1593, another edition was printed, and it is this which is the Vulgate of the Roman Church to-day. Of course, the earlier translations into Anglo-Saxon were from the Version of Jerome, the only Version known- the best that could be had. There was almost no Greek scholarship in the West in this period, and no Hebrew scholarship at all. It would seem. also, that not a few of the successive translations into the Vernacular were made dependent, almost entirely upon those preceding. As the Dark Ages deepened upon the Church, it is not likely that de novo investigations were often made, or even attempted. There were more transcribers (who were perhaps annotators) than translators.

It is not to be understood, from what has been thus far stated, that there was any very general knowledge of the Scriptures in the times referred to. In the nature of the case there could not be. Still, there was much more knowledge of the Bible, and interest in its contents, than is sometimes supposed. The masses, however, knew little or nothing of Holy Writ, save as learned from the service of the Church, or from the lips of the priest. The cost of producing books was very great, because the labor was great and skilled, and the material scant. The hand was the agent employed in the reproduction of copies, but the hand guided by a trained eye and by constant practice. To make copies of a book was a long and tedious process, and always accompanied with danger to the original whether the scribe read and copied himself, or whether many scribes wrote from the reading of one person. Copies would vary indefinitely from the original, even with the greatest conscientiousness, and the most pains-taking care, on the part of the transcribers. It is remarkable that copies of ancient MSS., thus made, are often so nearly perfect as they It is still more remarkable how beautifully the work is done. The writer has in his possession an illuminated Missal of the fourteenth century, which is a marvel of accurate workmanship, and of exquisite finish. Every letter is perfect, and the drawing and coloring would do no discredit to the highest art of to-day. The colors are as bright as though just laid on

are.

Keeping in view the way in which books were made, before printing was invented and in this way all ancient MSS. were multiplied,— it will not appear wonderful that so many errors, variations, &c., are to be found in the Sacred Writings - which it is the study of the learned to correct and amend. That there are no serious contradictions of the Faith is in the nature of a miracle.

Previous to the invention of printing, the whole Bible had been rendered into English. About 1380, John Wickliffe had completed his translation of the New Testament. With his assistance, probably, the Old Testament was completed by his friend Nicholas de Hereford. The whole was subsequently revised by John Purvey. By this time, however, an entirely new spirit was dominating the Church, and it was alarmed at the spread of Scriptural knowledge. Every effort was made to arrest it; but it was too late. The work done could not be undone. Wickliffe undoubtedly saved his life by retiring from Oxford to his Rectory at Lutterworth, where he died in 1384. His followers were persecuted. John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer, who owed much to Wickliffe, was burnt at the stake by order of the Council of Constance, 1415, and in 1428 Wickliffe's body was exhumed and burned, and the ashes thrown into the Swift. "From the Swift to the Avon, from the Avon to the Severn, from the Severn to the seas, and thence to the ocean which sweeps around the world, were his ashes scattered-fit emblem of the scattering of the Word of God, in tongues the people can understand, unto all nations. This translation was by no means perfect, and was, like all former ones, from the Latin, while yet it had many beauties, some of which grace our accepted Version. The Revolutionary Politics of Wickliffe, and especially of some of his followers, helped the Church to bring his work into disrepute, and indeed to measurably arrest the progress of Biblical translation. Not wholly, however, as results have abundantly proved.

Before the middle of the fifteenth century, the art of printing was brought to a practical issue. The first book printed with type was the Latin Bible, at Mentz, 1450. Some eighteen

copies are still known to exist. A very fine one, on Vellum, was sold, less than twenty-five years ago, for $2,520. Printing, of course, very soon revolutionized prices. But the cost of books continued to be high until the discovery of steam and the steam press. In 1720 a copy of a Latin Bible was worth $150 this, when labor in England was worth so little, that a common working man would have to labor fifteen years in order to earn money enough to pay that sum. Still, after the art of printing was in use books multiplied rapidly, and especially copies of the Holy Bible.

