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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. MAY 29, 1920.
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'The Lollard Bible. By Margaret Deanesley.
(Canibridge University Press, 1 11s. Gd. net.)
'THE series entitled ' Cambridge Studies in Medie- val Life and Thought ' should attract public
attention, both by its matter and its method. Its method is scientific in the stricter sense of the term. That is to say, ascertained fact is to be set down as ascertained ; falsehoods and mistakes are to be exposed ; inferences are to be given for what they are worth ; uncertainties to be pro- claimed uncertain. Interpretation thus reduces
itself to a minimum ; so also does the " personal equation." The reader of one of these studies finds himself in due proportion to the resolution with which he grasps detail more or less in the position of the writer ; more or less, also, in the position of the student of a scientific treatise. The General Preface, in which the editor, Mr. G. G. Coulton sets out the ideal, might be taken as a good expression of the aims of the newer school of history, in whose speech the word " scientific " has a widely different value from 'that which it carried a generation or so ago, when the " science of history " meant chiefly the
- interpretation of historical data by some applica-
tion to them of the theory of evolution.
The field chosen for this series peculiarly deserves, and peculiarly needs, labouring over in 'the strict scientific way. Who can regard the Middle Ages with indifference ? They repel one class of mind : they attract another ; and in -repulsion and attraction alike they are invested with clouds, dark or glamorous, emanating from the minds of subsequent generations. The reality, thus blurred in our sight, remains, how- ever, part of the solid basis, upon which the present world has been built up. We shall understand ourselves aright only in so far as this becomes accurately disengaged. As the truth comes out to view, we can begin to estimate the gain and loss of centuries, and to recover, per- haps, some principles both of action and of theory which have sunk into obeyance.
The history of the Lollard Bible presents us with the Middle Ages in epitome. In Lollard and orthodox alike we see the mediaeval heedlessness as to evidence and proof in the establishment of data before belief ; and in both alike we also see the mediaeval vigorousness in the logical carrying out of a belief once established. Again, this subject has necessarily for its centre the great mediaeval preoccupation that of religion. It seems to have become difficult for our day to realise how vast an enterprise was that attempted by our forefathers. They confessed that people ought to see life and live life with direct and simple reference to that which is unseen. They set themselves to do it. On the whole they failed if one regards the outcome from a public point of view, one must admit that, though remembering innumerable instances of individual private success. But the mediaeval orientation of life brought within their vision, and even within their capacity, many things which the later deflected generations have missed.
Miss Deanesley's work is most highly praise- worthy. We received, it is true, something of a
shock on p. 2 when we read that it is " scarcely
doubtful that the unity of Christendom was
preserved till the sixteenth century by force " :
and, again, that " Christendom would have been
divided in that century [i.e. the thirteenth! instead
! of the sixteenth." But what of the great schism
between East and West ? And would not a
i consideration of that require some modification
I of the general introductory remarks contained
j in the 2nd section ? Would it still be accurate
j to say that the "history of vernacular transla-
! tions " is. ..." the central strand in the history
of the unity of Christendom ? "
Having recovered from this suprise. which we regretted, it was not long before we acquired confidence in our author. She has a style which tends to be slipshod, and tends to be heavy, and so puts unnecessary strain upon her reader's attention : and she has chosen to set out in a continuous narrative many things which might as well or better have been given in tables laying upon herself thereby a task which would be difficult for a very master of style. But what she has to tell is to no inconsiderable extent new : the care with which her material has been collected and sifted is admirable : the impartiality promised is maintained without any diminution of lively interest in her subject ; and again and again she has been able to correct writers who have gone before herl She has put students of mediaeval history heavily in her debt.
Her first chapter criticises the evidence as to English Bibles supplied by the Dialogue written in 1528 by Sir Thomas More : evidence which would go to establish the existence of pre- WycliSite translations of the Bible or parts of the Bible allowed by the Church as free from heresy. She passes in Chapter II. to the history of vernacu- lar Bible-reading in France, Italy and Spain ; a history, in fact, of the relentless enforcing of pro- hibition. Chapters HI and IV. deal with Bible reading in the Empire and the Netherlands before 1400. and from 1400 to 1521 respectively. Continental Bible-reading is largely the outcome of Waldensianism, and the discussion of that movement under this aspect is excellent, as is also the thoroughness with which the remains of vernacular books of devotion and Biblical texts have been investigated. It becomes clear that the deman'd especially in Germany was in the first instance for vernacular books of devotion as a practical help towards piety. Chapter V. turns to England, giving an account of the versions of parts of the vulgate made before Wycliffe's day ; and Chapters VI. and VII. contain a most interesting and carefully docu- mented exposition of Pre-Wycliffite biblical study among clerics the higher clergy, friars and monks on the one hand : parish priests on the other. There follow chapters discussing Pre- Wycliffite Bible-reading by lay people : Wycliffe's theory of the ' dominion of grace ' and. as flowing from it, his doctrine of the need of Bible-reading for every man ; the two versions of Wyclifle's Bible and the authorship of the General prologue ; the controversy which raged at the end of the fourteenth century ; other biblical translations : orthodox Bible reading from 1408 to 1526, and the later history of the Lollards.
" Discussion," in accordance with what remarked aoove, is to be taken here in its
