An edition of Luther's German translation of the Bible, so far as had then appeared, including the whole, except the Prophets, was printed at Nuremberg, by Peypus, in 1524, fol. A copy of this early edition is in the magnificent library of Lord Spencer. Dibdin (Biblioth. Spencer., tom. i, p. 62) observes, “they are a magnificent production; being printed in a large type, with jetblack ink, upon stout, excellent vellum, and having a great number of capital initials, spiritedly cut in wood, which contain historical or other subjects, treated of in each chapter. They have signatures, catch-words, and paginary numbers." Respecting the edition of 1539, Luther wrote to his friend Pontanus on the 20th of September, of that year, in which he thus expresses his desire : "I hope the Anhalt noblemen and gentlemen will take care that there be at least three copies of this edition printed upon vellum;

The fourth part includes the other European dialects, and the American, comprising 774 articles, viz. :

The appendixes, which comprise 1045 articles, contain in various languages, Apocryphal Books

111

Dutch

84

The Supplement contains, besides Commentaries on some of the Canonical Books, and Poetical Paraphrases of the Psalms, one Syriac version of the Gospels; one Tamul version of the Old Testament to Job inclusive; one Cingalese version of several portions of the New Testament; one Malay version of the New Testament; Books of Prints, &c.

for each of which it may be necessary to procure three hundred and forty calves' skins, formerly to be procured for sixty florins, but now indeed at four times that price." See Seckendorf's Com., lib. i, pp. 203, 204; lib. iii, p. 254.*

Of the later editions, that of 1541 was the one upon which Luther bestowed the greatest care in revising and correcting. It was printed in two volumes folio, and ornamented with wood cuts. An unique copy upon vellum, of this edition, was in the possession of the late James Edwards, Esq., of Manor House, Harrow-on-theHill. At the sale of his rare collection of books it was purchased by George Hibbert, Esq., for £89 5s. 6d. The account of it in the catalogue of Mr. Edward's library must interest every Biblical scholar in its fate: it is there described as "the first edition of Luther's translation of the Bible, after his final revision. His own copy which he used till his decease. This copy," it is added, must always excite the deepest interest and most lively emotions in the breast of every Protestant. The manuscript notes, prefixed to each volume, seem to introduce us to the closest acquaintance with a bright assemblage of reformers. We find Luther exhibiting in the privacy of retirement the same unshaken confidence in the Deity under the persecutions he was suffering, as he nobly evinced in public. In a manuscript note in the second volume he transcribes the [4th] verse of the twenty-third Psalm, Etiam quum ambularem per vallem lethalis umbræ, non timerem malum, quia tu mecum es; and then adds a passage strongly indicative of his own exalted ideas of faith. He appears to have bequeathed this copy to Bugenhagen, who, on the 19th of May, 1556, wrote in it a pious distich, and some religious sentiments, in which he denies the necessity of profane learning. The illustrious Melancthon was its next possessor. He writes a remarkable passage relative to the final consummation of all things, and intimates his belief, that the end of the world is not far distant, adding, 'May Jesus Christ, the Son of Almighty God, preserve and protect his poor flock. Scriptum manu Philippi, 1557.' The same year it passed into the hands of George Major, another reformer, who has written in it a compendious exposition of his faith, signed with his name. In this version Luther omits the contested verse relative to the three heavenly witnesses." 1 John v, 7. It is a singular coinci

* Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron, vol. i, p. 164, note.

+ Walsh says, the first edition of Luther's translation, in which this verse was inserted, was the Wittemberg edition of 1596. See Walchii Biblioth. Theolog., tom. iv, cap. viii, p. 86. ‡ Gentleman's Mag., vol. lxxxv, p. 284. Biblioth. Edwardsiana.

dence, that in the library of the king of Wurtemberg there is a copy of the edition of 1545, in which the same reformers, Luther, Bugenhagen, Melancthon, and George Major, have likewise written manuscript notes.*

Different opinions have been formed of the style and correctness of Luther's version, and it might be expected that his adversaries would endeavour to depreciate his version, yet even the papal historian, Maimbourg, acknowledges that Luther's translations of the Old and New Testaments were remarkably elegant, and in general so much approved, that they were read by almost every body throughout Germany. Women of the first distinction studied them with indefatigable diligence, and steadily defended the tenets of the reformer against bishops, monks, and Catholic doctors.† The dialect of the translation became the literary language of the most elegant German writers, and has maintained its superiority to the present time. Of this last instance of the popularity of the important version of Luther, a modern grammarian thus expresses himself: "There existed, about the time of the Reformation, three grand divisions of the German language, viz., the Upper German, (Ober Deutsch,) the Low German, (Nieder Deutsch, or Platt Deutsch,) and lastly the High German, (Hoch Deutsch.) Before that era, every literary production which was composed in the German tongue was written in the Upper German; this was the vehicle of literature in that country. The high German was the native dialect of Luther, and by the influence of his example it began to rise up into competition with the former idiom, and was soon spread throughout the whole nation. The BIBLE, and other works of great interest at that period, published in this dialect, and the number of Protestant divines which issued from the electorate of Saxony, tended to make it known even in the remoter parts of the country. It was read and understood everywhere, and by degrees cultivated as the general language of all Germany. It drove the Upper German from that pre-eminence which it had hitherto occupied, and in its stead possessed itself of the fields of literature and science.‡

The chief coadjutors of Luther in the laborious task of translation, and in the subsequent revisions, were Philip Melancthon, John Bugenhagen, or Pomeranus, Justus Jonas, Casper Cruciger, and Matthew Aurogallus. The corrector of the press was George Rorar, or Rorarius.

