INTRODUCTION.

Brief survey of the ages which preceded any printing of the Scriptures in the English tongue-Including the revival and triumph of classical learning and the arts, contrasted with the times of Wickliffe, with his version of the entire Sacred Volume, and its effects-The invention of printing, its rapid progress to perfection, and the point to which the European nations, but more especially England and Scotland, had been brought, before ever this invaluable art was applied to any version of the Sacred Scriptures in the language spoken by the people.

BOOK I.-ENGLAND.

The Reign of Henry the Eighth. 1509. -1523.

From the birth of Tyndale, the original translator, to his embarkation for the Continent, in pursuit of his design..1 1524. -1525.

The New Testament in English preparing by Tyndale, for circulation in his native land; and in two editions from the press by the close of 1526.

Memorable introduction of the New Testament into England-The first two editions-The first alarm in London, Oxford, Cambridge-The first burning of books-New Testament denounced by the King and Wolsey-Then by Tunstal and Warham-The Third Edition-Violent contention respecting it-Burning the Sacred Volume, abroad and at home 1527.

The Translator’s progress-His earliest compositions-Persecution in England-Opposition to tho New Testament-Warham and the Bishops buying it up-Fresh importations-The Fourth Edition-Scriptures singularly introduced once more 1528.

Tyndale and Fryth-Present persecution in England-Arrested by pre vailing disease-Persecution ia Antwerp-Nobly withstood, and the Enghsh Envoy defeated-Wolsey’s pursuit after Tyndale and others- All in vain 1529.

Tyndale’s progress in the Old Testament-Persecution in England- Thwarted once more-Tunstal at Antwerp-Tyndale’s influence in the Palace-More, the Bishops, and the King, in league against the Scrip tures-Coverdale sent to Hamburg-Another or fifth edition of the New Testament 1530.

Tyndale’s progress in the Old Testaments-Practice of prelates-Persecution goes on-King and prelates denounce the Scriptures- Latimer’s bold remonstrance-New Testaments burnt by Tunstal-Another, the sixth edition-Vigorous importation-Death of S. Fyshe.. 1531.

Formidable opposition-Pursuit after Tyndale by the King and Crumwell -Still in vain-Tyndale’s answer to Sir T. More-Epistle of John ex pounded-Jonah, with a prologue-Renewed persecution-Brother of Tyndale-Bilney-Bayfield-Many books importing-Constantyne caught-Escapes-Persecution abroad-Powerful remonstrance from Antwerp with Crumwell, including the King and the Lord Chancellor More 1532.

Tyndale’s progress-Exposition in Matthew-His sentiments under per secution- The King not appeased-Renewed pursuit of Tyndale-Now by Sir Thomas Elyot-Still in vain-Persecution goes on-Bainham- Latimer-More against Tyndale-Fryth arrives in England-In peril -In the Tower-Writing there in defcnee of the truth, and addressing the Christian in England. 1533.

One distinguishing feature of Tyndale’s course and character as compared with all his contemporaries-His answer to Sir T. More-His letter to Fryth in prison-Fryth’s voice from the Tower-Fryth’s examination before the Bishops assembled-His triumph in argument-Martyrdom -One effect of Fryth’s death-Sir T. More writing still-One powerful opponent at home-More, considered as a controversialist-His prodigious exertions-Other qualities-Finally overcome... 1534.

Tyndale all alone after Fryth’s death-Genesis, second edition-Fresh issue of the Pentateuch-Surreptitious edition of the New Testament by Joye-The improved edition by Tyndale-Joye’s interference explained-Divine truth in progress-Richard Harman in London-Re stored to favour by the Queen-Glance at the past and present-The New Testament importing in several editions, in contrast with the dreams of the Convocation 1535.

Tyndale’s apprehension at Antwerp-Imprisonment in the Castle of Vil vorde-Distiuct information conveyed to Crumwell and Cranmer-The strenuous exertions of Thomas Poyntz-Tyndale’s progress in prison- The Bishops applied to for a translation of the New Testamen-A fruitless attempt-Fresh editions of Tyndale’s translation, printed and importing this year 1536.

Last year of Tyndale-Anne Boleyn-The new or unprecedented Convo cation-Latimer preaching before it-State of parties there-Old and new learning-Proceedings in Convocation-The first articlcs-Crum well’s first injunctions-No Bible mentioned-Tyndale’s latter days- Phillips once more-Indifference of England-The Court of Brussels- Home and abroad now deeply implicated-The martyrdom of Tyndale-Poyntz, the friend of Tyudale-Future history of the miserable betrayers-Nine or ten editions of Tyndale’s Testament... 1537.

Memorable introduction of the entire Sacred Volume-Myles Coverdale -His circumstances compared with Tyndale’s-Coverdale’s temporary success-The remarkably sudden change-Tyndale’s Bible-Its arrival -Its reception-Bought and read-The King agrees-Grafton the pro prietor-All parties most memorably overruled-Conclusion of the first year of triumph. 1538.

The second year of triumph-Persecution resumeed-The English Bible printing in Paris-Press interrupted-Inquisition overmatched-The Bible finished in London-First injunctions for Tyndale’s Bible-New Testaments, fresh editions-Covcrdale’s Testaments-The destitute state of England-Joy over the Scriptures-Retrospect. 1539.

Eventful year-State of parties-Parliament and Convocation-Royal message-New articles-Bills of attainder-The six articles applied- Frustrated-Cranmer safe-Latimer imprisoned-Alexander Ales escapes-Constantyne in danger-The Scriptures printing in various editions-Crumwell’s remarkable energy in this department-The King swayed once more-The cause in progress-Cranmer busy in prospect of his first edition, next spring-It is distinctly sanctioned by Henry- Singular proclamation-Henry now commanding all his subjects to use the Scriptures in English 1540.

Crumwell-His death and character-Retrospects-Common mistake as to the Crown-The large folio Bibles, in six editions-The first of Cran mer’s-A different editions-The second of Cranmer’s-The third pre paring, to be issued next year, but with a different title-One in five volumes, small size-Quarto New Testament 1541.

The third large Bible, with Tunstal’s name, by command-The fourth, in May, with Cranmer’s name-Expense of these large undertakings- The memorable proprietor, Anthony Marler-Bonner’s feigned zeal- Earnest reading and listening-The fifth great Bible, with Tunstal’s name-The sixth, with Cranmer’s name-Gardiner returned, to witness the progress now made during his absence Convocation met-The Bible introduced there for discussion at last-Singular display-Gardiner’s grand effort in oppositions-Cranmer informs the King-They are all discomfited, though yet sitting-Progress of the truth in England 1543.

Parliament opened-The Convocation baffled, acknowledge their inability to stay the progress of Divine truth by applying now to Parliament-Parliament disgraces itself by vain opposition-Bonner sent abroad. 1544.

Gardiner-Cranmer-Henry’s confession of impotence in all his injunctions to his bishops-His inconsistency-New Testament of Tyndale’s, a foreign print.. 1545.

Undermining Cranmer-His enemies covered with shame-Henry addressing his Privy Council-His deliberate opinion of its character- Addressing his Parliament for the last time. 1546.

Persecution revived-Anne Askew-Her martyrdom, along with three other individuals-Latimer still in prison-Enmity to English books- The supplication of the poor Commons-Wriothesly, Gardiner, and Norfolk in trouble-Death of Henry VIII.-Retrospect..

BOOK II.-ENGLAND.

from Edward VIII to the Commonwealth. 1547. -1553.

REIGN OF EDWARD. A reign, however brief, distinguished in British history, with regard to the printing and publication of the Sacred Scriptures in the language of the people 1553.-1558.

REIGN OF QUEEN MARY. A reign, however painful in its details, which so far from retarding the progress of Divine truth, only deepened the impression of its value; and afforded the opportunity for the Sacred Scriptures being given afresh to England, carefully revised-the exiles from the kingdom proving, once more, its greatest benefactors 1558.-1603.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. A reign, however powerful in every other department, having no actual control over the choice or preference of the people of England, with regard to the Sacred Scriptures in their native tongue, and thus presenting the only exception to unlimited sway. 1603.-1650.

JAMES I.TO THE COMMONWEALTH. Accession, of James-His strange progress through the country-His heedless profusion- Conference at Hampton Court explained-Revision of the Scriptures-The revisors-Instructions given-Progress made-Revision of the whole-Money paid, but not by his Majesty, nor by any Bishop, after the King’s application, but by the patentee-The present version published-No proclamation, no order of Privy Council, or any act of the Legislature upon record, on the subject-Did not become the version generally received throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland, till about forty years afterwards-The last attempt to interfere with the English Bible by a Committee of Parliament, representing England, Ireland, and Scotland, in vain SCOTLAND. Introduction.

Brief notice of Scotland during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries-The opening of the sixteenth before the Sacred Scriptures in print were first imported

BOOK III.-SCOTLAND.

From James the Fifth to the Commonwealth. 1526.

