CHAPTER IV

LATIN AND GREEK TRANSLATIONS, I

THE First Act of Uniformity (2 & 3 Edward VI. c. I), prints as the fifth and sixth clause:

“Provided always that it shall be lawful to any Man that understandeth the Greek, Latin and Hebrew Tongue, or other strange Tongue, to say and have the said Prayers heretofore specified of Mattens and Evensong in Latine, or any such other Tongue, saying the same privately, as they do understand. And for the further encouraging of Learning in the Tongues in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, to use and exercise in their common and open Prayer in their chapels (being no Parish Churches) or other Places of Prayer, the Mattens, Evensong, Letany, and all other Prayers, (the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass, excepted) prescribed in the said Book, in Greek, Latine or Hebrew; any Thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding. ”

And in the Act of Uniformity of 1662 (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4). this clause is enacted:

“Provided always, That it shall and may be lawful to use the Morning and Evening Prayer, and all other Prayers and Service prescribed in and by the said Book, in the Chappels or other Publick places of the respective Colledges and Halls in both the Universities, in the Colledges of Westminster, Winchester, and Eaton, and in the Convocations of the Clergies of the Province in Latine; Anything in this Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.”

A short time before the promulgation of the First Act of Uniformity the new Order of the Communion, prepared by Archbishop Cranmer in 1547, was translated into Latin by A. A. S. D. Th., i.e. Alexander Alesius, Scotus, Doctor Theologiae. Its title reads: Ordo di- | stributionis | Sacramenti Altaris | sub vtraque specie, et | formvla confessionis | faciendae in re- | gno Angliae. Haec Londini evvl- | gat a sunt octavo | die Martii, | anni | M. D. XLVIII. Twelve leaves, without pagination. Signature A eight, B four leaves. 8vo.

The tract was printed in Germany, most likely at Leipzig, where Aless was residing, and where, three years later, the Latin translation of portions of the First Edwardine Liturgy was published. The Latin of the Order of the Communion is more accurate than the same scholar’s later rendering of the Prayer Book of 1549.

A Latin translation of the Order of the Communion was also made by Sir John Cheke (1514-1557), tutor to Edward VI., when Prince of Wales, after the elevation of Richard Cox to the bishopric of Ely. Cheke was considered one of the foremost classical scholars of his age. He translated the order for the benefit of Martin Bucer, then professor of theology in the University of Cambridge. This translation is printed in Bucer's Scripta Anglicana, Basel, 1577.

During the same year, 1548, a German translation was published without translator's name or place of publication. It reads: Die Ordnung der | Heiligen Communion bey des | Herrn Nachtmal, wie sol- | ches noch zur zeit, inn den | Englendischen Kir- | chen gehalten | wird. | M.D. XLVIII. Eight leaves, without pagination. Sig. A and B in fours. 4to.

It may not be a wrong surmise that this translation was made by Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), the German reformer and friend of Cranmer, whose niece, Margaret, the latter had secretly married.

The Latin and the German translations are reprinted by Henry Austin Wilson in his edition of *The Order of the Communion, 1548. London, 1908, Appendix II, pp. 7-27.

Immediately upon the publication of the First Edwardine Prayer Book in 1549 it was translated into Latin, the lingua franca of the educated classes of that period, for the benefit of the foreign reformers whose verdict the King and his councillors. desired. The title of this translation, published January 5, 1551, reads:

* Ordinatio | Ecclesiae, sev ministe | rii ecclesiastici, in florentis-simo Regno Angliæ, conscript a sermone patrio, & in | Latinam linguam bona fide conuersa, & ad consolati- | onem Ecclesiarum Christi, ubicunque loco- | rum ac gentium his tristissimis | temporibus, | edita, | ab Alexandro Alesio Scoto, | Sacrae Theologiae | Doctore. | Lipsiae | in officina VVolfgangi | Gunteri. ^[1] | Anno | M.D. LI.

