10. Marian Persecutions

In the course of his reign, the Bible cause prospered greatly. At least thirty-five editions of the New Testament appeared, and fourteen editions of the whole Bible in English.

Edward's first Parliament repealed the Act passed by his father's last parliament against the labors of Tyndale. Cranmer, who was at the head of the regency, made no attempt to press the use of his own correction or revision of Tyndale's version; and most of the editions followed the older copies, which were the more popular. When Henry died, there were fourteen printing-offices in England. In Edward's time these were increased to fifty-seven; of which, not less than thirty-one, and these the most respectable, were engaged either in printing or publishing the Sacred Scriptures. This short reign was a period of unexampled activity in the good work, which was sadly interrupted by the lamented death of the king in 1553. His reign was followed by that of his sister, the bigoted and melancholy Mary; who, during her reign of five years and more, did her utmost to suppress the Word of God in her realm, and to restore the authority of Romish corruptions and pretended traditions. It was not till she had been more than a year and a half on the throne, that she felt herself seated firmly enough to dip her hands in the blood of her Protestant subjects. During this time, hundreds who saw the gradual rising of the storm of persecution, fled for shelter to continental Europe. Nearly one thousand of these exiles were learned Englishmen, who were scattered abroad in many cities. Meanwhile, in England, two hundred and eighty-eight faithful martyrs, including one arch-bishop, four bishops, many clergymen and doctors in divinity, as also men, women and children of every rank in life, were committed to the flames for their love to God's Word, and their adherence to its teachings. The first who thus suffered was that John Rogers who had done so much toward the translation, printing, and circulation of the Bible in English. There is now, in this country, in the hands of one of his descendants, a copy of the Bible which had been for the private use of that holy martyr, whose effigy makes such a prominent figure in the famous New England Primer. Many others were famished to death, or pined and expired in unwholesome dungeons. Miles Coverdale, who had been so active in the business of translating and editing the Bible, had been made Bishop of Exeter by Edward VI.; but two years after, on the accession of Mary, he lost his office, and was imprisoned for two years and a half. He was several times examined before his inquisitors, and was in extreme peril of his life. But in February, 1555, he was allowed to leave the realm, at the intercession of Christian II., King of Denmark.*

During the Marian persecution, there was no proclamation expressly prohibiting the reading of the Bible, or calling in the copies to be burned. Still several occasions are recorded, in which copies of the sacred volume were consigned to the flames. Very many were carried abroad by the numerous fugitives. And many were concealed in private places. Some were even built up in closets whose doors were concealed by masonry.

* In 1559, after Mary's miserable death, Coverdale returned to England; but being now a zealous non-conformist, he repeatedly refused to resume his bishopric. He continued to preach, in a somewhat private way, as long as he lived; and died most happily, February, 1569, in the eighty-first year of his age, much venerated for his virtues, labors, and sufferings, and regarded as a "firebrand plucked out of the burning."

"Fierce whiskered guards that volume sought in vain,

Enjoyed by stealth, and hid with anxious pain;

While all around was misery and gloom,

This shewed the boundless bliss beyond the tomb;

Freed from the venal priest,—the feudal rod,

It led the sufferer's weary steps to God:

And when his painful course on earth was run,

This, his chief wealth, descended to his son."