ger, Bucer, Melancthon, Barnardinus Ochinus, Erasmus Sarcerius, Peter Martyr, Hughe Latymer, Roberte Barnes, otherwyse called Freere Barnes, John Bale, otherwise called Freere Bale, Justus Jonas, John Hoper, Miles Coverdale, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, late archebyshop of Canterburye, Wylliam Turner, Theodore Basyll, otherwyse called Thomas Beacon, John Frythe Roye; and the book commonly called Halles Cronicles; or any of them in the Latyn tonge, Duche tonge, English tonge, Italyan tonge, or French tonge; or any other lyke booke, paper, wrytinge, or wourke, made, prynted, or sett forth by any other persone or persons, conteyninge false doctryne, contrarye, and agaynste the catholyque faythe, and the doctryne of the catholyque churche. And also, that no persone, or persons presume to wryte, prynte, utter, sell, reade, or keape, or cause to be wrytten, &c. any of the sayde bookes, or any booke, or books, wrytten, or printed in the Latten, or Englyshe tonge, concernynge the common service sett forth in Englyshe, to be used in the churches of this realme, in the tyme of Kinge Edward the VI. commonly called the Communyon Booke, but shall wythin the space of fyfteen dayes next after the publicatyon of this proclamatyon, bring, or delyver, or cause the sayd bookes, and everye of them remayneing in their custodies, and kepinge, to be broughte, and delyvered to thordinarye of the dioces, to his chauncelloure, or commyssaryes, withoute fraude, colour, or deceipte, at the sayde ordinaries will and disposition to be burnte, or otherwyse to be usyde, orderyd, as by the canons, in that case lymyted and apoynted. And their Majestyes by this proclamatyon geveth full power and aucthorytie to all byshops, and ordynaryes, and all justices of peace, mayors, - &c. - - - and expresslye commaundeth, that they, and everie of theim, within their several lymyts and jurisdictions, shall

in the defaulte and neglygence of the said subjects, after the sayd fyftene dayes expyred, enquyer, and serche oute the sayde bookes, wrytings, and works, and for this purpose enter into the howse, or howses, clossetts, and secrete places of everye person of whatsoever degree, beinge negligente in this behalf, and suspected to kepe anye suche booke, wrytinge, or workes, contrarye to this proclamatyon"

71

In May 1556, Cardinal Pole, who had been placed in the see of Canterbury, instead of Cranmer, commenced his visitation of the diocese, at which visitation, it is highly probable, all the English BIBLES and CommonPrayer Books were ordered to be taken out of the churches, and the Texts of Scripture on the walls to be defaced, since at a visitation of the same diocese, in 1565, the churchwardens of Wemingswold, in Kent, made a presentment, that they had had no Bible since their church was defaced ten years before. There does not appear, indeed, any express law to have been now made to prohibit the English Bible, or New Testament, but this was rendered unnecessary by Archbishop Arundel's constitution passed in 1408, and which was still in force. The Reformation, however, had so far prevailed, that all parsons, vicars, and curates, were enjoined, that on every holiday, when there was a sermon, they should, at the sermontime, "plainly recite, and diligently teach the Pater-Noster, the Ave Maria, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments; and exhort their parishioners to teach the same likewise to their young children at home." They were also commanded, earnestly to employ themselves in studying the Holy Scriptures, in such sort and wise as they might be able to make account to their ordinary yearly;" and "all parsons, &c who had the gift and talent of preaching, were required frequently and diligently to occupy themselves in it. It was likewise resolved, by the authority (71) History of Printing, pp. 97-100. Lond. 1770. 8vo.

of the synod, or convocation of the clergy, that "Homilies should be made and published, to be read every Sunday, at the sermon-time, when there was no sermon." But notwithstanding the injunction, that all parsons, &c. should at the sermon-time plainly recite the Pater Noster, the Creed, &c. a new edition of the Primer of 1536, “in Englishe and Latyne, after Salisbury use," was printed in 1557, with alterations, particularly with the omission of the English translations of the Creed, and Ten Commandments, which were in the former edition.72

