YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

LOUIS M. RABINOWITZ

NOTES

ON THE

HISTORY AND TEXT

Our £arlv iStidlisb JBibkt

AND OF ITS
translation into Melsb. t
BY
GEORGE LEADER OWEN,
OF
WITHYBUSH, IN THE COUNTY OF PEMBROKE,
SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY HALL,
AND
BACHELOR OF LAWS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

fionbon :
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT AND CO., LTD.
C3eften6am :
F. GASTRELL AND SON, MONTPELLIER EXCHANGE.

I9OI.

^

if
j.

90lo

Whilst these pag:es have been passing: throug^h
the press, the dark shadow of nigfht has
fallen on the land, and the greatest figure
of the world has passed away. One whose
name was, is, and ever will be, one of the
best = loved memories of the Empire ruled
so long by the Great White Queen,
VICTORIA:
A Queen whose absolutely loyal adhesion
to the lines of her sovereign constitutional
rule, provoked from her people, on their
part, an unprecedented offering of devoted
loyalty ;
A Monarch, under whose beneficent sway
the kingdom she came to rule, so long
ago, expanded into an Empire, on which
the sun never sets, the greatest the world
has seen;
But above and beyond these a Woman
whose purity of life — as wife and mother
— whose loving sympathy with the poorest
of her subjects in their sorrow, whose
majestic carriage of her own deep griefs,
drew from the whole civilized world,
when, alas ! we lost her,
A TRIBUTE OF TEARS.

SOfAZ J^OTES ON T|^E JEXT

garly £ngU$h Sible.

" To my early knowledge of the Bible I owe the best part
of my taste in literature, and the most precious and, on the
whole, the one essential part of my education." — Ruskin.
"Amongst all our national treasures the greatest is the
English Bible. Unique amongst hooks in its unapproachable
dignity and grandeur, it holds amongst us an undisputed
pre-eminence as the most splendid literary monument that
we possess of the genius of our native tongue." — H. W. Hoare.

To the student of English words no books are so rich,
both in interest and instruction, as the older versions of
our Bible, although down to the time of Wycliffe the
translations were only fragmentary. But in them may be
read the history of the language of England from the
Anglo-Saxon days of Alfred the Great down to the reign
of Queen Victoria.
Before referring to those versions, a brief outline of
the sources from which our English translations are derived
may be of interest.

It is a curious fact that although the Books of the
Old Testament were originally written in Hebrew, the two
oldest copies known to the world are translations into
Grreek and Latin.
The oldest Hebrew manuscript in existence is of little
earlier date than William the Conqueror. All the old
Hebrew MSS. before a.d. 900 have vanished from the
eaa-th. In the Preface to The Revised Version of 1885 it is
stated that the earliest Hebrew MS. of the Scriptures, of
which the age is certainly known, bears date a.d. 916.
The oldest version of the Old Testament known in the
present day, and among the first collections of the Holy
Writings ever made, is the Greek translation called :
The Septuagint, or the Bible of the Seventy.
It was so called because the number of translators
was supposed to have been about seventy.
It was translated about 280 b.c. by command of
Ptolemy Philadelphus from very ancient Hebrew MSS., by
Jewish Scholars of Alexandria, and is supposed to have
perished, with many thousands of other MSS., when the
Library of Alexandria was destroyed by fire during the
siege of the City by Julius Caesar. Three copies, however,
in the Greek tongue, are still extant, and one of the three
is, curiously enough, in the hands of each of the great
divisions of the Christian Church :
I.— The Alexandeine Manuscript (Codex A), pre
sented to Charles 1st. a.d. 1628, by the then Patriarch of
Constantinople, is in the possession of the Protestant
Church in the British Museum.

II. — The Vatican Manuscript has been in the custody
of the Roman Catholics for some five centuries, and is kept
in the Library of the Papal Palace at Rome.
III. — And the Sinaitic Manuscript, discovered by Pro
fessor Tischendorf in 1844 at the Convent of St. Catherine
at the foot of the mountain, is guarded by the priests of
the Greek Church at St. Petersburg. The Codex Sinaiticus
is, of the three Codices, the most ancient.
But although these MSS. are the oldest known copies
of the Bible in the world, being supposed to date from
between 300 and 450 a.d., they were not discovered till
comparatively recent times, and neither of them was known
to the translators of the Authorised Version of 1611. The
first time they were used by English translators was in the
preparation of the Revised Version of 1885, of which more
hereafter. The Septuagint contained those Sacred Writings that
we now know as " The Old Testament," a name first given
to them (as far as we know) by the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. iii,
14) : " For until this day remaineth the same vail untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament." It also con
tained those books which we now call "The Apocrypha" —
or " things hidden " — which in the Great Bible and others
of that date were called Hagiographa, or sacred writings.
The term " New Testament " occurs first. (St. Mark,
xiv, 24) " This is my blood of the New Testament." The
name "Bible" is supposed to have been given to the
whole collection of these writings by S. Chrysostom in the
5th. century.
It is a somewhat curious fact, and worthy of note, that
the last verses (9-20) of the last chapter of St. Mark's
Gospel, in which Christ is alleged to have given to His

disciples the miraculous powers afterwards claimed by the
Priests of Holy Church, are not to be found in the two
older of the three MSS., viz. : the Vatican and the Sinaitic.
. The next great Version of the Bible given to the
world, about three centuries after Christ, contained the
Old and the New Testaments, and was in the Latin tongue.
It is commonly known as
The Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome.
It was prepared by the great scholar Eusebius
Hieronymus about a.d. 385, the Old Testament being
translated directly from the Hebrew.
The Vulgate is said to have been translated into Latin,
for the use of the Latin speaking Church in North Africa,
during the fourth Century. S. Jerome by his great know
ledge of languages and his wonderful energy, did more
than any man who ever lived towards the interpretation
of the Holy Scriptures. He was born in Dalmatia about
a.d. 329, and acquired his knowledge of Hebrew in the
Syrian deserts, and thus was able to translate the Bible
from Hebrew into Latin.
The Vulgate was for nearly a thousand years the
parent of every version of the Scriptures in Western
Europe. It was the only Bible from which the early
Anglo-Saxon fragmentary translations were made — as the
knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was then practically non
existent — and it has left its imprint on our own Authorised
Version. It was from this version that John Wycliffe and his
fellow-labourers, about a thousand years later, translated
the first English Bible. From this version also, the Roman

Catholic Rhemish and Douay versions are taken, and in the
words of Mr. Paterson Smyth : — " It was the parent of
every version of the Scriptures in Western Europe for
more than ten centuries." In fact, it was the origin of all
our translations of the Bible till the time of William
Tyndale. From the time of St. Jerome the Bible remained for
many centuries entombed in Latin, " a tongue not under
standed of the people." It was available only to "the
Clerks " and other erudite persons, and was a sealed book
to the mass of the Laity — the lewd people. How it got
eventually into their language atid into their hands, is it
not written in the Book of the Martyrs ?

10

I. — Translations from the Latin Vulgate a.d. 385.
7th. to 14th. Centuries : — Fragments of the Psalms,
Gospels, &c., made by Alfred the Great and by
Anglo-Saxon Monks and others, before the inven
tion of Printing.
A.D. 1382. The Manuscript Version of Wycliffe and
Nicholas de Hereford.
1388. Revision of the same by John Purvey, also MS.

II. — Printed Translations from the Hebrew, Greek and
other languages.
1525. Tyndale's New Testament ¦) From the original
1530. Tyndale's Old Testament ) Hebrew and Greek
1535. Coverdale's Bible, translated "out of Latin
and Dutch," as stated by himself.
1537. Mathew's Bible ^ Practically a Revision of
1539. Taverner's Bible ) Coverdale's Bible.
1539. The .first Edition of the Great Bible.
1560. The Genevan Bible.
1568. The Bishops' Bible.
1611. The Authorised Version.
in. — A Translation from the same sources, with the addition
of the Alexandrian, the Vatican, and the
Sinaitic Codices.
The Revised Version of 1885.

11
In the Anglo-Saxon times some fragments of the Bible
were translated into English, but it must be borne in mind
that the Anglo-Saxon of that age is no more the English
of to-day, than the Latin Vulgate is modern Italian.
Amongst them the best known are :
The Gospel of St. John by the Venerable Bede, about
A.D. 700 ; (the first portion of the New Testament translated
into the vernacular language of this country) ; the Ten
Commandments and some fragments of Exodus by King
Alfred the Great were also translated sometime in the 9th.
century. Of the best known author of these early fragments —
often rather adaptations than translations — a recent writer
says — "During the 7th. century, in the beautiful Abbey of
St. Hilda, that hangs over the waves of the North Sea on
the cliffs of the White Town of the North, Coedmon, a
Whitby monk (we are told by the Venerable Bede, the
grand old monk of Jarrow), had sung the story of the
Creation of the world, and of man, and had left verses on
other histories of Holy Writ."
Bede himself, who, says Mr. Dore, " was one of the
brightest gems in the Crown of the Church of England,"
left as a precious legacy to the Church he loved, a transla
tion of the Gospel of S. John.
About the close of the 7th. century the Psalter was
translated into Anglo-Saxon by Guthlac, a Saxon anchorite,
and another version of the Psalter was made shortly after
wards by S.' Aldhem, Abbot of Malmsbury, afterwards
Bishop of Sherburne.
^Ifric, another monk, in the 10th. century, translated
the first seven books of the Old Testament : however, all these
were but fragmentary, they were paraphrases rather than

12
translations, and it was not until the 14th. century that the
real work of translation was commenced.
King Alfred's translation of the Ten Commandments
is a most interesting specimen of the language spoken in
England at that day ; it commences thus :
Drihten was sprecende thses worde to Moyse, and thus cwoeth : —
Ic am Drihten thy God. lo the sit geloedde of
Aegypta londe and of heora threow dome.
Ne lufa-thu othre frenide godas ofer me.
Which is, translated literally into modern English :
The Lord was speaking these words to Moses and thus said (quoth) :
I am the Lord thy God. I led thee out of Egypt's land and its
thraldom. Love not other strange Gods over me.
It is curious that the word Drihten, the Anglo-Saxon
word commonly used to ascribe to God or Christ the title
of Lord, should have completely disappeared from our
language. It is found in use as late as a.d. 1320 in a
metrical paraphrase of the Bible called 'Cursor Mundi'
by an unknown author :
"Thoru the might of Sant Drihten:"
(Through the might of the Holy Lord.)
'Visit of the Magi.
In Wycliffe's Bible the above verses run thus : —
" And the lord spak alle these wordis :
I am the lord God that ladde the out of the lond of egypt fro the
house of servage.
thou sohalt not have alien goddis before me.'"
In a MS. belonging to Bishop Bonner, for which he
claimed in a.d. 1555 an age of eight score years, the words
are: —
"And the Lord speek alle these wordes.
I am the lord thi god that hath lad the out of the londe of Bgypte
from the house of thraldom.
thou shalt not have alyen goddis before me.''

13
And in Bishop Coverdale's Bible a.d. 1535 it is thus
rendered : —
" And the Lorde spake all these wordes and sayde.
I am the Lorde thy God which have brought the out of the londe of
Bgipte from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have none other goddis in my sif^ht."
In our Bible of 1611 (Exodus xx, 1) it reads :
" And God spake all these words saying
I am. the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
A metrical version of the Old and New Testaments
called " Sowlehele " was published in the 14th. century, as
also a metrical version of the Psalms : and a Prose Psalter
by Richard Rolle de Hampole, author of the "Prick of
Conscience," an Augustine Monk, a.d. 1340; and several
other fragmentary translations. Of his own translation of
the Psalter, Richard Rolle, the Yorkshire monk, better
known as the hermit of Hampole, quaintly says : —
" In this work I soke no straunge Ynglys, bot lightest
and communest, and swilk that is most like unto the
Latyne, so y' thai that knowes noght ye Latyne, be (by)
the Ynglys, may come to manie Latyne words.
In the Translacion I felogh (follow) the letter als-
mekill (as much) as I may, and tho I find no proper Ynglys
I felogh the wit of the words, so that thai that shall read
it shall not drede erring. In the expowning I felogh holie
Doctors. For it may comen into sum envious mannes
honde, that knowis not what he sul saye, that will saye
that I wist not, what I sayed, and so do harm tille (to)
hym and tylle other."
The Saxon words of these early translators are often
more terse, strong, and simple than our modern equivalents,
and it is almost a matter of regret that we have not

14
retained some of the expressive words of Archbishop
.iiElfric, who speaks of a centurion as a ' hundred man ';
of a disciple as a 'learning cnight' (youth). The man
with the dropsy he calls ' the water-sick man ' ; the
treasury is 'the gold-hoard'; and Sunday is 'the reste
daeg ' (the rest day.)
It will interest the student of Anglo-Saxon and English
to compare the language of the successive translations of
the Bible, and an instance is given below of the 15th. Psalm,
the first text being taken from the Northumbrian Metrical
Psalter (a.d. 1260), the second from Nicholas Hereford's
Version of the Psalms, a.d. 1380, and the third from our
Authorised Version. Metrical Psalter, A.D. 1260.
1. — Lavard. in thi telde who sal wone ?
In thi hali hille or wha reste mone ?
2. — Whilke that incomes wemles,
And ai wirkes rightwisenes.
3. — That spekes sothnes in hert his,
And noght did swikeldom in tung his,
Ne did to his neghburgh ivel ne gram,
Ne ogaines his neghburgh upbraiding nam.

