he was for about half a year, and, as Monmouth said afterwards, when in trouble for his own opinions, "he lived like a good priest, as methought. He studied most part of the day and of the night at his book, and he would eat but sodden meat by his good will, nor drink but small-beer." Tyndal was a small and thin man, who lived sparely, and studied without stint. He must have been already at work in Monmouth's house on his translation of the New Testament from Greek into English. Finding, as he said afterwards of himself, "not only that there was no room in my Lord of London's palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all England," Tyndal left England for Hamburg, where he increased his knowledge of Hebrew. He was skilled in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in Italian, Spanish, French, and German. Although no copies of such an edition are now extant, there is reason to believe that Tyndal at once printed, somewhere on the Continent, his translation into English of two of the Gospels, those of Matthew and Mark. He then, in 1525, secretly printed, beginning to print at Cologne and finishing at Worms, three thousand copies of his translation of the New Testament into English, in a quarto edition, of which only one fragment remains. There was added to it immediately a second edition of three thousand copies in octavo, printed at Worms. was three years after Luther's publication, in September, 1522, of his translation of the New Testament into German; and Luther's version was freely used by Tyndal in his own work. It was asserted also, by the English bishops, that there were three thousand errors in Tyndal's translation; of which, Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, bought up and destroyed all the copies he could find. Five years afterward, in 1530, Tyndal printed in Hesse his translation of the Pentateuch. In 1535, he was arrested at Antwerp; and in the following year, at Vilvoorden, he was strangled and burnt; his last words being, "Lord, open the king of England's eyes."

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This

Of his translation of the New Testament, George P. Marsh says that it is the most important philological monument of the first half of the sixteenth century, perhaps I should say of the whole period between Chaucer and Shakespeare, both as an

historical relic, and as having more than any thing else contributed to shape and fix the sacred dialect, and establish the form which the Bible must permanently assume in an English dress."

Tyndal's original writings are numerous, consisting of expositions of Scripture, theological treatises, and an answer to Sir Thomas More's "Dialogue."

7. The invention of printing had caused a wide diffusion of the Bible in the received Latin version, known as the Vulgate. Between the years 1462 and 1500, eighty editions of it were printed. In 1516, Erasmus published a corrected edition of the New Testament both in Greek and in Latin; and in the Introduction, he said that the Scriptures addressed all, adapted themselves even to the understanding of children, and that it were well if they could be read by all people in all languages; that none could reasonably be cut off from a blessing as much meant for all as baptism and the other sacraments. Erasmus only expressed a demand which the people of many countries were anxious to utter for themselves; and for the English people, the attempt to satisfy this demand was made by other men as well as by Tyndal.

In 1535, at Zurich, was printed for the first time a complete translation of the Bible into English; the translator being Miles Coverdale, an Augustine monk of Cambridge, who had adopted the principles of the Reformation, and had assisted Tyndal in his partial version. In the same year, Thomas Cromwell, Secretary of State to Henry VIII., was in search of an English Bible which might go among the people and escape the charge of containing heresies. Coverdale's translation was submitted to the English bishops, who said that it had many faults. "But," said the king, "are there any heresies maintained thereby?" And when they said that they had found none, he answered, "Then, in God's name, let it go among the people." The royal license was obtained; but the introduction of Coverdale's translation, printed in 1535, was delayed by the necessity of striking out the name of the king's "most dearest, just wife, Anne," which stood with his own in the dedication. The first printed copies of the whole Bible were admitted into

England in 1536, the year of the burning of Tyndal, the year also in which Tyndal's New Testament was first printed in England. Coverdale's translation was described on the titlepage as having been made from the German and Latin, “faithfully and truly translated out of Douche and Latin into English." He said that he had five several translations by him, and followed his interpreters. A new edition, revised and corrected, appeared in 1537, printed in England.

In July of the same year, there was published abroad a complete Bible in folio, professing to be "truly and purely translated into English by Thomas Matthew." This was formed out of the translations of Tyndal and Coverdale, under the superintendence of John Rogers, who was afterwards famous as a martyr, and who for this translation assumed the name of Matthew. His Bible, known as "Matthew's Bible," included all that had been done by Tyndal, namely his Pentateuch, followed by other translations of his down to the end of the Second Book of Chronicles, and his New Testament. other canonical books Rogers gave in a strict revision of Coverdale's translation, and the Apocrypha he gave in a translation of his own.

The

In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, who had become Lord Cromwell, planned a republication at Paris of Tyndal's translation, in a form that would adapt it for free use; and for this purpose he sent Miles Coverdale to Paris to superintend the printing. Being there in some peril from the Inquisition, the work was transferred to London, where, in 1539, appeared Coverdale's revision of Tyndal's work and his own, in the folio known both as "Cromwell's Bible," and as 66 The Great Bible."