Black letter. (8), and 66 folios. Sig. A and B in fours, for title and preliminary matter; text C-R in fours, S, 6 leaves. Page, 3¾ x 5¾; paper, 5⅞ x 7⅞ inches ^[2].

Previous chapter
 

Grifftihs 87:1

[1] Wolf Guenther, or, Wolfgang Gunter, was a printer at Leipzig of little importance. See Friedrich Kapp, Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels bis in das siebzehnte Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1886, pp. 154, 304, 574

Alexander Alane, better known by his assumed name Alesius, shortened into Aless, a Scotchman, was born in Edinburgh, April 23, 1500, and died in Leipzig, March 17, 1565. His descent from Alexander Hales, the doctor irrefragabilis and famous teacher of Thomas Aquinas, is only a pious, unfounded conjecture thrown out by his panegyrist, Jacob Thomasius, of Leipzig. Owing to the persecutions on the part of his superior, Prior Patrick Hepburn, it became impossible for Alane to remain in St. Andrews. He escaped to Germany in 1530 and, at the suggestion of Melanchthon, changed his name to Alexander Alesius, i.e. Alexander the Wanderer. In Germany he became shortly very prominent in the religious reform movement. In 1535 he visited England at the invitation of Cranmer; but on the passing of the Act of the Six Articles, in 1539, he returned to Wittenberg. During the reign of King Edward VI. he was employed by Cranmer to translate into Latin the Order of the Communion and the first reformed Prayer Book, mainly to obtain the opinion of Martin Bucer and of Peter Martyr, neither of whom possessed sufficient knowledge of English to clearly understand the meaning of these two fundamental works in that language. At the time when Alesius translated the first Liturgy, he was professor in the university of Leipzig, which may account for that city as the place of publication ^[3]. Copies of the book are now very rare. The translation is by no means accurate, and differs in many instances from the text of the English original. This is due partly to the carelessness of the translator and partly to the fact that in some portions he simply substituted sentences and whole sections from contemporary Latin church orders and unreformed service books in the place of the reading of the English text. Latin church orders and directories of worship existed in those days in several countries, copies of which were easily accessible to Alesius ^[4].

Inasmuch as the foreign divines had to rely for their knowledge of the newly prepared liturgy on the defective Latin translation of Alesius, it is small wonder that they expressed disapproval and urged a further revision, issuing in the Second Liturgy of King Edward VI., in 1552. While the learned Peter Heylyn may be correct in saying that the revisers of the second liturgy were the same who first had formulated it, it is equally true that the second Prayer Book was not the offspring of the Church of England. Its parentage was foreign. As the influence of Luther’s service book, the *Brandenburg-Nuremberg Kirchenordnung had coloured the first liturgy of 1549, so the influence of Bucer, Peter Martyr, John a Lasco, and Valerandus Pollanus (Poullain), may be traced in the liturgy of 1552. The English Church had no opportunity of revising, or expressing an opinion upon it. Even Cranmer expressed a doubt as to the legality of the book after it had been altered without the authority of Parliament ^[5].

In his article “Versions of the PB (older)” in The Prayer Book Dictionary, 1912, p. 808, St. Clair Tisdall says: “Almost at the same time [with the translation of Aless] another was made in Ireland by Smith. ” This is rather surprising; for I have not found a trace of such a translation. Which Smith does he mean? The only one that might have done so, was Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577), statesman, scholar, and author. But he is not known to have made such a translation. Against such an early translation for Ireland militate the statements of the late Bishop Mant in his History of the Church of Ireland (1840), Vol. I, pp. 258 foil. That none such translation was printed in Ireland, is clearly shown by E. R. McC. Dix in The Earliest Dublin Printing. With list of books, proclamations, etc., printed in Dublin prior to 1601. Dublin, 1901. Tisdall’s statement may be based to some extent on Clay, Liturgical Services, p. xxxi, rem. 2 :

"Two translations, of which Aless’s was one. were made in Edward’s reign, and a third undertaken, but left imperfect. Cardwell’s Two Liturgies of Edward VI. compared, p. xvi; Original Letters, p. 535.”

