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the Reformation in this kingdom, published a translation of the whole Bible in the English language then spoken; but not being sufficiently acquainted with the Hebrew and Greek languages to translate from the originals, he made his translation from the Latin Bibles, which were at that time read in the churches. So offensive was this translation of the Bible to those who were for taking away the key of knowledge, and means of better information, that a bill, we are told, was brought into the House of Lords, in the 13th year of Richard the Second, and in the year of our Lord 1390, for the purpose of suppressing it; on which the Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle, is reported to have spoken to this effect: We will not be the dregs of all, seeing other nations have the law of God, which is the law of our faith, written in their own language.' At the same time he declared, in a very solemn manner, 'That he would maintain our having this law in our own tongue against those, whoever they should be, who brought in this bill.' The bill, through the influence of the Duke, was rejected; and this success gave encouragement to some of Wickliff's followers to publish another, and more correct, translation of the Bible. But in the year 1408, in a convocation held at Oxford by Archbishop Arundel, it was decreed by a constitution, "That no one should thereafter translate any text of holy Scripture into English, by way of a book, or little book, or tract; and that no book of this kind should be read, that was composed lately in the time of John Wicliff, or since his death." This constitution led the way to great persecution; and many persons were punished severely, and some even with death, for reading the Scriptures in English.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Tyndal, a favourer of the reformed doctrines, which were then making a rapid progress, was compelled by the Romish priests to leave England. After travelling for some time in Germany, where he became acquainted with Luther and other learned men, he settled at Antwerp; and with the assistance of John Fry or Fryth and William Roye, he translated the New Testament from the original Greek, and printed it, with some short glosses, or comments, without a name, at Hamburgh, or Antwerp, about the year 1526. This was the first printed edition of any part of the Holy Scriptures in the English language. The impression was sent over to England; and the eagerness, which was generally shewn by the people, to read the Gospel in the vulgar tongue, quickly excited alarm among those who were devoted to the Romish church. Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor, and Tonstall, Bishop of London, caused all the copies they could purchase or procure, to be burnt at St. Paul's Cross; and the selling or dispersion of them was prohibited under heavy penalties. In the mean time Tyndal, with the assistance of Miles Coverdale, undertook the translation of the Old Testament, and published the Pentateuch at Hamburgh, in the year 1530, with prefaces reflecting upon the English bishops and clergy; and in the same year he published a more correct translation of the New Testament. In 1531, he published an English version of the Prophet Jonah. He was proceeding in the translation of the other books, when he was seized and imprisoned by the Emperour, through the influence of King Henry the Eighth and his ministers; and in the year 1536, he was put to death at Villefont near Brussels, in consequence of a decree made in an assembly at Augsbourg.

In the year 1531, George Joye, an English refugee, published at Strasburgh a translation of Isaiah; and in the year 1534, he published at Antwerp a translation of the Prophecies of Jeremiah, and of the Psalms, and of the Song of Moses.

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In the year 1535, Miles Coverdale published in folio the first English translation of the whole Bible, and dedicated it to King Henry the Eighth. It was probably printed at Zurich; and though it passed under the name of Coverdale only, it is generally supposed that great part of the work was performed by Tyndal, before he was imprisoned, and that his name was not mentioned because he was then under confinement.

Those, who were adverse to any translation of the Scriptures, not daring openly to avow their principles, complained of the inaccuracy of Wickliff's and Tyndal's translations; and on that ground objected to the use of them: but, on the other hand, it was contended by the friends of the Reformation, that, if these translations were erroneous, care should be taken to publish one more faithful. In the year 1535, Cranmer, who had been advanced to the see of Canterbury two years before, and whose endeavours to promote the cause of the Reformation were unremitted, had sufficient interest to procure a petition from both houses of convocation to the King, requesting that he would allow a new translation of the Scriptures to be made. Henry consented; and Cranmer, dividing an old English translation of the New Testament into nine or ten parts, distributed them among the most learned bishops and others, requiring that they should return their respective portions, corrected and amended, by a certain day. Every one sent his part at the time appointed, except Stokesly, Bishop of London, and his positive refusal to have any concern in the business seems to have put a stop to the work for the present. However, early in the year 1536, Lord Cromwell, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and the King's Vicargeneral, and Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters, published injunctions to the clergy, by the King's authority, of which the seventh was, "that every parson or proprietary of any parish church within the realm, before August the first, should provide a book of the whole Bible, both in Latin, and also in English, and lay it in the choir, for every man that would to look and read therein; and should discourage no man from reading any part of the Bible, either in Latin or English, but rather comfort, exhort, and admonish every man to read it as the very word of God, and the spiritual food of man's soul.”