In the same year was published a careful revision of "Matthew's Bible," made, under the patronage of Cromwell, by Richard Taverner, an Oxford Reformer, then attached to the court. This edition was called "Taverner's Bible."

Finally, in 1540, appeared the most authoritative of the versions made in Henry VIII.'s reign. It was a revision of "The Great Bible," planned by Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, and made by direct collation with the Hebrew and Greek texts. It was first published in April, 1540, with a prologue

by Cranmer; and, besides retaining the name of "The Great Bible," was also called "Cranmer's Bible." This became, and remained till 1568, the translation appointed to be read in churches.

Its version of the Psalms is retained to this day by the Church of England in its Book of Common Prayer.

8. The treatment of historical events in England was still in the hands of chroniclers; and, even during the first half of the sixteenth century, several of the chroniclers wrote in Latin in preference to English.

Of the Latin chroniclers, we first encounter Bernard André, born at Toulouse, an Austin friar, who was present at Henry VII.'s entry into London after Bosworth Field. He was blind; he was a scholar, and wrote verses; and having gained favor at court, he became tutor to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and styled himself Henry VII.'s poet laureate. In 1500, having retired from court, he began to work at his Latin "Life of Henry VII.," finished in 1502; as well as to compile yearly accounts of the chief events of his time. There remain, however, his records of only four years, the latest being 1521. This blind French poet and historiographer, naturalized in England, although no genius, had much repute in his own day.

Polydore Vergil, born at Urbino, had won fame in Italy before he came to England for Peter's Pence, and was there made Archdeacon of Wells. He returned to Italy, and died there in 1555. Among his works, all written in Latin, is an English Chronicle," in twenty-seven books, begun by him in the latter years of Henry VII., and finished in the earlier years of the reign of Henry VIII.

- John Mair (Latinized Major), a Scotchman, born in 1469, a famous theologian of his day, having been professor of divinity both at the Sorbonne and at St. Andrews, and having had both Knox and Buchanan among his pupils, wrote in Latin theological and moral treatises, and a "History of Great Britain," in six books, which joined the Chronicles of England and Scotland, and was published at Paris in 1521, the year in which Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms. This book, by a Scottish doctor of the Sorbonne, was not sparing in condemnation of the corruptions of the clergy and the usurpations of the court of Rome. For each period Mair gave first the English history, and then the Scottish. For its free speech, Mair's History was placed by the orthodox abroad below its author's scholastic writings. Mair died in 1550.

Another Scottish chronicler was Hector Boece (Boyce), professor of the College of Montacute, who published at Paris, in 1526, his Latin "History of the Scots," in nineteen books. Boece was born at Dundee about 1465, educated at Aberdeen and Paris, where he taught philoso

phy, and afterwards was principal of King's College, Aberdeen. Erasmus corresponded with him, and the King of Scotland pensioned him. He died about 1536.

9. But the most memorable chroniclers during this time were those who wrote in English. The Latin chronicle last mentioned was translated into English, and published at Edinburgh in 1536, under the title of the "History and Chroniklis of Scotland," forming one of the most important pieces of old Scottish prose. The translator was John Bellenden, who matriculatedas a student of St. Andrews in 1508. He was liberally educated, and obtained much credit as a poet at the court of James V., in whose service he had been from the time of the king's infancy. His translation of Boece was made at request of this king, for whom also he began a translation of Livy, of which he completed only the first five books. Bellenden, when he published his translation of Boece, was a doctor in the Church, Archdeacon of Moray, and Canon of Ross; but he added to his translation an earnest letter to James V. on the miseries of wicked princes and the duty of a king. Bellenden's chief poem was a "Proheme of the Cosmographé," written for the king's instruction. He died at Rome, in 1550, an earnest honest man, and stout opponent of the Reformation.

Robert Fabyan, an opulent citizen and politician of London, who died in 1512, wrote, partly in verse and partly in prose, his "Concordance of Histories," afterwards called "New Chronicles of England and France, in Two Parts." The work opened with a prologue in Chaucer's stanza, which represented its author as one who prepared material for the skilled artist or historian who should come after him to perfect what he had rudely shaped. The prologue ended with an invocation to the Virgin for help; and the seven parts of the chronicle, which brought the history from Brut to the year 1504, ended with seven metrical epilogues, entitled "The Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin." The chronicle itself was in prose, with translation into English verse of any Latin verses that were cited. A notable example of this was Fabyan's English version of the Latin verses said to have been made by Edward II. in his imprisonment. Though Fabyan was not credulous