167/30–31
parlament . . .
not be in englysh. On 22 June 1530, Tyndale 's NT
(1526) and Pentateuch (1530) were banned because they were supposedly
"corruptly translated." After consulting with prelates and theologians,
the king decided to continue to rely on preachers to explain the
Scriptures to the common people, and to postpone the making of a
vernacular translation: "[H]is highness intendeth to provide that the
Holy Scripture shall by great, learned and Catholic persons [be]
translated into the English tongue, if it shall then seem to his grace
convenient so to be" (TRP no. 129, 1.196). In 1531 a bill was drafted
"for appointing certain lords to hear opinions of those who wish to have
the NT in the mother tongue" (LP 5, no. 50), but it was not passed. Cf.
Stanford E. Lehmberg, The Reformation Parliament: 1529–1536 (Cambridge UP, 1970)
120–23.
Miles Coverdale published the editio princeps of
the English Bible. Although unauthorized, it depicted Henry
VIII at the bottom of the title-page and was dedicated to the king. Cf.
reproductions of the title-page (Antwerp, 1535) STC 2063 and (Southwark,
1535) STC 2063.3 (Plates 2 and 3) in Henry Guppy, "Miles Coverdale and
the English Bible, 1488–1568." Rpt. from Bulletin of
the John Rylands Lbrary 19.2 (1935). See Guido Latré, "The
Place of Printing of the Coverdale Bible," Tyndale
Society Journal 8 (November 1997) 5–18.
To Tyndale's Pentateuch, Jonah and NT, Coverdale added his own
translations of the rest of the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha based on the
Latin of the Vulgate and Sanctes Pagninus OP, and the
German of Luther and the Zurich Bible.
Coverdale did not use Tyndale's translation of Joshua through 2
Chronicles, which was first printed in Matthew's Bible of 1537. Cf. F.F.
Bruce, The English Bible (London: Lutterworth, 1961) 55, 58–59, 65. See also J.F. Mozley
, Coverdale and His Bibles (London: Lutterworth, 1953).
Implementing Cromwell's injunction of 1538, Coverdale supervised the
publication of the Great Bible (1539) to be set up in every church for
the parishioners to read. This order was confirmed by a royal
proclamation of April 1539, limiting explanation of the Bible to
university graduates or licensed teachers, and requesting the laity to
read the Bible quietly, especially during church services (TRP no. 191,
1.285). In 1543, the Act for the Advancement of True Religion permitted
Bible reading to nobles, gentry, and merchants but forbad it to the
lower classes until the king decided otherwise. Cf. 34 & 35 Henry
VIII, Ch. 1 (Statutes 3.896). This act also
banned by name the biblical translations ofTyndale as "craftye false and
untrue" (Statutes 3.894), although Tyndale's
Pentateuch, Joshua through 2 Chronicles, and NT had already appeared in
Matthew's Bible (1537), licensed by the king, cf. Daniell 334–38.
168/3–4
Many . . .
cause. Cf. CWM 6/1.318/27–32.
168/7–8
Horsey . . .
kynges. Cf. CWM 6/1.325/19–20.
168/8–9
Gods . . .
synner. Cf. Luke 18.13–14.