  works  attributed  to  Dionysius  the  Areopagite. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  51 

^^Also  at  prayenge  of  King  Charles  Johan  Scot  trans- 
lated denys  bokesf-  out  of  greke  into  latyn,  and  then  out 
of  latyn  into  frensshe,  then  what  hath  Englysshe  trespac- 
ed  that  it  myght  not  be  translated  into  Englysshe.  Also 
kyng-e  Alurede  that  founded  the  vnyuersyte  of  Oxonford 
translated  the  best  lawes  into  Englysshe  tongue.  And  a 
grete  dele  of  the  Psalter  out  of  latyn  in  to  Englysshe. 
And  caused  Wyrefryth  bysshop  of  Wyrcetre  to  translate 
saynt  Gregoryes  bokes  the  Dyalogues  out  of  latyn  into 
Saxons.  Also  Cedmon  of  Whytley  was  enspyred  of  the 
holy  goost  and  made  wonder  Poysyes  into  Englysshe 
nyghe  of  all  the  storyes  of  holy  wryte.  Also  the  holy 
man  Beda  translated  saynt  Johan's  gospell  out  of  latyn 
into  Englysshe.  Also  thou  wotest  wher  the  Apocalypsys 
is  wryten  in  the  walles  and  roof  of  chappell  bothe  in  latyn 
and  in  frensshe.  Also  the  gospell  and  prophecye  and  the 
ryght  fayth  of  holy  chyrche  muste  be  taught  and  preched 
to  englisshe  men  that  can=^  noo  latyn.  Thenne  the  gospell 
and  prophecye  and  the  right  fayth  of  holy  chyrche  must 
be  told  them  in  englysshe,  and  that  is  not  done  but  by 
Englysshe  translacyon^  for  such  Englysshe  prechynge  is  ve- 
ry translacyon,  and  suche  Englysshe  preching  is  good  and 
nedefull,  thenn  Englysshe  translacyon  is  good  and  nedeful." 

'•The  Clerke.  Yf  a  translacyon  were  made  that  myght 
be  amended  in  ony  point.    Some  men  it  wolde  blame." 

"TheLoRDE.  Yf  men  blame  that  is  not  worthy  to  be 
blamed  thenne  they  by  to  blame.  Clerkes  know  e  well 
ynoughe  that  noo  synfull  man  dothe  soo  well  that  it  ne 
myght  do  better,  ne  make  so  good  a  translacyon  that  he  ne 
myght  be  better.  Therfore  Origines  made  two  transla- 
cyons.    And  Jherom  translated  thryes  the  Psalter."  ^^ 

On  the  subject  of  Trevisa's  Translation  of  the  Bible, 
writers  are  divided  in  their  opinions.  For  whilst  some 
have  strenuously  maintained  that  he  was  the  author  of  a 
translation  of  the  Bible,  others  have  obstinately  denied 

*  Can,  know,  (62)  Polychreniconjlib,  i.  Dialogue  Fo.  ii. 


52  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

the  claim,  and  have  asserted  that  he  did  no  more  than 
translate  certain  sentences,  which  were  painted  on  the 
chapel-walls,  in  Berkeley  castle.  The  affirmative  opi- 
nion was  first  taken  up  by  Bale  and  Pits,  from  a  loose 
assertion  of  Caxton,  in  the  Proheme  of  his  edition  of 
the  Polychronicoii ;  but  on  what  authority  our  printer 
asserted  it,  or  if  he  saw  such  a  translation,  why  he  did  not 
think  it  at  least  as  deserving  of  publication  as  the  Poly- 
chronicon,  are  questions  which  may  be  thought  to  press 
hard  upon  the  probability  of  its  existence.  The  learned 
Wanley,  the  compiler  of  the  catalogue  of  the  Harleian 
MSS.  has  the  following  pithy  observations  upon  it :  "As 
to  the  Bible's  being  wholly  translated  by  our  author 
Trevisa,  I  perceive  it  mentioned  by  Caxton,  and  from 
him  by  Bale  and  Pits,  who  give  the  beginning  of  the 
preface  thereunto ;  from  Bale,  Primate  Usher  takes  the 
notion ;  and  at  length  Mr.  Wharton  believes  it  may  still 
be  extant.  I  shall  say  no  more  but  this :  I  shall  be  very 
glad  to  see  one  of  them."  Harl  Cat.  3ISS,  No.  1900.'^ 
The  Rev.  T.  F.  Dibdin,  whose  extensive  bibliographical 
researches  are  universally  known  and  acknowledged,  has 
given  some  novel  and  interesting  information  respecting 
Trevisa's  translation,  in  his  Typographical  Antiquities, 
vol.  I.  p.  142. 

"It  happened,"  says  he,  "on  the  second  course  of  Lec- 
tures on  Ancient  English  Literature,  which  I  delivered  at 
the  Royal  Institution,  having  occasion  to  examine  the 
literary  character  of  Trevisa,  and  being  very  solicitous  to 
obtain  the  minutest  information  relating  to  this  Bible, 
I  wrote  to  my  friend  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hughes,  who  was 

(63)  Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiquities,  I.  Account  of  books  printed  by 
W.  Caxton,  p.  140.  Lond,  1810,  4to. 
*  The  writer  of  the  present  work  cannot  permit  the  opportunity 
to  pass,  without  publicly  acknowledging  his  obligations  to  the  ingeni- 
ous and  laborious  editor  of  the  Typographical  Antiquities  ;  who,  on  the 
solicitation  of  a  stranger,  gave  him,  in  the  most  handsome  manner,  per- 
mission to  "avail  himself  of  any  portion  of  his  works,  which  he  was 
disposed  to  think  might  be  of  the  least  importance  to  his  pursuits.'^ 


FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  53 

resident  in  the  earl  of  Berkeley's  family,  at  Berkeley 
Castle.  His  reply  to  my  queries,  with  his  permission,  I 
lay  before  the  reader ;  from  a  conviction  that  it  may 
afford  him  some  satisfaction  on  so  interesting  a  subject. 

Berkeley  Castle^  Nov.  1th,  1805. 
^I  take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  answering  your's,  hav- 
ing been  here  but  a  few  days.     I  have  made  every  inquiry 
and  search  respecting  the  information  you  want,  and  am 
sorry  to  say  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  remove  the  uncer- 
tainty you  labour  under  respecting  Trevisa's  translation 
of  the  Bible  ;  notwithstanding  I  have  the  strongest  rea- 
son to  suppose,  from  circumstances  I  have  met  with, 
that  such  a  translation  was  made,  and  was  even  made  in 
the  English  language,   and  that  it  existed  in  this  family 
so  late  as  the  time  of  James  II.     The  book  translated  by 
Trevisa,  was  given,  as  a  very  precious  gift,  by  the  lord  of 
Berkeley  to  the  prince   (I  suppose)  of  Wales,  and  the 
prince's  letter,  thanking  the  lord  of  Berkeley  for  his  gift, 
I  have  read :  he  does  not  say  positively  that  it  was  the 
Bible,  but  as  he  hopes  (as  far  as  I  recollect)  to  be  able  to 
make  good  use  of  so  valuable  a  gift,  there  is  reason  to 
suspect  that  he  meant  the  Bible.   The  letter  is  still  extant 
among  the  archives  of  the  castle.     Lord  Berkeley  (of 
whom  I  have  made  inquiries  in  order  to  ascertain  what  you 
wanted,  if  possible)  has  informed  me,  that  the  book  given  by 
his  ancestor,  is  at  present,  as  he  has  reason  to  believe,  in 
the  Vatican  at  Rome :  when  he  was  there  several  persons 
had  mentioned  their  seeing  such  a  book  written  by  Trevisa, 
but  he  had  not  an  opportunity  to  go  and  examine  it  himself, 
therefore  cannot  ascertain  that  it  was  the  Bible.    The  only 
vestige  of  Trevisa  remaining  here  now,  are  a  few  frag- 
ments of  board,  with  nearly  obliterated  words  of  Latin, 
not  sufficient  to  make  out  what  was  meant :  the  roof  of 
this  chapel  was  said  by  him  to  have  had  the  Apocalypse 
written  upon  it,  and  I  suspect  these  fragments  to  be  the 
remains  of  it.    The  beams  and  wall-plates  of  the  chapel 


54  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

are  still  remaining',  and  after  removing  several  coats  of 
lamp-black,  <^c.  four  lines  were  discovered  upon  each, 
written  in  the  old  English  character,  which  are  alternately 
Norman-French,  and  Latin.  By  removing  also  several 
coats  of  whitewash  from  a  part  of  the  chapel  wall,  a  great 
deal  of  writing  in  the  old  English  character  was  discover- 
ed ;  it  was  in  a  great  state  of  decay,  but  I  could  make 
out  that  part  of  it  was  in  Norman  French,  and  part  in 
Latin ;  this  is  also  thought  to  be  of  Trevisa  s  day :  but  not 
one  certain  vestige  of  him  remains  here,  nor  is  even  his 
grave  in  the  church  known,  though  he  is  said  to  have 
been  buried  in  the  chancel.  I  suspect  all  his  translations 
both  from  French  and  Latin,  were  into  English,  but 
suspicions  won't  do  for  you.  I  wish  it  were  in  my  power 
to  give  you  more  certain  information. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

John  Hughes.'* 
In  reply  also  to  what  has  been  urged  against  Caxton's 
assertion  of  a  translation  having  been  made  by  Trevisa, 
it  is  sufficient  to  remark,  that  the  danger  attending  the 
printing  of  an  English  Bible,  in  Caxton's  time,  was  such, 
that  it  would  have  required  the  utmost  religious  intrepi- 
dity to  have  attempted  it ;  and  that  it  is  therefore  highly 
probable,  that  whatever  preference  our  printer  might  have 
for  the  Scriptures,  he  would  not  place  his  life  in  jeopar- 
dy for  its  publication.  Sir  Thomas  More,  (Dyaloges, 
Fol.  49,  Col.  1.  Ed.  1529)  thus  defends  the  printers  of  that 
age.  ''That  on  account  of  the  penalties  ordered  by  Arch- 
bishop Arundel's  constitution,  though  the  old  translations 
that  were  before  WyclifTs  days  remayned  lawful  and 
were  in  some  folkys  handys  had  and  red,  yet  he  thought  no. 
prynter  would  lyghtly  be  so  bote  to  put  any  byble  in  prent 
at  hys  owne  charge,  whereof  the  loss  should  lie  wholly 
on  his  own  necke,  and  then  hange  upon  a  doubtful! 
tryall  whyther  the  fyrst  copy  of  his  translacyon  was 
made  before  WycliflTs  dayes  or  synnes.     For  yfF  yt  were 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  55 

made  synnys,  yt  must  be  approued  by  fore  the  pryntyng.* 
But  such  an  approbation,  Sir  Thomas  intimates,  was 
not  then  to  be  had.^* 

Trevisa  finished  his  translation  of  the  Polychronicon 
in  1387;  and  is  said  to  have  died  in  the  year  1412,  at  a 
very  advanced  age. 

But  whatever  judgment  may  be  formed  as  to  the  trans- 
lation by  Trevisa,  all  are  agreed  that  Wiclif,  the  Morn- 
ing Star  of  the  Reformation,  engaged  in  a  translation  of 
the  whole  Bible  into  English,  which  he  completed 
A.  D.  1380. 

The  opposition  made  by  this  great  reformer  to  the 
tyranny  of  papacy,  and  the  vices  of  the  friars,  drew  down 
upon  him  the  thunders  of  the  papal  hierarchy,  and  sub- 
jected him  to  all  the  virulence  of  irritated  ecclesiastics. 
His  protests  against  their  domination  were  declared  to  be 
the  consequence  of  disappointed  ambition ;  and  his  senti- 
ments respecting  the  eucharist,  were  denounced  as  hereti- 
cal. To  combat  the  arguments  of  his  adversaries,  and  to 
defend  himself  against  the  attacks  of  power,  and  learning, 
and  interest,  he  flew  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  found  it  '^a 
strong  hold  in  the  day  of  trouble."  Skilled  in  all  the 
niceties  of  school  divinity,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have 
reigned  without  a  rival,  he  was  able  to  expose  the  sophis- 
try of  the  subtilest  of  his  enemies  :  but  only  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  could  furnish  him  with  a  system  of  truth,  and 
with  the  plain  and  lucid  arguments  by  which  that  truth 
is  best  defended.  The  more  powerful  that  his  opponents 
became,  and  the  greater  the  difficulties  which  he  had  to 
encounter,  the  more  precious  became  the  Bible,  the  more 
diligently  did  he  study  it,  and  the  more  strenuously  did 
he  recommend  it  to  general  attention,  and  universal 
perusal. 

Of  the  necessity  that  existed  for  an  English  translation 
of  the  Bible,  arising  from  the  ignorance  of  both  clergy 
64)  Dibdin's  Typog  rapWcal  AutiquitieSj   Life  of  Caxton,  p.  cxiL 


56  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

and  laity,  the  writings  of  Wiclif  afford  ample  proof.  I» 
his  Great  Sentence  of  Curse  expounded,  he  assures  us, 
that  in  his  time  there  were  "many  unable  curates  that 
kunnen  not  the  Ten  Commandments,  ne  read  their 
Sauter,  ne  understond  a  verse  of  it."  Nay  that  it  was 
then  "notorious  that  too  many  of  even  the  prelates  were 
isinners,  in  their  being  ignorant  of  the  Law  of  God,  and 
that  the  freres  supplied,  for  the  bishops,  the  office  of 
preaching,  which  they  did  in  so  false  and  sophistical  a 
manner,  that  the  church  was  deceyved  instead  of  being 
edified."  In  his  tract  entitled  the  JVichett,  he  says  the 
clergy  affirmed,  "It  is  heresy  to  speake  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture in  English;  and  so  they  woulde  condempne  the 
Holy  Goste  that  gave  it  in  tongues  to  the  apostles  of 
Christe,  as  it  is  written  to  speake  the  Worde  of  God,  in 
all  languages  that  were  ordayned  of  God  under  heaven, 
as  it  is  wrytten:"  and  again  in  the  Husbandman  s  Prayer 
and  Complaint^  he  complains,  "Thilk  that  have  the  key 
of  conning  have  y  lockt  the  truth  of  thy  teaching  under 
many  wardes,  and  y  hid  fro  thy  children."^* 

The  views  which  this  great  man  entertained  of  the  dis- 
tinction betwixt  the  Canonical  and  Apocryphal  writings, 
and  of  the  qualifications  requisite  for  an  expositor  of  Scrips 
to-e,  discovjBr  the  correctness  of  his  judgment,  and  prepare 
us  for  receiving  him  as  adistingushedand  intelligent  trans- 
lator of  the  Sacred  Writings.  "I  think  it  absurd,"  says 
he  "to  be  warm  in  defence  of  the  Apocryphal  Boohs,  when 
we  have  so  many  which  are  undeniably  authentic.  In 
order  to  distinguish  canonical  books  from  such  as  are 
apocryphal,  use  the  following  rules :  I .  Look  into  the  New 
Testament,  and  see  what  books  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
therein  cited  and  authenticated  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
2.  Consider  whether  the  like  doctrine  be  delivered  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures."  And  speaking 
of  an  expositor  of  Scripture,  he  observes:  "1.  He  should 
(65)  Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  pp.  38.  67. 


l^URTEENTH    CENTURY.  57 

be  able  by  collation  of  manuscripts  to  settle  well  the 
Sacred  Text.  2.  He  should  be  conversant  in  logic.  3.  He 
should  be  constantly  engaged  in  comparing  one  part  of 
Scripture  with  another.  4.  The  student  should  be  a  man 
of  prayer,  and  his  disposition  should  be  upright.  5.  He 
needs  the  internal  instruction  of  the  Primary  Teacher:" 
remarking,  in  another  part  of  his  writings,  that  "some 
are  enlightened  from  above  that  they  may  explain 
the  proper,  literal,  and  historical  sense  of  Scripture,  in 
which  sense  all  things  necessary  in  Scripture  are  contain- 
ed."^®  Probably  intending  by  this  last  remark,  to  guard 
his  readers  against  the  fantastic  and  allegorical  method 
of  expounding  the  Scriptures,  which  had  been  so  preva- 
lent in  the  church  since  the  time  of  Origen,  whose  ardent 
and  sportive  imagination  had  indulged  itself  without 
restraint  in  figurative  and  fanciful  interpretations  of  the 
Divine  Oracles.  This  anxiety,  that  expositors  should 
give  the  just  sense  of  Scripture,  led  him  to  urge  the 
necessity  of  seeking  illumination  from  the  inspirer  of  the 
Sacred  Word  ;  hence  the  direction  to  the  student  to  be 
^^a  man  of  prayer ;"  and  hence  also  his  observation,  that 
*^ Sanctity  of  life  promotes  this  illumination  so  necessary 
for  understanding  the  revealed  Word  ;  to  continue  which 
in  the  church  is  the  duty  of  theologians,  who  ought  to 
remain  within  their  proper  limits,  and  not  invent  things 
foreign  to  the  faith  of  Scripture."  ^^ 

Under  the  influence  of  these  views  of  the  nature  and 
importance  of  a  faithful  and  perspicuous  Translation  op 
THE  Holy  Scriptures,  into  the  vernacular  language  of 
the  nation,  our  reformer  entered  upon  the  vast  under- 
taking. In  this  work  Wiclif  appears  to  have  been  assist- 
ed by  other  learned  men,  whose  religious  opinions  were 
similar  to  his  own  ;  though  it  is  not  now  possible  to  say 
to  what  extent  they  rendered  him  assistance.     The  Rev. 

(66)  See  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  IV.  pp.  132—134. 

(67)  MWner^  ut  sup. 


58  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

H.  H.  Baber,  in  his  "Historical  Account  of  Saxon  and 
English  Versions  of  the  Scriptures/'  says,  that  in  a  MS.. 
of  Wiclif's  Bible,  in  the  valuable  library  of  Mr.  Douce, 
explicit  translacionem  Nicholay  cle  Her  ford,  is  written  at 
the  end  of  a  portion  of  the  book  of  Baruch,  (viz.  the  two 
first  chapters,  and  part  of  the  third)  and  adds,  that  "this 
remarkable  notice  is  subscribed  by  a  different  hand  and 
with  a  less  durable  ink,  than  that  used  by  the  transcriber 
of  the  MS.  and  if  not  written  by  Herford  himself,  was 
probably  done  by  one  who  had  good  authority  for  what 
he  thus  asserted  by  his  pen."  This  Nicholas  de  Her- 
ford, or  Hereford,  was  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  and 
-a  strenuous  asserter  of  Wiclif's  doctrines.  On  this  account 
he  was  cited  to  appear,  with  John  Aston,  priest,  and 
Philip  Rampingdoji,  or  Repingden,  two  of  the  reformer's 
disciples,  before  Archbishop  Courtney,  at  his  court  held 
at  the  Preaching  Friars,  London,  in  1382.  The  answers 
which  he  and  Dr.  Repingdon  gave  in  writing  to  the  court, 
being  adjudged  insufficent,  heretical,  and  deceitful,  they 
were  ordered  to  appear  again  eight  days  afterwards,  but 
not  then  appearing,  they  were  declared  contumacious, 
and  excommunicated  with  all  their  adherents.  After- 
wards he  recanted  his  principles,  but  did  not  escape  per- 
secution ;  for  Archbishop  Arundel,  who  was  jealous  of  his 
principles,  threw  him  into  prison,  and  never  afterwards 
released  him  from  imprisonment.^^ 

The  MSS,  of  Wiclif's  version  are  numerous,  and  are  to 
be  found  in  most  of  the  public  libraries  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  in  some  of  the  valuable  libraries  of  private 
individuals.  At  the  end  of  some  of  these  copies  are  tables 
of  the  portions  of  Scripture  appointed  to  be  read,  or 
selected,  for  the  "Pistlis"  and  Gospels,  throughout  the 
service  of  the  year.  Sometimes  we  find  these  lessons 
transcribed  at  length,  and  in  some  instances  of  a  different 
translation  from  that  to  which  they  are  annexed.  An  edi- 
(68)  Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  pp.  208—212, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  59^ 

tion^  consisting  of  only  140  copies^  of  Wiclif 's  New  Testa- 
ment, was  published  in  1731,  in  folio,  by  the  Rev.  John 
Lewis,  Minister  of  Margate,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  who 
prefixed  a  "History  of  the  English  Translations  of  the  Bi- 
ble:" printed  separately,  with  additions,  in  octavo,  in  1739. 
Another  edition  of  this  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
accompanied  with  '^Memoirs  of  the  Life  &c.  of  John 
Wiclif,  D.D."  an  excellent  "Historical  Accomit  of  the 
Saxon  and  English  Versions  of  the  Scriptures,  previous 
to  the  opening  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,"  and  a  Portrait 
of  our  great  Reformer,  was  published  by  the  Rev.  Henry 
Hervey  Baber,  M.  A.  an  assistant-librarian  of  the  British 
Museum,  and  an  assistant-preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn 
in  1810,  beautifully  printed  in  4to.  by  R.  Edwards,  Lon- 
don. These  are  the  only  editions  yet  published  of  any  part 
of  this  translation,  and  we  have  still  to  lament  that  the 
larger  portion,  the  Old  Testament,  of  a  work  so  inte- 
resting to  the  theologian  and  philologist,  hitherto  remains 
in  MS.  without  a  single  printed  edition,  notwithstanding 
the  last-mentioned  editor,  with  an  highly  creditable  zeal, 
thus  expresses  himself  in  the  Preface  to  his  edition  of  the 
New  Testament:  "I  would  gladly  have  extended  my 
labours,  by  giving  to  the  world  Wiclifs  version  of  the 
Old  as  well  as  of  the  New  Testament,  (a  work  which  no 
man  hath  yet  had  the  courage  to  attempt,)  and  hence 
have  wiped  away  a  reproach  which  a  learned  foreigner* 
hath,  with  too  much  reason,  cast  upon  England ;  but  as 
my  fortune  is  by  no  means  commensurate  with  my  zeal, 
I  must,  I  fear,  rehnquish  even  the  most  distant  hope  of 
ever  engaging  in  such  an  honourable  employment." 

This  translation  was  made  by  Wiclif  from  the  Latin 
Bibles  then  in  common  use,  or  which  were  at  that  time 


*  Fabricius,  after  mentioning  Wiclifs  version  of  the  Bible,  thus 
expresses  himself;  '^mirum  vero  est,  Anglos  eam  [versionem]  tarn  diu 
neglexisse,  quum  Tel  linguae  causa  ipsis  in  pretio  esse  debeat."  Bibl: 
LaL  et  inf,  cetatis.  V^p.  321.  edit.  1754. 


60  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

usually  read  in  tlie  church ;  the  reason  of  which  seems  to 
have  been,  not  that  he  thought  the  Latin  the  original,  or 
of  the  same  authority  with  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  text, 
but  because  he  did  not  understand  those  languages  suffi- 
ciently to  translate  from  them ;  few  at  that  time  possessing 
an  extensive  or  critical  acquaintance  with  them.  He 
also  translated  word  for  word,  as  had  been  done  before 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  version,  without  always  observing 
the  idioms  of  the  different  languages,  which  renders  this 
translation  not  very  intelligible,  in  some  places,  to  those 
who  do  not  understand  Latin.  This  was  probably  done, 
as  is  said  in  a  prologue  to  the  Psalter  of  this  translation, 
that  "they  who  knew  not  the  Latin,  by  the  English  might 
come  to  many  Latin  words." ^' 

No  sooner  had  Wiclif  completed  his  translation,  and 
made  it  public,  than  he  experienced  the  most  violent 
opposition.  The  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the 
vernacular  tongue  was  accounted  heresy,  and  regarded  as 
a  measure  fraught  with  the  direst  ills.  Henry  de  Knygh- 
ton,  a  canon  of  Leicester,  and  cotemporary  with  Wiclif, 
thus  declaims  against  the  translation,  in  his  work  De 
Eventis  Anglice:  "Christ  committed  the  Gospel  to  the 
clergy  and  doctors  of  the  church,  that  they  might  minis- 
ter it  to  the  laity  and  weaker  persons,  according  to  the 
exigency  of  times,  and  persons,  and  wants;  but  this 
Master  John  Wiclif  translated  it  out  of  Latin  into 
English,  and  by  that  means  laid  it  more  open  to  the 
laity,  and  to  women  who  could  read,  than  it  used  to  be 
to  the  most  learned  of  the  clergy,  and  those  of  them  who 
had  the  best  understanding:  and  so  the  Gospel  pearl  is 
cast  abroad  and  trodden  under  foot  of  swine,  and  that 
w^hich  used  to  be  precious  to  both  clergy  and  laity  is  made, 
as  it  were,  the  common  jest  of  both;  and  the  jewel  of  the 
church  is  turned  into  the  sport  of  the  laity,  and  what  was 
before  the  chief  talent  of  the  clergy  and  doctors  of  the 
(69)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  English  Traaslatiqns,  p.  19. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  61 

church,  is  made  for  ever  common  to  the  laity .'^  William 
Butler,  a  Franciscan  friar,  in  a  tract  written  against  this 
translation,  pursues  the  point  so  far  as  to  assert,  that 
'^the  prelates  ought  not  to  suffer,  that  every  one  at  his 
pleasure  should  read  the  Scripture  translated  (even)  into 
Latin ;  because,  as  is  plain  from  experience,  this  has  been 
many  ways  the  occasion  of  falling  into  heresies  and  errors. 
It  is  not  therefore  politic,  that  any  one,  w^heresoever  and 
whensoever  he  will,  should  give  himself  to  the  frequent 
study  of  the  Scriptures."'^ 

Wiclif  himself,  in  an  homily  on  Matthew  xi.  23,  thus 
complains  of  the  severe  usage  he  met  with  on  account  of 
translating  the  Holy  Scriptures.  "He,  Antecrist,"  says 
he,  "hath  turned  hyse  clerkes  to  covetyse  and  worldely 
love,  and  so  blynded  the  peple  and  derked  the  Law  of 
Crist,  that  hys  servauntes  ben  thikke  and  few  ben  on 
Cristes  syde ;  and  algates  they  dyspysen  that  men  shulden 
knowe  Crystes  lyfe,  for  thenne  priestes  schulden  schome 
of  hyre  lyves,  and  specially  these -hye  prestes,  for  thei 
reversen  crist  both  in  worde  and  in  dede.  And  herfore 
on  gretbyschop  of  englelond^  is  yuel  payed,  that  Godde's 

(70)  Lewis's  Life  of  VVicliffe,  p.  67. 

(71)  Ibid.  p.  71. 

*  By  one  great  Bishop  of  England,  is  probably  meant  John  Bokyn^ 
ham,  or  Bukkingham,  at  this  time  bisliop  of  Lincoln,  in  whose  diocese 
Wiclif  was  promoted,  and  by  whom,  it  seems,  he  was  summoned  and 
prosecuted  for  translating  the  Scriptures  into  English.  By  another 
priest^  he  seems  to  intend  IVylliam  de  Si^yndurby,  a  priest  of  Leicester, 
in  this  diocese,  and  a  favourer  of  the  sentiments  of  VViclif.  Knyghton 
tells  us,  that  *nhe  common  people  called  him  William  the  Hermit,  from 
having  formerly  adopted  that  mode  of  life,  and  that  at  his  first  coming  to 
Leicester,  he  conformed  to  the  usual  habits  of  life,  and  conversed  with 
the  people,  but  beginning  to  'preach  against  the  faults,  and  particularly 
the  pride  of  women,'  they  were  so  incensed  against  him,  that  they  pro- 
posed to  stone  him  out  of  the  place,  till  he  changed  his  subject,  and 
preached  against  the  rich,  and  against  their  pride,  and  vanity,  and 
excessive  love  of  this  world.  Afterwards  he  directed  his  declamations 
against  the  clergy  and  the  church,  affirming  that  the  clergy  'lived  lewd 
lives,  and  did  ill  receive  the  goods  of  the  church,  and  spend  them  worse;' 
and  preaching  that  '  parishioners  were  not  obliged  to  pay  their  tithes 
and  offerings  to  the  clergy,  if  they  did  not  live  chastely,  and  in  all 
other  respects  as  became  the  priests  of  God  j  or  if  they  did  not  stay  in 


62  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

lawe  is  written  in  englysche  to  lewede  men,  and  he  pursu- 
etli  a  prest  for  he  wryteth  to  men  this  englysche,  and 
sompneth  hym  and  traveleth  hym  that  hyt  is  harde  to 
hym  to  route.  And  thus  he  pursueth  another  prest  by 
the  help  of  the  pharyses,  [i.  e.  the  friars]  for  he  precheth 
cristes  gospel  frely  withouten  fables.     O  men  that  ben 

th?ir  parishes,  and  spend  the  goods  of  the  church  where  they  received 
them  ;  or  if  they  were  unskilled  in,  or  not  ready  in  speaking  the  language 
in  which  they  were  to  preach,  so  that  they  could  not  duly  or  sufficiently 
instruct  the  people."  <■' Ue  preached  likewise,"  adds  Knyghton,  that 
"men  might,  consistent  with  charity,  ask  those  who  owed  them  money 
for  what  they  were  indebted  to  them,  but  might  by  no  means  sue  them, 
or  imprison  them  for  debt ;"  and  that  '^no  one  who  lived  contrary  to  the 
Law  of  (iod  was  a  priest,  notwithstanding  he  might  have  been  ordained 
by  the  bishop."  By  these,  and  similar  doctrines,  the  same  author 
informs  us,  Swyndiirbij  captivated  the  affections  of  the  people,  so  that 
they  declared  they  had  never  seen  nor  heard  any  one  who  so  well 
explained  the  truth  to  them,  and  *^ reverenced  him  as  another  god." 

When  Bishop  Bukkyngham  heard  of  his  proceedings,  he  immediately 
suspended  him  from  all  preaching  in  any  chapel,  church,  or  church-yard, 
within  the  diocese  of  Lincoln;  and  inhibited  the  people  that  none  of 
them  should  presume  to  hear  him  preach,  nor  favour  the  preacher,  under 
the  penalty  of  excommunication,  Swyndurby,  however,  was  not  to  be 
deterred;  but  on  hearing  the  interdict  of  the  bishop,  made  himself  a 
pulpit  on  two  millstones,  which  stood  in  the  High-street,  near  the  cha- 
pel he  had  formerly  occupied,  where  he  called  the  people  together,  and 
preached  to  them  many  times,  saying  "He  could  and  would,  in  spite  of 
the  bishop's  teeth,  preach  in  the  king's  highway,  so  long  as  he  had  the 
good  will  of  the  people."  Then  you  might  see,  si:ys  Knyghton,  throngs 
of  people  from  every  part,  as  well  from  the  town  as  country,  double  the 
number  that  there  used  to  Ibe  Avhen  they  might  hear  him  preach  much  more 
lawfully,  pressing  to  hear  him  preach  after  this  inhibition  and  thunder- 
ing out  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  which  had  been  denounced  ia 
the  abbey  and  many  other  churches.  The  bishop  therefore  cited  him  to 
appear  in  the  cathedral  of  Lincoln.  Knyghton  says,  that  being  convict- 
ed, he  abjured  his  errors,  but  afterwards  relapsed,  and  went  to  Coventry, 
where  he  was  expelled  the  diocese,  with  shame  and  contempt,  by  the 
diocesan  and  clergy.  This  account,  hoAvever,  can  scarcely  be  admitted; 
for  it  is  not  probable,  that  if  he  had  been  convicted  of  heresy  and  error, 
and  had  publicly  adjured,  and  afterwards  relapsed,  he  would  have  been 
so  gently  dealt  with.  Walsingham's  acccount  is  therefore  more  proba- 
ble, who  says,  that  "when  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  had  made  preparations 
to  correct  this  man,  and  to  take  away  from  him  his  license  to  preach, 
the  mad  multitude  raged  in  such  a  manner  as  frightened  the  bishop,  and 
deterred  him  from  proceeding  against  him."  What  became  of  him  after- 
wards is  unknown  :  Fox,  in  his  Ades  and  Monumentes^  conjectures  that 
he  was  burnt  in  the  foUowiug  reign.  See  Lewis's  Life  of  WicliffCy 
pp,  222—228, 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  63 

of  cristes  half,  helpe  ye  nowe  ageyns  Antecrist.  For 
the  perelouse  tyme  is  comen  that  crist  and  poule  [Pciul] 
tolden  byfore.  But  on  conmfort  is  of  knyghtes^  that 
they  saveren  muche  the  gospel^  and  have  wylie  to  rede  in 
englysche  the  gospel  ofcrisfs  lyf "  '^ 

But  our  reformer,  who  had  long  and  zealously  vindicat- 
ed the  propriety  of  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the 
English  language,  was  only  the  more  convinced,  by  the 
opposition  of  his  enemies,  and  by  the  weakness  of  their 
arguments,  of  the  importance  and  utility  of  such  an 
undertaking.  The  following  extracts  will  exhibit  the 
manner  in  which  this  great  man  defended  the  right  of  the 
people  to  read  the  Scijiptures,  and  to  have  a  translation  of 
them  into  their  mother  tongue.  "The  Scripture,"  he 
observes,  "is  the  faith  of  the  church,  and  the  more  it  is 
known  in  an  orthodox  sense,  the  better;  therefore,  as  se- 
cular men  ought  to  know  the  faith,  so  it  is  to  be  taught 
them  in  whatever  language  is  best  known  to  them.  Be- 
sides, since  the  truth  of  the  faith  is  clearer,  and  more 
exact,  in  the  Scripture,  than  the  priests  know  how  to  ex- 
press it;  and  that,  if  one  may  siiy  so,  there  are  many 
prelates  who  are  too  ignorant  of  Scripture,  and  othei's 
who  conceal  what  is  contained  in  it ;  it  seems  useful,  that 
the  faithful  should  themselves  search  out,  or  discover  the 
sense  of  the  faith,  by  having  the  Scriptures  in  a  language 
which  they  know  and  understand.  Moreover,  according 
to  the  Apostle,  Hebrews  xi.  the  saints  by  faith  overcame 
kingdoms,  and  chiefly  by  the  motive  of  faith  hastened  to 
their  own  country:  why,  therefore,  ought  not  the  foun- 
tain of  faith  to  be  made  known  to  the  people  by  those 
means,  that  will  enable  a  man  to  know  it  more  clearly? 


*  ''The  soldiers,  with  the  dukes  and  earls,  were  the  chief  adherents 
and  favourers  of  this  sect.  They  were  their  most  strenuous  promoters, 
and  boldest  combatants; — their  most  powerful  defenders,  and  their 
invincible  protectors.''  Knyghton,  De  Event,  quoted  by  Lewis  in  his 
History  of  English  Translations,  p.  22,  note. 
(72)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  the  English  Translations,  pp,  21,  22. 


64  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

He  who  hinders  this,  or  murmurs  against  it,  does  his  en- 
deavour to  cause  the  people  to  continue  in  a  damnable 
and  unbelieving  state.  So  the  laws  which  are  made  by 
prelates  are  not  to  be  received  as  matters  of  faith;  nor 
are  we  to  believe  their  words  or  discourses,  any  farther 
than  they  are  founded  on  Scripture,  for,  according  to  the 
constant  doctrine  of  Aiignstin,  'the  Scripture  is  all  the 
truth.'  A  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  therefore,  would 
do  this  good,  that  it  would  render  priests  and  prelates 
unsuspected  as  to  the  words  of  it,  which  they  explain. 
Christ  and  his  apostles  converted  men,  by  making  known 
to  them  the  Scripture  in  a  language  which  was  familiar 
to  the  people;  and  for  this  purpose  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  , 
the  apostles  the  knowledge  of  tongues.  Why  then  ought 
not  the  modern  disciples  of  Christ,  to  collect  fragments 
from  the  same  loaf;  and  as  they  did,  clearly  and  plainly 
open  the  Scriptures  to  the  people,  that  they  may  know 
them  ?  Besides,  since,  according  to  what  the  apostle 
teaches,  all  viiist  stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christy 
and  be  answerable  to  him  for  all  the  goods  with  which  he 
has  entrusted  them,  it  is  necessary  that  all  the  faithful 
should  know  these  goods  and  the  use  of  them,  that  their 
answer  may  then  be  ready.  For  an  answer  by  a  prelate, 
or  an  attorney,  will  not  then  avail,  but  every  one  must 
answer  in  his  own  person ."^^ 

Our  renowned  reformer,  John  de  Wiclif,^^  it  is  sup- 
posed, was  born  about  the  year  1324,  ia  the  parish  of 
Wiclif,  a  village  near  Richmond,  in  Yorkshire.  He  was 
first  a  commoner  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  then  newly 
founded  by  Ptobert  Eagleslield,  chaplain  to  Queen  Philip- 
pina,  consort  of  Edward  III.  From  thence  he  was  soon 
removed  to  Merton  College,  which  was  at  that  time  es- 

(73)  Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  ch.  v.  p.  69. 

*  This  mode  of  spelling  our  reformer's  name,  I  have  adopted  from 
Baber,  who  remarks,  that  ''it  is  so  spelt  in  the  oldest  document  in 
"which  his  name  is  known  to  appear,  viz.  in  the  instrument  which  nomU 
nated  him  one  of  the  embassy  to  meet  the  pope's  delegates,  in  1374.. 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  65 

teemed  one  of  the  most  famous  seminaries  of  learning  in 
Europe,  where  he  was  a  probationer,  and  afterwards  fel- 
low. Here  Wiclif  availed  himself  of  the  high  advantages 
he  enjoyed,  and  by  the  native  vigour  of  his  mind,  united  to 
uncommon  application,  rose  to  the  first  rank  of  literary 
eminence.  He  is  said  to  have  committed  to  memory  the 
most  intricate  part  of  the  writings  of  the  Stagyrite;  and 
to  have  been  an  unrivalled  disputant  in  the  theology  of 
the  schools.  He  was  excellently  versed  in  the  knowledge 
of  civil  and  canon  law  in  general,  and  of  our  own  muni- 
cipal laws  in  particular.  But  the  Holy  Scriptures  were 
his  principal  study  and  chief  dehght,  which  was  probably 
what  gained  him  the  title  oi  Doctor  EvangeUcus,  the  Evan- 
gelic Doctor.  Next  to  the  Scriptures,  he  esteemed  and 
studied  the  works  of  Augustin,  Jerom,  Ambrose,  and 
Gregory.  He  was  also  a  great  admirer  of  the  writings 
of  Bishop  Grosseteste,  and  of  Archbishop  Fltzralph,*  His 
defence  of  the  university  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
Mendicant  friars,  gained  him  veiy  general  approbation ; 
and  in  1361,  he  was  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  Master 
of  Baliol  College,  and  four  years  afterwards  to  that  of 
Warden  of  Canterbury  Hall.  From  this  office  he  was 
ejected  in  1367,  by  Archbishop  Langham,  with  circum- 
stances of  great  injustice.  Wiclif  appealed  to  the  pope, 
who  for  some  years  artfully  suspended  the  decision,  but 
in  1370  confirmed  the  ejection,  owing,  as  has  been  con- 
jectured, partly  to  the  pope's  partiality  for  the  Mendi- 
cants, and  partly  to  Wiclifs  defence  of  King  Edward  III. 
against  the  homage  demanded  by  the  pope. 

In  1372,  Wiclif  began  to  read  public  lectures  on  divi- 
nity, in  the  university.  At  first  he  gently  and  covertly 
attacked  the  reigning  abuses  of  the  friars,  and  the  general 
corruptions  of  papacy ;  but  finding  he  gained  the  attention 
of  his  hearers,  he  openly  and  boldly  exposed  whatever  he 

■  III     I  ■  ' ' ~ 

*  See  Yol.  I.  p,  463,  and  vol.  II.  p.  47,  of  thU  work, 

Vol,.  IL  E 


66  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

deemed  erroneous  in  the  habits  of  the  ecclesiastics,  or 
the  doctrines  of  the  church.  His  intrepidity  increased  his 
fame,  and  he  was  ahnost  every  where  regarded  as  the 
great  defender  of  liberty  and  truth ;  except  by  the  minions 
of  the  pope,  who  never  ceased  to  pursue  the  object  of  their 
hate  with  every  species  of  malignant  rage.  In  1374,  he 
was  sent  by  the  king,  in  conjunction  with  the  bishop  of 
Bangor  and  others,  upon  an  embassy  to  the  pope,  to  treat 
concerning  the  liberties  of  the  church  of  England;  and  in 
the  same  year  was  presented  by  Edward  to  the  valuable 
rectory  of  Lutterworth,  in  Leicestershire.  Afterwards, 
in  1375,  he  was  confirmed  in  the  prebend  of  Auste,  in 
the  collegiate  church  of  Westbury,  in  Gloucestershire ; 
and  is  said  to  have  been  again  employed  in  a  diplomatic 
character,  being  delegated  with  several  barons  of  the 
realm  to  the  court  of  the  duke  of  Milan. 

The  embassies  in  which  our  reformer  was  engaged, 
and  the  extensive  opportunities  he  thus  possessed  of  exa- 
mining the  haughty  claims  of  the  Romish  pontiff,  and  of 
marking  the  universal  degeneracy  of  the  papal  hierarchy, 
roused  his  indignation,  and  sharpened  his  invectives, 
against  those  who  palliated  or  defended  the  gross  depra- 
vities of  the  monks  and  friars,  or  the  shameless  oppres- 
sions of  the  papal  court.  Stung  by  the  keenness  of  his 
censures,  the  Romish  clergy  rallied  their  forces,  selected 
from  his  works  nineteen  articles  of  complaint  and  accu- 
sation, and  dispatched  them  to  the  pope.  Bull  after  bull 
was  transmitted  by  his  holiness  to  England,  to  demand 
the  trial  of  the  arch-heretic^  and  the  condemnation  of  his 
writings.  These  the  government  and  university  long 
treated  with  contempt;  and  though  the  university  of 
Oxford  at  last  yielded  to  receive  the  papal  mandate,  they 
refused  to  lend  the  least  active  assistance  against  Wiclif, 
But  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the  bishop  of 
London,  the  resolute  advocates  of  the  papacy,  cited  him 
to  appear  before  them  on  the  thirtieth  day  after  the 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURV.  67 

notice.  Wiclif  immediately  placed  himself  mider  the 
protection  of  John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster,  who  had 
long  known  and  esteemed  him.  By  the  advice  of  this 
nobleman,  who  accompanied  him  in  person,  he  obeyed 
the  citation ;  where  the  haughty  and  insulting  expressions 
of  the  bishop  of  London  to  Lord  Percy,  so  irritated  the 
duke,  that  he  treated  the  bishop  with  contumely  and 
contempt;  the  court  broke  up  in  tumult  and  confusion; 
and  Wiclif  was  dismissed  with  an  admonition  not  to 
repeat  his  obnoxious  doctrines,  either  in  the  schools  or 
the  pulpit. 

The  death  of  the  duke  of  Lancaster  emboldening  the 
English  prelates,  they  again  cited  the  heretic  to  appear 
before  them,  in  1378,  when  he  was  again  rescued  by  the 
populace,  and  the  authority  of  the  queen  dowager,  widow 
of  the  Black  Prince.  The  same  year  their  commission 
ceased,  by  the  death  of  the  pope,  Gregory  XL  A  double 
election  ensued,  the  rival  popes  assuming  the  respective 
names  of  Urban  VI.  and  Clement  VIL  though  Urban  at 
last  proved  the  successful  candidate.  This  event  was 
noticed  by  Wiclif,  in  a  tract  Of  the  Schism  of  the  Roman 
Pontiffs;  and  shortly  after  he  published  another.  Of  the 
Truth  of  the  Scripture,  In  the  latter  he  contends  for  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  English ;  and  affirms, 
that  God's  will  is  plainly  revealed  in  two  Testaments; — 
that  Christ's  Law  sufficeth  by  itself  to  rule  Christ's 
church; — that  a  Christian-man,  well  understandingit,may 
thence  gather  sufficient  knowledge  during  his  pilgrimage 
here  upon  earth ; — and  that,  whereas  all  truth  is  contain- 
ed in  Holy  Scripture,  whatever  disputation  is  not  origi- 
nally thence  to  be  deduced,  is  to  be  accounted  profane. 

The  extraordinary  exertions^  and  the  harassing  perse- 
cutions, which  Wiclif  underwent  during  the  year  1378, 
occasioned  a  fit  of  sickness,  that  brought  him  almost  to 
the  point  of  death.  Immediately  on  hearing  of  it,  the 
Mendicant  friars  selected  four  grave  doctors  from  their 


68  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

four  orders,  and  after  certain  instructions,  sent  them,  with 
four  respectable  citizens,  aldermen  of  the  wards,  to  the 
afflicted  reformer.  These  commissioners  found  him  lying 
in  his  bed,  and  are  said,  first  of  all,  to  have  wished  him 
health  and  recovery  from  sickness.  After  some  time, 
they  reminded  him  of  the  many  and  great  injuries  he  had 
done  to  the  Mendicant  friars,  by  his  sermons  and  writ-r 
ings,  and  exhorted  him,  that  as  he  was  now  near  death, 
he  would,  as  a  true  penitent,  bewail  and  revoke,  in  their 
presence,  whatever  he  had  said  to  their  disparagement. 
But  Wiclif,  immediately  recovering  strength,  called  his 
servants,  and  ordered  them  to  raise  him  a  little  on  his  pil- 
lows.    This  being  done,  he  said  with  a  loud  voice,   "I 

SHALL  NOT  DIB  BUT  LIVE,  AND  DECLARE  THE  EVIL  DEEDS 

OF  THE  Friars."  On  hearing  this,  the  doctors  and  their 
associates  left  him  in  great  confusion ;  and  the  sick  man 
soon  recovered  according  to  his  prediction. 

The  year  after  his  recovery  from  this  sickness,  this  de- 
fender of  the  truth  seems  to  have  completed  and  publish- 
ed his  Translation  of  the  Bible,  A.  D.  1380;  and  soon 
afterwards  commenced  a  public  attack  upon  the  doctrine 
of  Transuhstantiation,  This  he  did  in  the  lectures  which 
he  delivered  at  Oxford,  in  the  summer  of  1381.  Violent « 
and  various  were  the  measures  adopted  against  him,  in 
consequence  of  this  opposition  to  the  favourite  doctrine  of 
the  church  of  Rome.  The  prelates  again  summoned  him 
to  appear  before  them  ;  the  parliament,  to  which  he  ap- 
pealed, rejected  his  appeal;  and,  at  the  instigation  of  his 
great  adversary  Courtney,  formerly  bishop  of  London, 
but  now  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  passed  an  act  against 
his  "Conclusions,"  or  opinions  on  the  subject;  his  patron, 
the  duke  of  Lancaster,  advised  submission ;  and  he  was^ 
at  length  dismissed  from  the  chair  of  the  divinity-profes- 
sor, which  he  had,  for  so  many  years,  filled  with  unequalled 
applause. 

But  although  compelled  to  quit  the  university,  and 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURr.  09 

retire  to  the  rectory  of  Lutterworth,  he  pursued  his  stu- 
dies, and  continued  his  endeavours  to  promote  the  re- 
formation of  the  church.  Among*  the  writings  which 
distinguished  his  retirement,  was  a  tract  on  the  causes 
fVhy  pm^e priests  have  no  benefices;  written  in  defence  of 
his  followers.  The  reasons  he  assigns  for  their  being 
without  benefices,  or  not  accepting  them,  are,  l.The 
fear  of  simony:  2.  The  fear  of  mispending  poor  mens 
goods :  3.  The  fear  of  being  prevented  from  better  occu- 
pation, or  greater  usefulness  to  the  church,  by  being  re- 
tetricted  to  a  single  cure  or  parish.  In  the  chapter  on 
simony,  he  thus  describes  the  nefarious  practices  v/hich 
then  existed.  "Some  lords  to  colouren  their  symony 
Wole  not  take  for  themselves,  but  kenerchiefs  for  the  la- 
dy, or  a  palfray,  or  a  tun  of  wine.  And  when  some 
lords  wolden  present  a  good  man,  and  able  for  love  of 
God,  and  Christen  souls,  then  some  ladies  ben  means  to 
have  a  dancer,  or  tripper  on  tapits,  or  hunter,  or  hawker, 
or  a  wild  player  of  summers  gamenes,  for  flattering  and 
gifts  going  betwixe." 

The  contest  between  Pope  Urban  YI.  and  the  French, 
who  were  the  friends  of  his  rival,  occasioned  the  pontiff  to 
determine  upon  war.  With  this  view,  and  to  enable  him  to 
raise  an  army  of  sufficient  force,  plenaiy  indulgencies  and 
pardons  were  promised  to  all  who  would  afford  personal 
or  pecuniary  aid.  A  bull  to  this  effect  was  sent  to  Hen- 
ry le  Spencer,  bishop  of  Norwich,  who  readily  entered  in- 
to the  views  of  the  pope,  and  obtained  numerous  contri- 
butors; so  that  even  women  presented  their  jewels, 
neck-laces,  rings,  dishes,  plates,  and  spoons,  hoping 
to  obtain  absolution  for  themselves  and  their  friends. 
Wiclif  was  not  a  silent  spectator  of  such  a  violation  of 
the  religion  of  peace:  he  severely  censured  the  rival  par- 
ties, and  in  one  of  his  tracts  pointedly  inquired,  "Why 
wole  not  the  proud  priest  of  Rome  grant  full  pardon  to 
all  men,  for  to  live  in  peace,  and  charity  and  patience,  as 


70  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

he  doth  to  all  men  to  fight  and  slee  Christen  men  T  The 
exasperated  pontiff  cited  Wiclif  to  appear  before  him ;  but 
his  feeble  state  of  health  was  offered  as  an  apology,  for  not 
undertaking  so  long  and  perilous  a  journey.  He  had  alrea- 
dy had  one  attack  of  palsy,  and  his  debilitated  frame  sunk 
under  a  second  attack  of  the  same  disease,  two  years 
afterwards.  His  last  seizure  was  during  the  time  of 
divine  service,  in  the  church  of  Lutterworth ;  which,  on 
the  third  day  terminated  the  valuable  life  of  this  great 
and  intrepid  reformer,  December  30th.  1384.  His  body 
was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  his  church,  and  there  lay  till 
1428,  when  his  bones  were  disinterred  and  burnt,  and  his 
ashes  thrown  into  the  Swiff,  a  neighbouring  stream^  at  the 
command  of  Pope  Martin  V.  by  Richard  Flemyng,  bishop 
of  Lincoln,  according  to  a  decree  of  the  infamous  council 
of  Constance,  passed  in  1415. 

The  most  elaborate  Life  of  Wiclif  is  that  by  the  Rev. 
John  Lewis ;  but  the  most  correct  list  of  his  Works,  and 
one  of  the  best  written  lives,  will  be  found  prefixed  by  the 
Rev.  H.  H.  Baber  to  his  excellent  edition  of  Wichf's 
New  Testament. 

The  opposition  which  was  raised  against  Wiclifs  trans- 
lation, proceeded  so  far,  that  in  1390,  (13.  Ric.  11.=^)  a 
bill  was  brought  into  the  house  of  lords,  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  it.  On  this  occasion,  John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of 
Lancastei',  and  uncle  to  the  king,  defended  a  vernacular 
translation,  saying,  "We  will  not  be  the  dregs  of  all 
men;  seeing  other  nations  have  the  law  of  God,  which  is 
the  law  of  our  faith,  written  in  their  own  language." 
Declaring,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  most  solemn  manner, 
*'That  he  would  maintain  our  having  this  law  in  our  own 

*  A  Latin  Psalter,  ornamented  with  the  most  beautiful  miniatures, 
and  richly  illuminated,  for  the  use  of  this  monarch  when  a  youth,  is  pre- 
served in  the  Cottonian  Library.  It  has  a  calendar,  and  various  tables, 
beside  hymns,  and  the  Athanasian  creed.  The  king  is  represented,  in 
different  places,  on  his  knees,  before  the  Virgin  Mary,  who  has  i\x^ 
iaf^nt  Jesus  in  her  arms.   Le  Long,  IV.  p,  245, 


FOURTEENTH  CENTURY.  71 

tongue  against  those,  whoever  they  should  be,  who  first 
brought  in  the  bill."  The  duke  was  seconded  by  others, 
who  said,  that  "if  tiie  Gospel,  by  its  being  translated  into 
English,  was  the  occasion  of  men  s  running  into  error, 
they  might  know,  that  there  were  more  heretics  to  be 
found  among  the  Latins,  than  among  the  people  of  any 
other  language.  For  that  the  decretals  reckoned  no  few- 
er than  sixty-six  Latin  heretics,  and  so  the  Gospel  must 
not  be  read  in  Latin,  which  yet  the  opposei^  of  the  Eng- 
/M  translation  allowed."  The  consequence  of  this  firm- 
ness in  WicHf's  patron  and  friends^  was,  that  the  bill 
was  thrown  out.'* 

It  was  probably  this  event  which  encouraged  some  of 
Dr.  Wiclifs  followers  to  review  his  translation,  or  rather, 
to  make  another,  not  so  strict  and  verbal,  but  more 
according  to  the  sense.  The  MS.  copies  of  this  translation 
are  more  rare  than  the  others,  but  are  to  be  met  with  in 
the  Bodleian  and  other  public  libraries.  One  of  these  is 
said  to  have  belonged  to  Bishop  Bonner,  of  persecuting 
memory;  who  in  his  book  Of  the  Seven  Sacraments, 
(A.  D.  1555)  observes,  that  he-had  "a  Bible  in  Engh/she 
translated  out  of  Latyne  in  tyme  of  heresye,  almost  eight- 
score  yeare  before  that  tyme,"  (i.  e.  about  1395)  "fayre 
and  truly  written  in  parchement."^* 

From  a  MS.  copy  of  this  translation,  in  the  library 
of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  being  inscribed  with  the 
name  J.  Pervey,  it  has  been  concluded  that  John 
Purvey,  or  Purney,  was  the  author  of  it.  Knyghton 
(De  Event.  AngUce)  says,  "He  was  a  chaplain  or  curate, 
having  no  benefice  of  his  own ; — of  a  grave  aspect  and 
behaviour,  affecting  an  appearance  of  sanctity  beyond 
the  rest  of  his  fellows.  In  his  clothes  and  dress  he  went 
as  an  ordinary  man  ;  and  little  regarding  his  own  ease, 
was  unwearied  in  studying,  by  travelling  up  an3  down, 

(74)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  English  Translations,  p,  28, 
{75)  Ibid.  p.  25; 


72  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

to  persuade  the  people^  and  to  bring  them  over  to  bis  sect. 
Being  an  invincible  disciple  of  his  master  John  JVicl^, 
he  conformed  himself  to  his  opinions,  and  fearlessly  con- 
firmed them  in  every  respect  like  an  able  executor.  For 
having  boarded  with  his  master  when  he  was  alive,  and 
thus  having  drank  more  plentifully  of  his  instructions, 
he  had  more  abundantly  imbibed  them,  and  always,  even 
to  his  dying  day,  as  an  inseparable  companion  followed 
him  and  his  opinions  and  doctrines,  being  unwearied  in 
his  labours  and  endeavours  to  propagate  them."  After 
Dr.  Wiclif's  death  he  used  to  preach  at  Bristol,  till  he 
was  apprehended  and  imprisoned  by  Thomas  Arundel^ 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  Salt  wood  castle,  in  Kent,  a 
seat  belonging  to  the  archbishop.  Here  he  was  dreadfully 
tortured,  and  at  last  consented  to  recant,  which  he  did  at 
Paul's  Cross,  A.  D.  1396.  He  was  afterwards  promoted 
by  the  archbishop  to  a  benefice,  as  is  said,  about  a  mile 
from  the  castle,  which  seems  to  intimate  as  if  it  were  St. 
Mary's,  Hythe,  or  perhaps  the  rectory  of  Ostinhanger. 
But  wherever  the  place  was,  he  did  not  long  continue  in 
it,  but  quitted  his  benefice,  and  embraced  his  former 
opinions.  After  Arundel's  death,  he  was  again  imprisoned 
by  Archbishop  Chichley,  A.  D,  1521 ;  after  which  it  is 
uncertain  what  became  of  him;  though  it  is  not  improba- 
ble that  he  died  in  prison.  Thomas  of  Walden,  a  zealous 
writer  against  the  Lollards,  or  followers  of  Wiclif,  gives 
him  this  character,  that  ^'hewas  the  library  of  the  Lollards, 
and  Wiclif's  glosser;  an  eloquent  divine,  and  famous  for 
his  skill  in  the  law,"  or  a  notable  canonist,^® 

But  whoever  was  the  author  of  the  translation  in  ques- 
tion, it  was  most  probably  made  by  the  same  person  who 
wrote  the  Elucidarium  Bibliorum,  or  Prologue  to  th^ 
iramlationof  the  Bible;  a  work  frequently,  but  erroneously, 

■  — — ■ ■    I.  ■!    I'.a 

(76)  Fox's  Actesand  Monuraentes,  I.  p.  649.  fol.  X570. 
Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  pp.  218—221. 
Lewis's  Hist,  of  English  Translations,  pp.  34,  35.^ 


FOtrni^EENTH    CENTURY.  73 

cattfibuted  to  Wiclif  himself.  The  design  of  the  Prologue, 
which  is  in  English,  is  to  give  a  summary  of  the  books  of 
the  Bible,  with  certain  declarations  of  their  use  and 
,  authority.  It  was  printed  by  John  Gowghe  in  1536,  in 
12mo.  under  the  title  of  The  Dore  of  Holy  Scripture, 
Another  edition,  in  12mo.  was  published  in  1550,  by 
^Robert  Crowley.  The  title  of  it  was,  The  pathway  to 
iperject  knoivledge,  the  true  copye  of  a  prologue,  wrytten 
about  two  hundred  yeares  paste  hy  John  WycMyffe  (as 
.maye  justly  he  gathered  hi  that,  that  John  Bale  hath  vjryt- 
ten  of  him  in  his  Boke  entitled,  the  summarie  of  famouse 
writers  of  the  He  of  Great  Britaine)  the  original  whereof 
fis  found  written  in  an  olde  Englishe  Bible  betwixt  the 
Olde  Testament  and  the  New e,  PVhich  Bible  remaineth 
mow  in  the  Kyng  hys  Maiesties  chamber.  In  this  Pi^ologue, 
rwhich  Lewis,  (Hist,  of  English  Translations,)  and  Baber, 
(Life  of  Dr.  WicUf)  have  incontrovertibly  proved  to 
have  been  written  after  the  reformer's  death,  the  author 
(gives  the  following  account  of  his  own  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  English :  "  He,  with  several  others  who  assist- 
jed  him,  got  together,"  he  says,  "all  the  old  LatynWiAe^ 
Ihey  could  procure:  these  they  diligently  collated,  and 
corrected  what  errors  had  crept  into  them,  in  order  to 
make  one  Latin  Bible  some  deal  true ;  since  many  Bibles 
in  Latin  were  very  false,  especially  those  that  were  new. 
Then  they  collected  the  doctors  and  common  glosses, 
especially  Lyra,  with  which  they  studied  the  text  anew, 
in  order  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  sense  and 
meaning  of  it.  Next  they  consulted  the  old  grammari- 
ans and  ancient  divines  as  to  the  hard  words  and  senten- 
ces, how  they  might  be  best  understood  and  translated; 
which  having  done,  they  set  about  the  translation,  which 
they  resolved  should  not  be  a  verbal  one,  but  as  clearly  as 
they  could  to  express  the  sense  and  meaning  of  the  text ; 
for,"  says  he,  "it  iS  to  know  that  the  best  translating  out  of 
Latin  into  English,  is  to  translate  after  the  sentence,  and 


74  BIBLICAt   LITERATURE^ 

not  only  after  the  words.  So  that  the  sentence  be  as 
open  (either  opener)  in  English  as  in  Latin,  and  go  not 
far  from  the  letter."  He  adds,  that  "where  the  Hebrew, 
by  witness  of  Jerom,  of  Lyra,  and  of  other  expositors, 
discordeth  from  our  Latin  Bibles,  he  had  set  in  the  mar- 
gin, in  manner  of  a  gloss,  what  the  Hebrew  hath,  and 
how  it  is  understood  in  some  other  place.  And  that  he 
did  this  most  in  the  Psalter,  that  of  all  of  our  books 
discorded  most  from  the  Hebrew.  In  translating  equivo- 
cal words,"  he  remarks,  "there  might  be  some  danger,, 
since,  if  they  were  not  translated  according  to  the  sense 
and  meaning  of  the  author,  it  was  an  error.  Lastly,"  he 
tells  us,  that,  "to  make  this  translation  as  compleat  and 
perfect  as  he  could,  he  resolved  to  have  many  good  fel- 
lows, and  hwini/ng,  to  correct  it."^^  A  MS.  copy  of  this 
work  is  in  tlie  British  Museum,  Harl.  MS.  1666.  It  is 
imperfect  at  the  end. 

The  uncertainty  and  obscurity  in  which  the  author  of 
the  translation  before  us  is  involved,  is  not  peculiar  to 
himself;  in  numerous  other  instances  it  will  appear  that 
translators  of  different  versions  of  the  Sacred  Writings 
ar«  unknown.  This  has  probably  arisen  from  different 
causes ;  sometimes  from  that  humble  and  self-diffident 
disposition,  which  has  led  the  pious  mind  to  retire  from 
public  view,  and  to  aim  only  at  the  approbation  of  him 
who  "searches  the  heart;" and  sometimes  from  a  fear  of 
persecution  and  suffering.  For,  although  many  in  our 
day  will  be  disposed  to  regard  the  man  who  first  produc- 
ed a  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  language  of 
his  country,  as  her  greatest  benefactor,  and  entitled  to 
eminent  rank  in  the  annals  of  her  moral  improvement,  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  that  these  have  not  been  the 
views  of  past  ages;  nor  has  history,  in  general,  been  con- 
structed or  written  under  the  influence  of  such   impres- 

(77)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  Englisli  Translations,  p.  37 » 
Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  p.  70* 


FOURTEENTH    CENTURY.  /O 

sions.  Unfortunately,  these  co-operating  causes  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  ^n  authentic  biographical  work 
being  written,  which  should  embrace  the  lives  of  all  ori- 
ginal translators  of  the  Sacred  Volume ;  all  that  can  be 
done,  is  to  collect,  from  various  quarters,  such  intimations 
as  remain,  respecting  these  valuable  men,  and  their  im- 
portant labours. 

"The  lives  of  such  persons,  it  may  be  said,  could  not 
have  furnished  many  remarkable  incidents;  but  we  can- 
not tell :  for  although  they  did  not  ail  meet  with  similar 
treatment,  to  some  of  them,  at  least,  the  following  lines 
are  but  too  appropriate : 

They  lived  unknown^ 


Till  persecution  draojg'd  them  into  fame, 

And  chas'd  them  up  to  heaven.     Theit  ashes  flew 

— — No  marble  tells  us  whither.     With  their  names 

No  bard  embalms  and  sanctifies  his  song  ; 

And  history,  so  warm  on  meaner  themes, 

Is  cold  on  this,*'  "'^ 

(78)  See  Anderson's  Memorial  on  behalf  of  the  Native  Irish^  pp.  12,  13, 


76  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 


CHAPTER  XIIL 


rfs«^r^>/sr^^^ 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY. 

Lollards.  Bishop  ArundeVs  Canon  against  Translations, 
Value  of  Boohs,  Episcopus  Puerorum,  Learned 
Englishmen.  Libraries.  Henri/  VL  John  Huss, 
Jerom  of  Prag  ue,     Hussites,     Invention  of  Printing , 

WICLIFS  followers  were  called  Lollards,  from 
a  German  term,  signifying  to  sing  hymns  to  God; 
and  increased  so  rapidly,  that  a  contemporary  writer  af- 
firms, "A  man  could  not  meet  two  people  on  the  road, 
but  one  of  them  was  a  disciple  of  Wiclif."* 

The  vehemence  with  which  they  declaimed  against  the 
vices  of  the  clergy,  and  the  constant  appeals  which  they 
made  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  defence  of  their  opinions, 
drew  down  upon  them  the  anathemas  of  their  mitred  ad- 
versaries, and  occasioned  the  most  severe  laws  to  be 
enacted  against  those  who  should  embrace  their  senti- 
ments, or  dare  to  read  the  Word  of  God  without  ecclesi- 
astical permission.  In  1396,  Thomas  Arundel,  archbi- 
shop of  York,  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Canterbury, 
and  soon  discovered  by  his  conduct,  that  he  designed  to 
employ  against  the  Lollards,  all  the  additional  power  he 
had  acquired  by  bis  promotion  to  the  primacy.  No 
sooner  had  Henry  IV.  gained  possession  of  the  throne  of 
England,  than  Arundel,  who  had  supported  him  in  his 
pretensions  to  the  crown,  applied,  with  his  clergy,  to  the 
parliament  that  met  at  Westminster,  to  obtain  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  legislature  to  his  cruel  and  iniquitous  mea- 
sures. In  this  he  was  unfortunately  successful,  and  a 
severe  law  was  passed  against  the  dangerous  innovations^ 
(1)  Knyghton.— See  Lewis's  Life  of  WicUffej  ch.  x.p.  175, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  77 

as  they  were  called,  of  the  Lollards.  By  this  law,  made 
A.  D.  1400,  the  bishops  were  authorized  to  imprison  ail 
persons  suspected  of  heresy,  and  to  try  them  in  the  spiri- 
tual court ;  and,  if  they  proved  either  obstinate  or  relapsed 
heretics,  the  spiritual  judge  was  to  call  the  sheriff  of  the 
county,  or  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  town,  to  be  present 
when  the  sentence  of  condemnation  was  pronounced,  and 
immediately  to  deliver  the  condemned  person  to  the  secu-^ 
lar  magistrate,  who  was  to  cause  him  to  be  burnt  to  death, 
on  some  elevated  place,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people.  The 
first  person  who  suifered  under  the  writ  De  hoeretico 
comburendo,  was  Sir  William  Sawtre,  rector  of  St.  Oswyth, 
London.  One  of  the  charges  brought  against  him  was, 
"That  he  had  said  he  would  not  worship  the  cross  on 
which  Christ  suffered,  but  only  Christ  that  suffered  upon 
the  cross."  Another  of  the  charges  was,  "That  he  had 
declared,  that  a  priest  was  more  bound  to  preach  the 
Word  op  God,  than  to  recite  particular  sei-vices,  at 
certain  canonical  hours."  For  such,  alas!  was  the  genius 
of  the  reigning  superstition,  that  to  worship  the  cross, 
and  attend  to  customary  formalities,  was  regarded  as 
of  more  importance  than  to  worship  the  Saviour,  or  to 
preach  his  gospel  1^ 

In  1408,  the  archbishop  held  a  convocation  of  the 
whole  of  the  clergy  of  his  province,  at  Oxford,  the  ob- 
ject of  which  was  to  frame  certain  constitutions  against 
the  Lollards,  By  the  5th  constitution  published  in  this 
convocation,  it  was  ordained  that  "No  book  or  treatise 
composed  by  John  IViclify  or  by  any  other  in  his  time, 
or  since,  or  hereafter  to  be  composed,  be  henceforth  read 
in  the  schools,  halls,  inns,  or  other  places  whatsoever,  with- 
in the  province  aforesaid ;  and  that  none  be  taught  ac- 
cording to  such  [book,]  unless  it  have  beein  first  examined, 
and  upon  examination  unanimously  approved  by  the  mil- 

(2)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  p.  615. 

Henry's  Hist  of  Great  Britain,  X.  B.  t.  ch»  ii.  p,  3. 


78  BIBLICAL   LITERATURK^ 

versity  of  Oxford,  or  Cambridge,  or  at  least  by  twelve 
men  chosen  by  the  said  universities,  or  by  one  of  them, 
under  the  discretion  of  us,  or  our  successors ;  and  then 
afterwards,  [the  book  be  approved]  expressly  by  us,  or 
our  successors,  and  delivered  in  the  name,  and  by  the 
authority,  of  the  universities,  to  be  copied  and  sold  to 
such  as  desire  it,  (after  it  has  been  faithfully  collated,) 
at  a  just  price,  the  original  thenceforth  remaining  in  some 
chest^  of  the  university  for  ever.  And  if  any  one  shall 
read  any  book,  or  treatise  of  this  sort  in  the  schools,  or 
elsewhere,  contrary  to  the  form  above  written;  or  shall 
teach  according  to  it,  let  him  be  punished  according  as 
the  quality  of  the  fact  shall  require,  as  a  sower  of  schism, 
and  a  fautor  of  heresy." 

Another  Constiiution  of  the  convocation  was  formed 
expressly  agaimt  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into 
jEnglish,  "VII.  It  is  a  dangerous  thing,-}-  as  the  blessed 
Jerom  testifieth,  to  translate  the  text  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures out  of  one  language  into  another,  because  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  retain  the  sense  of  the  original  in  a  trans- 
lation, as  the  samxC  blessed  Jerom  confesseth,  that  although 
inspired,:}:  he  frequently  erred:  We  therefore  enact  and 
ordain,  that  no  one  hereafter  do  by  bis  own  authority 
translate  any  text  of  Holy  Scripture  into  English,  or  any 
other  tongue  by  way  of  hook,  libel,  or  treatise;  and 
that  no  one  read  any  such  book,  libel,  or  treatise,  now 

*  The  books  in  the  pttblic  libraries  were,  at  that  period^  all  kept 
in  chests. 

+  Jerom's  words,  to  which  the  constitution  refers,  are  to  be  found  in 
his  Letter  to  Pope  Damasus,  who  had  desired  him  to  determine  which  of 
the  various  readings,  in  the  Latin  copies,  agreed  most  correctly  with 
the  Greek  text ;  and  to  which  he  replies,  that  it  was  very  hazardous  to 
decide:  *^'For  who  is  there,"  says  he,  *' whether  he  be  learned  or 
unlearned,  when  he  takes  the  Bible  into  his  hands,  and  sees,  that  what 
he  reads  differs  from  what  he  has  been  used  to,  who  will  not  immediately 
clamour  against  me,  as  a  falsifier  and  sacrilegious  person,  for  daring  to 
add,  alter,  or  correct,  any  thing  in  books  so  ancient."  See  Lewi&*s 
History  of  English  Translations,  p.  44. 

%  Jerom  never  pretended  to  inspiration 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  79 

lately  set  forth  in  the  time  of  John  Wiclif,  or  shice,  or 
hereafter  to  be  composed,  in  public,  or  in  private,  in 
whole,  or  in  part,  under  pain  of  the  greater  excommuni- 
cation, until  the  said  translation  be  approved  by  the 
diocesan  of  the  place,  or,  if  occasion  require,  by  a  provin- 
cial council.  Let  him  that  acteth  contrary  be  punished 
as  a  fautor  of  error  and  heresy."  ^ 

In  the  2nd  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  V.  A.  D.  1415,. 
a  law  was  passed,  by  which,  in  addition  to  the  former, 
laws  against  heresy,  all  Lollards,  or  those  who  possessed 
or  read  any  of  Wiclifs  books,  or  entertained  his  opinions, 
were  declared  to  be  guilty  of  treason,  and  their  goods 
ordered  to  be  confiscated.*    This  law  was  considered  as 
particularly  directed  against  those  who  read  the  New 
Testament  in  English  of  JVidlf's  translation.     Our  old 
writers  thus  express  themselves  respecting  it:  "In  the 
said  parliament"  (held  at  Leicester)  "thekinge  made  this 
most  blasphemous  and  cruel!  acte,  to  be  a  laAv  for  euer. 
That  whosoeuer  they  were  that  should  rede  the  Scriptures  in 
the  mother  tong,  (which  was  then  called  Wicleu's  lerning,) 
they  should  forfet  land,  catel,  body,  lif,  and  godes,  from 
theyr  heyres  for  euer,  and  so  be  condempned  for  heretykes 
to  God,  ennemies  to  the  crowne,  and  most  errant  traytors 
to  the  lande.     Besides  this,  it  was  inacted,  that  neuer  a 
sanctuary,  nor  priiiihged  grounde  within  the  realme  shulde 
holde  them,  though  they  were  still  permitted  to  theues 
and  murtherers.   And  if  in  case  they  wold  not  gyue  ouer, 
or  were  after  their  pardon  relapsed,  they  shulde  suffer 
death  in  two  manner  of  kindes;  that  is,  they  shulde  first 
be  hanged  for  treason  against  the  kinge,  and  then  be 
burned  for  heresy  against  God,  and  yet  neither  of  both 
committed."^ 


(3)  Ubbei  S.  S.  Concilia,  XI,  pt.  ii.  p.  2095.    Paris,  1671,  fol. 

(4)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  1.  p.  678, 

(5)  Complete   CollectioD   of  State  Trials,  I.  p.  49.  Lond.    1730,2nd 

edition^  fol. 


80  B3LICAL   LITERATURB, 

But  violent  as  were  the  measures  pursued  against  those- 
who  read  the  Scriptures  in  English^  there  were  some: 
found,  who  at  every  hazard  sought  wisdom  from  the 
book  of  God.    These,  to  promote  the  more  general  circu- 
lation of  the  Scriptures,  caused  select  portions  of  fVic- 
llf's  Translation  to  be  written  in  small  volumes,  that  the 
poor  might  purchase  them,  printing  being  unknown,  and 
writing  tedious  and  expensive.     Lewis,  the  author  of  The 
History  of  the  English  Translations  of  the  Bible,  possessed 
one  of  these  copies  in  24mo.  which  contained  St,  Johns 
Gospel,  the  Epistles  of  St.  James,  St.  Peter,  St.  John,  St, 
Jude,  and  the  Apocalypse.^    The  bishop's  registers  often 
mention  these  little  books,  or  libels,  as  they  were  called, 
and  notice  them  as  being  prohibited.     Persons  who  were 
detected  reading  them,  or  even  having  them  in  possession, 
were  prosecuted,  and  sometimes  were  burnt  with  them 
hanging  about  their  necks.     In  1429,  Nicholas  Belward, 
of  South  Elmham  in  Suffolk,  was  accused  of  having  in  his 
possession  a  New  Testament,  which  he  had  bought  in 
London,  for  four  marks  and  forty  pence,  ^2.  16s.  8d. 
a  sum  equivalent  to  more  than  ^40.  at  present;  an  asto- 
nishing price  to  have  been  paid  by  a  labouring  man,  for 
such  Belward  appears  to  have  been:  William  Wright 
deposing  that  he  "had  wrought  with  him  continually  by 
the  space  of  one  year ;  and  studied  diligently  upon  the 
said  New  Testament."    In  the  same  year  an  accusation 
was  brought  also  against  Margery  Backster,  in  which  it 
was  deposed,  that  she  had  desired  Joan,  the  wife  of  one 
Cliffland,  and  her  maid,  to  "come  secretly  in  the  night  ta 
her  chamber,  and  there  she  should  hear  her  husband  read 
the  Law  of'  Christ  to  them ;  which  Law  was  written  in  a 
book  that  her  husband  was  wont  to  read  to  her  by  night ; 
and  that  her  husband  was  well  learned  in  the  Christian 
verity."     Many  other  depositions,  of  a  similar  nature, 
were  made  by  the  enemies  of  the  Lollards,  in  consequence 
(6)  Lewis,  p.  39.  ' 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  81 

of  which,  the  followers  of  Wiclif  were  subjected  to  yarious 
penances  and  imprisonments.  Against  Pucbard  Fletcher 
of  Beccles,  it  was  alledged,  "He  is  a  most  perfect  doctor 
in  that  sect,  and  can  very  well  and  perfectly  expound  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  hath  a  book  of  the  New  Law  in 
English^  Against  Sir  Hugh  Pye,  priest,  it  was  deposed, 
that  lie  had  "bequeathed  to  Alice,  servant  to  William 
White,  a  New  Testament,  which  they  then  called  the 
book  of  the  New  Law,  and  was  in  custody  of  Oswald 
Godfrey  of  Colchester."  Even  the  ability  to  read  was 
enumerated  amongst  the  crimes  of  this  sect,  by  their  vio- 
lent persecutors,  for  it  is  remarked  in  the  deposi- 
tions, that  "William  Bate,  tailor,  of  Sy thing,  and  his 
wife,  and  his  son,  which  can  read  English  very  well,  is 
of  the  same  sect ;"  that  "the  daughter  of  Thomas  Moone 
is  partly  of  the  same  sect,  and  can  read  English;'  and 
that  "John  Pert,  late  servant  of  Thomas  Moone,  is  of 
the  same  sect,  and  can  read  well,  and  did  read  in  the 
presence  of  William  White."  ^ 

The  disciples  of  WicHf,  however^  were  not  satisfied  with 
knowing  the  truth,  and  themselves  only  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures; they  were  animated  by  more  generous  principles, 
and  laudably  anxious  to  place  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of 
others,  as  a  powerful  means  of  enlightening  the  mind,  and 
influencing  the  heart.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  pious 
design,  these  early  reformers  were  materially  assisted  by 
the  zealous  co-operation  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Lord 
Cobham,  who  expended  considerable  sums  in  collecting, 
transcribing,  and  dispersing  the  works  of  Wiclif;  and  in 
maintaining  a  number  of  itinerant  preachers,  who  were 
employed  in  spreading  the  doctrines  of  our  English  re- 
former in  different  parts  of  the  country,  particularly  in 
the  dioceses  of  Canterbury,  London,  Rochester,  and 
Hereford.  Bale  says,  that  he  caused  all  the  works  of 
Wiclif  to  be  copied  by  desire  of  John   Huss,  and  to  be 

(7)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  pp.  786--788, 
Vol.  IL  F 


82  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

sent  into  France^  Spain,  Bohemia,  and  other  foreign 
countries.  The  support  afforded  the  Lollards  by  this 
nobleman,  and  his  zeal  in  the  diffusion  of  evangelical 
truth,  rendered  him  the  object  of  the  most  cruel  persecu- 
tion. He  was  accused  of  heresy^,  condemned  and  impri- 
soned in  the  tower  of  London,  from  whence  he  found 
means  to  escape,  but  being  retaken,  in  1417,  by  Lord 
Powis,  was  suspended  alive  in  chains,  upon  a  gajlows, 
and  burnt  to  death.® 

The  excessive  dearness  of  booh)  prior  to  the  invention 
of  printing,  is  a  sufficient  proof  that  the  Lollards  must 
have  been  countenanced  and  assisted  by  persons  of 
wealth  and  influence,  in  spreading  extensively  the  works 
of  Wiclif,  especially  his  Translation  of' the  New  Testament, 
Several  instances  of  the  exorbitant  prices  of  books,  about 
this  period,  have  been  already  adduced;  the  following 
will  render  the  evidence  still  more  decisive.  In  1424, 
two  Antiphonars,  books  containing  all  the  invitatories, 
responsories,  verses,  collects,  and  whatever  was  said  or 
sung  in  the  choir,  except  the  lessons,  cost  the  little  mon- 
kery of  Crabhouse,  in  Norfolk,  Twenty-six  Marks;  and 
the  common  price  for  a  Mass  book  was  Five  Marks, 
equal  to  the  yearly  revenue  of  a  vicar,  or  curate,  which, 
about  this  period,  was  fixed  at  Five  Marks,  {^3.  6.  8.) 
or  Two  Marks,  and  his  board.®  At  an  early  period  of 
this  century,  Pierre  Plaoul^  bishop  of  Senlis,  bequeathed 
a  large  quarto  Bible,  fairly  written  on  vellum,  to  the 
house  of  the  Sorbonne,  at  Pafis;  on  the  last  leaf  of  which 
there  was  a  Latin  note,  to  the  following  effect:  "This 
book,  the  value  of  which  is  fifteen  pounds  of  Paris,  be- 
longs to  the  poor  masters  of  Sorbonne,  bequeathed  to 
them  by  the  reverend  father  in  Christ,  Pierre  Plaoul, 
formerly  bishop  of  Senlis,  and  an  eminent  professor  of 
Holy  Scripture,  of  the  society  of  the  aforesaid  house; 

(8)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  p.  664,  &c. 
British  Biography,  I.  p.  138.  Lond.  1773.  8vo. 

(9)  Johnson's  Ecclesiastical  Laws,  &c.  II,  A.D.  1222.  1305.  1362. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  83 

who  died,  April  llth,  1415,  and  was  buried  in  the 
church  of  St.  Marcellus,  near  to  the  famous  and  me- 
morable master  Peter  Lombard,  bishop  of  Paris.  May 
his  soul  rest  in  peace!"  '^'^A  similar  printed  Bible,''  says 
Chevillier,  ^Svould  not  have  cost  six  francs."  In  1491, 
Bernard's  Homilies  on  the  Canticles  were  pawn- 
ed for  Twenty  Shillings;  and  a  few  years  earlier, 
A.  D.  1471,  when  Lewis  XI.  of  France  borrowed  the 
works  of  the  Arabian  physician  Rhasis,  from  the  faculty 
of  medicine  at  Paris,  he  not  only  deposited,  by  way  of 
pledge,  a  quantity  of  valuable  plate,  but  was  obliged  to 
procure  a  nobleman  to  join  with  him  as  surety  in  a  deed, 
by  which  he  bound  himself  to  return  it,  under  a  considera- 
ble forfeiture.'^  Henry  V.  of  England  possessed  so  scanty 
a  library,  that  he  borrowed  several  books,  which  were 
claimed  by  their  owners,  after  his  death.  The  Countess 
of  Westmoreland  presented  a  petition  to  the  privy  coun- 
cil, A.  D.  1424,  praying  that  an  order  might  be  given 
under  the  privy  seal,  for  the  restoration  of  a  book,  bor- 
rowed of  her,  by  the  late  king,  containing  the  Chronicles 
of  Jermalem,  and  the  Expedition  of  Godfrey  of  Boulogne; 
which  was  granted  with  great  formality.  Another  peti- 
tion was  presented  by  the  prior  of  Christ-Church,  Canter- 
bury, stating,  that  the  late  king  had  borrowed  from  the 
priory,  the  worhs  of  St.  Gregory,  which  by  his  testament 
he  had  directed  to  be  restored,  but  which  had  been  with- 
held by  the  prior  of  Shine.  After  serious  deliberation, 
the  council  issued  an  order  to  the  prior  of  Shine,  either 
to  deliver  up  the  book,  or  to  appear  before  the  council, 
and  assign  the  reasons  of  his  refusal."  Nor  will  it  per- 
haps be  deemed  impertinent  to  add,  that  literature  in 
general,  and  Sacred  Literature  in  particular,  was  still  far- 
ther discouraged,  by  the  almost  universal  preference  of 

{\0)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  I.  Diss.  2. 

Chevillier,  De  V  Origine  de  V  loiprimerie  de  Paris,  pt.  iv.  ch.  t. 
p.  371.    Paris,  1694,  4to. 
(llj  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  X.  B.  v.  ch.  iv.  pp.  115;  116. 


84  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

entertainment  to  instruction.    The  minstrels  were  more 
amply  remunerated  than  the  clergy ;  and  the  feast  of  the 
Episcopus  Puerorum,  or  Boy-bishop,  more  numerously  at- 
tended than  the   most  solemn  festivals  of  the  church. 
During  many  of  the  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  par- 
ticularly in  the  year  1430,  at  the  annual  feast  of  the  ho- 
ly cross,  at  Abingdon,  a  town  in  Berkshire,  twelve  priests 
each  received  four-pence  for  singing  a   dirge;   and  the 
same  number  of  minstrels  were  each  rewarded  with  two 
shillings  and   four-pence,  beside  diet  and  provender  for 
their  horses.     In  the  same  year,  the  prior   de  Maxtock 
gave  six-pence  for  a  sermon,   to  an  itinerant  doctor  in 
theology,  of  one  of  the  Mendicant  orders,  who  went  about 
preaching  to  the  religious  houses.     In  a   very  mutilated 
fragment  of  a  Computus,  or  annual  accompt  roll  of  St. 
Swithen's  cathedral   priory,   at  Winchester,   under  the 
year  1441,  a  disbursement  is  made  to  the  singing-boys  of 
the  monastery,  who,  together  with  the  choristers  of  St. 
Elizabeth's  collegiate  chapel,  near  that  city,  were  dressed 
up  like  girls,  and  exhibited  their  sports  before  the  abbess 
and  nuns  of  St.  Mary's  abbey,  at  Winchester,  in  the  pub- 
lic refectory  of  that  convent,  on  Innocents    day.     Ano- 
ther fragment,  of  an  accompt  of  the  cellarer  of  Hyde  ab- 
bey, at  Winchester,  has   the  following  entry,   under   the 
year  1490:     "In  larvis  et  aliis  indumentis  puerorum  vi- 
sentium  dominum  apud  Wulsey,  et  constabularium  castri 
Winton,  in  apparatu  sue,  nee  non  snbinstrantium  omnia 
monasteria  civitatis  Winton,  in  ffesto  Nicholai."     That  is, 
^'  In  furnishing  masks  and  dresses  for  the  boys  of  the  con- 
sent, when  they  visited  the  bishop  at  Wulvesey  Palace,  the 
constable  of  Winchester  castle,    and  all  the  monasteries 
of  the  city  of  Winchester,  on  the   festival  of  St.  Nicho- 
las."'^    In  many  churches  it  was  a  common   practice  to 
elect  a  boy  on  St.  Nicholas's   or  Innocents'  day,  to  as- 
sume the  garb,  and  perform  the  functions  of  the  bishop, 

(12)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II.  pp,  105,  106  j  lIL  p.  334. 


PIPTEENTH    CENTURY.  85 

who  was  therefore  denominated  episcopiis  ptierormn,  or 
boy-bishop,  and  sometimes  the  chorister-bishop.  This 
was  particularly  the  case  in  England,  in  the  church  of 
Sarum,  The  learned  John  Gregory,  of  Oxford,  wrote  a 
tract,  published  after  his  decease,  expressly  on  this  cus- 
tom of  the  church  of  Sarum,  the  title  of  which  is,  "Epis- 
copus  Puerorum  in  die  Innocentiiim:  or  a  discovery  of  an 
ancient  custom  in  the  church  of  Sarum,  making  an  anni- 
versary bishop  among  the  choristers."  In  this  work,  it 
is  said,  "The  Episcopus  Choristorum  was  a  chorister-bi- 
shop, chosen  by  his  fellow-children,  upon  St.  Nicholas's 
day.  Upon  this  day  rather  than  any  other,  because  it  is 
singularly  noted  of  this  bishop,  (as  Paul  said  of  his  Ti- 
mothy,) that  he  had  known  the  Scriptures  of  a  child,  and 
led  a  life  sanctissime  ah  ipsis  incunahilis  inchoatam.  The 
reason  is  yet  more  properly  and  expressly  set  down  in  the 
English  Festival:" 

"It  is  sayed  that  his  fader  hyght  Epiphanius,  and  his 
moder  Joanna,  S^c,  And  whan  he  was  born,  <^c.  they 
made  him  christen,  and  caled  him  Nycolas,  that  is  a 
mannes  name,  but  he  kepeth  the  name  of  a  child,  for  he 
chose  to  kepe  vertues,  meknes,  and  simplenes,  and  with- 
out malice:  also  we  rede  while  he  lay  in  his  cradel,  he 
fasted  Wednesday  and  Friday:  these  dayes  he  would 
souke  but  ones  of  the  day,  and  therwyth  held  him  plesed: 
thus  he  lyued  all  his  lyf  in  vertues  with  his  childes  name. 
And  therefore,  children  don  him  worship  before  all  other 
saints."     Lib.  Festivalism  die  S.  Nicolas,  fol.  55. 

"From  this  day  till  Innocents  Day,  at  night,  (it  lasted 
longer  at  first,)  the  Episcopus  Puerorum  was  to  bear  the 
name,  and  hold  up  the  state  of  a  bishop,  answerably  ha- 
bited with  a  crosier,  or  pastoral  staff  in  his  hand,  and  a 
viitre  upon  his  head:  and  such  an  one  too  some  had  as 
was  multis  episcoporum  mitris  sumptuosior,  (saith  one,) 
very  much  richer  than  those  of  bishops  indeed." 

"The  rest  of  his  fellows  from  the  s^me  time  being  were 


86  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

to  take  upon  them  the  style  and  counterfeit  of  prebend^; 
yielding  to  their  bishop,  (or  else  as  if  it  were,)  no  less 
than  canonical  obedience." 

''And  look  what  service  the  very  bishop  himself,  with 
his  dean  and  prebends,  (had  they  been  to  officiate,)  was  to 
have  performed,  the  mass  excepted,  the  very  same  was 
done  by  the  chorister-bishop  and  his  canons,  upon  the  eve^ 
and  the  holy -day  ^' 

"In  case  the  chorister-bishop  died  within  the  month, 
his  exequies  were  solemnized  with  an  answerable  glori- 
ous pomp  and  sadness.  He  was  buried,  (as  all  other  bi- 
shops,) in  all  his  ornaments.  In  the  cathedral  of  Sarum, 
there  lieth  a  monument,  in  stone,  of  a  little  boy  habited 
all  in  episcopal  robes,  a  mitre  upon  his  head,  a  crosier 
in  his  hand,  and  the  rest  accordingly." 

Our  author  adds,  that  all  the  ceremonies  were  perform- 
ed "with  that  solemnity  of  celebration,  and  appetite  of 
seeing,  that  the  statute  of  Sarurn  was  forced  to  provide. 
Suh  poena  majoris  excommunicationis,  ne  quis  pueros  illos 
4n  prcefata  processione,  vel  alias  in  suo  ministerio^  premat 
aut  impediat  quoquo  modo^  quo  minus  pacifice  valeant face- 
re  et  exequi  quod  illis  imminet  faciendum,  S^c.  That  no 
person  whatsoever,  under  pain  of  Anathema,  should  in- 
terrupt, or  press  upon  these  children,  at  the  procession, 
or  in  any  other  part  of  their  service,  in  any  ways,  but  to 
suffer  them  quietly  to  perform  and  execute  what  it  con- 
cerned them  to  do."*^ 

As  to  the  divine  service  being  performed  on  these  fes^ 
tivals  by  children,  not  only  was  it  celebrated  by  boys, 
but  also  hy  girls ;  for  there  is  an  injunction  given  to  the 
Benedictine  nunnery  of  Godstowe,  in  Oxfordshire,  by 
Archbishop  Peckham,  in  the  year  1278,  that  on  Inno- 
cents' day,  the  public  prayers  should  not  any  more  be  said 
in  the  church  of  that  monsistery,  per  parvulas,  that  is,  by 
little  girls.  And  so  far  back  may  a  similar  custom  b^ 
(13)  Gregory's  Works,  Posthuma,  pp.  95,  113^117.  Lond.  1671,  4tp, 


FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.  87 

traced,  that  at  the  Constantinopolitan  synod,  held  in  the 
year  867,  at  which  373  bishops  were  present,  it  was  found 
to  be  a  solemn  custom  in  the  courts  of  princes,  on  certain 
stated  days,  to  dress  some  laymen  in  the  episcopal  apparel, 
who  should  exactly  personate  a  bishop,  both  in  his  ton- 
sure and  ornaments;  and  also  to  create  a  burlesque  pa- 
triarch, who  might  make  sport  for  the  company.  This 
scandal  to  religion  was  anathematized  by  the  good  bi- 
shops, but  without  complete  success,  the  temporary  check 
serving  only  to  alter  its  direction,  and  increase  its  ener- 
gy." In  1274,  the  council  of  Saltzburg  forbade  any  one 
to  assume  the  office  of  boy-bishop,  who  was  more  than 
sixteen  years  of  age,  great  enormities  having  sometimes 
been  committed  in  the  churches,  by  those  who  had  en- 
gaged in  those  Ludi,  or  plays.'^  And  the  council  of  Ba- 
sil, in  1435,  condemned  them,  though  they  continued  to 
be  practised  for  centuries  afterwards/^ 

There  flourished,  however,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
former,  ancl  commencement  of  this  century,  several 
illustrious  characters,  who,  notwithstanding  the  supersti- 
tion and  bigotry  of  their  church,  deserve  to  be  recorded 
among  the  promoters  of  Sacred  Literature  and  knowledge. 
Adam  Eston,  or  Easton,  an  Englishman,  educated  at 
Oxford,  became  a  Benedictine  monk  of  Norwich,  and 
successively  filled  the  sees  of  Hereford  and  London.  He 
was  eminently  skilled  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  and 
appears  to  have  been  the  ^rst  of  the  moderns  who  at- 
tempted a  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  OlD  TESTAMENT,    imme- 

diately  from  the  Hebrew.  This  work  he  is  said  to  have 
completed,  except  the  Psalms,  Robert  Wakefield,  (who 
died  in  1538,)  says,  in  the  tract  which  he  wrote  on  the 
Purity  of  the  Hebrew  Text^  that,  for  some  time,  he  had 


(14)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  III.  p.  324, 

(15)  Da  Cange,  v.  Episcopus  Puerorum. 

(IQ)  Du  Tilliot,  Memoires  pour  servir  a  V  Hist,  de  la  Fete  des  Foux, 

pp.  58—73, 


Bd  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

tlie  work  in  his  possession,  but  that  at  length  it  was  sto- 
len. In  the  preface  to  his  translation,  he  defends  the 
integrity  of  the  Hebrew  original,  against  Nicholas  de 
Lyra,  and  others,  who  supposed  it  to  have  been  cor- 
rupted by  the  Jews.  He  was  created  a  cai-dinal,  by  Urban 
VI.  but  was  afterwards  thrown  into  prison,  with  five 
other  cardinals,  by  the  same  pontiff,  where  he  remained 
for  five  years ;  after  his  release  he  wrote  an  account  of  his 
imprisonment.     He  died  at  Rome,  A.  D.  1397.^^ 

John  of  Whethamstede,  abbot  of  St.  Albans,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VI.  was  an  eminently  studious  and  learn- 
ed writer.  A  MS.  life  of  him  in  the  Cottonian  Library, 
enumerates  more  than  fourscore  separate  treatises,  given  to 
the  abbey,  many  of  which  were  written  by  himself.  H^e  ex- 
pended large  sums  in  beautifying  and  enriching  his  monas- 
tery ;  among  other  things,  he  adorned  the  roof  and  walls 
of  the  Virgin  Mary's  chapel  with  pictures,  at  an  expense 
of  forty  pounds ;  and  gave  an  organ  to  the  choir  of  the 
church.  He  built  a  library  at  Oxford,  and  enriched  it 
with  books.  To  familiarize  the  history  of  his  patron 
saint,  to  the  monks  of  his  convent,  he  employed  Lydgate, 
then  a  monk  of  Bury,  in  Suffolk,  to  translate  the  Latin 
legend  of  his  life,  into  English  rhymes.  For  the  transla- 
tion, the  writing,  and  the  illuminations,  he  paid  one  hun- 
dred shillings;  and  expended  on  the  binding,  and  other 
exterior  ornaments  of  the  MS.  upwards  of  three  pounds. 
It  was  placed  before  the  altar  of  the  saint,  in  the  abbey 
church,  Whethamstede  having  adorned  the  altar  with 
much  magnificence.  During  his  abbacy,  a  grand  tran- 
script of  the  PosTiLLA  of  Nicholas  de  Lyra^  on  the  BiBLE,f 
was  begun  at  his  command,  with  the  most  splendid  or- 
naments and  hand-writing.  The  monk  who  records  this 
important  anecdote,  lived  soon  after  him,  and  speaks  of 
this  great  undertaking,  then  unfinished,  as  if  it  were  some 

(17)  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  edit  Masch,  pt.  ii.  vol.  III.  cap.  iii.  sec.  i.  p.  432.; 
Hodyj  De  Bibl.  Text.  lib.  iii.  pt.  ii.  p.  440, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  ,  89 

magnificent  public  edifice.  "God  grants"  says  he,  "that 
this  work  in  our  days  may  receive  a  happy  consummation!" 
Some  of  Whethamstede's  tracts,  MS.  copies  of  which  often 
occur  in  our  libraries,  are  dedicated  to  Humphrey,  duke 
Of  Gloucester,  who  was  fond  of  visiting  the  abbey,  and  em- 
ployed our  abbot  to  collect  valuable  books  for  him.  A  fine 
copy  of  his  Granarium,  an  immense  work,  was  presented 
by  the  duke,  to  the  library  then  lately  erected  by  himself, 
at  Oxford.  A  beautiful  MS.  folio,  of  Valerius  Maximus, 
enriched  with  the  most  elegant  decorations,  with  a  curi- 
ous table,  or  index,  made  by  Whethamstede,  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  Bodleian  Library.  He  was  the  author  of  a 
Chronicle,  embracing  a  period  of  twenty  years,  from  1441, 
to  1461,  inclusive.  It  contains  many  original  papers,  and 
gives  a  very  full  account  of  some  events,  particularly 
respecting  his  own  abbey.  He  was  ordained  a  priest  A.  D. 
1382,  and  died  1464,  being  above  a  hundred  years  of  age, 
eighty-two  of  which  he  had  been  in  priest's  orders.^^ 

John  Capgrave,  another  learned  Englishman,  was 
born  in  the  county  of  Kent.  Fie  entered  into  the  monas- 
tery of  Angus  tin  monks,  at  Canterbury,  and  after  he  had 
taken  his  Doctor's  degree,  at  Oxford,  became  Provincial 
of  his  order.  He  was  the  confesssor,  and  intimate  friend 
of  Humphrey,  duke  of  Gloucester.  In  the  library  of  Oriel 
College,  at  Oxford,  there  is  a  MS.  Commentary  on  Ge- 
nesis, written  by  Capgrave,  who  was  reputed  eminent  as 
a  theologian.  It  is  the  author's  autograph,  and  is  dedi- 
cated to  the  duke.  In  the  superb  initial  letter  of  the  de- 
dicatory epistle,  is  a  curious  illumination  of  the  author, 
humbly  presenting  his  book  to  his  patron,  who  is  seated, 
and  covered  with  a  sort  of  hat.  At  the  end  is  this  entry, 
in  the  hand-writing  of  the  duke  himself:  "Ce  llvre  est 
a  moy  Humphrey  due  de  Gloucestre  du  don  defrere  Jehan 
Capgrave,  quy  le  me  Jit  presenter  a  mon  manoyr  de  Pen- 

(18)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  J  I.  pp.  45—47.  53. 
Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  X.  B.  v.  p.  132. 


90 

sherst  le jour  de Van  MCCCXXX VIII."  [pro- 

bably  MCCCCXXXVIIL]  i.  e.  "This  book  belongs  to  me, 
Humphrey^,  duke  of  Gloucester,  the  gift  of  brother  John 
Capgrave,  who  presented  it  to  me  at  my  manor  of  Pen* 

shurst,  the day  of  -  -  -  in  the  year  14.38."     Beside 

this  Commentary  on  Genesis,  and  others  on  Exodus  and 
Kings,  presented  also  by  the  duke  to  the  Library  at  Ox- 
ford, he  was  the  author  of  Commentaries  on  almost  all 
the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament;  as  w^ell  as 
of  a  Catalogue,  or  Legend  of  the  Ejiglish  Saints,  printed 
at  London,  by  Caxton,  1516.  fob;  a  Biography  of  illus- 
trious men,  who  flourished  under  the  Henries  of  England; 
and  many  other  works,  chiefly  historical:  He  was  de- 
cided in  his  attachment  to  the  church  of  Rome,  but  op- 
posed and  thundered  against  the  depraved  practices  of  the 
ecclesiastics  of  his  day.  He  died  at  Lynn,  in  Norfolk, 
August  12th,  A.  D.  1464;  or,  according  to  Pitts,  A.  D. 
1484.^^ 

But  the  most  munificent  patron  of  general  literature, 
was  the  good  Humphrey,  duke  of  Gloucester.  To  him 
the  Bodleian  Library,  as  it  has  been  since  called,  was 
indebted  for  an  extensive  and  princely  donation  of  books, 
containing  600  volumes.  These  books  are  called  Novi 
Tractatus,  or  New  Treatises,  in  the  university  Register. 
They  were  the  most  splendid  and  costly  copies  that 
could  be  procured,  finely  written  on  vellum,  and  elegant- 
ly embellished  with  miniatures  and  illuminations;  120  of 
which  were  valued  at  more  than  ^1000.  The  magnifi- 
cent copy  of  Valerius  Maximus,  the  Index  of  which  was 
made  by  Whethamstede,  was  one  of  them.  As  he  pa- 
tronized, in  a  particular  manner,  the  abbey  of  St.  Albans, 
many  of  the  abbots  paid  their  court  to  him,  by  sending 
him  presents  of  books,  beautifully  executed,  and  adorned 
with  the  most  exquisite  paintings,  which  seem  to  have 

: I  I  ■* 

(19)  Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  saec.  xv.  Append,  p.  132. 
Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II.  p.  46. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  91 

constituted  a  part  of  his  gift  to  the  library  at  Oxford.^ 
Humphrey  was  brother  to  Henry  V.  and  the  duke  of  Bed- 
ford; and  uncle  to  Henry  VI.  during  whose  minority  he 
occasionally  administered  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom^  as 
regent. 

The  Library  of  Baliol  College,  Oxford,  was  also  found- 
ed in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  was  ori- 
ginally built  in  two  parts,  the  lower,  or  west  part  in  1427, 
by  Dr.  Thomas  Chace;  and  the  upper,  or  east  part  about 
the  year  1477,  by  Mr.  Robert  Abdy,  both  some  time 
masters.  William  Lambert,  who  w^as  master  in  1406, 
and  Robert  Thwaites,  who  attained  the  same  honour  in 
1451,  gave  many  valuable  MSS.;  and  William  Wilton,  a 
fellow,  and  afterwards  chancellor  of  the  university,  was 
also  a  contributor  of  books,  in  1492.  Grey,  bishop  of 
Ely,;  in  1454,  proved  a  most  noble  benefactor,  not  only 
in  money  for  the  building,  but  in  adding  to  the  collection 
about  200  MSS.  many  of  them  richly  illuminated,  which 
he  had  purchased  in  England  and  Italy.  In  the  latter 
country  he  employed  transcribers  and  illuminators,  as 
appears  by  some  of  his  MSS.  still  in  this  library.  The 
illuminations  were  chiefly  executed  by  Autonius  Marius, 
an  ^^ exquisite  painter,"  of  Florence,  during  the  bishop's 
residence  in  that  city.  On  most,  if  not  all  of  the  MSS. 
the  donors'  arms  were  fastened,  painted  on  vellum,  and 
covet^ed  with  pieces  of  thin  horn,  to  prevent  their  being 
torn  off,  or  defaced.  "But,  with  great  resentment  let  it 
be  spoken,"  says  A.  Wood,  "divers  of  them  which  smelled 
of  superstition,  or  that  treated  of  school  divinity,  or  of 
geometry,  or  astronomy,  were  taken  away  in  that  igno- 
rant time  of  Edward  VI.  wherein  people,  under  pretence 
of  reformation,  pilfered,  and  made  havoc  of  those  things 
which  posterity  hath  since  much  desired  to  see."^* 

(2D)   Warton,  ubi  sup. 

(21)  Chalmer's  Hist,  of  the  Colleges,  &c.  attached   tp  the  University  of 
Oxford,  I.  p.  55.    Oxford,   1810,  8vo. 
Wood's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford^ed.  Gutch.  p,  89,  4to. 


92  BIBLICAL   LITERATUR'^, 

The  countenance  which  the  study  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures derived  also  from  the  devotional  habits  of  two  royal 
personages^  ought  not  to  be  forgotten.  These  were  Ann 
OF  Bohemia,  and  Henry  VI.  The  former  of  these  illus- 
trious characters  was  the  beloved  queen  of  Richard  II. 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Charles  IV.  and  sister  to  Win- 
ceslaus,  king  of  Bohemia,  and  emperor  of  Germany.  She 
was  married  to  King  Richard  A.  D.  1382.  Wiclif,  in  his 
book  Of  the  threefold  bond  of  love,  thus  speaks  of  her : 
"It  is  possible  that  the  noble  queen  of  England,  the 
sister  of  Caesar,  may  have  the  Gospel  written  in  three 
languages,  Bohemian,  German,  and  Latin,  and  to  here- 
ticate  her  on  this  account,  would  be  Luciferian  folly." 
Archbishop  Arundel,  in  his  sermon  preached  at  her  fune- 
ral in  1394,  highly  commends  her,  that  "although  she 
was  a  stranger,  yet  she  constantly  studied  the  Four  Gospels 
in  English,  and  explained  by  the  expositions  of  the  doc- 
tors ;  and  that  in  the  study  of  these,  and  reading  godly 
books,  she  was  more  diligent  than  even  the  prelates 
themselves,  though  their  office  and  business  required  it."^^ 

Of  the  attachment  of  King  Henry  VI.  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  his  regular  habits  of  piety,  the  following 
account  has  been  left  by  John  Blackman,  a  Carthusian 
monk,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  the  monarch  himself: 

"He  was  incessantly  occupied  either  in  prayers,  or  in 
reading  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  chronicles,  from  which  he 
derived  many  passages  for  his  own  spiritual  consolation,  as 
well  as  that  of  others.  He  was  also  accustomed  to  send  to 
certain  clergymen,  hortatory  epistles,  full  of  heavenly  mys- 
teries and  salutary  admonitions,  to  the  astonishment  of 
many.  On  ordinary  days  he  spent  his  time  not  less  dili- 
gently, in  treating  of  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom  with  his 
council,  according  to  the  exigency  of  the  case ;  or  else  in 
reading  writings  or  chronicles.    Hence  Richard  Tunstall, 

■ ■ — — — - —  I  ^         ; 

(%1)  Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  161, 

Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  pp.  197,  198; 


FIFTEENTH   CENTURY.  93 

formerly  his  faithful  chamberlain,  has  given  testimony  con- 
cerning him,  both  verbally  and  in  his  writings,  saying,  'his 
delight  was  in  the  Law  of  the  Lord  both  day  and  night.' 
In  confirmation  of  the  same  thing,  the  king  himself 
heavily  complained  to  me  in  his  palace  at  Eltham,  when 
I  was  with  him  there  alone,  engaged  with  him  in  his  holy 
books,  and  listening  to  his  salutary  admonitions,  and  the 
breathings  of  his  profound"  devotion,  for  being  interrupted 
by  a  knocking  at  the  royal  gate,  by  a  certain  powerful 
duke  of  the  realm;  the  king  said,  'They  so  disturb  me, 
that  I  can  scarcely  snatch  time  to  refresh  myself  either  by 
day  or  night,  with  the  reading  of  any  sacred  doctrines, 
without  being  interrupted  by  some  noise  or  other/  Some- 
thing of  a  similar  kind  once  happened  also  in  my  presence 
at  Windsor."  ^^  Yet  such  was  the  inconsistency  of  this 
monarch,  that  whilst  he  himself  read  the  Scriptures  con- 
stantly, and  regarded  them  as  an  inestimable  source  of 
instruction  and  consolation,  his  subjects  were  persecuted, 
imprisoned,  and  burned  alive,  for  reading,  or  hearing,  or 
pursuing  the  dictates  of  those  very  Scriptures! 

The  opinions  of  Wiclif,  which  had  continued  to  spread 
in  England,  were  now  extended  to  the  continent,  and 
found  in  Bohemia,  in  particular,  many  who  advocated 
the  doctrines  of  the  reformer,  and  zealously  endeavoui-ed 
to  give  them  publicity  and  establishment.  The  attend- 
ants of  Ann  of  Bohemia,  queen  of  Richard  IL  on  their 
return  to  their  own  country,  had  carried  with  them  some 
of  Wiclif  s  writings,  and  communicated  the  knowledge  of 
his  sentiments  to  the  circle  of  their  acquaintance;^*  but 
the  principal  agent  in  introducing  Wiclifs  works  was  a 
youug  Bohemian  nobleman,  named  Faulfisch.  This  gen- 
tleman had  been  a  student  at  Oxford,  where  he  had 
embraced  the  views  of  the  English  reformer,  and  had 
brought  to  Bohemia  several  of  his  works,  among  which 

(23)  Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  171. 

C24)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  p.  701. 


94  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

were  his  books  De  Realihus  Universalihus ;  De  dwersis 
qucestionibus  contra  Clerum;  Dialogus;  Trialogus;  Super 
Evmigelia  sermones  per  circulum  anni,  &c.^*  These  were 
read  with  avidity  by  the  celebrated  John  Hubs,  a  native 
of  Bohemia,  who,  by  his  genius  and  industry,  had  risen 
from  obscurity  to  the  honourabie  office  of  rector  of  the 
university  of  Prague,  which  was  then  in  a  flourishing 
condition,  and  crowded  with  students  from  various  parts 
of  Germany.  He  had  also  been  nominated,  A.  D.  1400, 
one  of  the  two  preachers  of  Bethlehem,  a  great  church 
dedicated  to  Matthias  and  Matthseus,  which  had  been 
erected  and  endowed  by  an  opulent  citizen  of  Prague,  for 
the  purpose  of  having  the  Word  of  God  taught  to  the 
people  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  both  on  festivals  and  ordi- 
nary days.  Huss  was  soon  joined  by  many  of  the  clergy, 
and  several  of  the  nobility;  in  particular  by  Jerom  of 
Prague,  a  man  of  superior  talents  and  address,  who  had 
visited  England  for  the  sake  of  his  studies,  and  brought 
from  thence  various  writings  of  Wiclif.  The  adherents 
of  our  reformer,  however,  met  with  a  violent  and  bigotted 
opponent  in  Subinco,  surnamed  Lepus,  archbishop  of 
Prague,  a  prelate  of  illustrious  extraction,  but  so  illiterate, 
that  he  only  acquired  the  knowledge  of  letters  after  his 
advancement  to  the  archbishopric.  This  determined 
enemy  of  the  Hussites,  as  they  were  called,  commanded 
that  all  the  books  of  Wiclif  should  be  brought  to  him  in 
order  to  be  publicly  burnt.  The  episcopal  mandate  was 
partially  obeyed,  and  more  than  two  hundred  volumes 
finely  written,  and  richly  ornamented  with  costly  covers 
and  gold  bosses,  were  committed  to  the  flames.^®  But  the 
rage  of  Subinco  and  his  party  was  not  to  be  assuaged  by 
the  mere  destruction  of  what  were  deemed  heretical 
works;  the  teachers  were  still  more  the  objects  of  their 

(25)  iEneae  Sylvii  Historia  Bohemica^   cap.  xxxv.  p.  65.  Francofurt, 

1687,  12mo.         Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  ch.  ix.  p.  143. 

(26)  /Eneae  Sylvii  Hist.  Bohem.  cap.  xxxv.    pp.  66—69. 
^idderi  De  Eruditione  Historia^  cap.  i.  p,  40.  Rotterd,  1680. 


FIPTfiENTH    CENTURY.  95 

direst  enmity.    John  Huss  was  driven  from  Prague^  and 
obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  village  from  whence  he  de- 
rived his  name.     In  this  retreat  ^'he  spent  his  time/'  says 
a  catholic  historian,  "in  translating  certain  books  of  the 
Old    and   New  Testament  into  the    vulgar    tongue; 
to  which   he  added   commentaries,  and  gave   thereby  to 
women    and    tradesmen    means  of    disputing  with  the 
monks  and  clergy."     The  council  of  Constance  being  as- 
sembled, in  1414,  he  was  cited  to  appear  before  it,  and 
contrary  to  the  expectations  of  his  enemies,  acted  with 
that  noble  decision  that  marked  his  character,  and  fear- 
lessly presented  himself  on  the  first  day  of  its  sitting,  un- 
der the  protection  of  the  Safe-conduct,  or  passport,  of  the 
Emperor  Sigismund,  which  required  all  the  subjects  of 
the  empire,    "to  suffer  him   to  pass   and  repass  secure; 
and,  for  the  honour  of  his  imperial  majesty,  if  need   be, 
to  provide  him  with  good  passports."     But  the  Safe-con- 
duct was  perfidiously  violated,  and  Huss  was  condemned, 
and  burnt  at  the  stake,  A.  D.  1415.     His  friend,  and  fel- 
low-sufferer,  Jerom,   followed  him    through  the  flames 
the  ensuing  year,     i^neas  Sylvius,  a  cotemporary  cardi- 
nal, and  afterwards  pope,   under  the  name   of  Pius  II. 
says,   "They  bore  their  sufferings  with  constancy,  going 
to  the  stake  as  to  a  feast,  and  suffering  no   expression  to 
escape,  which  could  indicate  uneasiness  of  mind.     As  the 
fire  kindled,  they  began  to  sing  hymns,  which  even  the 
flames  and  crackling  of  the  fire  could  scarcely  interrupt."^' 
Thus,  by  the  death  of  these  two  upright  and   excellent 
men,  eternal  infamy  was  attached  to  a  council,  which, 
whilst  it  professed  to  be  assembled  for  the  reformation  of 
the  church,  decreed  the  martyrdom  of  those  who  dared  to 
oppugn  its  superstitions  and  errors,  violated  the  most  so- 
lemn engagements,  supported  the  Teutonic  knights  in 
their  enormities,  refused  to  punish  the  advocates  of  regi- 

(27)  iEneae  Sylvii  Hist.  Bohem.  cap.  xxxti.  p.  73. 
Earber)''s  Pretended  Ueformers^  p.  49. 


96  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

cide,  and  amused  itself  with  the  buffooneries  of  the  most 
ridiculous  dramatic  entertainments.  (See  vol.  I.  p.  420.)  ^^ 
Irritated  by  the  death  of  their  teacher  and  his  friend, 
the  Hussites  flew  to  arms,  and  under  the  conduct  of  the 
intrepid  Zisca,  a  Bohemian  nobleman,   commenced   a 
fierce  and  bloody  war,  which  terminated  first  in  the  death 
of  Zisca,  and  then  in  the  division  of  the  Hussites  into 
Calixthies  and  Tahorites;  the  former  contending  for  the 
use  of  the  cup  (calix)  to  the  laity,  in  the  eucharist,  and 
the  latter,  who  derived  their  name  from  a  mountain 
denominated  Tabor,  to   which  they  had  fled,  insisting 
upon  a  more  general  reformation,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  purer  doctrine  and  discipline.     During  the  thirteen 
years   war,  carried   on   by   the  Hussites,  the  most  de- 
structive measures  were  too  frequently  adopted ;  and  it 
must  ever  be  lamented,  that  those  who  seceded  from  the 
Romish  church,  on  account  of  its  unscriptural  doctrines 
and  practices,  were  hurried  by  their  violence  to  depreda- 
tions unworthy  the  character  they  claimed.     On   one 
occasion  they  destroyed  a  church  and  monastery,  adjoin- 
ing the  king  s  palace,  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  in  ail 
Bohemia,    and    the    burying    places  of  its   sovereigns. 
The  church  was  magnificent;  the  altar  was  decorated 
with  gold  and  silver,  the-  ecclesiastical  robes  were  inter- 
woven with  pearls,   and  the  windows   were   large  and 
glazed.     The  dormitory  of  the  monastery  was  capable  of 
containing  eight  hundred  monks ;  the  offices  were  magni- 
ficently constructed;   the  cloister  enclosed  an  extensive 
garden,  and  on  its  lofty  walls  the  whole  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament  was  inscribed,  in  characters  rendered 
sufficiently  legible,  by  increasing  in  magnitude  in  pi*opor- 
tion  to  their  distance  and  height.^^ 

(28)  See  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  I.  p.  701—756;  Milner's  Hist. 

of  the  Church   of  Christ,   IV.  pp.  209;   and  Warton's  Hist,  of 
English  Poetry,  I.  p.  242. 

(29)  Mnede  Sylvii  Hist.  Bohem.  cap.  xxxvi.  pp.  74,  75. 
Earbery's  Pretended  ReforraeiS,  B.  ii.  p.  10» 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  97 

The  Calixtines,  having"  obtained  the  use  of  the  eucha- 
ristical  cup  by  papal  permission,  soon  began  to  persecute, 
in  their  turn,  the  Tahorites;  who  in  many  points  resembled 
the  Waldenses,  and  who  having  laid  aside  their  martial 
principles,  were  become  more  moderate,  and  more  deeply 
pious.  Various  sorts  of  torture  were  inflicted  on  them, 
numbers  were  barbarously  murdered,  and  many  died  in 
prison;  the  sick  were  thrown  into  the  open  fields,  where 
many  perished  with  cold  and  hunger ;  and  others  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  cities  and  villages,  with  the  forfeiture  of 
all  their  effects.  Thus  driven  from  their  homes,  they  were 
obliged  to  hide  themselves  in  mountains  and  woods ;  and  to 
escape  detection  by  the  smoke,  to  kindle  no  fires,  except 
in  the  night,  when  they  met  to  pray,  and  read  the  Woro 
OF  God.  In  14S0,  they  received  a  great  increase  of  their 
numbers,  from  the  accession  of  Waldensian  refugees, 
who  escaped  out  of  Austria,  where  their  bishop,  Stephen, 
had  been  burnt  alive,  and  where  a  dreadful  persecution 
had  been  raised  against  them.  From  these  Bohemian 
refugees,  the  Moravians,  or  United  Brethren,  are  descend- 
ed, deriving  the  former  term  from  the  country  they  inha- 
bited, and  the  latter  from  their  brotherly  union  in  the 
plan  of  discipline,  &c.  formed  in  1457,  by  Gregory,  the 
founder  of  the  unity .^'' 

Such  were  the  noble  struggles  for  the  truth,  and  for 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  the  grand  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice, made  by  these  ancient  worthies:  but  the  papal 
authorities  knew  too  well,  that  their  deeds  could 
not  bear  the  light,  and  therefore  sought  their  safety  in 
darkness.  A  striking  instance  of  this  occurred  in  1418, 
when  Eric,  of  Pomerania,  requested  permission  from  Pope 
Martin  V.  to  found  a  university  at  Copenhagen,  and  only 
obtained  it,  on  the  express  condition,  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  should  neither  be  read  nor  explained  in  it,  but 

(30)  Milner's  Hist.  otth«  Church  of  Christ,  IV.  Cent,  xv,  ch.  Vn.  passim. 
Vol.  1L  G 


98  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

that  the  lectures   should  be  confined   to   profane  lite- 
rature !  ^^ 

Other  difficulties^  also,  beside  those  arising  from  papal 
opposition,  presented  themselves  to  such  as  were  desirous 
of  reading  the  Scriptures,  for  copies  of  them  were  rare, 
and  expensive,  and  could  seldom  be  obtained  but  by  the 
wealthy;  except  when  the  indefatigable  advocates  of  Gos- 
pel purity  happened  to  have  the  opportunity,  possessed 
the  ability,  and  submitted  to  the  labour  of  transcribing. 
Even  those  who  had  acquired  the  important  art  of  writ- 
ing, obtained  with  difficulty  the  materials  requisite  for 
transcription  or  epistolary  correspondence.^^ 

Happily  about  this  period  the  noble  and  important 
Art  of  Printing  was  discovered,  and  the  sources  of 
knowledge  soon  became  comparatively  easy  of  access. 
Our  honest  martyrologist  thus  enumerates  the  advanta- 
ges resulting  from  this  incomparable  invention :  "  Hereby 
tongues  are  known,  knowledge  groweth,  judgment  in- 
creaseth,  books  are  dispersed,  the  Scripture  is  seen,  the 
doctors  be  read,  stories  be  opened,  times  compared,  truth 
discerned,  falsehood  detected,  and  with  finger  pointed, 
and  all  through  the  benefit  of  printing.  Wherefore,  I 
suppose  that  either  the  pope  must  abolish  printing,  or  he 
must  seek  a  new  world  to  reign  over;  or  else,  as  this 
world  standeth,  printing  doubtless  will  abolish  him. 
Both  the  pope,  and  all  his  college  of  cardinals,  must  this 
understand,  that  through  the  light  of  printing,  the  world 
begin neth  now  to  have  eyes  to  see,  and  heads  to  judge. 
He  cannot  walk  so  invisibly  in  a  net,  but  he  will  be 
spied.  And  although,  through  might,  he  stopped  the 
mouth  of  John  Huss  before,  and  of  Jerom,  that  they 
might  not  preach,  thinking  to  make  his  kingdom  sure  : 
yet,  instead  of  John  Huss,  and  others,  God  hath  opened 

(31)  X)r.  Henderson's  MS.  Hist,  of  Danish  Versions^  in  which  he  refers 

to  Pontoppidan's  Annal.  Eccles.  Dan.  II.  p,  521, 

(32)  Beckmaa's  History  of  Inventions,  II.  p.  223. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  99 

the  press  to  preachy  whose  voice  the  pope  is  never  able 
to  stop,  with  all  the  puissance  of  his  triple  crown.  By 
this  printing,  as  by  the  gift  of  tongues,  and  as  by  the  sin- 
gular organ  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  doctrine  of  the  Gos- 
pel soundeth  to  all  nations  and  countries  under  heaven: 
and  what  God  revealeth  to  one  man,  is  dispersed  to  many, 
and  what  is  known  in  one  nation  i§  opened  to  all. "^^ 

(33)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  1.  p.  837, 


100  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

PART  III. 

FROM    THE    INVENTION    OP    PRINTING, 


CHAPTER  I. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY    CONTINUED. 

Invention  qf  Printing.  Early  Printers.  First  printed 
Bibles.  Booh  Censors.  Indices  Expurgatorii.  Li- 
censers qfthe  Press. 

PRINTING  appears  to  be  indebted  for  its  origin  to 
the  art  of  engraving  on  wood,  which  was  probably 
borrowed  from  the  Chinese^  among  whom  it  was  in  use 
from  the  remotest  periods.  The  first  attempts  at  block- 
printing,  in  Europe^  were  made  about  the  commencement 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  by  the  manufacturers  of  playing 
cards,  w^ho,  after  having  employed  blocks,  or  wood-en- 
gravings for  their  cards,  began  to  engrave  on  wood,  the 
Images  of  the  Saints,  which  the  clergy  distributed  on  cer- 
tain occasions  to  the  people.  Prints  of  this  description, 
of  the  same  size  as  the  playing  cards,  representing  diffe- 
rent subjects  of  Sacred  History  and  devotion,  with  a 
text  analogous  to  the  subject,  opposite  to  the  figure,  are 
preserved  in  the  library  of  Wolfenbuttel.  But  that  they 
also  engraved  images  of  a  larger  size,  is  proved  by  the 
very  curious  wood-cut  of  St.  Christopher,  found  by  Ba- 
ron Heinecken,  in  the  convent  of  the  Chartreux,  at  Bux- 
heim,  near  Memmingen,  and  now  in  the  superb  collec- 
tion of  Earl  Spencer;  ayac-5zm?7e  of  which  is  given  in 
Dibdin's  splendid  Bihliotheca  Spenceriana.  From  the 
inscription     engraved    and     printed,    at    the    foot   of 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  101 

the  print,  it  is  proved  to  have  been  executed  A.  D. 
1423.^  To  the  images  of  the  saints  succeeded  histo- 
rical subjects,  chiefly  Biblical  or  devotional,  gene- 
rally denominated  Boohs  of  Images,  with  a  text  or 
explanation  engraven  on  the  same  tablet,  the  full- 
est account  of  which  is  given  by  Baron  Heinecken,  in 
his  Ided  Generate  dhine  Collection  comrpleite  d'Estampes, 
avec^tme  dissertation  sur  V  origine  de  la  Gravure,  et  siir 
les,  premiers  Livres  des  Images.  Leipsic  et  Vienne,  1771, 
8vo.  A  judicious  abridgment  of  this  work,  so  far  as  refers 
to  Books  of  Images,  with  corrections  and  notices  of  re- 
cently discovered  works  of  this  description,  is  contained 
in  the  appendix  to  Home's  Introduction  to  the  Study 
of  BihUography,  and  is  accompanied  with  ^^  facsimile  of 
the  first  plate  of  the  Speculum  Hiimance  Salvatioms,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  executed  between  the  years  1440  and 
1457;  and  another  of  the  Bihlia  Pauperum,  suppos- 
ed to  have  been  executed  between  A.  D.  1420  and 
1425.  Se\era\  facsimiles  of  works  of  this  nature,  are  en- 
graved from  rare  copies  in  the  possession  of  Earl  Spencer, 
in  the  Bibliotheca  Spenceriana,  with  bibliographical  de- 
scriptions by  the  ingenious  editor. 

Of  all  the  XylograpMc  works,  that  is,  such  as  are 
printed  from  wooden  tablets,  the  Biblia  Pauperum,  and 
the  Speculum  Salvationis,  are  the  most  celebrated. 
The  Biblia  Pauperum,  which  consists  of  40  plates  of 
Biblical  subjects,  with  analogous  extracts  and  sentences, 
is  unquestionably  a  very  rare  and  ancient  book.  The 
few  copies  of  it  which  are  now  extant,  are,  for  the  most 
part,  either  imperfect,  or  in  a  very  bad  condition ;  which 
ought  not  to  excite  surprise,  when  it  is  considered  that 
this  work  was  executed  for  the  use  of  young  ^  persons 
and  common  people,  (whence  its  name,  the  Bible  oj  the 
Poor,)  who  were  thus  enabled  to  acquire  at  a  low  price 
a  knowledge  of  some  of  the  events  recorded  in  the  Scrip- 
<l)  Heinecken,  Idee  Generale  d'  Estampes,  pp.  246.  248—251, 


102  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

tures.  This  will  account  for  the  destruction  of  almost 
every  copy,  by  repeated  use  ;  for  in  those  times,  when  the 
present  art  of  printing  was  unknown,  there  were  but  few 
persons  who  could  afford  to  give  a  hundred  louis  dor  for 
the  manuscript  of  a  complete  Bible.  A  somewhat  later 
edition  h^^^Jlfty  instead  oifoHy  plates. 

TheSpECULUM  Humane  Salvationis,  or  as  itis  frequent- 
ly termed,  Speculum  Salutis,  is  confessedly,  both  in  its  de- 
sign and  execution,  the  m.ost  perfect  of  all  the  ancient  books 
of  images,  which  preceded  the  invention  of  printing. 
This  compilation,  which  is  in  small  folio,  is  a  collection 
of  historical  passages  from  the  Scriptures,  with  a  few  from 
profane  history,  which  allude  to  them ;  and  is  ascribed 
by  Heinecken  (and  after  him  by  Lambinet)  to  a  Benedic- 
tine monk,  named  brother  John,  in  the  thirteenth  or  four- 
teenth century.  So  popular  was  this  Mirror  of  Salvation, 
that  it  was  translated  into  the  German,  Flemish,  and 
other  languages,  and  very  frequently  printed.^  The  pre- 
face is  printed  with  fusile  types. 

These  Books  of  Images,  chiefly  executed  in  Holland,* 
though  generally  regarded  as  the  first  attempts  of  printing, 
were  nevertheless  a  different  art  from  the  modern  print- 
ting,  which  consists  in  the  use  of  separate  moveable  types; 
which  at  first  were  cut  in  wood,  afterwards  in  metal, 
and  the  art  at  length  completed  by  the  invention  of  found- 
ing types  in  moulds  or  matrices.  For  the  invention  of 
moveable  types  we  are  indebted  to  John  Gutenberg,  of 
Mayence,  or  Mentz,  a  celebrated  town  in  Germany. 

Henne  Goensfleisch  de  Sidgelock,  or  Sorgenlochy 
commonly  called  John  Gutenberg,  was  born  at  Mentz, 
of  noble  and  wealthy  parents,  about  the  year  1400.     In 

(2)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  II.  A  pp.  pp,  ii.  x. 

*  It  is  probable  that  many  of  these  Books  of  Images  were  printed  at 
Haerlem,  and  that  from  hence  arose  the  opinion,  that  Lawrens  Coster 
of  Haerlem  was  the  inventor  of  printing.  See  Home's  Introduction  to 
Bibliography^  I.  pp.  145— 154  j  and  ClassicalJournal,  XXI.  No,  41. 
pp.  117—137.  Lond.  1820. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  103 

the  year  1424,  he  took  up  his  residence  at  Strasburg,  as  a 
merchant.  The  Abbe  Mauro  Boni  says,  that  ''stimulated 
by  his  genius  to  discover  something  new^'  he  travelled  in 
his  youth  through  various  countries,  where  he  learned 
several  arts  unknown  to  the  Germans.  In  1430,  here- 
turned  to  his  native  city,  as  is  evident  from  a  deed  of 
accommodation  between  himself  and  the  nobles  and 
burghers  of  the  city  of  Mentz.  A  document  adduced  by 
Schoepflin,  proves  him  to  have  been  a  wealthy  man  in 
1434.  Between  that  period  and  1439,  he  had  conceived, 
and  perhaps  made  some  few  trials  of  the  art  of  printing 
with  moveable,  and  probably  with  metal  types,  though  his 
first  attempts  are  supposed  to  have  been  with  7noveahle  cha- 
racters cut  in  wood.*  In  the  year  1441—2,  Gutenberg  lived 
at  Strasburg,  where  he  continued  till  about  1443,  when 
he  returned  again  to  Mentz,  and  towards  the  year  1450, 
appears  to  have  opened  his  mind  fully  to  Fust,  a  gold- 
smith, of  the  same  place,  and  prevailed  on  him  to  advance 
large  sums  of  money,  in  order  to  make  further  and  more 
complete  trials  of  the  art.  Between  the  years  1450 
and  1455,  the  celebrated  Bible  of  637  leaves,  the  Jirst 
important  specimen  of  jirintlng  with  metal  types,  was  exe- 
cuted between  Gutenberg  and  Fust."^ 

This  Bible,  the  first  ever  printed,  is  an  edition  of  the 
Latin  Vulgate.  It  forms  two  volumes  in  folio,  is 
printed  in  the  large  Gothic  or  German  character,  and  is 
said  to  be  "justly  praised  for  the  strength  and  beauty  of 
the  paper,  the  exactness  of  the  register,  the  lustre  of  the 
ink,  and  the  general  beauty  and  magnificence  of  the  vo- 
lumes."    It  is  without  date,  a  circumstance  which  has 

*  Santander  observes,  that  moveable  wooden  types  could  not  have 
been  used  in  printing  any  work,  owing  to  their  fragile  and,  spongy 
nature,  which  rendered  them  liable  to  be  easily  broken,  as  well  as  con- 
stantly subject  to  contraction  or  dilation.  See  Santander,  Diet.  Biblio- 
graphiqiie^  I.  p,  80,  note  (47). 
(3)  Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiquities,  I.  p.  Ixxxvii.  note. 

Santander,  Dictionnaire  Bibliographique  cht  isi  du  quinzieme  siecle. 
I.  ch.  i.  pp.  10—107,  Druxelles  et  Paris,  1805,  8vo. 


104  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE 


occasioned  considerable  dispute,  as  to  its  priority  to  other 
undated  editions,  executed  about  the  same  time.  It  has 
been  noticed  as  containing  637  leaves,  to  distinguish  it 
more  accurately  from  the  other  editions  without  date. 
C.  G.  Schwarz,  an  eminent  bibliographer,  says,  in  his  Pri- 
maria  qucedam  Documenta  de  Orig.  Typog.  Altorfii, 
^^1740,  4to.  part  ii.  p.  4.  that  "in  the  year  1728,  in  a  Car- 
thusian monastery,  a  little  beyond  the  walls  of  Mentz,  he 
saw  a  copy  of  an  old  Latin  Bible,  which  was  printed 
in  a  large  character,  similar  to  what  is  called  the  Missal 
type ;  and  that,  however  a  few  of  the  end  leaves  were  cut 
out,  so  that  the  date,  place,  and  printer  s  name,  could 
not  be  ascertained,  yet,  in  an  ancient  MS.  catalogue  of 
the  same  library,  an  entry,  or  memorandum,  was  made, 
that  this  Bible,  with  some  other  books,  (the  names  of 
which  he  had  forgotten,)  was  given  to  the  monastery,  by 
Gutenberg."*  Copies  of  this  superb  work  of  Gutenberg's, 
are  in  his  majesty^s  library,  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  and 
in  those  of  Earl  Spencer,  and  Sir.  M.  M.  Sykes,  bart. 

There  is  also  a  magnificent  copy  of  this  Bible  in  the 
Royal  Library  at  Berlin,  printed  upon  vellum,  and  en- 
riched with  a  profusion  of  ancient  and  elegant  embellish- 
ments; and  in  the  king's  library  at  Paris,  there  are  two 
other  copies  of  this  most  valuable  edition,  one  upon  vel- 
lum, in  four  volumes,  and  the  other  upon  paper,  in  tw  j 
volumes.  The  latter  copy  has  a  subscription  in  led  ink, 
at  the  end  of  each  volume.  That  at  the  end  of  the  first 
volume,  of  which  a  fac  simile  is  given  in  the  Classical 
Journal,  No.  8,  p.  481,  is 

€t  5ic  est  fmis  prime  partfe  biblie 
sen  beterfe  testamentC    Sflluminata 
sen  rubrtcata  et  Itgata  p  Ijenricunu 
Silbcl)  alius  Cremer  anno  tim  tncccc 

(4)  See   Dibdin,  On  the  Vulgate  Bible  of  1450—1455;    inserted  in 
Classical  Journal,  No.  8.  pp.  471—484. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  105 

Ibt  festo  Bartfjolomei  aplt 

2?eo  gracias Mdxm. 

Translation. 
^Here   ends  the  first  part  of  the  Bible  or  Old  Testa- 
ment.    Illuminated,  or  rubricated,  and  bound,  by  Henry 
Albch  or  Cremer,  on  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  April,  A.  D. 
1456.     Thanks  be  to  God.     Hallelujah.' 

At  the  end  of  the  second  volume  the  subscription  is 

^ste  liber  illummatus  ligatus;  et  rompletus  est  p  fjen- 
xiam  Cremec  bicariu  eccleste  collegiate  sanctt  g^tepljani 
tnagunttni  sub  anno  Mi  mtllesimo  quatrmgentesimo 
qumquagesima  sejcto,  fessto  assumptionfe  glorios;e  btr- 
jjmi3  iWarte*    Deo  ©racias.  alleluia^ 

Translation. 

'This  book,  illuminated  and  bound  by  Henry  Cremer, 
vicar  of  the  collegiate  church  of  St.  Stephen,  at  Mentz,  was 
completed  on  the  feast  of  the  assumption  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  A. D.  1456.  Thanks  be  to  God.  Hallelujah.'^ 

The  expenses  incurred  by  this  publication  were  so  con- 
siderable, that  Fust  instituted  a  suit  against  Gutenberg ; 
who  was  obliged  to  pay  interest,  and  also  part  of  the  capi- 
tal advanced.  In  consequence  of  this  suit  the  partnership 
was  dissolved;  and  the  whole  of  Gutenberg's  printing 
apparatus  fell  into  the  hands  of  Fust.  But  Gutenberg 
was  not  to  be  discouraged  from  following  his  pursuits: 
he  established  a  new  press,  and  continued  to  exercise 
his  art  until  1465,  when  being  admitted  by  the  Elector 
Adolphus,  of  Nassau,  into  his  band  of  gentlemen-pen- 
sioners, with  a  handsome  salary,  he  relinquished  an  art 
which  had  caused  him  so  much  trouble  and  vexation.  * 
Gutenberg  died  A.  D.  1468. 

(3)  Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature,  V.  p.  83. 

(6)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  [.  p.  159. 

See  also    Dibdin's   Bibliographical    Decameron,    I.    Fourth    Daif, 

-where   the  various  points    in   di^pute^   respecting   Gutenberg's 

claims,  are  examined  at  large. 


106  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

After  the  separation  between  Gutenberg  and  Fust^, 
which  took  place  in  1455,  Fust  began  to  print  on  his  own 
account,  with  the  assistance  of  Peter  Schoeffer,  a  cal- 
ligraphist,  of  Gernsheim ;  an  industrious  young  man,  of 
inventive  talents,  to  whom  is  ascribed  the  art  of  founding 
types  in  moulds,  or  matrices ;  or  what  is  more  probable, 
the  invention  of  punches  for  striking  the  matrices;  for 
which  Fust  rewarded  him,  by  giving  him  his  only  daugh- 
ter, Christina,  in  marriage. 

The  first  publication  which  is  known  to  have  issued 
from  the  press  of  Fust  and  Schoeffer,  was  a  beautiful 
edition  of  the  Psalms,  in  Latin,  finished  August  14th, 
1457,  which,  from  the  place  where  it  was  printed,  is  usu- 
ally denominated  the  Mentz  Psalter.  It  is  the  first  book 
known  to  be  extant,  which  has  the  name  of  the  place 
where  it  was  printed,  and  that  of  the  printers,  together 
with  the  date  of  the  year  when  it  was  executed.  The 
most  perfect  copy  known,  is  that  in  the  Imperial  Library 
of  Vienna.  It  was  discovered  in  the  year  1665,  near  In- 
spruck,  in  the  castle  of  Ambras,  where  the  Archduke 
Francis  Sigismund  had  collected  a  prodigious  quantity  of 
MSS.  and  printed  books ;  taken,  for  the  most  part,  from 
the  famous  library  of  Matthias  Corvinus,  king  of  Hunga- 
ry, from  whence  it  w^as  transported  to  Vienna.  The  book 
is  printed  in  folio,  on  vellum,  and  of  such  extreme  rarity, 
that  not  more  than  six  or  seven  copies  are  known  to  be 
in  existence,  all  of  which,  however,  differ  from  each  other, 
in  some  respect  or  other.  The  Psalter  occupies  135 
leaves,  and  the  i^ecto  the  136th,  the  remaining  41 
leaves  are  appropriated  to  the  litany,  prayers,  responses, 
vigils,  &c.  The  Psalms  are  executed  in  larger  characters 
than  the  hymns;  the  capital  letters  are  cut  on  wood,  with 
a  degree  of  delicacy  and  boldness,  which  are  truly  sur- 
prising: the  largest  of  them,  the  initial  letters  of  the 
Psalms,  which  are  black,  red,  and  blue,  must  have  passed 
three  times  through  the  press.    A  fac-simile  of  the  first 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  107 

letter  of  this  noble  Psalter,  is  given  in  Home's  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Study  of  Blhliograpky ,  vol.  I.  p.  251.  It  is 
also  given,  with  a  few  sentences  of  the  first  Psalm,  in  the 
Bihliotheca  Spencer ian a,  vol.  I.  p.  107,  coloured  exactly 
after  the  original.  Another  edition  of  this  Psalter  was 
printed  in  1459,  by  the  same  printers,  containing,  proba- 
bly, the  first  printed  text  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  It 
is  said  not  to  be  equally  beautiful  with  the  former  edition, 
though  executed  with  the  same  types  and  capital  letters, 
and  also  on  vellum.  The  St.  Alban's  and  Benedictine 
monks  are  supposed  to  have  been  at  the  expense  of  these 
editions  of  the  Psalter.^ 

In  1462,  Fust  and  SchoefFer  published  a  Latin  Bible, 
in  2  vols.  fol.  This  is  the  first  edition  with  a  date,  and 
like  all  the  other  early  typographical  productions,  is  of 
extreme  rarity  and  value.  The  copies  of  this  Bible  on  pa- 
per, are  even  more  rare  than  those  on  vellum,  of  which 
last,  more,  probably,  were  printed,  that  they  might  have 
the  greater  resemblance  to  MSS.  which  the  first  printers 
endeavoured  to  imitate  as  much  as  possible.  M.  Lam- 
binet,  in  his  Recherches  sur  V  origine  de  F  imprimerie, 
p.  155,  says,  ^^It  is  certain  that  from  the  year  1463,  Fust, 
SchoefFer,  and  their  partners,  sold  or  exchanged,  in  Ger- 
many, Italy,  France,  and  the  most  celebrated  universities, 
the  great  number  of  books  which  they  had  printed;  and 
whenever  they  could,  sold  them  as  MSS.  As  proofs  of 
which,  it  may  be  remarked,  1st.  That  we  know  of  no 
work  that  issued  from  their  press,  betwixt  the  Bible  of 
1462,  and  the  first  edition  of  Cicero  de  Officiis,  in  1465. 
2nd.  Gabriel  Naudfe  informs  us,  that  Fust  brought  to 
Paris  a  considerable  number  of  copies  of  the  Bible,  of 
1462.     As  they  were  on  parchment,  and  the  capital  let- 


(7)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  I.  p.  160;  and  II.  App.  p.  Hi. 
Dibdin's  Biblirtheca  Spenceriana,  I.  pp.  107,  l08.  117. 
Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiq.  I.  Life  of  Caxton,  pp,  ci.  andcii. 
Santander,  Diet  Bibliographique^  I.  ut  sup. 


108  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

ters  illuininated  with  blue,  and  purple,  and  gold,  afler 
the  manner  of  the  ancient  MSS.  he  sold  them  as  such,  at 
60  crowns.  But  those  who  first  purchased  copies,  com- 
paring them  together,  soon  found  that  they  exactly 
resembled  each  other:  afterwards,  they  learned  that  Fust 
had  sold  a  great  number  of  copies,  and  had  lowered  the 
price,  first  to  40,  and  then  to  20  crowns.  The  fraud  be- 
ing thus  discovered,  he  was  pursued  by  the  officers  of 
justice,  and  forced  to  fly  from  Paris,  and  return  to  Mentz; 
but  not  finding  himself  safe,  he  again  quitted  Mentz,  and 
withdrew  to  Strasburg,  where  he  taught  the  arttoMentelin. 
The  facility  with  which  Fust  thus  supplied  Bibles  for  sale, 
is  said  to  have  caused  him  to  be  accounted  a  necroman- 
cer ;  and  to  have  given  rise  to  the  well-known  story  of  the 
Devil  and  Dr.  Faustus.  Others  have  called  the  truth  of 
this  in  question,  and  have  remarked  that  there  was  a 
Faustus  living  at  the  same  period,  who  wrote  a  poem  De 
influentia  Syderum^  which,  with  a  number  of  other  tracts, 
was  printed  at  Paris,  '^per  Guidonum  Mercatorem,  1496." 
His  proper  name  was  Publius  Faustus  Andrelinus  Foro- 
liviencis,  but  he  called  himself,  and  his  friends  in  their 
letters  to  him  called  him,  Faustus.^  A  curious  deed  of 
sale,  of  this  edition  of  the  Bible,  informs  us,  that  Herman 
de  Stratten,  agent  of  Fust  and  SchoefFer,  sold  a  copy  of 
it  to  William  Tourneville,  bishop  of  Angers,  for  40  golden 
crowns,  in  1470.  The  MS.  memorandum,  in  Latin,  was 
found  in  one  of  the  vellum  copies  of  this  Bible;  the  follow- 
ing is  the  sense:  "I  Herman,  a  German,  workman  of  the 
honest  and  discreet  John  Guymier,  sworn  bookseller  of 
the  university  of  Paris,  acknowledge  to  have  sold  to  the 
illustrious  and  learned  Master  William,  of  Tourneville, 
archbishop  and  canon  of  Anglers,  my  most  respectable 


(S)  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1812,  pt.  ii.  p.  523. 

Peignot,  Essai  sur  Parchemin,  pp.  70.  lOO.  notes. 
ChevilUer,  L'  Origine  de  1'  Imprimerie  de  Paris,  pt,  i,  ch.  i.  p,  16. 
Parisj  1694,  4to. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  109 

lord  and  master,  a  Bible  at  Mentz,  pointed  upon  vel- 
lum, in  two  volumes,  for  the  price  and  sum  of  forty 
crowns,  which  I  have  absolutely  received,  which  also  I 
ratify  by  these  presents,  promising  to  abide  by  the  same, 
and  guaranteeing  my  lord,  purchaser  of  the  said  Bible, 
against  any  one  who  would  dispossess  him.  In  ratifica- 
tion of  which  I  have  hereunto  affixed  my  seal,  this  5th 
day  of  the  month  of  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
MCCCCLXX.    Herman."^ 

In  1462,  Fust  also  printed  an  edition  of  the  German 
Bible,  in  2  vols.  fol.  which  is  the  first  German  Bible 
with  a  date;  but  the  priority  must  be  allowed  to  an 
edition  without  date,  place,  or  printer's  name,  of  which  a 
copy  is  in  Lord  Spencer's  library.  There  is  also  a  copy 
of  the  latter  in  the  Electoral  Library  at  Munich,  with 
two  MS.  observations,  the  one  of  the  date  of  1467,  being 
that  of  the  illuminator,  at  the  end  of  the  Prophet  Jere- 
miah; the  other  is  at  the  end  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  con- 
tains a  notice  of  the  genealogical  respectability  of  one 
Hector  Mulich,  and  a  memorandum  to  this  effect,  "1466, 
27th  of  June,  this  book  was  bought  unbound  for  12 
guilders,"  Hector  Mulich  received  a  patent  of  nobility 
from  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  that  same  year.  The 
author  of  this  translation  is  unknown;  and  Walcliius 
remarks,  that  "there  were  several  ancient  versions  all 
made  from  the  Latin,  but  so  obscure  and  barbarous  as 
to  be  almost  unintelligible."^^ 

In  the  same  year,  (1462,)  Mentz  was  taken  by  storm,  by 
Adolphus,  count  of  Nassau.  In  the  confusion  that  follow- 
ed. Fust  and  SchoefFer  siiflfered  materially  in  common  with 
their  fellow- citizens,  and  being  obliged  to  suspend  their 
typographical  labours  till  tranquillity  was  restored,  their 
workmen  dispersed  themselves, and  established  printing  in 


(9)  Dibdin's  Biblioth.  Spencer.  I.  p.  16,  note, 

(10)  Wakhii  Biblioth.  Theologica,  IV.  cap.  viii.  p.  77.  Ineas  1765,  8ro. 
Dibdin's  Biblioth  Spencer.  I.  pp.  42.  46. 


110  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

several  other  parts  of  Europe.  The  death  of  Fust  happened 
at  Paris,  in  1466 ;  after  which  SchoefFer  carried  on  the 
business  alone  till  his  decease  in  1502,  or  1503.  He  left 
three  sons,  printers,  the  elder  of  whom  succeeded  to  his 
father's  business,  and  exercised  his  art  till  1533.  During 
the  period  that  Schoeffer  conducted  the  business  alone, 
he  published  an  edition  of  the  Latin  Bible,  and  two  edi- 
tions of  the  Lati7i  Psalter.  The  Bible  was  printed  in  1471, 
2  vols.  fol.  and  the  Psalter  in  1490  and  1502,  fol.^'  Many 
editions  of  the  Latin  Bible  were,  about  the  same  period, 
executed  by  other  printers  in  different  places,  most  or  all 
of  whom  had  learned  the  art  from  the  original  inventors ; 
and  so  indefatigable  were  these  early  printers,  that  nearly 
one  hundred  editions  of  the  Latin  Bible  were  printed  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  sixteen  of  which 
were  accompanied  with  the  Postilla,  or  Commentary  of 
De  Lyra.  Besides  these,  there  were  upwards  of  thirty 
editions  of  the  Latin  Psalter,  many  of  them  with  Com- 
mentaries; three  editions  of  the  Latin  New  Testament, 
with  Lyras  Notes;  and  several  editions  of  the  Prophets, 
the  Gospels,  or  other  parts  of  the  Sacred  Volume.^^ 

One  of  the  most  extensive  and  eminent  printers  of 
this  century,  was  Antony  Koburger,  or  Coburger. 
His  office  was  at  Nuremberg,  where  he  died  in  1513.  He 
was  styled  the  prince  of  boohsellers  and  printers ;  and  is 
said  to  have  employed  twenty-four  presses,  and  one  hun- 
dred men,  beside  furnishing  work  for  the  printers  of  Basil, 
or  Basle,  Lyons,  and  other  places.  He  had  warehouses  at 
Nuremberg,  Paris,  and  Lyons.  Almost  all  his  books 
relate  to  the  canon  law,  and  to  theology;  and  are  distin- 
guished for  the  lustre  and  magnificence  of  their  execution. 
Of  thirty-seven  editions  printed  by  him,  thirteen  are  of 
the  Bible,  viz.  twelve  in  Latin,  and  one  in  German,  all 

Cll)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  II.  App.  No,  vii. 