The revival of learning in the fifteenth century had a marked influence in quickening the study of the Scriptures in the original tongues, and so prepared for a better translation than the English-speaking people had yet possessed. It also prepared for the inevitable conflict with the Papacy which the reading of the Bible would inaugurate. The downfall of the Eastern Empire in the middle of the century, when the Turks obtained possession of Constantinople, sent many Greek and Oriental scholars to Europe. They brought their literature with them, and for the first time in many centuries Oriental learning was appreciated in the West. These men were everywhere received with honor. They were welcomed even in Rome, and by the Popes- who little dreamed that, with variations, the scene of the Trojan horse was being re-enacted. The study of Greek became a passion. In 1458 a Professorship of this language was founded at the University of Paris. Some time after it was included in the curriculum of Oxford. The eyes of scholars turned naturally to the New Testament, and the original opened its marvellous beauties to them, with far-reaching and most important results. Hebrew also was studied with almost the same avidity. The "new learning," as it was called, spread with great rapidity. Cambridge followed in the footsteps of Oxford, and a little later Erasmus filled its Greek chair for some years, attracting scholars from far and near by the grace of his style and his rare mastery of the language. Among the first fruits of this learning, the Hebrew Psalter was printed, in 1477, and in the following

year the whole Hebrew Bible. Editions followed each other in quick succession. In 1476 a Greek Grammar, by Constantine Lascaris, appeared, and in 1480 a Greek Lexicon. The Hebrew Grammar was published, by Pellican, at the early age of twenty-five, in 1503, and three years afterwards was followed by a Grammar and Lexicon by Reuchlin. Between 1470 and 1500 there were published more than 10,000 editions of books and pamphlets. Before the close of the fifteenth century no less than ninety-one editions of the Latin Bible were printed. The first Greek Testament was printed in 1514. As the result of the scholarship of Erasmus, a Greek Testament appeared in 1516, dedicated to Pope Leo X. It was from the second (corrected) edition of this, 1519, that Dr. Martin Luther made his German translation. From the third edition, 1522, was made the English translation by Tyndale, which appeared towards the close of the year 1525. Two editions of Tyndale's work were printed in Germany, one a quarto, the other an octavo, each of 3,000 copies. They were surreptitiously introduced into England, where they were bought up, or seized by order of the Bishops, and burned. Edition after edition, however, followed, until England was alive with Scriptural knowledge. Tyndale himself suffered death, after an imprisonment of about a year and a half in the castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. He was strangled at the stake, and his body burned to ashes. Large portions of the Old Testament were also translated by Tyndale, or under his supervision. Translations now multiplied, appearing from time to time through the sixteenth century, in despite of all opposition, and notwithstanding all persecution reaching often to martyrdom. The progress of the English Bible, indeed, is marked with the blood of many who loved it, of all ranks, and of all degrees of knowledge. Coverdale's Bible appeared in 1535, under better auspices; Matthew's in 1537; Cranmer's in 1589; the Anglo-Genevan in 1557-60; and the Bishops' Bible in 1568. Brighter days dawned, even before the death of Tyndale; and not long after, even by order of Henry VIII. the Bible was freely permitted to the people. Thenceforth it was

the peoples', whatever temporary arrests might obtain. The present Version, or as it is called, King James', appeared in 1611, and was the product of the learning of the kingdom in that day.

Very faithfully, it cannot be doubted, was the work of translation done, in the main. The learning of the period was brought carefully into requisition for the purpose, and all the pains that scholars love to take with their work was employed to the last degree. It must be borne in mind, however, that not only was scholarship necessarily defective, as compared with that of the present, but that the age lacked very much of the material for deciding the text of Holy Scripture, especially of that of the New Testament, which has been since supplied. When even the authorized Version was prepared, with the exception of a few single books or parts, all that scholars possessed of ancient versions of the Old Testament, were the Vulgate, and imperfect texts of the Septuagint, together with the Targums, or Chaldee versions. The Hebrew text was that of Bomberg, printed at Venice, 1525, and first corrected in 1547, and still further corrected in subsequent editions. The admirable character of this work is conceded by scholars. It was designed, mainly at least, for Jews and had it been faulty, in any serious way, it would soon have been discovered. There can be little doubt of the general correctness of the text on the part of those having knowledge of the scrupulous care with which the Hebrews have handed down their sacred deposit. Even what are now known as mistakes in the text the Jews have preserved, and these are often reproduced in our Version. The knowledge of Hebrew, when our Version was made, was in its infancy, and so such errors could not always be corrected. The elder Buxtorf issued his Lexicon in 1607, and his larger Grammar in 1609. His Concordance appeared in 1632. The two former could have been of little use to King James' translators, and the latter they never saw. Since then, however, much has been learned of Hebrew, especially from the comparative study of kindred tongues. Far more is known to-day of Sanscrit, of Arabic, of the Syriac, and the