TYNDALE, COVERDALE, ROGERS. Versions of the Bible, TYNDALE. THIS celebrated reformer was born on the borders of Wales, about the year 1500. At the usual age, he entered at Magdalene College, Oxford, where he early imbibed the tenets of Luther, and engaged with great zeal in their propagation. He subsequently removed to Cambridge, which he quitted to become an inmate in the house of sir . Welch, in Glocestershire, in quality of tutor to his children. Here he displayed such zeal for Luther, and such enmity to the pope, that he was compelled to quit his place of residence. While he remained here, however, he trans lated into English, "Erasmus's Manual of a Christian Soldier," with the view (as he says himself,) of curing the vulgar error of men's placing religion in ceremonies, and more than Jewish observations of corporal things," &c. As the history of this distinguished reformer now becomes interwoven with the brief historical narrative I am about to give of the translations of the Bible, I shall say nothing more of him in this place. Versions of the Bible. About twenty-four years after the death of Wicliffe, archbishop Arundel, in a convocation of the clergy of his province assembled at Oxford, published a constitution, by which it was decreed, "that no one should thereafter translate any text of Holy Scripture into English, by way of a book, a little book, or tract; and that no book, &c. of this kind should be read that was composed lately in the time of John Wicliffe, or since his death.” The Latin Bible, or Vulgate, was first printed in 1462, and by several succeeding edi tions, soon became common. The Old Testa ment, in Hebrew, was first printed in 1488; and the New Testament at Basil, in its original Greek, about thirty years after. When these sacred oracles were brought into England, with the introduction of printing, the illiterate and terrified monks declaimed from their pulpits, that there was now a new language discovered, called Greek, of which people should beware, since it was that which produced all the heresies; that in this language was come forth a book called the New Testament, which was now in every body's hands, and was full of thorns and briars; that there was also another language now started up, which they called Hebrew, and that they who learned it were turned Hebrews. About this time, the vicar of Croydon, in Surry, in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, is said to have declared, with prophetic wisdom, "We must root out printing, or printing will root out us.” Notwithstanding, however, the clamours of the monks, and persecutions of the secular clergy, William Tyndale, in the reign of Henгу VIII. undertook to translate the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek, into English; though he was convinced, from the circumstances of the times, that the undertaking would be accomplished at the hazard of his life. That he might prosecute his design in greater security, he made an attempt, through the interest of sir Henry Guildford, master of horse to the king, and a warm pa- · tron of learned men, to be admitted into the family of Tonstal, lately promoted to the see of London. But his application proving unsuccessful, and still contemplating his favourite object with ardent enthusiasm, he resolved to go abroad. To accomplish which purpose, he was allowed an annuity of ten pounds a year by Humprey Monmouth, a wealthy citizen, and a favourer of the reformation; and at Antwerp, in Flanders, he prosecuted his design with great assiduity. John Fry and William Roye, who acted as amanuenses for him, also assisted him in collating texts; and the New Testament was finished in 1526, of which one thousand five hundred copies were printed, but without a name. This edition, by Tyndale's own acknowledgment, had considerable errors; but it sold so rapidly, that the following year another edition was published by the Dutch printers, and the year after, another, each consisting of five thousand copies. Great numbers of these were imported into England, and the whole speedily sold. The importers, however, were prosecuted with great, though often ludicrous severity. To give an instance— John Tyndale, the translator's brother, and Thomas Patmore, merchants, were condemned to do penance, by riding with their faces to their horses' tails, with the books fastened thick about them, pinned or tacked to their gowns or cloaks, to the standard in Cheap, and there, with their own hands, to fling them into the fire kindled on purpose to burn them. But the zeal of the reformers surmounted every obstacle, and the New Testament of this translation, continued to be imported and read; a fact which is proved from the sale of the three editions before mentioned, before the year 1530, when a third Dutch edition was printed. Meanwhile Tyndale was diligently occupied in translating from the Hebrew the five books of Moses; and having finished his translation, he was shipwrecked on his voyage to Hamburgh, (undertaken in order to print it,) the manuscript lost, and he was obliged to begin all anew. From this accident, the Old Testament |