'of the texte (so farre as it is done by ye sprete of 'knowlege in the holy goost) me thynke noman shulde 'be offended there at, for they referre theyr doinges in 'mekenes to the sprete of trueth in the congregacyon of 'god...Be not thou offended therfore (good Reader) though 'one call a scrybe, that another calleth a lawyer: or elders, 'that another calleth father & mother: or repentaunce, 'that another calleth pennaunce or amendment And this 'maner haue I vsed in my translacyon, callyng it in some 'place pennaunce, that in another place I call repentaunce, ' and that not onely because the interpreters haue done 'so before me, but' and this introduces a second characteristic reason-'that the aduersaries of the trueth 'maye se, how that we abhorre not this word penaunce, '(as they vntruly reporte of vs)..."'

There may be some weakness in this, and Coverdale suffered for it; yet it may not be lightly condemned. In crises of great trial it is harder to sympathize with many views than with one. There is a singularity which is the element of progress; but there is a catholicity which is the condition of permanence, and this Coverdale felt. 'As y holy goost then is one, workynge in yo and me ' as he wyl, so let vs not swarue from y' vnite, but be one in him. And for my parte I ensure the I am in'different to call it aswell wt the one terme as with ye other, so longe as I know that it is no preiudice nor 'iniury to the meanynge of the holy goost. He may have carried his respect for some so-called 'Ecclesiastical' words to an excessive length, but even in this respect his merit was substantial. It was well that Tindale should for a time break the spell which was attached to words like charity, confess, church, grace, priest, and recall men to their literal meaning in love, [ac]knowledge, congregation, favour, elder; but it was no less well that the old words,

1 [A Prologe. Myles Coverdale vnto the Christen Reader (prefixed to the Bible of 1535).] Remains, pp. 19, 20.

27

2 [Preface to the Reader, in the Latin-English New Testament, Nicolson, 1538.] Remains, p. 29. (Park. Soc.)

and with them the historical teaching of many centuries, should not be wholly lost from our Bibles. That they were not lost was due to the labours of Coverdale; but his influence was felt not so much directly through his own first Bible, as through Matthew's Bible, in which a large portion of it was incorporated, and still more through the Great Bible, in which he revised more than once his own work and that of Tindale with which it had. been joined1.

Note to p. 165.

The Bible which bears Matthew's name consists of three distinct elements. The Pentateuch and the New Testament are reprinted from Tindale's published translations with very slight variations'. The books of the Old Testament from Ezra to Malachi, and the Apocrypha, are reprinted in like manner from Coverdale. The remaining books of the Old Testament from Joshua to 2 Chronicles are a new translation. Nothing in the book itself indicates the sources from which it was derived, and the direct external evidence is vague and inconclusive. If it proves

1 I have not collated any considerable passages of the Pentateuch with Matthew, though it would be interesting to compare a complete book in the Pentateuchs of 1531 and 1534 with Matthew (1537). [In Mombert's edition of Tindale's Pentateuch (1885) a collation of Tindale and Matthew is given, Proleg. pp. cxi-cxix.] The text of Matthew's New Testament is examined below, p. 178.

In Mr Offor's MS. Collections for a history of the English Bible (Brit. Mus. 26,670-3) there is a collation of Tindale's Pentateuchs of 1530 (1531) and 1534 with one another, and also with Matthew and Coverdale. Matthew appears to follow the earlier edition almost without exception: Coverdale generally the later. I have not however verified the collations.

anything it proves too much. Thus Strype, following Bale, relates that Rogers 'translated the Bible [in this 'edition] into English from Genesis to the end of the 'Revelations, making use of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, 'German and English (that is Tyndale's) copies.' He also it is said 'added prefaces and notes out of Luther, and 'dedicated the whole book to king Henry, under the name 'of Thomas Matthews (sic) by an epistle prefixed, minding 'to conceal his own name. No description could well be more inaccurate. More than a third of the book is The Preface to the Apocrypha

is translated from that in the French Bible of Olivetan2. The Prologue to the Romans is Tindale's. The dedication