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XXIII.]

THE APOCRYPHA.

331

generall: as though he shulde saye, that generally & thorouly they are not alowed. And not wythout a cause: For that they haue bene corrupted & falsyfyed in many places, it appeareth sufficiently by Eusebius in his boke called Historia Ecclesiastica: Which thinge is easye to be known even now a dayes in certen poyntes, namely in the bokes of the Machabees: whose second boke S. Hiero. confesseth that he founde not in the Hebrue, by the meanes wherof it is become vnto vs the more suspect & the lesse receaued. In lyke maner is it of the thyrde & fourthe boke of Esdras, which S. Hierome protesteth that he wolde not haue translated, esteamyng them for dreames: where as Josephus yet in his boke of his Antiquities declareth the summe of the matter after the maner of a storye, as well of the boke of Machabees as of the .iij. of Esdras: although he esteame the bokes compyled from the raygne of Kynge Artaxerses vnto hys tyme, to be Apocripha.

"Wherfore then, when thou wylt manteyne any thynge for certen, rendryng a reason of thy fayth, take heade to proceade therin by the lyuynge and pyththye Scriptures folowinge S. Peter, which sayth: He that speaketh, let hym speake as thoughe he spake the worde of God."

On the other hand, Coverdale, after saying that "the Apocryphal Books are judged among the doctours to be of like reputation with the other Scripture," quietly adds, "I have not gathered them together to the intent that I wolde have them despised or little set by, or that I should think them false, for I am not able to prove it." He had also said that, between the translations, "repentance," penance or amendment, there was no more difference than between fourpence and a groat." Rogers was not of that opinion, and he felt that the translation "do penance" might be understood in the Romish sense of self-inflicted physical pain-suffered to make satisfaction. The Notes at the end of the chapters are of all kinds-textual, doctrinal, polemical, and practical1—and they almost form a running

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1 Colonel Chester calls these notes the first general English Commentary. In proof he urges that "Mr. Walter could gather only nine octavo pages

of Tyndale's notes," but he forgets that we have only a very small fragment of Tyndale's annotated quarto New Testament.

comment. They were gathered from various sources; many are from Pellicanus, and others appear to be original. Some learning is displayed, as an allusion to the Chaldee interpreter, Job vi. Strabo is cited under Matth. ii, to show that the Magi were the priests of the Persians. Neginoth, Shiggaion, &c., are carefully explained. There is (Matt. ii) a reference to a saying of Augustus, preserved in Macrobius, that "he would rather be Herod's swine than his sonne." Josephus is quoted at 3 Kings vii, and in the margin of Num. xxxiii, 52, two rabbis are adduced for the alternate rendering "paving stones." Under Luke x, the sister of Martha is called Mary Magdalene. The Psalms are formally divided into five "Treatyses" or books, a distinction not recognized by Coverdale. Hallelujah is ex

plained as meaning "praise the Everlasting." Under Job i, 21, Coverdale's parenthesis, based on the Vulgate, "the Lord hath done his pleasure" is omitted, and this note is added, "the Greek and Origen adds, Hereunto as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done." A song of degrees is called "a song of the stearis," that is, stairs. Selah is thus explained at the end of Psalm iii, "this worde, after Rabbi Kimchi, was a sygne or token of lyftynge up the voyce, and also a monission and advertisement to enforce the thoughte and mynde ernestly to give hede to the meanynge of the verse whereunto it is added. Some will that it sygnifye perpetuallye or verily." At Gen. ii, 17, such idioms as "die the death" are termed "rehearsalls of words." The note at the end of 2 Maccabees xii is, "Judge from the place whether the opinion hath been to pray for the dead, as to be baptized for them; 1 Cor. xv, d, which thing was only done to confirm the hope of the resurrection of the dead, not to deliver from any pain. This hole book of the Maccabees, and specially this second, is not of sufficient authority to make an article of our faith."

