EDITED BY HIS NEPHEW, HUGH ANDERSON,

“I CAN fearce think any pains miffpent that bring me in folid evidences of that great truth, that the Scripture is the word of God, which is indeed the GRAND FUNDAMENTAL.”

PREFACE.

THE, work which is now offered to public attention has been drawn from authentic and unpublished manuscripts, from the original printed authorities in succession, and the editions of the Scriptures themselves. It will be found to contain the historic Annals of the English Bible, viewed in contrast or connexion with national affairs; including Memoirs of Tyndale, his contemporaries and successors; the first introduction of the Sacred Volume, as printed in the native language, into England, Scotland, and America; the earliest triumphs of Divine Truth, and its progress down to the present day; the imperative obligations of British Christians in such extraordinary possession of the Word of God.

In the literature of this country, although it has been so often felt and regretted, a more observable deficiency does not exist, than that of there being no history of the English Bible. It may have been imagined, that such a narrative could embrace no heart-stirring incidents, or incidents laid as the foundation of a great design, no frequent peril of life, no hair-breadth escapes, nor, especially, any of those transactions, in which the vital interests of this nation have been involved. No mistake could have been greater, but whatever has been the cause, the defect is notorious. The people of every city alike have never been informed, at what time, and in what a singular manner, their ancestors first received the oracles of God, as printed on the continent for their benefit. As for their subsequent prevalence and effects, these form a vein of British history which has never been explored.

The Sacred Volume, indeed, carries internal evidence of its divine origin, and that in abundance; but still, with reference to the Bible now being used daily, and read so long, throughout this kingdom, no questions can be more natural than these -When was this volume first translated from the original, and put into print? Who was the man that laboured night and day to accomplish this? Like his Divine Master, was he betrayed unto death? If so, who betrayed him? What became of his betrayers? Or, was there any one man who befriended him, in his last days, or final trial? And since all this, and much more, did take place abroad; in the first transmission, in the secret and singular conveyance of the heavenly treasure to our shores, what were the distinct tokens of a superintending Providence to be observed and adored? What were the notable circumstances connected with its earliest triumphs over the prejudice and passion of our common nature? Or, in short, how has this Sacred Volume, revised, and rerevised, after three hundred years, come down into our hands? And yet, up to the present moment, should any individual throughout this country apply to his Christian teacher, or any child to his parent, and put these and other deeply interesting questions, no definite answer can be returned; nor is there a single publication, which, if it lead not astray, will not leave the inquisitive readier nearly as far from satisfaction as when he began. If a Translator, in whose train all others have followed, must be allowed to rank far above all mere Reformers, it is strange if, on such a subject, historians generally should have slumbered or slept; yet the histories of Halle and Foxe, of Stowe and Strype, of Burner and Collier, of Turner and Lingard, or Soame, as well as the history of Translations by Lewis, Herbert, or Dibdin, with the Biblical literature of Townley, of Cotton, or of Horne, may all be read, and they must be, when such a period is explored; but from all these sources put together, still the reader can form no conception of what actually took place, with regard to the Scriptures. The incidental circumstances mentioned are not only few in number, but scarcely one of them appears in its true light or appropriate connexion. Many, and by far the most curious and productive incidents, have remained in utter oblivion.

After reading, in succession, even all these works, no one can possess any adequate or correct idea of that mighty phalanx of talent, policy, and power, so firmly arrayed against the introduction of divine truth in our native tongue into this Kingdom; and consequently no reader has ever had before him the most powerful display, in comparatively modern times, of the irresistible energy of the Divine Word. This remark applies with equal force to Scotland, of which nothing has hitherto been known, as it does to England, of which there has been known so little, and that so incorrectly narrated. This energy, too, in both countries, having been exhibited at a period when the truth was unbefriended by a single human being in office, nay, when the judges and rulers of the land were up in arms, or raging against it; the detail, if justice could be done to it, must form one of the most curious and impressive, if not the most valuable chapters in British history. The times changed indeed, and have often changed since, and yet, it is presumed, no reader will find the story begin to droop in point of interest; much less forfeit its peculiar character, as an undertaking of Divine Providence, down to the present hour.

Certain portentous signs, unexpectedly marking our own day, and at which not a few have been startled, very powerfully invite the general mind to the sacred text, in its all-sufficiency, by itself alone, or to “ the Bible without note and comment.” But without even glancing at these here, to the Sacred Volume, in our native tongue, considered simply in the light of a printed book, there happily belong two peculiarities, more than sufficient to fix the mind, with intense interest, on its origin and history. These are the number of its copies, and the extent to which it is now in perusal, Neither the one, nor the other, has yet been rendered so palpable, as to engage the notice they deserve, and which they will, at last, certainly secure.