('12)  See  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra  edit,  Masch^  pt,  ii.  vol.  III.  cap.  ii. 

passim. 


TIPTEENTH    CENTtlRY.  Hi 

in  folio.  Most  of  the  Latin  editions  were  accompanied 
with  the  Postills  of  De  Lyra.  But  his  most  superb  work 
was  the  edition  of  the  German  Bible,  which  he  printed  in 
1483^  folio.  This  is  said  to  be  the  first  German  Bible 
printed  at  Nuremberg;  and  is  pronounced  by  Lichten- 
berger  to  be  the  most  splendid  of  all  the  ancient  Germaa 
Bibles.  It  is  embellished  with  impressions  from  the  very 
curious  wood-cuts  which  had  been  previously  used  for 
the  Cologne  edition  of  the  Bible,  printed  by  Quentel,  in 
1480,  and  which  were  also  employed  in  the  Bible  printed 
at  Halberstadt,  in  the  Low  Saxon  dialect,  in  1522:  and 
it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  in  one  of  the  large  wood-cuts 
employed  by  Koburger,  the  pope  is  introduced  as  being 
among  the  principal  of  the  fallen  angels !  The  paper, 
characters,  press-work, — all  concur  to  prove  this  Bible  a 
masterpiece  of  typographical  excellence.*^ 

GuNTHER  Zainer  is  cousidcrcd  as  having  introduced 
printing  into  Augsburg;  unless  that  honour  should  be 
conceded  to  John  Bemler,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  printer  of  a  Latin  Bible  m  2  vols.  fol.  in  1466.  From 
De  Murr  we  learn,  that  in  an  old  book  of  entries  of  bene- 
factors to  the  Carthusian  monastery  at  Buxheim,  there  is 
one  of  the  date  of  1474,  in  which  the  name  of  "dns  Gun- 
ther^  impsor  ciuis  auguste"  occurs,  as  the  printer  and 
donor  of  certain  works,  and  among  others  of  "the  Bible 
IN  THE  VULGAR  TONGUE,"  (German,)  "in  supcr-royal 
form."  Another  entry  informs  us  of  the  death  of  Gunther 
Zainer  in  1478 — "impressor  librorum,  ciuis  Aiigustensis 
benefactor  huius  domus,"  "printer  of  books^  citizen  of 
Augsburg,  benefactor  to  this  house."** 

Conrad  Sweynheim,  and  Arnold  Pannartz,  two 
Germans,  introduced  the  art  of  printing  into  Rome, 
in  the   year  1466,   in    the  second   year  of  the   pontifi- 

(13)  Hornets  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  II.  App.  No,  fii.  III.  p.  Ix, 

Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameronj  I,  p.  163. 
(U)  Dibdia's  Biblioth.  Spencer.  1.  p.  50. 


112  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

cale  of  Paul  II.  under  the  patronage  of  John  Andreas, 
bishop  of  Aleria,  who  was  the  pope's  librarian,  and 
justly  famed  for  his  learning  and  generosity.  They  had 
previously  exercised  the  art  in  the  monastery  of  Sub- 
biaco,  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples^  to  which  they  had 
been  invited  by  the  monks;  and  where  they  had 
printed,  in  1465,  an  edition  of  Lactantius's  works, 
in  which  the  quotations  from  the  Greek  authors  are 
printed  in  a  neat,  but  heavy  Greek  letter,  of  which  a  spe- 
cimen is  given  in  Home's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
Bibliography,  vol.  I.  p.  245.  They  also  were  the  first  to 
introduce  what  has  since  been  called  the  Roman  charac- 
ter, instead  of  the  Gothic,  or  Black  letter.  The  paper  and 
types  made  use  of  by  these  printers  were  both  excellent, 
and  their  ink,  it  is  observed,  "may  vie  in  blackness  with 
the  best  of  the  present  day."  They  were  encouraged  by 
all  the  men  of  letters  and  fortune  at  Rome,  and  even  by 
the  pope  himself,  who  frequently  visited  their  printing- 
house,  and  examined,  with  admiration,  every  branch  of 
this  new  art.  The  bishop  of  Aleria  especially,  not  only 
furnished  them  with  the  most  valuable  MSS.  out  of  the 
Vatican  and  other  libraries,  but  also  prepared  the  copy, 
corrected  their  proofs,  and  prefixed  dedications  and  pre- 
faces to  their  works,  in  order  to  recommend  them  the 
more  to  the  learned  world,  and  followed  this  laborious 
task  with  such  application,  that  he  scarcely  allowed  him- 
self time  for  necessary  relaxation.  These  printers  settled 
in  the  house  of  the  Maximis,  brothers,  and  Roman 
knights,  from  whence  their  works  are  dated.  In  1471, 
they  published  a  Latin  Bible  in  2  vols.  fol.  with  an  Epis- 
tle of  the  bishop  of  Aleria  to  Pope  Paul  III.,  Aristeas's 
History  of  the  Septuagint,  and  Jerom's  Prefaces  to  the 
different  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  As  this 
edition  varies  in  several  places  from  former  editions,  it 
is  probable  the  bishop  of  Aleria  furnished  the  printers 
with  a  more  correct  MS.  copy  from  the  library  of  the 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  113 

pope,  or  from  some  other  source,  or  at  least  corrected  the 
Mentz  edition  by  such  MS.  Of  this  edition  they  printed 
550  copies.  In  the  same  year  they  commenced  an  edition 
of  the  Postills  of  De  Lyra,  in  5  vols.  fol.  which  they  com- 
pleted the  following  year.  This  ponderous  work  seems 
to  have  ruined  these  indefatigable  artists,  for  in  a  Latin 
petition  of  the  printers  to  the  pope,  Sixtus  IV.  written  by 
the  bishop  of  Aleria,  and  prefixed  to  the  fifth  volume  of 
De  Lyra  s  Postills,  or  Commentary,  they  state  themselves 
to  be  reduced  to  poverty,  by  the  pressure  of  the  times,  and 
the  vast  expense  of  the  works  they  had  printed,  of  which 
great  numbers  remained  unsold.  In  the  course  of  seven 
years,  they  had  published  twenty-eight  different  works, 
some  of  them  very  large;  the  impressions  of  which 
amounted  to  12,475  volumes,  an  immense  number  at 
that  period!  It  is  evident,  however,  that  some  method 
must  have  been  taken  to  extricate  them  from  theii-  dis- 
tress; for  although  Sweynheim  published  nothing  after 
the  year  1473,  and  for  that  reason  is  supposed  by  some 
to  have  died  about  that  time,  yet  his  partner,  Pannartz, 
continued  printing  until  about  1476,  using  a  smaller 
type  than  what  had  been  used  by  him  during  the  former 
partnership. — An  extract  from  the  Latin  petition  of  the 
printers  to  the  pope,  is  given,  with  a  list  of  their  works, 
in  Beloe's  Aiiecdotes  of  Literature  and  scarce  Boohs, 
vol.  III.  p.  266.  There  is  also  a  short  extract  from  it  in 
Le  Longs  Bibllotheca  Sacra,^^ 

Ulric  Gering,  a  German,  and  a  native  of  Constance, 
with  Martin  CRANTz,and  Michael  FRiBURGER,his  asso- 
ciates, commenced  printing  at  Paris,  in  1470;  and  in  1476, 
or,  according  to  Chevillier,  in  1475,  printed  a  Latin  Bi- 
ble, in  2  vols.  fol.  This  celebrated  edition  attracted  much 


(15)  Lemoine's  Typographical  Antiquities,  pp.  21—23. 

Le  Long,  edit.  Masch.  pt.  ii,  vol,  IIL  cap.  ii.  sec  1.   p.   103; 
and  sec.  3.  p,  360. 

Vol.  II  H 


114 

curiosity  and  discussion,  about  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, in  consequence  of  a  fraud  practised  upon  a  copy  of  it, 
now  in  the  Public  Library  at  Cambridge.  By  an  alteration 
and  erasure  in  the  colophon,  it  is  ascribed  to  the  year 
1463,  or  1464;  the  words  trihus  undecimus  histris,  in  the 
first  line,  referring  to  the  reign  of  Louis  XL  being  alter- 
ed into  semi  undecimus  lustrum,  and  the  two  last  lines 
being  erased.  A  full  account  of  the  detection  of  this 
fraud,  which  for  many  years  engaged  the  attention  of  bib- 
liographers, may  be  found  in  two  letters  written  by  Dr. 
Taylor,  preserved  in  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  vol.  L 
pp.  542—548. 

Chevillier  observes,  that  "this  was  the  first  time  the 
Holy  Bible  had  been  printed  at  Paris,  or  in  the  whole 
kingdom  of  France.'^ 

Albert  Pfister,  of  Bamberg,  appears  to  have  been  the 
first  printer  in  Germany,  who  introduced  wood-cuts  into 
his  publications,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  Sacred  Text, 
but  of  a  character  and  execution  inferior  to  the  Block- 
books,  or  Books  of  Images,  executed  in  the  Low  Countries. 
The  Histories  of  Joseph,  Daniel,  Judith,  and  Esther, 
printed  by  Pfister,  iu  14612,  in  the  German  language,  is 
said  to  be  "the  earliest  printed  book  containing  Text  3.nd 
Engravings  illustrative  of  Scriptural  subjects ;"  and  it  is 
probable  that  this  partial  impression  of  the  Sacred  Text, 
thus  decorated,  gave  the  idea  of  publishing  the  entire  Text 
of  the  Bible,  with  similar  embeUishments,  and  in  the 
same  language,  at  Augsburg,  about  the  year  1473,  and 
a  similar  one  by  Fyner,  of  Eslingen,  between  the  years 
1474  and  1477 :  a  practice  frequently  adopted  after- 
wards, both  in  the  editions  of  the  German  and  other  ver- 
nacular translations,  and  in  various  editions  of  the  Latin 
Bible.     He  is  also  supposed  to  have  published  a  Bible, 

(16)  Chevillier,  L'  Oriiiine  de  1'  Imprimerie  de  Paris,  p.  74. 

Nichols's  Lit.  Anec.  Eighteenth  Century,  I.  pp.  542,  548.  No.  vi. 
Greswell's  Annals  of  Parisian  Typography,  p.  5.  Lond.  1818,  8vq» 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  115 

^bout  A.  D.  1460^  described,  in  the  Bibliotheca  Spenceri- 
ana,  vol.  I.  p.  7.'^ 

Besides  being  established  in  many  other  places  on  the 
Continent,  in  addition  to  those  already  noticed,  printing 
was,  about  the  same  period,  introduced  into  England, 
by  William  Caxton,  a  merchant  of  London,  wh«,  after 
residing  many  years  abroad,  was  appointed  in  1464,  by 
Edward  IV.  as  his  ambassador,  (in  conjunction  with  Rich- 
ard Whetenhall,)  to  negociate  a  treaty  of  commerce  with 
the  duke  of  Burgundy,  Edward's  brother-in-law.  During 
his  residence  in  these  countries,  he  acquired  the  know- 
ledge of  printing;  and  became  acquainted  with  Raoul  Le 
Fevre,  chaplain  to  the  duke,  whose  "Le  Recuell  des  His- 
toires  de  Troyes,''  he  began  to  translate  in  1468,  and  after- 
wards published  his  English  version,  in  1471,  at  the 
request  of  his  patroness  Margaret,  dutchess  of  Burgundy. 
The  original  of  this  work  was  the  first  book  Caxton  print- 
ed, A.  D.  1464 — 7.  Of  the  exact  period  when  he  return- 
ed to  England,  and  introduced  the  art  of  printing  into 
the  metropolis,  we  have  no  correct  information.  Thus 
much,  however,  is  certain,  that,  previously  to  the  year 
1477,  he  had  quitted  the  Low  Countries,  where  Jie  had 
principally  resided,  and  was  living  in  the  vicinity  of  West- 
minster Abbey.  To  the  erection  of  Caxton's  press  near 
one  of  the  chapels  attached  to  the  aisles  of  the  abbey, 
is  to  be  attributed  the  technical  application  of  the  term 
chapel,  to  the  internal  regulations  of  a  printing  office; 

"Each  printer  hence,  howe'er  unbless'd  his  walls, 
'••  E'en  to  this  day  his  house  a  chapel  calls." 

Nor  is  it  improbable,  that  his  printing  office  might  super- 
sede the  use  of  the  Scriptorium  of  the  abbey. 

The  first  specimen  of  English  Typography  is  gene- 
rally allowed  to  have  been  the  Game  of  Chess,  in  1474; 
but  Mr.  Dibdin  suspects  that  work  to  have  been  printed 
abroad,  and  thinks  it  more  probable,  that  the  Romance 
(17)  Dibdia's  Bibliographical  Decameron,  I.  pp.  160.  373. 


116 

of  Jason  was  the  earliest  production  of  his  press,  after  its 
establishment  in  the  abbey.  The  last  work  which  he 
printed,  was  his  edition  of  the  Vitas  Patrum,  or  "Lives 
of  the  Fathers,"  in  1495.  By  the  colophon  it  appears 
that  these  Lives  were  translated  by  him  out  of  French 
into  English,  and  that  "he  finished  them  at  the  last  day 
of  his  life."  He  might  have  chosen  this  work  as  his  final 
literary  effort,  observes  one  of  his  biographers,  from  a 
consideration,  that  "from  the  examples  of  quiet  and  so- 
lemn retirement  therein  set  forth,  it  might  further  serve 
to  wean  his  mind  from  all  worldly  attachments,  exalt  it 
above  the  solicitudes  of  this  life,  and  inure  him  to  that 
repose  and  tranquillity  with  which  he  seems  to  have  de- 
signed it."'^  It  is,  however,  to  be  regretted,  that  whilst 
most  of  the  Continental  printers  published  one  or  more 
editions  of  the  Lati?i  Bible,  or  of  some  vernacular  ver- 
sion, Caxton  printed  no  part  of  the  Sacred  Volume ;  for 
which,  the  best,  and  perhaps  the  only  true  apology  is, 
the  danger  that  would  have  attended  such  an  attempt. =^ 

Caxton,  though  the  earliest,  was  not  the  only  printer 
in  England,  during  the  period  in  which  he  flourished. 
John  Let  ton,  William  de  Machlinia,  Wynkyn  de  Worde, 
and  others,  printed  in  Westminster  and  London,  both 
before  and  after  his  decease ;  as  did  several  also  at 
Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  St.  Albans. 

In  glancing  at  the  rapid  extension  of  the  invaluable  art 
of  printing,  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  Jews,  as  well 
as  Christians,  became  at  an  early  period  convinced  of  its 
importance,  and  engaged  in  it  with  ardour.  The  Psalms 
in  Hebrew,  ivifh  the  Commentary/  of  Kimchi,  were  print-, 
ed  in  1477,  in  4to.  by  Joseph  and  his  son  Chaim 
MoRDECAi,  and  Hezekiah  Monro,    who  printed  300 

(18)  Dibdin's   Typographical  Antiquities,    I.  Life  of  Caxton^  and  Acm 
count  of  Books  printed  by  W.  Caxton^  passim. 
Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  I.  pp.   187 — 192. 
*  See  the  quotation  from  Morc*s  Dyaloges,  p.  54.  of  this  \oU 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  117 

copies  of  them.  The  Pentateuch,  with  the  Targum  and 
the  Commentary  of  R.  Jarchi,  was  printed  at  Bologne 
in  Italy,  in  1482,  fol.  Ruth,  Ecclesiastes,  Son6  of 
Solomon,  and  Lamentations,  with  the  Comynentary  of 
Jarchi;  and  Esther  with  the  Commentary  of  R-  Aben- 
ezra,  were  printed  also  at  Bologne,  in  fol.  in  the  same 
year.  The  former  and  latter  Prophets  were  first  print- 
ed in  Hebrew,  at  Soncino,  in  1486,  fol.  with  the  Com- 
mentay^y  oj  R.  Kimchi.  The  Hagiograph a  were  printed 
at  Naples,  1487,  in  small  fol.  accompanied  with  several 
Rabbinical  Commentaries.  The  first  edition  of  the  ivhole 
of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  was  executed  by  Abraham  Ben 
Chaim,  at  Soncino,  in  1488,  fol.  with  points.  An  edition, 
in  octavo,  was  printed  at  Brescia,  in  1494,  by  Gerson  Mo- 
ses ben  Moses  Menzeln.  This  latter  edition  is  the  one 
made  use  of  by  Luther,  in  his  German  translation ;  and 
his  own  copy  of  it  is  still  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library 
at  Berlin.  Beside  these,  there  were  published  at  Soncino, 
in  1494,  a  folio  and  a  quarto  edition,  without  points,  and 
an  octavo  one,  with  small  types  and  points.^" 

In  the  early  stages  of  typography,  the  name  of  the 
printer,  his  place  of  residence,  and  the  date  of  his  per- 
formance, were  generally  inserted  at  the  end  of  each 
book,  and  not  unfrequently  accompanied  by  some  pious 
doxology  or  ejaculation,  in  prose,  or  verse.  From  the 
invention  of  the  art,  to  the  year  1480,  or  even  1485,  print- 
ed books  were,  generally  speaking,  without  title-pages; 
and  when  first  introduced,  a  simple  line,  or  a  line  and  a 
half,  or  at  most  three  or  four  lines,  towards  the  top  of 
the  page,  constituted  the  whole  of  the  decoration,  till 

(20)  Kennicott,  Dissertatio  Generalis,  sec.  59.  Cod.  255—260.  pp,  25. 

91,92. 
Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  i.  cap.  i.    sec,  2.  pp.  141,  142  3  and 

sec.  1,  pp.  5.  7. 
De  Rossi,  De  ignotis  antiquiss.  editionibus.  cap.  i.  p.  3.    Erlaog^ 

1782,  4to. 
Whittaker's  Hist,  and  Crit.  Enquiry,  p.  22. 


118  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

about  1490,  when  ornamental  title-pages  came  into  use, 
the  most  common  of  which  was  the  representation  of  the 
author  or  writer  at  his  desk;  but  subsequently,  other 
devices  were  invented,  some  of  them  of  the  character  of 
vignettes,  others  displaying  the  monogram,  &c.  of  the 
printer.  The  leaves  were  without  running  title,  direction 
word,  number  of  pages,  or  divisions  into  paragraphs. 
The  words  were  not  divided  at  the  ends  of  lines  by 
hyphens,  but  in  order  to  compress  as  much  as  possible 
within  a  given  compass,  the  printers  made  use  of  vowels 
with  a  mark  of  abbreviation,  as  for  instance,  dno  for 
domino;  c  for  cum;  qiiih^  for  quihiis;  argetoq-,  for  argen- 
toque ^  &c.  The  vowels  and  consonants  u  and  v,  i  and  j, 
are  confounded  together,  and  used  one  for  the  other  ;  the 
diphthongs  ce  and  oe  were  generally  supplied  by  the  simple 
e :  c  was  often  used  for  t,  as  fiaclo  for  natio ;  f  for  ph,  as 
fantasma  for  phanfasma;  mihi  was  sometimes  spelled 
michi;  somniim,  sompnum;  quotldiana,  cotidlana;  the  ortho- 
graphy was  consequently  various,  and  often  arbitrary. 
Capital  letters  were  not  used  to  begin  a  sentence,  or  for 
proper  names  of  men,  or  places  :  blank  spaces  were  left 
for  the  places  of  titles,  initial  letters,  and  other  ornaments, 
to  be  supplied  by  the  ingenious  hand  of  the  illuminator. 
The  points  by  which  they  distinguished  their  sentences, 
were  the  colon,  and  period^  and  an  oblique  stroke  (/ )  for  the 
comma.  The  character  first  used  was  a  rude  old  Gothic 
mixed  with  Secretary,  designed  to  imitate  the  hand-writ- 
ing of  those  times  ;  afterwards  the  Roman  was  adopted 
by  Sweynheim,  and  Pannartz  ;  and  in  1502,  the  Italic 
was  invented  by  Aldus.  Ed.  Rowe  Mores,  in  his  Disser- 
tation upon  English  Typographical  Founders  and  Foiin- 
deries,  adds,  that  ■''metal  characters  were  first  used  for  the 
Greek  by  the  monks  of  Subiaco,"  (Sweynheim  and  Pan- 
nartz,) "  in  1465  ;  for  the  Arabic,  by  Porrus  of  Genoa,  in 
1516;  for  the  ./^^/wop/c,  by  Potken,  in  1513;  and  that 
the  Congregation  at  Rome  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith 


FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  119 

in  the  year  1636,  had,  besides  those  we  have  just  now 
mentioned,  types  for  the  Samaritan,  for  the  Sijriac,  both 
Fshito  and  Estrangeloy  for  the  Coptic,  for  the  Armenian, 
for  the  Rabbinic  Hebrew,  and  for  the  Heraclean,  or 
ancient  language  of  the  Chaldeesr^^ 

The  first  printers  executed  their  different  works  at 
their  own  expense,  and  sold  them  themselves,  or  by  their 
agents,  at  their  own  risk.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 
employ  large  capitals;  paper  and  other  materials,  as  well 
as  labour,  being  exceedingly  dear,  and  the  purchasers 
being  but  few ;  partly  from  the  high  prices  of  the  books 
themselves,  and  partly  from  the  illiteracy  which  so  gene- 
rally prevailed.  These  causes  reduced  many  of  the  early 
printers  to  poverty;  until  the  printers  relieved  themselves 
by  confining  their  attention  solely  to  printing,  and  leaving 
the  bookselling  part  of  the  business  to  others.  Tliis  cre- 
ated a  distinct  profession  of  Booksellers,  v/ho  frequently 
caused  the  books  sold,  to  be  printed  at  their  own 
expense,  and  thus  also  became  Publishers.  Sometimes 
rich  people  of  all  conditions,  and  particularly  eminent 
merchants,  engaged  in  this  branch  of  the  profession,  and 
employed  the  printers  to  print  the  manuscripts  which 
they  had  purchased  from  the  authors,  or  possessors. 
Thus,  the  learned  Henry  Stephen,  at  Ptiris,  Avas  printer 
to  IJlric  Fugger,  at  Augsburg,  from  whom  he  received  a 
salary  for  printing  the  many  manuscripts  which  he  pur- 
chased. In  some  editions  from  the  year  1558  to  1567, 
he  subscribes  himself  Henricus  Stephanas,  illustris  viri 
Hulderici  Fiiggeri  typographus.  In  like  manner,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  society  of  learned 
and  rich  citizens  of  Augsburg,  at  the  head  of  whom  was 
Marx  Welser,  the  city  stcAvard,  printed  a  great  number 


C21)  Home's  Tntroduction  to  Bibiiostraphy,  I,  ch.  ii.  sect.  7. 

Rowe  More's    Dissert,     upon     huglish   Typographical    Founders, 

p.  1^    Loiul.  1778. 
Dibdin'g  Bibliographical  Decameron,  II,  pp.  297 — 316. 


120  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

of  books,  which  had  conimonly  at  the  end  these  words. 
Ad  insigne  pinus.  In  Germany,  this  branch  of  trade 
was  at  first  estabhshed  chiefly  at  Frankfort  on  the  Mayn ; 
and  afterwards  at  Leipsic,  where  at  the  time  of  the  fairs, 
several  large  booksellers'  shops  were  opened  for  the 
disposal  of  their  literary  wares.  These  marts  are  still 
continued;  and  to  them  we  owe  the  origin  of  the  Sale 
Catalogues  of  booksellers,  the  earliest  of  which  was  print- 
ed at  Frankfort,  in  1554.^^ 

The  multiplication  of  books,  and  the  consequent  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  by  the  invention  of  printing,  soon  met  with 
violent  opposition  from  the  transcribers  and  illuminators, 
of  whom  there  were  in  Paris  and  Orleans  07ily,  upwards 
oHen  thousand;  who,  perceiving  that  the  newly  discovered 
art  was  likely  to  supersede  their  respective  employments, 
attempted  to  suppress  it  by  calling  in  the  aid  of  the  civil 
authorities.  When  printing  therefore  was  first  estabhshed 
at  Paris,  the  copyists  presented  a  memorial  of  complaint 
to  the  parliament,  which  caused  their  books  to  be  seized 
and  confiscated.  Louis  XI.  who,  with  all  his  bad 
qualities,  was  the  friend  and  patron  of  letters,  prohibited 
the  parliament  from  taking  any  further  cognizance  of  the 
affair,  and  restored  their  property  to  the  printers .^^  But 
a  much  more  formidable  obstacle  was  presented  to 
the  general  spread  of  literature,  by  the  restrictions 
imposed  upon  the  authors  and  venders  of  books,  by  the 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  powers.  So  early  as  the  time  of 
our  King  Henry  II.  nearly  two  centuries  prior  to  the 
invention  of  printing,  the  manner  of  publishing  the  works 
of  their  authors,  was  to  have  them  read  over  for  three 
days  successively,  before  the  university,  or  other  judges 
appointed  by  the  public;  and  if  they  met  with  approbation, 
copies  of  them  were  permitted  to  be  taken,  which  were 

(^2)  Bpckmann's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  III.  pp.  118—120. 
(23)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  I.  p.  \QA.note, 
Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron,   I.  p.  cxxvii. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  121 

usually  done  by  monks,  scribes,  illuminators,  and  readers, 
brought  or  trained  up  to  that  purpose  for  their  maintenance. 
A  method  adopted,  probably,  by  every  other  university 
in  Europe,  at  that  period.  In  the  year  1272,  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris  instituted  a  plan,  not  only  for  approving- 
books,  but  for  determining  the  price  of  them  ;  and  in 
the  year  1323,  appointed  four  officers,  called  Taccatores 
Librorum,  to  regulate  the  price  of  all  manuscript-books. 
Cheviilier  tells  us,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  MSS. 
bequeathed  to  the  library  of  the  Sorbonne  shortly  after 
it  was  founded,  have  a  price  marked  upon  each  of  them; 
and  that  from  a  catalogue  made  of  them  in  the  year  1292, 
this  library  contained,  more  than  a  thousand  priced  vo- 
lumes, which,  from  the  sum  total  specified  at  the  end  of 
the  inventory,  amounted  in  the  whole  to  ^3892.  10.  8! 
A  similar  practice  afterwards  obtained  in  the  universities 
of  our  own  country;  and  it  may  be  worthy  of  remark, 
that  the  act  of  the  25th  of  Henry  VIII.  ch.  xv.  sec.  4, 
granting  to  the  lord  chancellor,  the  lord  treasurer, 
and  the  two  chief  justices,  the  power  of  regulating  the 
prices  of  books,  when  too  exorbitant,  was  not  repealed 
till  the  12th.  of  George  II.  The  prices  affixed  to  books 
by  the  ^'Taxatores,"  or  other  officers,  were,  after  the 
invention  of  printing,  frequently  expressed  in  the  colo- 
phon of  the  respective  works.  Cheviilier,  in  his  "Origine 
de  r  Imprimerie  de  Paris,"  pp.  36S — 375,  has  given  a 
variety  of  colophons  respecting  the  sums  at  which  print- 
ers professed  to  sell  their  publications;  thus  Colinaeus 
was  obliged  to  sell  his  Greek  Testament  for  a  sum  not 
exceeding  12  sous;  and  a  Hebrew  Psalter  of  Robert 
8te[^hens  was  priced  at  7  sous.  In  England,  the  price 
affixed  by  the  king's  authority  to  the  New  Testament 
with  notes,  printed  by  Richard  Jugg,  in  1553,  4to.  was 
22  pence  per  copy,  in  sheets.^* 

Soon  after  the    discovery  of  printing,  laws  were  made 
(24)  Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiquities,  I.  pp.  8 — llj  note. 


122  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

for  subjecting  books  to  examination;  and  the  establish- 
ment of  Book- Censors,  and  Licensers  of'  the  press,  was 
strenuously  supported  by  the  Romish  clergy,  who  feared 
the  circulation  of  publications  inimical  to  their  religious 
views,  or  their  ecclesiastical  domination.  The  earliest 
instance  of  a  book  printed  with  a  permission  from  govern- 
ment, is  commonly  supposed  to  occur  in  the  year  1480; 
but  Professor  Beckmann  mentions  two  books  printed 
almost  a  year  sooner  than  1479,  with  the  approbation  of 
the  public  censor.  The  first  is,  Wdhelni'i  episcopi  Lug- 
dunensis  Summa  de  Virtutibus:  the  other  is  a  Bible,  with 
the  following  conclusion:  "In  the  year  of  the  incarnation 
of  our  Lord  1479,  on  the  vigil  of  Matthew  the  apostle  ; 
when  this  notable  work,  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
with  the  canons  of  the  Gospels,  and  their  harmonies, 
to  the  praise  and  glory  of  the  holy  and  undivided 
Trinity,  and  the  immaculate  virgin  Mary,  was  printed  in 
the  city  of  Cologne,  by  Conrad  de  Homborch ;  allowed 
and  appi^oved  by  the  university  of  Cologne."^^ 

The  oldest  mandate  for  appointing  a  Book-Censor, 
with  which  we  are  acquainted,  is  that  issued  by  Berthold, 
archbishop  of  Mentz,  in  the  year  1486,  which  the  curious 
reader  will  not  be  displeased  to  see  at  full  length  ;  with 
the  instructions  given  to  the  censors. 

Penal   Mandate,    forbidding  the  translation 

INTO  THE  vulgar  TONGUE,  &C.  OF  GrEEK,  LaTIN, 
and  other  books,  without  the  PREVIOUS  APPRO- 
BATION   OF    THE    DOCTORS,    &C. 

"Berthold,  by  the  grace  of  God,  archbishop  of  the 
holy  see  of  Mentz,  arch-chancellor  of  Germany,  and 
electoral  prince  of  the  holy  Roman  empire." 

"Although,  by  a  certain  divine  art  of  printing,  abundant 
and  easy  access  is  obtained  to  books  on  every  science 
necessary  to  the  attainment  of  human  learning;  yet  we 
have  perceived  that  certain  men,  led  by  the  desire  of 
(25)  Beckmann's  Hist,  of  Inveutions,  111.  pp.  105.  107, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  123 

vain  glory,  or  money,  do  abuse  this  art ;  and  that  what 
was  given  for  the  instruction  of  human  life,  is  perverted 
to  purposes  of  mischief  and  calumny.  For,  to  the  dis- 
honouring of  religion,  we  have  seen  in  the  hands  of  the 
vulgar,  certain  books  of  the  divine  offices,  and  writings* 
of  our  religion,  translated  from  the  Latin,  into  the  Ger- 
man tongue.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  sacred  laws 
and  canons,  which  though  they  have  been  written  in 
the  most  suitable  and  careful  manner,  by  men  acquainted 
with  law,  and  endowed  with  the  greatest  skill  and 
eloquence,  yet  the  science  itself  is  so  intricate,  that  the 
utmost  extent  of  the  life  of  the  wisest  and  most  eloquent 
man  is  scarcely  equal  to  it  ?  Some  volumes  on  this  sub- 
ject, certain  rash  and  unlearned  simpletons  have  dared 
to  translate  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  whose  translation, 
many  persons  who  have  seen  it,  and  those,  too,  learned 
men,  have  declared  to  be  unintelligible,  in  consequence 
of  the  very  great  misapplication  and  abuse  of  words.  Or  .' 
what  is  to  be  said  of  works  on  the  other  sciences,  with  which 
they  sometimes  even  intermingle  things  that  are  false; 
and  which,  in  order  the  more  readily  to  find  purchasers 
for  them,  they  inscribe  with  false  titles,  and  attribute  to 
notable  authors  what  are  merely  their  own  productions?" 
"Let  such  translators,  whether  they  do  this  with  a  good, 
or  with  a  bad  intention,  let  them,  if  they  pay  any  regard 
to  truth,  say,,  whether  the  German  tongue  be  capable  of 
expressing  that  which  excellent  writers,  both  Greek  and 
Latin,  have  most  accurately  and  argumentatively  written 
on  the  sublime  speculations  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
on  the  knowledge  of  things  ?  They  must  acknowledge 
that  the  poverty  of  our  idiom  renders  it  insufficient ;   and 

*  It  is  probable  that  by  the  terras  "  libros  de  divinis  officiis  et  apicibus 
Religionis  nostre,"  the  archbishop  referred  to  the  vernacular  transla- 
tions, not  only  of  the  ^eri^/ce-ftoo/c*  of  the  Romish  church,  called  the 
Divine  Offices^  but  also  oi  the  Holy  Scriptures;  the  word  apices  being 
generally  used,  in  the  middle  ages,  for  writings,  epistles,  &c.  See  Da 
Cange,  sub  voce» 


124  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

that  it  will  be  necessary  for  them  to  invent  from  their 
own  minds,  new  terms  for  things ;  or,  that,  supposing 
them  to  make  use  only  of  the  old  ones,  they  must  corrupt 
the  sense  of  the  truth,  which,  from  the  greatness  of  the 
danger  attendant  upon  it,  in  the  Sacred  Writings,  we 
greatly  dread ;  for  who  would  leave  it  to  ignorant  and 
unlearned  men,  and  to  the  female  sex,  into  whose  hands 
copies  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  may  have  fallen,  to  find  out 
the  true  meaning  of  them?  For  instance,  let  the  text  of 
the  Holy  Gospels,  or  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  be  examin- 
ed, and  no  one  of  any  knowledge  will  deny  that  there 
is  a  necessity  for  many  things  to  be  supplied,  or  under- 
stood, from  other  writings." 

"These  things  have  occurred  to  our  minds,  because 
they  are  the  most  common.  But,  what  shall  we  think  of 
those  which  are  pending  in  very  sharp  disputes  amongst 
writers  in  the  Catholic  church  ?  Many  other  instances 
might  be  brought  forward,  but  it  is  sufficient  for  our 
purpose  to  have  named  a  few." 

"But,  since  the  beginning  of  this  art  arose  divmely,  (to 
give  it  its  proper  appellation)  in  this  our  golden  city  of 
Mentz,  and  continues  in  it  to  this  day,  in  its  most  improv- 
ed and  perfect  state;  it  is  with  the  greatest  justice  that 
we  defend  the  glory  of  the  art,  and  it  becomes  our  duty 
to  preserve  the  unspotted  purity  of  the  Divine  Writings. 
Wherefore,  with  a  view  of  meeting  and  restraining  as 
with  a  bridle,  the  aforesaid  errors,  and  the  daring  at- 
tempts of  shameless  or  wicked  men,  as  far  as  we  are  able 
by  the  will  of  God,  whose  cause  is  in  question ; — we  do, 
by  strictly  charging  the  observance  of  these  presents, 
command  all  and  every  the  ecclesiastical  and  secidar 
persons  subject  to  our  jurisdiction,  or  transacting  business 
within  its  limits,  of  whatever  degree,  order,  profession, 
dignity,  or  condition,  they  may  be,  that  they  translate  no 
works  on  any  science,  art,  or  knoAvledge  whatsoever,  from 
the  Greek,  Latin,  or  other  language,  into  the  vulgar  Ger- 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  125 

man ;  nor^  when  translated,  either  dispose  of,  or  obtain 
copies,  publicly  or  privately,  directly  or  indirectly,  by 
any  kind  of  barter,  unless  before  their  impression  they 
shall  have  been  admitted,  by  patent,  to  be  sold,  by  the 
most  noble  and  honourable  our  beloved  doctors  and  mas- 
ters of  the  university  in  our  city  of  Mentz,  John  Bertram 
de  Nuremberg,  in  theology;  Alexander  Diethrich, 
in  law;  Theodoric  de  Meschede,  in  medicine;  and 
Alexander  Eler,  in  arts; — the  doctors  and  masters  de- 
puted for  this  purpose  in  the  university  of  our  city  of 
Erfurt;  or  if  in  the  town  of  Frankfort,  the  books  exposed 
for  sale  shall  have  been  seen  and  approved  of  by  an 
honourable,  devout,  and  beloved  master  in  theology, 
belonging  to  the  place,  and  one  or  two  doctors  and  licen- 
tiates,  annually  paid  for  that  purpose  by  the  governor  of 
the  said  town.  And  whoever  shall  treat  with  contempt 
this  our  provision,  or  shall  lend  his  counsel,  assistance, 
or  favour,  in  anyway,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  opposition 
to  this  our  mandate,  let  him  know  that  he  has  by  so 
doing  incurred  the  sentence  of  excommunication;  and 
beside  the  loss  of  the  books  exposed  for  sale,  a  penalty  of 
100  florins  of  gold,  to  be  paid  into  our  treasury;  from 
w^hich  sentence  none  may  absolve  him  without  special 
authority." 

"Given  at  the  chancery  of  St.  Martin,  in  our  city  of 
Mentz,  under  our  seal,  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  month 
January,  MCCCCLXXXVI." 

The  following  are  the  Instructions  issued  to  the  censors, 
and  accompanying  the  above  mandate: 

"Berthold,  &c.  to  the  honourable,  most  learned, 
and  beloved  in  Christ,  Jo.  Bertram,  doctor  in  theology; 
Al.  Diethrich,  doctor  in  law;  Th.  de  Meschede,  doc- 
tor in  medicine;  and  Al.  Eler,  master  of  arts; — health 
and  attention  to  the  things  underwritten/' 

"  Having  found  out  several  scandals  and  frauds,  com- 
mitted   by  certain  translators   of  literary  works,  and 


126  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

printers  of  books,  and  wishing  to  counteract  them,  and 
according-  to  our  power  to  block  up  their  way,  we  com- 
mand that  no  one  in  our  diocese,  or  under  our  jurisdic- 
tion, translate  any  books  into  the  German  tongue,  or 
print,  or  sell  them  when  printed,  unless,  in  our  city  of 
Mentz,  such  works  or  books,  have  first,  according  to  the 
form  of  the  mandate  above  published,  been  by  you  seen, 
and  as  to  their  matter  approved  of,  both  for  translation, 
and  for  sale." 

"We  do,  therefore,  by  the  tenor  of  these  presents,  (hav- 
ing great  confidence  in  your  prudence  and  circumspec- 
tion,) charge  you,  that  if  at  any  time,  any  works,  or  books, 
intended  to  be  translated,  printed,  or  sold,  be  brought  to 
you,  you  shall  weigh  their  matter,  and,  if  they  cannot  be 
easily  translated  according  to  the  true  sense,  but  would 
rather  beget  errors  and  offences,  or  be  injurious  to  modes- 
ty, you  shall  reject  them;  and  whatever  books  you  shall 
judge  worthy  to  be  allowed,  two  of  you,  at  least,  shall 
sign  them,  at  the  end,  with  your  own  hand,  in  order  that 
it  may  more  readily  appear,  what  books  have  been  seen 
and  allowed  by  you.  In  so  doing  you  will  perform  an 
office  pleasing  to  our  God,  and  useful  to  the  state." 

"Given  at  the  chancery  of  St.  Martin,  under  our  privy- 
seal,  the  10th  of  January,  MCCCCLXXXVI."^^ 

In  the  year  1501,  the  infamous  Pope  Alexander  VI.  pub- 
lished a  bull,  relative  to  the  censure  of  books,  which  forms 
an  excellent  companion  to  the  above  mandate  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Mentz.  After  lamenting  that  Satan  sows^  tares 
amongst  the  wheat  of  Christ's  church,  the  papal  pontiff 
proceeds  thus :  "Having  been  informed,  that  by  means 
of  the  said  art,  [of  printing,]  many  books  and  treatises, 
containing  various  errors,  and  pernicious  doctrines,  even 
hostile  to  the  holy  Christian  religion,  have  been  printed. 


(26)  See  Beckmann's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  III.  pp.  108—113,  for  the 
Latin  ;  where  also  reference  is  given  to  Guden's  Co^ex  Diplo* 
maticuSi  VI, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  127 

and  are  still  printed,  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  parti- 
cularly in  the  provinces  of  Cologne^  Mentz,  Triers,  and 
Magdeburg;  and  being  desirous,  without  further  delay, 
to  put  a  stop  to  this  detestable  evil ; — We,  by  these  pre- 
sents, and  by  the  authority  of  the  apostolic  cruanber, 
strictly  forbid  all  printers,  their  servants,  and  those  exer- 
cising the  art  of  printing  under  them,  in  any  manner 
whatsoever,  in  the  above  said  provinces,  under  pain  of 
excommunication,  and  a  pecuniary  fine,  to  be  imposed 
and  exacted  by  our  venerable  brethren,  the  archbishops  of 
Cologne,  Mentz,  Triers,  and  Magdeburg,  and  their  vicars 
general,  or  official  in  spirituals,  according  to  the  pleasure 
of  each,  in  his  own  province,  to  print  hereafter  any  books, 
treatises,  or  writings, until  they  have  consulted  on  this  sub- 
ject, the  archbishops,  vicars,  or  officials,  above  mentioned, 
and  obtained  their  special  and  express  licence,  to  be  grant- 
ed free  of  all  expense;  whose  consciences  we  charge,  that 
before  they  grant  any  licence  of  this  kind,  they  will  care- 
fully examine,  or  cause  to  be  examined,  by  able  and  ca- 
tholic persons,  the  works  to  be  printed;  and  that  they 
will  take  the  utmost  care  that  nothing  may  be  printed 
wicked  and  scandalous,  or  contrary  to  the  orthodox 
faith."  The  rest  of  the  bull  contains  regulations,  to 
prevent  works  already  printed  from  doing  mischief.  All 
catalogues,  and  books  printed  before  that  period,  are  or- 
dered to  be  examined,  and  those  that  contain  any  thing 
prejudicial  to  the  catholic  religion,  to  be  burnt.'^^ 

In  the  10th  session  of  the  council  of  Lateran,  held 
under  Leo  X.  in  1515,  it  was  decreed,  under  pain  of 
excommnnication,  that  for  the  future  no  book  should  be 
printed  at  Rome,  nor  in  the  other  cities  and  dioceses; 
unless,  if  at  Rome,  it  had  been  examined  by  the  "vicar  of 
his  holiness,"  and  the  "master  of  the  palace;"  or,  if  else- 

(27)   Beckmann's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  III.  pp.  106—108. 

See  also,   for  the  original  Bull.   Raynaldi  Annales  Ecclesiastici  ab 
^nno  qiiQ  desinit  Baronius,  XIX.  p.  514,  Colon. -Agrip.  1691,  fol. 


128 

where,  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  or  a  doctor  appointed 
by  him,  and  had  received  the  signature  of  approbation.^* 
PhiUp  II.  king  of  Spain,  is  said  to  have  had  a  catalogue 
printed,'  of  books  prohibited  by  the  Spanish  inquisition; 
and  Paul  IV.  the  following  year,  1559,  ordered  the  holy 
ofiice  at  Rome  to  pubhsh  a  similar  catalogue ;  and  Peig- 
not  (Livres  condamn^s,  vol.  I.  p.  256)  mentions  one 
printed  at  Venice,  as  early  as  1543.-^  But  this  inquisi- 
torial practice  assumed  its  most  formidable  form  in  the 
Council  of  Trent.  "And  first,"  says  Dr.  James,  "the  Coun- 
cil appointed  certain  learned  men  of  all  nations  and 
countries  there  assembled,  to  gather  such  a  Catalogue, 
or  Index,  together,  as  might  contain  all  such  books  as 
were  justly  to  be  forbidden,  whether  written  by,  or  against 
them.  This  work,  thus  wisely  thought  upon,  was  dili- 
gently performed,  and  the  Index  made  and  presented  unto 
the  council;  who  referred  all  matters  back  again  unto 
the  pope's  holiness,  which  then  was  Pius  IV. ;  who  by 
his  briefs  and  bulls,  caused  the  same  Index,  together 
with  certain  rules,  first  by  him  approved  and  ratified,  to 
be  published  abroad,  and  sent  into  all  countries.  This 
bull  beareth  date,  the  24th  of  March,  1564,  in  the  5th 
year  of  his  popedom.  But  (it  seemeth)  that  books  increas- 
ing, and  with  books  certain  disorders  that  could  not  be 
prevented;  in  the  end.  Pope  Sixtns,  the  5th  of  that  name, 
revising  both  Index  and  Rules,  with  advice  of  the  best 
divines,  added  very  much  thereunto,  both  in  regard  of 
the  rules  and  of  the  books :  and  more  he  would  have  done, 
but  that  he  was  untimely  prevented  by  death.  Which 
being  wisely  perceived  by  Clement  VIII.  (a  pope  no  less 
happy  for  ending  and  perfecting,  than  the  other  was  for 
intending  and  purposing  great  matters,)  he  resumes 
the  Index,  n.i\&  appoints  seven,  or  eight  of  the, gravest 
cardinals,  besides  other  learned  men,   to  oversee  both  it, 

(28)  Dictionnaire  Portatif  des  Conciles,  p,  280.    Paris,  1764,  8vo. 

(29)  Curiosities  of  Literature^  III.  p.  181.  Loud.  1817,  8vo, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  129 

and  whatsoever  did  belong  thereunto:  and  in  the  end,  for 
the  better  speed,  and  more  prosperous  success  of  the  Sacred 
Inquisition,  appointed  for  the  care  and  office  of  both  pro- 
hibiting and  purging  books,  he  approves  the  index  thus 
revised,  and  confirms  the  privileges  formerly  granted, 
first  by  Pins  V.  unto  the  Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace, 
and  then  by  Gregory  XIII.  and  Sixtus  V.  unto  the  Car- 
dinals of  the  Congregation,  for  the  better  enabling  of 
them,  unto  the  performance  of  this  so  necessary  and 
weighty  a  business,  which  doth  so  nearly  concern  the 
safety  of  their  church  and  commonwealth."""  The  same 
learned  librarian  of  the  Bodleian  further  informs  us, 
speaking  of  his  own  times,  ''In  the  Vatican  Library, 
there  are  certain  men  maintained  only  to  transcribe  acts 
of  the  councils,  or  copies  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers. 
These  men,"  he  adds,  "appointed  for  this  business,  do,  as 
I  am  credibly  informed,  in  transcribing  books,  imi- 
tate the  letter  of  the  ancient  copies,  as  near  as  can  be 
expressed.  And  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  in  copying  out 
of  books,  they  do  add  and  take  away,  alter  and  change 
the  words,  according  to  the  pleasure  of  their  lord,  the 
pope:  and  so,  these  transcripts  may,  within  a  few  years, 
by  reason  of  their  counterfeiting  the  ancient  hands,  be 
avouched  for  very  old  MSS.  deluding  the  world  with  a 
a  show  of  antiquity."^'  In  the  second  part  of  his  Treatise  on 
the  Corruption  c^f  Scripture,  Councils,  and  Fathers,  Dr. 
James  exemphfies  the  charges  brought  against  the 
church  of  Rome,  for  corrupting  the  ancient  writings,  both 
Sacred  and  ecclesiastical. 

In  Rome,  the  compilers  of  the  catalogues,  or  indexes,  of 
prohibited  books,  are  still  continued,  and  called  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Index,  The  works  noticed  in  the  index- 
es are  divided  into   three  classes,  the  first  containing  a 

(30)  James's    Treatise   on  the    Corruption  of  Scripture,   5cc.  pt.   n. 

pp.  10,  11.    Lond.  1611,  4to. 
C31)  Ibid.     Appendix  to  Advertisement,  &G, 
Vol.  II.  I 


130  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

list  of  condemned  authors,  the  whole  of  whose  writings 
are  forbidden,  except  by  express  permission;  the  second 
enumerating  works  which  are  prohibited,  till  they  have 
been  purged  of  what  the  inquisitors  deem  erroneous;  the 
third  comprehending  those  «??o?7^??2oz/^  publications  v/hich 
are  either  partially,  or  totally  forbidden.  The  manner  in 
which  the  Romish  literary  inquisitors  formerly  decided 
upon  the  works  presented  to  them,  was  sometimes  crimi- 
nally careless,  and  the  results  sufficiently  curious.  Gregory 
Capuchin,  a  Neapolitan  censor,  informs  us,  that  his  prac- 
tice was  to  burn  such  Bibles  as  were  defective  in  the 
text;  and  that  his  mode  of  ascertaining  the  accuracy 
or  inaccuracy  of  the  Latin  Bibles  was,  to  examine  the 
third  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  '^if  I  find,"  says  he,  "the 
words,  'in  siidore  vultus  tui,  vesceris  pane  tuo,'  instead 
of  'in  sudore  vultus  tui,  vesceris  pane  donee,'  (thus  add- 
ing the  word  tuo,)  I  direct  such  copies  not  to  be  correct- 
ed, but  to  be  committed  to  the  flames."  As  the  Indexes 
were  formed  in  different  countries,  the  opinions  were 
sometimes  diametrically  opposite  to  each  other,  and  what 
one  censor,  or  inquisitor,  allowed,  another  condemned; 
and  even  in  some  instances,  the  censor  of  one  country 
has  his  own  works  condemned  in  another.  Thus  the 
learned  Arias  Montanus,  who  was  a  chief  inquisitor  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  concerned  in  the  compilation  of  the 
Antwerp  Index,  had  his  own  works  placed  in  the  Index 
of  Rome;  while  the  inquisitor  of  Naples  was  so  displeased 
with  the  Index  of  Spain,  as  to  persist  in  asserting,  that 
it  had  never  been  printed  at  Madrid.  This  difference  in 
judgment  produced  a  doubtful  and  uncertain  method  of 
censure,  and  it  became  necessary  for  the  inquisitors  to 
subscribe  their  names  to  the  indexes,  in  the  following 
manner:  "I,  N. — inquisitor  for  such  a  diocese,  do  say, 
that  this  present  book,  thus  by  me  corrected,  may  be  tole- 
rated and  read,  until  such  time  as  it  shall  be  thought 
worthy  of  some  further  correction."    But  these  Prohihi- 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  131 

tory  and  Expurgatory  Indexes  were  reserved  only  for 
the  inquisitors,  and  when  printed,  delivered  only  into 
their  hands,  or  those  of  their  most  trusty  associates. 
Philip  II.  in  his  letters  patent,  for  the  printing  of  the  first 
Spanish  index,  acknowledges,  that  it  was  printed  by 
the  king's  printer,  and  at  his  own  expense,  not  for  the 
public^  hut  wlely  for  the  inquisitors,  and  certain  ecdesias* 
tics,  who  were  not  to  he  permitted  to  communicate  the  con- 
tents of  it,  or  give  a  copy  of  it  to  any  one.  And  Sandoval, 
archbishop  of  Toledo,  in  the  edition  of  1619,  prohibits, 
under  pain  of  the  greater  excommunication,  any  one  to 
print  the  Index,  or  cause  it  to  he  printed;  or  when  printed, 
to  send  it  out  of  the  kingdom,  without  a  special  license. 
So  difficult,  indeed,  were  they  to  be  obtained,  that  it  is 
said  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  indexes  were  never 
known  till  the  English  took  Cadiz;  and  the  index  of 
Antwerp  was  accidentally  discovered  by  Junius,  who  af- 
terwards reprinted  it,^^ 

Even  after  the  Reformation,  a  regular  establishment 
of  Licensers  of  the  Press  appeared  in  England,  under 
Charles  I.  procured  by  Archbishop  Laud,  to  prevent  the 
introduction  or  publication  of  any  works  by  the  Genevan 
party,  and  in  particular  the  Geneva  Bible.  The  decree  is 
dated  July  1st,  1637,  and  marks  the  violence  and  persecut- 
ing spirit  of  the  ruling  system.  It  orders,  "That  the  master 
printers  from  thenceforth  shall  be  reduced  to  a  certain 
number;  and  that  if  any  other  shall  secretly  or  openly 
pursue  that  trade,  he  shall  be  set  in  the  pillory,  or  whip- 
ped through  the  streets,  and  suffer  such  other  punishment 
as  that  court  (viz.  the  star-chamber)  shall  inflict  upon 
him;  that  none  of  the  said  master  printers  shall  from 
thenceforth  print  any  book  or  books  of  divinity,  law, 
physic,  philosophy,  or  poetry,  till  the  said  books,  together 

(32)  James's  Treatise,  Advertisement,  &c.  pt.  iv.  pp.  13,  14,  15,  &c. 
Lomeier,  De  Bibliothecis,  pp.  382—387. 

Franci  Disquisitio  de  Papistarum  Indicibus  lib.  prohib.  et  expurg. 
sec.  182,  pp.  196,  197.  Lips.  1684,  4to. 


132  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

with  the  titles,  epistles,  prefaces,  tables,  or  commendatory 
verses,  shall  be  lawfully  licensed,  either  by  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  or  the  bishop  of  London,for  the  time  being, 
or  by  some  of  their  chaplains,  or  by  the  chancellors, 
or  vice-chancellors  of  either  of  the  two  universities,  upon 
pain  of  losing  the  exercise  of  his  art,  and  being  proceeded 
against  in  the  star-chamber,  or  the  high-commission  court 
respectively;  that  no  person  or  persons  do  hereafter 
reprint,  or  cause  to  be  reprinted,  any  book  or  books 
whatsoever,  though  formerly  printed  with  license,  with- 
out being  reviewed,  and  a  new  license  obtained  for  the 
reprinting  thereof;  that  every  merchant,  bookseller,  or 
other  person,  who  shall  import  any  printed  books  from 
beyond  the  seas,  shall  present  a  true  catalogue  of  them 
to  the  said  archbishop  or  bishop  for  the  time  being,  before 
they  be  delivered  or  exposed  to  sale,  upon  pain  of  suffer- 
ing such  punishment  as  by  either  of  the  said  two  courts 
respectively  shall  be  thought  fit ;  that  none  of  the  said 
merchants,  booksellers,  or  others,  shall,  upon  pain  of  the 
like  punishment,  deliver  any  of  the  books  so  imported, 
till  the  chaplains  of  the  said  archbishop  or  bishop,  for 
the  time  being,  or  some  other  learned  man  by  them 
appointed,  together  with  the  master  and  wardens  of  the 
Company  of  Stationers,  or  one  of  them,  shall  take  a  view 
of  the  same,  with  power  to  seize  on  all  such  books  which 
they  find  to  be  schismatical  and  offensive,  and  bring  them 
to  the  said  archbishop  or  bishop,  or  to  the  high  commis- 
sion office;  and  finally,  that  no  merchant,  bookseller,  &c. 
shall  print,  or  cause  to  be  printed  beyond  the  seas,  any 
book  or  books,  which  either  totally,  or  for  the  greatest 
part,  were  written  in  the  English  tongue,  whether  the  said 
books  have  been  here  formerly  printed,  or  not ;  nor  shall 
willingly  nor  knowingly  import  any  such  books  into  this 
kingdom,  upon  pain  of  being  proceeded  against  in  either 
of  the  said  two  courts  respectively,  as  before  is  said."^* 

(33)  Heylju's  Cypriaaus  Anglicus,  pt.  ii.  lib.  iv.  p.  341,  Lond.  1071,  foL 


IPIPTEENTH   CENTURY.  133 

In  many  instances  these  prohibitory  mandates  only 
served  to  increase  the  inquiry  after  the  works  that  had 
been  forbidden,  and  to  give  publicity  to  the  very  vokimes 
intended  to  be  suppressed :  it  was  thus  that  a  bookseller 
of  Paris,  by  giving  out  that  the  Colloquies  of  Erasmus 
were  prohibited,  sold  above  twenty-four  thousand  of  one 
impression !  ^* 

(34)  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p.  274.  Lond.  1808,  8yo. 


134 


BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 


CHAPTER  II. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY    CONTINUED. 

Promotion  of  Literature  hy  Pope  Nicholas  V,  Janotus 
Manetto.  Italian  Fersion.  N.  de  Malermi.  D.  N. 
Mirabellius,  Capture  of  Constantinople,  Spanish 
Versions.  Vincent  Ferrer.  Bonifacio  Ferrer.  Coun- 
cils and  Inquisition.  Expulsion  of  Moors  and  Jews 
from  Spain.  Paul  of  Burgos.  Jacohus  Perez. 
French  Version.  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.  State  of 
Literature.  Bohemian,  Saxon,  German,  Dutch,  and 
Polish  Bibles.  Mammotrectus.  Biblical  Scholars. 
Mattheo  Corvini,  king  of  Hungary .    Celebrated  Jews. 

Trt  ESUMING  the  occurrences  of  the  Fftee^ith  Century, 
-*-^  we  remark,  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  the  literary 
exertions  of  Pope  Nicholas  V.  and  those  of  his  secretary, 
Janotus  Manetto,  who,  at  a  period  when  literature  was 
emerging  from  under  the  cloud  by  which  it  had  been 
obscured  for  ages,  spared  neither  labour  nor  expense  to 
promote  its  rising  interests  among  their  countrymen. 

Thomas  da  Sarzana,  or,  as  he  is  sometimes  called, 
ToMAso  Calandrino,  was  the  son  of  a  poor  physician  of 
Sarzana,  a  town  of  Italy,  in  the  Ligurian  Republic.  His 
industry  and  learning  were  so  extraordinary,  that  whilst 
he  ranked  only  in  the  lower  order  of  the  clergy,  he  was 
chosen  by  the  celebrated  Cosmo  de  Medici,  to  assist  him 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  library  of  St.  Marco,  at  Flo- 
rence. By  rapid  degrees,  he  rose  from  his  humble  situa- 
tion to  the  highest  preferment  in  the  ecclesiastical  state, 
and  succeeded  to  the  pontifical  chair  in  1447,  when  he 
assumed  the  name  of  Nicholas  V.  During  the  eight  years 
that  he  enjoyed  the  supreme  dignity  in  the  church,  he 


JTFTEENTH   CENTURY.  135 

acquired  a  high  reputation^  not  by  enlarging  his  territory 
or  enriching  his  dependants,  but  by  providing  the  most 
efficacious  means  for  the  extirpation  of  iguoraoce,  and 
the  acquirement  of  knowledge.  When  the  bigoted  Spa- 
niards had  published  laws,  in  1449,  excluding  all  Jewish 
and  heathen  converts,  and  their  posterity,  from  all  offices 
of  rank  and  emolument;  and  when  the  dean  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  Toledo  had  publicly  defended  the  intolerant 
edicts,  Nicholas,  with  enlightened  liberality,  issued  a  bull 
against  the  decree,  excommunicating  all  those  who  offered 
to  exclude  the  converted  Jews  and  heathens  from  politi- 
cal or  ecclesiastical  offices,  from  the  priesthood  and 
government.  And  when  he  conceived  the  first  bull  to 
be  neglected,  issued  a  second  to  maintain  the  generous 
policy  which  he  had  adopted.  He  was  equally  decisive 
in  promoting  the  general  diffusion  of  science.  No  expense 
was  spared  in  the  purchase  of  books ;  and  where  the  ori- 
ginals could  not  be  procured,  copies  were  directed  to  be 
made.  His  transcribers  were  every  where  employed; 
and  the  most  learned  men  were  engaged  in  translating 
into  Latin^  the  most  valuable  and  useful  of  the  Greek 
Fathers,  and  ecclesiastical  writers,  as  well  as  the  most 
elegant  and  important  classical  authors.  He  caused  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  to  be  transcribed,  and  richly  ornament- 
ed with  gold  and  silver.  He  also  offered  a  reward  of  five 
thousand  ducats  for  the  discovery  of  a  copy  of  the  He- 
brew original  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel;  which,  though 
fruitless  as  to  its  first  object,  probably  occasioned  the 
translation  of  the  Gospel  into  that  language.  The 
Vatican,  or  pontifical  library,  which  had  been  nearly 
dispersed  by  the  frequent  change  of  its  possessors,  and 
its  removal  from  Rome  to  Avignon,  and  from  Avignon  to 
Rome,  according  as  the  popes  fixed  their  residence  at  one 
or  other  of  those  cities,  he  enriched  with  5000  MS.  vo- 
lumes, procured  at  immense  expense.  Nicholas  also 
established  public  rewards  at  Rome,  for  composition  in 


136  BIBLICAL  Literature, 

the  learned  languages,  appointed  professors  in  humanity, 
and  became  the  liberal  patron  of  learning  and  learned 
men.  He  allowed  Francis  Philelphus  a  stipend,  for  trans- 
lating Homer  into  Latin ;  and  it  was  by  means  of  his 
munificent  support,  that  Cyriac  of  Anconia,  who  may  be 
considered  as  the  first  antiquary  in  Europe,  was  enabled 
to  introduce  a  taste  for  gems,  medals,  inscriptions,  and 
other  curious  remains  of  classical  antiquity,  which  he 
collected  with  indefatigable  labour  in  various  parts  of 
Italy  and  Greece.  Whilst  this  mild  and  munificent 
patron  of  letters  was  thus  "sedulously  employed,  and 
marking  with  satisfaction  the  progress  of  his  labours,  the 
news  which  astounded  Europe  arrived,  that  the  capital 
of  the  Grecian  empire  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Turks ! 
The  melancholy  event  is  said  to  have  preyed  upon  the 
gentle  spirit  of  Nicholas,  and  helped  to  terminate  his 
days  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1455."* 

Janotus  Manetto,  or,  more  properly,  Gianozzo  Ma- 
NETTi,  was  by  birth  a  Florentine,  He  was  originally  de- 
signed for  a  commercial  life';  but  the  strong  and  early 
bias  of  his  mind  led  him  to  devote  himself  to  literary 
pursuits,  and  particularly  to  direct  his  attention  to  theo- 
logy. "This  study,"  he  said,  "as  best  adapted  to  the 
condition  of  man,  should  end  only  with  life;  and  he  re- 
posed in  the  contemplation  of  the  divine  nature,  and  the 
moral  truths  of  religion!  Augustin  was  here  his  favourite 
author,  some  of  wliose  books,  his  memory  was  sufficiently 
retentive  to  repeat." 

To  his  classical  acquirements  in  the  Latin,  he  added  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  lan- 
guages, and  with  science  in  general.  To  render  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Sacred  Records  more  familiar,  he  took  a 
Jew  into  his  house,  and  afterwards  engaged  another  mas- 

(1)  Berlngton's  Literary  Hist,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  B.  vi.  p.  476, 

Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  L  ch.  i.  pp.  56,  57.  Lond,  870. 
Basnage's  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  B.  yii,  ch.  xxi.  p.  69U 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  137 

ter  of  the  same  nation,  with  whom  he  read  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  the  original,  and  some  ponderous  com- 
mentators, for  five  hours  each  day.  Nor  did  this  suffice; 
for  we  subsequently  find  him  covenanting  with  two 
Greeks,  and  a  Hebrew,  to  live  with  him,  on  condition 
that  each  should  converse  with  him  in  his  own  tongue. 

His  exalted  moral  qualities,  united  to  his  extensive 
learning,  raised  him  to  the  highest  offices,  and  he  was 
employed  in  several  embassies  to  foreign  princes.  But 
his  excellencies  could  not  prevent  him  from  becoming  an 
object  of  envy;  and  after  being  subjected  to  heavy  pecu- 
niary fines,  he  quitted  Florence,  and  resided  at  Rome, 
where  he  became  secretary  to  Pope  Nicholas  V.  who  just- 
ly appreciated  his  worth,  and  honoured  him  with  his  con- 
fidence and  esteem.  The  three  last  years  of  his  life  were 
spent  at  the  court  of  Alphonsus^  king  of  Naples,  where 
he  was  principally  engaged  in  writing,  and  so  completely 
gained  the  friendship  of  Alphonsus,  that  he  was  heard  to 
say,  that,  "were  he  reduced  to  a  single  loaf,  he  would  di- 
vide it  with  Manetti."     He  died  at  Naples,  A.  D.  1459.^ 

His  works  comprise  a  variety  of  subjects,  moral,  histo- 
rical, biographical,  and  oratorical,  beside  versions  from 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek.  From  the  Hebrew  he  translated 
the  Psalms  into  Latin;  and  the  New  Testament  from 
the  Greek  .^ 

About  the  same  time  an  Italian  version  of  the  whole 
Bible  was  made  from  the  Vulgate,  by  Nicolas  de  Maler- 
Mi,  or  Malherbi,  a  Benedictine  monk  of  Venice,  of  the 
order  of  C^maldoli,  abbot  of  St.  Michael  de  Lemo.  In 
his  preface  he  informs  us,  "that  the  reason  of  his  under- 
taking his  translation  was  the  very  great  incorrectness 
of  those  translations  which  were  already  in  the  hands  of 
the  people,  and  in  which  some  things  were  introduced, 

(2)  Berington,  ut  sup,  pp,  486—488. 

C3)  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt,  ii.  vol.  III.  cap,  iii.  sec.  1.  p.  436 ;  and 
sec.  %  p,  568. 


138  -        BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

that  were  not  to  be  found  in  the  text  of  the  Scrip- 
tures;" by  whick,  he  probably  refers  to  translations  made 
from  the  French  version  of  the  work  of  Peter  Comes- 
tor.  He  also  says,  "  that  the  mutilations  and  additions  of 
those  translations  were  such,  that  it  became  much  easier 
to  execute  a  new  translation,  than  to  correct  the  old 
ones ;  and  that  he  therefore  suspended  every  other  em- 
ployment to  devote  himself  to  so  important  a  work,  which, 
however,  he  accomplished  in  about  eight  months  T  If  this 
were  actually  the  case,  he  must  have  engaged  the  assist- 
ance of  others,  or  his  translation  have  been  a  very  hasty 
and  incompetent  one;  but  F.  Simon  thinks,  that  after  all 
his  professions,  he  merely  corrected  the  preceding  versions. 
He,  however,  informs  us,  that  "his  intention  was  to  be 
serviceable  to  those  who  had  not  applied  themselves  to 
learning  in  their  youth;"  adding  that  "the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures instruct  the  learned  in  true  wisdom,  and  the  igno- 
rant in  true  religion."  The  translation  is  accompanied 
by  an  Epistle  to  Dr.  Laurentius,  a  professor  of  theology, 
in  which  he  requests  him  to  revise  and  correct  his  work, 
as  he  distrusted  his  own  ability,  and  feared  lest  in  some 
difficult  places  he  should  have  mistaken  the  sense  of  the 
inspired  writers.  The  professor  s  reply  is  subjoined,  con- 
taining an  eulogium  on  the  elegance  of  the  translation. 
The  translator  has  also  inserted,  in  Italian,  all  the  Pre- 
faces which  are  found  prefixed  to  most  of  the  Latin  MSB. 
of  Jerom's  Bible.* 

An  edition  of  this  Bible  was  printed  at  Venice,  by 
V.  de  Spira,  in  1471,  in  2  vols.  fol.  and  before  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  had  been  several  times  reprinted 
at  Venice.  There  was  also  an  edition  of  the  Italian  Bible 
printed  at  Rome,  in  1471,  in  fol.  which  has  by  some  been 
supposed  to  be  a  different  translation  from  the  former, 
because  it  varies  from  it  in  some  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 

(4)  Simon's  Crit.   Hist,   of  ths  Versions  of  the    N.  T.    pt.  ii,  ch.  xl. 
pp.  336—338. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  139 

ment ;   whilst  others  suppose  the  variations  to  be  nothing 
more  than  corrections  of  Male r mi's  version.* 

F.  Simon  affirms,  that  at  this  time,  translations  of  the 
Epistles  and  Gospels,  which  are  read  at  mass  during- 
the  course  of  the  whole  year,  were  common  in  the 
Italian  tongue,  being  executed  for  the  instruction  of  the 
people;  and  supplying  the  place  of  the  interpreters  men- 
tioned by  St.  Paul  in  the  1st  Epist.  to  the  Corinthians, 
chap,  xiv.® 

Among  the  Biblical  scholars  of  this  age  who  flourished 
in  Italy,  Dominicus  Nanus  Mirabellius  deserves  to  be 
noticed,  as  the  author  of  an  Harmony  of  the  Gospels, 
entitled  Monotessaron  Evangelwrum,  which  he  accom- 
panied with  a  laborious  selection  from  the  works  of 
Gentile  philosophers,  poets,  and  orators,  of  passages  illus- 
trative of  the  Gospels.  Among  the  authors  quoted  are  Se- 
neca, Ovid,  the  Sybilline  Oracles,  Hermes  Trismegistus, 
Pythagoras,  Anaxagoras,  Empedocles,  Zeno,  Plato,  Aris- 
totle, Isocrates,  Homer,  Terence,  Virgil,  Horace,  Plautus, 
Juvenal,  Persius,  Cicero,  Claudian,  Lucan,  Pliny,  A.  Gel- 
lius,  Macrobias,  Valerius  Maximus,  &c.  The  work, 
which  appears  never  to  have  been  printed,  is  said,  by 
Sixtus  Senensis,  to  be  preserved  in  the  library  of  theDomi- 
nicans,  at  Genoa.  Mirabellius  was  arch-presbyter  of  the 
church  of  Savona,  and  flourished  about  A.  D.  1470.^ 

Two  anecdotes,  related  by  the  biographer  of  the  cele- 
brated Lorenzo  de  Medici,  may  serve  to  throw  light 
upon  the  literary  history  of  Italy  at  this  period,  a  sub- 
ject extensively  illustrated  by  the  elegant,  but  partial 
biographer  of  the  Medici,  in  his  lives  of  Lorenzo  and 
Leo  X.  The  first  relates  to  a  MS.  copy  of  Liv}%  sent 
by  Cosmo  de   Medici  to  Alfonso,   or  Alphonsus,  king 


(5)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I,  p.  354.    Paris,  1723,  fol. 

VValchii  Biblioth.  Theolog.  IV.  cap.  viii,  p.  127. 

(6)  Simon's  Crit.  Hist,  of  Versions  of  iX,  T.  pt.  ii.  ch.  ii.  p.  14, 

(7)  Sixt.  Senens.  Biblioth.  Sanct.  lib.  iv.  p,  279, 


140  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

of  Naples.  For  such  was  the  high  value  set  upon  it 
by  the  king,  that  although  he  had  previously  been  at 
variance  with  Cosmo,  the  present  conciliated  the  breach 
between  them ;  and  notwithstanding  an  intimation  from 
his  physician,  that  the  book  was  probably  poisoned, 
he  disregarded  their  suspicions,  and  began  with  plea- 
sure the  perusal  of  the  work.  Tiie  other  refers  to  a  sin- 
gular visitor  at  Florence,  in  1474.  This  was  Christian, 
or  Christiern,  king  of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  who  was 
journeying  for  the  purpose,  as  was  alleged,  of  discharg- 
ing a  vow.  Having  surveyed  the  city,  and  paid  a  cere- 
monial visit  to  the  magistrates,  who  received  their  royal 
visitor  with  great  splendour,  he  requested  to  be  favoured 
with  a  sight  of  the  valuable  copy  of  the  Greek  Evange- 
lists,  which  had  been  obtained  some  years  before  from 
Constantinople;  and  of  the  Pandects  of  Justinian,  brought 
from  Amalfi  to  Pisa,  and  thence  to  Florence.  His  lauda- 
ble curiosity  was  readily  gratified,  and  he  expressed  his 
satisfaction  by  declaring,  ^^that  these  were  the  real  trea- 
sures of  princes."^  It  is  also  worthy  of  note,  that  whilst 
the  Hebrew  tongue  was  cultivated,  and  several  editions  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible  were  printed  in  Italy,  the  learned 
Reuchlin  complained,  that  not  a  single  printed  copy  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  had  passed  the  Alps,  owing  to  the 
war  waged  by  the  Emperor  Maximilian.^ 

The  taking  of  Constantinople,  and  conquest  of 
the  Eastern  empire,  by  the  Turks,  with  its  fatal  effect  on 
Pope  Nicholas  V.  has  been  already  cursorily  noticed;  but 
this  event,  so  tragical  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  imperial 
city,  proved  ultimately  so  beneficial  to  the  interests  of 
literature,  in  the  west,  by  the  retreat  of  the  learned 
Greeks  into  Italy,  that  it  claims  our  particular  regard. 
Cardinal  Isidore,  who  had  been   constituted  the  titular 

(8)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  I.  ch.  i.  p.  34  j  and  ch.  iii. 

p.  158.    Lond,  1796,  4to. 

(9)  Hody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig,  p.  [U  lib.  iii.  p.  449. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  141 

patriarch  of  Constantinople,  by  Nicholas  V.  and  was 
a  witness  of  the  horrible  scene  which  ensued  at  the  cap- 
ture of  the  city,  has  left  a  most  pathetic  description  of 
the  circumstances  of  it,  in  a  Latin  epistle,  which  may  be 
found  in  the  Appendix  to  the  3rd  vol.  of  Dr.  E.  D.  Clarhes 
Travels,  p.  383.  By  it  we  are  informed,  that  the  Turks^ 
under  Mohammed  II.  on  entering  the  city,  spared  neither 
rank,  nor  age,  nor  sex;  the  aged  men  and  women  were 
slain,  the  virgins  were  violated  even  in  the  sanctuary  it- 
self; the  nobles  were  degraded  into  slaves ;  the  temples  of 
God  were  polluted,  the  images  of  the  Saviour,  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary,  and  of  the  saints,  were  treated  with  contumely, 
and  dashed  to  pieces;  ^^the  Holy  Gospels,  the  missals, 
and  the  rest  of  the  books  belonging  to  the  churches,  were 
torn  to  pieces,  defiled,  and  burnt ;"  the  vestments,  and 
other  ornaments  of  the  priests,  were  rent,  or  appropriated 
for  the  clothing  and  ornamenting  of  the  victors;  the  sacred 
vessels  were  melted  down,  or  turned  to  profane  uses ;  in  a 
word,  the  conquerors,  urged  by  cruelty,  lust,  revenge,  and 
a  love  of  booty,  spared  neither  place,  nor  person.^^  Tri- 
themius  (in  Chiton.  Spo7ihehn.  Tom.  II.  App.  p.  368,)  adds, 
that  the  Turkish  emperor  being  resolved,  if  possible,  to 
extirpate  Christianity  from  his  newly  acquired  dominions, 
commanded  all  the  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  the 
works  of  the  orthodox  Fathers,  that  could  be  found,  to  be 
put  into  perforated  vessels,  and  thrown  into  the  sea.^^ 

During  the  general  carnage  and  confusion  that  ensued 
on  the  entrance  of  the  Turks  into  Constantinople,  and 
whilst  the  cruel  conquerors  were  employed  in  plundering 
the  city,  many  of  the  inhabitants,  among  whom  were  seve- 
ral men  of  various  and  extensive  learning,  escaped  to  the 
vessels  in  the  harbour,  and  arrived  safe  in  Italy,  where  they 
promoted  the  study  of  the  Greek  tongue,  and  gave  increas- 

(10)  Dr.  E,  D.  Clarke's  Travels,  pt.  ii.  sec.  1.  Yol.  III.  ch.  i.  p.  2;    and 

Appendix,  p.  383. 

(11)  Frauci  Disquisitio  de  Papist.  Jndicibus,  sec.  180,  p,  195, 


142  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

ed  energy  to  those  scientific  and  literary  pursuits,  which 
had  ah'cady  begun  to  engage  the  attention  of  many  intel- 
ligent and  literary  characters  in  the  Western  empire;  and 
which  were  so  successfully  aided  by  the  recent  invention 
of  printing.  The  learned  Humphrey  Hody  wrote  an 
account  of  the  chief  of  these  illustrious  exiles,  which  was 
published  after  his  death  by  Dr.  Jebb,  and  entitled  Disser- 
tation es  de  grcecis  illiistribiis  Unguce  grcece  Utterarumque 
humanarum  ifistaar  atari  bus.  Lond.  1742,  8vo. 

Constantinople  was  captnred,  and  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  slain,  on  the  29th  of  May,  in  the  year  1453. 
"On  the  day  of  the  capture,  the  Sultan  entered  the  city 
in  triumph;  viewed  its  still  remaining  monuments;  and 
proceeded  to  establish  the  forms  of  a  new  government, 
and  the  rites  of  the  Moslem  worship."'^ 

From  recording  the  fall  of  Byzantium,  and  the  asylum 
afforded  in  Italy  to  the  learned  Greeks  who  fled  from  the 
fury  of  the  Mohammedan  conquerors,  we  proceed  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  Biblical  literature  in  Spain. 

Early  in  this  century,  a  translation  was  made  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  Spanish,  in  the  dialect  of  Valencia. 
This  version,  which  received  the  permission  of  the  inquisi- 
tors, was  made  by  Boniface  Ferrer,  the  brother  of 
St.  Vincent,  by  whom,  probably,  he  was  assisted.  An 
edition  of  it  was  printed  at  Valencia,  in  1478,  a  fragment 
of  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  Carthusian  monastery  of 
Portaceli.'^  The  best  account  of  this  version  is  given  by 
Santander,  who  observes,  "This  version  of  the  Bible,  in 
the  Limousin  or  Valencian  tongue,  is  so  rare,  that  no  com- 
plete copy  of  it  is  known  to  exist.  The  only  certain 
fragment  that  we  have  of  this  version,  consists  in  the 
four  last  leaves,  which  were  discovered  in  1645,  among 
the  archives  of  the  church  of  Valencia,  and  which  have 
the  subscription.     Father  John  Bapt.  Civera,  a  monk  of 

(1«2)  Berington's  Lit.  Hist,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Append,  I.  p,  638. 
(13)  Thomson  and  Orme's  Historical  Sketch,  &c.  p.  40, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  143 

the  Chartreuse  of  Portaceli,  having  obtained  these  four 
leaves,  he  inserted  them  in  his  work,  intituled  Farones 
illustres  del  Monasterio  de  Porta-CoelL  The  following 
is  the  subscription : 

'  Acaba  la  biblia  molt  vera  e  catholica,  treta  de  una 
^biblia  del  noble  mossen  berenguer  vives  de  boil 
^cavalier:  la  qual  fon  arromanzada  en  lo  monestir  de 
^portaceli  de  lengua  latina  en  la  nostra  valenciana  per 
^  lo  molt  reverend  micer  bonifaci  ferrer  doctor  en  cas- 
'  cun  dret  e  en  facultad  de  sacra  theologia:  e  don  de 
Uotala  cartoxa:  germa  del  benaventurat  sanct  vicent 
'  ferrer  del  orde  de  predicadors :  en  la  qual  translacio 

*  foren  altres  singulars  homens  de   sciencia.      E  ara 

*  derrerament  aquesta  es  stada  diligentment  corregida 
Wista  e  regoneguda  per  lo  reverend  mestre  jaume 
'  borrell  mestre  en  sacra  theologia  del  ordre  et  predi- 
*^cadors:  e  inquisidor  en  regne  de  Valencia.     Es  stada 

*  empremptada  en  la  ciutat  de  Valencia  a  despeses  del 
^magnifichen  philip  vizlant  mercader  dela  vila  dejsne 
^  de  alta  Alemanya :   per  mestre  Alfonso  Fernandez  de 

*  Cordova  del  regne  de  castella,  e  per  mestre  lambert 
'  palomar  alamany  mestre  en  arts:  comencada  en  lo 
^  mes  de  febrer  del  any  mil  quatrecens  setanta  set:  e 
'  acabada  lomes  de  Marg  del  any  mil  CCCCLXXVIII.''* 
From  this  subscription  we  learn,  that  the  translation 

was  made  from  the  Latin,  by  Boniface  Ferrer,  assisted 
by  other  learned  men,  in  the  monastery  of  Portaceli,  and 
in  the  Valencian  dialect;  that  it  was  corrected  and  revised 
by  John  Bon^ell,  a  Dominican,  and  inquisitor;  that  it  was 
printed  at  the  expense  of  Philip  llzlant,  a  merchant,  of 
Jesi,  in  the  March  of  Ancona,  by  Alfomo  Fernandez,  of 
Cordova,  and  Lambert  Palmar,  or  Pelmart,  a  German ; 
and  that  the  printing  of  it  was  begun  in  February,  1477^, 
and  finished  in  March,  1478. 

(14)  Santaoder,    Dirtionnaire    Biblio^raphique,   pt,   ii,  pp,    197 — 199. 
Bruxelles,  1806,  8vo, 


144 

Don  Rodriguez  de  Castro,  librarian  to  the  king  of 
Spain,  corroborates  the  preceding  account  of  this  rare 
version,  concerning  which,  the  most  discordant  notices 
have  been  given  by  different  bibliographers,  in  his  Bihli- 
oteca  Espanola,  vol.  I.  p.  444,  accompanied  by  an  extract 
from  the  work  itself,  taken  from  the  Apocalypse,  of 
which  a  fragment  is  all  that  now  remains.  His  words 
are,  "La  mas  antigua,  &c."  "The  most  ancient  [Spanish 
version]  is,  that  of  all  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament which  the  Rev.  Father  Bonifacio  Ferrer,  (brother 
of  St.  Vincent  Ferrer,)  doctor  of  sacred  theology,  and  of 
sacred  and  civil  law,  and  general  of  the  Carthusians, 
made  in  Valencian,  and  printed  in  Valencia,  in  1478,  as 
is  seen  in  the  last  page,  which  is  preserved  in  the  Carthu- 
sian monastery  of  Portaceli,  in  the  kingdom  of  Valencia, 
from  which  Dr.  Francisco  Asensio  made  a  faithful  copy, 
inserted  here  [in  the  "Biblioteca  Espanola"]  verbatim, 
and  which  establishes  the  antiquity  of  this  translation ."=^ 

Vincent  Ferrer  was  born  at  Valencia,  in  Spain,, 
according  to  Antonio,  in  1352,  but  according  to  Butler, 
in  1357.  He  was  early  distinguished  for  learning  and 
charity;  in  his  eighteenth  year  he  voluntarily  embraced 
the  monastic  life,  and  in  1374,  entered  a  convent  of  the 
order  of  St.  Dominic,  in  his  native  city.  In  a  short  time 
after  his  profession,  he  was  deputed  to  read  lectures 
of  philosophy;  and  removing  to  Barcelona,  not  only 
continued  his  scholastic  exercises,  but  became  a  zea- 
lous preacher  of  the  Word  of  God.  From  Barcelona 
he  was  sent  to  Lerida,  the  most  famous  university  of  Ca- 
talonia, where  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor,  from 
Cardinal  Peter  de  Luna,  in  1384.  At  the  request  of  the 
bishop,  clergy,  and  people  of  Valencia,  he  was  recalled  to 

*  For  this  extract  and  translation,  from  the  "  Biblioteca  Espanola,'* 
printed  at  the  royal  printing-office,  Madrid,  2  vols.  fol.  1  am  obliged  to 
the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  W.  A,  Thomson,  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
•'Historical Sketch  of  the  Translation  and  Circulation  of  the  Scriptures."^ 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  145 

his  own  country,  and  pursued  his  lectures  and  preaching 
with  extraordinary  reputation  and  success.  One  of  his 
biographers  remarks,  "His  heart  was  always  fixed  on  God, 
and  he  made  his  studies,  labour,  and  all  his  other  actions, 
a  continued  prayer."  The  advice  he  gives  to  students, 
in  his  Treatise  on  a  Spiritual  Life,  is  agreeable  to  his 
own  practice,  and  is  well  worthy  of  attention:  "Do  you 
desire  to  study  to  advantage?  Let  devotion  accompany 
all  your  studies.  Consult  God  more  than  your  books, 
and  ask  him  with  humility,  to  make  you  understand  what 
you  read.  Study  fatigues  and  drains  the  mind  and  heart. 
Go,  from  time  to  time,  to  refresh  them  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus.  Interrupt  your  apphcation  by  short,  but  fervent 
and  ejaculatory  prayers.  Never  begin  nor  end  your 
study,  but  by  prayer.  Science  is  a  gift  of  the  Father  of 
Lights;  therefore,  do  not  consider  it  merely  as  the  work 
of  your  own  mind  or  industry." 

Vincent  had  now  resided  six  years  at  Valencia,  assidu- 
ously pursuing  his  pious  labours,  when  Cardinal  Peter  de 
Luna,  being  appointed  legate  of  Clement  VII.  to  Charles 
VI.  king  of  France,  obliged  him  to  accompany  him.  In 
1394,  on  the  death  of  Clement,  the  Cardinal  was  chosen 
pope,  by  the  French  and  Spaniards,  and  took  the  name 
of  Benedict  XIII.  Vincent  was  then  commanded  to 
repair  to  Avignon,  where  he  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
master  of  the  sacred  palace;  but,  at  his  own  earnest  and 
frequently  repeated  request,  was  appointed  apostolical 
missionary,  and  entered  upon  that  office  before  the  end 
of  the  year  1398,  and  for  about  twenty  years,  laboured 
with  indefatigable  zeal,  in  various  parts  of  Europe.  He 
visited  Spain,  France,  the  Netherlands,  Germany,  and 
Italy.  Henry  IV.  invited  him  to  England,  sent  one  of 
his  ships  to  fetch  him  from  the  coast  of  France,  and  re- 
ceived him  with  the  greatest  honours.  After  preaching 
in  the  chief  towns  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  he 
returned,  and  pursued  his  missionary  labours,  in  the  dif- 

VoL.II  K 


146 

ferent  parts  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain.  The  ordinary 
subjects  of  his  sermons,  which  were  delivered  with  unu- 
sual energy,  were  sin,  death,  judgment,  hell,  and  eternity. 
Numerous  Jews  and  Mohammedans  are  said  to  have 
been  converted  by  his  ministry;  and  multitudes  of  im- 
moral characters  to  have  been  reclaimed.  The  two  last 
years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  Brittany  and  Normandy, 
whither  he  had  gone  at  the  desire  of  Henry  V.  He  died 
in  the  city  of  Vannes,  in  14^9,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two-; 
or  according  to  others,  at  sixty-seven.  He  was  canoniz- 
ed, by  Pope  Calixtus  IH.  in  1455. '" 

In  the  list  of  his  writings,  Nic.  Antonio  mentions  the 
following  Biblical  work:  "BiBLiA,seu  Promptuarium,  sc. 
locorum  sacrae  Scripturae  singulis  diebus,  sive  de  tempore, 
sive  de  Sanctis  usurpandorum."  At  the  beginning  of  the 
copy  to  which  Antonio  refers,  a  note  is  prefixed,  intimat- 
ing that  it  had  been  bequeathed  as  a  legacy,  by  the  au- 
thor: "Hanc  Bibliam  inspirante  Domino  mihi  Fr. 
Antonio  de  aurea  mihi  reliquit  beatissimus  Fr.  Vincen- 
tius.""^  The  chief  of  his  other  works  are,  A  Treatise 
on  a  Spiritual  Life;  Commentary,  or  Sermons,  on  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  printed  at  Lyons,  1523,  4to.  and  again 
1573,  8vo.;    and  Epistles}'^ 

Bonifacio,  or  Boniface  Ferrer,  was  the  brother  of 
Vincent.  Intending  to  engage  in  secular  concerns,  he 
married;  but,  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  was  persuaded, 
by  his  brother,  to  enter  the  Carthusian  monastery  of  Por- 
taceli,  near  Valencia.  His  industry  and  attention  to 
every  part  of  the  severe  discipline  of  his  order,  gained  him 
imiversal  approbation,  so  that,  in  the  short  period  of  four 
years,  he  became  Prior  General,  an  otHce  which  he  exe- 
cuted with  the  utmost  fidelity.     But  having  been  elected 

(15)  Butler's  Lives  of  the  Saints,  V.  p.  44. 

Antouii  BiliUotheca  Hispana  Vetus,  II,  p.  136.  Romae,  1696,  foL 

(16)  Antonii  Bihl.  Ilisp.  Vet.  II.  p.  137. 

(17)  Butler,  ubi  sup. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  II,  p.  723,   edit.  Paris,  1723, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY 


147 


during  the  schism  in  the  papacy,  and  the  council  of  Pisa, 
held  in  1409,  having  deposed  the  schismatical  popes, 
and  chosen  Cardinal  Peter  Philargi,  pope,  who  styled 
himself  Alexander  V.  he  requested,  and  obtained  permis- 
sion to  surrender  up  his  dignity;  and  Stephen  de  8eevis 
>succeeded  to  the  office.  Butler,  {Lives  of  the  Sohifs, 
vol.  IV.)  however,  says,  he  was  general  of  the  Carthu- 
sians at  the  time  of  his  death. 

In  the  year  1412,  the  states  of  Arragon,  Catalonia, 
and  Valencia,  being  divided  about  a  successor  to  the 
crown  of  Arragon,  they  agreed  to  choose  nine  commissa- 
ries, three  for  each  kingdom;  when  Boniface,  his  bro- 
ther Vincent,  and  Don  Peter  Bertrand,  were  chosen  for 
the'  kingdom  of  Valencia.  They  met  at  the  castle  of 
Caspe,  in  Arragon.  Ferdinand  of  Castile  was  unani- 
mously declared  to  be  the  lawful  heir;  and  Vincent 
Ferrer,  haranguing  the  foreign  ambassadors  and  people 
present,  the  decision  was  received  with  acclamation. 
Boniface  died  April  29th,  1419.*' 

The  exact  period  when  Boniface's -translation  of  the 
Bible  was  made,  cannot  perhaps  be  ascertained,  but  as  Vin- 
cent was  recalled  to  Valencia  by  King  John  II.  in  1410,  by 
whose  command  the  version  is  by  some  said  to  have  been 
made,  and  as  he  continued  there  about  two  years,  it  was 
probably  commenced,  if  not  completed,  at  that  time. 

About  the  year  1450,  Alphonsus  V.  king  of  Arragon,  is 
supposed  to  have  translated  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon, 
into  his  native  tongue.  He  is  also  said  to  have  read  the 
whole  Bible  fourteen  times,  w^ith  glosses  and  commenta- 
ries; and  to  have  become  so  expert  in  the  Scriptures,  as 
not  only  to  relate  the  substance  of  them,  but  to  repeat 
many  parts  of  them  correctly,  from  memory.'® 

It  is,  nevertheless,  to  be  deplored,  that  the  study  of 

(18)  Antonii  Biblioth.  Hisp.  Vet.  IL  lib.  x.  cap,  iii.  p.  140. 
Butler,  V.  ubi  sup. 

(19)  Usserii  Hist,  Dogmat.  p.  172. 


148  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

the  Scriptures  was  far  from  being  general;  and  that 
the  most  profomid  ignorance  reigned  amongst  the  major 
part,  even  of  the  clergy.  Few  of  them,  comparatively, 
were  acquainted  with  the  Latin,  though  constantly  used 
in  the  offices  of  the  church;  whilst  feasting,  and  debauche- 
ry, are  declared  to  have  been  their  ordinary  occupations. 
This  occasioned  the  councils  of  Madrid  and  Arenda,  in 
1473;  and  various  decrees  were  passed  in  them,  designed 
to  remedy  the  disorders  and  ignorance  of  the  ecclesias- 
tics of  all  ranks.  The  bishops  were  forbidden  to  ordain 
or  promote  those  who  were  ignorant  of  Latin;  the 
Scriptures  were  ordered  to  be  daily  read  at  the  tables  of 
the  prelates  themselves ;  the  clergy,  in  general,  were  for- 
bidden to  wear  gay  apparel,  to  be  clothed  in  silk,  to  walk 
in  white  sandals,  or  red  or  green  buskins,  or  to  put  on 
mourning ;  they  were  also  commanded  not  to  play  at 
dice,  or  fight  duels ;  and  those  who  died  of  the  wounds 
received  in  a  duel,  were  ordered  to  be  deprived  of  eccle- 
siastical burial.  Other  canons  were  framed  against 
simony,  clandestine  marriages,  ecclesiastical  concubinage, 
dramatic  exhibitions  in  churches^  &c.^^ 

But  these  injunctions  were  not  succeeded  by  the  refor- 
mation so  necessary  to  the  religious  welfare  of  the  church ; 
for  in  1499,  Pope  Alexander  VI.  found  it  requisite  to  send 
an  epistle  to  the  Spanish  bishops,  respecting  the  ignorance 
of  the  clergy ;  urging  them  to  adopt  measures  for  the 
promotion  of  study  and  discipline  among  thern.^* 

Some  attempts,  however,  were  made,  notwithstanding 
the  almost  universal  depravity  and  ignorance  which  pre- 
vailed, to  communicate  a  knowledge  of  the  Sacred  Writ- 
ings, to  those  who  were  acquainted  only  with  their  mo- 
ther tongue.     Le  Long  mentions  a  version  of  the  Bible, 


(20)  D'  Aguirre,  Col  lectio  Maxima  Concil.    Hisp.  III.  pp.  672—677. 

Romae,  1693—94  fol. 
Dictionnaire  Portatif  des  Conciles,  pp.  39.  302,  479. 

(21)  D'  Aguirre,  ut  sup.  III.  p.  689, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  149 

in  the  dialect  of  Catalonia,  written  in  the  year  1407,  of 
which  an  imperfect  copy  was  preserved  in  the  Coibertine 
Library;  he  also  notices  an  edition  of  the  Psalter,  in 
the  dialect  of  Castile,  printed,  as  he  su}>posed,  before 
A.  D.  1500.-^  Fred.  Furius,  who  wrote  a  Treatise  on  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  printed  in  1556,  says,  that  at  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  the  Scriptures  had  not  only  been 
translated  into  his  native  dialect  of  Valencia,  but  into 
almost  all  the  other  dialects  of  Spain. ^^  These  transla- 
tions were  prevented  from  being  circulated,  by  the  esta- 
blishment and  influence  of  the  inquisition,  and  the  edict 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  (called  also  Elizabeth,)  v/hich 
enacted,  that  "No  one  should  translate  the  Scriptures 
into  the  vulgar  tongue,  or  have  them  in  their  possession, 
under  pain  of  the  severest  punishment."^*  Fred.  Furius 
adds,  that  "this  prohibition  extended  only  to  those  who 
were  originally  Jews,  and  not  to  others."  He  further 
remarks,  that  the  Lessons  from  the  Gospels,  read  in  the 
churches,  during  the  whole  year,  had  been  faithfully  and 
elegantly  translated,  and  permitted  to  be  printed;  and 
that  he  had  seen  and  read  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
translated  into  Spanish  verse,  in  the  dialects  of  both 
Castile  and  Valencia^  Conrad  Gesner,  another  author 
who  flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century,  notices  these 
vernacular  versions,  but  remarks,  that,  in  his  day,  nearly 
all  the  copies  of  them  had  been  burnt. ^^  In  January, 
1492,  the  Spaniards  took  Granada,  and  extinguished  the 
empire  of  the  Moors  in  Spain,  where  they  had  been  settled 
more  than  700  years.  Ferdinand  de  Talavera,  a  man  of 
^reat  learning,  and  exemplary  piety,  was  nominated 
archbishop  of  Granada.     His  disposition  was  mild,  pa- 

(^2)   Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  pp.  362.  369.  edit.  1723. 

(23)  Ibid.  I.  p.  362. 

(24)  Le  Long,  ut  sup,  p.  361. 
Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  175, 

(25)  Simon's  Crit.  Hist,  of  tlie  Versions  of  the  N.  T.  pt.  ii.  ch,  ii,  p.  18; 

and  ch.  xli.  p.  344.  Usserius,  ut  sup; 

i.26)  Le  Long,  L  p,  362, 


150  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

tient,  and  charitable,  without  ambition,  and  without  jea- 
lousy. He,  therefore,  consented,  that  the  archbishop  of 
Toledo,  the  celebrated  Ximenes,  should  possess  equal 
authority  with  himself,  in  his  diocese.  The  two  arch- 
bishops concerted  measures  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Mohammedans,  thus  placed  under  their  care;  and  mutu- 
ally agreed,  that  the  safest,  and  most  successful  plan 
would  be,  to  gain  over  the  Alfaquis,  or  priests  and  doc- 
tors, of  that  sect.  With  this  design,  they  convened  an 
assembly  of  them  in  the  palace,  addressed  them  famiHarly, 
and  after  having  exhorted  them  to  renounce  their  errors 
and  receive  baptism,  presented  some  of  them  with  pieces 
of  silk,  others  with  scarlet  caps,  which  were  held  by 
them  in  great  estimation ;  and  sent  them  away,  well 
pleased  with  the  condescension  of  the  prelates,  and  the 
presents  they  had  received.  By  these  means  many  of 
the  priests  were  led  to  profess  Christianity,  and  to  per- 
suade the  people  to  a  similar  profession;  and  so  gi'eat  was 
the  success  of  these  measures,  that  on  the  18th.  of  De- 
cember, 1499,  four  thousand  Moors  received  baptism. 
The  refractory  Moors,  Ximenes  endeavoured  to  conquer, 
sometimes  by  inquisitorial  treatment,  sometimes  by  gen- 
tler and  milder  usage.  Having,  at  length,  subdued  the 
more  intractable  of  his  opponents,  particularly  Zegri,  a 
noble  and  valiant  Moor,  and  conciliated  the  Mohamme- 
dan doctors,  he  ordered  all  the  copies  of  the  Koran,  and 
every  book  that  contained  its  doctrines,  to  be  brought 
to  him,  and  consigned  5000  volumes  publicly  to  the 
flames.  Neither  illuminations,  nor  rich  bindings,  nor 
,  other  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver,  were  suffered  as  a 
plea  for  their  preservation.  The  only  works  exempted 
from  the  common  flame  were  some  treatises  on  medi- 
cine, for  which  the  Moors  had  been  famous,  and  which 
were  transmitted  to  the  library  of  the  college  of  Alcala.^'' 

(27)  Flechier,   Histoire  du  Cardinal  Ximenes,  I.  liv.  i,  pp,  136  — 143. 
Amsterdam,  1693,  12mo. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  151 

The  Moors  having  professed  Christianity,  it  became  a 
subject  of  discussion  between  the  archbishops,  which  was 
the  best  method  of  instructing  their  new  converts  in  the 
religion  they  had  embraced.  The  dispositions  of  these 
prelates  discovered  itself  in  the  diiference  of  their  views. 
Ferdinand  de  Talavera,  in  order  to  direct  their  attention 
to  the  divine  offices,  had  ordered  tti.  daily  Lessons  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be  recited  in  the  vulgar 
tongue;  and  permitted  the  Books  of  the  Mass,  and  espe- 
cially the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  to  be  translated  into 
Arabic,  and  printed.  Ximenes  entirely  disapproved  of 
this  procedure,  and  urged  the  impropriety  of  placing 
the  Sacred  Oracles  in  the  hands  of  these  half  converts, 
affirming  that  weak  minds  always  revered  most  v/hat  \vas 
concealed  and  mysterious;  and  contending  that,  since  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  contained  many  passages  that 
demanded  much  intelligence  and  attention  to  understand 
them,  it  was  best  to  leave  them  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek, 
and  Latin,  the  three  languages  consecrated  by  the  inscrip- 
tion placed  over  the  head' of  the  dying  Saviour.  But 
whilst  he  strenuously  contended  against  the  Scriptures 
being  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  he  allowed  the 
propriety  of  distributing,  in  the  language  commonly  spo- 
ken, catechisms,  prayers,  and  edifying  narratives,  and 
other  books  of  religious  instruction.  The  archbishop  of 
Granada  reluctantly  submitted  to  the  unyielding  temper 
of  Ximenes,  and  the  Book  of  God  was  withheld  from  the 
people.'^ 

The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  speedily  followed  the  con- 
quest of  the  Moors ;  for  in  March  of  the  same  year,  (1492j 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  banished  the  Jews  out  of  Spain; 
by  which  eight  hundred  thousand  persons  were  forced  to 
quit  the  kingdom,  and  seek  asylums  in  more  favoured 
regions.  In  the  number  of  those  who  were  exiled,  were 
several  eminent  Rabbis,  particularly  R.  Isaac  Abrabanel, 

(28)  Flechier,  Hist,  du  Card.  Ximenes,  I.  liv.  i.  pp.  154, 155. 


152 

the  author  of  valuable  Comnientaries  on  several  parts  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  other  esteemed  works;  R.  Meir^ 
author  of  a  Commentary  upon  Joh-,  and  R.  Abraham, 
the  compiler  of  the  chronological  work  called  Juchassln.^^ 

Through  the  instructions  of  Vincent  Ferrer,  the  terrors 
of  the  inquisition,  and  the  dread  of  poverty  and  exile, 
many  Spanish  Jews  were  induced  to  make  profession  of 
the  Catholic  religion,  some  few  of  them  sincerely,  but  most 
of  them  deceptively.  Among  the  sincere  converts  from 
Judaism,  during  this  century,  in  Spain,  Solomon  de  Levi 
holds  the  chief  place.  He  was  a  native  of  Burgos,  and 
embraced  Christianity  from  reading  the  works  of  Thomas 
Aquinas,  or  Aquino.  At  his  baptism  he  took  the  name 
of  Paulus  de  Sancta  Maria,  or  Paul  of  Burgos.  After 
the  death  of  his  \\dfe,  he  embraced  the  ecclesiastical  state, 
and  by  his  merits  obtained  places  of  trust  and  honour. 
He  was  preceptor  to  John  II.  king  of  Castile;  and  was 
successively  archdeacon  of  Trevigno,  bishop  of  Cartha- 
gena,  and  then  of  Burgos,  where  he  died  August  29th, 
1445,  aged  82.  Some  authors  relate  that  he  was  patri- 
arch of  Aquileia.  He  wrote,  1.  Scriithnum  Scrlpturarumy 
printed  at  Mantua,  1474,  in  fol.;  Mentz,  1478;  Paris, 
1520;  Burgos,  1591.  2.  AdcUtiones  ad  Postlllam  Magls- 
fri  Nicolai  de  Lyra  super  Blhlias;  generally  printed  with 
the  Postils  of  De  Lyra.  In  this  work  the  author  freely 
censures  and  corrects  the  Notes  of  DeLyra,  particularly 
where  he  differs  from  Aquinas,  whose  defence  Paul  univer- 
sally tindertakes.  In  his  emendations  of  De  Lyra,  he  is 
often  successful  in  what  relates  to  philosophy  and  Hebi*ew 
antiquities ;  but  in  his  criticisms  of  the  Greek,  he  more 
frequently  fails.  Fie  is  also  considered  as  paying  too  im- 
plicit deference  to  the  Fathers,  and  the  scholastic  writers. 
3.  Qucestiones  XII.  de  Nomine  Tetragrammato ;  published 
with  notes,  by  J.  Drusius,  Franeker,  1604,  8vo. 

His  three  sons  were  baptized  at  the  same  time  with 

(29)  Basnage's  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  B.  vii.  cb.xxi.  pp.  692,  693. 


FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  153 

him,  when  he  became  a  Christian  convert ;  and  all  distin- 
guished themselves  by  their  merit.  The  eldest,  Alphonso, 
who  succeeded  his  fat/ier  as  bishop  of  Burg-os,  wrote  an 
Ahridgment  of  Spanish  Hlsfori/;  the  second,  Gonsalvo, 
became  bishop  of  Placentia;  and  the  third,  Alvarez,  who 
married  into  an  illustrious  family,  published  an  History 
of  John  II.  king  of  C as  tile. ^^ 

Another  learned  Spaniard  of  this  period,  was  Jacobus 
Perez,  bishop  of  Christopolitanus.  He  was  a  native  of 
Valencia;  and  became  an  hermit  of  the  order  of  Augustin. 
He  died  in  1491.  He  was  the  author  of  various  works,  par- 
ticularly of  a  Commentary  on  the  Psalms;  and  a  Treatise 
against  theJews,^v\\\te6  atLyons,  1512.  Heis  chieflynoted 
for  his  singular  opinions  respecting  the  invention  of  the 
Hebrew  Vowel  Points,  and  the  compilation  of  the  Talmud. 
He  says,  "  That  the  Rabbis  perceiving  that^  after  the 
conversion  of  Constantine  the  Great,  multitudes  of  both 
Gentiles  and  Jews  embraced  Christianity,  and  that  their 
influence  and  revenues  were  consequently  lessened,  they 
convened  a  general  meeting  at  Cairo,  in  Egypt;  where 
they,  with  as  much  secrecy  as  possible,  falsified  and  cor- 
rupted the  Scriptures;  invented  five  or  seven  points  to 
serve  instead  of  vowels;  and  forged  the  Talmud.  (Prolog, 
in  Psalmos  Tract,  G.)^^ 

It  may  also  be  deemed  interesting  to  observe,  thatPrmf- 
ing  was  introduced  into  Spain  at  an  early  period  after 
its  invention.  Valencia  is  conjectured  to  be  the  city 
where  printing  was  first  exercised  in  that  kingdom  ;  and 
where  a  press  was  established  in  1474.  The  earhest  work 
printed  there,  of  which  the  date  has  been  ascertained,  was 
Obres,  o  Trobes  les  qiiales  tracten  de  las  hors  de  la  Sacr^a- 

(30)  Lempriere's  Universal  Biography.    Lond,  1808,  4to. 
Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  saec.xv.  p.  92.    Append. 

Le   Lon£r,  Biblioth.  Sacra,   edit.  Masch.  pt.  ii.  vol.  III.  cap.  ii. 
sec.  3,  p,  363. 

(31)  Hody,  DeBibl.  Text.  Oug.  lib.  iii.pt.  ii.  p.  442, 
Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  saic.  xv.  p.  149,  Append. 


154  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

tissima  Verge  Maria,  %c.  1478, 4to.  The  number  of  books 
printed  in  Spain,  during  the  fifteenth  century,  was  310. 
These  appeared  chiefly  at  Barcelona,  Burgos,  Salamanca, 
Saragossa,  Seville,  Toledo,  and  Valencia  ;  and  were  prin- 
cipally executed  by  Germans.^^ 

If  from  Spain  we  turn  to  France,  we  find  but  little 
that  claims  our  attention,  relative  to  Biblical  litera- 
ture. The  establishment  of  the  ncAvly  invented  art  of 
printing  in  several  cities  of  France,  has  been  noticed 
already;  and  the  editions  of  the  Scriptures  which  were 
printed,  were  chiefly  those  of  Comestor,  or  Guiars  des 
Moulins.     The  following  are  the  principal  ones: 

A  French  version  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
printed  at  Lyons,  without  date,  but  supposed,  with 
considerable  probability,  to  have  been  published  in  1477. 
The  editors  were  Julian  3Iacho,  and  Peter  Farget.  San- 
tan  der  says,  this  was  the^r^^  French  version;  but  Le  Long 
speaks  of  it  merely  as  a  revised  edition  of  the  translation 
of  Guiars  des  Moulins.  The  following  is  Santander's  bib- 
liographical account  of  this  and  another  rare  edition  of 
the  Scriptures.  "  The  Old  Testament,  translated  into 
French.  Lyons,  printed  hy  Barth.  Buyer,  (about  the  year 
1477;  injoir 

"The  exact  conformity  of  the  characters  of  this  most 
rare  edition,  with  those  employed  by  Barth.  Buyer,  in  the 
impression  of  the  A'ew  Testament,  noticed  in  the  fol- 
lowing article,  proves,  I  think,  that  they  were  printed 
at  the  same  press ;  and  that  Julian  Macho,  and  Peter 
Farget,  were  also  the  editors  and  correctors." 

"The  work  is  printed  in  two  columns,  in  Gothic  let- 
ters, and  without  signatures.  Five  leaves,  which  contain 
the  table  of  rubrics,  with  this  title,  Cy  commencent  les 
ruhriches  de  ce  present  livre,  precede  the  text,  at  the  end 
of  which,  on  the  reverse  of  the  last  leaf,  are  these  words: 

(32)  Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  f.  p.  475, 
Clarke's  Bibliographical  Miscellany,  II.  p.  127. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTDRY.  155 

*'^  Cy  finit  ce  present  livre."  A  copy  was  sold  at  the  sate 
of  Gaignat,  in  1769,  for  80  livres,  1  sol;  and  at  the  sale  of 
La  Valliere,  in  1783,  for  99  livres,  19  sols." 

"The  New  Testament  revised  and  corrected  by  Julian 
Macho  and  Peter  Farget.  Lyons,  Bartholomew  Buyer, 
without  date  (about  the  year  1477,)  hi  foiy 

''  An  exceedingly  rare  edition,  and  the  first  translation 
of  the  New  Testament  into  French.  It  is  printed  in  the 
same  Gothic  characters  as  the  Old  Testament  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  article,  and  which  it  was  probably 
designed  to  accompany."  The  pages  of  this  volume  are 
in  two  columns,  without  figures  or  signatures.  It  begins 
with  a  table  which  occupies  20  leaves,  which  ends  thus  : 
"Cy  finist  la  table  du  nouueau  testament  ensemble  la 
declaration  dieeluy  faicte  et  compassee  p  nenerable  per- 
sone  frere  iuUia  docteur  en  theologie  de  1'  ordre  saint 
August!  demourant  au  couuet  de  lyo  sus  le  rosne. 

loue  soit  dieu  Amen." 

^'  Then  follows  the  text^  at  the  end  of  which,  on  the 
recto  of  the  last  leaf,  is  this  subscription  :  ^Cy  finist  I'apo- 
calypse  et  semblablement  le  nouueau  ueu  et  corrige  p 
uenerables  persones  freres  iullien  macho  et  pierre  farget 
docteurs  en  theologie  de  Tordre  des  Augustins  de  lyo  sus 
le  rosne  Imj)rime  en  la  dicte  uille  de  lyon  par  Barthol- 
omieu  Buyer  citoien  du  dit  lion." 

"  There  is  also  another  impression  of  this  book,  by  the 
same  printer,  in  the  same  characters,  with  the  same 
number  of  leaves,  and  the  same  subscription,  differing 
only  in  being  printed  in  long  lines,  and  the  sheets  having 
signatures;  it  is,  however,  considered  as  being  equally 
ancient,  and  is  equally  esteemed." 

"  At  Gaignat's  sale,  the  former  edition  sold  for  90 
livres,  and  that  with  long  lines  for  211  livres:  and  at  La 
Valliere's,  the  former  edition  sold  for  99  livres,  19  sols;  the 
edition  with  long  lines  for  90  livres." 

Julian  Macho  was  an  Augustine  monk,  and  Doctor 


156 

in  Divinity,  of  the  convent  of  Lyons.  Beside  the  French 
New  Testament,  noticed  above,  he  was  joint  editor  with 
John  Bathalier,  of  a  French  Supplement  to  the  Golden 
Legend,  printed  at  Lyons,  by  Earth.  Buyer,  1477,  in  fol. 

Peter  (Pierre)  Farget,  sometimes  erroneously  called 
Falget,  Ferget,  and  Sarget,  was  also  a  monk  of  the 
order  of  Augustin,  and  Doctor  in  Divinity,  residing  in  the 
convent  of  the  order,  at  Lyons.  Beside  the  revision  of  the 
New  Testament,  Farget  published,  in  1482,  a  French 
translation  of  the  Speculum  Humance  Vitue,  under  the  title 
of  Miro'ir  de  la  vie  humaine;  printed  at  Strasburg,  with 
Gothic  characters,  in  small  folio.  lie  also  translated  out 
of  Latin  into  French,  a  work  entitled,  "  The  Consolation 
of  poor  sinners,''  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue,  between 
Belial  and  Jesus  Christ;  beside  other  works  of  minor 
importance. ^^ 

Le  Long  mentions  an  edition  also  in  quarto,  in  the  Go- 
thic type,  executed  at  Paris,  about  the  year  1 478,  which 
he  conjectures  to  have  been  corrected  from  the  Historia 
Scholastica  of  Peter  Comestor,  by  William  le  Menand; 
and  either  this,  or  the  one  which  will  be  subsequently 
noticed,  is,  probably,  the  translation  of  which  John  Lam- 
bert speaks,  in  his  answer  to  the  bishop's  articles,  A.  D. 
1538.  Lambert's  w^ords  are;  "You"  (the  bishops)  "ask, 
whether  I  believe  that  the  heads,  or  rulers,  by  necessity 
of  salvation,  are  bound  to  give  unto  the  people  Holy 
Scripture,  in  their  jiiother-language?  I  say,  that  I  think 
they  are  bound  to  see  that  the  people  may  truly  know  Holy 
Scripture,  and  1  do  not  know  how  that  may  be  done  so 
w^ell,  as  by  giving  it  to  them  truly  translated  in  the  mo- 
ther tongue,  that  they  may  have  it  by  them  at  all  times, 
to  pass  the  time  godly,  whensoever  they  have  leisure 
thereto;  like  as  they  have  in  France,  under  the  French 
king's  privilege,  and  also  the  privilege  of  the  emperor, 

(33)  Santander,  Diet.  Bibliographique,  2cle  partie,  pp.  197 — 199, 
De  Juvigny.  Bibliotheques  Fran9oises,  II.  pp.  277,  278. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  157 

and  so  do  I  know  they  have  had  it  these  Jifh/-four  years 
in  France^  at  the  least,  and  it  was  translated  at  the  re- 
quest of  a  king",  called,  I  trow,  Louis,  as  appeareth  by 
the  privilege  put  in  the  beginning  of  the  book."  The 
king  here  mentioned  was  Lonis  Xl.^* 

Another  French  version  of  the  B'lhle  has  been  attributed 
to  Jean  de  Rely,  made  by  order  of  Charles  VIII.  M.  de 
la  Monnoye  says,  "This  pretended  translation  of  Jean 
de  Rely,  is  nothing  more  than  that  which  was  made  by 
Guiars  des  Moulins,  in  1294,  from  the  Historia  Scholas- 
tica  of  Peter  Comestor,  and  which  Jean  de  Rely,  who 
was  canon  of  Notre-Dame,  and  was  made  bishop  of 
Angers  in  1491,  revised  by  order  of  Charles  VIII.  It 
was  printed  in  1495,  and  again  in  1538,  by  Antoine  Bon- 
nemere."  To  this  the  editor  of  the  BibUotheques  Fran- 
coises subjoins  as  a  correction  of  the  above:  "  The  oldest 
edition  of  the  French  translation,  by  Jean  de  Rely, 
appears  to  be  that  cited  in  t\\Q  Catalogue  of  the  printed 
Books  in  the  Kings  Library,  Tom.  I.  No.  156.  ^La 
Bible  Historiale,  oi^  sont  les  Histoires  Scholastiques,  ou 
les  Livres  Hystoriaulx  de  la  Bible,  translates  de  Latin  en 
Francois,  en  la  maniere  que  les  maitres  out  traduit  ez 
Histoires  Scholastiques  de  Pierre  le  Mangeur,  par  Guyart 
des  Moulins,  revue  par  Jean  de  Rely,  Pretre  et  Chanoine 
de  S.  Pierre  d'  Aire,  de  F  Archeveche  de  Tresves,  par  le 
commandement  de  Charles  VIII.  roi  de  France;  Paris, 
pour  Antoine  Verard,  in  fol.  2  vols,  vers  1'  an  1487.'  It 
was  afterwards  reprinted  in  4to.  in  1515,  and  1535;  and 
again  in  fol.  in  1538.  According  to  the  same  catalogue, 
in  the  edition  of  1538,  the  editor,  Antoine  Bonnemere, 
says,  ''that  the  first  edition  was  printed  in  1495,  after 
having  been  corrected."^* 


(34)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  p.  325. 

Foxe's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  IL  p.  415.    Lond,  1641,  fol, 

(35)  De  Juvigny,   Bibliotheques  Francoises,  IIL  Du  Verdier,    Art; 

'« Bibles."  pp.  267—270, 


158  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

England  next  claims  our  regard.  Wiclif  and  his 
followers  had  detected  many  of  the  errors,  and  exposed 
many  of  the  superstitious  practices,  of  the  church  of 
Rome  at  this  period ;  but  the  clergy  obstinately  refused 
to  abandon  either  their  errors  or  superstitions,  and  per- 
secuted, with  the  most  unrelenting  cruelty,  all  who 
attempted  the  smallest  reformation.  "  In  a  word,"  says 
an  accurate  historian,  "ignorance,  vice,  and  superstition, 
seemed  to  have  gained  ground, — though  the  revival  of 
learning,  and  the  reformation  of  reUgion,  Avere  at  no  great 
distance."^^  A  singular  instance  of  incompetency  in  a 
clergyman  is  related  by  Warton,  in  his  History  of  English 
Poetry.  In  1448,  Waynflete,  bishop  of  Winchester,  on 
the  presentation  of  Merton  Priory,  in  Snrrey,  instituted  a 
rector  to  the  parish  of  Sherfield,  in  Hampshire.  The 
rector,  however,  previously  took  an  oath  before  the 
bishop,  that  on  account  of  his  insufficiency  in  letters,  and 
default  of  knowledge  in  the  superintendence  of  souls,  he 
would  learn  Latin  for  the  tw^o  follow^ing  years;  and  that 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year  he  would  submit  himself  to  be 
examined  by  the  bishop,  concerning  his  progress  in  gram- 
mar ;  and  that,  if  on  a  second  examination  he  should  be 
found  deficient,  he  v/ould  resign  the  benefice/^  The  intro- 
duction of  men  into  the  sacred  office,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  rank,  who  were  destitute  of  competent  abilities,  is 
further  exemplified  by  an  anecdote  related  of  Erasmus  : 
^^  At  this  time,  (A.  D.  1496,)  I  suppose,"  says  his  biogra- 
pher, "  he  refused  a  large  pension,  and  larger  promises, 
from  a  young  illiterate  Englishman,  who  w^as  to  be  made 
a  bishop,  and  who  wanted  to  have  him  for  a  preceptor. 
This  youth  seems  to  have  been  James  Stanley,  son  of  the 
earl  of  Derby,  and  son-in-law  to  Margaret,  the  king's 
mother,  and  afterwards  made  bishop  of  Ely  by  her  inte- 
rest.    However,  it  appears  that  the  young  gentleman, 

(3G)   Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  X.  p.  42. 

(37)  Warton's  Hist,  of  Enolish  Poetry,  ll.  p.  429,  note  z. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  159 

though  ignorant,  had  a  desire  to  learn  something,  and  to 
qualify  himself,  in  some  measure,  for  the  station  in  which 
he  was  to  be  placed."  ^® 

So  far  were  the  clergy,  in  general,  from  attempting  to 
circulate  the  Scriptures,  or  instruct  the  people  in  the 
knowledge  of  their  contents,  that  except  such  portions  of 
them  as  were  recited  in  the  offices  of  the  church, 
there  was  scarcely  a  Latin  Testament  in  any  cathedral 
church  in  England,  till  the  time  of  the  learned  John 
Colet,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  in  London,  though  the  Latin 
wus  the  only  authorized  language  for  the  Scriptures  and 
service  books.  Instead  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  spu- 
rious Gospel  of  Nicodemus  was  affixed  to  a  pillar  in 
the  nave  of  the  church;  which  Erasmus  says,  he  had 
himself  seen  with  astonishment  in  the  metropolitan  church 
of  Canterbury .^^  It  is  remarkable  that  Theodoret,  (Hceret. 
Fab.  lib.  i.  cap.  xx.)  in  thejifth  century,  complained  of  a 
similar  practice  existing  in  his  day.  Tatian,  says  he,  '^com- 
posed a  gospel  which  is  called  Dia  Tessaron  [Of  the  Four] 
leaving  out  the  genealogies,  and  every  thing  that  shews 
the  Lord  to  have  been  born  of  the  seed  of  David  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh :  which  has  been  used  not  only  by  those 
of  his  sect,  but  also  by  them  who  follow  the  apostolical 
doctrine;  they  not  perceiving  the  fraud  of  the  composition, 
but  simply  using  it  as  a  compendious  book.  I  have 
also  met  with  above  two  hundred  of  these  books,  which 
were  in  esteem  in  our  churches :  all  which  I  took  away, 
and  laid  aside  in  a  parcel,  and  placed  in  their  room  the 
Gospels  of  the  Four   Evangelists."**^ 

The  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  or  Acts  of  Pilate,  above 
mentioned,  is  a  work  supposed  to  have  been  forged,  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  third  century,  by  Leucius  Charinus. 
It  treats  chiefly  of  the  Crucifixion  and  Resurrection  of  our 

(38)  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p,  5.    Lond.  1808,  8vo. 

(39)  British  Biography,  J.  Life  of  Bean  Colet,  p.  377. 

(40)  Lardner's  Works,  II.  p.' 138.   Lond.  1788,  8vo. 


160 

Lord,  and  of  his  Descent  into  Hell.  It  contains  many 
trifling,  silly,  and  ludicrous  relations,  such  as,  the  stan- 
dards or  colours  bowing-  to  Christ,  as  he  passed:  Jesus 
appearing  to  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  after  his  resurrection, 
wiping  his  face  from  the  dew,  kissing  him,  and  com- 
manding him  to  remain  in  his  OAvn  house  for  forty  days ; 
and  a  supposititious  narrative  of  the  events  attending 
Christ's  descent  into  hell,  by  Lentius  and  Charinus,  two 
saints  raised  from  the  dead,  at  the  resurrection  of  the  Sa- 
viour. The  following  extracts  from  this  impudent  forgery, 
wall  enable  the  reader  to  judge  of  the  kind  of  instruction 
afforded  by  these  substitutes  for  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
The  relation  of  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  is  introduced 
by  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  addressing  Annas  and  Caiphas, 
who  were  astonished  to  hear  that  Jesus  w^as  risen  from 
the  dead;  and  that  others  were  risen  with  him;  "We  all," 
says  he,  "knew  the  blessed  Simeon,  the  high-priest,  w^ho 
took  Jesus,  when  an  infant,  into  his  arms,  in  the  temple. 
This  same  Simeon  had  two  sons  of  his  own,  and  we  were 
all  present  at  their  death  and  funeral.  Go,  therefore,  and 
see  their  tombs,  for  these  are  open,  and  they  are  risen; 
and  behold,  they  are  in  the  city  of  Arimathea,  spending 
their  time  together,  in  offices  of  devotion.  Some,  indeed, 
have  heard  the  sound  of  their  voices,  [in  prayer]  but  they 
will  not  discourse  with  any  one,  but  they  continue  as 
mute  dead  men.  But  come,  let  us  go  lo  them,  and  be- 
have ourselves  toward  them  with  all  due  respect  and 
caution.  And  if  we  can  bring  them  to  swear,  perhaps  they 
will  tell  us  some  of  the  mysteries  of  their  resurrection." 
Annas,  Caiphas,  Nicodemus,  and  Gamaliel,  proceed  to 
Arimathea,  they  find  Charinus  and  Lentius,  at  their 
devotions,  and  adjuring  them  by  the  Law,  to  relate  what 
they  had  seen,  they  tremble,  look  up  to  heaven,  make 
the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  their  tongues,  and  then  calling 
.for  paper,  write  the  account  of  what  they  profess  to  have 
seen.     "When  we  were  placed  with  our  fathers,  in  the 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  161 

depth  of  hell,"  say  they,  "in  the  blackness  of  darkness, 
on  a  sudden  there  appeared  the  colour  of  the  sun  like  gold, 
and  a  substantial  purple  coloured  light  enlightening  (the 
place.)  Presently  upon  this,  Adam,  the  father  of  all  man- 
kind, with  all  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  rejoiced  and 
said,  'That  light  is  the  author  of  everlasting  light,  who 
hath  promised  to  translate  us  to  everlasting  light.'  And 
while  we  were  all  rejoicing,  our  father  Simeon  came  among 
us,  and  congratulating  all  the  company,  said,  'Glorify  the 

Lord  Jesus  Christ .'  "  Afterwards  there  came  forth 

one  like  a  little  hermit,  and  was  asked  by  every  one,  'Who 
art  thou?'     To  which  he  replied,  'I  am,  the  voice  of  one 

crying  in   the  wilderness  John  the  Baptist.' But 

when  the  first  man  our  father  Adam  heard  these  things, 
that  Jesus  was  baptized  in  Jordan,  he  called  out  to  his 
son  Seth,  and  said,  'Declare  to  your  sons,  the  patriarchs 
and  prophets,  all  those  things  which  thou  didst  hear  from 
Michael  the  archangel,  when  I  sent  thee  to  the  gates  of  pa- 
radise, to  entreat  God  that  he  would  anoint  my  head  when 
I  was  sick.'  Then  Seth  said,  -  -'I  Seth,  when  I  was  praying 
to  God  at  the  gates  of  paradise,  behold!  the  angel  of  the 
Lord,  Michael,  appeared  unto  me,  saying  -  -  -  -  '1  tell 
thee  Seth,   do  not  pray  to  God  in  tears,  and  entreat  him 
for  the  oil  of  the  tree  of  mercy,  wherewith  to   anoint  thy 
father  Adam,  for  his  head-ache,  because  thou  canst  not 
by   any   means  obtain  it,  till  the  last  day  and  times." 
A  dialogue  then  ensues  between  Satan,  the  prince  and 
captain  of  death,  and  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  hell,  in 
which  they  are  interrupted  by  suddenly  hearing  a  voice, 
"as  of  thunder  and  the  rushing  of  winds,  saying,  'Lift  up 
your  heads,  O  ye  princes ;  and  be  ye  lift  up,  O  everlasting 
gates,  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in." 

This  is  succeeded  by  the  appearance  of  the  King  of  glory 
enlightening  the  regions  of  darkness,  and  throwing  the 
devils  into  confusion.  "Then  the  King  of  glory  trampling 
upon  death,  seized  the  prince  of  hell,  deprived  him  of  all 

Vol.  ir.  L 


162  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

his  power,  and  took  our  earthly  father  Adam  with  him  to 
his  glory."  A  quarrel  takes  place  between  Satan  and  Beel- 
zebub, in  which  the  prince  of  hell  reproaches  the  prince  of 
death,  with  being  the  occasion  of  the  ruin  of  his  kingdom, 
by  urging   the   Jews  to  the  crucifixion  of  Christ.     Jesus 
then  places  Satan  under  the  power  of  Beelzebub;  and 
delivers  the  saints  out  of  hell.     On  the  entrance  of  the 
saints  into  paradise,  they  meet  Enoch   and  Elias,  and 
after  a  conversation  betwixt  the  liberated  saints  and  them, 
the  narrative  proceeds,     ''^Behold   there  came  another 
man  in  a  miserable  figure,  carrying  the  sign  of  the  cross 
upon  his  shoulders.     And  when  all  the  saints  saw  him, 
they  said  to  him,    *  Who  art  thou  ?   For  thy  countenance 
is  like  a  thief's;  and  why  dost  thou  carry  a  cross  upon 
thy  shoulders?'    To  which  he  answering,  said,    *Ye  say 
right,  for  I  was  a  thief,  who  committed  all  sorts  of  wick- 
edness upon  earth.     And  the  Jews  crucified  me  with 
Jesus;  and  I  observed  the  surprizing  things  which  hap- 
pened in  the  creation  at  the  crucifixion  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  I  believed  him  to  be  the  Creator  of  all  things,   and 
the  Almighty  King,  and  I  prayed  to  him,  saying,   '  Lord 
remember  me  when  thou  comest  into  thy  kingdom.'    He 
presently   regarded  my  supplication,  and  said   to   me, 
^Verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  me 
in  paradise.'     And  he  gave   me   this  sign  of  the  cross, 
saying,  'Carry  this,  and  go  to  paradise;  and  if  the  angel, 
who  is  the  guard  of  paradise,  will  not  admit  thee,  shew 
him  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  say  unto  him,  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is    now   crucified,    hath    sent    me   hither   to  thee/ 
When  I  did  this,  and  told  the  angel,  he  presently  opened 
the  gates,  introduced  me,  and  placed  me  on  the  right 
hand  in  paradise,  saying,    'Stay  here  a  little  time,  till 
Adam,  the  father  of  all  mankind,  shall  enter  in  with  all 
his  sons,  who  are  the  holy  and  righteous  [servants]    of 
Jesus  Christ,  w^ho   is  crucified."     The  relation  concludes 
with  the  thanksgivings  of  the  patriarchs;  and  Charinus 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  lb.i 

and  Lenthius,  after  professing*  to  have  revealed  all  they 
werepermitted,  each  deliver  in  a  separate  account,  written 
on  "distinct  pieces  of  paper,"  which,  on  examination,  "are 
found  perfectly  to  agree,  the  one  not  containing  one 
letter  more  or  less  than  the  other."  Charinus  and  Len- 
thius  immediately  change  "into  exceeding  white  forms," 
and  are  seen  no  more.  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  afterwards 
relate  the  account  to  Pilate,  who  enters  it  in  the  public 
records,  and  going  to  the  temple,  summ.ons  ail  the  rulers, 
and  scribes,  and  doctors  of  the  law,  and  says  to  them, 
"  I  have  heard  that  ye  have  a  certain  large  book  in  this 
temple;  I  desire  you,  therefore,  that  it  may  be  broaght 
before  me."  And  when  the  great  book,  carried  by  four 
ministers,  [of  the  temple,]  and  adorned  with  gold  and 
precious  stones,  is  brought;  Pilate  adjures  them  to  de- 
clare whether  the  Scriptures  testify  of  Christ.  Annas 
and  Caiphas  dismiss  the  rest,  and  then  avow  their  convic- 
tion that  "  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  true  and 
Almighty  God."  *' — Such  is  the  nature  of  a  work,  which 
v/as  deemed  of  sufficient  merit  and  importance,  to  be 
translated  into  various  languages,  to  be  one  of  the  earliest 
specimens  of  typography;  and  to  be  placed  in  the  church- 
es for  the  edification  of  the  people! 

In  the  universities  and  cathedral  churches,  it  was,  at  this 
period  a  general  custom  for  the  public  lecturers  to  read  up- 
on any  book,  rather  than  upon  the  Scriptures.  "Their  read- 
ings," says  Dr.  Knight,  {Life  of  Colet,)  "were  ushered  in 
with  a  text,  or  rather  a  sentence  of  Scotus  and  Aquinas  ; 
and  the  explication  was,  not  trying  it  by  the  word  of 
God,  but  by  the  voice  of  scholastic  interpreters,  and  the 
intricate  terms  of  what  they  call  logic  ;  which  was  then 
nothing  but  the  art  of  corrupting  human  reason,  and  the 
Christian  faith.  It  is  true,  divinity  lectures  had  been  read 
in  Latin  within  many  cathedral  churches,  for  the  benefit 

(41)  Jones's  New  and  Full  Method  of  settling  the  Canonical  authority 
of  the  N.  T.  II.  pt.  iii.  ch.  xxviii.  p.  262,  &c.  Oxford,  1798,  8vo. 


164  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

of  the  priests  and  clerks  belonging  to  them.  But  the 
subject  of  them  (as  of  all  sermons  ad  clenim  in  the  two 
universities,  and  in  all  ordinary  visitations  of  the  rural 
clergy)  was  commonly  a  question  in  scholastic  theology, 
running  into  frivolous  doubts,  and  elaborate  resolutions 
out  of  the  oracles  of  Scotus,  and  his  puzzling  interpreters ; 
not  to  edification,  but  to  a  confounding  the  thoughts  of 
God  and  religion."  On  one  occasion,  the  learned  Grocyn 
gave  a  singular  instance  of  candour  and  ingenuousness. 
He  read  in  St.  Paul's  cathedral  a  lecture  upon  the  book 
of  D'wnysius  Areopagita,  commonly  called  Hierarchia 
Ecdesiastica.  In  the  preface  to  his  lecture,  he  declaimed 
with  great  warmth  against  those  who  either  denied  or 
doubted  of  the  authority  of  the  book  on  which  he  was  read- 
ing. But  after  he  had  continued  to  read  on  this  book  a  few 
Aveeks,  and  had  more  thoroughly  examined  its  authen- 
ticity, he  entirely  changed  his  views  of  it,  and  openly 
declared  that  he  had  been  in  an  error;  and  that  the  said 
book  in  his  judgment  was  spurious,  and  never  writ- 
ten by  that  author,  who  is  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
called  Dionysius  the  Areopagite}^ 

Occupied  as  the  clergy  were,  in  scholastic  disputations ; 
and  the  nobility,  in  pursuit  of  pleasure  and  martial  ho- 
nours ;  they  were  generally  inattentive  to  the  interests  of 
literature  and  science.  The  Latin  language  declined  in 
its  classical  purity;  and  the  Greek  was  almost  unknown. 
The  mathematical  sciences,  though  not  entirely  neglected, 
were  chiefly  studied  by  the  pretenders  to  astrology:  and 
when  we  find  learning  at  so  low  an  ebb  among  those  of 
high  rank,  and  of  the  ecclesiastical  profession,  we  may  just- 
ly conclude  that  the  common  people  would  be  almost  total- 
ly illiterate.  We  accordingly  learn  that  "it  was  not  till  the 
i-eign  of  Henry  IV.  that  viileins,=^  farmers,  and  mechanics, 

(42)  British  Biography,  I.  pp.  328.  372,  377. 

*  Villeins  were  those  under  the  feudal  system,  who  were  liable  to  be 
sold  with  the  land  they  occupied,  but  diifered  from  Slaves^  by  paying  a 
fixed  rent  for  the  farm,  to  which  they  were  attached. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  165 

were  permitted  by  law  to  put  their  children  to  school,  and 
long  after  that,  they  dared  not  to  educate  a  son  for  the 
church,   without  a  license  from  their  lord."*^ 

Cornelius  Vitellius,  an  Italian,  was  the  first  who 
tauglit  Greek  in  the  university  oW.vford;  and  from  him  the 
famous  Grocyn  learned  the  first  elements  of  it,  which 
he  afterwards  perfected  in  Italy  under  Demetrius  Chal- 
condyles,  a  learned  Greelv,  and  Politian,  an  Italian,  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  and  Latin  at  Florence.  In  Cambridge, 
Erasmus  was  the  first  who  publicly  taught  the  Greek 
grammar;  though  even  Erasmus  himself,  when  he  first 
came  into  England  in  1497,  had  so  incompetent  an 
acquaintance  with  that  language,  that  our  countryman, 
Linacre,  \vho  was  just  returnedfrom  Italy,  perfected  him  in 
his  knowledge  of  it. 

Dr.  Thomas  Linacre,  or  Lynacer,  above  named, 
was  an  eminent  and  most  learned  English  physician, 
by  whose  extrtions  the  College  of'  Physicians  was  founded 
and  incorporated,  of  which  he  held  the  office  of  president. 
In  the  decline  of  life,  he  resolved  to  change  his  profession 
for  that  of  divinity,  entered  into  holy  orders,  and  was  col- 
lated on  the  23rd  of  October,  1509,  to  the  rectory  of  Mer- 
sham;  and  obtained  afterwards  several  preferments.  An 
anecdote  is  related  of  him,  which  proves,  that  however 
accurate  and  extensive  his  grammatical  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  Greek  might  be,  his  ignorance  of  the  Scriptures 
was  so  great,  as  to  render  him  totally  unfit  for  the  sacred 
functions  he  assumed.  Being  ordained  priest,  at  an  age 
when  his  constitution  was  broken  by  study  and  infirmity, 
he,  for  the  first  time,  took  the  New  Testament  into  his 
hand,  and  having  read  the  fifth  and  sixth  chapters  of 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  threw  away  the  book,  swearing, 
"Either  this  is  not  the  Gospel,  or  we  are  not  Christians!"** 
This,  however,  will  appear  the  less  extraordinary,  when 

(43)  Henr>'s  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  X.  B.  v.  p,  128. 

(44)  British  Biography,  I.  pp.  326,  330.  332. 
Sir  E.  Brydge's  Restituta;  No.  3.  p.  159, 


166 

it  is  remarked,  that  the  study  and  use  of  the  Scriptures 
was  at  that  time  so  low,  even  in  the  university  of  Oxford, 
"that  the  being  admitted  a  bachelor  of  divinity  gave  only 
liberty  to  read  the  Master  of  the  Sentences,  (Peter  Lom- 
bard;) and  the  highest  degree,  that  of  doctor  of  divinity, 
did  not  admit  a  man  to  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures."" 

The  newly  invented  Art  of  Printing,  which,  towards 
the  close  of  this  century,  was  established  in  this  kingdom 
by  Caxton  and  others,  was  chiefly  employed  in  printing 
translations  from  the  French,  made  by  Earl  Rivers  and 
Caxton ;  and  multiplying  legends,  and  devotional  works 
of  a  legendary  nature.  Two  of  these  deserve  particular 
notice,  viz.  the  Liber  Festivalis,  or  Directions  for  heep- 
in g  Feasts  all  the  Yere;  and  the  Quatuor  Sermones; 
both  of  them  printed  in  folio,  by  William  Caxton ;  and 
frequently  bound  together.  Of  the  first,  Hearne  observes, 
that  "it  consists  of  a  course  of  homilies,  in  which  are 
many  odd  stories;  that  it  goes  by  no  other  name  than 
that  of  Festivals,  among  curious  men,  who  are  very 
inquisitive  after  copies  of  it."  (Robert  Gloc.  Chron. 
vol.  IL  p.  739.)  Oldys  adds,  "that  some  of  these  odd 
stories  are  such,  that  the  papists  are  now  ashamed  of 
them."  (Biog.  Brit.  vol.  III.  p.  369,  note  O.)  "  The  fact 
is,"  says  Mr.  Dibdin,  "whatever  be  the  nature  of  these 
stories,  all  ^carious'  theological  scholars  may  be  well 
inquisitive  after  the  Liber  Festivalis,  as  it  is  the  origin  or 
substratum  of  the  English  Common  Prayer  Book."  The 
prologue  tells  us,  that  "  For  the  help  of  such  clerks,  this 
book  was  drawn  to  excuse  them  for  default  of  books,  and 
for  siuipleness  of  cunning,  and  to  shew  unto  the  people 
what  the  holy  saints  suffered  and  did  for  God's  sake,  and 
for  hi§  love;  so  that  they  should  have  the  more  devotion 
in  God's  saints,  and  with  the  better  will  come  to  church 
to  serve  God,  and  pray  the  saints  of  their  help."  That  it 
was  principally  taken  from  the  Legenda  Aurea,  or  Golden 
(45)  British  Biography,  I.  Life  of  Cokt,  p.  372,  note. 


^^^  FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  1G7 

Legend  is  proved  by  the  prologue  of  an  ancient  edition, 
in  which  the  writer  states,  "this  treatise  is  drawn  out  of 
^Lefenda  Aurea/  that  he  that  list  to  study  therein,  he 
shall  find  ready  therein  of  all  the  principal  feasts  of  the 
year,  on  every  one  a  short  sermon,  needfnl  for  him  to 
teach,  and  for  them  to  learn;  and  for  that  this  treatise 
speaketh  of  all  the  feasts  of  the  year,  I  will  and  pray 
that  it  be  called  Festival." 

Then  follow,  says  Lewis,  sermons  on  nineteen  snndays 
and  ferials,  beginning  with  the  first  Sunday  in  advent, 
and  ending  with  Corpus  Christi  day.  Next  are  discourses 
or  sermons  on  forty-three  holy-days.  Then  follows  a 
sermon  De  decUcatione  Ecclesicv,  or  on  the  church  holi- 
day. The  following  extracts  will  afford  an  idea  of  the 
style  and  nature  of  the  work  : 

The  Lord's  Prayer. 
"Father  our  that  art  in  heavens,  hallowed  be  thy 
name:  thy  kingdom  come  to  us:  thy  will  be  done  in 
earth  as  in  heaven:  our  every  day's  bread  give  us  to-day; 
and  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that 
trespass  against  us;  and  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  all  evil  sin.  Amen." 

The  following  specimen  is  from  the  "  Festival  of  Saint 
Michael:" 

"De  Festo  scti  Michaelis." 
"Good  friends,  such  a  day  ye  shall  have  Saint  Michael's 
day  the  archangel:  that  day  all  holy  church  maketh 
mind  and  mention  of  all  angels  for  the  great  succour, 
comfort,  and  help,  that  mankind  had  of  angels,  and  espe- 
cially of  St.  Michael.  And  for  iij  prerogatives  he  be  had: 
for  he  is  wonderful  in  appearing;  for  as  Saint  Gregory 
saith,  when  Almighty  God  will  work  any  wonderful 
deed,  then  he  sendeth  for  Michael  his  servant,  as  for  his 
bannerer:  for  he  beareth  a  shield  or  sign  of  his  arras — - 
wherefore  he  was  sent  with  Moses  and  Aaron  to  Egypt 
to  work  marvels:  for  though  the  sign  was  in  Moses,  the 


168  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

working  was  done  by  Michael :  for  he  departed  the  red 
sea,  and  kept  the  waters  in  ii  parts,  while  the  people  of 
Israel  went  through,  and  so  passed ;  and  led  them  forth 
from  Jordan,  and  kept  the  water  like  an  hill  on  each 
side  of  them,  while  they  passed  safe  and  sound  to  the 
land  of  behest.  Also  Michael  is  keeper  of  paradise,  and 
taketh  the  souls  that  be  sent  thither."*® 

The  QuATUoR   Sermones,  which   was  a   translation 
from  the  Latin,  was  most  probably  the  Roman  Catholic 
formulary  of  the  day,   respecting  the  religious  topics  of 
which  it  treats,  namely,   "  The  Lord's  Prayer,"  "Belief," 
Ten  Commandments,"  and  "Articles  of  Faith."   In   the 
translation  of  the  creed,  which  we  have  in  the  first  sermon, 
the  fourth  article  is  thus  expressed,  "  I  byleve,  that  he 
suifered  payne  under  Ponce  Pilate,  &c."  the  translator  un- 
derstanding Pontius  to  be  the  name  of  some  place  where 
Pilate  was  either  born,  or  lived,  or  governed.  Accordingly 
the  book  contains  this  silly  tale:  "The  emperor,  by  counsel 
of  the  Romans,  sent  Pilate  into  a  country  called  Pounce, 
where  the     people    of    that    country   were   so    cursed, 
that  they  slew  any   that  come  to  be  their  master  over 
them.     So  when  this  Pilate  come  thither,  he  applied  him 
to  her  manners;  so  what  with  wiles  and  subtilty  he  over- 
came them,  and  had  the  mastery,  and  gat  his  name,  and 
was  called  Pilate  of  Pounce,  and  had  great  domination 
and   power."      According   to    this   mannei*   of  writing*, 
excepting  sometimes  Ponce  for  Pounce,  was  this  article 
of  the  creed  expressed  in  English,  from  the  fourteenth 
century  down  to  A.  D.  1532,  when   in  the  Primer   of 
Salisbury  use,  it  was  altered  to  Pontius  Pilate,  which  was 
followed  by  Archbishop  Cranmer,  in  his  notes  on  the 
King's  Book,  1538.*' 

Another  celebrated  production  of  Caxton's  press,  was 
his  translation,  from  the  French,  of  the  Legenda  Aurea, 


(46)  Dibdin's  Typot^raphical  Antiquities,  I. 

(47)  Ibid,  I,  pp.  170—172, 


pp.  161—167, 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  169 

Of  this  work,  some  mention  has  been  ah*eady  made.* 
Caxton's  translation,  under  the  title  of  the  Golden 
Legende,  was  printed  at  Westminster,  in  1483,  fol. 
A  story  from  the  English  translation  may  entertain  the 
reader.  "  There  was  a  man  that  had  borrowed  of  a  Jew 
a  sum  of  money,  and  sware  upon  the  altar  of  saint 
Nicholas,  that  he  would  render  and  pay  it  again  as 
soon  as  he  might,  and  gave  none  other  pledge.  And 
this  man  held  this  money  so  long  that  the  Jew  demanded 
and  asked  his  money.  And  he  said  that  he  had  paid 
him.  Then  the  Jew  made  him  to  come  before  the  law  in 
judgment,  and  the  oath  was  given  to  the  debtor,  and  he 
brought  with  him  an  hollow  staff,  in  which  he  had  put 
the  money  in  gold,  and  he  leaned  upon  the  staff.  And 
when  he  should  make  his  oath  and  swear,  he  delivered 
his  staff  to  the  Jew  to  keep  and  hold  whilst  he  sware,  and 
then  sware  that  he  had  delivered  to  him  more  than  he 
owed  to  him.  And  when  he  had  made  the  oath  he  de- 
manded his  staff  again  of  the  Jew,  and  he  nothing  know- 
ing of  his  malice  delivered  it  to  him.  Then  this  deceiver 
went  his  way,  and  laid  him  in  the  way,  and  a  cart  with 
four  wheels  came  with  great  force  and  slew  him^  and 
brake  the  staff  with  gold,  that  it  spread  abroad.  And 
when  the  Jew  heard  this,  he  came  thither  sore  moved, 
and  saw  the  fraud.  And  many  said  to  him  that  he  should 
take  to  him  the  gold.  And  he  refused,  saying,  but  if  he 
that  was  dead  were  not  raised  again  to  life  by  the  merits 
of  saint  Nicholas,  he  would  not  receive  it.  And  if  he 
came  again  to  life  he  would  receive  baptism  and  become 
a  Christian.  Then  he  that  was  dead  arose,  and  the  Jew 
was  christened."*® 

Caxton  bequeathed  thirteen  copies  of  this  work  to  the 
church  of  St.  Margaret,  Westminster ;  from  which  it 
appears  probable,  that  parts  of  it,  like  those  of  the  Fes- 

J48)  Bejoe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Books,  II.  p.  447, 
*  See  Yol,  I.  pp.  400.  448,  of  this  work. 


170  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE, 

TivAL,  were  read  as  homilies  in  the  churches ;  and  the 
mnltiplicity  of  editions  by  subsequent  printers,  seems  to 
strengthen  this  conjecture.  Herbert  supposes,  that  if 
not  used  in  this  manner,  "they  might  be  only  placed  in 
some  convenient  part  of  the  church,  as  Fox's  Book  of 
Martyrs  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  reformation."'® 

None  of  our  English  printers,  during  this  century, 
attempted  to  print  the  Bihle,  either  in  the  Latin,  or  the 
vernacular  tongue.  In  the  application  of  printing  to  the 
purposes  of  sacred  literature,  the  palm  must  be  yielded 
to  Germany,  which  as  it  had  the  honour  of  the  invention 
of  printing,  so  it  was  the  first  to  apply  it  to  the  diffusion 
of  Biblical  knowledge.  For  not  only  were  numerous 
editions  of  the  Latin  Bible,  and  several  of  the  German 
version  printed  there,  but  editions  also  were  published 
in  the  Saxon  and  Bohemian  dialects. 

The  Bohemian  Bible  was  printed  at  Prague,  in  1488, 
fol.  and  again  at  Kattenberg,  in  1489,  fol.*"  i^neas 
Sylvius,  afterwards  Pope  Pius  II.  bore  a  noble  testimony  to 
the  Scripturaiknovvledgeof  the  Bohemians,  in  a  work  of 
Ills  on  the  "Acts  and  Sayings  of  Alphonsus,  king  of  Spain," 
in  which  he  declared,  "That  it  was  a  shame  to  the  Italian 
priests,  that  many  of  them  had  never  read  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament,  whilst  scarcely  a  woman  could  be 
found  among  the  Bohemians,  (or  Taborites,)  who  could 
not  answer  any  questions  respecting  either  the  Old  or  New 
Testament."^'  He  died  in  1464.  A  copy  of  the  Bo- 
hemian  Bible,  printed  in  1488,  is  preserved  in  the  public 
library  at  Dresden. 

Lambecius,  in  his  Cojnment.  de  Biblioth.  Cces.  Vindoh, 
notices  a  magnificent  MS.  copy  of  the  German  Old  Testa- 
ment, preserved  in  the  Imperial  Library  at  Vienna.  It  was 
executed  about  A.  D.  1400,  for  Wenceslaus,  emperor 

(49)  Dibdin's  Typofirraphical  Antiquities,  I.  p.  193, 

(50)  WaUhii  Biblioth.  Theolog.  IV.  p.  3  30. 
Clarkp's  Bibliographical  Miscellany,  II.  p.  107. 

