P011 A SHORT HISTORY

P011 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE, -------------------------------------------

I

PRELIMINARY.

1. Early Christianity in Britain.

Christianity was carried to Britain in the second century, and numerous flourishing Churches were established among the converts from paganism. In the fifth century the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes invaded the island and brought back barbarism and idolatry, though the Christian religion retained its hold in a few places. In the year 596 Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine and other missionaries to Britain, and succeeded in making many converts, among them Ethelbert, the King of Kent, and chief of the Saxon monarchs.

Other Saxon kings, also, were converted, and large numbers of the people. The remnant of the British Church which had out-lived persecution and invasion was compelled to submit to the authority of the Church of Rome, which Church retained its supremacy in Britain for a thousand years.

2. Principal versions of the Scriptures previous to the first printed, English Testament.

Greek.—The most important Greek translation of the Old Testament, and the oldest in any language, is the Septuagint, made in Alexandria, in Egypt, in the third century before Christ. By whom it was made is not certainly known. In the third century a careful revision of the Septuagint was made by Origen. It was first printed in folio in 1518 at Venice.