we of the Religious Houses suppressed during the reign of Henry VIII. the ruins now cover two acres. the English tongue, and by good and godly people, The course, however, in which all things were with devotion and soberness, well and reverently now moving, made it impossible that what may read." Cranmer also asserts that, when the Saxon almost be called the fundamental principle of tongue, in which the first version was made, Protestantism-the free circulation of the Scrip"waned old and out of common usage," the Scrip- tures among the people, could be much longer ture was again translated into the newer lan- resisted. The convocation of 1536, accordingly, guage, "whereof," he adds, "yet also many copies at the same time that the parliament passed the be found." But the first English translation of first act for the dissolution of the monasteries, any part of the Scriptures that was printed was agreed by a majority, on the mction of Cranmer, the translation of the New Testament, by William to petition the king that he would give orders for Tyndal (otherwise called Hotchin), assisted by a the preparation of an English translation of the friar named Roy, and others, which appeared in Bible. The project was at first opposed by a an octavo volume at Antwerp, in 1526. The powerful party at court, and Henry for some time edition consisted of 1500 copies, nearly all of hesitated; but it was represented to him, on the which appear to have been sent over to England. other side, that nothing would make the pope and the monks so hateful to the nation, or his own supremacy so acceptable, as giving the people the free use of the Word of God; and "these arguments," says Burnet, "joined with the power that the queen had in his affections, were so much considered by the king that he gave order for setting about it immediately." Already, however, in the preceding year, there had been produced on the Continent a complete English translation of the Bible, by Miles Coverdale. Coverdale's Bible, which is conjectured, from the form of the types, to have been printed at Zürich, was dedicated to the King of England. It was in folio, and appears to have been the volume which, in 1536, immediately after the order had been issued for the preparation of a new translation to be set forth by authority, Cromwell, as the king's vicargeneral and vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, commanded to be procured by every parish, and chained to a pillar or desk in the choir of the church, for all to read at their pleasure. This was done, that the resolution taken in favour of laying open the Word of God to the people might not remain inoperative while the new translation was in hand. To whom that work was committed, or how the persons engaged proceeded in it, Burnet says he had not been able to ascertain; the direction was probably left with Cranmer, with whom the proposal had originated, and it is believed that Coverdale was one of the principal persons employed. When the translation was at last finished, it was sent to be printed at Paris, by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch; but, although the printers had previously obtained the French king's license to undertake the work, their operations were interrupted by the clamours of the clergy, and they were obliged to withdraw to London, where the volume was at last finished in April, 1539. This first authorized English Bible, which is known by the name of Cranmer's or the Great Bible, is a folio, like Coverdale's, and the text, in the main, is little more than a corrected edition of his. On the completion of this important task, a copy of the Bible was pre WILLIAM TYNDAL.-After a rare print in the "Heroologia." Here they were purchased and read with wonderful eagerness by the people, and not the less so for the prohibition that was issued by Wolsey, and published by every bishop in his diocese. At one time the clergy sought to repress this zeal for Tyndal's Testament by giving out that they intended immediately to put forth a translation of their own; but the project, if it ever was seriously entertained, was soon thrown aside; and at length, about the end of May, 1530, a paper was drawn up by Warham, More, Tunstal, and other eminent canonists and divines, which every incumbent was commanded to read to his congregation, intimating that, the king having consulted certain prelates and learned men of both universities as to various treatises on doctrinal subjects lately set out in the English tongue, they had agreed in condemning them as containing several things that were heretical; and that, upon the question as to the necessity or expediency of a translation of the Bible, "they were of opinion that, though it had been sometimes done, yet it was not necessary, and that the king did well not to set it out at that time in the English tongue." VOL. II. 133-4 sented by Cromwell to the king, who expressed his approbation, and granted his warrant royal, allowing all his subjects to read it without control or hazard. A set of injunctions was now issued to the clergy by Cromwell, in his quality of ecclesiastical vicegerent. One of these directed each incumbent to provide before a certain day a copy of the new Great Bible, and to set up the same in some convenient place within the church, where the parishioners might most commodiously resort to it and read it; the charge to be borne one-half by the parson, and the other by the parishioners. CHAINED BIBLE IN THE CHURCH OF ST. CRUX, YORK. Drawn by J. W. Archer, from his sketch on the spot. But hardly had the fountain of Divine truth been thus unsealed, when Henry deemed it necessary to check the eagerness with which the popular appetite rushed to drink of the long-imprisoned waters. Some curious traits of the first excitement produced by the new charter of intellectual freedom are preserved in a royal proclamation which was set forth in the beginning of May, 1539, and which is further remarkable as the first that was issued under the statute giving to the proclamations of the king in council the force of acts of parliament. It is here alleged that, while on the one hand some persons craftily sought, by their preachings and teachings, to restore in the realm "the old devotion to the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, the hypocrite's religion, superstition, pilgrimages, idolatry, and other evil and naughty ceremonies and dreams, justly and lawfully abolished and taken away by authority of God's Word," others wrested the Holy Scriptures so as "to subvert and over turn as well the sacraments of holy church as the power and authority of princes and magistrates, and in effect generally all laws and common justice, and the good and laudable ordinances and ceremonies necessary and convenient to be used and continued; some of them also using the Scripture permitted to them by the king's goodness, in the English tongue, at such times and places, and after such fashions and sorts, as it is not convenient to be suffered." Both parties, it is affirmed, were accustomed to dispute respecting their opinions with excessive heat and arrogance both in the churches and in alehouses and taverns; "one part of them calling the other Papist, and the other part calling the other heretic." The use of either of these epithets is thereupon strictly forbidden, unless the person applying it can justly and lawfully prove the truth of