Lutheran movement in england during the reigns of henry VIII. And edward VI

CHAPTER VIII. THE ENGLISH BIBLES OF 1535 AND 1537.

Petition of the Convocation of 1534. Miles Coverdale. His Bible of 1535 from “the Douche and Latyn.” His dependence on the Zürich Translation. Relation of the Zürich Translation to Luther. Relation to Tyndale. Influence on the Authorized Version. His Exposition of Ps. XXII., a literal Translation from Luther. His Hymns, from Lutheran Sources. Illustrated by a number of Examples. Herford’s Table of Coverdale’s Hymns, and their German Originals. His Theory of their Origin. Matthew’s Bible of 1537. John Rogers. His Residence in Wittenberg. A Lutheran Pastor. The first Martyr under Mary. Why he used a Pseudonym? Probably printed at Wittenberg.

We leave for awhile the diplomatic side of the history of the English Reformation, and turn to the less public sphere, in which the quiet work of scholars from the privacy of their studies, was making itself felt.

It was one of Cranmer’s first efforts to secure a complete translation of the Bible into English, and to authorize and promote its circulation among the people. But, in accord with the well-known unwillingness of men to recede from a false position, unless under some expedient whereby to give the appearance of consistency to their action, the Convocation, in petitioning the king, December 10th, 1534, that the Bible should be translated by some learned men, also asked that a demand should be made for all books of suspected doctrine, and that, within three months, they should be surrendered.¹⁵⁸ This was followed by the publication, October 4th, 1535 of The Bible: that is, the holy [[@Page:116]]Scripture of the Old and New Testament, faithfully translated out of Douche and Latyn into Englishe. MDXXXV. The translator was Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter. Coverdale, born about 1488, was one of the band of Cambridge students, whom we have seen meeting for prayer and the study of the Bible and Luther’s works, in the house called “Germany.” He had entered the monastery of the Augustinians at Cambridge, and there had come under the influence of its prior, Dr. Robert Barnes, so active afterwards at Wittenberg, to whom he ever remained a most faithful friend. When Dr. Barnes was arrested in 1526, Coverdale had voluntarily accompanied him, and helped to support him under the trial; and when, after his martyrdom in 1540, his Confesssion at the stake was maliciously as sailed by John Standish, Coverdale again came nobly forward, and published a book in vindication of his deceased friend. He had early formed the acquaintance of Crumwell, and enjoyed his confidence, as is shown by letters which have been preserved, and are published in his collected works. When Tyndale’s New Testament was published, Coverdale appears among those most prominent in its circulation. For some years, before the first publication of the Bible, the precise residence of Coverdale is not known. Foxe, who knew him well, states that he was for a time with Tyndale at Hamburg, and had assisted the latter in the translation of the Pentateuch. This statement, generally discredited by modern writers, is accepted by Westcott. The work on his own translation undoubtedly occupied his time for years. When the Convocation of December 1534 had, accordingly, passed the resolution above given, Crumwell probably informed him that the time had come for its publication. The title-page gives no information as to the place where it was printed and published. Those who have made a special study of the typography of bibles of that period, have no hesitancy in saying that it came from the press of Froschover of Zürich, the publisher of the Zürich Bible.¹⁵⁹ Notwithstanding the fact that the title-page [[@Page:117]]expressly states the dependence of the translation upon the German and Latin versions, recent writers have undertaken to deny it. Not only the title-page, but the “Prologue to the Translation” is against this theory. “To help me herein,” says Coverdale, “I have had sundry translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more glad to follow for the most part-”

