revised translation of the Latin
Bible was made by St. Jerome between A.D. 382 and 404, and this version
came to be used by the Church throughout the west of Europe.

[Sidenote: English Versions.]

The Gospel of St. John and perhaps the other Gospels were translated by
the patient historian and monk, the Venerable Bede, who was buried at
Durham in A.D. 731. Parts of the Bible, especially the Psalms, were
soon fairly well known through translations. King Alfred was
translating the Psalms when he died, in A.D. 901; and soon after A.D.
1000, Archbishop Aelfric translated large portions of the Bible. As
the language of England gradually changed, new versions of the Psalms
were made, and most of the Bible was known in a version made before
1360. But perhaps there was no complete version of the Bible in
English until the time of John Wyclif (1380). Wyclif translated most
of the New Testament of this version, and a priest named Hereford
translated the Old Testament. Wyclif held various {6} opinions which
the Church of England at that time condemned, and some of which she
still rightly condemns. The result was that in 1412 Archbishop Arundel
denounced Wyclif's version, but it seems to have been revised and to
have come into common use. All these versions or partial versions in
the English language were made from the Latin. But after the Turks
captured Constantinople from the Greeks in 1453, a number of learned
Greeks fled for refuge to the west of Europe. The result was that
Greek books began to be studied again, and the New Testament began to
be read once more in the original language. Three important editions
were printed in 1514, 1516, and 1550 respectively. The first was
printed under the direction of the Spanish Cardinal Ximenes, but owing
to various causes was not published until 1522. The edition of 1516
was printed under the direction of the great Dutch scholar Erasmus.
That of 1550 is important as being substantially the "received text"
which has appeared in the ordinary Greek Testaments printed in England
until the present day, and as being the foundation of our English
Authorised Version. This "received text" was printed by Robert
Estienne (or Stephanus), a great printer of Paris. About the same time
a desire for a reformation of abuses in the Church caused a deeper
interest to be taken in the Word of God. The first English translation
of the New Testament shows a desire for a reformation of a somewh