(51)  Usserii  Hist.  Dogmat.  p.  170. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  171 

of  the  West,  and  king  of  Bohemia.  It  is  in  large  folio, 
ornamented  with  numerous  paintings,  richly  illuminated 
ot  some  of  which  Lambecius  has  given  engravings.  The 
most  frequent  of  the  marginal  paintings,  is  an  orna- 
mented W.  in  which  fVenceslaus  is  represented  in  prison 
and  sometimes  as  attended  by  a  woman,  supposed  to 
represent  Susannah,  the  mistress  of  the  bath,  who  aided 
his  escape  in  a  boat  from  the  prison  where  he  had  been 
confined  by  his  barons,  and  who  afterwards  became  his 
favourite  concubine.  His  second  wife,  who  possessed  jjow- 
ers  far  superior  to  the  emperor,  was  Sophia,  the  daughter 
of  John,  duke  of  Bavaria ;  the  celebrated  John  IIuss  was 
her  confessor.^^  Dibdin  has  copied  several  of  the  paint- 
ings in  the  Bible  of  Wenceslaus  from  the  fac-similes  of  Lam- 
becius, in  his  splended  Bibliographical  Decameron,  vol.  I. 
A  Bible  was  printed  in  the  dialect  of  Lower  Saxony, 
according  to  Walch,  at  Cologne,  in  1490,  fol.^^  Another 
edition  was  published  at  Lubeck,  in  1494,  in  2  vols.  fol. 
It  is  accompanied  with  notes,  said  to  be  those  of  De  Lyra, 
but  more  probably  composed,  at  least  in  part,  by  Hugo 
de  St.  Victor,  and  other  early  commentators.  From 
Seelen's  Selecta  Lifteraria,  pp.  241,  242,  says  Mr.  Dib- 
din, "it  would  appear  that  the  intrinsic  value  of  this 
impression  is  very  considerable.  In  former  times  the 
Low  German  language  was  the  usual  vehicle  for  a  verna- 
cular version  of  the  Scriptures ;  so  that  the  present  text 
is  no  trivial  help  for  the  understanding  of  some  of  the 
earlier  editions  of  Luther's  Bible;  and  although  some 
parts  of  the  commentary  may  not  bear  the  test  of  severe 
critical  investigation,  yet  there  are  others  not  void  of 
propriety  and  sound  sense;  and  considering  the  age  in 
which  it  was  probably  composed,  it  breathes  a  spirit  of 
liberahty  not  usual  in  the  ancient   times  of  papacy."^* 

(52)  Lambecii   Coiiment.    de   Bibl.    Lags.    Viodob.   lib.  ii.   cap.    vUi. 

pp.   749—756-    Vindob.  1669,  fol. 

(53)  Walchii  Biblioth.  Theolog.  IV.  p.  96. 

(54)  Dibdia's  Biblioth,  Spencer.  I,  p.  57. 


172 

The  purity  of  its  text  is  said  to  be  equal  to  the  rarity  and 
beauty  of  the  work. 

This  edition,  says  Vogt,  is  in  great  estimation,  as  well 
on  account  of  its  rarity,  as  of  its  whimsical  gloss  or  com- 
mentary. The  following  is  given  as  an  instance  of  its  sin- 
gularity. In  the  3rd.  chapter  of  Genesis,  v.  16,  where  Eve 
is  told  she  shall  be  henceforth  under  the  power  of  her  hus- 
band, the  commentator  remarks:  "not  only  under  his 
controul,  but  under  his  severe  discipline:  subject  to  be 
beaten  and  bruised  by  him!"  An  interpretation  too  ab- 
surd for  refutation  .^^ 

About  the  year  1475,  appeared  the  ^r*^^  separate  edi- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  in  Latiiv,  in  a  small  quarto 
form;  for  the  convenience  of  general  readers.     Prefixed  to 
the  epistle  of  St.  Jerom,  which  precedes  the  Sacred  Text, 
is  a  notice,  in  Latin,  by  the  printer,  explaining  the  cause 
of  the  publication,  of  which  the  following  is  the  sub- 
stance:  "It  is  the  general  cry,  that  every  believer,  who 
professes  to  have  any  knowledge  of  letters,  is  bound  to 
have  an   acquaintance   with   the   Holy  Scriptures,  and 
more  particularly  with  that  part  of  the  Bible,  called  the 
New  Testament.     It   is  certain,   however,  that   but  few 
persons  have  the  means  of  procuring  the   whole  of  the 
Bible,  and  that  many,  even   of  the  rich,  prefer  portable 
volumes.     Induced  by   these  considerations,  as  well  as 
by  the  influence  of  my  superiors,  professors  of  sacred 
theology;  and  overcome  by  the   zeal   of  certain  monks 
and  secular  clergy,  I  have  attempted,  I  hope,  under  fa- 
vourable auspices,  to  print  the   present  convenient  vo- 
lume, containing  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  with 
a  view  to  the  glory  of  God ;   and  shall  be  satisfied,  if  it 
afford  benefit  to  any  one."     It  is  printed  in  double  co- 
lumns, with  a  delicate  Gothic  type.     To  the  New  Testa- 
ment  is    subjoined,     "Liber  haymo    de   christianarum 
rerum  memoria  prolog."^^     Haymo,  the  author,  was  the 
(55)  Dibdin's  Bibl,  Spencer,  ubi  sup,        (56)  Ibid.  I.  pp.  32,  31,  JNote. 


FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  173 

disciple  of  Alcuin,  in  the  ninth  century,  a  monk  of  Ful- 
da,  and  afterwards  bishop  of  Halberstadt.  The  work  itself 
is  an  abridg-ment  of  ecclesiastical  history.*' 

In  1475,  an  edition  of  the  Dutch  Bible  was  printed  at 
Cologne,  in  2  vols,  fol.;  at  Delft,  in  1477,  2  vols.  fol. 
and  also  in  4to.  Another  at  Goudo,  in  1479.  These 
translations  are  said  to  have  been  mixed  with  many  fabu- 
lous narratives ;  and  were  probably  made  at  an  earlier 
period  than  that  of  their  being  printed.  They  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  preceded  by  an  edition  of  the  Four 
Gospels,  printed  in  1472.** 

Le  Long  also  mentions  a  Polish  version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, which  from  the  colophon  of  a  MS.  copy  upon 
vellum,  appears  to  have  been  made  about  the  middle  of 
this  century:  "This  Bible  was  executed  by  the  com- 
mand, and  desire,  of  the  most  Serene  Queen  Sophia; 

translated  by  Andrew  de  Jassowitz;  and  transcribed  by 
Peter  de  Casdoszitz,  August  18th,  1455,  during  the  wi- 
dowhood of  Queen  Sophia,  and  the  reign  of  her  son  Ca- 
simir  Jagellon."  This  Sophia  was  queen  of  Uiadislaus 
IV.     Andrew  de  Jassowitz  flourished  about  A.  D.  1410.*^ 

In  the  year  1470,  a  curious  work  was  printed  by  Scho- 
effer  at  Mentz,  and  by  Helyas  Helye,  alias  de  Loulfen, 
at  Beraum,  in  fol.  entitled  "Mammotrectus."  It  con- 
tains, 1.  An  exposition  of  the  phrases  of  the  Bible,  and  of 
the  Prologues  of  St.  Jerom.  2.  Two  little  treatises  of 
orthography  and  of  accents.  3.  A  short  declaration  of 
the  months,  festivals,  &c.  and  of  the  Jewish  priests. 
4.  An  explanation  of  ancient  words  and  terms,  in  respon- 
ses, hymns,  homilies,  &c.  5.  A  declaration  of  the  rules 
of  the  minor  friars.  The  author  of  the  work  is  supposed 
to  be  John  Marchesinus,  a  priest  of  the  order  of  minor  fri- 
ars, or  of  St.  Francis,  and  a  native  of  Reggio  ;  who  cora- 

(57)  Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  seec.  ix.  p.  5JU, 

(58)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I,  p.  409.   fol.  1723. 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Jan.  1814.  p.  30. 

C59)  Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  I.  p,  439.    et  Index,  Audorum^  p,  5C3. 


174  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

posed  it  in  1466,  for  the  use  of  the  less  instructed  in  his 
own  profession.  It  was  printed  more  than  twenty  times  in 
the  Jifteenth  century .^^ 

During  this  century,  and  especially  towards  the  close 
of  it,  Germany  and  the  neighbouring  states  produced 
several  eminent  men,  who  endeavoured  to  create  an 
attention  to  literature  in  general,  and  laboured  to  promote 
an  acquaintance  with  the  original  languages  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures.  Amongst  these,  Matthias  Doringk,  or 
Thoringk,  Wesselus,  Regiomontanus,  and  Reuchlin, 
particularly  merit  our  esteem. 

Matthias  Doringk,  or  Thoringk,  the  celebrated  au- 
thor of  the  "  Replies"  to  Paul  of  Burgos's  "  Additions"  to 
the  Commentary  of  De  Lyra,  was  born  at  Kiritz,  in  the 
marcbe  of  Brandenburgh,  and  when  young  became  a 
monk  of  St.  Francis.  After  studying  philosophy  and 
theology  with  distinguished  success,  he  rose  to  eminence, 
not  only  as  a  preacher,  but  as  a  lecturer  on  the  Scriptures, 
and  professor  of  theology.  Whilst  professor  of  theology 
at  Magdeburg,  he  undertook  the  defence  of  De  Lyra's 
Postils,  or  Commentaries,  against  the  strictures  and  ob- 
jections of  Paul  of  Burgos.  His  defence  is  generally  found 
appended  to  the  printed  editions  of  De  Lyra's  work, 
along  ^vith  the  "Additions"  of  Paul  of  Burgos.  In 
1431,  he  held  the  office  of  minister  of  his  order  in  the 
province  of  Saxe,  and  received  letters  from  the  landgrave 
of  Thuringia,  requesting  him  to  introduce  some  reform 
among  the  Franciscans  of  Eisenac.  About  the  same 
time,  he  was  sent  as  one  of  the  deputies  to  the  council 
of  Basil,  (one  object  of  which  was  the  reformation  of 
the  church,)  by  that  party  of  his  order  who  adhered  to 
that  council.  Either  at  that  time,  or  afterwards,  he  was 
raised  to  be  general  of  the  order.  The  close  of  his  life 
was  spent  in  retirement,  in  the  monastery  of  Kiritz,  where 

(60)  Dibdin's  Biblioth.  Spencer.  I.  pp.  154.  I57. 

Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography  II.  App.  p.  hi. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  175 

lie  wrote  the  greater  part  of  his  works.  The  time  of  his 
death  is  disputed;  some  placing  it  in  1494,  others,  with 
more  probability,  in  1464.  Beside  the  work  already 
mentioned,  he  was  the  author  of  others,  and  amongst 
them  of  a  "Chronicle,"  in  which  he  treated  the  characters 
of  the  popes  and  cardinal  with  such  freedom,  as  has  led 
to  the  supposition  that  he  was  the  writer  of  the  Nurem- 
berg Chronicle;  which,  however,  appears  to  be  a  mistake, 
as  his  work  remains  in  M8.  in  the  library  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Leipsic.^* 

JoH\  Herman  Wesselus,  of  Groningen,  was  born 
about  the  year  1419.  He  studied  at  Zwoll  and  Cologne, 
and  afterwards  at  Paris,  and  was  so  celebrated  for  his 
talents  and  attainments,  as  to  be  denominated  The  Light 
of  the  World.  His  extraordinary  religious  knowledge, 
and  truly  Christian  spirit,  were  so  indisputable,  and  liis 
views  of  Gospel  doctrines  so  clear,  that  he  has  justly  been 
called  The  Forerunner  of  Luther,  So  astonished  was  that 
great  reformer  when  he  first  met  with  some  pieces  writ- 
ten by  Wesselus,  that  he  wrote  a  preface  to  the  Leipsie 
edition  of  his  works,  printed  in  1522,  in  which  he  says, 
"  It  is  very  plain  he  was  taught  of  God,  as  Isaiah  prophe- 
sied that  Christians  should  be:  (Is,  liv.  13.)  and  as  in 
my  own  case,  so  with  him,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  he 
received  his  doctrines  from  men.  If  I  had  read  his  works 
before,  my  enemies  might  have  supposed  that  I  had  learnt 
every  thing  from  Wesselus,  such  a  perfect  coincidence 
there  is  in  our  opinions." 

Wesselus  not  only  studied  the  Greek  language,  by  the 
help  of  the  Dominican  friars,  who  about  this  time  passed 
over  to  the  West,  from  Constantinople,  after  its  subjection 
to  the  Mohammedan  government,  but  obtained  from  cer- 
tain learned  Jews,  a  knowledge  of  the  Flebrew,  Chaldee, 
and  Arabic  tongues.  Having  been  early  instructed  in 
the  scholastic  disputes,  and  having  by  his  industry,  ac- 
(61)  Chalmers'  Gen.  Biog,  Diet.  XIX.  pp.272— 274.  Lond.  18i3. 


176 

quired  an  uncommon  share  of  Biblical  learning,  he  taught 
philosophy  and  philology  with  great  applause,  at  Gro- 
ningen,  Paris,  Cologne,  Heidelberg,  and  especially  at 
Basil,  where  he  had  the  famous  Reuchlin  for  a  hearer. 
His  opposition  to  the  Romish  errors,  and  the  prevalent 
subtilties  of  scholastic  disputations,  subjected  him  to 
considerable  danger,  but  his  reputation  for  learning  and 
piety  was  so  great,  and  his  protectors  were  so  powerful, 
that  he  escaped  uninjured  by  the  storm. 

On  the  advancement  of  Cardinal  Francis  de  Rovere  to 
the  papal  chair,  imder  the  name  of  Sixtus  IV.  he  sent 
for  him  to  Rome,  and  promised  to  grant  him  whatever 
he   would  ask:   Wesselus  answered,  "Holy  father,  and 
kind  patron,  I  shall  not  press  hard  upon  your  holiness. 
You  well  know  I  never  aimed  at  great  things.     But  as 
you  now  sustain   the  character  of  the  supreme  pontiff, 
and  shepherd  on  earth,  my  request  is,  that  you  would  so 
discharge  the  duties  of  your  elevated  station,  that  your 
praise  may  correspond  with  your  dignity,  and  that  when 
the  great  shepherd  shall  appear,  whose  first  minister  you 
are,  he  may  say,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  en- 
ter into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord:'   and  moreover,  that  you 
may  be  able  to  say  boldly.  Lord,  thou  gavest  me  five  ta- 
lents, behold,  I  have  gained  five  other  talents."     The  pope 
replied,   "That  must  be  my  care:  But  do  you  ask  some- 
thing for  yourself."     "Then,  rejoined  Wesselus,  "I  beg 
you  to  give  me  out  of  the  Vatican  Library,  a  Greek, 
and  an  Hebrew  Bible."     "You  shall  have  them,"  said 
Sixtus,  "but  foolish  man,  why  don't  you  ask  for  a  bishop- 
rick,  or  something  of  that  sort?"     "For  the  best  of  rea- 
sons," said  Wesselus,    "because   I   do  not  want  such 
things?"     The  Hebrew  Bible  thus  presented,  was  long 
afterwards  preserved  in   his  native  city   of  Groningen. 
He  died  in  1489,  aged  70. 

His  works  have  been   several  times  printed,  but  the 
most  complete  edition  was  published  in  1614,  4to.  with 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  177 

a  short  account  of  his  life  by  Albert  Hardenberg*.^^ 
John  Muller,  commonly  called  Regiomontanus, 
from  his  native  place^  Mons  Regius,  or  Konigsberg,  a 
town  in  Franconia,  was  born  in  1436,  and  became  the 
greatest  astronomer  and  mathematician  of  his  time. 
Having  first  acquired  grammatical  learning  in  his  own 
country,  he  was  admitted,  while  yet  a  boy,  into  the 
academy  at  Leipsic;  from  whence  he  removed  at  only 
fifteen  years  of  age,  to  Vienna,  to  enjoy  the  superior 
advantages  afforded  to  his  pursuits,  by  the  learned  pro- 
fessors in  that  university.  After  some  years  the  Cardi- 
nal Bessarion  arrived  at  Vienna,  and  soon  formed  an 
acquaintance  with  the  youthful  astronomer,  who,  in  order 
to  perfect  his  knowledge  of  the  Greek  tongue,  accompa- 
nied the  cardinal  to  Rome,  where  he  studied  under 
Theodore  Gaza,  a  learned  Greek.  In  1463,  he  went  to 
Padua,  where  he  became  a  member  of  the  university.  In 
1464,  he  removed  to  Venice,  to  meet  and  attend  his  pa- 
tron Bessarion.^^  He  returned  the  same  year  with  the 
cardinal  to  Rome,  where  he  made  some  stay,  to  procure 
the  most  curious  books :  those  he  could  not  purchase,  he 
took  the  pains  to  transcribe,  as  he  wrote  with  great  faci- 
lity and  elegance;  and  others  he  got  copied  at  a  great 
expense ;  for  as  he  was  certain  that  none  of  these  books 
could  be  had  in  Germany,  he  intended  on  his  return 
thither,  to  translate  and  publish  some  of  the  best  of 
them.  It  was,  probably,  at  this  period,  that  he  tran- 
scribed, in  the  most  beautiful  manner,  the  whole  of  the 
New  Testament  with  his  own  hand,  a  labour  which  he 
undertook   from  the  ardour  of  his   attachment  to  the 


(62)  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  IV.  pp.  295,  296.  302. 
Enfield's  Hist,  of  Philosophy,  B.  vii.  ch.  iii.  p.  383. 
Hody,  DeBibl.  Text.  Orig.  pt.  ii.  lib.  iii.  p.  446, 
*  Among  other  curiosities  in  the  library  of  Louvain,  there  is  a  MS. 
Bible,  given  to  the  doctors  of  the  university,  by  Cardinal  Bessarion,  in 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  their  hospitable  treatment  of  him ,     Home's 
Jntrod.  to  Bibliog.  II.  p.  594. 
Vol.  II.  ^ 


178  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Divine  Volume,  and  which  he  is  said  to  have  rendered 
familiar  to  him  by  constant  perusal. 

Having-  procured  a  considerable  number  of  MSS.  he 
returned  to  Vienna,  and  for  some  time  read  lectures; 
after  which  he  went  to  Buda,  on  the  invitation  of  Mat- 
thias, or  Mattheo,  king  of  Hungary,  the  great  patron  of 
learned  men.  The  breaking  out  of  the  war  occasioned 
his  withdrawing  to  Nuremberg,  where  he  set  up  a  print- 
ing house,  and  printed  several  astronomical  works.  In 
1474,  he  was  prevailed  upon  by  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  to  return 
to  Rome,  to  assist  in  reforming  the  calendar.  He  arriv- 
ed at  Rome  in  1475,  but  died  there  a  year  after,  at  only 
forty  years  of  age,  not  without  suspicion  of  being 
poisoned.®^ 

John  Reuchlin,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Capnio, 
was  born  at  Pforzheim,  a  town  of  Suabia,  in  the  electo- 
rate of  Baden,  A.  D.  1454.  Being  trained  up  among  the 
choristers  of  the  church  of  his  native  town,  he  was  no- 
ticed by  the  margrave  of  Baden,  who  took  him  under  his 
care,  and  afforded  him  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  a 
liberal  education.  He  afterwards  studied  at  Paris,  and 
Basil;  and  in  1481,  obtained  the  degree  of  doctor  of  law, 
at  Orleans.  On  his  return  to  Germany  he  accompanied 
Eberhard,  count  of  Wirtemberg,  to  Rome;  and  afterwards 
was  sent  on  embassies  to  the  Emperor  Frederick  HI. 
and  the  papal  court.  His  extraordinary  attachment  to 
the  Hebrew  language  discovered  itself  on  both  these  oc- 
casions: at  Rome  he  engaged  a  Jew  to  perfect  his 
knowledge  of  that  tongue,  for  which  he  paid  him  the 
enormous  sum  of  a  piece  of  gold  an  hour;  at  the  court  of 
Frederick,  instead  of  receiving  the  usual  presents  of  richly 
caparisoned  horses,  or  golden  cups,  or  other  valuable 
gifts  of  a  similar  nature,  he  requested  and  obtained  ^ 
very  ancient  Hebrew  Bible. 

(63)  Chalmers'  Gen.  Biog.  Die,  XXII.  p.  506.  I^nd.  181%  &c.  8vo. 
Hody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig,  pt.  ii.  lib.  iii.  p.  447. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  179 

Though  eminently  learned  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages, he  appears  to  have  been  chiefly  occupied  with 
the  Hebrew,  of  which  he  composed  a  Grammar,  the  first 
that  had  been  written  of  that  tongue  by  a  Christian. 
He  was  also  the  author  of  an  Hebrew  Lexicon,  and  of 
several  other  works  relative  to  that  primeval  language. 
He  is  justly  regarded  as  the  restorer  of  Hebrew  and 
Greek  learning,  in  Germany ;  though  his  singular  erudi- 
tion, and  active  promotion  of  literature,  subjected  him  at 
that  time  to  the  most  virulent  opposition,  from  the  super- 
stitious and  ignorant  inquisitors  and  monks.  One  of 
the  most  formidable  disputes  in  which  he  was  involved, 
arose  out  of  his  extensive  knowledge  of  the  rabbinical 
writings.  John  Pfeffercorn,  a  famous  converted  ^ew, 
had  long  petitioned  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  to  burn  all 
the  Jewish  books  except  the  Bible;  as  tending  only  to 
encourage  superstition  and  impiety,  and  prevent  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews  to  Christianity.  The  emperor, 
partially  yielding  to  his  petition,  sent  orders  tP  Uriel, 
archbishop  of  Mentz,  to  nominate  some  university,  to 
which,  along  with  the  inquisitor  James  Hochstrat,  and 
John  Reuchlin,  the  decision  of  the  question  might  be 
referred.  Reuchlin,  in  reply  to  the  inquiries  of  the  arch- 
bishop, remarked,  that  the  Jewish  works  might  be  di- 
vided into  three  classes,  historical,  medical,  and  talmu- 
dical,  which  although  mixed  with  many  fabulous  and  ri- 
diculous fictions,  were  useful  in  the  refutation  of  their 
errors  and  antichristian  opinions.  This  decision  he 
sent  sealed  to  the  archbishop;  but  Pfeffercorn,  learning 
the  sentence,  immediately  published  a  work  against 
Reuchlin,  calling  him  the  champion  and  patron  of  the 
Jews ;  this  was  followed  by  a  similar  publication  from 
Hochstrat.  The  opinion  of  Reuchlin  was  also  condemn- 
ed by  the  universities  of  Paris  and  Cologne,  and  the 
book  which  he  had  written  in  defence  of  it  publicly 
burnt.     On  the  other  hand,  the  archbishop  of  Spire  ap- 


180  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

proved  of  Reuchliu,  and  gave  judgment  in  his  favour,  in 
the  cause  brought  before  him  by  Hochstrat  and  his  ad- 
vocates. The  dispute  was  ultimately  carried  to  Rome, 
where  Hochstrat  remained  for  three  years,  but  finding 
the  delegates  appointed  by  Pope  Leo  X.  favourable  to 
Reuchhn,  he  returned  to  Germany,  where  he  afterwards 
became  active  in  comn«itting  some  of  the  early  Luthe- 
rans to  the  flames,  and  where  he  died  at  Cologne,  about 
A.  D.  1527. 

Towards  the  close  of  life,  Reuchlin  devoted  himself  to 
teaching  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages,  in  the  uni- 
versity of  Ingolstadt,  till  being  incapacitated  by  the 
jaundice,  he  retired  to  Stutgard,  where  he  died  in  1521, 
aged  67. 

Beside  the  works  already  mentioned,  he  published  se- 
veral others  on  Hebrew  literature;  a  Translation  from  He- 
brew into  Latin  of  the  VII.  Penitential  Psalms,  printed 
in  Hebrew  and  Latin,  at  Tubingen,  1512,  8vo.;  a  treatise 
De  Arte  Cabal istica,  dedicated  to  Leo  X.;  an  Abridgment 
of  the  History  of  the  Assyrians,  Persians,  Greeks,  and 
Romans,  8^c.^^ 

The  munificent  patronage  afforded  to  literature  by 
Mattheo  Corvini,  king  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  who 
died  of  an  apoplexy  in  1490,  also  merits  particular  notice. 
He  succeeded  his  father  to  the  throne  of  Hungary  in  1457, 
and  extended  his  reputation  as  a  soldier  throughout  Europe, 
by  the  captures  of  Vienna  and  Nieustadt.  But  his  love  of 
literature,  and  patronage  of  learning,  have  transmitted  his 
name  with  more  tranquil  and  delightful  recollections  to 
posterity,  than  any  warlike  feats  could  possibly  have  done. 
Animated  by  an  ardent  thirst  for  knowledge,  he  became  a 
most  diligent  collector  of  books,  and  during  the  last  thirty 

(64)  Cavei  Hist.  Litt.  saec.xv.  Append,  p.  183. 

Sleidan's  History  of  the  Reforiration,  by  Bohnn,lib.  ii.  pp.  ^9,30* 
Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  pp.  60,  61.  122.  379. 
Hody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig,  lib.  ill.  pt.  ii.  pp.  447,  448. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  181 

years  of  his  life  spared  no  expense  in  the  acquisition  of 
a  library,  which  placed  him  among  the  most  illustrious 
patrons  and  guardians  of  literature.  He  purchased  innu- 
merable volumes  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  writers  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  other  Grecian  cities,  at  the  period  of  the 
conquest  of  the  Eastern  empire  by  the  Turks ;  and  as  the 
operations  of  the  typographical  art  were  yet  but  slow 
and  imperfect,  and  the  number  of  books  hitherto  printed 
but  few,  he  maintained  four  learned  transcribers  at  Flo- 
rence, to  multiply  the  copies  of  such  classics  as  he  could 
not  procure  in  Greece.  He  erected  three  libraries  in 
the  citadel  of  Buda,  in  which  he  placed  30,000,  or,  accor- 
ding to  others,  50,000  volumes.  The  principal  one,  in 
which  the  chief  part  of  his  magnificent  collection  was 
placed,  was  a  sort  of  vaulted  gallery,  divided  into  three 
parts:  a  fourth  part  forming  a  kind  of  convenient  appen- 
dage for  the  reception  of  visitors.  In  this  fourth  part 
were  two  stained  glass  windows,  and  two  doors ;  one  of 
the  doors  opening  immediately  into  the  library,  the  other 
leading  to  the  monarch's  private  apartment.  In  these 
libraries  he  established  thirty  amanuenses,  skilled  in 
writing,  illuminating,  and  painting,  who,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Felix  Ragusinus,  a  Dalmatian,  consummately 
learned  in  the  Greek,  Chaldee,  and  Arabic  languages, 
and  an  elegant  designer  and  painter  of  ornaments  on 
vellum,  attended  constantly  to  the  business  of  transcrip- 
tion and  decoration.  The  librarian  was  Bartholomew 
Fontius,  a  learned  Florentine,  the  writer  of  several  phi- 
lological works,  and  a  professor  of  Greek  and  oratory, 
at  Florence.  The  Boohs  were  placed  upon  shelves  ac- 
cording to  their  classes;  and  in  this  manner  were  cover- 
ed with  silk  curtains,  or  hangings,  adorned  with  silver 
and  gold,  or  brocaded.  The  lower  recesses  next  to  the 
floor,  were  appropriated  to  something  like  cupboards, 
which  contained  MSS.  too  large  for  their  proper  places, 
or  of  a  character  not  easily  admitting  of  classification. 


182  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

The  exterior  of  this  lower  division,  or  probably  the  cup- 
board-doors were  skilfully  and  curiously   carved.     The 
books  were  chiefly  Vellum  MSS.  bound  in  brocade,  and 
protected  by  krjobs   and  clasps   of  silver,   or  other  pre- 
cious metal;  and  were  ornamented  or  marked  with  the 
device  or   insignia  of  the  owner,   which  was  that  of  a 
Black  Crow  with  a  ring  in  his  mouth,  in  allusion  to  the 
etymon  of  his  name,  Corvus,  a  crow,  or  raven.     The  li- 
brary was  likewise  celebrated  for   the  magnificent  celes- 
tial globe  \t   contained,  and  for  the   silver   and   marble 
fountains  which  pLiyed  in  the  adjoining  gallery,  or  court. 
When  Buda  was  captured  by  the  Turks,  under  Solyman 
II.  in  1526,  Cardinal  Bozmanni  offered  for  this  inestima- 
ble collection  200,000  pieces  of  the  imperial  money,  but 
without  effect,  for  the  barbarous  besiegers  defaced  or 
destroyed  most  of  the  books,  for  the  sake  of  their  splen- 
did covers,  and  the  silver  bosses  and  clasps  with  which 
they  were  enriched.     Those  which  escaped  the  rapacity 
of  the  Turkish  soldiery,  were  thrown  into  a  sort  of  sub- 
terraneous vault,  there   to  moulder  or  perish,  as  it  might 
happen.     In   1666,  Lambecius,  the  learned  librarian   of 
the  Imperial  Library  at  Vienna,  was  sent  to   Buda,  for 
the  purpose   of  recovering  the  remains  of  the  Corvinian 
Library.     He  found  there,   in   a  crypt  of  the  citadel, 
barely  lighted  with  one  window,  and  ventilated  with  one 
door,    about   400   volumes   in   number,    lying   upon  an 
earthen  floor,  and  covered  with  dirt  and  filth.     Three  ma- 
nuscript copies  of  the  Fathers  were  all  that  he  was  permit- 
ted to  carry  away.  But  in  the  year  1686,  Buda  was  captured 
by  the  Austrian  arms,  when  the  remainder,  though  com- 
paratively  of    little    value,   were    removed  to   Vienna. 
Some  of  the  most  valuable  volumes  formerly  belonging 
to  this   library,  have   been  discovered  in   the   Imperial 
Library  at  Vienna,  in  the  Wolfenbuttel  Library,  and    in 
that  of  Morelli,  the  learned  librarian    of  St.  Mark's,  at 
Venice.    In  the  Public  Library  of  Brussels,  there  are 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  -183 

two  exquisitely  finished  MSS.  which  once  graced  the 
library  of  Corvinus.  The  first  is  a  Latin  Evangelista- 
RiuM,  written  in  letters  of  gold,  upon  the  most  beautiful 
vellum,  and  not  inaptly  called  the  Golden  Book.  It 
had  become  the  property  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  who 
kept  it  in  the  Escurial  Library,  under  lock  and  key;  and 
is  said  to  have  been  formerly  shown  to  strangers  with 
great  ceremony,  and  by  torch  light!  The  other  is  a 
magnificent  Missal,  highly  illuminated. 

Alexander  Brassicanus,  who  saw  the  library  at  Buda 
before  it  was  dispersed,  noticed^  amongst  an  immense 
number  of  other  valuable  works,  the  whole  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Hyperides,  the  Grecian  orator,  with  valuable 
schoha;  a  large  book  of  the  apostolical  canons;  the  com- 
mentary of  Theodoret  on  the  Psalms;  the  works  of 
Chrysostom,  Cyril,  Nazianzen,  Basil  the  Great,  Gregory 
of  Nyssa,  Theophanus,  &c.^^ 

During  this  century  flourished  also  R.  Isaac,  or  Mor- 
DECAi  Nathan,  a  celebrated  Jew,  and  the  Jirst  who  en- 
gaged in  the  laborious  work  of  compiling  a  Hebrew 
Concordance,  which  he  began  in  1438,  and  completed 
in  1448,  after  ten  years  wearisome  toil.  His  book  was 
published  at  Venice,  1523,  but  with  considerable  defects, 
many  words  and  places  being  wholly  omitted.  A  second 
edition  was  printed  at  Basil,  1531,  by  Ambrose  Froben, 
in  which  some  of  the  faults  of  the  Venice  edition  were 
corrected,  but  without  altering  the  form,  or  supplying 
the  defects.  A  splendid  edition,  by  Marius  de  Calasio,  a 
Franciscan  friar,  was  published  at  Rome,  in  1621,  in  4 
vols.  fol.  to  which  were  added,  1.  A  Latin  translation  of 
R.  Nathan's  explanation  of  the  several  roots,  with  the 
author's  own  enlargements;   2.  The  Rabbinical,  Chaldee, 

(65)  Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron,  II.  pp.  455 — 462; 
Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II.  pp.417,  418. 
Lomeier,  De  Bibliothecis,  cap.  ix.  p.  204. 
Home's  Introduction  to  Bibliography,  II.  p.  595. 


184 

Syiiac,  and  Arabic  words,  derived  from,  or  agreeing 
with  the  Hebrew  root  in  signification;  3.  A  literal  vei-sion 
of  the  Hebrew  text;  4.  The  variations  of  the  Vulgate  and 
Septuagint;  5.  The  proper  names  of  men,  rivers,  moim- 
tains,  &c.  Afterwards  John  Buxtorf,  the  indefatigable 
propagator  of  the  Hebrew  language,  undertook  to  cor- 
rect and  reform  the  preceding  editions,  and  happily  suc- 
ceeded, by  casting  it  into  an  entirely  new  form.  This 
was  printed  after  his  death,  by  his  son,  at  Easily  in  1632, 
fol.  The  Rev.  W.  Romaine  published  an  improved 
edition  of  Calasio's  work,  in  1747,  at  London,  in  4  vols, 
fol.  "But  in  point  of  usefulness  this  is  vastly  inferior  to 
*The  Hebrew  Concordance,  adapted  to  the  English  Bible, 
disposed  after  the  manner  of  Buxtorf,  by  John  Taylor, 
D.  D.'  London,  1754,  2  vols.  fol.  which  may  be  justly 
styled  the  sixth  edition  of  R.  Nathan's  Concordance^  for 
it  has  been  the  ground  work  of  the  whole."  Dr.  Taylor's 
"work  was  published  under  the  patronage  of  all  the  Eng- 
lish and  Irish  bishops,  and  is  a  monument  to  their  honour, 
as  well  as  to  the  learning  and  industry  of  the  editor."  ^^ 
The  time  of  R.  Nathan's  death  is  uncertain. 

Besides  the  oriental  and  Biblical  scholars  who  have 
been  already  noticed,  there  were  several,  who,  towards 
the  close  of  this  century,  prosecuted  similar  studies  with 
success;  among  these  may  be  enumerated  Marcus  Lypo- 
MANNUs;  Laurentius  Valla  ;  Baptista  Mantuanus  ; 
John  Picus,  earl  of  Mirandola;  Rodolphus  Agricola; 
and  John  Creston. 

Marcus  Lypomannus,  a  counsellor  and  patrician  of  the 
Republic  of  Venice,  eminently  skilled  in  Hebrew,  Greeks 
and  Latin,  flourished  in  the  early  part  of  this  century.*^' 

Laurentius  Valla,  a  Roman  patrician,  doctor  of  divi- 
nity, and  canon  of  St.  John  of  Lateran,  was  one  of  the 

(66)  Taylor's  Hebrew  Concordance,  Prefiice,  sec  i.  toI.  I. 
Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionary,  II.  p.  113, 

(67)  Hudy,  De  Bibl.  Text,  Grig.  lib.  iii.  pt.  ii,  p.  440. 


FIFTEENTH    CENTURY.  185 

ebief  restorers  of  the  beauty  of  the  Latin  language.  His 
work  "  On  the  elegance  of  the  Latin  language/'  has  been 
frequently  printed.  He  was  also  the  author  of  Annotations 
on  the  New  Testament,  edited  by  Erasmus^  who  wrote  in 
defence  of  them.  Valla  had  a  design  to  translate  the 
New  Testament  into  Latin  ;  but  being  forbidden  by  the 
pope,  he  could  only  write  notes  upon  the  Vulgate,  cen- 
suring the  bad  latinity,  and  the  inaccuracy  of  this  ver- 
sion. F.  Simon  is  perhaps  too  severe  upon  him  as  a 
critic,  and  says,  that  as  he  was  a  mere  grammarian  his 
remarks  are  inconsiderable.  His  "Annotations"  were 
favourably  received  by  Pope  Nicholas  V.  who  recalled 
him  from  Naples,  whither  he  had  fled,  to  avoid  the  per- 
secution of  the  inquisition.  He  died  in  1457,  in  the 
52nd.  year  of  his  age.^^ 

Baptista  Mantuanus,  a  monk  of  Mantua,  of  the  or- 
der of  the  Carmelites,  after  being  chosen  six  times  Vicar 
General^  was  constituted  General  of  the  order.  To  polite 
literature  he  added  the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew,  as  well 
as  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages.  He  wrote  a  tract 
entitled  De  Causa  Diversitatis  inter  Interpretes  S.  Scrip- 
turce,  in  which  he  defended  the  Vulgate  version  against 
the  Jews.  His  works  were  printed  at  Antwerp,  in  1607, 
in  4  vols.  8vo.     He  died  in  1516.^^ 

John  Francis  Pic  us,  or  Pico,  earl  of  Mirandola,  was 
born  February  24th.  1463.  He  lost  his  father  early,  but 
he  found  in  his  mother  a  most  attentive  guardian;  and 
the  care  which  she  took  of  his  education,  was  repaid  by 
the  most  astonishing  improvement.  It  is  said,  that 
when  he  was  only  eighteen  years  of  age  he  understood 
twenty-two  different  languages.  In  1491,  he  gave  up 
his  estates,  and  retired  to  one  of  his  castles,  that  he 
might  devote  himself  entirely  to  theological  studies,  and 

(68)  Hody,  ut  sup.  Jortia's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p.  20. 

(69)  Hody,  ut  sup.  p.  443. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth,  Sacra,  II,  p.  624.   Paris,  1723. 


186  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

especially  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  In  this  retire- 
ment he  died,  in  1494,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one.  He 
wrote  against  Judicial  J  Urology,  combating  the  cabalis- 
tic opinions  of  the  Jews;  and  defended  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Psalms;  and  was  the  autlior  of  an  Exposi- 
tion  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  many  other  works."^® 
After  he  had  withdrawn  from  the  pomp  and  ambition 
of  the  court,  he  thus  expressed  himself  in  a  letter  to 
a  friend:  "Many  think  it  a  man's  greatest  happiness 
in  this  life  to  enjoy  dignity  and  power,  and  to  live  in 
the  plenty  and  splendour  of  a  court;  but  of  these,  you 

know,  I  have  had  a  share:  and I  am  persuaded 

the  Caesars,  if  they  could  speak  from  their  sepulchres, 
would  declare  Picus  more  happy  in  his  solitude,  than 
they  were  in  the  government  of  the  world:  and  if  the 
dead  could  return,  they  would  choose  the  pangs  of  a 
second  death,  rather  than  risk  their  salvation  a  second 
time  in  public  stations."*^ 

RoDOLPHUs  Agricola  was  a  learned  German.  Towards 
the  close  of  life  he  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  which  he 
had  only  begun  to  learn  at  forty;  but  in  which  he  made 
such  improvement,  that  with  the  assistance  of  his  teach- 
er, he  made  a  translation  of  the  Psalms.  He  died  in 
1485,  aged  forty-three.'^^ 

John  Creston  was  an  Italian  Carmelite  monk  and 
doctor,  of  Placentia.  He  published  an  edition  of  the 
Psalms,  in  Greek,  with  a  Latin  translation,  or  rather 
corrected  edition  of  the  Vulgate,  printed  at  Milan,  1481,  in 
small  folio,  or  quarto,  at  the  expense  of  Bonaccursius 
Pisanus.'^ 

(70)  Hoc\>,  pp   445,  446. 

Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionary,  V.  p.  215. 
Lp  Loi'o,II.  p.  905. 

(71)  Butlei's  Livps,  IX.  p.  71. 

(7'2)   Hody,  p:  446.  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p,  76. 

(73)  Hody,  p.  4  46. 

Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt,  ii.  toL  U.  sec,  1.  p.  311. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  187 


CHAPTER  III. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


JEncoiiragement  of  Literature  in  Italy.  George  of  Amba- 
sia.  Leo  X.  Profligacy  of  the  Papal  court.  Poly- 
glotts.  Aug.  Justinian.  Complutensian  Polyglotf. 
Cardinal  Ximenes.  Mozarahic  Liturgy.  Editors  of 
the  Complutensian  Polyglott.  Sanctes  Pagninus. 
Learned  Italians.  Spanish  Councils.  Hebrew  Lite- 
rature.  State  of  Biblical  Literature  in  France  and 
England.  Persecutions  in  England.  Biblical  Scho- 
lars. Low  state  of  Biblical  Knowledge  in  Germany. 
Astonishing  Ignorance  of  many  of  the  Clergy.  Ger- 
man Scholars.     Erasmus. 

THE  commencement  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  was 
marked  by  a  rapidly  increasing  ardour  for  classical 
pursuits,  and  by  the  publication  of  various  important 
and  magnificent  Biblical  works,  which  displayed  both  the 
erudition  and  munificence  of  those  who  projected  and 
executed  them.  In  iTi^LY,  the  court  of  Rome,  with  sin- 
gular inconsistCiiCy,  lavished  its  favours  on  men  of  learn- 
ing and  scientific  acquirements,  regardless  of  the  moral 
turpitude  of  their  character,  and  the  infidel  profligacy  of 
their  opinions  and  habits.  Incredible  pains  were  taken 
to  collect  books  from  every  quarter,  at  immense  expense; 
and  the  jmpal  thunders  were  directed  against  any  persons 
who  should  purloin  or  disperse  the  volumes  belonging  to 
the  libraries  attached  to  the  various  monastic  institutions. 
A  curious  proof  of  this  fact  is  afforded  by  an  epistle, 
addressed  by  the  cardinal  legate,  George  of  Ambasia,  to 
the  canons  of  Bruges,  from  whom  he  had  borrowed 
Hilary  on  the  Psalms, 


188  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

"George  of  Ambasia,  presbyter  of  Saint  Sixtus,  car- 
dinal of  Ptouen,  legate  of  the  apostolic  see,  to  his  dear 
friends  the  venerable  the  fathers,  the  canons,  and  chapter, 
of  the  sacred  chapel  of  Bruges  ;  wisheth  peace." 

"Having  been  informed  that  in  the  library  of  your 
sacred  chapel,  there  was  an  ancient  copy  of  Hilary  of 
Poitiers  upon  the  Psalms ;  and  taking  great  delight  in 
literary  pursuits,  especially  those  which  regard  our  holy 
religion,  so  far  as  our  weak  abilities  will  permit  ;  we 
requested  from  your  paternal  kindness  the  loan  of  that 
book  for  a  few  days,  to  which  you  courteously  acceded, 
notwithstanding  the  Pontifical  Bull,  which  forbade  any 
books  being  taken  away  from  the  library  under  pain  of 
excommunication." 

"Wherefore,  having  read  the  book  with  considerable 
pleasure,  we  have  resolved  to  have  it  copied  ;  for  which 
purpose  it  will  be  requisite  to  have  it  in  our  possession 
for  some  months,  though  we  intend,  after  it  has  been 
transcribed,  to  return  it  uninjured  to  your  paternal  care. 
We,  therefore,  absolve  you  from  whatever  censures  or 
punishments  you  might  incur  by  lending  the  book ;  and, 
by  the  authority  with  which  we  are  invested,  do  hereby 
pronounce  and  declare  you  absolved,  notwithstanding 
any  thing  to  the  contrary,  contained  in  the  aforesaid  bull, 
or  in  any  other." 

"Given  at  Bruges,  the  third  day  of  March  MDVII. 

George,  cardinal-legate  of  Rouen."* 

The  election  of  the  young  Cardinal  John  de  Medici, 
to  the  pontifical  chair,  in  1513,  proved  favourable  to  the 
general  interests  of  literature,  but  increased  the  licentious- 
ness of  the  papal  court,  and  spread  a  baneful  influence 
over  the  whole  of  the  Romish  hierarchy.  The  celebrity 
of  this  pontiff,  who  assumed  the  title  of  Leo  X.  and  the 
intimate  connection  of  his  pontificate  with  the  Reforma- 
tion by  Luther,  may  justify  us  in  detailing  at  some 
(1)  Voyages  Litteraires  de  deux  Keligieux  Benedictias,  I.  p.  29, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  189 

length,  the  more  prominent  traits  of  his  life  and  character. 

John,  or  Giovanni  de  Medici,  was  a  native  of  Flo- 
rence, the  second  son  of  Lorenzo,  styled  the  Magnificent, 
and  grandson  of  Cosmo  the  Great.  From  his  infancy  he 
was  destined  to  the  church,  and  received  an  education 
suited  to  the  high  rank  and  ambitious  views  of  his  father, 
which  produced  a  correspondent  gravity  of  deportment 
at  so  very  early  an  age,  that  his  biographer  says,  "he 
seems  never  to  have  been  a  child." 

At  seven  years  of  age  he  was  admitted  into  holy  orders, 
and  about  a  year  afterwards,  was  appointed  abbot  of  Fonte 
Dolce,  by  Louis  XL  of  France,  who  also  conferred  upon 
lilm  the  abbacy  of  the  rich  monastery  of  Pasignans.  Yet 
we  are  assured  that  at  this  early  period  he  "was  not 
more  distinguished  from  his  youthful  associates,  by  the 
high  promotions  which  he  enjoyed,  than  he  was  by  his 
attention  to  his  studies,  his  strict  performance  of  the 
duties  enjoined  him,  and  his  inviolable  regard  to  truth." 
He,  however,  bore  "his  blushing  honours  thick  upon 
him,"  for  when  he  was  only  thirteen  years  of  age,  he  re- 
ceived the  dignity  of  a  cardinal,  from  Pope  Innocent  VIII. 
and  Pope  Julius  11.  employed  him  as  legate.  On  the 
11th.  of  March  1513,  being  then  only  thirty-seven  j'cars 
old,  he  was  elected  supreme  head  of  the  church,  on  the 
decease  of  Julius,  and  assumed  the  name  of  Leo  X. 

The  commencement  of  his  pontificate  seemed  to  realize 
the  high  expectations  which  had  been  formed  of  it,  parti- 
cularly by  a  general  amnesty  published  at  Florence,  his 
native  city,  respecting  those  who  had  been  the  occasion  of 
the  violent  civil  commotions  which  had  taken  place  in  it-; 
and  by  the  recall  of  the  banished  citizens  to  their  country. 
With  considerable  address  and  perseverance,  he  sur- 
mounted the  difficulties  which  had  prevented  the  enjoy- 
ment of  peace  between  Italy  and  France ;  and  composed 
the  troubles  v/hich  the  ambition  of  the  surrounding- 
sovereigns^  or  the  misconduct  of  his  predecessors,  had 


190  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

occasioned.  Unhappily,  however,  the  hopes  that  were 
entertained  respecting  him,  and  the  excellency  of  his 
pon'^ifical  government,  were  never  realized ;  his  ambitious 
projects  being  accomplished,  by  his  advancement  to  the 
tiara,  he  became  indolent  and  voluptuous;  his  assumed 
gravity  gave  way  to  the  lowest  buffoonery;  his  munifi- 
cence degenerated  into  prodigality;  and  his  attachment 
to  truth  was  lost  in  the  insincerity  of  his  political  engage- 
ments: even  in  his  literary  pursuits^  profane  was  generally 
preferred  to  sacred  literature ;  and  his  disposal  of  ecclesi- 
astical dignities  was  frequently  regulated  by  the  aid 
afforded  to  his  pleasures.  He  conferred  the  archbishoprick 
ofBari  on  Gabriel  Merino,  a  Spaniard,  whose  chief  merit 
consisted  in  the  excellence  of  his  voice,  and  his  knowledge 
of  church-music;  and  promoted  another  person  named 
Francesco  Paoloso,  for  similar  qualifications,  to  the  rank 
of  an  archdeacon.  "It  seems  to  have  been  his  intention," 
says  one  of  his  biographers,  "to  pass  his  time  cheerfully, 
and  to  secure  himself  against  trouble  and  anxiety  by  all 
the  means  in  his  power.  He  therefore  sought  all  oppor- 
tunities of  pleasure  and  hilarity,  and  indulged  his  leisure 
in  amusement,  jests,  and  singing."^ 

An  elegant  writer  thus  characterizes  the  court  of  Leo: 
"While  Leo,  with  equal  splendour  and  profusion,  supported 
the  character  of  a  sovereign  prince,  he  was  too  prone  to 
forget  the  gravity  of  the  pontiff.  He  delighted  in  exposing 
to  public  ridicule,  those  characteristic  infirmities  of 
some  of  his  courtiers,  which  his  own  penetration  easily 
discovered. — But  these  were  venial  aberrations  from  de- 
corum, in  comparison  with  those  excesses  which  Leo's 
example  sanctioned,  or  at  which  his  indifference  conniv- 
ed. The  few  who,  amidst  this  more  than  syren  fascination, 
still  retained  any  sense  of  decency,  were  constrained  to 

(2;  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  X.  vol.  IV.  p.  486  ;  and  Life  of  Lorenzo  de 
Medici,  11.  pp.  178— 106  j  379—383.  Lend,  1806,  8vo.  and 
Lend.  1800, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  191 

blush  ofl  beholding  ecclesiastics  mingling,  without  reserve, 
in  every  species  of  pleasurable  dissipation.     The  younger 
cardinals  especially,  many  of  whom  were  junior  branches 
of  royal  or  illustrious  houses,  exulted  in  the  free  partici- 
pation of  indulgences,  to  which  the  most  sacred  charac- 
ters were  no  restraint.     Rome  frequently  saw  her  court, 
with  a  multitude  of  attendants,  and  an  immense  appara- 
tus, accompany  the  supreme  pontiff  to  partake  of  the 
sports  of  the  field.     Under  the  direction  of  the  ingenious 
Cardinal   Bibiena,  whose  versatile  talents   appeared   to 
equal  advantage  on  serious,  festive,  or  ludicrous.occasioas, 
the  spacious  apartments  of  the  Vatican  were  metamor- 
phosed into  theatres.     The  pontifical  tables  teemed  with 
luxurious  viands,  that  realized  the  refinements  of  Apicius: 
and  particular  seasons  afforded  a  sanction  to  the  free- 
doms and  buffooneries  of  the  ancient  Saturnalia.     Jovius 
acknowledges,  that  Adrian,  a  man  of  a  frugal  character, 
could  not  examine,  without  shuddering,  the  particulars  of 
those  enormous  disbursements,  which  marked  the  domes- 
tic establishment  of  his  predecessor."^ 

Leo  has  been  accused  of  treating  revelation  with 
contempt^  and  of  advancing  principles  of  an  atheistical 
tendency.  Old  Bishop  Bale,  in  his  Pageant  of  Popes, 
(p.  179,)  printed  1574,  relates  this  anecdote:  "On  a  time 
when  Cardinal  Bembus  did  move  a  question  out  of  the 
Gospell,  the  pope  gave  him  a  very  contemptuous  answere, 
saying.  All  ages  can  testifye  enough  how  profitable 
that  fable  of  Ckriste  hath  ben  to  ns,  and  our  companies* 
The  authenticity  of  this  anecdote  has  been  denied  by  a 
late  biographer  of  this  pontiff,  who  calls  it,  "a  story  which 
it  has  justly  been  remarked,  has  been  repeated  by  three 
or  four  hundred  different  writers,  without  any  authority 
whatsoever,  except  that  of  the  author  above  referred  to;"^ 

(3)  (xreswell's  Memoirs  of  Aiigelus  Politiaaus,  &c.    pp.  141,  143.  145, 

Manchester,  1801,  8vo. 

(4)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  ch.  xxiv.  p.  479. 

(5)  Ibid.  p.  480. 


192  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

But  that  this  assertion  is  incorrect,  appears  by  a 
quotation,  containing  the  same  anecdote,  made  from 
an  old  Spanish  writer,  by  Greswell,  in  his  Memoirs  of  An- 
gelas Politianus,  Actius  S'lncerus  Sannazarius,  Petims 
Bemhus,  S^c.  p.  135,  where,  after  observing  that  several 
circumstances  are  recorded  by  the  earlier  retcrmed  wri- 
ters, "which  reflect  much  on  Bembo's  character,  and 
that  of  Leo  X.  his  master,"  he  adds,  in  a  note,  "The 
following  is  the  bold  language  of  an  old  ISpaaish  writer, 
with  regard  to  Leo  X. 

"Fue  un  hombre  atheista,  que  ni  penso  aver  cielo,  ni 
infierno  despues  desta  vida:  y  assi  se  murio  sin  recebir 
los  sacramentos.  Sanazaro  dize  que  no  los  pudo  recebir 
porque  los  avia  vendido.^  Veesse  tambien  claramente  su 
atheismo  por  la  respuesta  que  dio  al  Cardenal  Bembo, 
que  le  avia  alegado  cierto  passo  del  Evangelio:  al  quid 
dissolutamente  respondio  Leon  estas  palabras:  Todo  el 
mundo  sabe  quanto  provecho  aya  traydo  a  nosotros,  y  a 
nuestra  compania  aquella  fabula  de  Christo,  &c." 

'^Dos  Tratados:  el  prima  es  del  Papa  y  de  su  auforidad; 
et  el  segimdo  es  de  la  Missa.  2nd.  ed.  8vo.  1599.  The 
preface  dated  1588,  and  subscribed  C.  D.  V."** 

On  the  first  day  of  August  in  every  year,  Leo  was 
accustomed  to  invite  such  of  the  cardinals  as  were  among 
his  more  intimate  friends,  to  play  at  Cards  with  him, 
when  he  distributed  pieces  of  gold  to  the  crowd  of  spec- 
tators who  were  permitted  to  be  present  at  this  entertain- 
ment. He  was  also  a  thorough  proficient  in  the  game  of 
chess,  though  he  is  said  to  have  always  reproved  the 
playing  with  dice."^ 

(6)  Greswell's  Memoirs  of  Angelus  Politianus,  &c.  p.  135. 
*  The  following  is  the  epigram  ?lluded  to  above : 

"  In  Leonem  X.  Pont.  Max. 

Sacra  sub  extrema  si  forte  requiritis  hora 

Cur  Leo  non  potuit  suraere, — vetidid^'rat^^* 

[Greswell,  ut  sup,  p.  104t 

(7)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  ch,  24.  pp.  486,  487. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  193 

Other  gratifications  in  which  Leo  indulged  were  of  the 
lowest  and  most  disgusting  nature  ;  such  as  his  entertain- 
ing in  his  palace,  a  mendicant  friar,  called  Father  Martin, 
whose  chief  merit  consisted  in  eating  forty  eggs,  or  twenty 
capons,  at  a  meal,  and  such  like  feats  of  voracious  glut- 
tony; and  the  pleasure  he  derived  from  deceiving  his 
guests  by  preparing  dishes  of  crows  and  apes,  and  si- 
milar animals,  and  seeing  the  avidity  with  which  the  high 
seasoned  food  was  devoured.  Yet  brutish  as  were  these 
sources  of  diversion,  they  have  found  an  apologist  in  a 
celebrated  writer,  who  regards  them  when  associated 
with  Leo's  literary  pleasures,  as  serving  "to  mark  that 
diversity  and  range  of  intellect  which  distinguished  not 
only  Leo  X.,  but  also  other  individuals  of  this  extraordi- 
nary family!"^  It  must  however  be  acknowledged,  that  his 
own  meals  were  generally  of  the  most  frugal  nature. 

The  profuse  expenditure  of  Leo  involved  him  in  em- 
liarrassments,  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  expedients, 
to  supply  the  deficiency  of  his  income,  which  for  a  while 
effected  their  purpose,  but  in  the  end  became  the  means 
of  limiting  the  pontifical  authority,  and  of  producing  an 
ecclesiastical  revolution,  infinitely  serviceable  to  the  in- 
terests of  religion  and  truth.  Among  the  schemes  which 
he  adopted,  to  drain  the  wealth  of  the  credulous  multi- 
tude, was  the  open  sale  of  Dispensations  and  Indulgences 
for  the  most  enormous  and  disgraceful  crimes,  under  pre- 
tence of  aiding  the  completion  of  the  magnificent  and  ex- 
pensive church  of  St.  Peter,  at  Rome.  In  Germany,  the 
right  of  promulgating  these  indulgences  was  granted  to 
Albert,  elector  of  Metz  and  archbishop  of  Magdeburg, 
who  employed  a  Dominican  friar  named  Tetzel,  as  his 
chief  agent  for  retailing  them  in  Saxony  ;  who,  executing 
his  commission  with  the  most  shameless  effrontery,  roused 
the  indignation  of  Luther  against  such  flagrant  abuses 
of  the  papal  authority,  and  created  such  a  feeling  ageiinst 

(8)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  p.  491, 
Vol.  IL  N 


191  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

the  infamous  measure,  as  terminated,  by  the  gracious 
control  of  Divine  providence,  in  the  glorious  Reforma- 
tion from  popery.® 

The  most  illustrious  trait  in  the  characterof  Leo,  was  his 
munificent  patronage  of  learning  and  the  fine  arts.  He  was 
himself  well  versed  in  the  Latin  language,  and  possessed  a 
competent  knowledge  of  the  Greek,  accompanied  with  sin- 
gular proficiency  in  polite  literature,  and  extensive  ac- 
quaintance with  history  in  general.  In  the  attention  paid  by 
him  to  the  collecting  and  preserving  of  ancient  M88.  and 
other  memorials  of  learning,  he  emulated  the  example  of 
his  father,  and  by  his  perseverance  and  liberality  at  length 
succeeded  in  restoring  to  its  former  splendour  the  celebra- 
ted Laurentian  Librari/,  which  had  been  commenced  by 
Cosmo  de  Medici,  but  had  been  afterwards  dispersed  by 
the  troops  of  Charles  VIII.  of  France,  on  the  expulsion 
of  the  haughty  Piero  di  Medici  from  Florence.  It  was 
removed  by  Leo  to  Rome,  from  whence  it  was  re-trans- 
ferred to  Florence,  by  his  cousin  and  successor  Clement 
VIII.;  who,  by  a  bull,  dated  December  15, 1532,  made  pro- 
vision for  its  future  security.  Among  the  learned  who 
were  patronized  by  Leo,  are  enumerated,  TeseoAmbrogio; 
Sante  Pagnini;  Agostino  Giustiniani;  Agacio  Gui- 
DACERio;  and  particularly  Erasmus,  between  whom  and 
the  pontiff'  an  epistolary  correspondence  occasionally  sub- 
sisted, and  who  dedicated  to  Leo,  his  edition  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  New  Testament.  But  his  patronage  of  Ori- 
ental and  Biblical  scholars  was  certainly  very  far  inferior 
in  its  remunerations,  to  that  which  was  bestowed  upon 
the  cultivators  of  the  fine  arts  and  more  modern  litera- 
ture.^^ The  two  celebrated  historians  of  the  council  of 
Trent,  are  agreed  as  to  his  preference  of  profane  to  sacred 

(9)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  II.  ch.  x.  pp,  383,  384. 
Robertson's  Hist,  of  Charles  V.  vol.  II.  B.  ii.  pp.  91—95. 

(10)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  IL  ch.  x.  pp.  387—390. 
Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  ch.  xxiv.  pp.  474—476;  and 

IL  ch.  xi.  pp.  396—404. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  195 

literature;  Fra.  Paolo,  (Cone,  di  Trent,  lib.i.  p. 5.^  thinks  he 
might  have  been  deemed  "a  perfect  pontiff,"  if  to  his  other 
^^  accomplishments  he  had  united  some  knowledge  of 
religion,  and  a  greater  inclination  to  piety ;  to  neither  of 
which,"  says  the  historian,  "he  appeared  to  pay  any 
great  attention  ;"  and  Pallavacini,  the  opponent  of  Fra. 
Paolo,  acknowledges  (Cone,  di  Trent,  lib.  i.  cap.  iii.  p.  51.) 
that  this  defect  '^was  more  apparent,  when  being  instituted 
at  thirty  seven  years  of  age  the  president  and  chief  of  the 
Christian  religion,  he  not  only  continued  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  curiosity  of  profane  studies,  but  even  called 
into  the  sanctuary  of  religion  itself,  those  who  were  better 
acquainted  with  the  fables  of  Greece,  and  the  delights 
of  poetry,  than  with  the  history  of  the  church,  and 
the  doctrines  of  the  Fathers."^*  His  indifference  to  reli- 
gion and  religious  duties,  is  farther  confirmed  by  his 
conduct  respecting  the  discourses  delivered  in  his  pre- 
sence. "In  the  year  1514,  he  ordered  his  master  of  the 
palace,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to  see  that  the 
sermon  delivered  before  him  did  not  exceed  half  an  hour; 
and  in  the  month  of  November,  1517,  being  wearied  with 
a  long  discourse,  he  desired  his  master  of  the  ceremonies 
to  remind  the  master  of  the  palace,  that  the  council  of 
the  Lateran  had  decided,  that  a  sermon  should  not  exceed 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  at  most.  In  consequence  of  which 
remonstrances  there  was  no  sermon  on  the  first  day  of 
the  year  1518;  the  master  of  the  palace  being  fearful 
that  the  preacher  would  exceed  the  prescribed  limits."'^ 

This  celebrated,  but  irreligious  pontiff,  died  after  a 
short  illness,  on  December  1st.  1521;  not  without  suspi- 
cion of  having  been  poisoned ;  but  most  probably  from  a 
fever,  brought  on  by  excess  of  joy,  at  the  unexpected 
success  of  the  papal  armies  against  France. 

(11)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  pp.  468,  469. 

See  also  Jortia's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  pp.  237.  261.  Lond.  1808,  8?o. 

(12)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  IV.  ch.  jutiv.p,  489,  note. 


196 

The  impression  and  publication  of  the  Polyglott 
Psalter  of  GiusTiNiANi,  or  Justinian,  and  theCoMPLu- 
TENSiAN  Polyglott  Bible  of  Cardinal  Ximenes,  which 
were  respectively  dedicated  to  Leo,  eminently  distinguish- 
ed his  pontificate.  On  this  subject,  the  learned  author  of 
the  Succinct  Account  of  Polyglott  Bibles  has  the  following 
remarks:  "The  taste  that  prevailed  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  for  the  cultivation  of  literature,  was  partly  the 
cause  of,  and  partly  owing  to,  the  publication  of  the 
Sacred  Writings  in  different  languages.  Certain  men,  in 
whom  were  providentially  united  a  taste  for  sound  learn- 
ing, together  with  ecclesiastical  influence,  and  secular 
opulence,  determined  to  publish,  firsts  parts,  and  then 
the  whole  of  the  Sacred  Writings,  in  such  languages  as 
were  esteemed  the  learned  languages  of  the  universe. 
These  were,  principally,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Arabic, 
Chaldee,  and  Syriac;  others  of  less  importance  were 
added  to  them.  Such  publications  attracted  general  at- 
tention, and  became  greatly  studied.  Hence  the  taste, 
not  only  for  Sacred  literature,  but  universal  science, 
became  widely  diffused;  and  the  different  nations  of 
Europe  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  publication 
of  those  works,  which  have  since  obtained  the  denomi- 
nation of  Polyglotts,  i.  e.  ^ books  in  many  languages, ''^^ 

The  first  in  order  of  publication  was  the  Polyglott 
Psalter  of  Giustiniani,  or  Justinian,  bishop  of  Nebbio,  or 
Nebio,  in  the  island  of  Corsica.  The  title  of  his  work  was, 
'^Psalterium,  Hebraicum,  Gr.ecum,  Arabicum,  et 
Chaldeum,cum  tribus  Latinis  Interpretationibus  et 
Glossis;  and  we  learn  from  the  colophon,  that  it  wasprint- 
edat  Genoa,  15 16,  by  Peter  Paul  PoiTus,in  the  house  of  Ni- 
colas Justinian  Paul.  It  is  in  folio.  A  preface  is  prefixed, 
dated  Genoa,  Cal.  Aug.  1516,  addressed  by  Justinian  to 
Leo  X.     It  is  divided  into  eight  columns,  of  which,  the 

(13)  Dr.    \.  Clarke's  Succinct  Account  of  Polyglott  Bibles,    IntrocL 
Uverpool;  1802,  8vo. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  197 

1st.  contains  the  Hebrew;  the  2nci.  Justinian's  Latin 
Translation,  answering  word  for  word  to  the  Hebrew; 
the  3rd.  the  Latin  Vulgate;  the  4th.  the  Greek;  the  5th. 
the  Arabic;  the  6th.  the  Chaldee  Paraphrase  in  Hebrew 
characters;  the  7th.  Justinian's  Latin  translation  of  the 
Chaldee  Paraphrase;  the  8th.  Latin  scholia,  or  notes.^* 

On  the  19th.  Psalm,  v.  4.  "Their  words  are  gone  to 
the  end  of  the  world,"  Justinian  has  inserted,  by  w^ay  of 
commentary,  a  curious  sketch  of  the  life  of  Columbus,  and 
an  account  of  his  discovery  of  America,  with  a  very  sin- 
gular description  of  the  inhabitants,  particularly  of  the 
female  native  Americans;  and  in  which  he  affirms,  that 
Columbus  frequently  boasted  himself  to  be  the  person 
appointed  by  God,  to  fulfil  this  prophetic  exclamation  of 
David.  But  the  account  of  Columbus,  by  Justinian, 
seems  to  have  displeased  the  family  of  that  great  naviga- 
tor, for  in  the  life  of  Columbus,  written  by  his  son,  (see 
Churchill's  Coll.  of  Voyages,  &c.  vol.  II.  p.  560,)  he  is 
accused  of  falsehood  and  contradiction ;  and  it  is  even 
added,  ^that  considering  the  many  mistakes  and  false- 
hoods found  in  his  history  and  Psalter,  the  senate  of  Ge- 
noa has  laid  a  penalty  upon  any  person  that  shall  read  or 
keep  it^*  and  has  caused  it  to  be  carefully  sought  out  in 
all  places  it  has  been  sent  to,  that  it  may  by  public  de- 
cree be  destroyed,  and  utterly  extinguished."^^  After  all, 
the  mistakes  of  Justinian  most  probably  arose,  not  from 
design,  but  from  incorrect  information. 

The  Arabic  in  this  Psalter  was  the  first  that  ever  was 
printed;  and  the  Psalter  itself,  the  first  part  of  the  Bible 
that  ever  appeared  in  so  many  languages. 

Justinian  undertook  this  work  with  the  expectation  of 
considerable  gain,   hoping  thereby  to  assist  his  indigent 

(14)  LeLong,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  ed.  Masch,  pt.  i.  cap.  iii.  sec,  25.  p.  400. 

(15)  Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Books,  I.  pp.  109 — 111; 

^nd  III.  pp.  69.  76,  77. 

*  Qu.  The  History  or  F Salter  ? 


198  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

relatives,  but  was  miserably  disappointed.  His  original 
intention,  he  informs  us,  in  the  account  of  himself  pre- 
fixed to  his  Annals  of  Genoa,  was  to  give  to  the  public  a 
similar  Polyglott  edition  of  the  whole  Bible.  "I  had 
always  imagined,"  says  he,  "that  my  work  would  be 
eagerly  sought  after,  and  that  the  wealthy  prelates 
and  princes  would  readily  have  afforded  me  every  as- 
sistance necessary  for  printing  the  rest  of  the  Bible,  in 
such  a  diversity  of  languages.  But  I  was  mistaken, 
every  one  applauded  the  w^ork,  but  suffered  it  to  rest  and 
sleep;  for  scarcely  was  a  fourth  part  sold,  of  the  2000 
copies  which  I  had  printed,  exclusive  of  50  more  copies 
printed  upon  vellum,  which  I  had  presented  to  all  the 
kings  in  the  world,  whether  Christian  or  Pagan."  He, 
nevertheless,  completed  the  MS.  of  the  New  Testament^ 
a  great  part  of  which  he  wrote  with  his  own  hand ;  Sixtus 
Senensis  says  he  had  seen  the  Polyglott  MS.  of  The 
Four  Gospels  thus  written,  and  also  decorated  by  him- 
self. After  completing  the  MS.  of  the  whole  of  the 
New  Testament,  he  engaged  in  a  similar  compilation  of 
the  Text  and  Versions  of  the  Old  Testament ;  conceiving, 
as  he  said,  "that  his  time  could  not  be  better  employed, 
than  in  the  study  of  the  holy  Scriptures."'® 

AuGusTiN  Justinian,  or  according  to  his  Italian  name, 
Agostino  GiusTiNiANi,  was  born  at  Genoa,  1470.  He 
entered  at  an  early  age  into  the  order  of  St.  Dominic, 
and  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  good  masters,  and  an  ex- 
cellent library.  For  many  years  he  devoted  himself 
entirely  to  study,  except  what  time  was  occupied  in  the 
duties  of  instruction,  from  which  he  obtained  permission 
to  retire,  in  1514,  that  he  might  apply  solely  to  the  pre- 
paring of  the  Pentaglott  Bible  for  the  press,  and  to  the 
studies  necessarily  connected  with  so  important  a  design. 

(16)  Simon,  Lettres  Choisifis,  III.  pp.  109.  111.  Amsterd,  1730^  12mo, 
Fabricy,  Titles  Primitifs,  I.  p.  194. 
Sixt.  Senens.  Biblioth,  Sanct.  lib.  Iy.  p.  251. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  199 

He  published  his  Pentaglott  Psalter,  as  a  specimen  of 
the  work,  in  1516,  but  being  disappointed  in  the  patron- 
age he  had  too  ardently  expected,  relinquished  the  pro- 
ject o^ printing  the  rest  of  the  Bible.  Leo  X.  promised 
him  greater  promotion  than  the  bishoprick  of  Nebbio,  to 
which  he  had  been  previously  raised,  but  never  fuliiiied 
the  engagement.  Happily,  about  the  same  time  Francis  L 
king  of  France^  to  whom  the  bishop  of  Paris  had  recom- 
mended Justinian,  as  a  man  of  learning  and  merit,  invited 
him  to  Paris,  and  bestowed  on  him  a  pension  of  300 
crowns,  with  the  titles  of  counsellor,  and  almoner.  He 
remained  live  years  at  the  court  of  Francis,  and  during 
that  period  published  various  works;  and  visited  England 
and  Flanders,  returning  by  way  of  Lorraine,  where  he 
was  received,  and  liberally  entertained^  by  the  reigning 
duke  Anthony,  and  his  brother  the  cardinal. 

Whilst  at  Paris,  he  taught  the  Hebrew  language,  as  pro- 
fessor; and  also  published  a  Latin  translation  of  the  Moreh 
Nehochim  of  Maimonides,  which  he  dedicated  to  his  friend 
and  patron  Stephen  Poncher,  bishop  of  Paris.  A  copy  of 
this  work  is  in  the  possession  of  the  present  writer.  It  is  a 
beautiful  thin  folio,  printed  by  Jodocus  Badius  Ascensius. 
The  title-page  is  inclosed  in  a  curious  ornamented  border, 
and  decorated  with  the  vignette-device  of  the  printing- 
press  of  Ascensius.  The  running  title  is  executed  with  a 
beautiful  Gothic  type;  the  text  is  in  the  Roman  charac- 
ter ;  and  the  capital  letters  with  which  the  chapters  com- 
mence, are  fine  specimens  of  the  initial  letters  on  dotted 
grounds,  especially  the  large  R  and  D  with  which  Justi- 
nian's dedication,  and  Maimonides's  preface,  respectively 
begin.  The  dedication  and  colophon  both  bear  date 
A.  D.  1520.  This  translation  has  generally  been  consi- 
dered as  the  work  of  Justinian  himself;  but  F.  Simon 
says,  he  merely  edited  an  old  version  which  had  been 
long  in  existence,  and  to  which  Aquinas  and  Bradwar- 
dine  have  referred,  and  of  which  he  himself  had  seen  a 
copy,  written  in  a  neat  hand. 


200  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

From  Paris,  Justinian  returned  into  Italy,  to  visit  his 
diocese,  but  with  the  intention  of  revisiting  France,  the 
king  having  promised  him  a  rich  benefice.  These  hopes 
were,  however,  blasted  by  the  war  breaking  out  between 
Leo  and  Francis.  After  his  return  to  Italy  he  compiled 
his  Annrili  di  Genova,  or  Flistory  of  Genoa,  in  Italian, 
to  which  he  prefixed  the  account  of  his  life,  particularly 
of  his  publication  of  the  Pentaglott  Psalter.  He  likewise, 
with  the  permission  of  the  pope,  presented  his  valu- 
able library  to  the  republic  of  his  native  city.  This 
collection  contained  about  a  thousand  volumes  of  the 
most  valuable  and  rare  works,  obtained  from  the  most 
distant  foreign  parts,  forming,  at  that  time,  as  he 
assures  us,  a  library  almost  without  a  parallel  in  Europe. 
In  the  accumulation  of  these  literary  treasures,  he  had 
been  greatly  aided  by  the  commercial  facilities  afforded 
by  the  maritime  city  of  Genoa.  Among  the  works  thus 
presented  to  the  republic,  was  included  the  3IS.  of  his 
Polyglott  New  Testament,  written  with  his  own  hand. 
From  a  letter  addressed  by  the  Abbe  Poch  to  Gabriel 
Fabricy,  we  learn  that  the  MS.  is  probably  still  preserved. 

This  very  learned  Dominican  perished  in  a  storm  at 
sea,  together  with  the  vessel  which  was  conveying  him 
from  Genoa  to  Nebbio,  in  the  year  1536.'' 

The  famous  Complutensian  Polyglott,  published 
subsequently  to  Justinian's  Psalter,  was  commenced  in 
1502,  under  the  auspices  of  Cardinal  Ximenes,  archbi- 
shop of  Toledo,  who  spared  no  expense,  either  in  procur- 
ing MSS.  or  in  recompensing  the  editors  for  their  trouble. 
Esprit  Flechier,  bishop  of  Nismes,  in  his  Histoire  du 
Cardinal  Ximenes,  gives  the  following  account  of  this 
important  edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures: 

"  The  archbishop  seeing  the  great  corruption  of  man-. 

— , — _ — ^^ 

(17)  Simon,  Lettres  Choisies,  III.  pp.  107—111. 
Sixt.  Senens.  Bibliotlu  Sanct.  lib.  iv.  p.  251. 
Fabricy,  litres  Primitifs,  II.  p.  294, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  201 

iiers  that  reigned  even  among  the  chief  ministers  of  the 
church,  dreaded  the  attempts  of  enemies  to  spread  false 
doctrines,  by  captious  interpretations  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  which,  whilst  they  dazzled  the  simple,  might 
appear  unanswerable  to  the  learned.  For  this  reason, 
he  undertook  a  new  edition  of  the  Bible,  containing,  for 
the  Old  Testament,  the  Hebrew  Text,  the  Vulgate  Latin, 
the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint  version,  with  a  Latin  trans- 
lation, and  the  Chaldee  Paraphrase,  with  a  similar  Latin 
interpretation; — for  the  New  Testament,  the  Greek  Text, 
and  the  Vulgate.  To  these  was  added  a  volume,  ex- 
plaining the  meaning  of  Hebrew  words  and  idioms, 
highly  esteemed  by  those  who  are  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  language.'' 

'^  This  most  difficult  undertaking  required  the  influence 
and  perseverance  of  a  patron  like  the  cardinal.  He 
immediately  procured  the  assistance  of  the  most  eminent 
scholars,  Demetrius  of  Crete,  a  Greek  by  birth,  Anthony 
of  Nebrissa,  Lopez  Stunica,  and  Ferdinand  Pintian,  pro- 
fessors of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages;  Alphonsus,  a 
physician  of  Alcala,  Paul  Coronel,  and  Alphonsus  Zamo- 
ra,  noted  for  their  skill  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  having 
formerly  taught  that  language  among  the  Jews,  but  who 
having  renounced  Judaism,  and  embraced  Christianity, 
had  given  proof  of  extraordinary  erudition  and  genuine 
piety.  To  these  he  explained  his  design,  promised  to 
bear  the  whole  expense,  and  granted  them  liberal  pen- 
sions. He  urged  upon  them  the  necessity  of  diligence: 
'  Hasten,  my  friends,'  said  he,  'lest  I  fail  you,  or  you  fail 
me,  for  you  need  a  protection  like  mine,  and  I  need 
assistance  like  yours.'  By  these,  and  similar  exhorta- 
tions, and  by  the  liberal  encouragement  afforded  them, 
they  became  assiduous  in  their  labour,  and  incessantly 
applied  to  the  work,  till  the  whole  was  completed." 

"  He  caused  diligent  inquiry  to  be  made  for  manu- 
script copies  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  order  that  the 


202 

faults  of  former  editions  might  be  corrected,  corrupted 
passages  be  restored,  and  obscure  and  doubtful  expres- 
sions be  explained.  Pope  Leo  X.  favoured  him  with 
MSS.  from  the  Vatican  Library,  frequently  praised  his 
magnificence  and  generosity,  and  even  consulted  him  in 
the  most  important  occurrences  of  his  pontificate.  For 
fifteen  years  the  work  was  continued  without  interrup- 
tion; and  it  is  equally  astonishing,  that  neither  the  long 
and  tedious  application  wearied  the  constancy  of  the 
learned  editors,  nor  that  the  oppressive  cares  which 
devolved  on  Ximenes,  relaxed  either  his  zeal,  or  his 
affection  for  this  undertaking." 

"He  obtained  seven  Hebrew  MSS.  which  cost  him  four 
thousand  crowns  of  gold,  independent  of  the  Greek  MSS. 
sent  him  from  Rome  ;  or  the  Latin  ones  in  Gothic  charac- 
ters, brought  from  foreign  countries,  or  procured  from 
the  principal  libraries  of  Spain,  every  one  of  which  was 
at  least  eight  hundred  years  old.  The  whole  charge  of 
the  work,  including  the  pensions  of  the  editors,  the  wages 
of  the  transcribers,  the  price  of  books,  the  expense  of  jour- 
neys, and  the  cost  of  the  impression,  amounted,  accord- 
ing to  the  calculations  that  were  made,  to  more  than 
fifty  thousand  crowns  of  gold." 

"This  great  work,  which  had  occasioned  so  much  care 
and  expense,  being  at  length  completed,  Ximenes  dedica- 
ted it  to  Leo  X.  either  to  testify  his  gratitude,  or,  because 
all  w^orks  which  regard  the  explanation  of  Scripture,  are 

suitably  inscribed  to  the  sovereign  pontiflf. When 

the  last  volume  was  brought  him  he  hastened  to  receive  it, 
and  suddenly  raising  his  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven,  ex- 
claimed "I  thank  thee  my  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  that  before 
I  die,  I  see  the  completion  of  what  I  most  earnestly 
desired."  Then  turning  to  some  of  his  friends  who  were 
present  he  said  to  them ;  "  God  has  favoured  me  with  suc- 
cess in  things  which  to  you  have  appeared  to  be  great,  and 
which  probably  have  contributed  to  the  public  good;  but 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  203 

there  is  nothing  on  which  you  ought  to  congratulate  me  so 
n^  uch^as  this  edition  of  the  Biole,  which  opens  those  sacred 
sources  from  which  a  purer  theology  may  be  drawn,  than 
from  those  rivulets,  from  whence,in  general, it  is  sought."'® 

This  Bible  is  divided  into  six  parts,  and  comprised  in 
four  volumes  folio.  The  Neiv  Testament  was  printed  in 
1514,  as  appears  from  the  following  subscriptio a  at  the 
end  of  the  Revelation,  transcribed  from  a  copy  in  the  Col- 
legiate Library  at  Manchester:  '^Ad  perpetuam  laudem 
et  gloriam  dei  et  domini  nostri  iesu  christi  hoc  sacro- 
sanctum  opus  novi  testamenti  et  libri  vite  grecis  latinisq; 
characteribus  noviter  impressum  atq;  studiosissime  emen- 
datum :  felici  fine  absolutu  est  in  hac  prseclarissime  Co- 
plutensi  vniversitate :  de  mandato  et  sumptibus  Reueren- 
dissimi  in  christo  patris  et  illustrissimi  diii  fratris  Fran- 
cisci  Ximenez  de  Cisneros  tituli  sancte  Balbine  sancte  Ro- 
mane  ecclie  presbyteri  cardinalis  hispanie  Archiepi  tole- 
tani  et  Hispaniai\  primatis  ac  regnor.  cas telle  archicancel- 
larii:  industria  et  solertia  honorabilis  viri  Arnaldi  gulielmi 
de  Brocario  artis  impressorie  magistri.  Anno  domini 
Millesimo  quingentesimo  decimo  quarto.  Mensis  ianu- 
arii  die  decimo." 

This  was  succeeded  in  the  month  of  May,  in  the  same 
year,  by  a  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  Vocahulary,  and  other 
tracts,  designed  for  the  assistance  of  the  student  in  the 
oriental  tongues.  The  Old  Testament  was  printed  in  4 
parts,  and  completed  in  1517,  but  the  cardinal  dying 
soon  after  the  work  was  finished,  and  doubts  being  start- 
ed by  the  church  of  Rome,  whether  it  was  proper  to  bring 
it  into  general  circulation,  it  did  not  receive  the  permis- 
sion of  Leo  X.  for  its  publication,  until  the  22nd.  of 
March  1520;  and  the  copies  were  not  distributed  to  the 
world  at  large  before  the  year  1522.'^ 

(18)  Flechier,  Histoire  du   Cardinal  Ximenes,  I.  liv,  i.  pp.  175 — 179, 

Amsterdam,  1693,  12mo, 

(19)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  i.  cap.  iii.  pp.  337,  338, 
Marsh's  Michaelis,  II.  pt.  i.  ch.  xii.  sec.  1,  p,  432, 


204 

A  small  number^  (it  is  thought  not  more  than  four,) 
were  printed  on  vellum.  One  of  these  is  said  to  be  in 
the  Vatican  Library;  another  in  the  Escurial;  and  a  third 
was  lately  purchased  at  the  sale  of  the  Mac-Carthy  Li- 
brary, by  Mr.  G.  Hibbert,  for  ^640.'^  The  rest  of  the 
copies,  of  which  only  six  hundred  were  printed,  were 
upon  paper.  The  price  affixed  to  the  work,  by  the 
bishop  of  Avila,  by  order  of  the  pope,  was  two  golden  du- 
cats and  a  half;  or  ^bowi  forty  Uvres  of  French  money; 
a  considerable  sum  at  that  period. ^^ 

Francis  Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  the  munificent  pa- 
tron of  the  Com  pkitensian  edition  of  the  Bible,  and  the 
most  celebrated  statesman  of  his  day,  was  born  at  Torre- 
laguna,  an  obscure  town  in  Spain,  in  1437.  At  his  bap- 
tism he  received  the  name  of  Gonsalez,  but  on  entering 
the  order  of  St.  Francis,  exchanged  it  for  that  of  the 
founder  of  the  order.  He  received  the  first  rudiments  of 
his  education  at  Alcala,  and  afterwards  studied  the  civil 
and  canon  law  at  Salamanca,  and  made  such  proficiency 
in  it,  that  in  a  short  time  he  was  able  to  support  himself 
by  teaching  it  to  others.  He  did  not,  however,  suffer 
his  legal  pursuits  to  interrupt  his  course  of  general  study, 
but  continued  his  application  to  science,  and  especially 
to  sacred  literatui-e,  till  he  had  acquired  the  usual  accom- 
plishments of  the  students  of  that  period.  He  then 
returned  to  his  father ;  but  to  avoid  being  chargeable  to 
bis  parents,  resolved  to  visit  Rome,  and  endeavour  to 
obtain  ecclesiastical  promotion.  He  was  twice  robbed 
by  the  way;  and  was  detained  by  his  misfortunes,  at  Aix, 
in  Provence,  where  he  exercised  the  office  of  consistorial 
advocate,  by  which  means  his  great  abilities  became 
partially  known,  and  his  prospects  brightened.  Hearing, 
however,  of  the  death  of  his  father,  and  the  consequent 
distress  of  his  mother  and  family,  he  determined  to  return 

(20)  Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron,  III.  p.  169. 

(21)  Calmet,  Diet,  de  la  Bible,  p,  iv.  Paris,  1722,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURW  205 

into  Spain.  Having  secured  the  papal  bull  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  first  vacant  benefice,  he  returned  home, 
and  was  scarcely  arrived,  before  the  archpriest  of  Uceda 
died,  and  he  entered  upon  the  living*.  But  his  right  to 
the  benefice  was  contested  by  the  archbishop  of  Toledo^ 
who  designing-  it  for  one  of  his  ahnoners,  threw  Ximenes 
into  prison.  At  length  he  was  liberated,  at  the  request 
of  the  countess  of  Biiendia,  and  permitted  to  enjoy  liis 
ecclesiastical  preferment;  but  unwilling  to  be  under  the 
influence  of  a  prelate  who  had  treated  him  with  so  much 
severity,  he  exchanged  his  present  situation  for  one  in 
the  diocese  of  Siguenza.  Cardinal  Gonzales  de  Mendoza, 
the  bishop,  appointed  him  to  the  office  of  grand  vicar, 
and  distinguished  him  by  the  confidence  lie  reposed  in 
him.  Whilst  at  Siguenza,  he  gained  universal  approba- 
tion and  respect;  and  by  his  influence  with  John  Lopez  de 
Medina,  archdeacon  of  Almazan,  persuaded  him  to  found 
a  university  at  Siguenza.  Whatever  time  he  could  pos- 
sibly spare  from  tlie  claims  of  official  engagements,  he 
dedicated  to  literary  occupation :  he  learned  the  Flebrew 
and  Chaldee  tongues;  and  diligently  devoted  himself  to 
the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  At  this  period  he  appears. 
to  have  laid  the  foundation  of  that  Biblical  knowledge, 
for  which  he  was  afterwards  so  eminently  distinguished; 
and  so  deep  was  the  impression  made  upon  him  by  the 
perusal  of  the  Inspired  Volume,  that  he  lost  all  relish  for 
the  acquisition  of  other  science,  so  much  so,  that  he  used 
to  say  to  his  friends,  that  he  would  willingly  exchange 
all  his  learning  in  the  law,  for  the  explanation  of  a  single 
passage  of  Scripture. 

The  anxieties  of  office,  and  the  embarrassments  of  secu- 
lar affairs,  becoming  insupportable,  he  resolved  to  assume 
the  monastic  habit.  This  he  did  by  entering  among  the 
Franciscans,  at  Toledo.  After  passing  through  the  usual 
course  of  exercises,  he  made  a  profession  in  1483,  in  his 
forty-sixth  year^  and  was  admitted  a  member  of  the  order* 


206  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

By  the  permission  of  his  superiors,  he  withdrew  to  a  small 
convent  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Toledo,  called  Castagnaj^ 
from  being  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  grove  of  chesnut 
trees.     Here  he  practised  extraordinary  austerities,  and 
generally  passed  part  of  the  day  in  the  wood,   studying 
the  Scriptures,  sometimes  on  his  knees,  and  sometimes 
prostrate  on  the  ground;  at  other  times  he  spent  several 
days  together  in  a  cabin,  raised  with  his  own  hand,  on 
the  top  of  a  mountain  covered  with  trees.     His  devotion 
and  talents  attracted  the  attention  of  the  most  illustrious 
characters  of  his  country,  and,  recommended  by  the  Car- 
dinal de  Mendoza,  the  queen,  Isabella,  chose  him  for  her 
confessor,   in  the  year  1492,  and  the  55th  of  his  age, 
to  v/hich  he  reluctantly  yielded,  on  condition  of  never 
removing  with  the  court.     By  common  consent  the  chap- 
ter of  his  order  elected  him  provincial;  and  after  refusing 
for  six  months,  he,  by  order  of  the  pope,  occupied  also  the 
archbishoprick  of  Toledo.     On  his  elevation  to  this  dig- 
nity, instead  of  displaying  a  love  of  pomp  and  grandeur, 
he  continued  the  austere  and  simple  habits  of  monastic 
economy,  yet  discovering  such  a  knowledge  of  public 
affairs,  and   exercising  such   prudence  and  decision  in 
the  regulation  of  his  extensive   archiepiscopal  govern- 
ment, as  rendered  the  fame  of  his  wisdom  equal  to  that 
of  his  sanctity.     He  provided  for  the  poor;  visited  the 
churches  and  hospitals;  estabhshed  parochial  registers, 
in  which  were  entered  the  names  of  all  the  children  bap- 
tized, of  their  fathers  and  godfathers,  of  those  who  were 
present  at  the  baptism,  with  the  year,  month,  and  day, 
on  which  the  ceremony  was  performed ;  reformed  abuses ; 
degraded  corrupt  judges,  and  placed  in  their  room,  per- 
sons distinguished  by  their  probity  and  disinterestedness. 
He   ordained,  that  on  every  Sunday  and  holiday  each 
curate  should,  after  high  mass,  explain  the  Gospel,  in  a 
plain,  instructive  manner,  and  in  the  evening  after  Com- 
plin, teach  the  principal  articles  of  the  Christian  doctrine. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  207 

prov'ding  them,  for  this  purpose,  with  Catechisms,  and 
other  helps  for  instruction. 

With  the  design  of  promoting  the  religious  education  of 
youth,  and  of  introducing  into  the  churdi,  pious  and  we\i 
disciphned  characters,  he  founded  the  college  of  St.  Ilde- 
pboasus,  at  Alcala  de  Henarez,  (anciently  called  Complu- 
turn.)  This  academy,  or  university,  erected  about  A.  D. 
1500,  soon  became  famous:  and  the  celebrated  Complu- 
tensian  Pohjglott  Bible,  which  issued  from  it,  under  the 
patronage  and  at  the  expense  of  the  founder,  has  rendered 
its  fame   perpetual. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Spain,  and  the  endea- 
vour to  convert  the  Mohammedan  inhabitants  who  re 
mained,  called  forth  the  vigorous  talents  of  the  archbishop, 
who  laboured  with  success  to  subject  them  in  profession 
to  the  church  of  Rome;  though  his  refusal  to  permit  ver- 
nacular translations  of  the  Scriptures,  was  undoubtedly 
a  prejudice  to  the  sincerity  of  their  conversion. 

During  his  residence  at  Toledo,  he  repeatedly  visited 
the  library  of  his  cathedral,  in  which  many  MSS.  were 
deposited,  venerable  from  their  antiquity,  and  valuable 
from  their  contents.  Among  the  number  which  he  exa- 
mined, in  order  to  obtain  assistance  in  his  designs,  he 
met  with  several  ancient  volumes,  written  in  Gothic  let- 
ters, which  led  him  to  re-establish  the  Gothic,  or  Mo%a- 
rabic  offices,  or  liturgy,  which  had  formerly  been  held 
in  the  highest  veneration   in  the  kingdom    of  Castile. 

He  employed  Dr.  Ortiz,  a  canon  of  the  church  of 
Toledo,  and  two  others  of  the  same  city,  to  publish  an 
edition  of  the  Mozarabic  Breviaries  and  Missals,  and  dis- 
tributed among  the  ecclesiastics  and  churches  a  vast 
number  of  copies,  and  even  founded  a  magnificent  chapel, 
in  the  cathedral  of  Toledo,  that  the  Mozarabic  liturgy 
might  be  constantly  used.=^ 

*  The  history  of  this  liturgy  is  curious.  lo  the  sixth  century,  the 
Visigoths  occupied  almost  all  Spain,  under  the  empire  of  Honorius.    As 


208  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

In  1506,  he  was  appointed  regent  of  the  kingdom  of 
Castile  ;  in  1507,  Pope  Jnlius  II.  created  him  cardinal  of 
Spain,  and  soon  afterwards  received  the  office  of  inquisitor 
general,  the  inquisition  having  been  established  in  the 
kingdom,  in  1477,  by  F.  Thomas  de  Torquemada,  of  the 
order  of  St.  Dominic,  and  prior  of  the  convent  of  Saint- 
Croix,  in  Segovia.  An  excellent  liistorian  has  thus  drawn 
the  character  of  Ximenes,  as  the  regent  of  Castile  :  "  His 

they  were  Arians,  they  created  confusion  in  the  public  worship  of  the 
kingdom,  associating  nov^el  with  ancient  practices  and  forms.  But  this  na- 
tion having  abjured  their  heretical  opinions,  and  embraced  the  orthodox 
faith,  through  the  instructions  of  Leantler,  archbishop  of  Seville,  it  was 
ordained  by  the  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  that  all  the  churches  should 
adopt  the  same  forms  of  prayer,  missals,  and  public  Psalters ,  and  St. 
Isidore,  the  successor  of  Leander,  was  charged  with  the  care  of  carrying 
the  decree  of  the  council  into  eifect.  This  practice  continued  for  about 
120  years,  till  the  Moors,  having  ravaged  the  country,  and  defeated  the 
Spanish  army,  became  masters  of  the  kingdom.  In  this  general  cala- 
mity, the  royal  city  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  barbarians,  who  permitted 
the  Christians  to  retain  their  profession,  and  allowed  theii  six  churches 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  public  worship.  Many  of  the  catholics 
fled  from  their  native  country,  rather  than  submit  to  the  yoke  of  foreign 
authority,  but  others  cf  them  remained,  and  were  denominated,  from 
he'iQg  mixed  \'v{t\i  the  Arabs  or  Moors,  Mistarabes ;  or  Mozarabes,  from 
Moza,  the  name  of  the  Moorish  general.  These  continued  the  use  of 
St.  Isidore's  offices  for  near  400  years,  not  only  in  the  royal  city  itself, 
but  in  other  cities  of  the  kingdoms  of  Toledo,  Castile,  and  Leon. 

Alphonsus  VI.  having,  after  a  long  siege,  expelled  the  Moors  from 
Toledo,  ordered  the  Roman  missal  to  be  adopted,  instead  of  the  ancient 
one  of  St.  Isidore,  in  all  the  churches  where  the  latter  had  been  in  use. 
This  was  opposed  by  the  clergy,  nobility,  and  people,  who  urged  the 
antiquity  of  their  liturgy,  and  the  authority  by  which  it  had  been  esta- 
blished. The  dispute  became  so  warm  that,  at  last,  it  was  agreed, 
according  to  the  genius  of  the  age,  to  terminate  the  contest  by  single 
combat  I  The  king  chose  one  knight,  as  the  champion  of  the  Roman 
Office  ;  and  the  people  and  clergy  another,  as  the  defender  of  the  Toldan 
Missal;  the  combatants  met,  and  the  latter  proved  victorious.  But 
Alphonsus  refused  to  submit  to  the  decision,  and  another  mode  of  divin- 
ing the  intention  of  heaven  was  suggested.  Fasts,  and  public  processions 
were  appointed,  a  great  fire  was  kindled,  and  whilst  the  king  and  people 
repeated  their  prayers,  a  copy  of  each  of  the  missals  was  thrown  into  the 
flames,  the  Toletan  escaped,  and  the  Roman  was  burnt!  The  king  then 
yielded  permission  to  use  the  Toletan  Missal,  in  those  ancient  parishes 
of  the  kingdom  of  Toledo,  where  the  inhabitants  had  preserved  their 
attachment  to  Christianity,  under  the  government  of  the  infidels,  but 
forbade  it  in  all  others.  See  Flechierj  Histoire  du  Card.  Ximenes^  I. 
llv.  i.  pp.  182.  186. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  209 

political  conduct,  remarkable  for  the  boldness  and  origi- 
nality of  all  his  plans,  flowed  from  his  real  character, 
and  partook  both  of  its  virtues  and  its  defects.  His 
extensive  genius  suggested  to  him  schemes  vast  and 
magnificent.  Conscious  of  the  integrity  of  his  intentions, 
he  pursued  these  with  unremitting  and  undaunted  firm- 
ness. Accustomed  from  his  early  youth  to  mortify  his 
own  passions,  he  shewed  little  indulgence  toward  those 
of  other  men.  Taught  by  his  system  of  reiigion  to  check 
even  his  most  innocent  desires,  he  was  the  enemy  of 
every  thing  to  which  he  could  affix  the  name  of  elegance 
or  pleasure.  Though  free  from  any  suspicion  of  cruelty, 
he  discovered,  in  all  his  commerce  with  the  world,  a 
severe  inflexibility  of  mind,  and  austerity  of  character, 
peculiar  to  the  monastic  profession,  and  which  can  hardly 
be  conceived  in  a  country  where  that  is  unknown." ^^ 

His  political  engagements  did  not,  however,  divert  his 
mind  from  that  which  lay  near  his  heart,  the  prosperity 
of  the  university  of  Alcala.  He  invited  the  most  learned 
men  from  different  parts  of  Europe ;  appointed  them  as 
professors  of  diiferent  sciences ;  richly  endowed  the  whole 
establishment ;  made  ample  provision  for  its  future  pros- 
perity ;  provided  for  the  education  of  poor  scholars ; 
repaired  the  church  of  Alcala ;  and  founded  an  extensive 
hospital  and  infirmary;  in  a  word,  he  omitted  nothing  that 
might  conduce  to  the  welfare  of  the  students,  or  promote 
the  interests  of  religion  and  Sacred  literature. 

After  exercising  the  high  office  of  Regent,  with  a  vigour 
and  capacity,  seldom  or  never  equalled,  for  about  twenty 
months,  leaving  it  doubtful  whether  his  sagacity  in  coun- 
cil, his  prudence  in  conduct,  or  his  boldness  in  execution, 
deserve  the  highest  praise,  he  died  after  a  short  and  vio- 
lent illness  at  Bos  Equillos,  as  he  was  hastening  to  meet 
the  newly  proclaimed  king  Charles,  at  Valladolid.  His 
death  occurred  on  Sunday,  the  8th.  of  November,  1517, 

(22)  Rebertson's  Hist,  of  Charles  V.  vol.  II.  B.  i.  p.  30. 
Vol.  II.  O 


210  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

in  the  81st.  year  of  his  age;  but  whether  occasioned  by 
poison,  or  the  ingratitude  of  the  young  king,  is  dis- 
puted. His  dying  words  were,  "In  thee,  O  Lord,  have  I 
trusted,  let  ine  never  be  confounded.  "^^ 

After  this  outline  of  the  life  of  the  munificent  patron  of 
the  Polyglott  of  Coraplutum,  or  Alcala,  the  reader  may 
justly  expect  some  notice  of  the  learned  editors  of  thework. 

Demetrius  Ducas  was  by  birth  a  Greek,  a  native  of 
Crete,  and  a  teacher  in  the  university  of  Alcala.  He 
published  an  edition  of  the  "  Greek  Liturgies  of  Chry- 
sostom,  Basil  the  Great,  (^^c."  Rome,  1526.'* 

Anthony  of  A^ebnssa,  (^or  Lebrixa),  a  town  of  Spain, 
was  born  in  1444.  After  having  laid  the  foundation  of 
learning  by  the  knowledge  of  grammar  and  dialectics, 
he  studied  mathematics,  physics,  and  ethics,  at  Salamanca, 
where  he  continued  for  five  years;  from  whence  he  passed 
into  Italy,  and  acquired  the  knowledge  of  the  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Hebrew  languages.  In  1473,  he  returned 
into  Spain,  aud  was  patronized  by  Alphonsus  Fonseca, 
bishop  of  Seville,  under  whose  auspices  he  opened  a 
school  for  the  restoration  of  the  purity  of  the  Latin  tongue, 
which  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  had  been  obscured,  or 
corrupted,  by  the  conquests  of  the  Vandals  and  Moors. 
He  resided  in  the  family  of  his  patron  during  the  three 
years  that  he  governed  the  school.  On  the  death  of  the 
bishop,  he  removed  to  Salamanca,  and  obtained  a  double 
stipend  as  lecturer  on  both  grammar  and  poetry,  being 
the  first  to  introduce  the  rules  of  art  in  the  composition 
of  the  vernacular  poetry  of  Spain.  Whilst  he  was  thus 
studiously  endeavouring  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  lite- 
rary attainments  of  his  countrymen,  he  met  with  violent 
opposition  from  the  adherents  to  scholastic  subtilties,  and 
barbarous  modes  of  instruction;  he  therefore  quitted  Sala- 

(23;   J^lechier,  Uistoire  riu  Card.  Ximenes,  |3r/5*m. 

Barrett's  Life  of  Cardinal  X.\n\enes,  passim.  Lond.  1813,  8yo. 
(2^)   Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra.  Index.  I. 

Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionary,  IV^  p.  276» 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  211 

manca  in  1488,  irritated  by  disrespect,  and  wearied  with 
the  fatigues  of  a  laborious  profession;  and  accepted  a  pro- 
posal from  John  Stunica,  the  military  prefect  of  Alcantara, 
to  come  and  reside  in  his  family.  A  handsome  salary 
was  allowed  him,  and  during  the  period  of  his  residence 
with  the  prefect,  he  employed  his  leisure  in  composing  a  Spa- 
nish and  Latin  Dictionary,  and  various  grammatical  works. 
In  the  mean  time,  one  of  the  professors  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Salamanca  dying,  Anthony  was  chosen  to  succeed 
him,  almost  without  a  competitor.  In  this  situation  he 
remained  till  1504,  when  King  Ferdinand,  who  highly 
esteemed  him,  sent  for  him  to  court,  and  employed  liim 
as  the  historiographer  of  his  reign.  He  was  afterwards 
employed  by  Cardinal  Ximenes,  in  the  correction  and 
arrangement  of  his  Polyglott  Bible;  and  chosen  as  the 
first  professor  of  the  university  of  Alcala,  where  he  resided 
till  his  death,  which  happened  suddenly,  by  apoplexy, 
July  2nd.  1522,  in  the  78th.  year  of  his  age. 

Beside  the  Spanish  Dictionary,  printed  at  Alcala,  (or 
Complutum)  1532,  and  frequently  since;  and  the  3Ie- 
moirs  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  printed  at 
Granada,  1545;  he  was  the  author  of  several  theological, 
critical,  and  grammatical  works,  most  of  which  have 
been  printed.^^ 

James  Lopez  Stunica  was  a  learned  Spaniard,  emi- 
nently skilled  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  languages. 
On  the  publication  of  Erasmus's  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament,  accompanied  with  a  Latin  translation  and 
notes,  Stunica  wrote  violently  against  them,  and  stre- 
nuously defended  the  Vulgate,  even  its  corruptions  and 
barbarisms.  As  he  began  to  write  against  Erasmus 
whilst  Cardinal  Ximenes  was  living,  the  cardinal  wisely 
advised  him  to  send  his  remarks  first,  in  manuscript,  to 
Erasmus,   that   he    might   suppress    them   if    Erasmus 

(25)  Antonii  Biblioth.  Hispan.  h  pp.  104—109. 
Cavei  Hist,  Lit.  saec.  xy.  App.  pp.  174^  175. 


212  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

gave  him  satisfactory  answers.  But  Stunica  was  too 
vain  and  haughty  to  listen  to  the  conciliatory  counsel 
of  his  patron;  and  happening  one  day  to  find  some 
person  reading  the  New  Testament  of  Erasmus,  he 
Sciid  to  him  in  the  presence  of  the  cardinal,  that  he 
wondered  how  he  could  throw  away  his  time  upon  such 
trash,  and  that  the  book  was  full  of  monstrous  faults. 
The  cardinal  immediately  replied;  "  Would  to  God  that 
all  authors  wrote  such  trash!  Either  produce  some- 
thing better  of  your  own,  or  give  over  prating  against 
the  labours  of  others."  This  rough,  and  probably 
unexpected  answer,  made  Stunica  suppress  his  work  till 
after  the  death  of  the  cardinal ;  when  he  published  a  book 
against  the  Annotations  of  Erasmus;  who  replied  to  it. 
Afterwards  he  drew  up  another  work,  more  severe  and 
virulent  than  the  former,  which  he  called  The  Blasphemies 
and  Impieties  of  Erasmus.  Leo  X.  to  whom  Erasmus  had 
dedicated  his  New  Testament,  forbade  Stunica  to  publish 
any  thing  defamatory  and  scurrilous  against  his  antago- 
nist ;  and  after  the  death  of  Leo,  the  cardinals,  and  Adri- 
an VI.  laid  the  same  commands  upon  him.  Yet  the  book 
was  secretly  printed,  and  then  published.  This  also  was 
answered  by  Erasmus.  Some  time  after,  Stunica  attacked 
him  again;  and  Erasmus  replied  in  1529;  and  in  1530, 
Stunica  died. 

He  also  wrote  against  Jacques  le  Fevre,  usually  called 
FaberStapulensis,who  had  published  aLatin  version  of  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  accusing  him  of  mistranslations,  and 
defending  the  Vulgate  against  his  remarks  and  corrections. 

Beside  these  works,  he  published  an  Itinerariiim,  or 
account  of  his  journey  to  Rome  from  Alcala.  He  died 
at  Naples.'^ 

FERDINANDNoNNIUS,Or  NUNNES  DE  GUSMAN  PiNTIAN, 

a  learned  Spaniard,  noted  for  his  skill  in  the  Oriental  lan- 

(26)  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  pp.  246,  247. 

Lempriere's  UnLversal  Biography,  art.  ''  Stunica*'* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  213 

^uages,  was  professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  univer-^ 
sity  of  Alcala,  and  a  knight  of  the  military  order  of  St. 
James  of  Compostella.     He  died  in  1552.'' 

Of  Alphonsus,  a  physician  of  Alcala,  all  that  is  known 
is,  that  he  was  a  converted  Jev/,  possessing  an  accurate 
and  extensive  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  tongue.'^ 

Paul  CoROiNEL  was  a  converted  Jew  of  Segovia,  in 
Spain.  Before  he  embraced  Christianity,  he  had  taught 
Hebrew  amongst  those  of  his  own  nation,  and  was  learned 
not  only  in  the  Oriental,  but  also  in  the  Greek  and  Latin 
languages.  His  learning  and  abiUties,  united  to  his  know- 
ledge of  Christian  theology,  recommended  him  to  the 
notice  of  Cardinal  Ximenes,  who  employed  him  in  his 
celebrated  Biblical  work,  and  of  which  he  is  said  to  have 
written  the  Hebrew  Lexicon,  that  accompanies  it.  He  is 
also  reputed  to  have  written  Additions  to  Nic.  de  Lyra's 
book,  De  differ entiis  translationem ;  but  which  were  never 
printed.  Prior  to  his  residence  at  the  university  of 
Alcala,  he  had  filled  the  important  situation  of  professor 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  the  university  of  Salamanca, 
He  died  at  Segovia,  September  30th,  1534.^^ 

Alphonsus  Zamora  was  born  at  Zamora,  of  Jewish 
parents,  and  educated  in  the  knowledge  of  every  kind  of 
Hebrew  and  Rabbinical  learning.  Previous  to  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Jews  from  Spain,  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
in  1492,  he  governed  their  public  schools.  After  em- 
bracing the  Roman  Catholic  system  of  Christianity,  he 
was  selected  by  Cardinal  Ximenes  as  a  suitable  person  to 
be  employed  in  editing  his  celebrated  Bible,  who  for  this 
purpose  granted  him  a  handsome  stipend.  In  thi^  work 
he  was  employed  during  fifteen  years.     In  the  catalogue 

(27)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I,  p.  11 ;  et  Index  Judar,  p.  573. 

(28)  Le  Long,  ut  sup. 

(29;  Antonii  Biblioth.  Hispan.  IL  p.  127. 

Colomesii  Italia  et  Hispania  Orientalis,  p.  218.  Hamburg,  1730, 4to. 
Woim  Biblioth.  Heb.  L  et  III.  No.  1813.  JIamb.  et  Lips.  1715. 
1727,  4to. 


214  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

of  works  written  by  Alphonsus,  Nic.  Antonio  mentions' 
the  following: 

Vocahularium  Hehraicum  atque  Chaldaicum  veteris 
Testamenti;  to  which  are  annexed,  Interpretationes  He- 
hralcorum,  Chaldeorian,  Grecorumque  nominum  veteris  ac 
novi  Testamenti. 

Catalogus  eoriim,  qiice  in  utroque  Testamento  aliter 
scripta  sunt  vitio  scriptorum,  quam  in  Hebrceo  et  Grceco  in 
quihusdam  Bibliis  antiquis. 

Introductiones  Art  is  Grammaticce  Hehraicoe. 

These  form  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  Complutensian 
Polyg'lott;  and  were  the  second  volume  that  was  printed. 
But  Colomesius  (Ital.  et  Hispan.  Orient,  p.  218)  quotes 
a  work  of  Stunica's  against  Erasmus,  (in  cap.  vii.  Ep.  ad 
Hebraeos,)  in  which  he  attributes  the  Vocabulary,  or  Lex^ 
icon,  to  Paul  Coronel. 

Alphonsus  was  also  the  author  of  several  other  eru- 
dite grammatical  and  philological  works,  particularly,  a 
shorter,  easier,  and  more  lucid  Hebrew  Grammar,  than 
the  one  annexed  to  the  Polyglott,  begun  under  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  and  completed  under  Alphonsus  Fonseca,  suc- 
cessor to  the  cardinal  in  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Toledo. 
It  was  printed  at  Alcala,  by  Michael  de  Eguia,  1526,  4to. 
with  the  title,  Artis  Grammaticce  Hebraicce  Introductiones. 

He  translated  into  Latin,  the  Chaldee  Paraphi^ases 
of  Onhelos  on  the  Pentateuch;  Jonathan  on  Joshua, 
Judges,  Kings,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and' the  Twelve 
minor  Prophets;  and  R.Joseph,  the  Blind,  and  others, 
on  Job,  Proverbs,  Song  of  Solomon,  Ecclesiastes,  and 
Lamentations. 

Le  Long  also  mentions  him  as  the  author  of  a  Hebrew 
version  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  accompanied  with 
a  Latin  translation  ;  but  Marsh  remarks,  that  it  was  only 
an  epistle  written  by  himself  to  the  Jews,  in  Hebrew  and 
Latin,  to  confute  their  sentiments,  and  to  convince  them 
of  the  truth  of  Christianity;  which  agrees  with  the  list 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  215 

of  the  works  written  by  Alphonsus,  given  by  Nic.  Antonio 
ill  the  Blhliotheca  Hispana,  in  which  we  find  no  notice  of 
any  translation  of  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  but 
only  of  an  Hebrew  and  Latin  Epistle  to  the  Jews  residing 
at  Rome:  "  Epistola,  qaam  misit  ex  Regno  Hispanise  ad 
Hebreeos,  qui  sunt  in  Urbe  Romana  ad  reprehenduni  eos 
in  sua  pertinacia,  hebraice  olim  scripta^  hie  tamen  Hebra- 
icis  Latina  interpretatione  iuterlineaii  adjuncta."  He 
died  in  1530.'" 

Beside  the  editors  already  named,  Alv^arez  Gomez,  who 
wrote  the  life  of  Ximenes  in  1560,  says  that  John  de 
Vargara,  a  learned  Spaniard,  doctor  of  divinity  and  pro- 
fessor of  philosophy  in  the  university  of  Alcala,  was  engag- 
ed in  preparing  for  the  press,  the  books  termed  Libri  Sapi- 
entiales,  viz.  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Solomon, 
Wisdom,  and  Ecclesiasticus."     Vargara  died  in  1557.^^ 

Such  was  the  patron,  and  such  were  the  editors,  of  the 
femous  Complutensian  edition  of  the  Scriptures ;  a  work 
which,  if  defective,  from  the  imperfect  state  of  sacred 
criticism  at  that  period,  deserves,  nevertheless,  the  high- 
est praise,  as  a  noble  attempt  to  create  attention  to  the 
Original  Texts  of  the  Divine  Oracles;  and  may  justly  be 
regarded  as  the  parent  of  those  more  perfect  and  immense 
compilations,  which  have  been  made  since,  of  tlie  origi- 
nal texts  and  most  important  versions. 

Another  great  and  important  work,  sanctioned  and 
patronized  by  Pope  Leo  X.  was  the  Latin  translation  of 
the  Bible,  by  Sanctes  Pagninus.  This  was  the  Jirsf 
version  of  the  Scriptures  from  the  Original  Texts,  after 
the  revival  of  literature  in  the  West.  Pagninus,  in  the 
preface  to  his  Bible,  informs  us,  that  Leo  being  made  ac- 
quainted with  his  design  of  translating  the  Old  and  New 

(30)  Antonii  Bibli-oth.  Hisp.  l.  p.  45^  Rom,  1672,  fol. 

Le  Long,   Biblioth.   Sacra,  I.  pp.  83.  303,  304.  462.  465.  PariSj 
fol.  1723. 

Ibid,  edit  iVTasch,  pt.  ii.  toI.  I.  sec.  1.  p.  13. 
(21)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  L  pp.  11.  310.  et  Index,  Audor, 


216  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Testament  from  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  originals,  he 
sent  to  him,  and  requested  to  be  allowed  the  inspection 
of  his  work.  After  examining  several  sheets,  he  was  so  sa- 
tisfied with  it,  that  he  immediately  ordered  that  the  whole 
should  be  transcribed  at  his  own  expense,  and  gave  di- 
rections that  materials  should  be  provided  for  printing  it. 
A  part  of  it  was  accordingly  executed,  but  the  unexpected 
death  of  the  pontiff  retarded  its  completion.  After  the 
decease  of  Leo,  he  removed,  first  to  Avignon,  and  then 
to  Lyons,  where  the  work  was  first  printed,  in  1528,  in 
4to.by  Anthony  du  Ry,at  the  expense  of  his  kinsmen  Fran- 
ciscus  Turchus,  and  Dominicus  Bertus,  citizens  of  Lucca, 
and  Jacobus  de  Giuntis,  a  bookseller  of  Florence.  "This 
version  was  the  work  of  twenty-five  years,  and  has  been 
greatly  extolled  both  by  Jews  and  Christians,  particularly 
the  Old  Testament,  as  the  best  Latin  version  that  ever 
was  made  from  the  Hebrew,  that  of  Jerom  not  excepted;" 
yet  some  critics  have  considered  the  translation  to  be 
too  literal,  and  chiefly  useful  as  a  grammatical  glossary, 
and  illustrative  of  the  Hebrew  idiom.  In  the  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  he  was  les^  successful  than  in 
the  Old,  and  has  too  generally  adopted  the  Jewish  modes 
of  expression.  Though  finished  in  1518,  it  was  not  printed, 
as  we  have  seen,  till  1528,  when  it  was  published  with 
the  approbation  of  the  Pope ;  and  with  the  bulls  of  Adri- 
an VL  and  Clement  VH.  prefixed  to  it.  To  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  he  added  a  Table  of  the  Hebrew,  Syriac, 
and  Greek  names,  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  with  their 
derivations  and  meanings.  This  was  the  first  Latin 
Bible  in  which  the  verses  of  each  chapter  were  distin- 
guished and  numbered. ^^ 

Sanctes    Pagninus,    or    according    to    the  Italian, 

(32)  Hody,  DeBibl.  Text.  Orig.  lib.  iii.  pt.  ii.  pp.  473—480, 
Fabricy,  Titles  Primitifs,  Tf.  pp.  132—156. 
Geddes's  Prospectus,  pp..  74,  75. 

Whittaker's  Historical  and  Critical  Enquiry  into  the  Interpretation 
of  the  Heb.  Scriptures,  p.  19.    Camb.  1819,  8vo. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  217 

Sante  Pagnini^  was  born  at  Liicca^  in  1466,  and  after- 
wards became  an  ecclesiastic  of  the  order  of  St.  Dominic. 
He  was  accurately  skilled  in  the  Latin,  Greek,  Arabic, 
Hebrew,  and  Chaldee  tongues;  yet  was  supposed  to  excel 
particularly  in  the  Hebrew.  He  diligently  applied  him- 
self to  a  comparison  of  the  Vulgate  Bible,  with  the  origi- 
nal Texts,  and  believing  it  either  not  to  be  the  translation 
of  Jerom,  or  greatly  corrupted,  undertook  to  form  a  new 
version,  which  he  effected  with  great  credit,  producing  a 
translation,  which  has  been,  in  a  great  measure,  the  model 
of  all  succeeding  Latin  versions. 

Beside  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  Pagninus  was  the 
author  of  several  other  valuable  works;  the  following  are 
particularly  deserving  notice : 

"Thesaurus  Linguae  Sanctae,  seu  Lexicon  Hebraicum, 
printed  at  Lyons,  1529,  fol."  '' Instlhitiones  Lmgitce 
Hehraicoe ;  Lyons,  1526,  8vo."  "Isagoge  ad  mystkos 
S.  Scripturce  seiisus;  Lyons,  fol.  1536."  In  this  work  he 
explains  cabalistically,  the  principal  part  of  Job,  and 
Solomon's  Song,  and  the  whole  of  the  7th.  chapter  of  the 
1st.  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  ^'Catence  Jrgentec^r 
or  commentaries  compiled  from  the  Fathers  and  others, 
on  the  Pentateuch  and  Psalms. 

He  died  at  Lyons,  in  1541,  (or  according  to  Le  Long, 
in  1536,)  and  was  buried  there.  A  marble  monument  was 
raised  to  his  memory,  in  the  choir  of  the  church  of  the 
Dominicans  .^^ 

Sacked  Literature  revived  with  the  general  cultiva- 
tion of  science  and  letters;  the  Oriental  languages  were 
more  extensively  known  and  studied ;  and  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures began  to  be  regarded  as  the  purest  source  of  theo- 
logy and  ethics ;  and  though  profound  ignorance,  and 
depravity,  of  manners  still  reigned  generally  in  the  church, 
many  of  the  clergy   deemed  it  their  duty   to   acquaint 

(33)  Sixt.  Senens.  Eiblioth.  Sanct.  lib.  iv.  p.  375. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  U.  pp.  890.  1178,  1188.  Paris,  1723. 


218  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

themselves  with  the  original  languages ;  and  several  rose 
to  considerable  eminence  as  Biblical  critics  and  exposi- 
tors. The  pursuits  of  Oriental  and  Sacred  learning  extend- 
ed to  the  laity,  and  there  were  not  wanting  scholars 
among  them,  whose  extent  of  information,  and  critical 
rcsearcJi,  placed  them  in  the  foremost  rank  of  theologi- 
cal students  and  authors.  To  the  names  of  learned 
Italians  already  noticed^  we  may  add  those  of  Cardinal 
Cajetan;  Theseus  Ambrosius;  Felix  Pratensis;  and 
Aldus  Manutius. 

Cardinal  Cajetan,  whose  proper  name  was  Thomas 
DE  Vio,  was  born  in  1469,  at  Cajeta^  a  town  in  the  king- 
dom of  Naples,  from  which  he  assumed  the  surname  of 
Cajetan.  Entering  into  the  order  of  St.  Dominic,  he  rose 
successively  to  be  general  of  his  order,  archbishop  of  Pa- 
lermo, and  at  length  cardinal  and  legate.  He  was  em- 
ployed in  various  negociations  with  foreign  powers  ;  but 
is  chiefly  distinguished  by  his  opposition  to  Luther;  and 
by  his  translation  of  the  principal  part  oj  the  Bible.  Sent 
by  Leo  X.  to  suppress  the  rising  influence  of  Luther 
and  his  friends,  he  displayed  all  the  subtilty  and  imperi- 
ousness  of  the  Romish  legate;  so  that  even  Erasmus  des- 
cribed him  as  a  furious,  imperious,  and  insolent  ecclesi- 
astic. We  are,  therefore,  not  surprised  to  learn  that  his 
legatiue  authority  proved  utterly  inadequate  to  silence 
the  intrepid  reformer,  or  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  Re- 
formation. But  whilst  we  detest  his  unhallowed  conduct 
as  the  legate  of .  the  pope,  we  regard  him  with  respect, 
when,  as  the  minister  of  the  sanctuary,  we  find  him  stu- 
dying the  Sacred  Volume,  and  labouring  to  transfuse  the 
invaluable  truths  of  Scripture,  into  a  literal  translation 
of  the  Word  of  God.  Of  this  version  of  the  Scriptures 
into  Latin,  Dr.  Geddes  gives  the  following  account: 
"The  famous  Cardinal  de  Vio  Cajetan,  who,  amidst  a 
multiplicity  of  state  affairs,  found  means  to  devote  a  part 
of  every  day  to  serious  study,  left  behind  him,  among  other 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  219 

laborious  productions,  a  translation  of  a  great  part  of 
the  Bible.  As  he  was  totally  ignorant  of  the  Hebrew, 
he  employed  two  learned  persons,  a  Jew  and  a  Christian, 
as  his  interpreters;  and  having  a  sound  judgment,  and 
discerning  taste,  he  succeeded  much  better  than  could 
be  expected.  But  his  version  was  formed  on  this  erro- 
neous principle,  that  a  ti-ansiation  of  the  Scripture  can- 
not be  too  literal;  should  it  even  for  that  reason  be 
unintelligible.  This  prepossession  made  him  judge  un- 
favourably of  the  Vnlgate,  which  he  often  censures  with- 
out reason;  for  which  cause  some  zealots  have  unjustly 
taxed  him  with  heresy.  His  translation  has  much  the 
same  faults  with  that  of  Pagninus ;  and  may  be  of  much 
the  same  use  to  the  Hebrew  student.  It  was  printed 
with  his  Commentary^  at  Lyons,  in  the  year  1639."  The 
books  of  Scripture  contained  in  this  translation,  were 
those  of  the  Pentateuch,  Joshua^  Judges,  Kings,  Chronicles, 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,Joh,  the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  the  three 
first  chapters  of  Isaiah.  These,  with  his  commentary, 
form  five  volumes  in  folio.  The  Psalms  were  printed  sepa- 
rately, at  Venice,  1530,  fol.  accompanied  with  the  Vulgate 
version.  At  the  commencement  he  explains  his  mode 
of  translation. 

A  list  of  the  rest  of  his  works  may  be  found  in  Freher  s 
TheatrumVirorumEruditione  Clarorum,  pars  I.  pp.  27,  28, 
Noriberg.  1688,  fol.     He  died  August  10th.  1534.'* 

Theseus  Ambrosius,  or  according  to  his  Italian  name, 
Teseo  Ambrogio,  one  of  the  first  oriental  scholars  of 
his  day,  and  regular  canon  of  the  Lateran,  was  of  the 
noble  family  of  the  Conti  d'  Albonese,  and  born  at  Pavia, 
in  1469.  He  visited  Rome  in  the  year  1512,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  fifth  session  of  the  Lateran  council,  which  com- 
menced under  Julius  II.  and  was  continued  under  Leo  X. 

(34)  Freheri  Theatrum,  pt.  i.  pp.  27,  28. 
Geddes's  Prospectus,  p.  78. 
Jortia's  Life  of  Erasmus,  f.  p.  "IQO. 
Le  Long,  edit,  Masch,  pt,  ii.  yoL  III.  cap,  iii,  sec.  1.  pp.  490.  528. 


220  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

till  1517.  In  the  eighth  session  of  this  council,  a  decree 
was  passed  against  those  who  denied  the  immortality  of 
the  soul;  and  the  fourth  canon  ordained,  that  "all  those 
who  were  in  holy  orders,  after  the  time  employed  in 
grammar  and  logic,  should  spend  five  years  more  in 
studying  philosophy,  without  applying  themselves  to 
divinity,  or  canon  law."  In  the  tenth  session  it  was 
decreed,  that  "for  the  future,  no  books  should  be  printed 
at  Rome,  nor  in  any  other  city  or  diocese,  under  pain  of 
excommunication,  without  being  first  examined;  at  Rome, 
by  the  vicar  of  his  holiness,  and  the  master  of  the  sacred 
palace ;  and  in  the  other  cities,  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese, 
or  some  doctor  of  divinity  nominated  by  the  bishop;  and 
being  signed  by  them  as  approved." 

The  great  number  of  ecclesiastics  from  Syria,  Ethiopia, 
and  other  parts  of  the  East,  who  attended  the  council, 
afforded  Ambrogio  an  opportunity  of  prosecuting  his  stu- 
dies with  peculiar  advantage;  and  at  the  request  of  the 
cardinal,  Santa  Croce,  he  was  employed  as  the  person 
best  qualified  to  translate  from  the  Chaldee,  or  Syriac, 
into  Latin,  the  liturgy  of  the  Eastern  clergy,  previously  to 
the  use  of  it  being  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  pope. 
After  having  been  employed  by  Leo  X.  for  two  years,  in 
teaching  Latin  to  the  sub-deacon  Elias,  a  legate  from 
Syria,  whom  the  pope  wished  to  retain  in  his  court;  and 
from  whom  Ambrogio  received,  in  return,  instructions  in 
the  Syriac  tongue,  he  was  appointed  by  the  pontiff  to  the 
chair  of  a  professor,  in  the  university  of  Bologna,  where 
he  delivered  instructions  in  the  Syriac  and  Chaldee  lan- 
guages, for  the  first  time  that  they  had  been  publicly 
taught  in  Italy.  He  is  said  to  have  understood  at  least 
ten  different  languages,  many  of  which  he  spoke  with 
the  ease  and  fluency  of  a  native. 

In  the  commotions  which  devastated  Italy,  after  the 
death  of  Leo  X.  he  was  despoiled  of  the  numerous  and 
valuable  Eastern  MSS.  which  he  had  collected  at  great 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  221 

expense,  and  by  the  industry  of  many  years,  and  also  of 
the  types  and  apparatus  which  he  had  prepared  for  an 
edition  of  the  Psalter  in  the  Chaldee,  which  he  intended 
to  have  accompanied  with  a  dissertation  on  that  lan- 
guage. This,  however,  did  not  dispirit  him  so  as  to 
cause  him  to  lay  aside  his  studies,  for  in  the  year  1539, 
he  published  at  Pavia,  an  "Introduction  to  the  Chaldee, 
Syriac,  Armenian,  and  ten  other  tongues;  with  the 
alphabetical  characters  of  forty  different  languages ;" 
which  is  considered  by  the  Italians  themselves,  as  the 
earliest  attempt  made  in  Italy,  towards  a  systematic 
acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the  East.  This  work 
was  printed  with  the  types,  and  at  the  expense  of  Ambro- 
gio,  as  appears  from  the  title  of  the  work:  Introductio 
in  Chaldaicam  Unguam,  Syriacam,  atque  Armenicam,  et 
decern  alias  linguas.  Characterum  differentium  Alpha- 
beta  circlter  quadraginta,  S^c^  1539,  4to.  ^'Excudehat 
Papice,  Joan.  Maria  Simonetta  Cremon,  in  Canonica 
Sancti  Petri  in  Ccelo  aureo,  sumptihus  et  typis  author  is 
Uhrir'' 

Felix  Pratensis,  a  native  of  Prata,  in  Tuscany,  was 
of  Jewish  extraction.  After  his  conversion  to  Christia- 
nity, he  entered  the  order  of  Hermits  of  St.  Augustin. 
For  many  years  he  was  successfully  employed  in  instruct- 
ing, and  preaching  to  the  Jews,  which  occasioned  him  to 
be  denominated  the  scourge  of  the  Hebrews.  In  1515, 
he  translated  and  edited  an  edition  of  the  Psalter,  from 
the  Hebrew,  published  by  the  celebrated  Dutch  printer, 
Daniel  Bomberg,  printed  at  Venice,  in  4 to.  and  dedicat- 
ed to  Pope  Leo  X.  From  the  preface  to  this  Psalter  we 
learn,  that  this  work  formed  but  a  small  portion  of  the 
design  expressed  to  Leo,  by  Felix,  who  meditated  a 
translation  of  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament.     But  the 

(35)  Roscoe's  Life  of  Leo  the  Tenth,  Jl.  ch.  xi.  pp.  396.  399. 
Dicdonnaire  Portatif  des  Conclles,  pp.  275.  284, 
Colomesii  Italia  et  Hispania  OrientaliS;  pp.  37,  38. 


222 

design  does  not  appear  to  have  received  the  approbation 
of  Leo,  for  whose  inspection,  and  with  whose  consent, 
this  portion  was  printed;  it  was,  therefore,  most  probably 
dropped,  though  Wolfius  says,  he  translated  Job,  and 
some  other  books  of  the  Bible.  Tlie  version  of  the 
Psalms  he  completed  in  only  fifteen  days. 

He  was  also  employed  by  Daniel  Bomberg,  in  editing 
the  Rahhlnical  Bible,  printed  at  Venice  in  1518,  fol.  This 
Bible  contained  not  only  the  Hebrew  Teat,  but  also  the 
Commentaries  of  several  of  the  most  eminent  Jewish 
rabbis,  the  Chaldee  Paraphrases,  the  Masora,  Tables  of 
the  Sections  of  the  Law,  &c.  and  tracts  on  the  Various 
Readings,  &c.  This  Bible  was  dedicated  to  Leo  X.  A 
more  complete  edition  of  the  Rabbinical  Commentaries 
was  afterwards  given  to  the  public,  by  the  same  printer, 
but  by  another  editor,  R.  Jacob  ben  Chaim. 

Felix  died  at  Rome,  November  5th,  1539,  at  nearly  a 
hundred  years  old,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  St. 
Augustin.^^ 

The  Aldi  were  a  family  of  eminent  printers,  who  flou- 
rished in  Italy,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth,  and  during  the 
greatest  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Aldus  Pius  Manu- 
Tius,  frequently  called  the  elder  Aldus,  (to  distinguish  him 
from  his  grandson  of  the  same  name,  who  was  also  a  cele- 
brated printer,)  and  the  first  of  these  illustrious  printers, 
was  born  about  the  year  1447,  at  Bassiano,  a  small  town  in 
the  duchy  of  Sermonetta,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Pomptine 
Marshes.  His  youth  appears  to  have  been  spent  at 
Rome,  where  he  studied  under  the  most  eminent  profes- 
sors; and  acquired  that  extensive  information,  which 
rendered  him  afterwards  so  admired  as  a  Greek  critic 
and  grammarian.  About  the  year  1488,  he  settled  at 
Venice,  with  the   view  of  establishing  a  printing  office. 

(36)  Colomesii  ItaL  et  Hist.  Orientalis,  p.  19. 
Wolfii  Liblioth.  PJeb.  I.  et  111.  No.  1835. 
Hody,  De  Bibl.  I  ext    Orig.  p.  461. 
Le  Long,  edit.  Maschj  pt.  i.  ch.  i.  sect.  ii.  pp,  96 — 99, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  223 

He  it  was,  who,  observing  the  many  inconveniences  arising 
from  the  vast  number  of  abbreviations,  which  were  at  that 
time  in  use  among  the  generahty  of  printers^  first  con- 
trived an  expedient  whereby  these  abbreviations  were 
entirely  removed,  and  yet  books  thereby  but  little  in- 
creased in  bulk.  This  he  performed  by  introducing  what 
is  now  called  the  Italic  letter,  though  formerly  the  Aldiney 
from  tie  name  of  its  inventor;  and  sometimes  Cursive, 
from  its  form.  The  senate  of  Venice,  and  the  Popes 
Alexander  VI.  Julius  il.  and  Leo  X.  granted  him  the 
exclusive  use  of  his  newly  invented  character  for  fifteen 
years;  but  the  Lyonnese  printers  disgraced  themselves 
by  their  endeavours  to  counterfeit  his  invention,  and  by  the 
publication  of  pirated  editions  of  the  classics  edited  by 
him.  "  He  combined  the  lights  of  the  scholar  with  the 
industry  of  the  mechanic,"  so  that  while  he  gave  the  most 
sedulous  attention  to  his  printing  office,  he  carried  on  a 
very  extensive  correspondence  with  the  literati  of  Europe, 
explained  the  classics  to  a  numerous  auditory  of  students, 
and  also  found  time  to  compose  various  works,  which  are 
characterised  by  profound  learning  and  critical  skill. 
Conscious  that  his  single  labours  were  inadequate  to  the 
diffusion  of  literature,  he  assembled  round  him  a  circle 
of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  age,  some  of  whom  lived 
in  his  house,  and  were  entirely  supported  by  him. 
Among  other  works  which  he  projected  for  the  benefit 
of  literature,  was  that  of  a  Polyglott  Bible  in  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin ;  of  which,  however,  he  executed  only 
one  specimen  page  in  folio,  which  is  now  preserved  in  the 
Royal  Library  at  Paris.  The  first  printed  edition  of  any 
part  of  the  Greek  Testament,  was  executed  by  him  at 
Venice,  in  1504.  It  contained  the  first  six  chapters  of 
St.  John's  Gospel;  and  was  appended  to  an  edition  of 
the  "  Poems  of  Gregoiy  Nazianzen."  He  also  procured 
MSS,  and  made  preparations  for  an  edition  of  the  Old 
AND  New  Testament  in  Greek,  but  was  prevented  from 


224  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

completing  his  design  by  his  death,  which  happened  in 
1515,  or  1516.  It  was  afterwards  printed  in  1518,  in 
fol.  min.  by  his  father-in-law  and  partner,  Andrea  Tur- 
resano  d'  Asola.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  third  son, 
Paulus  Martutius,  born  in  1512;  whose  younger  son  Aldus, 
born  in  1547,  carried  -on  the  business  till  his  own  death, 
in  1597;  when  the  family  of  these  learned  printers  termi- 
nated, after  having  been,  for  more  than  a  century,  the 
glory  of  literature  and  typography.  To  the  elder  Aldus 
alone,  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  edit'wnes  prmcipes,  or 
^rsf  printed  editions,  of  twenty-eight  Greek  classics; 
beside  which,  there  are  few  ancient  authors  of  note,  of** 
whom  he  did  not  publish  editions  of  acknowledged  accu- 
racy, and  (as  far  as  the  means  of  the  art,  then  in  its 
infancy,  permitted)  of  great  beauty ;  yet  his  modesty  was 
such  as  led  him  to  say,  that,  far  from  regarding  the  flat- 
teries of  such  as  praised  his  works,  he  could  not  himself 
affirm,  that  he  had  published  so  much  as  one  book,  with 
which  he  saAv  cause  to  be  satisfied.  To  his  zeal  and  taste 
in  publishing  the  works  of  the  best  Greek  authors,  must 
chiefly  be  attributed  the  preference  which  has  long  been 
shewn  to  the  study  of  Greek  literature.^^ 

Of  the  success  of  Biblical  Literature  in  Spain,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  century,  some  notice  has  been  already 
taken,  in  the  account  of  the  Polyglott  Bible  of  Cardinal 
Ximenes.  To  what  has  been  there  stated,  it  may  be  added, 
that  in  1512,  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  for  the  whole 
year,  as  read  in  the  churches,  were  published  in  Spanish, 
by  Ambrose  de  Monte  sin,  a  Spanish  Franciscan  friar, 
bishop  of  Sardinia.  They  were  reprinted  at  Antwerp, 
1544,  in  8vo.^« 

(37)  Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionary,  I.  p   48. 

Home's   Introduction    to  Bibliography,   I.  p.  242—244.  249.  and 

II,  App.  No.  Tii.  p.  Ix. — Ixxx, 
Le  Lonof,  edit.  Masch,  IL  pt.  ii.  sec.  i.  p,  265;    and  App,  Supp; 
and   Emend,  p.  8. 

(38)  Le  Long,  I,  p.  363;  et  Index,  Jucfor.  571.  Paris,  1723. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  ''I\Liy 

In  the  same  year  (1512,)  the  archbishop  of  Seville, 
D.  Didaco  Deza,  held  a  provincial  council,  or  synod,  in 
which  it  was  ordained,  that  "the  parish  priests  should 
instruct  their  parishioners  in  the  mysteries  of  the  holy 
Catholic  faith ;  and  should  place  in  each  of  their  churches, 
tables  containing  the  Articles  of  the  Christian  belief,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments."  It  was  also  further  enjoined, 
that  "they  should  persuade  the  people  to  practise  the  seven 
works  of  mercy;  explain  the  dominical  lessons;  admonish 
their  parishioners  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  ge- 
neral confession,  and  the  ecclesiastical  prayers,  as  the 
Pater-Noster,  Credo,  and  Salve  Regina;  and  enforce  the 
repetition  of  those  prayers  in  the  church.  And  all  eccle- 
siastical and  secular  persons  were  forbidden  to  instruct 
their  scholars  in  other  things,  or  to  teach  them  to  write, 
under  pain  of  excommunication,  unless  they  first  knew 
the  prayers  and  contents  of  the  tables."^® 

The  Constitutions  of  Cardinal  Mendoza  also  decreed, 
that  the  care  of  transcribing  missals  should  be  commit- 
ted to  the  sacrist,  and  that  five  missals  should  be  written 
every  year  for  the  respective  chapels,  on  account  of  the 
great  deficiency  which  then  existed  of  those  liturgical 
works,  and  for  which  an  annual  stipend  should  be  allowed 
to  the  sacrist  under  whose  directions  and  at  whose  cost, 
the  missals  should  be  copied.*® 

Archbishop  Deza,  who  summoned  the  synod,  was  a 
Spaniard  by  birth,  and  a  friar  of  the  order  of  St.  Domi- 
nic. He  was  the  author  of  a  "Defence  of  St.  Thomas 
(Aquinas)  against  the  replications  of  Matthias  Dorinck ;" 
and  of  a  "Monotessaron,"  or  Harmony  of  the  Evangelists. 
He  died  in  1525." 

In  1513,  the  book  of  Job,  with  the  Morals  of  Gregory 

(39)  Collectio  Maxima  Cone,  Hisp,  IV.  p.  3. 

(40)  Ibid.  IV.  p.  31. 

(41)  LeLong,  II.  p.  699, 

Vol.  II.  P 


226  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

the  Great,  were  translated  out  of  the  Latin  into  Spanish^ 
by  Alphonsus  Alvarez,  of  Toledo.*^ 

The  dreadful  persecutions  which  had  been  raised 
against  the  Jews,,  and  the  edicts  in  1492  and  1496, 
by  which  600,000  persons  were  expelled  from  Spain  and 
Portugal,  drove  many  of  the  refugees  to  Constantinople, 
where  they  established  a  printing  office,  from  which  several 
Hebrew  works  of  importance  afterwards  issiied.  In  1505, 
the  Pentateuch  was  printed  in  Hebrew  and  Chaldee, 
accompanied  with  Rabbinical  Commentaries ;  and  again 
in  1506,  in  fol.  or  4to.  The  Jews  also  established  a  press 
at  Thessalonica,  at  which  the  book  of  Job  in  Hebrew, 
with  a  Striae  commentary  written  in  1506,  was  printed 
in  1517;  as  the  Pentateuch  and  Targum  with  Rabbi- 
jiical  commentaries  had  been  the  preceding  year.  Other 
portions  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  were  likewise  in  differ- 
ent years  printed  at  each  of  these  places.*^ 

Pteturning  to  examine  the  state  of  Sacred  literature  in 
France  at  this  period,  the  Biblical  labours  of  Jacobus 
Faber  Stapidensis  are  particularly  deserving  of  notice. 
This  learned  man  published  in  1509,  in  fol.  a  Quintuple 
Latin  Psalter, containing,  beside  the  four  versions,  called 
the  Italic,  Roman,  GalUcan,  and  Hebraic,^  a  fifth,  or 
amended  edition  of  the  Gallican.  This  edition  of  the 
Psalter  appears  to  have  been  a  wojk  of  considerable  at- 
tention and  labour,  since  we  find  that  for  the  old,  or  Italic 
version,  he  made  use  of  a  most  valuable  MS.  copy  written 
with  gold  and  silver  letters  upon  purple  parchment,  in 
uncial  characters,  in  folio;  supposed  to  have  been  part  of 
the  spoils  of  the  city  of  Toledo,  obtained  by  Childebert  I. 
king  of  the  Franks,  about  A.  D.  542,  and  afterwards  to 

(42)  Le  Long,  1.  Index.  Audor.  p.  542. 

(43)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  edit.  Masch.  pt.  i.  cap.  u  sec.  2.  p.  123.* 

Append.  Supp.  pp.  8    10,  11. 
De   Rossi,  De   Ignotis — Editionibus;  cap.  x.  xi.  xiii.  &c.   A  pp. 
Erlang.    1782. 

*  See  Yol,  I.  p.  367;  of  this  work. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  227 

have  been  made  use  of  by  St.  German  us,  bishop  of  Paris, 
who  died  in  576.**     Faber  accompanied  the  Psalter  with 
short  notes,  which,  from    the  sentiments  expressed  in 
them,  subjected  him  to  the  suspicion  of  being  tainted 
with  heretical  pravity ;  and  occasioned  the  Psalter,  which 
was  more  than  once  reprmted,  to  be  placed  in  the  Index 
Expurgatorius,  or  list  of  prohibited  books.*^     He  is  also 
supposed  to  have  been  the  author  of  a  French  version  of 
the  Psalms,  printed  in  1525,  in  8vo.  at  Paris,  by  Simon 
de   Colines;  *   to   which  were  subjoined  the  contents  or 
Arguments,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  introduced   his 
peculiar  views  of  religion,   similar  to  those  of  the  Refor- 
mation; and  is  farther  mentioned  as  the  French  translator 
of  the  Song   of   Solomon,  though   with  less   certainty. 
He  likewise  published  Commentaries  on  the  Four  Gospels, 
and  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.     To  the  latter  was  prefixed 
an  Apology,  intended  to  prove  that  the  Latin  translation, 
every  where  read,  was  not  that  of  Jerom.     His  Commen- 
tary  on  the  Four  Gospels,  was  printed  at  Meaux,  in  1522,  in 
fol.     His  method  is  to  exhibit,  first  the  Latin  Text  of  this 
edition,  and  then  to  explain  it,   correcting  at  the   same 
time  those  passages  which  he  believes  to  be  incorrectly 
translated.     As  he  principally  takes  the  Greek   for  his 
guide,  he  has  added  asterisks  and  obelisks  to  mark  what 
is  redundant,  or  what  is  wanting,  in  the  Latin,  after  the 
example  of  Origen  in  the  Greek.     His    Commentary  on 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  was  written  in  the  abbey  of  St. 
Germain  des   Prez,   and   printed  in  folio,     1512.     The 
Vulgate  being  authorized  throughout  all  the  Western 
churches,  he  printed  it  with  this  commentary,  but  annex- 

(44)  Le  Long,  I.  p.  243.   Paris,  1723,  fol, 

(45)  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,   pt.  ii.  vol.  IIL  cap.  i.  sec.  9.  p.  13. 

*  The  following  prices  affixed  to  works  priuted  by  this  printer,  may 
shew  the  value  of  books  at  the  time  : 

''  Vetus  Testamentum,  minora  forma,  1525,  12mo.— 24  sous. 
Novum  Testamenturo^  min.  form.  1525,  l2mo. — 6  sous. 

[Dibdio's  Bibliog.  Decameron,  IL  p.  7^^, 


228  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

ed  a  new  translation  from  the  Greek.  A  Commentary 
on  the  General  Epistles  was  published  by  him  in  1527, 
printed  at  Basil,  in  fol.;  and  Frisius  has  noticed  a  Com- 
mentary by  him,  on  Ecclesiastes.^^ 

But  undoubtedly  his  greatest  and  most  important 
work  was  the  translation  into  French  of  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament,  printed  at  Paris  in  1523,  in  8vo.. 
by  Simon  de  Colines;  the  Gospels  in  June;  the  Epistles 
OF  Paul,  the  Catholic,  or  General  Epistles,  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  October;  and  the  Revelation, 
in  November.  The  work  was  published  without  the 
translator's  name;  but  with  a  prefatory  epistle,  defending 
the  translation.  Another  edition  was  printed  in  two 
volumes,  8vo.  by  Simon  de  Colines,  in  1524; — a  third 
was  published  the  same  year,  but  without  the  name  of 
the  printer,  or  the  place  where  it  had  been  printed;  a 
fourth  in  1529,  &c." 

The  publication  of  the  Psalter,  and  especially  of  the 
New  Testament,  caused  a  violent  persecution  to  be  raised 
against  Faber,  by  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  so  that 
after  having  been  expelled  from  the  faculty  of  theology  at 
Paris,  he  was  obliged  to  fly  from  France ;  and  for  some 
time  resided  at  Strasburg,  under  a  feigned  name.  F.  Si- 
mon says,  that  he  was  encouraged  in  the  publication  of 
his  work,  by  certain  powerful  friends  at  the  court  of 
Francis  I. 

The  Prefatory  Epistle  was  prefixed  to  the  second  vo- 
lume, or  part  of  the  New  Testament,  under  the  title  of 
Epistre  exhortatoire  a  tons  les  Chrestiens  et  Chrestiennes, 
In  this  epistle  he  praises  Jean  de  Rely,,  dean  of  St.  Mar- 
tin of  Tours,  and  bishop  of  Angers,  for  his  revision  of 
Guiars  des  Moulins'  translation  of  Comestor  s  Historia 

(46)  Le  Long,  I.  cap.  iv.  pp.  333.  335;  et  II.  p.  719.    Paris,  fol. 
Simon's  Critical  History  of  the  Versions  of  the  f»j.  T.  pt,  ii,  ch.  xxi, 

p.  178. 

