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See also:ENGLISH See also:BIBLE
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The See also:history of the See also:vernacular See also:Bible of the See also:English See also:race resolves itself into two distinctly marked periods—the one being that of See also:Manuscript Bibles, which were See also:direct See also:translations from the Latin See also:Vulgate, the other that of Printed Bibles, which were, more or less completely, translations from the See also:original See also:Hebrew and See also:Greek of the Old and New Testaments
.
1
.
The Manuscript Bible.—The first essays in Biblical See also:translation, or rather paraphrasing, assumed in English, as in many cadmon. other See also:languages, a poetical See also:form
.
Even in the 7th
See also:century, according to the testimony of See also:Bede (Hist
.
Eccl. iv
.
24), Cmdmon sang " de creatione mundi et origine humani generis, et tota See also:Genesis historia, de egressu See also:Israel ex Aegypto et ingressu in terram repromissionis, de aliis plurimis sacrae Scripturae histories, de incarnatione See also:Dominica, passione, resurrectione et ascensione in coelum, de Spiritus Sancti adventu, et apostolorum doctrina." It is, however, doubtful whether any of the See also:poetry which has been ascribed to him can claim to be regarded as his genuine See also:work
.
The first See also:prose rendering of any See also:part of the Bible—and with these we are mainly concerned in the See also:present inquiry—Bede. originated in all See also:probability in the 8th century, when
Bede, the eminent See also:scholar and churchman, translated the first portion (chs. i.-vi
.
9) of the See also:Gospel of St See also: The 9th century is characterized by interlinear glosses on the See also:Book of See also:Psalms, and towards its See also:close by a few attempts at 9th and See also:independent translation . Of these " glossed Psalters " loth cen- twelve See also:MSS. are known to exist, and they may be tary ranged into two See also:groups according to the Latin See also:text glosses. they represent . The See also:Roman Psalter is glossed in the following MSS.: (I) See also:Cotton Vesp . A . 1 (See also:Vespasian Psalter); (2) Bodl . See also:Junius 27; (3) Univ . Libr . Camb . Ff . 1 . 23; (4) Brit . See also:Mus . Reg . 2 . B . 5; (5) Trin . See also:Coll . Camb . R . 17 . I (Eadwine's Psalter); (6) Brit . Mus . Add . 37517 . The Gallican Psalter in the following: (1) Brit . Mus . See also:Stowe 2 (See also:Spelman's text); (2) Cotton Vitell . E . 18; (3) Cotton Tib . C . 16; (4) See also:Lambeth 48; (5) See also:Arundel 6o; (6) See also:Salisbury Cath . 150.1 The See also:oldest arid most important of these MSS. is the so-called Vespasian Psalter, which was written in See also:Mercia in the first See also:half of the 9th century . It was in all probability the original from which all the above-mentioned Old English glosses were derived, though in several instances changes and modifications were introduced by successive See also:scribes . The first See also:verse of See also:Psalm c . (Vulg. xcix . 2) may serve as a specimen of these glosses . Roman Text . Gallican Text . MS . Vespasian . A . 1 . MS . Stowe . 2, Wynsumial gode, all eorbe Drymab drihtne, eall eorbe; biowiad Dryhtne in blisse; Z'eowiab drihtne on blisse; inga6 in gesihbe his in infarab on gesyhbe hys wynsumnisse. on blibnysse . Jubilate Deo, omnis terra; Jubilate Domino, omnis terra; service Domino in laetitia; servile Domino in laetitia; intrate in conspectu eius in introite in conspectu eius exultatione. in exultatione . To the See also:late 9th or See also:early loth century a work may be assigned which is in so far an advance upon preceding efforts as to be a real translation, not a mer^ See also:gloss corresponding word for word with the Latin original . This is the famous See also:Paris Psalter,' a rendering of the first fifty Psalms (Vulg. i.–l .
1o), contained in the unique MS. See also:lat
.
8824 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
.
