received the royal reply that were it not for his banishment he would himself bear the expense; in the same dedication there are somewhat dark allusions to an endeavour on the part of Cromwell to suppress the work at the outset unless it were dedicated to himself, which probably imply no more than that the Protector's government gave the editor no pecuniary support beyond allowing him to have paper duty free; for this service Cromwell is personally thanked in the preface of the republican copies, but after the Restoration a reprinted preface was substituted, in which the allusion to the Protector is cancelled. On 11 July 1652 the council of state passed a resolution ‘to inform Dr. Brian Walton that, on considering his petition offering an edition of the Bible in several tongues, council are of opinion that the work propounded by him is very honourable and deserving encouragement, but find that the matter of his desires is more proper for the consideration of parliament than council’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651, p. 328). The council also lent Walton books from government libraries to facilitate his work (ib. 1653–4, p. 58). The printing of the work began in 1653, two presses being kept employed, and between 1654 and 1657 all six volumes appeared—vols. i.–iv. containing the Old Testament and Apocrypha, vol. v. the New Testament, and vol. vi. various critical appendices. Nine languages are represented in the work, but no single book of the Bible appears in more than eight versions. The correcting committee consisted of Stokes, Wheelock, Thorndike, Pocock, Greaves, Vicars, and Thomas Smith; on the death of Wheelock in 1653, Hyde was substituted for him. Lightfoot, the still famous author of the ‘Horæ Hebraicæ,’ was invited to take part in the work of correcting, but declined; much was done by Castell, whose ‘Heptaglot Lexicon’ afterwards formed a valuable supplement to the Polyglot, and who, though given an honorarium by Walton, complained that his services had not been adequately acknowledged. Several other scholars had a hand in the work (cf. letter from Thorndike to Williamson giving an account of the undertaking in Cal. State Papers, 1655–6, pp. 285–6, also ib. 1656–7, p. 322). Walton, however, claimed responsibility for the whole, and provided it with prolegomena giving a critical history of the texts and some account of the languages which they represent. It was entitled ‘Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, complectentia Textus Originales Hebræum (cum Pentateucho Samaritano), Chaldaicum, Græcum, Versionumque Antiquarum, Samaritanæ, Græcæ lxii. Interp., Chaldaicæ, Syriacæ, Arabicæ, Æthiopicæ, Persicæ, Vulg. Latin. quidquid comparari poterat. Cum Textuum et Versionum Orientalium Translationibus Latinis. Cum Apparatu, Appendicibus, Tabulis, variis Lectionibus, Annotationibus, Indicibus …’ London, 1657, folio. The prolegomena were reprinted both in Germany and England more than a century after their original appearance (Leipzig, 1777, ed. J. A. Dathe; Canterbury, 1828, ed. Francis Wrangham [q. v.]). Walton also published in 1655 a brief ‘Introductio in Lectionem Linguarum Orientalium,’ containing the alphabets and grammatical paradigms of all the languages printed in the Polyglot as well as of some others. These works bear out the judgment of some of Walton's contemporaries, who regarded him as a man who, without profound learning, was capable of acquiring with little trouble a tolerable acquaintance with a subject.
While the Polyglot was justly regarded at the time of its appearance as an honourable monument of the vitality of the church of England at a period of extreme depression, and, from its practical arrangement, has been of the greatest use to biblical students, with whom, having never been superseded, it still commands a high price, it would also seem to have been a most successful commercial speculation. Though not absolutely the first book printed by subscription in England, it was one of the earliest, and, as has been seen, liberal support was given the undertaking from the commencement; and whereas the price paid by subscription was 10l., other purchasers probably paid far more; in a letter to John Buxtorf the younger, at Basle, Walton puts the price at 50l.
The Polyglot was put on the ‘Index Librorum Prohibitorum’ at Rome, and in England was attacked by Dr. John Owen in a volume of ‘Considerations,’ which Walton answered in a work called ‘The Considerator Considered’ (1659). Owen's criticisms were directed rather against the study of the versions themselves than against the scholarship of the editors of the ‘Polyglot,’ and Walton may be considered to have dealt with them satisfactorily.
In 1657, when a sub-committee of the ‘Grand Committee of Religion’ was appointed to consider the desirability of a revision of the English Bible, the opinion of Walton among others was taken; but he received no further marks of recognition until the Restoration, when, on his petition (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 235), he was reinstated in his benefices and made chaplain in ordinary to the king. On 14 Aug.
