II. CHAP. Judges, those of Esther, Job, and Judith, also the two books of Maccabees, with part of the first and second book of Kings." Alfred, whose name is associated by the admiration of our ancestors, with almost every thing enlightened in their polity or religion, is noticed as having prefixed a translation of certain passages from the mosaic writings to his code of laws; and is said to have made a considerable progress in a Saxon version of the Psalms a little previous to his death." By the Anglo norman This, however, is the extent of our information on this interesting question as connected with the Anglo-saxon period of our history. The Anglonorman clergy, were far more competent to have supplied their flock with this efficient means of information; but in this respect the example of their predecessors was slighted, or we may rather suppose disapproved. Some fragments of scriptural knowledge, may have been preserved by means of certain lessons which occurred in the ritual of the period; but the first attempt after the conquest, to place any more complete portion of the scriptures before the english people, appears to have been 8 Turner's Hist. iv. 442. Baber.-The extent of Elfric's labours are learnt, as stated above, from various incidental notices occurring in such of his works as have descended to us. In his Epitome of the Old and New Testament, he has not only made his selection from the scriptures, but has frequently added things to the sacred story from other writers. A copy of this work, printed with an english translation by William L'Isle in 1623, is in the Bodleian, and another has been for some time in my possession. It is thus it begins; "Abbot Elfrike, greeteth friendly 66 Sigwerd, at East Heolon. True it is I tell thee, that very wise is "he who speaketh by his doings; and well proceedeth he both with God "and with the world, who furnisheth himself with good works. And very plain it is in holy scripture, that holy men employed in weil doing, were in this world held in good reputation.”、 66 Spelman, i. 354. Prefatio Regis Aluredi, M. ad Leges suas See also Baber, 62. II. made by the author of a rhyming paraphrase on CHAP. the gospels, and the acts of the apostles, intitled "Ormulum."10 Subsequent to the date of this work, which evidently belongs to one of the earliest stages of our language, we perceive a similar application of mind in a collection of metrical pieces, called Salus Animæ, or in english "Sow"lehele." In the huge volume thus designated, the materials are not all of the same class. The object of the compiler, or transcriber, seems to have been to furnish a complete body of legendary and scriptural history in verse, or rather to collect into one view, all the religious history he could find. It professes, however, to exhibit an outline, both of the Old and New Testament, and its composition is supposed to have preceded the opening of the fourteenth century. In Benet College, Cambridge, there is another work of the same description, the offspring of the same period, and containing notices of the principal events recorded in the books of Genesis and Exodus. In that collection, there is also a copy of the Psalms in english metre, which is attributed to about the year 1300; and two transcripts of nearly the same antiquity, have been preserved; the one in the Bodleian library, the other in that of Sir Robert Cotten. But it is not until the middle of the following century, that we trace the remotest attempt to produce a literal translation even of detached portions of the scriptures. The effort then made was by Richard Roll, called the Her 10 Ibid. Bodleian. Junius i. "Warton's History of English Poetry, sect. i. MSS. Bodleian, 779, Baber. 12 Ibid. 65. II. CHAP. mit of Hampole. His labours also, were restricted to a little more than half the book of Psalms, and to these a devotional commentary was annexed. Contemporary with this recluse, were some devout men among the clergy, who produced vernacular translations of such passages from the scriptures as were prominent in the offices of the church; while others ventured to complete separate versions of the gospels or the epistles. The persons thus laudably employed were certainly few in number; but parts of St. Mark and of St. Luke, and of several among the epistles, are included in the results of their labour which have descended to It should also be stated, that these versions, which are of various merit, were generally guarded by a comment.13 Novelty of Wyc sign in translating the scriptures us. From these details, as the sum of our informaliffe's de- tion, on the point to which they refer, it is evident, first,--that a literal translation of the entire scriptures, the laborious enterprise completed by Wycliffe about this period, was strictly a novel event in our religious history; and secondly,—that the publication of such a work, to be the property not of distinguished individuals but of the people in general, was a measure far beyond any thing contemplated by his precursors in the labours of translation. The only ground of suspicion in the least degree plausible, as to the claims of Wycliffe to the originality asserted, is contained in a production described as "a Prologue to the Bible," and in a manuscript of the Bodleian. The writer of the prologue speaks of being employed in translating 13 Ibid. 66. 67. Lewis. II. the whole Bible, and refers also to an existing CHAP. version. But that this document has been erroneously attributed to Wycliffe, is unquestionable, as it adverts to more than one event subsequent to of Knigh the re trans Had their zeal in this particular, been conducted Testmony with any appearance of success, the testimony of ton reKnighton must have been sufficient for ever to de- specting termine the question with the unprejudiced en- former's quirer. That historian must be allowed to have lations of known the customs of his contemporaries, and tures. especially the place assigned by his own order to the inspired records, quite as well as any mo 14 It is a curious production, and has been twice printed. The references to John Gerson, to an enactment of the University of Oxford, and to the proceedings of the parliament in 1395, determine its date as subsequent to the time of Wycliffe. 15 Baber. Historical Account and Memoirs of Wycliffe. The present state of the numerals referred to is as follows, MCCC VIII. To supply the vacancy would be, we may reasonably suppose, to form the date assumed in the text. the scrip II. 66 66 66 66 CHAP. dern writer. Adverting to the zeal of Wycliffe, in rendering the scriptures the property of the people, he thus writes. Christ delivered his gospel to the clergy and doctors of the church, that they might administer to the laity and to weaker persons, according to the state of the "times and the wants of men. But this master John Wycliffe translated it out of latin into english, and thus laid it more open to the laity, and to women who could read, than it had formerly been "to the most learned of the clergy, even to those of them who had the best understanding. And in this way the gospel pearl is cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine, and that which was be"fore precious to both clergy and laity, is rendered "as it were the common jest of both. The jewel "of the church is turned into the sport of the 66 66 66 66 people, and what was hitherto the principal gift "of the clergy and divines, is made for ever com"mon to the laity."16 It was thus the canon of Leicester bewailed the translation of the Bible 66 "The 16 De Eventibus Col. 2614. To the same effect is the decision of an english council in 1408, with the archbishop Arundel at its head. "translation of the text of holy scriptures out of one tongue into another "is a dangerous thing, as St. Jerome testifies, because it is not easy to "make the verse in all respects the same. Therefore we enact and "ordain, that no one henceforth do, by his own authority, translate any text of holy scripture into the english tongue, or any other, by way of "book or treatise; nor let any such book or treatise now lately com"posed in the time of John Wycliffe aforesaid, or since, or hereafter to "be composed, be read in whole or in part, in public or in private, under pain of the greater excommunication." Wilkins Concilia. iii. 317. The spirit of this enactment was evidently that of the majority of the clergy in the age of Wycliffe. He describes them as affirming it to be " "heresy "to speak of the holy scriptures in english," but this is said to be a condemnation of "the Holy Ghost, who first gave the scriptures in tongues "to the apostles of Christ, as it is written, to speak the word in all "languages that were ordained of God under heaven." Wicket. 66 |