484
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1632. RoBEBT Barker and Martin Lucas, the king's printers, at I^ondon, printed an edition of the bible of one thousand copies, in which a serious mistake was made by leaving out the word not in the seventh commandment, causing it to read " Thou sbalt commit adultery." His majesty king Charles I. being made acquainted witn it by Dr. William Laud, bishop of London, an order was given for calling the printers into the star chamber, where, upon the fact being proved, the whole impression was called in, and the printers fined £3000. With this fine, or a part of it, a fount of fair Greek types and ma- trices were provided, for publishing such manu- scripts as might be prepared, and should be judged worthy of pubhciition; of this kind were the Catena and Theophylact, edited by Lyndsell. The following is a copy ol king Charles's letter to bishop Laud :
" Most reverend father in God, right trusty, and right entirely beloved counsellor, we greet you well. Whereas our servant Patrick Young, keeper of our library, hath lately with industry and care, published in print an epistle of Clemeru Romanus in Greek and Latin, which was never printed before, and has done this to the benefit of the church, and our great honour ; the manu- script by which he printed it being in our library. Ana whereas, we further understand, that the right reverend father in God, Augustin Lyudsell, now bishop of Peterborough, and our said ser- vant Patrick Young, are resolved to make ready for the press, one or more Greek copies every vear, by such manuscripts as are either in our library, or in the libraries of our universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or elsewhere, if there were Greek letter, matrices, and money ready for the work, which pains of thein will tend to the gtesii honour of ourself, this church, and nation : we have thought good to give them all possible encouragement herein. And do therefore first require you, that the fine lately imposed by our high commissioners upon Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, for base and corrupt printing of the bible, being the sum of three thousand pounds, be converted to the present buying of such and so many Greek letters and matrices as shall be by you thought fit for this great and honourable work. And our further will and pleasure is, that the said Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, our patentees for printing, or those which either now are, or shall hereafter succeed them, being great gainers by that patent, which they hold under us, shall at their own proper costes and charges of ink, paper, and workmanship, print, or cause to be pnnted, in Greek, or Greek and Latin, one such volume in a year, be it bigger or less, as the right reverend father aforesaid, or our servant Patrick Young, or anv other of our learned sub- jects shall provide and make ready for the press."
A prior circumstance, indeed, had occurred, which induced the government to be more vigil- ant on the biblical press. The learned Usher, one day hastening to preach at Paul's cross, en- tered the shop of one of the stationers, as book- sellers were then called, and inquiring for a bible
of the London edition, when he came to look fur his text, to his astonishment and his horror, he discovered that the verse was omitted in the bible ! "This gave the first occasion of complaint to the king of the insufferable negligence and incapacity of the London press; and, says the manuscript writer of this anecdote, first bred that great contest which followed, between the uni- versity of Cambridge and the London stationers, about the right of printing bibles.
In 1634, an edition of the bible was printed at London, in which the text ran (Psalm xiv. I,) " The fool bath said in his heart there u a God.
Mr. Nye (in his defence of the canon of the new testament,) tells us that, in consequence, the printers were heavily fined, and all the copies were suppressed by order of the king.
In 1638, another error,of less moment, indeed, than that for which the fine was imposed, but rendered important by the disputes between the independents and episcopalians, appeared in the edition of the bible printed at Cambridge, by Buck and Daniel. This was the alteration of the word ire into ye, in Acts vi. 3. The error was continued in several editions,till 1685, when it was corrected. See 1638, poit.
During the civil wars a large impression of Dutch English bibles were burnt by order of the assembly of divines, for these three erron : —
Gen. xxxvi. 24. — This is that ast that found rulers in the wilderness — for mule.
Ruth iv. 13. — ^The Lord gave her corruption — for conception.
Luke xxi. 28. — Look up, and lift up your hands, for your condemnation draweth nigfa — for redemption.
These errata were none of the printer's; but, as a writer of the times expresses it, " egregious blasphemies and damnable errata" of some sect- arian, or some Bellamy editor of that day !
It appears that the authentic translation of the bible, such as we now have it, by the learned translators in the time of James I., was suf- fered to lie neglected. The copies of the original manuscript were in the possession of two of the king's printers, who, from cowardice, consent, and connivance, suppressed the publication ; con- sidering that a bible full of errata, and often, probably, accommodated to the notions of certain sectarists, was more valuable than one authen- ticated by the hierarchy!
The proverbial expression of chapter and vene seems to have originated in the puritanic period, just before the civil wars under Charles I., from the frequent use of appealing to the bible on the most frivolous occasions, practised by those whom South calls " those mignty men at chapter and verse." With a sort of religious coquetry-, they were vain of perpetually opening their gilt pocket bibles ; they perked them up with such self-sufficiency and perfect ignorance of the ori- ginal, that the learned Seldeu found considerable amusement in going to their " assembly of di- vines," and puzzling or confuting them. A ludicrous anecdote on one of these occasions is given by a colemporary, which shows how ad-
VjOOQ IC
