THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN MANUSCRIPT 337
see that a new era had dawned. "If Chaucer is the
father of our later English poetry, Wycliffe is the father
of our later English prose. The rough, clear, homely
English of his tracts, the speech of the ploughman and
the trader of the day, though colored with the pictur-
esque phraseology of the Bible, is, in its literary use, as
distinctly a creation of his own as the style in which he
embodied it, the terse vehement sentences, the sting-
ing sarcasms, the hard antitheses, which roused the
dullest mind like a whip. " 1
" The book which begot English prose still remains
its supreme type. The English Bible is the true school
of English literature. It possesses every quality of
our language in its highest form — except for scientific
precision, practical affairs, and philosophic analysis.
It would be ridiculous to write an essay on meta-
physics, a political article, or a novel in the language
of the Bible. Indeed it would be ridiculous to write
anything at all in the language of the Bible. If you
care to know the best that our literature can give in
simple noble prose — mark, learn, and inwardly digest
the Holy Scriptures in the English tongue." 2
We do not know precisely what parts of the transla-
tion, if any, are Wycliffe's own, but it is believed that
he translated the New Testament almost entirely, and
that the Old Testament is, in considerable part, the
work of Nicholas of Hereford. Other friends worked
with these, but it is to Wycliffe's influence that we owe
this translation.
No man was better fitted for the task. Educated at
Oxford, where he received the best teaching of his time
1 J. R. Green, History of the English People, London, 1877-1880, vol. 1,
p. 489.
2 Frederic Harrison, Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill and other Literary Estimates,
New York, 1902, p. 165.
338 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
in the Arts and Sciences, Theology and Law, he is
said to have been Fellow of Merton in 1357, but this
is uncertain, and Master of Balliol in 1361. He was
also a Doctor in the Faculty of Theology, and was
appointed a member of the Royal Commission sent to
Bruges to treat with the Papal Embassy. He was
Rector of Fylingham in Lincolnshire, and for a while
Warden of Canterbury Hall, and Rector of Lutter-
worth, where he died in 1384. It has been suggested
that WyclifTe may have been in Chaucer's mind when
he wrote the description of the "Good Man. " Whether
this is so or not, the life of WyclifTe seems from all ac-
counts of it to have been in full accord with Chaucer's
idea of what a good priest ought to be.
WyclifTe's New Testament, 1380? and Bible, 1382?
were in manuscript, as printing had not yet been in-
vented. Copies were made, and in a very short time a
revision was undertaken, perhaps by John Purvey, a
follower of WyclifTe. The New Testament included the
Epistle to the Laodiceans, inserted after the Epistle to
the Colossians. What is known as Purvey's version
was completed perhaps in 1388. The ascription of this
work to Purvey was made first by Daniel Waterton in
1729. 1 Forshall and Madden accepted this as fact in
their edition of the two versions in 1850. We have no
proof that Purvey was the author of the translation.
What is stated by the anonymous author is, that he
worked with "diverse felawisand helpars" and "manie
gode felawis and kunnynge at the correccioun of his
translacion." Mr. Pollard suggests that the version
of John of Trevisa, mentioned by Caxton, may perhaps
"be identified, either with the completion of the first
version begun by Nicholas of Hereford, or with the
1 Daniel Waterton, Works y vol. x, p. 361.
THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN MANUSCRIPT 339
second version, which has somewhat lightly been as-
signed to Purvey." *
It had been common to add marginal notes to the
Latin Bibles, and the Wycliffite versions contained
such notes, also prologues to the books. This feature
is of importance, as we shall see, in the history of the
Bible in English. As a specimen of these prologues
we may take that to Ruth : —
" Prologue on the book of Ruth. This book Ruth shewith
the feithfulnesse and stidefast love of this wumman Ruth to
the moder of her hosebonde, after the deeth of her hosebonde
and sones, turnynge agen fro the lond of Moab into Beth-
leem of Juda; wherefor God dide merci to Ruth, and sche
was wedid to Booz, a wurthi man of Bethleem, and is rekened
in the genologie of Davith and of Crist. ,,
WyclinVs Bible was never printed until 1850, when
it was issued with the following title: —
"The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments,
with the Apocryphal Books, in the earliest English Versions
made from the Latin Vulgate by John WyclifFe and his fol-
lowers: edited by the Rev. Josiah Forshall, F. R. S. etc. and
Sir Frederic Madden, K. H., F. R. S., etc., Oxford, at the
University Press, 1850. Four volumes."