But, neither of these two references are of any material help in proving such an assertion.

The translation of Aless, notwithstanding its many manifest defects, was made the foundation of the one authorized by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, in 1560. The revision is ascribed to Walter Haddon. Both translations, the one of 1551 and that of 1560, comprise only certain portions of the Liturgy. The title page of the 1560 edition reads:

* Liber Precum | pvblicarvm, sev | ministerij Ecclesi- | astice, administrati- | onis Sacramen- | torum, aliorumque, | ritum & cære- | moniarum | in Eccle- | sia | Anglicana. | Cum prilegio [sic] Regie | Maiestatis.
 

[2] The copy in the Benton collection has contemporary binding. There is a copy of this rare book in the library of the General Theological Seminary, New York, N. Y.

[3] See Cooper, Athenæ Cantabrigienses, Vol. I, pp. 238-240, 554; Cambridge, 1858. Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3te Auflage, Band I (Leipzig, 1896), pp. 336-338. Christopher Anderson (1782-1852), The Annals of the English Bible: London, 1845; Vol. I, pp. 451, 498-503; II, pp. 427-468. David Laing (1793-1878), The Works of John Knox, collected and edited: Edinburgh, 1846; Vol. I, pp. 55, 526. Alexander Ferrier Mitchell, The Scottish Reformation; Edinburgh, 1900; pp. 239-283, 295-301 and 301-307 (The Works of Alesius). David Hay Fleming, The Reformation in Scotland: London, 1910; pp. 178, 188, 216-218. George Christie, The Influence of Letters on the Scottish Reformation: Edinburgh, 1908; pp. 26-38, 198-2°3. The ”Oratio de Alexandro Alesio,” by Thomasius, was published in Magistri J. Thomasii ,Orationes; Lipsiæ, 1683; pp. 300-322. For Aless’ connection with the University of Leipzig, see Otto Kim, Die Leipziger theologische Fakultät in fünf Jahrhunderten, 1409-1909; Leipzig, 1909; pp. 43, 45, 50, 51, 55, 56.

[4] The custom of translating books into Latin for the benefit of foreigners was by no means infrequent. Thus we read in Vol. II, pp. 84, 85, of Daniel Neal’s The History of the Puritans, Boston, 1817: “To remove these reproaches, and to inform the world of the real principles of the puritans of these times, the reverend Mr. Bradshaw published a small treatise, entitled English Puritanism .... , which the learned Dr. Ames translated into Latin for the benefit of foreigners.” This Latin translation was published at. Frankfurt, Germany. in 1610. It was, in addition, customary to have important writings and documents in a duplicate form, one copy in English, the other in Latin. Thus, we have the titles of the Acts of Parliament in Latin and in English up to Charles II. Thus, also, we have, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Articles of Faith in English and in Latin, both apparently of equal authority and yet differing somewhat in their phraseology.

[5] Cranmer’s letter was addressed to the Council and dated, “At Lambeth this VIIIth of October 1552.”

Title in wood-cut border. Without pagination. Page, 3½ x 6½; paper, 5½ x 7¾ inches. Text in long lines, with many wood-cut initials. Calendar in black and red. Preliminaries (20 leaves), Sig. (a), ¶¶, b, c, d, in fours; text, A-Z, Aa-Qq in fours ^[6]. Leaves 1, rev., and 2, obv., contain the letters patent of the queen; 2, rev., —4, obv., end, the Prefatio; 4, rev.,—7, rev., De Creremoniis, &c. ; 8, Index & Calendarium; 9, obv., —12, rev., Tabula monstrans ordinem Psalmorum, ad Matutinas & Vespertinas preces; [9, rev., Ordo lectionum iuxta contextum Bibliorum sepositis Psalmis]; 13, Obv., —18, rev., Calendar; 19, De anno & partibus eius; 20, De inuentione Paschatis, &c. Qq i, obv., med.: Finis libri publicarum Precum | Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. Qq i, rev., contains only these lines : D. Augustinus | De ciuitate Dei, libro primo | capite 12. | Cvratio funeris; conditio sepulturæ | pompa exequiarum, magis sunt viuo- | rum solatia, quam subsidia mortuorum. | Colophon: Qq iiii, obv., end: Excusum Londini apud Reginaldum | Volfium ^[7], Regiæ Maiest. | in Latinis typo- | graphum. | Cum priuilegio Regiæ Maiestatis. | The reverse contains the printer’s device.

