PREFACE

Richardson's English Dict. Preface.

Ft2 While these sheets were passing through the press, the author has enjoyed the advantage of a second journey on the Continent. Taking occasion to visit the principal places about to be mentioned, not only Antwerp and Mechlin Vilvorde and Brussels, but other cities on both banks of the Rhine, from Cologne to Strasburg, as well as Basil, Berne, Zurich, and Geneva, he has only been more confirmed in the general correctness of the history now given. Some discrepancies may be detected in a work now first taken from the writer's manuscript, in which there are so many references to authority; but the general stream of the narrative, it is presumed, can never be disturbed.

The well-known collection of Bibles and Testaments in the possession of the King of Wirtemberg, time did not admit of his examining. But though it be the only eminent collection which has not been explored, it is believed that there is no English edition at Stuttgard which is not to be found in the libraries of our native land. The Royal Library at Paris is not at all remarkable for editions of the English Scriptures.

Into the once imperial city of WORMS, where our first English New Testaments appear to have been finished, and where a printing-press was first set up, three hundred and thirty years ago, any man may now enter, and either reflect on the marriage of Charlemagne, or look on the few remaining fragments of the ancient imperial palace; he may visit the Cathedral or Dom Kirche, standing as it did; look into the little Jewish Synagogue, above eight hundred years old or within a church at the market-place, the site of the venerable Rathhaus, stand upon the ground which Luther trode when he appeared before the Emperor; but in reference to the printing-office to which, only four years after, Tyndale had repaired, it was in vain to inquire for the street or the corner where Peter Schoeffer, or any other brother of the trade, had once been so busy. Not one solitary printer was to be found at work throughout the city!

COLOGNE, on the contrary, where Tyndale had commenced his New Testament at the press, exhibited a different aspect. Lately declared to be a free port, and now also to be reached by railway, it promises to rise to greater importance than ever before. It was indeed equally in vain to, inquire for the quarter were Ulric Zell, Henry and Peter Quentel, or any other ancient printer, once plied their occupation, but their works were to be fouud there. In ene repository was a catalogue of Bibles and Testaments (l843) such as is scarecly ever to be found with any bookseller in this country. Besides Polyglots, there were Bibles, or parts of the Scriptures, in twenty-seven different languages,-- in Hebrew, Greek, Latin (in 240 articles), Ethiopic, Arabic, Syriae, Persie, Armenian, and even Tamulian or Malabar. And of European languages, in Gothic, Finnish, Danish, Russ, Slavonic, Turkish, polish, German (in 236 articles), Wendish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Swiss Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian, and English. These, however, in genera1, were ancient, not modern, editions, but amounting to more than 800 articles of sale, in the Bibliotheca of J. M. HEBERLE. Here, also, the very rare tracts of Alexander Ales had been recently sold for a trifle, which altogether in this country have fetched above four guineas.

INTRODUCTION

"Prolubenus etiam, ne libros Veteris Testamenti," etc. Labbei SacroSancta Concilia 2., p.1., p. 430. The profane mixture of human composition with the Divine Word is sufficiently characteristic; and it is of importance to observe that the prohibition expressly referred to the\parLATIN Bible itself. It seems to have been a step taken to prevent translation.

Ft4 The Assembly at St. Paul's having broken up in riot and confusion, there was a second attempt to execute their purpose in a Synod at Lambeth in June, but the Bishops were deterred from coming to any definite sentence by a message from the Queen-Mother by Sir Lewis Clifford.

Ft5 Henry de Knyghton, "De eventis Angliae."

Ft6 William Butler, a Franciscan friar.

Ft7 Trialogus, lib. 3 The first, or earliest text, is from a nanuscript of the late Francis Douce, Esq., now belonging to the Bodleian, at Oxford; the second is from MS. Reg, 1., c. 8., in the British Museum.

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1 - 1500-1523 Merle D'Aubigne.

Ft10 Mr. Jekyll's genealogies, quoted in the Biog. Brit.

Ft11 Rudder's Gloucester, under Stinchcomb, p. 695.

Ft12 Bigland's Glos., p. 293.

Ft13 We quote from the letters of Mr. O. Roberts, in the British Museum.

Ft14 Whitaker.