5. — Ne his silver til okir noght es givand
Ne giftes took over, underhand ;
That does these night and dai,
Not sal he be stired in ai. (aye).
II.
Hereford's Psalter, a.d. 1380.
1. — Lord who shal duelle in thi tabernacle
or who shall eft resten in thi holy Ml ?
2. — That goth in without wem, and
werkith ryztt wisness.
3. — That speketh treuth in his herte
that did not trecherie in his tunge,
Ne did to his neyhbore evel.
And reprof toe not agen his neyboris.

15
5. — That his monee yaf not to usure
and gifts upon the innocent too not
He that doth these thiugus,
Shall not be moved into without ende.
III.
Authorised Version, a.d. 1611.
1. — Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle P
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill ?
2. — He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness.
and speaketh the truth in his heart.
3. — He that baokbiteth not with his tongue,
nor doeth evil to his neighbour,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
5. — He that putteth not out his money to usury,
nor taketh reward against the innocent.
He that doeth these things shall never be
moved.
In the 15th. Psalm from the Metrical Psalter are
several words that have either become obsolete, or have so
changed their features as to be no longer recognizable : —
Lavard : is an old spelling of our word Lord, when it
was in a transition state between 'Hlaford' (as it was
spelt by earlier writers) and our modern word ' Lord.' It
was applied in the 13th. century, as it is to-day, to the
Deity, as well as to a nobleman. The word 'Hlaford' or
'Hlafweard' was originally derived from two Anglo-Saxon
words Hlaf = a loaf, and Weard=a warden, and the 'Lord'
originally was only the Loaf-Jceeper. In the same way the
old word Hlaf dige, or Lady, meant the Loaf-kneader. These
are instances of words that, as Archbishop Trench says,
" have risen in life." But the following illustration of the
rise in life of words is perhaps even more remarkable. By
a gradual development — the humble offices of 8ty-ward
[Sty : an inclosure for swine. — Prop. Skeat] and that of an
equally humble one, the Hogward or keeper of the hogs —

16
have given the name of Stewart to a Royal house and of
Howard to a ducal one.
Telde :— a tent or tabernacle, remaining with us in
the form of " tilt " a booth or canvas covering.
MoNE : — may or shall. The Freemasons still use this
verb in their ritual in the sense of Amen. They say — " So
mote it be."
Wemless : — -spotless, is used by Wycliffe in his Psalter.
Sothness : — truth — " In good sooth," although it has
fallen out of modern parlance, appears frequently in the
works of Shakespeare and more recent authors.
Swikeldom :— treachery, alsousedin Layamon's "Brut"
A.D. 1205, is quite obsolete, and the same may be said of
Gram = anger.
Nam:— to take, survives only in the first syllable of
' nimhle,' of which word the original sense is "to take as
one's share" — (Skeat) , but is perpetuated in the name of one
of Falstaff's followers — Corporal JSfym, who acquired this cog
nomen from his habit of 'taking' — generaUy what did
not belong to him.
The following specimen of Hampole's Psalter — the
first translation into English prose — is interesting as shewing
how, as early as the year a.d. 1340, the Anglo-Saxon
language was hardening, or perhaps we should say soften
ing, down into the English we now speak.
The specimen chosen is the 23rd. Psalm — "The Lord is
my Shepherd, &c.," which is too well known to require to
be placed here for comparison.
Our lord governeth me : and nothing to me shal wante : stede of
pasture that he me sette.
In the water of hetyng forth he me broughte ; my soule he turnyde.

17
He ladde me on in the stretis of rygtwisnesse : for his name.
For win gif I hadde goo in the myddil of the shadewe of deeth : T
shall not dreede yveles : for thou art with me.
Thi geerde and thi staf : thei have comflrted me. Thou hast greythid
in my sygt a bord agens them that angryn me :
Thou fattide myn heved in oyle : and my chalys drunkenyng what is
cleer. And thi mercy shall folewe me : in alle the dayes of my lyf.
And that I wone in the hous of oure lord in the lengthe of days.
But no general translation of the Scriptures was
attempted until the time of one of the most striking and
sterling characters of our history, the pure and patriotic
Parish Priest of Lutterworth — John Wycliffe, sometime
Master of BaUiol College, Oxford.

A very interesting and strong version of the Psalms is
that written in the Broad Scotch Dialect by Dr. P. H.
Waddell, one of which runs thus : —
Psalm xxiii. (a. v.)
The sheep-keeping of the Lord's kind and canny, wi' a braw howff
at lang last : David keeps his sheep, the Lord keeps David.
1. — The Lord is my herd, nae want sal fa' me.
2. — He lowts me till lie among green howes : He airts me atowre
by the lown watirs ;
3. — He wakens my wa-gaen saul; He weises me roun, for His ain
Names Sake, intil right roddins.
4. — Na ! tho' I gang thro' the dead-mirk-dail ; e'en there sal I dread
nae skaithen : for Yersel are nar-by me. Yer stok and Yer stay baud me
baith fu' cheerie.
5. — My buird Ye hae hanselled in face o' my faes ; Ye hae drookit
my head wi' oyle ; my bicker is fu' an' skailin.
6. — E'en sae, sai gude-guidin and gude-gree gang wi' me, ilk day o'
my living ; and ever mair syne, i' the Lord's ain howff at lang last, sal I
mak byden. This edition of the Psalms was quaintly entitled : —
" The Psalms, frae Hebrew intH Scottis."
The headings of many of the Psalms are pathetically
quaint. For instance, the nineteenth Psalm, which begins

18
(a.v.) "The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the
Pirmament sheweth His Handiwork " is headed : —
" God's Lift an' God's Law : what David sees intil
them baith : what mony might see forby, an
they leuk in his e'en "
The 54th. Psalm which begins (a.v.) " Save me, O
God, by thy Name, and judge me by thy strength," has this
plaintive refrain : —
" David uncolie worried an' harried flings
the weight o' a' ontil God "
At the beginning of each Psalm, we are informed who
wrote it : in such words as : —
" Ane heigh-lilt o' David"
or
" Ane heigh-lilt o' Asaph's "
and for the anonymous writers we have the somewhat curt
statement : — "By Wha's No Said."
The first Bible printed in Scotland was : —
The Bassandyne Bible of 1579.
The title page has these words : " The Bible and Holy
Scriptures contained in the Old and Newe Testament,
translated according to the Ebreu and Greek, and con
ferred with the best translations in divers languages. With
most profitable annotations upon all the hard places of the
Holy Scripture, and other things of grete importance, mete
for the godly reader."
The Bassandyne Bible is stated to have been printed in
Roman type, at Edinburgh, by Thomas Bassandyne, cum
privilegio : which privilege assumed the practical form of a
payment to the Crown "of the soume of twa hundreth
pundis, money of this Realm."

19
The General Assembly ordered that every parish in
Scotland should purchase a copy of this Bible, at the price
of five pounds. But there was so little demand for the
book, that the Privy Council made an order inflicting a
penalty of £10 upon "every householder worth three
hundred marks of yearly rent, and all substantious yeomen
and burgesses, esteemed as worth £500, in land and goods,
who did not possess a Bible in the vulgar tongue. They
also appointed searchers or inquisitors to go from house to
house, to see that such householders had provided them-
selves with Bibles.
And as it was found that the same Bible was made to
do duty for more than one house, the searchers were em
powered, " to require the sicht of the Bible, to see that it
be marked with their own name, for eschewing of fraudulent
dealing in that behalf."
The Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh also
commanded all householders to purchase Bibles under-
severe pains and penalties, and informed them where they
were " sauled."

20

Circa 1382-3.
John Wycliffe — whose name (spelt in diverse ways) is
one of the highest value in English history — was born in
Yorkshire about 1325.
Of the history of his youth, little is known, and he
first came into public knowledge as Master of Balliol
College, Oxford. But he soon retired from his mastership
to a college living, and in 1374 was presented by the
Crown to the Rectory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire,
where he died and was buried. He was a strong opponent
of the Papal power : he denied the priestly power of abso
lution, the system of enforced confes.sion, and the doctrines
of penance and indulgences.
He appealed to the people in their own language and
began his translation of the Bible, of which, as yet, there
was no complete English version.
The characteristic of his teaching was its insistence on
inward religion, in opposition to the outward rules and
ceremonies which hampered the creed of the Roman
Church. But he brought the wrath of Holy Church down upon
himself at last, by assailing the fundamental doctrine of
transubstantiation, for which he was called to account by the
convocation at Oxford and by the Council of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, but he died shortly afterwards in
1384 and was buried at Lutterworth.
Thirty years after his death, forty-five articles, ex
tracted from Wycliffe's writings, were condemned as
heretical by the Council of Constance, which ordered the

21
bones of the heretic to be dug up and burned, a sentence
executed thirteen years later.
Wycliffe's Bible, a.d. 1383, is the most interesting
example we have of our early English at the time when the
different dialects were undergoing the process of unifica
tion. The three principal dialects of early English were :
(1) The Northumbrian, spoken in the district lying
between the Humber and the Clyde, which district
at that time bore the name that is now confined to one
portion only, the County of Northumberland. This dialect
is perhaps best preserved in what is now called Lowland
Scotch, of which the strongest examples are to be found in
the poems of Robert Burns, and of James Hogg, the Ettrick
Shepherd, and in the prose writings of Sir Walter Scott,
and the pleasant pages of the " Noctes Ambrosianee " of
Christopher North."
(2) The Midland was in use in the country lying
between Northumbria and the Thames.
(3) The Southern, spoken in all the counties South
of the Thames, in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, and
parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
The Midland dialect finally prevailed in literature and
usage, and it was in this dialect that Wycliffe wrote his
Bible ; although, as he was born in Yorkshire, we occasion
ally find Northumbrian words.
The spelling of this dialect (says Professor Skeat) was
phonetic ; as the word was spelt so it was pronounG3d. He
also notices in Wycliffe's diction the use of familiar words
in an obsolete sense, and instances amongst others : — Take
for give ; chimnie for furnace ; cofynes for baskets ; eddrie
hriddis, literally adders birds in the sense of adders' broods ;

22
catel for goods and chattels ; sad in the sense of firm, &c.,
&c. But there are many other interesting examples of the
change of the orthography and diction of our language that
might be given. The following are mostly taken from the
Gospels : " Taken an aunsewere in sleep " is rendered in our
modern version, " warned of God in a dream."
Town, or Town as we now spell it, is there used for a farm
or field (St. Luke xiv., 18.), its original Scandinavian
meaning: — "The first seide Y have bought a toun and Y
have nede to go out and see it." Walter Scott retained
this usage in the Lowland Scotch dialect of Andrew Fair-
service {Roh Roy). "Where there's nae leddy about the
toun (farm) to count the apples."
Clepe and cleped are used for call and called :
" Fro Egypt have I clepid my son,''
" And he shall be clepid a Nazarey."
Where the Authorised Version gives ' Repent ye '
Wycliffe says, " Do ye penaunce." Sour dough is used for
' leaven,' and Therf for ' unleavened bread,' Knygthis for
' soldiers,' Mesels for 'lepers', Castel for 'a town or village,'
and Hei (hay) or heye for 'grass.'
" Make alle men sitte to mete, bi cumpanyes on green
heye." St. Mark vi., 39.
Deem was generally used for ' judge,' and is still
retained in the title of the Manx Judge — the Deemster.
A good example of the use of this word is to be found in
St. Matthew vii., 1., " Nile ye deme, that ye be not demed;
for in what doom ye demen, ye schulen be demed." In the
Authorised Version the text runs : — Judge not that ye be
not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall

23
be judged." In several places Wycliffe uses Christ or
Crist in the general sense of ' anointed.'
" Doing mercy to his crist David (to his anointed, to
David. A.v.) Ps. xviii., 51. "Nyle ye touch my cristis (mine
anointed) Ps. cv., 15.
Yvel at ese and mal ese are the quaint, though good,
expressions for ' sick ' ; and disease is used in the sense of
' trouble ' or ' annoyance ' : —
" Comaunder (Master), the puple thristen and diseasen
thee." St. Luke viii., 46. There is a curious expression
in the same chapter :
" And had spendid al hir catel in leeches " (money on
doctors) .
In many texts in Wycliffe's Bible we find the word
Gess (guess) used in the sense of ' think ' or ' suppose,' as
it is used colloquially to-day in the United States. Few
phrases are in more frequent use across the water than the
Yankee ' I guess.'
" Symount answered and seide, Y gess ! that he to
whom he forgaf more." St. Luke vii., 48.
" For thei gessen that thei ben herd in her (their)
myche speeche." St. Matt, vi., 7.
"Who gessist thou is grittir in the Kyngdom of
hevenes ?" St. Matt, xviii., 1.
Drench formerly meant to drown, and was so used by
old writers down to the time of Chaucer and Wycliffe. It
occurs in the 'Millere's Tale' (v. 3616) of The Canterbury
Tales. " Noe's flood comen walwing as the sea
To drenchen Alison."

