John Day, 1573, by which he is most generally known have been accused of levity and

among the curious, indecency by some, didactic by others.

and been defended as grave and He also published* SHE PREVE'S

Summa et Synopsis Nov. Test. distichis ducentis sexaginta comprehensa, and some other works of inferior note.**

RICHARD COX, D. D. who had the care of the translation or revision of the Four Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles, in the "Bishops' Bible," was born at Whaddon, in Buckinghamshire, in the year 1499. Being a scholar at Eton school, he was elected into a scholarship at King's College, in Cambridge, of which he became fellow, in the year 1519. His learning and talents soon rendered him eminent, and Cardinal Wolsey invited him to his new foundation, at Oxford, where he was preferred to be one of the junior canons of Cardinal College. In 1525, he was incorporated B. A. at Oxford, as he stood at Cambridge, and in July, 1526, took the degree of M. A. But the open avowal of his attachment to the opinions of Luther incurred the displeasure of his superiors, who stripped him of his preferment, and threw him

* JOHN SHEPREVE, or SHEPERY, a celebrated Latin poet and linguist, was born at Sugworth, in the parish of Radby, near Abingdon, in Berkshire, about 1509. He was educated in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which he was admitted probationer fellow, in 1528, and M. A. in 1533. At that time he was Greek reader in his college; and succeeded Robert Wakefield in the Hebrew professorship, about 1538. Three years afterwards, by leave from the heads of the university, he began to expound, in the public schools, the book of Genesis in Hebrew, but was prevented. from proceeding through the other books of the Pentateuch, by death. He died at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, in 1542. He had a nephew WILLIAM, who in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign left England, on account of his adherence to popery, in 1588. He left some MSS. on Catholic subjects; and one 4to. printed at Rome in 1596, entitled "The literal connexion of the PSALMS of our Lady's Office, and their confirmation, from the Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, Arabic, Æthiopic, &c." Wood's Athen. Oxon. I. p. 59. Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. XXVII. pp. 449, 450.

(23) Chalmers, XXIV. pp. 126-130.

Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, I. p. 289.

Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, II. pp. 57–61.

into prison, on suspicion of heresy. When he was released from his confinement, he left Oxford; and some time after was chosen master of Eton school. In 1537, he commenced D. D. at Cambridge; and became archdeacon of Ely, in 1540; in 1541, he was made prebendary of that cathedral; and in 1542, prebendary of Sutton, with Buckingham, in the church of Lincoln: the latter preferment he afterwards surrendered up, in 1547. In 1546, he was made dean of Christ-church, Oxford. Having been tutor to the young Prince Edward, he became, on that prince's accession to the throne, a great favourite at court, and was made a privy-counsellor, and king's almoner. In 1547, he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford; in 1548, installed canon of Windsor; and in 1549, made dean of Westminster. About the same time he was appointed one of the commissioners to visit the university of Oxford, when, it is to be deeply regretted, he countenanced the devastation that was made amongst the libraries, under the barbarous idea, that many of the books encouraged popery and conjuration. He resigned his office of chancellor in 1552, and was, soon after Queen Mary's accession to the crown, deprived of his preferments, and committed to the Marshalsea. But though he was in a short time liberated from confinement, he did not consider himself safe from the storm which he saw gathering against the Protestants, and therefore fled to the continent, first to Strasburg, and then to Frankfort. At the latter place he violently opposed the form of worship adopted by the English exiles, and introduced the English Common Prayer Book, which terminated in a division amongst them, the dissentients from that period obtaining the name of Puritans. After the death of Mary, Dr. Cox returned home, and was one of the divines appointed to revise the Liturgy. He was raised to the see of Ely, in 1559; and was, the same year, again appointed one of the visitors of the

university of Oxford.

After enjoying the episcopal

dignity for more than twenty-one years, he died July 22nd, 1581, in the 82nd year of his age; and was buried in Ely cathedral. He was a strenuous advocate for the marriage of the clergy; and was the first who brought a wife to live in a college. He wrote several tracts, published chiefly after his decease. Beside his revision or translation of The Four Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles in the "Bishops' Bible," some have added the Epistle of the Romans but this Lewis attributes to Dr. Guest. He was also the versifier of the Lord's Prayer, commonly appended to the Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins.**

EDMUND GUEST, or GHEAST, D. D. to whom Archbishop Parker, according to Lewis, (Hist. Trans.) allotted the translation or revision of The Epistle to the Romans, was born at Afferton, in Yorkshire, and educated at the university of Cambridge, where he was sometime fellow of King's College. He was afterwards appointed archdeacon of Canterbury; and in 1559, was raised to the see of Rochester, and made king's almoner; from Rochester he was translated to Salisbury, in 1571, where he died, February 28th, 1576, and was buried in the cathedral church. Bale mentions him as the author of several tracts, of which he has given the catalogue."