Ft15 Memoirs of Bristol, from old authorities, by Seyer, vol. ii. p. 215.

Ft16 The money referred to by Dame Walsh, was equal to from £1500 to £4500 of our present money.

Ft17 Who could this "ohl familiar" be, if not William Latimer the Greek Scholar? He retired to Saintberry and Weston-sub-Edge as rector, and these were both in Gloucester County. Preface to the Pentateuch, 1530.

CHAPTER 2 - 1524, Cochlaeus, Com. de actis et scriptis Martmi Lutheri--Moguntium, 1549.

Or Colonia, 1568, pp. 153-156. See the Nouvelle Bibl. of Dupin 1703, vol. 14. p. 185.

Ft21 J. Coehlaeus adversum Lutherum. Coloniae, Petr. Quentel, 1525.

Ft22 MS. Cotton, Vitell. B. xxi. 10, b. Sir Jo. Wallop to Wolsey, 30t,h Sept. 1526.

Ft23 This fragment was found attached by the binding to a 4to tract of (Ecolampadius by Mr. Rodd of London, who, comparing it with other works printed at Cologne by Peter Wuentel, found, from the type, the initials and the cuts, that it must have come from his press.

CHAPTER 3 - Foxe, first and following editions, compared with Strype.

Ft26 See the original edition in the British Museum; or Harleian Misc., vol. 9. pp. 77, 81. Edit. 1812.

Ft27 The injunction of Tunstal is in Foxe, vol. 2., p. 284, ed. 1631; and the Mandate of Warham in Wilkins' Concil., vol. 3., p. 706.

Ft28 MS. Harleian, No. 422, fol. 85-86.

Ft29 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. 7. p. 353, 354, b. Galba, B. 6. fo. 3, 9, 10.

Ft31 Galba, B. 9. fol. 33, b. Barrow, Barois, Barrough, all refer to the same place, now known as Bergen-op-Zoom, then in immediate contact with the water.

Ft33 Galba, B. 9. fol. 35.

Ft34 Lowndes' Bib. Manual.

CHAPTER 4 - Marburg, the ancient Mattium, is situate on the right bank of the Lahm, a tributary of the Rhine, 41 miles north from Frankfort.

Ft36 Honey Lane, Cheapside, nearly opposite to Bow Church, p. 54. In the viciuity of the house where lived, for many years, the veneiable John Newton.

Ft38 MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. 10., no. 25.

Ft39 MS. Chapter-house, Westminster, vol. 5., no. 24. Campeggio arrived at Dover 29th September.

Ft40 Galba, B. 9., fol. 126.

Ft41 Galba, B. 9., fol. 131.

Ft42 Cotton MS., Vitellius, B. 21., fol. 43.

CHAPTER 5 - Cotton MS. Galba, B. iv., fol. 196.

Ft44 Bayonne's Letter in Le Grand, p. 333.

Ft45 Le Grand, p. 296. Burnet, edit. 1720, lib. 2. p. 159.

CHAPTER 6 - Cotton MS., Cleopatra, E. v., fol. 360.

Ft48 MS. c. c. c. Burnet's Reform., 3., App., p. 23, ed. 1715.

Ft49 Burnet.

Ft50 See Wood's Ath. by Bliss, i., p. 59-60, and Foxe's "Story of Simon Fyshe."

CHAPTER 7 - Cotton MS. Galba, B. 9., fol. Idem, fol. 238. Galba, B. x., fol. 38. Cotton MS. Titus, B. i., fol. 67, dated at "Antwerp, the 18th day of April." Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 338. Cotton MS. Galba, B. x., fol. 5, 6. Manuscript Life of More, edited by Dr. Wordsworth. Galba, B. x., fol. 25.

CHAPTER 8 - Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. 54.

Ft62 Todd's Life of Cranmer, i., 41, 42.

Ft63 Cotton MS., Vitell., B. xxi., fol. 64.

Ft64 Leonard Coxe, a native of Caerleon, Monmouth, who had studied at Cambridge, was an early popular philological writer, under Henry VIII.

He became a great traveller, and was well known on the Coutinent. He defended the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. The intimate of Erasmus, he translated his Paraphrase of the Epistle of Titus into English, and was living in the reign of Edward VI.

