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him by the hair of his head, pulled him out of the bed and whipped him unmercifully. And wher the young man bore this beating with a kind of joy, considering it was for Christ's sake, and shed not a tear, his father, seeing that, was more enraged, and ran down and fetched an halter and put it about his neck, saying he would hang him. At length, with much entreaty of the mother and brother, he left him half dead."

Coverdale and Tyndale were the translators of this Bible. They had removed to the continent in order to enjoy greater opportunities of study and facilities for printing and publishing the great work on which they were engaged. At Antwerp Tyndale was seized as a heretic and imprisoned, and though great efforts were made in his favour, it was in vain. He was condemned, first strangled, and his remains burned near Antwerp. So great was his zeal, learning, and intrepidity, that he was styled the Apostle of England. This translation of the Bible was corrected by John Rogers, the compiler of the Child's Primer, afterwards a distinguished divine in king Edward's reign, and the first who was doomed to the stake in Mary's time.

We have seen, however, that king Henry thought proper to interdict the Bible, after it had once been allowed,—an interdict more likely to make the people ponder the words they had heard, and to sharpen their anxiety to have this treasure

again restored to them. An imprisoned thought once set at liberty can never be recaptured.

The next translation of the Bible was given out in the reign of Edward VI., in 1549, and another edition two years later, neither of them divided into verses; and a third in the reign of Elizabeth. The latter was called "the Bishops' Bible," in consequence of its having been elaborately corrected by the learned divines of that time; and it was substantially the same as that printed in James's time. It must, however, be remembered, that Elizabeth, on her accession to the throne, was far from willing that the laity and common people should have the Scriptures. Like her father, she preferred thinking for the people in matters of Faith, rather than permitting them to think for themselves. This was manifested when, on her releasing some prisoners at her coronation, Sir John Rainsforth (a kind of privileged buffoon), being set on by others, said, "That now this good time, when prisoners were delivered, four prisoners, amongst the rest, mought have their liberty, who were like enough to be kept still in hold." The queen asked "who they were?" and he said, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who had long been imprisoned in the Latin tongue, and now he desired they mought go abroad among the people in English." The Queen answered, with a grave countenance: "It were good, Rainsforth, they

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were spoken with themselves, to know of them whether they would be set at liberty.

The last translation, in the reign of James, was the work of forty-seven learned men, resident at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge, divided into six companies, and having select portions assigned them; the king drawing up directions for their all meeting to confer on any doubtful and difficult passage, and also sending a notification to all who were skilful in the tongues to send in their observations to the company. Bishops' Bible" was to be followed, principally, in the translation; but the other translations, Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Matthew's, Whitchurch's, and Geneva,-when they agreed better with the text. This translation was begun in 1607, and completed 1611.

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The division of the Bible into chapters was the work of Cardinal Hugo de Sacto Caro, in the thirteenth century, about the year 1250. The division of the New Testament into verses was made by Robert Stephens, a printer, 1551. He made this division, it is said, while he was travelling on the Continent, as the amusement of his leisure. A fact that has caused some comment: that so important a work should have been executed by a travelling printer; but it must ever be borne

*Bacon.

in mind that the early printers were men of erudition, and that the art of printing undoubtedly then ranked nearly on a level with the liberal professions, the greatest scholars thinking it no dishonour to be correctors of the press. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses was made by Athias, a learned Jew of Amsterdam, in 1661. The Bible that was published in 1611 underwent a most rigid scrutiny and correction in 1769, and from this last corrected edition our ordinary modern Bible is taken.

Thus, at length, the great truth that Wickliffe had enunciated more than 240 years before, that the Scriptures alone were the rule of faith, and that the people ought to have them, an opinion he maintained by diligently translating them; at length this truth triumphed. The people of England had the Bible. The struggle had been long; and during the last sixty-six or seventy years, that is, from the time that Henry put forth, and then withdrew, the Scriptures,the contest had been severe; but at length the

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victory was won. The progress of mind in every department of mental effort during that period of struggle, furnishes the most important and interesting section of our literary history.

CHAP. VI.

THE BIBLE.-ITS LITERARY INFLUENCE.

THE spiritual influence of the Bible is a theme so vast and various that the wisest might say,"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it." Its literary influence, however, can very distinctly be traced even in works of a general and popular character. It was not only the divine and the scholar that felt this influence, the rays of this divine light kindled the poet's mind. How could it be otherwise? What were the epics of classic antiquity? The quarrels and battles of wrangling princes, and the interference of gods and goddesses all of whom were of the earth, earthy. What were the pastorals, the satires, the histories, the odes, the orations, of Greek and Latin writers when compared with the records of the Bible? Here were histories the most graphic and affecting, odes the most sublime, prophecies the most marvellous, epics the most perfect, pastorals the most lovely, biographies the most interesting, arguments the most powerful, sermons the most simple, speeches the most impressive, proverbs the most pithy, letters the most forcible:

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