After the commencement of the present century, when attention was awakened to the obligation imposed on this country, of giving the Sacred Volume to all nations, or of attempting to do so; with regard to the Scriptures in our own English, it was even then asserted, that the number of copies already in existence was greater than that in all other languages put together. The number, at all events, had passed beyond human calculation, while every one agreed that other nations were comparatively but ill supplied, and that many more were entirely destitute. The moment, however, for combined exertion had come; this has continued ever since, even with growing energy; and it is now assuredly more than time for the contributors to observe the result. Notwithstanding all that had been printed and sold for more than two centuries and a half; the number of English Bibles and New Testaments separately, which have passed through the press, within the perfect recollection of many now living, has exceeded the number of souls in Britain! It has been more than double the population in 1801!

Should we suppose the printing-press to have been employed incessantly every lawful day, or three hundred and thirteen days in the year, and for ten hours daily, throughout the four seasons of all these years; then has it been moving, on an average, at the rate of more than three copies of the Sacred Volume, whether of the Bible, or New Testament separately, every minute; or five hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred annually! But the speed at first, or for several years, was slow, when compared with that which followed. For some time past, it has nearly doubled, so that in the space of twelve months the press has sent forth more than a million of copies; or say above nineteen thousand every week, above three thousand every day, three hundred every hour, or five every minute of working time!

At this rate there has been producing equal to an entire volume, and such a volume, in less than twelve seconds! To the minds of many in recent years, velocity or speed, in various forms, has proved a subject of ardent study and delight, but here is one form, which, when viewed in its ultimate moral consequences, will not admit of any rival competitor. Yet compared with its importance, it has been but little regarded; and never yet, as it ought to have been, in connexion with the state of other nations. Before thousands, or rather millions of our countrymen, the process, from day to day, has “Moved on unheeded, as the bird That cleaves the yielding air unheard, And yet must prove, when understood, The harbinger of endless good.” To a certainty, however, it had never entered into the imagination of a single individual, that more copies of the Scriptures would be demanded in the English tongue alone, than in that of all other nations put together!

And, more especially, as the number of versions now called for, and as contemplated by Britain, is above one hundred and fifty! At the outset, had any individual suggested the propriety of printing twenty millions of English Bibles and Testaments, what would every other man have thought or said? The proposal would have been fatal to the design. The general result which so many have concurred in producing, was foreseen by no one. Thus it is, that, by the agency of man, the intentions of Providence are wrought out, in the guidance of a nation, or the government of the world.

In all our movements, or combinations, His hand and power appear at last, conspicuously; and if any seek for evidence, that, with all our supposed shrewdness, we are still a governed race, he may find it here. Like some of those great operations in nature which proceed unnoticed, amidst all the turmoil of this ever-shifting scene, this work has gone on, and arrived at a height, which in the light of an event, is sufficient to arrest the attention of every intelligent mind, exciting, as it ought, to deeper inquiry and reflection.

But if the English Bible be so distinguished for the number of its copies, it is equally, or rather more so, by the extent to which it is now being read.

With the movement of the press, we have another movement, not less worthy of notice, and one which renders the subject doubly interesting, or rather momentous. It is about nineteen years ago, since it was remarked by an acute living writer, Mr. Douglas-“ The world has not witnessed an emigration like that taking place, from this kingdom to America, so extensive in its range, so immeasurable in its consequences, since the dispersion of mankind.” He compared it to the principle of attraction in the material world-“an influence which, like that of Nature, was universal, without pause or relaxation; and hordes of emigrants were continually swarming off, as ceaseless in their passage, and crowded, and unreturning as the passengers to eternity.” Since then, however, and especially with every returning spring, has come as certainly the season of migration; and from many seaports, our countrymen have been sailing far and wide as the winds and waves could carry them. In short, with the exception of the most remarkable of all people, the Jews, the English-speaking population has become the most widely diffused of any branch of the family of man; and for years past this one kingdom has been in the act of colonizing America, Africa, Asia, nay, and Australia, or New Holland, New Zealand, and the bosom of the Pacific. A vast improvement also has taken place, in the character of this emigration, rising, as it now does, to the more reputable classes, and the higher ranks in British society, including many a benevolent, humane, and Christian mind. Safely may we anticipate that, at no distant day, “the wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for them;” but so far as the Scriptures in our own English are concerned, we have not to wait for an event which has already taken place.