The only early copies are manuscripts, of which
Bishop Westcott mentions as extant "about one hun-
dred and seventy copies of the whole or part, " of which
"fifteen of the Old Testament and eighteen of the New
belong to the original version. The remainder are of
Purvey's revision. " 2
1 A. W. Pollard, Bibliographical Introduction to Reprint of 161 1 Version,
P- 5-
2 B. F. Westcott, History of the English Bible, London, 1868, p. 24.
34-0 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
The writings of Wycliffe and his followers were
sought out and burned in the stormy days of religious
persecution that followed. Wycliffe's Prologue was
printed in 1550 with the following title: —
"The True Copye of a Prolog wrytten about c. yeres paste
by John Wyckliffe. (As maye justly be gatherid bi that,
that John Bale hath writte of him in his boke entitlid the
Summaiie of famouse writers of the He of Great Britain),
the Originall whereof is founde written in an olde English
Bible bitwixt the Olde Testamente and the Newe, whych
Bible remaynith now in ye Kyng hys Maiesties Chamber.
London; Robert Crowly, 15 50."
In 1408 at Oxford the Provincial Council forbade
the translating of the Bible into the vulgar tongue, or
the expounding of the same, without special authority of
the Council. The following is a translation of a portion
of the decree: —
"We therefore enact and ordain that no one henceforth on
his own authority translate any text of Holy Scripture into
the English or other language, by way of a book, pamphlet,
or tract, and that no book, pamphlet, or tract of this kind be
read, either already recently composed in the time of the
said John Wyclif, or since then, or that may in future be
composed, in part or in whole, publicly or privily, under pain
of the greater excommunication, until the translation itself
shall have been approved by the diocesan of the place or if
need be by a provincial council. Whoever shall do the con-
trary to be punished in like manner as a supporter of heresy
and error." *
It is interesting to note in this connection that nearly
1 A. W. Pollard, Records of the English Bible, the Documents relating to the
Translation and Publication of the Bible in English, 1 525-161 1 , London, 191 1,
p. 80.
THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN MANUSCRIPT 34 1
half the extant copies of the Wycliffite versions "are
of a small size, such as could be made the constant
daily companion of their owners. " 1 The Scriptures in
English for the owning of which many persons were
prosecuted, in the early part of the sixteenth century,
as told in Foxe's Martyrs, must have been copies of the
Wycliffe or Purvey versions.
Wycliffe's "Apology" sets forth his purpose in trans-
lating, and refers to Bede and Alfred as his predecessors
in the work of making the Bible accessible to the people
in the vernacular. He says: —
"Oh Lord God! sithin at the beginning of faith, so many
men translated into Latin to great profit of Latin men; let
one simple creature of God translate into English for profit
of Englishmen. For if worldly clerks look well their chron-
icles and books they shoulden find that Bede translated the
Bible and expounded much in Saxon, that was English either
common language of this land in his time. And not only
Bede, but King Alfred that founded Oxenford, translated so
his last days the beginning of the Psalter in Saxon and would
more if he had lived longer. Also Frenchmen, Beemers,
and Britons han the Bible and other books of devotion and
exposition translated into their mother language. Why
shoulden not Englishmen have the same in their mother
language? I cannot wit."
Although our modern English versions are indebted
chiefly to William Tindale for their language, yet many
of the most familiar expressions to-day are from Wy-
cliffe, such as the beam and mote, the trampling under
feet of swine and the rending of dogs, " the Comforter,"
for Paraclete, the Saxon phrase "God forbid," and the
Beatitudes : —
1 B. F. Westcott, The History of the English Bible, p. 24.
342 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
" And Jhesus seynge the puple went up in to an hil, and
whan he was sette hise disciplis camen to hym. And he
opened his mouth and taughte hem, and seide.
" Blessid be pore men in spirit: for the kyngdom of hevenes
is hern.
" Blessid be mylde men: for thei schulen weeld the erthe.
"Blessid be thei thatmoornen: for thei schulen be coun-
fortide.
"Blessid ben thei that hungren and thirsten rightwisnesse :
for thei schulen be fulfillid.
"Blessid ben merciful men: for thei schulen gete merci.
"Blessid ben thei that ben of clene herte: for thei schuln se
god.
'Blessid be pesible men: for thei schuln be clepid goddis
children.
