With the Accession of Edward VI in January 1547 a change for the better came over the fortunes of the English Bible. The restrictions placed upon the printing and reading of the Scriptures were at once removed, and in the first year of the new reign an Injunction was issued requiring every beneficed person to provide within three months a copy of the English Bible "of the largest volume"; and within twelve months a copy of the "Paraphrase on the Gospels" by Erasmus, these to be set up in some convenient place in the church where they might be read by the parishioners. This English version of the Latin paraphrase or commentary of Erasmus was "Enprinted at London in Flete-strete at the signe of the Sunne, by Edward Whitchurche the last day of Januarie 1548." Several translators were employed in its preparation, Miles Coverdale, John Olde, Nicholas Udall and others; and curious to relate, the Princess Mary, afterwards Queen Mary, herself translated the greater part of the paraphrase upon St John's Gospel. As this work was required to be placed in the churches within a twelvemonth, several presses were engaged upon it, with the result that Dr W. Aldis Wright found no fewer than six varieties of the Paraphrase in existence. Among the incidents of the time it is mentioned that in 1548 the churchwardens of St Margaret's, Westminster, paid five shillings for the half-part of the work; and in 1549 those of Wigtoft in Lincolnshire seven shillings for the whole, and for a chain to fasten it, fourpence. From the same printing office in Fleet Street there had been issued the previous year the earliest edition of the Scriptures in Edward's reign, the only issue in 1547. It bore the title, "The Newe Testament in Englyshe according to the translacion of the Great Byble." It was followed by many more. Short as Edward's reign was no fewer than forty editions either of the whole Bible or of the New Testament issued from the press.
During this reign also there was produced a fragment of a version of the New Testament containing the Gospel of Matthew and the first chapter of Mark, which may be mentioned in passing as one of the curiosities of the time. It was the work of Sir John Cheke, Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, who had been also tutor to the King when Prince Edward. Milton says he "taught Cambridge and King Edward Greek." The manuscript, which has unfortunately lost a leaf, is preserved in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It is in Cheke's beautiful handwriting, and though probably made in 1550 was not published till it was edited by the Rev. James Goodwin in 1843. Its special characteristic seems to have been an attempt to express the ideas of the original in home-born words and the language of the common people rather than in the semi-Latin then much in vogue. It may perhaps be described as an anticipation in the 16th century of what is known as the "Twentieth Century Bible" of our own times. One or two extracts may show the kind of thing aimed at: "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a city of Jewry in King Hero's days, lo, then the wizards came from the East parts to Jerusalem, and asked where the King of Jews was that was new born"; "Come to me all that labour and be burdened and I will ease you. Take my yoke on you and learn of me, for I am mild and of a lowly heart. And ye shall find quietness for yourselves"; "And his disciples seeing him walking on the sea were troubled, saying that it was a phantasm, and they cried out for fear. Jesus bye and bye spake to them and said, Be of good cheer. It is I, fear not. Peter answered unto him, Sir, saith he, If it be thou, bid me come on the water unto thee. And he said, Come on. And Peter came down out of the boat and walked on the waters to come to Jesus. And seeing the wind strong, was afeard, and when he began to sink he cried out."
With the death of Edward VI, and the Accession of Queen Mary, came change amounting to revolution. At once the public reading of the Scripture was prohibited, a proclamation of June 1555 denounced the writings of Tyndale, Frith, Cranmer and Coverdale, and during these five years there was neither Bible nor Testament published in the realm. But Mary's policy of repression led indirectly to the production of that Genevan version of the Scriptures which Dr Westcott describes as the most important revision the English Bible underwent before the final settlement of the Received Text. This was the work of some of those Protestant exiles who fled from the fires of persecution in their own land to the friendly shelter of the Reformed Churches abroad. They were scattered in various cities, in Frankfort, Strasburg, Basle, Zurich and Geneva. It is with those who settled in Geneva we are now concerned. John Knox the Scottish reformer was there; Miles Coverdale; Thomas Cole, once Dean of Salisbury; Christopher Goodman, formerly Divinity Professor at Oxford; John Pullain, a translator of Ecclesiastes, Esther and other books of Scripture into English verse; Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson and William Whittingham. Sampson had been Dean of Chichester in Edward's time and afterwards became Dean of Christ Church in Elizabeth's reign, and Whittingham was afterwards Dean of Durham.
