been told on another page. Many revisions followed:
the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560 and the Bishops'
Bible of 1568. Then came the Catholic, or Douai version of 1582, the
only one completely differing from the others, with its foundation on
the Vulgate and its numerous barbarisms: "parasceue" for "preparation,"
"feast of Azymes" for "feast of unleavened bread," "imposing of hands,"
"what to me and thee, woman" (John ii, 4), "penance," "chalice,"
"host," "against the spirituals of wickedness in the celestials"
(Ephesians vi, 12), "supersubstantial bread" in the Lord's prayer, "he
exinanited himself" (Philippians ii, 7).

We are accustomed to speak of the Authorized Version {571} of 1610 as
if it were a new product of the literary genius of Shakespeare's age.
In fact, it was a mere revision, and a rather light one, of previous
work. Its rare perfection of form is due to the labors of many men
manipulating and polishing the same material. Like the Homeric poems,
like the Greek gospels themselves probably, the greatest English
classic is the product of the genius of a race and not of one man.

Even from the very beginning it was such to some extent. Tyndale could
hardly have known Wyclif's version, which was never printed and was
rare in manuscript, but his use of certain words, such as "mote,"
"beam," and "strait gate," also found in the earlier version, prove
that he was already working in a literary tradition, one generation
handing down to another certain Scriptural phrases first heard in the
mouths of the Lollards.

Both Tyndale and Coverdale borrowed largely from the German
interpreters, as was acknowledged on the title-page and in the prologue
to the Bible of 1535. Thus Tyndale copied not only most of the
marginal notes of Luther's Bible, but also such Teutonisms as, "this is
once bone of my bone," "they offered unto field-devils" (Luther,
"Felt-teuffem"), "Blessed is the room-maker, Gad" (Luther,
"Raum-macher"). The English translators also followed the German in
using "elder" frequently for "priest," "congregation" for "church," and
"love" for "charity." By counting every instance of this and similar
renderings, Sir Thomas More claimed to have found one thousand errors
in the New Testament alone.

[Sidenote: Popularity of Bible]

The astounding popularity of the Bible, chiefly but not only in
Protestant countries, is witnessed by a myriad voices. Probably in all
Christian countries i