his charge. And then it is commanded that "no person except such as be curates or graduates in any of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or such as be or shall be admitted to preach by the king's license, or by his vicegerent, or by any bishop of the realm, shall teach or preach the Bible or New Testament, nor expound the mysteries thereof to any other; nor that any person or persons shall openly read the Bible or New Testament in the English tongue, in any churches or chapels, or elsewhere, with any loud or high voice, and especially during the time of Divine service, or of celebrating and saying of masses; but virtually and devoutly to hear their Divine services and masses, and use that time in reading and praying with peace and stillness, as good Christian men use to do." "Notwithstanding," it is added, "the king is still pleased to permit that such as can and will in the English tongue, shall, and may quietly and reverently read the Bible and New Testament by themselves secretly at all times and places convenient for their own instruction and edification." They are warned, however, to beware of their own presumptuous and arrogant expositions, and to resort humbly to such as were learned in Holy Scripture for their instruction as to all doubtful points. Most of the stronger and more restrictive expressions in this proclamation, it deserves to be noted, were inserted by Henry himself. He was soon after this, indeed, prevailed upon to grant letters-patent prohibiting all persons from printing the Bible in the English tongue in any manner of volume for five years, except such as Cromwell should depute and assign. This permission for any one to possess a copy of the Bible, and to read it in houses or at home as well as in the churches, was a complete en See the proclamation as printed by Strype, with the king's deletions and other alterations, in Eccles. Mem., Appen. No. cx sent. franchisement of Scripture, and as such was felt solved, and nothing more was done for the preby the clergy, who saw in it the downfall of their cause as well as of their own personal influence. At this stage, therefore, a determined resistance was offered by Bishop Gardiner, who, in a conference before the king, challenged Cranmer to show any difference between the authority of the Scriptures and of the Apostolical Canons, which he maintained were equal to the other writings of the apostles. But in the debate, the king "perceived solid learning, tempered with great modesty, in what Cranmer said; and nothing but vanity and affectation in Gardiner's reasonings. So he took him up sharply, and told him that Cranmer was an old and experienced captain, and was not to be troubled with fresh men and novices." In May, 1541, a year after the fall of Cromwell, another proclamation was issued, on occasion of a new impression of the Bible being finished, enforcing the order formerly made by that minister, that a copy of the book should be fixed and set up openly in every parish church, which had been neglected by "divers and many towns and parishes." A penalty was imposed upon all who should not comply with the order before the feast of All-Saints next ensuing. Care was taken at the same time to reiterate the admonition that the people should read the Bibles in the churches "humbly, meekly, reverently, and obediently," and that none of them "should read the said Bibles with high and loud voices, or in time of the celebration of the holy mass, and other Divine services used in the church;" and that none of the laity "reading the same should presume to take upon them any common disputation, argument, or exposition of the mysteries therein contained." In obedience to the proclamation, Bonner, now Bishop of London, ordered six of the Great Bibles to be set up in different places in his cathedral of St. Paul's, with a short admonition to the same effect suspended upon each of the pillars to which the books were chained; but the irregularities objected to by no means ceased. In the following year, 1542, a direct attack was made upon the English Bible in the convocation: the translation was complained of as full of faults, and an attempt was made to get it condemned till a new and more correct one should be made by the bishops, who, probably, if the task had been committed to them, would have been in no hurry to finish it. The scheme of a new translation, however, was defeated by the management of Cranmer, who induced the king to take the middle course of referring the existing translation to the perusal of the two universities. The great majority of the bishops protested against this decision; but the convocation was soon after dis Burnet's Hist, Reform. A.D. 1589. In the year 1532 was reprinted, probably fo. the last time without alteration, the old churchbook, or directory for public worship, entitled the Festival, consisting chiefly of extracts from the Golden Legend, or book of the biography of the saints. It was, of course, a thoroughly Popish manual, inculcating all the common doctrines of the Romish church with as little reserve or qualification as if nobody had ever yet ventured to call any of them in question. In what is called the Bedes, or instructions to the people what and whom they are to pray for, the pope and his college of cardinals are set down in the first place after the good estate and peace of holy church; and in the sequel are enumerated "all abbots, priors, monks, canons, friars, pilgrims," &c. The seven sacraments, the seven deeds of mercy, the seven deadly sins, the nine manners of horrible pains, and the nine manners of people that shall be tormented therewith, are all faithfully set forth and expounded. Images are commended as signs or means whereby men should learn "whom thej should worship and follow in living," although to do God's worship to them is forbidden. The benefits of hearing mass are extolled in some singular expressions. Strype conceives that this book was not wholly laid aside till after the close of the reign of Henry VIII. Some corrections, however, were of necessity made in it immediately after Henry's breach with the pope, and some more as he proceeded with his further reforms. In the course of the very next year, 1533, before the pope's authority was cast off by the parliament, Henry himself wrote and published a treatise in Latin against the tyranny and horrible impiety of the Bishop of Rome (De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis ecclesiis, contra Pontificis tyrannidem et horribilem impietatem). In the same session of parliament in which an end was put to the authority of the pope, some relief from the severity of the old laws against heresy was obtained by the new act, which declared that speaking against the Bishop of Rome and his decrees should no longer be considered to constitute that offence, and, among other alleviations of the ancient process, ordained that the charge should be proved by two lawful witnesses at the least-that the trial should be in public-and that the accused person might be bailed at the discretion of two justices of the peace. This year also an order was issued by the king, in his capacity of supreme head of the church, which had the effect of doing away with the use of the form in the festival called the General Sentence or Curse, which was wont to be read to the people four times every year in the course of the church service. This long and |