24
In the passage in Wycliffe's Bible describing Peter
walking on the water we find : — ¦
" And whanne he began to drench, he cried and saide
Lord make me saaf." St. Matt, xiv., 30.
In another gospel there is a very curious use of this
word : —
" Thou schalt be drenchid til in to helle." (Thou shalt
be thrust down to hell. A.v.) St. Luke x., 15.
Drowning in fire seems to us a curious and complicated
metaphor. Amongst other words used by Wycliffe, and now
obsolete or changed in signification, may be noticed —
Biriel, a tomb.
" And when the bodi was takun, Joseph lappide it in
a clene sendel (cloth), and leide it in his new birial that he
had hewun in a stoon." St. Matth. xxvii, 60.
Flom, a stream or river : ' And thei weren baptised of
hym in the flom Jordan.' St. Mark i, 5.
Margarite, the Greek word for pearl : ' Nether caste
youre Margaritis bifore swyne.' St. Matth. vii, 6.
Meyne, the old English word for household or atten
dants : ' If thei han cleped the hosbonde man Belsabub,
hou mych more hys household meyne ? ' St. Matth. x, 25.
' Whom the lord ordained on hys meyne.' St. Matth. xxiv, 46.
'They summoned up their meiny — straight took horse.'
King Lear, Act 2, Sc. 4.
Queerne, a mill or millstone : ' Twey wymmen schulen
be gryndying in o queerne.' St. Matth. xxiv, 41.
Frendesse, a female friend : Spousesse, a bride :
Lomb and Lamhren, lamb and lambs. Lambren was

25
the old plural for lamb, taking the Saxon form ending in
en, (instead of the French in s.) Amongst the few words
that still retain the Saxon plural termination may be
mentioned oxen, brethren, and children. Eyen, for eyes,
and sisteryn for sisters, were in common use formerly,
but have died out. Volatiles, birds. 'And axe thou
volatiles of the air.' Job xii, 7.
Herborles, harbourless.
' I was herborles, and ye herboriden me.'
(I was homeless and ye lodged me)
' I was a stranger, and ye took me in.' A.V.
St. Matth. XXV, 36.
This is a very noteworthy instance of the change in
the meaning of words. The primary meaning of harbour,
in the present day, is a place of shelter for ships : but it
originally meant ' soldiers' quarters.' It was derived from
the A.S. heri, an army, and bergen, a lodging.
The root heri still remains in Hereford, the ford of
the army, and Harrogate, the road or way of the army.
It is also found in Harbinger, the forerunner, the man
who went in front to provide billets for the soldiers ; and
in Herring, the army fish, so called from the immense
hosts in which it travels.
In the Genevan Bible we find the word in the form of
Harbourous :
' Be ye harbourous (hospitable) one to another.'
1st. Peter iv, 9.
Chaucer uses the word in several forms :
Eerbergage, an old French word for lodging : ' Upon
this argument of Herbergage.' Prologue to the 'Coke'sTale.'
Herbergeours, harbingers, providers of lodging : ' By
Herbergeours that wenten him before.'
"The Man of Lawe's Tale," 5415.

26
Herberwe, an Inn :
' I saw not this year, swiche a compagnie
At once in this herberwe, as is now.'
Canterbury Tales. Prologue.
Hereward the Wake, the ' Last of the English,' is a
name well known in our history, and Herepath, the army
path, still survives as a family name.
We find also the old English word Broc for badger :
' They wenten aboute in broc skynnes, and in skynnes
of geet (goats) , nedi, angwis-ched and turmentid.' Hebrews, xi, 37.
Leep, a basket. This word is still in use locally in
the form of bee-leep or beehive :
' But his disciples token him bi night, and leeten him
doun in a leep by the wall.' Deeds (Acts) ix, 27.
Wycliffe uses frequently the quaint expression — 'litel
man of wit,' where we have simple in the Authorised Ver
sion :— ' A litel man of wit schal be the wisere.' Wye.
'The simple is made wise.' A.V., Prov. xxi, 11.
Nol, the head :
' With hard nol (stiff-necked, A.V.) and uncircumsided
hearts." Deeds, vii, 51.
In the form of noule it is used in this sense by Spenser :
' For yet his noule was totty (dizzy) of the must
.Which he was treading in the wine vats.'
Fairie Queene, 7, 7, 39.
Must was the old word for new wine, and is used by
Wycliffe : ' For these men ben full of must.' Deeds, ii, 14.
Thewes, for manners :
' Nyle ye be disseyved, for evil speechis distrien good

27
thewes.' (Evil communications corrupt good manners.
A.V.). I. Cor., XV, 34.
' As fele thede, as fele thewes.'
(As many lands, as many customs).
Proverbs ofHendyng, a.d. 1307.
Ether (either), is constantly used in this version for
• or,' as :
' Go to the ant ether pissemire.' Prov. vi, 6.
These are a few of the many instances that might be
given, of the change in our language since Wycliffe's Bible
first began to fix its etymology. It is also to be remarked
that the book called in our Authorised Version ' The Acts
of the Apostles ' is headed in Wycliffe's Version ' Deeds of
Apostles,' and 'Revelations' is called the Apocalypse.
The spelling of the names of persons and places in
Wycliffe's Bible is sometimes very peculiar. For instance,
the name of Pontius Pilate is found in the form of ' Pilat
of Pounce,' ' Levi of Alphi' represents Levi, son of Alpheus,
Simon Peter is spelt ' Symount Petir,' and Judas Iscariot
' ludas Scarioth.' Gethsemane is hardly to be recognised
in the word Jessamanye or Lama Sabacthani in Lamaza
botany. It is to Wycliffe that we largely, in fact principally,
owe the consolidation of the various dialects existing in
his time in England into one, and that, almost our present,
language. No better example of the gradual but great
change that has taken place in the English language could
be given, than the comparison of the Lord's Prayer as it
was written in the time of King Alfred (a.d. 871 — 901)
with the Lord's Prayer 500 years later in Wycliffe's Bible,
and of that again with the same prayer in the Authorised
Version of 1611, which is in the same language as that of
the Revised Version of 1885.

28
The Lord's Prayer in the time of King Alfred :
Uren Fader dhic art in heofnas
Our Father which art in Heaven
Sic gehalged dhin noma
Be hallowed Thy name
To cymedh dhin ric
Come Thy kingdom
Sic dhin willa sue is in heofnas and in eardhs
Be Thy will so as in heaven and in earth
Vren hlaf ofer wirthe sel us to daeg
Our loaf over substantial (?) give us to-day
And forgef us scylda urna
And forgive ns debts ours
Sue we forgef an sculdgun vrum
As we forgive debtors ours
And no inleadh vridk in costung
And not inlead ns in temptation
Als gefrig vrich fro ifle
But free us from evil
It may be n'oticed in this version of the Lord's Prayer that
the concluding sentence " For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory for ever. Amen " is omitted. It
appears in the Authorised Version of the Bible (1611) in
the Gospel of St. Matthew, but is not given by St. Luke.
It was also omitted from both gospels by the New Testa
ment Company in their Revised Version of 1885.
It is interesting to compare this version of Alfred's
era with the Lord's Prayer in Wycliffe's Bible as it shows
the gradual formation of a common tongue, and the ex
tinction of the patois or provincial dialects which at one
time were almost distinct languages.
The Lord's Prayer in Wycliffe's Bible, a.d. ] 380.
Our Fadir that art in hevenes
Halewid be thi name ;
Thi kingdom come to ;

29
Be thi will done in earth as in hevene ;
Gyve to us this dai oure breed
oure other substance ;
And forgive to us oure dettis ;
As we f orgyven to oure dettouris ;
And lede us not into temptacioun ;
But delyvere us fro yvel. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer in Tyndale's time (a.d. 1526) had
assumed very nearly the form it bears in our Authorised
Version : —
0 our father which arte in heven, halowed be thy
name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy will be fulfilled, as
well in erth, as hyt ys in heven. Geve us this daye oure
dayley breade. And forgeve us our treaspases, even as
we forgeve them which treaspas us. Leede us not into temp-
tacion, but delyvre us from yvell. Amen.
Another interesting example of the changes in our
language is cited by Mr. Halliwell, who gives the Apostles'
Creed in the early Kentish dialect : —
Ich leve me God, fader almiti, makere of hevene and
of erthe, and in Jesu Crist his sone on lepi oure Lord, that
ikend is of the holi gost, ybore of Marie mayde, ypined
under Pouns Pilate, ynaled a rode, dyad, and be-bered,
yede doun to helle, thane thridde daye arcs vram the
dyade, stead tohevenes, zit a the right half of God the
vader almiti, thannes to comene he is to deme the quike
and the dyad. Ich yleve me the holi gost, holi cherche
generalliche, mennesse of halzen, lesnesse of sennes, of
vlesse arising, and lyf everlastinde. Zuo be hit.
Right half for right side occurs frequently in the older
translations.

30
On lepi used above is an old word, meaning ' single.'
"An lepi blissa," (Our only bliss) "The Soul's Ward,"
V. 170. The intervals of time between King Alfred and Wycliffe,
and between Wycliffe and the writers of the present day
are about the same— 500 years, and it is worthy of remark
that during the first epoch the language of England changed
so greatly that the Lord's Prayer of Alfred and that of
Wycliffe might have been written in two distinct tongues ;
but that in the second period the language has remained
almost the same, and the words of Wychffe are even at this
day " understanded of the people."
And the reason of this is, as already stated, that it was
Wycliffe himself who, more than any other writer in English
history, contributed to fix the spelling and pronunciation of
our words ; and this was principally through his translation
of the Bible which, although only a translation of a transla
tion (being based on the Latin Vulgate of Jerome, a.d. 385)
was the first complete version of the Scriptures given to our
country in the language of its people about a.d. 1383.
Wycliffe's Bible, although presented only in manuscript,
was largely circulated, and perhaps the care required in the
copying, contributed to preserve uniformity in spelling.
However, shortly after his death came the invention of
printing, and in 1483, about a century later, was born Wil
liam Tyndale destined to produce the first printed copy of
the New Testament in English— the foundation of all ver
sions since published — and to fix substantially the spelling
of the English language for all time.
To Chaucer, to whom Spenser in 'Phe Fairie Queene,
refers as : — "That old Dan Geffrey in whose gentle sprite,
The pure well-head of poesy did dwell,''

31

and to Gower we owe the formation of our tongue, and to
Wycliffe and Shakespeare its perfection. Chaucer and
Gower may have hewn the stone, but Wycliffe and Shakes
peare carved the statue.
Wycliffe's Bible was our first entire Bible in English.'
How far this translation may be ascribed to Wycliffe's
personal labours, is not accurately known, but the greater
part of the New Testament, and part of the Old, are from
his pen. His friend, Nicholas de Hereford, is responsible for
the first part of the Old Testament, down to the book of
Baruch, of which the manuscript is in the Bodleian Library.
But as the entrance of the Holy Land was denied to Moses,
so it was not granted to Wycliffe to realise the desire of his
life, the complete translation of the Bible into the English
tongue. But it was accomplished soon after his death by his
faithful friend John Purvey, one of the leaders of the
Lollards, " with mych travaile and with the ayde of diverse
felawis and helperis," about 1390. A valuable reprint was
issued from the Clarendon Press in 1879, and another of
the Books of Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Solomon's
Song in 1881, under the direction of that most erudite
philological scholar, the Autocrat of Words, Professor
Skeat. Of this Bible, says Mr. Hoare, It is the " provocatio
ad populum " of our first Reformer. It is the dying legacy
of the sturdiest fighter of the day to the people of England.
It is from the hand of the father of English prose, it em
bodies the great principle that the Bible is the People's
Book and should speak ' the language of the People."
Wyckliffe, like all strong men, was before his day, but

as

32
an old English saw has it " Strong men and water cleave
their way."
Although this Version is generally called "Wycliffe's"
it is really the work of three men : — himself and his friend
Nicholas de Hereford, who made the translation about a.d.
1381, and John Purvey who revised it some seven or eight
years later.
As a translation, says Mr. Hoare, it is a noble work,
but it lacks uniformity of style, and is of very uneven
merit, the result probably of the three collaborators. The
diction is homely, rugged, and primitive, for our language
was then only in the process of formation ; and the expres
sions often are of refreshing naivety and quaintness. But
whatever its defects or imperfections, and although it may
lack the grace of Tyndale and the melody of Coverdale we
can never forget that it is
Our First and Oldest Bible.

