TO THE READER.
tin, namely Beza and his scholers the English translatours of the Bible, in the so places. Hebr. chap. 9, verf. 1. saying, The first couenant, for that which is in the Greeke. The first tabernacle. where they put, couenant, not as of the text, but in an other letter, as to be vnderstood,according to the vulgar Latin, which most sincerely leaucth it out altogether, saying, Habuit quidem &prius iustificationes &c.The former also in deede bad iustifications &c. Againe, Ro.11, vers. 21. They translate not according to the Grecke text, Temporiseruientes, seruing the time, which Beza faith must needes be a corruption : but according to the vulgar Latin, Domino seruientes, seruing our Lord. Againe, Apoc. 11, vers. 2. they translate not the Greeke text, Atrium quod intra templum est, the court which is within the teme: but cleane contrarie, according to the vulgar Latin, which Beza faith is the true reading, Atrium quod est foris templum, the court which is without the temple. Onely in this last place, one English Bible of the yere 1562, foloweth the errour of the Greeke. Againe, 2 Tim. 2. vers. 14. they adde, but, more then is in the Greeke, to make the sense more comodious and casie, according as it is in the vulgar Latin. Againe, Ia. 5, 12. they leave the Grecke, and folow the vulgar Latin, saying, lest you fall into condemnation. I doubt not (faith Beza) but this is the true and sincere reading, and I suspect the corruption in the Greeke came thus &c. It were infinite to set downe al such places, where the Aduersaries (specially Beza) folovy the old vulgar Latin and the Greeke copie agreable therevnto, condemning the Greeke text that now is, of corruption.
Againe, Erasmus the best translatour of al the later, by Bezas iudgement, faith, that the Greeke sometime hath superfluities corruptly added to the text of holy Scripture. as Mat. 6. to the end of the Pater noster, these wordes, Because thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glorie,for euer-more. Which he calleth, nugas, trifles rashly added to our Lords praier, and reprehendeth Valla for blaming the old vulgar Latin because it hath it not. likewise Ro.11, 6. these wordes in the Greeke, and not in the vulgar latin: But if of workes, it is net now grace: otherwise the worke is no more a worke and Mar. 10, 29.these wordes, or wise, and such like. Yea the Greeke text in these superfluities condemneth it self, and iustifieth the vulgar Latin excedingly: as being marked through out in a number of places, that such and such wordes or sentences are superfluous in al which places our vulgar Latin hath no such thing, but is agreable to the Greeke which remaineth after the superfluities be taken away. For example, that before mētioned in the end of the Pater noster, hath a marke of superfluitie in the Greeke text thus`’ and Marc. 6,11 these wordes, Amen I say to you, it shal be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrhe in the day of iudgement,then for that citie. and Mat. 10,22. these wordes, And be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with? Which is also superfluously repeated againe vers. 23. and such like places exceding many:which being noted superfluous in the Greeke, and being not in the vulgar Latin, proue the Latin in those places to be better, truer and more sincere then the Greeke.
Wherevpon We conclude of these premisses, that it is no derogation to the vulgar Latin text, which we translate, to disagree from the Greeke text, wheras it may notwithstanding be not onely as good, but also better, and this the Aduersarie him self, their greatest and latest translatour of the Greeke, doth auouch against Erasmus in behalfe of the old vulgar Latin trāslation, in these notorious wordes. How vnworthely and without cause (faith he) doth Erasmus blame the old Interpreter as dissenting from the Greeke? he dissented, I graunt from those Greeke copies which he had gotten: but we haue found, not in one place, that the same in-terpretation