(47)  Le  Long,  L  pp.  335,  336. 
Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p.  90. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  229 

Scholastica,  in  1487;  but  complains  that  the  French  Bibles 
which  had  preceded  his  version  of  the  New  Testament, 
were  full  of  faults,  and  corrupted  by  additions  and  re- 
trenchments. The  follomng  is  a  specimen  of  his  reason- 
ing in  defence  of  his  translation : 

"  Who  is  there,  therefore,  but  will  esteem  it  proper, 
and  conducive  to  salvation,  to  have  the  New  Testament 
in  the  vulgar  tongue?  What  is  more  necessary  to  life, 
whether  temporal  or  spiritual  ?  If  in  the  different  reli- 
gious orders,  they  ordain,  that  if  any  one  be  ignorant  of 
Latin,  he  shall  have  the  Rules  of  his  order  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  carry  it  about  him,  and  commit  it  to  memory; 
and  in  their  respective  Chapters  frequently  explain  their 
Rules  to  them;  with  how  much  more  reason  ought  the 
unlearned  among  Christians  to  possess  the  Word  of  God, 
the  Scripture  full  of  grace  and  mercy,  which  is  their 
rule,  and  which  alone  is  necessary,  for  only  one  thing  is 
needful.  This  Holy  Scripture  is  the  Testament  (last 
Will)  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Testament  of  our  Father  con- 
firmed by  his  death,  and  by  the  blood  of  our  Redeemer ; 
and  who  is  he  that  shall  forbid  the  children  to  have,  and 
see,  and  read  their  father  s  will?  It  is,  then,  highly  expe- 
dient to  possess  it,  and  read  it,  and  hear  it,  not  only  once 
but  often,  in  the  chapters  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  are  the 
churches,  where  all  the  people,  unlearned  and  learned, 
ought  to  assemble,  to  hear  and  honour  the  Word  of  God. 
And  such  is  the  intention  of  our  gracious  king,  who  in 
heart  as  well  as  name,  is  Most  Christian,  in  whose  hand 
God  has  placed  so  noble  and  excellent  a  kingdom,  to  the 
glory  of  the  Father  of  mercy,  and  of  Jesus  Christ  his 
Son ;— ^a  design  which  ought  to  inspire  all  in  the  kingdom 
with  courage  to  advance  in  true  Christianity,  by  follow- 
ing, understanding,  and  beHeving,  the  quickening  Word 
of  God.  And  blessed  be  the  hour  when  it  shall  be  accom- 
pHshed;  and  blessed  be  all  those,  both  male  and  female, 
who  shall  procure  it  to  be  carried  into  effect,  not  only  in 


230  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

this  kingdom,  but  through  all  the  world."*^ 

The  great  objection  against  Faber  s  translation  was, 
that  it  promoted  the  Reformation  in  France,  which  had 
been  begun  by  Luther  in  Germany;  and  which  was  cha- 
racterized by  the  partizans  of  popery,  with  the  epithet  of 
Novelties.      "These   Novelties,'''    says  F.   Simon,  "were 
agreeable  to  the  taste  of  some  lords  and  ladies  of  the 
court.     J.  LE  Fevre,   (Faber,)  who  edified  the  world  by 
his  exemplary  life,   gave  great  influence  to  these  Novel- 
ties.    His  erudition  was  very  great  for  the  time  in  which 
he  lived;  and  his  amiable  manners  gained  him  the  esteem 
and  love  of  every  one.     Almost  the  only  enemies  he  had, 
were  his  own  confraternity,  the  doctors  of  Paris.     The 
famous  Noel  Beda,  the  sworn  enemy  of  the  Belles  Lettres, 
openly  declared  himself  against  him  and  Erasmus;  and 
the  faculty  of  theology  at  Paris  was  at  that  time  so  op- 
posed to  vernacular  translations  of  the  Bible,  that  in  the 
same  year,  (1523,)  they  censured  this  proposition,   '  Om- 
nes   Christiani,    et   maxime   clerici   sunt   inducendi  ad 
studium  Scripturse  sanctce,  quia  alise  doctrinae  sunt  hu- 
manse,  et  parum  fructuosse:'    ^  All  Christians,  but  espe- 
cially the  clergy,  ought  to  be  persuaded  to  study  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  because  other  learning  is  human,  and 
productive  of  but  little  good.'      This  permission,  said  this 
faculty,  would  renew  the  errors  of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons, 
(Waldenses,)  which  had  been  already  condemned.     The 
following  are  the  express  terms  of  the  censure,  taken 
from   the  registers  of  the  Sorbonne:    "Haec  propositio 
secundum  primam  partem,  laicos  quoscumque  ad  studium 
sacrae  Scripturfe  et  difficultatum  ejusdem  esse  inducendos 
sicut  et  clericos,  ex  errore  pauperum  Lugdunensium  de- 
ducetur."     This  decree  was  afterwards  authorized  by  an 
edict  of  parliament  in  1525,  confirming  a  censure   of 
tliese  theologians,   against  a  French  version  of  the  Office 
of  the  Holij  Firgin.    In  this  edict,  it  is  expressly  afliirmed, 
(48)  SimoD;,  Lettres  Choisies^  IV*  Lettre  xv.  p.  95. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTUHY.  231 

that  it  is  neither  expedient  nor  useful  for  the  Christian 
public,  that  any  translations  of  the  Bible  should  be  permit- 
ted to  he  printed;  but  that  they  ought  rather  to  be  suppress- 
ed as  injurious,  considering  the  times.  The  terms  in 
which  the  faculty  of  theology  expressed  the  censure  were 
these:  "  Post maturam  omnium  magistrorum  deliberati- 
onem,  fuit  unanimi  consensu  dictum  et  conclusum,  quod 
in  sequendo  conclusiones  dudum  per  ipsam  factas,  neque 
expediens  est  neque  utile  reipublicse  Christiance,  imo  visa 
hujus  temporis  conditione  potius  perniciosum,  non  solum 
translationem  Horarum,  sed  etiam  alias  translationes 
Biblicee,  aut  partium  ejus,  prout  jam  passim  fieri  viden- 
tur,  admitti,  et  quod  illee  quae  jam  emiss(s  sunt  supprimi 
magis  deberent."  These  doctors  designed  this  censure  to 
be  retrospective,  and  to  extend  to  those  versions  of  the 
Scriptures  which  had  been  previously  published ;  and  as 
no  French  version  had  yet  been  published  by  the  French 
Calvinists,  these  different  edicts,  when  speaking  of  the 
unhappiness  of  the  times,  can  only  refer  to  what  was 
regarded  as  the  heresy  of  Luther.  On  this  very  account, 
the  parliament  of  Paris,  in  a  decree  against  the  doctrine 
of  Luther,  made  in  1525,  subjoins  these  words:  "The  said 
court  has  ordained,  and  does  ordain,  that  it  shall  be 
enjoined  by  the  king  s  authority,  that  all  persons  who 
have  in  their  possession  the  books  of  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
the  Psalms,  the  Revelation,  the  Gospels,  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul,  and  other  books  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
contained  in  the  Holy  Bible,  which  have  been  lately 
translated  out  of  Latin  into  French,  and  printed;  and 
also  a  printed  book,  containing  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
for  Sundays,  and  other  solemnities  for  the  whole  year, 
with  certain  Exhortations  in  French;  shall  bring  them 
and  deliver  them  up  within  eight  days  from  the  publica- 
tion of  this  decree."  This  last  work  was  supposed  to  be 
the  production  of  Faber  and  his  disciples;  and  the  Exhor- 
tations were  every  where  filled  with  declamations  against 


232 

any  thing  being  preached  to  the  people  but  the  Gospel. 
The  work  was  designed  for  the  use  of  the  churches  at 
Meaux.*^ 

The  exile  of  Faber,  which  had  been  occasioned  by  ^he 
persecution  of  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  did  not  con- 
tinue long;  for  although  Francis  I.  was  captive  in  Spain, 
he  was  informed^  by  his  sister  Margaret^  of  the  treatment 
which  Faber  had  received,  and  wrote  in  his  favour  to  the 
parliament  of  Paris,  by  which  means  he  was  enabled 
shortly  after  to  return  again  to  France.^^ 

This  great  man,  who  is  usually  called  Jacobus  Faber 
Stapulensis,  latinizing  his  name  and  the  place  of  his 
birth,  Jacques  le  Fevre  of  Estaples,  was  born  about 
A  D.  1435.  He  travelled  into  foreign  countries  in  quest  of 
knowledge,  and  is  said  to  have  '^seen  not  only  Europe, 
but  also  Asia,  and  a  part  of  Africa."  Being  chosen  pro- 
fessor of  the  belles  lettresand  philosophy,  in  the  university 
of  Paris,  he  endeavoured,  with  some  success,  to  introduce 
into  the  schools,  something  more  solid  than  the  trifling 
studies  of  the  scholastic  doctors,  especially  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  learned  languages.  In  1517,  he  had  a 
dispute  with  Erasmus,  respecting  the  quotation  from  the 
second  Psalm,  in  Hebrews.  iL  7,  which  Erasmus  had 
translated  Thou  hast  made  him  for  a  little  time  lower 
than  the  angels;  but  which  Le  Fevre  contended  ought  to  be 
translated,  according  to  the  Hebrew,  Thou  hast  made 
him  a  little  lower  than  God.  As  they  were  friends,  the 
debate  was  carried  on  with  some  civility,  and  soon  drop- 
ped; leaving  their  fi^iendship  undiminished.  In  1523, 
he  left  Paris  and  went  to  Meaux,  where  William  Brigonet, 
the  bishop,  a  patron  of  learning  and  of  learned  men,  chose 
him  for  his  grand  vicar.  This  prelate  being  suspected  of 
favouring  Lutberanism,  and  persecuted  on  that  account, 
Le  Fevre  was  obliged  to  quit  his  service,  for  fear  of  being 

(49)  Simon,  Lettres  Choisios,  IV.Let.  xv.  pp.  95 — 107.    " 

(50)  Sleidaii's  il^^U  of  the  Reformation,  B.  y.  p.  98.  Lond,  1689,  foU 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  233 

involved  in  the  same  calamity.  After  having  spent  some 
time  in  Germany,  he  returned  to  Paris,  and  became  pre- 
ceptor to  Charles,  duke  of  Orleans,  the  third  son  of 
Francis  I.  Margaret,  queen  of  Navarre,  sister  to  Fran- 
cis I.  honoured  him  with  her  protection,  and  invited  him 
to  Nerac  in  1530,  where  he  died  in  1537. 

Like  Erasmus  and  some  others,  he  continued  in  com- 
munion with  the  Church  of  Rome,  whilst  he  seriously 
disapproved  of  her  doctrines  and  practices.  He  is  even 
said  to  have  taken  a  journey  to  Strasburg  by  the  queen 
of  Navarre's  order,  to  confer  ^dth  Bucer  and  Capito,  con- 
cerning the  doctrines  of  the  reformers.  Some  remarka- 
ble circumstances  relative  to  his  death,  which  have  been 
told  by  Catholic  historians  and  others,  ought  not  to  be 
omitted.  On  the  day  of  his  death,  being  apparently  as 
well  as  usual,  while  dining  with  the  queen  and  some 
learned  men  whom  this  princess  frequently  invited  to  spend 
the  day  with  her,  Le  Fevre  appeared  pensive  and  melan- 
choly, and  was  observed  to  shed  tears.  The  queen  de- 
sired to  know  what  was  the  cause  of  his  sadness;  he 
answered,  "I  am  distressed  because  of  the  enormity  of 
my  crimes.  I  am  now  a  hundred  and  one  years  of  age; 
and  though  I  have  lived  a  chaste  life,  and  have  been  pre- 
served from  those  excesses  into  which  many  are  hurried 
by  the  violence  of  their  passions,  yet  I  have  been  guilty 
of  this  heinous  offence — I  have  known  the  Truth,  and 
have  taught  it  to  many  who  have  sealed  it  with  their 
blood,  and  yet  I  have  had  the  weakness  to  hide  myself 
in  those  places  where  the  crowns  of  martyrs  are  never 
distributed."  Having  said  this, he  dictated  his  will  viva  vo- 
ce,  went  and  lay  down  on  his  bed,  and  died  in  a  few  hours  !^^ 

The  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Fremh, 
by  Le  Fevre  (Faber,)  was  made  from  the  Latin,  and  was 
the  first  Catholic  French  translation,  in  which  the  Sacred 

(51)  Clarke's  Bibliog.  Diet.  III.  pp.  226—228. 

Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I,  pp.  90.  391 ;  aad  IT.  p.  240. 


234 

Text  was  purely  given,  former  ones  being  generally  made, 
not  from  the  Text,  even  of  the  Vulgate,  but  from  Comes- 
tor  s  legendary  Historia  Scholastica.  Le  Fevre's  trans- 
'  lation  was  several  times  reprinted,  and  from  the  opposition 
of  the  Catholic  doctors,  was  sometimes  printed  without 
either  the  authors  or  printer's  name.  Le  Long  sup- 
poses that  the  anonymous  translations  placed  in  the 
Index  L'ihrorum  prohibiforum  of  1551,  were  Le  Fevre's. 
The  titles  are  thus  given  under  the  head  of  French  books, 
ab  mcertis  auctorihus  :• 

"Les  saintes  Evangiles  de  Jesus  Christ; — et  au  com- 
mencement une  Epistre  exhortatoire  qui  sent  la  doctrine 
de  Luther. 

''  Les  saintes  Evangiles  de  Jesus  Christ ; — au  com- 
mencement il  y  a  une  Epistre  Lutherienne." 

Both  his  French  Psalter  and  New  Testament  were 
prohibited  so  early  as  1528,  by  the  provincial  synod  of 
Beziers,  in  France,  in  the  following  terms: 

'^  Moreover,  this  Synod  decrees,  that  no  books  of  the 
Lutheran  heresy,  or  sectaries,  nor  any  of  the  books  of 
Scripture  which  have  been  translated  out  of  Latin  into 
the  vernacular  tongue,  either  of  late,  or  eight  (or  rather 
five)  years  ago,  shall  be  sold  or  bought,  except  they  have 
been  examined  by  the  ordinary  of  the  place,  under  pain 
of  being  panished  as  offenders."^^  Such  were  the  efforts 
of  the  Galilean  clergy  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  the 
Word  of  God,  in  the  language  of  their  countrymen;  and 
such  las  been  the  general  policy  of  the  Romish  hierarchy, 
and  such  is  still  its  practice, 

While  truths  on  which  eternal  things  depend. 
Find  not,  or  hardly  find,  a  single  friend. 

At  this  dark  and  melancholy  period,  England  presents 
a  )icture  equally  dreary  with  that  of  France.  In  a  Ca- 
tdogue  of  the  books  belonging  to  Leicester  abbey,  in  1492, 
aid  which  included  what  was,  for  that  day,  an  extensive 

{^)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  L  cap.  iv.  p.  335.  Paris,  1723. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  235 

library;  the  following  are  the  only  copies  of  the  Scripture 
which  are  noticed : 

"BiBLiE,  defect'     et  usit'. 

Each  book  of  the  Old  Testament  glossed. 

Evangelia  glossata. 

Historiae  de  Biblia   in   Gallico. 

5  Psalteria  abbreviata. 

Psalterium." 
On  this  scanty  list,  the  learned  and  indefatigable  histo- 
rian of  Leicester  excellently  remarks,  that  "  from  this 
catalogue  it  seems  rather  doubtful,  whether  in  the  library 
of  this  religious  house,  there  might  be  any  one  complete 
collection  of  all  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Supposing  Blhlie, 
in  the  first  article,  to  have  included  both  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testaments,  it  was  a  tome  defective  and  worn. 
The  second  consisted  of  each  book  of  the  Old  Testament 
only;  and  the  third  of  the  Gospels,  without  any  mention 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  of  the  Epistles,  or  of  the 
Apocalypse.  There  is,  however,  a  separate  mention  of 
"Actus  Aplor'  gloss',  Apocalyps'  gloss',  Eple  Pauli^  gloss', 
Eple  Canonice,"  and  among  the  last  occurs  the  "Canticus 
Canticorum."  Perhaps  there  might  b,e  some  of  those 
Augustin  monks,  to  whom  the  Divine  Oracles  in  the 
learned  languages  would  have  been  of  little  use;  and  yet 
to  these  was  not  indulged  a  translation,  there  being  in 
the  consistorial  acts  at  Rochester,  the  minutes  of  a  rigid 
process  against  the  Precentor  of  the  priory  of  that  cathe- 
dral, for  retaining  an  English  Testament,-  in  disobedience 
to  the  general  injunction  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  to  deliver 
up  these  prohibited  books  to  the  bishops  of  the  respective 
dioceses." 

"  A.  1528,  Jan.  15.  In  palatio  Roffens',  coram  ipso 
reverendo  patre,  comparuit  personaliter  Dr.  Will.  Mafel- 
cle,  monachus  et  precentor  in  eccles'  Castr'  Roffens'  nota- 

*  *'  No  other  of  the  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament  occur,  save 
those  of  St.  Paul." 


236  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

tus,  quod,  post  publicationem  factam  in  civitate  predicta 
quod  unusquisque  sancta  Dei  Evangelia  in  idioma  nos- 
trum translata  apud  se  servand'  eidem  reverendo  patri 
inferrent,  et  traderent,  sub  pcenis  in  literls  reverendi 
patris  cardinalis  contentis,  idem  Wilius  hujusmodi  libros 
post  tempus  per  eunde  rev'  patre  limitat'  apud  se  serva- 
vit  et  retinuit,  &c."" 

In  the  dioceses  of  London  and  Lincoln  many  persons 
suffered  on  account  of  tbeir  attachment  to  the  Scriptures, 
and  to  the  cause  of  truth.  At  Amersham,  in  Buckingham- 
shire, in  the  year  1606,  thirty  persons  were  burnt  in  tbe 
right  cheek,  and  made  to  bear  faggots  by  way  of  penance. 
"  The  cause  was,  that  they  would  talk  against  supersti- 
tion, and  idolatry;  and  were  desirous  to  hear  and  read 
the  Holy  Scriptures.""    The  register  of  the  London  dio- 
cese, during  the  episcopate  of  Richard  Fitzjames,  fur^ 
nishes  many  other  instances  of  persecution   against  those 
who  were  called  Lollards,  or  followers  of  Wiclif.    In  1511, 
Thomas  Austy,    Joan  Austy  his  wife,  Thomas  Grant, 
John   Carter,   Christopher   Ravius,    Dionysia  his   sister, 
and  Thomas  Vincent,  Lewis  John,  Joan  John  his  wife,  and 
John  Web,  were  brought  before  the  bishop,  and  accused 
of  having  "read  and  used  certain  English  books,  repug- 
ning the  faith  of  the  Romish  church ;  as  the  Four  Evan- 
gelists; Wiclifs  Wichet;   a  book  of  the   Ten  Command- 
ments of  Almighty  God;  the  Revelation  of  St.  John;  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  and  James,  with  other  like."     The  per- 
sons thus  accused  were  imprisoned,  and  through  fear 
were  led  to  abjure  what  were  deemed  their  errors.     In 
the  same  year,  and  by  the  same  bishop,  William  Sweeting, 
and  James  Brewster,  were  burnt  in  Smithfield,  in  one 
fire,  as  relapsed  heretics,  having  been  formerly  accused, 
and  abjured;  the  first  charge'm  the  examination  of  Willianj 

(53)  Nichols's  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  the  County  of  Leicester,  I,  Append* 

No  xvii.  pp.  101  —  108. .  Lond.  1795,  fol. 

(54)  Fox's  Actesand  MonumenteSj  I.  p.  918. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  237 

Sweeting  was,  that  he  had  had  "much  conference  with  one 
WiUiaoi  Man,  of  Boxted,  in  a  book  which  was  called 
Matthew ;"  and  James  Brewster  was  charged  with  "hav- 
ing a  certain  little  book  of  Scripture,  in  English^  of  an 
old  writing  almost  worne  for  age,  whose  name  is  not 
there  expressed;"  and  also  with  having  "been  five  times 
with  William  Sweeting,  in  the  fields,  keeping  beasts, 
hearing  him  read  many  good  things  out  of  a  certain 
book.  At  which  reading  were  also  present,  at  one  time, 
Woodroofe,  or  Woodbinde,  a  net-maker,  with  his  wife: 
also,  a  brother-in-law  of  William  Sweeting:  and  another- 
time,  Thomas  Goodred,  who  heard,  likewise,  the  said 
William  Sweeting  read."  As  James  Brewster  "could  nei- 
ther read  nor  write,"  his  possessing  a  book  of  Scripture, 
that  others  might  read  to  him  out  of  it,  was  no  small 
proof  of  his  love  to  the  Word  of  God,  when  it  was  prohi- 
bited under  pain  of  such  dreadful  punishment." 

A  still  more  atrocious  act  of  villainous  cruelty  was 
exercised  against  Richard  Hume,  a  merchant-tailor,  of 
London,  in  1514.  Being  brought  before  Bishop  Fitz- 
james,  he  was  examined  on  the  charge  of  heresy,  when 
among  other  articles  of  accusation,  it  was  urged  against 
him,  that  he  had  "in  his  keeping,  divers  English  books, 
prohibited,  and  damned,  by  the  law;  as  the  Apocalypse, 
in  English;  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  English;  Wiclif's 
damnable  TVorhs ;  and  other  books  containing  infinite 
errors,  in  the  which  he  hath  been  long  accustomed  to 
read,  teach,  and  study  daily."  After  his  examination  he 
was  remanded  to  the  prison  called  the  Lollard's  tower; 
where,  two  days  afterwards,  he  was  found  hanging, 
having  been  murdered  by  the  chancellor,  the  sompner,  or 
summoner,  and  the  bell-ringer,  as  was  fully  proved  before 
the  coroner.  But,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  discovery 
of  the  murder,  and  to  blacken  the  character  of  the  de- 
ceased, certain  articles  were  selected  from  the  Prologue 
(55)  Fox,  11.  pp,  10.  30,  Lond.  1641,  fol,  '.  * 


238 

to  his  Bible,  and  ordered  by  the  bishop  to  be  read  at 
Paul's  cross ;  the  last  of  which  was,  that  in  the  Prologue, 
'^  he  defendeth  the  Translation  of  the  Bible  and  Holy 
Scripture  into  the  English  tongue,  which  is  prohibited  by 
the  Jaws  of  our  most  holy  church."  After  which  a  pro- 
cess was  instituted  against  him,  though  already  dead,  in 
the  bishop's  court :  and  a  definitive  sentence  of  heresy 
given  sixteen  days  after  his  death,  by  which  his  body  was 
ordered  to  be  burnt,  which  was  accordingly  done,  in 
Smithfield,  on  the  20th.  day  of  December,  that  same  year.^® 
Persecution  continuing  to  rage  against  those  who  read 
the  Scriptures  in  English,  and  opposed  the  superstitions 
of  the  church  of  Rome,  several  were  burned  at  the  stake  ; 
others  confined  to  monasteries,  and  condemned  to  live 
upon  bread  and  water ;  and  many  sentenced  to  bear  a 
faggot  at  the  market  cross,  to  be  burned  in  the  cheek,  to 
repeat  every  Sunday  and  Friday  what  was  called  "Our 
Lady's  Psalter,"  and  "  every  one  of  them  to  fast,  bread 
and  ale  only  every  Friday,  during  their  life ;  and  every 
Even  of  Corpus  Ckristi,  every  one  of  them  to  fast, 
bread  and  water  during  their  life,  unless  sickness 
unfeigned  let  the  same."  The  honest  martyrologist. 
Fox,  who  was  indefatigable  in  his  endeavours  to  obtain 
authentic  information  relative  to  these  sufferers  for  the 
sake  of  the  Gospel,  has  given  a  long  list  of  the  names  of 
persons  accused  before  John  Longland,  bishop  of  Lincoln, 
in  1521,  with  the  charges  brought  against  them,  extract- 
ed from  the  bishop's  register.  An  enumeration  of  a  few 
of  the  charges,  will  exhibit  their  nature. 


Parties  accused. 

"Agnes  Well,  detect- 
ed by  her  brother." 


Crimes  objected  against  them. 

'.'For  learning  the  Epistle  of 
St.  James,  in  English,  of  Thurstan 
Littlepage." 


"J.  Jennings,   ser-       "These  were  detected  for  carry- 

(56)  Fox,  11.  pp.  13—25, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY- 


239 


Parties  accused.   > 

vant  to  James  Morden; 
George,  servant  of  T. 
Tochel;  Thomas  Grey, 
servant  of  Roger  Ben- 
net." 

"Agnes  Ashford,  of 
Chesham,  detected  by 
James  Morden." 


Henry  Milner.' 


Crimes  objected  agdinst  them. 
ing  about  certain  books,  in  Ei 
lish." 


this  Agnes 


"The  cause  laid  to 
was,  for  teaching  this  James  the 
words    following:    'We  be     the 
salt  of  the  earth;  if  it  be  putrified 
and  vanished  away  it  is  nothing 
worth.     A  city  set  upon  an  hill 
may  not  be  hid.     Ye  teend  not  a 
candle  and  put  it  under  a  bushell, 
but  set  it  on  a  candlestick,  that  it 
may  give  a  light  to  all  in  the 
house.  So  shine  your  light  before 
men,  as  they  may  see  your  works, 
and  glorify  the  Father  which  is 
in  heaven.     No  tittle   nor  letter 
of  the  law  shall  pass  over  till  all 
things  be  done.'     And  five  times 
he  went  to  the  foresaid  Agnes,  to 
learn  this  lesson:  It  on.  that  the-^ 
said  Agnes  did  teach  him  to  say 
this  lesson:  'Jesus  seeing  his  peo- 
ple, as  he  went  up  to  a  hill,  was 
set,  and    his    disciples   came  to 
him;   he  opened  his  mouth,  and. 
taught  them,  saying:    Blessed  be 
the  poor  men  in  spirit,  for  the 
kingdom    of   heaven    is    theirs. 
Blessed  be    mild  men,  for  they 
shall   weld   the    earth.' =^       And 
twice  he  came  to  her  to   learn 
this  lesson." 

"Counted  for  a  great  heretic, 
and  learned  in  the  Scripture." 

*  These  quotations  are  evidently  made  from  PVidif^s  Trattsiation, 
notwithstanding  some  trifling  variations,  bee  Baber's  edition  of  Wiclif'8 
New  Testament^  ch,  v. 


240  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Parties  accused. 

"The  Wife  of  Ben- 
net  Ward  and  her 
daughter." 


John  Phip." 


*^John  Phip." 


"John  Butler," 
peached  by  his 
brother) 


(im- 
ovvn 


"John  Barret,  gold- 
smith of  London,  Joan 
Barret  his  wife,  Joan 
his  servant." 


"Durdant,by  Stanes; 
Old  Durdant;  Isabel, 
wife  of  T.  Harding; 
Harrop,  of  Windsor; 
Joan  Barret,  wife  of 
John  Barret,  of  Lon- 
don; Henry  Miller,  S  til- 
man.  Tailor." 

"  John  Littlepage, 
Alice,  wife  of  Thurstan 
Littlepage." 


Crimes  objected  against  them. 

"For  saying  that  Thos.  Pope  was 
the  devoutest  man  that  ever  came 
in  their  house,  for  he  would  sit 
reading  in  his  book,  to  midnight, 
many  times." 

"He  was  very  ripe  in  the  Scrip- 
ture." 

"  He  was  a  reader,  or  rehearser, 
to  the  other." 

"For  reading  to  him,"  (his  bro- 
ther,) "in  a  certain  book  of  the 
Scripture,  and  persuading  him  to 
hearken  to  the  same." 

"Because  he  was  heard  in  his 
own  house,  before  his  wife,  and 
maid,  there  present,  to  recite  the 
Epistle  of  St.  James :  which  Epis- 
tle, with  many  other  things,  he 
had  perfectly  without  book." 

"Also  because  Joan,  his  wife, 
had  lent  to  John  Scrivener,  the 
Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  and  Mark: 
which  book  he,  (Scrivener,)  gave 
to  Bishop  Smith." 

"All  these  were  accused,  be- 
cause at  the  marriage  of  Durdant's 
daughter,  they  assembled  to- 
gether in  a  barn,  and  heard  a 
certain  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  read  : 
which  reading  they  well  liked, 
but  especially  Durdant,  and  com- 
mended the  same." 

"Because  he  was  said  to  have 
learned  the   Ten   Commandments 
in  English,  of  Alice,  Thurstan  s 
I  wife,  in  his  father's  house." 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


241 


Parties  accused, 

*^^Robert  Collins,  and 
his  wife;  John  Collins, 
and  his  wife." 

"The  Father  of  Ro- 
bert Collins." 


"Alice  Coll 
of  Richai'd  Collins 


ns,  wife 


^^John  Heron." 


Crimes  objected  against  them^ 

"For  buying  a  Bible,  of  Sta- 
cey,  for  Twenty  Shillings^ ^ 

"  This  father  Collins  had  been 
of  this  doctrine,  from  the  year  of 
our  Lord  1480." 

"  This  Alice,  likesvise,  was  a 
famous  woman  among*  them,  and 
had  a  good  memory,  and  could 
recite  much  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
other  good  books :  and  therefore 
when  any  conventicle  of  these 
men  did  meet  at  Burford,  com- 
monly she  was  sent  for,  to  recite 
unto  them  the  declaration  of  the 
Ten  Commandments^  and  the 
Epistles  of  Peter  and  James.''' 

(Also,)  "For  teaching  Joan 
Steventon,  in  Lent^  the  Ten  Com-- 
mandmentsT 

"  Item,  for  teaching  her  the 
first  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel." 


"  For  having  a  book  of  the  Ex- 
position of  the  Gospels  J  fair  writr- 
ten  in  English,"  ^^ 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  instances  adduced  by 
Fox,  from  the  register  of  Bishop  Longland,  of  persons 
accused  and  suffering,  either  in  one  way  or  other,  for  pos- 
sessing, or  reading,  or  hearing  the  Book  of  God  ;  and  for 
whose  accusation  husbands  had  been  suborned  against 

*  We  may  form  some  judgment  of  the  price  of  this  Bible,  by  observ- 
ing, that  in  1514,  the  daily  wages  of  a  master  carpenter,  mason,  brick- 
layer, tyler,  or  plumber,  were  6d.  per  day,  without  diet,  from  Easter  to 
Michaelmas;  other  labourers  4d.  per  day.  In  1513,  oats  were  2s.  4d. 
per  quarter.  In  1 533,  beef  was  ^d.  per  lb.  mutton  |d.  per  lb.  fat  oxen 
were  sold  for  26s,  8d.  each  :  a  fat  lamb  for  Is.  (Chronic.  Precios.  pp.  116, 
117.  162.  164. 
{bl)  Fox,  II.  pp.  33—51; 


242  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

their  wives,  wives  against  their  husbands ;  children 
against  their  parents,  and  parents  against  their  children  ; 
brothers  against  sisters,  and  sisters  against  brothers.  "But 
the  fervent  zeal  of  those  Christian  days,"  remarks  the 
honest  writer,  "  seemed  much  superior  to  these  our  days 
and  times,  as  manifestly  may  appear  by  their  sitting  up 
all  night,  in  reading  and  hearing  ;  also  by  their  expenses 
and  charges  in  buying  of  books  in  English,  of  whom, 
some  gave  Five  Marks,  some  more,  some  less,  for  a  book; 
and  some  gave  a  Load  of  Hay,  for  a  few  chapters  of  St. 
James,  or  of  St.  Paul,  in  English." 

Beside  these  worthies,  who  embraced  the  sentiments  of 
Wiclif,  there  were  many  learned  men  who  continued  in 
strict  communion  with  the  church  of  Rome,  who,  by 
their  strenuous  exertions  in  the  cause  of  literature,  and 
their  preference  of  the  Inspired  Writings  to  the  works  of 
the  scholastic  writers,  laid  a  foundation  for  the  subsequent 
diffusion  of  Sacred  truth,  among  the  higher,  and  more 
erudite  classes  of  society.  Three  of  these,  William  Gro- 
CYN,  William  Latimer,  and  especially  John  Colet, 
deserve  particular  notice. 

William  Grocyn  was  born  at  Bristol,  in  the  year 
1442.  He  was  educated  in  grammar  learning  at  Win- 
chester; and  made  perpetual  fellow  of  New  College,  in 
1467.  In  1479,  he  was  presented  by  the  warden  and  fel- 
lows of  that  college,  to  the  rectory  of  Newton-Longville, 
in  Buckinghamshire.  But  as  he  still  resided  chiefly  at 
Oxford,  the  society  of  Magdalen  College  made  him  their 
divinity-reader.  In  1485,  he  was  made  a  prebendary  of 
Lincoln  ;  and  in  1488,  quitted  his  reader  s  place,  at  Mag- 
dalen College,  in  order  to  travel  into  foreign  countries. 
He  was  stimulated  to  this  by  the  low  state  of  learning  in 
this  kingdom,  and  by  an  ardent  desire  of  higher  at- 
tainments. In  pursuance  of  this  design  he  visited  Italy, 
where  he  perfected  himself  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan- 
guages, under    Demetrius    Chalcondyles,    a    native   of 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  243 

Athens,  and  Angelo  Politian,  professor  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  tongues,  at  Florence. 

Grocyn  having  completed  his  studies  abroad,  "returned 
to  England,  and  fixed  himself  at  Exeter  college,  Oxford, 
in  1491,  where  he  took  the  degree  of  bachelor  in  divinity. 
He  was  professor,  or  public  teacher  of  Greek,  at  Oxford, 
about  the  time  when  Erasmus  was  there.  Soon  after,  he 
removed  to  London,  and  then  to  the  college  of  Maid- 
stone, in  Kent,  where  he  was  master.  Erasmus  owns 
great  obligations  to  this  man,  who,  by  his  generosity  to 
his  friends,  reduced  himself  to  straits,  and  was  forced  to 
pawn  his  plate  to  Dr.  Young,  master  of  the  rolls,  but  the 
doctor  returned  it  to  him  again,  by  his  will,  without 
taking  either  principal  or  intei'est.  Erasmus  represents 
him  as  one  of  the  best  divines  and  scholars  of  the  Eng- 
lish nation;  and  in  several  of  his  epistles  speaks  of  him 
in  a  manner,  that  proves  he  cherished  the  most  sincere 
regard  for  him,  and  entertained  the  highest  opinion  of 
his  abilities,  learning,  and  integrity. 

An  instance  has  been  given,  in  a  preceding  chapter,  of 
his  candour  and  ingenuousness,  in  avowing  the  spurious- 
ness  of  the  Hierarchia  Eccleslastica,  attributed  to  Dio- 
nysius,  the  Areopagite.  Afterwards,  when  Dean  Colet 
had  introduced  the  custom  of  reading  lectures,  at  his 
cathedral,  upon  some  part  or  other  of  the  Scriptures,  he 
engaged  Grocyn,  as  one  of  the  most  learned  and  able 
men  he  could  meet  with,  to  carry  his  design  into  effect. 

He  died  at  Maidstone,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1522,  aged  eighty,  of  a  stroke  of  the  palsy.  He  was  bu- 
ried in  the  /ihoir  of  the  church,  at  Maidstone.  Dr.  Lina- 
cre  was  the  executor  of  his  will,  and  residuary  legatee; 
and  his  godson,  WilHam  Lily,  the  grammarian,  had 
bequeathed  by  it,  a  legacy  oi  five  shillings  !^^ 

William  J^atimer  became   fellow  of  All  Soul's  Col- 

(58)   British  Biography,  I.  pp.  326—329. 
-     Jortin's  Life  of  Eragmus,  I.  p,  6,  &c; 


244  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

lege,  at  Oxford,  in  the  year  1489.  Afterwards  he  tra- 
velled into  Italy,  and  settled  for  a  time  at  Padua,  where 
he  greatly  improved  himself,  particularly  in  the  Greek 
tongue.  Returning  to  England,  he  was  incorporated 
master  of  arts,  at  Oxford,  in  1513;  and  soon  after  had 
for  his  pupil,  Reginald  Pole,  who  hecame  cardinal,  and 
archbishop;  and  by  whose  interest,  he  is  said  to  have 
obtained  the  rectories  of  Saintbury  and  Weston-under- 
edge,  in  Gloucestershire,  and  a  prebendary  of  Salisbury. 

When  Erasmus  was  at  Oxford,  Latimer  was  serviceable 
to  him  in  the  study  of  the  Greek  tongue;  and  when  he 
was  preparing  the  second  edition  of  his  Greek  Testament 
for  the  press,  he  begged  his  assistance,  knowing  him  to 
be  accurate  in  the  language. 

'We  have  nothing  extant  of  this  learned  man,  he  being, 
as  we  have  his  character  by  Erasmus,  a  man  of  more  than 
virgin  modesty,  under  which  was  veiled  the  greatest 
worth.  He  died  very  aged,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel 
of  the  church  of  Saintbury.  He  was  considered  as  one  of 
the  greatest  men  of  that  age ;  a  master  of  all  sacred  and 
profane  learning.  Leland  celebrates  also  his  eloquence^ 
judgment,  piety,  and  generosity .^^ 

John  Colet,  the  great  and  excellent  dean  of  St  Paul's, 
and  whose  history  is  intimately  connected  with  that  of 
Sacred  literature,  was  born  in  London,  in  the  year  1466. 
He  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Henry  Colet,  knt.  who  was 
twice  lord  mayor.  His  mother  was  a  woman  of  great 
worth,  and  exemplary  piety.  "  I  knew  in  England"  says 
Erasmus,  "  the  mother  of  John  Colet,  a  matron  of 
singular  piety.  She  had  by  the  same  husband  eleven 
sons  and  eleven  daughters;  all  of  whom  were  torn  away 
from  her  by  death,  except  her  eldest  son ;  and  she  lost 
her  husband  far  advanced  in  years.    She  herself,  though 

arrived  at  her  ninetieth  year,  looked  so  smooth,  and  was  so 

■ — — — , _ — ___ _ — . — , , —  - — —      > — ^ 

(59)  British  Biography,  I.  pp,  328,  329. 
Jortin's  Life  of  JErasmuSj  L  pp.  6.  9. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  245 

cheerful^  that  you  would  have  thought  she  had  never  shed 
a  tear,  nor  brought  a  child  into  the  world;  and  if  I 
mistake  not,  she  survived  her  son,  Dean  Colet.  Now 
that  which  supplied  a  woman  with  such  a  degree  of  for- 
titude, was  not  learning,  but  'pleti/  towards  God.""  To 
her  instructions  and  example,  her  son,  probably,  was 
indebted  for  those  religious  impressions,  which  gave  an 
early  bias  to  his  mind,  in  favour  of  a  devout  and  holy 
life.      . 

In  1483,  our  student  was  sent  to  the  university  of 
Oxford,  where  he  spent  seven  years  in  the  study  of  logic 
and  philosophy,  and  then  took  his  degrees  in  arts.  He 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  writings  of  Cicero;  and 
read  with  great  diligence  the  Latin  translations  of  the 
works  of  Plato  and  Plotinus,  the  Greek  not  being  at  that 
time  taught  in  any  of  our  grammar  schools;  he  also 
made  considerable  progress  in  the  mathematics. 

Having  resolved  to  enter  the  church,  he  was  presented, 
when  but  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  only  in  the  order  of 
an  acolythe,  with  the  rectory  of  Denington,  in  Suffolk,  by 
Sir  William  Knevit,  knt.  and  his  lady.  He  was  also  in- 
stituted to  the  rectory  of  Thyrning,  in  Huntingdonshire, 
on  the  presentation  of  his  father,  in  1490 ;  which  he  re- 
signed before  the  end  of  the  year  1493. 

In  order  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language, 
and  to  improve  and  extend  his  acquaintance  with  the 
languages  and  sciences  which  he  had  already  studied,  as 
well  as  to  enlarge  the  circle  of  his  literary  friends,  he 
visited  France  and  Italy.  At  Paris  he  associated  with 
the  celebrated  Budseus,  and  with  Deloine,  and  Robert 
Gaguinus,  the  historian.  In  Italy  he  contracted  an  inti- 
macy  with  several  learned  foreigners,  and  several  of  his 
own  countrymen,  particularly  Grocyn,  Linacre,  William 
Latimer,  and  William  Lily.  He  was,  also,  during  the 
time  of  his  travels,  presented  to  the  prebend  of  Botevant, 
in  the  cathedral  church  of  York ;  to  this  were  added^  a 


246  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

canonry,  in  the  church  of  Saint  Martin's  Le  Grand,  Lon- 
don, and  the  prebend  of  Good  Easter,  in  the  same  church. 
He  appears  to  have  returned  from  his  travels  in  1497; 
and  on  the  17th  of  December  the  same  year,  was  ordain- 
ed deacon,  and  priest  a  short  time  afterwards.  He  did 
not  long  continue  with  his  friends  in  London,  before  he 
withdrew  to  Oxford,  in  order  to  prosecute  his  studies 
with  greater  success.  In  this  situation,  however,  he 
was  neither  inactive  nor  useless.  He  gratuitously  read 
public  lectures  in  the  university,  by  way  of  Exposition  on 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul:  and  although  he  had  not  taken 
any  degree  in  divinity,  yet  there  was  not,  we  are  told,  a 
doctor  in  divinity  or  law,  nor  abbot,  nor  any  other  digni- 
tary in  the  church,  but  came  gladly  to  hear  him,  and 
brought  their  books  along  with  them.  Others  followed 
the  example,  and  Dr.  Knight  assures  us,  that  about  this 
time  it  became  "almost  a  custom,  for  men  of  distinguish- 
ed parts  and  learning  in  that  university,  to  set  up  volun- 
tary lectures,  by  way  of  exposition  and  comment  on  some 
celebrated  writer:  to  which  the  students  would  repair, 
more  or  less,  according  to  the  opinion  they  had  of  the 
men,  and  their  performances.  Among  others,  we  are 
certain  Mr.  Thomas  More  read  upon  St.  Austin's  book 
De  Civitate  Dei,  while  a  very  young  man,  to  a  very  great 
auditory.  This  exercise  was  also  set  on  foot  at  Cam- 
bridge. We  are  told  by  a  learned  author,  that  Dr. 
Warner,  afterwards  rector  of  Winter  ton,  in  Norfolk,  and 
who  assisted  Bilney  at  the  stake,  read  there  publicly. 
George  Stafford  read  also  a  lecture  in  the  same  place, 
upon  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans;  being  probably 
induced  thereto  by  the  example  more  especially  of  Dr. 
Colet." 

About  this  time  Erasmus  visited  England,  with  whom 
Colet  soon  formed  an  intimate  friendship;  which  he 
endeayoured  to  improve  to  a  more  accurate  and  critical 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.     With  this  design^  he  pro- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  247 

posed  to  Erasmus  some  doubts  and  queries,  rela^  we  to 
certain  obscure  and  difficult  passages  in  th    Epistles  of 
8t.  Paul;  but  Erasmus,  with  that  timid  caution  which  so 
strongly  marked  his  character,  replied,  "Since  it  is  dan- 
gerous to  dispute  openly  of  these  matters,  I  had  father 
reserve   them   for  our  private  conversation,  as  fitter  for 
word  of  mouth  than  writing."   Colet  also  informed  Eras- 
mus, that  it  was  his  determination  to  banish,  if  possible, 
the  wrangling  of  the  scholastic  divines,  and  restore  those 
theological  studies   which  were  founded  upon  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  primitive  Fathers;  and  that  for  this  end  he 
had  in  Oxford  publicly  expounded  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul; 
and  earnestly  pressed  him  to  undertake  a  similar  public 
exposition  of  some  part  of  the  Old  Testament,  while  he 
himself  was  employed  in  the  New.     Erasmus,  however, 
declined  the  undertaking,  but  exhorted  Colet  to  perse- 
vere in  his  laudable  design,   assuring  him,  that  when  he 
was  conscious  to  himself  of  a  sufficient  degree  of  strength 
and  ability,  he  would  readily  lend  him  assistance.     This 
friendship  was   maintained   to    the  close  of  life,  and  the 
correspondence  of  these  two  great  men  serv^ed  to  animate 
them  in   the  pursuit  of  Biblical  learning,  in  which  they 
met  with  frequent  and  violent  opposition,  especially  from 
the  scholastic  doctors,  who  were  so  enraged  at  any  at- 
tempts to  promote  the  study  of  the  Gr^eeh  tongue,  that 
they  could  not  forbear  uttering  invectives  against  it  from 
the  pulpit;  and  strove  to  suppress  it  by  the  cry  of  "He- 
resy."    Hence  the  proverb,   Cave  a  GRiECis,  ne   fias 

H^RETICUS;  FU'GE  LITERAS  HeBR^AS,  NE   FIAS    JuD^O- 

RUM  siMiLis;  "Take  care  of  Greek,  lest  you  be- 
come an  Heretic:  avoid  Hebrew,  lest  you  become 
LIKE  Jews."  Standish,  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  and  provin- 
cial of  the  Franciscans,  in  a  declamation  against  Eras- 
mus, styled  him  Gr^culus  iste  ;  which  became  for 
a  long  time  afterwards  the  phrase  for  an  Heretic^,  or 
one  suspected  of  "heretical  pravity." 


248  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

This  aversion  to  the  study  of  every  thing  that  tended 
to  lessen  the  authority  of  the  schoolmen,  or  to  spread  an 
acquaintance  with  the  original  Scriptures,  obtained,  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  reign  of  Flenry  VII.  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  About  the  latter  period, 
a  preacher  at  Oxford  declared  openly,  at  St.  Mary's, 
against  the  pernicious  innovation  of  the  Greek  tongue ; 
and  raised  such  a  ferment  about  it  among  the  students, 
that  the  king,  who  was  then  at  Woodstock,  having  been 
correctly  informed  by  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Thomas  More, 
and  the  learned  Richard  Pace,  of  the  true  cause  of  the  com- 
motion, sent  his  royal  letters  to  the  university,  to  allow  and 
encourage  that  study  among  the  young  men.  Not  long 
after  this,  a  divine,  who  was  preaching  at  court,  declaim- 
ed and  railed  violently  against  Greek  learning,  and  New 
Interpretations  of  the  Scripture.  Richard  Pace,  (who 
afterwards  succeeded  Colet,  as  dean  of  St.  Paul's,)  was 
then  present,  and  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  king,  jto  observe 
how  he  was  affected  with  the  discourse;  and  the  king 
smiled  upon  Pace,  in  contempt  of  the  invectives  of  the 
preacher.  After  sermon,  Flenry  sent  for  the  divine  who 
had  preached,  and  appointed  a  solemn  disputation,  at 
which  he  himself  proposed  to  be  present,  for  the  purpose 
of  debating  the  matter  between  the  preacher  opposing, 
and  Mr.  Thomas  More  defending,  the  use  of  the  Greek 
tongue.  When  the  appointed  time  came.  More  began 
Avith  an  eloquent  apology,  in  favour  of  that  copious  and 
ancient  language.  But  the  divine,  instead  of  replying  to 
the  arguments  of  More,  fell  upon  his  kness,  and  implor- 
ed pardon  of  the  king,  for  the  offence  he  had  given  in 
the  pulpit,  endeavouring  to  excuse  himself  by  saying, 
that  "what  he  had  done  was  by  the  impulse  of  the  Spirit." 
"Not  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,"  rejoined  Henry,  "but 
of  the  spirit  of  infatuation."  The  king  then  asked  him, 
whether  he  had  read  the  writings  of  Erasmus,  against 
which  he  had  declaimed.     To  this  he  answered  in  the 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  249 

negative.  ^^Why  then,"  said  the  king,  *^'^yoii  are  a  very 
foolish  fellow,  to  censure  what  you  have  never  read." 
"I  have  read/'  said  he,  "something  they  call  Mori  a," 
(Morice  Encomium,  the  Praise  of  Folly.)  "Yes,"  replied 
Pace,  "may  it  please  your  highness,  such  a  subject  is  fit 
for  such  a  reader."  At  last,  the  preacher,  to  bring  him- 
self off,  declared  that  he  was  now  better  reconciled  to 
the  Greek  tongue,  because  it  was  derived  from  the  Fle- 
brew.  Upon  which,  the  king,  who  was  amazed  at  the 
ignorance  of  the  man,  dismissed  him ;  but  with  an  express 
charge,  that  he  should  never  again  preach  at  court. 

In  1502,  Colet  was  made  prebendary  of  Durnesford, 
in  the  church  of  Sarum;  and  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1503 — 4,  he  resigned  his  prebend  of  Good  Easter.  In 
1504,  he  took  the  degree  of  doctor  in  divinity.  On  the 
5th  of  May,  1505,  he  was  instituted  to  the  prebend  of 
Mora,  in  the  cathedral  church  of  St.  Paul;  and  m  the 
same  year,  and  in  the  same  month,  Mdthout  the  least 
solicitation  of  his  own,  w.is  raised  to  the  dignity  of  dean 
of  St.  Paul's,  on  which  occasion  he  resigned  the  vicarage 
of  Stepney. 

Dr.  Colet  soon  began  to  distinguish  himself  in  the 
important  station  to  which  he  was  now  advanced.  He  re- 
stored and  reformed  the  decayed  discipline  of  his  cathedral 
church,  and  commenced,  what  was  there  a  novel  practice, 
by  preaching  himself  upon  Sundays  and  solemn  festivals. 
In  this  course  of  preaching,  he  did  not  restrict  himself  to 
single  texts  from  the  Gospel  or  Epistle  for  the  day,  but 
selected  more  general  subjects,  as  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mat- 
thew, the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Apostles  Creed,  and  continu- 
ed a  series  of  discourses  upon  them  till  he  had  completed 
the  discussion  of  the  doctrines  they  maintained.  His 
audience  was  usually  crowded,  and  among  his  hearers 
were  the  principal  courtiers  and  citizens.  He  also  call- 
ed in  to  his  assistance  other  divines  of  learning  and  ta- 
lents, amongst   whom  Avas  William  Grocyn,  and  John 


250  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Sowle,  a  Carmelite  friar  of  an  unblameable  life,  and  a 
great  admirer  and  preacher  of  the  writings  of  St.  Paul. 

The  frequent  preaching  of  Dean  Coiet,  in  his  own 
cathedral,  stimulated  some  others  to  follow  his  example, 
particularly  Dr.  CoUingwood,  at  Litchfield,  who  introduc- 
ed the  practice  of  preaching  every  Sunday,  being  the 
first  and  only  preacher  among  all  the  deans  of  that 
cathedral.  Before  Dr.  Colet  reformed  the  practice,  it 
had  been  usual,  both  in  the  universities  and  in  the  cathe- 
dral churches,  for  the  public  lecturers  to  read  upon  any 
other  book  than  the  Scriptures;  hut  after  in  had  i.iiyseif 
read  lectures  upon  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  both  in  the  univer- 
sity of  Oxford  and  in  St.  Paul's  cathedral,  and  retained 
several  learned  men,  successively,  to  read  these  theolo- 
gical lectures  in  his  church,  for  which  he  made  them  a 
generous  allov/ance,  he  at  last  procured  a  settlement  at 
St.  Paul's  for  a  similar  lecture  to  be  constantly  read  there, 
three  days  in  every  week. 

These  divinity  lectures,  and  Dr.  Colet's  method  of  ex- 
pounding the  Scriptures, raised  among  the  people  an  inqui- 
ry after  the  Sacred  Writings,  sunk  into  neglect  by  the  me- 
taphysical disputants,  and  the  superstitious  and  ignorant 
clergy.  This,  together  with  the  contempt  which  the  dean 
expressed  for  the  religious  houses  or  monasteries,  and  the 
display  which  he  made  of  their  abuses,  doubtless  contribut- 
ed to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for  the  Reformation, 
which,  by  the  gracious  Providence  of  God,  soon  afterwards 
took  place.  It  is  therefore  no  wonder  that  the  bigots  to 
popery  considered  him  as  an  enemy,  and  attempted  to 
stir  up  persecution  against  him.  The  ecclesiastics  were 
stung  to  revenge,  and  a  prosecution  was  commenced 
against  him  for  heresy,  in  which  Dr.  Fitzjames,  bishop 
of  London,  was  the  principal  agent.  The  main  charges 
exhibited  against  him  to  Archbishop  Warham,  were  three; 
ihe^rst  of  which  was,  that  he  had  taught  that  images 
were  not  to  be  worshipped;   the  second,   that  he  had 


SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  251 

preached  against  the  temporal  possessions  of  the  bishops; 
and  the  third,  that  he  had  preached  against  the  cold  and 
unaffected  manner  in  which  some  men  read  tiieir  ser- 
mons, which  was  understood  to  reflect  upon  the  bishop 
himself.  But  the  archbishop,  who  knew  and  valued  the 
integrity  and  worth  of  Colet,  became  his  advocate  and 
patron,  and  dismissed  him  without  giving  him  the  trouble 
of  a  formal  answer.  Tyndal,  in  his  Reply  to  More,  adds, 
that  the  bishop  of  London  would  have  made  Colet  an 
heretic,  for  translating  the  Pater  Noster  into  English, 
had  not  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  defended  him :  and 
Bishop  Latimer,  who  was  at  the  time  a  young  student 
at  Cambridge,  remembered  the  noise  occasioned  by  the 
prosecution  of  Colet  for  heresy,  and  says  expressly,  that 
"  he  was  not  only  in  trouble,  but  should  have  been  burnt, 
if  God  had  not  turned  the  king's  heart  to  the  contrary." 

The  enemies  of  the  dean  were  not  easily  repulsed. 
Disappointed  in  their  accusation  of  heresy,  they  attempt- 
ed to  fix  upon  him  a  suspicion  of  sedition,  or  treason. 
In  this  they  were  equally  foiled;  for  the  young  king 
(Henry  VIIL)  sent  for  him,  and  in  private  advised  him 
to  go  on,  reproving  and  reforming  a  corrupt  and  disso- 
lute age,  nor  suffer  his  light  to  be  extinguished  in  times 
so  densely  dark  ;  assuring  him  that  he  was  sensible  of 
the  good  effect  of  his  excellent  preaching  and  life,  and 
promising  that  no  one  should  injure  him  with  impunity. 
The  dean  thanked  the  king  for  his  royal  protection,  but 
begged  that  no  one  might  suffer  on  his  account,  for  he 
would  rather,  he  said,  resign  his  deanery,  and  live  in 
privacy.  Another  attack  was  made  upon  the  dean,  of  a 
similar  nature,  but  which  was  equally  unsuccessful; 
the  king  dismissing  him  with  marks  of  affection, 
and  promises  of  favour.  After  this  the  dean  continued 
his  constant  course  of  preaching,  though  he  seems  never 
to  have  recovered  his  character  for  orthodoocy,  with  the  bi- 
gots of  his  church. 


252  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

In  the  mean  time,  his  father,  Sir  Henry  Colet,  dying, 
in  1510,  he  sncceeded  to  a  very  considerable  estate* 
He,  therefore,  delivered  his  church  revenues  to  his  stew- 
ard, to  be  expended  in  house-keeping,  and  hospitality; 
and  employed  the  annual  prodace  of  his  paternal  estate, 
in  acts  of  piety,  beneficence,  and  generosity.  Having 
no  very  near,  or  poor  relations,  he  founded  the  Grammar 
School  of  St.  Paul's,  in  London,  which  he  endowed  with 
lands  and  tenements,  for  the  support  of  a  head-master, 
a  second-master,  or  usher,  and  a  chaplain,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  153  boys,  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages;  and 
placed  it  under  the  care  of  the  company  of  mercers. 
The  dean  also  appointed  William  Lily  to  be  first  head- 
master of  his  school.* 

*  The  celebrated  grammarian,  William  Lily,  or  Lilye,  was  bora 
at  Oldham,  in  Hampshire,  about  1466.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  was 
admitted  a  demy-commonor  of  Magdalen  college,  Oxford.  Having 
taken  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts,  he  left  the  university,  and  tra- 
velled to  J*(rusalem.  On  his  return,  he  resided  a  considerable  time  in 
the  island  of  Rhodes,  where  he  studied  the  Greek,  under  the  learned 
men  who  had  fled  thither  for  protection,  after  the  taking  of  Constanti- 
nople. From  thence  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he  further  improved 
himself  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  under  John  Sulpitius  and 
Pomponius  Sabinus.  On  his  arrival  in  England,  in  1509,  he  settled  in 
London,  and  taught  grammar,  poetry,  and  rhetoric,  with  good  success  ; 
and  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who  taught  Greek  in  that  city. 
When  Dr.  Colet  founded  St.  Paul's  School,  he  was  appointed  head- 
master. He  had  been  twelve  years  in  that  laborious  and  useful  situation, 
when  he  was  seized  with  the  plague  and  died,  in  1522-  He  was  a 
married  man  at  the  time  of  his  appointment  to  the  school.  His  two 
sons,  George  and  Peter,  were  both  learned  men.  The  eldest  of  them 
published  the  Jirst  exact  Map  that  was  ever  drawn  of  this  island.  Mr. 
Lily  had  also  a  daughter  named  Dionysia,  who  v.^as  married  to  John 
Ritwyse,  usher,  and  afterwards  successor  to  him  in  the  mastership  of 
St.  Paul's  school. 

Lily  had  the  character  of  an  excellent  grammarian,  and  a  successful 
teacher  of  the  learned  languages.  He  published  several  small  Latin 
pieces,  principally  poems  and  orations.  His  principal  work,  or  at  least 
that  by  which  he  is  best  known,  is  Brevissima  Institution  seu  ratio 
grammatices  cognoscenda^ ;  Lond.  1513;  commonly  called  Lily's  Latin 
Grammar.  This  was  a  very  excellent  work  for  its  time.  Bishop  Wet- 
tenhall's  Grammar,  the  Eton  Grammar,  and  multitudes  of  others,  are 
but  abridgments  of  it.  The  English  Rudiments  of  it  were  written  by 
Dr.  Colet  J  the  Preface  by  Cardinal  Wolsey  j  the  Syntax  chiefly  by 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  253 

In  loll,  at  the  opening  of  the  convocation  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Canterbnry,  Archbishop  Warham  appointed 
Dean  Colet  to  preach  the  Latin  sermon  on  that  occasion. 
In  this  sermon,  which  is  still  extant,  he  attacked  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  church  and  clergy,  in  the  most  warm  and 
spirited  manner.  His  text  was  from  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  ch.  xii,  v.  2.  "Be  not  conformed  to  this 
world,  but  be  ye  transformed,  (^^c."  In  treating  of  co7i- 
formity  to  the  world,  he  explained  what  was  meant,  under 
four  heads;  devilish  pride;  carnal  lusts;  worldly  cove- 
tousness  ;  and  secular  business.  "  These,"  said  the  dean, 
^'are  in  the  world,  as  St.  John  witnesseth,  who  says,  that 
all  that  is  in  the  world  is  either  the  lust  of  the  Jlesh,  tlie 
lust  of  the  eye,  or  the  pride  oj  life.  And  these  same 
things  do  now  so  reign  in  the  churchy  and  amongst  eccle- 
siastical persons,  that  we  may,  in  a  manner,  truly  say, 
all  that  is  in  the  church  is  either  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
the  lust  of  the  eye,  or  the  pride  of  life."  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  discuss,  in  the  most  bold  and  spirited  manner, 
the  different  topics  he  had  proposed;  and  concluded  by  a 
pointed  address  to  the  bishops,  pressing  the  necessity  of 
reformation,  and  of  an  immediate  and  firm  exercise  of 
discipline,  agreeably  to  the  canons  of  the  church,  which 
he  proposed  should  be  read  in  that  convocation. 

His  honesty  and  zeal  against  the  corruptions  of  the 
clergy  increased  the  number  of  his  enemies,  but  pro- 
tected by  the  king,  he  escaped  that  degradation  and 
martyrdom,  which  with  a  less  powerful  patron  he  would 
probably  have  suffered;  and  under  the  sanction  of  royalty, 
succeeded  to  other  preferments  beside  those  which  have 
already  been  mentioned.    He  was  rector  of  the  fraternity, 

Erasmus;  and  the  other  parts  by  other  hands;  so  that,  although  it 
bears  Lily^s  name,  he  probably  had  not  the  largest  share  in  the  work  ; 
and  therefore,  during  his  life,  modestly  refused  the  honour  of  having- 
it  ascribed  to  him.  It  has  since  been  greatly  improTed,  and  has  passed 
through  innumerable  editions.  See  BriL  Biog,  I.  pp.  384,  385  3  aud 
piarke's  Bibliog,  Diet.  IV.  p.  19. 


254  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

or  Gild  of  Jesus,  in  St.  PauFs  chui'ch,  for  which  he  pro- 
cured new  statutes;  and  also  chaplain,  and  preacher  in 
ordinary,  to  King  Henry;  and,  if  Erasmus  were  not  mis- 
taken, one  of  his  privy-council.  About  his  fiftieth  year, 
he  formed  a  resolution  to  withdraw  from  active  life,  and 
spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  retirement;  but  he  was  pre- 
vented by  death:  for  being-  seized  with  the  sweating  sick- 
ness,^'he  retired  to  the  lodgings  he  had  built  in  the 
monastery  of  the  Carthusians  at  k?>heen,  near  Richmond, 
in  Surry;  when,  having  spent  the  little  remainder  of  his 
days  in  devotion,  he  surrendered  up  his  last  breath  to 
him  that  first  gave  it,  on  the  16th  of  September,  1519." 
His  body  was  afterwards  carried  to  London,  and  buried 
in  the  cathedral  church  of  St.  Paul,  with  an  humble 
monument,  that  he  had  several  years  before  appointed 
and  prepared,  with  only  this  inscription  on  it,  Joannes 

COLETUS. 

The  dean,  as  to  his  person,  was  tall  and  comely;  and 
his  mien  and  carriage  graceful.  His  learning  was  consi- 
derable; and  his  piety,  exemplary.  As  a  preacher,  he 
was  eloquent  and  nervous.  lo  his  goods,  furniture,  enter- 
tainment, apparel,  and  books,  he  was  neat  and  clean; 
but  despised  all  state  and  magnificence :  and  whilst  the 
higher  clergy  were  generally  clothed  in  purple,  his  dress 
was  always  black,  and  plain.  Frugal  at  his  meals,  it  was 
his  custom  for  many  years  to  eat  but  one  meal,  that  of  din- 
ner. As  soon  as  grace  before  meat  was  said,  some  boy,  with 
a  good  voice,  read  distinctly  a  chapter  out  of  one  of  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  or  out  of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon;  and  from 
thence  the  dean  took  occasion  to  introduce  grave  and  im- 
proving conversation,  by  which  means  his  guests  were  re- 
freshed in  mind  as  well  as  body.  At  other  times,  when  he 
had  no  agreeable  companion,  one  of  his  servants  read  some 
part  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  "  In  his  journeys,  he  would 
sometimes  make  me,"  says  Erasmus,  "his  companion,  when 
no  one  could  be  more  pleasant;  yet  he  always  carried  a 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  255 

bool<  With  him;  and  his  conversation  was  all  about 
Christ."  He  loved  little  children,  and  compared  them, 
like  Jesus,  to  angels,  for  innocence  and  simplicity.  To 
glorify  God,  and  to  be  useful  to  men,  appeared  to  be  the 
great  aim  of  his  life,  which  occasioned  Erasmus  to  say 
when  he  heard  of  his  death,  "  I  know  his  state  is  happy; 
he  is  now  delivered  iVom  a  troublesom.e  and  wicked 
world,  and  enjoys  the  presence  of  his  Redeemer  Jesus, 
whom  he  loved  so  affectionately  in  his  life."^® 

Such  was  Dean  Colet,  a  man  who,  amid  the  darkness 
of  the  age,  shone  as  a  iigiit  in  a  benighted  land;  and  who 
deserves  to  be  ranked  among  those  who  were  essentially 
serviceable  in  the  spread  of  Scriptural  knowledge;  an 
honour  to  his  country;  a  blessing  to  posterity. 

An  increasing  attention  began  now  to  be  paid  to  the 
Greek  tongue,  as  the  original  language  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament; and  such  was  the  veneration  of  some  persons  for 
it  on  this  account,  that  although  they  did  not  understand 
the  language  itself,  yet  because  it  was  the  Original  Text, 
they  caused  it  to  be  interlined  in  their  copies  of  the  Vul- 
gate. Dr.  Hody  mentions  a  MS.  of  this  kind,  preserved 
in  the  library  of  Corpus  Christi  college,  Oxford,  executed 
in  the  most  beautiful  manner,  on  parchment,  in  two 
volumes,  in  folio.  The  Lafm  is  written  with  black,  and 
the  Greek  with  red  ink.^* 

Thus  was  Divine  Providence  preparing  the  way  for 
the  reformation  of  his  church,  and  for  the  revival  of  Sa- 
cred literature  from  that  state  of  profound  ignorance, 
into  which  it  had  been  sunk  for  ages.  Many  instances 
of  that  general  disuse  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  among  the 
clergy,  and  members,  of  the  church  of  Rome,  which  pre- 
ceded the  age  of  Luther,  and  of  the  necessity  of  some 
powerful  interposition  to   break  the  fetters  of  the  most 


(60)  British  Biography,  I.  pp.  361—402. 

Jortin's  Life  of  Kiasmns,  III.  Append.  No.  ii.  pp.  14 — 25. 

(61)  Hody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig\  lib.  iii.  pt.  ii,  tap.  xii.  p.  45§. 


256  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

slavsih  superstition,  and  to  rescue  the  Sacred  Volume 
from  the  bondage  in  which  it  was  detained,  have  been 
ah'eady  adduced;  and  if  we  again  pass  to  the  Continent, 
and  examine  the  state  of  those  countries  wher£  the  great 
deliverance  was  first  effected,  it  must  add  to  our  grati- 
tude, for  the  gracious  and  energetic  interposition  of  that 
God  whose  word  is  Truth. 

Several  of  the  German  monasteries  had  no  public  li- 
brary for  the  use  of  the  monks ;  and  in  some  of  them,  not 
a  single  copy  of  the  Scriptures  could  be  found.     Prior  to 
the  publication  of  the  Greek  Testament,  by  Erasmus,  not 
a  copy  could  be  procured  in  all  Germany;   so  that  Con- 
rad Pellican  was  obliged  to  obtain  one  from  Italy.     In 
some  churches  Aristotle  s  Ethics,  and  similar  works,  were 
read,  instead  of  sermons;  a  practice  which  in  some  pla- 
ces had  subsisted  from    the  time   of  Charlemagne;   in 
others,  the  works  of  Aquinas  were  explained;  and  in  some, 
lectures  on  the  Heathen  Poets  were  delivered,  where  the 
Word  of  God  ought  to  have  been  preached.     The  origi- 
nal languages  of  the  Scriptures  were  not  only  generally 
neglected,  but  the  study  of  them  was  despised.     Conrad 
Heresbachius  relates,  that  he  heard  a  monk  declaiming 
in  a  church,  who  affirmed,  '^  A  new  language  is  discover- 
ed, called  Greek,  and   is  the  parent  of  all  heresy.     A 
book  written  in  that  language  is  every  where  got  into  the 
hands  of  persons ;  and  is  called  the  New   Testament.     It 
is  a  book  full  of  daggers  and  poison.     Another  language 
has  also  sprung  up,   called  the  Hebrew,  and  those  who 
learn  it  become  Jews."     Even  Latin^  the  common  lan- 
guage of  their  religious  services,  was  so  little  understood 
by  the  monkish  clergy,  that  the  most  ridiculous  mistakes 
were  made  by  them, both  in  the  performance  of  their  offices 
and  in  their  writings:  an  instance  is  related  of  one,  who,  in- 
stead of  the  usual  form  in  baptism,  was  accustomed  to  say, 
"Baptizo  te  in  nomine  Patria,  et  Filia,  et  Spiritus  Sancti;" 
©f  another,  who^  when  he  had  received  letters  of  recom- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  257 

mendation  for  orders,  couched  in  these  terms,  "Otto  Dei 
gratia,  rogat  vestram  clementiam,  ut  veiitis  istum  cieri- 
cum  conducere  ad  vestrum  Diaconum;"  and  was  ordered 
to  read  the  epistle,  which  was  considerably  abbreviated 
in  the  writing,  was  so  totally  ignorant  of  the  Latin,  as  to 
form  the  abbreviations  into  the  following  unmeaning 
words :  "  Otto  Dei  gram,  rogat  vestram  clam,  ut  velit 
istum  clincum  clancum,  convertere  in  vivum  Diabolum;" 
and  of  a  third,  who  for  "famulus  Dei,"  constantly  repeat- 
ed "mulus  Dei."'' 

The  grossest  ignorance  of  the  Scriptures  prevailed,  not 
only  amongst  the  laity,  but  also  amongst  many  of  the 
clergy.  Degrees  in  divinity  were  conferred  upon  those 
who  had  scarcely  ever  read  the  Bible;  and  numbers  of 
divines  were  far  advanced  in  life  before  they  had  even 
seen  one!  In  the  year  1510,  the  university  of  Wittem- 
berg  registered  in  its  acts,  Andrew  Carolostad,  afterwards 
one  of  the  reformers,  as  being  siifficlentissimus,  fully  qua- 
lified for  the  degree  of  doctor,  which  he  then  received ; 
though  he  afterwards  acknowledged,  that  he  never  began 
to  read  the  Bible  till  eight  years  after  he  had  received  his 
academical  honours.  Albert,  archbishop  and  elector  of 
Mentz,  having  accidentally  found  a  Bible  lying  on  a 
table,  in  1530,  opened  it,  and  having  read  some  pages, 
exclaimed,  "  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  what  this  book  is ; 
but  this  I  see,  that  every  thing  in  it  is  against  us."  Ge- 
rard Listrius,  in  his  Note  on  the  Morice  Encojnium  of 
Erasmus,  says,  "  I  have  known  many  doctors  in  divinity, 
as  they  were  called,  who  have  candidly  acknowledged 
that  they  were  fifty  years  of  age  before  they  had  read  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul:"  and  Musculus  aflirms,  (Loc.  Com,) 
that  prior  to  the  Reformation,  "  many  priests  and  pastors 

(62)  Lomeier,  De  Bibliothecis,  cap.  viii.  pp.  155.  180. 

Hody,  DeBibl.  Text.  Orig.  pt.  ii.  lib.  iii.  pp.  464,  465, 
Hottingeri  Analecta  Historico-Theologica:  Diss,  i.  Be  Necessitate 
Reformationis,  pp,  12.  52.  Tigurin.  1652,  12ino. 
Vol.  IL  R 


258  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

had  not  so  mucli  as  seeii  a  Bible."  Those  who  devoted 
themselves  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  were  objects  of 
derision,  and  treated  as  heretical;  whilst  the  advocates 
of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  were  regarded  as  the  ora- 
cles of  wisdom,  and  the  only  true  theologians.  The 
divines  of  Cologne  published  one  work,  entitled  De  Salute 
Aristotelis,  ''Aristotle  on  Salvation;"  and  another,  illus- 
trated with  theological  notes,  bearing  the  title  of  De  vita 
et  morte  Aristotelis,  "Aristotle  on  Life  and  Death;"  and 
concluding  with  this  sentence,  "  Aristotle  was  the  fore- 
runner of  Christ  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  as  John  the 
Baptist  was  in  the  kingdom  of  grace."  Even  the,  Bible 
itself  was  disregarded,  or  contemptuously  noticed.  John 
Faber,  canon  of  Leutkirch,  and  suffragan  of  Constance, 
and  afterwards  bishop  of  Vienna,  impiously  declared  that 
men  "might  live  peaceably  and  amicably  together,  with- 
out the  Gospel;"  and  Cardinal  Hosius  daringly  affirmed, 
that  "it  would  have  been  better  for  the  church  (of  Rome,) 
if  the  Gospel  had  never  been  written."  ^^ 

This  view  of  the  degraded  state  of  Sacred  literature, 
previous  to  the  Reformation,  is  further  confirmed  by  the 
following  extract  from  the  learned  historian  of  The 
Helvetic  Confederacy : 

"  The  generality  of  the  priesthood  did  not  scruple  to 
acknowledge  their  deficiency  in  the  most  elementary  parts 
of  learning.  The  canons  of  the  collegiate  church  of 
Zuric  having  to  notify  an  election  to  the  bishop  of  Con- 
stance, confessed  that  they  transmitted  it  in  the  hand- 
writing of  their  notary,  because  several  of  them  could 
not  write.  In  the  examination  for  holy  orders,  it  was 
deemed  amply  sufficient  that  the  candidate  could  read, 
and  tolerably  comprehend  what  he  read:=^  even  after  the 


(63)   Hottingeri  Analecta,  Diss.  1.  pp.  1 — 82. 

Lomeier,  De  Bibliothecis,  cap.  viii.  pp.  166,  167; 
Hody,  vt  sup. 
*  ^^The  report  of  the  examination  of  Leonard  Brun  for  priest'* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  259 

Reformation  had  made  some  progress,  the  people  firmly 
believed,  and  the  priests  confirmed  them  in  the  persua- 
sion, that  the  bells  travelled  every  passion-week  to  Rome 
to  receive  fresh  baptism;  and  that  the  exorcisms  of  priests 
could  effectually  dispel  swarms  of  locusts,  and  all  manner 
of  insects.  When,  at  an  assembly  of  the  clergy  in  the 
Valais,  mention  was  made  of  the  Bible,  only  one  of  the 
priests  had  ever  heard  of  such  a  book :  and  several,  on 
other  occasions,  did  not  scruple  to  declare,  that  it  would 
be  an  advantage  to  religion  if  no  Gospel  were  extant ; 
and  that  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages 
greatly  savoured  of  heresy." 

''Had  the  clergy,  however,  in  this  unpardonable  state 
of  ignorance,"  continues  the  writer,  "  maintained  a  deco- 
rum in  their  conversation  and  manners,  they  might  still 
have  preserved  a  degree  of  respect  and  influence,  which 
would  probably  have  somewhat  retarded  the  progress  of 
the  Reformation.  But  the  profligacy  even  of  the  heads  of 
the  church,  had  arrived  at  a  pitch  which  it  was  no  longer 
possible  to  tolerate,  or  palliate.  Without  dwelling  on 
the  many  flagrant  instances  of  depravation,  which  are 
not  disguised  even  by  the  ecclesiastical  writers  of  the 
Romish  church,  all  men  must  feel  a  painful  conviction 
when  they  learn,  from  the  charges  that  were  brought  by 
the  citizens  of  Lausanne,  against  their  clergy;  that  the 
priests  used  often,  even  in  the  churches,  and  in  the  midst 
of  divine  service,  to  strike  the  persons  to  whom  they  bore 
ill-will,  some  of  whom  had  actually  died  of  their  wounds; 
that  they  walked  the  streets  at  night,  disguised  in  mili- 
tary dresses,  brandishing  naked  swords,  and  insulting 
the  peaceable  inhabitants;  and  that  the  frequent  rapes, 
violences,  and  insults  they  committed,  were  never  pu- 
nished, or  even  restrained.  The  following  are  the  words 
of  the  18th  article:   'We  have  also  to  complain  of  the 

orders,  not  long  before  the  Reformation,  was  "  Bene  legit,  competenter 
exponit  et  seatentiat;  computum  ignorat,  male  cantat— Fiat  admissio.'^ 


260  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

canons,  that  they  reduce  the  profits  of  our  town  brothel, 
several  of  them  carrying  on  the  traffic  of  prostitution  in 
their  own  houses,  which  they  throw  open  to  new  corners 
of  all  descriptions.'*  It  is  no  small  corroboration  of  the 
merited  clamours  raised  against  the  clergy,  that  their 
own  zealous  advocate  and  protector,  Charles  V.  publicly 
declared  to  them,  that  if  their  lives  had  been  less  re- 
proachable,  they  would  never  have  had  to  contend  with 
a  Martin  Luther."'* 

From  such  an  awful  detail  of  depravity,  the  conse- 
quence, principally,  of  that  universal  ignorance  of  the 
Word  of  God,  which  had  been  studiously  induced  by  the 
inhibitory  mandates  of  the  papal  power,  and  the  re- 
strictive measures  of  the  Romish  clergy,  we  turn  with 
satisfaction,  to  notice  a  few  instances  of  a  very  different, 
and  more  enlightened  nature.  For  amid  the  general 
gloom  some  characters  were  found,  whose  pursuits,  and 
studies,  threw  rays  of  sacred  light  across  "  the  palpable 
obscure."  Jacobus  Faber,  of  Daventer;  Joannes  Fro- 
BENius,  the  celebrated  printer;  but  especially  Deside- 
Rius  Erasmus,  deserve  to  be  remarked  for  their  promo- 
tion of  Biblical  learning. 

Jacobus  Faber,  of  Daventer,  was  born  in  the  year 
1472.  His  preceptor  was  Alexander  Hegius,  who  was 
also  the  instructor  of  Erasmus.  In  1499,  he  published 
an  heroic  poem.  Afterwards  he  became  the  reader  of 
the  second  class  of  Daventer,  and  edited  the  works  of 
his  master;  part  of  which  he  dedicated  to  Erasmus,  in 
1503.  In  the  year  1511,  he  edited  "Cato's  Distichs," 
with  additions.  About  the  same  time  Jacobus  Faber 
8tapulensis,  (Jacques  Le  Fevre,  of  Estaples,)  presented 
him  with  a  copy  of  his  Quintuple  Psalter,  printed  in  1509. 

*  "^  These  charges  consist  of  twenty-three  articles,  and  are  given  at 
length  in  Ruchat's  Hist,  de  la  Reform,  de  la  Suisse,  I.  p.  xxxii.  They 
are  of  the  year  1533." 

(64)  Planta's  History  of  the  Helvetic  Confederacy,  II.  B.  ii,  ch.  vie 
pp.  S58— 363.  Lond.  1807,  8vo 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  261 

Many  MSS.  in   the  hand-writing  of  Jacobus  Faber  of 
Daventer,  are  still  extant  in   the  library  of  that  city, 
among  which,  are  Latin  translations  of  the  Greek  canons 
and  menology.     He  appears  to  have  been  an  indefatiga- 
ble transcriber  of  Biblical  MSS.,  for  on  the  first  page  of 
a  MS.  formerly  belonging  to   Faber,   J.  C,  Wolfius,  of 
Hamburg,  has   made  the   following  note.      "I  have  a 
Hebrew   MS.  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,    with   Faber's 
name  written  at  the  beginning  and  end."      The  same 
learned  person  possessed  also  a  MS.  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament,  transcribed  by  Faber,  which  was  afterwards 
purchased  by  Wetstein,  out  of  Wolfius's  library,  and  col- 
lated for  his  Greek  Testament.     It  contains  the  follow- 
ing books  of  the  New  Testament,  in  this  order,  John, 
Luke,  Matthew,  Mark;   the  Epistles  of  St.   Paul;  the 
Jets;  and  the  Catholic  (or  General)   Epistles:   the  Epis- 
tle of  Jude   is  written  twice,  and  from  two  different  co* 
pies.     Jacobus  Faber  copied  it   from  a  MS.  written  at 
Mount  Athos,  in  1293,  by  Theodore,  the  writer  also  of  a 
Greek  MS.  of  the  Four  Gospels,  preserved  in  the  library 
of  Christ  Church,  in  Oxford.     The  ancient  MS.  which 
Faber  copied,  or  with  which  he  collated  his  transcript, 
was  one  which  had  been  presented  from  the  Vatican  Li- 
brary, to  John  Herman  Wesselus,  of  Groningen,  by  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.=^     Faber's  copy  is  on  paper,  in  2  volumes,  4to. 
At  the  beginning  is  a  note,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
purport:   "I  have  collated  the  Four  Gospels  more  than 
once,  with  great  care  and  labour,  with  an  ancient  MS. 
on  vellum,  formerly  belonging  to  J.  Wesselus,  of  Gronin- 
gen.    The  labour  it  has  occasioned  me,  I  cannot  easily 
tell,  as  I  have  met  with  no  one  to  assist  me  in  the  colla- 
tion."    He  was  living  in  1517.     The  time  of  his  decease 
is  uncertain. ^^ 


*  See  p.    175  of  this  Volume. 
(65)  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  p.  104,  note. 
Marsh's  Michaelis,  II.  pt.  i.  ch.  viii.  p.  360. 


262 

John  Frobenius^  or  Froben,  was  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated printers  of  his  day.  He  was  a  native  of  Hammelburg", 
in  Franconia.  He  received  his  education  at  Basil ;  and 
after  having  made  great  progress  in  literature,  com- 
menced the  business  of  a  printer,  in  that  city.  He  selected 
the  works  of  the  best  authors  for  publication;  and  spared 
no  expense  to  obtain  perfect  MSS.  He  employed  5)er- 
sons  of  the  highest  literary  merit,  as  the  editors,  and 
correctors  of  the  press,  in  proof  of  which  it  is  sufficient  to 
name  Sigismimd  Gelenius,  the  learned  author  of  a  *^Greek, 
Latin,  German,  and  Slavonian  Lexicon;"  and  John  CEo- 
lampadius,  or  Haivksheim,  one  of  the  principal  reformers, 
and  author  of  several  Latin  translations  of  the  Greek 
Fathers. 

The  respectability  of  Froben  s  character,  and  his  con- 
stant care  of  never  printing  any  thing  offensive  to  morals 
and  religion,  procured  him  both  celebrity  and  opulence. 
In  the  publication  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers,  particularly 
of  Jerom,  he  was  joined  by  John  Amerhach,  a  pious  and 
wealthy  printer,  who  had  educated  his  three  sons  in  the 
study  of  the  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  and  Latin  tongues,  to 
qualify  them  for  editing  the  works  of  this  his  favourite 
author. 

In  1514,  he  contracted  an  intimate  friendship  for  Eras- 
mus, who  came  to  reside  at  Basil,  principally  with  the  de- 
sign of  publishing  the  works  of  Jerom,  for  which  he  had 
made  considerable  preparations,  where  he  found  Froben 
and  Amerbach  engaged  in  a  similar  undertaking,  who 
committed  to  him  the  direction  of  the  work. 

But  what  gave  the  greatest  celebrity  to  Froben,  was 
his  printing  the  Greek  New  Testament,  which  was 
edited  by  Erasmus.  This  was  the  ^first  published  edition 
of  the  Greek  Testament  after  the  invention  of  printing; 
for  although  the  Complutensian  edition  was  first  printed, 
it  was  not  published  till  1522,  whereas  this  was  published 
in  1516.     The  design  of  publishing  this  edition  origin- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  263 

ated  with  Froben,  who  engaged  Erasmus  as  the  editor; 
for  Beatiis  Rhenanus,  who  was  for  some  time  one  of  the 
correctors  of  Froben's  press,  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
Erasmus,  dated  April  17th,  1515,  makes  the  proposal, 
in  the  following  terms ;  "Petit  Frobenius  abs  te  Novum 
Testamentum,  pro  quo  tantum  se  daturum  pollicetur, 
quantum  alias  quisquam:"  "Froben  requests  you  to 
undertake  the  New  Testament,  for  which  he  promises  to 
give  you  as  much  as  any  other  person."  During  the 
time  he  was  employed  upon  it,  Erasmus  lodged  in  the 
house  of  Froben,  as  appears  from  the  subscription  at  the 
end  of  the  first  edition,  which  is,  "Basiliee,  in  sedibus 
Johannis  Frobenii  Hammelburgensis,  Mense  Februario, 
anno  MDXVI." 

Froben  also  commenced  an  edition  of  the  works  of 
AugListin,  in  10  volumes;  and  had  formed  the  design  of 
printing  the  works  of  all  the  Greek  Fathers,  when  his 
life  was  terminated  by  a  universal  palsy,  supposed  to  be 
the  consequence  of  a  dreadful  fall,  some  years  before. 
He  died,  universally  lamented  by  all  who  knew  him,  at 
Basil,  in  1527.^ 

Erasmus,  who  occasionally  assumed  the  praenomen  of 
Desiderius,  was  born  at  Rotterdam,  about  A.  D,  1467; 
and  received  the  early  part  of  his  education  at  an  illus- 
trious school,  at  Daventer,  where  Alexander  Hegius  was 
his  master,  and  Adrianus  Florentius,  afterwards  Pope 
Adrian  IV.  was  his  school-fellow.  At  the  age  of  thirteen, 
he  lost  his  parents ;  his  mother  by  the  plague,  and  his 
father  by  grief  for  her  death.  The  three  guardians  to 
whose  care  he  was  left  by  his  father,  proved  dishonour- 
able and  base;  and  in  order  to  rob  him  of  his  patrimony, 
determined  to  make  him  a  monk,  for  which  purpose  they 
forced  him  into  a  convent  of  friars,  at  Balduc,  in  Brabant ; 
from  whence  he  was  removed  to  another,  at  Sion,  near 

(66)  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  I.  pp.  58.  393. 

Marsh's  Michaelis,  11.  pt.  i.  ch.  xii.  p.  443;  and  pt.  ii.  p.  854 


264  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Delft,  and  thence  to  a  third,  at  Stein,  near  Torgau.  His 
aversion  from  the  monastic  state  induced  him  to  resist 
their  attempts  for  some  years ;  but  at  length,  overcome 
by  their  unwearied  endeavours,  he  entered  among  the 
regular  canons,  and  made  his  profession  in  1486. 

He  did  not,  however,  remain  long  in  the  monastery, 
for  in  1490,  he  was  received  into  the  family  of  Henry  a 
Bergis,  archbishop  of  Cambray ;  and  subsequently  ob- 
tained leave  from  Julius  H.,  and  then  from  Leo  X.,  to  lay 
aside  the  habit  of  the  order,  and  to  quit  the  monastic 
profession. 

From  the  time  that  Erasmus  quitted  his  convent,  to 
the  period  when  he  published  his  New  Testament,  he 
resided  chiefly  in  England  and  France,  and  occasionally 
visiting  Italy.  In  every  country  he  indefatigably  pursued 
his  studies,  obtaining  a  precarious  subsistence  from 
the  generosity  of  his  literary  friends,  the  emoluments  of 
instruction,  and  the  publication  of  several  of  his  minor 
productions.  For  several  years  his  mind  was  occupied 
with  a  design  of  publishing  the  works  of  Jerom,  but 
especially  of  printing  an  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament^ 
with  notes.  Early  in  1515,  he  received  proposals  from 
Froben,  the  celebrated  printer  of  Basil,  to  reside  in  that 
city,  and  become  the  editor  of  a  Greek  Testament.  The 
proposal  according  with  his  own  previous  intention,  he 
removed  to  Basil,  and  edited  both  the  Greek  Testament^ 
and  the  Works  of  Jerom;  which  respectively  appeared  in 
the  year  1516. 

This  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament,  Erasmus  ac- 
companied with  a  Latin  Version;  and  Various  Readings, 
selected  from  several  MSS.  the  works  of  the  Fathers,  and 
the  Vulgate.  It  was  printed  in  folio,  in  two  columns, 
with  the  notes  at  the  end;  and  reprinted  in  1519,  1522, 
1527,  and  1535.  The  publication  of  the  New  Testament 
raised  a  host  of  enemies  against  Erasmus,  some  of  whom 
censured  his  temerity,  whilst  others  laboured  to  affix  the 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  265 

Stigma  of  inaccuracy  and  heresy  upon  him;  and  one  of 
the  colleges  at  Cambridge  forbade  it  to  be  brought  within 
its  walls!  Many  of  his  adversaries  strove  to  have  it 
placed  among  the  prohibited  works,  but  the  Dedication 
to  Leo  X.  with  the  approbation  of  it  expressed  by  that 
pontiff,  and  especially  his  Brief  annexed  to  the  later 
editions,  prevented,  for  a  time,  the  accomplishment  of 
the  malicious  intentions  of  the  Spanish,  and  other  monk- 
ish divines.  His  edition  of  Jerom,  and  several  of  his 
other  works,  met  with  a  severer  fate,  and  were  not  only 
placed  in  -  the  Indices  Expiir gator ii,  as  works  to  be  cor- 
rected and  purged,  but,  in  some  instances,  were  condemn- 
ed to  the  flames. 

The  liberal  and  enlightened  manner  in  which  Erasmus, 
in  the  prefatory  discourses  prefixed  to  his  New  Testa- 
ment, recommended  and  defended  vernacular  transla- 
tions, and  the  universal  perusal  of  the  Sacred  Volume, 
placed  him  amongst  the  warmest  advocates  for  the  circu- 
lation of  the  Scriptures.  His  Preface,  Paraclesis,  and 
Apologia,  deserve  to  be  read  and  studied  by  every  lover 
of  the  Bible,  and  probably  greatly  aided  the  Refor- 
mation, and  subsequent  diffusion  of  Scriptural  truth. 
The  following  brief  extracts  w^ill  give  an  idea  of  his  man- 
ner of  reasoning: 

"  I  differ  exceedingly  from  those  who  object  to  the 
Scriptures  being  translated  into  the  vernacular  tongues, 
and  read  by  the  iUiterate:  as  if  Christ  had  taught  so 
obscurely,  that  none  could  understand  him,  but  a  few 
theologians;  or  as  if  the  Christian  religion  depended  upon 
being  kept  secret.  The  mysteries  of  kings  ought,  perhaps, 
to  be  concealed,  but  the  mystery  of  Christ  strenuously 
urges  publication.  I  would  have  even  the  meanest  of 
women  to  read  the  Gospels,  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul; 
and  I  wish  that  the  Scriptures  might  be  translated  into 
all  languages,  that  they  might  be  known  and  read,  not 
pnly  by  the  Irish  and  Scots,  but  also  by  Saracens  and 


266 

Turks.  Assuredly,  the  first  step  is  to  make  them  known. 
For  this  very  purpose,  though  many  might  ridicule,  and 
others  might  frown,  I  wish  the  husbandman  might  repeat 
them  at  his  plough,  the  weaver  sing  them  at  his  loom, 
the  traveller  beguile  the  tediousness  of  the  way  by  the 
entertainment  of  their  stories,  and  the  general  discourse 
of  all  Christians  be  concerning  them,  since  what  we  are 
in  ourselves,  such  we  almost  constantly  are  in  our  com- 
mon conversation." 

''^Letters,  written  by  those  we  love  and  esteem,  are 
preserved,  and  prized,  and  carried  about  with  us,  and  read 
again  and  again  ;  and  yet  there  are  thousands  of  Chris- 
tians who,  although  otherwise  learned,  never  once,  in  the 
whole  of  their  life,  read  the  books  containing  the  Gos- 
pels and  Epistles.  Mohammedans  violently  defend  their 
opinions ;  and  Jews,  from  their  infancy,  learn  the  precepts 
of  Moses;  but  why  are  we  not  equally  decisive  in  fa- 
vour of  Christ?  They  who  profess  the  Institute  of  Bene- 
dict, adopt,  and  learn,  and  follow  a  Rule  written  by 
a  man  nearly  illiterate.  They  who  are  of  the  order  of 
Augustin,  are  well  versed  in  the  Rule  of  its  author. 
The  Franciscans  adore  the  traditions  of  Francis,  possess 
themselves  of  them,  and  carry  them  with  them  to  every 
part  of  the  world,  nor  ever  think  themselves  safe,  but 
when  they  have  the  book  in  their  bosom.  And  why 
should  they  attribute  more  to  Rules  written  by  men, 
than  Christians  in  general  to  Rules  which  Christ  has 
delivered  to  all;  and  into  which  all  have  been  equally 
initiated  by  baptism."®^ 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  his  Greek  Testament, 
Erasmus  commenced  a  series  of  Paraphrases  on  the 
New  Testament,  forming  an  extensive  supplement  to  the 
notes  accompanying  the  Greek.  His  Paraphrase  of  St, 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  dedicated  to  Cardinal 
Dominic  Grimani,  who  was  himself  a  man  of  eru- 
(67)  Erasmi,  Nov.  Test.  Parac^e«^.  Basil,  1516,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  267 

clit^on,  and  translated  into  Italian,  a  treatise  of  St 
Chrysostom :  his  library,  next  to  that  of  the  pope, 
was  at  that  time  the  most  considerable  in  Rome; 
and  contained  8000  volumes.  The  dedication  is  dated 
A.  1517.  In  1519,  he  dedicated  his  Paraphrase  of  St. 
P aid's  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians,  to  the  Prince  Cardinal 
de  Marca.  In  the  same  year  he  dedicated  his  Para- 
phrase  of  St.  PauVs  Epistles  to  the  Ephesians,  PhilippianSy 
Colossians,  and  Thessalonians,  to  Cardinal  Campegius; 
and  his  Paraphrase  of  St.  PauTs  Epistles  to  Timothy,  to 
Titus,  and  to  Philemoji,  to  Philip  of  Burgundy,  archbishop 
of  Utrecht.  His  Paraphrase  of  the  Epistles  of' St.  James 
and  St.  John,  and  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  he  dedi- 
cated, in  1520,  to  Cardinal  Matthew,  who  had  exhorted 
him  to  undertake  the  paraphrase  of  these  Epistles.  In 
1522,  he  dedicated  his  Paraphrase  of  St.  Matthew,  to 
Charles  V.  and  closed  his  dedication  with  an  excellent 
admonition  to  this  young  emperor,  in  which  he  reminds 
him,  that  "all  wars,  however  justly  undertaken,  or  how- 
ever moderately  conducted,  are  always  followed  by  a 
train  of  calamities  and  sufferings."  In  his  preface  to  this 
paraphrase,  he  exhorts  the  laity  and  the  common  peo- 
ple, to  read  and  study  the  Scriptures,  which  ought,  as  he 
says,  to  lie  open  to  all  well-disposed  people,  and  to  be 
translated  into  all  modern  languages. 

In  1523,  Erasmus  dedicated  his  Paraphrase  of  St. 
Luke,  to  Henry  VIII.  king  of  England.  He  tells  the 
king,  that  Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand,  and  Christiern  of 
Denmark,  and  Queen  Catharine,  were  readers  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  He  also  draws  an  argument  for  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  from  its  successful  propagation, 
and  its  salutary  effects. 

The  Paraphrase  of  St.  John  was  dedicated  to  Fer- 
dinand, brother  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  In  the 
dedication,  Erasmus  gives  Ferdinand  a  great  charac- 
ter;  and  exhorts  him   to  persevere  in   his  good  dis- 


268  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

positions,  and  offers  him  excellent  advice.    At  the  end  of 
the  paraphrase  is  an  epistle  to  the  reader,  recommending 
to  him  piety,  and   dissuading   him  from    superstition. 
The  Paraphrase  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Erasmus  de- 
dicated to  Pope  Clement  VII.  in  1524.     The  Paraphrase 
of  St.  Mark,  which,  in  1521,  he  had  inscribed  to  Cardinal 
Matthew,  he  dedicated   in   1533,  to  Francis  I.  king  of 
France.     In  his  dedication  he  exhorts  Christian  princes 
to  peace,  and  pacific   dispositions ;  and  observes,  with 
pleasure,  what  a  demand  there  was  for  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  how  many  thousand  copies  ivere  sold  every  year. 
The  Paraphrase  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Peter  and  of  St. 
Jude,  he  dedicated  to  Cardinal  Wolsey;  and  after  com- 
plimenting the  cardinal,  informs  him  that  he  has  no  fa- 
vours to  solicit,  besides  the  cardinal's  countenance  and 
approbation.     The  Paraphrase  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  to 
the  Galatians  appears  to  have  been  published  without 
any  particular  dedication.     Erasmus  published  no  para- 
phrase of  the  Revelation.     These  paraphrases  were  after- 
wards collected,  and  published,  together  with  his   other 
works.     The  best  edition  is  that  by  Le  Clerc,  printed  at 
Leyden,  1703,  11  vols.  fol.     Beside  the  paraphrase  of  the 
New  Testament,  he  also  published  paraphrases^  or  dis- 
courses, on  some  of  the  Psalms.     His  discourse  on  the 
First  Psalm  was  dedicated  by  him,  in  1515,  to  Beatus 
Rhenanus,  a  learned  and  pacific  man,  one  of  the  correc- 
tors of  Froben's  press.     In  the  dedication  he  exhorts  all 
persons  to  read  the  Scriptures,  which,  (as  he  afterwards 
affirmed  in  his  other  writings,)  ought  to  be  translated  into 
vulgar  tongues,  and  put  into  the  hands  of  the  vulgar: 
he  also    exhorts   the   common  people  not    to  have  an 
implicit  faith  in  their  teachers,  nor  to  suffer  themselves  to 
be  led  by  the  nose  like  bears. 

The  bold  and  satirical  manner  in  which  Erasmus 
attacked  the  corruptions  of  the  Romish  church  and  clergy, 
not  only  in  his  Biblical  works,  but  in  his  numerous  other 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  269 

writings,  exposed  him  to  the  hatred,  and  malicious  machi- 
nations of  a  host  of  enemies,  who  regarded  him  as  one 
of  the  most  dangerous  and  powerful  opponents  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  and  doctrines.  His  works  were 
exclaimed  against  as  disseminating  heretical  opinions,  and 
placed  in  the  Indices  Expurgatorii  as  dangerous  to  be  read; 
and  himself  only  escaped  the  punishment  of  heretical 
pravity,  by  the  influence  of  his  friends,  and  the  cowardly 
dissimulation  of  some  parts  of  his  conduct.  For  though 
possessed  of  an  enlightened  mind,  a  correct  judgment, 
and  uncommon  learning,  he  unfortunately  had  neither 
piety  nor  firmness  enough  to  become  a  martyr  to  the  truth; 
nor  to  meet  the  fiery  zeal  of  his  adversaries  with  the  intre- 
pidity of  a  reformer.  It  was  this  fear  of  suffering  which 
most  probably  occasioned  his  opposition  to  Luther,  with 
whom  the  monks  ranked  him,  for  "Erasmus,"  said  they, 
'^aid  the  e^^,  and  Luther  hatched  it." 

Erasmus  continued  writing  and  publishing  to  the 
very  close  of  his  life,  occasionally  satirizing  the  monks, 
exposing  the  absurdities  of  many  of  the  doctrines  of  his 
church,  and  defending  the  advocates  of  reformation  and 
truth.  In  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  published  his  dis- 
course, or  Commentary,  on  the  XIV,  Psalm,  which  he 
entitled.  Of  the  purity  of  the  Christian  Church,  consist- 
ing of  allegorical  interpretations,  and  moral  reflections 
upon  the  text.  He  also  republished  his  Letters,  adding 
several  received  from  the  emperor,  and  other  princes, 
and  from  men  in  the  highest  stations ;  and  remarks,  that 
whilst  revising  them,  he  had  found  that  within  the  space 
of  ten  years,  many  of  his  best  friends,  and  old  correspon- 
dents were  dead,  which  caused  him  to  meditate  on  the 
shortness  and  uncertainty  of  human  life.  He  intended 
to  have  revised  and  printed  the  "  Works  of  Origen,"  add- 
ing a  few  short  notes ;  but  before  it  was  completed  he 
was  called  away  by  death ;  and  the  work  was  published 
after  his  decease,  with  a  preface,  by  Beatus  Rhenanus. 


270 

About  a  month  before  his  death,  he  was  seized  with  a 
dysentery,  which  his  feeble  frame,  already  weakened  by 
disease,  was  unable  to  sustain, and  which  proved  mortal  on 
the  12th  of  July,  1536.  The  last  of  his  days  were  spent  in 
constantly  imploring  the  mercy  of  Almighty  God,  and  of 
Jesus  Christ,  without  speaking  of  those  Catholic  ceremo- 
nies, which  he  had  so  frequently  blamed  in  the  monks. 
He  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  church  of  Basil,  or  as  it 
is  generally  called,  Basle. 

In  his  person  he  was  low  of  stature,  well  shaped,  of  a 
fair  complexion,  cheerful  countenance,  low  voice,  and 
agreeable  elocution;  neat  and  decent  in  his  apparel;  and 
a  pleasant  companion  .^^ 

The  unprecedented  circulation  of  the  anti-monastic 
writings  of  Erasmus,  and  the  repeated  editions  of  his 
New  Testament  created  universal  interest,  and  essen- 
tially aided  the  progress  of  truth,  by  exposing  the  vices 
of  the  monks,  and  causing  the  vast  superstructure  of 
superstition  to  tremble  to  its  foundation ;  but  the  far 
more  difficult  labour  of  establishing  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  on  an  immoveable  basis,  was  reserved  for  the 
intrepid  and  illustrious  Luther,  who,  with  a  fearless 
independency  of  spirit,  embraced,  defended,  and  propa- 
gated those  evangelical  and  important  doctrines,  which, 
by  the  gracious  providence  of  God,  induced  and  confirm- 
ed the  happy  event  of  the  ever-memorable  Reformation. 

(68)  Jortin's  Life  of  jErasmus,  passim. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  271 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY    CONTINUIBD. 

Luther.  German  VersiGn.  Duke  of  Wurtemhergs  Li- 
hrary.  Melancthon.  Bugenhagen.  Jonas.  Cruciger. 
Aurogallus.  Rorarius.  Forster.  Ziegler.  Emsers 
Catholic  New  Testament.  Dietenbergs  Bible.  Other 
German  Versions.  Attempts  to  suppress  Luther  s 
Version.  Low-Saxon,  Swedish,  Icelandic,  Hungarian., 
and  Dutch  Versions.  Potkens  Ethiopic  Editions. 
Progress  of  the  Reformation.  Zuingle.  Latin  Ver- 
sion's. Munster.  Leo  Judce.  Bibliander.  Cholin. 
Gualter.  Bullinger.  PelUcan.  German-Swiss  and 
German  Versions. 

THE  ^eat  Saxon  Reformer,  Martin  Luther,  wag 
born  at  Eisleben,  in  the  county  of  Mansfeld,  and 
electorate  of  Saxony,  in  the  year  1483.  His  father  was 
employed  in  the  mines,  and  rose  by  assiduity  and  inte- 
grity to  the  possession  of  property,  and  the  office  of 
magistrate.  His  mother,  who  appears  to  have  been  a 
woman  of  exemplary  piety,  devoted  considerable  atten- 
tion to  the  tuition  of  her  infant  son ;  and  to  her  pious 
instructions  he  was  probably  indebted  for  the  early  devo- 
tional bias  of  his  mind.  After  receiving  a  liberal  edu- 
cation in  the  schools  of  Magdeburg  and  Eisenach,  he 
repaired  to  the  university  of  Erford  or  Erfurt,  and  com- 
menced master  of  arts,  at  the  age  of  twenty.  In  1505, 
he  retired  to  the  Angus tinian  monastery  in  that  place, 
under  the  influence  of  religious  impressions,  occasioned 
by  the  awful  death  of  a  friend,  and  his  own  providential 
deliverance  from  a  tremendous  storm  of  thunder  and 
lightning.  "In  this  university  of  Erford,"  says  Fox, 
"  there  was  a  certain   aged  man   in  the  convent  of  the 


272  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Augustines,  with  whom  Luther,  being  then  of  the  same 
order,  a  Friar  Augustine,  had  conference  upon  divers 
things,  especially  touching  the  article  of  the  Remission 
of  Sins;   the  which  article  the  said  aged  father  opened 
unto  Luther  after  this  sort ;  declaring,  that  we  must  not 
generally  believe  only  forgiveness  of  sins  to  be,  or  to 
belong  to  Peter,  to  Paul,  to  David,  or  such  good  men 
alone;  but  that  God's  express  commandment  is,  that  every 
man  should  believe,  his  sins  particularly  to  be  forgiven 
him  in  Christ ;  and  further  said,  that  this  interpretation 
was  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  St.  Bernard,   and 
shewed  him  the  place,  in  the  ^  Sermon  of  Annunciation/ 
where  it  is  thus  set  forth :  But  add  thou  that  thou  believ^ 
est  this,  that  hy  him  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee.    This  is  the 
testimony  that  the  Holy  Ghost  giveth  thee  in  thy  heart, 
saying,    Thy  sins  are  Jorgiven    thee.      For    this   is    the 
opinion  of  the  Apostle,  that  man  is  freely  justified  hy  faith. 
By  these   words  Luther  was  not  only  strengthened,  but 
was  also  instructed  of  the  full  meaning  of  St.  Paul,  who 
repeateth  so  many  times  this  sentence,    fFe  are  justified 
hy  faith.     And  having   read  the  expositions  of  many 
upon  this  place,  he  then  perceived,  as  well  by  the  purpose 
of  the  old  man,  as   by  the  comfort   he  received  in  his 
spirit,  the  vanity  of  those  interpretations  which  he  had 
read  before,  of  the  schoolmen.     And  so  reading,  by  little 
and  little,  with  conferring  the  sayings   and  examples  of 
the  prophets   and  apostles,  and  continual  invocation  of 
God,  and  excitation  of  faith  by  the  force  of  prayer,  he 
perceived  that  doctrine  most  evidently."* 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  Luther  either  received 
from  one  of  the  monks,  or  accidentally  found  in  the  library, 
a  neglected  copy  of  the  Latin  version  of  the  Bible,  bound 
in  red  morocco.  To  his  great  surprize,  he  discovered 
that  there  were  many  parts  of  the  Scripture  which  were 

never  read  to  the  people  in   the  public   service   of  the 

. ,  ,  .1  — — ^• 

(1)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  II.  pp.  GO,  61. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  273 

church.  He  therefore  studied  the  Sacred  Volume  with 
such  constancy  and  diligence^  that  he  was  very  soon  able 
to  refer  with  ease  and  promptitude  to  any  particular  pas- 
sage. Many  portions  of  it  he  committed  to  memory; 
and  sometimes  spent  the  whole  day  in  endeavouring  to 
gain  the  true  sense  of  one  sentence.  The  incredible 
ardour  with  which  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  gradually  enlightened  his  mind,  and  produced 
those  important  views  of  Christian  doctrine,  experience, 
and  practice,  that  eventually  led  to  the  astonishing 
results  which  took  place  in  the  Christian  church,  and 
spread  the  pure  light  of  the  Gospel  in  every  direction. 

Luther  also  became  a  Biblical,  or  Scriptural  Bachelor, 
(Baccalaureus  Biblicus,)  whose  duty  it  v/as  to  read  lec- 
tures upon  certain  portions  of  Scripture.  The  Biblical 
Bachelors  were,  however,  considered  as  inferior  to  the 
Scholastic  Bachelors,  (Baccalaurii  Sententiarii,)  or  those 
who  read  lectures  on  the  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard, 
and  the  works  of  other  scholastic  divines,  and,  therefore, 
their  degree  was  regarded  merely  as  a  preparatory  one  in 
divinity.  But  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  at  the  time 
when  Luther  entered  the  order  of  the  Augustinians,  it 
was  the  only  one  capable  of  furnishing  a  Biblical  bachelor 
to  the  university  of  Paris ;  for,  at  the  reformation  of  the 
theological  faculty,  or  college,  at  Paris,  towards  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Augustin  monks  were 
selected  to  furnish  the  college  of  divinity,  once  a  year, 
with  a  Biblical  bachelor,  from  which  it  is  natural  to  con- 
clude, that  the  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and  other  men- 
dicant orders,  had  entirely  neglected  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  especially,  as  by  the  original  decree  of 
the  theological  faculty,  prior  to  the  reformation  of  the 
college,  each  of  the  mendicant  orders  was  enjoined  to  pro- 
vide annually  a  Biblical  bachelor,  yet  in  the  reformation 
of  the  college,  none  but  the  Augustinians  were  able  to 

Vol..  II.  S 


274  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

satisfy  that  demand.^     Melancthon  was  a  Biblical  Ba* 
chelor  of  the  same  order  as  Luther. 

In  his  Augustine  superior,  Staupitius,  or  Staupitz, 
Luther  found  a  zealous  adviser  of  the  study  of  the  iSerip- 
tures,  in  preference  to  any  other  pursuit.  In  the  techni- 
cal  language  of  the  times,  Staupitz  recommended  him  to 
become  a  good  Textualis  et  Localis,  by  which  he  meant, 
the  acquisition  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  texts  of 
Scripture,  and  an  expertness  in  quoting  them.  In  1507, 
he  was  ordained;  and  the  next  year  was  called  by  Stau- 
pitz, to  the  professorship  of  logic,  in  the  university  of 
Wittemberg.  In  1510,  he  was  sent  on  special  business 
to  Rome,  and  after  his  return  was  created  doctor  in  divi- 
nity ;  and  exchanged  the  philosophical  for  the  theological 
chair,  of  the  same  university.*  He  now  comuieneed 
lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  tiie  Psalms-; 
he  also  diligently  applied  to  the  study  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  languages,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  more 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures. 

"Such,"  says  Melancthon,  "were  the  employments  of 
Luther  at  the  time  when  those  prostitute  Indulgences 
were  first  proclaimed  by  that  most  impudent  Dominican, 
Tetzel.  Burning  with  the  love  of  every  thing  that  was 
godly,  and  irritated  by  Tetzel's  shameful  discourses,  he 
published  some  propositions  concerning  the  nature  of 
indulgences.  The  Dominican,  in  return,  publicly  burnt 
Luther's  propositions,  and  menaced  the  heretic  himself 
with  the  flames.  In  a  word,  the  outrageous  conduct  of 
Tetzel  and  his  associates,   absolutely  compelled  Luther 

(2)  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist,  by  Maclaine,  IV.  p.  218,  note. 
Du  Cange,  Glossar.  Lat.  v.  Haccalariu 
*  The  learned  readpr  will  find  Lather's  views  of  the  duty  of  a  Chris- 
tian divine,  delineated  in  a  summary,  extracted  from  Melchior  Adam's 
Life  of  the  German  Reformer :  "  Tria  faciunt  theologum,  dixit :  wedi' 
tatio,  oratio,  tentatio:  et  tria  verbi  ministro  facienda  :  evolvere  Biblia; 
orare  serib ;  et  semper  discipulum  manere*  Optimi  ad  vulgus  hi  sunt 
concionatores :  qui  pueriliter^  trivialiter,  popufariter,  et  simpltcissim4 
docent.  (M.  Adami  Vit^  Germ,  Theolog.  .;  16d. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  275 

to  discuss  the  subject  at  length,  in  support  of  the  cause 
of  truth." 

In  this  manner  began  the  controversy,  in  1517,  be- 
tween the  reformers  and  the  papists.  At  first,  Luther 
had  to  contend  almost  alone,  against  a  host  of  powerful 
and  violent  enemies;  but  as  his  doctrines  became  more 
generally  known,  and  his  character  and  views  more  per- 
fectly understood,  he  was  joined  by  other  worthies,  in 
the  sacred  cause,  and  the  Reformation  spread  wider 
daily,  and  daily  gathered  strength.  As  the  Reformation 
advanced,  Luther  became  more  fully  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  furnishing  the  people  with  vernacular  trans- 
lations of  the  Scriptures. 

In  1521,  after  having  attended  the  diet  of  Worms,  in 
order  to  vindicate  the  doctrines  he  taught,  he  was,  on 
his  return,  seized  and  confined  to  the  castle  of  Wartburg 
and  its  vicinity,  by  Frederic,  elector  of  Saxony,  proba- 
bly to  protect  him  from  the  violence  of  his  enemies,  and 
of  the  emperor  in  particular.  In  this  retirement,  which 
he  used  to  call  his  Patmos,  he  first  began  to  apply  himself 
to  the  great  undertaking  of  a  ncAV  Translation  of  the  Bible 
into  German.  For  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  this  impor- 
tant labour,  he  had  previously  devoted  some  time  to  the 
study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek.  His  skill  in  German  is~ 
universally  admitted.  With  such  assiduity  did  Luther 
devote  himself  to  the  work,  that  before  he  left  the  castle 
of  Wartburg,  in  March  1522,  he  had  translated  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament,  from  the  Greek,  which,  after 
his  return  to  Wittemberg,  was  submitted  to  the  critical 
revision  of  Melancthon.  Of  the  different  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  St.  Matthews  Gospel  was  published 
first,  then  St.  Mark's^  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
The  other  books  soon  followed,  so  that  the  whole  came 
out  by  September  1522.  With  a  view  to  extensive  cir- 
culation among  the  lower  orders,  Luther  took  care  that 
the  form  of  the  edition  should  be  cheap,  and  by  publishing 


276 

the  different  books  of  the  New  Testament  separately^ 
sold  them  at  a  very  low  rate.  And  such  was  the  rapid 
sale  of  this  translation,  that  a  second  edition  was  print- 
ed before  the  conclusion  of  the  same  year.  Of  the  labour 
bestowed  upon  this  translation,  and  the  essential  assist- 
ance afforded  by  Melancthon,  we  may  judge  by  the  fol- 
lowing circumstances.  In  a  letter  which  Luther  ad- 
dressed to  Spalatin,  secretary  to  Frederic  of  Saxony,  after 
returning  from  Wartburg,  he  says,  "I  translated  not 
only  John's  Gospel,  but  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
in  my  Patmos ;  but  Melancthon  and  I  have  now  begun 
to  revise  the  whole  of  it,  and  it  will,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  do  us  credit.  We  sometimes  need  your  assistance 
to  direct  us  to  suitable  modes  of  expression.  Prepare 
yourself  therefore,  but  supply  us  only  with  such  words  as 
are  simple,  and  avoid  all  that  are  confined  in  their  use  to 
the  camps  or  court.  We  wish  the  book  to  be  distinguish- 
ed for  the  simplicity  of  its  style.  To  accomplish  this,  in 
one  difficult  passage,  we  beg  you  will  furnish  us  with 
the  names,  colours,  and  if  possible,  a  sight,  of  the  precious 
stones  mentioned  in  Revelation  xxi."  This  request  had 
reference  to  the  elector  s  collection  of  gems.  Spalatin 
complied  with  the  wish  of  his  friends,  and  transmitted  to 
them  the  precious  stones  in  question,  which,  after  due 
examination,  they  sent  back.  Again,  in  a  letter  which 
Melancthon  addressed  to  the  celebrated  physician,  George 
Sturciad,  dated  the  5  th  of  May  1522,  he  speaks  of  the 
whole  version  being  in  the  hands  of  the  printers;  and 
states  that  he  had  paid  particular  attention  to  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  money  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament; 
and  had  also  consulted  with  many  learned  men,  that  the 
version  might  express  them  with  the  utmost  accuracy.  He 
begs  his  correspondent  to  give  his  opinion,  and  to  consult 
Mutianus,  as  being  profoundly  skilled  in  the  knowledge 
of  Roman  antiquities ;  and  entreats  him  to  attend  to  this 
application,  from  a  regard  to  the  general  good,  and  to  da 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  277 

it  immediately,  because  the  work  was  in  the  press^  and 
printing"  with  great  expedition. 

After  his  return  to  Wittemberg,  Luther  proceeded  to 
the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament.  On  the  2nd  of 
November  1522,  he  thus  expressed  himself  in  a  letter  to 
a  friend:  "In  my  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  I 
am  only  in  Leviticus.  It  is  inconceivable  how  much 
writing-  letters,  business,  conversation,  and  many  other 
things,  have  interrupted  my  progress.  I  am  now  deter- 
mined to  shut  myself  up  at  home,  and  to  use  dispatch, 
so  that  the  Five  Books  of  Moses  may  be  sent  to  press  by 
January.  We  shall  print  them  separately:  after  that 
we  proceed  to  the  historical  parts  of  Scripture,  and  lastly 
to  the  Prophets.  The  size  and  price  render  it  necessary 
to  make  these  divisions  in  the  publication." 

In  accomplishing  this  translation, Luther  had  to  encoun- 
ter various  difficulties,  not  only  from  the  different  idioms  of 
the  Hebrew  and  German  languages,  but  from  the  proper 
names  of  the  animals  mentioned  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  the 
parts  of  them  noticed  relative  to  the  Jewish  sacrifices.  In  a 
letter  to  Wenceslaus  Lincus,  he  exclaims,  "How  difficult 
and  laborious  the  task,  to  force  the  Hebrew  writers  to 
speak  German,  which  they  resist,  like  the  nightingale 
refusing  to  quit  its  delightful  melody  to  imitate  the 
coarse  notes  of  the  monotonous  cuckow!"  And  in  ano- 
ther to  Spalatin,  he  writes,  "We  find  so  much  difficulty 
in  translating  Job,  arising  from  the  sublimity  of  his  style^ 
that  he  appears  much  more  impatient  of  our  translation, 
than  of  the  consolation  of  his  friends,  or  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  sat  for  ever  on  the  dunghill.  Unless,  per- 
haps, the  author  meant  that  his  book  should  never  be 
translated.  This  has  caused  the  delay  of  the  press  in 
this  third  part  of  the  Bible." 

By  the  friendly  aid  of  Spalatin,  he  obtained  much  in- 
formation respecting  diflferent  species  of  Insects  and 
Reptiles,  as  well  as  of  Wild  Beasts,  and  Rapacious  Birds. 


278  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

He  also  employed  butchers  to  dissect  different  animals y 
at  his  own  house,  that  by  examining  their  different  parts, 
he  might  accurately  express  the  sacrificial  terms.  But 
Luther  was  not  satisfied  with  inquiries  only  of  this  na- 
ture, for  he  wisely  called  in  to  his  assistance  in  this  great 
work,  several  singularly  learned,  and  pious  professors  of 
divinity,  that  each  might  contribute  towards  the  perfection 
of  the  whole.  Their  method  was  to  assemble  from  time 
to  time,  when  each  came  prepared,  by  having  previously 
studied  the  particular  parts  of  the  Bible  then  under  consi- 
deration. Some  of  the  professors  excelled  in  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Chaldee  paraphrases,  or  Targums ;  others 
in  the  Rabbinical  writings  ;  while  others  brought  various 
lights  from  the  Greek  Septuagint,  and  the  fragments  of 
the  Greek  translations  of  Aquila,  Symmachus,  and  Theo- 
dotion.  Luther,  who  presided,  had  always  before  him 
the  Hebrew  Bible,  the  Latin  Vulgate,  and  his  own  manu- 
script version;  Melancthon  brought  the  Greek,  and  Cru- 
ciger  the  Chaldee,  and  the  other  professors  the  Rabbinical 
writings.  Thus  they  proceeded  to  examine  the  whole, 
sentence  by  sentence,  till  after  sufficient  deliberation, 
it  was  agreed,  either  to  confirm,  alter,  correct,  or  im- 
prove the  translation,  as  occasion  required;  and  so  de- 
sirous were  they  of  producing  a  correct  translation,  that 
they  sometimes  returned  fourteen  successive  days  to  the 
7^ econsi deration  of  a  single  line,  or  even  a  word! 

The  Old  Testament  was  published  in  parts  as  well  as 
the  New,  but  the  writers  who  have  written  concerning 
Luther's  version,  differ  considerably  respecting  the  times 
at  which  they  appeared;  the  following  is  the  statement  of 
Walch,  which,  from  the  dates  afhxed  to  copies  of  some  of 
the  portions  in  the  library  of  the  king  of  Wurtemberg, 
seems  to  be  tolerably  correct.  The  Pentateuch,  or  Five 
Books  of  Moses,  appeared  in  1523;  the  book  oi  Joshua,  and 
the  rest  of  the  Historical  Books,  except  Job,  in  1524;  and 
later  in  the  same  year^  Joh,  the  Psalms^  Proverbs,  Eccle- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  279 

siastes,  and  Solomoiis  Song.  In  1526,  were  printed  the 
Prophecies  of  Jonah  and  Hahahkuh;  in  1528,  Zechar'mh, 
and  afterwards  Isaiah.  In  1529,  the  Book  of  IFlsdom 
was  published;  in  1530,  the  Prophecy  of  Z)aw/e/,  and  dur- 
ing the  same  year  the  remainder  of  the  Apocryphal  Boohs, 
In  1531,  Luther  published  anew  and  more  liberal  trans- 
lation of  the  Psalms:  and  in  1531,  and  1532,  completed 
the  rest  of  the  Prophets.^  In  1534,  the  Bible  was  first 
published  complete:  the  Psalms  in  this  edition  wereld^pse 
of  the  translation  of  1531.  The  eagerness  with  which 
copies  of  this  translation  were  sought  after,  called  for  nu- 
merous editions,  so  that  beside  several  printed  at  Nurem- 
berg, Strasburg,  Augsburg,  and  other  places  in  Germany, 
editions  were  printed  under  the  inspection  of  Luther,  and 
his  learned  coadjutors, at Wittemberg,  in  1535,1536,1538, 
1539,  1541,  1543,  1544,  and  1545;  which  was  the  last 
edition  that  Luther  superintended,  his  decease  occurring 
in  1546.  After  his  decease,  editions  of  the  German 
Scriptures  were  multiplied  so  rapidly,  that  betwixt  the 
years  1534,  (when  John  LufFt,  of  Wittemberg,  printed 
the  first  edition  of  the  Bible,)  and  1574,  a  hundred  thou- 
sand copies  were  issued  from  the  office  of  one  printer 
only!*  The  king  of  Wurtembergs  library,  at  Stutgard, 
contains  many  of  the  rarest  editions  of  Luther's  Bible, 
among  which  we  notice  the  following  in  folio,  viz.;  the 
New  Testament,  without  date,  but  known  to  be  the  first 
edition  of  1522;  two  editions  of  the  Pentateuch,  ztv'M- 
out  date,  said  to  be  of  the  year  1523;  Joshua  and  Es- 
ther, without  date,  but  printed  according  to  the  cata- 
logue, in  1523;  the  books  of  Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs, 
EccLEsiASTEs,  and  SoNG  OF  Solomon,  1524 ;  the  Pro- 
phets, 1532;  the  first  edition  of  the  whole  Bible,  1534; 

(3)  Walchii    (J.  G.)    Bibliotheca   Theologica,  IV,  cap.   viii.   p.    82. 

Jenae,  1765,  8?o. 
Adleri  Bibliotheca  Biblica,  olim  Lorckianaj  pars  iii.  pp.  7 — 18, 
Altons,  1787,  4to. 

(4)  Walch.  ut  sup.  p,  86. 


280  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

(the  third  part  of  the  Old  Testament  wanthig;)  seve- 
ral other  of  the  rarest  editions,  viz.,  1535,  1536,  1539, 
1541,  1543,  1545,'  all  printed  at  Wittemberg,  by  John 
(Hans)  Lufit.  There  are  also  in  the  same  valuable  col- 
lection, three  editions  of  the  Prophecy  of  Habakkuk,  all 
dated  1526, 4to.,  but  differing  from  each  other  in  the  trans- 
lation ;  two  of  Jonah,  of  the  same  date,  in  4to.  differing 
from  each  other  in  the  translation;  one  of  Daniel,  1530, 
4to.;  and  also  Jonah  and  Habakkuk,  1526,  4to.;  beside 
many  other  rare  editions  of  the  whole,  or  parts  of  Luther's 
German  translation  of  the  Bible,  printed  during  his  life.^ 

(5)  A'dleri  Bibliotheca  Biblica  serenissimi  Wurtembergensium  Ducis, 
olim  Lorckiana,  sec.  xxviii.  pt.  iii.  pp.  7 — 2^, 

The  following  anecdotes,  relative  to  the  king  of  AVurtemberg's 
Library,  %viil  be  interesting  to  the  Biblical  student.  In  17G8,  Charles, 
the  late  duke  of  Wurtemberg,  who  was  distinguished  for  his  knowledge 
and  love  of  books,  began  to  collect  for  his  library  at  Stufgard,  which 
in  1804  contained  upwards  of  100,000  volumes,  and  was  every  day 
increasing.  The  duke  travelled  into  various  countries,  and  purchased 
books  at  very  high  prices.  The  collection  of  Bibles  is  unique,  and 
comprises  upwards  of  9000  different  editions;  and  3000  more  were 
said  to  be  wanting-  in  1804,  to  complete  the  collection.  In  1784,  the 
duke  went  to  Copenhagen,  where  he  purchased  the  collection  of  Bibles 
which  had  been  made  by  a  clergyman  of  the  name  of  Lorck,  amounting 
to  more  than  4000  editions  ;  and  shortly  after  bought  M.  Panzer's  col- 
lection, consisting  of  1645  volumes.  Of  that  part  of  the  Biblical  collec- 
tion which  the  duke  purchased  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lorck,  Adler  printed 
the  above-mentioned  catalogue,  comprising  notices  of  5155  articles, 
in  4to.  at  Altona,  in  1787.  Bishop  Marsh  pronounces  it  "a  catalogue 
of  great  merit,  and  great  utility."  As  it  is  become  rare,  even  on  the 
Continent,  an  analysis  of  it  from  one  now  before  me  maybe  acceptable 
to  the  reader. 

The  First  Part,  containing  the  Hebrezc,  Greek,  and  Oriental  versions, 
has  the  following  list  of  dialects  and  editions,  comprehending  998  articles: 

Editions  of  the  nbule,  or  distinct  parts  of  the  Bible. 

Ko.  of  editions.  No.  of  editions, 

Ethiopic 13 

Persian. 7 

Turkish 6 

Coptic 1 

Armenian 5 

Tamul 13 

Ilindoostanee 6 

Malayan 14 

Cingalese 1 

Jewish-German 35 


Polyglott  Bibles,  &c 119 

Hebrew 267 

Greek 346 

Modern  Greek 8 

Hebrew  Versions 17 

G.eek,  (Old  Testament)....  51 

Chaldee 22 

Samaritan  (Fragments)....  4 

Syriac 35 

Arabic 28 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY, 


281 


An  edition  of  Luther's  German  translation  of  the  Bible, 
so  far  as  had  then  appeared, including-  the  whole,  except  the 
Prophets^  was  printed  at  Nuremberg,  by  Peyp  us,  in  1 524,  fol. 
A  copy  of  this  early  edition  is  in  the  magnificent  library 
of  Lord  Spencer.    Dibdin  (Biblioth.  Spencer,  vol.  I.  p.  62) 


The  Second  Pait  contains  the  Latin  and  its  dialects  ;  including  1157 
articles,  viz, 

No.  of  editions.  No.  of  editioir!. 


Latin  Bibles,  &c,  , 790 

Portuguese IS 

Spanish. 15 


[(alian 43 

French 29'! 

Rhaetian 1 


The  Third  Part  exhibits  the  Teutonic,  or  German  versions,  and  con- 
tains 1158  articles,  viz. 


Ancient  German, 23 

Luther's     German    version, 

edited    during  his  life....  124 

after  his  death  .. .  657 

Catholic  versions 46 


Germnn  Reformers.,. 43^ 

Heterodox,  as  Socinians,  &o.  55 

Orthodox 95 

Saxon  Bibles 115 


Bohemian 21 

Wendish,  or   Sorabic IQ 

Polish 20 


The  Fourth  Part  includes  the  other  European   dialects,   and  the 
American,  comprising  774  articles,  viz. 

English 215 

Dutch 274 

Danish 116 

Icelandic 14 

Greenlandish 3 

Creole 2 

Fanteic,  or  Acraic 1 

Swedish 45 

Finnish 6 

J.apponic 3 

R  ussian 8 

Croatian 3 


Lithuanian 
Lettonian.  . 
Esthonian., 


6 
7 
4 
Hangarian 7 

5 
1 
1 

2 


Welsh 

Irish 

Cantabrian,  or  Basque... 
North- American  Indian. . 


Portuguese 
Italian.. . . 


French 104 

German., 105 

English , 33 


Dutch 84 

Danish 21 


The  Appendixes,   which  comprise   1045  articles,   contain  in  various 
languages, 

Apocryphal  Books Ill 

Poetical  l*araphrases,chiefly  Psalms 

Polyglott 1 

Greek 55 

Latin 201 

Spanish 4 

I 


Bohemian 

Polish 

Malay 

Erse 

Hungarian. 2 

Harmonies  of  the  Bible 73 

Concordances  of  the  Bible...      29 

Histories  of  the  Bible 39 

Books  of  Images,  or  Figures .  168 


282  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

observes,  "they  are  a  magnificent  production ;  being  print- 
ed in  a  large  type,  with  jet-black  ink,  upon  stout  excellent 
vellum,  and  having  a  great  number  of  capital  initials, 
spiritedly  cut  in  wood,  which  contain  historical  or  other 
subjects,  treated  of  in  each  chapter.  They  have  signa- 
tures, catch-words,  and  paginary  numbers." — Respecting 
the  edition  of  1539,  Luther  wrote  to  his  friend  Pontanus 
on  the  20th  of  September,  of  that  year,  in  which  he  thus 
expresses  his  desire:  "  I  hope  the  An  halt  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  will  take  care  that  there  be  at  least  three 
copies  of  this  edition  printed  upon  vellum ;  for  each  of 
which  it  may  be  necessary  to  procure  340  calves-shins, 
formerly  to  be  procured  for  60  florins,  but  now  indeed  at 
four  times  that  price."  See  Seckendorf's  Com,  lib.  i. 
pp.  203,  204 :  lib.  iii.  p.  254.^' 

Of  the  later  editions,  that  of  1541  was  the  one  upon 
which  Luther  bestowed  the  greatest  care  in  revising  and 
correcting.  It  was  printed  in  2  vols,  folio,  and  orna- 
mented with  wood-cuts.  An  unique  copy  upon  vellumy 
of  this  edition,  was  in  the  possession  of  the  late  James 
Edwards,  Esq.  of  Manor  House,  Karrow-on-the-HilL 
At  the  sale  of  his  rare  collection  of  books,  it  was  pur- 
chased by  George  Hibbert,  Esq.  for  ^89.  5.  6.  The  ac- 
count of  it  iii  the  catalogue  of  Mr.  Edwards'  library, 
must  interest  every  Biblical  scholar  in  its  fate  :  it  is  there 
described  as  "  the  first  edition  of  Luther's  translation  of 
the  Bible,  after  his  final  revision.  His  own  copy  ivhich 
he  used  till  his  decease.  This  copy,"  it  is  added,  "must 
always  excite  the  deepest  interest  and  most  lively  emo- 
tions, in  the  breast  of  every  Protestant.  The  Manuscript 
Notes,  prefixed  to  each  volume,  seem  to  introduce  us  to  the 

The  Supplement  cox\i2i\w?>.,  beside  Commentaries  on  some  of  the  Canon- 
ical Books,  and  Poetical  Paraphrases  of  the  Psalms,  1  Syriac  version 
of  the  Gospels;  1  Tamiil  version  of  the  Old  Testament  to  Job  inclu- 
sive ;  1  Cingalese  version  of  several  portions  of  the  New  Testament ; 
1  Malay  version  of  the  New  Testament;  Books  of  Prints,  &c. 
(6)  Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron,  I.  p.  164,  note* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  283 

closest  acquaintance  with  a  bright  assemblag-e  of  reform- 
ers. We  find  Luther  exhibiting  in  the  privacy  of  retire- 
ment, the  same  unshaken  confidence  in  the  Deity  under 
the  persecutions  he  was  suffering,  as  he  nobly  evinced  in 
public.  In  a  manuscript  note  in  the  second  volume,  he 
transcribes  the  [4th]  verse  of  the  xxiii.  Psalm,  ^  Etiam 
quum  ambularem  per  vallem  lethal! s  umbrae,  non  time- 
rem  malum,  quia  tu  mecum  es;'  and  then  adds  a  passage 
strongly  indicative  of  his  own  exalted  ideas  of  faith.  He 
appears  to  have  bequeathed  this  copy  to  Bugenhagen, 
who,  on  the  19th  of  May,  1556,  wrote  in  it  a  pious  dis- 
tich, and  some  religious  sentiments,  in  which  he  denies 
the  necessity  of  profane  learning.  The  illustrious  Me- 
lancthon  was  its  next  possessor.  He  writes  a  remarkable 
passage  relative  to  the  final  consummation  of  all  things, 
and  intimates  his  belief,  that  the  end  of  the  world  is  not  far 
distant,  adding,  '  May  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  Almighty 
God,  preserve  and  protect  his  poor  flock.  Scriptum 
manu  Philippi,  1557.'  The  same  year  it  passed  into  the 
hands  of  George  Major,  another  reformer,  who  has  writ- 
ten in  it  a  compendious  exposition  of  his  faith,  signed 
with  his  name.  In  this  version  Luther  omits  the  con- 
tested verse  relative  to  the  three  heavenly  witnesses T  * 
1  John  V.  7  J  It  is  a  singular  coincidence,  that  in  the 
library  of  the  king  of  Wurtemberg,  there  is  a  copy  of  the 
edition  of  1545,  in  which  the  same  reformers,  Luther, 
Bugenhagen,  Melancthon,  and  George  Major,  have  like- 
wise written  manuscript  notes.^ 

Different  opinions  have  been  formed  of  the  style  and 
correctness  of  Luther's  version,  and  it  might  be  expected 
that  his  adversaries  would  endeavour  to  depreciate  his 
version,  yet  even  the  papal  historian,  Maimbourg,  acknow- 

*  Walch  says,  the  first  edition  of  Luther's  translation,  in  which  this 
verse  was  inserted,  was  the  Wittemberg  edition  of  1596.  See  VValchii 
Biblioth.  Theolog.  IV.  cap.  viii.  p.  86. 

(7)  Gentleman's  Magazine,  LXXXV.  p.284.  Bibliotheca  Edvsardsiana. 

(8)  Adleri  Biblioth.  JBiblica,  &c.  sec.  xxviii.  p.  12. 


284 

ledges,  that   Luther's  translations  of  the   Old  and  New 
Testament  were  remarkably  elegant,  and  in   general  so 
much  approved,  that  they  were  read  by  almost  every  bo- 
dy throughout  Germany.     Women  of  the  first  distinction 
studied  them  with  indefatigable  diligence,  and  steadily 
defended   the   tenets   of    the  reformer   against   bishops, 
monks,  and  catholic  doctors.^     The  dialect  of  the  trans- 
lation became  the  literary  language  of  the  most  elegant 
German  writers,  and  has  m.aintained  its  superiority  to 
the  present  time.     Of  this  last  instance  of  the  popularity 
of  the  important  version  of  Luther,  a  modern  grammari- 
an thus   expresses   himself:   "There   existed,  about    the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  three  grand   divisions  of  the 
German    language,    viz,    the    Upper    German,     (Ober 
Deutsch,)  the  Low  German,  {Nieder  Deutsck,  or  Piatt 
DeiitschJ   and  lastly  the  High  German  (Hoch  Deidsch), 
Before  that  era,  every  literary  production  which  was  com- 
posed in  the  German  tongue,  was   written  in  the  Upper 
German ;  this  was  the  vehicle  of  literature  in  that  coun- 
try.    The  High  German  was  the  native  dialect  of  Luther, 
and  by  the  influence  of  his  example,  it  began   to  rise  up 
into  competition  with  the  former  idiom,   and   was  soon 
spread  throughout  the   whole  nation.     The  Bible,  and 
other  works  of  great  interest  at  that  period,  published  in 
this  dialect,  and  the  number  of  protestant  divines  which 
issued  from  the  electorate  of  Saxony,    tended  to  make  it 
known  even  in  the  remoter  parts  of  the  country.     It  was 
read  and  understood  every  where,  and   by  degrees  culti- 
vated as  the  general  language  of  all  Germany.     It  drove 
the  Upper  German  from  that  preeminence  which  it  had 
hitherto  occupied,  and  in  its  stead,  possessed  itself  of  the 
fields  of  literature  and  science." '" 

The  chief  coadjutors  of  Luther  in  the   laborious  task 
of  translation,   and   in   the   subsequent  revisions,  were 

(9)  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  ch.  xvi.  p.  84. 

(10)  Noehden's  Grammar  of  the  German  Language,  Introd.   pp.  3,  4. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  235 

Philip  Melancthon;  John  Bugenhage.v  or  Pome- 
RANUs;  Justus  Jonas;  Casper  Cruciger;  and  Mat- 
thew AuROGALLUs.  The  corrector  of  the  press  was 
George    Rorar,   or  Rorarius. 

The  amiable  and  profoundly  learned  Philip  Melanc- 
thon, (or  according-  to  the  German  name,  Schwart- 
zerde,)  was  born  at  Bretten,  a  small  town  in  the 
Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  year  1497.  His  early- 
proficiency  in  learning'  was  such,  that  at  twelve  years  of  age 
he  became  a  student  at  the  university  of  lieidelber^^-;  he 
afterwards  removed  to  Tubingen,  where  he  was  admitted. 
in  1513,  to  a  master's  degree.  He  immediately  began 
to  give  lectures,  as  a  public  tutor,  on  Virgil  and  Terence, 
the  latter  of  which  occasioned  him  some  labour;  for  so 
low  was  the  state  of  literature  at  this  period,  that  the 
text  of  that  poet  had  actually  been  printed  in  the  manner 
of  a  prose  writer,  and  of  course  the  versification  had  been 
wholly  destroyed.  Melancthon  first  pointed  out  to  the 
students  the  diversified  Iambic  measure,  employed  by 
Terence,  and  then  proceeded  with  great  labour  and  per- 
severance, to  restore  the  whole  text  to  its  metrical  arrange- 
ment. He  afterwards  delivered  lectures  on  select  parts 
of  Cicero's  works;  and  on  the  first  six  books  of  Livy's 
history:  he  also  edited  different  classical  authors.^  At 
the  age  of  twenty-oyie,  he  was  chosen  professor  of  Greek 
in  the  university  of  Wittemberg,  at  the  instance  of  the 
celebrated  Reuchlin,  to  whom  he  was  on  several  accounts 
under  peculiar  obligation. 

In  the  midst  of  his  classical  and  scientific  engagements. 


*  A  beautifully  executed  Variorum  copy  of  Cicero  De  O^aV.?,  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  writer  of  the  present  work,  with  the  Notes  of  Melancthou 
amongst  others,  printed  by  Thomas  Richards,  Paris  1550,  4to,  Ciimprivi- 
legio  Regis.  'Y\\U  rare  edition  has  also  the  works  De  Settectufe,  De  Jmici-* 
till,  De  Somnio  Sa'pionis,  by  the  same  printer,  and  of  the  same  date; 
and  Pnradoxa,  by  John  L,  Tiletan,  1546,  Paris.  The  Tex/ of  the 
works  printed  by  Richards,  is  in  a  well  defined  open  Roman  type,  and  the 
Kotes  in  a  small  neat  Italic;  the  Greek  c^uotations  are  qlear  and  good. 


286  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

the  mind  of  Melancthon  had  been  early  imbued  with  a 
knowledge  and  love  of  the  Scriptures.  When  but  a  boy, 
Reuchlin  had  presented  him  with  a  small  Bible,  printed  at 
Basil,  at  the  press  of  Frobenias.  This  he  carried  about 
with  him  continually,  and  read  it  with  eagerness  wherever 
he  came,  so  that  from  the  attention  he  paid  to  it  at 
church,  he  was  suspected  of  reading  profane  authors, 
instead  of  repeating  the  offices  of  devotion.  In  the  margin 
of  his  Bible  he  inserted  such  explanatory  hints  as  occurred 
to  his  own  reflections,  or  appeared  to  be  of  sufficient 
importance  in  the  authors  which  he  perused.  Thus  his 
mind  became  prepared  for  receiving  the  doctrines  of 
Luther,  with  whom  he  was  associated  in  the  university 
of  Wittemberg. 

In  1520,  Melancthon  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which  Luther  afterwards  pub- 
lished without  his  knowledge.  But  so  rare  was  the  word 
of  God,  and  so  seldom  to  be  obtained,  especially  in  the 
Original  languages,  at  the  time  he  began  to  proclaim 
the  Truth,  that  he  was  obhged  to  print  select  parts 
of  the  Greek  Testament,  for  the  use  of  the  students  in  the 
university  who  attended  his  lectures.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  was  edited  by  him  in  1520;  the^r^^  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians  in  1521 ;  the  second  Epistle  separately, 
the  same  year;  and  also  the  Epistle  to  the  Colosslans.^^ 

In  1527,  John,  elector  of  Saxony,  appointed  Melancthon, 
in  conjunction  with  other  grave  and  learned  divines,  to 
visit  and  reform  the  churches  throughout  that  electorate. 
Afterwards  he  was  employed  to  draw  up  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  in  which  it  is  allowed  he  has  represented  the 
sentiments  of  the  reformers  with  great  elegance,  perspi- 
cuity, and  strength ;  and  which  received  its  name  from 
being  presented,  in  1530,  to  the  emperor,  at  the  diet  held 
in  that  city,  as  the  confession  of  faith  of  those  who  from 
having  protested  against  the  decree  of  the  diet  of  Spires, 
(11)  Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionaiyj  VI,  p.  134, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  587 

in  1529,  had  received  the  honourable  denomination  of 
Protestants. 

After  powerfully  contributing  by  his  talents,  learning, 
and  influence,  to  the  spread  of  truth  and  the  reformation 
of  religion,  this  great  and  good  man  was  called  to  his 
eternal  rest,  on  the  19th  of  April,  1560;  and  his  remains 
were  interred  in  the  presence  of  multitudes  of  real  mourn- 
ers, in  the  church  of  the  castle  at  Wittemberg. 

His  works  were  collected  by  his  son-in-law,  Casper 
Peucer,  and  printed  at  Wittemberg  in  1601,  in  4  vols, 
folio.  »^ 

John  Bugenhagen  was  a  native  of  Pomerania,  from 
whence  he  was  sometimes  called  Pomeranus.  He  was 
born  June  24th,  1485.  He  made  considerable  progress 
in  learning,  and  became  distinguished  as  rector  of  the 
school  at  Treptow.  When  Luther's  treatise  on  the  "Ba- 
bylonish Captivity"  came  out  in  1521,  and  he  had  read 
only  a  few  pages  of  it,  he  exclaimed,  "The  author  of  this 
book  is  the  most  pestilent  heretic  that  ever  infested  the 
church  of  Christ."  After  a  few  days  he  read  it  more 
carefully,  and  was  induced  to  read  it  again  and  again, 
with  the  closest  attention,  and  at  length  ingenuously 
recanted  his  opinion  in  the  following  strong  terms:  "The 
whole  world  is  blind,  and  involved  in  Cimmerian  dark- 
ness; and  this  man  alone  sees  the  truth."  From  this 
time  he  embraced  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  and  became 
the  strenuous  advocate  of  Justification  by  faith.  "  I 
am  convinced,"  says  he,  "that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  with 
Luther;  he  is  a  man  of  an  honest,  holy,  firm,  and  invin- 
cible spirit." 

During  many  years  he  had  been  much  given  to  prayer 
and  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  At  the  age  of  thirty-six 
he  removed  to  Wittemberg,  was  chosen  parochial  minis- 

(12)  Melchior.  Adami   Vitae  Germ.   Theolog,  pp,  327—361,  Fraoco- 
furt,  1653. 
Cox's  Life  of  Melanctbon,  pp.  28,  29. 


288 

ter  of  the  great  church,  and  with  much  piety  and  useful- 
ness discharged  the  duties  of  his  station  for  thirty-six 
years. 

After  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  German 
language  had  been  completed,  in  which  he  had  been  one 
of  Luther's  active  coadjutors,  he  annually  celebrated  the 
day  on  which  it  was  finished,  by  inviting  his  friends  to 
partake  of  a  feast  conducted  with  cheerful  gravity,  and 
designated  The  Festival  of  the  Translation  of  the 
Scriptures. 

His  piety,  judgment,  and  intrepidity,  caused  him  to  be 
frequently  employed  in  regulating  and  reforming  different 
churches  throughout  Germany.  Christian^  or  Christiern 
III.  king  of  Denmark,  invited  him  to  Copenhagen, 
where  Bugenhagen  crowned  the  king,  and  afterwards 
ordained  the  seven  superintendants  of  the  Danish  church. 
Henry,  duke  of  Brunswick,  also  appointed  him,  with 
others,  to  inspect  and  regulate  the  churches  under  his 
government. 

The  last  year  of  his  life  he  was  too  feeble  to  sustain  the 
labours  of  public  preaching,  he  nevertheless  visited  the 
church  daily,  and  commended  it  and  himself  to  God  by 
prayer;  and,  when  necessary,  attended  the  pastoral  delibe- 
rations. In  April  he  became  too  weak  to  leave  his  bed, 
and  on  the  20th  of  that  month,  in  the  year  1558,  calmly 
resigned  his  spirit  to  God  Avho  gave  it,  frequently  repeat- 
ing, "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee,  the 
only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  sent." 
He  retained  his  mental  powers  in  their  full  vigour  to  the 
close  of  life,  evidencing  the  most  ardent  attachment  to 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 

He  was  the  author  of  Commentaries  on  several  parts 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  of  some  smaller 
works.^^ 

(13)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theology  pp.  311—319. 
Miluer's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V,  p.  568, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  289 

JoDOCUS,  or  Justus  Jonas,  was  the  intimate  friend  of 
Erasmus,  Luther,  and  Melancthon.  He  was  born  at 
Northausen,  in  Thuringia,  June  5th,  1493.  He  applied 
himself  first  to  the  law,  but  soon  quitted  it  for  the  study 
of  divinity,  by  which  means  he  became  one  of  the  zealous 
friends  and  disciples  of  Luther.  In  1521,  he  was  made 
president  or  principal  of  the  college  of  Wittemberg*.  To 
this  presidentship  belonged  the  profession  of  the  canon 
law;  but  as  Jonas  chose  to  employ  his  time  in  studying 
the  Scriptures,  and  reading  lectures  in  divinity  to  the 
students  every  day,  he  insisted  upon  giving  up  a  portion 
of  his  salary  to  a  lecturer  in  the  canon  law,  and  re- 
fused to  accept  the  presidentship  on  any  other  terms.  He 
wrote  Annotatiotis  upon  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  printed 
at  Basil,  1525,  8vo.  He  was  also  the  author  of  a 
Dejence  oj  the  Marriage  of  Priests,  and  several  other 
tracts.     He  died  October  9th,  1555.'* 

Caspar  Cruciger,  whose  extensive  and  multifarious 
learning  rendered  him  the  able  advocate  of  the  Lutheran 
doctrines,  was  a  native  of  Leipsic,  where  he  was  born 
January  1st,  1504.  His  native  city  was  the  scene  of  his 
first  studies.  After  having  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  Greek,  he  repaired  to  Wittemberg,  and  not  only 
perfected  himself  in  those  languages  butgained  an  accurate 
acquaintance  with  the  Hebrew,  so  that  he  is  said  to  have 
possessed  a  fluency  in  them  all,  equal  to  that  of  his  mother 
tongue.  At  the  diet  of  Worms  he  attended  in  the  capacity 
of  notary;  and  was  on  other  occasions  so  indefatigable 
a  scfibe,  that  it  was  to  him  the  public  owed  copies  of  the 
chief  part  of  the  expositions  and  sermons  delivered  by 
Luther,  in  the  university  and  church  of  Wittemberg.  He 
was  appointed  rector  of  the  school  of  Magdeburg,  and 
gave  great  satisfaction  in  the  discharge  of  the  office;  but 
a  thirst  for  information  induced  him   to  return  to  Wit- 

(U)  iM.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolo^.  pp.  258—261. 

Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  IV,  p.  627. 
Vol.  II.  T 


290 

temberg.  The  same  passion  led  him  to  add  the  study 
of  the  mathematics,  and  even  of  medicine,  to  his  theolo- 
gical labours.  For  several  years  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  he  held  the  station  of  rector  in  the  univefsity, 
and  filled  the  office  with  eminent  prudence,  diligence,  and 
success;  but  his  incessant  application  and  exertions 
probably  hastened  his  end,  since  he  died  in  1548,  when 
only  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his  age/^ 

Matthew  AuROGALLus,  a  native  of  Bohemia,  was  a 
divine  of  Wittemberg,  eminent  for  his  knowledge  of  the 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  tongues.  He  died  in  1543. 
He  was  the  author  of  a  work  on  the  Hebrew  names  of 
countries,  cities,  rivers,  mountains,  S^c.  mentioned  in  the 
Old  Testament,  printed  at  Wittemberg,  1526,  8vo.  and 
again  with  improvements,  at  Basil,  1539,  8vo.;  and  of  a 
Compendium  of  the  Hebrew  and  Chaldee  Grammar, 
Wittemberg,  1525,  8vo.;  Basil,  1539,  8vo.'' 

George  Rorar,  or  Rorarius,  the  learned  corrector  of 
the  press  at  Wittemberg,  born  October  1st,  1492,  was  a 
clergyman  of  the  Lutheran  church,  ordained  in  1525. 
He  not  only  carefully  guarded  against  typographical  er- 
rors, in  the  editions  which  he  superintended,  but  after 
the  decease  of  Luther,  added  several  Marginal  Notes 
to  his  translation ;  and  wivh  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  the  Wittemberg  doctors  of  divinity,  made  some  alte- 
rations in  the  translation  itself.  He  also  enlarged  Cas- 
par Cruciger  s  edition  of  Luther's  Exposition  of  St. 
Peters  Epistle,  from  discourses  which  he  had  heard  deli- 
vered by  Luther;  and  assisted  in  editing  other  works  of 
the  Great  Reformer.  On  the  removal  of  the  public  libra- 
ry from  Wittemberg  to  Jena,  he  was  appointed  libra- 
rian.    He  died  on  the  24th  of  April,  1557,  in  the  65th 


(15)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  pp.  192—199. 

Bower's  Life  of  Luther,  App.  pp.  443,444.  Lond.  1813,  8vo. 

(16)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  II.  p.  620.  Paris,  1723,  fol. 
Chalmers,  III.  p.  196, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  291 

year  of  his  age.  He  had  been  amanuensis  to  Luther." 
Luther  was  likewise  occasionally  assisted  in  his  transr 
lation  by  John  Forster,  the  intimate  friend  of  Reuch- 
lin,  and  author  of  a  valuable  Hebrew  Lexicon,  printed  at 
Basil,  1557,  fol.  Forster  was  born  at  Augsburg  in  1495. 
He  taught  Hebrew  at  Wittemberg,  where  he  died  in 
1556.»« 

Bernard  Ziegler  also  contributed  his  aid  to  the  same 
great  work.  He  was  a  native  of  Misnia,  professor  of 
theology  at  Leipsic,  and  an  able  supporter  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Reformation.  He  died  in  1556,  aged  CO.  He 
was  the  author  of  some  theological  works,  now  almost 
forgotten.'^ 

The  publication  of  Luther  s  German  version  of  the 
Scriptures  roused  the  Catholics  to  the  most  virulent 
opposition,  and  every  measure  was  adopted  that  was 
likely  to  disparage  the  translation,  and  prevent  its  circu- 
lation amongst  the  people.  Jerom  Emser,  one  of  the 
counsellors  of  George,  duke  of  Saxony,  and  professor  of 
the  canon  laws  at  Leipsic;  and  John  Cochl^eus,  chaplain 
to  the  duke,  and  afterwards  dean  of  the  collegiate  church 
of  Frankfort,  attacked  it  in  terms  of  calumnious  severity. 
Emser,  affirmed,  that  the  heresies  and  falsehoods  of  the 
translation  amounted  to  fourteen  hundred;  Cochlaeus 
estimated  them  only  at  a  thousand !  But  critical  notes 
were  not  deemed  adequate  to  the  exigency  of  the  case; 
Emser  therefore,  under  the  patronage  and  sanction  of 
George  of  Saxony,  and  two  bishops,  produced  what  was 
<jalled,  A  correct  Translation  of  the  New  Testament 
into  German,  with  annotations,  printed  at  Dresden, 
1527,  fol.  In  this  work  Emser  asserts,  "That  he  had 
~  ■  -  -■      ■         ., 

C17)'  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  pp,  384.  385.    Paris,  1723, 
Freheri  Theatrum,  pt.  i.  p.  173. 
Walchii  Biblioth,  Theologica,  IV.  p.  741. 

(18)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog,  pp.  302— 305, 

(19)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra.  I.  p.  384. 
Lempriere's  Universal  Biography,  art.  Ziegler. 