William Whittingham was the first among these exiles to take action in the matter of Bible translation. Born at Chester in 1524, at 16 he entered Brasenose College, graduating B.A. in 1540 and M.A. in 1547-8, having been elected Fellow of All Souls in 1545. In 1550 he went abroad for three years, spending his time chiefly at the University of Orleans, afterwards visiting the Universities of Germany and Geneva in 1552 and returning to England in 1553. Then came the time of exile when he went first to Frankfort and afterwards to Geneva, where he succeeded Knox as minister of the English congregation there. In 1557 he published, anonymously, a revised translation of the English New Testament. It is thus described: "The Newe Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approved translations. With the arguments as wel before the chapters, as for every Boke. At Geneva: Printed by Conrad Badius. MDLVII." The text of this version is based upon Tyndale's, compared with the Great Bible, and influenced by Beza's Latin translation. It formed the ground-work of the New Testament printed in the complete Genevan Bible of 1560, but is distinct from it. It was the first Testament to be printed in Roman type and also the first English version to adopt the division into verses made by Robert Estienne, the French printer, in his Greek Testament published at Geneva in 1551. With its elaborate apparatus it forms the first critical edition of the New Testament in English. The title-page of this work contains a curious woodcut representing Time raising Truth out of her grave, with this motto appended--"God by Tyme restoreth Truth, and maketh her victorious." There is an address to the reader giving some account of the work, and stating that the text has been "diligently revised by the most approved Greek examples and conference of translations in other tongues"; and for the profit of the reader the text has been "divided into verses and sections, according to the best editions in other languages."
It was not till three years later that this Genevan Testament of Whittingham's was followed by the complete Genevan Bible of 1560. The latter, unlike the former, was the joint production of several scholarly men, acting together for the attainment of one common end. In their preface they speak of the eminently favourable conditions under which they were able to work. And when we recall the circumstances of the time we can feel the force of what they say. As translators they were fortunate in the place where their work was done. For Geneva under the influence of Calvin had become the centre to which were gathered some of the most eminent Biblical scholars of the time. And apart from their fellow-countrymen, exiles like themselves, there was at that time in Geneva a group of scholars who were engaged in the work of correcting the French version of Olivetan; they therefore found themselves in the company of men who though working in another language were engaged in a task similar to their own. Then again they had the advantage of some new Latin versions not accessible to previous translators. Leo Juda had laboured for many years at a new Latin version of the Old Testament, which though left unfinished at his death was completed by others; and the Latin New Testament of Erasmus having been revised by R Gualther, the whole Bible thus finished, was printed in 1544. These Latin versions and especially Beza's New Testament furnished important help to the English scholars in what they regarded as their sacred task, and they of course inherited also the result of the labours of the English translators at home who had preceded them. In preparing the historical books they kept in the main to the old renderings, merely altering awkward or antiquated phrases here and there. In the other parts of the work the changes were more numerous. Taking a passage from the 19th chapter of Job Dr Westcott points out that there is considerable originality in the version they gave. Throughout the verses mentioned--"I am sure that my Redeemer liveth," &c.--he finds the French rendering widely different; of the ten changes introduced into the text of the Great Bible three of considerable importance are apparently original (7, 8, 10); and of the remainder one perhaps comes from Leo Juda (2), three from Pagninus (1, 5, 6), and two from Minister (4, 9). The Prophetical Books are revised after the manner adopted in the Historical Books, but with more numerous changes; the influence of the French translation being most marked in the Apocryphal Books. In all parts they appear to have taken the Great Bible as their basis, correcting its text without substituting for it a new translation. Dr Westcott concludes his examination of the Genevan Old Testament by saying"--there is abundant evidence to shew that they were perfectly competent to deal independently with points of Hebrew scholarship; and minute changes in expression shew that they were not indifferent to style."