The authorship of this version is doubtful, being by some scholars attributed to See also:
950) by one See also:Aldred, whom Dr See also: S . See also:Cook, Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers, with an introduction on Old English Biblical Versions (See also:London, 1898–1903), vol.i.pp.See also:xxvi. ff . ; H . Sweet, The Vespasian Psalter in " Oldest English Texts " (E.E.T.S., No . 83, London, 1885) ; F . Harsle , Eadwine's See also:Canterbury Psalter (E.E.T.S., No . 92, London, 1892; John Spelman, Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum Vetus (London, 164o) ; Fr . Roeder, Der altengl . Regius Psalter (Reg . II . B . 5), See also:Halle, 1904) . 2 See also:Benjamin See also:Thorpe, Libri Psalmorum versio See also:Antigua See also:Latina cum paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonica (See also:Oxford, 1835) ; cf . J . D . See also:Bruce, The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms . . . known as the Paris Psalter (See also:Baltimore, 1894) . ' K . W . See also:Bouterwek, See also:Die vier Evangelien in alt-nordh . Sprache (See also:Gutersloh, 1857), id . Screadunga (See also:Elberfeld, 1858, prefaces to the Gospels) ; J . See also:Stevenson and E . Waring, The Lindisfarne and See also:Rush-See also:worth Gospels (See also:Surtees See also:Soc., 1854–1865) ; W . W . See also:Skeat, The See also:Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian Versions (See also:Cambridge, 1871–1887) . Lindisfarne Gospels . Of a somewhat later date is the celebrated See also:Rushworth Version of the Gospels (MS . Bodl . Auct . D. ii . 9), which contains an independent translation of the Gospel of St Matthew, i u h version. sloa. and a gloss on those of St See also:Mark, St See also:Luke and St John, founded upon the Lindisfarne glosses . From a See also:note in the manuscript we learn that two men, Farman and Owun, made the version . Fserman was a See also:priest at Harewood, or Harwood, in the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire, and to him the best part of the work is due . He translated the whole of St Matthew, and wrote the gloss of St Mark i.–ii . 15, and St John xviii .
1-3
.
The remaining part, a See also:mere transcript, is Owun's work
.
The See also:dialect of the translation of St Matthew is Mercian.'
A further testimony to the activity which prevailed in the
See also: According to his own statement in De vetere testamento, written about ioio, he had at that See also:period translated the See also:Pentateuch, See also:Joshua, See also:Judges, See also:Kings, See also:Job, See also:Esther, See also:Judith and the See also:Maccabees.' His rendering is clear and idiomatic, and though he frequently abridges, the omissions never obscure the meaning or hinder the easy flow of the narrative . See also:Dietrich, JElfric's most competent biographer (Niedner's, Zeitschrift far historische Theologie, 1855–1856), looks upon the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges as a continuation of his Lives of See also:Saints, including as they do in a See also:series of narratives the Old Testament saints . Genesis is but slightly abridged, but Job, Kings, Judges, Esther and Judith as well as the Maccabees are mere homilies epitomized from the corresponding Old Testament books . Judith is metrical in form . The 11th century, with its See also:political See also:convulsions, resulting in the See also:establishment of an See also:alien See also:rule and the partial suppression of the See also:language of the conquered race, was unfavourable to See also:literary efforts of any See also:kind in the vernacular . With the exception of fElfric's late See also:works at the very See also:dawn of the century, we can only See also:record two transcripts of the West-Saxon Gospels as coming at all within the See also:scope of our inquiry . In the 12th century the same gospels were again copied by pious hands into the Kentish dialect of the period . The 13th century, from the point of view of Biblical renderings into the vernacular, is an See also:absolute See also:blank . See also:French—or rather the Anglo-See also:Norman dialect of the period—reigned supreme amongst the upper classes, in See also:schools, in See also:parliament, in the courts of See also:law and in the See also:palace of the king . English lurked in farms and hovels, amongst villeins and See also:serfs, in the outlying See also:country-districts, in the distant 1 See Stevenson, Waring and Skeat, op. cit . 2 W . W . Skeat, The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, &c . (Cambridge, 1871–1887) ; J . W . See also:Bright, The Gospel of See also:Saint Luke in Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1893); for earlier See also:editions see Cook, op. cit, p. lx . 3 C . W . M . Grein, eE+lfrik de vetero et novo Testamento, &c.—Bibl. d . Angels . Prosa (See also:Cassel and See also:Gottingen, 1872), p . 6; E . Thwaites, Heptateuchus . See also:Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi; Anglo-Saxonice (Oxon., 1698).monasteries, amongst the See also:lower See also:clergy, amongst the humble and lowly and ignorant . There were certainly renderings of the Bible during the 12th, 13th and early 14th centuries, but they were all in French . Some of these translations were made in See also:England, some were brought over to England and copied and recopied . Amongst the latter was the magnificently illuminated Norman Commentary on the See also:Apocalypse, some of the earliest copies of which were written in an English See also:hand . In fact before the See also:middle of the 14th century the entire Old Testament and the greater part of the New Testament had been translated into the Anglo-Norman dialect of the period . (MSS . Bibl . Nat. fr . 1, 9562, Brit . Mus . Reg . I.C. iii .