In the year 1537, a folio edition of the Bible was printed by Grafton and Whitchurch, at Hamburgh or at Paris, more probably at Hamburgh: it varied but little from Tyndal's and Coverdale's translation; and the few emendations and additions it contained were supplied by John Rogers, who superintended the publication, and assumed the name of Matthews: hence this is always called Matthews's Bible. A copy of this book was presented by Cranmer to Lord Cromwell, with a request that he would obtain the King's permission for the free use of it among his subjects; and it appears that the royal licence was granted through the application of Cromwell.

In the year 1538, an injunction was published by the Vicar-general, “ordering the clergy to provide, before a certain festival, one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English, and to set it up in some convenient place within their churches, where their parishioners might most commodiously resort and read it;" and in the same year a royal declaration was also published, which the curates were commanded to read in their several churches, informing the people, “that it had pleased the King's Majesty to permit and command the Bible, being translated into their mother tongue, to be sincerely taught by them, and to be openly laid forth in

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every parish church." "It was wonderful," says Strype, "to see with what joy this book of God was received, not only among the more learned, and those who were noted lovers of the Reformation, but generally all over England, among all the common people, and with what greediness God's word was read, and what resort there was to the places appointed for reading it. Every one, that could, bought the book, and busily read it, or heard it read; and many elderly persons learned to read on purpose."

In 1538, Grafton obtained leave from Francis the First, king of France, through the intercession of Henry the Eighth, to print an English Bible at Paris, on account of the superiour skill of the workmen, and the comparative goodness and cheapness of the paper. But this royal permission did not prevent the inquisitors from summoning before them the French printers, the English employers, and Coverdale, who superintended the work; and the whole impression, consisting of 2,500 copies, was seized, and condemned to the flames. Some few copies only were saved; but the English proprietors of this undertaking found means to carry with them to London the presses, types, and printers.

In 1539, Grafton and Whitchurch printed, at London, the Bible in large folio, under the direction of Coverdale and patronage of Cranmer, containing some improvement of Matthews's translation; this is generally called the Great Bible, and it is supposed to be the same which Grafton obtained leave to print at Paris. There were several editions of it, and particularly one in 1540, for which Cranmer wrote a preface, shewing, that "Scripture should be had and read of the lay and vulgar people;" hence this edition of 1540 is called Cranmer's Bible. In this year the curates and parishioners of every parish were required, by royal proclamation, to provide themselves with the Bible of the largest size, before the feast of All Saints, under a penalty of forty shillings a month; and all ordinaries were charged to see that this proclamation was obeyed. A brief or declaration was published to the same effect in the year 1541; but after that time the influence of the popish party increased both in parliament and with the King, and Cranmer's exertions were frustrated by the opposition of Gardiner and other popish bishops. In the year 1542, it was enacted by the authority of parliament, "That all manner of books of the Old and New Testament, of the crafty, false, and untrue translation of Tyndal, be forthwith abolished, and forbidden to be used and kept; and also that all other Bibles, not being of Tyndal's translation, in which were found any preambles or annotations, other than the quotations or summary of the chapters, should be purged of the said preambles or annotations, either by cutting them out, or blotting them in such wise that they might not be perceived or read; and, finally, that the Bible be not read openly in any church, but by the leave of the King, or of the ordinary of the place; nor privately by any women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, husbandmen, labourers, or by any of the servants of yeomen or under;" but, through the interest of Cranmer, a clause was inserted, allowing, "that every nobleman and gentleman might have the Bible read in their houses, and that noble ladies, gentlewomen, and merchants, might read it themselves, but no man or woman under those degrees;" which was all the Archbishop could obtain. In the same year Cranmer proposed in convocation, that there should be a revision of the translations of the Bible; but so many difficulties were started by Gardiner, and the proposal was so feebly supported by the other bishops, that he was unable to accomplish his object, and desisted from the attempt. In the year 1546, the last of his reign, Henry issued a proclamation,

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prohibiting the having and reading of Wickliff's, Tyndal's, and Coverdale's translations, and forbidding the use of any other not allowed by parliament.

Though in the reign of Edward the Sixth the reading of the Scriptures was encouraged by royal proclamations, acts of parliament, and by all other means, and there were many impressions of the English Bible, it does not appear that there was any new translation of the Bible, or even any considerable correction of the old ones, during the seven years and an half that excellent prince sat upon the throne; but it was ordered, that the Epistles and Gospels, and the Lessons, both from the Old and New Testament, should be read in English, in the churches, in the manner they now are.