This Genevan Bible, completed three years after the publication of the Genevan Testament, went forth to the world under the title: "The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. Translated According to the Ebrue and Greke, and conferred with the best translations in divers langages. With Moste Profitable Annotations. ... At Geneva. Printed by Rouland Hall. M.D.LX. 4to." Below these words there is a wood cut representing the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, and on the reverse of the title is a list of the books of the Bible, including the Apocrypha. Then follows a Dedication "to the moste vertuous and noble Quene Elizabeth" from her "humble subjects of the English Churche at Geneva"; and after this an Address "to our Beloved in the Lord, the Brethren of England, Scotland, Ireland etc.," dated "from Geneva, 10 April, 1560." In this Address, after pointing out that the former translations required greatly to be reformed, the translators went on to say, "Not that we vindicate anything to ourselves above the rest of our brethren (for God knoweth with what fear and trembling we have been for the space of two years and more, day and night, occupied herein), but being earnestly desired, and by divers, whose learning and godliness we reverence, exhorted ... we undertook this great and wonderful work (with all reverence, as in the presence of God, as entreating the Word of God, whereunto we think ourselves insufficient), which now God, according to his Divine providence and mercy hath directed to a most prosperous end. ... God is our witness that we have by all means endeavoured to set forth the purity of the Word and right sense of the Holy Ghost, for the edifying of the brethren in faith and charity."
Contrary to what we should have expected the Testament included in the complete Bible of 1560 differs from the Testament of 1557 in nearly forty places. In thirty-three of these the rendering is new, and in sixteen the alteration still maintains its ground. Recognising these facts Dr W. F. Moulton concluded that the Testament is a careful revision of Tyndale, and that the Bible is again a careful revision of the Testament; on the whole, too, Beza's influence tended greatly to the improvement of the work, for by this mistakes were removed which had disfigured all preceding versions. Very many of the changes in the English-Genevan New Testament have passed from that into our own Bible. Archbishop Trench in his work on the Authorised Version quoted five passages to show "the very good and careful scholarship brought to bear upon the Genevan revision," in which "it is the first to seize the exact meaning ... which all the preceding versions had missed." These are all derived from Beza. One other point should be noticed to which Professor Plumptre called attention--the Genevan version (in both forms) "omits the name of St Paul from the title to the Epistle to the Hebrews, and, in a short preface, leaves the authorship an open question." The explanatory notes in this version were prepared by the Genevan translators, and with considerable care. In the Epistle to the Romans, for example, there are about 220 of these, and many also elsewhere, forming a kind of condensed commentary, supplying historical and geographical information and clearing up obscure texts, but more often giving pithy observations on the narrative, as when we are told that "Lot, thinking to get paradise found a hell." We can well believe what we have been told that its phrases found echo in Scripture quotation from Shakespeare to Bunyan.
The expense connected with the production of this version of 1560, which must have been considerable, was defrayed by the English community in Geneva, "whose hearts," as the translators themselves tell us, "God touched to encourage the revisers not to spare any charges for the furtherance of such a benefit and favour of God." Among the contributors was John Bodley the father of the founder of the great Bodleian Library. Possibly for prominent service in this way rendered he received from Queen Elizabeth a patent dated January 8, 1561, securing to him for seven years the exclusive right to print in England the version which first came out in Geneva. The second edition of this version, the first in folio, published in 1562, appears to have been sent forth by him though no printer's name is attached to the work.
As already stated the complete Genevan Bible, unlike the Genevan Testament of William Whittingham by which it was preceded, was the joint production of several workers. Lelong says that the chief of those employed upon it were Coverdale, Whittingham and Gilby, but he mentions also Good man, Sampson, Cole, "and certain others" as sharing in it. The completion of the work, however, seems to have fallen finally into the hands of Whittingham, Gilby and Sampson alone. Anthony à Wood gives the same six names as those mentioned by Lelong, but goes on to say that "before the greater part was finished, Queen Mary died. So that the Protestant religion appearing again in England, the exiled divines left Frankfort and Geneva, and returned into England. Howbeit, Whittingham with one or two more, being resolved to go through with the work, did tarry at Geneva a year and a half after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown."
The work thus produced by Englishmen in exile found truest welcome among Englishmen at home. For nearly a hundred years the Genevan Bible was the favourite version of the common people. Several reasons would account for this. For one thing, being in quarto shape, it was more easy to handle than the big folios which went before it. It was also easier to read, the type being in Roman and Italic, not Gothic; and easier for reference, retaining as it did the divisions into chapters and verses made by Estienne for the New Testament and by others for the Old Testament. It retained also the marginal notes of 1557; indicated by accentual marks the pronunciation of proper names; and in addition had woodcuts and convenient maps and tables. But most of all, next to the Bible itself, its notes and comments made it a welcome book to the devout men and women of Puritan days. Between its publication in 1560 and the appearance of the Authorised Version of 1611 it went through sixty editions; and even after the Authorised Version had appeared, ten more editions were added to the sixty which went before. Right on to the days of the Civil War it continued to be the Bible of the Puritan household.