Emigration from one’s native land, in almost every aspect, is a subject which, it is granted, must awaken sombre feeling, whether in those who depart never to return, or in those who remain behind; yet in rising above our “native nook of earth,” held so dear, there is one point of view, perhaps only one, which can soothe the mind into perfect acquiescence. “Not one hour of the twenty-four,” it has been remarked, “not one round of the minute hand of the dial is allowed to pass, in which, on some portion of the surface of the globe, the air is not filled with accents that are ours.

They are heard in the ordinary transactions of life; or in the administration of law; in the deliberations of the senate-house, or council-chamber; in the offices of private devotion, or in the public observance of the rites and duties of a common faith.” F1 Has such a reflection cheered on, in his toilsome path, the patient lexicographer? How much more deeply ought every one, who speaks this farspread language, to be moved, when, in our day, he casts his eye over the Sacred Volume! Adieus and farewells at last die away in the contemplation of this great movement. The Divine hand becomes apparent, not merely in guiding so many thousands safely across the deep, and to the ends of the earth, but in the numbers who carry with them the Sacred Volume, in a language common to them all.

To many, no doubt, it might seem too bold, were we at once to affirm that the English Bible is at present in the act of being perused from the rising to the settling sun. The assertion might appear little else than a figure of speech, or an event to be anticipated; and yet this is no more than the half of the truth. The fact, the singular and unprecedented fact, demands deliberate reflection from every British Christian, whether at home or abroad. His Bible, at this moment, is the only version in existence on which the sun never sets. We know full well that it is actually in use on the banks of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, as well as at Sidney, Port Philip, and Hobart Town; but before his evening rays have left the spires of Quebec or Montreal, his morning beams have already shone for hours upon the shores of Australia and New Zealand. And if it be reading by so many of our language in Canada, while the sun is sinking on Lake Ontario; in the eastern world, where he has risen in his glory on the banks of the Ganges, to the self-same Sacred Volume, many, who are no less our countrymen, have already turned. Yet are all these but as branches from one parent stock, under whose shade this version, corrected and recorrected, has been reading by myriads for three hundred years.

People talk of sublime spectacles, but what favour conferred upon any other nation is once to be compared to this? To an enlightened English mind, no consideration as to this earth can rise above it. Here, unquestionably, is the most elevated point of view in which Britain can be viewed-the only true summit of her greatness. How extraordinary that it has never been distinctly, and with leisure, contemplated, nor with due regard to its national importance! Have we been so engrossed by the local, or limited and inferior, distinctions among ourselves, as to slight the grand one? What, in ancient times, was the preeminence of the Jews? Did it not consist in this, that to them were entrusted the oracles of God? But were these ever committed to them as they have been to us? Jehovah had not so dealt with any nation; but had he dealt with even that nation, as he hath done with this? If Divine Revelation be regarded, in its proper light, as the voice of God, to what people in existence has he ever spoken so long, so uninterruptedly, and now, above all others, so extensively? It was said of old, that “the mighty God, even Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun, to his going down;” and is it nothing, that in our language, by way of eminence, this should have been first so singularly and literally verified? Such, at all events, is the present high and momentous position of Britain and her sons.

If, from this moral elevation, we could once look down to the valley below, and, guided only by impartial history, observe the singular path by which the nation has been led up to such an eminence, we should better understand what, and how much, is involved in the history of Divine Revelation in our native tongue; to say nothing of many reflections which could never before have occurred to any mind. The following pages form an attempt to furnish the reader with such a history, from the first sheets thrown off at the press, down to the millions now dispersed and in use, whether at home or abroad.

But, even here, and before we descend-before we begin, where the Almighty, in a manner so peculiar, began with this nation-if, from this summit, we now look round, is there any parallel case to be discerned?-any nation upon ground so high? No, not one, nor by many degrees: not even Germany, with all her Bibles. Yet is there nothing on which the eye may and should rest, in the way of comparative contrast? Assuredly there is, for there is one other European language upon which the sun also never sets.

It is the Spanish, and the contrast may be soon expressed. The Bible in Spain! The Bible in Britain! Two languages on which the sun shines with no intermission, yet, in point of supply, are they wide as the poles asunder!

