08. Cranmer's Bibles

In the following year, those great Bibles, now called "Cranmer's Bibles," first appeared. These were published under the archbishop's direction, with a preface written by him, warmly pleading in behalf of the domestic reading of the Word of God; and quoting, in favor of the practice, some eloquent passages from Chrysostom and Gregory the Nazienzene. The following passage is taken from Chrysostom, who insists "that every man should read by himself at home, in the mean days and time, between sermon and sermon; that when they were at home in their houses, they should apply themselves, from time to time, to the reading of the Holy Scriptures. For the Holy Spirit hath so ordered and attempered the Scriptures, that in them, as well publicans, fishers and shepherds, may find their edification, as great doctors their erudition. But still you will say, I cannot understand it! What marvel? How shouldest thou understand, if thou wilt not read nor look upon it? Take the books into thine hands, read the whole story, and that thou understandest, keep it well in memory; that thou understandest not, read it again and again. Here all manner of persons, men, women; young, old; learned, unlearned; rich, poor; priests, laymen; lords, ladies; officers, tenants, and mean men; virgins, wives, widows; lawyers, merchants, artificers, husbandmen, and all manner of persons, of what estate or condition soever they be, may in this Book learn all things, what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, and what they should not do, as well concerning Almighty God, as also concerning themselves and all others." One edition of "Cranmer's Bible," which varies but slightly from Tyndale and Rogers, was issued this year, under the royal command, sanctioned in the title-page and preface by two prelates of the popish party, Cuthbert Tunstal, bishop of Durham, and Nicolas Heath, bishop of Rochester. So potent was the will of the tyrant, who, about that same time, executed in one day, and at the same spot, three advocates of the "old learning," and as many of the "new learning," as popery and protestantism were then respectively known. So impartial in cruelties and persecutions was that odious monster of lust and tyranny. What an age! when men suffered equally for not reading the Bible, and for not reading it with the despot's eyes. But how wonderful are the ways of divine Providence in so ordering it, that the very Tunstal who was so eager to buy up and burn the labors of Tyndale when printed at Antwerp but half a score of years before, is now editing the same at London, in repeated editions! These noble and finely printed folios, of which four or five impressions were made in little more than a year, were published at the expense and risk of Anthony Marler, a London merchant. Even the Bishop of London, the "bloody Bonner," chief butcher of the Protestant martyrs in the subsequent "burning times" of Queen Mary, actively promoted the circulation and reading of the Scriptures in English. This vile hypocrite, and flatterer of royalty, set up six large Bibles for public perusal in his cathedral of St. Paul's, where they were read aloud to attentive throngs of young and old. Stephen Gardiner, the wily Bishop of Winchester, and other crafty and malignant opposers, tried many crooked policies to hinder the free course of God's word, but their subtle devices came to naught. As Thomas Becon, afterwards Christ's faithful martyr, witnessed, "The most Sacred Bible is most freely permitted to be read of every man in the English tongue. Many savor Christ aright, and daily the number increaseth, thanks be to God!"

Tyndale's translation had been many times printed under the names of Matthew, Taverner, Cranmer, Tunstal and Heath; and under all of them, had received the royal sanction, and had been "appointed to be read in Churches." But still the name of Tyndale was offensive to the brutal Henry and his slavish parliament. By act of parliament, in 1543, his translation, though in current and almost exclusive use, was branded as crafty, false, and untrue," and was "forbidden to be kept and used in this realm, or elsewhere in any of the King's dominions." Acts of parliament are said to be so near omnipotent, that