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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
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and, yet more, Eome by Luther which fell in his way, induced him to adopt the opinions of the latter in 1521. For twenty yeais he taug^ht divinity at Strasbnrg. At the diet of Augsburg, in 1548, he vehemently opposed the system of doctrine called the Interim, which the emperor Charles V. had drawn up for the temporary regu- lation of religions faith m Germany until a free general council could be held. It was opposed equally by the Romanists and by the reformed ; but the emperor urged its acceptance so fiercely, that Bucer, af lor having been subjected to much difficulty and daapjer, accepted an invitation firom Cranmer to fix his residence in England.
On his arrival in England, he was appointed to teach theology at Cambridge, and appears to have been much admired and respected. When Hooper accepted the bishopric of Gloucester, but refused to lie consecrated in the episcopal vestments, Bucor wrote a most convincing but moderate treatise against this fastidious reluc- tance ; and on the review of the Common Prayer Book, he expressed his opinions at large, that he found all things in the service and daily prayers clearly accordant to the Scriptures.
Bucer died at Cambridge, and was buried in St. Mary's with great honour, his remains being attended by full 3,000 persons jointly from the university and the town. A Latin speech was made over his grave by Dr. Haddon, the public orator, and an English sermon was then preached by Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury.
An amusing story, recorded in the Life of Bishop Jewtll, shows both the gentleness of Bucer's disposition and malice of his opponents. Catherine duchess of Suffolk having two sons at Cambridge, and herself occasionally residing within its precincts, had sent Bucer a cow and a calf towards the maintenance of his family. The good-natured man was fond of these beasts, and often visited them in their pasture, an inno- cent recreation, which gave occasion to a report among his adversaries that the cow and calf were magic spirits which instructed him in what he wiis to read in the schools. On hearing this rumour, he by no means gave up his customary attention to his favourites, but once pointing them out to a friend, he observed with a jesting tone, 'Behold, these ;ire my masters, from whom I have learned what I teach others; and yet they can speak neitlier Latin nor Greek, Hebrew nor German, nor ttlk to me in any other language.'
During the reign of Mary, five years after- wards, when in(|nisitors were sent to Cambridge, the corpses of B iicer and of Fagius were dug up from their resting-places, fastened erect by a chain to stakes in the market-place, and dis- gustingly burned to ashes ; their names at the same time, were erased from all the public acts and registers as heretics and deniers of the true faith ; and this violence to their memories con- tinued till Elizabeth became queen.
Bucer wrote l)Oth in Latin and in German, and SO largely that it is thought his works, if col- lected, would amount to eight or nine folio volumes. He was thrice married, and his first
wife, by whom he had thirteen children, was a nun, perhaps selected by him, not very ju- diciously, in imitation of Martin Luther.*
1660. 7i4« Visicn of Pein Plowmim,\ now fyrst imprinted by Robert Crmcley, dtoellyng in t!ly rent! in Holbume, anno Domini 1505. (a mistake for 1550.) Cum privUegio ad impri- mendum solum. The printer's address to the reader concludes with the following remarks : — " JTiii writer, who in reportynge cerlaine vitions and dreamea, that he fayned himtelf to have dreamed, doetk motte chrittianlye enitructe the weake, and tharply rebuke the obstinate blynde. There is no maner of vice, that reigneth in any estate of men, which this wryter hiuh not godly, leamedlye and wittUye rebuked. The English it according to the time it was wrotten in, and the sence somewhat darcke, but not so harde, but that it may be undtrstande of suche, as will not sticke to breake the shell of the nutte for the kemdlet sake, ^c. Contains 117 leaves. Quarto."
1551, Feb. 1. In the fifth parliament of queen Mary, held at Edinburgh, on this day, an act was passed for a censorship on the press, " under the loUowing words :
Item, For-sa-meikle as there is diverse pren- ters in this realme, that dailie and continually prentis buikes concerning the faith, ballattes, sanges, blasphemationes, rimes, alsweill of kirk- men, as temporal, and uthers tragedies, alsweill in Latine, as in English toung, not scene, newed, and considdered be the superioures, as apperteinis to the defamation and sclander of the lieges of this realme, and to put ordour to sik inconveni- entes; it is devised, statute, and ordained be the lord govemour, with advise of the three estaites of parliament: That na prenter presume, at- tempt, or take upon hand to prent ony buikes, ballattes, sanges, blasphemationes, nmes, or tragedies, outher in Latine, or English toung, in ony times to cum, unto the time Uie samin be seene, viewed, and examined be some wise and discreit persons, depute thereto be the ordinares quhat-sum-ever; and there after ane licence had and obteined fra our soueraine ladie, and the lord govemour for imprenting of sik buikes; under the paine of confiscation of all the pren- ters gudes, and banishing him of the realme fo ever.
- A verjr Interesting collection of tncts relative to tlie
life, death, burial, condemnation, exhomatlon, bnniing, and reatoration of Martin Bacer, was published at Stras- burg, in Ljitin, bj his friend Conrad Hubert. It contain*, among other matters, the Greek and Latin EpicedUh which the members of the university, according to ens- torn, placed on his coffin ; and also Uie Encomia, written when he and Fa£;ias were posthumously reinstated in their academical honours. Each of these testimonies of honour fills more than fifty pages.
t Robert Longlaud was the author of the poem called the Vition of Piers Plowman, was a secular priest, and a fellow of Oriel college, Oxford. He flourished about 13S0. This poem, says Warton, contains a series of dis- tinct visions, which the author imagines himself to ha vs seen while he was sleeping on Malvern Hills, in Worces- tershire. It is a satire on the vices of almost every pro- fession ; but particularly on the corruptions of the dergy, and the ataeurdittes of superstition. These are ridiculed with much humour and spirit, couched under a strong vein of allegt^cal invention.
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