tian souls that if any wise man find Chap. i. the work. But this first triumph of the English Bible was not won without a perilous struggle. One or two contemporary notices of the state of feeling over which it was achieved and of that again out of which it sprung are of deep interest. Thus a scholar writes when asked to Dangers of teach the ignorant the contents of the Gospel: 'Brother, 'I know well that I am holden by Christ's law to per'form thy asking, but natheless we are now so far fallen ' away from Christ's law, that if I would answer to thy 'askings I must in case undergo the death; and thou 'wottest well that a man is beholden to keep his life as 1 Prologue, c. xv. p. 57. Mr Froude's statement (which is retained in his last edition, 1870) that the second version, based upon Wycliffe's, was 'tinted more strongly with the * peculiar opinions of the Lollards,' is, as far as I have compared the two, wholly without foundation. The differences are exactly those which the Prologue describes. It need not be said that it was not made at the 'beginning of the fifteenth century' (History of England, 111. p. 77). translation, but was added afterwards It is scarcely necessary to add that Sir T. More's statement that 'the Holy Bible was translated [into English] long before Wycliffe's days' is not supported by the least independent evidence. He may have seen a MS. of Wycliffe's version, and (like Lambert, see p. 23) have miscalculated the date. Bp. Bonner (for instance) had a copy, and there was a 3 The translation included all the fine one at the Charterhouse. Apocryphal Books except 2 Esdras. p. 19. Compare Tyndale's Answer The Epistle to the Laodicenes was not to More, III. p. 168. included in Wycliffe's or Purvey's 2 See p. 17. See Chap. i. 'long as he may'.' 'Many think it amiss,' says Wycliffe, 'that men should know Christ's life, for then 'priests should be shamed of their lives, and specially 'these high priests, for they contradict Christ both in 'word and deed.' Yet there was a vigorous party to Supporters. which the reformers could trust. One comfort,' he adds, 'is of knights, that they savour [understand] much the 'Gospel, and have will to read in English the Gospel of 'Christ's life.' But the fear of death and the power of enemies could not prevail against the Spirit in which the work was wrought. Spirit of reader and writer. 'Christian men,' one says, ‘ought to travail night and 1 Forshall and Madden, Wycliffe's Bible, Introd. p. xv. n. 4 Id. p. x. n. 'may come to true and clear translating and true under'standing of Holy Writ, seem it never so hard at the beginning. God grant to us all grace to ken well and keep well Holy Writ and suffer joyfully some pain for 'it at the last'.' The last words were not allowed to remain without fulfilment. As long as the immediate influence of Wycliffe lasted the teaching of his followers was restrained within reasonable bounds. Times of anarchy and violence followed, and spiritual reform was confounded with the destruction of society. The preachers of the Bible gave occasion to their enemies to identify them with the enemies of order; and the re-establishment of a strong government led to the enactment of the statute De hæretico comburendo (2 Hen. IV.), which was soon put in force as a powerful check on heresy. It is impossible to determine whether the Wycliffite Bible was among the books' mentioned in the preamble of the act by which the Lollards were said to excite the people to sedition. Later parallels make it likely that it was so; but it was not long before the Version was directly assailed. In a convocation of the province of Canterbury held at Oxford under Archbishop Arundel in 1408, several constitutions were enacted against the party of the Reformation. The one on the use of the vernacular Scriptures is important both in form and substance. 'It is a dangerous thing,' so it runs, as witnesseth bless'ed St Jerome, to translate the text of the holy Scripture 'out of one tongue into another; for in the translation. 'the same sense is not always easily kept, as the same 'St Jerome confesseth, that although he were inspired 1 Prologue, p. 60. * The Preamble is quoted by Mr Froude, History of England, 11. 20. C Chap. i. The Wycliffite Bible survives the fall of the Lollards. Manuscripts of Wycliffite (etsi inspiratus fuisset), yet oftentimes in this he erred Four years after came the insurrection and death of Sir John Oldcastle. A new and more stringent act was passed against heresy (2 Hen. V.), and the Lollards as a party were destroyed. But the English Bible survived their destruction. The terms of the condemnation under Archbishop Arundel were explicit, but it was practically ineffectual. No such approbation as was required, so far as we know, was ever granted, but the work was still transcribed for private use; and the manuscripts are themselves the best records of its history". Of about one hundred and seventy copies of the Versions. whole or part of the Wycliffite versions which have been 1 Foxe, Acts and Monuments, III. 245 (whose translation I have generally followed). The original Latin | is given in Wilkins' Concilia, III. 317. Two names however are connected too closely with Wycliffe to be omitted altogether. John of Gaunt vigorously supported Wycliffe in his endeavours to circulate an English version of the Bible, and after his death successfully opposed a Bill brought into the House of Lords, 1390, to forbid the circulation of the Scriptures in English (Hist. Acc. p. 33). Anne of Bohemia also, according to the testimony of Archbishop Arundel, 'constantly studied the four 'Gospels in English' (Foxe, III. 202, ed. Townshend). The subsequent conduct of Arundel is not inconsistent with the belief that this version was Wycliffe's. examined, fifteen of the Old Testament and eighteen of the New belong to the original version. The remainder are of Purvey's revision, which itself has in some very rare cases undergone another partial revision. Of these not one-fifth are of an earlier date than Arundel's condemnation. The greater part appear to have been written between 1420 and 1450; and what is a more interesting fact, nearly half the copies are of a small size, such as could be made the constant daily companions of their owners. Others again are noticeable for the rank of those by whom they were once possessed. One belonged to Humphrey, the 'good' duke of Gloucester : another to Henry VI, who gave it to the Charterhouse : another (apparently) to Richard III; another to Henry VII; another to Edward VI1; and another was presented to Queen Elizabeth as a new-year's gift by her chaplain. There are yet other copies with interest of a different kind. One probably was that of Bp. Bonner : another records in a hand of the 16th century, that 'this 'ancient monument of Holy Scripture doth shew how 'the Lord God in all ages and times would have His 'blessed Word preserved for the comfort of His elect 1 This copy is now in the University at Cambridge (Mm. 11. 15), and R. Crowley printed from it the General Prologue in 1550, 'the Originall whereof is founde written in an olde 'English Bible,' so he writes on the title-page bitwixt the olde Testa'ment and the Newe. Whych Bible 'remaynith now in ye Kyng hys 'maiesties Chamber.' The book retains a binding apparently of the age of Edward VI, which bears stamped on one side Verbum Domini and on the other manet in aeternum. Part of the notice to the reader is worthy of being quoted : "[This Prologue] was at the first made common to few men that Chap. i. |