the Speech delivered by him was afterwards, at the King's request, reduced to writing, its preservation might have been fairly anticipated. We learn too from an amusing story in Foxe, that though it encountered sundry perils in crossing the Thames, it was at last safely deposited in the hands of Crumwell. But the martyrologist failed in all his endeavours to recover it; nor can it be discovered among Crumwell's papers in the Chapter House at Westminster : so that there is reason to fear that it has utterly perished. The loss indeed may in some measure be supplied. Cranmer's opinions on all the points discussed are known, and several of them he has treated at length elsewhere. But still we are precluded from the opportunity of marking his skill, in tempering the production of "allegations and reasons so strong that they could not be refuted," with "such modesty and obedience in word towards his prince," that his "enterprize was not misliked" by him f.

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For, notwithstanding his firmness in opposing the King, he yet, to the surprise both of his contemporaries and of posterity, retained the Royal favour. He was still, as before, constantly consulted on religious matters. Within a short period afterwards, he was applied to by Crumwell to correct a Primer 5, was employed to prefix a Prologue or Preface to the Bible, and was placed at the head of a Commission for drawing up a declaration of the principal articles of the Christian belief. The edition of the Bible for which he wrote a Preface, is that of 1540, known by the names of "Cranmer's" and "The Great Bible." The same

e Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 508.

f Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 443.

8 See Letter CCXLIX. Strype conjectured that Cranmer " had a "considerable hand" in the Primer published in 1535, and attributed to Cuthbert Marshall. But the only reason assigned by him, is one which would appropriate to the Archbishop all the best works of that day, namely, that the book "had a strain of truth and serious piety " in it."

tions of the

titles have also been given, though, as it should seem, on less sufficient grounds, to a Bible of 1539: but neither of these was the first that the Archbishop was concerned in publishing. The translation and free circulation of the TranslaScriptures had long been objects of his anxiety and at- Bible. tention. As early as 1534 he prevailed on the Convocation to petition the King, "that the Bible might be trans"lated by some learned men of his Highness' nomination h." And he soon afterwards distributed portions of an old version of the New Testament to several of the leading clergy to be corrected. But Stokesley having positively refused his assistance, and being probably supported in his opposition by others of his party, the design seems to have miscarried. The whole Bible in English was however published by Coverdale in 1535*; and from its being dedicated to Henry VIII, is supposed by Lewis to have been circulated by his authority. But this appears to be a mistake; since, in June 1536, the Convocation again prayed the "King, that he would indulge unto his subjects of the laity "the reading of the Bible in the English tongue, and that

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a new translation of it might be forthwith made for that "end and purpose1." And in 1537 Cranmer presented to his Majesty, through Crumwell, an English Bible "of a "new translation and a new print ;" and on permission being obtained for it to be "bought and sold within the "realm," he expressed his gratitude in terms far too warm to admit of the belief that the general use of the English Scriptures was already allowed m.

Strype, Cranmer, p. 34.

All the other divines, however, who were employed, completed their parts, and sent them to Lambeth on the day appointed. Strype, Cranmer, p. 48. Among the rest, Gardyner corrected the translation of St. Luke and St. John, "wherein," as he assured Crumwell, “he spent a great labour." State Papers, vol. i. p. 430.

k Lewis, Hist. of Engl. Translations of the Bible, p. 91.

Heylyn, in Lewis, Engl. Translations of the Bible, p. 102.

Preface to the Bible.

1540.

The earliest translation therefore which received the public approbation of Henry VIII, may be concluded to be the Version recommended to him by the Archbishop in 1537". And this not only enjoyed a formal license, but was also farther sanctioned by Crumwell's Injunctions, and by a Royal Declaration P. Yet it was not secured from attack. The edition contained a prologue and notes, which, since they reflected on some of the Romish errors, were complained of as "scandalous and defamatory;" and it was in consequence revised 9. This revision produced the two editions of 1539 and 1540; both, as has been said, known by the names of "Cranmer's" and "The Great Bible."