REIGN OF JAMES V. State of Scotland-The first introduction of the New Testament in the English language-Earliest arrivals at Edinburgh and St. Andrews- Singular condition of the country, and especially of its Primate, at the moment 1527-1528. Consternation of the authorities in Scotland-The New Testament soon followed by one living voice, that of Patrick Hamilton-His martyr-dom-Alexander Seton, the next witness, persecuted-He escapes to England-The New Testament goes on to be imported 1529. -1534. All-important period, hitherto unnoticed-Alexander Ales or Aless- Cruelly persecuted by Hepburn, the Prior of St. Andrews-At last escapes by sea, from Dundee, first to France, and then to Germany- His epistle addressed to Janmes V.; or the commencement of the first regular controversy in Britain respecting the Scriptures printed in the vulgar tongue-The abusive publication of Cochlaeus in reply-The representations of Ales confirmed by the state of the country, and the second martyrdom-Answer of Ales to the calumnies of Cochlaeus-Ales pleads for the New Testament to be read-But especially in families- Cochlaeus addresses James V.-And is rewarded-The persecutions and martyrdoms of 1534 again confirm the statements of Ales-Who is now standing by himself alone, in defence of the truth 1535. –1538. State of Scotland-Provincial council of the prelates-Agitation-Reading of the New Testament forbidden by proclamation-Progress of thecause 1538. -1542. State of the country-Beaton a Cardinal, and persecution revived-The martyrdoms of 1538-Dean Forret-The cause of all the tumult in opposition traced to the New Testament in the native tongue-Another martyrdommen escaping-The cruel progress of Cardinal Beaton- Death of the King James V.-Gloomy state of the country as to its Government at this moment 1543. -1650.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS,JAMES VI.TO THE COMMONWEALTH. The year 1543, a memorable one-Critical state of the Government- Remarkably sudden change-The Primate of St. Andrews in prison- Parliament assembles, and by a bill and proclamation throughout Scot land, sanctions the general perusal of those Scriptures, which hal been reading in secret for sixteen years-Contrast with England at this moment-Extent to which the Scriptures had been perused in Scotland -The Earl of Arran, the Governor, abjures, and falls under the power of Beaton, now enlarged-More martyrdoms by hanging, drowning, and the flames-The death of Beaton-Singular history of the Scrip tures in Scotland, during this entire period-Not supplied from its own native press, but by importation, for more than a hundred years-The present version of the Bible become the only one in use, over the entire kingdom BOOK IV.-GREAT BRITAIN. from the Commonwealth to Queen Victoria. 1650. -1778.

THE COMMONWWEALTH TO GEORGE III. Brief survey-Downward progress of the Stuart dynasty-The Revolu tion of 1688-9-Preceding opposition to the Scriptures by James II., an adherent of the old learning- Consequences of the Revolution- State of the Bible press in England-Canne’s Bible-Guy’s Bibles- Baskerville’s-Blayney’s Bible-State of the Bible press in Scotland- James II. equally busy in opposition there-The number of Bibles is now past all human computation-The results NORTH AMERICA. 1620. -1780.

THE REIGN OF JAMES I.TO GEORGE III. New movement in reference to the English Scriptures-The Bible first beheld by the natives in America, an English one-Copies carried away to New England by the refugees and following settlers-Sent across the Atlantic Ocean for above a hundred and sixty years!-The extra- ordinary results during this long period-The restrictive and unnatural policy of Britain-In justification of its continued independence of all human authority, the English Bible is at last printed in America-No consultation of the mother country-The first edition only in 1782- The first Bibles in octavo, quarto, and folio, printed there in 1791- The second in duodecimo not till III.-OR FINAL SECTION. 1780. -1844.

REIGN OF GEORGE III.TO QUEEN VICTORIA. The last sixty-four years.

The commencement of a greater movement than ever before-The Revolutionary times in Frances-Neither Britain nor her colonies remain unscathed-Action is called for-But the obstacles to united action appear to be insuperable-The first feeble movement taking its name from the Bible-The second-Its ensure failure no ground for discourage-ment-The efforts of Carey and his associates in India impress a few powerful minds at home-The Bible without either note or comment draws more attention-The destitution of it in Wales-The British and Foreign Bible Society with its auxiliaries-Their exertions up to the present day-After a distribution and sale of so many millions of the English Scriptures, there occurs an extraordinary and unprecedented fall in the price of the Sacred Volume-Britain at the height of her responsibility-The present history indicates a course of action, if not the only one, which involves her future welfare and stability-A path of duty which cannot, with impunity, be evaded...

CONCLUSIONS drawn from the preceding history Chronological Index-List of Bibles and Testaments

INTRODUCTION.

Brief Survey Of The Ages Which Preceded Any Printing Of The Scriptures In The English Tongue-Including The Revival And Triumph Of Classical Learning And The Arts, Contrasted With The Times Of Wickliffe, With His Version Of The Entire Sacred Volume, And Its Effects-The Invention Of Printing, Its Rapid Progress To Perfection, And The Point To Which The European Nations, But More Especially England And Scotland, Had Been Brought, Before Ever This Invaluable Art Was Applied To Any Version Of The Sacred Scriptures In The Language Spoken By The People.

THE darkest hour in the night of Europe, is an era respecting which historians are not even yet agreed. It has been regarded by many as being in the tenth century. One or two other writers consider the seventh or eighth century to be the lowest in point of depression, or the nadir of the human mind; and they suppose that its movement in advance began with Charlemagne, while England can never forget her own Alfred the Great. A few moderns, too fastidious, or by no means so affected by the gloom and barbarity of the middle ages, profess to be tender of allowance as to the extent of this darkness, and would fondly persuade us to adopt a more cheerful retrospect. But speaking, generally, with reference to the people at large, the entire period, from the fifth or sixth to the fourteenth century, presents at the best, but a tedious and dreary interval in the history of the human mind. Individual scholars, indeed, like stars which shed their light on the surrounding gloom, there ever were; and wherever there existed any marked regard for Sacred writ, in the vernacular tongue, there the lifespark of Christianity was preserved. The Albigenses, the Waldenses, and other parties, might be adduced in proof; the persecution and dispersion of whom, had considerable influence in diffusing the light which its enemies laboured to extinguish.

It was not, however, till after a long and profound sleep throughout the dreams and visions of the middle ages, that the human mind was at last effectually roused to action; and in none of the countries throughout Europe more decidedly than in Italy and England. But still, for some great moral purpose, worthy of infinite wisdom, and to be afterwards disclosed, that mind, throughout all these western kingdoms, was first to be permitted to discover what was the utmost rigour of its native strength.

It is not to be wondered at that Italian writers should claim for their country the precedence of all others in the revival of learning which marked the close of the fourteenth century. “The Italians,” says Sismondi, “discovered, as it were, anew the ancient world; they felt an affinity of thoughts, hopes, and tastes with the best Latin writers which inspired them with the highest admiration. Petrarch, and particularly Boccaccio, passed from this study to that of Grecian antiquity. A passion for erudition spread from one end of Italy to the other, with an ardour proportionable to the dark ignorance of the preceding centuries. It was imagined that all knowledge consisted in knowing and imitating the ancient masters. The highest glory was attached to classical learning; and Petrarch and Boccaccio attained a degree of celebrity, credit and power, unequalled by any other men in the middle ages-not by reason of those merits which we feel at the present day, but as the pontiffs and interpreters of antiquity.” “We owe to the learned of the fourteenth century, and to their school, a deep sentiment of gratitude. They discovered and rendered intelligible to us all the chefs d’oeuvre of antiquity, Fragments only of classic works remained, scattered throughout Europe, and on the point of being lost.

These learned men of Italy collected, collated, and explained them; without their antiquarian zeal, all the experience of past ages, all the models of taste, all the great works of genius, would never have reached us, and probably, without such guides, we should never have attained the point on which we now stand.”

In thus writing, the author, of course, had in his eye, not only the close of the fourteenth, but the greater part of the fifteenth century, when Italy, in truth, became the garden of literature and the arts, the wonder and delightful resort of the learned throughout Europe. As a fact, it is of importance, not only to concede, but observe this, and let the precedence be fully understood as holding a place in the course of events about to transpire. The learning and refinement of ltaly, about to assume that position in history which the wisdom of Greece had done in the days of old, must enjoy her long reign of a hundred and fifty years without any superior. Now that the human mind is waking up, let the Italian “imagine that all knowledge consisted in knowing and imitating the ancient masters,” and let “the highest glory be attached to classical learning;” let the “chief works of antiquity be rendered intelligible,” and the men of Italy “collect, collate, and explain them.” In short, as Greece is coming to the assistance of Rome, and “the great masters” must first rise to show the extent of their powers; since the former, at the commencement of the Christian era, had stood in a peculiar relation to the surrounding nations-so, let Italy now stand in the same relation to Europe.

Distinguished for classical learning, and first in the arts, if not the sciences, she claims to be the well-spring of all the less civilized nations in the west.

Minute criticism may here be dispensed with, nor does any admirer of the Sacred Volume need to object to the fullest concession. Let Dante and Petrarch for the moment, and Boccaccio and Poggio Bracciolini, lead the way.

In all this, however, it must now be granted in return, there was literally nothing of Divine light, properly so called-no reverent, distinct approach to the Sacred Volume; and this becomes the more observable, as the only country in Europe to which we can look for this, was that which, of all others, was held in greatest contempt by Italy; to say nothing of its being at once the most distant from Rome if not also the most oppressed by that power. This was no other than our native land. Bracciolini, the last of these Italian scholars, had actually visited it, and viewed this country with chagrin, if not disdain, when compared with the enthusiastic love of classical literature which polished and adorned his country.

