724 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ignorance of it. The counsels of kings are much better kept hidden but Christ wished his mysteries to be published as openly as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman should read the Gospel and the epistles of Paul. And I wish they were translated into all languages, so that they might be read and understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen but also by Turks and Saracens. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plow, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their stories the tedium of his journey.
The utterances of Erasmus aside, the appeals made 1450- 1520 for the circulation of the Scriptures among all classes are very sparse and, in spite of all pains. Catholic controversialists have been able to bring together only a few. And yet, the few that we have show that, at least in Germany and the Netherlands, there was a popular hunger for the Bible in the vernacular. Thus, the Preface to the German Bible, issued at Cologne, 1480, called upon every Christian to read the Bible with devotion and honest purpose. Though the most learned may not exhaust its wisdom, nevertheless its teachings are clear and uncovered. The learned may read Jerome's Vulgate but the unlearned and simple folk could and should use the Cologne edition which was in good German. The devotional manual. Die Himmelsthur, — Door of Heaven, — 1513, declared that listening to sermons ought to stir up people to read diligently in the German Bible. In 1505, Jacob Wimpheling spoke of the common people reading both Testaments in their mother-tongue and made this the ground of an appeal to priests not to neglect to read the Word of God themselves.^
Such testimonies are more than offset by warnings against the danger attending the popular use of Scriptures. Brant spoke strongly in this vein and so did Geiler of Strassburg, who asserted that putting the Scriptures into the hands of laymen was like putting a knife into the hands of children to cut bread. He added that it " was almost a wicked thing to print the sacred text in German." ^ Archbishop Bertholdt's
1 Talk, p. 18. Janssen, I. 72, is careful to tell that the peasant, Hans Werner, who could read, knew his Bible so well by heart that he was able to give the places where this text and that were found.
2 Es ist fast ein bos Diny dass man die Bibel zu deutsch dricckt. Quoted by Frietsche-Nestle in Ilerzog, II. 704.
§ 77. STUDY AND CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE. 725
fulmination against German versions of the Bible and their circulation among the people no doubt expressed the general mind of the hierarchy in Germany and all Europe. ^ In this celebrated edict, the German primate pronounced the German language too barbarous a tongue to reproduce the high thoughts expressed by Greek and Latin writers, writing of the Christian religion. The Scriptures are not to be given to simple and unlearned men and, above all, are not to be put into the hands of women. '^ He spoke of the fools who were using the divine gift of printing to send forth things proscribed to the public and declared, that the printers of the sacred text were moved by the vain love of fame or by greed. In his zeal, the archbishop went so far as to forbid the translation of all works whatsoever, of Greek and Latin authorship, or their sale without the sanction of the doctors of the Universities of Mainz or Erfurt. The punishment for the violation of the edict was excommunication, confiscation of books and a fine of 100 gulden.
The decree was so effective that, after 1488, only four editions of the German Bible appeared until 1522, when Luther issued his New Testament, when the old German translations seemed to be suddenly laid aside. ^ In England, Arundel's inhibition so fully expressed the mind of the nation that for a full century no attempt was made to translate the Bible into English and it was not till aftej-_1530 that the first copy of the English Scriptures was published on English soil.* Sir Thomas More, it is true, writing on the threshold of the English Reformation, interpreted Arundel's decree as directed against corrupt translations and sought to make it appear
^ The text is given in Mirbt : Quellen zur Gesch. d. Papsttums, p. 173.
2 Quis enimdabit idiotis et indoctis hominibus etfemineo sexui, etc.
3 Reuss, p. 534. The last four editions of the old German Bible were 1490, Augsburg, 1494, Liibeck, Augsburg, 1508, 1518.
* We might have expected some definite utterance in regard to Bible translations from Pecock, in his Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy, 1450-1460. What he says is in the progress of his refutation of the Lollards' position that all things necessary to be believed and done are to be found in the Scriptures. He adds. Rolls Series, I. 119, "And thou shalt not find expressly in Holy Scripture that the New and Old Testaments should be writ in English tongue to laymen or in Latin tongue to clergy."