* Adleri Biblioth. Biblica, &c., sec. xxviii, p. 12.

+ Milner's History of the Church of Christ, vol. v, ch. xvi, p. 84.

‡ Noehden's Grammar of the German Language, Introduction, pp. 3, 4.

The amiable and profoundly learned PHILIP MELANCTHON (or, according to the German name, SCHWARTZERDE) was born at Bret ten, a small town in the Palatinate of the Rhine, in the year 1497. His early proficiency in learning was such, that at twelve years of age he became a student of the university of Heidelberg; he afterward removed to Tubingen, where he was admitted in 1513 to a master's degree. He immediately began to give lectures, as a public tutor, on Virgil and Terence, the latter of which occasioned him some labour; for so low was the state of literature at this period, that the text of that poet had actually been printed in the manner of a prose writer, and of course the versification had been wholly destroyed. Melancthon first pointed out to the students the diversified Iambic measure, employed by Terence, and then proceeded with great labour and perseverance to restore the whole text to its metrical arrangement. He afterward delivered lectures on select parts of Cicero's works; and on the first six books of Livy's history: he also edited different classical authors.* At the age of twenty-one he was chosen professor of Greek in the university of Wittemberg, at the instance of the celebrated Reuchlin, to whom he was on several accounts under peculiar obligation.

In the midst of his classical and scientific engagements the mind of Melancthon had been early imbued with a knowledge and love of the Scriptures. When but a boy, Reuchlin had presented him with a small Bible, printed at Basil, at the press of Frobenius. This he carried about with him continually, and read it with eagerness wherever he came, so that from the attention he paid to it at church, he was suspected of reading profane authors, instead of repeating the offices of devotion. In the margin of his Bible he inserted such explanatory hints as occurred to his own reflections, or appeared to be of sufficient importance in the authors which he perused. Thus his mind became prepared for receiving the doctrines of Luther, with whom he was associated in the university of Wittemberg.

In 1520 Melancthon delivered a course of lectures on the Epistle to the Romans, which Luther afterward published without his knowledge. But so rare was the word of God, and so seldom to

* A beautifully executed Variorum copy of Cicero De Officiis is in the possession of the writer of the present work, with the notes of Melancthon among others, printed by Thomas Richards, Paris, 1550, 4to. Cum privilegio Regis. This rare edition has also the works De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Somnio Scipionis, by the same printer, and of the same date; and Paradoxa, by John L. Tiletan, 1546, Paris. The text of the works printed by Richards is in a well-defined open Roman type, and the notes in a small, neat Italic; the Greek quotations are clear and good.

be obtained, especially in the original languages, at the time he began to proclaim the TRUTH, that he was obliged to print select parts of the Greek Testament, for the use of the students in the university who attended his lectures. The Epistle to the Romans was edited by him in 1520; the first Epistle to the Corinthians in 1521; the second Epistle separately, the same year; and also the Epistle to the Colossians.*

In 1527 John, elector of Saxony, appointed Melancthon, in conjunction with other grave and learned divines, to visit and reform. the churches throughout that electorate. Afterward he was employed to draw up the Augsburg Confession, in which it is allowed he has represented the sentiments of the reformers with great elegance, perspicuity, and strength; and which received its name from being presented, in 1530, to the emperor, at the diet held in that city, as the confession of faith of those who from having protested against the decree of the diet of Spires, in 1529, had received the honourable denomination of PROTESTANTS.

After powerfully contributing by his talents, learning, and influence, to the spread of truth and the reformation of religion, this great and good man was called to his eternal rest, on the 19th of April, 1560; and his remains were interred in the presence of multitudes of real mourners, in the church of the castle at Wittemberg.

His works were collected by his son-in-law, Casper Peucer, and printed at Wittemberg in 1601, in four volumes folio.†

JOHN BUGENHAGEN was a native of Pomerania, from whence he was sometimes called POMERANUS. He was born June 24th, 1485. He made considerable progress in learning, and became distinguished as rector of the school at Treptow. When Luther's treatise on the "Babylonish Captivity" came out in 1521, and he had read only a few pages of it, he exclaimed, "The author of this book is the most pestilent heretic that ever infested the church of Christ." After a few days he read it more carefully, and was induced to read it again and again, with the closest attention, and at length ingenuously recanted his opinion in the following strong terms:-"The whole world is blind, and involved in Cimmerian darkness; and this man alone sees the truth." From this time he embraced the doctrines of Luther, and became the strenuous advocate of justification by faith. "I am convinced," says he, "that

* Clarke's Bibliographical Dictionary, vol. vi, p. 194.

† Melchior. Adami Vitæ Germ. Theolog., pp. 327-361. Francofurt, 1653. Cox's Life of Melancthon, pp. 28, 29.

VOL. II.-2