A.D. 1536.
William Tyndale was born about a.d. 1484 at Berkeley,
in Gloucestershire, and after many vicissitudes, much
labour in his holy work, and remorseless persecution, was
in the 52nd. year of his life, strangled at Vilvoorde Castle
in the Low Countries, on the 6th. October, 1536, and his
body subsequently burnt at the stake by order of the
Council of Brabant.
Tyndale for some years studied at Magdalen College,
Oxford, but migrated to Cambridge to profit himself by
the wisdom of Erasmus, a Dutchman, at that time Professor
of Greek in that University.
It was for the New Testament of Erasmus that the
Vulgate was set aside, although Erasmus himself remained
in communion with the Church of Rome. Of this transla
tion Froude says : — " For the first time the laity were able
to see, side by side, the Christianity which converted the
world ; and the Christianity of the Church, with a Borgia
Pope, cardinal princes, ecclesiastical courts, and a mythology
of lies." The effect was to ¦ be a spiritual earthquake.
For some years Tyndale carried on his cherished pur
suit of translating the Bible — first in the quiet repose of
his chaplainship in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Sod-
bury, in Gloucestershire, and afterwards in the house of
Humphrey of Monmouth, a wealthy merchant and alder
man of London. But persecution still pursued him, and
finding, to quote his own words, " That not only there was
no room in my Lord of London's Palace to translate the
New Testament, but also that there was no place to do it
in all England," he sought shelter at Hamburg in 1524.

In this retreat, in spite of opposition and persecution, he
is supposed to have put into circulation some 30,000 printed
copies of the New Testament, and a few years afterwards
William Tyndale, " to whom may be justly assigned a place
amongst the great ones of the earth," died by the hands of
his persecutors. Between the time of John Wycliffe and that of William
Tyndale the art of printing was discovered, and in a.d. 1526
Tyndale produced the first printed New Testament in
English. Of the Old Testament Books he translated only
the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, and part of the
Prophets. In another respect Tyndale's Bible differed from all
the English versions that preceded it. All of these were
translations of the Latin Vulgate, itself a translation.
Tyndale for the first time consulted such Hebrew and Greek
MSS. as were accessible in his time. Every succeeding
version is little more than a revision of Tyndale's ; even our
present Authorised Version owes to him the ease, beauty
and strength for which it is so much admired. "The
peculiar genius," says Mr. Froude, "which breathes through
the English Bible, the mingled tenderness and majesty, the
Saxon simplicity, the grandeur, unequalled, unapproached
in the attempted improvements of modern scholars — all are
here, and bear the impress of the mind of one man, and
that man, William Tyndale."
Although the language of Tyndale's Bible is modern
English in comparison with that of Wycliffe, it contains
many quaint expressions : —
" And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a luckie
felowe" (a prosperous man). Gen. xxxix, 2.
" When ye praye, bable not moche as the gentyls do "
(use not vain repetitions), St. Matthew vi, 7.

35
'Be not as lords over the parrishes" (God's heritage),
1 Peter v, 3.
"He let it forth to fermers (husbandmen), Luke xx, 9.
" Brought oxen and garlands to the churchporc-h "
(gate). Acts xiv, 13.
" The rulers of the synagogue sent to them after the
lecture " (reading of the law), Acts xiii, 15.
"When they had said grace" (sung a hymn), St.
Matthew xxvi, 30.
"He sent forth the hangman" (executioner), St. Mark
vi, 27. " I was in the Sprete on a Sondaye " (the Lord's Day),
Rev. i, X.
"Why did the hethen grudge ?" (rage), Acts iv, 25.
" And every man went into his owne shire toune (city)
to be taxed." St. Luke ii, 3.
"The whole neade not the visicion" (physician), St.
Matt, ix, 12.
"Thou shalt find a piece of twelve pens" (money), St.
Matt, xvii, 27.
" The day that f olloweth Good Friday " {the Prepara
tion A.v.) St. Matt, xxvii, 62.
" All men cannot xvway with (receive) that saying," St.
Matt, xix, 11.
"Thou shalt not breahe wedlocke (commit adultery),
St. Matt, xix, 18.
" Ye which have followed me in the second generation"
(regeneration), St. Matt, xix, 28.
"I was herbroulesse (a stranger) and ye lodged me"
St. Matt. XXV, 35.
"Be ye herbrous (hospitable), and that without
grudginge," 1 Peter iv, 9.

36
"After three days shalbe ester" (passover), St. Matt,
xxvi, 2.
"For we are not as many are, which choppe and chaunge
(corrupt) the word of God." 2 Corinthians ii, 17.
" Butt the mynisters (servants) which drue the water
knew." St. John ii, 9.
"Won beyng of them selves, which was a poyet
(prophet) of their own." Titus i, 12.
The text that ends the marriage service in our Liturgy :
" and are not afraid with any amazement "
is rendered by Tyndale : — •
" And be not afraid of every shadow." 1 Peter iii, 6.
We find also the somewhat curious expression oi seeing
a sound : — ¦
" And I turned bake to see the voice that spake to me."
The Revelacion of St. Jhon i, 12; and this phrase is per
petuated in the Authorised and the Revised Versions.
Of " shall be " Tyndale makes one word — shalbe, and
he disguises the word " weightier " in the elaborate garb
of "waygthyer" (St. Matt, xxiii, 23). "Anything" is spelt
"entinge" in the following chapter, and we also find
"tinke" for "think," "vysselles" for "vessels," and many
other curiosities of spelling.
Tyndale uses the Saxon word " love " in place of the
Greek "charity" which is found in the Authorised Version.
" Now abideth fayth, hope and love, even these thre, but
the chief of these is love." 1 Cor. xiii, 13. And again
1 Peter iv, 8, " For love (charity) covereth the multitude of
sins." Also 1 Cor. 13, 4, "Love suffereth longe and is
corteous," which in the Authorised Version is rendered
" Charity suffereth long and is kind." It seems a pity that

37
the Saxon word was not retained ; it would have avoided
the mistaken idea that the primary Christian virtue to which
the Apostle refers was the giving of alms, to which the
word charity is almost entirely restricted in our modern
usage. Most biographical notices of Tyndale, says Mr. Dore,
are taken from John Foxe's Acts and Monuments of
Martyrs, but no reliance can be placed on the truth of any
uncorroborated statement made by Foxe.
Had this martyrologist been an honest man, his care
lessness and credulity would have incapacitated him from
being a trustworthy historian. But, unfortunately, he was
not honest ; he tampered with the documents that came
into his hands, and freely indulged in those very faults of
suppression and equivocation for which he condemned his
opponents. The only document known to exist now, in Tyndale's
own handwriting, is a quaint, but pitifully pathetic, appeal
to the clemency of the governor of the Castle of Vilvoorde,
where he was confined for a year and a half before his
Martyrdom. The letter was written in Latin, and thus
translated :—
" I believe, right honourable Sir, that you are not
ignorant of what has been determined concerning me, by
the Council of Brabant. Therefore I entreat your Lord
ship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain
here during the winter, you will request the Procureur to
be kind enough to send me from my goods, which he has
in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from
cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh,
which is considerably increased in this damp cell. A
warmer coat also, for that which I have is very thin, also a

38
piece of cloth to patch my leggings ; my overcoat has been
worn out, my shirts are also worn out. He has a woollen
shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have
also with him leggings of thicker cloth for putting on
above, also warmer caps for wearing at night.
I also wish his permission to have a candle in the
evening, as it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But
above all, I entrust and beseech your clemency, to be urgent
with the Procureur, that he may kindly permit me to have
my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dic
tionary, that I may spend my time with that study.
And in return, may you obtain your dearest wish,
provided always it be consistent with the salvation of your
soul. But if any other resolution has been come to, con
cerning me, before the conclusion of the winter, I shall be
patient, abiding the will of God. Whose spirit, I pray, may
ever direct your heart. Amen :
W. Tyndale.
" The other resolution " (his death) had already been
" come to " by the Council of Brabant, and in the autumn
of 1536 the noblest and purest character on the long roll
of English Martyrs, met the death he did not fear to face.

1535.
In A.D. 1535 came the Bible of Myles Coverdale, some
time Lord Bishop of Exeter, who first translated the whole
Bible into English. It was printed at Zurich, and dedicated
to Henry VIII. This Bible, unlike Tyndale's, was not
taken from the Hebrew and Greek MSS., but was, as stated
in the Preface, "Faithfully and truly translated out of
Douche (Dutch) and Latin into English, by your Grace's
humble servant and daily oratour, Miles Coverdale."
Miles Coverdale, " the most melodious of our transla
tors " and one of the most striking characters in the noble
band who gave God's word to his people, was Yorkshire
born, as was John Wycliffe. He was born in 1488 and
educated at the Augustinian Convent at Cambridge, " the
head of which at that time was Dr. Robert Barnes, "who
bore his faggot" in 1526.
Subsequently in 1527 Coverdale joined the Reformers,
and became the intimate friend of Thomas Cromwell, and
it is supposed that it was by the aid of Cromwell's purse
that Coverdale pursued the compilation of the Great Bible
of 1539. He died in 1569, aged 81, and was buried in the
Chancel of S. Bartholomew's Church, and when that Church
was destroyed his bones were taken to the Church of S.
Magnus. Coverdale's translation of the Bible is one of singular
grace and terseness, and of strength and simplicity of
expression. It is in many respects one of the most inter
esting versions we have.

40
"This translation," says Mr. Hoare, in the Nineteenth
Century, "is one of particular grace and power. There could
scarcely be a greater contrast between two men than there
is between Coverdale and Tyndale. If the latter be the
Hercules of our biblical labourers, the former is certainly
the Orpheus. Diffident and retiring in disposition, of deli
cate susceptibility, of great literary dexterity and resource,
with a wonderful ear for cadence and rhythm, it is to
Coverdale we owe much of that beautiful music which
seems to well up out of the perennial springs of our
Authorised Version."
" Coverdale stands in relation to Tyndale as gentleness
does to strength, pliability and grace to robustness, and
vigour, and modesty to self-confidence. He was to Tyndale
as the ivy to the oak."
Coverdale's Bible is, in some respects, one of the most
interesting versions we have, and a very excellent reprint
from the copy in the library of the Duke of Sussex was
published by Samuel Bagster, in 1838.
This Bible is sometimes called " The Treacle Bible," as
in Jeremiah viii, 22, the sentence that in our version runs :
— " Is there no balm in Gilead ?" is there translated, " Is
there no triacle at Galaad ?" It is somewhat singular that
in the Welsh Bible also, first translated by Dr. Morgan,
Bishop of St. Asaph in 1588, the word "triacle" is used
instead of balm : " Onid oes driagl yn Gilead ?"
" Treacle " was formerly the word used for a medica
ment, compounded as an antidote against poisons and the
bites of wild beasts : Lat. Therica, French Theriaque, M. E.
Triacle, a sovereign remedy (Skeat).

41
Tryakyll, as a drug, is mentioned by Gawin Douglas,
A.D. 1513 :—
"Tryakyll, druggis or electuary."
Prologue to 12th. Buk of Eneados.
Triacle is also used by Chaucer in the sense of a
sovereign remedy : —
" Crist, which that is to every harm triacle."
" Man of Lawe's Tale." Prologue v. 4899.
The Douay Version of this text runs : — " Is there no
rosin in Gilead ?"
Amongst the peculiarities of this Bible it may be men
tioned that the Bishop calls the Books of Chronicles
'* Paralipomenon " (or things omitted — ^the Supplement),
Solomon's Song, " Salamon's Balettes," the Lamentations
of Jeremiah he calls " Treni " (Welsh trueni, misery), and
he places Baruch amongst the Canonical Books. He also
gives us " The Chapters in the Boke of Hester which are
not found in the text of the Hebreu, but in the Greke and
Latyn." Amongst other curious expressions in this Bible we
find:— "What felowe is the Lorde?" (Who is the Lord?)
Prov. XXX, 9.
"Arise, Barak, and catch him that catcheth thee'"
(Arise, Barak, and lead captivity captive, a.v.) Judges
V, 12. " As for Reuben, he stood hye in his owne consayte.'"
(Great thoughts of heart, a.v.) Judges v, 15.
"With the voice of thy whystles" (waterspouts), Ps.
xli, 7.