In the light of such words by Coverdale himself, Canon Westcott is undoubtedly not unjust when he says: “His critics have been importunately eager to exalt his scholarship at the cost of his honesty. If the title-page, said one who had not seen it, runs so, it contains a very great misrepresentation. To another, the notice appears to be a piece of advertising tact. Expediency, a third supposes, led Coverdale to underrate his labors. And yet it may be readily shown that the words are simply and literally true.”¹⁶⁰ Ginsburg, followed by Westcott, Mombert, and others, has shown the great dependence of Coverdale upon the Zürich translation of the Bible. This is mainly Luther’s translation of the other books, with -a translation of the prophets by Leo Judae, Zwingli, Pellicanus and others. It appeared at intervals 1524–9, while Luther’s Bible was not complete until 1534, the translation of the prophets not having been finished until 1532. Coverdale, therefore, followed the Zürich edition, largely in order to have the benefit of that in which it anticipated Luther. The direct, as well as the indirect influence of Luther, may be traced. Tyndale was also laid under contribution. While some knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek original is not denied, he followed closely preceding translators rather than ventured to use his own judgment.¹⁶¹ [[@Page:118]]

“Though he is not original, yet he was endowed with an instinct of discrimination which is scarcely less precious than originality, and a delicacy of ear which is no mean qualification for a popular translator.”¹⁶² “No little of that indefinable quality that gives popular charm to our English Bible, and has endeared it to so many generations, is owing to Coverdale. The semitones in the music of the style are his gift. What we mean will be apparent to any one who compares the Authorized Version, especially in the Old Testament, with the exacter translations of many of the books which have been made by scholars and critics. Tyndale gives us the first great outline distinctly and wonderfully etched, but Coverdale added those minuter touches which soften and harmonize it. The characteristic features are Tyndale’s in all their boldness of form and expression, the more delicate lines and shadings arc the contribution of his successor, both in his own version, and in the ‘Great Bible.’”¹⁶³

Two years afterwards, in 1537, two editions of a reprint of Coverdale’s Bible of 1535, were published in London.

The same year, Coverdale published “A very excellent and swete exposition upon the two and twentye Psalme of David, called in latyn: Dominus regit me, et nihil. Translated out of hye Almayne in to Englyshe by Myles Coverdale, 1537.” This is a very literal translation of Luther’s Der 23st Psalm auf einen Abend über Tisch nach dem Gratias ausgelegt, 1536.” This exposition was very likely delivered during the stay of the English ambassadors at Wittenberg. As Dr. Barnes, Coverdale’s friend, was a frequent table guest of Luther, he was possibly at the table (über Tisch) where this explanation was given.

A still more important work must have been occupying him at this time, if not already finished. His “Goostly Psalmes and Spirituale Songs, drawn out of the holy Scripture is without date. But as it is on the list of books prohibited by Henry VIII in 1539, its publication is necessarily prior to that date. It is [[@Page:119]]especially interesting as furnishing the beginning for English Hymnody. They are nearly all readily traceable to Lutheran sources. We are sure that a liberal selection from them will be appreciated. Of Luther’s Komm. Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. there are three translations. If the readily accessible rendering by Miss Winkworth be consulted by the English reader, he will note how nearly one of the translations of the Sixteenth, anticipated that of the Nineteenth Century:

Come, holy Spirite, most blessed Lorde,

Fulfil our hartes nowe with thy grace;

And make our myndes of one accorde,

Kyndle them with love in every place.

O Lorde, thou forgevest our trespace,

And callest the folke of every countre

To the ryght fayth and truste of thy grace,

That they may geve thankes and synge to thee,

Alleluya, Alleluya.
O holy lyght, moste principall,

The worde of lyfe shewe unto us;

And cause us to knowe God over all

For our owne Father most gracious.

Lord, kepe us from lernyng venymous,

That we may folowe no masters but Christe.

He is the veritie, his word sayth thus;

Cause us to set in hym our truste.

Alleluya, Alleluya.
O holy fyre, and conforth moste swete,

Fyll our hertes with fayth and boldnesse,

To abide by the in colde and hete,

Content to suffre for ryghteousnesse;

O Lord, geve strength to our weaknesse,

And send us helpe every houre;

That we may overcome all wyckednesse,

And brynge this olde Adam under thy power.

Alleluya, Alleluya.

Luther’s summary in verse of the Ten Commandments, is another of Coverdale’s translations. [[@Page:120]]

Mensch, willt du leben seliglich, Und bei Gott bleiben ewiglich: Sollt du halten die zehn Gebot, Die uns gebeut unser Gott. Kyrieleis.