1

During the reign of the cruel and bigoted Mary, the fires of Smithfield blazed with incredible fury, and the lives of her Protestant subjects were sacrificed with merciless violence. Hundreds of persons were burnt alive with circumstances of cruelty and horror, surpassing the bloodiest persecutions of pagan antiquity; beside vast numbers who suffered by fines, confiscation, and imprisonment. Among those who fell a sacrifice to the malevolence of Mary and her advisers, were one ARCHBISHOP, four BISHOPS, twenty-one CLERGYMEN, eight LAY-GENTLEMEN, eightyfour TRADESMEN, one hundred HUSBANDMEN, LABourers, and SERVANTS, fifty-five WOMEN, and four CHildren. In The Executions for Treason, a book corrected, if not written, by Lord Burleigh, in Queen Elizabeth's time, it is said, that twenty were BISHOPS and DIGNIFIED ClergyMEN; and that sixty were WOMEN. Strype (Memorials, vol. iii. 291. App.) has preserved an exact catalogue of the numbers, the places, and the times of execution of those who suffered, and gives these as the general sums of the different years, viz:

(72) Lewis's Hist. of English Translations, ch. iii. pp. 199-202

"Beside those," says he, "that dyed of famyne in sondry prisons."

99 73

Among these sufferers were Archbishop CRANMER, and Bishops HOOPER, FERRARS, LATIMER,* and RIDLEY.

To escape the fury of the papal persecution, great numbers fled from England, and sought refuge in Germany, Switzerland, and other parts of the Continent. Fuller has thus noticed and compared the principal places in which they resided, and the congregations which they formed: "If these congregations be compared together, Emden, will be found the richest for substance; Weasel, the shortest for continuance; Arrow, the slenderest for number; Strasburg, of the most quiet temper; Zurich, had the greatest scholars; and Frankfort, had the largest privileges." A dispute arising among the reformers who had settled at Frankfort, the venerable martyrologist, JOHN Fox, retired with a few others to Basil; the others who quitted Frankfort, withdrew to Geneva, and established a church there, in 1555.

74

Several of these learned exiles engaged in a new English translation of the Bible; and, in 1557, published the NEW TESTAMENT, in a small duodecimo volume, printed by Conrad Badius, the first in the English language, which contained the distinction of verses by numeral figures, after the general manner of the Greek Testament published by Robert Stephens, in A. D. 1551, with this

(73) Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, by Toulmin, I. ch. iii. p. 66.

66

was

* Strype thus describes the dress of good old Bishop Latimer, when he appeared before the commissioners, and which, he observes, also his habit while he remained a prisoner in Oxford." "He held his hat in his hand; he had a kerchief on his head, and upon it a night-cap or two, and a great cap such as townsmen used, with two broad flaps to button under his chin: an old threadbare Bristow freez gown, girded to his body with a penny leathern girdle, at which hanged, by a long string of leather, his Testament; and his spectacles without case, hanging about his neck, upon his breast." Strype's Memorials of Abp. Cranmer, B. iii. ch. x. p. 483.

(74) Fuller's Church History, B. viii. pp. 25-32.

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

difference, that Stephens placed his figures in the margin, whereas, the Genevan editors prefixed theirs to the beginning of minute subdivisions, with breaks, after our present manner. A second edition of this Genevan translation of the New Testament was published with short marginal notes, in 1560. In the same year, 1560, the whole BIBLE, of the same translation, was printed at Geneva, in 4to. by Rowland Hall, with an Epistle to the Queen, (Elizabeth,) and another to the Reader; both of which were left out in subsequent editions. The book of PSALMS had been previously printed, in 1559, with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth.

Above 30 editions of this translation, which was mostly used in private families, on account of the notes, were printed from the year 1560, to 1616, chiefly by the queen's, and king's printers. Editions of it were likewise printed at Geneva, Edinburgh, and Amsterdam. It even appears that, in the year 1565, Archbishop Parker applied to Secretary Cecil, that a term of twelve years might be granted to John Bodleigh, one of the translators, for printing this Bible, in consideration of the charges sustained by him in the former edition, and now in the revisal of it; and because his Grace, and Bishop Grindal, thought so well of the first impression, and the review of it. The archbishop added, that though another special Bible for churches, was intended to be set forth, as convenient time and leisure should hereafter permit, yet it would nothing hinder, but rather do much good, to have diversity of translations, and readings. The book, however, was to pass under the archbishop's regulations, and was not to be published without his consent and advice. But the editors, unwilling to come under these restraints, deferred the impression till after Parker's death, in 1576.

To some editions of the Genevan OLD TESTAMENT, 25 for instance, to those of 1599, and 1611, is subjoince.