Cf
.
S
.
Berger, La Bible francaise au moyen See also:age, Paris, 1884, pp
.
78 ff.)
When English finally emerged victorious, towards the middle and latter half of the 14th century, it was for all See also:practical purposes a new language, largely intermixed with French, differing from the language of the older period in See also:sound, flexion and structure
.
It is evident that any Old English versions which might have survived the ravages of time would now be unintelligible, it was equally natural that as soon as French came to be looked upon as an alien See also:tongue, the French versions hitherto in use would fail to fulfil their purpose, and that attempts should again be made to render the Bible into the only language intelligible to the greater part of the nation—into
English
.
It was also natural that these attempts should be made where the need was most pressing, where French had gained least footing, where parlia-
ment and See also:court were remote, where intercourse with See also:France was difficult
.
In fact in the See also:Northern Midlands, and in the See also:North even before the middle of the 14th century, the book of Psalms had been twice rendered into English, and before the end of the same century, probably before the See also:great Wyciiflite versions had spread over the country, the whole of the New Testament had been translated by different hands into one or other of the dialects of this part of the country
.
At the same time we can record only a single rendering during the whole century which originated in the south of England, namely the text of See also: Add . 17376, was probably written between 1340 and 1350 . It contains a See also:complete version of the book of Psalms, followed by the usual eleven See also:canticles and the Athanasian Creed . The Latin original is a glossed version of the Vulgate, and in the English translation the words of the gloss are often substituted for the strong and picturesque expressions of the Biblical text; in other respects the rendering is faithful and idiomatic . The following two verses of the first psalm may exemplify this: MS . See also:British Mus . Add . 17376 . (i . I.) See also:Beatus uir, qui non abijt in consilio impiorum, Es' in uia peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra •i• iudicio pestitencie •i• falsitatis non sedit . Blesced be De See also:man See also:Dar 3ede nou3t in De counseil of wicked, ne stode nou3t in (e See also:wale of sin3eres, ne sat nou3t in fals iugement . (2)Set in lege domini uoluntas eius, £e° in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte . Ac hijs wylle was in De wylle of oure Lord, and he schal Ienche in hijs lawe boj~e daye and ny3t . Before the middle of the century See also:Richard Rolle (q.v.), the See also:hermit of Hampole (+ 1349), turned into English, with certain additions and omissions, the famous Commentary on the Psalms by Peter Lombard . The work was under- Richard Rolle . taken, as the metrical See also:prologue of one of the copies tells us (MS . See also:Laud. misc . 286), " At a worthy recluse prayer, cald See also:dame Merget Kyrkby." The Commentary gained immediate and lasting popularity, and spread in numerous copies throughout the country, the peculiarities of the hermit's vigorous northern dialect being either modified or wholly removed in the more K . D . Bulbring, The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter (E.E.T.S., No . 97), part i . (London, 1891) ; cf . A . C . Paues, A Fourteenth-Century Engl . Bibl . Version (See also:Upsala See also:Diss.) (Cambridge, 1902), p . Ivi . Anglo-Norman Period . 14th-can. fury renderings . southerly transcripts . The translation, however, is stiff and literal to a See also:fault, violating idiomatic usage and the proper See also:order of words in its strict adherence to the Latin . The following brief extracts may exemplify the hermit's rendering and the See also:change the text underwent in later copies.' MS . Reg. z8 B . 21 . Blessed is pat man pat hap not gone in pe counsell of wicked men, and in pe weye of sinfull men hap not stonde, and in pe chaire of pestilence sat not . 2 . But in pe lawe of our lorde is pe wille of him; and [in] his lawe we shall pinke See also:day and nyght . Approximately to the same period as these early renderings of the Psalter belongs a version of the Apocalypse with a Commentary, the earliest MS. of which (Harleian 874) is written in the dialect of the North Midlands . This Commentary, for a See also:long time attributed to Wycliffe, is really nothing but a verbal rendering of the popular and widely-spread Norman Commentary on the Apocalypse (See also:Paul See also:Meyer and L . See also:Delisle, L'Apocalypse en See also:Francois an XIIIP siecle, Paris, 1901), which dates back as far as the first half of the 13th century, and in its See also:general See also:tenor represents the height of orthodoxy . The English apocalypse, to See also:judge from the number of MSS. remaining, must have enjoyed great and lasting popularity . Several revisions of the text exist, the later of which present such striking agreement with the later Wycliffite version that we shall not be far wrong if we assume that they were made use of to a considerable extent by the revisers of this version . To the North Midlands or the North belongs further a complete version of the Pauline Epistles found in the unique MS . 32, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of the 15th century . Commentaries on the Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke, we are told by the heading in one of the MSS . (Univ . Libr .