"Blessid ben thei that suffren persecucioun for rightwis-
nesse: for the kyngdom of hevenes is hern." Wycliffe, 1380 —
Bagster Hexapla.
Wycliffe was not content merely to translate the
Bible. He was desirous that the people for whom he
had translated it should read it, and hear it read. He
sent out men, "poor priests," with copies of the trans-
lation to read to all who wished to hear. The direct
influence of this was very great. He put the Bible into
the English of the people, and in so doing opened to
them the treasures of Bible story. As Dr. Storrs has
said: —
"How vast the impression produced by the version which
thus burst into use, not on language only, but on life, in the
whole sphere of moral, social, spiritual, even political expe-
rience, who shall declare! To the England of his time, con-
fused, darkened, with dim outlook over this world or the
next, the Lutterworth Rector brought the superlative educa-
tional force. He opened before it, in the Bible, long avenues
THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN MANUSCRIPT 343
of history. He made it familiar with the most enchanting
and quickening sketches of personal character ever pencilled.
He carried it to distant lands and peoples, further than
crusaders had gone with Richard, further than Alfred's
messengers had wandered. It saw again 'the city of palms'
in sudden ruin, and heard the echoes of cymbal and shawn
from the earliest Temple. The grandest poetry became its
possession; the sovereign law, on which the blaze of Sinai
shone, or which glowed with serene light of divinity from
the Mount of Beatitudes. Inspired minds came out of the
past — Moses, David, Isaiah, John, the Man of Idumea, the
man of Tarsus — to teach by this version the long-desiring
English mind. It gave peasants the privilege of those
who had heard Elijah's voice in the ivory palaces, of those
who had seen the heaven opened by the river of Chebar,
of those who had gathered before 'the temples made with
hands' which crowned the Acropolis. They looked into the
faces of apostles and martyrs, of seers and kings, and walked
with Abraham in the morning of time." *
1 R. S. Storrs, John Wy cliff e and the First English Bible, New York, 1880,
p. 72.
CHAPTER XVII
THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE 1525-1539
As time went on and copies of the Bible in English
multiplied, its influence on the thoughts and language
of the people increased likewise, and this, while pri-
marily due to religion, was due also to the interest of
the people in a kind of literature that took hold on
their hearts. Later, May 6, 1541, after Tindale's and
Coverdale's and the Great Bible had been printed,
Cromwell, as Vicar General, by authority of Henry
VIII notified every curate "that one book of the whole
Bible, of the largest volume in English, should be set
up in some convenient place within the church." Day
after day crowds gathered around these Bibles to hear
them read aloud. "So far as the nation at large was
concerned, no history, no romance, hardly any poetry
save the little-known verse of Chaucer, existed in the
English tongue when the Bible was ordered to be set
up in churches. 1 "
The printing of a Bible in English, in England, dur-
ing the early part of the sixteenth century, would have
been dangerous for the man who did it, so, for this
reason, the early editions were printed abroad, but
Caxton, the first English printer, translated from
Latin the popular Golden Legend, written by Jacobus
de Voragine, an Italian, who died in 1298. This collec-
tion of stories of saints, martyrs, and ecclesiastics, was
reprinted many times, after 1470, when the first printed
1 J. R. Green, History of the English People> vol. 3, p. 10.
344
THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE I525-I539 345
edition appeared. Caxton protected himself against
censure by reprinting the legends, but added to the
volume many Bible stories, not in the original, and in
this way made accessible in printed form much of
the Bible, including stories from the Apocrypha. Cax-
ton's Golden Legend, 1483, contains the first printing
in English of any portion of the Bible. The first book
printed from movable type was the Mazarin Bible,
1455-6, of Gutenberg. The first printed book bear-
ing a date was the Psalter, 1457, of Gutenberg. In
1505 a portion of the Psalms was printed. These were
in Latin. Tindale's New Testament, issued in two
editions, a quarto and an octavo, both in 1525, rep-
resents the first printing of any complete division of
the Bible in English.
Caxton is the authority for the statement that John
of Trevisa translated the Bible, a statement repeated in
the preface to the 161 1 version. Caxton's statement,
in the preface to Higden's Polychronicon, is that John
of Trevisa at the request of "one Sir Thomas Barkley"
had translated the Polychronicon, the Bible, and the
De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
We have two of these, but know nothing of the Bible
translation.