Yes, so far as the revival of learning was concerned, it is worthy of particular notice that, in England, it was associated, even from this early period, with a special leaning towards the Oracles of God, and that on the part of several eminent men, all alike well known, not only at home, but as distant as Italy. Of these, in proof, we notice three-Robert Grossteste, Richard Fitzralph, and, above all, our own WICKLIFFE.

The first of these, indeed,GROSSTESTE, died as early as the year 1253, and, three years before that event, made no scruple, when preaching at Lyon before Innocent IV., to arraign his clergy, in the boldest terms, for their ignorance, and arrogance, and flagitious conduct Now this was above a hundred years before the erection of Boccaccio’s chair for Greek in Florence; and yet certainly Grossteste was not unacquainted with either Greek or Hebrew. He had translated Dionysius the Areopagite and Damascenus into Latin-had faicilitated the knowledge of Greek by a translation of Suidas’s Lexicon-had promoted John of Basingstoke because he was a Greek scholar, and possessed of Greek manuscripts, which he is said to have brought from Athens. Nicholas, surnamed Graecus, resided with Grossteste, to help him in translating from the Greek; nor should it be forgotten that, however humble might be the claims of this eminent man to the character of a Grecian, all this happened above a century before that Boccaccio himself had positively asserted of the Italian scholars, that they did not know so much as the Greek alphabet. Nor was Grossteste unacquainted with Hebrew, though we cannot assert, with Wharton, that he was profoundly skilled in it. At this early period, however, the chief eminence of Grossteste arose from his being a decided friend to vernacular translations of tho Scriptures. “It is the will of God,” said he, “that the Holy Scriptures should be translated by many translators, and that there should be different translations in the Church, so that what is obscurely expressed by one, may be more perspicuously rendered by auother.” Was there any other country in Europe where as much had been expressed by any man, before the middle of the fourteenth century? If not, then let Grossteste or Greathead be allowed to have sounded, if not the first, one of the earliest feeble notes of preparation; though more than a hundred years must pass away before the subject be taken up in good earnest, and though England, confessedly, will first sink into greater barbarism.

Richard Fitzralph , an Irishman, and the energetic precursor of Wickliffe, in opposition to the Friars, was born, it has been said, at Dundalk, and, at all events, certainly there interred, though he had died at Avignon. Then Primate of Ireland, after preaching indefatigably in that country and in London, he had gone to face Innocent VI. himself, on the subject of those exactions and abuses which had become past all endurance. Still farther to the west than even the “Thule” of the Ancients, at the utmost verge of the Pontiff’s authority, even in Ireland itself, there was then a thirst after knowledge which could not be satisfied. Fitzralph complained aloud, and told Innocent that “no book could stir, whether in divinity, law, or physic, but thcse Friars were able and ready to buy it up,”-“that he himself had sent four of his secular chaplains from Armagh to Oxford, who sent him word again that they could neither find the BIBLE, nor any other good profitable book in divinity, meet for their study, and therefore were minded to return home to their own country.”

As for the Primate himself, by his own account, “the Lord had taught him, and brought him out of the profound vanities of Aristotle’s philosophy, to the Scriptures of God.” “To thee be praise,” says he, at the commencement of his Life, written by himself, once in the possession of Foxe, and which be meant to have printed,-“ To thee be praise, to thee be glory, to thee be thanksgiving, O Jesus most holy, Jesus most powerful, Jesus 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 the way hast shown me, thou the truth hast taught me, and thou the life hast promised me. A way thou wast to me, in exile, the truth thou wast to me, in counsel, and life thou wilt be to me, in reward.”

Could the assertion which has been often repeated, only be confirmed, that Fitzralph translated the New Testament into the Irish language, or that such a translation existed in his time, it would form one of the most curious facts in the history of modern literature; pointing out Ireland as that country in Europe which had been the first pitied, as it has been the last.

But, at all events, in the very same year, or 1360, in which Fitzralph expired at Avignon, John Wickliffe, at the age of thirty-six, was allured from his hitherto retired life; and when he came to write his “Trialogue,” he speaks of Fitzralph as having preceded him, in terms of high commendation.

We have now, however, arrived at a point in history fraught with the deepest interest, and bearing so directly on the subject of the following pages, that it becomes necessary to pause a few moments, and look round.

Let Grecian literature, by all means, revive in Italy, for this will be drawn upon, as soon as the proper time arrives; but, in the meanwhile, something else must be accomplished and very far to the west. The event which took place was not only a marked anti powerful one, in relation to England, but it formed the first of a series in Europe, although more than an entire century passed away before the precedent was followed by other countries.

We refer to the translation of the entire Sacred Volume into the language spoken by the people. Fragments there had been in several languages, but the present work being complete from Genesis to Revelation, intelligible to the common people of that day, and intended for their express perusal, may be regarded as the first positive instance of its kind in modern Europe, no continental nation having anything similar to produce.

John Wickliffe , a native of Yorkshire, was born in the year 1324, and, in 1360, at the age of thirty-six, first came into public view, where he conspicuously remained to the day of his death, or the 31st of December, 1384. For his life and opinions we refer to other sources, and must here confine our attention to that work which will ever give the chief distinction to his name. Before the commencement of such a design, the position of Wickliffe should be contemplated. To say nothing of the Mahometan and Pagan worlds, two other communities had extended their influence over the nations. Alike opposed to the right of private judgment, and the rising freedom of the human mind, and now equally sunk into a state of unutterable depravity, both had fixed a malignant eye on that very book which Wickliffe had determined to give to his country. These two, it is well known, were the Eastern and Western, or the Greek and Latin Churches.

Both had not only, and long since, utterly neglected and contemned the Sacred Writings, but both had interdicted their translation into any vernacular tongue. That it was not only unlawful, but injurious, for the people at large to read the Scriptures, had, indeed, for ages, been regarded as an axiom, by all these nations. Nor was this idea left to pass current merely as a received opinion. Not to mention other proofs, more than a hundred and fifty years before Wickliffe had finished his determined purpose, or in the year 1229, at the Council of Toulouse, when forty-five canons were passed and issued for the extinction of heresy and the re.establishment of peace, what were two of those canons? One involved the first court of inquisition, and another the first canon, which forbade the Scriptures to the laity, or the translation of any portion of them into the vulgar tongue. The latter was expressed in very pointed terms. “We also forbid the laity toPOSSESS any of the books of the Old or New Testament, except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, which some, out of devotion, wish to have; but having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid.’’ f3 In the face of all this, and far more than can now be explained, must Wickliffe commence his heartfelt task; and so he did, with his eyes open to the prejudices of a world. His translation, which was finished in the year 1380, is supposed to have occupied him, amidst various interruptions, for many years. Some have imagined that this great work employed the translator for ten years only, but Mr. Baber, with far greater probability, has said,-“From an early period of his life, he had devoted his various learning, and all the powerful energies of his mind, to effect this, and, at length, by intense application on his own part, and with some assistance from a few of the most learned of his followers, he had the glory to complete a book, which, alone, would have been sufficient (or at least ought) to have procured him the veneration of his own age, and the commendations of posterity.”

In accounting for such a movement as this, it has been but too common to inquire after something similar which had happened in the earth, and loosely supposing some connexion between them, as cause and effect, thus leave the extraordinary event, without the slightest reference to the finger of God. Any influential connexion, however, between the Waldenses or Vaudois and Wickliffe has never been clearly proved, and probably never will. At all events, before he could be stimulated by their example, he seems to have taken his ground, as it is only in his latest compositions that a few slight references to them are to be found, as to a people with whose sufferings he sympathised. He was on the Continent, at Bruges, it is true, from 1374 to 1376, but he had commenced, and must have been far advanced in his undertaking, long before then. In short, as far as the term can be applied to any human being, the claims of Wickliffe to originality have now come to be better understood, and every Christian will recognise the “secret mover;” while, in reference to the times following, when tracing the history or influence of Divine Truth throughout Europe, the habit of ascending no higher than Germany is past, or passing away.

Down to the period of about two years before Wickliffe had completed his translation, the only ideas or incidents which had any powerful influence upon mankind generally, were such as stood connected with the Pontiff, and his peculiar system of rule or government; but, in reference to this subject, by the year 1378, among the European nations, there had sprung up a marked difference of opinion. One question engrossed them all, and it was nothing less than this-Who was Pontiff? In the year 1305, through the influence of France, the Court of Rome had been translated into that Kingdom, and there it remained for seventy-four years, to the great damage of Rome as a city, but without any rent or division in the system.

Edward the Third had expired on the 21st of June, 1377, after a reign of above half a century, and about that very moment Gregory XI. had ordered Wickliffe to be seized and imprisoned, till farther orders. Early in the following year, although our translator of the Scriptures had not only stood high in favour with the late King, but still did so with many in Parliament, and was powerfully protected by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he was summoned by the Bishops to answer for himself at St. Paul’s. Thus did this body of men first come out, appearing as a distinct interest in the, kingdom, and thus they will remain for above five generations to come; proving ever and anon, upon all occasions of alarm, that they were the determined opponents of Divine Truth. As a body, they will oppose its being conveyed to the people, and at every successive step of progress.