42
"The dove bare an olive leafe in her nebbe" (mouth).
Gen. viii, 11.
" Neither is there good stomacke (courage) in any man."
Jos. xi, 11.
"And break his brain-panne" (and all to brake his
skull). Judges ix, 53.
"Their widows were not looked upon in the daily
hand-reachi/ng " (ministration). Acts vi, 1.
"And he made ten kettels (lavers), 2 Chron. iv, 6.
" Mourn all ye wyne suppers" (drinkers), Joel i, 5.
"And all the people sawe the thunder and the
lightning." Ex. xx, 18.
(The same curious expression of "seeing thunder" is
preserved in the Authorised Version).
" 0 taste and see how friendly (good) the Lord is."
Ps. xxxiv, 8.
"Tyll the Worthye (Shiloh) come." Gen. xlix, 10.
" Let another take his Bishopricke " (office), Ps. cviii, 8.
And perhaps the most curious of all : —
"Thou shalt not be afraid of any bugges (terror) at
night." Ps. xc, 5.
(The modern word is bogy, a goblin) .
In the 6th Chapter of Numbers he used the word
" absteyner " instead of " Nazarite " as in our version, and
he constantly uses the word "hell" where we now have
"grave": —
" Who shall give thee thanks in the hell ?" Ps. vi, 4.
" Hell shall be their dwelling." Ps. xlviii, 14.
" Deliver my soul from the power of hell." Ps. xlviii, 15.
"They lie in the hell like sheep." Ps. xlviii, 15.

43
In all these verses, and many others where Coverdale
uses the word "hell" the Authorised Version has "grave."
The spelling is sometimes very curious, as for instance,
in what the Bishop calls "The second boke Regum" (our
2nd. Samuel) a verse runs : —
"And he saw a woman waszshing herself, and she was
of a very fayre hewty."
Waszshing for "washing" is ingenious spelhng, but
the same thing occurs again in " huszbande," " buszshels,"
" guszhe," " baszkettes," and " wyszdome," which we now
write more simply, husband, bushels, gush, baskets and
wisdom. " Szkynne " takes a superfluity of letters for so
simple a monosyllable as " skin."
The "Great Bible" of 1539, which might be perhaps
more fittingly described as the Big Bible, was also princi
pally the work of Miles Coverdale.

44

1537.
This Bible — the second printed version of the Bible in
English — is supposed to have been the continuation of
Tyndale's work by his friend John Rogers, whose name
was suppressed on the score of prudence, and the name of
Thomas Matthew — an unknown and doubtful personality —
used as a mask to conceal the fact that the work was
Tyndale's. It appeared in 1537, as the first Royally authorised
English Bible. It was not a new translation, but a com
posite book — made up of Tyndale's Pentateuch and New
Testament — and the rest from Coverdale. It was remark
able for the excessive Lutheranisms of its annotations, and
was the direct ancestor, through the Great Bible and the
Bishops' Bible, of the Authorised Version of 1611.
Mr. Dore — in his laborious work on "Old Bibles,"
published by Eyre and Spottiswoode in 1888 — gives extracts
from the Act of Parliament which prohibited the circulation
of Tyndale's translation and authorized that of Matthew,
although Matthew's Bible is merely Tyndale's translation
under another name.
It is to be regretted that the extracts are too long
to be published in extenso — as they would more than repay
the time occupied by the curious student of religious history
in their perusal.
The Act was passed in the 34th. year of our most reli
gious and gracious Sovereign King Henry VIIL, a monarch
who married six women, of whom he divorced two, and

45
murdered two. The Act has the following comprehensive,
but somewhat vague, heading : —
"An Act for the advauncement of true religion and the
abolishment of the contrary."
In the preamble the King refers to "the great
libertie granted to them (his subjects) in having amongst
them, and in their hands, the old and new Testament," and
proceeds to regret "the various arguments, tumults and
seisms that have arisen thereout — amongst his said subjects
— to the great displeasure of his Majestic, and contrary to
his grace's true meaning, good intention, and most godly
purpose. For the reformation thereof, his Majesty most virtuously
ordains " that all manner of books of the old and new testa
ments, in English, of the crafty, false and untrue translation
of Tyndale, shall be forbidden to be kept or used in this
realm, or other the King's dominion." The penalty for the
first offence against the enactment is a fine of ten pounds
(a large sum in those days) and for the second " he shall
forfeit all his goodes, and his body to be committed to per
petual prison." This clause also inflicts a fine of five pounds
on anyone having in his possession a book maintaining " the
damnable opinions of the Anabaptists," whose chief doctrine
was adult Baptism.
The next section — although it might have been at the
time vexatious — in the present day appears only humorous: —
All Bibles in England, not being of Tyndale's transla
tions, are authorized. Nevertheless, "if there be found in
such bible, any annotacions or preamble, then every person
shall before the 1st. day of October next cutte or blotte the
same, in such wise that they (the annotacions) cannot be
read, under a penalty of forty shillings."

46
From these penalties are exempted, amongst other
books, any entitled " the King's highness proclamations,"
Gower's books, and Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," " unless
the King's Majesty shall hereafter make special proclama
tion for the condemnacion of tlie same."
It was also graciously conceded "that all printers
maye lawfully print all such books contayning matters of
religion as the King's Majestic shall by his bill allow and
aprove." In another section of this Act his grace's magnanimity
concedes to every nobleman and gentleman — ^being a house
holder — the privilege of reading "in his own house, orchards,
or garden, any text of the approved Bibles, so the same be
done quietly and without disturbance of good order."
To noble women and gentlewomen — this conces
sion of liberty was somewhat restricted — ^they were per
mitted to read to themselves alone, and not to others — any
texts of the said Bibles — anything in this Act to the contrary
notwithstanding. But for the lower orders it was enacted that after the
first of July — no women, artificers, prentyses, serving-men,
yeomen or labourers, shall read within this realm, or any
other the King's dominyons, the Bible in English, to himself
or to any other, privately or openly, upon payne of one
month's imprisonment for every offence.
Such was the Law of England, in what we still call
"The Good Old days."
The last issue of Matthew's Bible was by Nicholas
Hyll, dwelling in Saynt John Street, and was published in
1557 "at the cost and charges of certain honest men of the
same occupation (booksellers) whose names be on their
bokes."

47

1539.
Of this Bible, a pirated copy of Matthew's, very little
is known, and it is of no particular interest. It was printed
at the sign of " The Sonne " by John Bydell for Thomas
Bartlett, cum privilegio, and was dedicated to Henry VIII..
Taverner was born in 1505, and graduated at S. Benet's
College, Cambridge, but migrated to Oxford to study
classics. He was taken up by Thos. Cromwell, and although
not in orders was granted a license to preach. Taverner's
Bible appears to have been a single edition, and never took
hold of the people. It ends with this note : —
"To the honour and prayse of God, was this Bible
prynted and fynyshed in the year of our Lord and Saviour
Jesu Crist MDLI. Imprinted at London by Jhon Daye,
dwelling over Alders-gate beneath Saint Martyn."
Taverner's Bible was the first complete Bible published
on English soil.

48

1539.
A revised edition of Tyndale's edited by Cranmer, was the
first Authorised English Bible. It was printed in Paris
under the superintendence of Coverdale. From this version
the Psalms and other portions of the Bible contained in the
Prayer Book are taken. This Bible was the first placed
"by Authority" (of Queen Elizabeth) in the parish
Churches of England.
The Great Bible for nearly thirty years held its place
as the Standard Bible of England, and from 1539 to 1566
went through some ten editions. The second edition, a.d.
1540, with a preface by Cranmer, received the personal
authorization of Henry VIII, and no new Version of the
Bible was issued from the end of bis reign till after the
close of the Marian persecutions; under which John
Rogers and Archbishop Cranmer were martyred and the
Bishop of Exeter, Miles Coverdale, escaped death by exile.

In 1560 was issued
THE GENEVAN BIBLE,
long the favourite Bible of the Puritans. It had these dis
tinctive peculiarities — It was the first Bible printed in the
present Roman type. All the previous versions had been
in black letter. It was also the first in which the chapters
were divided into verses, and the first to omit the
Apocrypha. It was familiarly known as "The Breeches
Bible " from its rendering of Gen. iii, 7, where Adam and
Eve " sewed fig tree leaves together and made themselves
breeches." (Aprons is the word used in the Authorised
Version.) In this the Song of Solomon is called "An
excellent Song which was Salomon's."
The Prayer of Manasseh, King of the Jews, now
included in the Apocrypha, was placed among the Canonical
Books. A great feature of this Bible was its copious marginal
notes, and it is to the dislike of James I. to their Puri
tanical, political and religious bias, that we owe, to a great
extent, the production of our Authorised Version of 1611.
At the time when the proposition for a new translation
was being discussed at the Hampton Court conference.
King James said : " That he did not consider any translation
into English that had been hitherto made to be satisfactory;
but that the worst of all versions was the Genevan, some
of the notes of which were partial, untrue, seditious, and
savoured too much of dangerous and traitorous conceits."
One of the first rules made by the Company of transla
tors of the Authorized Version was, that there should be
no marginal notes except such as were necessary for the
explanation of Hebrew and Greek words.

50
This one rule did more than anything else to make our
authorized version the common Bible of all sects and classes
of religion and politics in England.
The text of the Genevan Bible is, to all intents and
purposes, the same as our own, with the exception of certain
variations of diction and expression, and the use of some
words that have since died out or have changed in
signification. An instance of the former is a verse that is given in
our Authorised Version thus :
" Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the
morrow shall take thought of the things of itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof."
In the Genevan Bible it runs :
" Care not then for the morow for the morow shall
care for it selfe. The day has enough with his owne grief."
—St. Matt, vi, 34.
Many instances might be given of the use of words
that have changed in meaning :
In the Gospel of St. Mark v, 12, we find this passage: —
"And al the devils besought him saying, &c., and
incontinently (forthwith) Jesus gave them leave."
Incontinently, now meaning intemperately or licen
tiously, is here used in the sense of immediately, and is so
employed in Othello, Act I, Sc. 3.
Roderigo : " I will incontinently drown myself."
In this Bible, as in Wycliffe's, the old Anglo-Saxon
word to ere, i.e., to plough, is used. The text that is ren
dered in our Version :
" He that ploweth should plow in hope."

51
appears in both these Bibles in exactly the same words :
" He that erith, owith to ere in hope." 1 Cor. ix, 10.
Another obsolete word found in both Bibles is Disease
in the sense of trouble or annoy :
" Thy daughter is dead, why diseasest thou the master ?"
St. Mark v, 35.
" And she threw in two mites which make a quadrin "
(farthing). Mark xii, 42.
"Nor swaddled in clouts." One of the few English
words of Welsh origin, is still used in dish clout, Ezekiel
xvi, 4. " Teach a child in the trade of his way." Proverbs
xxii, 6.
The Authorised Version reads " Train up a child in the
way he should go." Trade, in the sense of path or track,
is used locally in parts of England, and game-keepers speak
of " the trade (or tread) of rabbits."
" And an hundred frailes (baskets) of raisins." 1 Sam.
XXV, 13.
" By his neesings (sneezings) a light doth shine." Job
xli, 18. ''We trussed up our fardels" (burdens), Actsxxxi, 15.
In Hamlet's great soliloquy — "To be or not to be,"
Act III, Sc. 1, he asks : —
" Who would fardels bear
To grunt and sweat under a weary life ?"
The Authorized Version renders this passage, "We
took up our carriages." The word carriage being used in
the sense of what they carried, and not that which carried
them, its present meaning.
We also find Disdain for displease, beneficiall for mer
ciful, avoyded for emptying (When the priests avoyded the

52
ashes), chapman for trafficker, brast for burst, backe for bat
(the bird), banket for banquet, fet for fetch, pill for getting
an advantage, grinne or gry7i for a snare, and grieces for
stairs {Grees, Wye. Acts xxi, 35. Welsh, grisiau) — "And
when Paul came to the grees (stairs) it befel that he was
borun of knightes (soldiers) for strength of the people."
We still retain the use of this word in the phrase "by
degrees." These are a few instances of the many words
found in this Bible that have since changed in spelling or
meaning, but there is no vital difference between the texts
of the Genevan Bible and our own.
The Genevan Bible was principally translated by Non
conformists at Geneva, who fled there soon after the death
of Edward the 6th. to escape the persecutions that arose
under the rule of that Popish Sovereign, to be thereafter
known to history, through all time, as " Bloody Mary."
Geneva was at that time so saturated with those doc
trines of Calvin, which for a long period of the Puritan
occupation of religion in England, " threatened the extinc
tion of Christianity," that it was almost impossible for the
translators to avoid being drawn away from the higher
teachings of the Church of their Baptism.
The marginal notes were largely those of narrow
sectaries, often bitter, more often incorrect, and not
unfrequently immoral. A note to Matt, ii, 12, runs thus: —
"Promes oght not (promises ought not) to be kept when
the preaching of God's Truth is hindered." A somewhat
dubious and dangerous exposition of morality, when we
consider that they, the Puritans, had constituted themselves
the sole and irresponsible judges of the question pro
pounded, but not answered, by the jesting Pilate, "What is
truth ?"
Another marginal note is an interesting instance of the