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It follows, from the previous statements about the component parts of this Bible, that the assertion on its title-page"The Scriptures truly and purely translated into English, by Thomas Matthew "-is not to be taken in literal accuracy, for Thomas Matthew did not himself translate; he simply joined

XXIII.]

NOTES ON MATTHEW'S BIBLE.

333

together, edited, and published two translations. But he knew that the language could impose on no one, as thousands were in possession of Tyndale's Testament and Coverdale's Bible, the only two versions which he employed in making up the new volume. It was an act of splendid audacity on the part of Mr. Richard Grafton, "citizen and grocer," to send such a volume to the Archbishop of Canterbury—a volume made up so largely of Tyndale's version, which had been so fiercely proscribed a few years before, which had the initials of his name blazoned in large capital letters, and which in its critical notes did not veil his opinions, but rather presented them in an intensified form, and which, going greatly beyond Cranmer's own views, was a trenchant protest against Catholic doctrines and usages. Strype gives the following brief account of some of the anti-papal notes :1

"One of these notes fixeth us in the year of the editionviz., Mark i. Upon those words, What new doctrine is this? the note in the margin is, 'That that was then new, after XV.C.XXXVI. years, is yet new. When will it then be old?' This note was made to meet with the common reproach then given to the religion reformed, that it was a new upstart religion, and called the new learning. Another marginal note was at Matthew xxv, And the wise answered, Not so, lest there be not enough, &c., where the note is, Note here, that their own good works sufficed not for themselves; and therefore remained none to be distributed unto their fellows: against works of supererogation, and the merits of saints. And Matthew xvi, I say unto thee, that thou art Peter: and upon this rock, &c. The note is, That is, as saith St. Austin, upon the confession which thou hast made, knowledging me to be Christ, the Son of the living God, I build my congregation or church. And again, I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The note is, Origen, writing upon Matthew, in his first homily affirmeth, that these words were as well spoken to all the rest of the Apostles as to Peter. And proves it, in that Christ, John xx, saith, Receive the Holy Ghost. Whose sins soever ye remit, &c., and not thou remittest. And Matthew xviii, Whatsoever ye Memorials of Cranmer, vol. I, pt. i, p. 472.

bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye loose on earth, &c. Margin, Whatsoever ye bind, &c., is, Whatsoever ye condemn by my word in earth, the same is condemned in heaven. And what ye allow by my word in earth is allowed in heaven. These and such like notes and explications, giving offence, no doubt, to the Popish Bishops, when the Bible was printed again (which was in the year 1540), all was left out."

CHAPTER XXIV.

No sooner had this Bible come into the country, probably toward the end of July, 1537, than Cranmer was brought into immediate connection with it. On 4th August he sent a letter to Crumwell, telling him of its appearance, and asking him "to rede it"-"a new translation and a new print," praising it and adding, "As for the translation, so farre as I have redde thereof, I like it better than any other translacion heretofore made: And forasmoche as the boke is dedicated unto the Kinges Grace, & also greate paynes & labour taken in setting forth of the same, I pray you, my lorde, that you will exhibite the boke into the Kinges Highnes: & to obteign of His Grace, if you can, a license that the same may be sold & redde of every person, withoute danger of any acte, proclamacion, or ordinaunce heretofore graunted to the contrary, untill such tyme that we, the Bisshops, shall set forth a better translacion -which I thinke will not be till a day after Domes-day." 1 These last bitter words were inspired by the memory of his failure in 1534. What the archbishop requested was done, and on the 13th of August, Cranmer sends a letter of hearty thanks to the great statesman for having so promptly secured the royal license: "My lorde for this your payne taken in this behalf, I giue vnto you my most hartie thanks, assurying your lordeship for the contentacion of my mynde, you have shewed me more pleasure herein than yf you hadd giuen me a thowsande pownde."2 This second letter is dated 28th day of August, and on that day Grafton himself writes to Crumwell,

1 State Papers, vol. I, pt. 11, p. 562. 2 Cotton MSS., Cleo., E. V. fol. 329.

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