Man, wylt thou live vertuously, And with God reign eternally, Man, must thou keep these commandments ten, That God commanded to all men. Kirielyson.

Nun freut euch lieben christen gmein appears in the following form. There is no abbreviation by Coverdale. We select several stanzas.

Be glad now, all ye Christen men,

And let us rejoyce unfaynedly.

The kindnesse cannot be written with penne,

That we have receaved of God’s mercy;

Whose love towards us hath never ende

He hath done for us as a frende;

Now let us thanke him hartely.

I was a prysoner of the devell;

With death, was I also utterly lost;

My synnes drove me dayly to hell;

Therein was I borne; this may I bost.

I was also in them once ryfe;

There was no virtue in my lyfe,

To take my pleasure I spared no cost.
Than God eternall had pitie on me,

To ryd me fro my wyckednesse.

He thought of his plenteous great mercy,

And wolde not leave me comfortlesse.

He turned to me his fatherly herte,

And wolde I shoulde with hym have parte

Of all his costly ryches.
He spake to his deare beloved Sonne,

The time is now to have mercye;

Thou must be man’s redempcyon,

And lowse hym from captivite.

Thou must hym helpe from trouble of synne;

From paynfull death thou must hym wynne,

That he may lyve eternally.

Luther’s paraphrase of media vitæ is closely followed. [[@Page:121]]

Mitten wir in Leben sind Mit dem Tod umfangen; Wen such wir, der Hülfe thu, Dass wir Gnad erlangen? Das bist du, Herr, alleine. Uns reuet unser Missethat, Die dich, Herr, erzürnet hat. Heiliger Herre Gott, Heiliger starker Gott, Heiliger, barmhertziger Heiland, Du ewiger Golt, Lass uns nicht versinken In des bittern Todes Noth. Kyrieleyson.

In the myddest of our lyvynge, Deathe compaseth us rounde about: Who shulde us now sucour brynge, By whose grace we maye come out ? Even, thou, Lorde Jesu, alone: It doth oure hartes sore greve truly, That we have offended the. O Lord God, most holy, O Lord God, most myghtie, O holy and merciful Savior, Thou most worthy God eternall, Suffre us not at our laste houre For any death from the to fall. Kyrieleyson.

ON THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, Dass du Mensch geboren bist Von einer Jungfrau, das ist wahr, Des freuet sich der Engel Schaar. Kyrieleis. Des ewigen Vaters einig Kind, Jetzt man in der Krippen findt, In unser armes Fleisch und Blut, Verkleidet sich das ewig Gut. Kyrieleis.

Now blessed be thou, Christ Jesu; Thou art man borne, this is true: The angels made a merry noise, Yet we have more cause to rejoyse. Kyrielyson. The blessed son of God onely, In a crybbe full poore dyd lye: With oure poore flesh and our poore bloude, Was clothed that everlasting good. Kyrielyson.

ON THE RESURRECTION.

Christ lag in Todesbanden, Für unser Sünd gegeben, Der ist wieder erstanden, Und hat uns bracht das Leben: Dess wir sollen fröhlich sein, Gott loben und dankbar sein, Und singen Halleluja. Halleluja. Es war ein wunderlich krieg, Da Tod und Leben rungen, Dae Leben behielt den Sieg, Es hat den Tod verschlungen. Die Schrift hat verkündet das, Wie ein Tod den andern frass, Ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden, Halleluja.

Chriſt dyed and suffred great payne, For our synnes and wickednesse; But he is now risen agayne, To make us full of gladnesse. Let us all rejoyse therfore, And geve him thanks for evermore, Synginge to him, Alleluya. Alleluya. It was a marvelous great thynge, To se how death with death dyd fyght; For the one death gat the wynnynge, And the other death lost his myght. Holy Scripture speaketh of it, How one death another wolde byte: The death of Christ hath wonne by ryght. Alleluya, [[@Page:122]]

NUNC DIMITTIS.

