CHAPTER IX.

THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE.

BUT Wickliffe's great work for the people was not yet done. The labors just narrated, though in themselves inestimable, were but the pioneers of one infinitely more im portant; but voices, crying through the waste places of England, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" This crowning work, even now progressing amidst the hurry and pressure of his other toils, was the TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS INTO THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

There is no reason to suppose that this was a new idea to Wickliffe's mind. In the nature of the case, it could hardly be so. From the very beginning of his career, we have seen him vindicating the supreme authority of the Scriptures against that of the self-styled church. His appeal was ever to "the Law and the Testimony." ever spoke not according to this word," though it were the infallible Head of Christendom, "there was no light in him." In his efforts to enlighten the laity, the need of the

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inspired standard of truth, in their own language, must have pressed itself upon him with increasing weight. We find, accordingly, that even during the hurry of his public life, he had found leisure to prepare, from time to time, translations of single portions of the New Testament, in connection with expositions, for the use of the people. In the prologues to these works, the propriety and duty of giving the Scriptures to the laity, in their mother tongue, is claimed in the most explicit manner. Thus, in the prologue to Luke, he says: "Therefore a poor caitiff, let from preaching for a time for causes known of God, writeth the Gospel of Luke in English, with a short exposition of old and holy doctors, to the poor men of his nation, which know little Latin or none, and be poor of wit and worldly chattel, and natheless, rich of good will to please God.Thus, with God's grace, poor christian men may somedeal know the text of the Gospel, with the common sentence of old holy doctors, and therein know the meek and poor and charitable living of Christ and his apostles, to sue them in virtues and in bliss; and also know the proud and covetous and veniable living of Antichrist and his followers, to flee them and their cursed deeds, and pains of hell. For, no doubt, as our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles profess plainly, Antichrist and his cursed disciples should come, and deceive many men by hypocrisy and tyranny; and the best armor of christian men against this cursed chieftain with his host, is the text of holy writ. Christ Jesus, for thine endless power, mercy, and charity, make thy blessed law known and kept of thy people.. Amen, good Lord Jesus!" So in his prologue to John's Gospel: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and very

* Preface to Wickliffe's Bible.

man, came to serve poor meck men, and to teach them the Gospel; and for this cause St. Paul saith that he and other apostles of Christ be servants of christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ. And he saith also, I am debtor to wise men and unwise; and, Bear ye the charges of one another, and so ye shall fill the law of Christ. Therefore a simple creature of God, willing to bear, in part, the charges of simple poor men well willing in God's cause, writeth a short gloss in English on the Gospel of John."

These earlier translations mark a tendency in Wickliffe's mind, which could hardly fail to expand, under favorable circumstances, into the purpose to give the whole Bible to his countrymen. Accordingly, from the period of his retirement from Oxford, the right of the laity to the Scriptures forms a prominent subject in his writings; and is vindicated with a noble confidence in divine truth, and in the intelligence and honesty of the common mind, which some modern Protestants would do well to study. The following paragraph is worthy of being written in letters of gold: "As the faith of the church is contained in the Scriptures, the more these are known in their true meaning the better; and inasmuch as secular men should assuredly understand the faith they profess, that faith should be taught them in whatever language may be best known to them. Forasmuch, also, as the doctrines of our faith are more clearly and exactly expressed in the Scriptures, than they may probably be by priests,-seeing, if I may so speak, that many prelates are but too ignorant of Holy Scripture, while others conceal many parts of it; and as the verbal instructions of priests have many other defects,the conclusion is abundantly manifest, that believers should ascertain for themselves what are the true matters of their

faith, by having the Scriptures in a language which they fully understand. For the laws made by prelates are not to be received as matters of faith, nor are we to confide in their public instructions, nor in any of their words, but as they are founded on Holy Writ,-since the Scriptures contain the whole truth. And this translation of them into English should therefore do at least this good, viz.: placing bishops and priests above suspicion as to the parts of it which they profess to explain. Other means, such as the friars, prelates, the pope, may all prove defective; and to provide against this, Christ and his Apostles evangelized the greater portion of the world, by making known the Scriptures to the people in their own language. To this end, indeed, did the Holy Spirit endow them with the knowledge of tongues. Why, then, should not the living disciples of Christ do in this respect as they did?"

It may properly be asked, what is the difference in respect to the great principle here involved, whether it be a Popish or a Protestant clergy which stands between the Scriptures and the people; or whether it be the whole, or only a part, of God's word which they retain in their consecrated keeping?

The realization, for his own countrymen, of this manifest purpose of God in respect to all nations, now became the leading object of Wickliffe's efforts. Calling in the assistance of the ripest scholars among his followers, he prosecuted the task with such vigor, that, in the year 1384, the entire translation was completed. The forge in the old rectory study must have glowed day and night during this period; and yet, in such consummate silence did the hallowed labor proceed, that it was doing its work among the people before its existence was suspected by

the clergy. The yell of rage with which they greeted its appearance, betrayed their consciousness that the ancient foundations of their power were shaken.

This ancient version was not, indeed, made from the original sources the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. No copies of these existed at that time in all western Europe. Through converted Jewish scholars, a slight interest in the study of Hebrew had already been awakened on the continent; but this had not yet extended to England. It had fared even worse with the Greek language, which was now as unknown on the island as though it had never had an existence.

In making his version from the Latin Vulgate, Wickliffe, therefore, only submitted to a necessity. It is matter of thankfulness, that, in the absence of the original Scriptures, so good a representative of them should have been within his reach. Jerome, who was the first Biblical scholar of his age, was thoroughly acquainted with both Greek and Hebrew; and his version, being executed in the fourth century, was based on manuscripts older, by several centuries, than those to which later English translators had access. Hence, in not a few instances, Wickliffe's translation gives the true meaning of a passage, where its successors failed to do so. But, on the other hand, the disadvantages of translating from a translation, especially in the case of a book so ancient and so peculiar as the Bible, are of a very serious character. The copy follows the model

"The Vulgate," says the learned and judicious Dr. George Campbell, "is, in the main, a good and faithful version." In reference to the accusation that it favors Popery, he adds: "Could this point be evinced in satisfactory manner, it would allow more to Popery, on the score of antiquity, than, in my opinion, she is entitled to."