Their malice at this time, however, was overruled, as it will so often and conspicuously be, a century and a half later; but, in the meanwhile, nothing must prevent Wickliffe from finishing his translation. f4 The year 1378 was in truth an important one as it regarded our translator’s design. On the 27th of March the reigning Pontiff had died; an event which not only put an end to the bulls against Wickliffe, but gave rise to what was called “the qreat schism;” so that soon after there were two Pontiffs-one beyond the mountains, as the Italians said, and one at Rome-consigning each other to perdition. Of this state of things Wickliffe did not fail to avail himself. “He saw the head of the body cloven in twain, and the two parts made to fight with each other;” and he immediately sent forth two tracts, one upon “the schism ” itself, and the other upon “the truth of Scripture.”

Every city and state became agitated, and as the question soon divided the nations throughout, it so happened that England and Scotland were of opposite opinions: the former holding fast by Urban VI. of Rome, who had been first chosen; the latter followed Clement VII. of Avignon. England and France indeed became the most ardent supporters of the opposite parties, while such was the extent to which the controversy had gone, that some men of the University of Paris had begun to think of a plurality of Pontiffs, and the appointment of one to every kingdom. The idea of one power exercising authority over all nations had seemed to them untenable, if not injurious.

Soon after this, in the year 1379, Wickliffe, as divinity professor, had gone to fulfil his accustomed annual duty at Oxford, but there he was seized with an alarming illness. The friars, imagining that his course was now near an end, contrived to visit him. Four of their ablest men had been selected, or a friar from each of the mendicant orders, and they were admitted to a patient hearing. After reminding him of the great injury he had done to their order-for Wickliffe was a determined enemy to all idleness and all extortion- they exhorted him, as one near to death, that he would now, as a true penitent, bewail and revoke in their presence, whatever he had said to their disparagement. As soon as they had done, Wickliffe calling for his servant, desired to be raised up on his pillow; when collecting all his strength, with a severe and expressive countenance, and in a tone of voice not to be misunderstood, he exclaimed, “I” shall not die, but live, to declare the evil deeds of the friars.” Confused, if not confounded, little expecting such a reply, they immediately left him; and Wickliffe recovered, to finish in the year following his translation of the entire Bible.

Extraordinary, however, as the character of Wickliffe was,-a man confessedly far above all his contemporaries,-it may still be inquired, whether he was qualified for the task of translating the Sacred Volume?

The Scriptures had been originally given in Hebrew and Greek; but so far from the nations of the West furnishing men sufficiently acquainted with either, England at least had sunk into greater ignorance even since the days of Grossteste; nay, a hundred and fifty years later, when Tyndale had translated from the original tongues, some of the priests of the day were trying to persuade the people that Greek and Hebrew were languages newly invented. Her e, it is true, was Wickliffe, an able and acute, a zealous and determined man, and withal an excellent Latin scholar, but of Greek or Hebrew he knew nothing. Nor was it at all necessary that he should possess such erudition, since a translation from either GREEK OR HEBREW would not have harmonized with the first, or the present, intention of Divine Povidence. A reason there was, and one worthy of infinite wisdom, why not only the English translation, but most of the first European versions must be made from the Latin. These nations, including our own, had nothing in common with the Greek community, but for ages they had been overrun with the Latin. This language, long since dead, even in Italy, had been the refuge and stronghold of their oppressor, from generation to generation; and upon looking back, no spectacle presented to the eye is so remarkable, as that of so many different nations, equally spell-bound by the same expedient. There was a Latin service, and there was a Latin Bible, professedly received, but the possession of even this had been forbidden to the people at large; very much in the same spirit as the Shasters of India are forbidden by the Brahmins to be looked upon, or even heard, by the people. It was theLATIN Bible, therefore, long buried in cloisters, or covered with the dust of ages, which must now be brought forth to view.

Confessedly imperfect, it was of importance first to prove thai; it had all along contained enough for mortal man to know, in order to his eternal salvation; and once translated into any native tongue, not only will the language touch the heart, but the people at last know what that mysterious book was, from which they had been debarred, so wickedly and so long.

Although, therefore, the nation was yet a hundred and fifty years distant from the English Bible, properly so called, the present should be regarded as the first preliminary step. An all-disposing foresight, far above that of any human agent, is now distinctly visible in drawing first upon that very language which had been employed for ages as the instrument of mental bondage. It shall now be made to contribute to the emancipation of the human mind. Latin, it is true, had been the conventional language of the priests and students of different countries; but still, so long as this language remained untouched by a translation of the Scriptures into any vernacular tongue, it is a historical canon that no nation was ever greatly moved. This holds true of our own country, in the age of manuscript, but it will become far more emphatically so, even seventy years after the invention of printing, when the Scriptures, once translated from the original tongues, come to be printed in the language then spoken, and spoken still.

At such a period as this the translation of Wickliffe could only be diffused, of course, by the laborious process of transcription; but transcribed it was diligently, both entire and in parts, and as eagerly read. There were those who, at every hazard, sought wisdom from the Book of God, and their number could not be few. A contemporary writer has affirmed that “a man could not meet two people on the road, but one of them was a disciple of Wiekliffe.” This was the testimony of an enemy, and not improbably the language of hatred and fear combined, uttered with a wish to damage the cause; it was the testimony of an ecclesiastic, a Canon of Leicester, in reference to an era hailed by the people; and although the Word of Truth had not “free course,” there can be no question that it was glorified in the reception given to it by many. “The soldiers,” he says, “with the dukes and earls, were the chief adherents of this sect-they were their most strenuous promoters and boldest combatants-their most powerful defenders and their invincible protectors.” A very remark. able admission, as it accounts for the great progress made, in spite of opposition. All this and much more is uttered in the tone of lamentation; and what was the occasion, as expressed by the Canon himself? “This Master John Wickliffe,” says he, “hath translated the Gospel out of Latin into English, which Christ had entrusted with the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might minister it to the laity and weaker sort, according to the state of the times and the wants of men. So that by this means the Gospel is made vulgar, and laid more open to the laity, and even to women who can read, than it used to be to the most learned of the clergy and those of the best understanding! And what was before the chief gift of the clergy and doctors of the Church, is made for ever common to the laity!” f5 It was in the same spirit that another contemporary writer urged 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, wheresoever and whensoever he will, should give himself to the frequent study of the Scriptures.” f6 These men specially referred to a period which lasted for about twenty years, or from 1380 to 1400, and it was one, though but too short, which distinguished this country from every other in Europe. However transient, or but like a handful of corn for all England. in any sketch of the times it should never pass unnoticed.

While the nations generally were discussing the respective claims of two rival Pontiffs, amidst all the confusion of the times, and although there were many adversaries, for the last twenty years of the fourteenth century, in England, no authoritative stop must be put to the perusal of the Divine record. The Bishops, it is true, with the Primate of Canterbury at their head, may rage and remonstrate, may write to Rome and receive replies, but in vain. The entire Sacred Volume had been translated, the people were transcribing and reading, and the translator had frequently expressed himself in the boldest terms. “The authority of the Holy Scriptures,” said he, “infinitely surpasses any writing, how authentic soever it may appear, because the authority of Jesus Christ is infinitely above that of all mankind.”-“The authority of the Scriptures is independent of any other authority, and is preferable to every other writing, but especially to the books of the Church of Rome.”-“I am certain, indeed, from the Scriptures, that neither Antichrist, nor all his disciples, nay, nor all fiends, may really impugn any part of that volume as it regards the excellence of its doctrine.

But in all these things it appears to me that the believing man should usc this rule-If he soundly understands the Sacred Scripture, let him bless God; if he be deficient in stroh perception, let him labour for soundness of mind.

Let him also dwell as a gram marian upon the letter, but be fully aware of imposing a sense upon Scripture which he doubts the Holy Spirit does not demand.” f7 Many other passages, in terms as strong, might be quoted from his writings; and “among his latest acts,” says Vaughan, “was a defence in Parliament of the translation of the Scriptures into English. These he declared to be the property of the people, and one which no party should be allowed to wrest from them.”

Now that the cause of such a man, as well as that he himself, should have been so befriended, was one of the distinguishing features of the present period. The Duke of Lancaster continued to be his shield for years; and although, when Wickliffe, in addition to grievances felt, went on to Christian doctrines, the Duke faltered in his support, yet nearly six years after the translator was in his grave, the same voice was heard in favour of the translation. In the thirteenth of Richard II., or 1390, a bill was proposed to be brought into the House of Lords for suppressing it, when Lancaster, in boldly opposing this, told them, “That he would maintain our having this law in our own tongue, whoever they should be that brought in the bill;” and once introduced, it was immediately thrown out. But Lancaster was not the only friend: to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, Wickliffe dedicated at least one of his pieces; and on one important occasion, when the former gave way, the Queen-Mother, or widow of the Black Prince, put a stop to persecution. Lord Percy, Earl-Marshal, was also friendly; but perhaps, above all, much was owing to the reigning Queen, and that for ten years after Wickliffe’s death. Ann of Luxemburg, the sister of the Emperor Wenceslaus, and of the King of Bohemia, as consort of Richard II. had arrived in this country in December 1381; an event of great importance in connexion with Wickliffe’s exertions. If he had so far enlightened England, his writings were also to electrify Bohemia, so that Ann had “ come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” This lady, already acquainted with three languages, Bohemian, German, and Latin, soon acquired that of this country, and for years was distinguished for her diligent perusal of the Scriptures in English. This much was testified of her by a very notable witness-the Lord Chancellor Arundel, then Archbishop of York, when he came to preach at her interment. “Although she was a stranger,” he said, “ yet she constantly studied the four Gospels in English; and in the study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more diligent than the prelates, though their office and business require this of them.” The Gospels in English, he added, the Queen had sent to himself to peruse, and he had replied that they were “good and true.” Queen Ann’s course of reading was even well known to Wickliffe, before he expired in 1384, so that she must have served as a powerful example to others, for at least ten years. The translator had thus early inquired, whether “to hereticate” her on account of her practice, “would not be Luciferian folly.”