Walter Haddon, LL.D., and master of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, was born in 1516 and died in 1572. In 1533 he was elected to King’s College, Cambridge; proceeded B.A., 1537, and commenced M.A. 1541, and doctor in the law faculty, 1549. He was one of the executors of Bucer and a friend of Sir John Cheke. In 5 Edw. VI. (1551), he and Sir John Cheke were employed by Archbishop Cranmer in revising and translating into Latin the code of ecclesiastical laws prepared by the archbishop and others under the authority of a Royal Commission. This Latin text, entitled *Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, ex authoritate primum Henrici 8. inchoata: deinde per Regem Edovardum 6. provecta; adauctáque in hunc modum, ... was published in 1571, with a preface by J[ohn] F[ox], the well-known martyrologist.

As soon as Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, Haddon was summoned to attend her at Hatfield. He was immediately constituted one of the Masters of Request. On January 22, 1560, he, with Archbishop Matthew Parker, Bishop Edmund Grindal and Dr. William Bill, were commissioned to revise the calendar of lessons to be read in the Church. He was as conspicuous for his virtue and piety as for his learning and talent.

The Royal letters patent, as stated above, were prefixed to this Latin translation. The subscription reads: Dat, apud Palacium nostrum de Westmonasterio, sexto die Aprilis. Anno regni nostri secundo [i.e. 1560]. These letters patent gave permission to say the whole of the services, including the Eucharist, in such chapels in Latin, provision being made, also, for an English service and communion, at least on festivals. And all ministers were exhorted to use the Latin form privately on those days on which they did not say the public prayers in English in their churches. The letters patent stand in the place of the Act of Uniformity.

In many cases, Haddon, whether author or editor, was compelled to depart from Aless, in consequence of the alterations since 1549; in others he followed him so closely that the book of 1560 by no means gives an accurate view of the Book of Common Prayer of 1559.
 

Griffiths 87:2

[6] The copy in the Benton collection was formerly the property of Lord Amherst. Another copy is in the J. P. Morgan library.

[7] Reginald or Reynold Wolfe was in business as a bookseller in London as early as 1530, and in 1533 took out letters of denization in which he is described as a native of Gelderland. His original name may have been Reyner Wolf. The family probably emigrated from Germany to Gelderland. Early in 1536 he was admitted a Freeman of the Company of Stationers. In 1542 he commenced to print, issuing some works of Leland printed in roman and italic type, probably obtained abroad, and identical with some used by Johann Wolf at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In these he used the device, later on used also in the printing of Haddon’s translation, viz., children throwing sticks at an apple tree, with the motto “Charitas, ” etc. In 1547 he was appointed King’s printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He died at the end of 1573. His. printing office was in St. Paul’s Churchyard, at the sign of the Brazen Serpent, which emblem he also used as a device.

”And so little care seems to have been taken to bring the Latin into agreement with the revised English Book, that it has been suspected that this apparent carelessness was intentional, and that, by means of this Latin version, the Universities and public :schools, and the clergy in their private devotions, should become reconciled to the observances of the First Book of Edward VI. ”^[8].

A convenient modern reprint of the edition of 1560 will be found in Clay’s Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer, pages 299-430. [Griffiths 1847/11, also online]

There is no date on the title-page, nor in the colophon, but it is safely conjectured from the fact that on folio d iii, reverse, a reference is found to 1560 in the words annvs hic prcesens 1560.

