Bible in the English tongue, and that a new translation of it be made for that end and purpose.” But notwithstanding this two new editions of Coverdale’s Bible were printed in London in 1537, and on the title-page of both of these there appeared the words, “Set forth with the kynge’s moost gracious licence.”

In the same year, 1537, and probably in the earlier part of it, there was issued in London another Bible, which also bore upon its title-page the inscription, “Set forth with the kinge’s most gracyous lycence.”[15] This Bible, commonly known as Matthew’s Bible, was, it is now generally believed, prepared for the press by John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom at Smithfield, under the Marian persecution. In the New Testament and Pentateuch he agrees substantially with Tyndale’s version. Of the other books of the Old Testament, a portion is obviously taken from Coverdale, the remaining part, Joshua to Chronicles, has been thought with good reason to be the work of Tyndale. It is known that Tyndale, after the publication of his Pentateuch, continued to labour at the translation of the Old Testament. In a letter written during his imprisonment he prays to be allowed to have his Hebrew Bible, and his Hebrew grammar and dictionary; and it is by no means unlikely that the results of his studies were committed to the care of Rogers. If this surmise be correct, then this Bible may be viewed as a compilation, two-thirds of it being due to Tyndale, and one-third to Coverdale. A sufficient reason for the adoption of the assumed name of Thomas Matthew is thus supplied, since Rogers could not claim the work as his own, and Tyndale’s name would have arrayed against it the opposition both of the king and of the Romish party.

Both of the last mentioned Bibles were open to certain obvious objections. Coverdale’s, in that it was derived from German and Latin versions; and Matthew’s, in that it was in part only made from the original texts. Matthew’s also was accompanied by a considerable number of critical and explanatory notes, many of which were of a decided anti-papal cast. Accordingly, at the instigation and under the patronage of Thomas Cromwell, Coverdale set himself to revise his former work with the aid of the valuable contribution supplied to him in Matthew’s Bible. The printing of this new Bible was completed in April, 1539, and from the circumstance that it was printed in the largest folio then used, 15 inches by 9, it was, and is, commonly described as the Great Bible. In the title-page it is declared to be “truly translated, after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes by ye dylygent studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde tonges.”[16] By this, it is now tolerably certain, we are to understand, not that several living scholars took part with Coverdale in the preparation of the volume, but that he availed himself of the published writings of men skilled in the ancient languages, who had translated and expounded the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. His chief guides were Sebastian Munster for the Old Testament, and Erasmus for the New. The Bible appeared without notes, and had no dedication.[17]

In the same year (1539) there appeared also the Bible[18] edited by Richard Taverner, formerly of Cardinal College (now Christ Church), Oxford, afterwards of the Inner Temple, and more recently Clerk of the Signet to the King.[19] It may be briefly described as a revised edition of Matthew’s Bible. Taverner had some reputation as a Greek scholar, but his work is very unequally executed, and before the formidable competition of the Great Bible it soon sank into obscurity. After its first year of issue this Bible seems to have been only once reprinted in its entirety; namely, in 1549.[20]

Not content with what he had already done, Coverdale persevered in the revision and re-revision of his work. A second edition was issued in April, 1540, to which was prefixed a prologue by Cranmer,[21] and its title contained the words, “This is the Byble apoynted to the use of the churches.” Two other editions appeared in the same year, and three in the following year.[22] (The edition of April, 1540, seems, however, to have been regarded as a sort of standard edition.) This Bible was the Bible read in churches in the reign of Edward VI., and in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth.

Hence it will be seen that of the four principal Bibles published in the reign of Henry VIII., namely, Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch, Coverdale’s Bible, Matthew’s Bible, and the Great Bible, the last three form a group of closely related versions, of which Tyndale’s is the common parent, and the rest successively derived therefrom. And it is very noteworthy that these Bibles are mainly the result of the patient and devoted labours of two men only. The work done by such men as Rogers and Taverner, however important, is altogether of a subordinate kind. William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale stand apart, and above all others, as the men who, in those days of religious awakening and of conflict with the papal tyranny, gave the Bible to our countrymen in a form that could reach at once their understanding and their heart. Remembering this, and remembering also in what difficult circumstances the work was done, the wonder is far less that room was left for improvement, and that further revision was felt by themselves and others to be an imperative duty, than that so much was accomplished, and so well, by the indomitable and self-denying labours of these noble men.

LECTURE III.

THE FURTHER GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

The accession of Elizabeth, November 17th, 1558, conveniently marks the date of a fourth stage in the growth of the English Bible. The former translations and revisions had been done in troublous times, in the midst of harassing opposition, and under circumstances which forbade the full use of such aids as the scholarship of the times could furnish. The versions now to be mentioned were carried on in open day, and with free access to all that was then available for the correction and explanation of the original texts.

Amongst the many earnest men driven into exile by the Marian persecution was William Whittingham, some time Fellow of All Souls’, Oxford,