The Queen, says Rapin, was a great fitvourer of Wickliffe’s doctrine, and had she lived longer would have saved his followers; but the illustrious foreigner once interred, and thus so remarkably eulogized, a different scene immediately opened to view.

After his Queen’s death, Richard II., the grandchild of Edward III., had gone to Ireland, there to prolong the misgovernment of that country; and only four months had elapsed, when this very man, Artmdel, who afterwards was the main instrument in dethroning the King, and one of the bitterest enemies of Divine Truth in the next century, was in great alarm. In deep hypocrisy, at Westminster, he might choose to twit the prelates with their ignorance of Scripture, in comparison with a Queen who had to acquire the language, and thus please the ear of his Majesty, as well as seem to lament his loss; but he had no intention that the peop1e should take the hint, or advance, and show him, as well as his brethren, the way.

The remarkable though transient period, however, to which we now refer, was as distinguished for boldness of sentiment, as for the protection providentially afforded to those who were searching the Scriptures for themselves.

On the 29th of January, 1395, a Parliament was held at Westminster, and the time had come to speak out. The sentiments were not those of a feeble band, whispered in secret. They were expressed in the shape of a remonstrance, and presented to the House of Commons. They were posted at St. Paul’s, and also at Westminster. This, let it be observed, was above a hundred and twenty years before Luther’s voice was heard; and, taken all in all, the argument throughout may be compared to an arrow, shot from a bow as strong as the intrepid German afterwards ever bent.

Richard, still in Ireland, was preparing to take the field again, when Arundel, our preacher at Westminster in August last, had reached him in May, and accompanied by Braybrook, the Bishop of London. Six or seven years before this the disciles of Wickliffe had been congregating in ditrerent places, and actually appointing ministers among themselves to perform Divine service, after their own sentiments: while his “poor priests,” as they were styled, had been travelling and preaching, barefooted, through the country; but this pointed and posted remonstrance had filled Arundel, Braybrook, and their brethren with dread. They entreated the King, in name of the clergy, to return, intimating that the least delay might occasion irreparable damage. The followers of Wickliffe, they said, had made instance to set on foot a reformation -they had many friends in the kingdom, nay, in the Parliament itself, and the clergy were afraid they would proceed to action. Richard listened, immediately left the management of his war to the Earl of March, and returned. He took certain measures, it is true, to check the rising tide of sentiment, but still the Scriptures were not suppressed, nor was there one drop of blood shed for what “they called heresy,” till the commencement of the next century, under Henry the Fourth.

At the conclusion, therefore, of the fourteenth century, we concede to Petrarch, or Boccaccio and his fellows, all that is demanded as to the revival of learning in Italy; nor has England any occasion to be ashamed of the contrast or distinction between the two countries. The pursuits of both were but in their infancy. In the former, “imagining that all knowledge was to be found in the ancient Masters,” they were beginning to seek after Mount Parnassus and their old Romans; but in the latter they were in search of Mount Zion and the fishermen of Galilee. The Italian had become eager after the wisdom of Greece, and the nervous oratory of his forefathers; the Englishman, after the wisdom of God, and the course pursued by the first planters of Christianity. If any of our countrymen were looking to Greece at all, it might be only to such as had proved to “be the first-fruits of Achaia unto God;” and if to Rome, it was only to those in the imperial city, once so beloved, “whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world.”

The manuscripts of Wickliffe’s version complete, are numerous still; and perhaps not much less so than those of the New Testament separately, not to mention different pieces, or entire hooks of the translation. In examining some of these, whether in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, or in private collections, we have been struck with their legibility and beauty. They have all, indiscriminately, been called Wickliffe’s version, but variations of expression are to be found in a few; and it is not so generally known that we possess two distinct versions, one under Wickliffe’s own eye, and another a recension of the entire sacred text.

It is certainly a singular circumstance that this translation of Wickliffe has never been printed! The New Testament, it is true, was published by Mr. Lewis, in the year 1731, or three hundred and fifty years after it was finished, and once more by Mr. Baber, in 1810; but the Bible entire, now fbur hundred and sixty-four years old, has never yet been published. By the time that Tyndale was born, indeed, it would not have been intelligible to the people at large; moreover, it was from the Latin Vulgate, and the period had arrived when the translation must be drawn from the original tongues. But still, even as a most interesting literary production, one could never have imagined that above twenty sovereigns would have sat on the throne of England since the invention of printing, before such a work had issued from the press. By Fabricius, a foreigner, as well as others, this has been often referred to as a national disgrace; but happily, the reproach, at last, is wiped away. Both these versions to which we have alluded are now published, printed in parallel columns, at the Oxford University press, and under the eye of Sir Frederick Madden and the Rev. J. Forshall, of the British Museum. f8 Thus then, whatever darkness reigned, or enmity was shown in this country, throughout the whole of the next century, these precious volumes were preserved, and the surviving copies remain, like so many veritable torch-bearers for the time being. They may, and indeed must have shoue often in secret, or at the midnight hour, and certainly not without effects, to be disclosed another day: but at all events, here is one palpable existing distinction between this country, and every other, at the moment. It is one which stands in the finest keeping with all that took place in the days of Tyndale. The favour of God, even at this early period, had already begun to place this Island in that conspicuous position which it was afterwards to occupy among the nations of Europe, with regard to the possession and the diffusion of His blessed Word.

Let this ever be regarded as the grand distinction of Britain. And while the Italian historian, down to the present hour, continues to rejoice in the triumph of literature and the arts upon his native soil, nearly five hundred years ago; let not the British Christian fall behind him ia joy and gratitude over that contemporaneous triumph which at last led his country to a better hope and a brighter day. Let him rather compare the two countries now, and observe the too much neglected, but all-sufficient reason, for the prodigious distinction between the two.

No storm, however, arose in Italy, nor any cloud, to obscure the rising sun of her classical literature. On the contrary, though Rome itself may still be troubled, that sun is only about to burst upon the country in all its splendour, and the men of Italy are to be allowed ample scope still, for above a hundred years, to do their utmost. Very different was the reception given by our forefathers, as a nation or as a government, to the voice of God. Here at home, in some resemblance to the visit paid by the Almighty to Elijah, there must, it seems, be first the wind, and then the earthquake, and then the fire, before ever the “still small voice” is heard with effect, Nay, and when once it comes through Tyndale’s version, and is heard by the people, we shall find, however strange, that no official man in England will be able to divine from whence it came, or by what mysterious conveyance it had reached their ears!

We have conceded to Italy the precedence which she claims, as the revivalist of classical learning; and truly the first buds of promise in the fourteenth, were as nothing to the full-blown garden of the fifteenth century. In the first years of its commencement, individual natives of Greece were finding their way into that country, nay, from about the year 1395, their language was taught in Florence and Venice, in Milan and Genoa, by Emanuel Chrysoloras. The Pontiff chosen in 1409, Alexander V., was a Grecian by birth. The whole lives of Italian scholars, we are told, were now devoted to the recovery of ancient works, and the revival of philology; while the discovery of an unknown manuscript was regarded, says Tira-boschi, “almost as the conquest of a kingdom.” But “that ardour which animated Italy in the first part of the fifteenth century, was by no means common to the rest of Europe. Neither England, nor France, nor Germany, seemed aware of the approaching change.” So says Mr. Hallam, in perfect harmony with Sismondi. Learning, indeed, such as it was, had even begun to decline at Oxford, but the Eastern empire was now hastening to its end, and in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople. Long, therefore, before the close of the century, the roads to Italy will be crowded with many a traveller, and among the number we shall find that Englishmen, though the most distant, were not the last to hasten after classical attainments. Native Italians, we are perfectly aware, have been jealous of our ascribing too much to the event just hinted, but there can be no question that, in its consequences, it proved the first powerful summens to Europe to awake. On the sacking of Constantinople, we know of five vessels at least, that were loaded with the learned men or Greece, who escaped into Italy. Of course they brought their most valued treasure, or their books, with them; and thus by one and another, as well as the eager Italian himself, a stock of manuscript was accumulated on Italian ground, which was just about to be honoured with a reception, very different, indeed, from that of being slowly increased by the pen of the copyist! Italy thus became the point of attraction to all Europe. But how singular that the scholars of the West, as with common consent, should hasten to this one country for that learning, over the effects of which, the chief authority there, though so pleased at first, was afterwards to bewail, nay, to mourn for ages, or to the present hour!

While, however, Italian scholars were thus busy, and leaving the Pontiff to fight his own battles, they were but little aware of what was preparing for them elsewhere. They were in fact more ignorant of this, than the Western scholar had been of their thirst for learning; and was there no indication here, of but one guiding, one all-gracious power?

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.

