The first edition of Cranmer's Bible, the printing of which was begun
in Paris in 1538 and completed in London in 1540--the Inquisition
having interposed by imprisoning the printers and burning the greater
part of the impression--is excessively rare. Cranmer's Bible--or the
Great Bible, as it was called--is Tyndale's, Coverdale's and Rogers's
translations most carefully revised throughout. This was the first
sound and authorized English version; and as soon as it was perfected
a proclamation was issued ordering it to be provided for every parish
church, under a penalty of forty shillings a month. A second edition
of Cranmer's Bible appeared in 1560, a copy of which brought, at a
recent sale in England, the sum of $610.

The Genevan version of the Bible was made by several English exiles
at Geneva in Queen Mary's reign--viz., Cole, Coverdale, Gilby, Knox,
Sampson, Whittingham and Woodman--and was first printed in 1560.
It went through fifty editions in the course of thirty years. This
translation was very popular with the Puritan party. In this version
the first division into verses was made. It is commonly known as the
"Breeches Bible," from the peculiar rendering of Genesis iii. 7--"
breeches of fig-leaves." To the Geneva Bible we owe the beautiful
phraseology of the admired passage in Jeremiah viii. 22. Coverdale,
Matthew and Taverner render it, "For there is no more treacle at
Gilead?" Cranmer, "Is there no treason at Gilead?" The Genevan first
gave the poetic rendering, "Is there no balm in Gilead?"

In the year 1568 another translation appeared, which is
indiscriminately known as "Matthew Parker's Bible," the "Bishops'
Bible" and the "Great English Bible." This version was undertaken and
carried on under the inspection of Matthew Parker, second Protestant
archbishop of Canterbury. Of the fifteen translators, six were
bishops, hence this edition is often called the Bishops' Bible, though
it is sometimes designated the Great English Bible, from its being a
huge folio volume. In 1569 it was published in octavo form. There is a
well-preserved copy of the first edition of Matthew Parker's Bible in
the possession of a gentleman residing in New York City. This was
the authorized version of the Scriptures for forty years, when it was
superseded by our present English Bible.

The English Roman Catholic College at Rheims issued in the year 1582
a translation of the New Testament, known as the "Rhemish New
Testament." It w