Basic HTML Version
Hebrews, that if the former Law and Testament had been sufficient, there had been no need of the
latter:
and 8:7] so we may say, that if the old vulgar had been at all points allowable, to
small purpose had labour and charges been undergone, about framing of a new. If they say, it was
one Pope’s private opinion, and that he consulted only himself; then we are able to go further with
them, and to aver, that more of their chief men of all sorts, even their own Trent champions Paiva
and Vega, and their own Inquisitors, Hieronymus ab Oleastro, and their own Bishop Isidorus Clarius,
and their own Cardinal Thomas a Vio Caietan, do either make new Translations themselves, or
follow new ones of other men’s making, or note the vulgar Interpreter for halting; none of them
fear to dissent from him, nor yet to except against him. And call they this an uniform tenor of text
and judgment about the text, so many of their Worthies disclaiming the now received conceit? Nay,
we will yet come nearer the quick: doth not their Paris edition differ from the Lovaine, and Hentenius
his from them both, and yet all of them allowed by authority? Nay, doth not Sixtus Quintus confess,
that certain Catholics (he meaneth certain of his own side) were in such an humor of translating
the Scriptures into Latin, that Satan taking occasion by them, though they thought of no such matter,
did strive what he could, out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of Translations, so to mingle
all things, that nothing might seem to be left certain and firm in them, etc.? [Sixtus 5. praefat. fixa
Bibliis.] Nay, further, did not the same Sixtus ordain by an inviolable decree, and that with the
counsel and consent of his Cardinals, that the Latin edition of the old and new Testament, which
the Council of Trent would have to be authentic, is the same without controversy which he then
set forth, being diligently corrected and printed in the Printinghouse of Vatican? Thus Sixtus in his
Preface before his Bible. And yet Clement the Eighth his immediate successor, published another
edition of the Bible, containing in it infinite differences from that of Sixtus, (and many of them
weighty and material) and yet this must be authentic by all means. What is to have the faith of our
glorious Lord JESUS CHRIST with Yea or Nay, if this be not? Again, what is sweet harmony and
consent, if this be? Therefore, as Demaratus of Corinth advised a great King, before he talked of
the dissensions of the Grecians, to compose his domestic broils (for at that time his Queen and his
son and heir were at deadly feud with him) so all the while that our adversaries do make so many
and so various editions themselves, and do jar so much about the worth and authority of them, they
can with no show of equity challenge us for changing and correcting.
THE PURPOSE OF THE TRANSLATORS, WITH THEIR NUMBER, FURNITURE,
CARE, ETC.
But it is high time to leave them, and to show in brief what we proposed to ourselves, and what
course we held in this our perusal and survey of the Bible. Truly (good Christian Reader) we never
thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a
bad one a good one, (for then the imputation of Sixtus had been true in some sort, that our people
had been fed with gall of Dragons instead of wine, with whey instead of milk:) but to make a good
one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against;
that hath been our endeavor, that our mark. To that purpose there were many chosen, that were
greater in other men’s eyes than in their own, and that sought the truth rather than their own praise.
17
KJV Bible