GABRIEL GOODMAN, who translated or revised The First Epistle to the Corinthians, was the son of Edward Goodman, Esq. of Ruthin, in Denbighshire, in the principality of Wales; and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded D. D. He was prebendary of Westminster; and, in 1561, was advanced to the dignity of dean of the same church, which he retained to

(24) Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dict. X. pp. 428-434.

Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, I. p. 105.

Lewis, p. 237.

(25) Godwin, De Præsulibus, I. p. 355; II. p. 118.

Wood's Athen, Oxon, I. p. 700,

the close of life, notwithstanding the great opportunities he possessed of farther advancement in the church, both from his own abilities, and the great influence of his friends. Fuller remarks, "It may be said of the worthy dean, Goodman was his name, and goodness was in his nature." He was the patron of the great antiquary, William Camden, and frequently bore the expenses attendant on his antiquarian researches. He contributed largely towards defraying the cost of the Welsh edition of the Bible, in 1588; and, in 1595, founded a free school, at Ruthin, his native town. Other instances of his liberality are recorded by Fuller, in his "Worthies" of the principality of Wales. He died in 1601.96

Of Mr. LAURENCE, who was consulted by Archbishop Parker in the revision of the Bible, but little is known more than what is related of him by Strype, who says, that he was famous for his knowledge of the Greek language; and used to read Greek to the Lady Cecil, afterwards Baroness Burleigh, the Lord Treasurer's lady, of whom Mr. Laurence testified, that she equalled if not surpassed any other of the same profession in that language. In his critical examination of the former translation of the Bible, Mr. Laurence's practice was to set down his own emendations and remarks under distinct heads; as for instance: Not aptly translated; Words and pieces of sentences omitted; Words superfluous; The sentence changed; Error in doctrine; Moods and tenses changed; Places not well considered by Theodore Beza and Erasmus; the latter of whom, as it seemed, had been chiefly followed by the old translators; and the former by the Genevan translators. The manner in which he speaks of himself in the conclusion of his Notes of Errors in the Translation of the New Testament out of the Greek, presented to the archbishop, shows him to have (26) Fuller's Worthies, Princip. of Wales, p. 35. Lond. 1662, fol. Wood's Athen, Oxon, I. pp. 310. 344, 480, 481,

been a man of a modest and candid mind: "It is more lyke that I shulde be deceived,” says he, "than either Erasmus, or Beza. I would gladlye they were defended, that I might see myne owne error. I take them to be deceyved because I see reason and aucthoritie for me, and as yet none for them, not because they saye so, and yet brynge no proof for them."""

The translation or revision of the BIBLE being finished and printed, Archbishop Parker was solicitous to have it introduced into the several churches of the kingdom; accordingly in the episcopal visitation in 1569, inquiry was made of the churchwardens, "Whether they had in their parish-churches the BIBLE in the largest volume?" The design of which seems to have been, to know what churches were yet unprovided with it in English. This was succeeded by a canon made in the convocation of the province of Canterbury, which met April 3rd, 1571, enjoining that "the churchwardens should see, that the Holy Bible be in every church in the largest volume, (if it might conveniently be,) such as were lately imprinted at London." It was likewise ordered that "every archbishop and bishop, every dean and chief residentiary, and every archdeacon, should have one of these Bibles in their cathedrals and families." These canons were ratified by the authority of the queen, who also granted her privilege to the impression of the Bible; and yet after all there were many churches, even in the archbishop's own diocese, which remained for some years destitute of a Bible, for in the book of accounts of the churchwardens of Crundal, in 1585, we find the following entry: Paid for lack of a Bible, at Canterbury, 1s. 3d.*

The editions of the "Bishops' Bible" were mostly printed in folio and quarto, being chiefly designed for the

(27) Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker, ch. xx. p. 404; and Append No. 85, p. 142. (28) Lewis, pp. 257. 259.