53
nature and quality of the Christian charity and brotherly
love pervading the Puritan mind. It is at Rev. ix, 3 :
" Locusts are false teachers, with monks, friars, cardinals,
archbishops, &c., which forsake Christ to maintain false
doctrine." But the note that rankled most in the King's
mind, remembering the sad fate of his beautiful, but un
fortunate mother, was one in 2 Chron. xv, where it is
recorded that Asa removed his mother from the throne,
because she made an idol in a grove. The note runs : —
"Herein he shewed that he lacked zeal, for she ought to
have died." Another that gave grave annoyance to the
didactic author of "The Counterblast" and "Bikon
Basilike " was a comment on the conduct of the Egyptian
midwives, in disobeying the commands of Pharoah, and
concealing the men-children. The annotation approved
their action and said that their disobedience to the King
was lawful. This clashed with the proud Stuart theories
of the divine right of kings to be above all law, and the
indignant monarch exclaimed " It is false ! to disobey a
king is not lawful ; such traitorous conceits should not go
forth to the people."
A modern writer on this subject admonishes us to
remember that the universal desire for a Bible in England,
which we read so much of in religious publications, is more
than doubtful.
So far from England being a "Bible-thirsty land"
there was no desire whatever for an English version at that
time, excepting among a small minority of the people.
At any rate, as regards the versions anterior to King
James's Bible of 1611 there was no great desire or demand,
not merely among the clergy, but the great majority of
the people, for a vernacular Bible. The universal desire
for a Bible in England, which we see so often asserted in

54
religious works existed only in the imagination of the
writers. It was found with even the Genevan version, the most
extensively popular of all versions, that as in the case of all
the early English Bibles it was much easier to print them
than to sell them, there being very little desire on the part
of the English people for a vernacular Bible.
It is a fact that in Scotland (as mentioned above) soon
after the publication of the Bassandyne Bible in 1579, an
Act was passed enforcing a penalty of ten pounds (Scotch)
on everyone having an income of £500 a year, who did not
purchase a copy of the Bible. It is probable that this want
of desire to possess a Bible may have arisen in part from
the fact that at that time coinparatively few of the laity,
and, probably many of the clergy, could have read the
book, even if they had possessed a copy. Whatever the
reason might have been, the fact remains that penal enact
ments were made to force it into circulation, and Royal
Proclamations issued threatening the King's displeasure to
those who neglected to purchase copies.
In 1568 was published
or Parker's Bible, compiled by Archbishop Parker of Can
terbury, and his brother bishops ; and as the Geneva Bible
was the Bible of the Puritans, so this was the favourite
version of Holy Church.
The Anglo-Rhemish Version was a translation from
the Latin Vulgate b_y Roman Catholics who objected both
to the Genevan and Bishops' Bible. It was made and pub
lished at Rheims in 1582, from which place it takes its
name.

55
.lancg SiblEs.
Besides these well known and standard versions
valuable to the student of the Bible, and the scholar of
Anglo-Saxon, there have been certain versions that we
may call "Fancy Bibles," which take their names from
typographical errors or mistakes of expression, and have
an artificial value for collectors of curiosities : — Amongst
them may be mentioned
The Printers Bible : — In which by error, the word
" Printers " was substituted for " Princes " in Psalm cxix,
161, " Printers have persecuted me without a cause."
The Wife's Bible : — In Tyndale's New Testament of
1538, "Think on this wise," 2 Cor. x, 11, is made to read
" Think on his ivife."
The Whig Bible : — Being the second edition of the
Genevan Bible 1562. In the Beatitudes, by a printer's
error "Blessed are the peace makers" is converted into
" Blessed are the place makers."
The Wicked Bible, 1631: — The word "not" is omitted
from the seventh commandment.
The Servant Bible : — Now the servant (serpent a.v.)
was more subtle than all the beasts of the field (Genesis
iii, 1.) The Judas Bible : — Then cometh Judas (Jesus a.v.)
and his disciples (Matthew xxvi, 36.)
The Pagan Bible : — Containing a woodcut of Mount
Olympus and heathen gods.
The Vinegar Bible : — Genevan 1717. This word
was substituted for " Vineyard " in the Parable that bears
that name (Luke xx.)

56
The Bugge Bible : — Of Coverdale, so called from the
rendering of the 5th. verse of Psalm xc, " Be not afraid of
any bugges (modern bogy) by night."
The Breeches Bible : — The Genevan Bible is often
called by this name as it uses this word instead of aprons
in Genesis iii, 7.
The Treacle Bible : — Coverdale's Bible is also thus
called, as he uses the word treacle instead of "balm" in
Jeremiah viii, 2, " Is there no balm in Gilead ?" a.v.
And the Rosin Bible, the Douai Version of 1582
takes its name from the use of the word " rosin " in place
of balm in the same verse.
There are several other Bibles such as the " He " and
"She" Bibles, the "Standing Fishes," the "Ear to Ear,"
and the "Murderers" Bibles, and a strange printer's error
occurs in all the copies of the Bishops' Bible, which contain
the Prayer-Book Psalms. The 29th. verse of the 37th.
Psalm reads, " The righteous shall be punished ; as for the
seed of the ungodly it shall be rooted out" in place of "the
unrighteous shall be punished." But these "fancy"
editions are of no increased value to anyone on account of
their errors, save to the curiosity-monger.
But besides these " Fancy Bibles " which take their
names from the curious or mistaken usage of one word or
some slight typographical error, there remain in our
authorised and revised versions many curious expressions
and words, some of which are not known generally, and
others of which although the meaning has been guessed at
it has never been absolutely and accurately deciphered.
It might have been an Irish translator who presents
us in Isaiah xxxvii, 36, with these words : — "And when they
arose, early in the morning, they were all dead corpses."

57
In the Authorised Version appears in Isaiah vii, 20, a
very curious expression which is perpetuated in the Revised
Version and which runs thus : —
" In that day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is
hired." In Jeremiah vii, 18, occurs the phrase: "To make
cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offer
ings unto other Gods."
Isaiah xlvii, 7 : " And thou saidst, I shall be a lady
for ever, so that thou didst not lay these things to thy
heart." Isaiah xiv, 8 : " No feller is come up against us."
Ezekiel x, 10 : " As if a wheel had been within a
wheel." In the Authorised Version, Jeremiah xxiv, 2, we have
the expression : " a basket of very naughty figs." In the
Revised Version it reads " very bad figs."
Jeremiah xliv, 17 : "To burn incense to the Queen of
Heaven." Amos vii, 7 : " And the Lord stood upon a wall made
by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
2 Samuel xx, 16 : " Then cried a wise woman out of
the city, "Hear, hear."
Isaiah 1, 7 : "I set my face like a flint."
Jeremiah xxv, 27 : " Be drunken and spue."
Isaiah iv, 1 : " And in that day seven women shall take
hold of one man."
Isaiah i, 25 : " And will take away all thy tin."
Ezekiel xxx, 2 : " Woe worth the day."
Isaiah v, 18 : " And draw sin as it were with a cart
rope."

68
Isaiah vii, 18: "And the Lord shall hiss for the fly,
that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt."
Isaiah iii, 18 : "In that day the Lord will take away
the bravery of their cauls" [caps — Skeat].
The instances of these " Curiosities of Biblical Litera
ture" that are given here, are taken from the books of
the prophets in which they principally abound, but they
occur, as might be expected in a book written in the
English of 300 years ago, in other Books of the Old
Testament. In the books of the prophets we find " For my sword
shall be bathed in heaven," Isaiah xxxiv, 5, a.v. This text
is written in the Revised Version : — " For my sword has
drunk its fill in heaven," which does not render the passage
less obscure." "And the satyr shall cry to his fellow." Isaiah xxxiv,
14. Satyr was a sylvan god, half man and half goat, and
the word is used here for a "he goat." It was this
monster that Hamlet had in his mind when comparing his
father and the uncle who murdered him : —
" Hyperion to a satyr." — Act i, sc. 2.
There are many other expressions and words used in
the Authorised Version of the Bible that are now obsolete
or only in provincial use, but even a summary of them would
weary both the reader and the writer.
At last in a.d. 1611 the combined wisdom of the divines
and scholars of Oxford and Cambridge produced our
present

59
A.D. 1611,
the most splendid example we have of the strength, the
terseness, and the beauty of the English language. The
Version of the Sacred Writings that is destined in all
probability (the Revised Version of 1885 notwithstanding)
to remain for ever the
Bible of the British People.
It may be said here that the strength of the English
Language, in all honest expression of feeling, whether of
joy, sorrow, love, anger or pain, lies in those words of our
composite tongue that are of Saxon origin, and that they
are most copiously used by the best of our writers.
But, says a recent writer on this subject, the predomi
nance of Saxon in the Authorised Version of the Bible is
very remarkable. As compared with Latin words, the
Saxon actually constitute some nine-tenths of the book. In
Shakespeare the proportion is approximately eighty-five
per cent., in Swift's writings it is ninety, in Johnson
seventy-five, and in Gibbon seventy. In the Lord's Prayer
of the Authorised Version, fifty-nine words out of sixty-
five are Saxon.
In 1604 a conference of Bishops and clergy was held
in Hampton Court Palace, under the presidency of James I.
himself, to consider the defectiveness of the current trans
lations of the Bible, with a view to emendation.
At this date there were three different versions of the
Bible circulating in England : —
I. — The Genevan Bible of 1560 (otherwise called the
Breeches Bible) which ran through about sixty editions
between that date and 1644. This was the favourite Bible
of the people, and had by far the largest circulation.

60
Between its publication and the Civil War no less than one
hundred and sixty editions passed into circulation.
But it was saturated with the narrowest doctrines of
Calvin, it became the household Bible of Scotland, and left
that country steeped in the stern uncompromising Puri
tanism, which grafted the vindictive passions of the old
Judaical dispensation on the soft teaching of the new Law
of Love, the great inheritance of Christianity from Him : —
" Who stilled the rolling waves of Galilee.''
II. — The Bishops' Bible, a.d. 1586, (which ran through
some twenty editions) otherwise called Archbishop Parker's
Bible, took its name from the fact that the majority of the
Revision Committee was taken from the Episcopal Bench.
It was the antithesis of the Genevan Bible, and there
fore much cherished by Holy Church and had the support
of Convocation, but this notwithstanding, it may justly be
ranked with the poorest of the English translations.
"It was costly, it was cumbersome, its imposing
appearance did not atone for its defects. It did not
satisfy scholars, and it was ill suited to the general public ;
besides that, some of the illustrations were immodest, if not
indecent." The Bishops' Bible ran a course of about forty years,
when it expired. The last copy bears date 1606.
III.— The Great Bible of Henry VIII, a.d. 1539, (which
passed through 10 editions) "might at that time (1604) be
seen chained to a stone or wooden post in many of the
country parish churches."
It was for about thirty years the Standard Bible of the
kingdom, and was sometimes attributed to Thomas Cranmer,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who " bore his faggot " in
1556 during the Marian persecutions (or murders) . Cranmer
was no doubt intimately connected with its publication, and

61
himself wrote the preface to the edition of 1540. This
edition received King Henry the Eighth's personal authori
sation. The Great Bible was really little more than a revised
edition of Tyndale. The version of the Psalms that appears
in our " Common Prayer Book" and the sentences in the
Communion Service are from the Great Bible.
But none of these versions were likely to obtain
general acceptance and satisfy at once the schoolmen and
the sectaries. The Genevan, though a far more accurate,
and possibly honest, translation than that over which
Archbishop Parker presided, was so impregnated in its text
and marginal notes with Calvinism and Puritanism as to
have become the organ of the narrowest sectaries of the
Cromwellian epoch and of the Praise God Barebones school.
The Great Bible, the bible of another Cromwell, and of
Archbishop Cranmer, was unwieldy, expensive, and had
fallen out of fashion, whilst the Bishops' Bible, impugned
as least worthy of all the translations, had become the
badge of the Church party, as had the Genevan Version of
the Nonconformists. This alone would have created a demand for a new
version, which could be accepted in common by the rival
religions, and we may also say, political parties. But the
supply to that demand might not have come for many a
long year, had it not been for the mixture of vanity, mean
ness and narrow-mindedness that contributed to form our
first Stuart monarch James I. of England and VI. of
Scotland, called by Sully "the wisest fool in Christendom."
James desired to add a new translation (dedicated to
his high Puissance) to the glories of his reign, but even
more, he desired* to extinguish the popular, but to him
obnoxious Genevan Bible, whose marginal notes, as stated

62
before, cast doubt (amongst other things) on the divine
right of Kings, and grievously vexed the soul of the Royal
champion of the doctrine.
To the exercise of these by no means exalted attri
butes by James I., the people of England are largely
indebted for their greatest literary glory and their noblest
inheritance, the Bible of 1611. It is a stately monument
(cere perennius) to the memory of those great and learned
scholars who themselves erected it, it is a record of the
arduous, faithful and loving labour of the most holy men
of that age.
And beyond this, and also beyond its grace and
beauty, unsurpassed in the literary history of the world, it
is the Book of Books, and the noblest expression we have of
God's Message to Man.
To a Roman Catholic Divine, Father Faber, we are
indebted for the following graceful tribute to the excellence
and beauty of the language of our version, as compared
with the uncouthness of those of the Romanists :
" Who will say that the uncommon beauty and mar
vellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the
great strongholds of heresy in this country ?
"It lives on the ear like a music that can never be
forgotten — like the sound of church bells, which the con
vert hardly knows how he can forego. Its felicities seem
often to be almost things rather than words. It is part of
the national mind, and the anchor of the national serious
ness. Nay, it is worshipped with a positive idolatry, in
extenuation of whose fanaticism its intrinsic beauty pleads
availingly with the scholar. The memory of the dead
passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are
stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the griefs and
trials of a man is hidden beneath its words.

