HAMIIvTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 93 



authority on English sounds, showed that it was not in 

 dialect, and represented Flemish equivalents to the English 

 vowels. The best clue to the puzzle may be Madden's 

 discovery that in the first printing offices a reader dictated 

 from copy word by word to the compositor, and that for this 

 version of Tyndale's book the copy was English, and both 

 reader and compositor were Flemish, the latter setting up his 

 types by sound only, and not by sight. 



In the British Museum, side by side are two proclama- 

 tions by Henry the Eighth. The first, dated 1530, prohibits 

 all translations of the Bible into English ; the second, dated 

 1541, enjoins that an English Bible shall be placed in every 

 church throughout the kingdom. From such a volt-face 

 came the sarcastic line : 



" Gospel light first came from Boleyn's eyes." 



In 1530 the Royal Commission reported against a 

 vernacular Bible, for the reason that religious opinion was 

 then too unsettled, and further added that the only translation 

 the king could sanction must be made by "great learned 

 Catholic persons." Yet such was the irony of fate that of 

 the four English Bibles sold in Henry's reign all of them 

 were either supervised by Tyndale's friends or embodied 

 Tyndale's translations. The first of these, which was also 

 the first printed English Bible in its entirety, was brought 

 out by Miles Coverdale in October, 1535. It was likely 

 printed at Zurich, and its production was secretly approved 

 and supported by Thomas Cromwell, who was a friend of 

 Coverdale. It was in reality an English translation from the 

 Vulgate, checked and corrected by Luther's version, as its 

 title said : " Faith fullly and truly translated out of Douche 

 and Latyn in to English." It was dedicated to the king, but 

 was not sent out by authority. This, first of all printed 

 English Bibles, is a small book, measuring 11^ inches by 8 

 inches. The first edition is exceedingly rare, and but one 

 perfect copy is known. In a bookseller's catalogue before 

 me as I write, an imperfect copy is listed at the price of one 

 thousand and fifty pounds sterling, In the thirteenth line of 