The Celebratio cœncæ Domini, in funebribus, si amici & uicini defuncti communicare uelint, preceded by in commendationibus Benefactorum, forms an Appendix to the book (Sig. Q ii — Q iiii, obv.). The two offices were especially mentioned in the letters patent as peculiaria quœdam. The Occasional Services, except those for the Visitation of the Sick and the Burial of the Dead (Sig. Nn iii, rev.— Qq i, obv.), were not required for the purposes of the book. There are, however, copies of an edition of the same year, which omit the Appendix, and contain the Occasional Offices, but added out of their order after the Burial Service. They consist of sixteen additional leaves, signed Qq — Tt. The original sheet Qq, of which the first few lines are reprinted in this addition, is either omitted or placed at the end.
 

But why two editions, or forms of the same edition, in one and the same year; the one, containing all the Occasional Offices, excepting the Commination Service, and the other with the above-mentioned Appendix in their place? The correct answer is probably the one given by Frere and many others, namely, that the former was intended for the use of the Church in Ireland where the common minister or priest had not the use or knowledge of the English tongue.

“In 1560 the Irish Parliament passed an Act of Uniformity establishing the Book of Common Prayer as it was then established in England. The Act, however, provided that in every church or place where the common minister or priest had not the use or knowledge of the English tongue, he might say and use all the common and open prayer in the Latin tongue in the order and form mentioned and set forth in the Book established by the Act. This provision seems to have assumed that priests who could not read English could translate it into Latin which they could read.” - J. H. BENTON, p. xxxiii.

Haddon followed the translation of Aless to such an extent that in some instances, e.g. in the Absolution in the Communion Service, it is not a translation of Queen Elizabeth’s Prayer Book of 1559, but more nearly of Edward’s book of 1549. In the Collects, after the Litany, this translation follows the ordinary books of Elizabeth’s reign.
 

Griffith 87:3

The translation of 1560 pleased no one and was treated most contemptuously, not only in the colleges, for whose use it was originally made, but also by others. In 1571 it was supplanted by another Latin version, “intentionally made to exhibit a close resemblance to the English Book in its complete state, with the new Kalendar prepared in 1561 ” (Procter-Frere, page 124). The Act of Uniformity is prefixed, the Occasional Services are arranged in their order, and at the end is Münster’s translation of the Psalms.

The book is frequently called a second edition of the 1560 book, but it is a different and an altogether independent book. It was also printed by Reginald Wolfe; the colophon is dated 1572, and the title page of -the Psalter, 1571. Almost identical with this is the edition of 1574, which reads:

* Liber | Precvm Pv- | blicarvm, sev | Ministerij Ecclesiasticæ | administrationis Sacra- | mentorum, | aliorvmqve | rituum, & cæremoniarum | in Ecclesia Anglicana. | Excvsvm Londi- | ni, per assi- | gnationem | Francisci Floræ. | Cvm | privilegio | Regiæ Maiestatis.
 

Griffiths 87:4

Follows on folio 188 :

Liber | Psalmorvm | Davidis Pro- | phetae et | Regis. | Ad Hebraicam veritatem, a Sebastia- | no Munnstero quam diligen- | tissime versus, | 1574.

The last folio, 299, has the imprint, Londini Excudebat Thomas Vautrollerius ^[9] 1574.

(27), 299 folios. Sig. (Preliminaries) A 8 leaves, b 4, c and d 8; (text), A-Z in eights, Aa i, ii, iii (reverse blank). (Psalms), Aa iiii — Oo in eights; Pp i, ii. iii (reverse blank). Page, 2⅞ x 5; paper, 3¾ x 6 inches ^[10]. The 27 unnumbered leaves at the beginning of the volume contain Statutum de uniformi ratione communium precum, i.e. the Act of Uniformity (22 pages), and Index et Calendarium (32 pages, red ruled). The richly-designed wood-cut border of the title-page contains the several devices of Flower’s assigns, marked by their initials, viz.: C[hristopher] B[arker], W[illiam] N[orton]. G[arret] D[ewes]. I[ohn] W[yghte], I[ohn] H[arrison], R[ichard] W[atkins], R[obert] B[arker], and C[harles] T[ressel], the last two, however, being uncertain. Francis Flower had secured toward the end of 1573 the patent of Queen’s Printer for ten years, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in succession to Reginald Wolfe. The patent gave rise to much dissatisfaction among the poorer printers, who, headed by John Wolf, secretly printed thousands of these privileged books and refused to desist.