In 1576 a revised edition of the book was brought out by Laurence Tomson, private secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham, which while leaving the Old Testament unchanged, made alterations in the New. He entitled it "The New Testament, translated from the Greek by Theodore Beza." It was dedicated to F. Walsingham and F. Hastings and became so popular that it was frequently substituted for the Genevan Testament in the Genevan Bible. The text is not much altered but the commentary in the margin received enlargement. One of the peculiarities of this version is that Tomson closely followed Beza, putting "that" or "this" for the ille by which Beza had rendered the emphatic force of the Greek article, as for example in John i. 1 "In the beginning was that Word." The grotesque effect of this is seen in Tomson's rendering of 1 John v. 12 "He that hath that Son hath that life: and he that hath not that Son of God hath not that life." With his commentary he seems to have been himself well pleased, for he says of it, "I dare avouch it, and whoso readeth it shall so find it, that there is not one hard sentence nor dark speech nor doubtful word, but is so opened and hath such light given to it, that children may go through with it, arid the simplest that are may walk without any guide, without wandering and going astray."
In 1576, the same year this revision by Tomson appeared, there appeared also the first English Bible printed in Scotland. It is the Genevan version, the title expressed in the same words, with the difference that it is stated to be "Printed In Edinbrugh Be Alexander Arbuthnet, Printer to the Kingis Maiestie, dwelling at ye Kirk of feild. 1579." The title of the New Testament portion is in this form: "At Edinburgh, Printed by Thomas Bassandyne M.D.LXXVI Fol." It is an exact reprint of the first folio edition of 1561-2. Bassandyne's name does not appear on the title of the Old Testament, which was the last to be printed, being completed by his colleague Alexander Arbuthnet in 1579, Bassandyne dying in the interval. By order of the General Assembly every parish in Scotland subscribed a fixed amount before the work was undertaken, the price being £4. 13s. 4d Scots currency. So firm was the hold this book gained in the country that as late as the close of the 18th century a Genevan Bible was still in use in the church of Crail in Fifeshire.
Though in the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign four editions of Tyndale's Testament are assigned to the years 1561, 1566, 1570, it does not appear that the Bibles of Coverdale, Taverner or Matthew were ever reprinted after 1553. The only two versions, therefore, which were publicly prominent were the Great Bible and the Genevan version. And as between these two, the superiority of the text and translation of the latter and its increasing popularity made it very unlikely that it would ever be superseded by the former. Yet the Genevan Bible could never with the Bishops consent become the only Bible of the nation. Not because it was Calvinistic in doctrine in its notes and commentary, for the bishops themselves were Calvinistic in those days, but because in its general trend it was hostile to the episcopal church system. Not only did it again and again translate the word "ecclesia" not by "church," but by "congregation"; but in its exposition of the meaning of "locusts" in Revelation ix. 3, for example, we come upon such a passage as this: "Locusts are false teachers, heretics, and worldly subtle prelates, with monks, friars, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, doctors, bachelors and masters, which forsake Christ to maintain false doctrine." Clearly this kind of teaching must not be permitted to go forth tacked on to the Bible and unchallenged. Archbishop Parker, therefore, who had been consecrated in 1559, took the matter in hand somewhere about 1563-4. Strype tells us that he "took upon him the labour to contrive and set the whole work agoing in a proper method by sorting out the whole Bible into parcels ... and distributing those parcels to able bishops and learned men, to peruse and collate each the book or books allotted them: sending withal his instructions for the method they should observe." In a letter preserved under date 1566 among the State Papers, though probably belonging to an earlier year, Parker writes to Sir William Cecil, telling him how he has "distributed the Bible in parts to divers men," and even going so far in courtliness to that great statesman as to express the hope that he will undertake the revision of some "one epistle of St Paul, or Peter or James."
