served as an excellent guide. The style of it, upon the whole, is classical and perspicuous; but if some passages were expressed in a more familiar manner, it would still be more conducive to general edification. The Welsh translators conducted themselves with great impartiality, in some instances more so than the English translators. Such variations evidently prove that our Cambrians did not servilely copy the English version. They were men of the first respectability as scholars and divines, and their work bespeaks them to be such." WILLIAM MORGAN, D. D. was born at Gwibernant, in the parish of Penmachno, in Carnarvonshire. He was educated in the university of Cambridge; and was afterwards vicar of Llanrhaiadr yn Mochnant, in Denbighshire. In 1595, Dr. Morgan was preferred to the bishoprick of Landaff; and, in 1601, was translated to the bishoprick of St. Asaph. He died September 10th, 1604, and was buried in his church.99 WILLIAM HUGHES, D. D. one of the learned coadjutors of Dr. Morgan, was the son of Hugh Ap Kendrick, and a native of Carnarvonshire. He was made bishop of St. Asaph, in 1573, and died November 18th, 1600.10 HUGH BILLETT, or BELLOTT, D. D. was educated at Cambridge; and became rector of Tyd, in 1571, and of Doddington, in 1572. He was preferred to the bishoprick of Bangor, in the year 1585; and afterwards to that of Chester, in 1595. He died in June, the following year, and was buried in Wrexham church.' DAVID POWELL, D. D. was a celebrated Welsh critic, born in Denbighshire, about A. D. 1522. In 1568, he was sent to Oxford, and in 1576, took orders. He then became vicar of Ruabon, in his native country, and rector of Llanfyllin. The latter he resigned in 1579; but was about the same time instituted to the vicarage of Mivod, in Montgomeryshire; and, in 1588, obtained the sinecure rectory of Llansanfraid yn Mechan. He also held some dignity in the church of St. Asaph. After proceeding to his degrees in divinity, in 1582 and the subsequent year, he became chaplain to Sir Henry Sidney, then president of Wales. He died 1598, and was buried in his own church of Ruabon. He was the author and editor of several works, on the history and antiquities of Wales; and is said to have taken great pains in compiling a Welsh dictionary, but died before it was completed. He left a very learned son, GABRIEL POWELL, who became a zealous writer in defence of the Puritans." EDMUND PRYS, or PRICE, D. D. was archdeacon of Merioneth. "He has justly been reputed as the most learned Welshman of his age: he was well versed in a variety of languages, as well as in the poetry and antiquities of his native country. His Welsh metrical version of the PSALMS is a sufficient proof of his poetic abilities, and of his extensive acquaintance with the Welsh language, of which he was an enthusiastic admirer. He died in or about A. D. 1621." RICHARD VAUGHAN, D. D. was a native of the West of Carnarvonshire, and educated at St. John's College, Oxford. He was archdeacon of Middlesex, and canon of Wells. In 1595, he was raised to the see of Bangor; from whence he was translated, in 1597, to Chester; and from thence, in 1604, to London. He is allowed to have been a person of great learning, piety, and moderation, and an admired preacher. Fuller says, "he was a very corpulent man, but spiritually minded." As he was the decided friend of the Puritans, he embraced the opportunity afforded him by his elevation to the bishoprick of London, to restore many of the suspended ministers; and made (2) Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. XXV. pp. 244, 245, (3) Willis' Survey of St. Asaph, I. p. 233. Gabriel Powell, the son of Dr. David Powell, his domestic chaplain. The following remarks are from the private diary of the Rev. Richard Rogers, a contemporary Puritan divine: May 30th 1606. "If I preach no more, I heartily thank God for my liberty, both at home and abroad, for this year and a half, and I hope with some fruit. The bishop has been my friend." April 2nd, 1607. "This week came the painful news of our bishop Vaughan's death'; who, for twenty-eight months, being all the time he continued, permitted all the godly ministers to live peaceably, and to enjoy liberty in their ministry." He died of an apoplectic or lethargic complaint, March 13th, 1607.