tories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falsehood detected, nd with finger pointed, and all through the benefit of printing. Where >re I suppose that either the pope must abolish printing, or he must ek a new world to reign over; or else, as this world standeth, printing ubtless will abolish him. Both the pope, and all his college of cardi Is, must this understand, that through the light of printing, the world inneth now to have eyes to see, and heads to judge. He caunot Ik so invisibly in a net, but he will be spied. And although, through ht, he stopped the mouth of JOHN HUSS before and of JEROM, that ✓ might not preach, thinking to make his kingdom sure: yet, instead OHN HUSS, and others, God hath opened the press to preach, whose e the pope is never able to stop, with all the puissance of his triple vn. By this printing, as by the gift of tongues, and as by the sinr organ of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the gospel soundeth to all ons and countries under heaven: and what God revealeth to one man, persed to many, and what is known in one nation is opened to all." Fox's Actes and Monumentes, I. p. 837. Townley, Vol. II. p. 98. is altogether surprising that this distinguished art should been reserved to take its place among the later inventions ankind. That with the elements of the art in their hands, en as a seal was cut, or a mark impressed by stamping, with all the excitement of a highly advanced literary culno genius arose among the ancients to suggest the adapл of the prevailing modes of inscribing materials, to the plication of the productions of literature, is among the remarkable circumstances in the history of letters. It late into the world; but it came at a signal crisis, and have thrown into discomfiture that class in society who calculating on the continuance of the moral darkness had enabled them to oppress their species. To seek a world to reign over,' was an enterprise too hopeless to empted. To stop the voice of the Press, was an alternawhich afforded some promise, since, if it were found ible to deprive it of speech, it might be practicable to e its utterance. Book-censors, and Licensers of the were therefore put into requisition, with instructions to the operations of the Press, to prohibit the sale of books accordance with the principles and views of their eccleal superiors, and to prescribe the conditions on which the productions of genius and virtue were to be suffered the light. Pope Alexander VI., infamous for his horrid a monster of vice, to be delivered from whose contamithe earth was groaning, issued a bull relating to the e of books, which commences with lamenting that Satan .res amongst the wheat of Christ's Church, and proceeds d, by pecuniary fines and the sentence of excommunicaXVIII. N.S. 2 H tion, the holy Christian religion' from the detestable evil' of books contrary to the orthodox faith.' Leo X. also, a pontiff whom piety and virtue had no share in rendering illustrious, was a fulminator of papal terrors against the authors of books containing doctrines not approved by the ministers of the Vatican. In Rome, the compilers of the catalogues, or indexes, of prohibited books, are still continued, and called the Congregation of the Inder. The works noticed in the indexes are divided into three classes; the first containing a list of condemned authors, the whole of whose writings are forbidden, except by express permission; the second enumerating works which are prohibited, till they have been purged of what the inquisitors deem erroneous; the third comprehending those anonymous publications which are either partially or totally forbidden. The manner in which the Romish literary inquisitors formerly decided upon the works presented to them, was sometimes criminally careless, and the results sufficiently curious. Gregory Capuchin, a Neapolitan censor, informs us, that his practice was to burn such Bibles as were defective in the text; and that his mode of ascertaining the accuracy or inaccuracy of the Latin Bibles was, to examine the third chapter of Genesis, and "if I find," says he," the words, in sudore vultus tui, vesceris pane tuo,' instead of in sudore vultus tui, vesceris pane donec,' (thus adding the word tuo,) I direct such copies not to be corrected, but to be committed to the flames." As the Indexes were formed in different countries, the opinions were sometimes diametrically opposite to each other, and what one censor, or inquisitor, allowed, another condemned; and even in some instances, the censor of one country has his own works condemned. in another. Thus the learned Arias Montanus, who was a chief inquisitor in the Netherlands, and concerned in the compilation of the Antwerp Index, had his own works placed in the Index of Rome; while the inquisitor of Naples was so displeased with the Index of Spain, as to persist in asserting that it had never been printed at Madrid. This difference in judgment produced a doubtful and uncertain method of censure, and it became necessary for the inquisitors to subscribe their names to the indexes, in the following manner: "I, N.-inquisitor for such a diocese, do say, that this present book, thus by me corrected, may be tolerated and read, until such time as it shall be thought worthy of some further correction." But these Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes were reserved only for the inquisitors, and when printed, delivered only into their hands, or those of their most trusty associates. Philip II., in his letters patent for the printing of the first Spanish index, acknowledges, that it was printed by the King's printer, and at his own expense, not for the public, but solely for the inquisitors, and certain ecclesiastics, who were not to be permitted to communicate the contents of it, or give a copy of it to any one. And Sandoval, archbishop of Toledo, in the edition of 1619, prohibits, under pain of the greater excommunication, any one to print the Index, or cause it to be printed; or when printed to send it out of the kingdom, without a special licence. So difficult, indeed, were they to be obtained, that it is said the Spanish and Portuguese Indexes were never known till the English took Cadis; and the Index of Antwerp was accidentally discovered by Junius, who afterwards reprinted it. Even after the Reformation, a regular establishment of Licensers of the Press appeared in England, under