Taverner, who was an expert Greek scholar, to undertake a revision of Matthew's Bible, of which he was desirous to publish a new edition. The result was the work known as TAVERNER'S BIBLE; which was, according to Bishop Bale, "neither a bare revisal, nor yet strictly a new version, but something between both." His dedication to the King, in which he explains his reasons for undertaking the work, is an interesting indication of the spirit of the time in regard to Bible translation:

"Your Grace never did anything more acceptable unto God, more profitable unto the advancement of true Christianity, more displeasant to the enemies of the same, and also to your Grace's enemies, than when your Majesty licensed and willed the most sacred Bible, containing the unspotted and lively word of God, to be in the English tongue set forth to his Highness' subjects. It cannot be denied, however to the setting forth of it some men have neither undiligently nor yet unlearnedly travailed, that some faults have escaped their hands. But it is a work of so great difficulty so absolutely to translate the whole Bible that it be faultless, I fear it would scarce be done of one or two persons, but rather required both a deeper conferring of many learned wits together, and also a juster time and longer leisure; but forasmuch as the printers hereof were very desirous, to have the Bible come forth as faultless and emendently as the shortness of time for the recognizing of the same would require, they desired me, for default of a better learned, diligently to overlook and peruse the whole copy; and in case I should find any notable default that needed correction, to amend the same according to the true exemplars, which thing according to my talent, I have gladly done."

The work was published with King Henry's license, in whose reign it passed through several editions. It continued to be printed occasionally as late as 1551, after which there seems to have been no farther demand for it, and it disappears from the list of versions printed for use among the people.

CHAPTER XV.

CRANMER'S BIBLE: THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.

THE name of Cranmer has already been frequently mentioned in connexion with the early history of Bible translation in England. He was educated at Magdalen college, Cambridge, and was one of those young men selected by Wolsey, for their superior talents and scholarship, to adorn his new college at Oxford. But at the risk of seriously offending the great Cardinal, Cranmer declined the honor and the increased emolument, preferring the greater quiet and independence of his Cambridge home. He afterwards became Divinity Lecturer in Magdalen College, and was there held in the highest esteem for his learning and virtue.

While yet a student, Cranmer, like so many other educated young men of that period, was led by his own spiritual wants to an earnest study of the Scriptures; and from that time, the written word of God was the object of his profoundest veneration. Being appointed by his College one of the Examiners of candidates for degrees, as Batchelors and Doctors of Divinity, he was accustomed to make their knowledge of the Scriptures a test of admission; and if this was found unsatisfactory, to turn them back, with

the advice to spend some years longer in becoming acquainted with the book "wherein the knowledge of God, and the grounds of divinity lay." The Friars were particularly deficient in this respect, their sole training being in the subtleties of the schoolmen; and Cranmer's strictness subjected him to their mortal enmity. "Yet some of the more ingenuous," says Strype,* "afterwards rendered him great and public thanks for refusing them; whereby, being put upon a study of God's word, they attained to more sound knowledge in religion."

From his elevation to the Primacy, in 1533, his influence was steadily directed towards the object of securing to the nation at large, the free use of the Bible in English. His earnest, but unsuccessful efforts to enlist the Bishops in the work, have already been noticed; as well as the generous ardor with which he welcomed Tyndale's Bible in 1537, and his exultation when permission was at length. obtained from the capricious Henry that all his subjects, high and low, rich and poor, might read the word of God.

In 1538, the first reprint of Tyndale's whole Bible was commenced in Paris and finished in London, under the oversight of Coverdale. In 1540, another was published under the immediate superintendence of Cranmer, which, on account of the critical comparison of the translation with the Greek and Hebrew text which it exhibits, takes rank as an important contribution to the work of Bible translation. This is the work known as CRANMER'S BIBLE. In the Old Testament, particularly, the rendering is often an improvement on that of Tyndale; though elsewhere, it shows the influence of unreliable guides in Hebrew philo

*Life of Cranmer.

logy. Whether the changes were from Cranmer himself, or from scholars employed by him, is not known; but his learning justifies the supposition that they came from his own hand. Its great blemish is the frequent introduction of readings from the Vulgate; though these are distinguished by being enclosed in brackets, and printed in a different type. The version of the Psalms, given in Cranmer's Bible, is the one still retained in the Book of Common Prayer in the Church of England. The Church Psalter does not, however, distinguish the additions from the Vulgate; in the fourteenth Psalm, for example, three whole. verses are there inserted, with no indication that they do not belong to the Hebrew text.

The Prologue to this Bible, written by Cranmer himself, is a most earnest appeal to the laity of all classes, to improve their present opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, as the great remedy for all the evils of human life. Even among them were still to be found many, who retained the prejudices in which they had been trained against the use of the Bible by the laity, and who refused to read or hear the Scripture in the vulgar tongue.

"I would marvel much," he writes, "that any man should be so mad as to refuse, in darkness, light; in hunger, food; in cold, fire; . . . save that I consider how much custom and usage may do. So that if there were a people, as some write, de cymeriis, which never saw the sun, by reason that they be situated far towards the north pole, and be inclosed and overshadowed with high mountains; it is credible and like enough, that if, by the power and will of God, the mountains should sink down and give place, so that the sun might have entrance to them, at first some of them would be offended therewith. And the old proverb affirmeth, that after tillage of corn was first found, many delighted more to feed of mast and acorns,

* Anderson claims that it was taken from Tyndale's (Matthew's) Bible; but erroneously, as any one may convince himself by a slight comparison.

wherewith they had been accustomed, than to eat bread made of good corn."

After quoting at large from St. Chrysostom, to prove that the laity, as those who are most exposed to the trials and temptations of life, being "in the midst of the sea of worldly wickedness, standing in the forefront of the host, and nighest to the enemy," need the means of defence and succor ready at hand, far more than those who lead a life of retirement and spiritual meditation, he proceeds:

"Now if I should in like manner bring forth what the self-same doctor speaketh in other places, and what other doctors and writers say concerning the same purpose, I might seem to you to write another Bible, rather than make a Preface to the Bible. Wherefore, in few words to comprehend the largeness and utility of the Scriptures, how it containeth fruitful instruction and erudition for every man; if anything be necessary to be learned, of the holy Scriptures we may learn it; if falsehood shall be reproved, thereof we may gather wherewithal; if anything to be corrected and amended, if there need any exhortation or consolation, of the Scriptures we may well learn it. In the Scriptures be the fat pastures of the soul-therein is no venomous meat, no unwholesome thing; they be the very dainty and pure feeding... Here all manner of persons-men and women, young, old, learned, unlearned, rich, poor, priests, laymen, lords, ladies, officers, tenants, and mean men; virgins, wives, widows, lawyers, merchants, artificers, husbandmen, and all manner of persons, of what estate or condition soever they bemay in this book learn all things what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, and what they should not do, as well concerning Almighty God, as also concerning themselves, and all other."

These were wonderful words to be heard, in that day, from the highest dignitary of the English church. The minute specification of various classes and conditions, is not without important meaning; and recognizes a principle far in advance of the opinions then generally current among the great. The good Archbishop seems resolved, that no individual shall feel himself excluded or excused from the new-spread feast, for lack of a special invitation. This is Cranmer's true glory, his fervent love for the in