The latter of these, besides being superior in size and typography, had also the advantage of a Preface by Cranmer', designed, as he himself expressed it, "both to encourage "slow readers, and also to stay the rash judgments of them "that read therein s." With this view, he on the one hand urged the expediency of allowing the Scriptures to be read in the vernacular tongue by "all sorts and kinds of people;" and on the other, he laid down some rules for preventing this liberty from being abused. "And to the intent that his "words might be the more regarded," he used, as far as possible, the reasonings of Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen, rather than his own. Such a Preface was well calculated to disarm the hostility with which former translations had been pursued, and may perhaps have inclined the King, to whom it was submitted before publication', to bestow peculiar marks of favour on the edition which possessed it. For the title-page announced, that it was the Bible

n This is usually called " Matthew's Bible," being published in the name of Thomas Matthew; but it was in reality the work of Tyndale, Coverdale, and Rogers. See Letter CLXXXVIII.

• Burnet, Reformat. vol. i. App. b. iii. No. 11.

appointed to be set in churches; and a proclamation was issued in May 1541 ", ordering, under penalty of a fine for neglect, a copy to be provided for every parish before the ensuing 1st of November. And although complaints were still made of its incorrectness, yet Henry seems to have thought with Cranmer, that the bishops were not likely to "set forth a better translation till a day after doomsday y," and to have therefore permitted it to be used, under certain restrictions, as the authorized version during the remainder of his reigna.

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sion for

Articles of

Faith.

But to return to 1540. The Archbishop was asso- Commisciated in that year with others "of the best learned, ho- drawing up nestest, and most virtuous sort of the doctors of divinity," for the purpose of " declaring by writing the 1540. principal articles of faith b." It is remarkable that the mode of proceeding now adopted, was different from that which had been pursued on two similar occasions. The Articles of 1536 were subscribed by Convocation, and confirmed by the authority of the King. The Institution of a Christian Man emanated from an assembly of bishops and divines, called together for the task by Royal command.

" Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iii. p. 856; Strype, Cranmer, p. 84. A similar order respecting Matthew's Bible had been given in Crumwell's Injunctions of 1538; but no penalty was then named for disregard of it, and it probably had not been duly obeyed.

* Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iii. p. 860; Lewis, Hist. of Translations, p. 144.

y Letter CLXXXVIII.

z See the "Act for the advancement of true Religion, and the "abolishment of the contrary," in Statutes of the Realm, 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 1; and the Proclamation for the abolishing of English Books, 1546, in Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv. p. 1.

a Though several smaller editions were published for general use, Cranmer's Bible continued to be "the Bible of the largest volume ap"pointed to be read in churches," till the completion of Archbishop Parker's or the Bishops' Bible in 1568. Lewis, pp. 139. 175. 181–235.

But in the present instance, recourse was had to Parliament. Crumwell, as the King's Vicegerent, informed the Lords, that his Majesty, anxious to terminate the religious dissensions of his subjects, had nominated two Commissions, one "to draw up an exposition of those things which are "necessary for the institution of a Christian man," and the other" to examine what ceremonies should be retained, and "what was the true use of them." The Lords having approved the nomination, the two Commissions seem to have applied themselves to their work. And it may be collected from an interesting scene described by Foxed, that the mem

c Burnet, Reformat. vol. i. p. 549.

"After the apprehension of the Lord Cromwell, when the adver"saries of the Gospel thought all things sure now on their side, it was so appointed amongst them, that ten or twelve bishops and other "learned men, joined together in commission, came to the said Arch"bishop of Canterbury for the establishing of certain Articles of our "religion, which the papists then thought to win to their purpose "against the said Archbishop. For having now the Lord Cromwell "fast and sure, they thought all had been safe and sure for ever: as "indeed to all men's reasonable consideration that time appeared so "dangerous, that there was no manner of hope that religion reformed "should any one week longer stand, such account was then made of the "King's untowardness thereunto. Insomuch that of all those Com"missioners there was not one left to stay on the Archbishop's part, "but he alone, against them all, stood in the defence of the truth: and "those that he most trusted to, namely, Bp. Heath and Bp. Skip, left "him in the plain field; who then so turned against him, that they took "upon them to persuade him to their purpose: and having him down "from the rest of the Commissioners into his garden at Lambeth, there "by all manner of effectual persuasions entreated him to leave off his over much constancy, and to incline unto the King's intent, who was "fully set to have it otherwise than he then had penned, or meant to "have set abroad. When those two his familiars, with one or two "others his friends, had used all their eloquence and policy, he, little "regarding their inconstancy and remissness in God's cause or quarrel, "said unto them right notably:

"You make much ado to have me come to your purpose, alleging "that it is the King's pleasure to have the Articles, in that sort you "have devised them, to proceed: and now that you do perceive his Highness by sinister information to be bent that way, you think it a