Camb
.
Ii
.
2
.
12), were also translated into English by " a man of Pe north cuntre." The translation of these Gospels as well as of the Epistles referred to above is stiff and awkward, the translator being evidently afraid of any departure from the Latin text of his original
.
The accompanying commentary is based on the Fathers of the See also: 1.) In po dayes come Ihone baptist prechand in See also:desert of pe Iewry, & seyand, (2) Do 3e penaunce; forwhy pe kyngdome of heuyne sal come negh . (3) Pis is he of whome it was seide be Isay pe prophete, sayand . " pe See also:voice of pe cryand in pe desert, redye 3e pe way of See also:God, right made 3e See also:lie lityl wayes of him." (4) & Ihone his kleping of pe hoerys of camels, & a gyrdyl of a skyn about his lendys; & his mete was pe See also:locust & hony of pe wode . A version of the Acts and the See also:Catholic Epistles completes the number of the New Testament books translated in the northern parts of England . It is found in several MSS. either separately or in See also:conjunction with a fragmentary See also:Southern Version of the Pauline Epistles, Peter, James and z John in a curiously compiled See also:volume, evidently made, as the prologue tells us, by a See also:brother superior for the use and edification of an ignorant " See also:sister," or woman vowed to See also:religion.' The translation of this, our only southern text, surpasses all previous efforts from the point of view of clearness of expression and idiomatic use of English, and, though less exact, it may be even said in these respects to See also:rank equal with the later or revised Wycliffite version . Apart from these more or less complete versions of See also:separate books of the Bible, there existed also numerous renderings of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, accounts of the See also:Life, See also:Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, translations of the ' H . R . Bramley, The Psalter and Certain Canticles ... by Richard Rolle of See also:Ham See also:pole (Oxford, 1884) ; cf . H . Middendorff, Studien fiber Richard Rolle von Ham pole enter besonderer Beriicksichtigung seiner Psalmen-Commentare (See also:Magdeburg, 1888) . ' A . C . Paues, A Fourteenth-Century English Biblical Version (Cambridge, 1904), pp. See also:xxiv. if.epistles and gospels used in divine service, and other means of familiarizing the See also:people with Holy Scripture . It was the See also:custom of the See also:medieval preachers and writers to give their own English version of any text which they quoted, not resorting as in later times to a commonly received translation . This explains the fact that in collections of medieval homilies that have come down to us, no two renderings of the Biblical text used are ever alike, not even Wycliffe himself making use of the text of the commonly accepted versions that went under his name . It is noteworthy that these early versions from Anglo-Saxon times onwards were perfectly orthodox, executed by and for See also:good and faithful sons of the church, and, generally speaking, with the See also:object of assisting those whose knowledge of Latin proved too scanty for a proper See also:interpretation and understanding of the holy text . Thus Richard Rolle's version of the Psalms was executed for a See also:nun; so was in all likelihood the southern version of the epistles referred to above . Again the earliest MS . (Harl . 874) of the Commentary on the Apocalypse gives the owner's name in a coeval hand as " Richard Schepard, presbiter," and the Catholic Epistles of MS . See also:Douce 2503 were probably glossed for the benefit of men in religious orders, if one ma y judge from a See also:short Commentary to James ii . 2, " & perfore if eny man come into 3oure si3t, pat is, into 3oure cumpenye pat beP Codes religiouse men in what degre so 3e be." Nor do any of the remaining works contain anything but what is strictly orthodox . It is first with the See also:appearance of Wycliffe (q.v.) and his followers on the See also:arena of religious controversy that the Bible in English came to be looked upon with suspicion by the orthodox party within the Church . For it is a well-known fact WW The ycllffite that Wycliffe proclaimed the Bible, not the Church Versions. or Catholic tradition, as a man's supreme spiritual authority, and that he sought in consequence by every means in his See also:power to spread the knowledge of it among the people . It is, therefore, in all likelihood to the zeal of Wycliffe and his followers that we owe the two See also:noble 14th-century translations of the Bible which tradition has always associated with his name, and which are the earliest complete renderings that we possess of the Holy Scriptures into English.4 The first of these, the so-called Early Version, was probably completed about 1382, at all events before 1384, the year of Wycliffe's See also:death . The second, or Later Version, being a thorough revision of the first, is ascribed to the year 1388 by See also:Sir See also:Frederic See also:Madden and the Rev . Joshua Forshall in their edition of these two versions.' . It is a matter of uncertainty what part, if any, Wycliffe himself took in the work . The editors of the Wycliffite versions say in the See also:Preface, pp. xv. ff.