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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
London," in the tenth year of the same reign, is in English; and it appears also, that in the 17th year the Earl of Arundel asked nardon of the Duke of Lancaster by the award of the king and lords, in their prince in parliament, in a form of English words. The cession and renun- ciation of the crown by Richard II. is stated to have been read before the estates of the realm and the people in Westminster Hall, first in Latin and afterwards in English, but it is entered on the Parliament Roll only in Latin. And the challenge of the crown by Henry IV. with his thanks after the allowance of his title, in the same assembly, are recorded in English ; which is termed his maternal tongue. So also is the speech of sir William Thimyng, the Chief Justice of the Common Plea.s, to the late king Richard, announcing to him the sentence of his deposition, and the yielding up, on the part of the people, of their fealty and allegiance. In the «ixtn year of the reign of Henry IV. an English answer is given in a petition of the Commons, touching a proposed resumption of certain grants of the crown, to the intent the king might the better live of his own. The English language afterwards appears occasion- ally, through the reigns of Henry IV. and V.
In the first and second and subsequent years of the reign of Henry VI. the petitions or bills, and in many cases the aijswers also, on which the statutes were afterwards framed, are found fre- quently in English ; but the statutes are entered on the roll in French or Latin. From the 33d year of Henry VI. these petitions or bills are almost universally in English, as is also some- times the form of the royal assent; but the statute continued to be enrolled in French or Latin. Sometimes Latin and French are used in the same statute, as in 8 Henry VI.; 27 Henry VI.; and 39 Henry VI. The last statute wholly in Latin on Record is 33 Henry VI.; the Inst portion of any statute in Latin is 39 Henry VI.
The statutes of Edward IV. are entirely in French. The statutes of Richard III. are in many manuscripts in French, in a complete statute form ; and they were so printed in his reign and that of his successor. In the earlier English editions a translation was inserted, in the same form; but in several editions, since 1618, they have been printed in English, in a different fonn, agreeing, so far as relates to the acts printed, with the enrolments in Chancery at the chapel of the Rolls. The petitions and bills in parliament, during these two reigns, are all in English.
The statutes of Henry VII. have always, it is believed, been published in English ; but there are manuscripts containing the statutes of the first two parliaments, in his first and third year, in French. From the fourth year to the end of his reign, and from thence to the present time, they are universally in English.*
• These chatters are preserved in the following places : Canterbury, Durham, Lincoln, Exeter, and Rochester cathedrals ) British Mnscnm ; Bodleian Library, and Oriel college, Oxford ; and Tiinity college, Dublin.
1544. John Day and William Seres printed the Pentafeueh, " after the copy that the king's majesty had set forth," in small twelves.
1544. Roger Ascham mentions one Garrett, " our books-bynder," as being resident at Cam- bridge about this time. Speaking of Erasmus's custom of riding on horseback for exercise, after " he had been sore at his booke," says, " as Gar- rett, our booke-bynder, verye oft told me." — Ascham's EnglUh Works.
1545. John Maler, Mayleb, Maylebt, or Mavlart, for he spelt his name all these ways, was a grocer by company, a scholar and a zea- lous man for the reformation, since in 1541, he was questioned for railing at the mass, for calline the sacrament of the altar " a bakeu God," and for saying that the mass was called miss beyond the seas, because that all is amiss in it. His residence was at the White Bear, in Botolph lane, near Billingsgate.
In 1539, the primer in English, done by John Hilsey, bishop of Rochester ; at the end is said to be printed by Maylart. In 1540, Notmm Testamentnm Larinum, printed in a very good Roman letter, with parallel places in the margin, and the leaves numbered, some Hebrew and Greek printed in the notes. After the enata, a short aamonition, and conclndes, Londini, anno 1640, mente Februario. Excvdehat Johannes Mayler. Cum priviUgio ad imprimendum tolum. At the end, a small tract on justijicalion, free- will, and predestination, in ten leaves. Quarto.
Mayler printed in the whole twenty -one dif- ferent worKS, but none after 1545.
1545. Grafton printed king Henry Vlllth's Primer, both in Latin and English, with red and black ink, for which he had a patent which is inserted at the end of the work, expressed in much the same term words as the one of 1543,
1545. Henry VIII. permitted his subjects ta use an English Form of public Prayer, and ordered one to be printed for their use, entitled The Primer, said to be " set furth by the kinge's maiestie and his clergie, to be taught, lemed, and red : and none other to be used thorowout all his dominions." This little book, important as the forerunner of the performance of the public religious service in English, contains, beside prayers, several psalms, with lessons and anthems taken out of the old and new testament, verbally translated from the Latin vnlgate.*
1546. Henry VIII. issued another proclania- tion, by which he prohibited having or reading- WicUrs, Tindall's, and Coverdale's Bibles, or using any other than what was allowed by par- liament, under the "penalty of imprisonment and corporal punishment, at the khig s pleasure, and being fined by his majesty, or four of his council." Thus the reading of the scriptures was more strictly forbidden than before ; and the people were as uncertain as* ever what the trans-
- A copy of this rare book was once the property of sir
John aark, priest of the chapel at Leedsbridge, and founder of the school, as appears from the foUowing autograph note in the Kalendar :—" This day I began the schole at Leeds, July 4. 1(63."
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