embrance than
Richard Grafton, who, in 1537, was the first publisher of the Bible in
England. I say in England, because the first Bible, known as Coverdale's,
and several editions of the Testament, translated by Tyndale, had been
previously printed abroad in secrecy. Grafton's first edition of the
Bible was a reprint of Coverdale and Tyndale's translation, with slight
alterations, by one who assumed the name of Thomas Matthew, but whose
real name was John Rogers, then Prebendary of St. Paul's, and afterward
burned as a heretic in Smithfield. Even this was printed secretly abroad,
nobody yet knows where, and did not have Grafton's name attached to it
till the King had granted him a license under the privy seal. Though this
year, 1537, has by the annalists of the Bible been called the first year
of triumph, on account of the King's license, yet Bibles were still apt
to be dangerous things to all concerned; and what was permitted one day
was not unlikely, by a change in religion or policy, to be interdicted
the next with severe visitations.

Although Henry VIII had recently completed his breach with Rome and
been excommunicated, he alternately punished the religious movements of
Protestants and Catholics, according to his caprice; and it was but a few
years previously that the reading of the Bible had been prohibited by
act of parliament, that men had been burned at the stake for having even
fragments of it in their possession, and that Tyndale's translation of
the new Testament had been bought up and publicly burned (1534) by order
of Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London; and even as late as May, 1536,
the reading of the sacred volume had been strictly forbidden.

Grafton, therefore, must have been a bold man to face the danger. Thus,
in 1538, when a new edition of the Bible, commonly called the "Great
Bible," afterward published in 1539, was secretly printing in Paris at
the instance of Lord Cromwell, under the superintendence of Grafton,
Whitchurch, and Coverdale, the French inquisitors of the faith
interfered, charging them with heresy, and they were fortunate in making
their escape to England.

Shortly after the death of Caxton's patron, Lord Cromwell, Grafton was
imprisoned for the double offence of printing Matthew's Bible and the
Great Bible, notwithstanding the King's license; and though after a while
released, he was again imprisoned in the reign of Philip and Mary on
account of his Protestant principles; and, a