—" The New Testament was naturally the first object . The text of the Gospels was extracted from the Commentary upon them by Wycliffe, and to these were added the Epistles, the Acts and the Apocalypse, all now translated anew . This translation might probably be the work of Wycliffe himself; at least the similarity of See also:style between the Gospels and the other parts favours the supposition." The Wycliffite authorship of the Commentaries on the Gospels, on which the learned editors See also:base their See also:argument, is, however, unsupported by any See also:evidence beyond the fact that the writer of the Prologue to Matthew urges in strong language " the propriety of translating Scripture for the use of the laity." The Biblical text found in these Commentaries is in fact so far removed from the original type of the Early Version as to be transitional to the Late, and, what is' still more convincing, passages from the Early Version, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, are actually quoted in the Commentary . Under such circumstances it would be folly to look upon them as anything but late productions, at all events later than the Early Version, and equal folly to assign these bulky volumes to the last two years of Wycliffe's ' See Paues, op. cit. p . 210 . 4 For a different view as to the authorship of the Wycliffite versions, see F . A . Gasquet, The Old English Bible and Other Essays (London, 1897), pp . 102 ff . Sir F . Madden and Rev . J . Forshall, The Holy Bible . . . made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers (4 vols., Oxford, 1850), pp. xix., xxiv . MS . Univ . Coll . 64 . (i. i.) Blisful man pe whilk oway 3ed noght in pe counsaile of wicked, and in pe way of synful stode noght, & in pe chaiere of pestilens he noght sate . (2) Bot in laghe of lord he will of him; and in his laghe he See also:sail thynke day & nyght . Late Version . (i . 1.) Blessid is the man, that 3ede not in the councel of wickid men; and stood not in the weie of synneris, and sat not in the chaier of pestilence . (2) But his wille is in the lawe of the Lord; and he schal bithenke in the lawe of hym dai and ny3t . (iii . 1.) In tho daies Ioon Baptist See also:cam, and prechide in the desert of Iudee, and seide, (2) Do 3e penaunce, for the kyngdom of heuenes shat nei3e . (3) For this is he, of whom it is seid bi Ysaie, the prophete, seyinge, A vois of a crier in desert, Make 3e redi the weies of the Lord; make 3e ri3t the pathis of hym . (4) And this Ioon hadde clothing of camels heeris, and a girdil of skynne aboute his leendis; and his mete was honysoukis and hony of the wode . life merely because the text used in them happens to be that of the Early Version . It is therefore at present impossible to say what part of the Early Version of the New Testament was translated by Wycliffe.' The Old Testament of the Early Version was, according to the editors (Preface, p. xvii.), taken in hand by one of Wycliffe's coadjutors, See also:Nicholas de See also:Herford . The translator's original copy and a coeval transcript of it are still extant in the Bodleian library (Bodl . 959, Douce 369) . Both break off abruptly at See also:Baruch iii . 19, the latter having at this See also:place a note inserted to the following effect: Explicit translacionem Nicholay de herford . There is consequently but little doubt that Nicholas de Herford took part in the translation of the Old Testament, though it is uncertain to what extent . The translator's copy is written in not less than five hands, differing in See also:orthography and dialect . The note may therefore be taken to refer either to the portion translated by the last or fifth hand, or to the whole of the Old Testament up to Baruch iii . 19 . Judging from uniformity of style and mode of translation the editors of the Bible are inclined to take the latter view; they add that the remaining part of the Old Testament was completed by a different hand, the one which also translated the New Testament . This statement is, however, not supported by sufficient evidence, In view of the magnitude of the undertaking it is on the contrary highly probable that other translators besides Wycliffe and Nicholas de Herford took part in the work, and that already existing versions, with changes when necessary, were incorporated or made use of by the translators . The Early Version, apart from its completeness, shows but little advance upon preceding efforts . It is true that the translation is more careful and correct than some of the renderings noticed above, but on the other hand it shares all their faults . The translation of the Old Testament as far as Baruch iii . 