" It is the representative of his best moments. All that
there has been about him of soft, and gentle, and pure, and
penitent, and good, speaks to him for ever out of his English
Bible. "It is his Sacred Thing, which doubt has never dimmed,
and controversy never soiled. In the length and breadth
of the land there is not a Protestant with one spark of
religiousness about him, whose spiritual biography is not
in his Saxon Bible."
And for much, perhaps for most of this great legacy
we owe a debt of ever-abiding gratitude to the memory of
William Tyndale.

1885.
Whether any Revision of a book that had occupied
undisputed pre-eminence for nearly three centuries were
required at all may well be questioned. The Bible of
James I., although the text may not have been in some
places structurally correct, was a book of such marvellous
strength of language and beauty of diction, that it had
taken root in the hearts of millions of men, not only where
our own tongue is spoken, but in foreign countries and in
the islands lying in far distant seas. The almost incredible
way in which this version that we all know by the supreme
title of "The" Bible has spread over the face of the
civilized world, is evidenced by the facts that from one
centre of distribution alone. The British and Foreign Bible
Society, have been issued since 1804, the astounding num
ber of 170,000,000 of copies, written in almost every
language spoken by the nations of the world, and that the
annual output of the English parent press exceeds four
millions.

64
Was it probable that a book that had been disseminated
in such incomprehensible numbers and with such lightning
rapidity and penetration, into the hearts and homes of
different speaking peoples, should be easily effaced ?
Or that the Bible established in the affections of the
childhood of millions of men, who had drawn in 'their love
for it with their mothers' milk, should be replaced by
another that might be of more correct grammatical con
struction, but in the process of development had lost much
of the dignity as well as of the homely phraseology that
appealed to their hearts, in the Old Book on which they
were suckled ?
At the time the Authorised Version of 1611 was con
templated, there were (as said above) other rivals for
popular approval, but when the revision of it was suggested
in 1870 by the Bishop of Winchester, Samuel Wilberforce,
the Authorised Version had no rival : it stood alone,
supreme and peerless. It had been read, it had been
cherished, not only in the parish churches, but in the
cottage-homes of England. It had become part of the
daily life and daily worship of peer and peasant.
It had become gradually engraved on the hearts of a
people who love their Bible with an almost idolatrous
devotion. It formed part of their Common Prayer Book,
which for strength, gravity and beauty of language, (more
especially in the Collects) stands second only to The Book
itself, in the hearts of the many millions who are members
of the National and Established Church of their country.
Why then this desire to change or remove a force so strong
and so deeply rooted ?
It has been suggested that the discovery of the three
Codices ; the Alexandrian, the Vatican, and the last of all,
the Sinaitic, only found in 1844, all of which were

65
unknown to the translators of 1611, might add new light
to the book descended from the Patriarchs, the Prophets
and the Apostles, but whose pedigree could be traced
no further back than the Septuagint and the Vulgate of
S. Jerome. But to the ordinary reader, and most of those who
read the book may be thus described, this increase of our
spiritual wealth does not seem to have accrued to us. The
alterations, particularly in the New Testament, appear
to be unimportant, unnecessary in many cases, and
of doubtful value in all. The whole work seems to be the
outcome of a desire to attain the perfection of grammatical
accurary and literal reproduction of the text, at the sacrifice
of the soft melody of the older, though possibly less
accurate translation, a melody that from our cradle has
rung in our ears as " the sound of the Church-going bell."
However this may be, the Bible of 1611 was not
written as an object lesson to its readers in the construction
of Greek particles. It was written to carry the divine
message to the hearts of humanity, and it has done so.
Why then this late revision and the new version, which
even now in little more than a decade, has faded out of
our remembrance ?
In a recent work on the " Evolution of the Bible " the
author, an eminent Balliol scholar, writing about the
Revised Version, says : —
" If we may make bold to formulate a wish for the
success of any future committee of Revisioners, it would be
the wish that no microbe of the Morbus Grammaticus
should ever affect them : and that they should never be
persuaded to devote so disproportionate an amount of their
sympathies to our scholarship and leave so little over to
gratify our literary sensibilities.

66
"We trust that the Reviser of the future may be enabled
to look to something beyond his Lexicon. We hold, in
fine, the pious hope, that when next the Jerusalem Chamber
is tenanted by a body of Revisers, they may never be
haunted (like their last predecessors) by the ghost of the
man who regretted with his dying breath that he had not
devoted the whole of his life to the dative case."
It may be supposed that the alterations in our old
Bible by the Revisioners of 1885 have been satisfactory
to themselves, or at least to some of them ; but the new book
was " caviare to the general." It was a blank cartridge.
However, the Revisors of the Old Testament merit our
thanks for two improvements. They divided the poetical
books into proper lines, and they substituted " Sheol," a
word we do not yet quite understand, for " hell," a word
we have always misunderstood."
A noteworthy instance of the vexatious change of
words that we have known so well and loved so long, occurs
in the revised text of the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, one
of the most graceful and pathetic of the Holy Writings,
unsurpassed for poetic beauty, in a book that breathes in
its pages the Divine Melody.
In the 5th. verse of that chapter, in its matchless
m.etaphor of man's old age : — " In the day when the
keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow
themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few,
and those that look out of the window are darkened ": in
that verse one line runs : —
" And desire shall fail."
This is rendered by the Company of Revisioners, "And
the caperberry shall fad." Wycliffe has " Capperis shall
be distried " (destroyed) . Coverdale avoids it, and substi
tutes " when great poverty shall break in." In the Genevan
Bible it is rendered "And concupisence shall be driven

67
away." Most people who understand the allusion would
prefer the more graceful rendering of the older divines ;
and as the Treacle, the Breeches, and the Printers Bibles
took their names from accidental words in those versions —
if any further designation be wanted df this Bible than the
" Revised Version," it might claim the proud title of
The Caperberry Bible.

In the reign of Henry III, in the famous Parliament of
Merton, when the prelates endeavoured to impose some
portion of the Roman Canon Law on the legislation of this
countiry, all the Earls and Barons with one voice answered: —
"NOLUMUS LEGES AnGLI.S! MUTARE."

So at nearly the close of the third century of the
reign of the old English Bible of the Stuart epoch, we, the
people of England, say with equal loyalty and fidelity, that
we desire no change in the words of the book that has
soaked into the hearts of our childhood, as the infrequent
rain of the desert of Sinai soaks into the thirsty plains
that lie at the foot of the mountain of the Law.

68

SOME JN0TE5 OJM THE TpANSLATIOJ^
OF
Jhc English gible
INTO
THE ANCIENT BRITISH TONGUE.

\^The dates of the editions of the Welsh Bibles — subsequent
to those of Bishops Morgan, Parry and Lloyd — are
principally taken from Mr. Dare's "Old Bibles"
referred to previously.^

Some Notes on the Translation of the Bible into
Welsh.
So little is generally known of the history of the
translation of the Bible into the British tongue, that a
brief outline of its course may be of interest, especially to
Welshmen. As in the case of the translation into English it was a
matter of gradual growth. In England fragments of the
Bible, such as the Pentateuch and the Psalter, were trans
lated into Anglo-Saxon long before John Wycliffe, in 1383,
gave us the first, though not complete, translation of the
Bible into English — the basis of all subsequent editions
from that date down to the Revised Version of 1885.
The history of the Welsh MSS. of the Bible seems to
be uncertain and obscure. In fact, little is known of the
ancient history of Wales except what Prof. Rhys and his
colleagues read on the corners of gate-posts, or on stones
found in pig-styes.

69
Mr. Dore, in his book on " Old Bibles," says :— " That
only one manuscript translation of any part of the Bible
into Welsh has been known, and that was a Welsh version
of the Pentateuch." He does not, however, say whether it
be now extant, and if so, where it is, nor does he give the
date. On the other hand a Welsh clergyman asserts : — " That
in 1282 there existed a Welsh copy of the four Gospels in
MS. in S. Asaph Cathedral, and it was then considered a
very old copy. In that year permission was given to the
Cathedral Clergy by the Archbishop of Canterbury to take
this copy of the Gospels about the Principality for exhibi
tion." He also says "that this invaluable treasure was lost
at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, when the Bishop of
S. Asaph (Dr. Goldwell) was deposed " — but he gives us no
authority for either statement.
In 1557 some fragments of the Bible were translated
from the Vulgate into the Welsh language, and, to pass
from legend to history, a few years later, a.d. 1562, the
translation of the whole Bible into Welsh was commanded
by Act of Parliament.
The Statute 5 Eliz. c. 28 enacts :—" That the Bible
containing the New Testament and the Old, together with
the Book of Common Prayer, should be translated into the
British or Welsh tongue, and should be viewed, perused
and allowed by the Bishops of S. Asaph, Bangor, S. David's,
Llandaff and Hereford ; and should be printed and used in
the churches, by the 1st. of March in the year 1566, under
a penalty, in case of failure, of forty pounds to be levied on
each of the above Bishops."
"That one printed copy, at least, of the translation
should be had for every cathedral and church, &c., through
out Wales, to be read by the Clergy in time of Divine Ser-

70
vice, and at other times, for the benefit and perusal of any
who had a mind to go to Church for that purpose : as the
inhabitants of Wales (being no small part of the realm) are
utterly destituted of God's Holy Word, and do remain in
the like or even more darkness, than they were in the tymes
of Papistry." " And ever after, English Bibles and Common Prayers
should be had and remain in every church, &c., throughout
the country, with the Welsh translation, so that such as do
not understand the English language, may by conferring
both tongues together, the sooner attain to a knowledge of
the English tongue, anything in this Act to the contrary
notwithstanding." It may not be amiss to remember here that about this
period Wales was being gradually welded on to the King
dom of England. As early as the reign of Edward I, the
ancient line of the Princes of Wales was abolished, the
country conquered, and the eldest son of the King of
England proclaimed Prince of Wales at Carnarvon Castle.
The Statutum Wallise (The Statute of Wales) dated from
Rhuddlan in Flintshire, enacts : — That the territory of
Wales was then annexed to the dominions of the Crown
of England. It runs: — "Terra Wallise, cum incolis
suis, prius nobis jure feodali subjecta, jam in proprietatis
nostrse dominium totaliter et cum integrite conversa est, et
coronae regni Anglise, tanquam pars corporis ejusdem
annexa et unita."
In English : —
"The Land of Wales, with its inhabitants, formerly
subjected to us by feudal right, has now been brought
entirely into the rule of our own Kingdom, and united to
the Crown of England, as a part of the same body."
But it was not till a.d. 1536, a few years before the

71
first authorised translation of the Bible into Welsh, that
the laws of the two countries were assimilated.
By 27 Hen. VIII it was enacted : —
I. — That the dominion of Wales shall be for ever
united to the Kingdom of England.
IL— That all Welshmen born shall have the same
liberties as other the King's subjects.
III. — That lands in Wales shall be inheritable accord
ing to the English tenure.
IV. — That the laws of England and no others shall be
used in Wales.
By a later Statute of the same reign (34 and 35 Hen.
VIII, 26) the Principality was divided into Shires, in
analogy to the territorial divisions of England. Although
the English Law ran in Wales from the time of Hen. VIII,
it was administered by Welsh Judges, who were indepen
dent of Westminster Hall, and it was not until the reign
of WilUam IV, that by Statute 1 W. IV, cap. 70, the
Welsh Courts were finally abolished, and the administration
of Justice made uniform with that of England.
This uniformity of law in the two countries, enacted
in the reign of the Eighth Henry, existed until the passing
of the "Welsh Sunday Closing Act" a few years ago.
Hen mihi ! !
One year after the time appointed by the Statute of
the 5th. Eliz., to wit in 1567, the first New Testament ever
printed in Welsh, was issued. " It was printed " says Mr.
Dore, "by Henry Denham, at the cost and charges of
Humphrey Poy, in a handsome quarto volume of 399
leaves, similar to the Blank Stone Mole and Engravers'
mark of Tyndale, black-letter type, not divided into verses,
but with arguments and contents to each book and

72
chapter." But he does not tell us who Henry Denham and
Humphrey Poy may have been. There is in the preliminary
matter a dedication in English to " the most vertuous and
noble Prince (sic) Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of
England, France and Ireland, Queene, Defender of the
Faith, &c." This dedication was signed by William
Salesbury, Thomas Huet, Chantor Menevensis ; and Dr.
Richard Davis, Menevensis.
The last named. Dr. Davis, was a native of Denbigh,
and was educated at Oxford. He was consecrated Bishop
of St. Asaph in 1560 and translated to the see of St. David
in 1561. He was one of the Bishops selected by Arch
bishop Parker to revise the Bible of 1568, commonly called
"The Bishops' Bible" (see "Owen's Pembrokeshire"
p. 240, note 5.)
This dedication is noteworthy, and in many ways so
interesting as to merit full reproduction.
It supports — what has been held as more than a theory,
that the Welsh people were never very devout servants of
the great prelate and prince— whose humility assumed the
title of " Servant of Servants," any more than they were
loyal subjects of a priestly power whose more than mundane
magmficence proclaimed Itself " Vice-gerent of God." It
is a good example of the adulatory dedication to great
persons that embellished our literature down to the time
of Lord Chesterfield, and it also expounds for the admoni
tion of the more recent " Wales for the Welsh " party, that
their ancestors held the absorbtion of their country into
the English Realm
A Boon to the Liberties of the Welsh People.