What a contrast is presented here, whether we look to Spain herself, or to her offspring in those colonies once all her own! In the history of Europe at this moment, no two facts of similar magnitude can be placed in opposition before the human mind. One is almost reminded of the sun, in comparison with a star of the smallest magnitude. Let the contrast, the indescribable contrast, at once humble and inspirit a people whom God has so distinguished.

To all those, therefore, who regard the Scriptures, printed in our native tongue, to be infinitely the highest boon ever bestowed on Britain; or to the English Christian, whether he be at home or abroad-in Britain, Ireland, or America-in India, China, Australia, or New Zealand-the providential origin of that Sacred Volume to which he daily turns his eye, cannot be a subject void of interest. Its progress to completion he will find to have involved a struggle, with which there is no other to be compared its history since, one that bears directly and with great power on the present day; and, once aware of circumstances, when he himself sits down to the perusal of the sacred page, whether in the temperate, the torrid, or the frigid zone, he will be better able to regard the favour, as one of the innumerable happy consequences of its original triumph over all the enmity and rage displayed of old, and the barriers which were raised in vain, against its reception into his native country or fatherland.

With respect to the commencement of the following history, the first half of the sixteenth century, embracing one of the most eventful periods in the annals of Europe, is familiarly known to have produced, in this country, a number of conspicuous characters, and the lives of almost every one of them have been given to the world again and again. One, however, -and, in the proper sense of the term, as it regards his influence on posterity,-by far the most eminent, has been hitherto all but overlooked. Often confounded or linked with other men of very inferior consequence, there has been no reader of English history who could possibly estimate the amount of his obligations to the modest and immortal William Tyndale. Independently of his ability as one of the most powerful writers of the age, when his name is connected with the Sacred Volume, which he first translated from the original text into English, which he first put to press, and then sent into his native land, we have no other man to be compared with him at the time; and when to this is added, his unspotted personal Christianity, his uncompromising spirit, and genuine patriotism, it is altogether unaccountable that every incident in his valuable life has not been gleaned, and arranged into a distinct memoir, long before the present day. Such a work, including his noble convert and young companion, John Fryth, ought to have been a household book for many generations back.

But in neglecting Tyndale personally, an object infinitely above him has been neglected. In the course of her varied and singular history, there is no favour, we must repeat, bestowed upon Britain, that is ever to be compared with the Bible in her vulgar or vernacular tongue; to say nothing of this being now her most distinguished and distinguishable feature. But for its free and unfettered perusal, the eminence to which she has attained among the European nations, or confessedly above them, had never been reached. Her rise and progress, in all that is worthy of possession, can never be separated from this heavenly gift or deposit. Yet, if this be granted, and the best of her sons with one voice will do so, then, in the introduction, or first importation, of the Sacred Scriptures in type, at such a period, and by such means, there must have been certain paths, certain footsteps, in divine Providence, corresponding to the greatness of the boon bestowed. In other words, though the cause itself, in the morning of its origin, might seem only like “smoking flax or a bruised reed,” one might expect to witness even national affairs, or the Crown itself, and the movements of Government, treated, in many instances, as altogether subordinate. As far, then, as men in power and place were concerned, the reader must now be left to judge whether he does not observe the cause, emphatically in its commencement, and upon all necessary occasions ever after, like the star in Joseph’s dream, to which “the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance.” These, and other singular occurrences, it is true, ought to have been marked and recorded long before three centuries had passed away; but though they have required to be sought out in the pages of original manuscript, and of rare books, and to be traced with scrupulous caution, they are not the less worthy of observation now, and more especially in the existing state of our country. Perhaps some unknown benefit may be involved in so many important incidents having been left for disclosure to the present hour.

The Scriptures in English manuscript, the revival of Letters, as well as the Invention of Printing, preceded, by many years, any application of that noble art to our English version. But the entire period may be, or rather ought to be, regarded as containing a series of events, preliminary to that memorable occurrence, and, therefore, though but slightly sketched, they require to be noticed in the light of a deliberate, yet appropriate introduction. This, accordingly, has been attempted, as due to the history following.

It is, however, the English Scriptures in print, and their first introduction, especially into England and Scotland, with their subsequent introduction to North America, which are about to claim particular attention; and as the path has never been trodden before, some explanation becomes necessary, with regard to the sources whence materials have been derived. Having looked into the histories already named, as well as other kindred works, and observing not only the paucity of facts, but various discrepancies among all these authors, the writer’s first resort was to that unrivalled store of original manuscript in the British Museum. It was impossible to entertain any previous theory. Various details were expected, though not the slightest hope was then indulged that any very connected series of events could ever be drawn out. On discovering, however, to what extent these manuscript pages had been permitted to remain ill oblivion, he persevered.

