The work of translating was, however, carried on bj' otliers. One Anglo-Saxon version of the four gos- pels, interlinear with tlie Latin of the Vulgate, known as the Durham book, is found in the Cottonian MSS. of the British Museum, and is referred to the 9th or 10th century. Another, known as the Eushworth Gloss, and belonging to the same period, is in tlie Bod- leian Library at Oxford. Another, of a somewhat later date, is in the same collection, and in the library of Corpus -Cliristi College, Cambridge. Tlie name of Aldhelm, l)ishop of Sherborne, is, connected with a version of the Psalms ; that of Aelfric with an epitome of Scripture historj', including a translation of many parts of the historical books of tlie Bible (Lewis, Hist. of Traml. ch. i ; Forshall and Madden, Preface ; Bag- ster's Enr/Ush Hexapla, Pref.). The influence of Nor- man ecclesiastics, in the reigns that preceded and fol- lowed the Conquest, was probablj' adverse to the con- tinuance of this work. The}^ were too far removed from sympathy with the subjugated race to care to educate them in their own tongue. The spoken dia- lects of the English of that period would naturally seem to them too rude and imcouth to be the channel of divine truth. Pictures, mysteries, miracle plays, rather than books, were the instruments of education for all but the few who, in monasteries iinder Norman or Italian superintendence, devoted themselves to the study of theology or law. In the remoter parts of England, however, where their influence was less felt, or the national feeling was stronger, there were those who carried on the succession, and three versions of the Gospels, in the Universit}' Library at Cambridge, in tlio Bodleian, and in tlie British Museum, belonging to the lltli or l'2th century, remain to attest their la- bors. The metrical ])araphrase of the (iospel history known as the Ormuluni, in alliterative English verse, ascribed to the latter half of the I'ith century, is the next conspicuous monument, and may be looked upon as indicating a desire to place the facts of the Bible within reach of others than the clergy. The 13th century, a time in England, as throughout Europe, of religious revival, witnessed renewed attemjits. A prose translation of the Bible into Norman-French, circ. A.D. 12G0, indicates a demand for devotional reading within the circle of the court, or of the wealth- ier merchants, or of convents for women of high rank. Farther signs of the same desire arc found in three English versions of the Psalms — one towards the close of the 13tli century ; another bj' Schorham, circ. A.D. 1320 ; another, with other canticles from the 0. T. and N.T., by Richard Kolle, of Hampole, circ. 1349; the last being accompanied by a devotional exposition — and in one of the Gospels of Mark and Luke, and of all Paul's epistles (the list includes the apocryphal epistle to the Laodiceans), in the library of Corpus- Christi College, Cambridge. The fact stated by arch- bishop Arundel in his funeral sermon on Anne of Bo- hemia, wife of Richard II, that she habitually read the Gospels in the vulgar tongue, with divers expositions, was pr()l)ably true of many others of liigh rank. It is interesting to note these facts, not as detracting from the glory of the great reformer of the 14th centurj', but as showing that for himself also there had been a preparation ; that what he supplied met a demand which had for many j'ears been gathering strength. It is almost needless to add that these versions started from nothing better than the cojiies of the Vulgate, more or less accurate, which eacli translator had be- fore him (Lewis, ch. i ; Forsliall and Madden, Preface).
II. Wycliffe (1)0111 1324, died 1384). — 1. It is sin- gular, and not without significance, that the first III.— O
translation from the Bible connected with the name of Wyclifle should have been that of part of the Ajxic- alypse. The Last, A(/e of the Church (A.D. 13oG) trans- lates and expounds the vision in which the reformer read the signs of his own times, the sins and the de- struction of "Antichrist and his meynee" ( = multi- tude). Shortly after this lie completed a version of the Gospels, accompanied by a commentary, " so that pore Cristen men may some dele know the text of the Gospel, with the comyn sentence of the olde holie doc- tores" (Preface). Wycliffe, however, though the chief, was not the only laborer in the cause. The circle of English readers was becoming wider, and they were not content to have the book which they honored above all others iir a tongue not their own. Another translation and commentarj' appear to have been made about the same time, in ignorance of Wyclifte's work, and for the "manie lewid men that gladlie would kon the Gospelle, if it were draghen into the Englisch tung." The fact that many MSS. of this period arc extant, containing in English a Monotessaron, or Har- mony of the Gospels, accompanied by portions of the Epistles, or portions of the O. T., or an epitome of Scripture history, or the substance of Paul's epistles, or the Catholic Epistles at full length, with indications more or less distinct of Wj'cliff'e's influence, shows how widespread was the feeling that the time had come for an English Bible (Forshall and Madden, Pref. p. xiii-xvii). Tliese preliminary labors were followed up by a complete translation of the N. T. by AVycliffc himself. The O. T. was undertaken by his coadjutor, Nicholas de Hereford, but was interrupted probably by a citation to appear before archbishop Arundel in 1382, and ends abrupth' (following so far the order of the Vulgate) in the middle of Baruch. Many of the MSS. of this version now extant present a different recension of the text, and it is probable that the work of WycliflTe and Hereford was revised by Richard Purvey, circ. A.D. 1388. To him also is ascribed the interesting Prologue, in which the translator gives an account both of his purpose and his mctliod (Forshall and Madden, Pref. p. xxv).