Ft65 Preface to More's "Confutation." Fryth's Works.

CHAPTER 9 - Burnet.See the letter itself, page 190.

CHAPTER 10 - Townley's Biblical Literature, vol. 2., p. 394.

Ft69 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 330.

Ft70 Journal of the Convocation, fol. 60.

CHAPTER 11 - Cotton MS., Cleop. E. vi., fol. 334.

Ft72 A cubit arm, erect, the fist clenched, pp. vested arg.

Ft73 Cotton MS., Galba, B. x., fol. 62.

CHAPTER 12 - Hallam's Constitutional History.

Ft75 Thus, for example, Hume, in his History of England, informs us, that "a vote was passed for publishing a new translation of the Scriptures; anal in three years' time the work was finished, and publisbed at Paris! " Burner represents certain "arguments" as so prevailing with both houses of Convocation, that "they petitioned the King, that he would give order to some to set about it. "These arguments, joined with the power that the Queen had in his affections,were so much considered by the King, that be gave order for setting about it immediately! To whom that work was committed, or how they proceeded in it, I know not. For the account of these things has not been preserved, nor conveyed to us, with that care that the importance of the thing required. Yet it appears that the work was carried on at a good rate: for three years after this, it was printed at Paris, which shows they made all convenient haste, in a thing that required so much deliberation!!" Nicholas' Synopsis, where the day of his consecration is stated the 9th of June.

Ft77 Vitellius, B. 21., No. 39, and fol. 103.

Ft78 The 17th and 19th of May were iudeed days of blood in London; whenQueen Anne, Lord Rochford, Sir F. Weston, Sir H. Norris, and other, were unjustly put to death.

Ft79 How long shall this be true? How long shall England's best benefactor be without; a monument to speak a nation's gratitude?

CHAPTER 13 - Upon a marble tablet erected to his memory, by the parishioners of St. Magnus in London, where he used to preach, they have engraved, that he "spent many years of his life in preparing a translation of the Scriptures;" and they add--"On the 4th of October 1535. the first complete English printed version of the Bible was published under his direction." On the other hand, more recently, in "a historical account of the English versions of the Scriptures," we have been told that instead of "many years," this translation of the eutire Bible "could not have commenced before November 1534, and, probably, it was not until the following mouth! Thus, the longest time that Coverdale could have had for thc completion, both of the translation and of the printing, was eleven months; andIF this work did, in any way, result from the resolutions of theCONVOCATION, 19th December, 1534, then the whole was executed in the short space of nine months and a half! The time when he began was certainly not previous to November, 1534."

Ft81 MS. Crumwell's Correspondence in the State Paper Oitice; and see Gov. State Papers, 1., p. 383.

Ft82 See "An Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, by John W. Whittaker, M.A., 1819;" and Letter to Marsh Bishop of Peterborough, by Henry Walter, B. D., In whole or in part, Esther 8. Proverbs 31. Isaiah 1. Isaiah 2. Isaiah 6. Isaiah 7. Isaiah 44. Isaiah 51. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 57. Isaiah 58. Jeremiah 28. Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel 36. Joel 2. Joel 3. Hosea 11. Amos 4., and Zechariah 2. Zechariah 8.

Ft84 Crumwell's Corr., Chapter-House. Original. Gov. State Papers, vol. 1., p. 561.

CHAPTER 14 - Harleian MS., No. 604, p. 98; dated 1539 in the Catalogue, instead of 1538.

Ft86 Cleop., E. v., fol. 326.

Ft87 Cotton MS., Calig. E. 4., fol. 8, 10.

Ft88 Wilkins Cone., Mag. Brit., p. 815.

CHAPTER 15 - Gov. State Papers, 1., p. 613.

Ft90 Cleop. E. v., fol. 172, or Strype. records, 104.

Ft91 Cleop. E. v., p. 128, as quoted by Lingard.

Ft92 Rymer's Foed., vol. 14., p. 649. Herbert's Ames, 3., p. 1550.

Ft93 Cotton MS., Cleop. E. v., fol. 303.

CHAPTER 16 - Cotton MS., Cleop., E. v., fol. 337.

