eight-score years before that tyme, i.e. about 1395, fayre and truly written in parchment." Lewis proceeds to conjecture, that this MS. was the same which is preserved in the Bodleian Library under the mark Fairfax, 2. And in this erroneous supposition he has been followed by later writers. The copy in question, which belonged to Bonner, is actually in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, No. 25., and contains the Pentateuch in the earlier Wycliffite version (made, no doubt, by Nicholas Hereford), whilst the rest of the Old and New Testament is in the later or revised translation by Purvey and his coadjutors. What I now wish to inquire about, is, where can I meet with a copy of Bonner's work, De Septem Sacramentis, in which the passages occur referred to by Lewis? They are not in A Profitable and Necessarye Doctryne, with certayne Homelies adjoyned, printed in 1555 by John Carood, although one of these homilies is on the subject of the seven sacraments.

F. MADDEN.

MINOR QUERIES.

Monastery, Arrangement of One.—Any information and particulars respecting the extent, arrangement, and uses of the various buildings for an establishment of fifty Cistercian or Benedictine Monks would be useful to and gratefully received by

A.P.H.

[Has our Querist consulted Professor Willis, "Description of the Ancient Plan of the Monastery of St. Gall in the Ninth Century," accompanying a copy of the plan, and which he will find in the Archæological Journal, vol. v. p. 85.?]

Constantine the Artist.—Who was "M. Constantine, an Italian architect to our late Prince Henry," employed in the masque at the Earl of Somerset's marriage in 1613? and was he the same Constantine de Servi to whom the Prince assigned a yearly pension of 200l. in July 1612? If so, where can more be found respecting him? He is not mentioned on Walpole's Anecdotes.

J.G.N.

Josias Ibach Stada.—Who was the artist whose name occurs inscribed on the hoof of the horse of King Charles the Second's equestrian statue at Windsor, as follows:—"1669. Fudit Josias Ibach Stada Bramensis;" and is Mr. Hewitt, in his recent Memoir of Tobias Rustat, correct in calling him "Stada, an Italian artist?"

J.G.N.

Worm of Lambton.—Is there any published notice of the "Knight and Serpent" tradition regarding this family and parish?

A.C.

[A quarto volume of traditions, gathered in the immediate neighbourhood of the scene of action, was privately printed in the year 1530, under the title of The Worm of Lambton.]

REPLIES.

LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Luther's solemn request that his translation should on no account be altered, accompanies most of the earlier editions of the N.T. I find it on the reverse of the title-page of the edition in 8vo. printed at Wittemberg by Hans Lufft in 1537, thus:—

"I request all my friends and enemies, my master printer, and reader, will let this New Testament be mine; and, if they have fault to find with it, that they make one of their own. I know well what I do, and see well what others do; but this Testament shall be Luther's German Testament; for carping and cavilling is now without measure or end. And be every one cautioned against other copies, for I have already experienced how negligently and falsely others reprint us."¹

The disputed verse (1 John, v. 7.) is omitted in all the editions printed under Luther's eye or sanction in his lifetime; but it has not, I think, been remarked that in verse 8. the words auf erde, found in later editions, are wanting. The passage stands:—

"Denn drey sind die da zeugen, der Geist, und das Wasser, und das Blut, und die drey sind beysamen."

In the first edition of the Saxon (Düdesche version of Luther's Bible, by Jo. Heddersen, printed in a magnificent volume at Lubeck, by Lo. Dietz, in 1533-4), the verse stands thus:—

"Wente dre synt dede tüchinisse geven, de Geist unde dat Water, unde dat Bloth, unde de dre synt by emander."

A MS. note of a former possessor remarks:—

"The 7th verse is not found here, nor is it in the Bibles of Magdeburg, 1544, of Wittemberg, 1541, ditto 1584, Frankfort, 1560 and 1580."

In the edition of this same version, printed by Hans Lufft, Wittemberg, 1541, the passage is exactly similar; but in one printed by Hans Walther, Magdeburg, 1545, the words up erdeu are inserted.

These Saxon versions are interesting from the very great similarity that idiom has to our early language; and they, doubtless, influenced much our own early versions.

In a translation of the N.T. from the Latin of Erasmus (the first printed in Latin with a translation on the same page, and which is very similar in appearance to Udal's), printed at Zurich in 1535, 4to., with a Preface by Johansen Zwikk of Constance, the 7th verse is given (as it was in the Latin); but is distinguished by being printed in brackets, and in both verses we have—

"Unnd die drey dienend in eins."

Erasmus having admitted the verse into his third edition, gave occasion perhaps to the liberty which has been taken in later times to print both verses, with this distinction, in editions of the Lutheran version. The earliest edition, I believe, in which it thus appears, is one at Wittemberg in 1596, which was repeated in 1597, 1604, 1605², and 1625. It also appears, but printed in smaller type, in the Hamburgh Bible by Wolder in 1597, in that of Jena 1598, and in Hutter's Nuremburg, 1599.

In a curious edition of the N.T. printed at Wandesbeck in 1710, in 4to., in which four German versions, the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Reformed, a new version by Reitz, and the received Dutch version, are printed in parallel columns, both verses are given in every instance; but a note points out that Luther uniformly omitted the 7th verse, and the words auf erde.

There cannot be a doubt, therefore, that the insertion is entirely unwarranted in any edition of the New Testament professing to be Luther's translation.

S.W. SINGER.

April 25. 1850.

Footnote 1:(return)

"Ich bitte alle meine Freunde, und Feinde, meine Meister Drücker und Leser, wolten dis Newe Testament lassen mein sein, Haben sie aber mangel dran, das sie selbs ein eigens für sich machen; Ich weiss wol was ich mache, Sehe auch wol was andere machen, Aber dis Testament sol des Luther's Deudsch Testament sein, Denn Meisterns und Klugelus ist jtzt weder masse noch ende. Und sey jederman gewarnet für andern Exemplaren, Denn ich bisher wol erfaren wie unfvleissig und falsch uns andere nachdrücken."

Footnote 2:(return)

Fr. Er. Kettner, who printed at Leipsic, in 1696, a long and strenuous defence of the authenticity