At a conference held at Hampton Court, in January, 1604, to hear and determine "things pretended to be amiss in the church," Dr. Reinolds, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, moved King James who was present, that there might be a new translation of the Bible. In June, the King appointed fifty-four men to undertake the task; the actual number who engaged in it in 1607, when the work was formally undertaken, was forty-seven, and they were men distinguished for their piety and learning. Directions were given to them for their work, which was to be of the nature of revision, rather than translation. As their preface states, "We never thought from the beginning that we should neede to make a new translainto, nor yet to make of a bad a good one but to make a good one

TYNDALE'S VERSION.-To William Tyndale the martyr, England owed her first printed English New Testament. Born in Gloucestershire, about 1484, he studied at Oxford and Cambridge, and was well acquainted with the Hebrew, Greek, and other languages. A German scholar speaks of him in 1526, as "a complete master of seven languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, French." He became a diligent student of Holy Scripture, and says that he was moved to the work of translation, because he "perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order and meaning of the text." His version is the work of a learned, independent, and original translator, of singular purity of purpose and laborious patience, who "had no man to counterfeit [imitate), neither was helped with English of any that had interpreted the same or such like thing in the Scripture beforetime." [His epilogue to the first Ed.]

He translated about half the Old Testament and the whole of the New, and all subsequent English versions have followed the standard of translation which he laid down, whilst they have for the most part retained his very words. Westcott states as examples, that about nine-tenths of the Authorised Version of the first Epistle of St. John, and five-sixths of that to the Ephesians (which is extremely difficult) are retained from Tyndale. In the New Testament he rendered the Greek Text of Erasmus directly, while still he consulted the Vulgate and the German of Luther. He found he would not be allowed to translate in England, and went to Hamburgh. In 1524, he published the Gospels of SS. Matthew and Mark separately, with notes, and in 1525, went to Cologne to print his complete New Testament. Cochleæus, a relentless enemy of the Reformation, obtained from the printers the secret that 3,000 Testaments were being printed for England, and got the Authorities to forbid the work. Tyndale escaped, with his printed sheets, to Worms. He was here in safety, and completed his quarto edition, and also published a new edition without glosses, in octavo. This latter edition was first finished, and both editions reached England in 1526, without any indication of the translator's name. The quarto edition was commenced by Quentel, and was probably completed by Peter Schoeffer, of Worms, who printed the smaller edition. The book was bought up, forbidden, and publicly burnt in England. But these efforts were vain to check its circulation, and indeed led to its careful revision by Tyndale in 1534 (2nd Ed.) with marginal notes, prologues to the books, and markings of the Church Lessons: and again, while in prison, in 1535 (3rd Ed.) without notes. Three surreptitious editions were printed at Antwerp, in 1534. Tyndale was first strangled and then burned, at Vilevorde, near Antwerp, Oct. 6th, 1536.

COVERDALE'S VERSION.—The first complete English Bible, finished October 4th, 1535, was the work of Myles Coverdale, a Yorkshireman, born 1488, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, a man greatly esteemed for his piety, knowledge of the Scriptures, and diligent preaching. It is now pretty conclusively proved by Mr. H. Stevens, that it was printed at Antwerp, by Jacob van Meteren, ("The Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, 1878"). The title speaks of it as "faithfully and truly translated out of the Douche (that is, German) and Latin," and though in subsequent editions it is simply "translated in Englishe," it would appear that this is a secondary translation, Coverdale using "five sundry interpreters" as he calls them, of which were the Vulgate, Luther, the Zürich or Swiss German, the Latin of Pagninus, and he certainly consulted Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament. In the New Testament, he follows the 1526 and 1534 editions of Tyndale. In 1537, James Nycolson, printer, of St. Thomas' Hospital, Southwark, printed an edition "Set forth with the Kynge's most gracious license." It has been thought that in consequence of a law passed 1534, compelling foreigners to sell their Bibles in sheets to some English stationers, that the whole edition was sold, with the blocks, to Nycolson, who bound and issued them.

MATTHEW'S BIBLE, 1537, though published and known as Matthew's, was the work of John Rogers the Martyr. It has been conjectured that the name of Matthew was assumed by Rogers through prudence or fear. Westcott thinks this most improbable, as the name stands at the end of the dedication, and J. R. at the end of the exhortation, and he suggests that Matthew found money for the work. It is not a new translation, but is made up of the translations of Tyndale and Coverdale. Tyndale had already published the Pentateuch, and it is believed that he had translated to the end of Chronicles. The New Testament is chiefly Tyndale's, and of the whole Bible two thirds are Tyndale's and one-third Coverdale's. Several revised editions of Matthew's Bible by Richard Taverner and others were published. In Aug. 1537, Cromwell had exhibited the Bible to the king, who ordered that it "shall be allowed by his authority to be bought and read within this realm.'