Another letter from Parker to Cecil gives the facts concerning the separate distribution of the work. He himself, in addition to prefaces and other introductory matter, undertook to translate Genesis and Exodus in the Old Testament, and Matthew and Mark, then from 2 Corinthians to Hebrews inclusive, in the New Testament. Richard Davies, the Bishop of St David's, a man who had laboured zealously for the spiritual good of his native country of Wales, took the translation from Joshua to 2 Kings, that is, 2 Samuel, while Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, continued the work on to the end of Chronicles. William Alley, who had succeeded Coverdale as Bishop of Exeter, translated Deuteronomy. Miles Coverdale, though still living after his resignation of his See, took no part in the work, he being now an old man over eighty. Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, along with Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, made himself responsible for the Apocryphal books; Andrew Perne, Master of Peterhouse and Dean of Ely, translated Ecclesiastes and Canticles. The Bishop of Winchester was the translator from Isaiah to Lamentations, and the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry of the rest of the Greater Prophets, while Grindal, Bishop of London, took the Minor Prophets. Coming again to the New Testament, the Bishop of Peterborough translated the Gospels according to Luke and John, the Bishop of Ely the Acts and the Romans, the Dean of Westminster the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Bishop of Lincoln the General Epistles to the book of Revelation. Altogether there were eight of the bishops concerned in the undertaking, a fact which gave the name to the book of "The Bishops Bible." It was published in folio in 1568, the colophon intimating that it was "Imprinted at London in povvles Churchyarde by Richard Jugge." A splended copy was presented to the Queen, the accompanying letter bearing date October 5, 1568. The Bible itself has no dedication, but in the centre of the title is a portrait of the Queen; and at the beginning of Joshua and the Psalter portraits of the Earl of Leicester and Cecil are introduced. It was furnished also with a table of the books of the Old Testament with tables of lessons and psalms, an almanac and calendar, two prologues, a chronological table and table of contents; woodcuts, maps and other tables were also introduced.
When the book was ready for publication, the Archbishop through Cecil endeavoured to obtain the Queen's recognition on its behalf, with what result does not appear. Eventually Convocation in the "Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical," of April 1571, ordered that every archbishop and bishop should have at his house a copy of the Holy Bible of the largest volume, as lately printed at London; and that it should be placed in the hall or large dining-room, that it might be useful to their servants or strangers. Each cathedral also should have a copy, and "as far as it could be conveniently done," all the churches. Later on, in the Articles issued by Archbishop Whitgift in 1583, the 10th ordered "that one kind of translation of the Bible be only used in public service, as well in churches as chapels, and that to be the same which is now authorized by the consent of the bishops." The adoption of the Bible thus authorized, if not by the Crown, by Canons Ecclesiastical, and by the Archbishop, does not seem to have been readily or universally made. One reason may have been its costliness. The price at which the first edition was sold in 1571 was 27s. 8d. or about £16 in present value. Still a second edition, in a small quarto volume, was issued in 1569, a third of the Bible, and an edition of the New Testament only, followed in 1570, 1571. In all about forty editions of this version appear to have been published, one half of these containing the whole Bible. It seems certain that while the Genevan held its own the Great Bible was entirely displaced by the Bishops; no edition of it appearing to be printed after 1569. It is however not to be forgotten that the Book of Psalms in the new revision had to yield in the end to that in the Great Bible. The edition of 1572 prints both in parallel columns one properly belonging to the version, the other taken from the Great Bible. That there were defects in this version we might expect from the way in which it was brought about. The work was, as we have seen, given out in parcels to different men; each man acted independently, and there was no common meeting for the purpose of discussing the various renderings. The final revision was left in the hands of Parker himself, who, as Archbishop, was a very busy man, and not conspicuously eminent as a scholar; and one at least of the others did not give very much time to his task. It is said that the revision of the books of Kings and Chronicles was despatched in about seven weeks by Bishop Sandys. As to the comparative value of the version as a whole we are fortunate in possessing the deliberate judgment of two eminent members of the Revision Company who brought out the Revised Version of 1881--Bishop Westcott and Dr W. F. Moulton. They are agreed in the opinion that the Greek scholarship of the revisers of the Bishops Bible is superior to their Hebrew scholarship. Dr Westcott says that in the Historical Books of the Old Testament they followed the text of the Great Bible very closely. They were lacking in independence: "The influence of the Genevan revision is perceptible throughout, but it is more obvious in the Prophets than elsewhere." He concludes by saying, "There is but little to recommend the original renderings of the Bishops Bible in the Old Testament. As a general rule they appear to be arbitrary and at variance with the exact sense of the Hebrew text." In like manner Dr Moulton, after examining the passage in 2 Samuel xxiii. 1--7, where in seven verses the Great Bible and the Bishops differ about 18 times, finds that 15 of the new renderings in the latter are taken from the Genevan version. Of the 18 changes 13 may be called improvements; with one exception they are derived from the Genevan Bible, from which also come two changes which are clearly for the worse. About 12 better renderings found in the Genevan Bible are at the same time here neglected. After examining one or two other passages Dr Moulton gives judgment by saying: "The conclusion from this investigation is not very favourable to the Bishops Bible. In the Old Testament Cranmer's Bible was too closely followed and improvements which were ready to the hand of the translators were not appreciated. What is original in this version does not often possess any great merit."