Mit Fried und Freud, ich fahr dahin, In Gottes Wille. Getrost ist mir mein Herz und Sinn, Sanft und stille. Wie Gott mir verheissen hat; Der Tod ist mein Schlaf worden.

With peace and with joyfull gladnesse, And with a mery harte, Accerdynge to thy swete promesse, Lorde, let me now departe: Now geve me leave, that I may dye; For I would be present with the.

In Ein feste Burg, the meter is adopted, but Coverdale follows the Forty-Sixth Psalm more closely than he does Luther.

Oure God is a defence and towre,

A good armoure and good weapen;

He hath been ever oure helpe and sucoure,

In all the troubles that we have ben in.

Therefore wyl we never drede,

For any wonderous dede

By water or by lande,

In hilles or the see side:

Oure God hath them al in his hand.

Of other Psalms paraphrased by Luther, there are translations of the Twelfth (Ach Gott von Himmel sieh darein ) the Fourteenth (Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl,) Sixty-seventh, One hundred and twenty-fourth, One hundred and twenty-eighth, and One hundred and thirtieth.

“UNTO THE TRENTIE.”

Gott der Vater wohn uns bei, Und lass uns nicht verderben, Mach uns aller Sünden frei, Und helf uns selig sterben. Für dem Teufel uns bewahr, Halt uns bei festem Glauben, Und auf dich lass uns bauen, Aus Herzengrund vertrauen.

God the Father, dwell us by, And let us never do amysse; Geve us grace with wyll to dye, And make us redy to thy blysse. From the devel’s myght and powre, Kepe us in fayth every houre; And ever let us buylde on the, With hole herte trustynge stedfastly.

Another Lutheran hymn-writer from whom Coverdale drew was Paul Speratus, from whom two hymns were taken (Es ist das Heil uns Kommen, “Kirchenbuch,” No. 270, and In Gott gelaub ich, Wackernagel, Kirchen-Lied, III: 33.)

Lawrence Spengler, whose acquaintance Cranmer must have [[@Page:123]]formed while at Nürnberg, is represented by his principal hymn, afterwards quoted in the Formula of Concord “Durch Adam s Fall ist ganz verderbt” (Kirchenbuch, No. 271). Hans Sachs also furnishes a hymn (Wach auf in Gottes Name, Wackernagel III: 58). Justus Jonas’ paraphrase of Psalm 124, found in Kirchenbuch, No 171, is also followed. Agricola appears in Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Kirchenbuch No. 415), and Decius in Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr.

One of the most interesting translations is that of a Reformation hymn, of uncertain authorship, but composed before the Diet of Augsburg, O Herre Gott, Dein göttlich Wort (Kirchenbuch, No. 191.)

O hevenly Lorde, thy godly worde

Hath longe bene kepte alwaye from us:

But thorow thy grace now in cure dayes,

Thou hast shewed the so plenteous.
That very well we can now tell,

What thy apostles have written al;

And now we see thy worde openly

Hath geven anthyechrist a great fall.

It is so cleare, as we may heare,

No man by ryght can it deny,

That many a yeare thy people deare

Have been begyled perlously

With men spirituall, as we them call,

But not of thy Spirite truly;

For more carnall are none at al,

Than many of these spirites be.

They have bene ever sworne altogether,

Theyr owne lawes for to kepe alwaye;

But mercyfull Lorde, of thy swete worde

There durst no man begynn to saye.

They durst them call great heritikes al,

That did confess it stedfastly;

For they charged, it shuld be hyd,

And not spoken of openly. [[@Page:124]]

O mercyfull God, where was thy rod,

In punyshynge soch great tyranny?

Why slept thou then, knowynge these men

Resist openly the veritie?

For such a hymn semi-papal England was not yet prepared, as the martyrs of 1540, and the six Articles were yet to show. That a volume containing such an arraignment of much that still existed, under authority in England, and with which the king sympathized, should have been prescribed, is only what could have been expected.