19 is stiff and awkward, sometimes unintelligible, even nonsenical, from a too close adherence to the Latin text (e.g . Judges xx . 25) . In the remaining parts the translation is somewhat easier and more skilful, though even here Latinisms and un-English renderings abound . It is small wonder, therefore, if a revision was soon found necessary and actually taken in hand within a few years of the completion of the Earlier Version . The principles of work adopted by the revisers are laid down in the general prologue to their edition the so-called " Later Version." For these resons and othere . . . a symple creature See also:bath translatid the bible out of Latyn into English . First, this symple creature hadde myche trauaile, with diuerse felawis and helperis, to gedere manie elde biblis, and othere doctouris, and comune glosis, and to make oo Latyn bible sumdel trewe; and thanne to studie it of the newe, the text with the glose, and othere doctouris, as he mi3te gete, and speciali Lire on the elde testament, that helpide ful myche in this werk; the thridde tyme to counseile with elde gramariens, and elde dyuynis, of harde wordis, and harde sentencis, hou tho mi3ten best be vndurstonden and translatid; the iiij tyme to translate as elect-1i as he coude to the See also:sentence, and to haue manie gode felawis and kunnynge at the correcting of the translacioun . It is uncertain who the revisers were; John Purvey, the See also:leader of the Lollard party after Wycliffe's death, is generally assumed to have taken a prominent part in the work, but the evidence of this is extremely slight (cf . Wyc] . Bible, Preface, 00. See also:xxv. f.) . The exact date of the revision is also doubtful: the editors of the Wycliffe Bible, judging from the See also:internal evidence of the Prologue, assume it to have been finished about 1388 . This Revised or Later Version is in every way a readable, correct rendering of the Scriptures, it is far more idiomatic than the Earlier, having been freed from the greater number of its Latinisms; its vocabulary is less archaic . Its popularity admits of no doubt, for even now in spite of neglect and persecution, in spite of the ravages of See also:fire and time, over 150 copies remain to testify to this fact . The following specimens of the Early and Late Versions will afford a comparison with preceding renderings: Cf . A . C . Paues, The English Bible in the Fourteenth Century . III . 29 Early Version . (Psalm i. i.) Blisful the man, that went not awei in the counseil of vnpitouse, and in the wei off sinful stod not; and in the cha3er of pestilence sat not . (2) But in thelaweof the Lord his wit; and in the lawe of hym he that sweteli thenke dai and ny3t . (Matthew iii. i.) In thilke days came Ioon Baptist, prechynge in the desert of Iude, sayinge, (2) Do 3s. penaunce, for the kyngdom of heuens shal nei3, or came ni3e . (3) Forsothe this is he of whome it is said by See also:Ysaye the See also:prophet, A voice of a cryinge in desert, Make 3e redy the wayes of the Lord; make 3e ri3tful the pathes of hym . (4) Forsothe that ilk Ioon hadde See also:cloth of the heeris of cameylis, and a girdil of skyn aboute his leendis; sothely his mete weren locustis, and hony of the wode . The 15th century may well be described as the via dolorosa of the English Bible as well as of its See also:chief See also:advocates and sup-porters, the See also:Lollards . After the death of Wycliffe violence and anarchy set in, and the Lollards came Tne Lollards . gradually to be looked upon as enemies of order and ,a., disturbers of society . Stern See also:measures of suppression were directed not only against them but against " Goddis Lawe," the book for which they pleaded with such passionate earnestness . The bishops' registers See also:bear sufficient testimony to this fact .2 It would appear, however, as if at first at all events the persecution was directed not so much against the Biblical text itself as against the Lollard interpretations which accompanied it . In a See also:convocation held at Oxford under See also:Archbishop Arundel in 1408 it was enacted " that no man hereafter by his own authority translate any text of the Scripture into English or any other tongue, by way of a book, booklet, or See also:tract; and that no man read any such book, booklet, or tract, now lately composed in the time of John Wycliffe or since, or hereafter to be set forth in part or in whole, publicly or privately, upon See also:pain of greater See also:excommunication, until the said translation be approved by the See also:ordinary of the place, or, if the See also:case so require, by the See also:council provincial . He that shall do contrary to this shall likewise be punished as a favourer of See also:heresy and See also:error."3 |