292  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

confuted  Luther's  interpretations  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
opposed  to  them  his  own,  constantly  following  that  sense 
of  any  passage  which  the  church  approved.  That,  how- 
ever, he  was  by  no  means  convinced  of  the  expediency  of 
trusting  the  Scriptures  with  the  ignorant  multitude;  for 
that  the  Sacred  Writings  were  an  abyss,  in  whose  depths 
even  the  most  learned  men  had  often  been  lost."  "  If  the 
laity,"  said  he,  "would  but  take  my  advice,  I  would 
recommend  it  to  them  rather  to  aim  at  a  holy  life,  than 
to  study  the  Scriptures.  The  Scriptures  are  committed 
to  the  learned,  and  to  them  only."  Emser's  translation 
was,  nevertheless,  little  more  than  a  republication  of  the 
version  of  Luther,  altered  in  some  places  to  meet  the 
views  of  the  Catholics ;  so  that  whilst  he  condemned  the 
work  of  the  reformer,  he  actually  passed  the  highest  en- 
comium upon  it,  by  republishing  the  principal  part  of  it 
as  his  own.  Luther  was  sensible  of  this,  and  thus  ex- 
presses himself  respecting  it :  "He  has  left  out  my  preface, 
inserted  his  own,  and  then  sold  my  translation  almost 
word  for  word.  The  best  revenge  which  I  can  wish  for 
is,  that  though  Luther's  name  is  suppressed,  and  that  of 
his  adversary  put  in  its  place,  yet  Luther's  book  is 
read,  and  thus  the  design  of  his  labours  is  promoted  by 
his  very  enemies."^® 

Several  editions  of  Emser's  New  Testament  were 
speedily  printed;  and  in  1530,  the  monks  of  Rostock 
published  a  version  of  it  in  the  dialect  of  Lower 
Saxony,  in  8vo.  Alterations  were  also  made  in  many 
of  the  later  editions,  so  that  they  varied  exceedingly 
from  those  of  earlier  date.  ^*  A  German  version  of 
the  whole  Bible  was  undertaken  and  published  at  the 
request  of  Albert  II.  by  John  Dietenberg,  a  Dominican 
monk,  and  professor  of  theology,*  with  the  same  design 
as  that  of  Emser's  New  Testament.     It  vras  printed  at 

(20)  Milner'sHist.  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.ch.iiiu  pp.  84— 87, 

(21)  Wakhii  Biblioth,  Theolog.  IV.  p.  161, 

*  HediedA.  D.  1534» 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  293 

Mentz,  1534,  fol.  Dr.  Geddes  calls  it  ^^abad  transcript, 
or  rather  miserable  interpolation  of  Luther's;"  and  Cas- 
par Ulenberg,  who  undertook  a  German  translation,  by 
order  of  Ferdinand,  elector  and  archbishop  of  Cologne, 
in  1614,  declared,  "that  it  was  impossible  to  render  it 
conformable  to  the  Vulgate;  and  that  it  would  be  easier 
to  make  a  new  translation  of  the  whole  Bible.^^  John 
EcKius,  or  EcKEN,  another  of  Luther's  opponents,  pub- 
lished a  German  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  in 
1537,  fol.;  to  which  he  subjoined  a  corrected  edition  of 
Emser  s  translation  of  the  New  Testament^^ 

Whilst  the  more  learned  adversaries  of  Luther  were 
thus  zealously  engaged  in  their  literary  endeavours  to 
check  the  progress,  and  discountenance  the  perusal,  of 
Luther's  translation,  the  powerful  aid  of  civil  authority 
was  called  in  to  assist  the  design.  The  duke  George  of 
Saxony  persecuted,  with  unrelenting  severity,  the  clergy 
of  his  district  who  were  inclined  to  Lutheranism;  recalled 
the  students  from  the  schools  and  universities  where  the 
doctrines  of  Luther  were  supposed  to  prevail;  and,  with 
a  view  to  destroy  Luther's  version  of  the  New  Testament, 
purchased  as  many  copies  of  it  as  he  could  collect,  and 
severely  punished  such  of  his  subjects  as  refused  to  deliver 
them  up.  As  soon  as  Emser's  revision  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  ready  for  publication,  he  issued  a  proclamation, 
in  which  he  treated  Luther  and  his  disciples  with  the 
most  virulent  language;  accused  him  of  being  the  author 
of  the  fanatical  and  seditious  commotions  which  had 
lately  occurred ;  and  laid  particular  stress  on  the  mischief, 
which  he  affirmed,  Luther  had  done  to  Christianity,  by 
his  version  of  the  New  Testament ;  vindicating  his  prohi- 
bition of  the  use  pf  it,  by  saying  that  "he  acted  in  obedi- 
'  '     '        '    ■  ■  ,    ,       ,  ,  ■         ■     ,.  t 

(22)  Walchii  Biblioth,  Theolog.  IV,  p.  109. 
Geddes's  Prospectus,  pp.  107. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  pp.  379,  380.  Paris,  1723. 

(23)  Le  Long  p.  379, 


294  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

ence  to  the  late  edict  of  Nuremberg,  agreeably  to  what 
was  the  acknowledged  duty  of  every  German  prince." 
This  edict  of  Nuremberg  was  the  one  issued  at  the  diet 
held  in  that  city,  by  the  pope's  legate,  in  1523,  by  which, 
among  other  things,  it  was  decreed,  *^  That  printers 
should  print  no  new  things  for  the  future;  and  that  some 
holy  and  learned  men,  appointed  for  the  purpose  by  the 
magistrates,  within  their  several  jurisdictions,  should  pe- 
ruse and  examine  what  came  from  the  press,  and  that 
what  they  disapproved  should  not  be  sold."  The  edict 
being  variously  interpreted,  Luther  wrote  to  the  princes 
who  had  sanctioned  the  diet,  acquainting  them  that  he 
had  reverently  and  with  pleasure  read  it,  and  also  pro- 
posed it  to  the  church  of  Wittemberg;  but  that  since 
some  persons  of  the  highest  quality  refused  to  obey  it, 
and  put  various  constructions  upon  it,  he  thought  it 
prudent  to  declare  his  judgment  respecting  its  meaning, 
which  he  hoped  would  be  consonant  to  their  own.  After 
this  introduction,  he  stated  the  articles  of  the  edict,  and 
proposed  his  opinions  as  to  the  sense  of  them,  and,  in 
particular,  respecting  the  decree  before  mentioned,  ob- 
served, "  That  whereas  they  had  decreed,  That  no  more 
books  should  be  published,  unless  they  were  first  approved 
and  licensed  by  learned  men  chosen  for  that  purpose, 
he  was  not,  indeed,  against  it;  but,  however,  that  he 
understood  it  so  as  not  at  all  to  be  extended  to  the  books 
of  the  Holy  Scripture;  for  that  the  publishing  of  those 
could  not  be  prohibited."^* 

This  opposition  of  the  civil  authority  to  the  dissemina- 
tion of  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible,  was  promoted 
by  Henry  VJIL  king  of  England.  For,  exasperated  by 
the  Reply  of  the  reformer  to  his  Answer  to  Luther's  trea- 
tise On  the  Babylonish  Captivity,  Henry  complained  to 
the  elector  Frederic,  and  to  the  dukes  John  his  brother, 

(24)  Sleidan's  Hist,  of  Reformation,  translated  by  Bohun,  B.  iv,  p.  Q4, 
Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  pp.  83.  35. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  295 

and  George  his  uncle,  of  the  conduct  of  Luther.  "  All 
Germany/'  he  said,  "was  in  the  utmost  danger  from  the 
spreading  of  his  doctrines.  Moreover,  they  ought  by  no 
means  to  allow  Luther's  false  translations  of  the  New 
Testament  to  be  dispersed  among  their  subjects."  The 
duke  George  heartily  concurred  in  the  censure  of  Henry, 
and  returned  for  answer,  "That  he  had  punished  the 
bookseller  who  first  imported  and  sold  an  impression  of 
Luther's  Testament  among  his  subjects."^* 

Prince  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  the  Emperor's  brother, 
issued  an  edict,  forbidding  the  subjects  of  his  imperial 
majesty  to  have  any  copy  of  Luther's  German  version  of 
the  Scriptures  in  their  possession;  and  extending  the  in- 
terdiction to  the  rest  of  his  writings.  A  similar  procla- 
mation was  published  by  Anthony,  duke  of  Lorrain, 
commanding,  That  since  Luther's  doctrine  was  condemn- 
ed by  the  Pope,  and  the  Emperor,  as  well  as  by  the  most 
famous  universities,  none  of  his  subjects  should  in  their 
sermons  teach  any  such  doctrine;  and  that  they  also 
who  had  any  of  Luther  s  books,  should  bring  them  in 
by  a  certain  day,  or  otherwise  incur  the  penalty  by  him 
appointed.^® 

Happily,  the  injury  done  to  the  cause  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, by  these  interdictions,  was  more  than  outweighed 
by  the  redoubled  zeal  of  the  advocates  of  the  translations 
of  Scripture.  They  accounted  it  honourable  to  devote 
themselves  to  preaching  and  commenting  on  the  Sacred 
Volume,  and  their  ministrations  were  received  with  cor- 
diality and  joy.  Others,  who  had  a  poetical  turn,  com- 
posed Hymns  and  Sacred  Ballads,*  to  be  put  into  the 

(25)  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  pp.  355,  356. 
C26)  Cox's  Life  of  Melancthon,  p.  228. 

Sleidan's  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  B.  ir.  p,  75.' 

*  The  word  Ballad  in  our  language  was  formerly  used  to  signify  a 

Sacred  Song.     Thus,  in  the  old  English  translations    of  the    Bible, 

Solomon's   Song  is  called   the  Ballet  of  Ballets,     Such  was  the  opinion 

the  patriotic  Fletcher  of  Saltoun  entertained  of  the  influence  of  Ballads 


296  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

hands  of  poor  people,  who  made  a  Hvelihood  by  singing^ 
them  through  the  country;  and  perhaps  a  more  effectual 
way  of  rendering  Scripture  history  familiar  to  the  minds 
of  the  lower  orders  of  society,  cannot  easily  be  imagined. 
Among  those  who  exerted  themselves  in  turning  such 
subjects  into  verse,  was  Paul  Spretter,  a  man  of  rank, 
from  Suabia,  who  was  indefatigable  in  forwarding  the 
Lutheran  cause  in  Prussia.  On  one  occasion,  it  is  re- 
lated, that  a  poor  man  who  bad  received  the  printed 
copies  of  the  rhymes,  repaired  to  Wittemberg,  and  in  the 
course  of  his  progress  through  the  town,  sung  them 
under  Luther's  window.  The  attention  of  the  reformer 
was  caught  by  the  subject;  he  listened  with  pleasure  to 
the  song,  and  when,  on  inquiry,  he  learned  the  name  of 
its  author,  he  is  said  to  have  burst  into  tears,  and  render- 
ed thanks  to  God,  for  making  such  humble  expedients 
conducive  to  the  propagation  of  truth. ^^ 

Luther's  fondness  for  music  is  universally  known,  and  the 
Old  Hundredth  Psalm  Tune,  which  tradition  attributes  to 
him,  remains  a  singular  instance  of  his  skill  in  that  science. 
In  an  evening,  before  parting  from  his  family  and  his 
friends,  he  usually  sang  a  hymn ;  and  in  his  hours  of 
dejection,  music  frequently  proved  a  delightful  restora- 
tive. A  short  time  before  he  ventured  to  administer  the 
Lord's  Supper,  in  the  German  language,  he  composed 
and  printed  a  very  useful  little  book,  containing  thirty- 
eight    German   Hymns,  with    their  appropriate   tunes,^ 

upon  the  inferior  "classes,  that  he  is  reported  to  have  said,   *' if  he  could 
but  make  the  Ballads  of  a  nation,   he  would   care  very  little  who  made 
the  Keligion  of  it.     Encyc.  Perth,  v.  "Ballad." 
(27),  Bower's  Life  of  Luther,  pp.  205,  206. 

*  The  following  testimony  of  Handel  to  the  excellence  of  Luther's 
musical  compositions,  is  given  in  a  letter  of  Sir  John  Pringle's  to  J.  D. 
IVIichielis,  dated  1769.  "The  late  Mr.  Handel,  that  celebrated  musi- 
cian, told  me,  that  Luther  had  even  composed  the  music  of  his  Psalms 
and  HymnSj  and  which  he  said  was  so  excellent  in  its  way,  that  he  had 
often  borrowed  from  if,  and  inserted  whole  passages  in  his  oratorios.'* 
Liter arischer  Brief wechsel  von  J.  D.  Michaeiis,  II.  p.  240,  Leipsig^ 
1795,    12nio. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  297 

cotnprisinga  summary  of  Christian  doctrines,  expressed 
in  elegant  German  metre.  In  the  preface,  he  supports 
the  duty  of  church  music  on  the  authority  of  David  and 
Paul,  but  reminds  us,  that  in  this  devotional  exercise, 
our  eyes  should  be  directed  to  Christ  alone.  "He  had 
subjoined  the  suitable  tunes^'  he  says,  "to  show  that 
the  fine  arts  were  by  no  means  abolished  through  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel;  but  that,  in  particular,  the  art 
of  music  should  be  employed  to  the  glory  of  God; 
though  he  knew  this  sentiment  was  contrary  to  the  ro- 
mantic ideas  of  some  teachers,  who  were  disposed  to  al- 
low nothing  but  what  was  purely  intellectual."^*  He 
endeavoured  to  introduce  the  singing  of  Psalms  into 
the  public  services  of  religion,  for  this  end  he  partly 
translated,  and  partly  procured  to  be  translated,  the 
whole  of  the  Psalms  into  German  verse.  For  the  versi- 
fication, he  invited  the  assistance  of  Spalatin,  and  of 
another  friend  named  Dolzy;  and  for  the  composition 
of  the  tunes,  of  which  he  was  an  excellent  judge,  he  en- 
gaged a  person  of  the  name  of  John  Walther.  He  thus 
addressed  Spalatin:  "In  my  judgment,  we  ought  to  copy 
the  examples  of  the  Prophets  and  Fathers  of  the  church, 
by  composing  psalms  or  spiritual  songs,  in  the  vernar 
cular  tongue,  for  the  use  of  the  common  people,  that  the 
Word  of  God  may  be  sung  among  them.  We  are,  there- 
fore, inquiring  for  poets ;  and  since  you  are  favoured 
with  fluency  and  elegance  in  the  German  language,  im- 
proved by  frequent  use,  we  in  treat  you  to  assist  us,  and 
to  endeavour  to  versify  some  of  the  Psalms,  in  a  similar 
way  to  that  which  I  send  you.  I  wish  novel  and  courtly 
terms  to  be  avoided,  and  simple,  common,  and  wxll- 
chosen  words  to  be  sung  by  the  multitude.  The  sense 
should  be  clear,  and  express  the  mind  of  the  psalmist,^ 
adopting  the  meaning  in  preference  to  the  words.  I 
have  little,  but  good  wishes,  yet  what  I  can  do,  I  ani 
(28;  Miluer's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  p.  392. 


298  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

willing  to  do^  and  I  will  make  an  attempt,  if  you  will  be 
Asaph,  Heman,  or  Jeduthim."     His  wishes  succeeded; 
and  his  pains  were  amply  rewarded,  by  the  version  be-" 
coming  exceedingly  popular.^® 

In  order  to  spread  more  generally  the  Sacred  Writings, 
and  to  direct  the  attention  of  those  who  read  them  to 
the  truths  they  contained,  Luther,  at  different  periods, 
published  Comment aj^ies  upon  particular  parts  of  them. 
The  first  which  appeared  was  the  Commentary  on  the 
Galatians,  in  1519.  It  had  been  prepared  for  the  press 
by  those  who  had  attended  his  lectures,  and  when  shewn  to 
him,  he  allowed  its  accuracy,  and  consented  to  its  publi- 
cation. He  afterwards  considerably  enlarged  it,  and 
printed  it  at  Wittemberg,  1535,  8vo.  The  other  parts 
of  the  Scriptures  upon  which  he  wrote  commentaries, 
were  Genesis,  Deuteronomy,  the  greater  part  of  the  Psalms, 
Ecclesiastes,  Solomons  Song,  Isaiah,  part  of  Daniel,  the 
Twelve  Minor  Prophets;  some  Chapters  of  the  Gospels  of 
Matthew  and  John,  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Corin- 
thians, the  Epistles  of  Peter,  John,  and  Jude,  In  the 
commentary  on  Deuteronomy,  he  has  the  following  judi- 
cious directions  and  remarks:  "Let  the  Christian  read- 
er's first  object  always  be  to  find  out  the  literal  meaning 
of  the  Word  of  God  ;  for  this,  and  this  alone,  is  the  whole 
foundation  of  faith,  and  of  Christian  theology.  It  is  the 
very  substance  of  Christianity;  the  only  thing  which 
stands  its  ground  in  distress  and  temptation:  it  is  what 
overcomes  the  gates  of  hell  together  with  sin  and  death, 
and  triumphs,  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  God.  Allegories 
are  often  of  a  doubtful  nature,  depending  on  human 
conjecture  and  opinion;  for  which  reason  Jerom,  and 
Origen,  and  other  Fathers  of  the  same  stamp,  nay,  I 
may  add,  all  the  old  Alexandrian  school,  should  be  read 
with  the  greatest  caution.     An  excessive  esteem  for  these 

(29)  M.  Adami  Vit,  Germ.  Theolog.  p,  163. 
Bower's  Life  of  Luther,  p,  231. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  299 

has  gradually  introduced  a  most  mischievous  taste  among 
later  writers,  who  have  gone  such  lengths,  as  to  support 
the  most  extravagant  absurdities  by  Scriptural  expres- 
sions. Jerom  complains  of  this  practice  in  his  own  time, 
and  yet  he  himself  is  guilty  of  it.  In  our  days  there  are 
some  commentators,  who,  wherever  they  find  in  Scrip- 
ture a  word  of  the  feminine  gender,  understand  it  to 
mean  the  Virgin  Mary ;  and  hence,  almost  all  the  revealed 
Word  is  made  to  treat  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  Wherefore 
we  ought  always  to  observe  St.  Paul's  rule,  not  to  build 
upon  wood,  hay,  and  stubble,  but  upon  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones;  that  is,  an  allegory  should  never  be  made 
the  foundation  of  any  doctrine,  but  be  introduced  as  a 
secondary  thing,  to  confirm,  to  adorn,  to  enrich  a  Chris- 
tian article  of  faith.  Never  produce  an  allegory  to  sup- 
port your  sentiment;  on  the  contrary,  take  care  that  your 
allegory  rest  on  some  just  sentiment  as  a  foundation, 
which,  by  its  aptness  and  similitude,  it  is  calculated  to 
illustrate."^  Most  of  Luther's  Commentaries  were  writ- 
ten in  Latin,  and  afterwards  translated  into  German  by 
his-  friends. 

The  pious  and  fearless  zeal  of  this  reformer  was  crown- 
ed, by  the  great  Head  of  the  church,  with  a  success  equal 
to  his  most  sanguine  expectations;  and  he  lived  to  see 
the  cause  of  Scriptural  truth  embraced,  not  only  by 
several  of  the  German  states,  but  by  many  of  the  other 
nations  of  Europe.  The  papal  power,  which  had  exercised 
despotic  sway  over  the  mightiest  monarchs  of  the  world, 
was  deprived  of  its  extensive  influence ;  and  the  thunders 
of  the  Vatican  rolled  over  the  heads  of  the  Reformed 
without  exciting  the  least  alarm.  The  Scriptures  of 
truth  were  generally  circulated,  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  persons  of  every  rank,  and  age,  and  sex,  by 

(30)  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  p.  383. 
Bower's  Hist,  of  Luther,  pp.  117,  118. 
See  also  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra;  aud  Walchj  Biblioth.  Theolog. 


300  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

translations  into  the  vernacular  dialects,  the  copies  of  which 
were  rapidiy  multiplied  by  the  labours  of  the  press;  and 
the  traditions  of  Rome  gave  place  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
But  whilst  Luther  was  continuing  his  important  exer- 
tions in  favour  of  religion  and  truth,  his  incessant  occu- 
pations and  intensity  of  thought  were  undermining  his 
constitution,  and  hastening  his  death.  In  1545,  his  health 
began  to  suffer  considerably  from  severe  attacks  of  the 
stone,  and  of  violent  head-aches.  Early  in  the  following 
year  he  visited  Eisleben,  his  native  place,  at  the  request  of 
the  counts  of  Mansfeld;  but  his  strength  was  exhausted 
by  the  journey;  and  on  the  18th  of  February  1546,  he 
expired.  Justus  Jonas  preached  the  funeral  sermon; 
and  after  the  removal  of  the  body  to  Wittemberg,  Melanc- 
thon  pronounced  the  funeral  oration ;  and  the  corpse  was 
committed  to  the  grave  by  several  members  of  the  univer- 
sity, ami(J  the  most  unfeigned  expressions  of  sorrow  and 
regret;  princes  and  nobles,  doctors  and  students,  ming- 
ling their  tears  with  the  thousands  of  people,  w^ho 
wept  over  the  remains  of  the  man  of  God.^* 

After  the  decease  of  Luther,  his  great  work,  the  German 
Ti^anslation  of  the  Scriptures,  was  circulated  through  the 
Germ.anic  states,  with  a  diligence  and  assiduity,  at  least 
equal  to  that  which  had  been  manifested  during  his  life. 
Before  his  death,  one  or  more  European  versions  had 
been  made  from  his  translation ;  it  afterwards  became 
the  ground-work  of  others.  Walch  enumerates  the 
Low-Saxon^  the  Pomeranian,  the  Danish,  the  Icelandic^ 
the  Swedish,  the  Belgic  or  Dutch,  the  Lithuanian,  the 
Sorahic  or  Wendish,  the  Finnish,  and  the  Lettish.^^     Of 

(31)  IMilner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  IV.  and  V.;  Bower's  Life 
of  Luther ;  and  Mckhior  Adam's  Life  of  Luther,  in  his  Vit» 
Germ.  Theolog.  are  the  works  to  which  the  Writer  is  chiefly 
indebted,  in  addition  to  those  already  quoted,  for  the  above 
account  of  this  great  reformer ;  except  that  he  has  occasionally 
consulted  Seckendorf's  Comment,  on  Maimbourg's  Hist,  of 
Luther  anism^ 

(m)  Walchii  Biblioth.  Theolog,  JV.  pp,  95—99, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  301 

these,  we  shall  at  present  notice  only  the  Low-Saxon,  the 
Swedish,  and  Danish,  the  two  former  bein^  undertaken 
during  the  Jife  of  Luther,  and  the  latter  being  completed 
under  the  inspection  of  one  of  Luther's  coadjutors  in  his 
German  translation. 

Editions  of  the  Bible  in  the  Low-Saxon  dialect,  had 
been  printed  at  Lubeck,  in  1494,  and  at  Halberstad,  iq 
1522,  2  vols.  fol. ;  but  as  the  translation  had  been  made 
prior  to  the  Reformation,  Bugenhagen,  at  the  request  of 
Luther,  superintended  a  new  translation,  to  which  he 
added  a  Preface,  Short  Notes,  and  Summaries.  It  was 
printed  at  Lubeck,  1533 — 4,  fol.  The  names  of  the  trans- 
lators do  not  appear  to  have  been  preserved  from  oblivion 
among  men,  but  they  live  before  Him,  who  is  "  not  un- 
righteous to  forget  their  work  and  labour  of  love." 

There  had  also  some  parts  of  the  Scriptures  been  print- 
ed by  the  reformers,  in  the  Low-Saxon  dialect,  prior  to  the 
version  of  the  whole  Bible  by  Bugenhagen.  In  the  king 
of  Wurtemberg's  library,  we  find,  the  Pentateuch  print- 
ed 1523,  fol.,  the  New  Testament,  1525,  4to.  and  1523> 
1526,  1529,  8vo.  by  Bugenhagen.^* 

The  Swedish  translation  was  commenced  under  the 
sanction  of  the  king  Gustavus  Vasa.  This  excellent 
and  patriotic  monarch,  the  son  of  a  Sv/edish  nobleman, 
had  been  raised  to  the  throne  in  the  place  of  Christiern, 
king  of  Denmark,  who  had  usurped  the  sceptre,  and  exer- 
cised the  most  revolting  severities  upon  the  nation  he  had 
conquered.  During  the  usurpation  of  Christiern,  Gustavus 
bad  been  in  prison  and  in  exile,  and  at  one  period  had 
entered  among  the  miners,  and  wrought  as  a  slave  under 
ground.  Whilst  an  exile  at  Lubeck,  he  had  gained  some 
information  respecting  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  which  he 
afterwards  embraced,  and  on  obtaining  the  throne,  deter- 

(33)  Walchii   Biblioth,  Theolog.  IV.  p.  95. 

(34)  Adleri  Biblioth.  Biblica,— olim  Lorckiana^  sec.  33*  pp.  203.  207' 

2U8,209. 


302  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

mined  to  support.     His  first  object  was  the  dissemination 
of  the  Scriptures   throughout  his   dominions.     To  effect 
this,   he  ordered  them  to  be  translated   into  Swedish. 
This  was  begun  in  1523,  by  Laurentius  Andreas;  who 
is  said  to  have  completed  the  version  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, which  was  printed  at  Stockholm,  in  1526,  fol. 
The  translation  was  afterwards  carried  on,  and  the  whole 
revised  and  finished,  by  Laurentius  and  Olaus  Petri, 
and  printed  at  Upsal,  1541,  fol.     On  the  occasion  of  the 
translation  of  the  New  Testament,   Gustavus  exhibited  a 
rare    instance   of  equity   and   candour,    for   though  he 
ordered  this   translation  to  be  made  according  to  the 
Luthemn  version,  he  at  the  same  time  enjoined  Johannes 
Goth  us,  the  archbishop  of  Upsal,  to  prepare  another  ver- 
sion, suited  to  the  doctrines  and  views  of  the  church  of 
Rome ;  that  by  a  careful  comparison  of  both  translations 
with  the  original,   an  easier  access  might   be  opened  to 
the  truth ;   urging,  among  other  reasons,  that  almost  all 
other  nations   had  the  New  Testament   in  the  vulgar 
tongue;  that  without  it  the  common  people  could  not 
easily  discover  the  errors  which  then  afflicted  the  church ; 
and   that  even  the  ignorance   of  many  of  the  priests 
rendered   such  a  step  necessary  to  enable   them  to  feed 
their  flocks  with  wholesome   food,  without  which  they 
could  not  justly  be  regarded  as  pastors.     For  some  time 
the  archbishop  resisted  the  royal  mandate;  but  at  length, 
fearing  the  displeasure  of  the  king,  he  distributed  the 
New  Testament,  in  various  portions,  among  the  fathers 
of  the  cathedral  churches,  and  the  different  orders  of 
monks,  to  be  translated  into  Swedish  by  the  8th  of  Sep- 
tember following.  (1525.)     This  translation  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  completed ;  though  it  is  said,  a  Catholic 
doctor,  called  Peter  Benedict,  prepared  a  version  of  the 
New  Testament ^di\&e6^  by  an  old  translation, supposed  to  be 
the  one  made  by  Matthias  of  Lincopen  or  Lindkoping,  for 
St.  Bridget,  The  archbishop,  however,  preferring  a  volun-* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  303 

tary  exile  to  an  adoption  of  the  measures  of  the  monarch, 
secretly  quitted  the  kingdom ;  but  returned  from  Italy  to 
Dantzic  in  1534.     He  died  at  Rome,  March  22nd,  1544.'^ 

Laurentius  Andreas  was  a  native  of  Sweden,  and 
a  priest  of  the  church  of  Strengnas.  Afterwards  he  became 
archdeacon  of  Upsal;  and  at  length  was  chosen  to  be 
chancellor  by  Gustavus  I.^^ 

Laurentius  and  Olaus  Petri  were  brothers,  born  in 
Nericia,  a  province  of  Sweden.  They  both  studied  at 
Wittemberg,  where  they  imbibed  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformation  from  the  lectures  of  Luther  himself.  Olaus 
was  the  herald  of  the  reformed  religion  in  Sweden,  in 
which  he  was  powerfully  seconded  by  the  brave  and 
public-spirited  Gustavus.  Under  the  auspices  of  the 
monarch  a  public  disputation  was  held  at  Upsal,  between 
Olaus,  in  support  of  Luther's  system,  and  Peter  Galle, 
as  defender  of  the  papal  dogmas.  In  this  contest  Olaus 
obtained  a  signal  victory,  which  contributed  greatly  to 
confirm  Gustavus  in  his  views  of  the  Lutheran  doctrines, 
and  to  spread  them  more  generally  through  the  nation. 
The  Reformation  being  established  in  Sweden  by  the  pru- 
dence and  firmness  of  Gustavus,  aided  by  the  counsels 
of  Olaus,  this  eminent  reformer,  who  had  been  one  of  the 
pastors  of  the  church,  was  appointed  Secretary  of  Stock- 
holm. In  this  elevated  situation,  he  applied  himself  with 
vigour  and  discretion,  to  the  promotion  of  religion,  and 
the  dissemination  of  Scriptural  truth.  At  his  instance, 
in  the  year  1529,  a  new  Ritual  was  published  in  the  Swe- 
dish language,  in  which  the  official  rules  for  marriage, 
baptism,  burial  of  the  dead,  and  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  supper,  were  much  cleared  from  Romish  supersti- 

(35)  Mosheim's  Ecclcs.  Hist.  IV.  pp.  79,  80. 
Acfa  Eruditor.    An.  1704.    p,  341. 
Walchii  Biblioth,  Theolog.  IV,  p.  97. 

Messenii  Scondia  lUustrata,  I.  torn.  V.  pp.  23,  24 ;  et  II.  torn.  XV. 
pp.  101.  109,  114.  Stockholm,  1700,  fol. 

(36)  Acta  Eruditor.  ubi  sup^ 


304  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

tions  and  incumbrances :  he  also  published  a  more  distinct 
explanation  of  the  important  Christian  doctrine  of  "Jus- 
tification by  Faith.'*  Protected  and  encouraged  by  his 
sovereign,  Olaus  continued  his  labours  for  the  good  of  the 
rising  church  till  called  to  his  great  reward  by  death. 
His  brother  Laurentius,  who  had  been  raised  to  the 
archbishoprick  of  Upsal,  revised  and  printed  several  books 
of  Scripture  of  the  Swedish  translation,  separately,  in 
a  smaller  form^  viz.  Job,  the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Eccle- 
siASTEs,  Canticles,  Isaiah,  Wisdom,  and  Ecclesias- 
tic us,  but  the  first  translation  was  retained  in  the  public 
services  of  the  church.     Laurentius  Petri  died  in  1573.^^ 

In  Denmark,  a  partial  attempt  to  remove  the  vail  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  to  present  them  to  the  public 
in  the  vernacular  tongue,  was  made  by  Christie rn 
Pedersen,  the  learned  editor  of  Saxo  Grammatims,  who, 
in  1515,  published  a  Danish  version  of  ''All  the  Epistles 
and  Gospels  which  are  read  on  every  Sunday  through 
the  year,  with  their  interpretations  and  glosses."  In 
this  volume,  which  was  printed  at  Paris,  there  are  many 
things  which  mark  the  legendary  credulity  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  whilst  other  passages  bespeak  a  mind  possessed 
of  considerable  information,  and  steadily  advocating  the 
truth  it  had  discovered.  In  the  preface,  the  author  deli- 
vers a  decided  testimony  in  favour  of  the  reading  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  by  the  common  people.  "Our  Lord 
himself,"  says  he  "commanded  his  blessed  apostles  to 
go  throughout  the  world,  and  preach  and  teach  the  Holy 
Gospels  to  all  men,  adding:  He  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved ;  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned  eternally.  Now  as  none  can  believe  the  Gospels 
unless  he  understands  them  well,  it  is  both  useful  and 

(37)  Milner's  Hist  of  the  Church  of  Christ,   V.  pp.  133— -142,  and 
App.  p.  574. 
Acta  Eruditor.  An.  1704.    p.  341. 
Le  LoD^,  I,  Index^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  305 

necessary  that  they  should  be  translated  into  plain  Danish^ 
for  the  sake  of  common  laymen  who  are  not  acquainted 
with  Latin,  and  but  very  seldom  hear  any  sermon.  For  what 
doth  it  profit  plain  country  people  to  hear  the  Gospels 
read  to  them  in  Latin,  if  they  be  not  afterwards  repeated 
to  them  in  their  own  tongue  ?  Our  Lord  says,  in  the  holy 
Gospel,  ^If  thou  wouldst  attain  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
keep  the  commandments  of  our  Lord;'  but  how  can  any 
keep  them,  if  he  does  not  know  the  Gospels  in  which 
the  holy  Evangelists  wrote  them  from  our  Lord's  own 
mouth?  And  St.  Luke  declares,  in  the  second  chapter 
of  the  Acts,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  came  from  heaven, 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  in  the  shape  of  fiery  tongues, 
and  fell  on  the  Apostles,  and  other  disciples  of  our 
Lord;  and  they  were  all  filled  with  the  same  bless- 
ed Spirit,  and  immediately  spoke  all  languages,  to  the 
intent  they  should  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  men  through- 
out the  world,  in  that  language  which  each  of  them 
understood.  St.  John  the  Apostle  and  Evangelist,  and 
St.  Luke  wrote  Gospels  to  the  Greeks  in  Greek,  in  order 
that  they  might  fully  understand  them.  St.  Matthew 
wrote  Gospels  in  Hebrew  to  those  who  spoke  Hebrew; 
and  St,  Paul  the  Apostle  wrote  Epistles  both  in  Greek 
and  Hebrew  to  those  who  spoke  these  languages.  If  any  of 
them  had  written  Gospels  to  the  kingdom  of  Denmark, 
they  would  assuredly  have  written  them  in  plain  Danish, 
that  all  might  have  understood  them ;  for  every  one  ought 
to  be  able  to  read  them  in  his  native  tongue.  Let  not 
any  one  imagine  that  they  are  more  sacred  in  one  lan- 
guage, than  what  they  are  in  anotlier.  They  are  just  as 
good  in  Danish  and  German,  when  properly  translated, 
as  they  are  in  Latin.  Therefore  none  can  say  that  it  is 
improper  or  inconvenient  to  translate  them  into  Danish. 
But  certain  it  is,  that  without  them,  and  the  holy  faith, 
none  can  be  saved." 

After  the  Title  follows  an  IndeXy  directing  the  reader  to 
Vol.  II.  U 


306  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

the  page  where  the  different  Epistles  and  Gospels  are  to  be 
found ;  which  is  succeeded  by  a  short  prologue,  on  the  ad- 
vantages resulting  from  the  remembrance  of  the  sufferings 
of  Christ,  in  which  some  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the 
Romish  church  for  the  expiation  of  sin  are  set  forth,  in  ra- 
ther a  disadvantageous  point  of  view;  and  the  necessity  of 
seeking  refuge  in  the  death  of  Christ  is  strongly  enforced. 
The  body  of  the  work  is  divided  eiccording  to  the 
order  in  which  the  portions  of  the  Vulgate  were  read  in 
the  churches.  1st,  The  Epistle  for  the  day.  2dly,  The 
Gospel.  3rdly,  An  exposition  or  short  sermon :  and 
lastly,  a  Jertegn,  i.  e.  a  fictitious  miracle,  or  a  fabulous 
story  of  certain  occurrences  which  were  supposed  to  con- 
firm the  truths  taught  in  the  portions  of  Scripture  that 
had  been  read.  From  this  latter  part,  the  work  has 
obtained  the  name  of  Pedersens  Jertegns  PostiL  '  The 
translation  itself  is  very  paraphrastic,  especially  in  the 
Epistles;  and  as  it  was  not  till  the  following  year,  (1516,) 
that  the  first  edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament  was 
published,  Pedersen  must  have  made  his  version  either 
from  the  Vulgate  Bible,  or  which  is  more  probable,  from 
an  authorized  breviary,  in  which  all  the  Epistles  and  Gos- 
pels were  arranged  to  his  hands.  In  some  instances  our 
author  gives  his  opinion  very  freely  of  certain  scandals 
and  abuses,  in  which  even  the  pope  himself  and  his  cardi- 
nals were  implicated.  At  other  times  he  inculcates  the 
most  devoted  obedience  to  the  Roman  see.  Some  of  his 
Jertegns  contain  credible  accounts  of  events  which  tend 
to  elucidate  and  corroborate  the  truths  taught  in  the 
Scriptures;  but  most  of  them  are  "lying  wonders,  and 
old  wives'  fables,"  unworthy  of  the  erudition  which  Peder- 
sen otherwise  displays,  but  quite  congenial  with  the 
religious  taste  of  the  communion  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  This  inconsistency  he  afterwards  acknowledg- 
ed, and  loudly  expressed  his  gratitude  to  God,  who  had 
called  liim  "out  of  darkness  into  his  marvellous  light/* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  307 

and  delivered  him  from  the  intellectual  darkness  of  which 
he  had  been  the  subject.  "  I  would  here/'  says  he,  in  his 
preface  to  the  New  Testament,  which  he  published  about 
fifteen  years  afterwards,  "  I  would  here  acknowledge  the 
great  delusion  under  which  I  laboured,  when  I  composed 
the  miracles  and  fables,  published  in  Paris,  which  are  mere- 
ly the  inventions  and  dreams  of  men,teaching  us  that  we 
should  live  as  the  saints  have  done,  and  thus  merit  hea- 
ven by  our  own  good  works;  than  which  nothing  can  be 
more  false,  for  Christ  alone  hath  made  satisfaction  for 
our  sins,  and  merited  the  kingdom  of  heaven  for  us,  by 
his  sufferings  and  death.  I  therefore  request  all  to  reject 
those  fables  and  miracles,  and  not  give  any  credit  to 
them,  but  adhere  strictly  to  God's  own  true  Word  and 
Gospels.  God  be  eternally  praised,  for  having  of  his 
mercy  brought  me  out  of  my  error,  and  given  me  grace 
to  learn  and  understand  his  Holy  Word  better  than  I 
did  before,  when  I  was  involved  in  darkness."  A  second 
edition  of  this  work  was,  however,  soon  called  for,  and  in 
1518,  it  was  reprinted,  at  Leipsic,  in  fol.  by  Melchior 
Lotther,  a  printer  who  afterwards  became  renowned,  for 
his  impressions  of  such  writings  as  advocated  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation ;  and  with  Dr.  H.  we  may  pleasingly 
indulge  the  hope,  that,  "though  the  rays  transmitted 
through  this  medium  were  but  few  and  feeble,  they  [never- 
theless] served  to  conduct  many  a  weary  pilgrim  through 
the  dangers  and  temptations  of  this  transitory  scene, 
"To  better  worlds  on  high." 
The  place  of  Christiern  Pedersen's  birth  is  not 
known  with  certainty;  but  he  received  the  first  rudiments 
of  his  education  from  Simonsen,  in  Roskilde,  and  studied 
at  the  academy  of  Paris,  where  he  took  his  degree  in  the 
Belles  Lettres,  In  1505,  he  was  canon  in  Lund,  as 
appears  from  an  ancient  document  which  he  has  sub- 
scribed, bearing  that  date.  Some  have  supposed,  that  he 
was  also  amanuensis  to  the  archbishop;  but  this  is,  not 


308  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

unlikely,  a  mistake  which  has  arisen  from  confounding 
him  with  Adler  Pedersen,  who  sustained  that  office  in 
1518.  He  was  in  great  favour  with  Christian  II.  who 
frequently  consulted  him  on  state  affairs,  and  at  last 
made  him  his  historiographer.  Nor  was  he  wanting  in 
attachment  to  his  royal  patron,  for  he  accompanied  him 
in  his  flight  to  Holland,  and  assisted  in  planning  mea- 
sures for  his  restoration  to  the  crown.  During  his  stay 
in  that  country,  he  published  several  works,  some  of 
which  will  be  hereafter  noticed.  He  was  also  engaged  in 
preparing  the  first  Danish  Bible.  He  died  A.  D.  1554, 
at  Ilelsinge,  near  Slagelse,  in  Zealand,  where  he  is  said 
to  have  been  the  first  Lutheran  clergyman. 

The  first  Danish  version  of  the  lohole  of  the  New 
Testament  was  made  by  Hans  Mjkkelsen,  who  is 
sometimes  called  John  MichaeUs.  For  this  treasure 
Denmark  was  indebted  to  the  patronage  and  generosity 
of  Christian  II.  "a  prince,"  says  Dr.  Henderson,  "  whose 
character  earlier  writers  have  depicted  in  the  blackest 
colours,  but  whom  posterity,  though  not  blind  to  his 
faults,  yet  cooler  in  its  judgment,  and  more  impartial  in 
its  decisions,  seems  on  the  whole  inclined  to  favour." 
The  bold  and  unprecedented  measures  which  this  mo- 
narch adopted,  in  order  to  abridge  the  overgrown  power 
of  the  priests  and  nobles,  to  restore  the  rights  of  the 
peasants,  and  other  private  citizens,  and  to  introduce  the 
Lutheran  Reformation,  irritated  the  papal  hierarchy,  and 
produced  a  faction,  which  being  strengthened  by  the 
nobles,  broke  out  into  open  rebellion  in  1523.  To  escape 
the  rage  of  his  rebellious  subjects.  Christian,  with  a  few 
confidential  friends,  fled  to  Holland,  where  he  hoped 
to  find  shelter  under  the  protection  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V. 

It  was  while  in  this  expatriated  state  that  he  promoted 
the  publication  of  the  New  Testament,  thus  imitating  the 
example  of  its  blessed  Author,  who  hath  ordered  it  to  be 


SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  309 

disseminated  among  his  rebellious  subjects^  with  a  view  to 
the  promotion  of  their  present  and  eternal  welfare.  The 
person  whom  Christian  II.  employed  in  the  execution  of  this 
important  undertaking  was  Hans  Mikkelsen,  originally 
mayor  of  Malmoe,  in  Scania,  and  afterwards  secretary 
to  his  majesty.  From  the  proximity  of  his  residence  to 
Lund,  the  papal  metropolis  of  the  North,  Mikkelsen  had 
ample  opportunities  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
evils  of  the  reigning  system ;  and  it  is  likely  that  the 
early  part  which  the  inhabitants  of  Malmoe  took  in  the 
Reformation,  was  the  result  of  his  secret,  but  well-plan- 
ned opposition.  His  unshaken  attachment  to  his  sove- 
reign was  proved  by  his  sacrificing  his  private  connections 
and  interests,  and  voluntarily  accompanying  him  into  a 
state  of  exile.  That  his  character  stood  high,  even  in  the 
estimation  of  his  master's  enemies,  appears  from  their 
allowing  considerable  estates,  belonging  to  him  in  Scania, 
to  remain  untouched  for  the  space  of  two  years,  and  their 
sending  him  several  pressing  invitations  to  return  to  his 
native  country;  and  it  was  not  till  they  saw  that  all 
hopes  of  his  return  were  vain,  that  his  property  Avas  con- 
fiscated. His  zeal  in  the  cause  of  the  Reformation 
excited  the  jealousy  and  resentment  of  the  Catholics  in 
the  Netherlands,  and  he  was  at  last  necessitated  to  sepa- 
rate from  his  royal  friend,  and  retire  to  Harderwick,  in 
Guelderland,  where  he  died,  about  eight  years  after  his 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  left  the  press. 

The  designation,  or  title,  of  Mikkelsen's  version  is, 
^'Thette  ere  thz  Noye  testamenth  paa  danske  ret  effter 
latinen  udsatthe.  M.D.XXIIII."  i.e.  "The  New  Testa- 
ment in  Danish,  properly  translated  according  to  the 
Latin."  It  is  inserted  within  the  space  described  by  a 
large  portico,  at  the  foot  of  which  there  is  a  representa- 
tion of  Christ  on  the  cross,  and  of  a  multitude  of  angels 
contemplating,  in  attitudes  of  wonder  and  surprise. 
At  the  end   there  is  a  notification  stating  it  to  have 


310  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

been  printed  at  Leipsic,  by  Melchior  Lottber,  tbe  Mon- 
day preceding  St.  Bartbolomew's  day,  A.  D.  1524.  It 
forms  a  small  quarto  volume,  and  is  divided  into  tbree 
parts:  the  first  containing-  the  Four  Gospels,  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  and  the  second  comprising  all  the 
Apostolical  Epistles ;  to  which  the  third,  which  contains 
the  Apocalypse,  is  added,  by  way  of  appendix.  To  the 
first  part  are  prefixed  three  Prefaces ;  the  first  and  second 
of  which  are  merely  translations  of  those  published  by 
Luther,  and  are  designed  to  give  the  reader  some  previ- 
ous idea  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  point  out  to  him  the 
principal  books  of  the  New  Testament.  The  translator 
has  not  even  hesitated  to  adopt  the  harsh  judgment  of 
the  reformer,  respecting  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  calling 
it  "a  proper  Epistle  of  straw,"  compared  with  the  other 
Epistles.  In  the  third,  which  is  wholly  the  translator's 
own  composition,  '^he  praises  the  goodness  and  mercy  of 
God,  in  having  conferred  upon  them  his  Holy  Gospel 
in  their  own  language,  and  thus  enabling  them  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  his  eternal  bounty,  revealed  in 
and  by  Christ  Jesus  ;  complains  that  the  New  Testament 
had  been  long  concealed,  and  that  many  had  erred,  not 
knowing  the  Scriptures,  with  which,  he  justly  maintains, 
all  ought  to  be  acquainted  ;  ascribes  the  present  publica- 
cation,  under  God,  to  the  king,  and  the  assistance  of 
other  good  Christians  ;  and  requests  all  candid  teachers 
that  if  they  should  m.eet  with  any  oversights  in  the  ver- 
sion, either  through  the  fault  of  the  printer,  who  was 
ignorant  of  the  language,  or  arising  from  the  difficul- 
ties which  the  language  itself  presented,  or  from  the 
little  assistance  that  could  be  procured  in  the  execution 
of  it,^  they  would,  for  the   sake  of  public  utility,  correct 

*  As  the  initials  H.  S,  are  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Testament,  it  is 
supposed,  with  a  good  degree  of  probability,  that  Henry  Smithy  a  native 
of  Malmoe,  and  the  corrector  of  several  of  Christiern  Pedersen's  works, 
was  employed  in  correctiDg  the  proof-sheets. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  311 

■whatever  they  found  needful  in  point  of  orthography^ 
punctuation,  or  diction.  Then  foUows  an  explanation  of 
a  number  of  words  made  use  of  in  the  New  Testament, 
such  as  bishop,  priest,  deacon,  church,  cross,  sacrifice, 
saint,  &c.  which,  from  the  perverted  explication  of  them 
by  the  papists,  the  translator  thought  necessary  previously 
to  elucidate,  lest  the  common  people  should  imagine  they 
found  their  errors  confirmed,  rather  than  reprobated,  by 
Scripture;  and  the  preface  concludes  with  the  specifica- 
tion of  a  few  errata,  which  had  found  their  way  into  the 
Gospels. 

The  Address  prefixed  to  the  second  part  is  directed  to 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Denmark,  and  exhibits  the  most 
unequivocal  proofs  of  the  abhorrence  in  which  the  trans- 
lator held  the  corruptions  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  his 
anxiety  to  have  the  attention  of  his  countrymen  fixed  on 
the  superlative   importance  of  the   Scriptures  of  truth. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  deplored,  that  he  should  have 
introduced  any  thing  of  a  political  nature  into  it,  as  it 
could  not  fail  to  create  prejudices  against  it  in  the  minds 
of  many  who  might  otherwise  have  given  it  an  attentive 
perusal.     The  address  may  be  found  at  full  length,  both 
in  English  and  Danish,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
E.  Henderson's  Dissertation  on  Hans  Mihhelsens  Trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament,  4to.  Copenhagen,  1813;    a 
copy  of  which  is  deposited  in  the  library  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  in  London.  This  address  is  stated  at 
the  end  to  have  been  written  at  Antwerp,  in  Brabant,  tlie 
year  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  one  thousand  five  hundred 
and  twenty-four ;  audit   is  not  unworthy  of  notice,  that 
this  Danish  version  appeared  two  years  before  the  first 
English  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  by  Tyndall;  and 
that  the  place  where  the  preface  was  written,  was  the 
very  spot  selected  by  Tyndall,  for  the  execution  of  his 
translation. 
Beside    the    above-mentioned    prefaces   and  address. 


312  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

there  is  a  preface  to  each  Epistle,  as  also  one  to  the  Apo- 
calypse, but  they  are  all  literal  translations  of  Luther's. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  second  part  there  is  a  register, 
showing  the  order  of  the  books,  and  the  number  of  chap- 
ters contained  in  each.  To  some  copies  of  his  transla- 
tion, Mikkelsen  added  a  letter,  addressed  to  the  burgo- 
master of  Dantzig,  in  which  he  endeavours  to  vindicate 
Christian  II.;  and  exhorts  the  inhabitants  of  Denmark, 
to  receive  him  back  again  into  the  kingdom.  The  rea- 
son why  it  is  found  in  some,  and  not  in  others,  seems  to 
be,  that  Mikkelsen  ultimately  regretted  his  having  pub- 
lished it ;  and  fearing  lest  it  should  injure  the  circula- 
tion of  the  New  Testament,  left  it  out  of  the  remaining 
copies.  The  order  of  the  books  in  this  translation  is  the 
same  with  that  observed  by  Luther;  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  and  those  of  James  and  Jude,  being  placed 
after  the  rest,  on  account  of  the  doubts  entertained  by  the 
reformer  respecting  their  authenticity.  Several  wood-cuts 
are  inserted  in  the  work,  exhibiting  the  Danish  arms,  the 
portrait  of  Christian  II.,  and  the  insignia  of  the  Apostles 
prefixed  to  their  writings.  The  initial  letter  of  each  chap- 
ter is  also  ornamented  with  a  w^ood-cut.  The  books  are 
only  divided  into  chapters  and  paragraphs;  the  division 
of  the  New  Testament  into  verses  not  being  introduced 
till  nearly  thirty  years  afterwards.  In  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  almost  the  only  points  used  are,  a  stroke  cut- 
ting the  line  transversely,  from  right  to  left,  and  the  sign 
of  interrogation.  In  the  Acts  of  the  -Apostles,  how- 
ever, besides  these,  both  the  colon  and  full-stop  are  fre- 
quently introduced.  It  is  printed  on  good  strong  paper, 
and  the  type,  which  is  the  black,  or  German  character, 
though  small,  is  uncommonly  clean  and  distinct. 

From  a  laborious  and  accurate  collation  of  this  trans- 
lation with  the  Latin  version  of  Erasmus,  and  the  Ger- 
man version  of  Luther,  Dr.  Henderson  concludes,  that 
in  translating  the  Four  Gospels,  Mikkelsen  chiefly  availed 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  313 

himself  of  the  Latin  version  of  Erasmus,  but  that  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament, 
he  generally  followed  the  German  version  by  Luther. 
Indeed,  this  distinction  seems  not  unequivocally  to  be 
hinted  in  the  title,  in  which,  the  first  part  is  said  to  be 
done  "exactly  according  to  the  Latin;"  whereas,  in  the 
designation  of  the  second,  no  mention  is  made  of  the 
Latin  at  all,  but  it  is  said  to  have  been  "translated  with 
due  discrimination  and  interpretation."  The  most  pro- 
bable reason  of  this  difference  is,  that  the  king's  plan  em- 
braced only  the  Four  Gospels,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Jpos- 
ties,  and  that  as  he  had  frequently  conversed  with  Eras- 
mus, in  Flanders,  in  1521,  upon  the  most  eligible  means 
of  eradicating  the  dominant  ecclesiastical  corruptions,  he 
directed  Mikkelsen  to  translate  the  Gospels,  and  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  into  Danish,  from  the  Latin  version  which 
Erasmus  had  published  along  withhis  editions  of  theGreek 
Testament.  In  this  case  the  translation  would  be  begun 
before  the  first  edition  of  Luther  s  version  had  left  the  press. 
But  in  the  translation  of  the  Epistles  voluntarily  under- 
taken by  Mikkelsen,  he  preferred  the  version  of  the  bold 
and  spirited  reformer,  which  had  by  that  time  been  pub- 
lished, to  that  of  the  indecisive  and  timid  Erasmus. 

"In  the  Gospels  and  Acts,"  says  Dr.  H.  "the 
Latin  idiom  frequently  predominates;  and  in  the  Epis- 
tles, not  only  the  construction  of  sentences,  but  the 
very  composition  of  the  words  bears  marks,  at  times, 
of  German  extraction.  The  use  of  these  foreign  idioms 
has  certainly  given  a  considerable  degree  of  stiffness  to 
many  parts  of  the  translation,  and  also  occasioned  some 
obscurity ;  yet  it  must  be  evident  to  every  one  who  exa- 

*  ''Paul  ELiiE,  a  native  of  Warberg,  in  Sweden,  was  originally  one 
of  the  Carmelite  friars  in  Elsinore,  from  which  place  he  went  to  Copen- 
Jiagen,  and  was  constituted  prior  of  the  new  Carmelite  convent  in  that 
city.  Having  read  some  of  Luther's  writings,  he  acknowledged  the 
truth  of  his  principles  ;  and  after  he  was  promoted  to  the  divinity-chair, 
in  the  university  of  Copenhagen,  he  assisted  in  the  attempts  that  were 


314  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

mines  it  with  impartiality,  that  Paul  Elise*  uses  the  exag-- 
gerated  language  of  prejudice,  when  he  affirms  that,  'did 
not  the  reader  understand  Latin,  it  would  not  be  the 
reading  of  Mikkelsen's  translation  that  would  make  him 
wise/  On  the  contrary,  whatever  imperfections  may 
have  crept  into  the  execution  of  it,  it  indisputably  con- 
tains an  intelligible  representation  of  the  truths  of  Pivine 
Revelation.  There  is  not  a  doctrine  or  a  duty  inculcat- 
ed and  taught,  in  this  important  portion  of  the  Sacred 

made  to  introduce  the  Reformation,  by  interpreting  the  German  dis- 
courses which  were  held  to  the  people  by  Reinhard,  who  had  been 
brought  to  Denmark  for  the  express  purpose  of  disseminating  the  truth 
in  the  capital.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  he  turned  his  back 
upon  the  reformers,  and  went  to  the  Catholic  party:  on  which  account 
he  obtained  the  nickname  of  Paul  Fendekaabe,  or  Paul  Turncoat.  It 
has  been  allodged,  that  this  change  of  sides  was  owing  to  his  being  pre- 
ferred to  a  good  canonry,  in  Odense,  by  the  bishops  of  Roskilde  and 
Aarhus,  who  were  anxious  to  prevent  the  friends  of  the  truth  from  reap- 
ing any  advantage  from  his  literary  abilities. 

As  the  circulation  and  perusal  of  the  New  Testament  could  not  fail  to 
elucidate  many  things,  which  it  must  have  been  the  earnest  wish  of  the 
clergy  to  keep  concealed,  it  necessarily  filled  them  with  hatred  and 
resentment;  and  in  order  the  more  eflectually  to  counteract  its  opera- 
tions, they  prevailed  on  Paul  Eliae  to  take  up  his  pen  against  it.  This 
hie  did  in  a  pamphlet,  to  which  he  gave  the  title,  A  brief  and  becoming 
B.epli/  to  the  heretical  and  inconsiderate  Letter^  which  the  impudent  herC' 
tic,  Hans  Mikkelsen,  published  along  with  the  New  Testament^  that 
King  Christian  caused  to  be  translated  in  his  tyrannical  manner,  and  not 
to  the  glory  of  God.  It  bears  the  date  of  Odense,  1527.  In  this  Reply^ 
Elise  charges  the  version  with  obscurity;  and  declares  that  it  was  made 
sometimes  from  the  Latin,  and  sometimes  from  the  German,  and  so 
completely  literal,  that  the  Danish  had  no  meaning  to  one  who  did  not 
understand  Latin.  Had  Mikkelsen,  he  says,  done  it,  as  those  do  who 
translate  from  Greek  into  Latin,  according  as  the  genius  of  the  languages 
admitted,  and  published  the  bare  i^xt,  without  any  of  the  poisonous 
prefaces  and  heretical  glosses,  he  would  have  been  entitled  to  thanks. 
He  states  that  he  had  no  objection  to  every  person's  understanding  so 
much  of  the  Scriptures  as  concerned  his  salvation  ;  but  to  uaaintain  that 
the  common  people  ought  to  know  the  whole  of  the  Bible,  was  to  main- 
tain what  was  impossible^  even  supposing  it  to  be  seemly.  He  is  very 
severe  upon  Mikkelsen,  for  having  copied  Luther  in  the  judgment  he 
passed  on  the  respective  merits  of  the  different  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment; and  accuses  him  of  political  views  in  publishing  it: — clothing 
Luther  in  the  same,  and  thus  sending  him  into  the  kingdom  to  do  all 
the  mischief  he  could.  The  whole  breathes  a  spirit  of  wounded  pride 
and  party-zeal.  See  Worm's  Lexicon  over  Lwrde  Mcend-^  and  Oliva-^ 
rius  de  Vita  et  Scriptis  Pauli  Elice  Carmelitoey 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  olo 

Volume,  but  what  is  here  expressed  in  terms  which  the 
generality  of  those  who  were  at  all  acquainted  with  let- 
ters must,  on  the  whole,  have  understood."* 

Instead  therefore  of  meriting  censure,  this  version 
claimed  the  respect  and  veneration  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  northern  kingdom,  for  wiiose  benefit  it  was  executed, 
and  to  whom  it  became  the  means  of  emancipating  their 
minds  from  the  fetters  of  ignorance  and  error,  and  of 
communicating  to  them  the  most  satisfactory  information 
on  those  topics,  which,  as  responsible  and  injmortal  crea- 
tures, it  most  concerned  them  to  know.  Its  object  was 
not  merely  the  ameUoration  of  their  external  and  tempo- 
ral condition,  but  the  advancement  of  their  intellectual 
and  everlasting  happiness;  and  this  end  it  answered  to  a 
very  considerable  extent.  Copies  were  transmitted  by 
sea  from  Antwerp  to  different  parts  of  Norway,  Sweden, 
and  Denmark,  and  were  joyfully  received  by  numbers 
who  longed  for  the  treasure,  and  who  exerted  themselves 
to  impart  it  to  their  neighbours.  Having  thus  gained 
admittance,  "it  darted  its  beams  across  the  gloom  with 
which  the  Northern  horizon  was  beclouded,  and  ushered 
in  a  brighter  and  happier  day."  In  the  letter  referred 
to  in  the  preceding  note,  its  enemies,  three  years  after 
its  publication,  are  compelled  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
efficiency  of  its  operations.  "In  this  kingdom,"  say 
they,  "there  are  many  who  now  doubt  more  than  ever 
they  did  before,  especially  since  th.e  New  Testament 
came  into  their  hands."  It  was  the  poh'cy,  therefore, 
of  the  adversaries  of  the  Reformation,  to  prevent,  if 
possible,  its  distribution  among  the  people.  The  coun- 
sellors  of  the  kingdom,  in  company  with  the  bishops, 

*  '^When  Christiern  Pedersen'^alludes  to  this  subject,  in  the  preface 
to  his  version  of  the  New  Testament,  he  does  not  maintnin  that  Mik- 
kelsen's  language  Avas  unintelligible:  he  only  says  that  *' mafiy  com- 
plained they  could  not  understand  it/*  which  Avas  a  very  good  excuse 
for  the  publication  of  his,  though  the  complaiuers  may  mostly  have  been 
of  the  same  party  with  Paul  Eliae." 


316 

among  other  measures  which  they  resolved  to  adopt  in 
order  to  put  a  stop  to  the  spread  of  the  new  heresy,  unani- 
mously determined  to  "interdict  new  and  dangerous 

BOOKS  WHICH  ARE   DAILY    IMPORTED  FROM  ANTWERP  AND 

OTHER  PLACES."^®  This  prohibition,  however,  produced 
but  little  effect,  and  the  Word  of  God  continued  to 
be  more  or  less  read  by  the  inhabitants  of  Denmark 
and  its  dependencies. 

Four  years  after  the  publication  of  Mikkelsen's  Danish 
New  Testament,  a  version  of  the  Psalms  was  printed  in 
the  same  language,  at  Rostock.     The  title   of  it   was 
"David's   Psaltere,  &c."  i.  e.  "The  Psalter  of  David 
translated  into  Danish  by  Francis  Wormord,   Carmelite 
friar,   with  a  few  annotations  on   such  places  as  needed 
them,  together   with   an  excellent  register  at    the  end, 
pointing  out  the  use,  virtue,  and  power  of  each   Psalm. 
Cum  gratia  et  privilegio  Regiee  71/."    It  is  in  quarto,  and  is 
stated  at  the  end,  to  have  been  printed  by  the  friars  in 
St.    Michael's  convent    at  Rostock,  on  the   5th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1528.     It  is  dedicated  to  Sir   Andrew  and  Lady 
Bilde  of  Sioholm,  to  whose   importunate  intreaties,  the 
author  ascribes  its  publication.     In  the  preface  he  points 
out  the  excellency  of  the  Psalms,  and  the  great  utility 
attending  the  study  of  them ;  specifies  the  different  trans- 
lations  of  which  he  had  availed  himself;   and  combats 
the  arguments  of  those  who  opposed  the   publication  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  vulgar  tongues.     His   version  ap- 
pears to  have  been   made  immediately  from  the  Hebrew, 
though  at  the  same  time  the  author  consulted  the  ren- 
derings of  the  different  translations  of  the  Psalter  which  he 
had  at  hand.     These   he   states  in  the  preface  to  have 
been  Psalterium  GalUcanum,  or  the  old  Italic ;  Psalterium 
Romamim,  the  version  of  Jerom;   two  German  transla- 
tions, the  one  German  proper,  and  the  other  Dutch ;  and 
the  two   more  recent  Latin   versions  of  Felix  Pratensis, 
(38)  Pontopp.  Annal.  Eccles.  Diplomat,  III.  p.  789, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  '  317 

and  Conrad  Pellican.  It  was  a  dictate  of  prudence  to 
suppress  the  reformer's  name,  yet  he  had,  evidently, 
Luther's  at  hand,  not  only  in  specifying  the  contents, 
but  in  forming  the  version.  The  language  is  very  un- 
polished. Indeed,  Wormord  himself  acknowledges,  in 
the  preface,  that  he  had  considerable  difficulty  in  ex- 
pressing himself  in  Danish,  •  both  on  account  of  the 
dissonance  between  the  Hebrew  and  Danish;  and  the 
intrusion  of  his  native  language,  the  peculiarities  of  which 
it  was  hardly  possible  for  him  to  elude.  That  his  version 
is  not  more  unpolished,  is  ovring  to  the  assistance  he 
received  from  his  old  master.  Lector  Paul,  who,  he  says, 
on  being  desired,  assisted  him  in  this  point  with  more  rea- 
diness, than  many  of  his  enemies  were  willing  to  believe. 
This  is  the  same  Lector  Paul,  (Paul  Eliae,)  of  whom  an 
account  has  been  given  in  a  preceding  note.  His  parti- 
cipation in  this  work,  cannot  fairly  be  construed  into  a 
proof  of  his  having  changed  his  mind,  in  regard  to  the 
sentiments  expressed  in  his  letter  to  Hans  Mikkelsen. 
He  had  declared  in  that  letter,  that  "  he  had  no  objec- 
tion to  every  person's  understanding  so  much  of  the  Scrip- 
tures as  concerned  his  salvation;"  and  it  is  likely  he 
considered  the  Psalms  in  this  light.  Besides,  they  .rere 
not  so  liable  to  be  adduced  in  opposition  to  the  anti- 
christian  system  of  which  he  was  a  zealous  abettor,  as  the 
New  Testament  was,  and  therefore  he  could  not  be  under 
any  alarm  at  their  being  put  into  the  hands  of  the  laity. 

A  translation  of  Athanasius's  Treatise  on  the  virtue  and 
excellence  of  the  Psalms^  by  Paul  Elise,  is  appended  to  the 
work;  together  with  a  Royal  Privilege,  which  Wormord 
was  careful  to  procure,  in  order  to  prevent  the  enemies 
of  the  translation  from  throwing  any  obstructions  in  the 
way  of  its  circulation.  To  each  Psalm  a  short  Summary 
is  prefixed,  and  compendious  notes  are  interspersed,  with 
a  view  to  illustrate  the  more  difficult  passages. 

Francis  Wormord,  the  translator  of  this  version  of 


318  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

the  Psalms,  v/as  born  at  Amsterdam,  in  the  year  1491, 
but  came,  when  young,  to  Denmark,  and  entered  the  Car- 
melite monastery  at  Eisinore.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
of  the  monks  who  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  was  so  distinguishingly  zealous  in  propagat- 
ing and  defending  them,  that  he  procured  to  himself  the 
name  of  Luther  Frank.  In  1526,  he  was  driven  from  one 
of  the  pulpits  in  Copenhagen,  amid  the  clamours  and 
hissings  of  the  canons,  who  felt  themselves  galled  by  the 
pointed  manner  in  which  he  delivered  the  new  views  he  had 
obtained  of  the  Gospel.  In  these  circumstances,  it  was 
natural  for  him  to  look  around  him,  for  men  of  similar 
sentiments  with  himself,  and  to  settle  in  some  place 
where  he  would  be  more  unshackled  in  his  endeavours  to 
disseminate  the  truth;  and  where,  by  this  means,  he 
would  be  more  likely  to  be  useful  to  his  fellow-men. 
He  accordingly  crossed  to  Malmoe,  the  inhabitants  of 
which  town  had  already  discovered  a  disposition  to  favour 
the  cause  he  had  espoused.  He  could  not,  however,  be 
prevailed  on  to  preach,  till  he  had  applied  for  permission 
to  XhQ  archbishop  of  Lund.  This  prelate,  on  Wormord's 
promising  to  preach  nothing  but  the  pure  truths  not' 
on'*'  granted  him  liberty,  but  made  him  a  present  of  some 
florins,  on  his  leaving  him:  but  it  was  not  long  before 
Lis  sermons  made  it  manifest,  that  his  ideas  of  pure 
truth  differed  widely  from  those  entertained  by  Achon, 
and  that  the  evident  tendency  of  his  doctrines  was  to 
alienate  the  minds  of  the  people  from  the  Roman  see. 
Yet  he  was  allowed  to  proceed  without  much  molestation ; 
was  soon  employed  as  theological  tutor  in  the  High 
School,  which  had  recently  been  established  at  Malmoe ; 
and,  in  1530,  we  find  him  called  to  take  part  in  the  pub- 
lic theological  Colloquium,  held  at  Copenhagen,  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  the  merit  of  the  questions  at  that 
time  pending  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants,  in 
Denmark.     In  1537,  he  was  elected  the  first  Lutheran 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  319 

bishop  of  Lund^  which  office  he  has  the  testimony  of  having 
filled  with  great  credit  and  ability.     He  died  in  1551. 

Le  Long  (Biblioth.  Sacra,  torn.  I.  p.  416)  mentions,  on 
the  authority  of  Aslacus,  that  an  edition  of  the  Psalms 
was  published  at  Malmoe  also,  in  1528.  This  Dr.  Hen- 
derson conceives  to  be  an  error;  the  following  are  his 
words :  "As  I  had  not  found  any  traces  of  such  an  edi- 
tion, in  any  of  the  Northern  writers  1  consulted,  1  was 
the  more  anxious  to  see  what  Aslacus  said  on  the  subject, 
but  on  turning  to  his  book,  I  found  nothing  further  than 
what  is  in  Le  Long,  and  am  persuaded  he  has  been  misled 
by  a  Danish  Psalm-book,  which  was  first  printed  at  Mal- 
moe, 1528,  and  has  mistaken  it  for  the  Psalms  of  David. 
It  was  composed  chiefly  of  Psalms  translated  from  the  Ger- 
man by  Tonlebinus,  who,  along  with  Spandernager,  was 
zealous  and  successful  in  his  attempts  to  introduce  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  into  Malmoe.  This  Psalm- 
book  was  republished  in  1529,  and  1534;  but  no  copies 
are  known  to  be  now  extant." 

Christiern  Pedersen,  who  has  been  already  noticed 
as  the  author  of  the  Jertegns  Post II,  published  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Psalms  in  Danish,  with  the  title,  "  Dauidz 
Psaltere,  &c."  i.  e.  "  David's  Psalter,  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  himself  made  by  the  mouth  of  David.  It  is  a 
suitable  book  for  all  Christians,  for  it  shews  us  how  we 
ought  to  believe  in,  serve,  and  love  God,  with  our  whole 
heart,  and  how  we  may  be  saved.  It  may,  indeed,  be 
called  a  little  Bible,  seeing  it  contains,  in  a  few  words, 
what  is  contained  in  the  Bible."  At  the  end  is  added, 
"  This  Psalter  is  translated  into  Danish  by  Christiern 
Pedersen,  who  was  canon  in  Lund,  and  printed  at  Ant- 
werp, the  year  after  the  birth  of  God,  1531."  But  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  this  was  the  date  of  the^r**^  edition, 
as  Le  Long  says  an  edition  was  printed  in  1528;  and  Dr. 
Henderson  (MS.  Hist.)  remarks,  that  the  copies  which 
he   has  seen  (evidently  meaning  beside  this)  have  1529. 


320  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

In  the  Preface,  the  translator,  whose  mind  was  now 
opening  to  the  truth,  complains  how  sadly  the  Psalms 
had  been  neglected;  that  their  place  had  been  occupied 
by  Passionals  and  Legends  of  saints;  and  that  books  of 
imitation,  which  were  full  of  fictitious  miracles  and  fool- 
ish dreams,  had  been  preferred  before  them.     He  points 
out  their  excellency  and  superiority,  not  only  in  compari- 
son with  the  best  books  of  human  composition,  but  even 
with  the  rest  of  Scripture  itself, — ^as  they  furnish  us  with  the 
most  eligible  expressions  for  carrying  on  our  correspond- 
ence with  God,  teach  us  the  right  way  to  heaven,  and 
contain  the  most  lucid  prophecies  of  the  sufferings  and 
death,  the  kingdom  and  glory  of  Christ.     He  insists  on 
the  necessity  of  humble  prayer  to  God,  for  light  and 
direction,  in  order  to  our   interpreting   the   Scriptures 
properly;  and  ascribes  the  accomplishment  of  the  present 
work  to  the  Father  of  Lights,  who  had  conferred  grace 
upon  him  proportioned  to  the  arduousness  of  the  task  he 
had  undertaken. — A  brief  description  is  also  given  of  the 
different  instruments  of  Hebrew  music  that  are  mention- 
.ed  in  the  Psalms;   and   several  observations  are  made 
respecting  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  language,  such  as 
the  frequent  changes  of  person,  tense,  &c.  which  shew 
that  the  translator  was  versant  in  that  tongue. 

At  the  close  there  is  an  address,  in  which  he  repels  the 
objections  made  to  the  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  by 
the  laity;  and  apologizes  for  any  imperfections  which 
might  be  found  in  his  translation.  "  It  ought,"  he  says, 
"properly  to  have  been  all  in  verse,  for  the  ori- 
ginal Hebrew  is  in  verse;  but  the  Danish  language 
does  not  admit  of  that  flexion  and  ease  which  are 
requisite  in  such  a  performance."  In  another  part  of  the 
same  address,  he  defends  the  liberty  he  had  taken  in  not 
rendering  word  for  word,  but  giving  what  appeared  to 
him  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  writer:  "If,"  he  declares, 
"I  had  translated  exactly  according  to  the  Latin  of  St. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  321 

Jerom,  none  would  have  understood  my  Danish;  nor 
would  it  have  either  head  or  tail,  as  every  one  must  per- 
ceive from  the  other  versions  which  have  been  made  of 
the  Psalter,  of  which  all  complain  that  they  are  unintel- 
ligible, a  necessary  consequence  of  their  having  been 
verbally  translated,  and  the  sound  having  been  followed, 
rather  than  the  sense."  "  He  that  translates,"  he  adds, 
"  from  Latin,  Greek,  or  Hebrew,  must  do  it  so  as  to  be 
understood  by  all  who  speak  the  language  into  which  he 
translates;  otherwise  it  were  better  for  him  to  abstain 
from  the  undertaking,  for  those  who  read  his  translation 
will  soon  get  weary  of  what  they  do  not  understand,  and 
thereby  grow  careless  about  reading  the  Word  of  God.'* 

The  translation  is  considered  by  competent  judges  as 
being  frequently  too  paraphrastic,  and  the  expressions 
too  generally  accommodated  to  Christian  sentiments  for 
a  Jewish  writer,  but  it  is  remarkably  pure  in  its  language, 
considering  the  time  when  it  was  executed;  and  the 
learned  Bishop  Mlinter  (Den  Danshe  Reformations 
historie,  II  Deel.  p.  73)  assures  us,  that  the  works  of 
Pedersen  are  worthy  of  a  place  among  the  Danish  classics, 

A  still  more  important  work  was  completed  by  the 
same  author,  in  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
into  Danish,  published  at  Antwerp,  A.  D.  1529.  The 
title  of  it  is,  "  Det  Ny  Testament,  &c."  i.  e.  "  The  New 
Testament,  containing  the  very  words  and  Gospels  which 
Jesus  Christ  himself  preached  and  taught  here  on  earth, 
and  which  his  holy  Apostles  and  Evangelists  afterwards 
wrote, — now  translated  into  proper  Danish,  and  correct- 
ed, to  the  praise  and  honour  of  God,  and  the  service  and 
benefit  of  the  common  people,  1529."  The  form  is 
small  quarto,  the  paper  better  than  that  on  which  Mik- 
kelsens  translation  was  printed,  and  a  considerable 
improvement  is  observable  in  the  typography.  The  punc- 
tuation is  nearly  the  same,  only,  what  is  rather  singular, 
there  is  seldom  any  full-stop   to   be  met  with.     The 

Vol.  II.  X 


322  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

parallel  passages  are  referred  to  in  the  margin,  by  the 
specification  of  the  chapter.  It  is  entirely  exempt  from 
marginal  glosses  and  observations:  what  the  translator 
deemed  necessary  to  add  by  way  of  explanation,  he  has 
inclosed  within  a  parenthesis,  or  expressed  paraphrastic 
caliy  in  the  version  itself. 

la  the  preface,  which  occupies  eleven  pages,  he  calk 
the  inhabitants  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  to 
thankfulness  to  God,  for  having  sent  them  his  holy  and 
unadulterated  Word,  in  their  own  language ;  adverts  to 
its  perversion  by  the  priests  and  monks,  and  is  very 
severe  upon  them  for  having  kept  it  back  from  the  com- 
mon people;  shewing  them,  in  this  respect,  to  be  worse 
than  the  Jewish  doctors  and  scribes  themselves,  who  did 
not  hinder  Christ,  when  only  twelve  yeai^  of  age,  from 
asking  them  questions  out  of  the  book  of  the  Law.  His 
expressions  are  not  quite  so  harsh  as  those  made  use  of 
by  Mikkelsen,  in  his  Address  ;  but  the  following  extracts 
will  shew  the  reader  with  how  very  little  ceremony  he 
treated  the  clerical  order,  and  how  zealous  he  was  for 
the  dissemination  of  Divine  Truth,  among  all  classes  of 
men.  "  There  are  many  proud  clerks,"  says  he  "  who 
have  a  high  idea  of  themselves,  and  imagine  that  they 
have  much  Scripture-wisdom,  and  who  foolishly  main- 
tain, that  it  is  not  lawful  for  any  who  do  not  understand 
Latin,  whether  they  be  noblemen,  knights,  or  yeomen, 
peasants,  handicraftsmen,  women,  or  girls,  to  have  the 
Gospels  in  their  own  language,  or  even  so  much  as  to  see 
them.  But  which  all  good  Christians  now  know  to  be 
an  egregious  falsehood;  for  Christ  suffered  death  for  the 
meanest  clown  or  maiden,  equally  as  for  the  most  exalted 
emperor,  king,  pope,  bishop,  or  prelate,  that  ever  lived; 
and  it  is  his  pleasure  that  they  should  all  be  saved,  the 
one  as  well  as  the  other,  for  with  him  there  is  no  respect 
of  persons." — "  They  assert  that  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  are  committed  unto  theiiij,  and  that  they  have 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  323 

the  exclusive  right  of  binding  and  loosing;  but  Christ 
addresses   them  thus :  '  Wo  unto  you,  scribes  and  phari- 
sees,  hypocrites !   for  ye  shut  up  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
against  men:  for  ye  neither  go  in  yourselves,  neither  suffer 
ye  them  that  are  entering  to  go  in.     Wo  unto  you,  for 
ye  devour  widows'  houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make  long 
prayers ;  therefore  ye  shall  receive  the  greater  damnation  !* 
Matt,  xxiii.  13,  14.     And  again,  '  Wo  unto  you,  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!   for  ye  pay  tithe  of  mint,  and 
anise,  and  cummin,  and  have  omitted  the  weightier  mat- 
ters of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy,  and  faith:  these  ye 
ought  to  have  done,  and  not  to  leave  the  other  undone.' 
ver.  23.     And  St.  Paul  warns  all  to  beware  lest   they 
should  be  deceived  by  the  philosophy  of  such  clerks ;  for 
they  always  oppose  the  Word  of  God,  just  as  the  scribes, 
Pharisees,  and  hypocrites,  the  bishops  and  prelates,  Caia- 
phas  and  Annas,   opposed  the  word  and  preaching  of 
Christ.     Agreeably  to  the  doctrines  he  taught,  his  disci- 
ples were  not  to  aspire  after  worldly  honom'S,  riches,  or 
power;  and  when  he  sent  them  out,  he  commanded  them 
to  teach  gratis,  saying,    '  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely 
give.'     Nor  did  he  himself  neglect  the  common  people, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  preached  to  them  in  the  fields, 
deserts,  and  woods,  to  which  many  thousands  flocked  to 
hear  him,  and  generally  women,  girls,  and  clowns,  rather 
than  clerks  and  others  of  a  similar  description." 

To  the  preface  is  annexed  a  list  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  as  appointed  to  be  read  in  the  churches.  The 
lives  of  the  Evangelists  are  prefixed  to  their  writings,  and 
the  contents  of  each  book  are  briefly  stated.  The  order 
in  which  the  books  are  placed  is  nearly  the  same  as  in 
Luther  s  German  version,  except  that  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  is  inserted  between  the  Epistle  to  Philemon, 
and  those  of  Peter,  instead  of  following  the  Epistles  of 
John,  as  in  the  editions  by  Luther;  and  although  Peder- 
sen  has  not  altered  the  position  of  St.  James's  Epistle, 


324  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

he  has  very  strongly  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  the 
manner  in  which  Luther  and  Mikkelsen  had  spoken  of 
it.  "  I  cannot  conceive/'  says  he,  in  the  preface,  "how 
any  should  have  the  assurance  to  call  this  Epistle  an 
Epistle  of  Straw,  as  if  it  were  of  no  more  value.  Yet 
every  Christian  well  knows  that  he  was  an  Apostle  of 
Christ,  and  spake  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  what  the 
spirit  is  by  which  such  speak,  is  best  known  to  God,  from 
whom  nothing  can  be  concealed,  and  by  whom  all  are 
to  be  judged." 

The  version  itself  appears  to  have  been  raised  on  the 
foundation  laid  by  Mikkelsen,  though  the  translator 
has  greatly  improved  the  style,  and  been  careful  to  ba- 
nish all  foreign  words  and  idioms,  and  has  introduced  a 
superior  system  of  orthography.  But  notwithstanding 
the  excellencies  of  this  translation,  it  is  allowed  to  be 
sometimes  too  paraphrastic,  and  in  some  instances  to 
be  disfigured  by  the  adoption  of  modern  terms  and 
phrases,  inconsistent  with  the  manners  of  the  age  in 
which  the  New  Testament  was  written:  thus  Matt, 
xxvi.  17.  is  rendered  "Sker  Torsdag,"  "Maundy 
Thursday ;"  and  xxvii.  6.  xop^amv  (Eng.  "  Treasury") 
is  translated,  "Thirken's-block,"— ."The  church-block," 
i.  e.  a  block  of  wood  stuck  into  the  ground,  the  upper 
end  of  which  is  hollowed  out,  so  as  to  form  a  box,  and 
firmly  secured  with  iron,  leaving  a  small  opening  at  the 
top,  through  which  alms  are  deposited  for  the  poor. 
This  kind  of  poor-box  is  very  common  all  over  the  north 
of  Europe,  and  is  placed  either  at  the  church-door,  the 
entrance  to  the  church-yard,  or  at  the  road  side  adjoining 
to  the  church.  Bastholm  has  adopted  the  same  word  ia 
his  translation  of  1780. 

The  way  having  been  paved  for  its  reception  by  a  four 
years  circulation  of  Mikkelsen's  version,  this  improved 
translation  of  Pedersen's  was  welcomed  with  joy,  and 
read  with  the  utmost  avidity.    In  less  than  two  years  a 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY,  325 

new  edition  was  called  for ;  and  the  translator  accord- 
ingly republished  it,  along  with  his  version  of  the  Psalms, 
at  Antwerp,  1531,  but  without  any  alteration;  and  to  the 
light  diffused  over  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  by 
means  6f  these  different  editions  of  the  New  Testament, 
mere  than  to  any  other  cause,  is  doubtless  to  be  ascribed, 
the  early  and  extensive  progress  which  the  Reformation 
made  in  those  kingdoms. 

In  1533;,  Jacob  Hansen  published  a  Danish  translation 
of  Schmaltzing's  German  version  of  the  Psalms.  It  was 
printed  in  Magdeburg,  in  16mo.  A  second  edition  ap- 
peared in  8vo.  Copenhagen,  1570,  which  Hieimstierne,  by 
mistake,  says,  was  done  by  Palladius ;  (See  Bogsamling 
pt.  ii.  p.  538;)  and  a  third  at  the  same  place,  in  12mo. 
1616.  As  this  publication  does  not  contain  a  direct 
translation  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  but  is  composed  of 
prayers,  or  pious  ejaculations  drawn  from  the  text,  it 
might  have  been  entirely  passed  over,  had  it  not  been 
liable  to  be  confounded  with  the  real  versions. 

The  publication  of  the  Danish  New  Testament,  by 
Christiern  Pedersen,  was  soon  followed  by  a  Danish  ver- 
sion of  the  Pentateuch,  by  Hans  Tausen,  bearing  the 
title ;  "De  fem  Moses  Boger,  &c."  i.  e.  "The  Five  books 
of  Moses  faithfully  and  diligently  translated  into  Da- 
nish, by  Hans  Tausen,  A.  M.  preacher  in  Copenhagen." 
At  the  end  it  is  said  to  be  "printed  at  Magdeburg,  by 
Michael  Lotther,  the  year  after  the  birth  of  God,  1535." 
It  is  printed  in  a  small  octavo  size,  on  tolerably  good 
paper,  with  a  type  similar  to  those  employed  in  printing 
the  other  Danish  translations  of  the  Scriptures.  The  ver- 
sion is  without  note,  comment,  or  marginal  reference.  The 
chapters  are  divided,  as  was  usual  at  that  time,  only  into 
paragraphs,  and  are  marked  by  their  beginning  a  new 
line.  In  his  address  to  the  Christian  reader,  Tausen 
states  the  necessity  of  our  having  access  to  the  sacred, 
living,  and  all-powerful  Word  which  lies  concealed  in  the 


326 

writings  of  the  Prophets  and  Apostles^  seeing  we  are  de-? 
prived  of  their  personal  ministry:  and  he  declares  the 
Holy  Scriptures  to  be  of  such  importance,  that  their  con- 
tents deserve  '^to  be  painted  on  every  wall,  written  on 
ever}^  corner,  and  translated  into  every  language,  that 
the  rising  generation  may  be  exercised  in  them  betimes." 
This  address  is  followed  by  a  list  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  a  translation  of  Luther's  excellent  pre- 
face. With  respect  to  the  diction.  Dr.  Woldike  observes 
(Kiohenhavnske  Selshahs  Skrifter  I  Deel,  p.  9,)  that 
greater  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  purity,  propriety, 
and  perspicuity,  of  the  Danish  language,  in  ttiis  version, 
than  in  any  cotemporary  publication,  if  we  except  the 
writings  of  Christiern  Pedersen. 

"In  making  this  version,"  says  Dr.  Henderson,  "Tau- 
sen  has  neither  implicitly  followed  the  Vulgate,  nor  Lu- 
ther, but  has  had  the  Hebrew  text  itself  before  him, 
the  meaning  of  which  he  has,  in  certain  passages, 
more  happily  expressed  than  either  of  them ;  and  even  in 
those  instances  in  which  he  leaves  them  without  having 
himself  apprehended  the  meaning,  it  is  evident  that  his  mis- 
take has  arisen  from  the  different  light  in  which  he 
viewed  the  Hebrew  expressions." 

That  this  translation  of  the  "  Five  Books  of  Moses"  was 
well  received,  appears  from  the  fact,  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  prepare  a  new  edition  in  the  course  of  the 
following  year.  This  edition  was  likewise  printed  at 
Magdeburg,  by  Michael  Lotther.  On  the  title-page  is 
the  date  1536,  which  shews  that  it  was  begun  in  the 
course  of  that  year;  and  at  the  end,  1537,  the  year  in 
which,  it  left  the  press.  It  corresponds,  in  every  respect, 
with  the  former  edition;  only,  instead  of  "The  Five 
Books  of  Moses,"  the  translator  has  substituted  "  Det 
Gambe  Testamente;"  "  The  Old  Testament;"  which  must 
have  arisen  from  his  design  to  publish  the  whole  of  that 
part  of  the  Sacred  Volume,  at  a  future  opportunity. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  327 

Le  Long  mentions  the  latter  edition,  but  appears  to  have 
been  unacquainted  with  the  former.  Tausen  actually  set 
about  completing  his  design,  and,  in  1543,  obtained  a 
royal  privilege  from  Christian  III.  permitting  him  to  print 
his  translation,  and  interdicting  its  republication  and  sale 
by  others,  for  the  space  of  four  years:  but,  owing  to  some 
unknown  cause,  it  never  made  its  appearance. 

Hans  Tausen,  who  has  obtained  the  name  of  The 
Danish  Luther,  from  his  activity  and  zeal  in  promoting 
the  Reformation,  was  born  A.  D.  1494,  at  Birkinde,  an 
obscure  village  in  the  vicinity  of  Kierteminde,  in  Funen. 
Even  while  a  child  he  discovered  an  uncommon  inclina- 
tion to  study,  and  his  parents,  though  poor,  sent  him  to 
the  cathedral-school  of  Odense,  where  he  was  initiated 
into  the  elements  of  science,  supporting  himself  with 
what  he  received  for  chanting  before  the  doors  of  the 
inhabitants, — a  practice  at  that  time  gTcatly  in  vogue. 
After  spending  some  time  also  in  the  school  at  Viborg, 
under  the  tuition  of  the  famous  Borup,  he  entered,  about 
the  year  1515,  the  Cross-Friar  convent  at  Anderskov,  in 
Zealand,  and  soon  gained  the  esteem  of  Eskild,  the  prior, 
who  not  only  took  particular  pains  in  the  direction  of  his 
studies,  but,  flattering  himself  with  the  hopes  that  his 
pupil  would  one  day  prove  an  able  advocate  of  the  Catho^ 
lie  faith,  resolved  to  send  him  to  some  of  the  foreign  uni- 
versities, where  he  might  prosecute  his  researches  after 
knowledge  to  greater  advantage,  than  he  could  possibly 
do  at  home.  This  proposition  was  exceedingly  welcome 
to  Tausen,  who  had  already  gi-own  weary  of  the  manners 
of  the  convent,  and  accordingly,  in  1517,  he  proceeded 
to  Holland,  after  having  come  under  an  obligation,  not 
to  visit  Wittemberg,  and  on  his  return  to  Denmark,  to 
re-enter  his  convent.  The  first  university  he  visited  was 
Louvain ;  but  he  was  soon  disgusted  at  the  dry  scholastic 
lectures  of  the  professors,  and  went  to  Cologne,  where  he 
found,  to  his  mortification,  that  the  lectures  were  equally 


328  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

insipid.  Here,  however,  he  met  with  several  of  Luther's 
publications,  which  increased  his  abhorrence  of  the  pre- 
dominant ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  led  him  to  resolve, 
notwithstanding  the  obligation  into  which  he  had  entered 
with  the  prior,  and  which  he  ought  to  have  kept  faith- 
fully, to  visit  Wittemberg,  that  he  might  hear  and  con- 
verse with  the  reformers.  He  accordingly  repaired 
thither,  and  after  spending  upwards  of  a  year  there,  in 
secret,  he  returned  to  Denmark  in  1521.  Having  been 
created  master  of  arts  at  Rostock,  on  his  way  home,  he 
was  called  to  hold  theological  lectures  in  the  university 
of  Copenhagen ;  but  his  popularity  with  the  students,  and 
the  purity  of  his  doctrine,  are  supposed  to  have  excited 
the  hatred  and  jealousy  of  the  clergy,  who  prevailed  on 
Eskild  to  recall  him  to  the  convent.  Here  he  kindled  a 
flame  not  to  be  extinguished.  In  his  sermon  on  Good- 
Friday,  1524,  he  discussed  the  following  doctrinal  propo- 
sition: That  a  penitent  sinner  obtains  the  Divine  J  avour, 
the  pardon  of  his  sins,  and  life  everlasting,  of  mere  grace, 
solely  in  virtue  of  the  atonement  oj  Christ,  without  any 
worth  or  merit  of  his  own:  which  so  exasperated  the  prior, 
that  he  ordered  him  immediately  to  be  put  in  confine- 
ment ;  thoug  afterwards  he  released  him,  at  the  instance 
of  some  of  Tausen's  fi  lends,  on  condition  that  he  should 
leave  Zealand  and  Funen. 

Our  reformer  now  went  to  Viborg,  where  he  gained 
over  iiany  friends  to  the  truth,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
created  himself  many  enemies,  whose  rage  ultimately 
grew  to  such  a  height,  as  to  cause  him  to  be  again  impri- 
soned. This  discouraging  circumstance  only  served  to 
add  fresh  vigour  to  his  zeal,  and  though  restrained  from 
propagating  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  in  the  same 
public  way  in  which  he  had  begun,  he  still  did  what  he 
could,  by  preaching  through  the  windows  of  his  prison, 
to  such  as  collected  before  them.  The  God  whom  he 
served  was^  however,  able  to  deliver,  and  did  deliver  hiui^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  329 

for  he  was  not  only  liberated  by  royal  authority,  but 
nominated  chaplain  to  Frederick  I.  and  allowed  to  preach 
in  the  church  of  Viborg,  to  the  no  small  mortification  of 
Friis,  bishop  of  the  diocese.  80  embittered  was  this  pre- 
late against  Tausen,  that  he  even  ventured,  in  spite  of 
the  royal  protection,  to  forbid  him  the  use  of  the 
church ;  but  Tausen,  who  had  learned  that  God  was  not 
confined  to  temples  made  with  hands,  mounted  a  grave-^ 
stone  in  the  church-yard,  and  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation  to  numerous  audiences.  Nor  ought  it  to  be 
concealed,  that  the  magistrates  were  at  last  obliged  to 
obstruct  the  passage,  leading  from  the  bishop's  residence 
to  the  place  where  Tausen  preached,  with  iron  chains,  to 
prevent  the  haughty  dignitary  and  his  horsemen  from 
molesting  him  I  Determined,  if  possible,  to  stop  the 
mouth  of  such  an  audacious  heretic,  Friis  sent  for  the 
bishops  of  Ribe,  Borglum,  and  Aarhuus,  who,  after  con- 
sulting together  on  the  subject,  wrote  to  the  lamoiis 
Eckius,  requesting  him  to  come  and  silence  Tausen  by 
argument;  but  Eckius,  who  had  already  found  how  diffi- 
cult it  was  to  dispute  with  the  reformers  of  Germany,  de- 
clined the  task;  on  which  they  applied  to  Cochleeus,  who, 
having  advised  with  Erasmus,=^  also  refused  to  undertake 
the  journey;  and  Tausen  was  permitted  to  preach,  with- 
out interruption,  at  Yiborg,  till  1529,  when  the  king 
appointed  him  preacher  of  the  church  of  St.  Nicolas,  in 
Copenhagen.      Here   he  entered  on   a  new   and   more 

*  The  advice  of  Erasmus  is  too  remarkable  not  to  be  inserted  here : 
f'  Iter  perlongum  est,  et  gens  fera  dicitur,  et  instat  hiems.  Si  Episcopi 
pugnarent  pro  Regno  Christi,  non  pro  suo^  alacrioribus  atiimis  capesse- 
remus  hanc  railitiain.  Quare  nihil  in  isto  nej^otio  possum  consulere,  nisi 
ut  spectetur  non  hominura  sed  Christi  negotium,  magisque  iis  intentus 
servandis  hominibus,  quam  puniendis."'  "'J  he  journey  is  long;  the 
people  are  said  to  be  of  a  savao;e  disposition,  and  winter  is  at  hand.  If 
it  were  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  the  bishops  were  contending  for,  and  not 
their  own,  we  should  be  more  ready  to  join  in  the  contest.  The  only 
advice  I  ran  therefore  give  in  the  matter,  is,  that  you  regard  it  as  the 
cause  of  Christ,  and  not  that  of  man,  and  that  you  be  more  intent  oa 
the  salyatioD,  than  the  punishment,  of  men.'* 


S30  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

extensive  field  of  usefulness.  The  church  was  crowded 
when  he  preached;  and  the  animation  and  perspicuity 
with  which  he  delivered  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation, 
were  productive  of  the  best  effects  on  the  minds  of  his 
hearers.  The  Catholics,  grieved  to  see  their  cause  grow- 
ing into  disrepute,  were  so  importunate  with  the  king, 
that  he  was  necessitated  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  States  at 
Copenhagen,  in  the  year  1530,  that  the  differences  be- 
tween the  Catholics  and  Reformers  might  be  settled  by 
public  disputation.  The  former  sekcted  the  most  learned 
and  acute  of  their  party;  but  fearing  lest  after  all  they 
might  be  worsted,  they  hired  some  able  disputants  in 
Germany  to  come  and  assist  them.  Tausen  came  forward 
as  the  champion  of  the  reformers.  He  had  prepared 
forty-three  articles  as  a  confession  of  faith,  which  were 
signed  by  himself  and  his  brethren.  Two  of  these  were, 
That  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  only  standard  of  salva- 
tion; and  That  a  Christian  needs  no  other  rule  but  these 
Scriptures,  separate  from  all  human  appendages.  In  op- 
position to  these,  the  other  party  composed  twenty-seven 
articles;  and  nothing  now  prevented  the  commencement 
of  the  disputation,  but  the  settling  of  the  following  preli- 
minary questions:  l."In  what  language  it  slwuld  be 
b^ld?"  Tausen  and  his  brethren  maintained,  that  as  they 
had  begun  to  write  on  the  m.atter  in  Danish,  it  ought  to 
be  carried  on  in  that  language,  and  the  rather,  as  it  was 
the  language  of  the  common  people,  whose  interest  was  at 
stake,  as  well  as  their  own.  The  Catholics,  on  the  eon- 
trary,  contended  that  it  should  be  held  in  Latin,  that 
being  the  language  of  the  church. — '2.  "Who  was  to  be 
arbiter  of  the  controversy?'"  The  Catholics  would  only 
admit  the  Bible,  as  interpreted  by  the  Fathers  and  coun- 
cils, to  be  the  standard;  and  maintained  that  the  pope,  as 
head  of  the  church,  and  the  vicar  of  Christ,  was  the  only 
legitimate  judge:  whereas  the  reformers  insisted  that  the 
Scriptures  were,   in   themselves,  the  only  standard  by 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  331 

which  they  would  submit  to  be  judged;  and  chose  the 
king,  the  councilj  and  states  of  the  reahn,  for  their  judges. 
Tausen,  knowing  the  weakness  of  his  enemies'  cause, 
encouraged  his  friends,  on  leaving  the  hall  that  day,  with 
the  words  of  the  prophet:  "The  Egyptians  are  men,  and  not 
God."  Isaiah,  xxxi.  3.  Finding  that  they  were  not  likely  to 
gain  their  cause,  the  Roman  clergy  attempted  to  get 
clear  of  the  business,  by  publishing,  that  as  the  Lutherans 
were  heretics,  they  would  not  dispute  with  them;  on 
which  Tausen  drew  up  thirteen  additional  articles,  in 
defence  of  himself  and  his  brethren ;  and  full  liberty  was 
granted  them  to  preach  when  and  where  they  pleased. 

No  sooner,  however,  did  Tausen  lose  his  royal  pro- 
tector, who  died  in  1533,  than  his  enemies  exerted  their 
influence  against  him,  and  occasioned  him  to  be  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  states  of  the  kingdom.  Here 
he  was  accused  in  the  bitterest  manner;  and  although  he 
defended  himself  with  great  ability,  the  prelates  sen- 
tenced him  to  lose  his  life,  honour,  and  goods.  This 
sentence  the  council  refused  to  confirm ;  though  he  was 
ordered  to  leave  the  island,  and  never  appear  more  either 
in  Zealand,  or  Scania.  But  the  citizens,  having  been 
apprized  of  the  manner  in  which  he  was  treated,  assembled 
before  the  chamber,  and  demanded  that  he  should  be 
delivered  to  them  safe  and  sound.  An  amiable  trait  in 
Tausen's  character  displayed  itself  on  this  occasion.  The 
populace  were  so  exasperated  at  Bishop  Ronnow,  whom 
they  regarded  as  the  author  of  the  prosecution,  that  they 
were  detei-mined  to  wreak  their  vengence  on  him  as  he 
returned  to  his  residence.  Tausen,  however,  calmed  their 
fury,  and  conducted  his  enemy  by  the  arm,  through  the 
mob,  to  the  door  of  his  house. 

Having  weathered  the  storm,  he  continued  to  labour 
unmolested  in  Copenhagen,  till  the  year  1537,  when  he 
was  appointed  lecturer  on  divinity  in  Roskilde.  In  1542, 
he  was  created  bishop  of  Ripen,  which  station  he  occupied 


332  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

till  his  death  on  the  9th  of  November,  1561,  aged  67. 
(SMagraphia  Luther  I  Danici,  sive  Bwgraphia  Primi  in 
Dania  Restauratoris  Doctrince  Sance  Magistri  Johannu 
Tausani,  Auct.  P.  Ron,  Hafnioe,  1757,  8 vo.) 

After  Tausen's  version  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  next 
portion  of  Sacred  Scripture  published  in  Danish,  was  a 
translation  of  the  Book  of  Judges.  The  author,  Pedeti 
Tide  MAN,  was  cieri^^yman  of  the  parishes  of  Hersted  Os- 
ter,  and  Hersted  Vester,  in  Zealand;  and  published  several 
other  works,  mostly  translations,  among^which  was  his 
version  of  the  Apocryphal  books,  Jesus  Slrach,  and  the 
PFisdom  o/'ASo/omo??,  Magdeburg,  1541, 8vo.  which  LeLong 
improperly  ascribes  to  Hans  Tausen.  His  version  of  the 
Book  of  Judges  is  considered  as  one  of  the  scarcest  in  the 
Danish  language;  "No  mention,"  says  Dr.  Henderson, 
(MS.  Hist.)  "is  made  of  it  in  hork'' s  Blbliotheca  Biblica; 
and  the  only  copy  I  have  fallen  in  with  is  that  in  the 
Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen ;  but  it  is  defective,  begin- 
ning near  the  end  of  the  vith,  and  ending  near  the  con- 
clusion of  the  XX  th  chapter.  The  following  note  is 
written  by  an  anonymous  hand,  on  the  first  clean  leaf: 
^A  fragment  of  an  old  Danish  translation  of  the  book 
of  Judges,  with  a  preface,  written  by  Peter  Tideman,  and 
doubtless,  translated  by  him.  Printed  in  Copenhagen, 
1539,  and  not  1532,  as  Resen  Bibl.  p.  126,  and  Moller 
Hypon.  I  have  seen  a  complete  copy  in  Peter  Ewertsen's 
collection,  but  this  piece  I  purchased  at  the  auction  of 
the  late  Dr.  Woidike.'  It  is  in  12mo.  on  middling  pa- 
per, and  the  type  is  coarser  than  that  with  which  the 
preceding  translations  were  printed.  It  is  inferior  also^ 
in  point  of  language;  and  in  different  parts  of  the  version, 
several  obsolete  and  foreign  words  are  observable.  The 
translator  sometimes  follows  the  rendering  of  the  Vulgate, 
and  sometimes  that  of  Luther." 

Hitherto  the  Danes  had  been  chiefly  indebted  to  the 
indefatigable  zeal  of  private  individuals,  for  those  por- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  333 

tions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  which  had  been  translated 
into  the  vernacular  language;  but  the  first  edition  of  the 
whole  Bible  owed  its  publication  to  the  munificence  of 
their  monarch,  Christian  III. 

The  attempts  which  had  been  begun  by  Christian  II.  to 
introduce  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  into  Denmark, 
were  continued  with  greater  prudence  and  success,  under 
the  following  reign.     Frederick  I.  granted  perfect  liberty 
of  conscience  to  all  his  subjects,  shortly  after  his  accession 
to  the  throne;  afforded  the  Lutherans  the  same  protec- 
tion and  security  as  the  Catholics ;  cut  off*  the  dependence 
which  the  bishops  had  on  the  papal  see;  and  retained  for 
himself  the  right  of  confirming  their  election,  after  they 
had  been  chosen  by  the  chapters.     These  advances  to- 
wards an  entire  emancipation,  which  he  effected  at  the 
diet  of  Odense,   1527,  were  accelei-ated  by  that  of  Co- 
penhagen, 1530;  after  which  period  the  cause  of  the  re- 
formers was  espoused  by  the  greater  part  of  the  nobility, 
and  received  accessions  of  strength  and  influence  daily. 
But  it  was  reserved  for  Christian  III.   to  bring  to  per- 
fection what  his  royal  predecessors  had  commenced ;  to 
break  in  pieces   the   hierarchical  yoke;  to  establish  the 
Protestant  doctrine  as  the  religion  of  the  state;  and  ta 
adopt  measures  for  securing  its  purity  and  perpetuity.     A 
new  form  of  ecclesiastical  government  and  discipline  was 
drawn  up,  and  introduced;   important  regulations  were 
made  for  the  conducting  of  the  schools  ;  the  privileges  of 
the  university  were  renewed  and  extended ;  and  the  great- 
est care  was  taken  to  promote  the  illumination  both  of 
the  clergy  and  laity. 

Of  all  the  steps,  however,  that  were  taken  in  order 
more  fully  to  establish,  and  completely  to  secure,  the 
safety  of  Protestantism,  in  Denmark,  none  tended  more 
directly,  or  more  rapidly,  to  the  attainment  of  this  impor- 
tant end,  than  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  vul- 
gar tongue.    Detached  portions  of  it  had  already  been 


334  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

published  at  different  times;  but  no  edition  of  the  whole 
had  yet  appeared.  This  defect  was  pointed  out  to  the 
king,  by  the  famous  Bugenhagen,  whom  he  had  invited 
to  Copenhagen,  to  assist  in  the  reformation  of  ecclesias- 
tical abuses,  and  who  possessed  no  ordinary  degree  of 
his  confidence  and  esteem.  While  he  expatiated  to  his 
majesty  on  the  glorious  effects  resulting  from  the  gene- 
ral diffusion  of  the  Word  of  God,  in  Germany,  he  did  not 
fail  to  notice  the  excellencies  of  Luther's  version,  and  to 
recommend  it  as  the  text  from  which  the  Danish  trans- 
lation ought  to  be  made.  To  this,  it  is  probable,  he  was 
induced,  not  from  any  depreciating  idea  of  the  abilities 
of  the  Danish  professors,  for  some  of  them  had  received 
distinguished  academical  honours  at  Wittemberg  itself, 
but  with  a  view  to  prevent  a  construction  being  put  upon 
certain  passages  of  Scripture,  that  might  be  supposed  to 
favour  the  Zuinglian  opinions,  to  which,  it  was  suspected, 
some  of  them  at  that  time  were  partial.  The  execution 
of  the  work  was  committed  to  the  theological  faculty, 
which  was  at  that  time  composed  of  Peter  Palladius, 
Olave  Chrysostom,  John  Synning,  or  Siuneson,  and 
John  MACCHABiEus,  or  Mac  alpine. 

The  early  impressions  of  the  Danish  Scriptures  were 
almost  all  executed  abroad.  There  had,  indeed,  been  a 
printing  office  established  in  Copenhagen  as  early  as 
1493 ;  but  the  influence  of  such  as  were  hostile  to  the 
translation  of  the  Word  of  God,  was  too  great  to  admit 
the  first  vernacular  versions  to  be  printed  at  home;  and 
though  the  press  had  received  several  improvements  and 
enlargements  subsequent  to  its  first  erection,  it  was,  never- 
theless, found  to  be  inadequate  to  so  stupendous  a  work  as 
that  of  printing  the  whole  Bible.  The  Copenhagen  divines 
were  therefore  obliged  to  procure  a  foreign  printer,  who 
might  be  able  to  execute  it  satisfactorily;  and  ultimately 
fixed  on  Lodowich  Dietz,  of  Rostock,  who  had  rendered 
himself  celebrated  by  his  masterly  executioa  of  Luther's 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  335 

Bible,  in  the  Low-Saxon  language.  Some  have  supposed 
that  he  was  sent  for  at  the  instance  of  Bugenhagen,  but 
Dietz  himself,  in  his  appendix  to  the  Low-Saxon  New 
Testament,  which  he  printed  in  1553,  mentions  Dr.  JMac- 
chaba3us  as  his  particular  friend  and  patron.  It  also  ap- 
pears from  the  same  appendix,  that  Dietz  was  well  re- 
warded by  the  king,  for  his  pains,  for  which  he  tiiere 
thanks  him,  and  praises  his  laudable  undertaking. 

In  1546,  the  paper  destined  for  the  work  arrived^ 
(most  probably  from  Holland,)  at  Elsinore,  and  in  order 
to  meet  the  expenses  of  it,  together  with  those  connected 
with  the  printing,  a  tax  of  two  rix- dollars  was  levied  on 
every  church  in  Denmark.  It  was  not,  however,  till  1550, 
that  the  Bible  was  completed.  The  title  of  it  is,  "Bib- 
LiA,  det  er  den  gantske,  &c.'*  "Biblia,  i.  e.  the  whole  of 
Sacred  Scripture  translated  into  Danish.  ^The  Word 
of  God  abideth  for  ever.'  Isaiah  xl.  Printed  in  Copen- 
hagen, by  Ludowich  Dietz,  1550."  This  is  inserted  in 
the  middle  of  a  cut,  representing  the  giving  of  the  Law^ 
the  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  its  consequence, 
death;  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Christ;  and  at 
the  foot,  two  men,  one  of  whom  has  a  Bible  under  his 
arm,  are  shewing  a  wretched  sinner  to  Christ  on  the 
cross.  The  same  cut  is  inserted  at  the  beginning  of 
the  prophets,  and  New  Testament.  On  the  inside 
of  the  title-page  is  the  portrait  of  Christian  III.  The 
two  following  pages  present  us  with  a  paradisaical 
scene,  and  the  Danish  arms,  with  the  inscription:  Insig- 
nia ChRISTIANI  TERTIf  DANORUM  REGII,  &C.  aUUO  MDL. 

together  with  the  royal  and  most  Christian  motto  of 
this  monarch :  unica  spes  mea  Christus.     C.  R.  D. 

It  forms  a  middle  sized  foho,  consisting  of  1090  pages, 
and  is  tolerably  well  printed  on  good  strong  paper.  It 
is  divided  into  five  parts  :  the  first,  containing  the  Pen- 
tateuch; the  second,  the  rest  of  the  historical  books,  and 
the  Hagiography;   the  third,  the  writings  of  the  Pro^ 


335 

phets;  the  fourth,  the  Apocrypha;  and  the  fifth,  the  New 
Testament.  A  royal  patent  is  prefixed  stating  the  de- 
sign of  the  translation  to  have  been,  to  furnish  such  as 
were  unacquainted  with  the  Latin  and  German  languages, 
with  the  Word  of  God  in  their  own  tongue,  that  they 
might  reap  that  advantage  from  it,  which  it  was  calcu- 
lated to  afford,  having  been  previously  revised  by  learned 
men  in  Denmark,  and  particularly  by  those  in  the  uni- 
versity ; — a  declaration  which  seems  to  intimate,  that  it 
had  gone  through  several  hands  before  it  was  referred  to 
the  professors,  and  that  the  principal  concern  they  had 
was  its  final  revision :  after  which  the  royal  patent  con- 
cludes with  a  prohibition,  forbidding  any  one  to  reprint 
this  Bible,  or  publish  any  edition  of  the  Scriptures,  with- 
out the  king's  permission.  Then  follows  an  excellent 
preface,  written  by  Bishop  Palladius,  in  which  the  advan- 
tages of  Revelation  are  forcibly  pointed  out ;  the  Holy 
Scriptures  enforced  as  the  source  of  religious  truth,  and 
the  standard  by  which  the  Fathers,  councils,  &c.  are  to 
be  judged;  the  quaHfications  necessary  to  a  profitable 
reading  of  the  Bible  specified;  and  the  means  to  be  em- 
ployed in  order  to  understand  it  in  Its  proper  meaning 
clearly  explained.  The  chapters  are  divided  into  para- 
graphs, sometimes  longer  and  sometimes  shorter,  but 
generally  more  compendious  than  the  Parashahs  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures.  The  more  remarkable  passages  are 
printed  in  a  larger  type  than  the  rest  of  the  text;  and  the 
term  "Herre,"  when  used  for  Jehovah,  is  always  printed 
with  capitals.  The  lines  proceed  along  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  page.  Several  wood -cuts,  illustrative  of  the  Sacred 
History,  are  copied  from  those  in  the  German  Bibles; 
and  the  notes  and  references  of  Luther  are  printed  in  the 
margin.  The  version  itself,  agreeably  to  the  advice  given 
by  Bugenhagen,  follows  that  of  Luther,  except  in  a  few 
instances,  in  which  the  translators  have  mistaken  the 
meaning  of  the  German. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  337 

The  number  of  copies  printed  of  the  Danish  Bible, 
amounted  to  three  thousand.  When  they  were  ready,  a 
bookbinder  was  procured  from  Lubeck,  who  engaged  to 
deliver  2000  copies  bound  in  whole  leather,  with  clasps, 
within  a  year  and  a  day,  for  two  marks  Danish  per  copy, 
beside  lodging,  as  appears  from  a  royal  brief  given  at  the 
Royal  Palace,  Copenhagen,  on  the  8th  of  July,  1550. 
The  price  at  which  copies  were  sold  was  3  rix-doUars 
each.  Of  the  impression,  257  copies  were  sent  to  the 
diocese  of  Scania;  110  were  appropriated  to  the  churches 
in  Zealand;  123  were  sent  to  Ribe;  320  to  Aarhus;  200 
to  Viborg;  150  to  Vendsyssel;  96  to  Norway;  108  to 
Laaland,  Falster,  and  the  adjacent  islands ;  33  to  Gul- 
land,  and  3  to  Iceland.  (Lcesendes  Aarhog  for  1800, 
pp.  13,  \A.)  The  remaining  copies  were  sold  to  individu- 
als who  had  a  desire  to  read  the  Word  of  God,  and  were 
in  possession  of  means  sufficient  to  meet  the  expense 
connected  with  the  purchase  of  it. 

The  names  of  those  members  of  the  theological  faculty 
who  were  engaged  in  this  important  undertaking  havei 
been  already  mentioned.  The  following  biographical 
notices  of  them,  will  enable  the  reader  still  more  fully 
to  appreciate  their  character  and  labours. 

Peter  Palladius,  to  whom  the  chief  care  of  the 
translation  was  committed,  was  born  at  Ribe,  in  1503. 
Here  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  knowledge  of  the  learn- 
ed languages ;  and  after  spending  some  time  in  Copen- 
hagen and  Odense,  visited  Wittemberg,  where  he  was 
indefatigable  in  his  application  to  the  study  of  theology, 
and  unremitting  in  his  attendance  on  the  public  lectures 
of  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  Justus  Jonas.  The  progress 
he  made  during  his  stay  at  that  university  was  so  con- 
spicuous, that  when  Christian  III.  consulted  the  Wittem- 
berg divines,  in  regard  to  a  fit  person  for  carrying  on  his 
views  relative  to  church -affairs,  in  Denmark,  they  unani- 
mously  recommended   Palladius  to  him;  on   which  he 

Vol.  iU  Y 


338  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

took  his  doctor's  degree,  and  returned,  in  1537,  to  Copen- 
hagen, where  he  was  immediately  made  professor  of 
divinity.  In  this  situation  he  so  gained  the  esteem  of 
the  king,  and  of  the  other  professors  and  divines,  that 
on  the  2nd  of  September,  in  the  same  year,  he  was  install- 
ed, as  the  first  Lutheran  bishop,  into  the  see  of  Zealand. 
In  1545,  finding  the  discharge  of  the  duties  connected 
with  both  posts  greater  than  he  was  able  to  bear,  he 
relinquished  his  professorship,  and  confined  his  attention 
exclusively  to  his  episcopal  charge.  Beside  his  vigilant 
superintendence  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  he  wrote  much 
for  the  elucidation  and  defence  of  the  truth.  Zwergius 
enumerates  27  works  of  his,  which  have  been  printed, 
exclusive  of  a  number  of  MSS.  in  Latin  and  Danish. 
Many  of  his  publications  consist  of  Commentaries  on  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  One  of  his  works,  now  before  me, 
which  was  printed  at  Frankfort,  by  Peter  Brubach,  1558, 
small  8vo.  is  intituled  "De  Bibliis  Sacris  et  Libris  Vete- 
ris  et  Novi  Testamenti."  It  is  an  excellent  analysis  of 
the  different  books  of  the  Bible,  and  is  accompanied  with 
an  exposition  of  Christ's  Prayer,  contained  in  the  17th 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel.  He  thus  distinguishes  the 
canonical  and  apocryphal  writings.  1st.  "The  Canonical 
Boohs  are  those  by  which  the  authority  of  the  doctrines 
of  divines  is  confirmed.  2nd.  The  Apocryphal,  or  doubt- 
ful, are  those,  the  truth  of  which  is  uncertain,  and  which 
only  serve  for  the  edification  of  the  people,  and  not  for 
the  confirmation  of  ecclesiastical  doctrines;  such  are  the 
books  of  Judith,  IVisdom,  Tohit,  Jesus  Sirach,  Baruch^ 
Maccabees,  and  the  fragments  of  Esther  and  Daniel. 
All  the  rest  are  canonical,  or  authentic,  on  which  ac- 
count the  Scriptures  are  termed  the  canonical,  or  authen- 
tic Scriptures,  and  they  who  read  or  interpret  them  are 
called  Canons r^^     Palladius  departed  this  life  in  1560. 

Olaus,  or  Olave  Chrysostom,  was  a  native  of  Vend- 
(39)  Ji'alladius,  De  Bibliis  Sacris^  p.  5, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  339 

syssel,  in  Jutland,  and  one  of  the  first  and  most  zealous 
defenders  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  in  Denmark. 
He  was  for  some  time  professor  of  the  Belies  Lettres, 
in  Malmoe,  and  afterwards  received  the  appointment  of 
Hebrew  professor,  and  preacher  of  Lady-church,  in 
Copenhagen.  In  1542,  he  was  rector  of  the  university, 
and  ordinary  professor  of  divinity;  and  two  years  after- 
wards took  his  doctor  s  degree.  He  was  highly  esteemed 
by  his  colleagues,  but  the  students  were  by  no  means 
partial  to  him,  which  was  probably  the  cause  of  his  being 
removed  to  another  situation.  This  happened  in  1549, 
when  he  was  nominated  to  the  see  of  Aalborg,  where  he 
died,  in  1553. 

John  Synning,  or  Siuneson,  was  also  a  native  of 
Jutland.  In  1544,  we  find  him  filling  the  divinity-chair, 
in  Copenhagen,  and  shortly  after  officiating  as  preacher 
of  the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  (Freherus  says,  of  the 
church  of  St.  Hospitius.)  This  latter  office  he  afterwards 
gave  up,  and  applied  himself  solely  to  his  academical 
functions.  He  died  in  15^77.  (Worm's  Lexicon,  art. 
Siuneson.)*" 

John  Macchab.eus,  or  M'Bee,  was  a  nativ^e  of  Scot- 
land, and  descended  from  an  ancient  and  noble  family. 
His  true  name  was  Macalpine,  of  the  celebrated  clan 
Alpine.  From  his  infancy  he  discovered  a  strong  pro- 
pensity to  learning,  which  was  encouraged  by  his  parents, 
who  provided  him  with  the  most  learned  teachers  they 
could  procure.  Having  embraced  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  he  was  obliged,  in  1532,  to  flee  into  Eng- 
land, where  he  was  entertained  by  Bishop  Shaxton,  and 
also  gained  the  esteem  of  Lord  Cromwell.  Here  he 
married  a  lady  of  Scotch  extraction,  whose  name  was 
Agnes  Machison.  From  England  he  passed  over  to  the 
Continent,  and  for  some  time  resided  at  Wittemberg, 

(40)  Henderson's  MS. 

See  also  Freheri  Theatrum,  pt.  i.  pp.  172.  181. 


340 

where  he  formed  an  intimate  friendship  with  Luther  and 
Melancthon,  the  latter  of  whom  gave  him  the  name  of 
Macchahceus,  from  the  similarity  between  his  character 
and  circumstances,  and  those  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
champions.  He  also  spent  some  time  at  Strasburg, 
where  several  English  refugees  then  resided.  He  was 
afterwards  invited  to  Denmark,  by  Christian  HI.  who 
employed  him  in  the  great  work  of  aiding  the  establish- 
ment of  the  reformed  religion  in  his  dominions;  and 
made  him  a  professor  in  the  university  of  Copenhagen. 
He  was  highly  esteemed  by, the  Danish  monarch,  who, 
at  his  request,  wrote  to  Queen  Mary  of  England,  in  be- 
half of  his  brother-in-law,  Miles  Coverdale,  bishop  of 
Exeter  and  the  venerable  translator  of  the  Bible,  who 
was  released  from  prison  through  his  importunity. 

Macchahceus  was  well  acquainted  with  the  Danish  and 
German  languages,  which,  added  to  his  general  charac- 
ter for  piety  and  learning,  occasioned  his  appointment  as 
one  of  the  translators  of  the  Danish  Bible.  He  was  the 
author  of  various  works  designed  to  support  and  spread 
the  principles  of  true  Christianity.  After  labouring  for 
many  years  in  the  cause  of  truth,  he  was  called  to  his 
eternal  reward,  December  6th,  1557.  By  his  wife  Agnes 
Machison,  he  left  a  son.  Christian,  born  at  Wittemberg, 
1541,  who  became  president  of  the  college  of  Sora,  in 
Zealand,  and  canon   and  archdeacon   of  Lunden." 

It  would  also  appear  from  a  royal  receipt,  dated  Feb. 
13th,  1557,  that  Hemmingius,  professor  of  Hebrew; 
Peter  Tideman,  whose  translation  of  the  book  of  Judges 
has  already  been  described;  and  Hans  Henrickson  ;  had 
each  his  share  in  the  execution  of  the  translation,  for 
which  certain  sums  are  there  stated  to  have  been  paid 
them.  A  certain  allowance  was  also  paid,  out  of  the 
funds  appropriated  to  the  publication   of  the  Bible,  to 

(41)  M'  die's  Life  of  Knox,  I.  pp.  357—359.  Edinb.  1814,  8vo. 
Freheri  Theatrum,  pars  i.  pp.  174,  175.  305. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  341 

Christiern  Pedersen,  the  author  of  a  former  version 
of  the  New  Testament,  for  writing  out  a  fair  copy  from 
the  several  translations  which  w^ere  made  by  those  ap- 
pointed to  the  work.  (Langehekiana,  pp.  295,  297.) 

Though  far  distant  from  the  seat  of  the  Reformation, 
the  island  of  Iceland  also  soon  experienced  its  happy 
effects.  A  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  into  the 
Norse  or  Icelandic  idiom,  was  completed  in  1539,  by 
Oddur  Gottshalkson;  and  printed  in  1540,  in  12mo. 
at  Roschild,  in  Denmark,  by  Hans  Barth.  The  title-page 
of  this  edition  is  ornamented  with  a  cut,  emblematical 
of  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  The  translation  is  made 
from  the  Latin,  with  some  emendations  from  the  German 
version  of  Luther;  and  is  said,  "in  point  of  language,  to 
bear  the  palm  from  all  the  succeeding  versions." 

The  circumstances  under  which  Oddur  undertook  and 
prosecuted  his  invaluable  work,  exhibit  a  striking  proof 
of  the  difficulties  with  which  many  of  the  first  translators 
of  the  Scriptures  had  to  encounter.  At  the  time  of  com- 
mencing his  translation,  Oddur  was  engaged  in  the 
service  of  Ogmund,  bishop  of  Skalholt,  the  determined 
enemy  of  the  Reformation,  and  its  doctrines.  Of  this 
enmity  the  following  instance  is  given:  Gisle  Jonson, 
the  rector  of  the  cathedral,  having  imbibed  certain 
Lutheran  principles,  was  one  day  reading  the  German 
version  of  Luke,  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  church, 
when  he  was  unexpectedly  surprised  by  the  bishop,  who 
instantly  demanded  what  book  he  was  reading?  The 
panic-struck  priest  could  make  no  reply.  Enraged  at  his 
silence,  the  bishop  coarsely  exclaimed,  "Show  it  me,  thou 

son  of  a ."     The  New  Testament   was  immediately 

delivered  to  Ogmund,  who  no  sooner  opened  it,  than  he 
condemned  it  as  full  of  Lutheran  heresy,  and  threw  it 
with  violence  into  the  court,  before  the  church.  To 
avoid  detection  by  so  formidable  and  avowed  an  enemy, 
Oddur  was  obliged  to  employ  every  precaution  that  pru- 


342  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

deiif'e  could  dictate.  With  this  view,  he  retired  to  a  small 
cell  in  a  cow-house.  In  this  humble  apartment,  he  was 
occupied  in  transcribing  ancient  ecclesiastical  statutes 
and  constitutions  ;  and  on  showing  his  progress  to  the 
prelate,  obtained  those  supplies  of  paper,  and  writing 
materials,  which  enabled  him  to  prosecute  his  favourite 
design.  But  he  had  only  advanced  in  this  translation, 
to  the  end  of  Matthew,  when  he  was  obliged  to  quit  the 
episcopal  see,  probably  through  information  lodged 
against  him,  on  account  of  his  principles.  On  quitting 
Skalhoit,  he  leased  the  farm  of  Rei/kium,  in  the  district 
of  Olves,  and  there  completed  his  translation.  In  order 
to  have  it  printed,  he  sailed  the  same  year  to  Denmark, 
and  obtained  for  it  the  patronage  of  his  Majesty  Chris- 
tian III.  who,  on  its  being  approved  by  the  university, 
issued  an  edict,  authorizing  its  publication:  and  it  was 
accordingly  printed  the  ensuing  year,  to  the  great  joy  of 
Oddur,  and  his  friends,  and  the  general  benefit  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Iceland  ;  and  was  the  Jirst  Icelandic  New 
Tistament. 

This  eminent  translator,  Oddur  Gottshalkson,  was 
the  son  of  the  bishop  of  Holuni.  In  his  sixth  year,  he 
was  committed  to  the  care  of  his  uncle  Guttorm,  a  law- 
yer, in  Norway,  by  whom  he  was  sent  to  the  school  of 
Bergen,  under  the  pious  and  learned  Magister  Petraeus. 
Whilst  at  Bergen,  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  at- 
tracted his  attention,  and  at  length  created  in  him  the 
utmost  anxiety  of  mind.  At  a  loss  to  decide  what  was 
truth,  he  sought  wisdom  of  God.  For  three  successive 
nights  he  prostrated  himself,  half  naked,  upon  the  floor 
of  his  apartment,  and  besought  the  Father  of  Lights,  to 
open  the  eyes  of  his  understanding,  and  show  him  the 
truth.  The  result  was  a  firm  conviction  that  the  cause 
of  the  reformer  wq,s  the  cause  of  God.  From  Bergen  he 
proceeded  to  Germany,  and  heard  the  sermons  of  Luther 
and  Melancthon.     On  returning  to  Iceland^  he  entered 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  343 

into  the  employment  of  Ogmimd,  bishop  of  Skalholt. 
Here  he  associated  with  Gisle  Jonson,  the  rector  of  the 
cathedral  mentioned  above;  Gissur  Einarson,  the  bishop  s 
secretary;  and  his  steward,  Oddur  Eyolfson;  all  of  whom 
used  to  meet  at  the  house  of  the  latter,  in  order  to  read 
the  Scriptures,  and  the  works  of  Luther.  Beside  the 
New  Testament,  he  also  translated  the  53rd  chapter  of 
Isaiah,  into  his  native  tongue.  He  added  to  it  short  ex- 
pository notes,  and  got  it  printed  at  Copenhagen,  in 
1558.  All  his  translations  which  were  made  public  by 
him,  were  printed  at  his  own  expense.  In  1554,  he  was 
made  lawyer  of  the  northern  division  of  the  island,  an 
office  which  he  filled  with  great  credit  till  1556,  when  he 
lost  his  life  in  the  river  Laxd,  in  the  Kiosar  district.*^ 

Prussia,  as  well  as  Iceland,  received  at  an  early 
period,  the  principles  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation.  In 
1523,  Luther  sent  John  Brisman,  a  Franciscan  doctor 
of  divinity,  into  Prussia ;  and  also,  in  less  than  a  year  after, 
Paul  Sperat,  who,  for  preaching  the  Gospel  in  Moravia, 
had  been  condemned  to  a  noisome  dungeon  at  Olmutz,  by 
the  persecuting  bishop  of  that  city,  but  had  providentially 
escaped  to  Wittemberg.  These  laborious  and  excellent 
men  were  joined  by  John  Poliander,  and  George  de 
Polentz,  bishop  of  Samland.  Of  this  prelate,  Luther 
speaks  with  triumphant  satisfaction  and  delight.  "At 
length,"  says  he  to  Spalatinus,  "one  bishop  is  come  for- 
ward, and  with  a  single  eye,  has  given  himself  up  to  the 
cause  of  Christ  and  his  Gospel,  in  Prussia.  1  mean  the 
Bishop  of  Samland,  who  listens  to  the  fostering  instruc- 
tion of  Brisman,  whom  we  sent  there  after  that  he  had 
cast  off  the  monkish  habit."  So  much,  indeed,  did  this 
bishop  distinguish  himself  by  his  evangelical  exertions, 
that  he  may  truly  be  called  the  Father  of  the  Reformation 
in  that  country;  and  appears  to  have  been  the  first  prelate 

(4a)  See  the  "  Historical  View,"  appended  to  Dr.  Henderson's  Icelandi 
a  work  to  which  this  account  is  entirely  indebted. 


344  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

who  ventured  to  recommend  to  his  clergy  the  study  of 
Luther's  writings.  "  Read,"  said  he,  "  with  a  pious  and 
diligent  spirit,  the  translation  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament by  that  most  famous  divine,  Dr.  Martin  Luther. 
Read  his  tracts  on  Christian  liberty,  and  on  good  works, 
also  his  explanations  of  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  and 
of  the  Magnificat  and  the  Psalms."  In  the  same  public 
advice  to  his  clergy,  he  lamented  the  ignorance  of  the 
peopk,  and  exhorted  them  to  perform  the  baptismal 
service  no  longer  in  Latin,  but  in  the  language  of  the 
country;  adding,  that  "it  was  the  will  of  God  that  the 
promises  of  the  Gospel  should  be  explained  in  intelligible 
language." *"*  The  advice  of  the  good  bishop  to  his  clergy 
to  read  the  Explanations  of  Scripture  by  Luther,  leads 
us  to  remark,  in  the  words  of  a  celebrated  ecclesiastical 
historian,  that  "  The  first  and  principal  object  that  drew 
the  attention,  and  employed  the  industry,  of  the  reform- 
ers, was  the  exposition  and  illustration  of  the  Sacred 
Writings,  which,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Luthe- 
ran church,  contain  all  the  treasures  of  celestial  wisdom ; 
all  things  that  relate  to  faith  and  practice.  Hence  it 
happened,  that  the  number  of  commentators  and  exposi- 
tors among  the  Lutherans,  was  equal  to  that  of  the 
eminent  and  learned  doctors  that  adorned  that  commu- 
nion. At  the  head  of  them  all,  Luther  and  Melancthon 
are  undoubtedly  to  be  placed;  the  former  on  account 
of  the  sagacity  and  learning  discovered  in  his  explications 
of  several  portions  of  Scripture,  and  particularly  of  the 
Books  of  Moses;  and  the  latter,  in  consequence  of  his 
commentaries  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  other 
learned  labours  of  that  kind,  which  are  abundantly 
known.  A  second  class  of  expositors,  of  the  same  com- 
munion, obtained  also  great  applause  in  the  learned 
world,  by  their  successful  application  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  in  which  we  may  rank  Matthias  Flacius, 
(43;  Miiaer's  Mist,  of  the  Churcii  of  Urist,  V.  pp.  178,  179,     "       ' 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  345 

whose  Glossary,  and  Key  to  the  Sacred  PTritings^  is 
extremely  useful  in  unfolding  the  meaning  of  the  inspired 
penmen;  John  Bugenhagen,  Justus  Jonas,  Andrew 
Osiander,  and  Martin  Chemnitz,  whose  Harmonies  of  the 
Evangelists  are  not  void  of  merit.  To  these  we  may- 
add  Victor  Strigelius,  and  Joachim  Camerarius,  of  whom 
the  latter,  in  his  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament,  ex- 
pounds the  Scriptures  in  a  grammatical  and  critical 
manner  only;  and  laying  aside  all  debated  points  of 
doctrine  and  religious  controversy,  unfolds  the  sense  of 
«ach  term,  and  the  spirit  of  each  phrase,  by  the  rules  of 
criticism,  and  the  genius  of  the  ancient  languages,  in 
which  he  was  a  very  uncommon  proficient." 

''All  these  expositors  and  commentators  abandoned 
the  method  of  the  ancient  interpreters,  who,  neglecting 
the  plain  and  evident  purport  of  the  words  of  Scripture, 
were  perpetually  torturing  their  imaginations,  in  order  to 
find  out  a  mysterious  sense  in  each  word  or  sentence, 
or  were  hunting  after  insipid  allusions,  and  chimerical 
applications  of  Scripture-passages,  to  objects  which  never 
entered  into  the  views  of  the  inspired  writers.  On  the 
contrary,  their  principal  zeal  and  industry  were  employ- 
ed in  investigating  the  natural  force  and  signification  of 
each  expression,  in  consequence  of  that  golden  rule  of 
interpretation  inculcated  by  Luther,  That  there  is  no  more 
than  one  sense  annexed  to  the  words  of  Scripture,  through- 
out all  the  hooks  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.^  It  must, 
however,  be  acknowledged,  that  the  examples  exhibited 
by  these  judicious  expositors  were  far  from  being  univer- 
sally followed.  Be  that  as  it  may,  all  the  expositors  of 
this  age  may  be  divided,  methinks,  with  propriety  enough, 
into  two  classes,  with  Luther  at  the  head  of  the  one,  and 

*  "  The  Latin  titles  are  Glossa  Scripturce  Sacrce^  and  Clavis  Scrip- 
turce  Sacrce,^^ 

+  *'This  golden  rule  will  be  found  often  defective  and  false,  unless 
several  prophetical,  parabolical,  and  figurative  expressionSj  be  excepted 
Ja  its  ap  plication."  Note  bi/  Translator^ 


346  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

Melancthon  presiding  in  the  other.  Some  commentators 
followed  the  example  of  the  former,  who,  after  a  plain  and 
familiar  explication  of  the  sense  of  Scripture,  applied 
its  decisions  to  the  fixing  of  controverted  points,  and  to 
the  illustration  of  the  doctrines  and  duties  of  religion. 
Others  discovered  a  greater  propensity  to  the  method  of 
the  latter,  who  first  divided  the  discourses  of  the  Sacred 
Writers  into  several  parts,  explained  them  according  to 
the  rules  of  rhetoric,  and  afterwards  proceeded  to  a  more 
strict  and  almost  a  literal  exposition  of  each  part,  taken 
separately,  applying  the  result,  as  rarely  as  was  possible, 
to  points  of  doctrine,  or  matters  of  controversy."** 

The  zeal  displayed  by  the  early  reformers,  in  trans- 
lating, circulating,  and  explaining  the  Scriptures,  ex- 
tended its  influence  to  Hungary,  and  occasioned  the 
translations  of  several  parts  of  the  Sacred  Writings. 
Le  Long  notices  a  translation  of  the  Four  Gospels  and 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  into  the  Hungarian  tongue, 
made  in  1541,  by  John  Sylvester,  an  Hungarian,  and 
dedicated  to  Ferdinand  and  his  son  Maximilian.  This 
translation  was  never  printed. — ^The  same  learned  bibli- 
ographer mentions  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  in  the 
Hungarian  tongue,  printed  at  Cracow,  1533,  8vo.;  the 
Four  Gospels,  translated  by  Gabriel  Pannonius  Pes- 
tinus,  printed  at  Vienna,  1536,  8vo.;  the  Four  Gospels, 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  Revelation,  printed 
in  1541,  4to. ;  and  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
printed  at  Vienna,  in  1574,  4to.*^ 

The  New  Testament,  and  the  Book  of  Psalms,  were 
also  translated  into  the  Finnish  language,  by  Michael 
Agricola,  a  native  of  the  province  of  Nyland,  pastor 
and  afterwards  bishop  of  Abo,  in  Finland,  who  had 
embraced  the  Lutheran  sentiments.     This  version,  which 

(44)  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist,  translated  by  Dr.  Maclaine,  IV.  pt,  il 

sec.  3,  pp,  304—306, 

(45)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  p,  446.  Paris,  1723* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  347 

was  made  from  the  Swedish,  was  printed  at  Stockholm, 
in  1548,  4to.     Agricola  died  in  1556.*^ 

Nor  ought  we  to  omit  the  mention  of  the  Biblical 
labours  of  John  Potken,  Prepositiis  or  bishop  of  the 
cathedral-church  of  St.  George,  at  Cologne.  Induced 
by  the  desire  to  furnish  the  Ethiopians  who  visited 
Rome,  with  an  impression  of  the  Psalms,  and  some  other 
parts  of  the  Scriptures,  in  their  native  tongue,  and  its 
appropriate  characters,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study 
of  the  Ethiopk  language,  and  by  the  assistance  of  an 
Ethiopian  or  Abyssinian  monk,  acquired  sufficient  know- 
ledge to  print  an  edition  of  the  Psalms,  and  of  the 
Song  of  Solomon,  in  1513,  in  4to.  To  this  work  he 
subjoined  the  Ethiopic  Alphabet,  and  a  brief  Introduc- 
tion to  the  reading  of  the  Ethiopic  tongue.  It  was 
printed  at  Rome,  by  Marcellus  Silber,  or  Franck;  and 
was  the  first  book  printed  in  Europe  with  the  Ethiopic 
character.  In  151<S,  he  published  at  Cologne  a  Polyglott 
Psalter,  in  fol.  containing  the  Hebrew  Text,  with  the 
Greeh,  Latin,  and  Ethiopic  Versions.  The  Ethiopic,  Pot- 
ken  called  the  Chaldee,  according  to  the  practice  of 
the  Ethiopians  themselves.  The  Polyglott  Psalter  was 
probably  printed  by  himself,  as  no  printers  name  is 
mentioned.  He  was  assisted  in  this  work  by  his  learned 
kinsman  John  Soter,  or  Heyl.*^ 

Returning  to  the  Netherlands,  we  discover  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation  rapidly  spreading  through 
the  several  provinces  of  that  country,  and  causing  the 
frequent  printing  of  the  Belgic  or  Dutch  Bible.  An  old 
translation  of  the  Belgic  Scriptures  had  been  printed  as 
early  as  1475,  and  again  in  1477,  and  1479;  several  edi- 
tions were  also  printed  at  Antwerp  early  in  the  sixteenth 

(46)  Placcii  Theatrura  Anonymorum,  1.  p.  671.  Hamburg,  1708,  fol. 
Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  J.  p.  447. 

(47)  Le  Long.  edit.   Masch,  pt.  ii.   toI.  I.  sec-  6.  pp.  146—148;  and 

pt,  i,  cap.  iii.  p.  401. 

[See  also  vol.  I.  p.  148,  of  this  work,] 


348 

century.  These  all  appear  to  have  been  Roman  Catholic 
translations  made  from  the  Latin  Vulgate ;  but  in  1526, 
Jacob  a  Lies  veldt,  a  famous  printer  of  Antwerp,  pub- 
lished an  edition  of  the  Belgic  Bible,  translated  by 
certain  learned  men,  whose  names,  unfortunately,  have 
not  been  transmitted  to  us,  \vhich  seems  to  have  been 
collated  with  such  parts  of  Luther's  German  version  as 
had  then  been  published,  and  in  succeeding  editions  to 
have  been  rendered  still  more  conformable  to  the  version 
of  the  great  reformer.  The  numerous  editions  of  this 
translation,  printed  by  the  same  printer,  have  gained  them 
the  name  of  Liesveldfs  Bibles,  Various  editions  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  Belgic  dialect  were  published  by  William 
Vorsterman  and  others,  many  of  which  were  afterwards 
prohibited  by  the  inquisition.*^ 

This  rapid  multiplication  of  copies  of  the  Scriptures 
was  regarded  by  the  adherents  to  popery,  as  heretical 
and  dangerous  in  the  extreme.  The  most  violent  mea- 
sures were  resorted  to,  in  order  to  prevent  the  dissemina- 
tion of  these  vernacular  translations,  and  to  check  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation.  Fines,  imprisonment,  and 
death,  were  denounced  against  the  advocates  of  evange- 
lical truth,  and  persecution  raged  against  them  in  its 
most  sanguinary  forms.  In  the  years  1523,  and  1524, 
the  most  dreadful  severity  was  exercised  towards  those 
who  dared  publicly  to  avow  their  belief  of  the  doctrines 
propagated  by  Luther  and  his  followers.  The  following 
is  an  instance:  the  Curate  of  Melza,  at  Antwerp,  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  explaining  the  Gospel,  on  Sundays, 
to  a  vast  concourse  of  people.  An  express  order  was 
issued  to  forbid  the  practice,  and  permission  given  to 
take  the  uppermost  garment  of  all  that  assembled  to 
hear,  whilst  thirty  guilders  were  offered  for  the  apprehen- 

(48)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra,  I.  pp;  409,  410. 
Adleri  Biblioth.  Biblica,  Plut,  35. 
Walchii  Biblioth.  Theolog,  IV.  p.  125, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  349 

sion  of  the  priest  himself.  The  people,  however,  were  not 
easily  deterred,  and  met  in  the  dock-yards  as  usual. 
The  preacher  or  expositor  not  making  his  appearance,  a 
zealous  youth,  named  Nicholas,  placed  himself  in  a  boat 
near  the  shore,  and  addressed  the  audience,  in  a  pious 
manner,  from  the  chapter  concerning  the  five  loaves  and 
two  fishes:  but  the  very  next  day  he  was  ordered  to  be 
seized,  and  put  into  a  sack  lest  he  should  be  ki?own  by 
the  people;  and  in  that  state  he  was  suddenly  thrown 
into  the  river  and  drowned.*®  In  the  same  year,  1524, 
a  placard  or  mandate  was  published,  bearing  date  the  1st  of 
April,  by  which  "it  was  forbidden  to  print  any  books, 
unless  they  had  been  viewed  and  approved  by  persons 
duly  authorized."  On  the  25th  of  September,  1525, 
another  placard  was  issued,  forbidding  "all  open  and 
secret  meetings,  in  order  to  read  and  preach  the  Gospel, 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  other  spiritual  writings,  or 
to  talk  of,  and  interpret  the  same."  Afterwards,  another 
edict  was  published,  which  had  been  previously  drawn  up 
by  the  Emperor  himself  in  council.  The  contents  of  it 
were   to  the  following   effect: 

"That  the  vulgar  had  been  deceived  and  misled,  partly 
by  the  contrivance  of  some  ignorant  fellows,  who  took 
upon  them  to  preach  the  Gospel  privately,  without  the 
leave  of  their  superiors,  explaining  the  same,  together 
v/ith  other  Holy  Writings,  after  their  own  fancies,  and 
not  according  to  the  orthodox  sense  of  the  doctors  of 
the  church,  racking  their  brains  to  produce  new- 
fangled doctrines.  But,"  adds  the  placard,  "these  he- 
resies happened  in  some  measure,  and  were  augmented, 
by  reason  that  some  of  the  laity,  who  were  weak  and 
unlearned  persons,  read  the  Flemish,  and  fValloon,  (or 
French,)  Gospels,  explaining  them  according  to  their 
own  private  judgment,  and  according  to  the  letter,  and 

(49)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  II.  p,  116.  Lend.  1641.  fol. 
Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V,  ch.  x.  p.  190, 


350  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

held  divers  disputes  among  themselves,  and  in  public 
meetings,  about  them;  choosing  such  opinions  as  pleased 
them  best."  The  placard,  therefore,  forbav!e  in  the  em- 
peror's name,  ''All  Assemblies,''  (calling  them  unlawjulj 
*^in  order  to  read,  speak,  confer,  or  preach,  concerning  the 
Gospel,  or  other  Holy  Writings,  in  the  Latin,  Flemish^ 
or  IValloon  languages."  It  was  farther  enjoined  by  the 
same  edict;  "That,  together  with  the  books  of  M.  Luther, 
Pomeranus,  Carolstadt,  Melancthon,  Oecolampadius, 
Franciscus  Lamberti,  Justus  Jonas,  and  all  other  their 
adherents  of  the  same  sentiments,  all  the  Gospels, 
Epistles,  Prophecies,  a7id  other  books  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  in  High  Dutch,  Flemish,  Walloon,  or 
French,  that  had  marginal  notes,  or  expositions  accord- 
ing to  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  should  be  brought  to  some 
public  place,  and  there  burnt ;  and  that  whoever  should 
presume  to  keep  any  of  the  aforesaid  books,  and  writ- 
ings, by  them,  after  the  promulgation  of  this  placard, 
should  forfeit  life  and  goods  !'' 

There  were,  however,  some  persons  found  who  were 
"valiant  for  the  Truth,"  and  who,  braving  every  danger 
that  threatened  them,  hazarded  their  lives  rather  than 
burn  their  Bibles.  This  noble  conduct  produced  another 
of  those  edicts,  the  spirit  of  w^hich  marked  it  as  originat- 
ing with  him  who  was  "a  murderer  from  the  beginning." 
On  the  14th  of  October,  1529,  a  placard  appeared  at 
Brussels,  whereby  "all  such  as  had  in  their  custody  any 
prohibited  books,  which  they  had  not  brought  forth  to 
be  burnt,  as  required  by  former  placards  against  heresy; 
or  had  otherwise  contravened  them,  were  condemned  to 
death,  without  pardon,  or  reprieve." 

The  elaborate  historian  of  the  "  Reformation  in  the 
Low  Countries,"  when  speaking  of  the  general  state  of 
religion,    and    of   Scriptural    knowledge,    emphatically 
remarks,  "  No  letters,  and  no  books  were  less  minded  in 
these  times,  by  most  of  the  clergy,  than  the  Bible.  Many 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  351 

had  been  in  holy  orders  for  years  without  having  ever 
read  it.  Some  of  them  dipping  into  it  accidentally  were 
extremely  surprised  at  its  contents,  as  by  no  means 
agreeing  with  their  lives,  or  doctrines.  But  those  who 
renounced  the  errors  of  popery,  made  use  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  for  admonishing  and  instructing  each  other  in 
their  assemblies ;  and  likewise  translated  luiithevs  New 
Testament  into  Low  Dutch,  or  Belgic,  and  afterwards  his 
Bible''  One  of  the  first  printers  of  this  translation, 
Jacob  a  Liesveldt,  was  condemned,  and  beheaded  at 
Antwerp,  because  in  the  Annotations  of  one  of  hi^  Bibles, 
he  had  said,  that  the  salvation  of  mankind  proceeds  from 
Christ  alone  !  I  Somebody  afterwards  made  a  collection 
of  the  most  comfortable  passages  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
published  them  under  the  title  of  The  Well  of  Life, 
But  this  little  tracts  which  contained  nothing  but  the 
very  words  of  the  Bible,-  without  any  comment  or  explana- 
tion, became  so  exceedingly  offensive  to  the  zealous  de- 
fenders of  the  papal  opinions,  that  a  certain  Franciscan 
friar  of  Brabant  purposely  took  a  journey  to  Amsterdam, 
where  it  had  been  first  printed,  purchased  all  the  copies 
that  remained  of  the  impression,  and  burnt  them.  The 
work,  however,  was  afterwards  reprinted  in  different 
places. 