There are several reasons why the Wycliffite versions
were superseded by others. One was that much of
the language became obsolete, another that they were
translations from the Latin version of Jerome, the Vul-
gate, which, although the authoritative Bible of the
Western Church, was itself a translation from the
original Hebrew and Greek. Hebrew and Greek texts
of the Bible were printed later and thus became readily
accessible to scholars.
The capture of Constantinople by the Turks, in
346 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
1453, drove to the West scholars from the capital of the
Eastern Empire, where Greek learning had flourished.
These scholars brought with them Greek manuscripts,
and it was probably on the basis of manuscripts thus
made accessible to Western Europe, which prior to
this had received its Greek literature chiefly through
Latin sources, that Erasmus was able to issue in 1516
his New Testament in the original Greek, with a
Latin translation. He issued a second edition in 15 19
with more than three hundred changes. Aldus had
reprinted, at Venice in 15 18, the first edition, with
over two hundred corrections. The third edition in
1522 contains for the first time the verse I John, 5:7,
which had long been in the Vulgate, but could not be
found in any early Greek manuscript. It appears
with differences in two manuscripts, one that of Dr.
Moulfort, probably of the fifteenth century, and one in
the Vatican, of about the same age. From the former
Erasmus took it. The Complutensian New Testa-
ment, the first printed Greek Testament, although
printed 15 14-17, was not published until 1520 when
Pope Leo X sanctioned it. Erasmus used it in prepar-
ing his fourth edition in 1527, and a fifth, differing
from it in only four places, in 1535. The fourth edition
of Erasmus was the most important.
Aldus printed the Septuagint in 1518. The Old
Testament had been printed in Hebrew, the Psalms in
1477 at Bologna; the Law in 1482; the Hebrew Scrip-
tures in 1488 at Soncino Lombardy; in 1491-93 at
Naples; in 1494 at Brescia. In 1518 and 1525 the Old
Testament was printed in Hebrew under the direction
of the Rabbis. Between 15 14 and 15 17 the Complu-
tensian Polyglot (Hebrew, Greek, Latin), had been
printed at Alcala (Latin Complutum) , in Spain, under
THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE I525— 1539 247
the care of Cardinal Ximenes. This consisted of (i)
the Hebrew text of the Old Testament with the Aramaic
parts, (2) the Targum of Onkelos to the Pentateuch,
(3) the Septuagint, (4) the Vulgate, (5) the Greek New
Testament. Latin translations of the Septuagint and
the Targum were printed with them.
With this array of original sources, which had not
been accessible to Wycliffe, the way was open for a
translation of the Bible into English from Hebrew and
Greek. Luther published the New Testament in
German in 1522 from the Greek of Erasmus, and the
Old Testament in 1534 on the basis of the Massoretic
Hebrew text of 1494, edited by Ben Moseh. Luther
placed the Apocryphal books in a group by themselves,
as the books were not in Hebrew. This was done in
the other Protestant versions. He used also the
Septuagint and the Vulgate, as well as the Hebrew, in
making his version.
tindale's translations, 1 525-1 53 5
The decree of 1408 had forbidden any person to
undertake the translation of the Bible without special
authorization. The publication of the Greek Testa-
ment with a Latin translation by Erasmus in 15 16,
with revision and reprinting in 1519 and 1522, and the
translation of the New Testament from Greek into
German by Luther, printed in 1522, probably had
great influence in leading William Tindale, who had
studied at both Oxford and Cambridge, who may have
heard Erasmus lecture at Cambridge, and who was
fired by zeal to place the Bible in the hands of the
people, to proceed to London to ask from the Bishop
of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, authority to make a
348 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
translation of the New Testament directly from the
Greek, not as in the case of all previous English ver-
sions from the Latin. In the Preface to Genesis in
Tindale's translation of the Pentateuch, he relates his
experiences, and tells how he brought with him to
London "an Oration of Isocrates, which he had then
translated out of Greeke into Englishe" as evidence of
his ability. It must be remembered that only a short
time before this, Greek had been, for the first time,
introduced in the Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge. It was only after having been refused room in
the Bishop's house to translate the New Testament,
that Tindale, financially assisted by "Humphrey
Monmouth and certain other good men — tooke hys
leave of the realm and departed into Germanic" Tin-
dale had declared to a learned divine, with whom he
had been arguing, "If God spare my life, ere many
years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall
know more of the Scripture than thou dost."