73
Text op the Dedication of the first Welsh New
Testament to Queen Elizabeth, a.d. 1567.
" To the most vertuous, etc.,
When I call to remembrance, as well the face of the
corrupted religion in England, at what time Panics Churche-
yarde in the citie was occupied by makers of alabaster
images to be set up in churches, and they of Pater-noster-
rowe earned their lyving by making Pater-noster bedes,
they of Ave-lane by selling Ave bedes, and of Crede-lane
by making Crede bedes.
As also the vaine rites crept into our Country of Wales,
when instead of the lyving God, men worshipped dead
images of wood and stone, bells and bones, with such other
uncertain reliques I wot not what.
And withal consider our late general revolt from
Goddes most holie word once receaved, and dayly heare of
the like enforced uppon our brethren in forain countreys,
having most piteously susteined great calamaties, bitter
afflictions, and merciless persecutions, under which many
do yet still remayne.
I cannot, most Christian Prince, and gracious Soveraine,
but even as did the poore blynde Bartimeus or Samaritane
leper to our Saviour, so I come before your Majesties feet,
and there lying prostrate, not only for myself, but for the
delivery of my country folkes, from the spiritual blyndness
of ignorance, and foul infection of the old idolatrie and
false superstition, most humbly and dutifully to acknow
ledge your incomparable benefit bestowed upon us in
graunting the sacred Scriptures (the verye remedie and salve
to our ghostlie blyndness and leprosie) to be had in our
best knowen tongue; which as far as ever I can gather
(through Christs true religion sometime flourished among
our ancestors thp old Britons) yet were never so entirely

74
and universally had, as we now, God be thanked, have
them. Our countrymen in tymes passed were indeed most
loth (and that not without good cause) to reseave the
Romish religion, and yet have they now synce : such is the
domage (injury) of evill custome : ben loth to forsake the
same, and to receave the gospell of Christ.
But after that thys nation, as it is thought for their
apostasy, had been sore plagued with long wars, and finally
vanquished, and by rigorous laws kept under, yet at last it
pleased God of his accustomed clemency, to look down
again on them, sending a godly and noble David and a wise
Solomon. I mean Henry VIL, and Henry VIIL, — 'both
Kynges of most famous memory and your graces grand
father and father, who graciously released their paynes,
and mitigated their intolerable burdens, the one with
Charters of Liberty — and the other with Acts of Parlia
ment ; by abandoning from them all bondage and thraldom,
and incorporating them with his other loving subjects
OF England.
This no doubt was no small benefit touching bodily
wealth, but this benefit of Your Majesties providence and
goodness exceedeth that other as the soule doeth the body.
********
But to conclude and draw nere to offer up my vowe :
where as I, by our most vigilant Pastours, the Bishops of
Wales, am called and substituted, though unworthy, some
what to deale in the perusing and setting fourth of this so
worthy, a matter, I think it my most bounden duty here in
their name (as the chiefest first fruict) to present to your
majesty, a booke of the New Testament of our Lorde Jesus
Christ, translated into the British language, which is our
vulgare tongue.

75
And wishing, and most humbly praying, if it should so
seem good to your wysedome, that it might remain in your
M. Library, for a perpetual monument of your graciouse
bounte, shewed herein to our countrey and the Church of
Christ. And would to God that your Graces subjects of Wales
might also have the whole book of Gods word brought to
like pass; then might their fellow subjects of England
rejoice of them in these words : — The people who sat in
darkness have seen a great Lyght, &c.
And thus to end, I beseech Almytye God that as your
Grace's circumspect providence doth perfeotlie accomplish
and discharge your princely vocation and governaunce
towards all your humble subjects, that we may also on our
part towards God and your highness, demean ourselves in
such wyse, that his justice abrydge not these halcyon and
quiet days (which hetherto, since the beginning of your
happie reigne, have most calmly and peaceably continued)
but that we may long enjoy your gracious presence and
most prosperous reigne over us : which we beseech God
most mercifully to graunt us.
Your Ma.jestie's Most humble and faithful Subject,
William Salesbury.
The first known complete Bible in the Welsh language
was a folio edition. It is dated a.d. 1558, and is known as
I.— Btalurp mtrrgatt's ©iW^, 1558.
It is said to have been translated from the original
languages (?) by Dr. William Morgan, afterwards Bishop
of St. Asaph. It contains the Old and New Testament and
the so called Apochryphal Books. We say "so called^'
because the reason why the book which Bishop Coverdale

76
of Exeter called " Salomon's Balettes," should be considered
inspired, and "Ecclesiasticus," and the "Wisdom of Solomon"
not inspired, is one of those conundrums, that in the words
of Longfellow : — " In vain
Perplex men's heart and brain."
The chapters in this Bible are divided into verses, and
it has a long Latin dedication to Queen Elizabeth signed
GULIELMUS MORGANUS.
It was printed in London by Christopher Barker.
It is not very widely known that in 1575 Christopher
Barker purchased a patent from Queen Elizabeth for the
exclusive printing of Bibles, and from 1576 to 1618 nearly
all English Bibles published were printed by Christopher
or Robert Barker. Of the Genevan Version alone they
published about 40 editions.
After keeping and using the patent for about 130
years, it passed early in the 18th. century into the hands of
the Basketts, who published, amongst other Editions, the
well-known "Vinegar Bible," which contained so many
other mistakes, that it was also called " The Baskettful of
Errors." The Basketts held the patent for about 60 years, and
then sold it to John Eyre, of Landford, Wilts, who was
succeeded by his son. This son, Charles Eyre took into
partnership John Strahan, and from them it passed into
the worthy, capable, and careful hands of the present
possessors : —
" George Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to
the Queen's most excellent Majesty."
Mr. Dore says that, as in the [case of Miles Coverdale's
Bible, Bishop Morgan's assistants in the translation are
unknown, but it is curious that amongst those who are

77
supposed to have contributed their help we find the name
of the Rev. Richard Vaughan, Rector of the parish of
Lutterworth, the living held by John Wycliffe some two
hundred years before. The number of copies of this
edition issued is not exactly known, but it was small, and
supposed not to have exceeded one thousand.
A quarto edition of the Prayer Book and Psalter was
printed in black letter during the same year, 1558.
\L—3wliOp fawu'& Bt6fe, A.D. 1620.
In this year a revision of Bishop Morgan's Bible was
undertaken by his successor in the see of St; Asaph, Dr.
Richard Parry, and was printed in London, in folio, by
Benham Norton and John Bill.
The emendations and alterations made by Doctor
Parry were so numerous and important as to make his Book
more a new translation than a revision of an old one. A
copy of this Bible was presented to James I and is now in
the British Museum. The marginal references are taken
from King James's Bible of 1611.
There is a dedication in Latin to King James, and in
it Dr. Parry says :
That the copies of Morgan's Bible being exhausted
and many or most of the Welsh churches being without
Bibles, or having only worn or unperfect copies, he set
about revising the Welsh Bible, as the English Bible had
recently been revised (Authorised Version, 1611), for the
sake of providing for his countrymen a better and more
correct version than they had ever possessed.
This Bible is supposed to have been translated directly
from the Hebrew and Greek Versions, and not merely from
the English Version into Welsh, and is the Authorised

78
Welsh Version at present., used in places of Worship in the
Principality belonging to the " Church of England."
The first .octavo Bible published in the Welsh language
is said on the title page to have been printed in London
(Printiedig yn Llundain) by Robert Barker, a.d. 1630.
The text is in Roman type. This edition was under
taken, like other Welsh and English Bibles, not by any
public authority, but by private persons on their own
responsibility and risk. "Sir Thos. Middleton and Mr.
Rowland Heylyn, both Aldermen of London and natives of
Wales, co-operating with two other gentlemen, undertook
to supply the great want of a Bible of suitable size for
family and private reading. The reason why the Bible in
Welsh, says Mr. Dore, was so sparingly supplied was to
induce the Welsh people to study the English language for
the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of the Scriptures,
and thus gradually to banish the ancient British tongue
from the Principality and to substitute for it the English
language. Ill,— Bfelurp XltTKiJ'a mUv, a.d. 1690.
The third folio edition of the Bible in Welsh was pub
lished in 1690, and is known as "Lloyd's Bible." It was
printed at the Theatre, Oxford, in Roman letters, and was
brought out under the superintendence of Mr. Pierce Lewis,
an Anglesea man, of Jesus College, Oxford. It does not
profess to be a new translation, but merely a faithful reprint
of Bishop Parry's Bible of 1620.
IV. The octavo edition of the Welsh Bible of 1654,
consisting of 6000 copies, soon became exhausted, and in
1677 another octavo issue was produced of 8000 copies.
One thousand were distributed gratuitously amongst the

79
poor, and the remainder were offered for sale at four shil
lings each — (Dore).
V. In 1667, an octavo edition was published under
the care of Mr. Stephen Hughes, of Swansea, and freely
circulated through private benevolence.
VI. In 1689 a quarto edition of the Welsh Bible was
printed by Bill and Newcombe, London, in small and poor
type. A considerable portion of the expense of the issue
was defrayed by the Earl of Warton, once a member of
Queen Anne's Cabinet, and ten thousand copies were issued.
18th. Century Welsh Bibles.
VII. In 1718, an octavo edition printed in London,
edited by the Rev. Moses Williams, Vicar of Dyfynog,
Brecon, and published, as were the two following editions,
by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
VIII. The second edition, in octavo, of the eighteenth
Century, was published in 1727 without contents of chap
ters, or marginal references, and for this reason was very
little valued by the Welsh people.
IX. In 1746, another octavo edition was printed by
J. Bentham, Caer Grawnt, " and had besides the Old and
New Testament, the Apochrypha, the Prayer Book, and a
Metrical Psalter by Archdeacon Pryse."
X. In 1752, under the care of Mr. Morris Baskett
(the publisher of the Bible of 1719, sometimes called the
Vinegar Bible, and sometimes, on account of its many
mistakes, the Baskettful of Errors) was published another
octavo edition. This particular "Basket," howeve", was con
sidered the most correct Welsh Bible ever published.
XL — A quarto edition was printed at Carmarthen in
1770, with a Welsh concordance, and also two octavos, one
in the same year and the other in 1799,

80
It has been mentioned before that two of the transla
tors of the first Welsh New Testament, were Richard Davies,
Bishop, and Thomas Huet, Precentor, of St. David's.
In "The description of Pembrokeshire," written by
the Lord of Kemes in the sixteenth century, the 25th.
chapter treats "Of diverse famouse and learned men, that
hath lived and been borne in the county of Penbrok in
former tyme, whose works are left and be extante to the
posteritie." After mention of S. Patrick and Merlin, George Owen
refers to these two worthies of the chapter of S. David's as
follows :
" Richard Davides, Bushopp of S. Davides, a man noe
lesse in his tyme much reverenced for his rare vertues, and
excellencie in learneing, agreeable to his place and calling,
than honoured for his publique hospitallitie, and liberalitie
in his liffe-tyme. Though sustaineinge menye trebles and
greate crosses, yett see bearing himself, as he was inwardly
affected of the good, and neVer detracted but of the bad ;
he for the advancement of God's glorie translated into
Welsh:— 1. The Newe Testament. 2. The Common Praier
Book. 3. Many notable sermons. He died 7 November,
1581." " Thomas Huet, Chaunter of S. David's, a man that all
his liffe bare himself able waies in good accompt and
estimacion, took alsoe much paines with the said Bushopp
Davides, in translating the former books as may appear
by the epistles of them He died on 19th August, 1591."
The foregoing is a brief and imperfect outline of the
history of the Welsh Bible, from its translation down to the
commencement of the nineteenth century.
THE END.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 01273 2484

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