The  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  claimed  the  Netherlands 
as  his  hereditary  dominions,  continued  to  pursue,  with 
unrelenting  rigour,  all  who  embraced  the  opinions  of 
the  reformers,  and  determined,  if  possible,  to  crush  the 
rising  cause  of  Luther  and  his  adherents.  On  the  last 
of  July,  1546,  he  published,  with  this  view,  another 
placard  against  Heretical  Books.  By  this  it  was  or- 
dered, "  That  none  should  presume  to  print  any  books, 
unless  they  first  obtained  from  the  Emperor^  a  license  for 
exercising  the  trade  of  a  printer,  &c.  on  pain  of  death." 
The  same  edict  further  required,  "That  from  thence- 
forwards,  none  should  keep  public  schools,  unless  they 


352  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

were  previously  approved,  and  admitted  by  the  officer 
of  the  town  or  village,  and  the  pastor  of  the  parish 
church  of  the  place  where  they  proposed  to  open  the 
same,  or  by  such  other  persons,  ecclesiastical,  or  tem- 
poral, as  had  been  qualified  to  that  end,  by  virtue  of 
some  ancient  right  or  privilege,  on  pain  of  forfeiting 
12  Carolus  Guilders,  for  the  first  time;  double  for  the 
second  time ;  and  of  being  for  ever  banished  from  the 
place  of  their  habitation,  if  guilty  of  the  same  offence, 
the  third  time."  The  names  of  the  books  were  also  men* 
tioned  which  the  children  were  to  use,  exclusive  of  all 
others.  This  was  followed  by  a  Catalogue  of  all  the  books, 
which  the  faculty  of  divines  of  the  university  of  Louvain, 
(after  having  examined  them  by  order  of  the  Emperor,) 
had  declared  to  be  evil  and  dangerous ;  and  which  were, 
therefore,  prohibited  by  the  present  placard.  Among 
the  books  thus  prohibited  were  the  Latin  Bibles,  printed 
at  Paris,  by  Robert  Stephens,  in  the  years  1532,  and  1540; 
by  Francis  Gryphius,  in  1541,  and  1542;  at  Basil,  by 
Froben,  in  1530,  and  1538;  at  Antwerp,  by  J.  Stels,  in 
1538,  1541,  and  1542;  at  Lyons,  by  Sebastian  Gryphius, 
in  1542.  The  Bible,  with  the  Annotations  of  Sebastian 
Munster,  printed  at  Basil,  in  1535.  The  Dutch  Bible, 
printed  at  Antwerp,  by  Jacob  a  Liesveldt,  in  1542;  by 
William  Vorsterman,  in  1528,  1534,  1544,  1545;  and  by 
Henry  Peterson,  in  1541.  The  Walloon,  or  French  Bi- 
bles of  Antwerp,  in  1534,  by  Martin  de  Reiser;  and  in 
1541,  by  Anthony  de  la  Haye.  The  New  Testaments 
in  Dutch,  printed  by  Liesveldt,  in  1542,  1543,  and  1544; 
together  with  17  other  impressions.  ^^ 

Whilst  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  notwithstanding  the  se- 
verity of  the  edicts  issued  against  them,  were  widely 
spreading  their  influence  in  Germany,  and  the  Low 
Countries,  another  reformer,  of  adventurous  genius,  and 


(50)  lirandt's   History   of  the   Reformation  in  the   Low  Countries^  I. 
B.  ii.  pp.  49.  54—59  j  B.  iii.  p.  85.  Lond.  1720,  foL 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  353 

^reat  Scriptural  knowledge,  was  laying  the  foundation 
deep  and  broad  in  Switzerland,  and  the  neighbouring 
dominions.     This  was  Ulric  Zuingle,  a  canon  of  Zu- 
rich, whose  extensive  learning,  uncommon  sagacity,  and 
heroic  intrepidity,  tempered  by  the  greatest  moderation, 
rendered  him  one  of  the  most  illustrious  ornaments  of 
his  country,  and  of  the  protestant  cduse.     He  was  born 
at  Waldenhausen,  or  Wildhaus,  in  Switzerland,  January 
1st,  1487,  or  according  to  Hess,  1484.     He  studied  suc- 
cessively at  Basil  or  Basle,  Berne,  and  Vienna,  and  after 
having  passed  through  the  different  courses  of  learning 
taught  in  the  schools  of  that  period,  with  great  applause, 
returned  to  Basil,  and  acquired  considerable  celebrity  as 
a  public  teacher.     He  had  only  resided  four  years  at 
Basil,  when  the  burghers  of  Glaris,  the  chief  town  of  the 
canton  of  that  name,  chose  him  for  their  pastor.     Called 
to  the  exercise  of  the  sacred  office,  he  resolved  to  recom- 
mence his  theological  studies,  according  to  a  plan  traced 
out  by  himself.    His  first  object  was  to  obtain  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures ;  he  therefore  applied  with 
assiduity  to  the  perusal  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
His  acute  and  penetrating  mind  was  not,  however,  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  study  of  the  Word  of  God  through 
the  medium  of  the  La^m  translation ;  he  determined,  if 
possible,  to  acquire  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  origi- 
nal languages  of  the  Scriptures,  especially  that  of  the 
New  Testament.     With  this  view,  he  laboured  indefati- 
gably  in  the  acquirement  of  the   Greeh,  the  helps   to 
which  were  scanty,  and  difficult  to  be  obtained;  he  even 
copied  the   Greek  Text  of  St.  PauVs  Epistles  with  his 
own  hand,  adding  in  the  margin  a  multitude  of  notes, 
extracted  from  the  Fathers  of  the  church,  as  well  as  his 
own  observations ;  intending,  by  this  means,  not  only  to 
acquire  facility  in  the  Greek,  but  to  impress  upon  his 
mind  more  accurately  the  expressions  and  doctrines  of 
the  Apostle,    This  interesting  manuscript  still  exists  in 
Vol.  IL  Z 


354  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

the  Public  Library  of  Zurich,  and  was  made  use  of  by 
Wetstein,  in  his  critical  edition  of  the  New  Testament. 
To  the  knowledge  of  the  Greek,  he  subsequently  added 
that  of  the  Hebrew.  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that 
he  regarded  the  expression  of  St.  Peter,  ch.  i.  20,  "  No 
prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of  any  private  interpretation,'' 
as  directly  implying^  the  insufficiency  of  any  one  truly  to 
understand  the  doctrines  of  Scripture,  unless  assisted  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Whilst,  therefore,  he  highly  esteemed 
human  learning,  he  sought,  by  earnest  prayer,  the  aid 
of  the  Divine  Spirit.  It  was  also  the  practice  of  this 
great  man  to  study  standing. 

In  1516,  Zuingle  was  offered  the  situation  of  preacher  to 
the  convent  of  Einsiedeln,  in  the  canton  of  Schweitz,  by 
Theobald,  baron  of  Geroldseck,  the  administrator.  This  sta- 
tion he  accepted  with  pleasure,  knowing  it  would  afford  him 
much  more  leisure  for  study  than  he  had  enjoyed  at  Claris, 
and  place  him  in  the  company  of  several  learned,  intelligent, 
and  candid  men,  with  whom  he  might  freely  converse  on 
such  subjects  as  appeared  to  him  of  the  greatest  importance, 
but  which  were  too  generally  neglected  or  discountenan- 
ced by  persons  in  authority.  In  this  retreat,  Zuingle  found 
Leo  Judce,  the  principal  author  of  a  German  translation 
of  the  Bible;  Francis  Zingg,  chaplain  of  the  apostolical 
see ;  John  Oechslein,  afterwards  a  great  sufferer  for  his 
opinions ;  and  other  studious  and  zealous  characters.  In 
the  library  of  Einsiedeln,  they  studied  together  the  works 
of  Erasmus;  of  Reuchlin,  or  Capnio;  and  of  the  Fathers; 
and  derived  from  the  confidential  interchange  of  ideas, 
that  conviction  of  the  need  of  reformation  in  the  doctrines 
and  discipline  of  the  church,  which  stimulated  them  to 
vigorous  exertions  in  the  cause  of  evangelical  liberty  and 
truth.  A  convent  of  nuns  being  placed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Zuingle,  he  established  new  rules  among  them, 
abolished  several  observances,  and  obliged  the  nuns  to 
read  the  New  Testament^  instead  of  reciting  the  Hours, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  355 

He  also  required  of  them  to  live  irreproachably,  though 
he  permitted  such  as  had  no  predilection  for  the  life  of  a 
jecluse,  to  quit  the  convent,  and  contract  a  legal  union. 

In  his  office  of  preacher,  he  explained  the  Scriptures  to 
the  people,  and  freely  censured  the  errors  of  the  Romish 
church,  though  he  had  not  then  heard  of  Luther;  and 
promoted  with  extraordinary  effect,  by  his  influence  ^\^th 
the  administrator,  a  reformation  of  many  of  the  abuses 
and  corruptions  of  popery,  in  several  places  of  the  Helve- 
tic republic,  without  ever  having  read  the  writings  of 
the  German  reformer,  or  having  had  any  interview  with 
him. 

Afterwards,  he  was  invited  to  become  the  pastor  or 
preacher  of  the  cathedral  of  Zurich.  This  important 
situation  being  accepted  by  him,  he  removed  to  that 
city.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  he  was  summoned 
before  the  chapter,  to  be  installed  in  the  office  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed.  He  then  gave  notice,  that  in  his 
discourses  he  should  desert  the  order  of  the  Dominical 
Lessons,  or  those  appointed  to  be  read  statedly  on  Sun- 
days and  holy-days,  and  explain,  in  uninterrupted  series, 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  in  order  to  make  his 
auditors  acquainted  with  the  whole  contents  of  the  Di- 
vine Volume,  promising  to  have  nothing  in  view  in  his 
sermons,  but  "  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  instruction  and 
edification  of  the  faithful."  This  plan  was  approved  by 
the  majority  of  the  chapter;  there  were,  however,  some 
who  regarded  it  as  an  innovation  likely  to  produce  inju- 
rious consequences.  Zuingle  replied  to  their  objections 
by  saying,  ''that  he  was  only  returning  to  the  practice 
of  the  primitive  church,  which  had  been  continued  to 
the  time  of  Charlemagne ;  that  he  should  observe  the 
method  made  use  of  by  the  Fathers  of  the  church,  in 
their  homilies;  and  that,  by  Divine  assistance,  he  hoped 
to  preach  in  such  a  manner,  that  no  friend  of  Gospel  truth 
should  find  reason  to  complain."    Accordingly,  on  the 


356  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

1st  of  January,  1519,  he  preached  his  first  sermon,  con- 
formably to  the  plan  announced  to  his  superiors,  and 
which  he  ever  afterwards  followed. 

During  the  same  year,  he  also  gave  a  signal  proof  of 
his  courage,  by  opposing,  with  the  greatest  resolution, 
and  with  triumphant  success,  the  ministry  of  a  certain 
Italian  monk,  whose  name  was  Samson,  and  who  was 
carrying  on  in  Switzerland,  the  impious  traffic  of  indul- 
gences, with  the  most  shameless  impudence.  This  was 
followed,  in  1522,  by  a  letter,  which  Zuingle  and  others 
addressed  to  Hugh,  bishop  of  Constance,  against  the 
jcelibacy  of  the  clergy,  urging  him  to  allow  them  to 
marry,  rather  than  suffer  the  filthy  and  profligate  con- 
duct of  the  priests.  Zuingle  also  addressed  a  circular 
letter  to  the  Avhole  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Helvetic 
republic,  entreating  them  not  to  obstruct  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  church,  nor  molest  those  of  the  clergy  who 
had  married,  observing,  that  the  devil  was  the  author 
of  clerical  celibacy;  and  reminding  them,  that  it  was  a 
custom  in  some  of  their  cantons,  when  they  received  a 
new  curate,  to  enjoin  him  to  keep  a  concubine,  lest  he 
should  attempt  the  chastity  of  their  wives,  or  their 
daughters ;  which  would  be  more  lawfully  prevented  by 
the  permission  of  marriage. 

In  1523,  the  senate  and  clergy  of  Zurich  were  assem- 
bled for  the  purpose  of  receiving  the  propositions  of 
Zuingle,  relative  to  the  doctrines  and  discipline  of  the 
church.  John  Faber,  afterwards  bishop  of  Vienna,  at- 
tended as  the  suffragan,  or  vicar,  of  the  bishop  of  Con- 
stance, who  exercised  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  the 
canton  of  Zurich.  In  the  defence  of  his  propositions, 
Zuingle  supported  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture,  and  in 
animated  terms  exclaimed,  "'Thanks  to  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  Sacred  Books  are  now  within  the  reach 
of  all  Christians;  and  I  exhort  the  ecclesiastics  here 
assembled,  to  study  them   unremittingly,     They    will 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  357 

there  learn  to  preach  Christianity^  such  as  it  was  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles.  As 
to  the  Fathers  of  the  church,  I  do  not  blame  persons 
for  reading  and  quoting  them  in  the  pulpit,  provided  it 
be  where  they  are  conformable  to  Scripture,  and  that 
they  be  not  considered  as  infallible  authority."  The 
doctrines  of  Zuingle  were  adopted  by  the  senate,  who 
proclaimed  throughout  the  whole  of  their  government, 
that  "the  traditions  of  men  being  laid  aside,  the  Gospel 
should  be  purely  taught  from  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament y 

The  Reformation  being  established  by  the  magistrates 
of  the  canton  of  Zurich,  Zuingle  was  commissioned  to 
organize  a  system  of  public  instruction.     In  the  execu- 
tion of  this  commission,  our  reformer  banished  from  the 
schools  of  theology,  those  subtle   writers  who  had  long 
maintained  oracular  authority  in  their  scholastic  dispu- 
tations ;    and  took  the  Old  and  New  Testament   for  the 
basis  of  his  new  course  of  instruction.     He   required  of 
the  professors  intrusted  with   the  interpretation  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  text,  to  compare  the  originals  of  the 
Sacred  writers  with  the  most  established  versions,  such 
as  the  Vulgate  and  Septuagint;  to  cite  the  commentaries 
of  the  Jewish  doctors  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  those 
of  the  Fathers  on  the  New ;   to  apply  a  knowledge  of  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Jews,  to  the  clearing  up  of 
obscure  passages,  to  establish  the  true  sense  of  each,  to 
show  its  connection  with  the  other  truths  of  religion,  and 
finally  to  point  out  the  application  to  be  made  of  them  to 
morals,  and  the  instruction  of  the  people.     The  lectures 
on  these  subjects  were   given  in  the  cathedral;  and  the 
ecclesiastics  of  the  town,  as  well  as  the  students  of  divi- 
nity, were  obliged  to  attend  them.     Zuingle  even  endea- 
voured to  attract  thither  all  who  had  leisure  and  incli- 
nation for  study;  and  in  this  he  succeeded;   for  at    that 
period,   the  interest  in  every    thing  which    concerned 


358  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

religion  was  siich^  that  numerous  auditors  of  all  classes 
assiduously  attended  the  theological  lectures :  and  a  taste 
for  the  ancient  languages  was  so  thoroughly  diffused, 
that  twenty  years  afterwards,  it  was  not  uncommon  to 
meet  with  magistrates  and  merchants  who  could  read  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  in  the  original  languages. 

The  doctrines  of  Zuingle  having  many  points  of  re- 
semblance to  those  of  Luther,  he  was  by  many  denomi- 
nated a  Lutheran.  But  though  he  thought  well  of  the 
German  reformer,  he  refused  to  be  classed  among  his 
followers.  "As  far  as  I  can  judge,"  said  he,  "Luther  is  a 
very  brave  soldier  of  Christ,  who  examines  the  Scriptures 
with  a  diligence  which  no  person  else  has  used  for  the 
last  thousand  years.  Luther's  interpretations  of  Script- 
tare  are  so  well  founded,  that  no  creature  can  confute 
them:  yet  I  do  not  take  it  well  to  be  called  by  the  pa- 
pists a  Lutheran,  because  1  learned  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  from  the  Scriptures,  and  not  from  Luther."  It 
is,  however,  to  be  lamented,  that  these  two  great  men,  at 
no  very  distant  period,  differed  from  each  other,  and 
engaged  in  a  violent  controversy,  respecting  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper ;  Zuingle  affirming  that  it  was 
merely  a  commemorative  rite;  and  Luther  maintaining 
that  the  partakers  of  the  Lord's  Supper  received,  along 
ivith  the  bread  and  wine,  the  real  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  though  he  denied  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation, 
or  actual  change  of  the  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ.  This  tenet  of  Luther  has  been  termed  Con- 
substantiation,  and  was  attempted  to  be  explained  by  him, 
by  saying,  that,  "as  in  a  red  hot  iron,  two  distinct 
substances,  viz.  iron  and  fire,  are  united,  so  is  the  body 
of  Christ  joined  with  the  bread  in  the  eucharist." 

The  Sacramental  controversy,  as  it  has  been  usually 
called,  happily  did  not  prevent  these  eminent  characters 
from  endeavouring  to  spread,  in  their  respective  circles, 
the  other  important  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.    They 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  359 

continued  to  preach  and  publish  their  views  of  evangeli- 
cal truth,  to  the  close  of  their  lives.  Among-  the  publica- 
tions of  Zuingle,  his  Annotations  on  several  parts  of 
Scripture  deserve  particular  notice.  The  books  on  which 
his  Annotations,  or  Commentaries  were  published,  were 
Genesis,  Exodus,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  the  Four  Gospels, 
the  Epistles  oj  Paul  to  the  Romans,  Coinnthians,  Philip- 
pians,  Colossians,  and  Thessalonians,  the  Epistle  of 
James,  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  the  First  Epistle 
of  John,  The  Annotations  on  Genesis  and  Exodus  were 
taken  down,  when  publicly  delivered,  by  Leo  Judge  and 
Caspar  Megander;  and  the  Annotations  on  the  Gospels 
by  Leo  Judae  alone.  The  works  of  Zuingle  were  col- 
lected and  published,  at  Zurich,  in  4  vols.  fol.  in  1545, 
and  again  in  1581 ;  and  at  Basil,  in  1593. 

The  progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Switzerland,  and 
the  legal  establishment  of  it  in  some  of  the  cantons, 
induced  the  Roman  Catholic  inhabitants  of  the  other 
confederated  cantons,  to  draw  the  sword  in  defence  of 
the  doctrines  and  practices  of  popery.  At  that  period, 
the  Swiss  were  universally  trained  to  arms,  and  obliged  to 
take  the  field  when  the  defence  of  their  country  required 
it:  and  so  general  was  this  obligation,  that  neither  the 
ministers  of  the  Gospel,  nor  the  professors  of  theology, 
were  exempted  from  military  service.  Zuingle  and  his 
coadjutors  were,  consequently,  obliged  to  accompany  the- 
Protestants  of  Zurich  to  the  field  of  battle,  during  the 
war  which  was  waged  betwixt  the  Protestants  and  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  Helvetic  republic.  In  one  of  the  en- 
gagements, which  took  place  on  the  11th  of  October, 
1531,  Zuingle,  and  Jerom  Potanus  one  of  the  theological 
doctors  of  Basil,  were  unfortunately  slain.  The  barba- 
rous revenge  of  the. enemies  of  the  Reformation  was 
wreaked  upon  the  dead  body  of  Zuingle,  which  they 
quartered,  and  threw  into  the  fire.  His  heart  was  after- 
wards founds  and  buried  by  his  friends.    Thus  fell  one 


360  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

of  the  greatest  champions  of  the  Reformation  in  Switzer- 
land; but  though  his  death  was  universally  mourned, 
his  friends,  Oecoiampadius,  Bullinger,  and  Bucer,  with 
other  enlightened  advocates  of  Gospel  truth,  conti- 
nued to  labour  in  the  sacred  cause,  which  ultimately 
triumphed  throughout  the  whole  of  the  republic.*^ 

The  desire  which  prevailed  among  the  disciples  of 
Luther  and  Zuingle,  to  promote  the  interests  of  religion 
by  the  dissemination  of  the  Scriptures,  produced  not  only 
several  veriiacuiar  translations,  during  the  period  of 
which  we  are  writing,  and  which  have  been  already 
noticed,  but  occasioned  the  two  celebrated  Latin  ver- 
sions of  Sebastian  Munster,  and  Leo  Judm. 

Munster's  Latin   Version  was  accompanied  with  the 
Hebrew   Text,  and  short    Notes,  or  Annotations;   and 
extended  only  to  the  Old  Testament.     The  first  edition 
was  printed  at  Basil,  in   2  vols.  fol.  1534 — 5.     It  was 
afterwards  reprinted,  with  corrections  and  additions,  at 
Basil,  in  1546.     The  notes  were  chiefly  selected  from 
the  rabbinical  writers.     It  was  the  first  translation  made 
from  the  original  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  those 
who  had  embraced  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
and  was  deservedly  held  in  high  estimation,  and  is  still 
useful  to  those  who  are  commencing  the  study  of  the 
Hebrew.     A  great  Biblical  critic  thus  characterizes  this 
work:  "The  version  of  Munster  is  much  preferable  to 
that  of  Pagninus,  or  of  Arias  Montanus,  who  have  neg- 
lected the  sense,  by  too  scrupulous  adhei-ence  to  gram- 
matical rules.     On  the  contrary,  Munster  endeavours  to 
deliver  the  sense,  without  being  regardless  of  the  princi- 
ples of  grammar;  nor  has  he,  like  Arias  Montanus,  merely 
given  the  meaning  of  each  v/ord  independently  consider- 

(51)  Hess's  Life  of  Zuingle^,  by  Lucy  Aikin,  Lond.  1812,  SYO.passim. 
Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  pp.  25 — 45. 
Sleidan's  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  pp.  48.  51.  57,  156,  , 
^    Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.  IV.  pp.  48,  49.  361—365. 
Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  V.  p.  535. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  361 

ed,  but  has  considered  the  connection  in  which  they  are 
placed;  and  though  his  style  is  not  perfectly  pure^  it  is 
neither  excessively  rude,  nor  barbarous."  ^^  Geddes  also 
pronounces  it  to  be  "little  less  literal,  but  more  perspi-* 
cuous  and  elegant,  than  that  of  Pagninus.  The  rabbins/' 
he  adds,  "were  his  chief  guides;  and  his  annotations 
are  compiled  with  no  small  discernment  from  their  best 
works." *^  An  edition  of  Munster's  Latin  version  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  of  Erasmus's  Latin  version  of  the 
New  Testament,  was  printed  at  Zurich,  by  Christopher 
Froschover,  in  1539,  with  a  short  preface  by  the  learned 
Henry  Bullinger.  The  editor  of  it  is  supposed  to  be 
Conrad  Pellican.^ 

The  Old  Testament  of  the  other  Latin  version  to  which 
we  have  referred,  by  Leo  Jud^,  which  is  generally 
called  the  Zurich  Latin  Bible,  was  also  made  immediately 
from  the  Hebrew.  Leo  dying  before  the  work  was 
completed,  Theodore  Bibliander  translated  the  last 
eight  chapters  of  Ezehiel,  the  book  of  Daniel,  Job,  the 
last  forty  eight  Psalms,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song  of 
Solomon;  Peter  Cholin  translated  the  Apocryphal  Boohs 
from  the  Greek;  and  he  and  Rodolph  Gu alter  revised 
the  Latin  version  of  Erasmus,  and  added  a  metrical 
Analysis  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Bibliander 
also  added  the  marginal  notes  and  various  readings. 
The  editor,  who  had  the  general  revision  of  the  whole, 
was  Conrad  Pellican,  who,  in  Leo's  last  sickness,  had 
promised  him  to  correct,  and  promote  the  completion,  of 
the  whole.  It  was  printed  at  Zurich,  by  C.  Froschover,  in 
1543,  fol.  and  in  1545.  Robert  Stephens,  the  printer, 
of  Paris  ;  reprinted  this  version  along  with  the  Vulgate, 
and  added  certain  scholia,  or  notes,  which  he  professed  to 
be  by  Vatablus,  the  learned  Hebrew  professor  of  the 

(5^)  Simon,  Hist.  Crit.  du  Vieux  Testament,  lib.  ii.  cap.  xxi.  p,  359. 

(53)  Geddes's  Prospectus  of  a  New  Translation,  p.  75. 

(54)  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  ii,  toI.  III.  cap.  iii.  sec,  1.  p.  458, 


362 

university  of  Paris,  from  whence  that  edition  acquired 
the  name  of  the  Bible  of  Vatahlus^  though  that  learned 
professor  disavowed  the  notes,  which  had  probably  been 
taken  in  short-hand  when  he  delivered  his  public 
lectures.^^  F.Simon  says  of  this  version,  that  "it  pre- 
serves the  mean  betwixt  those  versions  which  are  too 
literal  and  barbarous,  and  those  which  are  written  in  a 
style  too  aifected  and  elegant."  The  same  critical  writer 
remarks,  that  in  the  New  Testament,  "  they  have  taken 
Erasmus  for  their  guide,  whom,  nevertheless,  they  often 
abandon.  But  they  speak  of  him  very  honourably  in 
their  preface,  in  which  they  declare  that  they  have  col- 
lated this  edition  of  the  New  Testament  with  the  Greek 
original  as  their  rule,  and  that  they  have  sometimes 
consulted  some  ancient  copies,  the  edition  of  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  that  of  Paris,  and  another  of  England,  beside 
the  ancient  versions."  In  the  margin  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  translators  have  added  brief  notes  to  explain 
the  most  obscure  places,  especially  the  Hebraisms,  in- 
tended chiefly  to  illustrate  the  style  of  the  inspired 
writers;  and  "if  they  do  not  always  succeed,  they  at  least 
show  evident  proofs  of  good  judgment,  at  a  time  when 
people  were  not  very  exact  in  critical  inquiries  relative 
to  the  Sacred  Books."  An  instance  or  two  will  exem- 
plify their  method:  thus  in  the  20th  chapter  of  the 
Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  where,  conformably  to  the  Greek, 
they  have  translated  the  28th  verse,  "  Utque  daret 
animam  suam  redemptionem  pro  multis,"  "  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many,"  they  have  observed  in  their 
note,  that  the  word  maioy  signifies  «//,  according  to  the 
genius  of  the  Greek  tongue ;  at  least,  that  this  is  the 
sense  which  the  Hebrews  give  to  their  noun  ^D  (cal). 
"  Pro  multis,  id  est,  pro  tota  multitudine  hominum.  Sic 
enim  Grseci  solent  tb^  ttoXXh^  vocare  ipsam  universitatem 
hominum ;  quamvis  articulus  absens  nonnihil  huic  censui 
(55 j  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  a.  vol.  III.  cap,  iii,  sec.  1.  pp»  439— .443.. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  363 

clerogaret;  nisi  Hebrsei  quoque  sic  uterentar  suo  ^:}.'* 
Again  in  the  28th  chapter^  where  they  have  translated, 
^vith  the  Vulg-ate,  "  Docete  omnes  gentes/'  "  Teach  all 
nations,"  they  remark,  that  with  respect  to  the  gramma- 
tical sense,  "  docete,''  "  teach,"  is  the  same  thing  as 
"  disctpulate,''  or  "  discipulos  facite,"  '^  make  disciples ."^^ 

The  following  brief  notices  of  the  learned  men  engag- 
ed in  these  translations,  will  probably  be  acceptable 
to  the  reader. 

Sebastian  Munster  was  born  in  1489,  at  Ingelheim, 
in  Germany.  In  the  early  part,  of  his  life  he  was  a  Fran- 
ciscan friar,  and  applied  himself  assiduously  to  divinity, 
the  mathematics,  and  cosmography.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  who  attached  himself  to  Luther,  but  not  with  that 
zeal  which  distinguished  many  others  of  the  reformers, 
though  he  was  the  scholar  and  steady  friend  of  Conrad 
Pellican,  whom  he  succeeded  as  professor  of  Hebrew  at 
Basil.  Beside  his  Translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
Annotations,  he  was  the  author  of  several  other  very 
learned  works,  particularly  a  Chaldee  Grammar  and 
Lexicon,  a  Talmudical  Lexicon,  a  Universal  Cosmogra- 
phy, and  a  Disputation  between  a  Jew  and  a  Christian 
in  Hebrew  and  Latin.  Some  of  these  works  were  pub- 
lished prior  to  his  secession  from  the  church  of  Rome, 
as  appears  from  the  titles,  in  which  he  designates  himself 
"Sebastian  Munster,  a  Minorite."  He  also  was  the  first 
who  published  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  in  H^ebrew. 
In  his  dedication  to  Henry  VIII.  king  of  England,  he 
says,  that  he  did  not  print  this  version  exactly  as  it  v/as 
in  the  MS.  which  he  had  obtained  from  the  Jews,  and 
which  was  torn  and  defective,  but  supplied  the  deficien- 
cies according  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  This  work 
was  printed  at  Basil  in  1537,  fol.  and  again  in  1557,  and 
1582.     John  Cinquarbres,  or  Quinqarboreus,  as  he 

(56)  Simon's  Crit.  Hist,  of  the  Versions  of  the  N.  X.  pt.  ii.  ch.  xxiiu 
pp.  200—204. 


364 

styled  himself  in  Latin,  published  also  an  edition  at  Paris, 
in  1551,  in  8vo.  One  of  the  motives  to  this  publica- 
tion was  the  hope  entertained  by  some  of  the  friends  of 
Minister,  of  converting  the  Jews ;  but  he  himself  had 
another  motive  to  induce  its  pubhcation.  He  supposed 
that  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  was  written  in  Hebrew, 
and  that  this  publication  might  be  of  use  in  ascertaining 
the  meaning  of  the  Greek  text.  But  as  the  dialect  of 
Munster  s  edition  is  the  modern  Rabbinical  Hebrew,  it 
can  be  of  no  use  in  Biblical  criticism.  Though  Munster 
lived  in  an  age  of  controversy,  he  avoided  the  theological 
disputes  which  were  so  violently  agitated  at  that  period. 
He  died  of  the  plague,  at  Basil,  1552,  aged  63.  From  his 
publications  on  the  Scriptures,  and  on  Cosmography, 
he  was  called  the  "Ezra"  and  "Strabo"  of  Germany.^' 

Leo  Jud^  was  descended  from  respectable  Christian 
ancestors,  inhabitants  of  Alsace.  His  father,  who  was 
a  priest,  and  consequently  forbidden  to  marry  by  the  ca- 
nons of  the  Romish  church,  attempted,  according  to  the 
custom  of  those  times,  to  evade  the  injunction,  by  having 
a  concubine,  to  whom  he  regarded  himself  as  married. 
Leo,  who  was  the  fruit  of  this  illegitimate  union,  was 
born  in  1482.  After  receiving  the  first  rudiments  of 
learning,  he  was  sent  to  Basil.  Here  he  had  the  celebrat- 
ed Ulric  Zuingle  for  his  fellow  student,  with  whom  he 
formed  a  lasting  friendship.  In  1512,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  degree  of  master  of  arts,  and  of  philosophy;  and 
was  elected  deacon  of  the  church  of  St.  Theodore.  He 
was  afterwards  chosen  one  of  the  ministers  of  Zurich, 
and  became  one  of  the  most  decided  opponents  to  the 
superstitions  of  the  Romish  church.  At  the  request  of 
several  of  his  learned  friends,  he  undertook  his  Transla- 
tion of  the   Old   Testament   from    the  Hebrew;    having- 

(57)   Lempriere's  General  Biog.  Diet. 

Simon,  Lettres  Choisies,  III.  p.  113. 

Marsh's  Michaelis,  III.  pt,  i.  sec.  10,  pp.  195— 197, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  365 

previously  delivered  lectures  upon  the  Bible  for  eighteen 
years.  In  this  great  work,  he  consulted  various  scholars, 
and  examined  not  only  different  Hebrew  MSS.  but  col- 
lated them  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  versions.  His 
inten^e  application  to  the  work  impaired  his  health,  and 
he  fell  a  sacrifice  to  it,  before  he  was  able  to  complete  it. 
He  died,  declaring  his  confidence  in  the  ''  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  as  his  deliverer,  hope,  and  salvation,"  on  the 
19th  of  June,  1542,  aged  60.^« 

Theodore  Bibliander,  whose  proper  name  was 
BoucHMAN  or  BucHMANN,  was  a  native  of  Switzerland, 
born  in  1500,  or  according  to  some,  in  1504.  Having 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  theology  and  the  lan- 
guages, he  excelled  as  an  orientalist  and  divine.  He 
succeeded  Zuingle  as  professor  of  Sacred  literature,  and 
commenced  his  lectures  in  1532,  at  Zurich,  where  his 
lectures  were  attended  by  persons  of  all  ranks  and  ages. 
He  died  of  the  plague,  November  26th,  1564.  Beside 
what  he  translated  of  the  Old  Testament  from  the  He- 
brew,  he  was  the  author  of  a  Life  of  Mohammed,  of  a 
translation  of  the  Koran  from  the  Arabic,  printed  at  Basil, 
1543,  fol.  with  a  preface  by  Philip  Melancthon;  and  of 
several  other  works.^^ 

Peter  Cholin,  a  native  of  Zug  in  Switzerland,  emi- 
nent for  his  piety  and  skill  in  languages,  was  one  of  the 
professors  of  Zurich.  His  peaceful  death,  which  happened 
inl542,  on  the  day  in  which  the  Zurich  Bible  was  finished, 
corresponded  with  the  uniform  integrity  of  his  life.^** 

RoDOLPH  Gu ALTER  was  bom  at  Zurich,  according  to 
some,  in  1519,  or  according  to  others,  in  1512.  The  pro- 
ficiency he  made  in  his  studies,  and  his   extraordinary 

(58)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  pp.  94—97. 

(59)  M,  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  pp,  402,  403. 
Clarke's  Bibliog.  Diet.  II.  p,  15, 
Clement,  IV.  p.  211. 

(60)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  p.  96. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sjicra,  Index^  Auctor,  I. 


366  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

abilities  as  a  divine,  occasioned  his  election  as  Antistes, 
or  chief  pastor,  of  his  native  city.  He  was  the  author 
of  Horn  Hies  on  several  books  of  Scripture.  After  faith- 
fully discharging  his  sacred  and  official  functions  for 
more  than  40  years,  he  '^rested  from  his  labours"  on  the 
25th  of  November,  1586.  His  son  Rodolph,  who  died 
before  him,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  had  been  chosen 
one  of  the  ministers  of  Zurich,  and  had  published  several 
works  of  a  religious  nature.^^ 

Henry  Bullinger,  who  was  a  Swiss  divine  of  great 
celebrity,  was  born  at  Bremgarten,  a  considerable  town 
in  Switzerland^  in  1504.  His  first  instructor  was  his 
father,  a  man  eminent  for  his  attachment  to  literature. 
At  12  years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  pursue  his  studies  at  Em- 
brick,  where  he  continued  3  years.  About  this  time,  his 
father  adopted  a  singular  method  of  teaching  him  to  feel 
for  the  necessities  of  others,  by  withholding  from  him, 
for  a  time,  his  usual  pecuniary  supplies,  so  that  he  was 
forced,  according  to  the  custom  of  those  times,  to  subsist 
upon  the  alms  obtained  by  singing  from  door  to  door. 
From  Embrick  he  removed  to  Cologne,  and  employed 
himself  in  the  study  of  logic,  and  scholastic  philosophy, 
till  1520,  when  he  proceeded  bachelor  of  arts.  Whilst 
at  Cologne,  he  gained  admittance  to  the  library  of  the 
Dominicans,  and  eagerly  read  the  works  of  Chrysostom, 
Augustin,  Origen,  and  Ambrose ;  and  meeting  with  seve- 
ral of  Luther  s  publications,  he  attentively,  but  privately, 
read  them ;  from  these  he  was  led  to  the  Scriptures 
themselves,  which  he  diligently  perused,  with  the  com- 
mentaries of  Jerom  and  other  Fathers  upon  them.  By 
these  means  his  mind  gradually  became  averse  from 
popery;  and  although  he  had  at  an  early  period  resolved 
to  enter  the  Carthusian  order,  he  relinquished  his  design, 
and  after  taking  his  degree  of  master  of  arts,  returned  to 
his  father's,  and  resided  a  year  under  the  paternal  roof. 
(61)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  p,  592. 


SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  367 

He  was  then  called  by  Wolfgang  Joner,  abbot  of  Capel- 
la,  to  teach  in  his  convent.     In  this  situation,  he  explain- 
ed the  ParaclesinSind  Compendium  T heolog tee  of  Erasmns, 
and  the  Loci  Communes  of  Melancthon,  but   especially 
the  books  of  the  New  Testainent,  in  the  German  tongue; 
very  few  of  the  monks  in  that  or  the  neighbouring  mo- 
nasteries understanding  much  of  the  Latin,, notwithstand- 
ing the  constant  use  of  it  in  their  religious  services.  On  the 
death  of  Zuingle,  who  had  favoured  him  with  his  confi- 
dence, he  was  chosen  as  his  successor  by  the  senate  and  the 
ecclesiastical  synod.     In  this  difficult  and  important  si- 
tuation, he  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  church  with  firm- 
ness and  prudence.     He  enlarged  the  Public  Library  of 
Zurich,  and  persuaded  the  magistrates  to  establish  a  new 
College,  instead  of   what   had   formerly   been  institut- 
ed.    He  steadily  supported  the  Reformation,  and  was 
employed  in  many  ecclesiastical  negociations.     At  the 
request  of  certain  English  noblemen,  he  addressed  two 
epistles  to  Henry  VIII.  king  of  England,  the  former  On 
the  Authority,    Certainty,  Perpetuity   and  Perfection  of 
Scripture;   the  latter   On   the  Institution  and   Office   of 
Bishops,     During  the  persecution   of  Queen  Mary,   he 
hospitably  received  many  of  the  English  divines,  who  had 
fled  to  avoid  the  cruelties  exercised  upon  the  protestants 
during  her  reign.     On  the  publication  of  the   Bull  of 
excommunication  fulminated  by  the  pope  against  Queen 
Elizabeth,  he  Vv^rote  an  able  confutation   of  it,  of  which 
an  English  translation   afterwards  appeared.     He  died 
September  17th,  1575.     He  left  behind  him  several  sons 
and  daughters;  having,  to  his  inexpressible  grief,  lost  his 
wife,  with  whom  he  had  lived  happily  35  years,  in  1564.^^ 
Conrad  Pellican  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
eminent  of  the  reformers.     He   was  born  at  Ruffach,  in 
Alsace,  January  8th,  1478.    His  family  name  was  Kirsiner 
or  Kirsyier,  but  the  name  Pellican,  which  means  the  same 
(62;  M,  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog,  pp.  476— 5C7. 


368  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

tiling  in  Latin  as  Kir sner,  in  Germsiu,  was  given  him,  agree- 
ably to  a  practice  then  frequent,  by  his  maternal  uncle.  He 
commenced  his  studies  at  Ruffach,  in  1484,  under  Stephen 
Kleger,  an  excellent  master ;  who   inspired  him  with  a 
love  of  literature,  notwithstanding  considerable  obstacles 
presented  themselves,  chiefly  arising   from  the  want  of 
elementary  books,  being  obliged  to   write   down   every 
thing  taught   him,  printing  then  being  in  its   infancy, 
and   such   works  as  were   necessary  for  him  not  to   be 
obtained.     In  1491,  he  was  invited  to  Heidelberg,  by  his 
maternal  uncle,  Jodocus  Gallus ;  but  after  sixteen  months 
returned  to  his  parents,  probably  because  his  uncle  could 
uo  longer  afford  to  maintain  him.    After  his  return  home, 
he  became  assistant  to  a  schoolmaster,  and  was  permitted 
to  have  the  loan  of  books  from  the  library  of  the  Francis- 
can convent.     His  frequent  and  literary  intercourse  with 
the  monks,  led  to  his  entering  into  that  order,  in  January 
1493,  though  against  the  consent   of  his  relations.     He 
then  engaged  in  theological  studies,  and   the  following 
year    v/as     admitted     Subdeacon.      In    1499,    meeting 
with   Paul  Pfedersheimer,  a  converted  Jew,  who  had  en- 
tered the  same  order  as  himself,  he  expresed  his  wish  to 
learn  Hebrew,  which  he  assured  him  he  had  desired  from 
a  child,  in  consequence  of  hearing  a  disputation  betwixt 
a  Christian  doctor  and  a  Jew.     Pfedersheimer  offered 
his  assistance,   and  Pellican  by  this  means  obtained  the 
elementary  part  of  that  language.     He  received  further 
instructions  from  Reuchlin,  and  by  indefatigable  perseve- 
rance acquired  such  knowledge  of  it  as  to  be  accounted, 
after   ReuchUn,  the  first  Hebrew  scholar  in  Germany. 
Yet  such  was  his  poverty,  and  the  rarity  of  learned  works, 
that  when  a  bookseller  had  procured  a   copy  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  printed  in  a  small  size  at  Pisaro,  in  Italy, 
in  1494,  it  was   with  difficulty  he  raised  a  florin   and  a 
half  to  purchase  it;   and  he  informed  Lewis  Lavater, 
that  before  the  preaching  of  Luther,  ^^  a  single  cQpy  of 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  369 

the  Greek  Testament  was  not  to  be  found  in  all  Germany, 
though  a  man  should  have  offered  to  give  for  it  its  weight 
in  gold."  Charity,  the  learned  abbess  of  St.  Clare,  and 
sister  of  Pirckheimer,  made  him,  therefore,  a  most 
acceptable  present,  by  giving  him  the  Hebrew  Pentateuch 
with  the  Chaldee  Paraphrase,  which  he  was  too  poor 
to  purchase. 

In  1501,  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  the  following 
year  was  appointed  to  teach  theology  in  the  convent 
of  his  order  at  Basil,  where  he  likewise  gave  lectures  on 
philosophy  and  astronomy.  In  1508,  he  was  sent  to 
Ruffach  to  teach  the  same  branches,  and  had  Sebastian 
Munster  for  one  of  his  pupils  in  Hebrew  and  astronomy. 
In  1511,  he  was  chosen  guardian  of  the  convent  of 
Pfortzheim  ;  and  in  1514,  Caspar  Sazger,  provincial  of  his 
order,  engaged  him  as  his  secretary.  Tiie  journeys  which 
he  took  with  the  provincial,  in  his  official  capacity,  afford- 
ed him  peculiar  opportunities  of  conversing  with  the 
learned  of  his  time,  and  of  examining  the  most  eminent 
libraries  belonging  to  his  order.  These  advantages  he 
studiously  improved;  and  largely  increased  his  stock  of 
oriental  and  BibHcal  literature,  to  which  he  now  chiefly 
directed  his  attention.  After  his  return  from  one  of  his 
journeys,  he  stopped  three  months  at  Basil,  to  superin- 
tend a  Polyglott  Psalter,  then  printing  by  Froben. 

Pellican  having  begun  to  read  the  works  of  Luther, 
and  sometimes  to  deliver  sentiments  favourable  to  the 
doctrines  contained  in  them,  the  professors  at  Basil  ac- 
cused him  of  Lutheranism  to  the  provincial,  who  would 
have  deposed  him,  but  for  the  interposition  of  the  Senate, 
who  declared  that  if  he  obliged  Pellican  and  his  friends 
to  leave  the  city  for  this  cause,  they  would  send  every  one 
of  the  order  after  them.  Sazger  took  the  hint,  and  left 
Basil,  and  Oecolampadius  and  Pellican  were  elected  pro- 
fessors. He  continued  professor  at  Basil,  until  1526, 
when  at  the  earnest  request  of  Zuingle   and  the  senate 


3/0  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

of  Zurich,  he  accepted  the  situation  of  professor  of 
Hebrew  in  that  city.  He  soon  afterwards  threw  off 
the  monastic  habit,  and  entered  into  the  married  state. 
After  the  death  of  his  wife,  which  happened  in  1536,  he, 
by  the  advice  of  his  friends,  married  a  second  time,  in  the 
course  of  the  following-  year. 

In  1538,  he,  for  several  months,  hospitably  entertain- 
ed and  assisted  Michael  Adam,  a  converted  Jew,  who 
was  engaged  with  Leo  Judse  in  a  revision  of  the  German 
Bible.  His  skill  in  the  languages,  and  critical  talents, 
rendered  his  services  of  high  consideration  in  this  and 
every  occurrence  connected  with  his  important  situation 
of  Hebrew  professor,  which  he  continued  to  fill  with 
singular  ability  until  his  decease,  April  1st,  1556.^^  Be- 
side rendering  assistance  to  the  translators  of  the  Zurich 
Bible,  he  revised  an  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament, 
printed  by  Bebelius,  Basil,  1524,  8vo.  in  which  he  assumed 
the  name  of  Cepharinus ;  he  also  translated  certain  of 
the  Chaldee  Paraphrases  or  Targums,  into  Latin;  and 
was  engaged  as  the  editor  of  Augustin  s  Works,  pub- 
lished by  Amerbach  in  1506,  in  9  vols,  folio.  He  likewise 
left  Latin  Commentaries  on  all  the  hooks  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  except  Jonah,  Zechariah,  and  the  Reve- 
lation,  published  at  different  times,  from  1532  to  1540,  in 
7  vols,  folio ;  in  which  he  considerably  amended  the  Vul- 
gate translation.  His  small  copy  of  the  Hebrew  Bible 
is  still  preserved  in  the  Caroline  Library  at  Zurich." 

A  translation  of  the  Bible  was  also  made  into  the 
Helvetian,  or  German-Swiss  dialect,  and  printed  at 
Zurich,  the  New  Testament  in  1524,  the  first  part  of  the 
Old  Testament,  in  1525,  and  the  rest  with  the  Apocry- 
pha, in  1529,  accompanied   with   prefaces  and  marginal 

(63)  M.  Adami  Vit.  Germ.  Theolog.  pp.  262—299. 
Chalmers'  Gen.  Biog.  Diet.  XXIV.  pp.  273—276. 

(64)  Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra.  I.  pp.  204.   280.   289.  300.   304,   305  ; 

and  edit.  Masch,  pt.  i.  cap.  i.  sec.  1,  pp.  11,  12. 
Walchii  Biblioth.  Theoloe:.  IV.  p.  412, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  371 

notes,  forming  3  vols,  folio.     The  principal  translator  was 
Leo  Judje,  assisted  by  the  other  ministers  ofZurich.^^ 

As  minor,  but  valuable  attempts  to  render  the  ver- 
nacular translations  more  correct,  and  worthy  the  public 
attention,  the  Germ^f/z  versions  of  Otmar  and  Lonicer, 
Lutherans,  claim  regard.  Silvan  us  Otmar,  a  German, 
published  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  about 
A.  D.  1535,  8vo.  John  Adam  Lonicer,  a  German, 
also  published  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament, 
in  his  native  tongue,  A.  D.  1590  ;  printed  at  Franckfort, 
in  octavo.^^ 

(65)  Le  Long,  I.  p.  399. 

Marsh's  Hist,  of  Translations,  &c.  p.  4. 

(66)  Le  Long,  L  p.  395.  Paris,  1723,  fol. 


S72  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 


CHAPTER  V, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY    CONTINUED. 

Henry  VIIT.  Tyndall.  English  Neiv  Testament,  Po- 
pery abolished  in  Efigland.  English  Versions.  Co- 
ver dale.  Progress  of  the  Reformation.  Lyndsays 
Poetical  Defence  of  Vernacular  Translations.  Re- 
formation in  Scotland.  French  Versions.  Olivetan, 
Calvin.  Marofs  Psalms.  Robert  Stephens.  Fa- 
culty of  Theology  at  Paris.  Servetus.  Spain. 
Loyola.  Jesuits.  Spanish  Versions.  Italian 
Versions.  Brucioli  Marmochino.  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
Romberg,  Editions  of  Scripture  enumeraied  by 
Panzer, 

fTHHE  Reformation  soon  extended  its  influence  to 
-J^  England,  and  the  works  of  Luther,  Melancthon, 
and  other  reformers,  were  eagerly  read  and  circulated 
by  those  who  were  able  to  procure  them.  Translations 
were  also  made  of  such  writings  as  were  favourable  to 
similar  opinions;  amongst  these,  Erasmus's  Treatise  upon 
the  Pater  Noster,  printed  by  Wynhyn  de  Worde,  1524, 
4to.  deserves  particular  notice,  being  "tourned  into 
English,  by  a  young,  vertuous,  and  well  lerned  gentle- 
woman, of  nineteen  yere  of  age;"  and  demonstrating  the 
prevalent  feeling  of  the  nation.*  To  counteract  this  in- 
clination of  his  subjects  to  heretical  sentiments,  Henry 
VIII.  entered  the  list  against  Martin  Luther,  by  writing 
and  publishing  a  book,  De  Sept  em  Sacrament  is,  "Of  the 
Seven  Sacraments;"  for  which  Pope  Leo  X.  bestowed 
upon  the  royal  controversialist,  the  title  of  Defender  of 
the  Faith.     But  neither  the  lustre  of  Henry's  crown,  nor 

(1)  Dibdin's  Typographic*!  Antiquities,  II.  p.  24|. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  373 

the  acclamations  of  the  admirers  of  the  royal  performance, 
intimidated  the  intrepid   German,   who  replied   to  the 
treatise  in  terms  of  nnbecoming  severity,  followed  by  a 
letter,  acknowledging  the  virulence  of  the  terms  employ- 
ed.    Luther's  reply  was  succeeded  by  epistolary  answers 
from  the  king,  whose   zeal   had  been   inflamed   by   the 
honours   he   had   received   from  the  papal  head  of  the 
church.     These   epistolary   replies,  originally  written  in 
Latin,  were  afterwards  translated,  and  printed  by  Richard 
Pynson,  his  Majesty's  printer.     In  the  last  of  his  epistles, 
dated  1527,  speaking  of  one  of  Luther's  publications,   he 
says  ;  "In  whiche  he  fayneth  himself  to  be  enformed,  that, 
we  be  tourned  to  the  favoure  of  his   secte.     And  with 
many  flaterying  wordes  he  laboreth  to  have  us   content 
that  he  myght  be  bolde  to  write  to  us  in  the  mater  and 
cause  of  the   gospell:   And   thereupon  without   answere 
had   from  us,  nat  onely  publysshed  the  same  letter  and 
put  it  in   print,  of  purpose  that  his  adherentes  shulde  be 
the  bolder,  under  the  shadowe  of  our  favour,  but  also  fell 
in  devyce  with  one  or  two  lewde  persons,   borne  in  this 
our  realme,  for  the  trans latyng  of  the  Newe  Testaments 
into  Englysshe,  as  well  with  many  corruptions  of  that  holy 
text,  as   certayne   prefaces,  and   other  pestylent  Closes 
in   the   margentes,   for   the  advauncement   and  settyng 
forthe  of  his  abhomynable  heresyes,  entendynge  to  abuse 
the  gode  myndes  and  devotion  that  you  oure  derely  be- 
loved people  beare,  towarde  the  holy  scrypture,  and  enfect 
you  with  the  deedly  corruption  and  contagious  odour 
of  his  pestylent  errours.     In  the  advoydynge  whereof  we 
of  our  especialls  tendre  zele  towards  you,  have  with  the 
deliberate   advyse  of  the  moste  reverende  father  in  god, 
Thomas   lorde   Cardynall,    legate   de   Latere  of  the  see 
apostolyke,    archebysshop   of   Yorke,   primate   and   our 
chancellour  of  this  realme,  and  other   reverende  fathers 
of  the  spiritualtye,  determyned  the  sayd  and  untrue  trans- 
latyons  to  be  brenned^  with  further    sharpe   correction 


374  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

and  punysshment  against  the  kepars  and  redars  of  the 
same,  rekenyng  of  your  wysdomes  very  sure. that  ye  wyll 
well  and  thankfully  parceyve  our  tendre  and  loving 
inynde  tovvarde  you  therin,  and  that  ye  will  never  be  so  gre- 
dy  uppon  any  swete  wyne,  be  the  grape  never  so  pleasaunt, 
that  ye  will  desyre  to  taste  it,  being  well  advertised  yt. 
your  enemy  before  hath  poysoned  it."^ 

The  English  translation  of  the  New  Testament  to 
which  the  king  refers,  was  one  which  had  been  lately  trans- 
lated from  the  Greek,  by  William  Tyndale,  or 
Tyndall,  an  Englishman,  and  printed  in  1526,  12mo. 
without  the  name  of  the  translator  or  printer,  or  of  the 
place  where  printed,  though  it  was  probably  printed  at 
Antwerp,  where  Tyndall  then  resided.  Of  this  edition 
only  1500  copies  were  printed,  most  of  which  were  pur- 
chased at  the  request  of  Cuthbert  Tonstall,  bishop  of 
London,  by  Augustin  Packington,  an  English  merchant, 
and  by  the  bishop  committed  to  the  flames.  Tyndall's 
assistants  in  the  work  of  translation  were  John  Fry,  or 
Fryth,  and  William  Roye  ;  the  former  of  whom  was 
one  of  the  learned  students  of  Cambridge,  chosen  by 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  for  his  new  college  at  Oxford,  called 
Frideswide,  now  Christ  Church,  and  afterwards  burnt 
in  Smithfield  for  heresy,  July  1533;^  and  the  latter 
suiiered  a  similar  death  in  Portugal,  on  the  same  occa- 
sion. The  purchase  of  the  chief  part  of  the  impression  by 
Bishop  Tonstall,  and  the  ecclesiastical  commissions 
issued  by  him  and  Archbishop  Warham,  by  which  all 
persons  were  required,  under  pain  of  excommunication, 
to  deliver  up  the  copies  of  this  translation,  rendered  them 
so  rare,  that  the  only  one  supposed  to  exist,  is  that  which 
is  preserved  in  the  Baptist's  library,  at  Bristol.  Of  this 
copy  Mr.  Beloe,    in    his    '^ Anecdotes   of  Literature  and 


(2)  Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiquities,  II.  p.  489. 

*  A  most  interesting  account  of  this  worthy  martyr  may  be  found  ia 
Fox's  Actesand  Monumentes^  II.  pp.  303—310.  Lond.  1641,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  375 

Scarce  Books,''  lias  furnished  the  following  curious  infor- 
mation: "It  is  in  duodecimo,  and  is  lettered  on  the  back, 
*New  Testament  by  Tyndall,  first  edition,  15*26.'     It  has 
no  title  page.     There  is  a  portrait  pasted  to  the  first  leaf.=^' 
On  the  opposite  leaf  is  a  printed  paper  which  says,  that 
^On  Tuesday  evening,  (13th  of  May,  1760,)  at  Mr.  Lang- 
ford's  sale  of  Ml'.  Ames's  books,  a  copy  of  the  translation 
of  the  New  Testament,  by  Tyndall,  and  supposed  to  be 
the  only  one  remaining  which  escaped  the  flames,  was 
sold  for  fourteen  guineas  and  a  half.     This  very  book  was 
picked  up  by  one   of  the  late  Lord  Oxford's  collectors, 
(John  Murray,  written  in  the  margin,)  and  was  esteemed 
so  valuable  a  purchase  by  his  lordship,    that   he  settled 
^20.  a  year  for  life,  upon    the  person  who  procured  it. 
His   lordship's  library   being   afterwards   purchased   by 
Mr.  Osburne,  of  Gray's  Inn,  he  marked  it  at  15  shillings, 
for  which  price  Mr.  Ames  bought  it.     This   translation 
was  finished  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI.  an.  1526,  and 
the  whole  impression,  as  supposed,  (this  copy  excepted,) 
was  purchased  by  Tonstall,  bishop  of  London,  and  burnt 
at  St.  Paul's  cross,  that  year.'     On  the  other  side  of  the 
leaf,  in  MS.  is  this,  ^N.  B.  This  choice  book  was  purchas- 
ed at  Mr.  Langford's  sale,  13th  May,  1760,  by  me,  John 
White,  and  on  the  13th  day  of  May,  1776, 1  sold  it  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  GifFord,  for  20  guineas,  the  price  first  paid  for  it 
by  the  late  Lord  Oxford."     Then   follows  a  print  of  the 
Earl  of  Oxford,  formerly  the  owner  of  the  book,  who  died 
in  1741.     At  the  end  of  the  book  is  the  following  note  in 
MS.  by  J.  Ames.     'This  singular  English  translation  of 
the  New  Testament  appears  perfect   to  a  person  under- 
standing printing,  although  it  bears  no  date,  which  many 
books  about  that  time  wanted  also,  the  subject  at  that 
time  so   dangerous  to   meddle  with.     The   place  where 
printed  is  generally  supposed  to  be  Antwerpe,  where  per- 

*  This  portrait  appears,  from  the  inscriptioa  copied  by  Mr,  B.  to  be 
John  Murray,  of  Sacorab. 


376  BIBLICAL    LITELRATURE. 

sons  in  those  days  had  the  press,  and  greater  liberties 
than  in  their  own  countries.  The  manner  in  which  this 
book  is  done  shoio  it  very  early,  as  the  illuminating-  of 
the  great  or  initial  letters,  early  used  in  the  finest  of  our 
old  MSS.  when  they  had  a  set  of  men  called  illuminators, 
for  sucli  purposes.  Besides,  the  marginal  notes  being 
done  with  the  pen,  w^hich  were  afterwards  printed, 
show  it  prior  to  others  printed  with  them.  The  per- 
son who  did  it  show  a  fine  free  hand  scarce  now  to  be 
exceeded.  These  considerations  put  together,  incline  me 
to  subscribe  to  this  being  the  first  printed  edition  of  the 
English  N.  Testament.  J.  Ames.'  Underneath  this  is  writ- 
ten, 'And  what  puts  it  out  of  all  doubt  that  it  is  prior 
to  all  other  editions,  are  his  ow^n  words,  in  the  second 
page  of  his  address  to  the  reader.  A.  Gilford,  Sept.  11, 
1776.'  The  address  'to  the  Reder,'  alluded  to  here,  is 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  book.  It  is  to  this  eflfect,  'Them 
that  are  learned  christenly,  1  beseeche  for  as  moche  as  I 
am  sure,  and  my  conscience  beareth  me  recorde,  that  of 
a  pure  entent,  singilly  and  faythfuUy,  I  have  interpreted 
itt,  (the  Gospel,)  as  farre  forth  as  God  gave  me  the 
gyifte  of  knowledge  and  understondynge,  so  that  the  rud- 
ness  of  the  worke  now  at  the  first  tyme  offende  them  not: 
but  that  they  consyder  howe  that  I  had  no  man  to  coun- 
terfet,  neither  was  holpe  with  englysshe  of  any  that  had 
interpreted  the  same,  or  soche  Ij'ke  t hinge  in  the  Scripture 
before  tyme,  &c.'  After  this  follow,  'the  errours  commit- 
ted in  the  prentynge.""* 

The  opinion  of  Dr.  Geddes,  a  late  Roman  catholic 
translator  and  critic,  respecting  Tyndall's  translation, 
deserves  the  meed  of  praise  for  its  candour  and  correct- 
ness: "It  W'as  far  from  being  a  perfect  translation,  it  is 
true,"  says  he,  "  but  it  was  the  first  of  the  kind;  and  few 
first  translations  will,  I  think,  be  found  preferable  to  it. 
It  is  astonishing  how  little  obsolete  the  language  of  it  is, 

(3)  Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature,  &c.  lll,pp,  52—57. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  377 

even  at  this  day;  and,  in  point  of  perspicuity,  and  noble 
simplicity,  propriety  of  idiom,  and  purity  of  style,  no 
English  version  has  yet  surpassed  it.  The  criticisms  of 
those  who  wrote  against  it,  (we  are  sorry  to  find  Sir 
Thomas  More  among  them,)  are  generally  too  severe, 
often  captious,  and  sometimes  evidently  unjust."* 

The  following  specimen  of  this  translation,  v/ith  the 
Gloss  upon  it,  from  an  early,  but  imperfect  copy  now 
before  me,  will  enable  the  reader  to  judge  of  its  ex- 
cellence: 

iWattl)eto,  cijap*  b» 

ge  Ijaue  Ijerlre,  Ijoto  it  is  siapne :  tijou  sf)alt  lone  tijpne 
negljboure,  anO  Ijate  tijine  enemp.  33ut  f  sape  unto  ^oii : 
loue  pcure  enemies!;  asiesse  tljem  tijat  curse  pou:  Da 
jjoaO  to  tfjem  tljatl)ate  pou:  prage  for  tl)emtu{jii:l)  tro 
pou  toronge  anU  persecute  pou,  tijat  pe  xmpz  be  tije 
c})i)iaiTn  of  poure  fatijer  Mjiclj  is  mljeabeu:  forI;e 
malialj  ijis  Sonne  to  arpse  en  tJje  euel  anC  on  t!;e  gooSf, 
ana  sentsetl)  i)is  rapne  on  tf)e  just  anO  unjust.  Jlor  pf 
pe  lone  fl)em  toljicft  loue  pou,  toljat  retoatOe  £f)all  pe 
Ijaue?  5Do  not  tlje  0t  publicans  eurn  so?  SuD  pf 
pe  be  frenaip  to  pour  brethren  onip;  Vnljat  sinsular  tijing 
So  pe?  2)0  not  tf)e  publicans  also  Uftc  topse;  pe 
sljall  tljerefore  be  perfecte  euen  as  poure  fatlier  in  Ijeauen 
IS  perfectc. 

f  ©lose  lipon  tlje  b.  cljapter, 

^  (Publicans,)  toere  sucb  mn  as  tije  iRomapnes 
set  to  gatber  tbepc  tolles  anti  customes,  anO  tlje  sapme 
toere  for  tlje  moost  parte  ungcUlpe  H^eptljen* 
acts,  cbap.  n^ 

eoi)erefore  f  take  pou  to  recorfie  tljis  liap  tIjat  f 
am  pure  from  tbe  blouOe  of  all  men,    i^or  S  fjalie 

(4)  Geddes's  Prospectus,  pp  88,  89. 


378  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

bepte^  no  tijpnge  batfte,  but  Ijaiie  sljetoeti  5011  all  (ije 
coimSEll  of  (Solr.  Cafte  IjeUe  tbetfore  bnta  pourselue^?, 
anl3  to  all  tlje  flocfee:  amongst  tije  tuljicl)  flje  f)olp  goost 
ijatf)  set  pou  to  be  3Sfe|)oppe5,  to  felie  tbe  congregacion 
of  ©otJ,  toljirij  ije  Ijatlj  purrijaseD  tljorolu  l)is  otoie 
blout3e/' 

The  following  noble  testimony  to  the  integrity  of  Tyn- 
dall,  and  to  his  fidelity  in  translating,  is  given  by  his  friend 
and  companion  John  Fryth  the  martyr,  in  his  answer  to  Sir 
Thomas  More:  ''And  Tyndaii,  I  trust,  liveth  well  con- 
tent with  such  a  poor  apostle's  life,  as  God  gave  his  Son 
Christ,  and  his  faithful  ministers  in  this  world,  which  is 
not  sure  of  so  many  mites,  as  ye  be  yearly  of  pounds, 
although  I  am  sure  for  his  learning  and  judgment  in 
Scripture,  he  were  m.ore  v/orthy  to  be  promoted,  than  all 
the  bishops  in  England.  I  received  a  letter  from  him, 
which  was  written  since  Christmas,  Avherein  among  other 
matters   he   writeth  this:      'I   call    God    to  record 

AGAINST  THE  DAY  WE  SHALL  APPEAR  BEFORE  OUR  LORD 

Jesus,  to   give  a   reckoning  of  our  doings,  that  I 

NEVER  ALTERED  ONE  SYLLABLE  OF  God's  WoRD  AGAINST 
MY  CONSCIENCE,  NOR  WOULD  DO  THIS  DAY,  IF  ALL  THAT 
IS  IN  EARTH,  WHETHER  IT  BE  HONOUR,  PLEASURE,  OR 
RICHES,  MIGHT  BE  GIVEN  ME.  MOREOVER,  I  TAKE  GoD 
TO  WITNESS  TO  MY  CONSCIENCE,  THAT  I  DESIRE  OF  GOD 
TO  MYSELF  IN  THIS  WORLD,  NO  MORE  THAN  THAT,  WITH- 
OUT WHICH  I  CANNOT  KEEP  HIS  Laws.'  Judgc,  Chris- 
tian reader,  whether  these  words  be  not  spoken  of  a 
faithful,  clear, innocent,  heart.  And  as  for  his  behaviour, 
it  is  such,  that  I  am  sure  no  man  can  reprove  him  of  any 
sin,  howbeit,  no  man  is  innocent  before  God,  which  be- 
holdeth  the  heart."^ 

The  Dutch   printers  quickly   pirated  TyndalFs   New 
Testament,  and  accordingly  an  edition  was  published  by 

(5^  Fox,  II.  p.  367; 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  379 

them  in  a  small  form,  in  1527,  and  the  year  following, 
another.  These  two  impressions  consisted  of  5000  co- 
pies, and  were  sold  by  the  Dutch  booksellers  at  the  rate 
oii  thirteen  pence  a  piece,  or  300  for  ^IG-  5s.  In  Eng^ 
land  they  were  sold  singly  for  about  half  a  crown. 
Tyndall's  own  edition  was  sold  at  about  three  shillings 
and  six  pence  per  volume;  George  Joye,  an  English 
refugee,  who  corrected  the  Dutch  editions,  received  only 
4id.  a  sheet,  or  14s.  for  the  whole  of  his  labour.^ 

The  English  bishops  exerted  all  their  influence  to  pre- 
vent the  importation  and  circulation  of  Tyndall's  trans- 
lation. Severe  proclamations  were  issued  by  the  king, 
at  the  requisition  of  the  clergy,  against  all  who  read 
it,  or  had  it,  in  possession.  Humphry  Monmouth,  who 
supported  Tyndall  abroad,  was  imprisoned  in  the  tower; 
and  though  a  man  of  wealth,  was  almost  reduced  to  ruin. 
Penance  was  enjoined  to  Thomas  Patmore,  and  to  the 
author's  brother,  John  Tyndall,  on  suspicion  of  importing* 
and  concealing  these  books;  and  Sir  Thomas  Pvlore,  lord 
chancellor,  adjudged,  ''that  they  should  ride  with  their 
faces  to  the  tails  of  their  horses,  having  papers  on  their 
heads,  and  the  JS/ew  Testaments,  and  otlier  books  which 
they  had  dispersed,  hung  about  their  cloaks;  and  at  the 
standard,  at  Cheapside,  should  themselves  throw  them 
into  a  fire,  prepared  for  the  purpose;  and  that  they 
should  afterwards  be  fined  at  the  king's  pleasure.  The 
line  set  upon  them  was  ^18,840.  Os.  lOd.  The  learned 
chancellor  was  also  induced,  by  the  great  patrons  of 
popery,  to  employ  his  pen  against  the  translator,  and  the 
translation.  In  the  year  1530,  or  1531,  a  royal  procla- 
mation was  issued  for  totally  suppressing  this  translation, 
which  was  pretended  to  be  full  of  heresies  and  errors; 
and  holding  out  the  expectation  that  another  and  more 
faithful  translation  should  be  prepared  and  publish- 
(6)  Lewis's  Hist,  of  English  Translations  of  the  Bible,  pp,  67.  80.  S3. 


^SO  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

ed. •    Dr.  Stokesley,  bishop  of  London,  who  in  the  month  of 
May,  1531,  caused  all  the  New  Testaments  of  Tyndall, 
and  many   other  books  which  he  had  bought    up,  to  be 
broug-ht  to  St.  Paul's  church-yard,  and  there  burnt,  was 
one  of  the  most   cruel  persecutors   among  the  prelates 
of  his  time.     Fox  has  entered  into  a  long  detail  of  those 
who  suffered   in  his   diocese :   from  him   we  extract  the 
following  particulars  of  the  charges  laid  against  several 
who  were  imprisoned,  and  compelled  to  abjure. 
"John  Raimund,  a  Dutchman,  1528." 
"For  causing  1500  of  Tindal's  New  Testaments  to  be 
printed  at  Antwerpe,  and  for  bringing  500  into  England." 
"Thomas  Curson,  monke  of  Bastacre,  in  Northfolke, 
1530." 

"  His  articles  Avere  these:  For  going  out  of  the  monas- 
tery, and  changing  his  weede,  and  letting  his  crowne  to 
grow,  working  abroad  for  his  living,  making  copes  and 
vestiments.  Also,  for  having  the  New  Testament  of 
Tindal's  translation,  and  another  booke  containing  cer- 
taine  bookes  of  the  Old  Testament,  translated  into 
English,  by  certain  whom  the  papists  call  Lutherans." 
"John  Row,  book-binder,  a  Frenchman,  1531." 
"This  man,  for  binding,  buying,  and  dispersing  of 
bookes  inhibited,  was  enjoined  beside  other  penance,  to 
goe  to  Smithfield  with  his  books  tied  about  him,  and  to 
cast  them  in  the  fire,  and  there  to  abide  till  they  were 
ail  burnt  to  ashes." 

"Christopher,  a  Dutchman  of  Antwerp,  1531." 
"This   man    for  selling   certaine  New   Testaments,   in 
English,  to  John   Row  aforesaid,  was  put   in  prison,  at 
Westminster,  and  there  died." 

"  W.  Nelson,  priest,  1 531 ." 
"  His  crime  was,  for  having,  and  buying,  of  Periman, 

(7)  Newcome's  Historical   View  of  the   Knglish  Biblical  Trausiatious, 
pp.  20—22.   Dublin,    1792,  8vo. 
Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  B.  ti.  ch.  ii.  sec.  2,  p.  69. 
Strjpe's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  1.  B.  i,  ch.  xxi.  p,  116t 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  381 

certaine  bookes  of  Luther,  Tindal,  Thorpe,  &c.  and  for 
reading  and  perusing^  the  same  contrary  to  the  king's 
proclamation,  for  the  which  he  was  abjured.  He  was 
priest  at  Lith." 

"Edward  Hewet,  servingman,  1531." 
"His    crime:     That   after  the  king's    proclamation, 
he  had  read   the  New   Testament   in   English:  also  the 
booke  of  John  Frith  against  Purgatory,  &c." 
"Walter  Kiry,  servant,  1531." 
"His  article:     That  he,  after  the    king's  proclamation, 
had  and    used  these   bookes:     the   Testament  in   Ensc- 
lish,  the    Summe  of  Scripture,  a  Primer  and    Psalter 
in  English,  hidden  in  his  bedstraw  at  Worcester." 
"John  Mel,  of  Bockstead,   1532." 
"His   heresy  was  this:  for  having  and  reading  the 
New  Testament,  in  English,  the  Psalter^  in  English,  and 
the  book  called  A,  B,C."^ 

In  the  mean  time  Tyndall  was  busy  in  translating  the 
Pentateuch,  or  Five  Books  of  Moses,  from  the  Hebrew. 
But  having  finished  his  translation,  and  going  to  Ham- 
burgh to  print  it,  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed  was 
shipwrecked,  and  his  papers  lost,  so  that  he  was  obliged 
to  recommence  his  labour ;  in  which  he  was  assisted  by 
Mvle5  Coverdale,  and  at  length,  in  1530,  published  it 
in  a  small  octavo.  It  seems  to  have  been  printed  at 
several  presses,  owing  to  the  danger  accompanying  it. 
Genesis,  and  Numbers,  are  printed  in  the  Dutch  letter, 
the  other  three  books.  Exodus,  Levltlcl,  and  DeuttTonoinle, 
are  printed  in  the  Roman  letter,  with  now  and  then  a 
capital  of  the  black  letter  intermixed.  To  each  of  the 
books,  a  prologue  is  prefixed,  and  at  the  end  of  Exodus 
and  Deuteronomie  are  "Tables  expounding  certaine 
wordes."  In  the  margin  are   some  notes ;  and  the  whole 


(8)  Fox,  II.  pp,  315—322. 
,  ^Strype'3  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  I.  p.  116; 


t]82  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

is  ornamented  with  10  wood-cuts.  In  some  copies  there 
is  added  at  the  end,  '^ Empr'inted  at  Malborow  in  the 
land  of  Hesse  hi/  me  Hans  Luft  the  yere  of  our  Lord 
M.C.C.C.C.C.X'X.X.  the  xvii  daye  of  January."^ 

About  1531,  Tyndall  translated  and  published  the 
Prophecy  of  "Jonas,"  to  which  he  prefixed  a  prologue, 
full  of  invective  against  the  church  of  Rome.  Strype 
says,  that  Tyndall,  before  his  death,  finished  all  the  Bible 
except  the  Apocrypha;  but  Bishop  Newcome  thinks  he 
translated  the  historical  parts  only.  Hall  says  in  his 
Chronicle,  which  was  printed  during  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  by  Richard  Grafton,  Tyndall's  friend  and  benefac- 
tor; "WilUam  Tindall  translated  the  New  Testament, 
and  first  put  it  into  print;  and  he  likewise  translated  the 
five  books  of  Moses,  Joshua,  Judicum,  Ruth,  the  books 
of  Kings,  and  books  of  Paralipomenon,  Nehemiah,  and 
the  first  of  Esdras,  and  the  prophet  Jonas  :  and  no  more 
of  the  holy  Scriptures."  *^^  But  whatever  he  left  behind 
liim  in  manuscript,  he  appears  only  to  have  printed  or 
published  the  prophecy  of  Jonah. 

Fuller,  in  his  Church  History,  has  intimated  the 
incompetency  of  Tyndall  to  translate  the  Old  Testa- 
vient,  by  saying  "  His  skill  in  Hebrew  was  not  conside- 
rable." It,  however,  is  but  just  to  let  our  translator  speak 
in  his  own  defence,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  scholar 
v/ho  reads  his  preface  or  prologue  prefixed  to  his  2nd  edi- 
tion of  the  Gospel  of  St,  Matthew,  will  pronounce  him 
^'considerably"  versed  in  the  peculiarities  of  that  tongue. 
The  passage  referred  to  begins  thus:  "If  ought  seme 
chaunged,  or  not  altogether  agreeing  with  the  Greeke, 
let  the  finder  of  the  faute  consider  the  Hebrue -phr use, 
or  manner  of  speache  left  in  the  Greehe  wordes,  whose 
preterperfectense  and  presentence  is  of  both  one,  and  the 
futuretence  is  the  optative  mode  also,  and  the  futuretence 

(9)  Lewis,  pp.  70,71. 

(10)  Newcotae,  pp.  23,  24. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  383 

oft  the  imperative  mode  in  the  active  voyce,  and  in  the 
passive  ever.  Likewise  person  for  person,  number  for 
number,  and  interrogation  for  a  conditional!,  and  such 
lyke  is  with  the  Hebrues  a  common  vsage"" 

Tyndall  also  revised  and  prepared  a  second  edition  of 
his  New  Testament  for  the  press,  which  was  afterwards 
printed  at  Antwerp,  by  "Marten Emperour/'  in  1534, 8vo.; 
but  before  the  printing  was  quite  finished  Tyndall  was 
betrayed,  and  in  the  end  suffered  martyrdom.  A  sin- 
gularly beautifal  copy  npon  Vellum,  of  the  revised  edition 
of  Tyndall's  ^ew  Testament,  is  in  the  Cracherode  Col- 
lection, now  in  the  British  Museum.  It  belonged  to  the 
unfortunate  "Anne  Boleyn,  w4ien  she  was  queen  of 
England,  as  we  learn  from  her  name  in  large  red  letters, 
equally  divided  on  the  fore-edges  of  the  top,  side,  and 
bottom  margins;  thus  at  the  top  Anna;  on  the  right 
margin  fore-edge  Regina  ;  at  the  bottom  Angli^e.  The 
illumination  of  the  frontispiece  is  also  in  very  fair  condi- 
tion." It  is  bound  in  one  thick  volume  iu  blue  morocco.'^ 
In  his  history  every  lover  of  the  Bible  must  feel  inter- 
ested, and  to  such  the  following  brief  sketch  may  afford 
some  gratification. 

William  Tyndall,  Tyndale,  or  Tindale,  who  also 
bore  the  name  of  Kitchens,  was  born  in  1500,  about  the 
borders  of  Wales,  and  from  a  child  brought  up  at  the 
university  of  Oxford.  Here  he  acquired  the  knowledge 
of  the  languages,  and  liberal  arts,  and  read  lectures,  pri- 
vately, on  divinity,  especially  on  the  Scriptures,  to  the 
junior  fellows  and  other  scholars  of  Magdalen  College. 
At  the  same  time,  his  behaviour  was  such,  as  gained  him 
a  high  reputation  for  learning  and  morals,  so  that  he  was 
admitted  a  canon  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  s  new  college,  now 


(11)  Newcome,  p.  25. 

Tyndall's  Works,  p,  32.  Lond,  1573,  fol. 

(12)  Leu  is,  p.  85. 

Dibdin's  Bibliographical  Decameron,  II,  p»  370. 


384  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Christ  Church.  His  religious  opinions  rendering  it  unsafe 
for  him  to  continue  in  Oxford,  he  retired  to  Cambridge, 
where  he  took  a  degree.  After  some  time,  he  left  the 
university,  and  lived  at  Little  Sudbury,  in  Gloucestershire, 
•with  Sir  John  Welch,  knt.  who  greatly  esteemed  him, 
and  appointed  him  tutor  to  his  children.  Beside  preach- 
ing frequently  in  and  about  Bristol,  he  engaged  in 
disputation  with  many  abbots  and  dignified  clergymen 
who  were  accustomed  to  visit  Sir  John,  on  the  most 
important  subjects  of  religion,  proving  and  defending 
his  positions  by  references  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Un- 
able to  confute  him,  they  complained  to  the  chancellor 
of  the  diocese,  who  after  using  the  most  reproachful  lan- 
guage, dismissed  him  with  the  most  severe  threatenings.  In 
the  preface  to  his  translation  of  the  Pentateuch,  he  gives  a 
a  curious  account  of  the  combinations  of  the  priests  against 
him,  and  of  their  assembling  together  in  "ale  houses"  to 
discuss  the  doctrines  which  he  taught,  though,  as  he 
observes,  they  "had  seen  no  more  Latin,  than  that  only 
ivhich  they  read  in  their  portasses  and  missals,  which  yet 
many  of  them  could  scarcely  read."  Whilst  he  remained 
at  the  house  of  Sir  John  Welch,  he  had  a  dispute  with 
a  certain  learned  divine,  respecting  the  doctrines  which 
he  had  embraced.  During  the  debate  Tyndall  pressed 
his  antagonist  with  such  cogency  of  argument,  drawn 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  the  doctor  passionately 
exclaimed,  "  We  were  better  to  be  without  God's  laws 
than  the  Pope's;"  to  which  Tyndall,  with  indignant  zeal, 
replied,  "I  defy  the  pope  and  all  his  laws;"  and  further 
added,  "that  if  God  spared  him  life,  ere  many  years, 
be  would  cause  the  plough  boy  to  know  more  of 
Scripture  than  he  did.'^ 

Finding  his  situation  unsafe,  he  removed  to  London, 
and  for  some  time  preached  in  the  church  of  St.  Dun- 
stan  s  in  the  West.  While  here,  he  applied  to  Dr.  Cuth- 
bert  Tons  tall,  bishop  of  London,  to  become  one  of  bin 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  385 

chaplains,  but  without  success,  notwithstanding  Sir  Hen- 
ry Guildford,  master  of  the  horse,  and  controller  to  King 
Henry  VHI.  who  was  the  friend  of  Sir  John  Welch,  and 
a  great  patron  of  learned  men,  used  his  influence  with 
the  bishop  in  behalf  of  Tyndall,  who  had  presented  to 
him  an  oration  of  Isocrates,  translated  from  the  Greek, 
as  a  proof  of  his  learning  at  a  time  when  Greek  was 
understood  by  very  few  even  of  the  learned  in  England. 
After  this  unsuccessful  application  to  Bishop  Tunstall, 
he  resided  for  half  a  year  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Humphrey 
Monmouth,  a  wealthy  citizen  of  London  ;=^   and  then 

*  The  aceount  which  Fox  gives  of  this  generous  patron  of  Tyndail, 
is  so  interesting,  notwithstaoding  its  an-tiquated  style,  that  the  insertion 
of  it  will  need  no  apology.  ''Master  Humfrey  Mummuth  was  a 
right  godly  and  sincere  alderman  of  London,  who,  in  the  dayes  of 
Cardinall  Wolsey,  was  troubled  and  put  in  the  tower,  for  the  Gospell 
of  Christ,  and  for  maintaining  them  that  favoured  the  same." 

*' Stockesley,  then  bishop  of  London,  ministred  articles  unto  him  to 
the  number  of  foure  and  twentie;  as  for  adhering  to  Luther  and  his 
©pinions;  for  having  and  reading  hereticall  bookes  and  treatises ;  for 
giving  exhibition  to  William  Tindall,  Roj,  and  such  other;  for  helping 
them  over  the  sea  to  Luther;  for  ministring  prime  helpe  to  translate, 
as  well  the  Testament,  as  other  bookes  into  English;  for  eating  flesh 
in  Lent ;  for  affirming  faith  onely  to  justifie  ;  for  derogating  from  men's 
constitutions ;  for  not  praying  to  saints,  not  allowing  pilgrimage, 
auricular  confession,  the  pope^s  pardons;  briefely,  for  b^ingaa  advancer 
of  all  Martin  Luther's  opinions,  ^c.*^ 

'^Hee  being  of  these  articles  examined,  and  cast  into  the  tower, 
at  last  was  compelled  to  make  his  sute  or  purgation,  writing  to  the 
Cardinall,  [Wolsey,]  then  lord  chancellor,  and  the  whole  councell, 
out  of  the  Tower.  In  the  contents  whereof  he  answered  to  the 
criminous  accusation  of  them  whicli  charged  him  with  certaine  bookes 
received  from  beyond  the  sea ;  also  for  his  acquaintance  with  master 
Tindall.  Whereupon  he  said,  that  he  denied  not,  but  that  faure  yeares 
then  past  hee  had  heard  the  said  Tindall  preach  two  or  three  sermons 
at  Saint  Dunstan^'s  in  the  West,  and  afterward  meeting  with  the  said 
Tindall,  had  certaine  communication  with  him  concerning  his  living  ; 
who  then  told  him  that  he  had  none  at  all,  but  trusted  to  be  in  the 
bishop  of  London  his  service ;  for  then  hee  laboured  to  be  his  chap- 
laine.  But  being  refused  of  the  bishop,  hee  came  again  to  the  said 
Mmnmuth  this  examinate,  and  besoughte  him  to  helpe  him.  Who 
the  same  time  tooke  him  into  his  house  for  halfe  a  yeare :  where  the 
said  Tindall  lived  (as  he  said)  like  a  good  priest,  studying  both  night 
and  day.  He  would  eat  but  sodden  meat  by  his  good  will,  nor  drinke 
but  small  single  beare.  He  Avas  never  seen  in  that  house  to  weare 
Jinnen  about  Jiim,  all  the  space  of  his  being  there.  Whereupon  th' 
Vol.  IL  2  B 


385  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

went  abroad,  in  order  to  accomplish  with  more  safety 
his  great  design  of  translating  the  New  Testament  into 
English.     He  first  visited  Saxony,  where  he  held  confer- 

said  Mummuth  had  the  better  liking  of  him,  so  that  he  promised  him 
ten  pounds  (as  he  then  said  )  for  his  father's  and  mother's  soules,  and 
all  Christian  soules;  which  money,  afterward,  he  sent  him  over  to  Ham- 
borow,  according  to  his  promise.  And  yet,  not  to  him  alone  hee  gave 
his  exhibition,  but  to  divers  other  moe  liJiewise  which  vrere  no  heretikes: 
as,  to  Doctor  Royston,  the  bishop  of  London's  chaplaine,  hee  exhibited 
fortie  or  filtie  pounds;  to  Doctor  Wodihali,  provinciall  of  the  frier 
Augustins,  as  much,  or  more;  to  Doctor  Watson,  the  king's  chaplaine  ; 
also  to  other  schollers,  and  divers  priests  ;  besides  other  charges  bestowed 
upon  religious  houses,  as  upon  the  nunnerie  of  Denney,  above  fiftie 
pounds  sterling  bestowed,  &c." 

*^\nd  as  touching  his  bookes,  as  Enchiridion^  the  Pater  Noster, 
Be  Libertate  Christiana^  an  English  Testament^  of  which,  some 
"William  Tindall  left  with  hira,  some  hee  sent  unto  him,  some  were 
brought  into  his  house,  by  whom  he  could  not  tell;  these  bookes,  hee 
said,  did  lie  open  in  his  house,  the  space  of  two  yeares  together,  he 
suspecting  no  harme  to  be  in  them.  And,  moreover,  the  same  bookes 
being  desired  of  sundry  persons,  as  of  the  abbesse  of  Denney,  a  frier  of 
Greenewich,  the  father  confessor  of  Sion,  he  let  them  have  them,  and 
yet  he  never  heard  frier,  priest,  or  layman  find  any  fault  with  the  said 
books.  Likewise  to  Doctor  Watson,  to  Doctor  Stockhouse,  Master 
Martin,  parson  of  Totingbecke,  he  committed  the  perusing  of  the 
bookes  of  Pater  Noster',  and  De  Libertate  Christiana,  which  found  no 
great  fault  in  them,  but  only  in  the  booke  De  Libertate  Chriitiana,  they 
said  there  were  things  somewhat  hard,  except  the  reader  were  wise." 

^'Thus  he  excusing  himselfe,  and  moreover  complaining  of  the  losse 
of  his  credit  by  his  imprisonment  in  the  tower,  and  of  the  detriments 
of  his  occupying,  who  was  wont  yeerly  to  ship  over  five  hundred  clothes 
to  strangers,  and  set  many  clothiers  aworke  in  Suffolke,  and  in  other 
places,  of  whom  he  bought  all  their  clothes,  which  were  now  almost  all 
undone;  by  this  reason,  at  length,  he  was  set  at  libertie,  being  forced  to 
abjure,  and  after  was  made  knight  by  the  king,  and  sheriffe  of 
London." 

"'  Of  this  Ilumfrey  Mummuth  we  read  of  a  notable  example  of  Chris- 
tian patience,  in  the  sermons  of  Mr.  Latimer,  which  the  said  Latimer 
heard  in  Cambridge,  of  Master  George  Stafford,  reader  of  the  divinitie 
lecture  in  that  universitie.  Who,  expounding  the  place  of  St.  Paul  to 
the  Romans,  that  we  shall  overcome  our  enemie  with  well  doing,  and  so 
heape  hot  coles  upon  his  head,  &c.  brought  in  an  example,  saying,  that 
he  knew  in  London,  a  great  rich  merchant,  (meaning  this  Humfrey  Mum- 
muth,) which  had  a  very  poore  neighbour:  yet,  for  all  his  povertie  he 
loved  him  very  well,  and  lent  him  money  at  his  need,  and  let  him  come 
to  his  table  whensoever  he  would.  It  was  even  at  that  time  when 
Doctor  Collet  wfis  in  trouble,  and  should  have  beene  burnt,  if  God  had 
not  turned  the  king's  heart  to  the  contrary.  Now  the  rich  man  begaa 
to  be  a  Scripture  man,  he  began  to  smell  the  Gospel.     The  poore  man 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  387 

ences  with  Luther  and  other  learned  reformers,  and  then 
returned  to  the  Netherlands,  and  settled  at  Antwerp, 
where  there  was  a  very  considerable  factory  of  English 
merchants,  many  of  whom  were  very  zealous  adherents 
to  Luther's  doctrine.  Here  he  engaged  in  his  translation 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  afterwards  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  the  prophecy  of  Jonah  ;  and  probably  of  other 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament.  In  1503,  he  sailed  for 
Hamburgh,  intending  thereto  print  his  translation  of  the 
Pentateuch  ;  but  tlie  vessel  being  wrecked,  he  lost  all  his 
money,  books,  writings,  and  copies,  and  arriving  at  Ham- 
burgh was  obliged  to  begin  the  translation  anew,  which, 
with  the  assistance  of  Miles  Coverdale,  bishop  of  Exeter, 
who  had  escaped  from  the  fury  of  persecution,  he  soon 
completed ;  and  then  returned  to  his  former  residence 
at  Antwerp.  Whilst  at  Hamburgh,  he  lodged  in  the 
house  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Van  Emmerson,  a  respect- 
able and  liberal  lady.      At  Antwerp  he  resided  with 


■was  a  papist  stiU.  It  chanced  on  a  time,  when  the  rich  man  talked  of 
the  Gospell,  sitting  at  his  table,  where  he  reproved  popery  and  such 
kinde  of  things;  the  poore  man  being  there  present,  tooke  a  great  dis- 
pleasure  against  the  rich  man,  insomuch  that  he  would  come  no  more  to 
his  house;  he  would  borrow  no  more  money  of  him  as  he  was  wont  to 
doe  before  times,  yea,  and  conceived  such  hatred  and  malice  against 
him,  that  he  went  and  accused  him  before  the  bishops.  Now  the  rich 
man  not  knowing  of  any  such  displeasure,  offered  many  times  to  talke 
■with  him,  and  to  set  him  at  quiet.  It  would  not  be.  The  poore 
man  had  such  a«tomacke,  that  he  would  not  vouchsafe  to  speake  with 
him.  If  hee  met  the  rich  man  in  the  streete,  he  would  go  out  of  his 
•way.  One  time  it  happened  that  hee  met  him  so  in  a  narrow  street, 
that  he  could  not  avoyd  but  come  neere  him ;  yet,  for  all  this,  the  poore 
man  (I  say,)  had  such  a  stomacke  against  the  rich  man,  that  hee  was 
minded  to  go  forward,  and  not  to  speake  with  him.  The  rich  man  per* 
reiving  that,  caught  him  by  the  hand,  and  asked  him,  saying,  '  Neighs 
bour,  what  is  come  into  your  heart  to  take  such  displeasure  with  me  ? 
What  have  I  done  against  you  ?  Tell  mee,  and  I  will  bee  readie  at  all 
times  to  make  you  amends.*  Finally,  hee  spake  sor  gently,  so  chari* 
tably,  so  lovingly,  and  friendly,  that  it  wrought  so  in  the  poore  man's 
heart,  that  by  and  by,  he  fell  downe  upon  his  knees,  and  asked  him 
forgiveness.  The  rich  man  forgave  him,  and  so  tooke  him  againe  to 
his  favour,  and  they  loved  as  well  as  ever  they  did  afore/'-!— Fox's  Actes 
and  Monummtes,  11.  pp.  357,  258. 


388  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Thomas  Pointz,  an  Eng-lishman,  who  entertained  a  cor- 
dial friendship  for  him,  and  in  the  end  suffered  imprison- 
ment on  his  account. 

The  English  translations  by  Tyndall,  as  well  as  his 
deience  of  them  in  answer  to  Sir  Thomas  Mores  "Dya- 
loge,"  and  his  other  works,  being  extensively  circulated 
in  England,  Henry  VIII.  and  his  council,  among  whom 
Sir  Thomas  More  appears  to  have  borne  a  principal  part, 
em.ployed  one  Henry  Philips  to  betray  him.  This  base 
wretch  went  over  to  Antwerp,  insinuated  himself  into 
his  friendship,  and  then  by  an  act  of  treachery  decoyed 
him  into  the  hands  of  the  procurator-general  of  the 
emperor's  court  at  Brussels,  and  other  officers,  by  whom 
he  was  conveyed  to  the  castle  of  Filford,  or  Villefort, 
and  imprisoned,  although  the  procurator  declared  that 
he  was  ^^homo  doctu^,phis,  et  bonus,''  a  learned,  pious,  and 
good  man.  The  Enghsh  merchants  addressed  letters 
in  favour  of  Tyndall  to  the  court  of  Brussels,  and  others 
were  obtained  from  Secretary  Cromwell  to  the  same 
court;  but  his  release  was  prevented  by  the  stratagems 
of  Philips,  who  accused  Pointz  to  the  court,  and  thereby 
defeated   the  exertions  of  Tyndall's  friends,. 

Pointz  happily  made  his  escape  by  night,  but  Tyndall 
was  reserved  for  a  more  dreadful  fate.  Being  brought  to 
trial,  he  pleaded  his  own  cause,  but  without  effect,  for  he 
was  condemned  by  virtue  of  the  emperor  s  decree,  made 
in  the  assembly  at  Augsburg;  and  being  brought  to  the 
place  of  execution,  he  cried,  "Lord!  open  the  king  of 
England's  eyes."  He  was  first  strangled,  and  then  burnt. 
This  severe  sentence  was  executed  at  the  town  of  Filford, 
in  1536,  after  he  had  been  in  prison  about  a  year  and  a 
half;  during  which  time  his  exemplary  Hfe  and  conversa- 
tion so  far  influenced  the  jailor  and  his  daughter,  and 
others  of  his  family,  that  they  are  said  to  have  embraced 
his  opinions. 

The  traitor  Philips  is  reported  to  have  died  a  miserable 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  389 

death,  being  worn  out  by  the  Phthiriasis,  or  pedicular 
distemper.'^ 

TyndalFs  principal  theological  and  controversial  tracts 
were  collected  together,  and  printed  with  the  works  of 
John  Fryth,  and  Barnes,  in  one  volume,  fol.  by  John 
Day,  1572. 

The  rigour  vv'ith  which  Henry  VIII.  pursued  the  ex- 
cellent Tyndall  and  his  followers,  served  to  mark  the 
inconsistency  of  that  monarch's  character,  who,  through 
the  whole  of  his  reign,  distinguished  himself,  sometimes 
by  the  zeal  with  which  he  promoted  Oriental  and  Bibli- 
cal literature,  and  at  other  times  by  the  cruel  policy 
which  he  exercised  against  those  who  read  and  studied 
the  Oracles  of  Truth.  Just  before  his  opposition  to  Tyn- 
dall, he  had  instituted,  in  1530,  the  first  Hebrew  professor- 
ship, at  Oxford,  and  appointed  as  professor,  his  chaplain, 
Robert  Wakefield,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Oriental- 
ists of  the  age,  and  who  had  previously  been  professor 
at  Louvain,  and  taught  Hebrew  at  Tubingen  after  the 
death  of  Reuchlin. 

In  1524,  this  learned  divine  published  an  inaugural 
discourse,  on  the  utility  of  the  Arabic,  Chaldee,  and  He- 
brew tongues,  Oratio  de  laudihus  et  utiUtate  triurn 
linguarmn  Arahicoe,  Chaldaicoe,  et  Hebraicce,  &c.  4to. 
The  printer  was  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  and  the  author 
complains,  that  he  was  obliged  to  omit  his  whole  third 
part,  because  the  printer  had  no  Hebrew  types.  Some 
few  Hebrew  and  Arabic  characters,  however,  are  intro- 
duced; but  extremely  rude,  and  evidently  cut  in  wood. 
They  are  the  first  of  the  sort  made  use  of  in  England. 
This  great  Orientalist  was  instrumental  in  preserving,  at 
the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  the  Hebrew  MSS. 
belonging  to  Ramsay  Abbey,  collected  by  Holbech,  or 
Holbeach,  one  of  the  monks,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV. 

(13)  Fox's  Actes  and  Monumentes,  H.  pp,  361  —  307. 
Chalmers'  Gen,  Biog.  Diet.  XXX.  pp.  128—13^. 


390  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

and  the  Hebrew  Lexicon,  compiled  by  the  same  learned 
monk.  Robert  Wakefield  was  the  author  also  of  several 
other  works,  particularly  a  Latin  Paraphrase  of  the 
hooh  of  Ecclesiastes^'  4to.'* 

Robert  Shirwood,  another  Englishman,  who  suc- 
ceeded Wakefield  as  Oriental  professor  at  Louvain, 
published,  in  1523,  a  Latin  translation  from  the  He- 
brew, of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  accom-panied  with 
short  notes,  chiefly  from  Rabbinical  writers.  It  was 
printed  at  Antwerp,  by  William  Vorstman,  in  4to.'* 

Henry  VIII.  also  established  a  Greek  professor- 
ship at  Oxford,  and  Hebrew  and  Greek  professorships  at 
Cambridge ;  and  founded  the  colleges  of  Christ  Church, 
at  Oxford,  and  Trinity,  at  Cambridge.  John  Mallard 
was  the  Orator  Regius,  in  this  reign;  and  epistolary 
secretary  to  the  king.  He  left  a  Latin  Elegiac  Para- 
phrase on  the  Lord's  Prayer,  dedicated  to  Henry;  Le 
premier  livre  de  la  cosmographie,  in  verse ;  and  a  Latin 
Psalter,  beautifully  written  by  himself,  for  the  use  of  the 
king.  This  elegant  little  MS.  is  in  the  royal  collection 
in  the  British  Museum,  Biblioth.  MSS.  Reg.  2.  A.  xvi. 
Amongst  the  other  illuminations  it  is  adorned  with  two 
portraits,  in  miniature,  and  is  still  further  an  object  of 
interest  and  curiosity,  as  it  possesses  in  the  margin  a  few 
notes  in  the  hand-writing  of  Heni-y  VIII.^^ 

Henry  chose  for  his  Latin  secretary,  Richard  Pace,  who 
succeeded  Dr.  Coiet,  in  the  deanery  of  St.  Pauls.  He  was 
a  worthy  man,  as  well  as  an  excellent  scholar;  he  learned 
languages  with  peculiar  facility,  and  not  only  spoke  several 
of  the  m.odern  languages,  but  understood  Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and  Arabic.     Having   offended  Cardi- 

(14)  Hody,  De  Bibl.  Text.  Orig.  pt.  ii.  lib.  iii.  p.  465. 
Wartoii's  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poetry,  II.  p.  124,  note. 

(15)  Le  Long,  edit.   Masch,  pt.  ii.  toI.  III.  cap.  iii.  sec.  1.  p.  548.\ 

(16)  Henry's  Hist,    of  Great  Britain,  XII.  B.  vi.  chap.  iy.  sec,  iiu 

pp.   250.  252. 
Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  II,  p.  132,  note. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  391 

2ial  Wolsey,  he  was  sent  prisoner  to  the  tower ;  with 
which  he  was  so  much  affected,  that  he  became  insane, 
and  died,  in  that  state,  in  1532.  ^ 

In  1533,  popery  was  abolished  in  England,  and  Henry 
declared  Head  of  the  Church.  Cranmer  was  also  advanced 
the  same  year  to  the  see  of  Canterbury.  In  the  convocation 
of  that  province  the  following  year,  the  two  houses  deputed 
his  Grace  to  attend  his  majesty,  with  a  petition  "that 
the   Scriptures  should   be    translated   into   the    vulgar 
tongue,  by  some  honest  and  learned  men,  to  be  nominated 
by  the  king,   and  that  they  should  be  delivered  to  the 
people,  according  to  their  learning;"  though  a  clause  was 
added,  much  less  agreeable  to  the  archbishop,  praying  his 
Majesty   to  order  all   his  subjects    "to  deUver    up  all 
suspected  books  within  three  months."     Burnet  (Hist. 
Reform,  vol.  I.  p.  195,)  says,  that  the  arguments  for  a  new 
translation  of  the  Bible,  joined  to  the  influence  of  Queen 
Anne  Boleyn,  caused  the  king  to  give  orders  for  com- 
mencing the  translation  immediately;  but  that  Bishop 
Gardiner,  and  all  his  party,  opposed  the  measure,  both 
in  convocation,  and  in  secret  with  the  king.     But  Cran- 
mer, who  had  the  work  at  heart,  determined,  if  possible, 
to  expedite  the  business;  and  that  the  translation  might 
not  be  prohibited,  as  others  had  been,  under  a  pretext  of 
ignorance,  or  unfaithfulness  in  the  translators,  "he  pro- 
ceeded," says  Strype,  "in  this  method.     First  he  began 
with  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament;  taking  an 
old  English  translation  thereof,  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  they  should 
make  a  perfect  correction  thereof.     And  when  they  had 
done,  he  required  them  to  send  back  their  parts,  so  cor- 
rected, unto  him,  at  Lambeth,  by  a  day  limited  for  that 
purpose:  and  the  same  course,  no  question,  he  took  with 
(17)  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  XIL  pp.  237,  238. 


392  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

the  Old  Testament.  It  chanced  that  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  were  sent  to  Bishop  Stokesly,  to  oversee  and 
correct.  When  the  day  came,  every  man  had  sent  to 
Lambeth  their  parts  corrected,  only  Stokesly's  portion 
was  wanting.  My  lord  of  Canterbury  wrote  to  the 
bishop  a  letter,  for  his  part,  requiring  him  to  deliver 
it  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  upon 
my  portion,  nor  never  will.  And  therefore  my  lord  shall 
have  this  book  again,  for  I  will  never  be  guilty  of  bringing 
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  fro  ward,  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  untoward- 
ness,  said,  I  can  tell  your  grace  why  my  lord  of  London 
win  not  bestow  any  labour  or  pains  this  way.  Your 
grace  knoweth  well,  that  his  portion  is  a  piece  of  New 
Testament.  But  be,  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  that  stood  by,  could  not  forbear  from  laugh- 
ter. This  Lawney  was  ....  chaplain  to  the  old  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  and  had  been  one  of  the  scholars  placed  by  the 
cardinal,  in  his  new  college  at  Oxon:    where  he   was 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY,  393 

tjhaplain  of  the  house,  and  prisoner  there  with  Frith, 
another  of  the  scholars."'*  In  consequence,  however,  of 
the  opposition  of  the  Romish  clergy,  or  of  other  causes, 
the  design  of  the  good  archbishop  failed  for  the  present. 

In  the  mean  time,  translations  were  made  of  particu- 
lar books  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  by  private  individuals, 
and  printed  at  foreign  presses.  In  1530,  an  English 
translation  of  the  Psalms  was  printed  at  Strasburg,  by 
Francis  Foye,  in  12mo.  with  a  preface  by  '-Johan  Aleph^ 
and  said  to  be  '-'purely  and  faithfully  translated  after  the 
text  of  Feline.'"  By  the  text  of  Feline  was  meant  the 
Latin  version  of  Martin  Bucer,  published  by  him 
under  the  feigned  name  of  Aretius  Felinus,  Strasburg, 
1526,  fol.'^ 

In  1534,  George  Joye  also  published  a  translation 
of  the  Psalms,  from  the  Latin  version  of  Friar  Felix,  of 
the  order  of  the  Hermits  of  St.  Austin,  first  printed  A.  D. 
1515,  and  again  1522.  He  had  previously  published  an 
English  translation  of  the  Prophecy  of  Isaiah,  printed 
at  Strasburg,  A.  D.  1530,  by  Balthasar  Backneth,  in  8vo. 
In  1534,  he  translated  the  Prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  which 
was  printed  in  8vo.^^ 

George  Joye  was  a  Bedfordshire  man,  and  educated 
at  St.  Peter  s  college,  Cambridge,  of  which  he  was  admit- 
ted fellow  in  1517.  But  being  accused  of  heresy  by  the 
prior  of  Newnham,  he  was  summoned,  in  1527,  to  appear 
before  the  cardinal's  court  at  Westminster,  and  the  Bi- 
shop of  Lincoln,  but  escaped  by  equivocation,  and  fled  to 
Strasburg.  He  was  afterwards  employed  by  the  Dutch 
printers,  in  correcting  the  pirated  editions  of  TyndalPs 


(18)  Strype's  Memorials  of  Arclib.   Cranmer,  I.  ch,  viii.   pp.   48,  49. 

Oxford,  1812,  8vo. 
Newcome's  Historical  View  of  Eng.  Bib.  Translations,  pp.  26 — 28. 
Thomson  and  Orme's  Historical  Sketch  of  Translations  and  Circu* 

lation  of  Scriptures,  p.  52. 

(19)  Lewis's  Eng.  Trans,  pp.  86,  87. 

(20)  Lewis,  pp.  78.  87,  88. 


394  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

New  Testament.  At  Strasburg  he  printed  the  ^'Priotir 
of  Bedford's  Letter/'  which  had  occasioned  his  summons, 
together  with  his  reply;  and  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  this 
friar  of  Newnham  Abbey  in  Bedford.  He  also  printed 
a  piece  of  the  "Unite  and  Schisme  of  the  olde  Cherche." 
Though  a  learned  man,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  pos- 
sessed that  conscientious  integrity,  which  would  have 
given  Christian  dignity  to  his  character;  and  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  whilst  he  defended  the  "Truth,"  the 
"Truth"  does  not  seem  "to  have  made, him  free"  from 
guile  and  deception.^^ 

In   1535,   the   first    translation    of   the    whole  Bible 
ever  printed  in  English,  was  completed  abroad,  under 
the  direction  of  Miles   Coverdale,  and  therefore  is  gene- 
rally called  Coverdale's   Bible.      It  is  in  folio,   and 
was  dedicated  to  Henry  VIII.  and  is  supposed  to  have 
been  printed  at  Zurich.     In  the   dedication,  the  trans- 
lator honestly  tells   his  majesty,  that  the  pope  gave  him 
the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,    "only   because  his 
highness  suffered  his  bishops  to  burne  God's  Word,  the 
root  of  faith,  and  to  persecute  the  lovers  and  ministers 
of  it;"  but  at  the  same  time  intimates  his  conviction,  that 
the  title  will  prove  a  prophecy,  "  that  by  the  righteous 
administration  of  his  grace,  the  faith  shall  be  so  defended, 
that  God's  Word,  the  mother  of  faith,  shall  have  its 
free  course  thorow  all  Christendome,  but  especially  in 
his  grace  s  realme."     As  to  the  translation  itself,  he  says, 
^^that  it  was  neither  his  labour  nor  desire  to  have  this 
work  put  into  his  hand,  but  that  being  instantly  required 
to  undertake  it,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  moving  other  men 
to  do  the  cost  thereof,  he  was  the  more  bold  to  take  it 
in  hand."     "According  therefore  as  he  was  desired,  he 
took  the  more  upon  him,  he  said,  to  set  forth  this  special 
translation,  not  as  a  checker,  reprover,  or  despiser  of 

(21)  Lewis,  pp.  79,  80. 

Dyer's  Hist,  of  the  Universities  of  CambridgCj  II.  pp.  17, 18. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  395 

other  men's  translations,  but  lowly  and  faithfully  fol- 
lowing his  interpreters,  and  that  under  correction.  Of 
these,  he  said,  he  made  use  of  jive  different  ones,  who 
had  translated  the  Scriptures  not  only  into  Lathi,  but 
also  into  Duichr 

From  the  dedication  also,  it  seems  probable,  that  the 
translation  was  permitted  to  be  read  by  the  people ;  and 
the  next  year,  1536,  a  royal  injunction  was  issued  to  the 
clergy  to  provide  a  book  "of  the  whole  Bible,  both  in 
Laten,  and  also  in  English,  and  lay  the  same  in  the  quire 
for  everye  man  that  will  to  loke  and  reade  theron,"  in 
every  pansh  church  ;  which  was  certainly  equivalent 
to  an  express  approbation  of  Coverdale's  Bible,  as  there 
was  no  other  at  that  time  in  English.  Dr.  Geddes  says, 
of  this  translation,  "  From  Genesis  to  the  end  of  Chroni- 
cles, and  the  book  of  Jonah,  are  by  Tyndal ;  the  rest  of  the 
Old  Testament  by  Coverdale.  The  whole  New  Testa- 
ment is  Tyndal's."  But  from  the  collation  of  Lewis,  it  is 
evident  that  Coverdale  corrected  Tyndall's  translation. 
Fulke  (Defence  of  the  E.  1\  of  the  Bible,)  relates,  that 
"when  Coverdale's  translation  was  finished,  and  present- 
ed to  Henry,  he  gave  it  to  Bishop  Gardiner  and  some 
others  to  examine.  They  kept  it  so  long,  that  at  last 
Henry  had  to  call  for  it  himself.  When  they  delivered 
the  book,  he  demanded  their  opinion  of  the  translation. 
They  answered,  that  there  were  many  faults  in  it.  "Well," 
said  the  king,  "but  are  there  any  heresies  mentioned 
in  it?"  They  replied,  "There  were  no  heresies  they  could 
find."  "If  there  be  no  heresies,"  said  Henry,  "then,  in 
God's  name,  let  it  go  abroad  among  our  people."  ^^ 

Miles  Coverdale  was  born  in  Yorkshire,  about  1486, 
and  became  an  Augustin  monk.  At  the  time  when  he 
*  II  ■      I    — ^p—  _— — — ^ 

(22)  Lewis,  pp.  91—100.  103,  104. 
Newcome,  pp.  29 — 33. 
Geddes's  Prospectus,  p.  88,  note, 
TJiomson  and  Orme'is  Historical  Sketchy  p;  54,  note. 


\396  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

published  his  translation  of  the  Bible  he  was  in  exile  for 
the  sake  of  religion,  having  embraced  the  principles  of 
the  Reformation.  Being  permitted  to  return  to  England, 
he  was  made  almoner  to  Catherine  Parr,  the  last  wife  of 
Henry  VIII.  During  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  he  was 
promoted  to  the  bishoprick  of  Exeter;  but  on  the  change 
of  religion  in  Queen  Mary's  reign,  he  was  deprived  of  his 
see,  and  thrown  into  prison,  out  of  which  he  was  released 
at  the  earnest  request  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  and  as  a 
very  great  favour,  was  permitted  to  depart  out  of  the 
kingdom.  Soon  after  Elizabeth's  accession  to  t lie  throne, 
he  returned  from  his  exile,  but  would  not  accept  of  his 
bishoprick.  The  cause  of  his  refusal  was  his  attachment 
to  the  principles  of  the  Puritans.  Grindal,  bishop  of 
London,  gave  him  the  small  living  of  St.  Magnus,  near 
London  Bridge;  but  not  complying  with  the  terms  of 
conformity  then  required,  he  was  deprived  of  his  living, 
became  obnoxious  to  government,  and  died  in  indigence. 
May  20th,  1567,  aged  81.  Such  was  the  fate  of  this 
eminent  translator  of  the  Scriptures ; — a  man  universally 
esteemed  for  his  piety,  his  Scriptural  knowledge,  and  his 
diligence  in  preaching.^^ 

About  the  same  time  thatCoverdale's  Bible  was  printed, 
Thomas  Gibson,  or  Gybson,  a  studious  man,  and  a 
printer,  published  thejirst  English  Concordance  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  title  of  it  was,  "The  Concord- 
ance of  the  new  testament  most  necessary  to  be  had  in 
the  handes  of  all  soche,  as  desire  the  communication  of 
any  place  contayned  in  the  new  testament." — Imprynted 
hy  me  Thomas  Gyhson,  Cum  prwilegio  regally  with  the 
iiiark  T.  G.  on  the  sides  of  a  cut  afterwards  used  by 
John  Day.  The  epistle  to  the  reader  written  by  him, 
intimates  his  being  the  collector  or  compiler  of  the 
work.^" 

(23)  Thomson  and  Orme's  Historical  Sketch,  p.  53. 
Lempriere's  Gen.  Biog.  Diet. 

(24)  Dibdin's  Typographical  Antiquities,  III,  p.  400. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  397 

Another  noted  edition  of  the  Bible,  in  English,  was 
printed  in  1537,  in  folio,  and  is  usually  called  Mat- 
thewe's  Bible,  from  the  name  affixed  to  it,  as  the  editor. 
It  was  printed  abroad,  at  the  expense  of  the  English 
printers,  Richard  Grafton  and  Edward  Whitchurch;  and 
was  "set  forth  with  the  king's  most  gracious 
LICENCE."  The  name  of  Thomas  Matthewe  is  affixed 
to  it  as  the  editor ;  but  this,  it  is  said,  was  fictitious ;  and 
that  the  real  editor  was  John  Rogers,  a  native  of 
Lancashire,  the  first  martyr  who  suffered  in  Queen 
Mary's  reign,  being  burnt  at  Smithfield,  February  4th, 
1555.  NichollSj  however,  states  that  Thomas  Matthewe 
was  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's.^* 

Grafton,  one  of  the  publishers  of  this  edition,  having 
jfinished  the  work,  sent  six  copies  of  it  to  Lord  Cromwell, 
at  his  lordship's  request,  accompanying  them  with  a 
letter,  in  which  he  complained,  that  after  having  printed 
1500  copies  at  an  expense  of  not  less  than  ^500.  he 
was  apprehensive  of  being  undersold  by  the  Dutch 
booksellers,  who,  observing  how  acceptable  the  English 
Bible  was  to  the  common  people,  were  designing  to 
print  it  in  a  smaller  volume;  and  though  he  believed  the 
editions  which  they  would  print  would  be  very  inferior 
in  paper,  type,  and  correctness,  yet  without  his  lordship's 
interposition,  they  would  probably  ruin  him  and  his 
friends.  He  therefore  entreated  his  lordship  to  obtain 
for  him,  from  the  king,  ^'^that  none  should  print  the 
Bible  for  three  years  but  himself;"  and  urged  the  advan- 
tage that  would  result  from  enjoining  every  clergyman 
to  have  one,  and  placing  a  number  of  copies,  six  for 
instance,  in  every  abbey .^^ 


(25)  Lewis,  pp.  105.  111. 
Newcome,  pp,  34,  35. 

Nicholls's  Commentary  on  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer:    The 
Order  how  the  Psalter  is  appointed  to  be  read. 

(26)  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop   Cranmer,    I,    B.   i,   ch.   xv. 

pp,   84—86. 


398  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

In  the  year  1538,  the  English  Bible  was  permitted  to  be 
exposed  to  sale,  and  publicly  read ;  and  an  injunction 
was  published  by  the  vicar  general  of  the  kingdom, 
*^ ordering  the  clergy  to  provide,  before  a  certain  festival, 
one  book  of  the  whole  Bible,  of  the  largest  volume  in 
English,  and  to  set  it  up  in  some  convenient  place 
within  their  churches,  where  their  parishionei-s  might 
most  commodiously  resort  to  read  it;"  the  expense  of 
wliich  was  to  be  borne  equally  by  the  clergyman  and  the 
parishioners.  A  royal  declaration  was  also  issued,  which 
the  curates  were  to  read  in  their  respective  churches, 
informing  the  people  of  the  injunction  to  place  it  in  the 
churches,  and  of  the  permission  given  to  all  to  read  it; 
with  directions  how  to  read  and  hear  it,  and  advising 
them  to  avoid  all  disputes  about  the  Scriptures  in  "ta- 
verns or  alehouses,"  and  rather  to  consult  those  who 
were  authorized  to  preach  and  explain  them.  From 
which  it  would  appear,  that  some  persons  made  but  an 
ill  use  of  the  liberty  granted  them,  of  hearing  or  reading 
the  Scriptures  in  their  native  tongue  ;  unless  we  suppose 
that  the  enemies  to  the  general  perusal  of  the  Bible,  had 
suggested  the  probability  of  such  improper  disputations; 
for  the  clergy  in  general  were  not  favourable  to  the  liber- 
ty granted  to  the  people,  and  therefore  read  the  injunc- 
tion and  declaration  in  such  a  manner,  in  their  churches, 
that  scarcely  any  xme  could  understand  what  they  read." 

But  whether  certain  persons  acted  imprudently,  by 
disputing  about  the  Scriptures  in  alehouses,  or  not,  it  is 
certain,  that  the  permission  which  was  granted  to  the 
people  to  read  them,  created  extraordinary  joy.  "  It  was 
wonderful,"  says  Strype,  ^^to  see  with  what  joy  this  book 
of  God  was  received,  not  only  among  the  learneder  sort, 
and  those  that  were  noted  for  lovers  of  the  Reformation, 
but  generally  all  England  over,  among  all  the  vulgar  and 

<27)  Newcome,  pp.  36,  37. 

Strype,  ut  sup.  toI.  I.  B.  i.  ch,  xvii.  p,  90. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  399 

common  people;  and  with  what  greediness  God's  Word 
was  read,  and  what  resort  to  places  where  the  reading  of 
it  was.  Every  body  that  could  bought  the  book,  or 
busily  read  it,  or  got  others  to  read  it  to  them,  if  they 
could  not  themselves ;  and  divers  more  elderly  people 
learned  to  read  on  purpose.  And  even  little  boys  flocked 
among  the  rest  to  hear  portions  of  the  Holy  Scripture 
read.  One  William  Maldon  happening  in  the  company 
of  John  Fox,  in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Eli- 
zabeth, and  Fox  being  very  inquisitive  after  those  that 
suffered  for  religion  in  the  former  reigns,  asked  him,  if  he 
knew  any  that  were  persecuted  for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  that  he  might  add  it  to  his  Book  of  Martyrs ;  he 
told  him,  he  knew  one  that  was  whipped  by  his  own 
father  in  King  Henry's  reign  for  it.  And  when  Fox  was 
very  inquisitive  who  he  was,  and  what  was  his  name,  he 
confessed  it  was  himself:  and  upon  his  desire  he  wrote 
out  all  the  circumstances.  Namely,  that  when  the  king 
had  allowed  the  Bible  to  be  set  forth  to  be  read  in  all 
churches,  immediately  several  poor  men  in  the  town  of 
Chelmsford,  in  Essex,  where  his  father  lived,  and  he  was 
born,  bought  the  New  Testament,  and  on  Sundays  sat 
reading  of  it  in  the  lower  end  of  the  church :  many 
would  flock  about  them  to  hear  their  reading;  and  he 
among  the  rest,  being  then  but  fifteen  years  old,  came  every 
Sunday  to  hear  the  glad  and  sweet  tidings  of  the  Gospel. 
But  his  father  observing  it,  once  angrily  fetched  him 
away,  and  would  have  him  to  say  the  Latin  mattins  with 
him ;  which  grieved  him  much.  And  as  he  returned  at 
other  times  to  hear  the  Scripture  read,  his  father  still 
would  fetch  him  away.  This  put  him  upon  the  thoughts 
of  learning  to  read  English,  that  so  he  might  read  the 
New  Testament  himself:  which,  when  he  had  by  diligence 
effected,  he  and  his  fathers  apprentice  bought  the  New 
Testament,  joining  their  stocks  together;  and  to  conceal 
it,  he  laid  it  under  the  bed-straw,  and  read  it  at  convenient 


400  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

times.  One  night,  his  father  being  asleep,  he  and  his 
mother jchanced  to  discourse  concerning  the  crucifix,  and 

kneeling  down  to  it :  this  he  plainly  told  his  mother 

was  plain  idolatry.  The  sum  of  this  evening's  conference  she 
presently  repeats  to  her  husband:  which  he,  impatient  to 
hear,  and  boiling  in  fury  against  his  son,  for  denying 
worship  to  be  due  to  the  cross,  arose  up  forthwith,  and 
goes  into  his  son's  chamber,  and  like  a  mad  zealot,  taking 
him  by  the  hair  of  his  head  with  both  his  hands,  pulled 
him  out  of  the  bed,  and  whipped  him  unmercifully* 
And  when  the  young  man  bore  this  beating,  as  he  related, 
with  a  kind  of  joy,  considering  it  was  for  Christ's  sake, 
and  shed  not  a  tear;  his  father  seeing  that,  was  more 
enraged,  and  ran  down,  and  fetched  an  halter,  and  put 
it  about  his  neck,  saying  he  would  hang  him.  At  length, 
with  much  entreaty  of  the  mother  and  brother,  he  left 
him,  almost  dead."^® 

But  although  the  common  people  received  the  Word 
of  God  with  gladness,  many  of  the  clergy  used  all  their 
influence  to  prevent  the  king's  injunctions  being  carried 
into  effect.  "  It  was  observed,"  adds  S try pe,  *'that  the 
parsons,  vicars,  and  curates  did  read  confusedly  the 
Word  of  God,  and  the  king's  injunctions,  lately  set  forth, 
and  commanded  by  them  to  be  read:  humming  and 
hawking  thereat,  that  almost  no  man  could  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  injunction.  And  they  secretly  suborn- 
ed certain  spreaders  of  rumours  and  false  tales  in  corners, 

who  interpreted  the  injunctions  to  a  false  sense And 

bad  their  parishioners,  notwithstanding  what  they  read, 
being  compelled  so  to  do,  that  they  should  do  as  they 
did  in  times  past,  to  live  as  their  fathers;  and  that  the 
old  fashion  is  the  best."  They  even  insinuated  that  the 
king  meant  to  take  away  the  liberties  of  the  realm,  with 
other  seditious  intimations.^®    The  adherents  to  popery 

<28)  Strype's Memorials  of  Archb.  Cranmer,  I.  B,  i.  ch.  XFii.pp.  91—93. 
(29)  Ibid,  I.  B.  i.  ch.  xviii.  p.  99. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  401 

condemned  also  the  translations  themselves,  in  the  most 
virulent  terms,  and  treated  those  who  were  in  the  habit 
of  reading  them  with  severity  and  contempt. 

Dr  Fox,  bishop  of  Hereford,  an  active  promoter  of  the 
Reformation,  dying  at  London,  in  1538,  Archbishop 
Cranmer  visited  the  vacant  church  and  diocese,  and  gave 
certain  injunctions  to  the  clergy,  enjoining  that  they 
should  procure,  "by  the  first  of  August,  a  whole  Bible 
in  Latin  and  English ;  or  at  least  a  New  Testament  in 
the  same  languages ;  that  they  should  every  day  study  one 
chapter  of  the  Bible  or  Testament,  conferring  the  Latin 
and  English  together;  and  to  begin  at  the  beginning  of 
the  book,  and  so  continue  to  the  end ;  that  they  should 
not  discourage  any  layman  from  reading  the  Bible;  and 
to  read  it  for  the  reformation  of  their  lives,  and  know- 
ledge of  their  duty."  ^' 

In  the  same  year,  1538,  a  quarto  edition  of  the  New 
Testament  was  published  in  Latin  and  English,  The 
English  was  Coverdale's  version,  the  Latin^  that  of  the 
Vulgate.  It  was  dedicated  to  K,  Henry  VIII.  by  Johan 
Holly BUSHE,  the  assumed  name  of  James  Nicolson,  the 
printer,  who  printed  it  in  Southwark.  The  dedication 
was  by  Coverdale,  who  assured  his  majesty  "that  his  prin- 
cipal design  was  to  induce  such  as  knew  the  English 
only,  and  were  not  learned  in  Latin,  that  in  comparing 
these  two  Texts  together,  they  might  the  better  under- 
stand the  one  by  the  other;  and  he  did  not  doubt,  but 
such  ignorant  bodies,  as  having  cure  and  charge  of  souls, 
were  very  unlearned  in  the  Latin  tongue,  should  through 
this  small  labour  be  occasioned  to  attain  unto  more 
knowledge,  and  at  least  be  constrained  to  say  well  of 
the  thing  which  heretofore  they  had  blasphemed." 
Another  edition  was  published  the  ensuing  year,  1539, 
in  8vo.     There  was  also  an  edition  of  the  English  New 

(30)  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Craaraer,  I.  B,  i.   ch.  xtU4. 
p.  100; 
Vol.  II.  2  G 


402  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Testament  printed  by  Robert  Redman,  Fleet-street,  is 
1538,  4to.     Cum  prlvUegio  ad  imprimendum  sohan,^^ 

About  this  time  an  event  happened  which  showed  the 
vigilance  and  jealousy  of  the  Romanists,  with  respect  to 
vernacular  translations  of  the  Bible.  Richard  Graftop 
being  desirous  of  printing  a  Bible  at  Paris,  on  account 
of  the  superior  skill  of  the  workmen,  and  the  compara- 
tive goodness  and  cheapness  of  the  paper,  applied  to 
Lord  Cromwell,  who  obtained  a  letter  from  Henry  VIII. 
to  Francis  I.  which  being  presented  by  Bishop  Bonner, 
who  was  then  the  ambassador,  secured  him  the  permis- 
sion he  requested.  The  time-serving  Bonner  did  not 
only  present  the  letter  to  Francis,  but,  hoping  to  gain 
the  countenance  of  the  king  and  Lord  Cromwell,  showed 
great  friendship  to  Grafton  and  his  associates,  "and  so 
encouraged  them  that  the  work  went  on  with  good  speed 
and  success.  And  to  show  how  well  affected  he  was  now  to 
the  Holy  Bible,  he  caused  the  English  there  in  Paris  to 
print  the  New  TestaxMEnt  in  English  and  Latin,  and 
took  off  a  great  many  of  them  himself,  and  distributed 
them  to  his  friends."  It  was  printed  in  the  octavo  form, 
by  Reignault,  in  1538;  and  has  1  Peter  ii.  13,  thus  trans- 
lated, ''Unto  the  Kynge  as  unto  the  chefe  heade,''  doubtless 
out  of  compliment  to  Henry.  But  notwithstanding  the 
royal  licence  which  had  been  granted  to  Grafton  by 
the  French  king,  for  printing  his  edition  of  the  Bible, 
which  he  intended  to  be  in  large  folio,  such  was  the 
overswaying  authority  of  the  inquisition,  that  the  inqui- 
sitor-general interposed  by  an  instrument,  dated  Decem- 
ber 17th,  1538,  inhibiting  the  printing  of  the  said  Bible 
in  the  English  language.  The  French  printers,  their 
English  employers,  and  Coverdale,  the  corrector  of  the 
work,  were  summoned  by  the  inquisitors;  and  the  im- 
pression, consisting  of  2500  copies,  was  seized  and  con- 
demned to  the  .flames.     But   the   avaiice  of  the  officer 

(31)  Lewis,  pp.  112,  113.  118. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  403 

who  superintended  the  burning  of  these  heretical  books, 
for  so  they  were  called,  induced  him  to  sell  '-four  great 
dry-vats"  of  them  as  waste  paper,  to  a  haberdasher,  for 
the  purpose  of  wrapping  his  wares.     These  were  bought 
again.     After  some  time  the   English  proprietors,  who 
had  fled  at  the  alarm,  returned  again  to  Paris,  being 
encouraged  by  Lord  Cromwell,  and  not  only  recovered 
some  of  those  copies  which  had  escaped  the  fire,  but 
brought  with  them  to  London,  the  presses,  types,   and 
printers.    At  the  time  when  the  printers  had  been  obliged 
to   desist,  by  the  authority  of  the  inquisition,  the  work 
was  nearly  completed,  which  rendered  the  loss  propor- 
tionably  greater.     Copies  of  the  Roi/al  Licence  by  Fran- 
cis I.  and  of  the  Instrument  of  the  Inquisition  for  inhibit- 
ing the  Bibles,   may  be  seen   in  Strype's   Memorials  oj 
Archbishop   Cranmer,  vol.  L  ch.  xxi.  B.  i.   p.  119;  and 
vol.  II.  Append.  No.  xxx.^^ 

Grafton,  and  Whitchurch  his  coadjutor,  resumed  the 
work,  on  their  return  to  England,  and  finished  it  in 
April,  1539.  It  is  in  large  folio,  and  has  obtained  the 
name  of  the  Bible  of  the  largest  volume,  or  the  Great 
Bible,  a  term  which  seems  to  have  been  occasionally 
given  to  other  early  folio  editions.  It  has  also  been 
called  Cran?ners  Bible,  from  being  published  with  his 
approbation,  and  especially,  from  his  prefixing  a  preface 
to  another  edition  of  it,  which  came  out  the  following 
year,  1540.  These  editions  had  a  superb  frontispiece, 
designed  by  Hans  Holbein,  and  of  which  a  fac- 
simile, ("most  feebly  and  inadequately  copied,"  says 
Dibdin,)  is  inserted  in  Lewis's  History  of  the  English 
Translations  of  the  Bible.  In  the  text,  those  parts  of  the 
Latin  version  which  are  not  found  in  the  Hebrew  or 
Greek,  are  inserted  in  a  smaller  letter.  ^>llum  copies 
of  the  edition  of  1539  are  in  the  British  Museum,  and  in 

(32)  Fox,    II.   p.    516. 
Newcome,  p.  41. 


404  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

the  library  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  Editions 
of  Cranmer's  Bible  were  also  published  in  1541.  One  of 
them  designed  for  the  churches,  was  edited  by  Cuthhert 
Titnstall,  bishop  of  Durham,  and  Nicolas  Heath,  bishop 
of  Rochester,  and  was  designated  in  the  title-page,  as 
^'The  Byble  IN  Englyshe,  of  the  largest  and  greatest 
Volume,  auctorised  and  apoynted  by  the  commaundement 
of  our  most  redoubted  prynce  and  soveraygne  lorde, 
kynge  Henry  the  VIII.  supreme  head  of  this  his  churche 
and  realme  of  Englande:  to  be  frequented  and  used  in 
every  church  within  this  his  sayd  realme,  accordynge  to 
the  tenoure  of  hys  former  injunctions  geven  in  that 
behalfe."^^ 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1539,  another  Bible  was 
printed  by  John  Byddell.  The  principal  editor  of  it  was 
Richard  Taverner,  who  received  his  education  at 
Christ  Church,  in  Oxford,  under  the  patronage  of  Lord 
Cromwell,  when  secretary  of  state.  It  is  probable  that 
his  patron  encouraged  him  to  undertake  this  work,  on 
account  of  his  skill  in  the  Greek  tongue.  It  is  neither  a 
bare  revisal,  nor  a  new  version,  but  a  correction  of  what 
is  called  " Matthewe's  Bible;"  many  of  whose  marginal 
notes  are  adopted,  and  many  omitted,  and  others  inserted. 
After  his  patron's  death,  Taverner  was  imprisoned. 
Wood  (Hist,  and  Antiq.  Univ.  Oxon,)  believes  through 
the  influence  of  those  bishops  who  were  addicted  to  the 
Romish  religion.  He  had,  however,  the  address  to  re- 
instate himself  in  the  king's  favour;  and  regained  his 
situation  at  court.  His  death  is  said  to  have  happened 
in  1573.^* 

On  November  13th,  1539,  the  king,  at  Cranmer's  inter- 

(33)  Newcome,  pp.  43.  390. 

Lewis,  pp.  122.  128,  129,  134.  140. 

Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Books,  II,  p,  31 3» 
Dibdfn's  Bibliomania,  p.  327. 

(34)  Lewis,  pp.  130—134. 
jNewcomej  pp.  46 — 48. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  405 

cession,  appointed  his  vicar-general,  Lord  Cromwell,  to 
take  special  care  and  charge  that  no  person  within  the 
realm  attempt  to  print  any  English  Bible  dm-ing  the  space 
of  five  years,  but  such  as  shall  be  admitted  by  the  said 
Lord  Cromwell."  The  reason  given  was,  "that  the  Bible 
should  be  perused  and  considered  in  one  translation ;  the 
frailty  of  men  being  such,  that  the  diversity  thereof  may 
breed  and  bring  forth  manyfold  inconveniencies,  as  when 
wilful  and  heady  folk  shall  confer  upon  the  diversity  of 
the  said  translations."^* 

In  May,  1540,  the  king,  by  his  proclamation,  again 
commanded  that  the  Bible  of  the  largest  volume  should 
be  provided  before  All  Saints'  day,  by  the  curates  and 
parishioners  of  every  parish,  and  set  up  in  their  churches; 
for  notwithstanding  the  former  injunctions,  many  parish 
churches  were  yet  destitute  of  the  Bible.  At  the  same  time, 
the  king  fixed  the  price  of  the  Bibles  at  ten  shillings 
unbound,  and  not  above  twelve  shillings  well  bound  and 
clasped ;  and  charged  all  ordinaries  to  take  care  that  the 
command  of  the  king  was  executed.  Upon  this,  Bonner, 
who  had  been  lately  advanced  to  the  see  of  London,  set 
up  si^  Bibles  in  certain  convenient  places  of  St.  Paul's 
church,  and  affixed  upon  the  pillars  to  which  the  Bibles 
were  chained,  an  admonition  to  the  readers,  to  "prepare 
themselves  to  be  edified  thereby;  to  make  no  exposition 
thereupon,  but  what  was  declared  in  the  books  them- 
selves ;  not  to  read  with  noise  in  time  of  divine  service,  or 
dispute  and  contend  with  each  other ;  nor  such  number  to 
meet  together  as  to  make  a  multitude."  This  proclama- 
tion had  also  some  effect  in  causing  the  English  Bible 
to  be  provided  by  some  of  the  curates  and  parishioners, 
who  had  hitherto  neglected  to  attend  to  the  former 
injunctions.  Thus  for  instance,  it  appears  by  the  ac- 
counts of  the  churchwardens  of  Wye,  in  Kent,  for  1541, 

(35)  Newcome,  p.  4S. 
Lewis,  pp.  1^1,  122. 


406  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

that  12d.  was  paid  for  making  a  Desk  for  the  Bible.*^ 
Another  edition  of  the  English  Bible  was  printed  in 
the  same  year,  1540,  in  folio,  by  Thomas  Petyt  and 
Roberte  Redman,  for  Thomas  Berthelet,  the  king's  printer. 
Lewis  mentions  a  beautiful  copy  of  this  edition,  on  vel- 
lum, and  finely  illuminated,  in  the  King's  Library  at 
Westminster,  designed  as  a  presentation  copy,  as  appears 
from  the  inscription  on  the  first  leaf:  "  This  booke  is 
presented  unto  youre  most  excellent  highnesse,  by  your 
loving,  faithful,  and  obedient  subject,  and  daylie  ora- 
tour,  Anthonye  Marter  of  London,  haberdesher."  ^' 

On  the  6th  of  May,  1541,  the  king  published  another 
brief,  or  decree,  for  the  setting  up  of  the  Bihle  of  the 
great  volume,  in  every  parish  church  throughout  Eng- 
land ;  and  on  the  7th  of  May,  his  Majesty,  by  his  letters 
to  Bishop  Bonner,  ordered  him  to  publish  the  decree, 
and  cause  it  to  be  afliixed  on  every  church-door  within 
his  diocese.  Injunctions  of  a  similar  nature  were  also 
issued  to  the  clergy.  But  the  author  of  a  little  tract, 
entitled  The  Supplication  oj  the  poor  Commons,  printed 
in  1546,  and  addressed  to  the  king,  informs  us  that  these 
decrees  and  injunctions  were  partially  and  reluctantly 
pbserved ;  that  no  small  number  of  churches  remained 
without  any  Bible,  and  that  in  other  churches  it  was 
placed  where  poor  men  durst  not  presume  to  come.  He 
also  charges  the  bishops  with  attempting  to  suppress  the 
Bible,  under  pretence  of  preparing  a  version  of  it  for 
publication  within  seven  years .^* 

The  fail  of  Thomas  Lord  Cromwell,  earl  of  Essex, 
who,  from  an  obscure  station,  being  the  son  of  a  black- 
smith, had  risen  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  kingdom, 
was  severely   felt  by   the   friends  of  the  Reformation. 

(36)  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  I.  B.  i.  ch,  xxi.  p.  12a 
Lewis,  p.   138. 

(37)  Lewis,  pp,  139,  140. 

(38)  Newcome,  p.  53.  '  ' 
Lewis,  pp.  141—144, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  4*07 

During  the  period  that  he  enjoyed  the  royal  favour,  his 
influence  had  been  united  with  that  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  in  endeavouring  to  promote  the  interests  of 
the  reformed  rehgion,  and  the  dissemination  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  His  attachment  to  the  Bible  is  said  to  have 
been  greatly  confirmed  by  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  New  Testament,  having  committed  the  whole 
of  Erasmus's  Latin  translation  of  it  to  memory,  during 
a  journey  to  Rome !  He  lost  the  favour  of  Henry  by 
the  active  part  he  took  in  procuring  the  marriage  of  that 
monarch  with  Ann  of  Cleves,  and  was  suddenly  seized  as 
he  was  sitting  in  council,  and  committed  to  the  tower. 
He  was  attainted  by  an  act  of  parliament  without  being 
heard,  and  on  the  28th  of  Jiily,  1541,  was  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill. 

The  enemies  of  the  English  translation  of  the  Bible 
immediately  advanced,  that  as  Cromwell  had  been  the 
king's  chief  adviser  respecting  it,  it  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  set  forth  by  a  traitor; — and  complained  of  it  as  being 
exceedingly  erroneous  and  heretical.  They  further  repre- 
sented to  the  king,  that  allowing  the  people  the  free 
use  of  the  Scriptures  was  the  means  of  increasing  faction 
and  party-spirit,  and  was  injurious  to  the  peace  of  the 
nation ;  that  the  common  people  disputed  and  quarrelled 
about  them  in  taverns  and  alehouses,  calling  one  another 
papist  and  heretic;  and  that  others  read  them  in  the 
churches  in  the  time  of  divine  service,  and  with  so  loud 
a  voice  as  to  disturb  the  congregation.  They  also 
warmly  censured  the  prefaces  and  notes  which  had 
accompanied  several  editions.^^ 

One  of  those  who  were  thus  accused  of  disturbing  the 
congregation  by  their  reading  the  Scriptures,  was  a 
young  man  of  the  name  of  John  Porter.  Agreeably  to 
the  practice  which  had  been  continued  during  the  life 


(39)  Fox,  .II.  pp,  498— 513. 
Lewis,  pp.  144^  145. 


408  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

of  Lord  Cromwell,  this  young  man,  who  was  of  an 
athletic  make,  and  a  good  reader,  frequented  St.  Paul's 
church,  and  read  out  of  the  Bibles  affixed  to  the  pillars 
by  Bishop  Bonner,  to  the  crowds  who  collected  together 
in  order  to  hear  him.  After  the  death  of  Lord  Cromwell, 
the  bishop  and  his  chaplain  sent  for  him,  and  severely 
reproved  him ;  to  which  he  replied,  that  he  trusted  he 
had  done  nothing  contrary  to  the  law,  nor  to  the  adver- 
tisements or  admonitions  which  the  bishop  had  ordered 
to  be  placed  over  each  of  the  Bibles.  Bonner  then 
accused  him  of  making  expositions  upon  the  text,  and 
collecting  a  number  of  persons  together  for  riotous  pur- 
poses :  the  young  man  vindicated  his  innocence,  and 
argued  that  nothing  of  the  sort  could  be  proved  against 
him.  But  nothing  availed,  for  Bonner  sent  him  to 
Newgate,  where  he  was  loaded  with  irons,  and  fastened 
by  an  iron  collar  round  his  neck  to  the  wall  of  his 
dungeon.  In  this  state  he  sent  for  a  kinsman,  who  by 
intreaty  and  money  prevailed  upon  the  jailor  to  release 
him  from  his  irons,  and  permit  him  to  be  amongst  the 
other  prisoners,  many  of  whom  were  imprisoned  for 
felony  or  murder.  In  this  situation  he  exhorted  his 
fellow  prisoners  to  amendment  of  life,  and  gave  them 
such  instructions  as  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures 
enabled  him.  For  this  he  was  again  confined  to  the 
lowest  dungeon,  and  cruelly  ironed,  and  in  five  or  six 
days  afterwards  was  found  dead  in  his  cell,  not  without 
strong  suspicions  of  being  murdered,  the  other  prisoners 
having  heard  his  cries  and  groans  as  if  dreadfully 
tortured.*" 

In  the  convocation  which  met  February  16th,  1542, 
the  archbishop,  in  the  king  s  name,  required  the  bishops 
and  clergy  to  revise  the  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  he  divided  for  that  purpose  into  fourteeu 
parts,  and  portioned  them  to  fifteen  bishops,  assigning 

(40)  Fox,  II.  p.  536.    ' 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  409 

two  to  the  Apocalypse,  or  Revelation,  on  account  of  its 
difficulty.  But  a  design  had  been  formed  to  banish  the 
translation  already  in  use.  Trifles,  therefore,  were  insisted 
on  ;  and  Gardiner,  then  bishop  of  Winchester,  produced 
a  long  catalogue  of  nearly  a  hundred  Latin  words,  which 
he  proposed  should  be  left  untranslated,  or,  if  translated 
at  all,  with  as  little  alteration  as  possible ;  some  of  these 
were  Ecclesia,  Pontifex,  Ancilla,  Idlola,  Cisera,  Pascha, 
Hostia,  &c.  &c.  The  evident  intention  of  Gardiner 
and  his  party,  was  to  render  the  Scriptures  obscure  or 
unintelligible  to  the  mere  English  reader.  Cranmer, 
therefore,  perceiving  the  resolution  of  the  bishops  to  pre- 
vent this  mode  of  translating  the  Bible,  or  correcting  the 
former  translation,  procured  the  king's  consent  to  refer 
the  matter  to  the  two  universities.  Against  this  all  the 
bishops  protested,  except  Goodrick,  bishop  of  Ely,  and 
Barlow,  bishop  of  St.  David's.  The  protesting  bishops 
affirmed  that  in  the  universities,  which  were  of  late  much 
decayed,  all  things  were  carried  by  young  men,  the 
regent  masters,  whose  judgments  were  not  to  be  relied 
on ;  so  that  the  learning  of  the  land  was  chiefly  in  the 
convocation.  But  the  archbishop  declared  that  he 
would  adhere  to  the  will  and  pleasure  of  the  king  his 
master.  By  this  contest,  the  cause  seems  to  have  been 
decided ;  and  soon  after  the  convocation  was  dissolved." 

In  the  parliament  which  met  on  the  22nd  of  January, 
1543,  the  Romish  party  prevailed,  and  passed  an  act,  by 
which  it  was  enacted,  "  That  all  manner  of  bokes  of  the 
olde  and  newe  Testament,  in  English,  of  this  (TyndalFs) 
translation,  should  be  by  authoritie  of  this  act  cleerly 
and  utterly  abolished,  extinguished,  and  forbidden  to  be 
kept  and  used  in  this  real  me,  or  els  where,  in  anie  the 
king  s  dominions."     But  other  translations  were  allowed 

(41)  Strypc's  Memorials  of  Abp.  Cranmer,  I.  B.  i.  ch,  xxiii.  p.  13d. 
Newcome,  pp.  53 — 55. 
Lcwis^  pp.  144«-148. 


410  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

to  remain  in  force,  provided  the  annotations  or  preamblesr 
were  '^cut  or  blotted  out,  so  as  not  to  be  perceived  or 
read;"  which  was  also  enjoined  under  pain  of  forfeiting 
forty  shillings  for  every  Bible  retaining   them.     It  was 
likewise  enacted,  "That  no  manner  of  person  or  persons, 
after  the  firste  day  of  October  then  next  ensuing,  should 
take  upon  him.  or  them,  to  read,  openly  to  other,  in  any 
church,  or  open  assembly,  within  any  of  the  king's  do- 
minions, the  Bible,  or  any  part  of  Scripture,  in  English, 
unlesse  he  was  so  appointed  thereunto  by  the  king,  or  by 
anie  ordinarie.     Provided,  that  the  chauncellor  of  Eng- 
land, capitaines  of  the  warres,  the  king's  justices,  the 
recorders  of  anie  citie,  borough,  or  town,  the  speaker  of 
the  parliament,  &c.   which  heretofore  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  declare  or  teache  any  good,  vertuous,  or  godly 
exhortations  in  anie  assemblies,  might  use  anie  part  of  the 
Bible  or  Holie  Scripture  as  they  had   been  wont;  and 
that  every  nobleman  and  gentleman  being  a  housholder, 
might  read,   or  cause  to  be  read,  by  any  of  his  familie 
servants  in  his  house,  orchardes,  or  garden,  and  to  his 
otvn  familie,  anie  text  of  the  Bible  or  New  Testament ; 
and  also  every  merchant-man,  being  a  housholder ;  and 
any   other   persons   other    than  women,    prentices,  &c. 
might  read  to  themselves  privately  the  Bible,  &c.     But 
no  women,   except  noblewomen  and  gentlewomen,   who 
might   read  to   themselves  alone     and  not    to    others 
any   texts   of  the  Bible,   &c.    nor   artificers,    prentises, 
journeymen,   serving-men  of  the  degrees  of  yomen^   or 
under,  husbandmen,  nor  labourers  were  to  read  the  Bible 
or  New  Testament  in  English  to  himself  or  to  any  other 
privately  or  openly."     The   penalties  by  which  the  act 
was  enforced,  breathed  the  barbarous   spirit  with  which 
the  supporters  of  popery  were  then  animated.     For  the 
first  offence,  they  were  to  recant ;  for  the  second  to  bear 

*  ^'Cdwel  says,  Yomen  were  officers  in  the  king's  family,  in  the  middle 
place  betwixt  Serjeants  and  Groomes^  See  Stat.  33,  Hen.  VIII.  c.  12."^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  411 

a  faggot;  and   for   the   third  they  were   to  be  burnt.*^ 

Soon^  after  the  passing  of  this  act,  a  treatise,  called 
A  necessary  doctrine  and  erudition  for  any  Christian  man, 
was  published  by  royal  authority;  in  the  preface  to  which 
the  king  tells  his  subjects,  that  "  for  the  part  of  the 
church  ordained  to  be  taught,  it  ought  to  be  deemed 
certainly,  that  the  reading  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment is  not  so  necessary  for  all  those  folks,  that  of  duty 
they  ought  and  be  bound  to  read  it,  but  as  "the  prince 
and  the  policy  of  the  realm  shall  think  convenient  to  be  so 
tolerated,  or  taken  from  it.  Consonant  whereunto,  the 
politic  law  of  our  realm  hath  now  restrained  it  from  a 
great  many."  *^ 

After  this,  Grafton,  the  king's  printer,  was  summoned, 
for  printing  what  was  called  "  Matthewe's  Bible,"  in 
1537.  He  was  also  questioned  respecting  the  '^  Great 
Bible,"  and  the  notes  he  intended  to  print  along  with  it; 
to  which  he  replied,  that  "  he  added  none  to  the  Bible 
he  printed,  when  he  perceived  the  king  and  the  clergy  not 
willing  to  have  any."  yet  he  was  sent  to  the  Fleet  prison, 
and  confined  for  six  weeks,  and  only  released  on  giving 
a  bond  of  ^300.  neither  to  print  nor  sell  any  more 
English  Bibles,  till  the  king  and  the  clergy  should  agree 
on  a  translation.** 

In  1544,  John  Day  and  William  Seres  printed  the 
Pentateuch,  '^  after  the  copy  that  the  kyng's  majesty 
had  set  forth,"  in  a  small  12mo.  volume.*^ 

The  suppression  of  TyndalFs  translation  of  the  Bible, 
and  other  works,  occasioned  the  publication  of  several 
tracts  in  defence  of  it ;  the  following  extract  is  from  one 
of  them,  addressed  to  Bishop  Gardiner,  under  a  fictitious 

(42)  Lewis,  pp.  148—150. 

Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  XII.  pp.  Q5,  96. 

(43)  Lewis,  pp.  150,  151. 
Newcome,  p.  57. 

(44)  Strype's  Memorials  of  Abp,  Cranmerj  B.  i.  ch.  xxi.  p.  121. 
(45)'  Lewis,  p.  152. 


412  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

name:  ^rWillyam  tyndale  wrote  many  bookes  where  in 
ar  many  true  and  godly  sentences,  and  saynges,  whiche 
he  had  tak^n  out  of  the  holy  scripture,  and  the  hole  new 
testament,  whiche  is  the  undouted  word  of  god,  cam  out  of 
bys  pen  into  our  englishe  tong.    Willyam  tyndale  was  ban- 
nisshed  out  of  Englond,  and  burnt  as  an  heretike  in  bra- 
bant;  whether  is  it  well  and  wisely  don  or  no,  that  hys 
bookes,  whiche  conteyn  so  miche  godly  learnyng,  and  the 
hole  new  testament,  which  cam  thorow  hys  pen,  are  forbid- 
den  to  be  red,  and  so  bannisshed  for  an  heresi  or  ij  that  ye 
say  ar  in  hys  bookes,  and  for  half  a  dosen  fautes  that  ar 
in  hys  translation  ?     If  it  be  euel  don  why  do  ye  not 
amend  your  doyng,  and  whi  suffer  ye  not  hys  bookes  to  be 
red,  whi  blot  ye  out  the  fautes  of  hys  translation,  and  con- 
demne  no  more  Christis  learnyng  because  it  cam  thorow 
W.  Tyndalles  pen  ?     If  it  be  well  don  that  W.  Tyndailes 
bookes  and  the  new  Testament   of  hys  translation  ar 
forbidden  to  be  red,  and  ar  bannisshed  away  withe  hym 
because  they  have  sum  fautes  or  an  heresi  or  ij  in  them, 
and  ar  eummed  out  of  hys  pen,  then  all  the  hole  doc- 
trine that  euer  the  pope  taught,  withe  all  hys  traditions 
and  bookes  whiche  are  so  full  of  heresies  ^nd  supersti- 
tjones,  and  have  so  little  scripture  in  them,  ought  to  be 
miche  more  bannisshed  away  with  the  pope,  and  ought 
to  be  forbidden  to  be  red  then  tindalles  bookes  and  the 
Testament  of  hys  translation  ought  now  to  be  bannisshed 
and  forbidden.     Is  there  any  holyer  doctrine  in  the  popis 
law,  and  in  hys  ceremonies  and  traditiones,  then  in  the 
new  Testament  of  tyndalles  translation  ?  ar  there  not  as 
many  hereses  in  the  popis  bookes  as  in  tyndalles?     What 
reson  is  it  then  that  tyndalles  bokes  and  the  new  Testa- 
ment of  hys  translation  shall  be  bannisshed  away  withe 
tyndal,  and  be  forbidden  to  be  red,  and  that  the  popis 
doctrine  and  ceremonies,  withe  his  bookes,  shall  not  be 
bannisshed  withe  the  pope,  but  shall  be  kept  still  and  red 
in  the  chirche  as  a  new  gospel  in  the  mother  tong,  that 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  413 

all  the  hole  chirche  may  under  stande  his  doctrine,  and 
learn  it  when  as  Christis  doctrine  must  be  sayd  and  song 
in  such  a  tong  as  not  one  among  an  C.  understandethe 
because  as  it  apperethe  that  few  should  learn  it  ?  Whe- 
ther bathe  tyndal  now  or  the  pope  more  fauor  shewed 
unto  hym  in  Englond?  tyndall  which  is  bannisshed 
bothe  bodely  and  withe  all  hys  bokes  and  doctrine  both 
good  and  bad  or  the  pope,  whos  doctrine  and  bookes  ai- 
red and  alowed,  after  that  he  is  commanded  of  the  hiest 
pouer  under  god  to  be  bannisshed  out  of  Englond  for 
his  heresie  and  treson  ?  If  the  pope  haue  not  more 
fauor,  then  Christe  hathe  in  Englonde,  why  may  the 
popis  gospel  be  red  of  all  men  in  English,  and  Christis 
gospel  is  forbidden  to  be  red  in  english,  and  only  a  few 
of  gentle  and  rich  men  may  rede  it  ? "  *^ 

The  disputes  which  arose  between  those  who  were 
termed  Gospellers  and  others,  produced  most  unhappy 
effects;  for  the  Gospellers,  as  they  were  called,  taunted 
at  the  ignorance  and  errors  of  the  priests,  and  the  others 
"made  it  their  business  to  derogate  from  the  Scripture, 
to  deal  with  it  irreverently,  and  to  rhyme,  and  sing,  and 
make  sport  with  it,  in  alehouses  and  taverns.  Henry 
therefore,  on   the    dissolution  of  his   last  parliament  in 

1545,   thus  addressed  the  members    of  it: "What 

signs  of  charity  are  these,  when  one  calls  another 
heretic  and  anabaptist,  and  the  other  returns  the  language 
of  papist  and  hypocrite?  The  occasion  of  these  animosi- 
ties is  partly  to  be  charged  upon  you,  who  are  the  spirit 
tiial  guides  and  fathers  of  the  church:  For  if  I  know  a 
man  who  lives  in  adultery,  I  must  conclude  him  a  liber- 


(46^  ''The  rescuynge  of  the  Romish  Fox,  otherwise  called.  The 
examination  of  the  flufnfer  devised  by  Steven  Gardiner.  The 
Second  Course  of  y®  Romish  Fox  and  his  advocate  and  sworn 
patron  Steven  Gardiner,  doctor  and  defender  of  y*^  popis  canon 
Law  and  his  ungodly  ceremonies."  Dedicated  to  King  Hen- 
ry VIII.  by  William  VVagron,  *' Empiiuted,"  1515,  by  Ilanse 
Ilitprick,  12mp.  sheet  L. 