So far as the New Testament is concerned, the second edition was carefully revised. Dr Westcott takes the passage in Ephesians iv. 7--16 as an illustration of how much merit is due to this part of the work. Having shown that in this passage the Great Bible and the Bishops differ in 26 places, he adds: "Of these 26 variations no less than 16 are new, while only 10 are due to the Genevan version, and the character of the original corrections marks a very close and thoughtful revision, based faithfully upon the Greek." He further shows that throughout the entire epistle the changes amount to nearly 50, and among the new readings are some phrases which have become very familiar to us, as "less than the least of all saints"; "middle wall of partition"; "fellow-citizens with the saints."
It may be mentioned that copies of the chief editions of the Bishops Bible are preserved in the British Museum, in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in the Rylands Library, and in that of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
And now at this point a notable fact occurred. As the Genevan version of 1560 was followed in the way of correction by the Bishops Bible of 1568, so this again was followed with the same purpose by the Roman Catholic version of the New Testament in English, known as the Rheims-Douai Bible of 1582. It was printed abroad and appeared in England bearing the following elaborate title: "The New Testament of Jesus Christ, Translated Faithfully into English, out of the authentical Latin, according to the best corrected copies of the same, diligently conferred with the Greeke and other editions in divers languages: With Arguments of bookes and chapters, Annotations and other necessarie helps, for the better understanding of the text, and specially for the discoverie of the Corruptions of divers late translations, and for cleering the Controversies in religion in these daies; in the English College of Rhemes. Ps. 118, 'Give me understanding, and I will search Thy law.' Those things specially must be commended to memorie which make most against Heretikes: whose deceites cease not to circumvent and beguile al the weaker sort and the more negligent persons. Printed at Rhemes, by John Fogny. 1582. Cum privilegio." This version was the work of Roman Catholics who had fled from persecution in Elizabeth's time and were connected with the Seminary at Douai and the English College at Rheims. The translation was made from the Latin Vulgate by three men--Gregory Martin, William (afterwards Cardinal) Allen and Richard Bristow. The first-named was the one most actively concerned in the work. He had been a scholar of St John's, Oxford; in 1570, the year of Elizabeth's excommunication, he went over to Douai and then became divinity reader at Rheims. Wood speaks of him as "an excellent linguist, exactly read and versed in the Sacred Scriptures and went beyond all of his time in humane literature." He was also the writer of an appendix to the Testament entitled "A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the Heretics of our Days," in which he endeavoured to overturn all Protestant versions and so clear the ground for the new version now being sent forth. He was answered by Dr Fulke, Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, who published a "Defence of the sincere and true translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue, against the manifold cavils of Gregory Martin." In the preface in which the translators of the Rheims version state their object they frankly say that it is not their idea that the Scriptures should always be printed in the mother tongue and be freely read by all. That was not the belief of their Church, as was testified by the Constitutions of Arundel and by that decree of the Council of Trent which said that the Scriptures "may not be indifferently read of all men, nor of any other than of such as have express licence thereunto of their lawful ordinaries." Their forefathers did not suffer every sciolist to translate, or every husbandman, artificer, prentice, maid and man to read the Bible, making it the subject of table-talk for "ale-benches, boats and barges." They repudiate the idea that it is from envy that the priests keep the holy book from the people. The reason is that the Church would have "the unworthy repelled, the curious repressed, the simple measured, the learned humbled, and all sorts so to use them, or to abstain from them, as is most convenient for every one's salvation." Their sole purpose now in sending forth the Bible in the vernacular is "for the more speedy abolishing of a number of false and impious translations put forth by sundry sectes, and for the better preservation or reclaime of many good soules endangered thereby."