THE GREAT BIBLE, so called from its size, was published owing to the zeal of Lord Cromwell, under the authority of King Henry VIII; the 1539 edition being generally known as Cromwell's Bible; and the second, or 1549 edition, as Cranmer's, from the preface which he wrote for it. This Bible was partly printed in Paris, when the Inquisitor-General forbade the work, and seized the printed sheets. Presses and workmen were brought to England, and the Book was then finished in April, 1539. It is printed in black letter, and is Coverdale's revision of his own translation and of Tyndale's, with the help of Munster and Pagninus for the Old, and the Latin version of Erasmus for the New Testament. This is the first edition of the English Bible with the words on the titlepage, Appoynted to the vse of the Churches." The appointment is expressed in full in the Kalendar. Public copies were sometimes attached by a chain to one of the pillars of the church, with the king's injunction that it should be read with "Discretion, Honest Intent, Charity, Reverence, and Quiet behaviour."

GENEVAN NEW TESTAMENT, OF 1557, printed at Geneva, by Conrad Badius, in 16mo, is a revision of Tyndale's version, collated with the Great Bible, and carefully done, but without due

leisure. The influence of Beza is perceptible. The editor was William Whittingham. The chapters are divided into verses and numbered. In 1576, Laurence Tonson, Under-Secretary to Sir F. Walsingham, published a revision professedly from the text of Beza. The variations from the Genevan are few, but the marginal notes differ. This revision was frequently bound up with the Genevan Old Testament. GENEVAN BIBLE, OF 1560, printed at Geneva, by Hall, an English refugee, was the work of Coverdale, Knox, and other exiles at Geneva. The version of the New Testament is not that of 1557. This version is commonly known as the "Breeches Bible," from the word Breeches in Gen. iii. 7. The same word is used in both the Wycliffite Versions, in Caxton's "Golden Legende,' and in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 12882. Of this version about 170 editions were printed, in folio, quarto, and octavo. The convenience of the smaller sizes, the division into verses, and the Roman type now first used, with the marginal commentary, pure and vigorous in style, and, if slightly tinged with Calvinistic doctrine, yet on the whole neither unjust nor illiteral" (Westcott's English Bible), at once gave it a place in the English household, and it maintained its position until towards the middle of the seventeenth century.

THE BISHOPS' BIBLE, 1568, was proposed by Archbishop Parker, and the work was allotted by him to various learned men, many of them Bishops. The revision was about four years in hand, and the Great Bible was mainly followed. The New Testament was revised in the editions of 1572. This Bible was published in folio, quarto, and in octavo; but the editions were not so numerous as those of the Genevan.

on.

THE RHEIMS AND DOUAI VERSION.-At Douai, in Flanders, a number of English Roman Catholics settled and founded a Seminary for the training of Priests for England. The Seminary being broken up owing to a Huguenot riot, it was transferred to Rheims, in France, and while there the Rheims version of the New Testament was published, in 1582. In 1593, the Seminary was allowed to return to Douai, and the work of translation was carried "For lack of good meanes" the publication of the Old Testament did not take place until 1609-10 The translation is made from the Latin Vulgate, and may be said to be in Latinized English, almost unintelligible. In the text and the notes the Book is strongly Romish. In after editions of the translation these characteristics have been toned down. This version has been nicknamed "the Rosin Bible," from the reading, Jer. viii. 22, is there no rosin in Gilead?" The Bishops' and other early versions had "triacle" or 'tryacle." " and the A.V. "balm."

THE KING'S BIBLE, OR AUTHORISED VERSION, 1611, completes this list of English Bibles. (See above.)

REVISED VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1881.Reasons in favour of a revision of the 1611 Bible have been forcibly and persistently urged during many years past, by Scholars and Divines of the first rank; while on the other hand, popular instinct seemed to a large extent to support many learned and pious men in their objections to any such work. Nor is a wise jealousy on this head to be wondered at, or to be regretted. An interesting account is given of the opposition which revision has called forth, from the days of Origen and Jerome; and also of works on the revision of the English version in Eadie's English Bible, ch. 1., li.

The history of the Bible in Great Britain shows that it has ever been synchronous with the true life and progress of the nation; and the national reverence for the very volume itself-charged upon us as Bibliolatry-is an hereditary quality and trait transmitted to us from the generations to whom that volume was at once the symbol and the guarantee, the weapon and the guerdon, of truth and freedom. The 1611 version, representing all its predecessors-and itself consecrated by the usage of nearly three centuries-written at a time when the English language was in its most perfect state and vigour, has powerfully influenced the literature and the struggles of the Anglo-Saxon race, and has thus grown up with that national greatness of which Queen Victoria, on a memorable occasion, wisely and truthfully declared it to be the source.

Jealousy for the integrity of the Bible, and a desire for its revision, naturally subsist together, and are alike an evidence of the value at which it is estimated. It is too precious to be lightly tampered withit is so precious that if it can be rendered more pure no cost is too great for that object. Suggestions for a revision of the 1611 version were made not long after its introduction; for as early as 1645, Dr. Lightfoot, in a sermon before the Commons, urged them "to think of a review and survey of the translation of the Bible." In 1653, a Bill was before the Commons for a new translation. The following extract from it contains at once the great reason for revision, and its justification:-" In the original text of the Holy Scriptures there is so great depth, that only by degrees there is progress of light towards the attaining of perfection of the knowledge in the bettering of the

translation thereof."

The Table given above shows that the 1527 version of Erasmus has been the basis on which the text of the succession of versions,