* JOHN SALISBURY, LL.B. suffragan bishop of Thetford, dean of Norwich, chancellor of Lincoln cathedral, and archdeacon of Anglesea, was nominated to the bishoprick of the Isle of Man, March 27th, 1569. "Being a native of Wales, he had a hand in translating the Bible into Welsh, which, with the loss of his preferments, (for marriage, as it seems to me, in Queen Mary's reign, he having been of a religious order, and vowed celibacy,) probably recommended him on Queen Elizabeth's acces-' sion to the crown." He died in September 1573, and was buried in Norwich cathedral, without any memorial.5 Soon after the publication of the Welsh Bible, Dr. JOHN DAVID RHESE, or RICE, sometimes also called DAVID, or Davies, published a WELSH GRAMMAR, with the title, "Cambro-Britannica Cymeræcæve, linguæ Institutiones et Rudimenta, &c. ad intelligenda Biblia Sacra nuper in Cambro-Britannicam sermonem eleganter versa." Lond. 1592, fol. A Preface was prefixed to it by the Rev. Humphrey Prichard, in which he informs the (4) Hughes's MS. Brook's Lives of the Puritans, II. pp. 212. 233. Godwin, De Præsul. I. p. 194; and II. pp. 207. 357. (5) Willis' Survey of the Cathedrals, I. p. 367. Lond. 1727, 4to. reader, that the author composed this book purposely for the better understanding of that excellent translation of the Bible into Welsh, and principally for the sake of the clergy, and to make the Scriptures more intelligible to them and to the people. Dr. RHESE was a native of the Isle of Anglesea, where he was born in 1534. After residing two or three years at Oxford, he was elected student of Christ's Church; but inclining to the study of medicine, went abroad, and took the degree of doctor in that faculty, at Sienna, in Tuscany. He acquired so perfect a knowledge of the Italian language, that he was appointed public moderator of the school of Pistoia, and the works which he wrote in that language were much esteemed by the Italians themselves. On his return, he retired to Brecknock, and devoted himself to literary and antiquarian pursuits, and the practice of his profession. He was accounted one of the great luminaries of ancient British literature. In a MS. compendium of Aristotle's Metaphysics, written by our author in the Welsh language, and preserved in Jesus College library, he asserts, that the Welsh is a tongue "as copious and proper for the expression of philosophical terms, as the Greek, or any other language." He died about 1609. Dodd, and Wood place him among the worthies of the church of Rome, but apparently without sufficient reason. The first Hebrew in any quantity printed in England, was in Dr. Rhese's "Institutiones &c." 176 In the course of the year 1568, a corrected and magnificent edition of the English BIBLE was printed at London, by Richard Jugg, in large folio, on royal paper, with a beautiful English type, embellished with various cuts and maps, some of them engraved on wood, and others on copper. This celebrated edition, which has (6) Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. XXVI. pp. 107, 108. Dodd's Church Hist. of England, II. p. 247. Brussels, 1739, fol. obtained the name of THE BISHOPS' BIBLE, from several bishops being employed in revising it, is said to have been undertaken by royal command. But whether the royal injunction had been given or not, it was revised and conducted to its conclusion under the auspices and active direction of MATTHEW PARKER, the archbishop of Canterbury. The reason given by the archbishop for this edition, which was principally designed for the use of the churches, was, that "copies of the former translation were so wasted, that very many churches wanted Bibles; and that they were very faultily printed." The method he adopted for the correction and revision of the Bible, was, to allot distinct portions of it to men of learning and abilities, appointed, as Fuller (Ch. Hist. B. 7. p. 387) says, by the Queen's commission. Eight of the persons who were employed were bishops. Each portion had the initial letters affixed to it, of the person's name who revised it, except from the end of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, which renders it uncertain whether one or more revised the rest of the New Testament. From the initial letters, the following have generally been considered as the learned men who assisted the Archbishop in his important work, he himself undertaking the general direction and examination of the whole : The Pentateuch.-Dr. William Alley. Joshua, Judges, Ruth.-Dr. Richard Davies. Proverbs.-A. P. C. (Probably Dr. Andrew Pearson.) All the lesser Prophets.-Dr. Edmund Grindal. * In the first edition the initials W. C. are placed at the end of the |