An obscure German had been revolving in his mind, tho first principles of an art, applicable to any language on the face of the earth, which was to prove the most important discovery in the annals of mankind. At the moment when they were storming Constantinople in the East, he was thus busy; spending all his substance, in plying his new art with vigour upon a book, and upon such a BOOK ! Neither Kings, nor Pontiffs, nor Councils had been, or were to be, consulted here; nor was he encouraged to proceed by one smile from his own Emperor, or from any princely patron.

No mechanical invention having proved so powerful in its effects as that of printing, it is not wonderful that so much research has been bestowed on the history of its origin mid progress. The precise order in which some particular cities first enjoyed its advantages, still continues to afford room for minute criticism, but the progress of inquiry has reduced the field of controversy to a very narrow compass. A better history of the art, indeed, and more especially of its curious and rapid progress throughout Europe, may, and should still, be written; but the general results already ascertained, have now approached to such accuracy, as to suggest and justify several important and striking reflections. These results demand our notice at the close of the century, as they will be found to involve one important bearing on the subsequent history of the Sacred Volume, when it came to be first printed in the vernacular tongue.

Mentz , in the Duchy of Hesse (Mayence or Mainz), on the left bank of the Rhine, and four hundred miles from Vienna, may be regarded as the mother city of printing; and although three individuals shared the honour of perfecting the art on the same spot, if not under the same roof, the invention itself is due to only one man. Henne Gaensfleisch, commonly called John Gutenberg, (Anglice, Goodhill,) the individual referred to, was born in Mentz, not Strasburg, as sometimes stated, about the year 1400; but, in 1424, he had taken up his abode in the latter city as a merchant.

About ten years after this, or in 1435, we have positive evidence that his invention, then a profound secret, engrossed his thoughts; and here, in conjunction with one Andrew Dritzehen and two other citizens, all bound to secrecy, Gutenberg had made some experiments in printing with meta1 types before the year 1439. By this time Dritzehen was dead; and in six or seven years more, the money embarked being exhausted, not one fragment survives in proof of what they had attempted. Gutenberg, returning to his native city in 1445-6, found it absolutely necessary to disclose his progress.

More money was demanded, if ever he was to succeed; and having once opened his mind fully to a citizen, a goldsmith of Mentz, John Fust, he engaged to cooperate by affording the needful advances. At last, therefore, between the years 1450 and 1455, tbr it has no date, their first great work was finished. This was no other than the Bible itself!-the Latin Bible.

Altogether unknown to the rest of the world, this was what had been doing at Mentz, in the West, when Constantinople, in the East, was storming, and the Italian “brief men,” or copyists, were so very busy with their pens. This Latin Bible, of 641 leaves, formed the first important specimen of printing with metal types. The very first homage was to be paid to that SACRED VOLUME, which had been sacrilegiously buried, nay, interdicted so long; as if it had been, with pointing finger, to mark at once the greatest honour ever to be bestowed on the art, and infinitely the highest purpose to which it was ever to be applied. Nor was this all. ttad it been a single page, or even an entire sheet which was then produced, there might have been less occasion to have noticed it; but there was something in the whole character of the affair which, it not unprecedented, rendered it singular in the usual current of human events. This Bible formed two volumes in folio, which have been “justly praised for the strength and beauty of the paper, the exactness of the register, the lustre of the ink.” It was a work of pages, finally executed-a most laborious process, involving not only a considerable period of time, but no small amount of mental, manual, and mechanical labour; and yet, now that it had been finished, and now offered for sale, not a single human being, save the artists themselves, knew how it had been accomplished! the profound secret remained with themselves, while the entire process was probably still confined to the bosom of only two or three!

Of this splendid work, in two volumes, at least 18 copies are known to exist, four on vellum, and fourteen on paper. Of the former, two are in this country, one of which is ia the Grenville collection; the other two are in the Royal Libraries of Paris and Berlin. Of the fourteen paper copies there are ten in Britain: three in public libraries at Oxford, London, anti Edinburgh, and seven in the private collections of different noblemen and gentlemen.

The vellum copy has been sold as low as £260, though in 1827, as high as £501, sterling. Even the paper Sussex copy lately brought £100. Thus, as if it had been to mark the noblest purpose to which the art would ever be applied, the FIRST.Book printed with moveable metal types, and so beautifully, was the BIBLE.

Like almost all original inventors, Gutenberg made nothing by the discovery, at which he had laboured for at least twenty years, from 1435 to 1455. The expenses had been very great; and, in the course of business, after the Bible was finished, the inventor was in debt to the goldsmith, who, though opulent, now exhibited a character certainly not to be admired. He insisted on Gutenberg paying up his debt; and, having him in his power, actually instituted a suit against him, when, in the course of law, the whole printing apparatus fell into Fust’s possession, on the 6th of November, 1455. According to Trithemius, one of the best authorities, poor Gutenberg had spent his whole estate in this difficult discovery; but still, not discouraged, he contrived to print till 1465, though on a humbler scale. Having been appointed by Adolphus the Elector of Mentz one of his gentlemen, (inter aulieos,) with an annual pension, he was less dependent on an art which to him had been a source of trouble, if not of vexation. He died in the city of his birth in February 1468.

Fust bad, from 1456, pursued his advantage, and with great vigour, having adopted as his acting partner Peter Schoeffer, (Anylice, Shepherd,) a young man of genius, already trained to the business, to whom he afterwards gave his daughter in marriage. The types employed hitherto had been made of brass, cut by the hand. An advance to the present mode of producing types by letterr-founding was still wanted, and the art of cutting steel punches and casting matrices has been ascribed to Schoeffer.

The first publication of Fust and Schoeffer was a beautiful edition of the Psalms, still in Latin, finished on the 14h of August, 1457, and there was a second in 1459; but the year 1162 arrived, and this was a marked and decisive era in the history of this extraordinary invention; not merely for a second edition of the Latin Bible, in two volumes folio, dated 1462, and now executed according to the improved state of the art; but on account of what took place in Mentz at the same moment.

A change had arrived, far from being anticipated by these the inventors of printing, and one which they, no doubt, regarded as the greatest calamity which could have befallen them. Gutenberg had been the father of printing, and Schoeffer the main improver of it, while Fust, not only by his ingenuity, but his wealth, had assisted both; but all these men were bent upon keeping the art secret; and, left to themselves, unquestionably they would have confined the printing-press to Mentz as long as they lived. Fust and Schoeffer, however, especially eager to acquire wealth, had resolved to proceed in a very unhallowed course, by palming off their productions as manuscripts, that so they might obtain a larger price for each copy. The glory of promoting or extending the art must now, therefore, be immediately and suddenly taken from them. Invention, of whatever character, like Nature itself, is but a name for an effect, whose cause is God. The ingenuity He gives to whomsoever He will, but He still reigns over the invention, and directs its future progress. At this crisis, therefore, just as if to make the reference to Himself more striking, and upon our part more imperative, we have only to observe what then took place, and the consequences which immediately followed.

Fust and Schoeffer had completed their first dated Bible, of 1462, but this very year the city of Mentz must be invaded. Like Constantinople, it was taken by storm, and by a member too of that body, who in future times so lamented over the effects of printing. This was the Archbishop, or Adolphus, already mentioned. The consequences were immediate, and afford an impressive illustration of’ that ease with which Providence accomplishes its mightiest operations. The mind of Europe was to be roused to action, and materials sufficient to engage all its activity must not be wanting. But this demanded nothing more than the capture of two cities, and these two, far distant from each other! If when Constantinople fell in the East, the Greeks, with their manuscripts and learning, rushed into Italy, to join the already awakened Italian scholars: Mentz also is taken, and the art of printing spreads over Europe, with a rapidity which still excites astonishment.

This city, once deprived, by the sword of the conqueror, of those laws and privileges which belonged to it as a member of the Rhenish Commercial Confederation; all previous ties or obligations between master and servant were loosened, and oaths of secrecy imposed under a former regime, were at an end. Amidst the confusion that ensued, the operative printers felt free to accept of invitations from any quarter. But whither will they bend their steps, or in what direction will the art proceed? Where will it meet with its warmest welcome, and in which capital of Europe will it be first established? The reader may anticipate that the welcome came from Italy, but it is still more observable, that the first capital was Rome! Yes, after the capture of Mentz, Rome and its vicinity, the city of the future Index Expurgatorius, gave most cordial welcome. The art, while in its cradle in Italy, must be nursed under the inquisitive and much amused eye of the Pontiff himself!

One might very naturally have presumed, that the enemies of light and learning, or of all innovation, would have been up in arms; and it is certainly not the least extraordinary fact connected with the memorable invention of printing, that no alarm was expressed,-neither at its discovery, nor its first application, even though the very first book was the Bible. The briefmen or copyists, it is true, were angry in prospect of losing their means of subsistence; and in Paris they had talked of necromancy, or the black art, being the origin of all this; but there was not a whisper of the kind in Italy.

Indeed, as to an existing establishment of any kind, anywhere, no dangerous consequences were apprehended, by a single human being as far as we know; but most certainly none by the reigning Pontiff himself, or even by the conclave with all its wonted foresight. On the contrary, the invention was hailed with joy, and its first effects were received with enthusiasm. Not one man appears to have perceived its bearing, or once dreamt of its ultimate results. No, the German invention was to be carried to its perfection on Italian ground. Residents and official persons in Rome itself, are to be its first prometers, and that under the immediate eye of Paul II., a man by no means friendly, either to learning, or to learned men.