414 

tine,  and  a  debauchee.  If  I  see  a  man  brag  of  any 
advantage,  I  cannot  help  thinking  him  tinctured  with 
pride.  I  am  every  day  informed  that  you  of  the  clergy  are 
declaiming  against  each  other,  in  the  pulpit:  and  here 
your  charity  and  discretion  is  quite  lost  in  vehemence 
and  satire:  some  are  too  stiff  in  their  old  mumpsimus, 
and  others  too  busy  and  curious  in  their  new  sumpsimus. 
Can  I  suppose  you  governed  by  principles  of  charity 
while  you  manage  thus?  That  is  impossible; — alas!  How 
can  we  expect  the  poor  people  should  live  friendly  with 
their  neighbours,  when  they  have  such  unhappy  prece- 
dents of  discord  and  dissention  in  those  that  teach  them." 

■ "And,  though  the  spirituality  are  in  some  fault  for 

breaking  into  parties,  and  living  upon  ill  terms  with 
those  of  their  own  business,  yet  you  of  the  temporalitif 
don't  stand  clear  of  envy  and  ill-nature.  For  you  rail 
on  the  bishops,  defame,  and  misreport  the  priests,  and 
treat  the  preacher  with  contumely  and  ill-language. 
'Tis  true  you  are  allowed  to  read  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  to  have  the  Word  of  God  in  your  mother 
tongue.  But  then,  this  permission  is  only  designed  for 
private  information,  and  the  instruction  of  your  children 
and  family:  'Twas  never  intended  for  mooting  and  dis- 
pute, nor  to  furnish  you  with  reprimanding  phrases 
and  expressions  of  reproach  against  priests  and  preachers. 
And  yet,  this  is  the  use  a  great  many  disorderly  people 
make  of  the  privilege  of  having  the  Scriptures.  I  am 
extremely  sorry  to  find  how  much  the  Word  of  God  i^ 
abused;  with  how  little  reverence  'tis  mentioned,  both 
with  respect  to  place  and  occasion ;  how  people  squabble 
about  the  sense.  How  'tis  turned  into  wretched  rhyme ; 
sung  and  jangled  in  every  alehouse  and  tavern;  and  all 
this  in  a  false  construction,  and  countermeaning  to  the 
inspired  writers.  I  am  sorry  to  perceive  the  readers  of 
the  Bible  discover  so  little  of  it  in  their  practice.  I 
must  therefore  recommend  to  you  the  same  duty  I  men- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  415 

tioned  first:  as  Christianity  makes  you  brothers,  answer 
that  relation  to  each  other.  Let  the  majesty  and  good- 
ness of  God  make  a  Suitable  impression  upon  your  minds; 
and  then,  I  don't  question,  but  that  affection  and  good 
correspondence,  of  which  I  reminded  you  before,  will 
always  continue  between  you  and  your  sovereign."*^ 

In  1546,  the  last  year  of  his  reign,  the  king  issued 
another  proclamation,  by  which  he  prohibited  having  or 
reading  If^iclifSy  TyndaWs,  and  Coverdales  Bibles,  or 
using  any  other  than  what  was  allowed  by  parliament, 
under  the  ^^ penalty  of  imprisonment  and  corporal  pu- 
jiishment,  at  the  king's  pleasure,  and  being  fined  by  his 
majesty,  or  four  of  his  council."  Thus  the  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  was  more  strictly  forbidden  than  before, 
since  Coverdales  translation  was  now  forbidden  as  well 
as  TyndalVs;  and  the  people  were  as  uncertain  as  ever 
what  the  translation  was  w^hich  was  permitted  by  the 
act.  This  prohibition,  Strype  thinks,  was  occasioned  by 
the  contests  and  clamorous  disputes  of  the  people  with 
each  other;  but  a  much  more  probable  and  powerful 
cause  is  assigned  by  Archbishop  Newcome,  who  attri- 
butes it  to  the  increasing  strength  of  the  Romish 
faction,  and  the  abatement  of  the  king's  warmth  for  the 
Reformation.*® 

Henry,  however,  permitted  his  subjects  to  use  an 
English  Form  of  public  Prayer,  and  ordered  one  to  be 
printed  for  their  use,  entitled  The  Primer,  said  to  be 
"  set  furth  by  the  kinge's  majestic  and  his  clergie,  to  be 
taught,  lerned,  and  red:  and  none  other  to  be  used 
thorowout  all  his  dominions."  In  the  preface,  by  the 
king,  it  stated,  that  "  his  majesty  had  set  out  and  given 
to  his  subjects  a  determinate  form  of  praying  in  their 
own  mother  tongue,  to  the  intent  that  such  as  were 

(47)  Collier's  Eccles.  Hist.  II.  pt,  ii.  p.  208. 

(48)  Lewis,  pp.  152,-153.  Newcome,  pp.  58,  59. 
Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  I.  ch,  xxx.  p.  197. 


416  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Ignorant  of  any  strange  or  foreign  speech  might  have 
what  to  pray  in  their  own  acquainted  and  familiar  lan- 
guage with  fruit  and  understanding  "  This  little  book, 
important  as  the  forerunner  of  the  performance  of  the 
public  religious  service  in  English,  contains,  beside 
prayers,  several  Psalms,  with  Lessons  and  Anthems  taken 
out  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  verbally  translated 
from  the  Latin  Vulgate.*® 

"  The  history  of  our  English  translations,  in  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII."  says  Archbishop  Newcome,  "  illustrates 
what  is  well  known,  that  the  king  exercised  a  very 
despotic  power  both  in  religious  and  civil  affairs.  It  also 
shows  with  what  zeal  and  prudence  the  friends  to  the 
Reformation  conducted  themselves  in  the  great  work  of 
introducing  and  improving  the  English  translations  of 
the  Bible ;  what  peculiar  difficulties  they  had  to  encounter 
from  the  dangerous  inconstancy  of  a  tyrant,  and  from  the 
inveterate  prejudices  of  a  strong  Romish  party ;  and  with 
what  avidity  the  English  Scriptures  were  read  by  the 
bulk  of  the  people,  so  that  the  free  use  of  them  at  length 
became  a  mark  of  honourable  distinction  to  the  higher 
ranks."  ^« 

Henry  died  January  28th,  1547,  aged  6^  ;  and  not- 
withstanding the  inconstancy  of  his  conduct  in  favour  of 
the  Reformation,  Archbishop  Newcome  enumerates 
fourteen  editions  of  the  whole  Bible,  and  eighteen  edi- 
tions of  the  New  Testament,  beside  several  editions  of 
distinct  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  printed  during  his  reign. 

In  the  mean  time,  Scotland  began  to  experience  the 
happy  effects  resulting  from  a  more  general  acquaintance 
with  the  Sacred  Writings.  Before  the  Lutheran  reforma- 
tion extended  its  influence  to  that  kingdom,  ''gross  dark- 
ness," the  result  of  popish  superstition,  "covered  the  land  " 
"  Even  bishops  were  not  ashamed  to  confess  that  they 

(49)  Lewis,  p.  154. 

^50)  Newcome,  pp.  59,  60, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  417 

were  unacquainted  with  the  canon  of  their  faith,  and 
had  never  read  any  part  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  except 
what  they  met  with  in  their  missals.  Under  such  pas- 
tors the  people  perished  for  lack  of  knowledge.  That 
book  which  was  able  to  make  them  wise  unto  salvation, 
and  intended  to  be  equally  accessible  to  ^Jew  and 
Greek,  Barbarian  and  Scythian,  bond  and  free,'  was 
locked  up  from  them,  and  the  use  of  it,  in  their  own 
tongue,  prohibited  under  the  heaviest  penalties.  The 
religious  service  was  mumbled  over  in  a  dead  language, 
which  many  of  the  priests  did  not  understand,  and  some 
of  them  could  scarcely  read;  and  the  greatest  care  was 
taken  to  prevent  even  catechisms,  composed  and  ap- 
proved by  the  clergy,  from  coming  into  the  hands  of  the 
laity."'' 

Andrew  Forman,  bishop  of  Murray,  and  papal  legate 
for  Scotland,  being  obliged  to  say  grace,  at  an  entertain- 
ment which  he  gave  to  the  pope  and  cardinals,  in  Rome, 
blundered  so  in  his  latinity,  that  his  Holiness  and  their 
eminences  lost  their  gravity,  which  so  disconcerted  the 
bishop,  that  he  concluded  the  blessing  by  giving  all  the 
false  carles  to  the  devil,  in  nomine  patris,  Jilii,  et  sancti 
spiritus;  to  which  the  company,  not  understanding  his 
Scoto-Latin,  said  Amen.  By  many  of  the  Scottish 
clergy  it  was  affirmed,  "  that  Martin  Luther  had  lately 
composed  a  wicked  book  called  the  New  Testament ;  but 
that  they,  for  their  part,  would  adhere  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment." Even  the  libraries  of  their  monasteries  were 
some  of  them  without  a  complete  copy  of  the  Scriptures. 
In  the  catalogue  of  the  library  at  Stirling,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century,  we  find  only  two 
Psalters,  and  one  copy  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles, 
in  MS.  most  probably  in  Latin ;  the  rest  of  its  contents 
being  purely  monkish.  There  were  four  Missals,  four  An- 
tiphonars,  three  Breviaries,  two  Legends,  four  Graduals, 

(51)  M*Crie's  Life  of  John  Knox,  I.  pp.  18,  19, 
Vol.  II.  2D 


418  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

and  ten  Processionals.  Nothing,  however,  can  ntol'C 
completely  exemplify  the  indifference  to  the  Scriptures 
which  prevailed  among*  the  dignified  clergy,  than  the 
conversation  which  took  place  betwixt  Dean  Thomas 
Forest,  vicar  of  Dollar,  and  George  Chrichton,  bishop  of 
Dunkeld,  about  A.  D.  1538.  The  vicar,  who  Was  also 
canon  of  St.  Columbs,  was  accused  of  heresy  to  the 
bishop,  for  preaching  every  Sunday  on  the  Epistle  or 
Gospel  of  the  day.  The  bishop,  when  the  vicar  appeared 
before  him,  addressed  him  in  this  manner:  '-My  joy,  Dean 
Thomas,  I  am  informed  that  you  preach  the  Epistle  and 
Gospel  every  Sunday,  to  your  parishioners,  and  that  you 
do  not  take  the  best  cow  and  the  best  cloth  from  them, 
which  is  very  prejudicial  to  other  churchmen  ;  and,  there- 
fore, my  joy,  Dean  Thomas,  I  would  you  to  take  your 
cow  and  your  cloth,  as  other  churchmen  do.*  It  is  too 
much  to  preach  every  Sunday;  for  in  so  doing  you  make 
the  people  think  that  we  should  preach  likewise:  it  is 
enough  for  you,  when  you  find  any  good  Epistle,  or  good 
Gospel,  that  setteth  forth  the  liberties  of  holy  church,  to 
preach  that,  and  let  the  rest  alone."  To  this  sage  admo- 
nition of  his  bishop,  the  good  vicar  answered,  "I  think, 
my  lord,  that  none  of  my  parishioners  will  complain  that 
I  do  not  take  the  cow  and  the  cloth ;  but  I  know  they 
will  gladly  give  me  any  thing  that  they  have  ;  and  they 
know  that  I  will  gladly  give  them  any  thing  I  have. 
There  is  no  discord  amongst  us.  Your  lordship  sayeth, 
it  is  too  much  to  preach  every  Sunday:  I  think  it  is  too 
little;  and  I  wish  that  your  lordship  did  the  like."  "Nay, 
nay.   Dean  Thomas,"    said  the  bishop,   "we  were  not 

*  This  was  a  perquisite  termed  the  Corpse-present,  paid  to  the  vicar 
of  the  parish,  on  the  death  of  any  of  his  parishioners.  It  consisted,  in 
country  parishes,  of  the  best  cow  which  belonged  to  the  deceased,  and 
the  uppermost  cloth  or  covering  of  his  bed,  or  the  finest  of  his  body 
clothes.  The  Corpse-present  was  not  confined  to  Scotland.  We  find 
the  English  House  of  Commons  complaining  of  it,  A.  D.  1530,  See 
M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  \.  p.  349,  note  G. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  419 

ordained  to  preach."      "Your  lordship/'  said   the  vicar, 
"directs  me,  when  I  meet  with  a  good  Epistle,  or  a  good 
Gospel,  to  preach  upon  it.     I   have  read  both   the  Old 
and  New   Testament,  and  have  never  met  with  a  bad 
Epistle,   or  a  bad    Gospel;   but  if   your  lordship   will 
show   me  which  are   the  good,  and  which  are  the  bad,  I 
will  preach  on  the  good,  and  let  the  bad  alone."    "  I  thank 
my  God,"  said  the  bishop,  "I  know  nothing  of  either  the 
Old  or  New  Testament ;  therefore.  Dean  Thomas,  I  will 
know  nothing  but  my  portass,  [breviary,]  and  my  ponti- 
j  fical.     Go  away,  and  lay  aside  all  these  fantasies,  or  you 
will  repent  it  when  too  late."     M'  Crie   (Life  of  Knox,) 
has  given  an  interesting  account  of  this  excellent  clergy- 
man, the  vicar  of  Dollar,  from  which  we  learn  that  his 
father  had  been  master-stabler  to  James  IV.  that  after 
receiving  the  rudiments  of  his  education  in  Scotland,  he 
prosecuted  his  education  at  Cologne ;  and  on  his  return 
was  admitted  a  canon  regular  in  the  monastery   of  St. 
Colon's  Inch ;  where  being  presented  by  the  abbot  with  a 
volume  of  St.  Augustin's  works,  his  mind  was  enlightened, 
and  he  began   to  study   the   Scriptures.     He  was  after- 
wards appointed  to  the  vicarage  of  Dollar,  and  when  the 
agents  of  the  pope  attempted  to  sell  Indulgences,  in  his 
parish,  he  warned  his  parishioners  against  them :   "  I  am 
bound,"  said  he,  "  to  speak  the  truth  to  you :  this  is  but 
to  deceive  you.     There  is  no  pardon  for  our  sins  that  can 
come  to  us,  either  from  pope  or  any  other,  but  only  by  the 
blood  of  the  Christ."     He  used  to  commit  three  chapters 
of  the  Bible  to  memory  every  day,  and  made  his  servant 
hear  him  repeat  them  at  night.     He  suffered  martyrdom 
in  1538.^^ 

But   notwithstanding  the  general    ignorance  which 
overspread  the  nation,  a  gleam  of  light  threw  its  rays 

(52)  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox.  I.  pp.  19.  343.  334.  440,  notes. 

Henry's  Hisf.  of  GrealBritaiD,  XII.  B.  ti.  ch.  ii.  pp,  126—128. 
Fox,  II.  p.  G14. 


420  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

across  the  minds  of  certain  individuals,  probably  by  the 
introduction  of  some  of  the  writings  of  Luther,  since  an 
act  of  parliament  was  passed  so  early  as  July  17th,  1525, 
for  eschewing  of  heresy,  which  enacted,  that  ^'na  maner 
of  persoun,  strangear,  that  happinis  to  arrive  with  thare 
schip,  within  ony  part  of  this  reahne,  bring  with  thame 
ony  bukis  or  workis,  of  the  said  Luther,  his  disci pulis  or 
servandis,  disputis  or  rehersis,  his  heresies,  &c.  under  the 
pane  of  escheting  of  thare  schipis  and  guidis,  and  putting 
ofthaire  personis  in  presoun."  And  in  1527,  the  chan- 
cellor and  lords  of  council  added  this  clause,  ''and  all 
uther  the  kingis  liegis  assistaris  to  sic  opunyeons,  be 
punist  in  semeible  wise,  and  the  effect  of  the  said  act  to 
straike  apon  thaim."  So  that  it  appears,  that  in  1525, 
protestant  books  and  opinions  were  circulated  by  stran- 
gers only,  who  came  into  Scotland  for  the  purpose  of 
trade;  but  that  in  1527,  it  was  found  necessary  to  extend 
the  penalties  of  the  act  to  natives  of  the  kingdom.  This 
act  was  renewed  in  1535,  with  some  additions.^ 

The  jealous  caution  of  the  patrons  of  popery  could  not 
prevent  the  progress  of  truth ;  for  by  means  of  merchants 
who  traded  from  England  and  the  continent,  to  the  parts 
of  Leith,  Dundee,  and  Montrose,  Tyndalfs  Translations 
of  the  Scriptures,  with  the  writings  of  Luther  and  other 
Heformers,  were  imported ;  and  consigned  to  persons  of 
tried  principles  and  prudence,  who  circulated  them  in 
private  with  indefatigable  industry.  "One  copy  of  the 
Bible,  or  of  the  New  Testament,  supplied  several  families. 
At  the  dead  hour  of  night,  when  others  were  asleep,  they 
assembled  in  one  house;  the  Sacred  Volume  was  brought 
from  its  concealment,  and,  while  one  read,  the  rest  listened 
with  attention.  In  this  way  the  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures was  diffused,  at  a  period  when  it  does  not  appear 
there  were  any  public  teachers  of  the  truth  in  Scotland."** 

(53)  M 'Crip's  Life  of  Knox,  I.  Period  %  p.  37,  note. 

(54)  M'Crie'sLife  of  Kuox,  I.  p,  32. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY^  421 

Poetry  also  became  the  vehicle  for  convepng  the  senti- 
ments of  the  reformers  to  the   people.     The   ignorance 
and   immorality  of  the   clergy   were  satirized,   and  the 
absurdities  of  popery  exposed  to  ridicule.     These  poetical 
effusions  were  easily  committed  to  memory,  and  could  be 
communicated   without   the    intervention  of  the   press, 
which  at  that  time  was  under  the  control  of  the  bishops. 
Dramatic   compositions  of  a  similar  tendency  were  re-, 
peatedly  acted  in  the  presence  of  the  royal  family,  the 
nobility,  and  vast  assemblies  of  the  people.     In  vain 
did  the  bishops  repeatedly  procure  the  enactment  of  laws 
against  the  circulation  of  seditious  rhymes,  and  blasphe- 
mous  ballads;    the  people  still  read  with   avidity  the 
metrical  epistles,  moralities,    and  psalms  composed  in 
their  native  language.    Kennedy  and  Kyllor,  the  former 
a  young   gentleman,  the  latter  a  friar,   both  of  whom 
were   cruelly   burnt  in   1538,  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  satirical  dramas.     The  latter  of  these  composed 
a  Scripture  tragedy  on   the    Crucifixion    of  Christ,    in 
which  he  painted  the  conduct  of  the  popish  clergy,  under 
that  of  the  Jewish  priests.     This  drama  was  exhibited 
before   James  V.  at  Stirling,  about  the  year  1535 ;  and 
so  ingeniously  portrayed  the  manners  of  the  papists,  that 
the  most  simple  perceived  the  resemblance  between  the 
Jewish  priests  and  the  Scottish  clergy,  in  their  opposition 
to  the  truth,  and  the  persecution  of  its  friends.     Another 
poet  of  a  similar  geniuswas  James  Wedderburn,  son  of 
a  merchant  in  Dundee.    He  converted  the  History  of  the 
beheading  of  John  the  Baptist,  into  a  dramatic  form;  and 
also  the  History  of  the  Tyrant  Dionysius,  and  in  both  of 
them  satirized  the  popish  religion.     His  two  brothers, 
John  and  Robert,  composed  a  metrical  version  of  a  num- 
ber of  the  Psalms,  which  were  afterwards   ommonly  sung 
in  the  assemblies  of  the  protestants,  until  superseded  by 
the  version  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.     They  were  also 
the  chief  authors  of  Gude  and  Godly  ballates,  changed  out 


422 

ofprophane  sangs,for  anoyd'mg  of  sin,  harlotrie,  &c.  a  work, 
the  nature  of  which  is  indicated  by  the  title,  and  which 
seems  to  have  been  composed  for  the  purpose  of  circula- 
ting the  reformed  opinions  in  Scotland  ;  and  in  it ''  the 
air,  the  measure,  the  initial  line,  or  the  chorus,  of  the  bal- 
lads most  commonly  sung  at  that  time,  were  transferred 
to  hymns  of  devotion  ;"  and  although,  to  us,  this  asso- 
ciation may  appear  unnatural  and  gross,  it  is  certain, 
these  spiritual  songs  edified  multitudes  at  that  time.  The 
same  principle  obtained,  and  the  same  practice  was 
adopted  at  that  period,  in  Italy,  France,  and  Holland. 
But  tlie  poet  who  had  the  greatest  influence  in  promoting 
the  Reformation  was  Sir  David  Lindsay  of  the  Mount, 
Lyon  king  at  arms,  who  enjoyed  the  favour  both  of  James 
IV.  and  of  his  son.  He  was  esteemed  one  of  the  first 
poets  of  his  age,  and  possessed  extensive  learning,  united  to 
the  most  keen  and  penetrating  wit.  His  Satyre  &n  the 
three  Estates  was  repeatedly  acted  before  the  royal  family 
and  the  nobility.  It  exposed  the  avarice,  luxury,  and 
profligacy  of  the  religious  orders ;  the  temporal  power 
and  opulence  of  the  bishops,  with  their  total  neglect  of 
preaching  ;  the  prohibition  of  reading  the  Scriptures  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  &c.  In  his  Monarchte,  composed  by 
him  at  a  subsequent  period,  he  traced  the  rise  and  pro- 
gress of  the  papacy,  and  has  discovered  a  knowledge  of 
history,  and  of  the  causes  that  produced  the  corruption  of 
Christianity,  which  would  not  disgrace  any  modern  au- 
thor. His  poems  were  so  universally  popular,  that  it  is 
said  they  were  read  by  "every  man,  woman,  and  child."^* 
His  principal  defence  of  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
into  the  vernacular  tongue,  is  contained  in  "The  first 
book  of  the  Monarchic,"  from  which  it  is  here  extracted, 
as  furnishing  a  curious  document  in  the  history  of 
vernacular  translations. 

(55)  M'Crie's  Life    of   Knox,    I.    pp;    33,   34,    50;     notes  pp,   354, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  423 

"An  Exclamation  to  the  reader,  touching  the  writing  in 
vulgar  and  maternal  language." 

"  Gentle  Reader,  have  at  me  no  despite. 
Thinking  that  I  presumtuously  pretend. 
In  vulgar  tongue  so  hie  matter  to  write: 
But  where  I  misse  I  pray  thee  to  amend. 
To  the  unlearn'd  I  would  the  cause  were  kend. 
Of  our  most  miserable  travell  and  torment. 
And  how  in  Earth  wo  place  is  permanent. 

Howbett  that  diverse  devote  Cunninor  Clarkes, 
In  Latine  toni^ue  have  written  sundrie  bookes, 
Our  unlearnM  knowes  little  of  their  warkes. 
More  then  they  do  the  raving  of  the  Rookes: 
Wherefore  to  Caliiats,  Careers,  and  to  Cookes, 
To  Jacke  and  Tom  my  Rime  shall  be  directed, 
With  cunning-  men  howbeit  that  it  be  lacke. 

Though  every  Common  may  not  be  a  Clark, 
Nor  hath  no  Leed  exv  ept  their  tongue  maternall, 
Why  should  of  Goo  the  marvellous  heavenly  wark 
Be  hid  from  them  ?     1  think  it  not  freternell. 
The  Father  of  heaven,  which  was  and  is  eternall 
To  Moses  gave  the  Law  on  mount  Sinay, 
Not  into  Greek  nor  Latine  at>  they  say. 

He  wrote  the  Law  in  tables  hard  of  stone. 

In  their  own  vulgar  Language  of  Hebrew  : 

That  the  children  of  Israel  every  one. 

Might  know  the  Law,  and  to  the  same  ensew. 

Had  he  don  write  in   Latine,  or  in  Grew, 

It  had  to  them  bene  a  savourlesse  jest. 

Ye  may  well  know  God  wrought  all  for  the  best. 

Aristotle  nor  Plato  I  heard  sane. 
Wrote  not  their  Philosophie  naturall. 
In  Dutch  nor  Dence,  nor  tongue  Italiane : 
But  in  their  most  proper  tongue  maternall. 
Whose  fame  and  name  doth  reigne  perpetuall. 
Famous  Virgil,  the  Prince  of  Poetrie, 
Nor  Cicero,  the  flower  of  Oratry, 

Wrote  not  in  Chaldie  language  nor  in  Grew,, 
Nor  yet  into  the  language  Saracene, 
Nor  in  the  naturall  language  of  Hebrew, 
But  in  the  Romane  tongue,   as  may  be  seen; 
Which  was  their  proper  language  as  I  weene. 
VVlien  Romanes  reigned  Dominators  indeed. 
The  ornat  Latine  was  their  proper  Leede. 


424  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

In  the  mean  time  when  that  these  bold  Romanes, 

Over  all  the  world  had  the  Dominion, 

Made  Latine  schooles,  their  glore  for  to  advance. 

That  their  language  might  be  over  all  common  : 

To  that  intent  by  mine  opinion. 

Trusting  that  their  Empire  should  ay  endure. 

But  of  fortune  alwayes  they  were  not  sure. 

Of  languages  the  first  diversitie. 

Was  made  by  God's  malediction  : 

When  Babylon  was  huilded  in  CiiALnrE, 

These  builders  got  none  other  affliction. 

Before  the  time  of  that  punition 

Was  but  one  tongue^  which  Adam  spake  himself, 

Where  now  of  tongues  there  be  threescore  and  twelve. 

Notwithstanding  I  think  it  great  pleasure, 
Where  cunning  men  have  languages  anew, 
That  in  their  youths,  by  diligent  labour, 
Have  learned  Latine,  Greek,  and  Hebrew. 
That  I  am  not  of  that  sort,  sore  I  rew. 
Wherefore  I  would  all  Books  necessar, 
For  our  faith  were  into  our  tongues  vulgar. 

Christ  after  his  glorious  ascension 

To  his  disciples  sent  his  holy  Sprite 

In  tongues  of  fire^  to  that  intention, 

That  being  of  all  languages  repleat. 

Through  all  the  world,  with  words  faire  and  sweet, 

To  every  man  the  faith  they  would  forth  shaw, 

In  their  own  Leed  delivering  them  their  Law. 

Therefore  I  think  a  great  derision. 

To  hear  the  Nunnes  and  Sisters  night  and  day. 

Singing  and  saying  Psalmes  and  Orison, 

Not  understanding  what  they  sing  or  say. 

But  like  a  Stirling  or  a  Popinjay, 

Which  learned  are  to  speak  by  long  usage, 

Them  I  compare  to  Birds  in  a  cage. 

Right  so  Children  and  Ladies  of  Honours, 
Pray  in  Latine,  to  them  an  uncouth  Leede, 
Mumbling  their  Matine,  Evensong,  and  their  Hours, 
Their  Pater  Noster,  Ave,  and  their  Creed, 
It  were  as  pleasant  to  their  spirit  indeed 
God  have  mercy  on  me  for  to  say  thus, 
As  for  to  say  Miserere  mei  Deus. 

Sainct  IIierome  in  his  proper  tongue  Romane 
The  Law  of  God  truely  he  did  translate, 
Out  of  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latine  in  plainc, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURA.  425 

Which  hath  been  hid  from  us  long  tim6  God  wMt, 
Untill  this  time  ;  But  after  my  conceit. 
Had  Sainct  HiEROMEbeen  borne  into  Argylte, 
Iq  Irish  tongue  his  Books  had  done  compyle. 

Prudent  Saint  Paul  doth  make  narration. 

Touching  the  diverse  Leedes  of  every  Land, 

Saying  there  have  been  more  edification 

In  five  vt'ords,  that  folk  do  understand, 

Then  to  pronounce  of  words  ten  thousand. 

In  strange  language,  and  knows  not  what  it  means; 

I  think  such  pratling  is  not  worth  two  preans. 

Unlearned  people  on  the  holy  day, 
Solemnedly  they  hear  the  Evangell  sung, 
Not  knowing  what  the  priest  doth  sing  or  say. 
But  as  a  Bell  when  that  they  hear  it  rung, 
Yet  would  the  Priests  in  their  mother  tongue,' 
Passe  to  the  Pulpet  and  that  doctrine  declare, 
To  Laicke  people,  it  were  more  necessary. 

I  would  that  Prelates  and  Doctors  of  the  Law, 
With  Laicke  people  were  not  discontent, 
Though  we  into  our  vulgar  tongue  did  knaw. 
Of  Christ  Jesus  the  Law  and  Testament. 
And  how  that  we  should  keep  commandement, 
But  in  our  language  let  us  pray  and  read. 
Our  Pater  nqster,  Ave,  and  our  Creed. 

I  would  some  Prince  of  great  discretion, 

In  vulgar  language  plainly  causde  translate 

The  needful  Lawes  of  this  Region  : 

Then  would  there  not  behalfe  so  great  debated 

Among  us  people  of  the  low  estate. 

If  every  man  the  verity  did  knaw, 

We  needed  not  to  treat  these  men  of  Law; 

To  do  our  neighbour  wrong,  we  would  beware, 
If  we  did  fear  the  Lawes  punishment : 
There  would  not  be  such  brawling  at  the  Bar> 
Nor  men  of  Law  clime  to  such  Royal  rent. 
To  keep  the  Law  :  if  all  men  were  content, 
And  each  man  do,  as  he  would  be  done  io^ 
The  Judges  would  get  little  thing  adoe. 

The  Prophet  David  King  of  Israel, 
Compylde  the  pleasant  Psalmes  of  the  Psalter, 
In  his  own  proper  tongue,  as  I  here  tell : 
And  Solomon  which  was  his  Son  and  Haire, 
Did  make  his  Book  into  his  tongue  vulgar: 
Why  should  not  their  sayings  be  to  us  shown 
Iq  our  language^  I  would  the  cause  were  known. 


426  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Let  Doctors  write  their  curious  questions, 
And  arguments  sown  full  of  sophistrie  : 
Their  Logick,  and  their  high  opinions, 
Their  dark,  judgements  of  Astronomie, 
Their  Medicine,  and  their  Philosophie, 
Let  Foets  shew  their  glorious  engine, 
As  ever  they  please,  in  Greek  or  in  Latine. 

But  let  us  have  the  books  necessare, 

To  Conimon-wealth,  and  our  Salvation  : 

Justly  translated  in  our  tongue  vulgare, 

And  eke  1  make  you  supplication, 

O  gentle  Reader,  have  none  indignation, 

Thinking  to  meddle  with  so  high  matter. 

Now  to  my  purpose  forward  will  I  fare."  *^ 

Some  attempts  were  likewise  made  to  introduce 
among-  the  clergy  and  the  higher  ranks  of  the  laity,  the 
study  of  the  Griginal  Lmigiiages  of  the  Scriptures.  In 
1534,  John  Erskine,  of  Dun,  brought  a  learned  man  from 
France,  and  employed  him  to  teach  Greek,  in  Montrose; 
and  upon  his  removal,  liberally  encouraged  others  to 
come  from  France  and  succeed  to  his  place.  From  this 
private  seminary,  many  Greek  scholars  proceeded,  and 
the  knowledge  of  the  language  was  gradually  ditfused 
over  the  kingdom.  At  this  school,  George  Wishart 
probably  obtained  his  acquaintance  with  that  language; 
and  was  employed  as  one  of  the  teachers.  But  William 
Chisholm,  bishop  of  Brechin,  hearing  that  Wishart  taught 
the  Greek  New  Testament,  summoned  him  to  appear  be- 
fore him,  on  a  charge  of  heresy,  upon  which  he  fled  the 
kingdom,  in  1538,  and  remained  abroad  till  1544  ;  when 
he  returned  to  Scotland,  but  very  soon  fell  a  prey  to  the 
snares  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  and  suffered  death  as  a  mar- 
tyr, at  St.  Andrews.  The  celebrated  reformer,  John 
A>?ox,  is  supposed   to   have  studied  Greek  under  him. 

(56)  Lindsay's  Monarchie,  B.  i.  The  copy  from  which  I  have  extracted 
the  above  is  a  small  octavo,  printed  in  the  Gothic  letter.  It  is 
not  paged;  and  having  lost  the  title-page,  1  cannot  a& certain  the 
place  where  printed,  nor  the  date;  but  it  appears  to  have  been 
printed  in  England,  both  from  the  form  of  the  type,^  and  tha 
mglioised  orthography. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  427 

The  Hebrew  language  was  not  taught  ill  Scotland  till 
many  years  afterwards,  when  it  was  introduced  by  Mr. 
John  Row,  minister  of  Perth,,  who  being  a  native  of 
Scotland,  was  invested  with  the  character  of  nuncio,  or 
legate,  by  Pope  Paul  IV.  and  sent,  in  1558,  to  oppose 
the  progress  of  the  Reformation ;  but  having  detected  a 
pretended  miracle,  was  induced  to  examine  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  subsequently  to  embrace  the  protestant  sen- 
timents. His  son,  who  was  afterwards  minister  of 
Gharnock,  was  taught  the  Hebre<*v  alphabet  at  four  or 
five  years  of  age,  before  he  knew  the  letters  of  his  native 
tongue;  and  his  grandson,  who  was  Principal  of  King's 
College,  Old  Aberdeen,  published  in  1634,  the  first 
Hebrew  grammar  in  the  English  tongue;  and  a  second 
edition,  with  a  Hebrew  vocabulary,  in  1644.  All  three 
bore  the  name  of  t/oAw." 

The  endeavours  of  the  Scottish  reformers  to  dissemi- 
nate the  truth,  and  render  the  Scriptures  more  generally 
knov/n  and  understood,  met  with  the  most  determined 
opposition;  and  persecution  exercised  its  fatal  cruelties 
upon  the  reformers  themselves.  Patrick  Hamilton,  an 
amiable  youth  of  royal  descent,  and  considerable  learning 
and  eloquence,  was  the  first  who  fell  a  sacrifice  in  Scot- 
land. He  was  burnt  at  the  stake,  at  Glasgow,  with  cir- 
cumstances of  peculiar  barbarity,  A.  D.  1527.  In  1530^ 
Henry  Forrest,  another  young  nian  of  learning,  suffered 
at  St.  Andrews,  for  possessing  a  copy  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  affirming  that  Patrick  Hamilton  was  a  true 
martyr.  And  beside  many  others.  Sir  John  Borthwich 
was  accused  of  entertaining  and  propagating  heretical 
opinions,  and  dispersing  heretical  books,  among  which, 
the  New  Testament  in  English  was  enumerated  first. 
Having  escaped  to  England,  he  was  declared  an  obsti- 

(57)  M^Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  I.  p.  6 ;  notes  pp.  342—345. 

Scott's  Lives  of  the  Protestant  Reformers  in  Scotland,  pp.  3,  158^ 
195,  196. 


428  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

iiate  heretic,  and  sentenced  to  be  burnt,  as  soon  as  he 
could  be  apprehended:  all  persons  were  prohibited  to  en- 
tertain him,  under  the  pain  of  excommunication;  and  all 
goods  and  estates  confiscated;  and  his  effigy  to  be  burnt 
at  the  market  cross.     This  was  in  1540.^^ 

The  death  of  James  V.  in  December,  1542,  proved  a 
fortunate  event  to  the  cause  of  religion.  The  Earl  of 
Arran,  who  was  appointed  regent,  had  been  favourable 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  v/as  soon  sur- 
rounded with  counsellors  who  were  of  the  same  principles. 
He  chose  for  his  chaplains,  preachers  vho  had  embraced 
the  protestant  opinions;  one  of  whom,  whose  name  was 
Thomas  Guillaume,  or  f^tlllams,  was  the  honoured  instru- 
ment of  first  enlightening,  by  his  sermons,  the  mind  of  the 
great  Scottish  reformer,  John  Knox,  and  "is  said  to  have 
translated  the  New  Testament  into  the  vulgar  language." 
These  auspicious  circumstances  were  rendered  still  more 
favourable,  by  a  proposal  of  marriage  from  Henry  VIII. 
who  eagerly  pressed  an  union  between  his  son  Edward 
and  the  young  queen  of  Scots.  The  Scottish  parliament 
agreed  to  the  match ;  commissioners  were  sent  into  Eng- 
land to  settle  the  terms;  and  the  contract  of  marriage  was 
drawn  out,  subscribed,  and  ratified  by  all  parties.  But 
these  fair  appearances  were  soon  blasted,  through  the  in- 
trigues of  Cardinal  Beaton  and  the  Queen-mother,  the  fic- 
kleness and  timidity  of  the  Regent,  and  the  violence  of  the 
English  monarch.  The  treaty  of  marriage  was  broken 
off;  the  regent  renounced  connection  with  England,  and  pub- 
licly abjured  the  reformed  religion  in  the  church  of  Stirling; 
and  the  young  queen  was  soon  after  betrothed  to  the 
dauphin  of  France,  and  sent  into  that  kingdom. 

The  Reformation  had,  however,  made  considerable  pro- 
gresiS  during  the  short  time  that  it  had  been  patronised 

(58)  Henry's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  B.  ?i.  pp.  119,  1^0.  125,  126. 
Fox,  II.  p.  613. 
M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  I.  pp,  28,  ^9  5   notes  p,  353. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  429 

by  the  regent.  In  the  month  of  March,  1543,  an  act  of 
parliament  had  been  made  and  published,  declaring  it 
lawful  for  every  person  to  read  the  Scriptures  in  the  vul- 
gar tongue.  This  act,  which  was  opposed  by  the  bishops, 
who  protested  against  it,  was  signally  serviceable  to  the 
cause  of  religion.  Formerly  it  had  been  reckoned  a 
crime  to  look  on  the  sacred  books ;  now  to  read  them 
was  safe,  and  even  the  way  to  honour.  "Then,"  says  Knox, 
"might  have  been  seen  the  Bihle  lying  on  almost  every 
gentleman's  table.  The  New  Testament  was  borne  about 
in  many  men's  hands.  The  knowledge  of  God  did  won- 
derfully increase,  and  he  gave  his  Holy  Spirit  to  simple 
men  in  great  abundance."  Such  had  been  the  zeal  even 
of  the  regent,  that  he  had  been  induced  by  it  to  apply  to 
Sir  Ralph  Sadler,  the  English  ambassador,  "to  write  into 
England  for  some  Bibles,  in  English."^^ 

After  the  abjuration  of  the  EarlofArran,  the  regent, 
and  the  re-advancement  of  Cardinal  Beaton  to  power,  the 
spread  of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  wasforseveral 
years  considerably  checked,  till,  by  the  intrepidity  of  the 
celebrated  John  Knox,  and  other  undaunted  advocates  of 
Gospel  liberty  and  truth,  the  sentiments  of  the  Reformers 
were  publicly  avowed,  and  the  reformed  church  of  Scot- 
land obtained  the  sanction  of  the  government.  Suspend- 
ing, therefore,  for  the  present,  our  enquiries  into  the  state 
of  Biblical  knowledge  in  Scotland,  our  views  are  directed 
to  France,  a  country  at  that  period  intimately  connected 
with  it. 

The  French  translations  of  this  period  were  of  two  class- 
es ;  the  first  of  them  consisting  of  revised  editions  of 
Guiars  des  Moulins's  version  of  Gomestor's  Historia  Scho- 
lastica;  the  other,  of  translations  from  either  the  Latin 
Vulgate,  or  the  original  texts.     Of  the  former,  Le  Long 

(59)   M'Crle's  Life  of  Knox,  [.  pp.  39,  40. 

Scott's  Lives  of  the  Reformers,  pp.  22,  23.  96. 
Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature,  II.  p.  328, 


430  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

(BlbUoth.  Sacr.)  has  noticed  several  editions  ;  and  D.  Cle- 
ment, in  his  Bibllofheque  Curieuse,  has  mentioned  the 
three  following,  as  being  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris  : 

l."La  Bible,  en  Frangoys,  depais  la  creation  du  monde, 
jusq'au  Livre  de  Job,  inclusivement  :  extraite  de  T  His- 
toire  Scolastique  de  Pierre  le  Mengeur,  appellee  la  Bible 
Historiale  ou  Historiee.  Paris,  Mich,  le  Noir,  environ 
r  an  1515,  in  4to." 

2.  "La  Bible  translat^ede  Latin  en  Frangoys  au  vray 
sens,  pour  les  simples  gens  qui  n  entendent  pas  le  Latin, 
corrigee  et  imprimee  nouvellement  XXXV.C.  (1535)  in 
4to;' 

3.  "La  grant  Bible  en  Fran^oys,  historiee  &  corrigee. 
Paris,  Anthoyne  Bonnemere,  1538,  in  fol."^ 

Bayle,  in  his  Dlctionari/,  art.  Aaron,  remarks,  that  in 
the  preface  to  Bonnemere's  edition,  the  editor  informs  his 
readers,  that  "the  translation  was  not  calculated  for 
clerks,  but  for  the  laity,  and  for  unlearned  monks  and 
hermits;"  and  affirms,  that  the  French  translator  "has 
added  nothing  but  the  genuine  truth,  according  to  the 
express  terms  of  the  Latin  Bible  ;  nor  omitted  any  thing 
but  what  was  improper  to  be  translated."  But  not- 
withstanding these  professions,  two  Jewish  legendary 
stories  are  interwoven  in  the  32nd  chapter  of  Exo- 
dus, where  it  is  related,  "That  the  ashes  of  the  golden 
calf,  which  Moses  caused  to  be  burnt,  and  mixed  with 
the  water  that  was  drunk  by  the  Israelites,  stuck  to  the 
beards  of  such  has  had  fallen  down  before  it,  by  which 
they  appeared  with  gilt  beards,  as  a  peculiar  mark  to 
distinguish  those  who  had  worshipped  the  calf:"  and 
also,  "That  upon  Hur's  refusing  to  make  gods  for  the 
Israelites,  they  spit  upon  him  with  so  much  fury  and 
violence,  that  they  quite  suffocated  him!"®^ 

If  we  may  judge  of  the  other  editions  of  Des  Moulins's 

(60)  Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  &c.  IV.  p.  23^  Hanover,  1753,  4to. 

(61)  General  Dictionary,  by  Bernard,  &c.  I.  p.  1.  Lond.  1734-41,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  431 

translation,  by  the  specimen  given  by  Bayle,  we  must 
consider  the  man  who  presented  the  French  nation  with 
a  genuinetranslationof  the  Sacred  Scriptures,as  conferring 
upon  his  countrymen  an  inestimable  benefit.     Of  this 
nature  were  the  second  class  of  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures into  French.     The  earliest  pointed  edition  is   uni- 
versally attributed  to  the  celebrated  Jaques  le  Fevre, 
as  its  author.     The  New  Testament,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  (p.  227,)   had  been  printed  at  Paris,  in  1523 ;  and 
Le  Long  says,  that  an  edition  of  the  Old  Testament, 
was  printed  at  Antwerp,  by  Martin  L*  Empereur,  in  1528, 
accompanied  with  the  approbation  of  Nicolas  Coppin,  a 
Catholic  inquisitor,  and  dean  of  St.  Peter's  at  Lou  vain. 
The  same  printer  republished  the  Old  Testament,  with- 
out the  Psalms,  in  1529 — 32,  in  4  vols.Svo.     Afterwards 
he  added  the   Psalms  and   the   New   Testament,  and 
Summaries  of  the  books  and  chapters,  and  printed  an  edi- 
tion of  the  whole  Bible,  in  1530,  in  Gothic  characters,  in 
2  vols.  fol.  with  rude  wood-cuts,  and  the  privilege  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  annexed;  and  a  second  in  1534.     In 
1541,  another  edition  of  thisversion  was  printed  at  thesame 
place,  for  Anthony  de  la  Haye,  by  Anthony  des  Bois,   in 
fol.     These   editions  were  afterwards  prohibited  by  the 
Catholic  authorities,   and  placed  among  the  Libri  Prohi- 
biti,  of  the  Romish  church,  which  has  led  Clement  to  say, 
respecting  F.  Simon,  who  had  boasted  in  his  Critical  His- 
tory, that   the  first  publishers  of  the  French  Bible,  now 
in  use,  were  catholics, — "that  if  he  had  known  that  this 
translation  had  been  made  by  Jaques  le  Fevre,  and  that 
the  faculty  of  theology   of  Paris  had   declared  him  an 
heretic,  and  expressly  forbid  him  to  be  named,  in  their 
public  dispu  tations,  as  a  Catholic  author,  he  probably 
would  not  have  so  loudly  affirmed  that  the  first  authors 
of  the  present  French  version  were  Catholics."^ 

(6^)  Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  IV.  pp.  4 — 6. 
Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacra.  I.  pp.  326 — 328. 
Pe  Bure^  Bibllograpljie  Instructive,  Vol.  de  Theologie.  pp.  77 — 82 


432  SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

In  1535^  the  celebrated  French  version  generally  called 
OUvetans  Bible,  from  the  name  of  its  ostensible  trans- 
lator, was  begun  to  be  printed  at  Nenfchatel  in  Switzer- 
land, by  Pierre  de  Wingle^  and  bears  this  date  in  the 
title^  though  De  Bure  says  it  was  not  completed  till  1537. 
The  title  of  this  rare  edition  is  as  follows:  '^La  Bible 
qui  est  toute  la  Saincte  escripture.  En  laquelle  sont 
contenus,  le  Vieil  Testament  et  le  Nouvean,  transiatez  en 
FranQoys.  Le  Vieil  de  Lebrieu:  et  le  Nouveau,  du  Grec. 
Aussi  deux  amples  Tables^  lune  pour  linterpretation  des 
propres,  noms:  lautre  en  forme  Dindice,  pour  trouer 
plusieurs  sentences  et  matieres.'*  Beneath  are  two  niottos. 
The  first  two  words  are  printed  within  a  wood-cut  frame, 
or  border,  having  an  Hebrew  inscription  on  a  label  at 
the  top.  On  the  reverse  is  aLatin  address  from  Calvin,with 
a  pompous  title,  "JOANNES  CALUINUS  CESARIBUS, 
REGIBUS,  PRINCIBUS,  GENTIBUSQUE  OMNI- 
BUS CHRISTI  IMPERIO  SUBDITIS  SALUTEM." 
This  is  followed  by  a  French  address  of  "ROBERT 
OLIEUETANUS,  HUMBLE  ET  PETIT  TRANSLA- 
TEUR,  A  LEGLISE  DE  JESUS  CHRIST  SALUT," 
dated  "DES  ALPES  CE  XII.  DE  FEBURIER,  1535." 
A  great  air  of  tenderness  and  simphcity  pervades  the 
whole  of  this  epistle.  In  the  Latin  Preface  by  Calvin, 
positions  are  found  very  different  from  those  which  he 
afterwards  maintained.=^      The  printer  received   fifteen 

*  The  following  extracts  from  this  preface,  are  quoted  in  Beloe's 
Anecdotes  of  Literature,  &c.  from  Dr.  Winchester's  Dissertation  oq 
the  17th  article. 

''Tandem  igitur  ubi  adfuit  plenum  jllud  tempus  ac  dies  a  domino 
praeordinata,  adstitit  coram  Messias  ille  tot  retro  saecu lis  exoptatissimus: 
atque  idem  ille  omnia  cumulate  praestitit  quae  erant  ad  omnium  redemp- 
tionem  necessaria.  Neque  vero  intra  unum  Israelem  tantum  illud 
Tereiicum  stetit,  cum  potius  ad  universum  humanum  genus  usque 
porrigendura  esset :  quia  per  unum  Christum  universum  humanum 
GENUS  reconciliandum  erat  deo,  uti  his  novi  foederis  taliulis  continetur 
et  amplissime  demonstratur," 

Again  : 
"Ad  islam  H«reditatem  (regni  paterni  scilicet)  vocamur  ounei 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  433 

hundred  crowns  of  gold,  for  the  entire  impression,  which 
is  beautifaiiy  executed  in  a  small  secretary-gothic  type, 
in  folio.^^ 

The  great  Reformer,  Calvin,  is  said  to  have  had  a  con- 
siderable share  in  the  translation  or  revision  of  this  Bible, 
but  to  have  withheld  his  name,  for  fear  of  persecution,  and 
to  have  pubhshed  the  work  in  the  name  of  Robert  Pierre 
Olivetan,  his  kinsman.  But  although  it  is  probable 
that  Calvin  assisted  in  the  translation,  it  is  inconsistent 
with  his  well  known  intrepidity  of  character,  as  well  as 
w^ith  his  approbation,  expressed  in  his  preface,  and  his 
afterwards  publishing  a  revised  edition,  to  suppose  that 
fear  occasioned  him  to  suppress  his  name.  We  therefore 
consider  Olivetan  as  the  true  translator,  or  editor  of  this 
version,  which  appears  to  have  been  formed  from  that  of 
LeFevre,  and  of  which  he  avowed  himself  to  be  the  author. 
Bonnadventure  des  Perriers,  valet  de  chainbre  to  the 
queen  of  Navarre,  sister  of  Francis  I.,  has  also  been  named 
as  assisting  Olivetan  and  Calvin  in  the  translation;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  excellent  men  would  em- 
ploy, in  this  important  undertaking,  a  man  who  was  the 
author  of  an  impious  allegorical  work,  entitled  Cijrnbahim 
Mimdl,  in  which,  under  pretence  of  ridiculing  the  search 
after  the  philosopher's  stone,  he  is  said  to  have  attacked 
religion  in  general ;  a  work  which  called  forth  the  cen- 
sures both  of  catholics  and  protestants,  and  caused  Cal- 
vin to  class  him  with  Govean  and  Rabelais,  as  one  of  a 
trio  of  atheists.  Des  Perriers  killed  himself  with  a  sword, 
in  a  paroxysm  of  fever,  in  1544.^^ 

This  celebrated  edition  of  the  French  Bible  was  printed 


SINE  PERSONARUM  ACCEPTATioNE,  Masculi,  Fa?minae,  Summi,  Infimi, 
Heri,  Servi,  Magistri,  Discipuli,  Doctores,  Idiotaj,  Judaei,  Graeci,  Gallic 
Romani.  Nemo  hinc  excluditur,  qui  modo  Christum,  qualis  oflfertur 
a  Patre  in  salutem  omnium  admittat,  et  admissum  complectatur."  See 
Beloe's  Anecdotes  of  Literature  and  Scarce  Hooks ^  III,  p.  21. 

(62)  Dibdin's  Biblioth.  Spencer.  1.  pp.  82.  81. 

(63)  Bibliotheques  Francoises,  I.  pp.  90j  91. 
Vo.  U.  2  E 


434  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

at  the  expense  of  the  Vaudois,  or  Waldenses.  Clement 
relates,  that  in  a  copy  of  this  version,  which  Mr.  Jordan 
saw  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  De  Boze,  he  met  with  the 
following  acrostic  verses  at  the  end,  which  prove  this  sin- 
gular fact : 

Lecteur  entends,  si  Verite  addresse, 
Viens  done  ouir  instamment  sa  promesse 
Et  vif  parler  :  lequel  en  excellence 
Veult  assurer  notre  grelle  espcrance. 
L'  Esprit  Jesus  qui  visite,  et  ordonne 
Nos  tendres  meurs,  ici  sans  cry  estonne 
Tout  haut  raillant  escumant  son  ordure, 
Remercions  eternelle  nature : 
Prenons  vouloir  bien-faire  lihrement ; 
Jesus  querons  veoir  eternellement. 

To  perceive  the  design  of  these  lines  it  must  be  re- 
marked, that  the  first  letters  of  the  words  form  this 
tcoup  e, 

Les  Vaudois,  Peuple  Evangelique, 
Ont  mis  ce  Thresor  en  publique, 

"  The  Vaudois,  that  evangelical  people,  have  given  this 
treasure  to  the  public." 

"  This,"  adds  Clement,  "  is,  I  conceive,  the  principal 
reason  of  the  rarity  of  this  edition.  The  Vaudois  having 
transported  the  greater  part  of  the  impression  into  their 
vallies,  a  considerable  number  of  copies  have  been  de- 
stroyed, not  only  by  use,  but  especially  by  the  flames,  and 
by  a  thousand  similar  methods,  the  natural  consequences 
of  the  repeated  persecutions  raised  against  them  by  a  blind 
and  indiscreet  zeal."^* 

A  second  edition  of  the  Olivetan  version  was  printed  at 
Geneva,  in  1540,  in  small  quarto.  De  Bure  attributes 
the  revision  of  it  to  Calvin,  as  appears  by  the  following 
notice  of  it  in  his  Bibliographie  Instructive: 

"  La  Sainte  Bible,  en  laquelle  sont  contenus  tons  les 
Livres  canoniques  de  V  Ecriture  Sainte  et  pareillement  des 

(64)  Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  IV.  p.  7.  note  (3). 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  43$ 

Apocryphes,  le  tout  translate  en  Lan^ue  Frangoise,  de  la 
version  de  Robert  Pierre  Olivetan,  revue  par  Jehau 
Calvin  ;  avec  T  Indice  des  matieres,  ordonne  par  N. 
Malingre,  Precheur  du  S.  Evangile.  (Geneve,  a  V  Ep^e) 
1540,  in  4/o."  De  Bure  farther  remarks,  that  the  repre- 
sentation of  a  sword,  on  the  title-page,  has  occasioned  this 
edition  to  be  known  in  the  republic  of  letters  by  the 
name  of  the  Sword  Bihle,  (Bible  de  V  Epde./' 

By  others  the  correction  of  this  edition  has  been  attri^ 
buted  to  Martin  Bucer,  but  without  sufficient  autho- 
rity.^^ Le  Long  says,  that  the  first  edition  which  Calvin 
revised,  was  published  in  1545,  at  Lyons,  in  4to.®'  Beside 
these,  several  other  editions  were  published  by  J.  de 
Tournes  and  others,  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  Le 
Longs  BihUoiheca  Sacra,  torn.  I.  cap.  iv.  pp.  345 — 353. 
edit.  Paris,  1723,  fol. 

Robert  Pierre  Olivetan,  the  translator  of  this  ver- 
sion, was  related  to  Calvin,  who  assisted  him  in  his 
translation.  His  true  name  was  Olivetau,  but  having 
assumed  the  name  Olivetanus  in  Latin,  he  was  usually  call- 
ed Olivefan.  His  translation  was  transcribed  for  the 
press  by  an  amanuensis,  called  Joannes  Eutichus  Deperius, 
whom  M.  de  la  Monnoye  supposes  to  be  the  same  with 
Bonaventure,  or  Bonnadventure  des  Perriers,  but  from 
the  reasons  adduced  above,  we  believe,  erroneously.  Oli- 
vetan  died  at  Rome,  in  1538,  not  without  strong  sus-r 
picion  of  being  poisoned.^ 

John  Calvin,  the  kinsman  of  Olivetan,  and  his  coadju- 
tor in  publishing  the  French  Bible,  was  born  at  Noyon,  in 
Picardy,  July  10th,  1509.  His  real  name  was  Cauvin,  or 
Chauvin,  which  according  to  the  practice  of  the  learned  of 
his  day,  he  latinized  into  Calvinus.  He  was  originally  de- 


(65)  De  Bure,  Bibliog.  Instruct.-^  Vol.  de  Theologie,  pp,  79,  80. 

(66)  Le  Long,  I.  p.  345, 

(67)  Ibid. 

(68)  R.  de  JttYJgny^  BibJiotheques  Francoises,  H.  p;  315* 


436  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

signed  for  the  church,  and  after  having  pursued  his  studies 
at  Paris,  Orleans,  and  Bourges,  with  rapid  and  amazing 
success,   had  actually   obtained   the   rectory  of  Pont  i' 
Eveque,  when  he  was  induced,  by  the  preference  given  by 
his  father  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  especially  from  the 
change  which  had  taken  place  in  his   religious   views, 
through  his  intercourse  with  his  relative,  Robert  Pierre 
Olivetan,  to  relinquish  his  ecclesiastic  vocation  in  the 
church  of  Rome,   and  devote  himself  to  the  profession  of 
the  law.     In  1532,  he  pubhshed  a  commentary  on  Seneca 
De  dementia,  in  which  he  first  adopted  the  name   of 
Calvinus.     The   persecution  raised  against  the  protes- 
tants,  obliged  him  to  quit  Paris,  from  whence  he  with- 
drew to    Angouleme,   where   he   assumed   the  name  of 
Parcan;  but  not  considering  himself  safe,  he  removed  to 
Ferrara,  where  the  duchess  graciously  received  him,  and 
promised  him  protection.      Here  he  bore  the  name  of 
Happeville,  or  Heppeville.     Returning  to  Paris,  he  found 
the  persecution  still  raging  with  so  much  violence  against 
those  who  differed  from  the  Romish  church,  that  he  deem- 
ed it  prudent  to  quit  France  altogether.     He  therefore 
retired  to  Basle,  where  he  completed  and  published  his 
famous  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion.     In  1536,  he 
was  chosen  professor  of  divinity,    and  minister  of  the 
church  of  Geneva ;    but  his   refusal  to  administer  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  the  people,  on  account  of  the  immorality 
of  their  conduct,   occasioned  the  council  of  two  hundred 
to  banish  him  the  city,  and  to  order  that  he,  with  two  other 
ministers,  should  leave  it  v/ithin  two  days.    From  Geneva 
he  went  to  Strasburg,   where  he  established  a  French 
church,  of  which  he  became  the  first  pastor,  and  was  also 
chosen  professor  of  divinity.  Here  he  also  married,  in  1540, 
Idolette  De  Biire,  the  widow  of  an   anabaptist   minister. 
In  1541,  he  was  recalled  with  honour  to  Geneva,  and  there 
passed  the  rest  of  his  days  in  such  universal  esteem  and 
influence,  that  his  opponents  termed  him  the  Pope  of  Ge- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  '         437 

neva.     This  eminent  reformer  died  May  27th,  1564,  aged 
54  years,  and  10  months.^^ 

A  French  version  of  the  Psalms,  or  rather  of  a  part 
of  them,  by  Clement  Murot,  claims  particular  notice,  not 
so  much  for  its  intrinsic  excellence,  as  for  its  being  the 
foundation  of  the  psalmody  adopted  in  the  ritual  of  the 
reformed  churches;  and  in  its  popular  reception,  strongly 
exhibiting  the  levity  of  the  French  court  and  nation. 
The  author,  Clement  Marot,  was  a  native  of  Cahors,  in 
Querci,  near  Toulouse,  and  born  in  1495.  Like  his  father 
Jean  Marot,  he  was  valet  de  chambre  to  Francis  I.  ;  and 
also  page  to  Margaret  of  France,  wife  of  the  duke  of 
Alengon.  He  accompanied  this  prince  to  the  seat  of  war, 
1521,  and  was  wounded  and  made  prisoner  at  the  battle 
of  Pavia.  On  his  return  to  Paris,  he  was  accused  of  here- 
sy, and  thrown  into  prison,  and  being  brought  before 
the  Lieut enant-crimlnel,  was  reproached  with  his  former 
irreligion,  and  the  licentiousness  of  his  writings,  and  all 
that  he  could  obtain  by  the  most  earnest  solicitations, 
was  to  be  removed  from  the  obscure  and  unwholesome 
prison  of  Chatelet,  to  that  of  Chartres.  In  this  state  of 
confinement,  he  wrote  his  Enfer^  a  severe  and  pointed 
satire,  and  revised  the  celebrated  Roman  de  la  Rose.  He 
was  kept  in  prison  till  after  the  deliverance  of  Francis  I. 
from  Spain,  in  1526,  when  he  obtained  his  liberty  ;  but 
was  afterwards  obliged  to  flee  to  Geneva,  from  whence  he 
passed  to  Turin,  where  he  died  in  indigence,  in  1544. 

Clement  Marot  was  the  favourite  poet  of  France,  and 
in  the  early  part  of  his  life  was  eminent  for  his  pastorals, 
ballads,  fables,  elegies,  epigrams,  and  poetical  translations. 
But  after  his  return  from  Ferrara  into  France,  he  was 
persuaded  by  the  advice  of  Vatablus,  professor  of  Hebrew 
in  the  university  of  Paris,  to  attempt  a  version  of  David's 

(69)   R.  de  Juv'.gny,  Bibliotheques  Francoises,  I.  pp,  467 — 469. 

Those  who  are  desirous  of  seeing  a  fuller  account  of  this  great^man, 
may  consult  Melchior  Adam's  ?ltas  Theologorum  Exteroruni  Prin^ 
c?'pum,  p,  63. 


438  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

Psalms  into  French  rhymes.  In  this  attempt,  he  was 
assisted  by  Francis  Meiin  de  S.  Gelays,  and  other  learned 
men,  from  whose  prose  translations  he  formed  his  poeti- 
cal version.  His  first  edition  contained  only  30  psalms, 
and  was  dedicated  to  Francis  I.  After  his  removal  to 
Geneva,  he  proceeded  in  his  work  till  he  had  completed 
20  more  psalms,  which,  with  the  former  30,  and  8  more, 
the  translators  of  which  were  never  well  known,  were 
printed  at  Rome,  in  1542,  by  the  command  of  the  pope, 
by  Theodore  Drust,  a  German,  printer  in  ordinary  to  his 
holiness.  This  edition  was  printed  in  the  Gothic  cha- 
racter, in  octavo.  The  rest  of  the  psalms  were  versi- 
fied by  Beza,  at  Geneva.  The  translation,  however,  was 
censured  by  the  faculty  of  divinity  at  Paris,  who  pro- 
ceeded so  far  as  to  carry  their  complaints  to  the  king*, 
who  for  some  time  paid  but  little  attention  to  them,  and 
even  expressed  his  satisfaction  with  the  specimen  which 
had  been  given  of  the  translation,  and  pressed  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work.  Marot,  gratified  by  the  countenance 
of  his  sovereign,  transmitted  to  him  the  following  epigram : 

Puisque  Toulez  que  je  poursuivc,  6  Sire, 

L'  oeuvre  royal  du  Pseautier  commence 

Et  que  tout  ccEur  aimant  Dieu  le  desire, 

De  besogner  ne  me  tiens  dispense. 

S*  en  sente  done,  qui  voudra  offense ; 

Car  ceux  a  qui  un  tel  bien  ne  peut  plaire 

Doivent  penser,  si  ja  ne  1'  ont  pense, 

Qu'  ea  vous  plaisaut  me  plait  de  leur  deplaire; 

"^  Since,  O  Sire,  it  is  your  pleasure  that  I  pursue  the 
royal  work  of  the  Psalms  which  I  have  begun  ;  and  since 
all  those  who  love  God  desire  the  same,  I  reckon  I  have 
a  valid  license  to  proceed  in  it.  Wherefore,  let  whoever 
pleases  take  offence  at  it,  for  they  who  cannot  be  recon- 
ciled to  a  design  of  such  important  use,  ought  to  know, 
if  they  are  not  sensible  of  it  already,  that  while  I  do  your 
majesty  a  pleasure,  I  am  glad,  however  much  I  offend  such 
people." 

At  length,  the  repeated  remonstrances  of  the  clergy  to 


SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  439 

the  king,  against  Marot's  version,  caused  it  to  be 
prohibited.  But  the  prohibition  only  increased  the  de- 
sire to  possess  the  Psalms  thus  interdicted.  They  were 
sold  so  rapidly,  that  the  printers  could  not  supply  the 
public  with  copies ;  and  it  is  a  singular  trait  in  the  history 
of  the  times,  that  they  soon  became  the  most  popular 
songs  that  were  sung  by  all  ranks  of  society  ;  they  were 
the  common  accompaniments  of  musical  instruments, 
and  every  one  sang  them  to  the  tune  which  he  pleased. 
At  the  court  of  Francis,  each  of  the  princes  and  nobility 
selected  a  Psalm,  and  sang  it  to  the  ballad  tune,  that  each 
of  them  preferred.  The  dauphin,  prince  Henry,  who  de- 
lighted in  hunting,  was  fond  of  ^insi  qu  on  oif  le  cerf 
bruire  ;  As  the  hart  panteth  after'  the  water-brooks,  which 
he  constantly  sung  in  going  out  to  the  chase.  The  queen's 
favourite  was,  Ne  veuilles  pas,  O  sire;  O  Lord!  Rehuhe 
me  not  in  thy  wrath,  which  she  sung  to  a  fashionable  jig. 
Antony,  king  of  Navarre,  sung,  Revenge  moy,pren  le  que- 
relle ;  Stand  up,  O  Lord,  to  revenge  my  quarrel,  to 
the  air  of  a  dance  of  Poitou.'® 

Beside  the  poetical  dedication  to  Francis  I.  Marot 
accompanied  his  version  with  an  Epistle  Aux  Dames  de 
France,  "To  the  Ladies  of  France,"  in  which  he  declares, 
in  a  spirit  of  religious  gallantry,  that  his  design  is  to  add 
to  the  happiness  of  his  fair  readers,  by  substituting  divine 
hymns  in  the  place  of  amorous  ditties,  to  inspire  their 
sus(?eptible  hearts  with  a  passion  in  which  there  is  no 
torment,  to  banish  that  fickle  and  fantastic  deity  Cupid 
from  the  world,  and  to  fill  their  apartments  with  the 
praises  of  the  true  Jehovah. 

The  Psalms  translated  by  Beza,  and  versified  in  imita- 
tion of  Marot's,  were  favourably  received,  and  like 
Marot's  were  sung  by  catholics  as  well  as  others, 
who  never  suspected  any  injury  from  them,  till  they  were 
appointed  to  be  sung  in  the  Caivinistic  congregations, 

(70)  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  III.  pp.  161—163. 


440  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

in  1553^  and  began  to  be  appended  to  the  catechisms 
of  Geneva.  But  after  this,  the  use  of  them  was  absolute- 
ly forbidden  by  the  catholic  authorities,  and  the  former  pro- 
hibitions were  renewed  and  enforced  by  severe  penalties. 
About  this  period,  Calvin,  by  the  advice,  it  is  said, 
of  Luther,  had  projected  a  species  of  religious  song,  con- 
sisting of  portions  of  the  Psalms^  intelligibly  translated 
into  the  vernacular  language,  and  adapted  to  plain  and 
easy  melodies  which  all  could  learn,  and  in  which  all 
might  join,  and  which  would  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the 
antiphonal  chanting  of  the  Romish  services,  in  the  pub- 
lic worship  of  God.  This  scheme  for  the  adoption  of 
congregational  singing,  was  forwarded  by  the  publication 
of  Marot's  metrical  psalms,  which  Calvin  immediately 
introduced  into  his  congregation  at  Geneva.  Being  set 
to  simple,  and  almost  monotonous  notes,  by  Guillaume  de 
Franc,  and  other  celebrated  composers,  they  were  soon 
established  among  the  churches  of  the  reformed,  and 
became  a  characteristical  mark  of  the  Calvinistic  profes- 
sion and  worship.  They  exhilarated  their  social  assemblies, 
were  commonly  heard  in  the  streets,  and  accompanied 
the  labour  of  the  artificer,  so  that  the  weavers  of  Flan- 
ders became  noted  for  their  skill  in  the  science  of  psal- 
mody. Bayle  says,  that  10,000  copies  of  these  psalms, 
in  verse,  and  set  to  music,  were  at  that  time  printed,  and 
very  generally  dispersed.  Florimond  de  Remond  object- 
ed to  the  music  of  Marot's  psabns  that  the  airs  of  some 
of  them  were  borrowed  from  vulgar  ballads  ;  to  which 
the  Sieur  de  Pours  replied,  that  what  used  to  belong  to 
profane  songs  was  now  separated  from  them,  and  was 
become  in  a  measure  sanctified.  "  In  ancient  times," 
he  adds,  ^'  things  that  were  of  common  use,  even  though 
taken  as  plunder,  when  they  v/ere  with  proper  rites  se- 
parated and  sequestered  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary, 
were  counted  holy:"  and  whatever  judgment  we  may  form 
of  the  mode  of  adopting  popular  tunes  in  public  worship, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  441 

it  is  certain,  that  in  this  instance,  the  effect  was  rapid 
and  beneficial,  the  attention  of  the  multitude  was  gained 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  gave  them  an 
extensive  circulation  and  influence. 

This  version  being,  at  length,  become  obsolete  and 
barbarous,  the  church  of  Geneva,  which  had  been  the 
first  to  adopt  it,  was  the  first  to  abandon  it.  M.  Conrart 
began  the  revision,  and  M.  de  la  Bastide  completed  it. 
For  some  time  the  reformed  churches  hesitated  to  adopt 
the  revised  version,  but  it  was  afterwards  introduced 
into  Geneva,  Hesse  Cassel,  and  various  other  places.^* 

The  interdiction  of  singing  Marot's  metrical  version 
of  the  Psalms,  was  a  small  part  of  that  persecution 
which  raged  about  that  time,  against  all  who  dared 
to  differ  from  the  church  of  Rome,  or  who  attempted  to 
circulate  the  Holy  Scriptures.  One  or  two  instances  of 
the  severity  with  which  those  were  treated  who  sold  or 
dispersed  the  Sacred  Volumes,  will  exhibit  in  its  true 
light,  the  antipathy  of  superstition  to  Gospel  truth. 

At  Avignon,  the  bishop  of  Rieux  gave  a  banquet  to  the 
bishop  of  Aix  and  other  prelates  engaged  in  the  violent 
persecution  of  the  inhabitants  of  Merindola,  to  which  the 
most  beautiful  women  were  invited.  After  the  banquet, 
the  company  amused  themselves  with  dancing,  playing 
at  dice,  and  similar  dissipative  pleasures;  after  which  the 
prelates,  with  each  a  female  leaning  on  his  arm,  walked 
up  and  down  the  streets,  to  pass  the  time  till  supper, 
when  seeing  a  man  offering  obscene  pictures  and  songs 
to  sale,  they  purchased  the  whole  of  his  stock,  "as  many 
as  a  mule  could  well  carry."  With  these  they  entertained 
their  female  companions,  at  the  expense  of  all  modesty 
and  gravity,  and  with  most  indecent  levity,  explained  the 

(71)  Les  Pseaumesde  David  mis  en  rime  francoise.  Par  Clement  Marot 
et  Theodore  Beze.  Sedan,  1630,  8vo. 
Nouveau  Dictionaire  Plistorique,  VI.  pp.  44,45. 
Bibliothpques  Frangoises,  I.  p.  156. 
Gen.  Dictionary,— Bay  le,  art.  Marot.  notes  N.  P.  pp.  465—469. 


442  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

difficult  sentences  which  occurred  in  them.  In  the  course 
of  their  walk  through  the  city,  they  also  met  with  a  book- 
seller, who  had  exhibited  for  sale  certain  Latin  and  French 
Bibles,  The  prelates,  indignant  at  his  heretical  boldness, 
sternly  asked  him,  "Barest  thou  be  so  bold  as  to  set  out 
such  merchandise  as  this  to  sell,  in  this  town?  Dost 
thou  not  know  that  such  books  are  forbidden?  "  The 
bookseller  answered,  "  Is  not  the  Holy  Bible  as  good  as 
those  goodly  pictures  which  you  have  bought  for  these 
gentlewomen?"  Scarcely  had  he  spoken  the  words,  but  the 
bishop  of  Aix  said,  "I  renounce  my  part  of  Paradise,  if 
this  fellow  be  not  a  Lutheran.  Let  him  be  taken  and 
examined."  Immediately  a  company  of  ruffians,  who  at- 
tended on  the  prelates,  began  to  cry  out,  "a  Lutheran, — 
a  Lutheran ;  to  the  fire  with  him, — to  the  fire  with  him ;" 
whilst  one  gave  him  a  blow,  and  another  pulled  him  by 
his  hair,  and  a  third  plucked  him  by  the  beard,  so  that 
the  poor  man  was  covered  with  blood,  before  he  reached 
the  prison  to  which  they  were  dragging  him. 

The  next  day  he  was  brought  before  the  judges,  and 
examined  in  the  presence  of  the  bishops.  Being  asked, 
"  hast  not  thou  set  forth  to  sale  the  Bible  and  the  New 
Testamentiw  French;''  he  honestly  acknowledged  that  "  he 
had  done  so."  It  was  then  demanded  of  him,  "  whether 
he  did  not  know  and  understand,  that  it  was  forbidden 
throughout  all  Christendom,  to  print  or  sell  the  Bible  in 
any  language  except  Latin  ?"  To  which  he  replied,  "  that 
he  knew  the  contrary  to  be  true  ;  and  that  he  had  sold 
many  Bibles  in  the  French  tongue,  with  the  emperors 
privilege  in  them,  and  many  others  printed  at  Lyons, 
and  also  New  Testaments  printed  by  the  king's  pri- 
vilege;" and  added,  that  "  he  knew  no  nation  through- 
out all  Christendom,  which  had  not  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures in  their  vulgar  tongue."  He  then  courageously 
addressed  them  in  the  following  terms:  "  O  ye  inhabitants 
of  Avignon,  are  you  alone  in  all  Christendom,   the  men 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  443 

who  despise  and  abhor  the  Testament  of  the  Heavenly 
Father?  Will  ye  forbid  and  hide  that  which  Jesus  Christ 
hath  commanded  to  be  revealed  and  published  ?  Do  you 
not  know  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  gave  power  to  his 
apostles  to  speak  all  manner  of  tongues,  to  the  end  that 
his  holy  Gospel  might  be  taught  to  all  creatures,  in  every 
language  ?  And  why  do  you  not  forbid  those  books  and 
pictures,  which  are  full  of  filthiness  and  abomination,  and 
which  stir  up  the  people  to  whoredom  and  uncleanness, 
and  provoke  God's  vengeance  and  great  indignation 
against  you  ?  What  greater  blasphemy  can  there  be, 
than  to  forbid  God's  most  holy  books  which  he  ordained 
to  instruct  the  ignorant,  and  to  reduce  and  bring  again 
into  the  way  such  as  have  gone  astray  ?  What  cruelty  is 
this,  to  take  away  from  the  poor  simple  souls,  their  nou- 
rishment and  sustenance!  But,  my  lords,  you  shall  give 
a  heavy  account,  who  call  sweet  sour,  and  sour  sweet, 
and  who  countenance  abominable  and  detestable  boolcs 
and  pictures,  but  reject  that  which  is  holy."  The  bishops, 
enraged  by  these  words,  violently  exclaimed,  "What 
need  have  you  of  any  more  examination  ?  Let  him  be 
sent  straight  to  the  fire,  without  any  more  words."  But 
Liberius,  the  judge,  and  some  others,  who  conceived  that 
the  prisoner  had  done  nothing  worthy  of  death,  proposed 
the  adoption  of  a  milder  sentence,  wishing  only  to  have  him 
fined,  and  to  acknowledge  that  the  bishop  of  Aix  and 
his  companions  were  the  true  pastors  of  the  church. 
This  the  pious  and  intrepid  bookseller  refused,  saying, 
that  "  he  could  not  do  it  with  a  good  conscience,  since 
he  had  an  instance  before  his  eyes,  that  these  bishops 
countenanced  filthy  books  and  abominable  pictures, 
rejecting  and  refusing  the  holy  books  of  God,  and  he 
therefore  judged  them  rather  to  be  priests  of  Bacchus 
and  Venus,  than  the  true  pastors  of  the  church  of  Christ." 
On  this  refusal,  the  bookseller  was  immediately  con- 
demned to  be  burnt ;    and  the  dreadfnl  sentence  wag 


444  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

executed  the  very  same  day.  As  a  token  of  the  cause 
of  his  condemnation,  two  Bibles  were  hung  about  his 
neck,  one  of  them  before,  and  the  other  behind,  and  he  was 
thus  led  to  the  place  of  execution.  Such,  however,  was 
the  firmness  of  his  mind,  and  the  Divine  support  that  he 
experienced,  that  with  undaunted  earnestness  he  continued 
to  exhort  the  multitude,  as  he  passed  on  the  way  to 
execution,  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  with  such 
effect,  that  several  became  inquirers  after  truth. 

The  death  of  the  pious  bookseller  created  considerable 
emotion  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  who  not  only 
murmured  at  the  execution  of  the  excellent  man  who  had 
suffered,  but  were  indignant  at  the  contempt  which  the 
prelates  had  shown  for  the  Scriptures.  The  bishops, 
therefore,  in  order  to  silence  the  people,  caused  a  procla- 
mation to  be  made  by  sound  of  trumpet,  throughout  the 
whole  city  and  country,  ''that  all  those  who  had  any 
books,  in  the  French  tongue,  treating  upon  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  should  bring  them  forth,  and  deliver  them 
into  the  hands  of  the  commissioners  appointed  for  that 
purpose,  under  pain  of  death  if  any  such  books  should 
be  afterwards  found  about  them." 

Another  who  suffered  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel  was 
Peter  Chapof,  corrector  of  the  press  to  a  printer  at  Paris. 
Having  been  at  Geneva,  he  returned  into  France,  with  a 
number  of  copies  of  the  Scriptures.  These  he  dispersed 
among  those  of  his  ov»^n  persuasion.  But  his  zeal  cost 
him  his  life;  for  being  apprehended,  on  the  information 
of  John  Andre,  a  bookseller,  he  was  condemned,  and 
afterwards  strangled  and  burnt.  This  was  at  Paris, 
in  1546.^^ 

The  dreadful  cruelties  thus  exercised  on  the  advocates 
of  truth  and  the  friends  of  the  Bible,  did  not  entirely 
suppress  all  efforts  to  give  publicity  to  the  unadulterated 

(7^)   Fox's  Acfps  and  IMonumentes,  11.  pp,  190,  191. 
(73)   Ibid,  If.  p,  133. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  445 

Word  of  God:  for  some  were  still  found  whose  noble 
exertions,  in  the  cause  of  Sacred  literature,  demand  the 
grateful  acknowledgments  of  posterity.  Of  these,  beside 
those  already  noticed,  the  family  of  the  Stephenses, 
the  learned  printers,  were  the  most  famous.  The  history 
of  them  has  been  written  by  the  industrious  Maittaire, 
and  his  Historia  Stephanorurn  presents  them  to  us,  not 
as  mere  mechanical  artists,  but  as  the  great  patrons  of 
literature,  and  ranking  among  the  most  learned  men  of 
the  age  in  which  they  lived ;  a  period  extending  from  the 
early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  seventeenth,  and  during  which  they  pub- 
lished, beside  almost  innumerable  classical  and  gramma- 
tical works,  of  many  of  which  they  were  the  authors  as 
well  as  printers, — 45  editions  of  the  Bible,  in  different 
languages,  3  editions  of  Concordances,  and  48  editions  of 
Commentaries  bv  various  authors.  Henry,  the  first  of 
these  celebrated  printers,  printed  the  Quhituplex  Psalter 
of  Le  Fevre,  in  1509,  ihejirst  publication  in  which  the 
verses  of  the  Scriptures  were  distinguished  by  7iumerkal 
figures.  He  died  at  Lyons,  A.  D.  1520.  His  widow 
married  Colin.eus,  another  Parisian  printer  of  eminence, 
and  the  first  after  Erasmus  who  published  an  edition  of  the 
Greek  New  Testament,  corrected  from  MSS.  This  edition 
was  printed  at  Paris,  in  1534,  in  8vo.  Henry  Stephens 
left  three  sons,  Francis,  Robert,  and  Charles,  all  of  whom 
lived  in  great  reputation  as  learned  men  and  excellent 
printers,  but  as  Robert  was  the  great  Biblical  scholar, 
we  shall  principally  confine  ourselves  to  a  short  biogra- 
phical sketch  of  him,  as  being  the  most  connected  by  his 
labours  with  the  history  and  circulation  of  the  Scriptures. 
Robert  Stephens,  the  son  of  Henry,  was  born  at 
Paris,  in  1503.  After  obtaining  a  learned  education,  he 
was  received  into  the  printing-oifice  of  his  father-in-law 
Colinaeus,  and  for  some  years  assisted  in  editing  the 
works  published  by  that  excellent  printer.     Afterwards 


446  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

he  commenced  business  for  himself,   and  married  the 
daughter  of  Jodocus  Badius,  who  spoke  the  Latin  with 
nearly  as  much  facility  as  the  French,  being  particularly 
suited  for  the  wife  of  one,  who  occasionally  entertained 
ten  learned  men  in  his  family,  as  editors  and  correctors 
of  his  press,  who  constantly  conversed  with  each  other 
in  Latin.     In  1528,  he  published  an  edition  of  the  Latin 
Bible,  in  folio,  cum  privilegio  regis,  corrected  from  the 
best  MS8.  he  could  procure  of  the  Vulgate  version,  as 
well  as  from  the  Polyglot t  Bible  of  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
and  from  all  the  other  printed  editions  which  he  could 
obtain.     He  particularly  specifies  two  MSS.  which  he 
met  with  in  the  library  of  St,  Germain  des  Prez,  one  of 
them  of  great  age,  and  most   accurately  written;   and 
another  which  he  found  in  the  library  of  St.  Denis  ;  and 
remarks,  that  he  began  the  collation  of  them  in  1524. 
He  published  a  second  edition  in  fol.  in  1532,  cum  privi- 
legio regis ;  and  a  third  in  8vo.  in  1534.     These  editions 
were  excelled,  however,  by  one  which  he  published  in 
1543,  in  fol.  the   typography  and  paper  of  which  are 
remarkably  good;    and    which    is  rendered  peculiarly 
valuable   by  the  various  readings,   given  in  the  margin, 
of  a  considerable  number  of  MSS.  and  printed  editions, 
with  correct  references  to  the  MSS.  or  editions  in  which 
they  occur.     He  was  assisted  in  it  by  JVilUam  Fabriciusy 
a  canon  of  Poitou,  who  was  well  versed  in   the  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin  languages.     It  was  printed  with  the 
king's  privilege,  cum  privilegio  regis.  Our  learned  printer 
also  published  a  Hebrew  Bible  in  4to.  which  he  completed 
in  1544 ;  and  a  beautiful  small  sized  edition,  in  1546, 
in  8  vols. 

In  1545,  he  printed  another  edition  of  the  Latin  Bible, 
in  folio.  The  Vulgate  and  Zurich  versions  were  placed  in 
parallel  columns,  and  accompanied  with  scholia  or  short 
notes,  explaining  the  Hebraisms  and  other  critical  diffi- 
culties.   Several  of  the  notes  were  what  had  been  takers 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  447 

down,  during  the  public  lectures  of  Vatahlus  the  Hebrew 
professor,  at  the  request  of  Robert  Stephens,  by  Bertinus 
le  Comte,  and  this  edition  has  therefore  obtained  the  name 
of  "Vatablus's  Bible."     He  also  published  editions  of  the 
New  Testament,  with  similar  notes,  in  12mo.  1541, 1543, 
and  1545.     The  Notes  which  accompanied  these  editions 
being  ascribed  to  Vatablus  by  the  editor,  occasioned  him 
great  uneasiness,  and  at  length  became  the   occasion  of 
his  quitting  Paris,  and  removing  to   Geneva.     For  Ste- 
phens having  printed,  along  with  the  notes  of  the  profes- 
sor, "  Remarks"  of  his  own,  which  were  tinctured  with 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  Vatablus  denied  being 
the  author  of  the  notes ;  and  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne 
unanimously   condemned  these  editions,  and  adjudged 
them   to    be    suppressed,    and   placed    in   the   number 
of  prohibited  books.     The   divines   of  Louvain   appear 
to  have  been  the  first  to  censure   the  edition   of  1545, 
though  it  had  been  printed  with  the  king's  permission, 
and  to  publish  a  catalogue  of  the  errors  contained  in  it. 
Francis  I.  in  a  letter  dated  October  27th,  1546,  forbade 
the  doctors  of  Paris  to  imitate  those  of  Louvain  in  this 
instance,  but  ordered  them  to  revise  this  Bible,  and  col- 
lect the  errors,    "that  they  might  be  printed  at  the  end 
of  every  book."    The  Parisian  divines,  dissatisfied  with 
the  decision  of  Francis   I.  afterwards  presented  several 
petitions    to  his  successor,  Henry   II.  who  at   length 
yielded  to  their  request,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  them, 
bearing  date,    November    25th,    1547,   to  this  effect: 
"Dear  and  well-beloved,  hpving   deliberately   weighed 
and  considered   the  remonstrances   that  you  have  exhi- 
bited to  us,  on  the  account   of  the  Bibles  printed  by 
R.  Stephens,  and  not  being  willing,  by  any  means,  to 
tolerate  or  permit  any   thing  that   tends  to  divert  our 
subjects  from   the  right  catholic  way, — ^we  therefore  re- 
quire you  to  put  the  said  Bibles  in  the  catalogue  of  cen- 
sured and  prohibited  books,  if  you  find  in  them  any 


448 

errors  that  render  the  reading"  of  them  offensive  and 
pernicious,  notwithstanding  any  letters  that  we  may  have 
formerly  issued  to  the  contrary."  The  booksellers  op- 
posed these  proceedings,  and  insisted  that  a  catalogue  of 
the  errors  should  be  placed  at  the  beginning  of  every 
book,  in  the  form  of  errata;  but  their  opposition  was 
disregarded^  and  the  Bibles  and  New  Testaments  of 
Robert  Stephens  were  placed  in  the  number  of  prohibited 
books.  The  censure  of  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne^  is 
thus  copied  by  F.  Simon. 

"Anno  Domini  1548,  die  1 5,  mensisMaii,Sacra  Theologize 
Facultas  post  Sacrosanctse  de  Sancto  Spiritu  Missae  ce- 
lebrationem  apud  S.  Matthurinum  sacramento  fidei 
convocata,  perlectis  et  animadversis  erroribus  contentis 
in  Bibliis  Roberti  Stephani  excusis  anno  1528,  1532, 
1534,  1540,  1545,  et  1546,  nee  non  in  Novis  Testamentis 
per  eundem  impressis  annis  1541, 1543, 1545,  ac  etiam  in 
Psalterio  sen  libro  Psalmorum  Davidis  cum  annotationi- 
bus  ex  Hebreeorum  commentariis  seorsim  excuso  ;  deni- 
que  in  indicibus  editis  annis  1528,  1532,  1540,  et  1546, 
communi  omnium  calculo  conclusit  prsedicta  Biblia,Nova 
Testamenta,  Psalterium  seu  Librum  Psalmorum,  cum  an- 
notationibus  ex  Hebrseorum  commentariis,  et  indices  dic- 
torum  Bibliorum  juxta  designatum  sui  temporis  annum 
ob  errores  in  iis  contentos  et  hsereses  suppressione  digna, 
atque  in  communem  librorum  reprobatorum  catalogum 
reponenda." 

"It  must  be  acknowledged,"  says  F.  Berthier,  "  that  in 
this  doctrinal  judgment,  Robert  Stephens  was  treated 
with  severity.  For  although  many  parts  of  his  works  in- 
culcated what  was  erroneous"  (i.e.  according  to  the  views 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  churches,)  "yet  others  were  ca- 
pable of  a  more  favourable  construction.  But  at  that 
period  the  slightest  appearance  of  heresy  was  dreaded." 

Pierre  du  Chatel,  or  Castellanus,  the  learned  bishop  of 
Macon^  who  had  formerly  assisted  Erasmus,  had  been  one 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  449 

of  the  correctors  of  Froben  s  press,  for  some  time  defended 
the  cause  of  Robert  Stephens,  fearing  lest  the  censure  of 
our  laborious  printer  should  injure  literature  generally  ; 
"but  unfortunately,"  adds  F.  Berthier,  "he  could  not 
conceal  the  heresy  which  influenced  his  heart." 

After  the  death  of  Francis  I.  and  the  censure  passed 
upon  his  editions  of  the  Scriptures,  Robert  Stephens 
withdrew  to  Geneva,  where  he  published  an  Apology,  in 
defence  of  himself,  against  the  censures  of  the  doctors 
of  the  Sorbonne  ;  and  continued  to  publish  a  variety  of 
learned  works  till  his  death,  which  happened  in  that  city, 
in  1559.  His  property  he  devised  to  that  son  who 
should  continue  to  reside  at  Geneva.  He  left  three  sons, 
Henry,  Robert,  and  Francis,  and  one  daughter. 

Beside  his  Biblical  works,  he  published  valuable 
editions  of  many  classical  authors,  and  a  Dictionary 
of  the  Latin  tongue,  in  4  vols.  fol. — a  work  of  immense 
labour  and  erudition.  Of  this  work,  entitled  Thesaurus 
Latince  Linguce,  editions  have  been  since  printed  at 
Lyons,  Leipsic,  Basle,  and  London,'* 

The  great  historian  Thuanus,  or  De  Thou,  has  passed 
a  merited  eulogium  on  this  ingenious  and  leanied  printer. 
"  Not  only  France,"  says  he,  "  but  the  whole  Christian 
world,  owes  more  to  him,  than  to  the  greatest  warrior  that 
ever  extended  the  possessions  of  his  country;  and  greater 
glory  has  redounded  to  Francis  L  by  the  industry  alone  of 
Robert  Stephens,  than  from  all  the  illustrious,  warlike, 
and  pacific  undertakings  in  which  he  was  engaged."'* 
And  that  Francis  L  was  sensible  of  the  importance  and 
celebrity  of  R.  Stephens,  was  evidenced  by  the  patronage 
with  which  he  honoured  him,  appointing  him  his  printer 

(74)  Maittaire,  Historia  Stephanofum,  passim.  Loud,  1709,  8vo. 
Nouveau  Diet.  Hist.  III.  art.  Etienne,  {Robert.) 

Longueval,   Hist,   de  V  Eglise  Gallirane,  continaee   par  G.   F. 

Berthier,  XVIIL  pp.  485— 4S8.  Paris,  1749,  4to. 
Simou's  Crit.  Hist,  of  Versions  of  N.  T.  pt.  ii.  eh.  xi.  pp.  100 — 104. 

(75)  Monumenta  Litterana,ex  Hist,  Thuani,  p.  70.  Lend.  1640,  4to, 
Vol.  II.  2  F 


450 


BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 


and  librarian,  and  causing  matrices  to  be  engraved  at  his 
own  expense,  for  the  founding  of  beautiful  Greek  and 
Hebrew  types.  These  matrices,  which  were  most  probably 
presented  to  him  by  his  royal  patron,  as  a  token  of  his 
approbation  and  esteem,  are  said  to  have  been  carried  to 
Geneva  by  R.  Stephens,  and  afterwards  to  have  been 
reclaimed  from  the  Genevese,  and  a  large  sum  to  have 
been  paid  for  them,  by  Louis  XIII.  But  the  latter  part 
of  this  story  is  regarded  as  dubious  by  the  authors  of  the 
Noiweau  Dictionnaire  Historique. 

The  obligations  of  France,  and  the  Christian  world  in 
general,  to  this  learned  French  printer,  will  be  best  appre- 
ciated, as  it  respects  the  services  rendered  to  Christianity, 
by  the  following  list  of  his  Biblical  publications,  extracted 
from  Maittaire's  Hlstoria  Stephanorum,  tom.  II.  pars.  ii. 
pp.  85 — 95.  The  remarks  on  them  are  chiefly  from 
Dr.  Clarke's  Bibliographical  Dictionary. 

1 .  Editions  oj  the  Scripture^  in  the  Original  Languages. 


Vetus  Testamentum    Hebrai- 
cum 4to.  1544. 

Idem , 12mo.  1546. 

Novum  Testamentum  Graecum 

fol.  1550. 
'^A  most  beautiful  and  mag- 
nificent edition,  published 
with  various  readings  from 
fifteen  MSS.  besides  those 
of  the  Complutensian  edi- 
tion." Bib.  Diet. 

Idem 12mo.  1546. 

'*  This  is  what  is  termed 
the  0  mirificnm  edition. 
Stephens's  preface  begins 
thus :  0  mirificam  Regis 
nostri  optimi  et  prcestantis- 
simi  Principis  liber  alitatem, 
&c.  The  person  he  refers 
to  is  Francis  I. — A  most 
beautiful  edition."  Bib. 
Diet. 

Idem 12mo.  1549. 

"Some  assert  that  this  is 


precisely  the  same  as  the 
former,  with  a  change  of  the 
date  oi\\y:\    Bib,  Diet. 

"R.  S.  printed  two  Greek 
New  Testaments, — with  the 
same  preface,  one  in  1546, 
in  which  there  are  a  few 
faults,  corrected  in  the  Er- 
raia^  at  the  end  ;  the  other 
in  1549,  which  is  the  best, 
and  tlie  most  rare.  The 
booksellers  call  them  0  mi^ 
rijicam^  from  the  preface, 
which  R.  S.  began  in  that 
manner,  from  the  obligation 
he  was  under  to  Francis  I. 
for  the  punches  and  matrices 
fabricated  for  the  purpose 
of  enabling  him  to  print  the 
Greek  in  a  beautiful  man- 
ner, with  a  small  type." 
See  Chevillier,  DeV  Origine 
de  V  Imprimerie  de  Parity 
pt.  ii.  ch,  iii.  p.  14^» 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


451 


2.  Fer 

Biblia  Latina fol.  1 528. 

Eadem fol.  1532. 

Eadem fol.  1540. 

"The  best  edition."  Bib.  Diet. 

Eadem fol.  1546. 

Eadem 8vo.  1534. 

Eadem 8vo.  1 555. 

Eadem,  juxta  Veter.  et   Nov. 

T.  Translat fol.  1557. 

Containing  the  Vulgate  and 
Zurich  Versions. 

Eadem 8vo.  1545. 

Nov.  Test.  Graece  cum  Veter. 
et  Nov.  Lat.  Vers..  .8vo.  1551. 
'*  The  Jirst  edition  divided 
into  verses,  which  was  done 
by  Stephens  in  the  course 
of  a  journey  from  Paris  to 
Lyons;  and  inter  eqiiitcm- 
dum,  surely  not  on  horse' 
back,  as  most  have  inter- 
preted the  wordsjbut  during 
the  journey ;  i.  e.  as  fre- 
quently as  he  stopped  to 
refresh  his  horse,    like  an 


sions, 

indefatigable  student  who 
had  not  a  moment  to  lose, 
but  employed  those  intervals 
in  preparing  this  edition  for 
the  press.  And  though  it 
is  said  to  have  been  cure' 
lessly  done,  yet  probably 
not  one  of  those  who  have 
criticised  the  undertaking, 
would  have  made  a  Jirst 
essay,  on  the  same  subject, 
less  imperfect."  Bib.  Diet, 

Idem  Latine 8vo.  1541. 

Idem  Latine 12mo.  1 543. 

Idem  Latine 12mo.  1545. 

La  Bible fol,  1553. 

Les  Pseaulraes  tant  en  Latin 
qu'  en  Frangois.  . .  .8vo.  1552. 

Proverbes^  Ecclesiaste,  Can- 
tique,  Sapience,  Ecclesias- 
tique 8to,  1 552. 

Le  Nouveau  Testament  12mo  1560, 

Le  m-eme  tant  en  Latin  qu'  en 
Frangois 8vo,  1552. 


3.  Concordance  and  Indexes. 


Concordantiae  Latinae  utrius- 
que  Testamenti fol.  1555. 

llebraea  et  Chaldaea  Nomina 
Propria 4to.  1549. 


Heb.  Chald.  Grseca  et  Latina 
Nomina  Propria,  Index  re- 
rum  ac  sententiarum,  8vo.  1537, 


4.  Jewish  and  Christian  Commentaries. 


Prophetae  quinque,   Osee  cum 

Thargum 4to,  1556. 

Kimchi  in  Habacuc 4to.  1559. 

Libri    Mosis     quinque      cum 

Annbt 4to.  1541. 

Idem    cum   Calvini   commen- 

tariis fol,  1559. 

Genesis  cum  Calvini  commen- 

tariis fol,  1554. 

Buceri   Comment,    in    Judic. 

Psalm,  Sophon fol.  1554, 

Calvini  Comment,  in  Psalmos. 

fol.  1557. 
Liber  Psalmornm   cum  anno- 

tationibus    ex   Hebraeorura 


Comment 8vo.  1 546. 

Cantica  Bibliorum  cum  annot. 

ex  Hebr.  Comment. .  .8?o.  1546. 
Liber  Psalmorum,  cum  annot. 

Vatabli  ex  Hebr.  Comment. 

8vo,  1556 
Psalmi^   Proverbia,  Eeclcsias- 

tes,  Canticum  cum  brevibus 

annotat 4to.  1528. 

Comment,    in   Matth.    Marc. 

Luc fol.  1553. 

Glossaj    in   tres  Evangelistas, 

cum  Calvin.  Comment,  ad- 

jecto  seorsim  Joanne,  .fol.  156^. 
Harmonia  ex  trib,  Eiang.  ad» 


Idem  in  PauH  Epistolas.  fol.  1557. 

Decern  Praecepta,  et  Scriptu- 
ra?  sumrna,  utraque  singulis 
foliis ..1540. 

Summa  totius  Sacrae  Scripturae 
Decom  Dei  verba.  . . ,  8vo.  1 542. 

Sommaire  en  forme  d'  exposi- 
tion du  contenu  es  Pseau- 
mes 8vo.  1 552. 

Claire  declaration  du  contenu 
au  Vieil  et  Nouveau  Tes- 
tament  8vo.  1  552. 

Exposition  continuelle  sur  les 
Evangelistes . .  fol.  1 554. 


452 

jecto  seorsim  Joanne,  cum 

Calvin.  Comment foU  1555. 

(Reprinted) 1560. 

Buceri  Enarrationes  in  quatu- 

or    Evanselistas. ,.  . .  .fol.  1553. 
Harmonia   Evangelica  Osian- 

dri fol. 

Eadem 12mo.  1 545. 

Annotationes  ineaudem  12mo.l545 
Calvini  Commentarii  in  Joan- 

nem fol.  1553. 

Idem    in    Acta    Apostolorum 

fol.  1555. 
Idem  in  omnes  Epistolas,  fol.  1556. 

In  addition  to  these  works  which  were  strictly  Biblical, 
he  published,  Justlni  Marty ns  Opera,  Grcecd^  fol.  1551; 
Eusehii  P r cepar at io  Evangelica,  Graced,  fol.  1544;  Eitsehii 
Demonstratio  Evangelica,  Grcecd,  fol.  1545;  Calvini 
Instltuflones,  fol.  1553,  1559 ;  Calvin  s  Catechism,  in 
Hebrew,  1554,  m  Greek,  1551,  and  m  French,  1553; 
with  other  works  of  a  similar  nature. 

These  strenuous  exertions  to  promote  the  knowledg^e 
of  the  Scriptures,  could  not  fail  to  draw  down  upon  him 
the  vengeance  of  a  bigoted  and  superstitious  hierarchy, 
whose  security  lay  principally  in  ignorance.  The  heresy, 
as  it  was  called,  of  the  Stephenses,  was  their  unpardon- 
able crime.  "  We  should  give,"  says  Chevillier,  "  to  the 
Stephenses,  Robert,  and  Henry  his  son,  unqualified  and 
unreserved  praise,  if,  with  their  great  abilities,  and  all 
the  honour  acquired  in  the  art  of  printing,  they  had  not 
quitted  the  Catholic  religion,  and  embraced  the  novelties 
of  Calvin." — "  Nous  donnerions  auxEtiennes,  Robert,  et 
Henri  son  fils,  la  louange  entiere  et  sans  aucune  reserve, 
si  avec  leur  grande  capacite,  et  tout  T  honneur  qu  lis  ont 
acquis  dans  1'  art  d'  imprimerie,  ils  n  avoient  point  quitte 
la  religion  catholique,  pour  suivre  les  nouveautez  de 
Calvin." '' 

Maittaire,    in   his    Annates    Typographicl,   has    given 


(76)  Chevillier,  De  T  Origine  de  T  Imprimie  de  Paris,  part  iii.  cap.  ii, 
p.  260. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 


453 


copies  of  the  Catalogues  of  Books,  printed  by  the  Ste- 
phenses,  and  the  Prices  which  they  affixed  to  their 
publications.  From  them  the  following  prices  of  some 
of  tlieir  Bibles  are  taken.^^ 


Solid! 

Biblia  Hebraea,  mediocri  forma 
1544,  4to 100 

Biblia  magno  volumine,  1540, 
fol 60 

Biblia,  parvo  voluiniue5l545-8,    45 


Solidi 


Vetus  Testamentnm,  parva 
forma .  .  1  515,  l2mo 14 

Novum  Testaireutum,  parva 
forma.  .1525,  12mo.  ..  i. .        6 


In  the  same  year  (1547)  that  Henry  II.  ordered  the 
faculty  of  theology  at  Paris  to  examine  the  Bibles  pub- 
lished by  R.  Stephens,  he  issued  the  following  inquisito- 
rial edict,  respecting  all  religious  publications  printed  or 
sold  by  the  French  booksellers. 

"  We  forbid  all  booksellers  and  printers,  ujider  pain 
of  confiscation  of  body  and  goods,  to  print,  or  cause  to 
be  printed,  to  sell,  or  publish,  any  books  concerning  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  or  those  which  have  been  brought  from 
Geneva,  Germany,  and  other  foreign  countries,  unless 
they  have  first  been  seen  and  examined  by  the  faculty 
of  theology  of  Paris  :  nor  may  any  printer  or  bookseller 
sell,  or  expose  to  sale,  any  books  of  Holy  Scripture  with 
comments  or  scholia,  except  the  name  and  surname  of 
the  author  be  expressed  or  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
book;  and  also  the  name  and  sign  of  the  residence  of  the 
printer:  nor  may  any  printer  print  in  secret  or  hidden 
places,  but  in  his  proper  office,  in  some  public  place, 
that  every  one  may  be  answerable  for  the  works  he  prints. 
We  also  forbid  all  persons  of  whatsoever  rank  or  condition 
to  retain  in  th.eir  possession  any  books  mentioned  in  the  Ca- 
^a/oo'i<eo/'^';^>A'A',  condemned  by  the  said  faculty  of  theology." 

Prior  to  the  issuing  of  this  edict,  the  parliament  of 
Paris  had,  in  1542,  charged  all  printers  and  booksellers, 

(77)  Maittaire,  AnnaUs  Typoiifapliici,  H.  pars  i'.  p.  472. 

V  have  given  the  prices  in  Solidi,  atjieeably  to  Maittaire,  who  says, 
"  Denarii  sive  nunii  12,  solidum  coiisti(unt:  solidi  autem  30,  Floreuuui 
Germu/i/cuiu,^^     tU  sup.  ^,  412. 


454  BIBLICAL  XITERATURE^ 

under  great  penalties,  not  to  print,  publish,  or  sell,  any 
books  that  were  condemned  or  suspected;  and  after- 
wards, at  the  request  of  the  inquisitor,  made  a  decree, 
that  the  people  should  be  admonished  from  the  pulpit, 
to  be  obedient  to  the  church ;  and  if  they  knew  any 
Lutheran,  or  any  one  who  thought  amiss  of  religion,  they 
should  present  him,  for  that  would  be  a  work  very  accept- 
able to  God.  A  form  of  inquiry  was  prescribed  to  the 
curates  and  ministers  of  the  church,  by  which  they  were 
to  examine  the  informers,  in  order  to  obtain  evidence 
against  persons  stispected  of  heresy;  some  of  the  heads 
of  inquiry  were,  whether  the  accused  persons  had  main- 
tained,— that  it  was  necessary  for  all  men,  whatever 
their  rank  or  situation,  to  understand  the  Gospel; — that 
all  men  ought  to  read  the  Scriptures  in  the  vulgar 
tongue; — that  it  was  an  idle  thing  for  common  people 
to  pray  to  God  in  Latin,  &c.?  This  form  of  inquiry  was 
enjoined  for  the  private  use  of  the  priests;  but  there  was 
also  a  mandate  published,  whereby  all  were  commanded 
to  inform  against,  and  accuse  those  who  neglected  the 
rites  and  constitutions  of  the  church ;  who  had  heretical 
books  themselves,  or  gave  them  to  others  to  read,  or 
purposely  dropped  them  in  the  streets  that  they  might 
be  dispersed;  who  kept  private  meetings  in  houses,  or 
gardens,  and  framed  designs  contrary  to  the  constitutions 
of  the  church ;  or  who  received  such  persons  into  their 
houses  or  gardens ;  and  those  who  were  privy  to  any  such 
thing,  were  commanded,  under  pain  of  excommunication, 
to  present  all  such  persons,  within  six  days,  to  the  doc- 
tors of  divinity  chosen  by  the  inquisitor.  Booksellers 
were  likewise  charged  to  bring,  within  six  days,  all  the 
suspected  manuscripts  and  books,  in  their  possession,  to 
the  aforesaid  doctors,  which  if  they  did  not,  no  excuse 
was  afterwards  to  be  admitted.^^ 

(78)  Bochelli  Decreta   Eccles,   Galilean,   lib.    i.  Tit.  10,  pp.  96,    97, 
Paris,  1609,  fol. 
Sleid^'s  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  B,  xiv.  pp.  ^96,  297. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  455 

This  spirit  of  persecution  was  not  only  exercised  by  the 
adherents  of  the  Romish  church,  but  infected  even  those 
who  were  resisting  the  papal  authority,  and  enduring  the 
privations  of  intrepid  defenders  of  the  Gospel.  The  fate  of 
Michael  Servetus,  who  was  burnt  to  death  by  a  slow 
fire,  is  an  awful  instance  •  of  the  truth  of  this  remark. 
The  history  of  this  learned  and  unfortunate  man  is  well 
known.  He  was  born  at  Villanueva,  in  Arragon,  in  1509, 
but  was  educated  at  Paris,  where  he  took  the  degree  of 
doctor  in  medicine.  The  singularity  and  boldness  of  his 
opinions  created  him  enemies,  he  therefore  left  Paris^  and 
went  to  Lyons,  where  he  was  employed  by  the  Frelons, 
who  were  eminent  printers,  as  corrector  of  the  press. 
From  Lyons  he  removed  to  Charlieu,  and  from  thence  to 
Vienne,  at  the  request  of  Peter  Palmer,  archbishop  of  that 
city,  who  honoured  him  with  his  friendship,  and  gave  him 
an  apartment  in  his  palace.  His  literary  connections 
led  him  to  make  frequent  visits  to  Lyons^  where  he  re- 
vised an  edition  of  Pagninus's  Latin  translation  of  the 
Bible,  which  was  printed  in  folio,  1542,  by  Caspar 
Trechsel,  for  Hugo  de  la  Parte.  Servetus  accompanied  the 
text  with  scholia  or  notes,  in  which  he  defended  a  number 
of  Socinian  positions  ;  and  prefixed  a  preface,  in  which 
he  concluded  that  the  prophecies  of  Scripture  have  no 
reference  to  Christ,  but  in  a  secondary  sense.  For  this 
work  he  is  said  to  have  received  500  livres  from  the  book- 
sellers who  employed  him.  His  Notes  on  the  Bible,  and  his 
other  anti-trinitarian  writings,  caused  him  to  be  arrested 
and  imprisoned  at  Vienne.  He,  however,  escaped  out  of 
prison  ;  and  designing  to  settle  at  Naples,  and  exercise  his 
profession  of  medicine,  imprudently  visited  Geneva  in 
disguise.  Calvin  no  sooner  heard  of  his  arrival  than  he 
denounced  him  to  the  magistrates  as  an  impious  man, 
and  a  propagator  of  doctrines  dangerous  to  salvation. 
In  consequence  of  Calvin's  representation  he  was  im- 
prisoned, and  afterwards,  being  brought  to  trial,  was 


m 


456  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

condemned  to  be  burnt  alive.  The  dreadful  sentence 
was  executed  October  27th,  1553.  "  He  was  upwards  of 
two  hours  in  the  fire,  the  wood  being  green,  little  in 
quantity,  and  the  wind  unfavourable."  The  Roman  Ca- 
tholics, as  might  naturally  be  expected,  have  endeavoured 
to  justify  their  conduct  in  burning  heretics,  by  the  instance 
of  Servetus.  But  their  arguments  are  thus  refuted  by  a 
Jearned  writer  of  far  different  doctrinal  sentiments  from 
thjose  of  Calvin,  "There  is,"  says  he,  "a  most  essential  difFe- 
renee  between  this  infamous  act  of  the  Genevan  reformer 
and  magistrates,  and  the  bloody  persecutions  maintained 
t)y  the  Catholics.  The  catholic  religion  systematically  pre- 
scribes and  enjoins  the  burning  of  those  which  it  chuses 
to  call  heretics;  the  protestant  religion,  far  from  enjoining, 
abhors  and  detests  it.  The  spirit  which  led  Calvin  to 
burn  Servetus,  he  brought  with  him  out  of  the  Catholic 
church,  from  which  he  was  then  scarcely  disentangled. 
Protestants  of  all  sects  and  parties  abhor,  detest,  and 
abjure  his  conduct  in  this  business.  For  Protestantism, 
as  well  as  the  religion  of  Christ,  loudly  proclaims  that  all 
those  who  take  away  a  man's  life  merely  for  hetero- 
doxy in  religion,  are  of  their  father  the  devil,  who  was  a 
murderer  from  the  beginning."'®  Whilst,  however,  we 
cannot  but  regret  that  any  of  the  reformers  should  have 
retained  the  persecuting  spirit  of  the  Romish  church, 
from  which  they  were  scarcely  yet  emancipated  ;  it  is 
cause  of  gratulation,  that  their  views  of  the  necessity  and 
importance  of  vernacular  translations  of  the  Scriptures, 
were  clear  and  decisive,  and  accompanied  with  unwearied 
exertions  to  disseminate  the  Word  of  life. 

To  these  views,  the  friends  of  popery  in  Spain,  present- 
ed &  singular  and  striking  contrast;  for  while  Luther, 
Zuingle,  Tyndall,  and  others,  were  indefatigably  em- 
ployed In  executing  and  circulating  translations  of 
the  Bible,  Loyola  and  Xavier  were  engaged  in  confirm- 
(79)  CUrk^'g  Bibliog.  Diet.  VX.  pp,  82-8$,  ^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  457 

ing  and  extendino^  the  influence  of  the  papacy,  the  former 
by  institutmg  the  order  of  Jesuits;  the  latter  by  visit- 
ing and  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Catholic  church, 
in  the  East.  Ignatio,  or  Ignatius  Loyola,  a  Biscayan 
nobleman,  born  in  1491,  was  introduced  at  an  early  age 
into  the  service  of  Ferdinand  V.  in  quality  of  page  to  the 
king;  but  afterwards  embracing  a  military  life,  was  dan- 
gerously wounded  at  the  siege  of  Pampeluna,  in  1521. 
During  the  progress  of  a  lingering  cure,  he  amused  him- 
self with  reading  the  ^'Lives  of  the  Saints,"  baving  in 
vain  enquired  for  romances,  as  more  suited  to  his  tar^te 
and  genius.  The  effect  of  his  reading,  on  his  active  and 
resolute  mind,  was  a  desire  to  emulate  the  characters  he 
had  been  studying.  Being  cured  of  his  wounds,  he  retired 
to  the  monastery  ofMontserrat,  and  commenced  a  series  of 
the  most  severe  penances  and  mortifications  ;  but  none 
t)f  these  produced  that  peace  of  mind  which  he  earnestly 
sought.  "  He  found  no  comfort,"  says  his  biographer, 
"in  prayer,  no  relief  in  fasting,  no  remedy  in  disciplines, 
no  consolation  from  the  sacraments,  and  his  soul  was  over- 
whelmed with  bitter  sadness."  "He  apprehended  some 
sin  in  every  step  he  took,  and  seemed  often  on  the  brink 
of  despair  ;  but  he  was  in  the  hands  of  him  whose  trials 
are  favours.  He  most  earnestly  implored  the  divine  as- 
sistance, and  took  no  sustenance  for  seven  days,  till  his 
confessor  obliged  him  to  eat.  Soon  after  this,  his  tran- 
quillity of  mind  was  perfectly  restored,  and  his  soul  over- 
flowed with  spiritual  joy."  Illiterate  and  ardent,  Loyola 
yielded  implicit  obedience  to  the  most  superstitious  dic- 
tates of  those  whom  he  regarded  as  his  spiritual  guides  ; 
and  signalized  himself  by  his  austerities  and  blind  devo- 
tion to  the  interests  of  the  Roman  catholic  church.  After 
visiting  Jerusalem,  and  fruitlessly  attempting  a  course  of 
study  at  Barcelona,  he  repaired  to  Paris,  where  finding  seve- 
ral others  of  dispositions  congenial  with  his  own,he  resolv- 
ed, with  his  associates,  tooflfer  htmseU'to  the  pope,  to  be 


458  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

employed  by  him  in  whatever  situation  or  country  he 
pleased.     He  and  his  companions  having  presented  them- 
selves at  Rome^  they  were,  after  some  objections  by  acom- 
mittee  of  cardinals,  appointed  to  examine  their  design,  in- 
stituted as  a  religious  order  by  Pope  Paul  III.,  September 
27th,1540,  under  the  title  of  "The  Society  of  Jesus,"  whence 
the  denomination  ''Jesu-ids^  or  Jesuits.    This  society  has 
been  well  described  as,   '^the  most  political  and  best  i-egu- 
lated  of  all  the  monastic  orders ;  and   from  which  man- 
kind have  derived  more  advantages,  and  received  greater 
injury  than  from  any  other  of  those  religious  fraternities." 
An  excellent  account  of  this  extraordinary  and  politic 
institution,  is  given  by  Dr.  Robertson^  in  his  "History  of 
the  reign  of  Charles  V."  vol.  HI.  B.vi.  The  entire  submis- 
sion of  the  order  to  the  pope  formed  one  of  its  principal 
features,   for   beside   taking   the   three  vows  of  poverty, 
chastity,  and  monastic  obedience,  the  members  of  it  took 
a  fourth   vow  of  obedience  to  the  pope,  binding  tlieni' 
selves  to  go  whithersoever  he  should  command  for  the  ser- 
vice of  religion,    and  withoui  requiring   any  thing  from 
the  holy  see  for  their  support.      Of  the  zeal  with  which 
this  society  was  animated,  we  may  judge,  when  we  are 
informed,    that,   "under    the    auspicious   protection    of 
John  HI.  king  of  Portugal,  he  (Loyola)  sent  St.  Francis 
Xavier  into   the  East  Indies,  where  he  gained  a  new 
world  to  the  faith  of  Christ  :  that  he  sent  John  Nugnez, 
and  Lewis  Gonzales,  into  the  kingdoms  of  Fez  and  Mo- 
rocco, to    instruct   and  assist  the  Christian  slaves ;  in 
1547,  four  others  to  Congo,  in  Africa ;  in  1555,  thirteen 
into  Abyssinia ;  and  lastly,  others  into  the  Portuguese 
settlements  in  South  America."     Loyola,  died  in  1556, 
in  the  65th  year  of  his  age,  after  having  lived  to  see  his 
society  spread  over  almost  the  whole  world,  and  possess- 
ing above  one  hundred   colleges.^'' 

(80)  Butler's  Saints,  VIJ>  July  31,  pp.  403-442.        Robertson's  Hist; 
ofCharlesV.vol.il,  B.ii,pp.l  55, 156;  III.  B.  tI.  pp,  171— 190- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  459 

Francis  Xavier,  called  by  the  Roman  catholics, 
^^the  Apostle  of  the  Indies,"  was  of  a  noble  Spanish  family, 
and  born  in  Navarre,  at  the  castle  of  Xavier,  in  1506. 
He  was  the  early  and  faithful  friend  and  disciple  of  Ig*- 
natius  Loyola,  with  whom  he  became  acquainted  at  Paris, 
in  the  year  1528  ;  and  was  one  of  the  members  of  the 
order  of  Jesuits,  at  the  time  of  its  formation.  In  1540,  he 
sailed  for  the  Indies,  as  the  legate  or  nuncio  of  the  pope, 
and  landed  at  Goa  on  the  6th  of  May,  1542.  His  la- 
bours as  a  missionary  are  said  to  have  been  crowned  with 
distinguished  success,  not  only  in  Travancore,  the  island 
of  Ceylon,  the  islands  of  the  Moluccas,  &c.  but  also  in 
Japan,  and  the  adjacent  islands.  He  was  preparing  to 
visit  China,  by  obtaining  leave  to  accompany  the  ambassa- 
dor of  the  king  of  Siam,  when  he  was  seized  with  a  fever, 
which  terminated  his  life,  on  the  2nd  of  December, 
1552.**  The  only  works  which  he  composed,  for  the  in- 
struction of  his  catechumens,  if  we  except  his  "Letters," 
were,  A  Catechism  in  the  Malabaric  or  Tamul  tongue,  still 
in  use  among  the  Catholics  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel ; 
and  an  Epitome  of  Christian  doctrine,  in  Portuguese.  The 
Sacred  Scriptures  therefore  appear  to  have  formed  no 
part,  or  at  least  a  very  inferior  part,  of  the  source  of  the 
instructions  of  this  celebrated  Catholic  missionary .^^ 

Occupied  in  riveting  the  chains  of  papal  superstition 
on  the  people,  the  theologians  of  Spain  were  much  more 
inclined  to  suppress  than  to  encourage  the  reading  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  were  far  more  ready  to  anathematize 
the  reader,  and  imprison  the  translator  of  them,  than  to 
exhibit  and  enforce  the  pure  and  inestimable  doctrines 
which  they  contained.  Francis  Enzinas,  who  published 
a  Spanish  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  in  1542, 
8vo.  was  obliged  to  have  his  translation  printed  out  of 
the  kingdom,  at  Antwerp;  and  he  himself  was  thrown  into 

(81)  Butler,  XII.  December  3,  pp.  17—58. 

(82)  Nic.  Antonio,  Biblioth.  Hisp.  I.  p,  381, 


460 

prison,  from  whence  he  escaped,  after  an  imprisonment 
of  fifteen  months.  He  dedicated  his  translation  to  the  Em- 
peror Charles  V. — F.  Simon  says,  that  copies  of  this  edition 
were  become  so  rare  in  his  day,  that  he  could  not  obtain 
the  sight  of  one;  for  which  he  assigns  this  reason, 
that  "the  rigour  of  the  inquisition,  which  was  predomi- 
nant in  those  countries,  had  destroyed  them."  Le  Long, 
however,  appears  to  have  been  more  fortunate,  and 
observes,  that  after  having  compared  two  other  Spanish 
translations  with  that  of  Enzinas,  he  found  them  to  be 
nearly  the  same,  except  some  few  corrections  and  altera- 
tions; and  therefore  considers  the  character  given  by 
F.  Simon,  of  the  translation  subsequently  published  by 
Philadelphus,  or  Perez,  as  justly  due  to  Enzinas^s  trans- 
lation. F.  Simons  words  are,  "In  his  translation  he 
observes  a  mean  between  those  that  are  too  literal,  and 
those  that  are  too  licentious;  and  adheres  to  his  text,  yet 
without  being  obscure,  for  he  adds  what  is  necessary  to 
be  supplied  to  render  it  intelligible,  and  to  avoid  leaving 
the  sense  uncertain ;  but  he  does  not  always  mark  these 
additions  in  the  italic  character,  and  does  not  maintain 
an  uniformity  therein.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  he 
has  rather  translated  from  the  versions  that  were  com- 
posed from  the  Greek  text  before  him,  than  from  the 
original.  He  has  included  between  two  crotchets,  certain 
words  which  are  not  extant  in  the  Greek,  to  the  end 
that  there  might  be  nothing  obscure  in  his  translation, 
or,  as  he  explains  it,  Ho  preserve  the  idiom  of  the 
language;  and  for  the  better  understanding  of  that  which 
is  read."  This  translation  was  placed  with  other  ver- 
sions in  the  Eocpurgatory  Index  of  the  Romish  church.^ 

Francis  Enzinas,  or  D'  Enzina,  born  at  Burgos,  in 
Spain,  about  A.  D.  1515,  is  known  also  by  the  name  of 

^83)  Simon's  Crit.   Hist,   of  the  Versions  of  the  N.  T.   pt.  ii.  ch.  xli. 
pp.  344,  345,  346. 
Le  Long,  Biblioth.  Sacr.  L  p.  364.  PariSj  1723,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  461 

Dryander.  In  France  he  took  the  name  of  Du  Chesne, 
and  by  the  Germans  he  was  called  Eych,  Eychen,  or 
Eyckman.  Marchand  has  a  dissertation  on  these  names. 
He  was  imprisoned  at  Brussels  for  his  attempt  to  pre- 
sent his  countrymen  with  the  New  Testament  in  their 
own  tongue,  from  November  1543,  to  February  1st, 
1545,  when,  finding"  the  doors  of  his  prison  open,  he 
made  his  escape,  and  went  to  his  relations  at  Antwerp. 
About  three  years  afterwards  he  visited  England,  as  we 
learn  from  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Melancthon  to 
Cranmer.  About  1552,  Melancthon  gave  him  a  similar 
letter  to  Calvin.  The  time  of  his  death  is  not  known. 
He  wrote  a  History  of  the  state  of  the  Low  Countries, 
and  of  the  religion  of  Spain;  printed  at  Geneva,  in 
8vo.  This  work,  which  is  extremely  rare,  forms  part 
of  the  Protestant  Martyrology  printed  in  Germany.  It 
was  written  in  Latin,  and  was  afterwards  translated 
into  French.  His  brother  John  Dryander,  who  had  em- 
braced Lutheranism,  was  burnt  at  Rome,  as  an  heretic, 
1545.^ 

A  Spanish  version  of  the  PexNtateuch,  or  Five  Boohs 
of  Moses,  was  printed  by  the  Jews  at  Constantinople,  in 
1547,  fol.  It  formed  part  of  a  Polyglott  edition  of  the 
Pentateuch,  which  contained  the  Hebrew  Text,  with 
Spanish  and  Modem  Greek  versions ;  and  was  accompa- 
nied with  the  Targums  of  Onkelos,  and  R.  Solomon 
Jarchi.  It  was  printed  by  Eliezer  Berab  Gerson,  of  a 
family  who  had  removed  from  Soncino,  in  Italy,  to 
Constantinople. 

Ambrose  de  Montesino,  a  Spaniard,  of  the  order  of 
St.  Francis,  and  bishop  of  Sardinia,  also  published,  in 
1512,  a  Spanish  translation  of  the  Epistles  and  Gos- 
pels,   appointed    to    be    read  in  the  churches   during 

(84)  Nic.  Antonio,  Biblioth.  Hisp.  I.  p.  322. 
Nouvean  Diet.  Hist.  III.  p.  443. 
Chalmers' Gen,  Biog.  Diet.  XJI.  pp.215,  216. 


46*2  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

the  year.  It  was  reprinted  at  Antwerp,  in  1544,  8vo.** 
In  Italy,  the  cultivation  of  letters,  under  the  patron- 
age of  several  of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  particularly  those 
of  the  family  of  the  Medici,  had  produced  more  liberal 
views,  and  several  editions  of  the  old  Italian  version  of 
the  Scriptures  were  printed  by  the  Giunti,  or  Junti,  the  ce- 
lebrated printers  of  Venice,  Bernard  Bindoni,  and  others. 
Brucioli  and  Marmochino  aiso  published  new  transla- 
tions of  tbe  Bible.  Brucioli's  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  was  printed  at  Venice, by  Luc.  Anton.  Giunti, 
1530,  8vo.  The  first  edition  of  his  translation  of  the 
whole  Bible,  was  printed  by  the  same  printer,  at  Venice, 
1532,  foL,  with  numerous  and  elegant  wood-cuts,  forming 
a  rare  and  magnificent  volume.  But  the  most  ample 
and  valuable  edition  of  this  Bible,  is  one  with  Notes, 
printed  at  Venice,  1544 — 1547,  7  tomes,  in  3  vols.  fol. 
with  various  dedicatory  epistles.  To  the  first  edition  of 
his  Bible,  Brucioli  prefixed  an  Epistle,  dedicated  to 
Francis  I.  king  of  France,  in  which,  after  having  dis- 
coursed at  large  concerning  the  Messiah,  he  adds,  "  that 
it  is  esteemed  as  a  reproach  to  a  philosopher  not  to  know 
the  principles  of  his  sect,  whilst  we  Christians  do  not 
consider  the  ill  consequences  of  not  understanding  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Gospel."  He  also  prefixed 
to  his  version  of  the  New  Testament,  another  epistle 
inscribed  to  the  same  prince,  in  which  he  severely  cen- 
sures those  who  condemn  translations  of  the  Bible  in  the 
vulgar  tongue  ;  treats  them  as  hypocrites,  and  persons 
endued  rather  with  the  spirit  of  the  devil,  than  with  that 
of  God,  and  who  in  this  oppose  Christian  charity  ;  ac- 
counts those  persons  as  impious,  who  presume  to  contra- 
dict that  which  the  Holy  Ghost  had  declared  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophets  and  apostles  ;  and  avers,  that  if 
they  had  e,ven  diligently  perused   the  books   of  Moses, 


(85)   Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  i.  cb  iii.  p.  394. 

Le  LoDg,  I.  p.  363 ;  et  Index,  Auctor,  p.  571. 


Pari?,  1723, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  463 

they  would  not  persist  in  a  diabolical  malignity  so  con- 
trary to  Christian  charity."  Beside  this  general  view  of  the 
sentiments  contained  in  these  epistles,  which  I  have  given 
from  F.  Simon,  Clement  quotes  the  following  passage, 
cited  by  Mr.  Beyer,  to  show  the  conformity  of  Brucioli's 
views  with  those  of  the  reformers  :  "Et  perche  adunqne, 
&c."  ^'Ah!  why  then  should  it  not  appear  proper  for 
every  one  to  pronounce  the  Gospel  in  his  native  tongue  ? 
as  the  Italian  in  Italian  ;  the  Frenchman  in  French  ;  the 
Englishman  in  English  ;  the  German  in  German  ;  and  the 
Indian  in  Indian.  Neither  can  I  tell,  why  it  does  not  ap- 
pear ridiculous  to  every  one,  that  men  and  women  should, 
like  parrots,  repeat  their  prayers  and  psalms  in  the  Latin 
and  Greek  tongues,  v/ithout  understanding  what  they 
say,  and  without  deriving  any  mental  edification  from 
them,  but  which  they  would  derive,  were  they  written  in 

their  own  language." 

*^  After  this  can  we  wonder,"  inquires  Clement,  "  that 
our  translator  should  have  an  honourable  place  in  the 
Index  Librorum  prohihitorum  et  expurgandorum  of  San- 
doval, Panorm.  1628,  fol.  p.  8,  col.  2,  or  that  he  should 
figure  among  the  condemned  authors  of  the  Jirst  class  9 
And  also  in  the  Index  Lib.  prohib.  et  expnrg.  de  Sotoma- 
jor,  Madrit.  1640,  in  fol.  p.  20,  col.  2.  To  which  may  be 
added  the  Index  Lib.  prohib.  et  expurg.  of  Alexander  VII. 
juxta  exemplar  exciisum  Romce,  1667,  in  fol.  p.  7.  col.  2  ; 
and  the  Index  Lib.  prohib.  et  expnrg.  of  Innocent  XI. 
Romce,  1681,  in  8vo.  p.  14,  and  all  the  subsequent 
editions." 

Brucioli  professes  to  have  translated  from  the  Hebrew 
and  Greek  originals,  but  this  has  been  doubted,  and 
Pagninus's  Latin  version  is  said  to  have  been  the  true 
source  of  his  translation:  most  probably  he  followed 
Pagninus,  only  comparing  his  version  with  the  original 
texts.  The  popularity  of  Brucioli's  translation  having 
occasioned  several  pirated  and  depraved  editions,  he  de- 


464  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

termined  to  acknowledge  none  as  genuine,  but  those 
printed  by  his  brother  Francis  BrucioU,  which  has  con- 
sequently rendered  those  editions  peculiarly  valuable, 
and  extremely  rare.^^ 

Our  translator   Francis   Brucioli   was   a   native  of 
Florence,   and   born   about  the   close    of  the  fifteenth 
century.      In    1522   he   expatriated   himself,    and    fled 
to  France,  to  avoid  the  consequences  of  having  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  with  several  of  the  citizens  of  Florence, 
against  Cardinal  Julius  de  Medici,  afterwards  pope  under 
the  name  of  Clement  VIII.     A  revolution  having  taken 
place  in  that  city  in  1527,  and  the  Medici  having  been 
driven  from  it,  Brucioli  was  permitted  to  return.      But 
the  freedom  with  which  he  censured  the  monks  and  priests, 
again  involved  him  in  difficulties.      He  was  suspected  of 
holding  the  opinions  of  the  reformers,  and   was  thrown 
into  prison,  from  whence  he  only  escaped  with   his  life, 
through  the  intercession  of  his  friends,  who  obtained  a 
commutation  of  his  sentence,  and  he  was  banished  for 
two  years.     Molinaeus,  (CoUat.  Evang.  p.' 142)  says,  that 
he  was  condemned  "  to  speak  neither  good  nor  evil  of 
God  r'     After  his  release  from  prison,  he  retired  to  Ve- 
nice, where  his  brothers  were  printers  and  booksellers ; 
and  where  he  published  the  greater  part  of  his  works. 
Beside  his  Bible,   he  published  translations  into  the  Ita- 
lian, of  Pliny's  Natural  History  ;  and  of  several  works  of 
Aristotle  and  Cicero;  editions  of  Petrarch  and  Boccace ; 
Dialogues,  kc.  According  to  the  testimony  of  Pet«r  Aretin, 
he  was  well  versed  in  the  Hebrew,   Chaldee,  Greek,  and 
Latin  languages.     The  time  of  his   death  is  uncertain : 
Julio  Negri  (Hist.  Scrip.  Florent.  p.  36)  says  it  happened 
about  1550  ;  but  the  editors  of  the  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist,  re- 
mark, that  he  was  still  living  in  the  year  1564,  and  that 

(86)  Clement,  Bibllotheque  Curieuse,  &c.  IV.  pp.  52 — 54. 

Simon's  Crit.  Hist,  of  (he  Versions  of  N.  T.  pt,  ii,  pp.  340,  341. 
Le  Long,  Bibllotli.  Sacr,  I.  p.  355. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  465 

consequently  his  decease  must  have  occurred  after  that 
period.*' 

Santi   Marmochino,  or  Sanctes    Marmochinus,  a 
learned  Dominican,  an  Italian  by  birth,  who  died  about 
A.  D.  1545,  published  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Ita- 
lian, in  1538,  fol.  which  was  printed  at  Venice  by  the  heirs  of 
Luc.  Anton.  Giunti;  and  dedicated  to  George  d'Armaignac, 
bishop  of  Rondes    and    Vabres.      This  translation   in- 
cludes  the  third  book  of  Maccabees,  then  first  printed 
in  Italian.     Le  Long  decides   that   Marmochino's  trans- 
lation is  only  a  revised  edition  of  Brucioli's,  accommo- 
dated more  fully  to  the  Vulgate;  and  Clement  remarks, 
"  It  is  no  wonder  that  Marmochino  completed  this  version 
in  the  space  of  twenty-two  months,  since  he   has  only 
altered  the  translation  of  Brucioli,  by  collating  it  with 
the  Vulgate."      Editions   of  this    translation   were   also 
printed  at  Venice,  in  1542,  1546,  and  1547,  &c.  and  the 
New  Testament  separately,  in  1542.     The  edition  of  the 
New  Testament  was  published  under  the  name  of  F*  Za» 
chariah,  a  Dominican  friar  of  Florence.^^ 

Peter  Aretin,  a  licentious  Italian  poet,  translated 
the  book  of  Genesis,  and  the  Seven  Penitential 
Psalms,  of  which  several  editions  were  published.  John 
Francis  del  Pozzo,  or  Puteolanus,  also  published  an 
Italian  version  of  the  Psalms  and  Ecclesiastes,  printed 
at  Venice,  1537, 4to.  An  edition  of  Erasmus's  Latin  version 
of  the  New  Testament,  with  an  Italian  translation, 
was  printed  at  Venice,  1545,  in  2  vols.  16mo. ;  and  the 
Apocalypse,  in  Italian,  with  a  commentary  by  N. 
Gilbert,  was  published  at  Milan  so  early  as  1520, 
in  fol.«^ 

(87)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  II.  p.  276. 

Colomesii  Ital.  et  Hisp.  Oriental,  pp.  59,  60. 

(88)  Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  IV.  pp.  54,  55. 
Juntirum  Typog.  Annales,  pt.  i.  pp.  17 — 19. 

Le  Long,  Biblioth.  S^cra,  I.  p.  356.  et  Index,  p.  569. 

(89)  Le  Long,  I.  p.  358. 

Vol..  II.  2  G 


466  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

The  publication  of  editions  of  the  Scriptures  either  in 
the  original  languages,  or  in  more  modern  versions,  was 
not  confined,  however,  to  those  states  in  which  Christiani- 
ty was  the  acknowledged  religion  of  the  land,  since  we  find 
the  Jews  who  had  been  driven  by  persecution  to  take 
refuge  under  infidel  governments,  establishing  printing 
presses  in  various  places,  particularly  at  Constantinople 
and  Thessalonica.  In  1522,  Samuel  ben  David  Nach- 
mias,  a  celebrated  printer  of  Constantinople,  published 
the  Hebrew  Pentateuch,  Megilloth,  and  Haphta- 
R0TH,=^  with  the  Targums  and  Jewish  Commentaries,  in  fol. 
In  1546,  a  Polyglott  Pentateuch,  in  fol.  was  printed  in 
the  same  city,  by  EUezer  Berab  Gerson  Soncinatis.  It  con- 
tained the  Hebrew  Text,  the  Targum  of  Onkelos,  the 
Persic  version  of  R.  Jacob  F.  Joseph  Tavos,  or  Tusensis, 
the  Arabic  version  of  JSaadias  Gaon,  and  the  rabbinical 
Cvmmentarij  of  Ras hi,  or  R.  Solomon  ben  Jarchi.  The 
book  of  Exodus  of  this  Polyglott,  bears  date  1545.  In 
1547,  there  was  another  Polyglott  Pentateuch  published 
from  the  same  press,  with  the  Hebrew  Text;  the  old  Spa- 
nish \ersion  fov  the  rti'ugee  Spanish  Jews;  the  modern 
Greeh,  as  used  by  the  Caraites  of  Constantinople,  who 
do  not  understand  Hebrew;  and  the  Targum,  and  Com^ 
mentary,  as  in  the  former  editions. 

In  1516,  the  Pentateuch  and  Megilloth,  m  Hebrew, 
with  the  Targum  and  Rabbinical  Commentary,  were  print- 
ed at  Thessalonica;  in  1517,  Job,  in  Hebrew  and  Chaldee; 
in  1522,  and  several  times  subsequently,  the  Psalms,  in 
Hebrew,  with  Rabbinical  Commentaries ;  and  in  1535,  the 
Prior  Prophets,  (as  the  Jews  denominate  Joshua,  Judges, 
Samuel,  and  Kings,)  with  the  Commentary  of  R.  Kim- 

*  The  Megilloth  is  the  term  applied  by  the  Jews  to  that  portion 
of  the  Sacred  Writings  which  includes  Ruth,  Esther^  Ecclesiastes, 
Lamentations,  and  Solomon's  Song:  the  Haphtaroth  are  64  chapters 
or  lessons  selected  out  cf  the  Prophets,  and  read  in  the  synagogues 
by  the  Jews,  on  their  sabbaths  and  other  festivals.  See  Keunicott's 
Dissertations,  Diss,  2,  pp,  517,  518. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  467 

chi.®*  Le  Long  (edit.  Masch)  mentions  some  few  other 
portions  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  published  by  the 
Jews  of  Constantinople  and  Thessalonica,  about  the 
same   time. 

The  most  celebrated  printer  and  publisher  of  Hebrew 
books  at  that  period^,  and  who  has  seldom  or  never  been 
equalled  since  in  the  extent  and  magnitude  of  his  Hebrew 
publications,  was  Daniel  Bomberg,  a  native  of  Antwerp. 
He  settled  at  Venice,  where  he  commenced  business. 
Having  learnt  Hebrew  of  Felix  Pratensis,  a  converted 
Jew,  he  printed  several  editions  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
the  most  celebrated  of  which  were  those  which  he  pub- 
lished with  the  Targums,  Rabbinical  Commentaries,  and 
Masorah.  The  Jirst  edition  of  Bomberg  s  Great,  or 
Rabbinical  Bible,  was  commenced  in  1517,  and  finish- 
ed on  the  27th  of  Nov.  of  the  ensuing  year,  1518.  This 
edition,  however,  was  not  held  in  estimation  by  the  Jews, 
on  account  of  what  they  regarded  as  the  apostacy  of  the 
editor,  Felix  Pratensis.  Another  and  improved  edition, 
in  4  vols,  fol.,  was  published  by  Bomberg  in  1525 — 1526, 
who  employed  R.  Jacob  ben  Chaim,  a  learned  Jew,  of  Tunis, 
as  editor.  A  still  more  ample  and  complete  edition  was 
printed  by  him  in  1547 — 1549,  4  vols.  fol.  under  the  in- 
spection of  Cornelius  AdelJ{ind,3,noihev  erudite  Jew,  with  a 
curious  preface  by  the  former  editor  Jacob  ben  Chaim,  of 
which  a  Latin  translation  is  given  in  Kennicott's  Disserta- 
tions on  the  ^t  ate  of  the  printed  Hebrew  Text,  Diss.  II.  pp. 
229—244.  Oxon,  1759.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  (Gen.  Pref.  to 
Comment,  p.  iv.)  characterises  this  edition  as  "  the  most 
useful,  the  most  correct,  and  the  most  valuable  Hebrew 
Bible  ever  published."  In  1520,  Bomberg  began  an  edition 
of  the  Talmud,  which  he  finished  after  some  years,  in  12 


(90)  De  Rossi,  De  Ignotis  Editionibus,  &c.  cap.  xii.  xiii.  pp.  19 — 23; 
et  Append,    pp.    33—40.    Krlangae,  1772,  4to. 
Le  Long,   edit.    Masch,    pt.  i.  cap.  iii.   pp.393,   394;  and  pt.  i. 
cap.  i.  sec.  2,  j)p.  119.  137,  145;  &c. 


468  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

vols.fol.  This  he  reprinted  twice,  and  each  edition  is  said  to 
have  cost  him  100,000  crowns.  As  a  printer,  he  was 
highly  zealous  for  the  honour  of  his  art,  spared  no  cost 
in  embelHshments,  and  is  said  to  have  retained  about  100 
Jews  as  correctors  of  his  press,  the  most  learned  he  could 
find.  In  printing  only,  he  is  thought  to  have  expended 
in  the  course  of  his  life,  four  millions,  others  say  three 
millions  of  gold  crowns  ;  and  Vossius  seems  to  think, 
that  he  injured  his  fortune  by  his  liberality.  He  died  at 
Venice,  in  1549.^^ 

But  Bomberg  was  not  the  only  Christian  who  engaged 
in  publishing  Hebrew  Bibles:  the  Stephenses  of  Paris,  the 
Giunti  of  Venice,  Frobenius  of  Basil,  and  others  of  less 
note,  printed  various  editions,  though  none  of  them  can 
be  compared  with  Bomberg  for  the  number  of  impres- 
sions which  issued  from  his  press,  or  the  general  services 
which  he  rendered  to  Hebrew  literature. 

A  pretty  cwrect  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  progress  of 
Biblical  typography,  during  the  early  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  from  the  following  list  of  editions  of  the 
whole  or  parts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  printed  between 
A-  D.  1500  and  A.  D.  1536,  compiled  chiefly  from  Pan- 
der's Annales  Typographici,  viz : 

1  Hebrew  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Eze- 
kiel,  and  Twelve  Minor  Pro- 
phets ;  with  Com,  Rab. 

<i Esther;  with  Rab.  Com. 

I   Job; . 

8  Psalms. 


1  Polyglott  Bible. 

10   —  Psalms. 

1 Isaiah, 

1 Jonah. 

^  Rabbinical  Bibles. 
S  Hel)rew  Bibles. 
12  Pentateuch,     some    of 

them  with  the  Tar^um,  &c, 

1 Genesis. 

1 Exodus, 

"2  Joshua,  Judges,  Samu- 

«1,  Kings;  with  Com.  Kimehi. 
I ibid.  Com.    Is.   Abra- 

banel. 


1  •     '-         with  Rab.  Com. 

1 Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job, 

J[)aniel;   with  Jarchi^s  Com. 

1   Hebievv  and  Latin  Psalms. 

2 r—  Seven  Peni- 
tential Psalms. 

1 Psalm  ix. 

1  Heb.  Comment,  on  Psalm  cxix. 


(^1)  Simon,  Hist.  Crit.  du  V.  T.  pp.  674,  575. 

Le  Long,  edit.  Mtisch,  pt.  i.  jcap.  i.  sjbg.  2^  pp.  9Q — IDX 
Biog,  D'wLYL 


SIXTEENTH    CENTrRY. 


469 


2  Hebrew  Proverbs. 

1  Proverbs;  Hebrew  and  Latin, 

2  Proverbs,  Solomon's  Song-,  Ec- 

clesiastes;  Heb.  and  Lat. 
1   Ecclesiastes ;  Heb. 
1  Solomon's  Song  ;  Heb,  and  Lat. 
1   Ruth  and  LTmentations  •    Heb. 

1  Jeremiah     and    Lamentations ; 

Heb. 

2  Daniel;  Heb. 

1  Joel  and  Daniel  :  Heb. 
1  Joel  and  Malachi  ;  Heb. 

1 Heb.    with 

Kimchi's  Com. 

3  Obadiah  ;  Heb. 
3  Tobit ;  Heb. 

1  __ .  Heb.  and  Lat. 

6  New  Testament ,  Greek. 

6 Cr.  and  Lat. 

1   Romans  ;  Gr, 

1  St.  Paul's  Epistles;  Gr. 

1   Galatians ;    Gr. 

1  Colossians ;   Gr. 

>V/\«- 4N»S^  y\«V^  A^S^ 

3  Old  Testament,  LXX.  Version, 
and  New  Testament;  Gr. 

3  Psnlms, Gr. 

1  Seven  Penitential  Psalms  :    Gr. 


99  Bibles;  Latin, 

2 • —  with   Cardinal    Hugo's 

Comment.  Lat. 
4  De   Lyra*s    Com.  Lat. 


1 


Pae:ninus's  Trans.  Lat. 


1  Old  Testament,  Erasmus's  Trans. 

Lat, 
1   Pentateuch  ;  Lat. 

1  Pentateuch,      Joshua,      Ruth, 

Judges,  Kings,  and  New  Tes- 
tament ;  Lat. 
4  Pentateuch,    Joshua,     Judges, 
Ruth ;  Lat. 

2  Genesis;  Lat. 

2  Deuteronomy ;    with    Luther's 

An  not.  Lat. 
1  The  Historical  Books;   Lat. 
1   Ruth  and  Lamentations  ;   l^at. 
1   Kings,  Chronicles,  Esther,  and 

Job  ;    Lat. 

3  Job ;   Lat. 


44  Psalms;    Lat.   several  of  them 
vrith  N^otes. 

1  Seven  retiitential  Psalms  ;  I^at. 
\  Psalms,  Proverbs,   Ecclesiastes^ 

Solomon's  Song  ;    Lat. 

2  Books  of  Solomon  ;    Lat. 

1  Proverbs,     Ecclesiastes,     Solo* 

mon's  Song,  Wisdom  ;   Lat. 
12  Proverbs  ;   Lat. 
8  Ecclesiastes;  Lat.  some  with  Notes 

2  Solomon's  Song  ;  Lat. 

2  Prophets,  and  Maccabees  ;  Lat. 

2  Micah,  with  Notes;  Lat. 
1   Zephaniah  ;   Lat. 

1  Tobit;    Lat. 
1  Jesus  Sirach  ;    Lat, 
62  New  Testament;  Lat. 
I (except  Apo- 
calypse ;)   Lat. 
6  The  Four  Gospels;  Lat. 

5  The  Gospels  and  Epistles;  Lat 
1   All  the  Epistles;  Lat. 

1  St.  Paul's  Epistles;  I^t. 
1  St.  Paul's  and  Canon;  Epistles; 
Latin. 

15  Bibles;  Belgic. 

6  Gospels  and  Epistles;   Belgic, 
34  New  Testament;  Belg.  and  Lat, 

3  Psalms  ;  Belg,  and  Lat. 

7  Psalms  ;  German  and  Latin. 

1  Seven       Penitential       Psalms ; 

Germ,  and  Lat. 

2  New  Testament;  Germ. and  Lat. 

1  Bible  ;   Spanish. 

1  Gospels  and  Epistles  ;  Spanish. 

1  Epistles  and  Gospels ;  Spanish. 

2  Psalms;  Swedish. 

1  New  Testament;  Swedish. 

1  Gospels  and  Apocalypse;    Lat. 
1   Matthew;  Latin. 

3  Acts;  Lat. 

3  The  Epistles ;  Lat. 

1  Epistles  and  Apocalypse  ;    Lat. 
7  St.  Paul's  Epistles ;    Lat. 

2  Romans  ;  Lat. 

1  L  and  II.  Corinthians ;  Lat. 


470 


BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 


4  Bibles  ;    frendi. 
1   Old  Tesfament;  Frencli. 
7  Gloss.  Bible  Historiee;  French. 
3  Psalms ;  French. 
11  New  Testament ;  French. 

1  Four  Evangelists;  French. 

2  St.  Paul's  Epistles  ;  French. 
1   Psalms  ;    French  and  Latin. 

1   Four  Evangelists  ;  Hungaric, 

1  Bible;   English. 

1  Pentateuch  and  NevF Testament; 

English, 
1   Isaiah,  with  Pentateuch  ;  Eng, 

1  Jeremiah  and  Song  of   Moses; 

Eng. 

2  New  Testament ;  Eng. 

1   Psalms   and    Solomon's    Song ; 
Ethiopic.^^ 


1  Galatians ;  Lat. 

3  Catholic  Epistles;  Lat. 

1  Apocalypse  ;  Lat. 

12  Bibles  ;  Italian. 

2  Job ;  one  with  Comment.  Ital. 
9  Psalms;  Ital. 

3  Seven  Penitential  Psalms;  Ital. 
1    Proverbs  ;  Ital. 
1  Ecclesiasticus;  Ital. 
3  New  Testament;    Ital. 
7  Evangelists  and  Epistles  ;    Ital. 
1  Epistles  and  Gospels  ;  Ital. 
1  Apocalypse ;   Ital. 