CHAPTER 17 - Gov. State Papers, 1. p. 846.

BOOK 2, CHAPTER 1 - 1547-1553 Newcome's Historical View of English Biblical Translations, p. 64.

CHAPTER 2 - 1553-1558 Cotton MS. Titus, B. 2., 116.

Ft98 Regist. Bonn. fol. 363.

Ft99 Parker MS. Col. Cor. Chr. Cant.

Ft100 Lewis, Newcome, Horne, Lowndes, and others.

CHAPTER 3 - 1558--1603 Wood's Athenae, 4to, 1., p. 447.

Ft102 John Bodley, Esq., a native of Exeter, was one of the many exiles for conscience' sake, in Mary's reign, He wandered over a part of Germany, and having at; last settled at; Geneva, he joined the English Church there, His son Thomas, afterwards the founder of the famous Bodleian Library at; Oxford, here received his education under the best; teachers. On returning to England, he entered Magdalene College, and, at the age of twenty-one, was reading GreekLectures in Merton Hall, Wickliffe's College. Much as England owes to the son for the magnificent Library that hears his name, she is under a deeper, though less acknowledged debt to the fathor for his zeal in the cause of Divine Truth.

Ft103 Cardwell's Documentary Annals, 2. p.

CHAPTER 4 - 1603-1650 Wood's Fasti and Athenae--Newcourt's Repertorium--Le Neve's Fasti-- Todd's Vindication--Whittaker, and several other authorities compared.

In addition to these forty men, engaged on theSACRED TEXT, seven more, or the second class at Cambridge, were put to the Apocrypha: viz. John Duport, Dr. Branthwaite, Jeremiah Radcliffe, Dr. Samuel Ward, Andrew Downes, the Greek Professor, Mr. Ward, andJOHN BOYS, who, however, afterwards was engaged on the Sacred text.

Ft105 "A Brief Treatise concerning the Regulating of Printing, humbly submitted to the Parliament of England. By William Ball, Esquire, London. Printed in the year 1651."

Ft106 In 1635, the same year in which he obtained his last patent, Robert Barker the elder became involved in difficulties which landed him in the King's Bench, where he lived ten years, and where he died in 1645.

BOOK 3, CHAPTER 1 - Gov. State Papers, 4. p. 458, note.

Ft108 Alexandri Alesii Scotti Responsio ad Cochlei calumnias, 1534.

Ft109 MS. Cotton, Galba, B. 6., fol. 4.

Ft110 Gov. State Papers, 4., pp. 461, 463.

CHAPTER 2 1527-1528 Spottiswood, fourth edit., p. 64.

Ft112 Gov. State Papers, vol. 4. Tytler. Pitcairn's Criminal Trials.

Ft113 Gov. State Papers, 4., pp. 476, 540.

CHAPTER 3 - 1529-1534 "An expediat Laicis, legere novi Testamenti libros lingua Vernacula?

Ad serenissimum Scotiae Regem Jacobum V. Disputatio inter Alexandrum Alesium Scotum et Johannem Cochlaeum Germanum."

Dated "Ex Dresda Misniae ad Albim. vi. Idus Junii 1533."

Ft115 Tytler.

Ft116 "Alexandri Alesii Scotti, Respousio ad Cochlei calumnias." This occupies thirty-one leaves 18mo, in a smaller type than the former publication, and without any colophon.

Ft117 This was no other than the well-known Herman, Count de Wied, the Prince Archbishop of Cologne. He had denounced Lutheranism, but now, at the age of sixty, felt deeply the causes of the Reformation.

Hence his conversation with the young Scotchman; and soon after his interviews with Melancthon and Bucer. He was timid, and shrank, like Cranmer, from an open avowal of his convictions, but in maturer age rose above all fear and earthly considerations, exposed himself to excommunication by the Pope, and deposition by the Emperor, and died in 1553 as simple Count de Wied, in the faith and hope of the Gospel.

Ft118 This is entitled--"Pro Scotiae Regno Apologia Johannis Cochlei.

Adversus personatum Alexandrum Alesium Scotum. Ad Sereniss.

Scotorum regem. 1534." At the end we have this colophon--"Ex Dresda Misnie, Idibus Au-gusti 1533. Excusum Lipsiae apud Michaelem Blum." Leipsic was the very city in which Ales was afterwards established aa a Professor, for many years.

