as a memorial supper, without sacrificial character, figurative or real. The publication was imprudent. Complaint was certain, and would be recognized as just. On the death of his patron, Taverner paid for his rashness by an imprisonment in the Tower; and, although he was soon released, and grew to favour at the Court, yet Henry so far listened to the remonstrances of the Church authorities as to forbid the sale of unauthorized editions; and in 1542 the Convocation was informed that the text of the Great Bible itself was to undergo an examination. The errors of translation were said to be in the New Testament rather than the Old. The Gospels and Epistles were divided into fifteen parts, and were distributed among the Bench.
The learned prelates, or two-thirds of them, desired to find blemishes; they had no intention of correcting them. Gardiner presented a list of nearly a hundred words, for which the English language was too heretical to have provided an equivalent, and which therefore must be left in Latin; and Cranmer, aware that the real wish was to suppress the translation altogether, appealed to the King, and relieved them of an occupation which they would discharge so indifferently. The quarrel ended in a compromise. The original editions of Tyndal, which were accompanied with his annotations, were prohibited under penalties. The Bible, as edited by Cranmer, was left untampered with; but a temporary limitation was imposed, perhaps wisely, upon its indiscriminate use.
The Parliament—for the Parliament was the only
