And tiie izen of bothe weren opened; and whanne thei knewen that thei weren nakid, thei sewiden the leeues of a fige tre, and maden brechis to hem silf. And whanne thei herden the vois of the Lord God goynge in paradijs at the wynd after myd-dai, Adam and his wijf bidden them fro the face of the Lord God in the middia of the tre of pardijs.
And thei preiden hym, that he schulde not comaunde hem, that thei schulden go in to belle. And there was a flok of many swyne lesewynge in an hil, and thei preiden hym, that he schulde suffre hem to entre into hem. And he suffride hem. And so the deuelis wenten out fro the man, and entriden in to the swyne ; and with a birre the flok went heedlyng in to the pool, and was drenchid.
Notwithstanding the prohibitory constitutions of Archbishop Arundel in 1408, and the high price of manuscripts, both versions were extensively multi- plied; they contributed largely to the religious knowl- edge which prevailed at the commencement of the Reformation, and probably hastened that event. In the year 1420, the price of one of Wycliffe's Testa- ments was not less than four marks and forty pence, or £2 16s. Sd., equal to £42 Gs. go?, now, taking sixteen as the multiple for bringing down the money of that time to our standard. It is somewhat remarkable that the revised version by Purvey has been taken until re- cently for Wycliffe's own translation, and as such the New Testament portion was published by Lewis, 1731 ; by Baber, 1810 ; and again by Bagster, in his English Hexapla. It is, however, now known that the most ancient version is Wycliffe's, and the revised or more modern one is by Purvey. These two earliest English versions of the entire Bible by Wycliffe and Purvey were printed, column by column on the same page, with various readings from the several manuscripts, in four splendid quarto volumes, under the care of the Rev. -T. Forshall and Sir F. Madden, Oxford Univers- ity Press, 1850.
The circulation of Wycliffe's version, and that of his reviser, Purvey, in manuscript, was the sowing of seed destined to yield a mighty harvest. The down- fall of the Eastern empire in 1453 contributed to the revival of learning by scattering learned Greeks, who carried with them manuscript treasures from Constan- tinople. The printing-press contributed immensely to revolutionize society throughout Europe. In sev- eral places on the Continent the Scriptures were print- ed not only in Latin, but in Hebrew and Greek, thus providentially preparing for setting forth the Inspired Oracles in the vernacular tongues. In England, how- ever, the operation of the press was slow. In vain do we look over the list of works by Caxton, the father of the press in England, for a copy of any portion of
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the Scriptures. The earliest attempt at giving forth any portion of the Scriptures in print in English was a translation and exposition of the seven penitential Psalms, in 1505, by Fysher, the Romish bishop of Rochester; and even this was printed on the Conti- nent, though published at London. The instrument in the haul of God for translating the New Testament, ami a great part of the Old, out of the original tongues into English, was William Tyndale. But in, Eng- land T\ ndale could find no place to print his transla- tion of the New Testament. In the year 1524 he passed over to Hamburg, where he is said to have pub- lished the same year the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. As, however, no fragment of this first fruit of Tyndale's labor is known to be remaining, we suspect that it is merely another reference to the following fragment, printed at Cologne. In September, 1525, Tyndale, with bis assistant Roye, was at Cologne, actually en- gaged in bringing the first edition of his New Testa- ment, in quarto, through the press. When the sheets of this edition were printed as far as the signature K, the printer, through the influence of Cochlseus, a Rom- ish deacon, was interdicted from proceeding further with the work. Tyndale and his assistant snatched away some of the printed sheets, and fled to Worms. In this city Tyndale immediately printed an octavo edition of his Testament ; then, it is said, he completed the quarto which had been interrupted, and published both editions at the close of 1525 or early in 1526. The only relic of the precious old quarto, which was the first partially printed edition, for we are inclined to think that it never was completed, was discovered in 1831 by the late Mr. Rodd, and is now in the British Museum. It only contains the prologue, a table of the books of the New Testament, and part of the Gospel of Matthew — chap, i-xxii. The following is a speci- men of this fragment, printed at Cologne by P. Quen- tell— Matt, ii, 1, 2 :
When Jesus was borne in bethleliem a tonne of itiry, in the time kynge llerode, btholde, there came wyse me fro the este t" Jerusalem sayinge : where is he that is borne kinge of the iewes, we have sene his starre in the este, and are come to worshippe liym.
The only known perfect copy of the octavo, which was the second printed, but the first published com- plete edition of Tyndale's New Testament, is preserved in the Baptist College Library, Bristol. The follow- ing is a specimen of this edition, printed at Worms at the close of 1525 or early in 1526 — Mark xiv, 3-5 :