Ft119 From the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, September, 1 534 --" Item, to ane Servand of Cocleus, quhilk brocht fra his Maister an buyk, intitulat To his reward --1. li." The blank may now be filled up with "Pro Scotiae," &c. But such was the reward, £50 Scots, not a trifling sum in those days.

Ft120 The reader may wish to know what became of Ales, who never returned to his native land, though its welfare lay always near his heart.

From Cologne he removed to Antwerp in 1534, but as Tyndale was now close prisoner in the fortress of Vilvorde, he could have ao direct intercourse with him. In the spring of 1535 he was invited by Crumwell to England, and appointed to read "Lectures on Scripture" at Cambridge. The Heads of that University, however, were not yet prepared for such doctrine, and by the advice of the Vice-Chancellor he withdrew to London. There he entered on the study and practice of physic, in which he acquired some celebrity. It was while he was thus practising in London that Crumwell took him to the Convocation in June, 1536, introducing him as "the King's Scholar," and availing himself of his aid in the discussions there. (See p. 255.)

Notwithstanding Crumwell's favour and his success in his profession, Ales in a few years found there was no safety for hint in all England. In 1539 he went abroad, and in the July of that year we find him at Wittenberg, with his friend Melancthon, and writing a letter of thanks to Crumwell for his kindness to him when in this country. The same year the Elector of Brandenburg appointed him Professor of Divinity at Frankfort-on. Gratulati Buceri, p. 55. † Camerar. in vita Melanct. 1569.

CHAPTER 4 - 1535-1537 Holograph. State Papers, Scotland, in the Chapter-House, Westminster.

Ft122 Gov. State Papers, vol. 5., p. 38.

Ft123 Gov. State Papers, vol. 5., p. 51.--"20th day of May, the 23rd year of our regime."

Ft124 Holograph. Calig., b. 3., fol. 194. Gov. State Papers, vol. 5., p. 37.

Ft125 Gov. State Papers, vol. 5., p. 48.

CHAPTER 5 - 1538-1552 "1 March, 1538-39. Accusatio haereticorum et eorum combustio, apud Edinburg Rege presente." Household Book of King James V. The King left the city, next day, for Lithgow, perhaps to escape odium; but it was in perfect keeping with the whole affair, that on the day itself, the Searcher was gone after the property! March 1, Item. "Delivered to Archibald Heriot, Messenger, to pass and search their goods, who were abjured and declared heretics in Edin-burgh and Stirling," 16sh. Lord Treasurer's Accounts. lndcpendently of the cruelty and deep depravity of persecution, it, is generaly accompanied by a meanness most detestable. Sadler's letters, 4to, 1. p. 14-17.

Ft127 There had been a scarcity of the Sacred Volume in the vernacular tongue of Wales, deeply felt and long lamented; but if any one search for the cause of this feeling, he will soon find himself, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, among the hills and dales of the Principality. During that period there had been dispersed one hundred and two thousand copies of the Welsh Bible entire, chiefly in octavo, and at least eighteen thousand five hundred of the New Testament; but in accounting for this dispersion, three or four instances of individual exertion chiefly engage notice.

The New Testament in Welsh was first given to his countrymen by William Salisbury in 1567; the Bible entire in 1588 by Dr. Davies and others; the Standard Version in 1620 by Drs. Richard Parry and John Davies; for the multiplication of copies, there was first, the well-known\parTHOMAS GOUGE of London. Once ejected from his pulpit in the Metropolis, he betook himself to works of benevolence and mercy.

Though possessed of independent property, or a good estate of his own, after he had lost much by the great fire in 1666, had settled his children in the world, and been bereaved of his wife, he had but one hundred and fifty pounds a year left. Thus circumstanced, and now about sixty-five years of age, it was then that he began to compassionate the condition of Wales. For the next ten years of his life, he visited that country annually. His objects were to preach the truth, to educate the children, and disperse the Scriptures in their mother tongue. He preached till they persecuted him from place to place, and at last he was excommunicated from the Church of which he had been so long a minister; but nothing could prevent his travels in Wales, nor his spending regularly, two-thirds of his annual income, and living on the remaining fifty pounds! To his bounty and personal solicitations, the editious of 2000 of the Welsh New Testament in 1672, of 8000 of the Welsh Bible in 1678, if not also that of 1690, are chiefly to be ascribed. But he had to die before justice was done to his character, when a funeral sermon was preached for him by no other than Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.