Important original documents, both in the Chapter House of Westminster, and in the State Paper Office, have also been consulted; and, of course, the State Papers, or Correspondence, in five volumes quarto, relating to England, Scotland, and Ireland, printed since 1830, by the Government Commission. After having gone over the entire surface of Tyndale’s age, the writer was highly obliged by the perusal and use of various extracts of correspondence, collected by the indefatigable industry of the Rev. Thomas Russell, A.M., the editor of the works of Tyndale and Fryth. It was no trifling corroboration when the author found himself not only unmoved from a single position he had taken, but confirmed in his statements by several incidental circumstances, some of which might have escaped notice.

With reference to rare printed works, as well as scarce editions of the Scriptures, besides the British Museum; the Bodleian at Oxford; the University Library, that of St. John’s College, and others, at Cambridge; the Baptist Museum of Bristol; the Althorp Library of Earl Spencer; that of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, while yet entire, with those of Lambeth and St. Paul’s, have been consulted in succession; but to no other collection of Bibles and Testaments has the author been so much indebted as to that of his friend Lea Wilson, Esq., of Norwood Hill. In early days an English merchant of Antwerp will be found to occupy a conspicuous and honourable place at the commencement of this history; and it is in perfect keeping with the entire narrative, that a collection so rich, and in such a perfect state, should now be in the possession of a London merchant.

Without his assistance as to various minute particulars, the list at the close of this work could not have been so complete. It will be found to contain many authentic editions, which, altogether unknown, have never been inserted in any account previously published. To the polite kindness of the Right Honourable Thomas Grenville, the author has been indebted, not only for access to that distinguished library, but for the perusal of the first edition of Fox’s Acts and Monuments, a folio of which it has been said the inspection “non cuivis homini contingit.” For the very accurate sketches of Little Sodbury Manor House, under whose roof the resolution of Tyndale was formed, and which may therefore be regarded as the starting point in this vast enterprise, the writer has been obliged to his friend George Joseph Bompas, M.D., of Fishponds, Bristol; and certain particulars relating to the unique fragment of Tyndale’s first New Testament, have been kindly furnished by Mr. Thomas Rodd, of Great Newport Street, London. The portrait ofTYNDALE is an exact copy from a rare volume, namely, “Holland’s Herwologia Angliea.” No. 39. This is considered to be the best likeness.

With regard to Scotland, living in Edinburgh, it need scarcely be added, that satisfaction on certain points could not have been obtained, without access to the invaluable Library of the Faculty of Advocates, so freely granted; and as to books, among others, my special thanks are due to David Laing, Esq., for the use of several rare pieces, unknown to the English reader, by an illustrious Scotsman, who has been all along better known in Germany than in his own country, Alexander Ales or Aless (Aleslus) of Edinburgh. Other acknowledgments will occur throughout these volumes, where every authority, whether in manuscript or in print, has been distinctly noted. f2 The following pages, it is presumed, will be found to possess one recommendation to many readers. They are removed, as far as it is possible to be, from what have been styled polemics. Jaded as the human mind has often been for the last three hundred years, and especially in Britain, with controversial divinity, it may be grateful to not a few, if they can find another walk, in past times clown to the present, of such a character as lies at the root of all that has ever existed under the name of Christianity within the kingdom; and so important as in vital connexion with its progress throughout the earth. If with the changing scenes through which the history will be found to pass, it had ever forfeited its original cast or character, there it might have terminated, and there it ought. But, on the contrary, as the continuation so singularly corresponds with the commencement, there was to be found no halting-place before the present day.

In point of time, the history of our English Scriptures, from the date of their first appearing in print, will be found to take precedence of all the Institutions, Establishments, or local interests, within our shores. The noble contest, so singularly commenced and conducted, was nearly decided before their origin; at least, the first brunt of the battle was over, and Divine truth had been so effectually sown and rooted in our native soil, that, from that early period, all the power of the enemy has been in vain.