This curious incident is rendered much more so, by one or two others in immediate connexion with it. Even while the art was yet a secret in Germany, the very first individual of whom we read as having longed for its being brought to Rome, was a Cardinal, Nicholas de Cusa; the first ardent promoter of the press in that city was a Bishop, John Andreas, the Bishop of Aleria and Secretary to the Vatican Library. He furnished the manuscripts for the press, prepared the editions, and added the epistles dedicatory. It had been on the summit of a hill, twenty-eight miles east of Rome, near Subiaco, and close by the villa once occupied by the Emperor Nero, that the first printing-press was set up. In the monastery there, by Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz from Germany, an edition of Lactantius’ Institutions was finished in the year 1465; but next year, they removed, by invitation, into the mansion house of two knights in Rome itself. They were two brothers, Peter and Francis de Maximis. Here it was that, aided by the purse of Andreas, the first fount of types in the Roman character, so called ever since, was prepared; and all other materials being ready, they commenced with such spirit and vigour, that the Secretary of the Vatican “scarcely allowed himself time to sleep.” Let him speak once for himself, in one of his dedications prefixed to Jerome’s Epistles. “It was,” says he to the Pontiff, “in your days, that among other Divine favours this blessing was bestowed on the Christian world, that every poor scholar can purchase for himself a library for a small sum-that those volumes which heretofore could scarce be bought for a hundred crowns may now be procured for less than twenty, very well printed, and free from those faults with which manuscripts used to abound-for such is the art of our printers and letter makers, that no ancient or modern discovery is comparable to it. Surely the German nation deserves our highest esteem for the invention of the most useful of arts. The wish of the noble and divine Cardinal Cusa is now, in year time, accomplished, who earnestly desired that this sacred art, which then seemed rising in Germany, might be brought to Rome. It is my chief aim in this epistle to let posterity know that the art of printing and type-making was brought to Rome under Paul II.

Receive, then, the first volume of St. Jerome graciously,-and take the excellent masters of the art, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz, Germans, under your protection.”

This Pontiff, named Peter Barbo, and a Venetian by birth, had no sooner come into office, in 1464, than he immediately suppressed the College of abbreviators and turned out all the clerks of the breves, regardless of the sums they had paid for their places. And although this body was composed of the most distinguished men of learning and genius in Rome, he chose to say they were of no use, or unlearned! Yet now, scarcely two years after, the same man was sauntering into the printing office, nay, it is affirmed that he visited it “frequently and examined with admiration every branch of this new art!” Would he have done this had he foreseen the consequences?

And what must future Pontiffs have sometimes thought or said as to his idle simplicity, or his lack of foresight?

Meanwhile, so zealous were these men, that in five years only, or from 1467 to 1472, they had printed not fewer than twelve thousand four hundred and seventy-five volumes, in twenty, eight editions, some of them of large size, and all beautifully executed. Among these we find the Latin Bible of 1471. It was the second edition with a date, the first printed in Rome, and however beautiful in execution, well known to be by no means distinguished for its accuracy; a circum- stance which ought, in common modesty, to have infused a forbearing or lenient temper with regard to all future first attempts. It by no means followed, however, although Rome had taken the lead, that it was also to furnish a ready market for the sale of books. On the contrary, the printers now laboured under such a load of printed folio volumes, that unless relieved, they must have sunk altogether, as no doubt they suffered. Yet still, by the year 1476, twelve other works had issued from the press. Among these were the “Postils,” or Totes of Nicholas de Lyra, the first printed Commentary on the Scriptures. But the Commentary brought them down! They had better have never touched it, as it was by this huge work, in five folio volumes, they were nearly, if not entirely, ruined in business. Such, however, was the fruit of only one printing office, and in less than ten years. Ulric Han, or Gallus, had commenced printing soon after these, the first two, and at least thirteen other printers followed; so that, before the close of the fifteenth century, the different works published in the Imperial city alone, had amounted to nearly one thousand!

We have been thus particular as to the capital of Italy, not forgetful of the place it then occupied in the world, and especially afterwards, in the sixteenth century. The facts now mentioned place that power in a point of view not unworthy of observation ever since. Befbre long, no invention was to occasion such perplexity to Rome and her conclave as that of printing, and yet the art enters Italy, and the Pontiff himself, as it were, cordially sanctions the insertion of a wedge which all Italy will drive; or, in other words, he breaks the ground, and gives the first onset in a direction which his successors have toiled in vain to arrest. Little did PETER BARBO. the Venetian Pontiff, know what he was about, when wandering into the printing office for his amusement. When examining, With a mixture of wonder and delight, the difibrent movements of the printing machine, had he only suspected the mighty and irresistible consequences, how soon would he have reduced the whole concern to ashes, and discharged the thunders of the Vatican in every direction! But no, and in Rome itself, the printers, compositors, and pressmen, shall go on issuing folio after folio, and of works which still exist and enrich the libraries of Europe.

Independently, however, of all this, what signified Rome, when compared with the extent to which the art had now reached? Had a single city or town waited for the concurrence or sanction of the Pontiff? So far from it, Bambcrg in Franconia, and Cologne, had preceded Rome, and in tell years only after the capture of Mentz, the art had reached to upwards of thirty cities and towns, including Venice, and Strasburg, Paris, and Antwerp; in only ten years more ninety other places had followed the example, including Basil and Brussels, Westminster, Oxford, and London, Geneva, Leipsic, and Vienna. With regard to Germany, the mother country of this invention, Koberger of Nuremberg was supposed to be the most extensive printer of the fifteenth century. Having twenty-four presses, and one hundred men, constantly at work, besides employing the presses of Switzerland and France, he printed at least twelve editions of the Latin Bible. And when we turn to the native capital of the reigning Pontiff, Venice, where printing had commenced only two years after Rome, what had ensued in the next thirty, or before 1500? Panzer has reckoned up not fewer than one hundred and ninety-eight printers inVENICE alone, more than sixty of whom had commenced business before the year 1480, and altogether, by the close of the century, they had put forth at least two thousand nine hundred and eighty distinct publications, among which are to be found more than twenty editions of the Latin Bible. As the roman letter was first used in Rome, so the italic was in Venice, whereALDUS had offered a piece of gold for every typographical error which could be detected in any of his printed pages.

In short, before the close of this century, a space of only thirty-eight years from the capture of Mentz, the press was busy, in at least two hundred and twenty different places, throughout Europe, and the number of printingpresses was far above a thousand! This rapidity, rendered so much the more astonishing from the art having risen to its perfection all at once, producing works so beautiful that they have never been excelled, has been often remarked, though it has never yet been fully described. To mark its swift and singular career throughout Europe with accuracy and effect, would require a volume, and, to certain readers, it would prove one of the deepest interest.

Such an extraordinary revival of the arts and of literature could not fail to affect and greatly improve the external appearance of our Island. Witness those beautiful specimens of architecture in Britain peculiar to this age, and still regarded by so many as its appropriate glory. Or, what is more to our purpose, witness the encouragement given to literature by such men as Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, John Earl of Worcester, and Earl Rivers, and the deep interest taken in William Caxton, the father of printing in our native land. With the exception, indeed, of the Sclavonian or Northern nations, all others in Europe had contributed to the interests of science; but in Italy, by way of eminence, the human mind had been permitted to exhaust its power. The utmost that human ingenuity and patient perseverance could effect had been accomplished. Works begun in one age, had been carried on and finished by the next. Man had been allowed to expend all his energy. The models left for his posterity to admire, can only be feebly and imperfcctly copied, for as yet they have never been excelled.

But what then, we are now bound to inquire, what had all this goodly array accomplished for the heartfelt refinement, the best or true enlargement of the human mind? To see such intellectual relish, such sensibility and taste spring up amidst general ignorance and barbarity, was the wonder of the age; but what had all this painting, and statuary, and architecture, nay, this learning and printing, effected, and more especially for the masses, or the people as such?

What had they done for the emancipation of the soul from bondage, or its clear escape from tyrannizing lust? What, for its way of access unto God, or the only way of acceptance with Him? Absolutely nothing; nay, to speak correctly, if the uses to which all things had been converted be observed, far worse than nothing. Those venerated and confessedly beautiful piles throughout Europe, with all that they contained, and in many instances sow Contain, assume a very grave and sombre aspect, whenever it is remembered that in them we behold but the ingenious and laborious efforts of the blind, mistaking their way to “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” They stand before us as the professed and united homage of thousands, in their lifetime and by their dying testaments to that Being, before whom all external display, all outward adorning, the magnificence of building or the melody of sounds-nay the extended hands, the beaded knee and the uplifted eye, are as nothing without the intelligent exercise of the inward faculties.