To recapitulate: Of Coverdale’s forty-one hymns, twenty-two are from Luther, two from Speratus, one each from Spengler, Sachs, Agricola, Justus Jonas, Decius, and Greiser, four are well-known Lutheran hymns of uncertain origin, and seven we have not been able to identify, although their entire structure and spirit plainly show where they belong.¹⁶⁴

When, then, the Church of England, and her various daughters, cling so tenderly to the Psalter in the “Book of Common Prayer,” and prefer its animated and rythmical expressions to the acknowledged more accurate translation of the Authorized Version, the secret of the charm is found in the influence which the treasures of the first period of Lutheran hymnology had upon the style of him who came to the work of translating the Psalter, with the notes of so many of the masterpieces of Luther and his associates ringing in his ears, and filling his heart with a glow of devout feeling. Coverdale’s forty-one hymns were probably the growth of years. None of the originals which he translated is [[@Page:125]]later than 1531.¹⁶⁵ The translations of the hymns and the translation of the Bible may have proceeded cotemporaneously, the former having afforded a relief from the severer work of the latter.

We are not through with Coverdale, but must interrupt the narrative at this point, to consider another edition of the English Bible, and its translator, rapidly following that which has just been noticed. John Rogers, born about 1500, was another Alumnus of Cambridge; but does not seem to have been influenced by the Protestant movement until, after being rector for two years of “Trinity the Less,” in London, while chaplain to the merchant adventurers in Antwerp, he became intimate with Tyndale. The latter having been martyred October 6th, 1536, Rogers the succeeding year married Adriana Pratt or de Weyden, and moved to Wittenberg. All authorities agree in this, and state that he so thoroughly mastered the German, that he became superintendent or pastor of a church at Wittenberg, “to which he ministered for many years with great ability and success.” We can find no trace of such pastorate among German authorities. It may have been a church near Wittenberg which he served. Salig¹⁶⁶ states that he was ordained at Wittenberg; which necessarily implies a pastoral rare. On his trial,¹⁶⁷ he explained and defended the order of service used in Wittenberg. Previously he had translated and published in English “Melanchthon on the Interim,” in connection with a defence of Melanchthon’s course, then severely criticized. All these facts show the substantial truth of the cotemporaneous account. He remained in Wittenberg or its neighborhood from 1537 to 1547 [[@Page:126]]or ‘48. Returning on the accession of Edward VI., in whose reign he enjoyed great influence, he was the first of the martyrs under Mary, having been burned at Smithfield, February 4th, 1555. The story of his farewell to his wife and eleven children when on the way to martyrdom, is well known to readers of English history. His son, Daniel, was afterwards educated in part at Wittenberg, some affirm at Melanchthon’s cost, and became a distinguished diplomat under Queen Elizabeth.

Rogers fell heir to the manuscripts which Tyndale left at his death. It is well known how diligently employed he was during his imprisonment in completing his translation from the Hebrew of the Old Testament. As St. Paul sent from the Roman dungeon, for his books and parchments, so also Tyndale had asked: “I wish permission to have a candle in the evening… But above all I entreat . . that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar and Hebrew dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study.” Rogers, therefore, took the printed New Testament and Pentateuch of Tyndale, added to them Tyndale’s manuscript translation from Joshua to the end of 2 Chronicles, and completed the Bible by adopting Coverdale’s version in what was lacking. Foxe says: “He added prefaces and notes out of Luther.” Thomas Matthewe was given as the name of the translator, possibly because he hesitated to claim as his own what was only a compilation, or because the publishing of Tyndale’s name would have prevented its endorsement and circulation in England. Some assume that Thomas Matthewe was the name of the person who, in the beginning, assumed the financial responsibility. Before the printing was complete, the English printers, Grafton and Whitchurch, became its proprietors. It was printed in 1537. Dr. Mombert¹⁶⁸ argues that the printer was Hans Luft, and the place of printing Wittenberg, whither Rogers moved that year. Thus the first authorized version, of the English Bible, like its two predecessors, was prepared and published under Lutheran influences and auspices. [[@Page:127]]