y had formerly made; and
prohibited all but gentlemen and merchants from perusing them[****].

* Collier, vol. ii. p. 190.

** Burnet, vol. i. p. 315.

*** Which met on the 22d of January, 1543.

**** 33 Henry VIII. c 1. The reading of the Bible, however,
could not at that time have much effect in England, where so
few persons had learned to read. There were but five hundred
copies printed of this first authorized edition of the
Bible; a book of which there are now several millions of
copies in the kingdom.

Even that liberty was not granted without an apparent hesitation, and a
dread of the consequences: these persons were allowed to read, "so it
be done quietly and with good order." And the preamble to the act sets
forth "that many seditious and ignorant persons had abused the liberty
granted them of reading the Bible, and that great diversity of opinion,
animosities, tumults, and schisms had been occasioned by perverting
the sense of the Scriptures." It seemed very difficult to reconcile the
king's model for uniformity with the permission of free inquiry.

The mass book also passed under the king's revisal; and little
alteration was as yet made in it: some doubtful or fictious saints
only were struck out; and the name of the pope was erased. This latter
precaution was likewise used with regard to every new book that was
printed, or even old book that was sold. The word "pope" was carefully
omitted or blotted out;[*] as if that precaution could abolish the term
from the language, or as if such a persecution of it did not rather
imprint it more strongly in the memory of the people.

The king took care about this time to clear the churches from another
abuse which had crept into them. Plays, interludes, and farces were
there often acted in derision of the former superstitions; and the
reverence of the multitude for ancient principles and modes of worship
was thereby gradually effaced.[**] We do not hear that the Catholics
attempted to retaliate by employing this powerful engine against their
adversaries, or endeavored by like arts to expose that fanatical spirit
by which it appears the reformers were frequently actuated. Perhaps
the people were not disposed to relish a jest on that side: perhaps
the greater simplicity and the more spiritual abstract worship of the
Protestants gave less hold to ridicule, which is commonly founded on
sensible representations. It was, th