Now, not to speak of other nations, what in Britain had yet been done with regard to these? Were the inward faculties cultivated, or even allowed to be so? Was there any attention yet paid to a vernacular literature which could interest or enlarge the general mind? So far from it, for any one man to read a fragment of Scripture in his native tongue, though yet merely in manuscript, was sure to expose to oppression; and for the first half of this very century, whcther in England or Scotland, the barbarity of burning to ashes, and of severe persecution for opinions held, had bccn practised by all the authorities. Nor were they, in England, diverted from such cruelty till engrossed by war with France. Then came those intestine divisions and heartburnings-the wars of the White and Red Rose-those deadly feuds between the Houses of York and Lancaster, when, as Fuller has expressed it, in reference to any who thought for themselves, “the storm was their shelter.” These wars, however, so far from affecting the hold which the Pontiff had of this country, were only so many too evident proofs of the secret but prodigious influence of his votaries, in murdering one man and setting up another. At the close of the long conflict, therefore, by the downfall of Richard III.-after thirteen pitched battles-at the expense of more than a hundred thousand men-Henry the Seventh, or the first prince of the House of Tudor, most dutifully allied himself with the paramount power of Rome; and began to educate his second son as an ecclesiastic, afterwards to be known as Henry the Eighth. The father had, indeed, humbled the Barons of England while he himself remained the devoted vassal of the Pontiff; and, at the end of the fifteenth century, the capital of Italy was still, in its own ancient sense, the capital of the world.

At the close, then, of this brief sketch, however imperfect, it must now be evident that to have overlooked, what have been styled by way of courtesy, the immortal trophies of painting, music, and song, of sculpture and architecture, nay, and of printing, for the first seventy years of its existence, would have been doing great injustice to what was about to follow, in the sixteenth century. Of all these sources of attraction, that singular power which held court and council at Rome, had been permitted to take the fullest advantage; nor was she slow to perceive the power they possessed, to charm both the eye and the ear. Printing, however, was the most intellectual of all the arts, and yet it will now be manifest, that Infinite Wisdom was by no means in any haste to employ it. The orators of Greece and Rome had been allowed to try their skill once more in improving mankind. the classics were permitted to enjoy their second, and more splendid triumph, and appear before the world in a richer dress than they had ever done; and since the colloquial dialect, the tongue spoken by the people, was not the language of what was called the Church, in any nation of Europe, and Latin alone was her language everywhere, then let that tongue, through the press, also enjoy unprecedented scope. Let no Pontiff, ever after, have any reason to complain that ample justice was not first done to his system. Let him first have his fill of letters, even to overflowing. Let him richly cnjoy the first fruits, or tho highest place, nay, the monopoly of all the arts, and even the printing-press to boot; and bcforc the close of the fiftcenth century, let there be issued from the press, above a hundred editions of the LATIN Bible,-for such was the fact. and throughout Europe, let there be hourly spoken still, more than “ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”

After all this, and with an especial reference to our native land, we now ask,-could there have been a more marked approach towards the importation of Divine Truth into our Island, in the language then spoken by the people, and spoken still? A more impressive series of events, as introductory to the printing of the Scriptures in our vernacular tongue? The sacred boon was about to be conferred, and, at last, by millions of copies.

To the inhabitants of Britain, by way of eminence, and for three hundred years, were about to be committed the oracles of God; at least the translator to be employed, was now growing up. But before Divine Revelation is permitted to assume the shape of a printed volume, are we not now bound to look back, and do justice to the manner of its introduction? If there be certain points in the history of every country at which the inhabitants would do well to pause; to us, at least, and as living apart from the Continent in the adjoining sea, this was, or rather still is, one of the first importance, as the commencement of a new and unprecedented epoch.

The mighty movement of the sixteenth century was at hand. The outward forms of society had undergone a great change, and this, it is freely granted, had produced a class of less fearful thinkers. But the tide of human activity having been first permitted to rise so high, and accomplish so little, ought never to have been overlooked. The distinction was about to be drawn, between mere intellectual culture and mental vigour, or, in other words, between all that man had been able to effect, and what the Saviour of the world was about to do, by means so simple, mid an agency soon to be so deprecated by human authority; or rather by only one selected individual then so generally despised, and since so unaccountably forgotten!

Thus are we imperatively bound to distinguish between the oratory of Greece and Rome, or the feeble language of literature, and the voice of Jehovah in His word, when it once reached the ear or the eye of our forefathers, in their native tongue; to distinguish as carefitlly, between the power of the press, and the power of what issued from it; between printing, however splendid to the eye, and what is printed, when addressed by the Almighty to the heart; between all the wisdom of this world, and that which comcth down from above; between printed books without exception, and “the oracles of God.”

Twenty-five years of tho sixteenth century have indeed still to pass away, before the New Testament in English, as translated and committed to the press by Tyndale, will be given to England and Scotland, but these years will only render the event more striking,-an event which, even in our own day, and at such a singularly momentous period as the present, will be found to deserve and reward far more thoughtful consideration, not in itself merely, but especially in its consequences, than it has ever yet, for three hundred years, at any previous point of time, received.

The accuracy of the Author in charging the Greek Church with interdicting the use of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue, having been called in question by a highly respected correspondent, Mr. Anderson made the following reply:- “I am obliged by your directing me to the expression in page xxxvi, of the Introduction. I at once perceived its ambiguity, nay, strictly speaking, its incorrectness. I have said, ‘But both had interdicted its translation,’ &c. More accurately I should have said, ‘But the Eastern for more than a century had, to all intents and purposes, identified herself with the Western Church, which had now interdicted,’ &c. The Greek Church cannot be exonerated at that period as to the Sacred Scriptures. This was what was meant, and had it been so put, would have still more enhanced the boldness of Wickliffe, who did not quail before this dominant Mystery of Iniquity. “I am perfectly aware that there is a distinction to be observed between the Greek Church in its earlier stages, and the Roman; and that, nominally, the Canon of Scripture held by the former is nearly, if not precisely, the same with our own, though they plead for the Divine authority of the Septuagint. At the same time, it must ever be borne in mind that, long as the Eastern Church fought for an independent existence, the Greeks were bent upon the traditions, as well as the authority, of their Church, no less than the Romans on theirs; the former esteeming the acts of the Seven Greek Synods of equal authority with the sacred volume! But more to the point. “The Greek Church, you are aware, never recovered the blow it received from the Latins in 1204, when Constantinople was taken. I have, in passing, specified the Council of Tholouse; But fourteen years before, the Eastern Church had identified herself with whatever Rome determined. Many of her members might dissent, but this by no means has any-the slightest place in history. Hence, in the Twelfth General, or Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, Innocent III. crowned all former invasions of the Eastern Churches by claiming servile obedience from all by name, and in this order: 1. Constantinople; 2 . Alexandria; 3. Antioch; 4. Jerusalem. “Then came the Council of Tholouse in 1229; and in sixteen years after, under Innocent IV., at Lyon, in the Thirteenth General Council, he carried trimnphantly every point. The Greek Emperor himself, nay, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, were present, while the Pope was deposing the Emperor of the West, and releasing his subjects from their allegiance. Constantinople and Antioch were at this period merely fiefs of the Roman Pontiff.

Moreover, it was here also, for the first time, that the red hat was proposed and established, the appointed token that the Cardinals were to shed their blood in the defenee and for the dominance of the Roman Catholic faith. “Thirty years after that, in 1274, the Eastern Emperor is swearing to the Roman Catholic faith, recognising the supremacy of the Pope; and the Prelates of Greece swore allegiance by their legates.

All appeals from the Greeks were to be made to Rome. Before the Moguls on the one hand and the Latins on the other, Constantinople was nodding to her fall in 1453. Even after the invention of printing, the Greek lihtrgies for centuries have been printed at Venice, under Papal influence. Under the same influence, successive Greek Synods have been convoked, e.g., at Constantinople in 1642, and at Jerusalem in 1672. Among the acts of this last is prohibited the general reading of the Scriptures.”

EXPLANATION OF THE FAC-SIMILES.

NO. 1.-FAC-SIMILE OF HIS PROLOGUE.

If there be a peculiar charm in contemplating the veritable origin of a great undertaking, by many readers the following page in black letter cannot fail to be valued. It is the more worthy of inspection as being a pleasure denied to most of our ancestors, the edition to which it is the prologue or preface having fallen into utter oblivion for more than three hundred years. We need only refer to its history, pp. 46, &c., in proof that this was the page immediately following the title, with which Tyndale commenced his Testament, in quarto, at the press of Peter Quentell in Cologne, anno 1525.

NO. 2.-FAC-SIMILE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN QUARTO.

Cochlseus having artfully interrupted Tyndale at Cologne in 1525, and got into the same printing office; in the large wood-cut of the Evangelist Matthew, the reader has now one curious proof before him. Cochlaeus having left Cologne early in 1526, one of the first works he engaged Quentell to print was “Ruperti in Matthaeum,” &c., a folio volume of pages. At the end of this we find him addressing Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, as early as 20th April, and the work was finished at press on 12th June, 1526. But at the very commence-merit of this folio, on p. 2, we find this identical wood-cut which Quentell had formerly used for Tyndale’s Testament; only there, it will be observed, the block has been pared down, two-eighths at the bottom and left side, so as to deprive it of the white ground below, and at the side to encroach upon the angel’s wing.

This was to fit it for his folio page; and it being a work on Matthew, and this a favourite device, he inserted it again on the title-page. Consequently, the cut, as it is now to be seen, entire, must have been the prior publication, or in 1525. Again the same block, as thus cut down, was used by Quentell in printing the Latin Bible of Rudelius in 1527, at the beginning of Matthew; and in the beginning of John we have his letter Y, with which this prologue commences, which letter in fact first led to the discovery of what this fragment is, and where it was printed. See pp. 29, 37; 69, 72.

NO. 3.-FAC-SIMILE OF THE SMALLER NEW TESTAMENT.