This, of itself, gives the story a preference, or a prior claim to consideration, before any other narrative in the form, or under the name, of religious history. Nor is this its only peculiarity. Ever since, the continuation will be found maintaining a higher place, describing a larger, and therefore a loftier circle, than that of any mere class or denomination whatever; embracing, without any interruption, the Christian community of Britain in its widest sense. It will continue throughout as independent of all local interests, as it was before they had existence. That the history of the English Bible has never before been viewed in this light, is freely granted; nor had the author himself the slightest idea of this, its marked or distinguishing peculiarity, before he began. It is now the more worthy of notice, and may prove of some service, in different ways, beside that of promoting modesty of statement by any single community in Britain. No section of Christians, it will be seen, of whatever name, can possess any title to rank itself as having been essential, either to the progress or to the general prevalence of the English Scriptures, much less to their original introduction. This is an undertaking which has been uniformly conducted above their sphere of judgment. Should this general prevalence turn out to have been almost equally independent of the civil power, from Henry the Eighth down to Charles the Second, or rather to the present hour, it will form altogether by far the most singular fact, as such, in the annals of the kingdom. It is a feature in the history of our Bible, claiming supreme attention from the existing age.

Upon the whole, the present forms a department in past history, with which every Minister of the truth, in English, ought to have been familiar long ago, nay, and every Parent throughout the kingdom. As it regards instruction, as well as ground for new reflections, it will be found to occupy a course or channel peculiar to itself. Perhaps the fifth book in our new Testament Scriptures, may in part explain its character. Men, indeed, have entitled that book “The Acts of the Apostles;” but it is in reality a history of the way and manner in which “the Word of the Lord grew and multiplied,” -the Apostles themselves, whether as individuals or as a body, being treated in perfect subordination to the grand or leading design. In some faint resemblance to this manner, so ought the history of the Divine Word, in our native tongue, to have been attempted long since; leaving men and things, whether great characters or national events, in the subordinate places which have actually belonged to them. At the same time, such men and such events, viewed as they have now been, sometimes in contrast, and at other times in connexion with the progress of Divine Revelation itself, lend a peculiar zest or life to the entire narrative. Upon the characters of Henry VIII. and Wolsey, of Warham, Tunstal, or Sir Thomas More, of Cranmer and Lord Crumwell, with many other men well known under all the subsequent reigns, certainly no such additional light could have been thrown, till they were brought into immediate contact or contrast with the printing or circulation of the Scriptures in our native tongue.

Even from the commencement, and down to our own times, some such history has become positively essential to a just estimate of our present peculiar condition as a Nation, now by far the most responsible under heaven. It may, and it will furnish motives to action, such as can be drawn from no other retrospect. It forms a key, if not the only one, to our highest imperative obligations; and it may well be pondered, as the path by which Jehovah led our forefathers, in a way of His own devising, with more than “the pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.” In this view, the history, though never written before, and therefore not understood, can never be out of date. It involves the commencement and continuance of a Cause, which is but pursuing its course in our own day, not only to a wider extent, but with greater energy than ever before, and yet to be pursued with greater still.

In conclusion, the Author, it will be evident, is far from placing any reliance on the mere dispersion of Bibles, even by the million; but although no man can measure the consequences of the immutable standard of Divine truth having been exhibited to the eye of this nation, the spirit of the age loudly demands, that the history of that exhibition should now be more accurately known. Once understood, it must be left to the judgment of every discerning reader, whether, at the present crisis, in such unparalleled possession of the Sacred Volume, British Christians can close their eyes with impunity on the existing state of other nations-the condition of a world. EDINBURGH, 19th February, 1845.

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION.

THE Edition of the Annals of the English Bible now offered to the public, differs from those issued by the late Author, simply in the omission of those sketches of the civil history of the period, which added greatly to the size and price of the book, but were not necessarily connected with its object, while they often interfered with the narrative instead of illustrating it.

The Author himself, anticipating the desire of many of his readers to peruse only the story of that conflict which ended in the Bible being given to Britain, had printed the sketches in a smaller type to be passed over at pleasure, and thus indicated the only way in which he would have the work abridged, without prejudice to its object, to meet the wishes of those who had less time to devote to the larger volumes.

The late venerable Jay of Bath expressed to the Editor his opinion, that while on the whole he had not read a more interesting book than the “Annals” for many years, its value would not be at all diminished by the omission of the civil history, which he felt to be rather a hindrance than a help in following the narrative, so deeply engrossing, of Tyndale’s life and labours, and the fruits of these to his native country.

All the illustrations contained in the former issues will be found in the present edition, together with the valuable List of early editions of the English Bible Which Cost The Author So Much Time And Labour To Complete.