Then there wasGRIFFITH JONES of Llandourer, with his delicate state of health, who in the next century, from 1737 to 1760, was the Superintendent in teaching at various schools, above one hundred and fifty thousand of his countrymen to read their native tongue, when more than thirty thousand of the Welsh Bible were printed and circulated. And then, at last, after a long interval, cameTHOMAS CHARLES of Bala; or three men whose memories are still fragrant throughout the Principality. Thus it is, that ia reviewing the past, relative proportion in the way of individual effort should never be forgotten. These were labours of which subscribers to a Bible Society, in these easy days, know little or nothing.

Ft128 According to its last Report (57th) the British and Foreign Bible Society had issued of the English Scriptures from its commencement to March 30, 1861:— Bibles 11,251,851 The issues of Bibles and Testaments from the Scottish Press, as well as those from the Patentees' and University Presses, for independent Societies and general sale, must have been greater in proportion after 1811 than before that date; but assuming them to have been the same, upwards ofFIFTY MILLIONS of the English Scriptures must have gone into circulation through this country and its dependencies since 1805.

Ft129 The receipts of the British and Foreign Bible Society from every source of supply from its commencement to 30th March, 1861, amounted to the sum of nearly £5,272,000. The expenditure up to the same date was £5,149,738.

The Society possessed at the closing of its Account, March 1861, £120,000, belonging mostly to the Jubilee and Chinese New Testament Funds. The Society was also under engagements at home and abroad amounting to £72,270.

Ft130 The proportion of the whole receipts arising from these three sources issomewhat altered now, if we may judge from the Cash Account in the Report for 1861.

Received by the Parent Society:— In Legacies, Subscriptions, Collections, etc. £30,373 By Sales:— 7,660 By Dividends and Drawbacks:— 3,935; 41,968 Received from Auxiliary Societies:— Free Contributions £52,165 For Bibles and Testaments 46,322; 98,487 Front abroad, for Scriptures 27,488; 167,913 It would be difficult to analyse the Cash Accounts of the British and Foreign Bible Society from its commencement to the present year, as the author has done up to 1844, so as to ascertain the exact amount of what has been expended solely on the translation and printing of the Scriptures, apart from the expenses of management and those incurred in raising funds and circulating the Book by agents and colporteurs. By the last Report there seems to have been expended on the printing and binding of the Scriptures during the year:— In the languages of Great Britain £67,089 In foreign tongues £59,480 81; £126,569,167 Expenses of management, agents, colporteurs, travelling, and annual and monthly reports 38,892,157 The total expenditure of the year £165,462,122 The amount spent on foreign objects compared with that laid out on the Scriptures at home appears to have been increasing since the author wrote in 1844, when England certainly enjoyed the lion's share. The more liberal policy of the Society further appears if we look at the sum total of copies of the Scriptures printed directly by it up to 30th March, 1861, and those in the languages of the British Isles.

Total issues of the Society 39,315,226 Of these 1,718,629 were only portions of the Old or New Testament. English Bibles and Testaments 22,570,386 Psalms and portions 593,827; 23,164,213 Welsh Scriptures 1,162,681 Gaelic Scriptures 154, Irish Scriptures 99,523 Portions 18,020; 117,543 Manx Scriptures 7,250; 24,606,412 Scriptures in eighty-six of the languages of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia. 13,602,042 Portions of Scriptures 1,106,772; 14,708,814; 39, 315, Thus, while in 1844, 66 per cent. of the total issues were in the languages of the British Isles, in the year 1861, this proportion has been reduced to 62 percent. — still sufficiently high, especially whcn the numbers issued for general sale and by independent; societies are considered. When the United States of North America are taken into the account, it is evident that thereARE THREE TIMES AS MANY COPIES OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE IN EXISTENCE AS THEREE ARE IN ALL THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD PUT TOGETHER!