It was a time of religious controversy, and this had
much to do with the translation of the Bible into
German by Luther, and the New Testament, 1525,
the Pentateuch, 1530, and lessons from the Old Testa-
ment, 1534, into English by Tindale, who declared
in the Preface to Genesis: —
"... I had perceaved by experyence, how that it was im-
possible to stablysh the laye people in any truth, excepte the
Scripture were playnly layde before their eyes in their mother
tonge, that they might se the processe, ordre and meaninge
of the texts." *
Wycliffe and Tindale endeavored to put the Bible
into the actual language of the common people. Of
1 A. W. Pollard, Records of the English Bible, p. 95.
THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE I525-I539 349
the spirit in which Tindale worked and of his attitude
towards his own work, we have two statements from
the two editions of his New Testament, the first, from
the Prologue to the unique copy of the Cologne frag-
ment of 1525 in the British Museum: —
"I have here translated (brethren and susters moost dere
and tenderly beloved in Christ) the newe Testament for
youre spirituall edyfyinge, consolacion, and solas:
" Exhortynge instantly and besechynge those that are
better sene in the tongues then y, and that have hyer gyftes of
grace to interpret the sence of the scripture, and meanynge of
the spyrite, then y, to consydre and pondre my laboure, and
that with the spyrite of mekenes. And yf they perceyve in
eny places that y have not attayned the very sence of the
tonge, or meanynge of the scripture, or have not given the
right englysshe worde, that they put to there handes to
amende it, remembrynge that so is there duetie to doo." *
Tindale's second statement is in the Epilogue to the
Worms edition of the New Testament: —
"Them that are learned Christenly, I beseche . . . that
the rudnes off the worke nowe at the fyrst tyme, offende
them not: but that they consyder howe that I had no man
to counterfet, nether was holpe with englysshe of eny that
had interpreted the same, or soche lyke thinge in the scrip-
ture before tyme. Moreover, even very necessitie and com-
brance (God is recorde) above strengthe, which I will re-
hearce, lest we shulde seme to bost ourselves, caused that
many thynges are lackinge, which necessaryly are requyred.
Count it as a thynge not havynge his full shape, but as it
were borne afore hys tyme, even as a thing begunne rather
then fynnesshed. In tyme to come (yf god have apoynted
us there unto) we will geve it his full shape; and putt out yf
1 A. W. Pollard, Records of the English Bible, p. hi.
350 A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE
ought be added superfluusly: and adde to yff ought be over-
sene thorowe negligence: and will enfoarce to brynge to
compendeousnes, that which is nowe translated at the
lengthe, and to geve lyght where it is requyred, and to seke
in certayne places more proper englysshe, and with a table
to expounde the wordes which are nott commenly used, and
shewe howe the scripture useth many wordes, which are
wother wyse understonde of the commen people, and to helpe
with a declaracion where one tonge taketh nott another." ■
Much has been made of Tindale's statement that
he was not "holpe with englysshe of eny that had inter-
preted the same. " A reading of the context will show
that he may have meant that he had no copies of the
Wycliffite versions in his possession, as he doubtless
carried little, if anything, with him in the way of books
or manuscripts when he left England. His exhorta-
tion to others to assist in improving the translation
shows that he would not have neglected to consult
other English versions if he had possessed them.
That he was familiar with other versions is implied
by his reference to them. That he was unfamiliar
with the Wycliffite versions seems impossible in view
of the fact that he was an Oxford man and that he was
in entire sympathy with the religious views of
WyclifTe and his followers, by whom the Wycliffite
translations were read and expounded.
Tindale retained most of the characteristics of the
Wycliffite translation, especially its grammatical struc-
ture and its rhythmic flow as well as its beautiful
phrases. Whether Tindale consciously endeavored to
follow the Wycliffite versions, or not, it seems probable
that these versions had actually established, in a gen-
eral way, a style that was to be developed through
1 Ibid., p. 116.
THE PRINTED ENGLISH BIBLE I525-I539 351
several steps into the Bible English which we recognize
instantly to-day. With both Wycliffe and Tindale the
English of the Bible was the language of the people, as
it was spoken by educated men. It was, therefore, free
from the inaccuracies and inelegancies of the vulgar,
and likewise free from the affectations of the Court.
It is Tindale's version, however, and not the Wycliffite,
largely, perhaps, because the latter versions were not
printed, and also because they were not direct transla-
tions from the original languages, that is rightly re-
garded as the basis of subsequent English translations,
except perhaps that of Rheims-Douay, which will be