Charles I., procured by Arch bishop Laud, to prevent the introduction or publication of any works by the Genevan party, and in particular the Geneva Bible. The decree is -dated July 1st, 1637, and marks the violence and persecuting spirit of the ruling system.' Vol. II. pp. 129-131. The Star-chamber and the High-commission-court, were charged with the execution of the Laudian decree; and to what purpose those cruel engines of intolerance exerted their power, is sufficiently known from, among many others, the cases of Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick. Many years elapsed before the newly invented art of print ing was made available, to any extent, for the supply of the Scriptures among the population of Europe. The number of readers could not in those times have been very great, when the classes to whom letters were more accessible, the clergy and the higher ranks of the community, were so extremely ignorant. Some training, therefore, must have been requisite to the common people, before the productions of the press could confer benefit upon them. The vigilant hostility of the inqui sitors appointed by the Church of Rome, was doubtless a pow erful impediment to the preparation and diffusion of printed -Bibles in the vulgar tongues of Europe; nor was it till the rise of Protestantism, that measures for effecting those objects could be with safety generally adopted. It is a re markable circumstance, and strongly indicates the literary character of the period, that there was no publication of the Greek New Testament before the edition of Erasmus in 1516. The first printed Bibles were large in form and costly in price, and were probably in many instances purchased more from curiosity than for use. Of this description were the Latin Vulgate by Gutenberg and Fust, one of the earliest typogra phical works, and executed between 1450 and 1455,-the Latin Bible of Fust and Schoeffer, 1462, and other splendid works. The first printed vernacular version of the Scriptures seems to have been the edition of the German Bible, without date, place, or printer's name, but supposed to have been executed soon after 1460, a copy of which is preserved in Lord Spencer's Library. The four Gospels in Dutch, were printed in 1472, and a Dutch Bible in 1475. An edition of the Bohemian Bible was issued from the press in 1488. A French Version of the Old and New Testament was printed at Lyons, without date, but supposed about 1477. A Bible in the dia lect of Lower Saxony, was printed, according to Walch, at Cologne, in 1490. These were the principal vernacular publi cations of the Scriptures in the fifteenth century. And limited as they may seem to be, they must have produced an amazing increase of the means of scriptural knowledge, and have supplied most powerful excitement towards the acquisition of the learning necessary for their use. In the early part of the subsequent century, the demand and the supply of Bibles were become very great; the Protestant leaders providing for the success of their cause by the general diffusion of the word of God. Luther's German translation, committed to the press in 1522, was published in separate and successive parts, expressly with a view to the easy and convenient purchase of the Bible by the lower orders. Tyndal's English Version of the New Testament, first printed in 1526, was comprised in a small volume; and from this date the publication of modern versions of the Scriptures adapted to the various classes of readers, proceeded with vigour and effect. Of the editions which we have just noticed, and of many others, Mr. Townley has given descriptions, accompanied with memoirs of the translators and printers, and interspersed with anecdotes illustrative of their literary history. To one class of persons we are glad that he has devoted so much of his attention; we mean those writers who published their opinions with so much freedom in favour of the unrestricted circulation of the Scriptures. From a variety of similar passages, we select two illustrious instances: the first is Erasmus; the second Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, who aided the cause of the Reformation in Scotland. "I differ exceedingly from those who object to the Scriptures being translated into the vernacular tongues, and read by the illiterate: as if Christ had taught so obscurely, that none could understand him, but a few theologians; or as if the Christian religion depended upon being kept secret. The mysteries of kings ought, perhaps, to be concealed, but the mystery of Christ strenuously urges publication. I would have even the meanest of women to read the Gospels and Epistles of St. Paul; and I wish that the Scriptures might be translated into all languages, that they might be known and read, not only by the Irish and Scots, but also by Saracens and Turks. Assuredly, the first step is to make them known. For this very purpose, though many might ridicule, and others might frown, I wish the husbandman might repeat them at his plough, the weaver sing them at his loom, the traveller beguile the tediousness of the way, by the entertainment of their stories, and the general discourse of all Christians be concerning them, since what we are in ourselves, such we almost constantly are in our conversation. 'Letters, written by those we love and esteem, are preserved and prized, and carried about with us, and read again and again; and yet there are thousands of Christians, who, although otherwise learned, never once in the whole of their life, read the books containing the Gospels and Epistles. Mohammedans violently defend their opinions; and Jews, from their infancy, learn the precepts of Moses; but why are we not equally decisive in favour of Christ ?" " Vol. II. pp. 265, 6. Sir David Lindsay's "Exclamation to the Reader, touching "the writing in vulgar and maternal Language," in the first book of his "Monarchie," is more admirable for its good sense and reasoning, than for its poetry. Though every Common may not be a Clark, 'He wrote the Law, in tables hard of stone, Ye may well know GOD, wrought all for the best, In Dutch, nor Dence, nor tongue Italiane: Wrote not in Chaldie language nor in Grew, proper Leede. Right so Children and Ladies of Honours, Pray in Latine to them an uncouthe Leede, Mumbling their Matine, Evensong, and their Hours, Their PATER NOSTER, AVE, and their CREED, It were as pleasant to their spirit indeed |