1  Bible;  Bohemian, 

1  Pentateuch  ;  Danish, 

1  Judges  ;  Danish. 
3  Psalms;  Danish, 

2  New  Testament ;  Danish. 
2  Epistles  and  Gospels;    Danish.  I 

This  account  presents  us  with  no  fewer  than  568  editions 
of  the  entire  Scriptures,  or  portions  of  them,  in  ditferent 
Jang'uages.  printed  in  the  space  of  36  years  ;  thus  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  that  most  happy  Reformation,  and  that 
increased  circulation  of  the  Word  of  God,  which  so  soon 
followed.  It  is  also  probable,  that  during  the  period 
selected  by  Panzer  for  his  Annals  of  Typographij,  there 
w^ere  many  printed  editions  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  the 
Sacred  Writings,  of  w^hich  he  had  not  obtained  informa- 
tion, as  in  the  instance  of  the  number  of  impressions 
of  the  English  Scriptures,  which  he  has  stated  to  be  6, 
instead  of  23,  the  number  noticed  by  English  writers. 
See  Bishop  Newcome's  Historical  Fiew  of  the  English 
Biblical  Translations,  pp.  387,  388,  411  ;  and  Bishop 
Wilson's  Bible,  edited  by  C.  Cruttwell,  vol.  I.  Editors 
Preface. 


(92)  Panzeri  Annales  Typographici,  XL  pp.  156—172.  552^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  471 


CHAPTER  VI. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY    CONTINUED. 

Council  of  Trent.  Decrees.  Rules  of  the  Index.  Fran- 
els  Foreiro.  John  Hentenius.  Louvain  Bible, 
Francis  Lucas  Brugensis.  John  Benedict.  Isidore 
Clarius,  Papal  edition  of  the  Latin  Vulgate.  Six- 
tus  V.      Editors  of  the  P'ulgate. 

THE  rapid  progress  of  the  Reformation,  and  its  influ- 
ence upon  the  councils  of  several  of  the  German  and 
other  princes,  alarmed  the  court  of  Rome,  which,  after 
various  fruitless  expedients  to  prevent  the  dissemination 
of  opinions,  fatal  to  the  despotic  authority  of  tlie  Catholic 
hierarchy,  adopted  the  measure  of  a  general  council. 
The  ostensible  motives  for  summ.oning  the  council  were, 
the  reformation  of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  the  preservation 
of  the  unity  of  the  church,  and  the  prevention  of  the 
spread  of  the  Lutheran  heresy;  but  the  decrees  of  the 
council  proved,  that  ambition,  and  not  religion,  influenced 
the  pontiffs  by  whose  authority  it  was  called  and  con- 
tinued. At  first,  the  pope  was  inclined  to  appoint  the 
council  to  meet  in  some  city  of  Italy;  but  finding  the 
design  opposed  by  the  Catholic  as  well  as  the  Protestant 
princes,  he  empowered  his  nuncio,  at  the  diet  of  Spires^ 
held  March  3rd,  1542,  to  propose  for  the  place  of  meeting 
Trent,  a  city  in  the  Tyrol,  subject  to  the  king  of  the 
Romans,  and  situated  on  the  confines  between  Germany 
and  Italy.  This  being  acceded  to  by  the  Catholic  princes^ 
though  protested  against  by  the  Protestants,  Pope  Paui^ 
III.  by  a  bull  dated  May  22nd,  1542,  appointed  three 
cardinals  as  his  legates,  and  fixed  the  council  to  be  open- 
ed at  Trent,   on  the  1st  of  November,  in  the  same  year.^ 


472  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

The  legates,  who  were  Joliannes  3faria  de  Monte,  ^lar- 
cellus  Cervinus,  and  Reginald  Pole  an  Englishman, 
accordingly  repaired  to  that  city,  but  after  remaining 
there  for  several  months,  without  any  person  attending, 
except  a  few  prelates  from  the  ecclesiastical  states,  the 
pope  recalled  the  legates,  and  prorogued  the  council. 
After  various  delays,  the  GexNeral  Council  was  at  length 
opened  with  the  usual  solemnities,  on  the  13th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1545.  The  first  session  was  spent  in  matters  of  form. 
A  subsequent  one  was  employed  in  framing  a  confession 
of  faith.  The  fourth  session,  held  on  the  8th  of  April, 
promulgated  decrees  respecting  the  Canonical  Scriptures, 
the  Vulgate  edition  of  the  Bible,  and  the  use  of  the  Sacred 
Books,  The  publication  of  these  decrees  was  preceded 
by  a  Latin  sermon,  preached  before  the  council,  by  Au- 
gustin  Bonuccio,  general  of  the  order  of  the  Servites,  who 
in  a  violent  invective  uttered  against  Luther,  represented 
him  as  a  false  disciple,  and  an  impious  corrupter  of  the 
Word  of  God,  who  pretended  to  establish  by  the  Gospel 
what  was  diametrically  opposed  to  it,  and  who  led  with 
him,  a  crowd  of  people  armed  with  swords  and  staves, 
to  teach  doctrines  which  could  only  have  been  inspired 
by  flesh  and  blood.  The  following  are  the  decrees  of  the 
session  : 

"  L  Of  the  Canonical  Scriptures." 
"  The  holy  oecumenical  and  general  council  of  Trent, 
lawfully  assembled  under  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  three  legates  of  the  apostolic  see  presiding  in  it ; 
having  constantly  in  view,  the  preservation  of  the  purity 
of  the  Gospel  in  the  church,  by  the  removal  of  error, 
which  having  been  promised  aforetime  by  the  prophets  in 
the  Sacred  Scriptures,  w^as  first  promulged  by  the  mouth 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  afterwards 
by  his  apostles,  whom  he  commanded  to  preach  it  to 
every  creature,  as  the  fountain  of  all  truth  respecting  sal- 
vation and  discipline  ;  and  considering  that  this  truth  and 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  473 

discipline  arc  contained  in  written  books,  and  in  unwrit- 
ten traditions,  wiiich  having  been  received  by  the  apostles 
from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ  himself,  or  dictated  to  them 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  have  been  handed  down  to  us;  this 
holy  council,  following  the  example  of  the  orthodox 
Fathers,  receives  and  venerates  with  equal  piety  and  re- 
verence, (pari  pietatis  afFectu  ac  reverentia,)  all  the  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  same  God  being 
the  author  of  them  both  ;  and  also  the  Traditions  relative 
to  faith  and  manners^  as  being  either  received  from  the 
mouth  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
preserved  in  the  Catholic  church  by  an  uninterrupted 
succession.  In  order,  therefore,  that  no  one  may  doubt 
w4iich  are  the  Sacred  Books  that  are  received  by  the  coun- 
cil, the  following  catalogue  of  them  is  inserted  in  the 
present  decree:" 

"  These  are,  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  five  books 
of  Moses,  viz :  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers, 
Deuteronomy;  Joshua;  Judges;  Ruth;  four  books  of  Kings; 
two  books  of  Chronicles;  the  first  book  of  Ezra,  and  the 
second  which  is  called  Nehemiah ;  Tobit ;  Judith ;  Esther ; 
Job  ;  the  Psalter  of  David,  containing  150  Psalms  ;  Pro- 
verbs; Ecclesiastes;  Song  of  Solomon;Wisdom;Ecclesiasti- 
cus;  Isaiah;  Jeremiah  with  Baruch ;  Ezekiel;  Daniel; 
the  twelve  minor  Prophets,  viz  :  Hosea,  Joel,  Amos, 
Obadiah,  Jonah,  Micah,  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah, 
Haggai,  Zechariah,  Malachi;  the  first  and  second  books  of 
Maccabees. — Of  the  New  Testament,  the  Four  Gospels, 
according  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  ;  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  written  by  the  Evangelist  Luke  ;  four- 
teen Epistles  of  the  blessed  Apostle  Paul,  viz  :  to  the 
Romans,  two  to  the  Corinthians,  to  the  Galatians,  to  the 
Ephesians,  to  the  Philippians,  to  the  Colossitms,  two  to 
the  Thessalonians,  two  to  Timothy,  to  Titus,  to  Philemon, 
to  the  Hebrews,  two  Epistles  of  the  Apostle  Peter,  three 
Epistles  of  the  Apostle  John,  one  Epistle  of  the  Apostle 


474  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

James;   and  the  Apocalypse  of  the  Apostle  John." 

"But  if  any  one  refuses  to  receive  the  whole  of  these 
Books  with  every  part  of  them,  as  they  are  read  in  the 
Catholic  church,  and  contained  in  the  ancient  edition  of 
the  Vulgate  Latin,  as  sacred  and  canonical;  or  knowingly 
and  deliberately  despises  the  Traditions  before  mentioned, 
let  him  be  anathema." 

2.  "Of  the  edition  and  use  of  the  Sacred  Books." 
"The  holy  council  considering  that  it  will  be  of  no 
small  utility  to  the  church  of  God,  to  distinguish  among 
all  the  Latin  editions  of  the  Sacred  books  that  are  in 
circulation,  which  is  the  one  that  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  authentic,  ordains  and  declares,  that  the  same  ancient 
and  Vulgate  edition,  which  has  been  approved  by  its  use 
in  the  church  for  so  many  ages,  shall  be  received  as 
authentic,  (pro  authentica  habeatur,)  in  all  public  lectures, 
disputations,  preachings,  and  explications ;  and  that 
no  one,  under  any  pretext  whatsoever,  shall  dare  or  pre- 
sume to  reject  it." 

"Moreover,  in  order  to  restrain  petulant  spirits,  the 
council  decrees,  that  in  matters  of  faith  and  morals, 
and  whatever  relates  to  the  maintenance  of  Christian 
doctrine,  no  one,  confiding  in  his  own  judgment,  shall 
dare  to  bend  the  Scriptures  to  his  own  sense  of  them, 
contrary,  to  that  which  is  given,  or  has  been  given  by 
the  holy  mother  church,  whose  right  it  is  to  judge  of 
the  true  sense  and  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures; 
or  contrary  to  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Fathers, 
though  such  interpretations  should  never  be  published. 
Those  who  oppose  shall  be  denounced  by  the  ordi- 
naries, and  subjected  to  the  punishment  of  the  law." 

"Being  desirous  also,  as  is  reasonable,  of  setting  bounds 
to  the  Printers,  who  are  at  present  unrestricted,  thinking 
that  they  have  a  right  to  do  whatever  they  please,  not  only 
printing  without  the  permission  of  their  ecclesiastical 
superiors,  the  books  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  themselveSs 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  475 

with  the  notes  and  explications  indifferently  of  any  one, 
but  frequently  without  mentioning"  the  place  where  they 
are  printed,  or  else  affixing  a  false  one,  and  what  is  still 
worse,  suppressing  the  names  of  the  authors,  and  also 
rashly  exposing  to  sale  in  other  countries,  printed  books 
of  this  nature;  the  holy  council  decrees  and  ordains,  that 
the  Holy  Scriptures  shall  be  printed  in  the  most  correct 
manner  possible,  according  to  the  old  and  Vulgate  edi- 
tion, and  that  no  one  shall  be  suffered  to  print  any  books 
relating  to  religion,   (de  rebus  sacris,)  without  the  name 
of  the  author;  and  that  for  the  future  also,  no  one  shall 
have  them  in  his  possession,  nor  sell  them,  without  being 
first  examined  and  approved  by  the  ordinary,  under  pain  of 
anathema,  and  pecuniary  fine,  according  to  the  canon  of  the 
last  council  of  Lateran:  and  if  they  be  Regulars,  they  shall 
obtain,  beside  this  kind  of  examination  and  approval, 
permission  from  their  superiors,  who  shall  examine  them, 
agreeably  to  the  form  of  their  statutes.     Those  who  cir- 
culate or   publish  them  in    manuscript,  without  being 
examined  and  approved,  shall  be  subjected  to  the  same 
penalties  as  those  who  shall  print  them ;  and  those  who 
possess  them  or  read  them,  and  do  not  declare  who  are 
the  authors  of  them,  shall  themselves  be  considered  as 
the  authors.     The  approbation  granted  to  books  of  this 
nature,  shall  be  given  in  writing,  and  be  placed  in  due 
form,  at  the  head  of  each  book,  whether  MS.   or  print- 
ed,  and  the  whole,  that  is,  both   the  examination   and 
approbation,  shall  be  done  gratuitously,  that  what  is  de- 
serving may  be  approved,  and  what  is  unworthy  may  be 
rejected." 

''  The  holy  council  being  wishful  also  to  repress  the 
(impious)  temerity  of  applying  and  perverting  the  words 
and  sentences  of  Holy  Scripture,  to  all  sorts  of  profane 
uses,  making  them  serve  for  railleries,  vain  and  fabulous 
applications,  fliatteries,  detractions,  superstitions,  impi- 
ous and  diabolical  incantations,  divinations,  Sortes,  and 


476  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE^ 

infamous  libels,  commands  and  ordains.  In  order  t& 
abolish  this  kind  of  irreverence  and  contempt,  and  to 
prevent  any  one  for  the  future,  from  daring  to  abuse  the 
words  of  Scripture,  in  the  same  or  any  similar  way,  that 
all  these  kinds  of  persons  shall  be  punished  by  the  bi- 
shops, according  to  the  penalties  of  the  law,  and  at  the 
discretion  of  the  said  prelates,  as  profaners  and  corrupt- 
ers of  the  Word  of  God."  ' 

After  several  other  sessions  had  been  held  at  Trent^ 
the  Council   was   removed  to  Bologna,  where   the  9th 
session  of  the  council  was  held  on  the  2lst  of  April, 
1547.     The  lOth  session  was  held  in  the  same  city  on 
the  2nd  of  June,  in  the  same  year;  after  which  the  coun- 
cil was  prorogued.     Pope  Paul   III.   dying  before  the 
council  was  resumed,  his  successor,  Julius  III.  issued  a 
boil  in  the  first  year  of  his  pontificate,  for  the  reassem- 
bling of  the  council  at  Trent,  which  met  accordingly  in 
the  following  year,  1 55 1 .     At  the  close  of  the  16th  session, 
held  in  1552,   the  council  v/as  suspended,  on  account  of 
the  confusion  and  danger  occasioned  by  the  war.     This 
suspension  was   continued   for   several   years,    until   at. 
length  the  council  was  again  convened  by  Pope  Pius  IV. 
who  had  succeeded  Julius  111.  in  1555  ;  and  agreeably  to 
the  birll  of  the  pontiff,  assembled  at  Trent  early  in  the 
2/ear  1562.     Letters  having  been  received  from  the  pope, 
and  read  to  the  council,  requesting  the  assembly  to  com- 
pose an   Index  of  prohibited  ]>ooks,  the  legates   were 
requested   to   appoint   a  comniittee,   or  deputation,  to 
undertake  the  work,  and  prepare  the  decree  for  the  ensu- 
ing session.     The  persons  selected  for  this  undertaking 
were  George  Drashowitz,  bishop  of  Five-Churches,  a  city 
ofTolna,  in  Hungary,  nephew  of  Cardinal  Martinusius,* 

•  (1)  Labbei  S.  S.  Concilia,  XIV.  pp.  746—748. 

*  Cardinal  Martinusius^  bishop  of  Varadin,  refusinu  to  enter  into  the 
tiews  of  the  Emppror  Ferdinand,  who  wished  him  to  betray  the  interests 
of  his  country,  Hungary,  was  basely  assassinated  by  the  emperor's 
order;     See  Fra  Paolo  Sarpio,  Ilist.  du  Cone*  de  Trente^  Li?.  4, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  477 

and  ambassador  from  the  emperor  for  the  kingdom  of 
Hungary;  John  Jerom  Treviscm,  patriarch  of  Venice; 
four  archbishops  ;  nine  bishops ;  one  abbot ;  and  two 
generals  of  orders,  viz.  of  the  Friars  Minors  of  Obser- 
vance, and  of  the  Augustins.  But  notwithstanding 
this  appointment  of  a  committee,  it  was  agreed  that  the 
Index  should  not  be  read  till  the  end  of  the  council,  for 
fear  of  offending  the  Protestants. 

The  cause  of  this  request  from  the  pope  to  the  council, 
is  thus  related  by  the  candid  and  iutelligent  historian 
of  the  council.  After  Pope  Leo  X.  had  condemned 
Luther,  and  prohibited  the  reading  of  his  books  under 
pain  of  excommunication,  other  popes  followed  his  exam- 
ple, he  having  been  the  first  who  not  only  excommunicated 
the  authors  but  also  the  readers  of  heretical  works.  The 
vague  and  general  manner,  however,  in  which  heretical 
writings  were  condemned,  produced  confusion;  being 
distinguished  by  the  doctrines  they  contained  rather 
than  by  the  names  of  the  authors,  and  every  one  judging 
of  the  doctrines  according  to  his  peculiar  views.  To 
remedy  this  defect,  the  exact  and  diligent  inquisitors' 
formed  catalogues  of  such  books  as  came  to  their  know- 
ledge, and  were  suspected  of  containing  false  doctrine ; 
but  these  catalogues  not  being  compared  with  each  other^ 
the  design  was  not  answered.  The  king  of  Spain  was 
the  first  who  adopted  a  more  eligible  plan,  ordering  a 
catalogue  of  the  books,  prohibited  by  the  inquisition  of 
Spain,  to  be  printed,  in  1558.  Pope  Paul  IV.  following 
his  example,  enjoined  the  office  of  the  inquisition  at  Rome 
to  prepare  and  print  a  similar  catalogue  or  Index. 
This  was  executed  in  1559;  but  as  this  Index  extended 
the  inhibitory  decrees  of  the  pontiff  and  inquisition  to 
many  works  which  had  been  formerly  allowed,  and  had 
even  received  the  approbation  of  preceding  popes ;  ajid 
condemned,  without  distinction,  all  the  books  printed  by 
6ixty-two  printers  whose  names  were  expressly  mentioned* 


478  BIBLICAL     LITERATURE, 

an  appeal  was  afterwards  made  to  Pope  Pius  IV.  wlio 
embraced  the  opportunity  of  referring  the  business  to  the 
council  assembled  at  Trent.^ 

The  18th  session  of  the  council  was  held  on  the 
26th  of  February,  1562^  when  the  letters  were  read  from 
the  pope,  referring"  the  making  of  the  Index  to  the  coun- 
cil. Afterwards,  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem  read  the  de- 
cree, framed  by  the  committee,  relative  to  the  catalogue 
of  prohibited  books.  This  decree,  after  declaring  the 
design  of  the  council  to  be,  to  promote  purity  of  doctrine 
and  discipline,  and  establish  the  unity  of  the  church  ; 
and  lamenting  that  many  "suspicious  and  dangerous" 
books  had  been- multiplied  in  an  extraordinary  manner, 
without  any  effectual  remedy  having  been  applied  to  so 
great  an  evil,  sanctions  the  object  of  the  persons  selected 
for  preparing  the  index,  in  the  following  terms:  "  The  holy 
council  is  of  opinion,  that  the  fathers  chosen  for  this 
examination  ought  carefully  to  consider  what  ought  to 
be  done  respecting  these  books,  and  the  censuring  of 
them,  and  at  a  proper  time,  present  their  report  to  this 
council,  to  enable  it,  more  readily,  to  distinguish  foreign 
and  false  doctrines,  as  tares,  from  the  wheat  of  Christian 
truth,  and  more  easily  to  deliberate,  and  to  ordain  what  is 
most  likely  to  banish  the  causes  of  many  disputes,  and 
to  remove  the  scruples  of  many  minds." ^ 

In  the  25th  session,  which  was  ^he  last  of  the  council, 
and  held  on  the  3rd  and  4th  of  December,  1563,  after 
other  decrees  had  been  read  relative  to  fasts  and  festivals, 
8?,c.  a  decree,  by  which  the  making  of  the  Index  was  re- 
ferred to  the  pope,  was  published  in  the  following  terms  : 

"  The  holy  council  in  the  second  session  held  under  our 
most  holy  father  Pius  IV.  having  given  commission  to 


(2)  Fra  Paolo  Sarpio,  Hist,  du  Cone,  de  Trente,  traduite  par  le  Sieur 

De  la  Mothe  Josseval  [Amelot  de  la  Houssaye].  Li?.  6.  pp.451, 
r    455.  Amst.  1683,  4to. 

(3)  Labbei  S.  S.  Conciliaj  XIV.  p,  842. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  479 

certain  fathers  selected  for  the  purpose,  to  consider  what 
was  necessary  to  be  done  relative  to  suspected  and  per- 
nicious books,  and  to  various  censures,  and  to  make  re- 
port to  the  council ;  and  as  the  holy  council  now  under- 
stands that  they  have  put  the  last  hand  to  the  work,  but 
that  on  account  of  the  variety  and  multitude  of  the  books, 
it  cannot  readily  and  distinctly  form  a  judgment  respect- 
ing them,  ordains,  that  what  they  have  done  shall  be  laid 
before  the  most  holy  Roman  pontiff,  that  the  work  may 
be  completed  and  published  at  his  discretion  and  by  his 
authority  (ejus  judicio  ac  auctoritate)."* 

After  reading  and  confirming  the  decrees,  this  cele- 
brated council  concluded  its  deliberations  on  the  4th  of 
December,  1563,  which  were  sanctioned  the  ensuing 
year  by  the  pope's  bull  of  confirmation. 

The  Index  of  Prohibited  Boohs  received  the  express 
approbation  of  the  pope  by  a  bull,  dated  March  24th,  1564, 
''  forbidding  all  ecclesiastical  persons,  whether  secular 
or  regular,  of  every  degree,  order,  and  dignity,  as  well  as 
laymen  of  every  rank  and  title,  to  presume  to  keep  or 
read  any  books,  contrary  to  the  rules  prescribed  respect- 
ing them,  or  any  of  those  prohibited  in  the  Index."  This 
bull,  with  the  rules  of  the  Index,  was  ordered  to  be 
publicly  read,  and  placed  in  places  of  general  resort.* 

The  General  Rules  relative  to  prohibited  hoohs,  framed 
by  the  fathers  of  the  deputation,  or  committee  appointed 
by  the  council,  and  approved  by  the  pope,  are  the  follow- 
ing, and  are  usually  prefixed  to  the  prohibitory  Indexes. 

I. — "  All  books  condemned  by  the  supreme  pontiffs  or 
general  councils  before  the  year  1515,  and  not  comprised 
in  the  present  Index,  are  nevertheless,  to  be  considered 
as  condemned." 

II. — "The  books  of  heresiarchs,  whether  of  those  who 
broached  or  disseminated  their  heresies  prior  to  the  year 

(4>   Labbei  S.  S.  Concilia,  XIV.  p.  918. 
{b)  Ibid.  pp.  950j  951, 


480 

above  mentioned,  or  of  those  who  have  been,  or  are,  the 
heads  or  leaders  of  heretics,  as  Luther,  Zuingie,  Calvin, 
Balthazar  Pacimontanus,  Swenchfeld,  and  other  similar 
ones,  are  alogether  forbidden,  whatever  may  be  their 
names,  titles,  or  subjects.  And  the  books  of  other  here- 
tics, which  treat  professedly  upon  religion,  are  totally 
condemned  ;  but  those  which  do  not  treat  upon  religion 
are  allowed  to  be  read,  after  having  been  examined  and 
approved  by  Catholic  divines,  by  order  of  the  bishops 
and  inquisitors.  Those  Catholic  books  also  are  permitted 
to  be  read,  which  have  been  composed  by  authors,  who 
have  afterwards  fallen  into  heresy,  or  who,  after  their 
fall,  have  returned  into  the  bosom  of  the  church,  provi- 
ded they  have  been  approved  by  the  theological  faculty  of 
some  Catholic  university,  or  by  the  general  inquisition." 

III. — "Translations  of  ecclesiastical  writers,  which  have 
been  hitherto  published  by  condemned  authors,  are  per- 
mitted to  be  read,  if  they  contain  nothing  contrary  to 
sound  doctrine.  Translations  of  the  Old  Testament  may 
also  be  allowed,  but  only  to  learned  and  pious  men,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  bishop;  provided  they  use  them 
merely  as  elucidations  of  the  vulgate  Version,  in  order  to 
understand  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  not  as  the  Sacred 
Text  itself.  But  translations  of  the  New  Testament 
made  by  authors  of  the  first  class  of  this  Index,  are 
allowed  to  no  one,  since  little  advantage,  but  much  dan- 
ger, generally  arises  from  reading  them.  If  notes  accom- 
pany the  versions  which  are  allowed  to  be  rekd,  or  are 
joined  to  the  Vulgate  edition,  they  may  be  permitted  to 
be  read  by  the  same  persons  as  the  versions,  after  thie 
suspected  places  have  been  expunged  by  the  theological 
faculty  of  some  Catholic  university,  or  by  the  general 
inquisitor.  On  the  same  conditions  also,  pious  and 
learned  men  may  be  permitted  to  have  what  is  called 
''Vatabluss  Bihlel'  or  any  part  of  it.  But  the  preface 
and   Prologomena   of  the  Bibles  published    by  Isidovf^ 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  481 

Clarius  are^  however,  excepted;  and  the  text  of  his  edi- 
tions is  not  to  be  considered  as  the  text  of  the  Vulgate 
edition." 

IV. — ^^  Inasmuch  as  it  is  manifest  from  experience,  that 
if  the  Holy  Bible,  translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  be 
indiscriminately  allowed  to  every  one,  the  temerity  of 
men  will  cause  more  evil  than  good  to  arise  from  it,  it  is, 
on  this  point,  referred  to  the  judgment  of  the  bishops,  or 
inquisitors,  who  may,  by  the  advice  of  the  priest,  or  con- 
fessor, permit  the  reading  of  the  Bible  translated  into 
the  vulgar  tongue  by  Catholic  authors,  to  those  persons 
whose  faith  and  piety,  they  apprehend,  will  be  augment- 
ed, and  not  injured  by  it ;  and  this  permission  they 
must  have  in  writing.  But  if  any  one  shall  have  the 
presumption  to  read  or  possess  it  without  such  written 
permission,  he  shall  not  receive  absolution  until  he  have 
first  delivered  up  such  Bible  to  the  ordinary." 

"Booksellers  who  shall  sell,  or  otherwise  dispose  of 
Bibles  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  to  any  person  not  having 
such  permission,  shall  forfeit  the  value  of  the  books,  to 
be  applied  by  the  bishop  to  some  pious  use;  and  be  sub- 
jected to  such  other  penalties  as  the  bishop  shall  judge 
proper,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  offence.  But 
regulars  shall  neither  read,  nor  purchase  such  Bibles 
without  a  special  licence  from  their  superiors. 

V. — "Books  of  which  heretics  are  the  editors,  but  which 
contain  little  or  nothing  of  their  own,  being  mere  com- 
pilations from  others,  as  lexicons,  concordances,  (collec- 
tions of)  apophthegms,  or  similies,  indexes,  and  others  of 
a  similar  kind,  may  be  allowed  by  the  bishops  and  inqui- 
sitors, after  having  made,  with  the  advice  of  divines,  such 
corrections  and  emendations  as  may  be  deemed  requisite." 

VI. — ^'  Books  of  controversy  betwixt  the  Catholics  and 
heretics  of  the  present  time,  written  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
are  not  to  be  indiscriminately  allowed,  but  are  to  be 
subject  to  the   same  regulations  as  Bibles  in  the  vulgar 

Vol    II.  2  H 


482  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

tongue.  As  to  those  works  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  which 
treat  of  morality,  contemplation,  confession,  and  similar 
subjects,  and  which  contain  nothing  contrary  to  sound 
doctrine,  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  be  prohibit- 
ed; the  same  may  be  said  also  of  sermons  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  designed  for  the  people.  And  if  in  any  kingdom 
or  province,  any  books  have  been  hitherto  prohibited,  as 
containing  things  not  proper  to  be  indiscriminately  read 
by  all  sorts  of  persons,  they  may  be  allowed  by  the 
bishop  and  inquisitor,  after  having  corrected  them,  if 
written  by  Catholic  authors." 

VII. —  "  Books  professedly  treating  of  lascivious  or 
obscene  subjects,  or  narrating,  or  teaching  them,  are 
utterly  prohibited,  as  readily  corrupting  both  the  faith 
and  manners  of  those  who  peruse  them ;  and  those  who 
possess  them  shall  be  severely  punished  by  the  bishop. 
But  the  works  of  antiquity,  written  by  the  heathens,  are 
permitted  to  be  read,  because  of  the  elegance  and  pro- 
priety of  the  language;  though  on  no  account  shall 
they  be  suffered  to  be  read  by  young  persons." 

VIII. — "  Books,  the  principal  subject  of  which  is  good, 
but  in  which  some  things  are  occasionally  introduced 
tending  to  heresy  and  impiety,  divination,  or  superstition, 
may  be  allowed,  after  they  have  been  corrected  by 
Catholic  divines,  by  the  authority  of  the  general  inquisi- 
tion. The  same  judgment  is  also  formed  of  prefaces, 
summaries,or  notes,  taken  from  condemned  authors;  and 
inserted  in  the  works  of  authors  not  con(^  mned ;  but 
such  works  must  not  be  printed  in  future,  until  they  have 
been  amended." 

IX. — "All  books  and  writings  of  geomancy,  hydro- 
mancy,  aeromancy,  pyromancy,  onomancy,  chyromancy, 
and  necromancy;  or  which  treat  of  sorceries,  poisons, 
auguries,  auspices,  or  magical  incantations,  are  utterly 
rejected.  The  bishops  shall  also  diligently  guard  against 
any  persons   reading  or  keeping  any  books,  treatises,  or 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  483 

indexes,  which  treat  of  judicial  astrology^  or  contain 
presumptuous  predictions  of  the  events  of  future  contin- 
gencies, and  fortuitous  occurrences,  or  of  those  actions 
which  depend  upon  the  will  of  man.  But  they  shall 
permit  such  opinions  and  observations  of  natural  things, 
as  are  written  in  aid  of  navigation,  agriculture,  and 
medicine." 

X. — "In  the  printing  of  books  and  other  writings,  the 
rules  shall  be  observed,  which  were  ordained  in  tlie  10th 
session  of  the  council  of  Lateran,  under  Leo  X.  There- 
fore, if  any  book  is  to  be  printed  in  the  city  of  Rome,  it 
shall  first  be  examined  by  the  pope's  vicar  and  the 
master  of  the  sacred  palace,  or  other  persons  chosen  by 
our  most  holy  father  for  that  purpose.  In  other  places, 
the  examination  of  any  book  or  manuscript  intended  to 
be  printed,  shall  be  referred  to  the  bishop,  or  some  skil- 
ful person,  whom  he  shall  nominate,  and  the  inquisitor  of 
the  city  or  diocese  in  which  the  impression  is  executed, 
who  shall  gratuitously,  and  without  delay,  affix  their  ap- 
probation to  the  work,  in  their  own  hand-writing,  subject, 
nevertheless,  to  the  pains  and  censures  contained  in  the 
said  decree  ;  this  law  and  condition  being  added,  that  an 
authentic  copy  of  the  book  to  be  printed,  signed  by  the 
author  himself,  shall  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  exami- 
ner :  and  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  fathers  of  the  present 
deputation,  that  those  persons  who  publish  works  in 
manuscript,  before  they  have  been  examined  and  ap- 
proved, should  be  subject  to  the  same  penalties  as  those 
w^ho  print  them  ;  and  that  those  who  read  or  possess 
them  should  be  considered  as  the  authors,  if  the  real 
authors  of  such  writings  do  not  avow  themselves.  The 
approbation  given  in  writing  shall  be  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  books,  whether  printed  or  in  manuscript,  that  they 
may  appear  to  be  duly  authorized  ;  and  this  examination 
and  approbation,  &c.  shall  be  granted  gratuitously." 
.  "  Moreover,  in  every  citv  and  diocese,   the  house  or. 


484 

place  where  the  art  of  printing  is  exercised,  and  also  the 
shops  of  booksellers,  shall  be  frequently  visited  by  persons 
deputed  by  the  bishop  or  his  vicar,  conjointly  with  the 
inquisitor,  so  that  nothing  that  is  prohibited  may  be 
printed,  kept,  or  sold.  Booksellers  of  every  description, 
shall  keep  a  catalogue  of  the  books  which  they  have  on 
sale,  signed  by  the  said  deputies  ;  nor  shall  they  keep, 
or  sell,  nor  in  any  way  dispose  of,  any  other  books,  with- 
out permission  from  the  deputies,  under  pain  of  forfeiting 
the  books,  and  being  liable  to  such  other  penalties  as 
shall  be  judged  proper  by  the  bishop  or  inquisitor,  who 
shall  also  punish  the  buyers,  readers,  or  printers  of  such 
works.  If  any  person  import  foreign  books  into  any  city, 
they  shall  be  obliged  to  announce  them  to  the  deputies  ; 
or  if  this  kind  of  merchandise  be  exposed  to  sale  in  any 
public  place,  the  public  officers  of  the  place  shall  signify 
to  the  said  deputies,  that  such  books  have  been  brought ; 
and  no  one  shall  presume  to  give  to  read,  or  lend,  or  sell, 
any  book  which  he  or  any  other  person  has  brought  into 
the  city,  until  he  has  shewn  it  to  the  deputies,  and  ob- 
tained their  permission,  unless  it  be  a  work  well  known 
to  be  universally  allowed." 

"  Heirs  and  testamentary  executors,  shall  make  no 
use  of  the  books  of  the  deceased,  nor  in  any  way  transfer 
them  to  others,  until  they  have  presented  a  catalogue  of 
them  to  the  deputies,  and  obtained  their  licence,  under 
pain  of  the  confiscation  of  the  books,  or  the  infliction  of 
such  other  punishment  as  the  bishop  or  inquisitor  shall 
deem  proper,  according  to  the  contumacy  or  quality  of  the 
delinquent." 

"  With  regard  to  those  books  which  the  fathers  of  the 
present  deputation  shall  examine,  or  correct,  or  deliver 
to  be  corrected,  or  permit  to  be  reprinted  on  certain  con- 
ditions, booksellers  and  others  shall  be  bound  to  observe 
whatever  is  ordained  respecting  them.  The  bishops  and 
general   inquisitors    shall,  nevertheless,    be   at  liberty, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  485 

according  to  the  power  they  possess,  to  prohibit  such 
books  as  may  seem  to  be  permitted  by  these  rules,  if  they 
deem  it  necessary,  for  the  good  of  the  kingdom,  or  pro- 
vince, or  diocese.  And  let  the  secretary  of  these  fathers, 
according  to  the  command  of  our  holy  Father,  transmit 
to  the  notary  of  the  general  inquisitor,  the  names  of  the 
books  that  have  been  corrected,  as  well  as  of  the  persons  ta 
whom  the  f^ithers  have  granted  the  power  of  examination.'* 

"Finally,  it  is  enjoined  on  all  the  faithful,  that  no  one 
presume  to  keep,  or  read  any  books  contrary  to  these 
rules,  or  prohibited  by  this  Index.  But  if  any  one  read, 
or  keep  any  books  composed  by  heretics,  or  the  writings 
of  any  author  suspected  of  heresy,  or  false  doctrine,  he 
shall  instantly  incur  the  sentence  of  excommunication  ; 
and  those  who  read,  or  keep  works  interdicted  on  another 
account,  beside  the  mortal  sin  committed,  shall  be  se- 
verely punished  at  the  will  of  the  bishops."® 

The  secretary  to  the  committee  or  deputation  for  form- 
ing the  Index  of  prohibited  hooks  was  Francis  Foreiro,  of 
the  order  of  preachers,  and  professor  of  theology,  who 
had  not  only  the  chief  care  of  compiling  the  Index,  but  was 
also  the  writer  of  the  preface  prefixed  to  it.  It  was  divided 
into  three  classes,  arranged  alphabetically.  The^r*^  class, 
contained  the  list  of  those  authors  who  were  either  consider- 
ed as  heretics,  or  suspected  of  heresy,  and  therefore,  all 
works  published  by  them  were  condemned,  or  ordered 
to  be  corrected :  the  second  class  contained  a  catalogue  of 
books,  described  by  their  titles,  which  were  suspected  of 
containing  false  doctrine,  and  therefore,  either  w^iolly 
condemned,  or  ordered  to  be  corrected :  the  third  class 
specified  those  anonymous  wovk^  which  w^re  either  entirely 
condemned,  or  deemed  needful  to  ])e  corrected.  Succeed- 
ing pontiffs  greatly  enlarged  the  Tridentine  Index,  by  the 
addition  of  numerous  other  condemned  and  censured 
books;  the  Rules  of  the  Index  weve  also  variously  modified 
(6)  Labbei  S.  S.  Concilia,  XIV.  pp.  952— 956v  ^"^ 


486  BIBLICAL   LITERATURE, 

by  subsequent  explanations  and  additions.  Many  of  these 
alterations  and  additions  may  be  found  in  the  Index 
Lihroruni  Prohihitorum  et  Expurgandorum,  by  Anton,  a 
Sotomajor.     Madrit.  1667,  fol. 

Francis,  orFRANCiscoFoREiRO,the'chief  compiler  of  the 
/?2Y/ej?,wasalso  the  principal  person  employed  in  revising  the 
Missal  and  Breviary,  agreeably  to  the  recommendation 
of  the  council,  as  well  as  in  compiling  the  Catholic  Cate- 
chism, usually  called  the  Catechism  of  Trent,  from  its 
being  drawn  up  by  desire  of  that  council.  He  was  a  native 
of  Lisbon,  in  Portugal,  and  was  eminently  skilled  in  the 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages.  Having  entered 
the  order  of  the  Dominicans,  he  made  his  profession,  Feb. 
2nd,  1539.  His  talents  having  gained  him  the  confidence 
of  the  king  of  Portugal,  he  was  sent  by  that  monarch  to 
the  council  of  Trent,  in  1561,  in  quality  of  theologian. 
In  1568  he  was  chosen  provincial  of  his  order.  He  was 
the  author  of  a  Latin  translation  of  Isaiah's  Prophecy, 
with  a  commentary,  printed  at  Venice,  1563,  fol.  He  is 
said  to  have  extended  his  Commentaty  to  all  the  Pro- 
phets, A  Hebrew  Lexicon  and  other  works  are  also 
attributed  to  him.     He  died  in  1581,  aged  58.*^ 

The  decrees  of  the  council  of  Trent  being  confirmed 
by  the  pope,  were  solemnly  received  by  the  senate  of 
Venice,  the  diet  of  Poland,  and  the  king  of  Portugal ;  but 
published  by  the  king  of  Spain,  in  Spain,  the  Low-Coun- 
tries, Sicily,  and  Naples,  with  a  proviso,  as  to  certain 
laws  of  discipline,  to  save  the  right  of  the  king  and  king- 
dom. In  France,  Queen  Catherine  de  Medicis  alleged, 
that  the  council  forbade  several  customs  allowed  by  the 
discipline  of  the  realm,  and  therefore  put  off  the  legal 
publication;  and  though  vigorous  attempts  have  been 
made  to  enforce  the  acceptance  of  the  decrees,  they  have 
never  been  legally  established  in  that  kingdom.  But 
the  doctrinal  decisions  of  the  council  in  matters  of  faith, 
^7)  D.  B.  Machado,  Biblioth,  Lusitan.  11.  p.  152,  Lisb.  1748,  fol. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  487 

have  been  generally  received  by  the  Galilean  church.  In 
Germany  the  Reformation  had  extended  the  opposition 
to  the  Council,  and  the  Protestants  refused  to  acknow- 
ledge its  authority.* 

The  Latin  Vulgate  having  been  pronounced  authentic 
by  the  council  of  Trent,  it  was  desirable  that  as  correct 
an  edition  of  it  as  possible  should  be  printed,  with  ali 
expedition.  John  Hentenius,  a  Catholic  divine  of 
Louvain,  published,  therefore,  an  edition  of  the  Vulgate, 
chiefly  taken  from  that  of  Robert  Stephens,  of  1540,  but 
collated  with  several  manuscripts.  It  was  printed  at 
Louvain,  in  1547,  fol.  and  was  afterwards  frequently 
reprinted.  This  edition  of  Hentenius  may  be  attributed 
to  the  divines  of  Louvain  in  general,  since  the  author 
assures  us,  in  his  preface,  that  it  was  done  by  the  order 
of  the  most  learned  and  judicious  of  the  divines  of  that 
university,  and  that  he  acted  under  their  counsel  and 
direction;  Sweertius  (Freheri  Theatrum,)  adds,  that  it 
was  undertaken  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 

The  edition  of  Hentenius,  however,  not  being  entirely 
satisfactory  to  them,  they  corrected  the  printed  text, 
partly  from  Latin  MSS.,  partly  from  the  originals  them- 
selves; and  published,  at  Louvain,  in  1573,  an  edition  of 
the  Bible,  much  superior  to  the  preceding,  accompanied 
with  various  readings  from  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  Greek, 
Syriac,  and  Latin  MSS.  &c.  The  principal  editor  was 
Francis  Lucas,  of  Bruges,  assisted  by  John  Molanus, 
August  171  Hunnosus,  Cornelius  Reyner,  and  John  Harlem, 
doctors  of  the  university  of  Louvain.'^ 

John  Henten,  or  Hentenius,  the  editor  of  the  first 
edition  of  the  Louvain  Latin  Bible,  was  born  at  Naline, 
near  Thuin,  on  the  Sambre.  At  an  early  period  he  went 
to  Portugal,  where  he  joined  the  order  of  Hierony mites. 

(8)  Dictionnaire  Portalif  des  Conciles,  p.  530. 

Butler's  Lives,  XI.  p,  92. 

(9)  L3  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  ii.   rol.  III.  cap,  ii.    sec.  1,  pp.  22^ — 

225.  230—232. 


488  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

He  afterwards  removed  to  Louvain,  and  entered  the 
order  of  the  Dominicans,  and  in  1551  was  made  doctor  of 
divinity.  He  died  at  Louvain  in  1560,  aged  67. — Beside 
the  Revision  of  the  Vulgate  Bihle^  he  published  The 
Commentaries  of  Eathymius  on  the  Gospels;  those  of 
CEcumenius  on  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  and  of  Aretas  on 
the  Revelation.^^ 

Francis  Lucas,  surnamed  Brugensis,  from  Bruges, 
the  place  of  his  birth,  was  one  of  the  divines  of  Louvain, 
and  dean  of  St.  Omers,  where  he  died,  February  19th, 
1619.  He  was  critically  versed  in  the  Hebrew,  Syriac, 
Chaldee,  and  Greek  languages.  He  was  the  author  of 
several  critical  and  learned  works.  A  valuable  treatise 
of  his  on  the  Various  Readings  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Gospels,  &c.  is  inserted  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the  Lon- 
don Polyglott.^' 

Other  editions  of  the  Vulgate,  beside  those  of  the 
divines  of  Louvain,  were  also  published  by  individuals  of 
the  Catholic  communion,  two  of  which  merit  notice,  the 
one  by  John  Benedict,  the  other  by  Isidore  Clarius. 
Benedict's  corrected  edition  was  printed  at  Paris,  by 
Simon  Colinaeus,  1541,  in  fol.;  and  was  accompanied 
with  marginal  notes.  It  was  subsequently  placed  in  the 
Expurgatory  Index  of  the  Romish  church.  Clarius's 
edition  was  printed  at  Venice,  by  Peter  SchoefFer,  1542, 
fol.  An  emended  edition  of  the  Vulgate  was  also  edited 
and  published  by  Francis  Gryphius,  the  learned  printer, 
at  Paris,  in  1541,  8vo.^^ 

Jonh  Benedict,  or  Benoit,  doctor  in  theology,  was 
born  at  Verneuil,  in  France,  in  1483.  He  died  at  Paris, 
where  he  was  rector  of  St.  Innocents'  church,  in  1573. 
Beside  his  edition  of  the  Vulgate  Bible,  he  completed 

(10)  Nouveau  Diet.  Hist.  IV.  pp.  440,  441. 
(11;  Freheri  Theatrum,  pt.  i.  sec.  3,  p.  401, 

Clarke's  Bibliog.  Diet.  IV.  p.  294. 
(12)  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  ii.  toL  III.  cap,  ii.  sec.  1,  pp,  213—215. 
219—222, 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  489 

the  Scholia  of  Jean   Gagny  on  the  G  ospels  and   Jets 
of  the  Apostles,  1563,  8vo.'^ 

Isidore    Clario,   or  Clarius,    took  his  surname  of 
Clarius  from  Chiari,  the  place  of  his  birth,   in  the   terri- 
tory of  Brescia,  from  whence  he  is  also  sometimes  called 
Briviamts.     He  was  born  in  1495,  and  entered  at  a  pro- 
per age  into  the  order  of  St.  Benedict,  at  the  monastery 
of  8t.  John,  in  Parma,  where  he  made  extraordinary 
progress   in  sacred  and  profane  literature,   and  acquired 
the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his 
time.     The   purity   of  his   morals,   the   warmth   of  his 
charity,  and   his  zeal  for  the  reformation  of  manners, 
gained  him  general  esteem;  whilst  his  eloquence  distin- 
guished him  as  a  preacher  and  orator.     In  1537,  he  was 
made  prior  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter,  in  Modena. 
He  was  afterwards  abbot  of  Pontido,  near  Bergamo,  and 
of  St.  Mary,  in  Cesena.     His  final  promotion  was  to  the 
bishoprick  of  Foligno,  which  see  he  governed  with  great 
reputation,   assiduously  attending  to  the  instruction   of 
the  poor,  and  promoting  literature  among  those  of  supe- 
rior condition,  by  the  institution  of  an  academy  of  learned 
men.     In  1542,  he  published  his  revised  edition  of  the 
Vulgate  Bible,  and  prefixed  to  it  certain  Prolegomena,  or 
prefatory  dissertations,  which  were  afterwards  ordered 
by  the  rules  of  the  Expurgatory  Index  of  the  council  of 
Trent,  published  after  his  death,  to  be  suppressed,  and 
the  Text  of  his  edition  pronounced  not  the  authentic,  or 
pure  text  of  the  Vulgate.     He  was  present  at  the  council 
both  in  the  quality  of  abbot  and  of  bishop,  and  strenu- 
ously   defended  the  Vulgate  version  of  the  Scriptures  as 
the  best  extant,   and  the  standard  to  which  all  others 
ought  to  be  brought,  or  rather  that  no  other  ought  to  be 
permitted,  though  he  acknowledged   it   needed  correc- 
tion.    He  died  of  a  fever,  in  1555,  at  Foligno,  and  his 
remains  were  honoured  by  the  people  almost  as  those 

ri3)  Nouveau  Diet.  Hist.  II.  p.  68, 


490  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

of  a  saint.  A  collection  of  his  sermons  was  published 
during  his  life,  and  reprinted  after  his  death.  In  his 
edition  of  the  Latin  Bible  he  made  great  use  of  Seb. 
Munster's  Annotations  on  the  Old  Testament,  but  was 
prevented  by  the  spirit  of  the  times  from  acknowledging 
his  obligations  to  the  works  of  a  Protestant  author.'* 

Editions  of  the  Vulgate  version  were  published  also  by 
Protestant  editors,  especially  by  the  learned  Lutheran 
ministers,  Andrew  and  Luke  Osiander,  and  their  descend- 
ants, and  by  Conrad  Pellican. 

All  preceding  revisions  of  the  Vulgate  were,  however, 
surpassed  in  celebrity  by  those  published  by  the  autho- 
rity, and  under  the  immediate  inspection  of  the  Roman 
pontiffs.  Pope  Pius  IV.  during  whose  pontificate  the 
council  of  Trent  was  concluded^  adopted  the  views  of 
the  council,  which  had  declared  the  Vulgate  to  be 
authentic  and  had  ordered  correct  editions  of  it  to  be 
printed;  and  in  pursuance  of  the  design  chose  several 
cardinals  and  others,  who  were  well  acquainted  with 
languages,  and  versed  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  to 
whom  he  committed  the  correction  of  the  Latin  version, 
which  he  ordered  to  be  collated  with  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  Texts,  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers.  His 
successor,  Pius  V.  continued  the  undertaking,  until 
interrupted  by  what  he  considered  as  the  more  important 
concerns  of  the  papal  see,  which  occasioned  the  suspen- 
sion of  it  for  some  time.  On  the  accession  of  Sixtus  V. 
to  the  papal  supremacy,  tlie  design  was  renewed,  and 
carried  into  effect.  This  active  and  resolute  pontiff  not 
only  assembled  round  him  a  number  of  the  most  learned 
and  acute  linguists  and  critics,  but  ardently  and  person- 
ally engaged  in  the  examination  of  the  work  himself. 
Angel  us  Roccha,  the  librarian  of  the  Vatican,  relates, 
that  in  the  library,  among  other  inscriptions,  was  one 

(14)  Aikin's  Gen.  Biog.  III.  p.  2. 

Siraon^  Uist«  du  V.  T.    liv.  2^  cli.  xx,  p»  358* 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  491 

recording  the  publication  of  the  Vulgate  by  Sixtus  V. 
"  This  inscription,"  says  he,  "is  the  fourth  inscription, 
and  indicates  the  extraordinary  and  truly  pontifical  care 
which  Sixtus  V.  took  in  correcting  and  printing  the 
Bible,  according  to  the  direction  of  the  council  of  Trent, 
in  which  his  labours  were  of  such  a  nature,  and  so  great 
both  by  day  and  night,  that  I,  who  have  frequently  seen, 
and  been  astonished  at  them,  am  persuaded  no  words 
can  adequately  describe  them.  For  he  read  over  every 
word  of  the  Bible  before  he  committed  it  to  the  press, 
notwithstanding  the  heavy  cares  of  the  whole  Christian 
world  which  came  upon  him  daily,  and  the  many  pious, 
heroical,  and  truly  pontifical  acts  which  he  performed. 
Thus,  therefore,  he  diligently  read  and  corrected  the 
Sacred  pages,  so  that  all  the  books  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  every  part  of  them,  might  be  read,  agreeably 
to  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent,  as  they  had  for- 
merly been  accustomed  to  be  read  in  the  Catholic  church, 
and  as  they  are  contained  in  the  old  Vulgate  Latin  Bible. 
Nor  did  even  this  suffice,  for  when  the  Bible,  thus  correct- 
ed, was  recently  printed,  he  reviewed  the  whole,  that 
every  part  of  it  being  faithfully  executed,  it  might  be 
published  to  the  world." 

He  did  more  than  this,  for  he  not  only  read  over  the 
sheets  as  they  came  from  the  press,  but  after  the  whole 
had  been  printed  off,  he  re-examined  every  part  of  it, 
corrected  several  places  with  his  own  hand,  and  took 
care  that  others  were  rectified  by  words  or  sentences 
separately  printed,  and  pasted  over  the  erroneous  words 
or  phrases. 

To  add  to  the  authority  jof  this  edition,  Sixtus  accom- 
panied it  with  a  bull,  by  which  he  forbade  any  one,  under 
pain  of  the  most  tremendous  anathemas,  to  alter  it  in 
the  minutest  particular.  This  bull  bears  date  in  March, 
1589,  though  the  Bible  was  not  published  till  1590,  and 
enjoins  the  reception  of  this  edition  as  the  authentic  one. 


492  BIBLICAL    LITERATURU^ 

according  to  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent :  "Of  our 
certain  knowledge,  and  plenitude  of  apostolical  power, 
we  ordain  and  declare,"  says  the  pontiff,  "that  this  edi- 
tion only,  which  has  now  been  corrected  in  the  best 
possible  manner,  and  printed  at  our  Vatican  press,  is 
without  any  doubt  or  controversy  to  be  regarded  by 
the  Christian  public,  as  the  Vulgate  Latin  edition  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  received  as  autheiitic  hy  the 
council  of  Trent.  And  we  order  it  to  be  read  through 
the  whole  Christian  world,  in  all  churches,  remarking,that 
first  by  the  general  consent  of  the  holy  church,  and  of 
the  hoJy  Fathers,  then  by  the  decree  of  the  general 
council  of  Trent,  and  now  also,  by  that  apostolical  au- 
thority which  God  hath  committed  unto  us,  it  was,  and 
is  enjoined  to  be  received  and  accounted,  as  a  true,  law- 
ful, authentic,  and  undoubted  copy,  in  all  public  and 
private  disputations,  lectures,  sermons,  or  expositions."'^ 

This  edition,  which  has  justly  obtained  the  name  of  the 
SrxTiNE,  or  Bible  of  Sixtus  V.  was  printed  at  the 
Vatican  press  established  by  Sixtus,  in  3  vols,  folio.  1590, 
and  is  said  to  be  "one  of  the  grandest  works  which  ever 
issued  from  the  Vatican  press,  under  the  superintendence 
of  Aldus."  Some  copies  were  printed  upon  large  paper, 
and  are  extremely  rare. 

The  principal  persons  employed  by  Sixtus  in  this  edi- 
tion, were  Cardinal  Caraffa,  Flaminius  Nobilius,  An- 
TONius  Agellius,  Petrus  Morinus,  Angelus  Roccha, 
and  L.ELIUS. 

Scarcely,  however,  had  the  Sixtine  edition  made  its 
appearance  before  it  was  discovered  to  abound  with  errors; 
and  on  the  decease  of  the  pontiff,  which  happened  in  the 

<15)  Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.  ii.  vol.  III.  cap.  ii.  sec.  1,  pp.  239—244. 
Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  IV.  pp.  1 55 — 1  68. 
Schelhoinii  Amoenitates  Literarias,  IV.  pp,  433 — 454.  Francofurt. 

et  Lips.  1730,  8vo. 
James's  Treatise   of  the  Corruption   of  Scripture,   &c.   pt.  iiu 

pp.  32—36.  54.   Lond.  1611,  4to. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  493 

same  year  that  his  Bible  was  published,  the  copies  were 
called  in,  and  a  new  edition  was  resolved  upon  by  his 
successor  Gregory  XIV.  who  committed  the  revision  of 
the  work  to  a.  congregation  or  committee  of  cardinals 
and  other  learned  men,  the  chief  of  whom,  according  to 
Le  Long,  (Biblioth.  Sacr.)  were  the  Cardinals  Marcus 
Antonius,  Columna,  and  William  Alan  ;  Bartholo- 
MiEUs  DE  Miranda,  master  of  the  sacred  palace  ;  Robert 
Bellarmin,  Antonius  Agellius,  Petrus  Morinus, 
Flaminius  Nobilius,  Bartholom^eus  Valverdius,  and 
L^Lius  ;  to  whom  Clement  adds,  the  Cardinals  de  Ru- 
VERE,  DE  Sarnana,  and  Columna,  junr. ;  Petrus 
RuDOLPHUs,  Henricus  Gravius,  Andreas,  abbot  of 
Salvanera,  Antonius  de  Sancto  Silvestro,  and  Angelus 
RoccHA,  the  secretary  of  the  congregation  or  committee. 

Gregory  dying  in  October,  1591,  before  the  work  had 
been  much  advanced,  it  was  afterwards  resumed  by 
Clement  VIII.  who  ascended  the  pontifical  chair,  Janu- 
ary 30,  1592.  The  learned  men  whom  he  selected  as 
editors,  were  the  Cardinals  Franciscus  Toletus,  Au- 
GUSTiNUs  Valerius,  and  Fredericus  Borro?/i.eus, 
assisted  by  Bellarmin,  Agellius,  Morinus,  and  two 
others. 

Clement's  edition  of  the  Vulgate  was  published  in  1592, 
in  fol.  The  preface,  which  is  anonymous,  Vv^as  written  bv 
Robert  Bellarmin,  To  this  is  annexed  the  decree  of  the 
4th  session  of  the  council  of  Trent,  "  De  Canonis  Scrip- 
turis ;"  and  the  bull  of  Clement  VIII.  dated  Rome,  Nov^ 
19, 1592,  in  which  he  forbids  any  printer  or  bookseller  to 
print  or  sell,  during  the  space  of  10  years,  any  Bible  which 
is  not  exactly  conformable  to  this,  under  pain  of  the 
great  excommunication.  A  second  edition  was  published 
in  1593,  in  4to.  differing  in  some  instances  from  the 
former. 

The  difference  between  the  papal  editions  is  considera- 
ble,   and  strikes  a  fatal  blow  at  the  infallibilitv  of  the 


494  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

popes.  Dr.  James,  the  very  learned  librarian  of  the 
Bodleian  Library,  in  his  celebrated  Bellum  Papule,  print- 
ed at  London,  1600,  4to.  and  1678,  12mo.  notices  2000 
variations,  some  of  whole  verses,  and  many  others  clear- 
ly and  decidedly  contradictory  to  each  other.  Yet  both 
editions  were  respectively  declared  to  be  authentic  by 
the  same  plenitude  of  knowledge  and  povrer,  and  both 
guarded  against  the  least  alteration,  by  the  same  tremen- 
dous excommiinication.  Dr.  James,  in  his  Treatise  of  the 
Corruption  of  Scripture,  also  mentions  several  other  varia- 
tions, not  noticed  in  hi^ Bellum  Papale.  Sixtinus  Amamus 
has  followed  him  in  his  Anti-barbarus  Biblicus,  Frane- 
quer,  1656,  in  4to.  Father  Henry  de  Buhentop,  a  Ri- 
collet,  has  made  a  similar  collection  in  his  treatise  entitled 
Lux  de  Luce,  Cologne,  1710,  4 to.  but  denies  the  conse- 
quences that  Dr.  James  professes  to  draw  from  them, 
against  the  papal  infallibility.  Lucas  Brugensis 
reckoned  400  places,  in  which,  in  his  opinion,  the  Bible 
of  Clement  VIll.  might  be  thought  to  want  correction. 
Cardinal  Robert  Bellarmin  praised  his  industry,  and 
wrote  to  him,  that  those  concerned  in  the  work  had  not 
corrected  it  with  the  utmost  accuracy,  and  that  inten- 
tionally they  had  passed  over  many  mistakes. 

The  defence  made  by  the  advocates  of  the  papal  au- 
thority, is,  that  Clement  only  corrected  those  errors  of 
the  press,  which  Sixtus  designed  to  have  corrected  in  a 
second  edition.  This  is  supported  by  the  writer  of  the 
preface  to  the  Clementine  edition:  but  of  this  there  is 
no  proof,  and  but  little  probability.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Corrections  which  Sixtus  made  with  his  own  hand, 
the  Bull  which  he  issued,  his  well-known  imperious  and 
resolute  disposition,  and  the  distinct  nature  of  the  edi- 
tions, that  of  Sixtus  being  corrected  by  the  Hebrew  ori- 
ginal, whilst  that  of  Clement  was  restricted  to  the  old 
Latin  Vulgate,  prove  that  no  such  intention  existed.  So 
strong   is   the.  argument  thus   furnished  against  the  in- 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  495 

fallibility  of  the  popes,  that  Baldwin,  the  Jesuit,  boldly 
affirmed,  that  Sixtus's  edition  never  was  published!  That 
the  copies  of  it  are  extremely  rare,  is  certain,  the  edition 
having  been  suppressed  so  soon  after  its  publication.  Two, 
however,  are  known  to  exist  in  England,  one  of  which  is  in 
the  Bodleian  Library.  But,  "  although  we  cannot  follow 
the  Vulgate  Latin,"  says  a  modern  critic,  "in  every  part, 
nor  ascribe  to  it  the  authority  it  possesses  in  the  church 
of  Rome,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  to  be  overlooked  by  the 
Biblical  student:  as  an  ancient  version  it  affords  assist- 
ance in  understanding  the  original,  and  contributes  its 
share  toward  correcting  some  mistakes  in  the  Hebrew 
text,  for  it  undoubtedly  has  in  some  places  preserved  the 
true  readings,  which  are  confirmed  by  Kennicott's  col- 
lations."'^ Both  these  editions  are  sometimes  sold,  under 
the  name  of  Sijctus's  Bible. 

The  following  biographical  sketches  of  the  popes  Sixtus 
V.  and  Clement  VIII. ;  and  of  the  learned  men  who 
were  employed  in  the  publication  of  the  Vulgate  by  papal 
authority,  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  the  reader,  whe- 
ther we  consider  the  importance  of  the  work  in  which 
they  were  engaged,  or  the  celebrity  of  many  of  them  as 
literary  characters,  or  controversial  writers. 

Felix  Peretti,  afterwards  Pope  Siitus  V.  v/as  born 
December  13th,  1521,  in  the  province  of  La  Marca  d\4n- 
cona,  at  a  village  called  Le  Grofte,  in  the  seigniory  of 
Montalto,  from  which  he  took  his  title,  when  he  was  made 
cardinal.  His  father  was  a  gardener,  and  his  mother  a 
servant-maid.  They  would  gladly  have  given  him  some 
education,  but  were  debarred  by  their  poverty.  When 
he  was  nine  years  old  his  father  hired  him  out  to  an  in- 

(16)  Hamilton's  Gen.  Introd,  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  ch.  viii.  p.  166. 
Dublin,  18i4,  8vo. 
Le  Long,  edit.  Masch,  pt.ii,  vol,  ITf.  cap.ii.  sec.  1,  pp.  241 — 249. 
Clement,  Bibliotheque  Curieuse,  IV.  pp.  156 — 163. 
Sch"lhornii  Amoenitates  Literariffi,  ut  sup. 
James's  Treatise  of  the  Corruption  of  ScripUire,  tit  sup. 


4&6  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

habitant  of  the  town,  to  look  after  his  sheep,  but  having 
disobliged  his  master,  he  was  degraded  to  be  the  keeper 
of  the  hogs.     From  this  disagreeable  occupation  he  was 
rescued  by  a  fortunate,    but  unforeseen  accident.     F. 
Michael  Angelo  Selleri,  a  Franciscan  friar,   going  in  the 
beginning  of  February,  1531,  to  preach  at  Ascoli,  lost  his 
way  near  Le  Grotte ;  and  coming  to  four  lane  ends,  was 
at  a  loss  which  road  to  take,  and  was   looking  round 
for  some  one  to  direct  him,  when  young  Felix,  who  was  at- 
tending   his  hogs   near   the  place,    perceiving  his  per- 
plexity, ran  to  him,  and  after  saluting  him,  inquired  the 
cause   of  it,  and   tendering    his  services,     which   were 
gladly  accepted,  ran  by  the  side  of  the  friar  to  Ascoli. 
The   conversation  which  took  place  between  them  on 
the  road,   discovered   such  marks  of  intelligence,   and 
thirst  for  knowledge,  in  the  young  swineherd,  as  induced 
F.  Michael  to  recommend  him  to  the  care  and  patronage 
of  his  fraternity.     He  was  accordingly  invested  with  the 
habit  of  a  lay-brother,  and  placed  under  the  sacristan  to 
assist  in  sweeping  the  church,  lighting  the  candles,  and 
other  similar  employments,  for  which  he  was  to  be  taught 
the  responses,  and  the  rudiments  of  grammar;  and  being 
afterwards  placed  under  an  instructor  to  be  taught  Latin, 
made  such  progress  in  learning,  that  at  the  age  of  13  he 
was  qualified  to  commence  his  noviciate,  or  year  s  pro- 
bation, and  at  14  was  admitted  to  make  his  ^profession. 
In  June,  1545,  he  was  ordained  priest,  and  assumed  the 
name  of  Father   Montalto.       He   took    his    bachelors 
degree  the  same  year.     Afterwards,    having  taken   his 
doctor  s  degree,  with  honour,  though  not  without  opposi- 
tion from  those  whom  he  had  offended  by  the  violence  of 
his  temper,  he  rose  successively  to  be  professor  of  theology 
at  Sienna ;  preacher  to  the  convent  of  the  Holy  Apostles 
in  Rome;   regent  of  the   convent   of  St.  Lawrence  at 
Naples,  and  of  the  Cordeliers  at  Venice ;  inquisitor  gene- 
ral at   Venice;   procurator  and   general  of    his   order; 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  497 

chaplain  to  the  king*  of  Spain  ;  confessor  extraordinary 
to  the  pope  ;  and  bishop  of  St.  Agatha.  In  1569,  he  was 
employed  to  draw  up  a  bull  for  the  exconiniunication  of 
Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  and  was  soon  afterwards 
created  cardinal, by  the  title  D'l  Montalto.  This  promotion 
inflamed  the  ambition  of  Montalto,  and  he  resolved  to 
aspire  to  the  papacy.  With  this  view  he  artfully  assumed 
the  character  of  an  humble,  patient,  affable,  disinterested 
monk,  retired  to  his  cell,  practised  the  austerities  of  the 
cloister,  professed  himself  dead  to  the  honours  of  the  world, 
and,  pretending  to  be  sinking  under  the  accumulated  infir- 
mities of  old  age,  completely  imposed  upon  hjs  contempo- 
raries. When  Gregory  XIII.  died,  in  1585,  he  entered 
the  conclave  with  the  other  cardinals,  but  seemed  alto- 
gether indifferent  about  the  event  of  the  election.  Fore- 
seeing the  contentions  that  would  be  occasioned  by  the 
rival  candidates,  he  joined  no  party,  but  flattered  all. 
Three  cardinals,  unable  to  procure  the  election  which  they 
respectively  wished,  unanimously  agreed  to  make  choice 
of  Montalto.  Whilst  they  congratulated  him  on  the 
probability  of  his  accession  to  the  papal  chair,  he  sat 
coughing  and  weeping,  as  if  some  great  misfortune  had 
befallen  him;  but  no  sooner  did  he  perceive  that  a  sufli- 
cient  number  of  votes  were  given  to  gain  his  election, 
than  he  threw  the  staff,  with  which  he  used  to  support 
himself,  into  the  midst  of  the  chapel,  and  starting  from 
his  seat,  appeared  almost  a  foot  taller  than  he  had  done 
for  several  years.  The  astonished  cardinals  pretending 
some  mistake,  he  sternly  vociferated,  "There  is  no 
mistake,"  and  immediately  thundered  out  the  Te  Deiun 
in  a  voice  that  shook  the  place,  and,  by  the  boldness  of 
his  manner,  intimidated  his  opponents,  and  secured  his 
success.  He  now  assumed  the  title  of  Sixtus  V.,  and 
laying  aside  his  feigned  humility  and  complaisance,  treat- 
ed all  around  him  with  haughtiness  and  reserve.  His 
first  care  was  to  correct  the  abuses,  and  prevent  the 

Vol.  II.  2  I 


498  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

enormities,  practised  in  the  ecclesiastical  states^.     Justice 
was  exercised  with  a  severe  but  impartial  hand,  and  the 
licentiousness  which   had   every   where    prevailed    v/as 
restrained  by  the  vigorous  measures  of  Sixtus,  who  never 
forgave  those  who  attempted  to  seduce  a  female;  and 
who  punished  with  equal  firmness  the  dignitary  and  the 
plebeian.     Anxious  not  only  to  embellish   Rome,  but  to 
immortalize   his  memory,  he  caused  an   obelisk   to  be 
erected,  which  Caligula  had  brought  from  Spain  ;  and 
after  the  labour  of  four  months,  this  stupendous  column, 
above  100  feet  high,  was  raised  at  the  entrance  of  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  and  consecrated  to  the  holy  cross. 
He  fixed  by  a  bull,  the  number  of  cardinals  to  seventy, 
and  introduced  various  salutary  regulations  in  the  go- 
vernment of  the  church.     He  built  the  famous  library  in 
the  Vatican;  established  in  it  a  printing-office,  for  the 
printing  of  CathoUc  works ;  and  instituted  the   Congre- 
gation of  the  Index,  for   the  examination   of  books  and 
manuscripts  designed  for  publication,  and  for  the  correc- 
tion or  suppression  of  those  suspected  of  heretical  opini- 
ons.    Under  his  direction,  new  editions  were  published 
of  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate  versions  of  the  Scriptures : 
he  is  also  said  to  have  caused  an  Italian  translation  of 
the  Bible  to  be  printed,  which  he  afterwards  suppressed, 
on  account  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  Spaniards 
and  some  cardinals.     He  likewise,  whilst  cardinal,  pub- 
lished an  edition  of  the  IVorhs  of  St.  Ambrose,     After  he 
had  exercised  the  papal  authority  with  singular  energy 
and  effect  for   five  years,   the  pontifical  chair   became 
vacant  by  his   death,   which   occurred  on  the  27th  of 
August,  1590,  not  without  suspicion  of  his  being  poisoned 
by    the   Jesuits,    whom   he    had    exceedingly   incensed 
against   him." 

HippoLiTO    Aldobrandino,    afterwards    Pope    Cle- 

. _ J 

(17)  Leti's  Life  of  Pope  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  translated  from  the  Italian  by 
%*  Farneworth,  passim,  Dublin,  1766,  8vo. 


~      SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  499 

MENT  VIII.  was  descended  from  an  ancient  Florentine 
family,  and  born  at  Fano,  in  1536.  He  studied  at  Ferrara, 
and  Bologna,  and  distinguished  himself  by  natural  elo- 
quence, and  an  upright  disposition.  Pius  V.  made  him 
an  auditor  of  the  Roto,  or  court  of  judicature,  which  takes 
cognizance  of  beneficiary  matters,  and  which  derived  its 
name  from  the  Rota  Porphyretica,,  or  Porphyry  pavement 
formed  like  a  wheel,  of  the  chamber  where  the  court 
was  held.  Sixtus  V.  gave  him  a  cardinal's  hat,  and  sent 
him  as  legate  a  latere,  or  cardinal  legate,  to  Poland.  He 
also  conferred  upon  him  the  office  of  grand  penitentiary, ' 
who  has  the  power  of  regulating  all  affairs  relative  to 
confessors  and  confessions.  On  the  vacancy  after  the 
short  pontificate  of  Innocent  IX.  he  was  elected  pope,  on 
the  30th  of  January,  1592.  On  his  accession  to  the 
pontifical  chair,  he  styled  himself  Clement  VIII.  and, 
became  distinguished  by  his  zeal  against  the  Protestants. 
This  particularly  appeared  in  his  endeavours  to  place  a 
Roman  Catholic  on  the  throne  of  France,  in  the  place  of 
Henry  IV.,  and  the  difficulty  with  which  he  was  recon- 
ciled to  that  prince  after  his  apostacy  from  the  Protestant 
religion.  Among  his  more  laudable  acts  must  be  rec- 
koned his  severe  edict  against  duelling,  his  establishment 
of  a  college  for  the  Slavonians,  and  his  publication  of 
the  Vulgate  Bible.  For  about  thirteen  years  he  possessed 
the  tiara,  and  during  that  period  created  more  than  fifty 
cardinals,  among  whom  were  Baronius,  Bellarmin,  Du 
Perron,  and  other  eminent  men.  He  died  March  5th, 
1605.'^ 

Antonius  Caraffa  was  an  Italian,  of  illustrious  family. 
He  had  for  his  preceptor  William  Sirlet,  a  learned  Cala- 
brian,  and  whilst  young  was  called  to  the  court  of  Pope 
Paul  IV.  his  kinsman,  the  pontiff  who  first  instituted  the 

(18)  Aikin's  Gen.  Biog.  III.  p.  20. 

Walsh's  Hist,  of  the  Popes,  p.  269.  Lond.  1759,  8vo. 
Leti's  Life  of  Sixtus  V.  pp.  331.  390. 


500 

Index  of  prohibited  Books.  On  the  election  of  Pius  IV. 
the  Caraffa  family  were  grievously  oppressed,  and  de- 
prived of  their  principal  benefices,  to  which  they  were 
again  promoted  by  his  successor  Pius  V.  who  conferred 
new  honours  upon  them,  and  created  Antonius  a  cardinal. 
After  his  advancement^  Cardinal  Caraffa  was  employed 
in  correcting  an  edition  of  the  canon  law,  collecting  the 
decretal  epistles,  and  assisting  in  the  publication  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Bibles  published  under  the  auspices  of 
Sixtus  V.  He  succeeded  his  former  preceptor.  Cardinal 
Sirlet,  as  librarian  of  the  Vatican;  and  was  appointed 
patron  (patrocinium)  of  the  Maronite  seminaries  insti- 
tuted at  Rome,  by  Gregory  XIII.  Whilst  engaged  at 
Rome,  in  preparing  a  collection  cf  the  Greek  and  Latin 
councils,  (afterwards  completed  by  Cardinal  Frederick 
Borromeo,)  he  was  interrupted  by  death,  at  the  age  of 
53,  in  1591.^^ 

Flaminius  Nobilius  w^as  a  celebrated  divine  and 
critic,  born  at  Lucca,  but  resided  chiefly  at  Rome. 
In  1581,  he  published  a  treatise  "On  Predestination," 
printed  at  Rome,  in  4 to.  He  was  also  one  of  the  learned 
men  employed  by  Sixtus  V.  to  edite  the  Vatican  version 
of  the  Septnagint,  in  1587;  of  which  he  published  a 
literal  Latin  translation  the  year  following,  taken  princi- 
pally from  the  old  Italic,  or  Latin  version,  and  accompa- 
nied with  notes.  This  translation  is  inserted  by  Bishop 
Walton  in  the  London  Poiyglott.  He  died  in  1590, 
aged  58  years.^^ 

Antonius  Agelltus,  bishop  of  Acerno,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Naples,  was  of  the  order  of  Theatines,  or  Regular 
Clerks.  He  was  born  at  Sorrento;  and  died  in  1608. 
He  published  Commentaries  on  the  Psalms,  Jeremiah, 
and  Hahahhuh;  and  M^as  employed  by  Gregory  XIIL  in 

(19)  Freheri  Theatrum  Viror.  Erudit.  I.  pt.  i,  sec.  2,  p.  55, 

(20)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  III.  p.  637. 

fabricy,  litres  Primitifs;  I.  p.  234;  II.  p.  36. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  501 

preparing  the  Vatican  edition  of  the  Septuagint,  after- 
wards published  under  the  auspices  of  Sixtiis  V.^' 

Petrus  Morinus,  or  Pierre  Morin,  born  at  Paris,  in 
1531,  was  for  some  years  employed  by  the  learned  Paul 
Manutius,  in  his  printing-office  at  Venice.  He  afterwards 
taught  Greek  at  Vicenza;  from  whence  he  was  called  to 
Ferrara  by  the  reigning  duke.  Cardinal  Charles  Borro- 
meo  being  informed  of  his  profound  knowledge  of  eccle- 
siastical antiquities,  and  of  his  disinterestedness,  zeal, 
and  pie^y,  admitted  him  to  his  friendship,  and,  in  1575, 
engaged  him  to  visit  Rome.  Gregory  XIII.  and  8ix- 
tus  V.  committed  to  him,  in  conjunction  with  other 
critics,  the  preparation  for  the  press  of  the  editions  of 
the  Septuagint,  in  i587;  and  of  the  Vulgate,  in  1590. 
He  also  published  an  edition  of  the  Decretals,  3  vols.  fol. 
Rome,  1591 ;  and  a  Collection  of  General  Councils^  4  vols. 
Rome,  1608.  F.  Quetif,  l,  Dominican,  published  a  trea- 
tise of  his,  On  the  proper  use  c^'the  Sciences,  with  some 
other  of  his  v^orkj,  in  1675.  He  died  at  Rome,  in  1608, 
in  the  77th  year  of  his  age.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
a  man  of  a  frank,  sincere,  mild,  upright,  and  honest 
mind ;  of  an  even  temper,  the  enemy  of  artifice,  indifferent 
to  riches  and  honours,  and  under  the  influence  of  no 
passion,  except  that  of  study.  From  his  residence  at 
Rome,  and  his  application  to  the  language,  he  spoke  the 
Italian  with  the  utmost  fluency  and  elegance. ^^ 

Amgelus  Rocch.^,  the  celebrated  librarian  of  the  Va- 
tican, was  born  in  1545;  at  Rocca  Contrata,  in  the 
March  of  Ancona,  and  died  at  Rome,  April  7th,  1620. 
He  entered,  at  an  early  age,  into  the  order  of  Hermits 
of  St.  Augustin,  and  was  for  several  years  the  secretary 
of  the  order,  till  Pope  Sixtns  V.  being  informed  of  his 
profound  erudition,  called  him  to  the  Vatican,  and  ap- 
pointed him  to  watch  over  the  impressions  of  the  Bible, 
Councils,  and  Fathers,  which  he  had  ordered  to  be  printed 
(21)  NouT.  Diet.  Hist.  1.  p.  68*  (22)  Ibid.  VI.  p.  355. 


502  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE 


in  the  Apostolic  pi-inting-office,  erected  by  himself.  To 
compensate  Roccha  for  his  indefatigable  labours  and 
diligence,  Pope  Clement  VIII.  conferred  on  him  the 
titular  distinction  of  bishop  of  Tagaste.  He  published 
Remarlis  on  the  Scriptures,  and  on  the  Fathers,  but  his 
Remarhs,  or  Commentaries,  are  now  seldom  read.  Ano- 
ther of  his  works  is  a  History  and  Description  of  the 
Vatican,  entitled  BlbUotheca  Apostolica  Vat  lean  a  illiis- 
trata.  It  is  dedicated  to  Gregory  XIV.  and  is  still  held 
in  estimation.  It  was  printed  at  the  Vatican  press, 
1591,  4to.  His  Thesaurus  Pontrficiariim  antiquitatum, 
necnonrituum  ac  cceremoniarum,  2  vols.  fol.  Rome,  1745, 
is  said  to  be  *^a  curious  collection."  His  treatise  De 
Campanis  is  also  esteemed,  and  may  be  found  in  the  2nd 
volume  of  Salengre's  Thesaurus  Antiquitatum  Romano- 
rum.  Roccha  laboured  for  40  years  to  form  a  rich  and 
valuable  collection  of  books,  which  he  presented  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Augustin,  at  Rome,  on  condition  that  it 
should  be  open  to  the  public.  He  had  the  honour  of 
being  the  first  person  in  that  capital  who  destined  his 
library  to  the  use  of  the  public,  which  on  that  account 
obtained  the  name  of  Bibliotheca  Angelica, ^^ 

LiELius,  who  is  sometimes  surnamed  Landius,  was 
theologian^  to  Cardinal  Ant.  Caralfa,  and  afterwards 
bishop  of  Narnia.-* 

(23)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  VIII.  pp.  141,  142. 

Jani  Erythraei  Pinacothera  Imaaj.  lllust.  p.  105. 
*  By  the  3rd  council  of  Lateran,.  held  under  Alexander  III.  in  1179, 
it  was  decreed,  ''  That  on  account  of  the  bishops  not  being  able,  frojn 
various  causes,  regularly  to  administer  the  Word  cf  God  to  the  people, 
especially  in  extensive  dioceses,  they  shall  choose  men  capable  of 
preaching,  who  shall  visit  the  different  parishes  in  their  stead,  and 
instruct  the  people,  when  they  cannot  visit  them  in  person;  and  to 
whom  they  shall  allow  a  sufficient  stipend."  Aud  by  the  4th  council  of 
Lateran,  held  in  1215,  under  Innocent  III.  it  is  ordained,  '•'That  the 
metropolitan  churches  shall  have  a  Theologian,  or  Theologal,  to  teach 
the  priests  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  what  concerns  the  direction  of  souls^ 
to  whom  shall  be  assigned  the  revenue  of  a  prebend."  Diet.  PorCatif  des 
Conciles,  pp.  273.  744. 

(24)  Le  Longj  Index  Juctor.  I.  p.  566. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  §03 

Marcus  Antonius  Colonna,  or  Columna,  descended 
from  a  noble  Italian  family,  was  pupil  to  F.  Montalto, 
(afterwards  Pope  Sixtus  V.)  and  became  archbishop  of 
Salerno,  and  librarian  of  the  Vatican.  He  was  created 
cardinal  by  Pope  Pias  IV.  who  sent  him  to  the  council 
of  Trent.  Gregory  XIII.  Sixtus  V.  and  Gregory  XIV. 
employed  him  as  legate.  He  died  at  Zagoralla,  March 
I3th,  1597.^' 

William  Alan,  Allen,  or  Allyn,  cardinal  priest  of 
the  Romish  church,  an  Englishman,  was  born  at  Rossal, 
in  Lancashire,  in  1532,  of  a  good  family,  and  some  for- 
tune. In  his  fifteenth  year,  he  was  entered  of  Oriel  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  and  had  for  his  tutor  Morgan  Philips,  or 
Morgan  Philip,  a  zealous  papist.  In  1550,  he  was 
unanimously  elected  fellow  of  this  college ;  and  in  the 
same  year  took  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts  ;  and  soon 
afterwards  that  of  master  of  arts,  with  considerable 
applause.  In  1556,  he  became  principal  of  St.  Mary's 
Hall,  and  in  that  and  the  year  following,  one  of  the 
proctors  of  the  University.  In  1558,  he  was  made 
canon  of  York  ;  but  losing  all  hope  of  further  preferment, 
on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  to  the  throne,  he  quitted  the 
kingdom  in  15G0,  and  retired  to  Louvain,  in  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  vv^here  an  English  college  was  erected,  of 
w^iich  he  became  the  principal  support ;  the  design  of  the 
institution  being  not  only  to  educate  youth  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  theology  in  general,  but  especially  to  train 
them  up  in  the  art  of  defending  the  principles  of  the  Ca- 
tholic church.  Here  he  commenced  his  controversial 
writings  ;  and  applied  so  diligently  to  study,  and  the 
duties  of  his  situation,  to  the  injury  of  his  health,  that  the 
physicians  thought  it  necessary  for  him  to  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  his  native  air.  He  therefore  ventured  to  visit 
England  about  the  year  1565,  and  might  probably  have 

(25)  NouT.  Diet.  Hist.  III.  p.  26. 

Leti'sLife  of  Sixtus  V.   B.  i.  p,  55;   R.  ii.  p.  99. 


504 

continued  undisturbed^  had  not  his  zeal  for  the  Catholic 
cause  led  him  to  trespass  the  bounds  of  prudence,  by  as- 
siduous endeavours  to  obtain  converts,  and  to  prevent  the 
members  of  the  Romish  church  from  embracing  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation;  which  rendered  him  so  obnox- 
ious to  government,  that  he  was  obliged  to  escape^  first 
to  London,  and  then  to  Flanders,  where  he  landed  in 
1568.  After  his  return  to  the  Spanish  Low  Countries,  he 
went  to  Mechlin,  in  the  duchy  of  Brabant,  where  he 
read  a  divinity  lecture,  in  a  certain  monastery.  From 
thence  he  went  to  Douav,  where  he  became  doctor  of 
divinity,  and  laboured  assiduously  in  establishing  a 
seminary  for  the  support  of  English  scholars.  While 
thus  employed,  he  was  made  canon  of  Cambray.  In  the 
seminary  of  Douay,  many  books  were  composed  in  justi- 
fication of  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  church,  and  in 
reply  to  those  written  in  defence  of  the  church  of  England, 
which  occasioned  queen  Elizabeth  to  issue  a  proclamation, 
forbidding  such  books  to  be  either  sold  or  read.  Not 
long  afterwards.  Dr.  Alan  was  appointed  canon  of 
Rhnms,  to  which  city  he  transferred  the  seminary  he 
had  instituted.  By  his  indefatigable  labours  he  procured 
similar  seminaries  to  be  established  at  Rome,  and  in 
Spain.  Had  he  restricted  himself  to  a  defence  of  the 
theological  views  of  the  church  whose  cause  he  so  zealously 
advocated,  he  might  have  been  regarded  as  the  upright, 
though  bigotted  friend  of  popery  ;  but  mingling  the 
most  detestable  political  principles  with  his  other  opinions, 
he  was  justly  reputed  at  home  as  a  capital  enemy  of  the 
state,  and  all  correspondence  with  him  regarded  as  high- 
treason  ;  and  Thomas  Alfield  was  actually  executed  for 
bringing  his  writings  into  England.  In  conformity  with 
the  sentiments  he  maintained,  he  and  several  fugitive 
English  noblemen,  persuaded  Philip  IL,  king  of  Spain,  to 
undert-^ke  the  conquest  of  their  native  country.  To 
facilitate   the  design,   Sixtus  V.  was  prevailed  upon  tg 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  505 

rene^v  the  excommiiuication  of  Elizabeth,  thundered 
against  her  by  Pius  IV.  In  1587,  he  was  created  cardi- 
nal, by  8ixtus,  who  also  placed  him  in  the  congregation 
of  the  Index  of  prohibited  books  ;  and  soon  after,  the 
king"  of  Spain  gave  him  an  abbey  of  great  value,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Naples.  In  April,  1588,  he  wrote  a  Defence 
of  queen  Elizabeth's  excommunication,  and  exhorted  the 
nobihty  and  people  of  England  to  desert  her,  and  take 
up  arms  in  favour  of  the  Spaniards.  Of  this  infamous 
book  1000  copies  were  printed  at  Antwerp,  in  order  to 
have  been  put  on  board  the  Armada,  for  dispersion  in 
England  ;  but  on  the  failing  of  the  enterprize  the  greater 
part  of  them  were  carefully  destroyed.  The  king  after- 
wards promoted  him  to  the  archbishoprick  of  Mechlin,  in 
Flanders  ;  and  Gregory  XIV.  made  him  librarian  of  the 
Vatican,  instead  of  Cardinal  Caraffa,  who  was  deceased. 
He  is  said  to  have  repented,  towards  the  close  of  life,  of 
his  treasonable  and  antipatriotic  violence,  to  the  great 
displeasure  of  the  Jesuits.  His  death  is  generally  attri- 
buted to  a  suppression  of  urine,  but  it  was  strongly 
suspected  that  he  was  poisoned  by  the  Jesuits,  who,  whilst 
they  admitted  that  he  had  been  poisoned,  charged  it  on 
his  antagonist  the  bishop  of  Cassana.  His  death  occurred 
on  the  6th  of  October,  1594,  at  Rome.  Beside  publishing 
his  controversial  writings,  he  was  engaged  in  the  transla- 
tion of  the  English  Bible,  published  at  Rheims  and 
Douay;  and  in  the  correction  of  the  Vulgate  Latin ^  pub- 
lished by  Clement  VIII.'" 

Bartholom^us  de  Miranda  was  a  Spaniard,  of  the 
order  of  St.  Dominic,  and  master  of  the  sacred  palace 
under  Gregory  XIV.     He  died  in  1597.'' 

Robert  Bellarmin,  the  great  champion  of  the  prero- 

(56)  Biographia  Britarmica,  by  Kippis,   1.  pp.  108—114.  Lond.  1778, 

fol.  2nd  edit. 
Alph,  Ciacoirii   Vitae   et  Res  Gestae  Pontif.  Romaoor.   &c.  IV. 

p.  166.    Romae,  1677,  fol. 
(27)  Le  Long,  Index  Auctor.  I.  p.  571. 


506  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE^ 

gatives  of  the  Roman  see,  was  born  at  Monte-Piilciano, 
in  Tuscany,  in  1542.     His  mother,  Cynthia  Cervin,  was 
sister  to  Pope  Marcellus  II.     At  18  years  of  age,  he 
entered  into  the  society  of  Jesuits,  and  discovered  such 
precocity  of  genius,  that  he  was  employed  in  preaching 
before  he  was  ordained  priest,  which  did  not  take  place 
till  1569,  when  he  received  the  priesthood  at  the  hands 
of  CorneUus  Jansenius,  bishop  of  Ghent,  and  was  placed 
in  the  theological  chair  of  the  university  of  Loci  vain. 
His  success  in  teaching  and  preaching  was  so  great,  that 
he  is  said  to  have  had  for  his  auditors  persons  of  the 
Protestant  persuasion,  both  from  Holland  and  England. 
After  a  residence  of  seven  years  at  Louvain,  he  returned 
to  Italy,  where  Gregory  XIII.  chose  him  to  give  contro- 
versial lectures  in  the  college  which  he  had  just  founded. 
Sixtus  V.  sent  him  into  France,  in  1590,  as  theologian  to 
the  legate.  Cardinal  Gaetano.     Clement  VIII.,  nine  years 
afterwards,  raised  him  to  the  cardinalate,  with  this  eulo- 
gium:  "We  choose  him  because  the  church  of  God  does 
not   possess   his  equal  in   learning."     In   1601,  he   was 
advanced  to  the  archbishoprick  of  Capua,  and  displayed 
in  his  diocese  a  zeal  equal  to  his  learning.     He  devoted 
the   third  part  of  his  revenue  to  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
visited  the  sick  in  the  hospitals,  and  the  prisoners  in  the 
dungeons;  and  concealing  the  donor,  secretly  conveyed 
them  money.  After  exercising  his  archiepiscopal  functions 
with  singular  attention,   for  about  four  years,  he  was 
recalled  to  Rome  by  Paul  V.  to  remain  about  his  person ; 
on  which  occasion  he  resigned  his  archbishoprick,  with- 
out receiving  any  pension  from  it.     He  continued  to 
attend  to  ecclesiastical  affairs  till  the  year  1621,  when  he 
left  his  apartments  in  the  Vatican,  and  retired  to  a  house 
of  his  order,  where  he  died  on  the  17th  of  September,  in 
the  same  year,  at  the  age  of  79. — ^No  author  has  more 
strenuously  defended  the  church  and  court  of  Rome,  than 
Bellarmin^  concerning  whose  opinions  it  may  be  sufficient 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  507 

to  quote  the  remarks  of  the  authors  of  the  Noiweau  Dic^ 
tlonnaire  Hisforitjiie,  who  observe,  "He  regarded  the 
holy  father  as  the  absolute  monarch  of  the  universal 
church,  the  indirect  master  of  crowns  and  kings,  the 
source  of  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  the  infallible 
judge  of  faith,  superior  even  to  .general  councils."  The 
most  celebrated  of  his  works  is  the  Bodi/  of  Controversy ^ 
written  in  Latin,  and  frequently  reprinted.  This  forms 
the  g"reat  arsenal  from  which  the  combatants  for  the 
church  of  Rome  have  derived  their  most  formidable  wea- 
pons. The  best  editions  are  those  of  Paris  and  Prague, 
in  4  vols.  fol. — the  former  termed  the  "  Triadelphi,"  the 
latter  printed  in  1721.  His  other  works  were  published 
at  Cologne,  in  1619,  3  vols.  fol.  among  which  are 
A  Commentary  on  the  Psalms;  A  Treatise  on  Ecclesias^ 
tical  Historians ;  A  Treatise  on  the  Temporal  Authority 
of  the  Pope  ;  A  Hebrew  Grammar,  printed  separately  at 
Rome,  1578,  8vo.  &c.  Some  of  these,  especially  his 
book  on  the  Temporal  Authority  of  the  Pope,  excited 
adversaries  against  him  in  his  own  communion;  the 
defence  which  it  contained  of  the  right  of  the  pontiffs 
to  depose  princes,  caused  it  to  be  condemned  by  the 
parliament  of  Paris;  and  Sixtus  V.  ordered  it  to  be  placed 
in  the  Index  of  Prohibited  Books,  because  by  way  of 
temperament  it  asserted  not  a  direct,  but  an  indirect 
power  of  the  popes  in  temporal  matters.  At  his  death 
he  bequeathed  one  half  of  his  soul  to  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  the  other  half  to  Jesus  Christ;  and  after  his  decease 
he  was  regarded  as  a  saint,  though  the  fear  of  giving 
offence  to  the  sovereigns,  whose  temporal  rights  he  had 
oppugned,  prevented  his  canonization.-^ 

Bartholom^us  Valverdius,  or  De  Valverde,  was 
a  Spaniard,  a  native  of  Villena,  in  Murcia,  eminently 
skilled  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  languages.     He 

(28)  Nouv.  Diet   Hist.  II.  pp.  40     42. 
Aikin's  Gen.  Biog.  II.  pp.  20,  27. 


508  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

became  doctor  in  divinity,  and  fdled  an  high  official  situ- 
ation under  his  Catholic  majesty.  He  died  in  1590.  He 
v/as  author  of  Commentaries  on  the  Song  of  Solomon,  and 
the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs ^'^ 

Jerom  de  Ruvere,  De  la  Rovere,  or  Du  Rouvre, 
in  Latin  Ruyerus,  or  Roboreus,  was  of  the  family  of  the 
Riweres  of  Turin,  in  which  city  he  was  born.  He  was,  in 
1559,  made  bishop  of  Toulon  ;  afterwards  he  was  ad- 
vanced to  the  archbishoprick  of  Turin,  and  in  1564,  was 
raised  to  the  cardinjilate.  He  died  during  the  conclave 
in  which  Clement  Vlfl.  was  elected  pope,  on  the  26th 
of  February,  1592,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two.  A  volume  of 
Poems,  written  by  him  at  ten  years  of  age,  was  published 
at  Pa  via,  in  1540,  and  reprinted  at  Ratisbon,  in  1683, 
in  8vo.'" 

CoNSTAi.Tius  EuccAFocus,  or  Saliga,  an  Italian, 
was  born  October  4th,  1531,  o^  me^n  parents,  at  the  cas- 
tle of  Sarnano,  and  from  the  place  of  his  birth  was  com- 
monly called  father  Sarnano,  a  name  which  he  retained 
when  he  was  afterwards  made  cardinal  by  Sixtus  V.  At  10 
years  of  age  he  entered  the  Franciscan  order,  and  changed 
the  name  of  Gaspar,  which  had  been  given  to  him  at 
baptism,  for  that  of  Constantius.  In  his  28  th  year  he 
received  the  degree  of  master  of  arts.  He  afterwards 
taught  divinity  and  philosophy  at  Perugia,  Padua,  and 
Rome;  and  was  distinguished  by  his  piety  and  erudition. 
He  was  the  devoted  friend  of  F.  Felix  Montalto,  (after- 
wards Sixtus  V.)  and  w^ith  invincible  firmness  and  con- 
stancy defended  and  supported  him  when  there  was  not 
the  least  prospect  of  his  arriving  at  the  papacy.  This 
unconquerable  friendship  was  ultimately  rewarded  by 
the  cardinal's  hat,  and  the  bishoprick  of  Vercelli,  confer- 
red upon  him  by  Montalto,  when  he  obtained  the 
pontifical  chair.     He  died  suddenly  in  the  convent  of  the 

(29)  Le  Lon^,  U.  p.  998.   Paris,  1723,  fol. 

(30)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  Vlll.  p.  190. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  509 

holy  apostles  at  Rome,  December  3 1  st,  1595.  He  was  the 
authoi-  of  a  Commentarif  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ; 
Additions  to  the  Conimentarij  of  Jo.  Ant.  Delphinus  on  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John;  and  of  several  theological  and  me- 
taphysical works.  He  also  edited  St.  Boaaventure's 
"  Works,"  by  order  of  Sixtus  V.'^ 

AscANio  CoLONNA,  or  CoLUMNA,  jutiior,  son  of  the 
duke  of  Palliino,  was  educated  at  his  father's  house  in 
Rome,  under  the  celebrated  Muretus,  and  gave  early 
proofs  of  literary  talents.  While  yet  young,  he  accom- 
panied his  father  into  Spain,  and  for  ten  years  pursued 
the  studies  of  theology,  philosophy,  and  law,  in  the  univer- 
sities of  Alcala  and  Salamanca.  King  Phihp  H.  gave 
him  an  abbacy ;  and  through  his  recommendation  he 
was  promoted  to  the  purple  by  Sixtus  V.  in  1586.  His 
palace  in  Rome  was  always  open  to  men  of  learning, 
whom  he  patronized  with  great  liberality.  He  collected 
a  magnificent  library,  the  care  of  which  he  committed  to 
Pompeo  Ugoni,  a  man  of  distinguished  erudition.  At 
the  death  of  Philip  II.  in  1599,  he  pronounced  the  funeral 
oration,  which  was  afterwards  printed.  His  particular 
study  was  that  of  canon  law.  He  died  at  Rome, 
in  1608.^^ 

Petrus  Rudolphus,  or  Rodulphus^  of  Tossignano, 
of  the  order  of  Friars  Minors,  consultor  to  the  inquisition, 
was  raised  to  the  bishoprick  of  Venosa,  by  Sixtus  V.  and 
translated  to  the  see  of  Senigaglia,  by  Gregory  XIV.  in 
1591.  He  expended  considerable  sums  in  beautifying 
the  cathedral  and  episcopal  palace.  In  a  synod  convened 
by  him,  he  framed  a  number  of  regulations  for  promoting 
purity  of  manners  among  the  clergy.  He  died,  and  wa§ 
buried  in  the  metropolitan  church,  in  1601.^'* 


(31)  Alphons.  Ciaconii  Vit.  et  Res  Ge^i.  Pontif.  Roman.  &c.  I.  p.  l^G, 
Lpti's  Life  of  Sixtus  V.  pp.  91.  142. 

(32)  Aikin's  Gen.  Biog.  III. 

(33)  Ughelli  Italia  Sacra,  II.  p.  671.  Rom*,  1647,  fol. 


510  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE, 

Henricus  Gravius  was  the  son  of  a  printer  of  Lou- 
vain,  where  he  was  born.  He  taught  theology  for  twenty 
years,  with  great  success,  and  was  called  to  Rome  by 
Sixtus  V.  to  assist  in  editing  the  Vulgate  Bible.  After- 
wards he  was  admitted  to  the  court  of  Gregory  XIV.  and 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the  Cardinals  Caraifa,  Borromeo, 
Colonna,  and  especially  Baronius.  He  died  at  Rome,  in 
May,  1591  ;  after  having  passed  his  55th  year.  Baronius 
composed  his  epitaph,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  faculty  of 
theology  of  Lou  vain,  in  which  he  deplores  the  death  of 
Gravius,  as  the  loss  of  his  best  friend.  The  notes  con- 
tained in  the  7th  vol.  of  the  works  of  St.  Augustin, 
printed  at  Antwerp,  1578,  were  written  by  Gravius.^* 

Of  Andreas,  abbot  of  Sal vanera;  and  Antonius  de 
Sancto  Silvestro,^  no  information  has  been  obtained. 

Franciscus  Toletus  was  born  at  Cordova,  in  Spain, 
in  the  year  1532,  and  studied  at' the  university  of  Sala- 
manca, under  Dominic  Soto,  one  of  the  professors,  who 
called  him  "a  prodigy  of  wit."  Having  entered  into 
the  society  of  the  Jesuits,  he  was  sent  to  Rome,  where 
he  taught  divinity  and  philosophy,  and  so  highly  pleased 
Pius  V.  that  he  was  appointed  preacher  to  his  holiness, 
an  office  which  he  retained  under  the  succeeding  pontiffs. 
Gregory  XIII.  made  him  judge  and  censor  of  his  works. 
Gregory  XIV.  Innocent  IX.  and  Clement  VIII.  who 
raised  him  to  the  cardinalate,  entrusted  him  with  several 
important  ecclesiastical  affairs.  He  was  the  first  Jesuit 
who  was  created  cardinal.  Though  a  Spaniard  and 
Jesuit,  he  strenuously  laboured  to  effect  the  reconciliation 
of  Henry  IV.  of  France  to  the  see  of  Rome,  notwithstand- 

(34)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  IV.  p.  216. 

*  The  monastery  of  St.  Silvester  is  situated  on  a  mountain  in  Italy 
near  the  Tiber,  formerly  called  Soractes^  but  now  Monte  di  S.  SilveS' 
tro^  or  corruptly  Monte  S.  Tresto.  It  is  difficult  of  access,  and  is  said 
to  have  received  its  name  from  being  erected  by  Carloman,  brother  of 
J^epin  of  France,  in  honour  of  St.  Silvester,  who  fled  thither  during  the 
persecution  raised  against  the  Christians. 


SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  ^  511 

ing  Philip  II.  of  Spain  did  every  thing  he  could  to  prevent 
it.  Henry,  grateful  for  his  kindness,  seized  all  opportu- 
nities of  testifying  his  sense  of  the  obhgation,  and  on 
hearing  of  his  death,  which  happened  in  1596,  in  the 
64th  year  of  his  age,  caused  a  solemn  service  to  be 
celebrated  at  Paris  and  Rouen.  This  learned  cardinal 
pubUshed  several  works,  the  principal  of  which  are 
1.  Commentaries  on  St.  John,  Lyons,  1614,  fol.;  On  St, 
Luhe,  Rome,  1600,  fol.;  On  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the 
Romans y  Rome,  1 602, 4to.:  2.  A  Sum  of  Cases  of  Conscience, 
for  the  use  of  Priests,  Paris,  1613,  4to.  In  this  work  he 
maintains  that  subjects  ought  not  to  obey  an  excommu- 
nicated prince ;  and  admits  the  lawfulness  of  equivocation 
and  mental  reservations.^* 

AuGusTiNUs  Valerius,  or  Valerio,  born  at  Venice, 
April  7th,  1531,  of  one  of  the  principal  families  in  that 
city,  became  doctor  of  divinity  and  canon  law;  and  in 
1558  was  made  moral  professor  in  his  native  place.  Hav- 
ing taken  the  ecclesiastical  habit,  he  was  nominated  to 
the  bishoprick  of  Verona,  on  the  removal  of  his  uncle. 
Cardinal  Bernard  Navagero,  in  1565.  His  zeal,  activity, 
and  learning,  gained  him  the  friendship  of  the  famous 
Cardinal  Charles  Borromeo.  He  was  called  to  Rome  by 
Gregory  XIII.  who  placed  him  at  the  head  of  several 
congregations,  after  having  raised  him  to  the  Roman 
purple.  He  died  in  that  city,  May  24th,  1606,  at  the 
age  of  75.  The  most  esteemed  of  his  works  are,  1.  The 
Rhetoric  of  Preachers,  composed  by  the  advice,  and 
according  to  the  plan,  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo.  It  is 
said  to  contain  "judicious  reflections  on  the  art  of  ex- 
citing the  passions  of  the  hearers,  on  illustrating  and 
defending  doctrines,  and  on  the  errors  into  which 
preachers  are  apt  to  fall."  It  is  in  Latin,  but  a  French 
translation  of  it  was  published  at  Paris,  by  the  Abbe 
Dinouart,   in  1750,    12mo. — 2.  De  cautione  adhihenda  in 

(35)  Nouv.  Diet,  Hist.  IX.  p.  164, 


512  BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

edendis  librls,  1719,  4to.  This  latter  work  contains  a 
catalogue  of  all  the  works  of  the  author,  whether 
printed  or  in  manuscript .^^ 

Fredericus  Borrom.eus,  or  Borromeo,  a  learned 
cardinal,  was  the  younger  son  of  Count  Julius  Csesar, 
brother  to  Count  Gilbert,  father  of  the  celebrated  St. 
Charles  Borromeo.  He  was  educated  at  Pavia,  in  the 
college  founded  by  his  cousin-germ  an  Charles,  whom  he 
endeavoured  to  copy  in  the  whole  of  his  conduct.  He 
was  consecrated  archbishop  of  Milan,  in  1595,  and  died 
in  1632.  He  celebrated  the  7th  council  of  Milan,  wrote 
several  pious  works,  and  founded  the  famous  Ambro- 
sian  Library,  at  Milan,  which  is  said  to  contain  38,000 
volumes,  including  14,000  MSS.  with  many  excellent 
pictures,  and  literary  curiosities  and  monuments.^^ 

The  corrected  edition  of  the  Vulgate  produced  by  the 
labours  of  these  learned  men,  is  that  from  which  all  the 
later  editions  in  use  among  the  members  of  the  Romish 
church  have  been  formed.  These  are  too  numerous  to 
be  particularly  specified  ;  the  Paris  edition  of  Didot  in 
1785,  in  two  volumes  quarto,  may,  however,  be  noticed 
for  its  singular  beauty  and  accuracy.'^ 


(36)  Nouv.  Diet.  Hist.  IX.  p.  260. 

(37)  Butler's  Lives,  XL  p.  108,  note, 

^38)  Clarke's  (Dr.  A.)  Introd.  to  the  Gospels,  &c.  p.  xvi. 

Home's  Introd.  to  the  Critical  Study  of  the  Bible,  L  p.  296. 


JEND    OP   THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


INDEX. 


A 

Abbreviations  used  in  early  Typography 118 

Abhazi,  a  nation  formerly  Christians 34 

Acrostic,  one  on  the  Vaudois 434 

Adam,  (Michael)  a  converted  Jew 374 

.^neas  Sylvius,  afterwards  Pope  Pius  II 95 

Agricola,  (Michael)    a  Finnish   translator ,.,346 

Agricola,  (Rodolphus)  a  learned  German ,  186 

Aix,  (Bishop  of)  his  impious  and  cruel  conduct 44 1 

Aldi,  (the)  eminent  printers,  account  of ^^22 

Aleria,  (Bishop  of)  the  great  patron  of  the  early  Roman  printers  112 

Aim's  box,  curious  one  in  use  in  the  north  of  Europe 324 

Alphonsus,  king  of  Arragon,  translates  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon  147 

Alvarez,    (Alphonsus)   translates  the  book  of  Job  into  Spanish  226 

Ambasiaj  (Cardinal)  epistle  of,  to  the  canons  of  Bruges 188 

Anecdotes  of  Alphonsus,  king  of  Naples, ^ . .    140 

Christian,  king  of  Denmark 140 

Humphrey  Monmouth 386 

Andrew  Forraan,  bishop  of  Murray 4l7 

George  Chrichton,  bishop  of  Duukeld 418 

Ogmund,  bishop  of  Skalholt 341 

Andreas,  ( Laurentius)  a  Swedish  translator 303 

Ann  of  Bohemia,  queen  of  Richard  II 92 

Antwerp,young  man  drowned  there  for  expounding  the  Scriptures  348 

Arabic  Scriptures,  allowed  to  be  read  by  the  archbishop  of  Granada  151 

Arran,  (Earl  of)  regent  of  Scotland 528 

Arandel's  (Archbishop,)  constitutions  against  the  Lollards 77 

Assurance  (Christian,)   doctrine  of 272 

Aungerville,  (Richard)  or    De  Bury,   founder  of  the  library  of 

Trinity  College 5.  39 

Aureolus,  or  Oriel,  (Petrus)  archbishop  of  Aix 20 

Aurogailus,  (Matthew)  a  German  translator 290 

B. 

!'  Ballad,"  signification  of  the  word 295 

Beaumont,  (Lewis)  bishop  of  Durham,  illiteracy  of 3 

robbed  and  taken  prisoner 3 

Berchorius,  or  Bercheur,  (Petrus)  author  of  the  Gesta  Romanorum    2 1 

extracts  from  his  works. . .  .21.  2  3 

Bible,  (Coverdale's),  notice  of •  394 

(Cranmer's)     403 

(English,)  allowed  to  be  sold  and  read 398 

(Hebrew,)  one  presented  to  the  monastery  of  Bologna. .  21 

Vol.  II.  2  I 


ol4  INDEX. 

_  __       Page, 

Bjble,  (Latin,)  fraud  practised  upon  the  edition  of  1475. . , . . .  114 

the  first  printed  one 103.  117 

(Great  Rabbinical) 467 

(Taverner's)   notice  of 404 

(Vulgate)  Papal  edition  of 490 

Bibles,  early  printed  ones  sold  as  MSS 107 

editions  of,  prohibited 35^ 

first   editions  of,    Latin,  103,    German,    109,  Hebrew,  117 

English 394 

number  of,  published  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VITI 4J6 

from    A.  D.  1500,  to  A.  D.  1536  438 
and  Testaments^  prices  of,  80. 102. 108.  241,242,  337. 

375.  379.  405 

read  privately  and  circulated  in  Scotland 420 

when  first  printed  at  Paris 114 

"  Biblia  Pauperum,  "  xylographic  works  so  called 101 

Bibliander,  (Theodore)  a  Swiss  translator 365 

Biographical  Notices  of  Agellius,  (Antonius)  500.  Agricola, 
(Michael)  346.  Alan,  (William)  503.  Aldi,  (The)  222. 
Aldobrandino,  (Hippolito)  or  Clement  VIII.  498.  Alphonsus, 
of  Alcala  213.  Ambrosius,  (Theseus,)  219,  Andreas, 
(Laurentius)  303.  Andreas,  Abbot  of  Salvanera  510.  Ann 
of  Bohemia,  queen  of  Richard  II.  92,  Anthony  of  Nebrissa 
210.  Aretin,  (Peter)  465.  Aungerville,  or  De  Bury, 
(Richard)  39,  Anreolns,  or  Oriel,  (Petrus)  20.  Auro- 
gallus,  (Matthew)  290. Bellarmin,  (Robert)  505.  Be- 
nedict, or  Benoit,  (John)  488.  Berchorius,  or  Bercheur, 
(Petrus)  21.  Bibliander,  (Theodore)  365.  Bomberg,(Daniel)  467. 
Bonnadventure  des  Perriers  433.  Bonnemere,  (Antoine)  157. 
Bonner,  (Bishop)  402,  405.  408.  Borromaeus,  (Fredericus)  512, 
Bridget,  (St.)  27,  Brucioli,  (Francis)  464.  Bruniquello,  (Pe- 
trus de)  17.     Buccafocus,  (Constantius)  508.  Bullinger,  (Henry) 

366.  Burgos, (Paul  of)  152, Cajetan,  (Cardinal)  218.  Calvin 

(John)  435.  Cantacuzenus,  (Johannes)  32.  Capnio,  orReuch- 
lin,  (John)  178.  Caraffa,  (Antonius)  499.  Caxton,  (William)  115 
Cholin,  (Peter)  365.  Chrysostom,  (Olaus)  338.  Clarius,  (Isi- 
dore) 489,  Coburger,  or  Koburger,  (Anthony,)  110.  Colet, 
,  (John)  244.  Colonna,  (Ascanio)  509,  Colonna,  (Marcus  An- 
tonius) 503.  Coronel,  (Paul,)  213.  Corvini,  (Mattheo)  king  of 
Hungary,  180.  Coverdale,  (Myles)  387,  394,  395.  Creston,^ John) 
1 86.  Cromwellj(Thomas  lord)  earl  of  Essex,  406.  Cruciger,  (Cas- 
par) 289. De  Bury,  (Richard)  bishop  of  Durham,  39.  Deza, 

(Archbishop)  225.  DIetenberg,  John)  292,  Doringk,  or  Thoringk, 
(Matthias)  174.  Ducas,  (Demetrius)  210.  Easton,  (Adam,  87. 
Eliae  (Paul)  313.     Emser,  (Jerom)  291,     Enzinas,  (Francis;)  460. 

Erasmus  263.   Euthalius  Rhodius33, Faber,  (Jacobus)  or 

Jacques  le  Fevre,  232.  Faber,  (Jacobus)  of  Daventer,  260. 
Farget  (Pierre)  156.  Faulfisch,  93.  Felix  Pratensis  221. 
Ferrer,  (Vincent)  144.  Ferrer,  CBonifacio)  146.  Foreiro, 
(Francis)  486.  Forster  (.John)  291,  Fust,  one  of  the  first 
printers,    103.     110,      Gibson,    (Thomas)  396.     Gottshalkson, 


INDEX.  515 

(Oddur)  341,  342.  Gravlus,  (TIenrlcus)  510.  Grocyn, 
(William)    164.    242.     Gualter,   (Rodolph)    365.     Gutenberg, 

or   Goensfleisch,    (John)    102. Hampole,    (Richard)    45. 

Henry  VI.  92.     Hentenius,  (John)  487.    Herford,  or  Hereford, 

(Nicholas  de)  58.    Huss,  (John)  94. Jassowitz,  (And.  dej 

173,  Jatumaeus,  (Simon)  33.  Jonas,  (Jodocus  or  Justus)  289. 
Joye,  (GeorgeJ  379.  393.    Justinian,  or  Giustiniani,  (Aag.)  198. 

Laelius,orLandius,  502.  Latimer,  (William)  243.  Leo  X. 

188-  Leo  Judae  354.  364.  Leo,  or  Leontius  IMlatus,  26.  Lily, 
(William)  252.  Linacre,  or  Lynacer,  (Dr.  Thomas)  1G5.  Lind- 
say of  the  Mount,  (Sir  David)  422.     Lucas  Bruj^eiisis,  (Francis) 

488.    Lypomannus,  (Marcus)  184.  Lyra,  (Nicholas  de)  17. 

Macchabasus,  or  M'Bee,  (John)  339.  Macho,  (Julian)  155. 
Malermi,  or  Malherbi,  (Nicolas  de)  137,  Manetti,  (Gia- 
nozzo)  or  Janotus  Manetto,  136.  Mantuanus,  (Baptista) 
185.  Marchesinus,  (John)  173.  Marmochinus  (Sanctes)  465. 
Marot,  (Clement)  437.  Matthias  of  Lincopen,  28.  Melanc- 
thon,  (Philip)  285.  Mikkelsen,  (Hans)  or  John  iViichaelis,  308. 
Mirabellius,  (Dominicus  Nanus)  139.  Miranda,  (Bartholomaeus 
de)  505.  Monmouth,  or  Mummuth,  (Humphrey)  385.  Mori- 
nus,  (Peter)  501.     Muller,  (John)  called  Regiomontanus,  177. 

Munster,  (Sebastian)  363. Nathan,  (Mordecai,)  or  R.  Isaac, 

183.     Nicholas  V.  134.     Nobilius,  (Flaminius)  500.     Nonnus, 

(Ferdinand)  or  Nunnes  de  Gusman  Pintian,  212. Olivetan, 

(Robert  Pierre)  435.  Oresme,  (Nicolas)  7. Pace,  (Richard) 

390.  Pagninus,  (Sanctes)  216.  Palladius,  (Peter)  337,  Pan- 
nartz,  (Arnold)  111.  Paul  of  Burgos,  152.  Pedersen, 
(Christiern)  307.  Pellican,  (Conrad)  367,  Perez,  (Jacobus) 
153.  Petri  (Laurent,  and  Olaus)  303.  Picus,  or  Pico,  (John 
Francis)  earl  of  Mirandola,  185.  Pileo,  (Guido  de)  27.  Po- 
meranus,  or  Bugenhagen,  (John)  287,  Potken,  (John)  347. 
Pratensis,  (Felix)  221.     Presles,  or  Praelle,  (Raoul  de)    7.   10, 

Purvey,  or  Purney,  (John)  71,- Rely,  (Jean  de)  1  57,  Roc- 

cha,  (Angelus)  501.  Rogers,  (John)  397.  RoUe,  or  Hampole, 
(Richard)  45.  Rorar,  or  Rorarius,  (George)  290.  Rudol- 
phus,    (Petrus)    509.     Rusbrochius,    ("JohannesJ  27.     Ruvere, 

fJerom  dej   508.— Sancto  Siivestro,    fAntonius  dej  510. 

Servetus,  (^MichaelJ  455.  Sixtus  V.  490.  495.  Stephens,  or 
Etienne,  (^Henry^  445.  Stephens,  or  Etienne,  fRobertJ  445. 
Stunica,  f  James  Lopez  J  211,  Sweynheim,  CConradJ  111. 
Swyndurby,  CWylliam  dej  61.     Synning,  or  Siuneson,  (Johu) 

339, -Talavera,  CFerdinanddeJ  149.  Taverner,  (^Richard> 

404.  Tausen,  CHans)  called  the  ^'Danish  Luther,"  326.  Trevisa, 

f  John  de)  49.     Tyndall,  f  William  J  374,  383 Valerius, 

('Augustinusj511.  Valla,  fLaurentiusJ  184.  Valverdius,  ^Bar- 
tholomaeusj  507.    Vargara,  ^John  dej  215.     Vasa,  fGustavus^ 

king  of  Sweden  301.     Vignay,  or  Vignes,  (Jean  dej  13 

Wakefield,  (-Robert)  389.  Wesselus,  (John  Herman^  175. 
Wheeloc,  (Abraham^  35,  see  a.bo  vol.  I.    Whethamstede,  (John 

of)  88.     Wiclif,  (John  de)  64.    Wormord,  (Francis)  317. 

Xavier,  (Francis  459.    Xaviefj  TJeronyiiio)  36.    Ximenes,  (Car- 


515  INDEX. 

Page. 

dinal;  150.  204.    Zainer,  CGunther)  UK    Zamora,  (Alphonsus) 
213.     Ziegler,  (Bernard)  291.     Zuingle,  (Ulrk)  353, 

Bishop,  Icelandic  one,  awful  conduct  of 341 

Block-printinsc,  when  first  attempted 100 

Boccaccio  or   Boccace,    a   celebrated    Italian,   promotes  Greek 

literature   at  Florence 26 

Bohemia,  WicUf's  works  introduced  into  the  kingdom  of, 93 

Bohemian  Bible, 95.  170 

Bohemians,  war  of  the •     96 

Boleyn,  (Anna)  New  Testament  belonging  to 383 

Bomberg's  Great  Rabbinical  Bible 467 

Bonnemere,  (Antoine)  inserts  legendary  stories  in  his  edition  of 

theFrench    Bible 157.  430 

Bonner,  (Bishop)  causes  English  N.  T.  to  be  printed  at  Paris.. .  402 

places  6  Bibles  in  St.  Paul's  church 405 

apostacy  and  cruelty  of 408 

Books,  importance  of  41  ; Prices  of  80.  82.  88.  102.  108. 

121,  204.  241.  282,  337.  368,  375.   379.  455 

Books  burnt, 94.  149,  150  179.350.  374,  379.  444 

Book-censors,  institution  of 121 

Booksellers,  remarks  upon  the  early 119 

Bookseller   burnt 442 

beheaded 351 

'« Boy-bishop,"  festival  of. ....  t 84 

Bridget  or  Bir^et,  (St.)  orders  a  Swedish  translation 27 

founder  of  the  order  of «'  Brigettins." 28 

Brucioli,  (Francis)  an  Italian  translator 464 

Bruniquello,   (Petrus  de)  bishop  of  Civita-Nuova , 17 

Bucer,  (Martin)  Latin  version  of  Psalms  by  him 393 

Bugenhagen,  his  copy  of  Luther's  German  Bible 283 

Bullinger,  (Henry)  a  Swiss  reformer 366 

Burgos,  (Paul  of)  or  Paulus  de  S.  Maria 152 

Bury,  (Richard  de)  or  Aungerville,  bishop  of  Durham. 39 

,   Caffa,  (city  of)  formerly  called  Theodosia 34 

"  Calixtines,"  Bohemian  sect  so  called 96 

persecute  the  Taborites 97 

Calviu,  (John)  his  early  opinions 432 

assists  Olivetan  in  translating  the  Bible. . . .  433 

Cambridge,  Greek  first  publicly  taught  at  by  Erasmus 165 

Canons  for  the  reformation  of  the  clergy 148 

Cantacuzenus,   the  Greek  emperor 32 

Capgrave,  (John)  a  learned  English  monk 89 

"  Capnio,"  John  Reuchlin  so  called 178 

Caxton,  (William)  the  first  English  printer 115.  166.  169 

reasons  why  he  did  not  print  the  Bible,   52.     54 

"  Cephalinus,"  an  assumed  name  of  H.  Bullinger 370 

Chapot,  (Peter)  burnt  for  dispersing  Bibles 444 

(Uharles  V.  founds  the  royal  library  of  France 6 

judicious  saying  of 6 

orders  a  French  translation  of  the  Bible,  &c.,  .6. 11,     12 


INDEX.  517 

Paje. 

Chaucer's  "  Plowman's  Tale,"  extracts  from 2 

Cholin,  (Peter)  a  Swiss  translator 365 

Chrlchton,  (Geo.)  bishop  of  Dunkeld,  anecdote  of 418 

Christian  II.  promotes  the  Danish  version  of  N.  T 308 

III.  sanctions  the  Reformation 333 

Christina  de  Pisan,   a  learned  female  historian,  &c 7 

Chrysostom,  (Olaus)  a  Danish  translator 338 

''  Church-block,"  a  singular  kind  of  poor's-box 324 

Cicero's  works,  rare  copy  of  part  of 285 

Clarke,  (Rev.  Dr.  Adam)  account  of  his  old  MS,  English  Bible  44 
Clergy  and  monks,  ignorance  of,  3.   56.   148.   158.    164.  256. 

417,  418 

Cobham,  (Thomas)  founds  a  public  library  at  Oxford , . . .  5 

Comestor's  '•'  Historia  Scholastlca," 1 56.  1 57 

Commentaries,  (Luther's) 293 

Complutensian  Polyglott 200 

editors  of. 210 

Concordance,  (Hebrew) ,... .  183 

first  English  one  of  the  N.  T 396 

Constantinople  taken  by  the  Turks 140 

*'  Consubstantiation,"  explanation  of  the  term , 358 

''  Corpse-present/'    explanation  of  the  term 418 

Gorvini,  (Mattheo)  king  of  Hungary,  libraries  of. 180 

Coverdale,  TMyles)  an  English  translator ,....381.  394 

Council  of  Trent • 471 

Decrees  of 472 

variously  received 486 

Cranmer,  (Archbishop)  promotes  the  revision  and  circulation  of 

the  English  Scriptures 391 

Crantz,  (Martin)  an  early  printer 113 

Cromwell,  (Thomas  lord)  a  friend  to  the  Bible 406 

Cruciger,  (Caspar)  a  German  translator. 289 

D 

Danish  Version See  Versions. 

Deed,  curious  one  of  the  sale  of  a  Bible 108 

Defence  of  vernacular  translations 50.  229.  265.  411.  423 

De  Lyra,  (Nicholas)  Commentaries  of. 18,  113 

Desk,  (Reading)  price  of  one 406 

Deza,  (  Didaco)  archbishop  of  Seville 225 

Dietenberg's  German  Version 292 

Divine,  Luther's  views  of  a  Christian  one 274 

Dollar,  (Vicar  of)  his  singular  conversation  with  the  bishop  of 

Dunkeld 418 

Dominicans,  or  Friars-preachers 113 

Doringk,   or  Thoringk,  (Matthias)  a  learned  German 174 

Dramas,  (Religious) 421 

singular  event  from  one  being  performed  31.  14 

Dryander,  (John)  burnt  for  heresy 461 

Dutch  Versions..  .See  Versions. 

E 
Easton,  or  Eston,  (Adam)   a  learned  English  bishop,  first  mo- 

voL.  n.  2  K 


518  INDEX. 

Page. 

dern  translator  of  the  Scriptures  from  the  Hebrew. .....     87 

Kckius,  or  Eckens,  (John)  a    German  translator 293 

Edicts,  (Prohibitory)    77.    79.    126,    127,    131.230.   294.305. 

348.  351.  409,  410.  420,  447.  453 
"Elucidarium   Bibliorum/'  or  Prologue  to  the    translation  of 

the  Bible 72 

Emmerson,  (Mrs.  Margaret  Ya.u)  her  kindness  to  Tyudall. ...    387 

Emser's  German  Version 291 

England,  progress  of  the  Reformation  in ,    372 

scarcity  of  Scriptures  in 234 

Enzinas,  (Francis)  a  Spanish  translator . .   459 

'•  Episcopus  Puerorum,"  or  Boy-bishop,  feast  of 84 

Erasmus,  advice  of  to  Hans  Tausen,  the  Danish  translator 329 

biographical  account  of 263 

Colloquies    of,    sold    in    consequence    of     supposed 

prohibition 133 

defends  vernacular  translations 265 

treatise  of,   upon  the  Pater  Noster,  translated  by  a 

young  lady 372 

works  of,  burnt 265 

Euthalius  Khodius,  author  of  a  Greek  Concordance    33 

Expositor  of  Scripture,  Wiclif's  rules  for  one 56 

Exposition,  curious  one  of  Genesis  iii.  16 172 

F 

Faber  (Jacobus)  Stapulensis,  Biblical  labours  of 226.  431 

of  Daventer,   transcribes  the  Greek  Testament  261 

Farget,  (Pierre)  a  reviser  of  the  French  Testament 1 56 

F^aulfisch  introduces  Wiclifs  works  into  Bohemia 93 

Faustus,  (Dr.)  origin  of  the  story  of. 108 

Felix  Pratensis,  a  celebrated  editor  of  Hebrew  works 221 

Ferrer,  (Bonifacio)  an  early  Spanish  translator 142 

"  Festival  of  the  Translation  of  the  Scriptures,"  instituted.  ....    288 

Fevre,    (Jaques  le)  .  .See  Faber  Stapulensis. 

Fitzralph,     (Richard)     archbishop     of   Armagh,     opposes    the 

mendicant  friars 37 

Forest,   (  Ihomas)    vicar  of  Dollar,  defends  the  reading  of  the 

Scriptures 418 

Forman,  (Andrew)  bishop  of  Murray,  anecdote  of 417 

Forster,  (John)  author  of  an  Hebrew  i^exicon 291 

France,  (Royal  Library  of)  founded  by  Charles  V 5 

Franciscans,  (Order  of  the)  various  names  of 13 

French  Versions.  .See  Versions. 

Friars,  (Mendicant)  influence  and  learning  of 14.  16,  21.     37 

orders  of I3 

Friburger,  (Michael)  an  early   printer .    113 

Frobenius,  or  Froben,   (John)  a  celebrated  printer 262 

Fust,   one  of  the  first  printers 103 — 110 

G 

Genesis  ii,  1 6,  curious  exposition  of 1 72 

Gering,  (Ulric)  an  early  printer 113 

German  Bible,  (Luther's)  the  ground  work  of  other  versions. . .   300 


INDEX.  519 

Page. 

German  Bible,  first  printed  edition  of. 109 

German  Old  Testament,  magnificent  MS.  of ; 170 

"  Gesta  Romanorum/'  author  of., .21.  24 

Gibson,  or   Gybson,   (Thomas)   publisher  of  the  first  English 

Concordance  of  the  New  Testament 396 

*' Gospellers,"  conduct  of  the 413 

Gospels,  (Spurious)  placed  in  churches 159 

Grafton,  (Richard)  a  celebrated  printer  and  publisher  397.  402.  411 

''Great  Bible,"  editions  of  the  English  Scriptures  so  called. . . .  403 

Greek,  first  taught  publicly  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge 165 

study  of  discountenanced , 247.  256.  426 

taught  in  Scotland 426 

Greek  Testament,  first  printed  portion  of 223 

inserted  interlinearly  in  MS,  of  the  Vulgate..  255 

Grocyn,  singular  instance  of  candour  in 164 

GuaKer,  (Rodolph)  a  Swiss  translator 365 

Gusravus  Vasa,  king  of  Sweden 301 

Gutenberg.  (John)  inventor  of  the  art  of  printing 102 

H 

Hampole,  (Richard)  author  of  an  English  Version  of  the  Psalms  45 

Handel's  testimony  to  Luther's  musical  talents. 296 

"  Haphtaroth,"  explanation  of  the  term 466 

Hebrew,  first  taught  in  Scotland 427 

Hebrew  Bible,  price  of  in  1494 368 

presented  to  the  monastery  of  Bologna 21 

first  printed  edition  of '» . . .  117 

editions  of. 116,  117.  226.280.  360.  450.  466 

text  of,  defended  against  De  Lyra  .............  88 

Hebrew  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  editions  of 363 

printing    presses   established    at    Constantinople   and 

'I'hessalonica 466 

Pentateuch,   presented   to  Pellican  by  Charity,  abbess 

of  St.    Clare 369 

vowel-points,  novelty  of  defended  by  De  Lyra. .....  19 

curious  opinion  of  the  origin  of 1 53 

Hedwige,   queen   of  Poland,   causes  a  Polish  translation  of  the 

Scriptures  to  be  made 28 

Hemmingius,  a  Danish  translator 340 

Henry  VI.  his  attachment  to  the  Scriptures 92 

Henry  VIII.  writes  against  Luther,  372 — dies 416 

Herford,  (Nicholas  de)  a  translator  of  the  English  Scriptures.. .  58 

Hollybushe's  (Johan)  English  and  Latin  New  Testament 401 

Hughes'  (Rev.  John)  letter  of,  respecting  Trevisa's  Version ....  53 

Humphrey,  duke  of  Gloucester,  a  patron  of  literature 89 

Huss,  (John)  the  Bohemian  reformer 94 

I 

Jagello,  duke  of  Lithuania,  embraces  Christianity 29 

Jane  of  Burgundy,  translation  of  Scriptures  at  her  request. .  .12.  17 

Jatumaeus,  (Simon)  author  of  a  Triglott  Harmony 33 

Ibn  Sahm  Abdaula  Ibn  Scirana  orders  a   translation  of  the  Four 

Gospels  into  Persian... 34 


520  INDEX. 

Page. 

*  Jertegn,"  meaning  of  the  term 306 

Jesuits,  (Order  of)  founded  by  Loyola 458 

Jews,  expulsion  of,  from  Spain .151.  226 

Ignorance  and  illiteracy  of  clerical  orders.  .See  Clergy^ 

of  a  bishop  of  Durham , 3 

Illuminated  MSS 7 

Imnges,  (Books  of)  the  first  attempts  at  printing 102 

*'' Index,"  or  Catalogue  of  prohibited  books 128.  479.  485. 

(Congregation  of  the) 129 

(Rules  of  the) 479 

"  I  John,  V.  7,"   not   inserted   in  the  first  editions  of  Luther's 

Version 283 

Joye,  (George)  corrects  the  Dutch  editions  of  Tyndall's  New 

Testament 379 

Irish  Version,  singular  account  of. 36 

Justinian's  Polyglott  Psalter 196 

K 

Kennedy  and  Kyllor   burnt  for  heresy 421 

Koburger,  or  Coburger,  (Anthony)  au  early  printer 110 

L 

Laity,  contemptuous  opinion  of 41 

Lancaster  (Duke  of)  defends  Wiclif 70 

Languages,  (Oriental)  ordered  to  be  taught  in  certain  universities       4 

Latin  Bible,  the  first  ever  printed, 103 

Testament,  first  separate  edition  of. 172 

Lectures,  (Public)  in  churches,   not  read  upon  the  Scriptures..    163 

'•  Legenda  Aurea/'  or  Golden  Lrgend,  extract  from 169 

Legendary  stories  inserted  in  tlie  Bible  by  Bonnemere. 430 

Leo,  or  Leontius  Pilate,  a  learned  Greek  lecturer 26 

Leo  X.  a  patron  of  learning 1 88 

"  Libels,"  old  meaning  of  the  term 80 

"  Liber  Festivalis,"  book  so  called 166 

Library,  (Bodleian)  Oxford 90 

catalogue  of  the  duke  (now  king)  of  VVurtemberg's.  . .   280 

(The  King's)  in  France,  founded  by  Charles  V 5 

of  Baliol  College,  Oxford 91 

of  Grey-Friars,  London,  when  built 4 

of  Mattheo  Corvini,  king  of  Hungary 181 

of  Trinity  College,  Oxford 5 

of  Richard  de  Bury 39 

(Public)  of  the  University  of  Oxford 5 

Licensers  of  the  press,  established  in  England 131 

Liesveldt,  (Jacob  a)  a  famous  Dutch  printer 348 

beheaded 351 

Lily,  (William)   first  master  of  St.  Paul's  School 252 

Linacre,  or  Lynacer,  (Dr.  Thomas)  first  president  of  the  College 

of  Physicians 165 

Lindsay  of  the  Mount,    (Sir  David)   his  defence  of  vernacular 

translations c 423 

Literature,  encouragement  of,  in  Italy 187 

Lithuanians,  conversion  of  to  Christianity 29 


INDEX.  521 

Page. 

Liturgy,  (Mozarabic)  curious  account  of 207 

*'  Lollards,"  Wiclif's  followers  so  called 76 

archbishop    Arundel's   constitutions  against 77 

Lonicer,  (John  Adam)   a  German  translator 371 

Lord's  Supper,   (Sacrament  of)   Luther's,  and  Zuingle's  senti- 
ments concerning 358 

Loyola,  (Ignatius)  founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits 457 

Luther,  biographical  account  of. ., 271 

Luther's  German  Bible,  275;  vellnra  copy  of 2S2 

number  of  editions  of 272 

copy  of  the  Hebrew  Bible 117 

musical  talents,  Handel's  testimony  to 296 

Lyra,  (Nicholas  de)  a  celebrated  commentator. , 17 

expense  of  transcribing  his  Commentary 4 

his  Commentary,  the  first  ever  printed 18 

U 
Macchabaeus,or  M^Bee,(John)oneof  the  translators  of  the  Danish 

Bible 339 

Macho,  (Julian)  a  French  editor  of  the  Bible 155 

Mallard,  (John)  MS.  of  the  Latin  Psalter  written  by  him. . 390 

"Mammotrectus,"  a  singular  work  so  called 173 

Manetti,  (Granozzo)or  Janotus  Manetto,  translates  the  Psalms 

and  New  Testament ,   137 

Marot,  (Clement)  popularity  of  his  metrical  French  version  of 

the  Psalms 439 

Matthew's  (St.)  Gospel  in  Hebrew,  editions  of 363 

Matthias  of  Lincopen,  translates  the  Scriptures  into  Swedish. ...     28 

"  Megilloth,"  explanation  of  the  term 466 

Melancthon,  (Philip)  biographical  account  of 285 

Menand,  (William  le)  French  version  of 156 

Mendicant  friars,  orders  of,  13;  learningand  influence  of,  14.  16,     21 

*'  Mentz  Psalter,"  a  rare  edition  so  called 106 

Minstrels,  amply  remunerated 84 

Mirabellius,  (D.  N.)   illustrates  the  Gospels  from  heathen  writers  1 39 
Monmouth,   or  Mummuth,    (Humphrey)    Tyndall's  patron. .. .   385 

anecdote  of.... 386 

Moors,   extinction  of  the  empire  of,  in  Spain 149 

Moravians,  or  TJnitas  Fratrum^  from  whom  descended. 97 

Mozarabic  Liturgy,  curious  account  of 207 

MS.  of  ancient  English  version,  D/.  A.  Clarke's  account  of 43 

MSS.    concealed  in  walls 36 

of   Wiclif's    version 44,     7i 

Munster's  (Sebastian)    Latin  version  of  the  Old  Testament 360 

N 

New  Testament,  Emser's  German  version  of 291 

(jreek  copy  of,  concealed  in  a  wall , . . . .      Sd 

Nicholas  V.  a  friend  to  literature 134 

"  Nicodemus,"  spurious  Gospel  of 159 

O 
Ocldur  Gottshalkson,  translates  the  Icelandic  New  Testament  in 

a  cell  in  a  cow-house 342 

Vol.  n.  2  L 


522  INDEX. 

Page. 

OechsVien,  (John)  a  Swiss    reformer 354 

Ogmund,  bishop  of  Sli.alhoU,  violently  opposes  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures in  vernacular  translations 341 

Olivetan's  French  Bible 43^ 

Oresme,  (Mcolas)  bishop  of  Lisieux 7 

'•  Oriflame,"  the  name  of  the  ancient  French  standard 10 

Otmar,  (Silvanus)  a  German  translator 371 

Oxford,  first  Hebrew  professor  at 389 

Greek  first  taught  there  by  Vitellius 165 

libraries  of 5,  90.  91 

P 

Pace,  (Richard)  dean  of  St.  Paul's 390 

Pagnluus,  (Sanctes)  Latin  version  of 215 

Paintings,  Scripture  ones 42.  96 

Pannarfz,  (Arnold)  an  early  printer Ill 

Paris,  English  Bible  commenced  printing  at 402 

the  Scriptures  when  first  printed  there 114 

Pentateuch,  Hebrew  one  presented  to  Conrad  Pellican 369 

Persecution  of  the  Bohemians 97 

of  the  Dutch 348 

of  the  English 236.  380 

oftheFrer»ch 441 

Pestinus,  (G.  P.)  an  Hungarian  translator 346 

Petrarch,  (Francis)  the  reviver  of  learning  in  Italy 25 

his  account  of  the   depravity   of   the   papal 

court 1 

Petri,  (Laurentius,  and  Olaus)  learned  Swedish  reformers 303 

Pfedersheimer,(Paul)  a  converted  Jew,  teaches  Pellican,  Hebrew,  368 
Pfeliercorn,  (John)  petitions  the  emperor  Maximilian    to  burn 

Jc^wish  books 179 

Pfister,  (Albert)  an  early  printer 114 

the  first  who  introduced  wood- 
cuts to  illustrate  the  Sacred  Text 114 

Philips,  (Henry)  treacherously  betrays  Tyndall 388 

Pileo,  (Guido  de)  bishop  of  Ferrara 27 

Pisan,   (Christina  de)  illuminated  copy  of  her  poems 7 

Playing-cards,  manufacture  of,  the  origin  of  printing 100 

Plays,  (Religous)  See  Drama. 

Pointz,  (Thrmas)  the  friend  of  Tyndall 388 

Polish  version 28 

Pomeranus,  or  John  Bugenhagen 287 

Polyglott,  (Complutensian) 200 

editors  of 210 

projected  one  of  Aldus 223 

Psalter,  by  Justinian 196 

Polyglotts,  remarks  upon 196 

Popery  abolished  in  England 391 

l^orter,  (John)  cruelly  treated  by  Bishop  Bonner 408 

Pot  ken,  (John)  publishes  Ethiopic  Psalter 347 

Praelle,  or  Presles,  (Raoul  de)  author  of  a  French  version 7 

preface  of 8 


INDEX.  523 

Preaching  out  of  doors,  in  Denmark 329 

Primer,  (the)  or  form  of  public  prayer 415 

Printers  (early)  remarks  upon ]  1 9 

Printing,  advantages  and  invention  of 98.  100 

introduced  into  Spain 153 

opposed  by  copyists,  &c 120 

Printing-office,  why  called  a  chapel 115 

Profligacy  of  the  Swiss  clergy 356 

Prussia,  receives  the  Reformation 343 

Psalms,  Marot's  French  version  of,  exceedingly  popular 439 

metrical  versions  of 440 

sung  in  public  worship., 440 

Psalter,  (Ethiopic)  edited  by  Potken 347 

(illuminated)  executed  for  Richard  II.. ,    70 

fthe  Mentz)  a  rare  edition 106 

Polyglott  one  by  Justinian 196 

Quintuplex  Latin  one  by  Faber 226 

Purvey,  or  Purney,  (John)  an  English  translator. 71 

Puteolanus,  (J.  F.)  an  Italian  editor 465 

Q 

*'  Quatuor  Sermones,"a  work  printed  by  Caxton 166 

Quinqarboreus,  (John)  editor  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  in  Hebrew  363 

R 

Rabbinical  Bible,  (The  Great)  published  by  Romberg 467 

Reading,  deemed  criminal 81 

Reading-desk,  price  of  making  one 406 

"  Reductorium  Morale,"  of  Berchorius,  extracts  from 21 

Reformers,  a  German  Bible  successively  in  their  possession.,  .,   282 

Rely,  (Jean  de)  French  version  of. ]  57 

'"Repertorium  Morale,"  of  Berchorius,  extracts  from 23 

Reuchlin,  or  Capnio,  (John) 178 

Reyner,  (Cornelius)  one  of  the    editors   of  the  Louvain  Latin 

Vulgate 487 

Rhodius,  ( Euthalius)  author  of  a  Greek  Concordance 34 

Rogers,  (John)  the  martyr,  editor  of  an  English  Bible 397 

RoUe,  (Richard)  author  of  an  English  version  of  the  Psalms... .     45 

Roman  characters,  when  first  used  in  printing 112 

Rome,  printing  introduced  into Ill 

Rorar,  or  Rorarius,  (George)  Luther's  amanuensis 290 

'^  Roto,"  a  Romish  court  of  judicature 499 

Rusbrochius,  (Johannes)  prior  of  Viridis  Vallis 27 

S 

Sale-catalogues,  origin  of 120 

Saxon  Scriptures.  .See    Versions^ 

School,  (St.  Paul's)  founded  by  Dean  Colet 252 

Scotland,  persecutions  in 421 .  427 

progress  of   the   Reformation  in 416.  420.  429 

Scriptures,  editions  of  in  the  early  part  of  the  16th  century 468 

"  Festival  of  the  translation  of " 288 

forbidden  to  be  read. .  77.  79,  80.  97.  230,  234,  235. 
295.  341.  348.  352.   379.  409.  41  5.  420,  434.  442. 

447.  453.  463.  474.  477.  480 


524  INDEX. 

Page. 

Scriptures,  (2500  copies  of)  seized  and  ordered  to  be  burnt. . . .  40^ 

permitted  to  be  read    398.  405,  406 

joy  of  the  people  at 398 

study  of  neglected 273 

scarce  and  expensive  formerly 80.  241,  242 

rarity  of  in  churches,  &c.  before  the  Reformation  159. 

417.   234 
Wiclif's    rule   for  distinguishing  the  caDonical  from 

the  apocryphal 56 

Sermon,  sum  paid  for  one,  A.  D.  1430 80 

Shir  wood,  (Robert)  Oriental  professor 390 

Silvester,  (St.)  monastery  of .  . . , 510 

Singing  of  Psalms  begun  in  Protestant  congregations 440 

Society,  (state  of)  in  the  I4th  century 1 

Soter,  or  Steyl,  (John)  assists  in  publishing  Ethiopic  Psalter... .   347 

Spain,  printing  when  first  introduced  into. 153 

Spanish  councils : 148.  225 

''  Speculum  humanae  salvationis,"  an  early  xylographic  work  101,   102 

Stephens,    (Robert)  list  of  his  Biblical  publications 450 

Stephenses,  the  learned  printers 445 

Stokesly.  (Bishop)  refuses  to  revise  the  Scriptures 392 

Subbiaco,  (monastery  of)  printing  established  in 112 

Subinco,  archbishop  of  Prague,  burns  Wiclif's  works 94 

Swedish  versions... .  .See  Versions. 

Swey nheim,  (Conrad)  an  early  printer Ill 

Swyndurby,  ( Wylliam  de)  a  favourer  of  Wiclif 61 

Sylvester,  (John)  an  Hungarian  translator 346 

Synning,  cr  Siuneson,  (John)  a  Danish  translator 339 

T 

*'  Taborites,'*  a  Bohemian  sect  so  called 96 

Tabriz!    (Simon  Ibn  Joseph  Ibn  Abraham  Al)   author  of  a   Per- 
sian version 35 

Talavera,  (Ferdinand  de)    archbishop  of  Granada,  an  excellent 

prelate 149 

Talmud,  (Jewish) 153.  467 

Talmudicil  writings 179 

Tausen,  (Hans)  Danish  version  of 325 

preaches  in  the  open  air.. ., 329 

"  Taxatores  Llbrorum,"  when  institutpd 121 

Testament  (New)  Hollybushe's  English  and  Latin 401 

first  separate  Latin  edition  of. 172 

MSS.  of  concealed  in  walls 36 

scarcity  of  Greek  copies    of  in  Germany.. .    368 

Theodosia,  (city  of)  now  called  Caffa. 34 

"  Theologal,"  or  "  Theologian,"  decrees  concerning  the 502 

*'Thirken's-block,''  or  "church-block,"  what  so  called 324 

Tideman,  (Peter)  a  Danish  translator 332.  340 

Title-pages,  observations  on 117 

Translation  of  Scriptures,  methods  adopted  in 73 

Translations,  utility  of 50.  63.  265.  423 

Translators  of  Scripture,  why  many  of  them  are  unknown 74 


INDEX.  523 

page, 

Trent^  (council  of)  471 ;     decrees  of,  472  ;     by  whom  acknow- 
ledged  486 

Trevisa,  (John  de)  author  of  an  English  version 49 

Tyndall's  English  translation  of  the  New  Testament  374;  copy 
of  the  first  edition,  37  ;  defence  of,  411  ;  speci- 
men of,    377 ;     pirated    editions,    and  prices  of,  379 

attempted  to  be  suppressed 379.  409 

translation  of  Jonah 382 

of  the  Pentateuch 381 

Types,  matrices  for,  by  whom  invented 106 

metal  ones,  when  first  used 103.  106 

wood  ones,  imperfections  of 103 

Typography,  (English)  first  specimen  of. 115 

(Hebrew) 116 

(observations  upon  the  early) 117 

V 

Valencia,  printing  in  Spain,  first  established  there 153 

Valla,  (Laurcntius)  a  learned  Italian 184 

Vaudois,  acrostic  upon, 434 

or  Waldenses,  Bible  printed  at  the  expense  of. 434 

Versions  (Metrical) 27.  149.361.  421.  437 

Versions,  and  Original  Texts  of  Scriptures,  viz; — Arabic  151. 
Belgic  or  Dutch  27,  173.  347.  Bohemian  95.  170.  Danish  29* 
304—341.  Dutch  27.  173.  347.  English  43.  45.  49.  55.  71. 
474. 393,  394. 401.  411.  Ethiopic  347.  Finnish  346.  French 
7.  13.  17.  154.  156, 157.  227.  233.  430.  German  109.  275.  282. 
291,  292,  293,  371.  Greek  223.  261,  262.  286.  Greek,  (Mo- 
dern) 466.  Hebrew  21.  33,  116.  222.  226.  261.  360.  363.  450. 
461.  466.  468.  Helvetian  or  German-Swiss  370.  Hungariaa 
346,  Icelandic  341.  343.  Irish  36.  Italian  137. 462.  Latin 
18.28  103.  107.  110,  111.  113.  137.  172.  215.  218.  221,  360, 
361.  390.  393.  446.  450.  469.  487,  488,  489,  490.  493.  512. 
Norse  or  Icelandic  341.  Persian  34.  36.  Polish  28  173.  Poly- 
glottsl96.  200.  347,  Saxon,  (Low)  171.292.301.  Spanish  142. 
147.  149,  224,  225.  459.  466.  Swedish  27.  301.  302.  304. 
Vienne,  (council  of)  orders  the  Oriental  tongues  to  be  taught. .        4 

Vignay  or  Vignes,   (Jean  de) 13 

''Villeins,"  explanation  of  the  term 164 

Vitellius,  (Cornelius)  the  first  who  taught   Greek  publicly  at 

'Oxford... 165 

Ulenberg's,  (Caspar)  German  version 293 

Vowel-points,  (Hebrew)  singular  opinion  respecting 153 

Vows,  (Monastic)  taken  by  the  Catholic  fraternities 458 

Vulgate,  (Latin)  editions  of;  see  Versions 

Sixtine    edition  of    490 ;       editors   of   492 ; 
abounds  with  errors  492  ;    Clementine  edition 
of  493;     preface  to,  written  by  Bellermin. .   493 
VV 

Wakefield,  (Robert)  the  first  Hebrew  professor  at  Oxford 389 

Walden,  (Thomas)  his  generous  bequest  of  MSS.  to  the  library 

of  Grey  Friars,   London , 4 

Vol.  IL  2  M 


526  INDEX. 

Page. 

Wedderburn,  (James)  author  of  religious  dramas. .  7. . . , 421 

Welch,  (Sir  John)  befriends  Tyndall 384 

Wenceslaus,  emperor  of  the  West,   MS.  of  the  O,  T.  executed 

for , 170 

Wesselus,   (John  Herman)  of  Groningen,  prefers  a  Bible  to  a 

bishopric 175 

Whethamstede,  (John  of)  abbot  of  St.  Albans , 88 

Whittington,  (Sir  Richard)  establishes  the  library  of  Grey  Friars, 

London ,,. 4 

Wiclif  translates  the  Scriptures  into  English 55.  64.  68 

Wiclif's  translation  circulated 80 

Winchelsey,  (Thomas)  a  liberal  benefactor  to  the  library  of  the 

Grey  Friars 4 

Wood,  art  of  engraving  upon 100 

Wormord,  ( Francis)  a  Danish  translator 317 

Wurtemberg's,  (king  of)  library,  analysis  of  the  catalogue  of... .  280 

A. 

Xavier,  (Francis)  the  Apostle  of  the  Indies 459 

(Geronymo)  transmits  a  MS.  of  Persian  Gospels  to  Rome  36 
Ximenes,    (Cardinal)  forbids  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular 

tongue 151 

Polyglott  Bible  of 200 

Xylographic  works,  or  works  engraved  on  wood 100 

Z 

Zainer,  (Gunther)  an  early  printer Ill 

curious   woOd-cut    in    the    Bibles   printed 

by  him Ill 

Ziegler,  (Bernard) 291 

Zingg,  (Francis)  a  Swiss  reformer 354 

jZuingle,  ( Ulric)  Annotations  of 359 

copies  the  Greek  text  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  . .  353 

Zurich  Latin  Bible 361 


Printed  by  B.  Crompton, 
Bury.'Laucashirei