r, from which see he was ejected by
Mary, in 1553. He died in 1568, at the age of eighty-one.
THE GENEVAN: BISHOPS' BIBLE.--In the year 1557 he had aided those who were
driven away by Mary, in publishing a version of the Bible at Geneva. It
was much read in England, and is known as the Genevan Bible. The Great
Bible was an edition of Coverdale issued in 1562. The Bishops' Bible was
so called because, at the instance of Archbishop Parker, it was translated
by a royal commission, of whom eight were bishops. And in 1571, a canon
was passed at Canterbury, requiring a large copy of this work to be in
every parish church, and in the possession of every bishop and dignitary
among the clergy. Thus far every new edition and issue had been an
improvement on what had gone before, and all tended to the production of a
still more perfect and permanent translation. It should be mentioned that
Luther, in Germany, after ten years of labor, from 1522 to 1532, had
produced, unaided, his wonderful German version. This had helped the cause
of translations everywhere.
KING JAMES'S BIBLE.--At length, in 1603, just after the accession of James
I., a conference was held at Hampton Court, which, among other tasks,
undertook to consider what objections could be made to the Bishops' Bible.
The result was that the king ordered a new version which should supersede
all others. The number of eminent and learned divines appointed to make
the translation was fifty-four; seven of these were prevented by
disability of one kind or another. The remaining forty-seven were divided
into six classes, and the labor was thus apportioned: ten, who sat at
Westminster, translated from Genesis through Kings; eight, at Cambridge,
undertook the other historical books and the Hagiographa, including the
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth, Esther, and a few
other books; seven at Oxford, the four greater Prophets, the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, and the twelve minor Prophets; eight, also at Oxford, the
four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St. John;
seven more at Westminster, the Epistles of St. Paul, and the remaining
canonical books; and five more at Cambridge, the Apocryphal books. The
following was the mode of translation: Each individual in one of the
classes translated himself every book confided to that class; each class
then met and compared these translations, and thus completed their task.
The work thus done was sent
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