The terrours of persecution, in the reign of Queen Mary, drove many of our principal Reformers out of the kingdom; several went to Geneva, and there employed themselves in making a new translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1557, and the remainder of the work in 1560. This is called the Geneva Bible. It was accompanied with annotations, which were, as might be expected from the place where they were written, of a Calvinistical cast; and therefore this translation was held in high esteem by the Puritans.

Soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, a new translation of the Bible was undertaken by royal command, and under the direction of Archbishop Parker. Distinct portions, fifteen at least, were allotted to as many persons, eminent for their learning and abilities; they all performed the work assigned to them, and the whole was afterwards revised with great care by other criticks. This translation was published in 1568, with a preface written by the Archbishop; and it is generally called the Bishops' Bible, because eight of the persons originally concerned in it were bishops.

Since the Protestants had now made translations of the Bible into the languages of several countries, that the people might read the Holy Scriptures, the Romanists also, finding it impossible to keep the Bible out of the hands of the common people, made new translations into most of the languages of Europe, to oppose those of the hereticks, (as they termed them,) and to keep the faithful (as they called those of their own communion) from reading translations made by Protestants. But there is this difference of principle in translations made by Papists and those made by Protestants, that the Papists have translated from the Latin Vulgate, as deeming it better, not only than all other Latin translations, but than the Greek of the New Testament itself, in those places where they disagree; whereas the Protestants, in their translations of the Holy Bible, have always had recourse to the original Greek and Hebrew. Thus, when the Papists could not altogether suppress the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, whereby their errours are discovered, they thought it the next way for their purpose, by their partial translation, as much as they could, to obscure them, and by their heretical annotations to pervert them. Hence, in the year, 1582, came forth the Rhemish translation of the New Testament, into English, in which the Papists retained many Eastern, Greek, and Latin words, and introduced so many difficult expressions, that they contrived to render it unintelligible to the common people. A translation of the Old Testament was afterwards published by them at Douay, in two volumes; the former in 1609, the latter in 1610.

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In the conference held at Hampton Court in 1603, before King James the First, between the Episcopalians and Puritans, Dr. Reynolds, the speaker of the Puritans, requested his Majesty that a new translation of the Bible might be made, alleging that those which had been allowed in former reigns were incorrect. Accordingly, his Majesty formed the resolution of causing a new and more faithful translation to be made, and commissioned for that purpose fifty-four of the most learned men in the Universities and other places. At the same time, he required the bishops to inform themselves of all learned men within their several dioceses, who had acquired especial skill in the Hebrew and Greek tongues, and had taken pains in their private studies of the Scriptures, for the clearing up of obscurities either in the Hebrew or the Greek, or for the correction of any mistakes in the former English translations, and to charge them to communicate their observations to the persons employed, that so the intended translation might have the help and furtherance of all the principal learned men in the kingdom.

Before the work was begun, seven of the persons nominated for it either were dead or declined to engage in the task. The remaining forty-seven were ranged under six divisions, and several parcels of the Bible were assigned to them, according to the several places where they were to meet, confer, and consult together. Every one of the company was to translate the whole parcel; then they were each to compare their translations together, and when any company had finished their part, they were to communicate it to the other companies, that so nothing might pass without general consent. If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, doubted or differed upon any place, they were to note the place, and send back the reasons for their disagreement. If they happened to differ about the amendments, the difference was to be referred to a general committee, consisting of the chief persons of each company, at the end of the work. When any passage was found remarkably obscure, letters were to be directed by authority to any learned persons in the land for their judgment thereupon.

The names of the persons, and places where they met, together with the portions of Scripture assigned to each company, were as follows:

1st, Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, first Fellow, then Master, of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, at this time Dean of Westminster, afterwards Bishop of Ely, then of Winchester. 2dly, Dr. John Overall, Fellow of Trinity College, Master of Catherine Hall in Cambridge, at this time Dean of St. Paul's, afterwards Bishop, first of Coventry and Lichfield, then of Norwich. 3dly, Dr. Adrian Saravia, a native of Artois, who cast himself upon the protection of the church of England, and was preferred to Prebends of Canterbury and Westminster. 4thly, Dr. Layfield, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Rector of St. Clement's Danes; as he was skilled in architecture, his judgment was much relied upon for the fabrick of the tabernacle and temple. 5th, Dr. Clerk, Fellow of Christ College in Cambridge, Preacher in Canterbury. 6th, Dr. Leigh, Archdeacon of Middlesex, Rector of Allhallows, Barking. 7th, Dr. Burgley. 8th, Mr. King. 9th, Mr. Thomson. 10th, Mr. Bedwell, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Vicar of Tottenham. These ten met at Westminster, and to them were assigned the Pentateuch, and the history from Joshua to the first book of Chronicles exclusively.

2d, To meet at Cambridge, were chosen eight; namely, 1st, Mr. Lively, the