In choosing the text of Scripture from which to translate they also frankly admit that they have not selected the original Greek, but the Latin Vulgate translation of the Greek. They have done so because the latter was in use in the Church 1300 years ago; it is that which St Jerome corrected according to the Greek by appointment of Damasus the Pope; it was commended by Augustine; has been used in the Church's service; has been declared of the Council of Trent of all Latin translations to be only authentical; and it is the gravest, sincerest, of greatest majesty, least partiality, as being without all respect of controversies and contentions, especially those of our time. After giving other reasons they conclude with one which should have rendered all others unnecessary when they say that the Vulgate "is not only better than all other Latin translations but than the Greek text itself in those places where they disagree." For the first heretics were Greeks and the Greek Scriptures suffered much at their hands. The Hebrew text was said to have been foully corrupted by the Jews, and the Greek by heretics. This apology in effect admits that the Rheims version has no independent authority as a text. Still it is to be remembered on the other side that Jerome's Latin translation was derived from Greek MSS. more ancient than any we now possess, and is sometimes, therefore, of great value as giving us in disputed passages the text current in the earliest times, and its testimony is in some cases confirmed by MSS. discovered in more recent times. This merit is however minimized by the fact that the common copies of the Vulgate, of which the Douai Bible is one, have not always preserved the pure Latin text of Jerome, but have been deteriorated in the course of constant copying from one generation to another. The need of new examination was recognised even as early as the Council of Trent.
The Rhemish translators deserve credit for their treatment of the Greek article. As the Latin language has no definite article it might be supposed that this would be a weak point with them. But it is not so. Dr Moulton discovered, in a comparatively hasty search, more than forty instances in which, of all versions from Tyndale to the Authorised Version included, the Rhemish alone is correct in regard to the Article. Its translators had evidently made use of the Greek text as well as that of the Vulgate. They have also preserved significant phrases of the original and impressive arrangement of words such as "the liberty of the glory of the children of God"; "holiness of truth"; "by their fruits ye shall know them"; "ye are not come to a palpable mountain." Then, too, the translation "our lamps are going out" is unquestionably correct; and there are phrases in the 1st chapter of the Epistle of James, such as "upbraideth not"; "nothing wavering"; "the engrafted word"; and "bridleth not," which are effective as well as correct. It may be added to this that Dr Westcott has given a list of Latin words from a single Epistle which King James's translators have taken from the Rhemish Testament; separated (Rom. i. 1), impenitent (ii.5), approves (ii. I8), propitiation (iii. 25), remission (id.), glory in tribulations (v. 3), commendeth (v. 8), concupiscence (vii. 7), expectation (viii. 19), confession is made unto salvation (x. 10), emulation (xi. 14), conformed (xii. 2).
As we might expect, the trend of the translation in some places is unduly in the direction of Romish doctrine, as, for example, when we read: "In those dayes cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Jewrie, saying, Doe penance." Similarly, "If you have not penance, you shall all likewise perish," and "Not willing that any perish, but that all return to penance"; "Remember your prelates which have spoken the word of God to you"; "By good works make your calling and election sure." But apart from this tendency there were renderings which to Englishmen must have been as an unknown tongue and could scarcely be called translations: for example, instead of "He humbled himself," we read "he exinanited himself"; "The passions of this time are not condigne to the glory to come"; "Our wrestling is against Princes and Potestas, against the rectors of the world of this darkness, against the spirituals of wickedness in the celestials"; "Give us today our supersubstantial bread." An English reader must have been in sheer despair, when, as a translation of Psalm lvii. 10, he read the following: "Before your thorns did understand the old briar: as living so in wrath lie swalloweth them." With a similar feeling he must also have greeted such words as these: odible, coinquination, conception, exprobrate, longanimity, obsecration, and scenopegia. No wonder that Thomas Fuller called this book "a translation needing to be translated."
The Old Testament portion of this version was not published till 1609 and 1610 though it seems to have been ready at the same time as the New Testament in 1582. The delay arose from lack of means, or as they express it, from the "one general cause our poore estate in banishment." It appeared under the title: "The Holie Bible Faithfully Translated into English Out Of The Authentical Latin. Diligently conferred with the Hebrew, Greeke, and other editions in divers languages. ... By the English College Of Doway. ... Printed at Doway by Laurence Kellam, at the Signe of the holie Lambe. M.DC.IX (-M.DC.X.) 2 vols. 4to." The complete work was reprinted in Rouen in 1635. In 1749-50, and again in 1763-4, editions of the Douai Old Testament and the Rheims New Testament were published, each edition in five volumes. This revised form is substantially the version used at the present day by English-speaking Roman Catholics.