Sebastian Muenster, whose Psalter translation is added to the Prayer Book, was born in 1489 and died in 1552. He was professor of Theology and Mathematics in the University of Basel, Switzerland. He published a critical edition of the Old Testament in Hebrew and translated many of the individual books of the same into Latin, with critical introductions, commentary, and notes.
 

Griffiths 87:5

[9] Thomas Vautrollier was a printer, bookseller, and bookbinder. in London and Edinburgh, from 1562-87. His place of business was within the Blackfriars, by Ludgate. He and his wife were Huguenot fugitives from France who settled in England and took out letters of denization on March 9th, 1562. In 1584 he fled to Scotland, in order to avoid imprisonment for printing the writings of Giordano Bruno. He set up a press in Edinburgh, but returned to London in 1586, and died there in July, 1587. As a printer he ranked above most of his contemporaries, both for the beauty of his types and the excellence of his presswork. He appears to have had at least four devices, all of which have an anchor suspended by a right hand issuing from clouds, within a laurel wreath, twined with the motto, in the border, An | cho | ra | spei. The same device was also used by John Norton (1593-1610?). For further information concerning Vautrollier see Dickson and Edmond, Annals of Scottish Printing, pp. 377-385.

[10] A copy in the Benton collection was formerly the property of George Becher Blomfield, late rector of Stevenage, Herts, and canon of Chester Cathedral.

Later editions of this translation of the Prayer Book were printed in 1594, by John Jackson, grocer and printer from 1584-1596, for the assigns of Francis Flower; and by John Norton in 1604.

The Latin book for the use of Christ Church, Oxford, printed in 1615, follows the translation of 1560. The Daily Services, .the Psalter, and some additional Prayers were translated into Latin for the use of Christ Church, Oxford, also in 1660. The book was published by Henry Hall at the expense of Richard Davis, 277 pages, 12mo.
 

Griffiths 87:6 & 87:7

A translation of the Common Prayer in verse, privately printed when the Liturgy was proscribed, appeared in 1657, entitled: Liturgia sacra: Curru Thesbitico, i.e. Zeli inculpabilis vehiculo deportata, & viâ devotionis Regiâ deducta a Rand. Gilpin, Sacerd. Vel, Opsonia Spiritualia omnibus verê Christianis, etiam pueris degustanda [Lonndini?] 1657. 117 pages, 12mo. Randolph Gilpin was an M.A., King’s College, Cambridge, 1618. During the period of the Commonwealth he occupied himself in the composition of this little work, which he dedicated to Eton School, where he had received his early education. At the Restoration he was created D.D. by royal mandate. He died in 1661.

The first version of the entire Liturgy into Greek was made by Elias Petley. The title reads as follows:

* Λειτουργια | Βρεττανκη | ηγουν Βιβλος | δημοσιων ευχων | και | διακονηριως μυστηριων | και των αλλων Θεσμων και τελετων | εν τη 'Εκκλεσια ημων 'Αγγλικανη εις | την των φιλελλημων νεων χαριν | ιλληνιστι εκδοθεσια |

Liber Precvm pvblicarvm | Ac Celebrationis Sacramentorum reliquo- | rumque Rituum & Cæremoniarum in Eccle- | siâ. nostril. Anglicanâ, in studiosæ juven- | tutis gratiam nunc primum | grrecè editus. |
Operâ & Studio Eliæ Petili | Presbyteri.
 

Griffiths 87:9

Londini | Typis Tho. Cotesi pro Richardo Whitakero ad insignia Regia in Ccemeterio D. Pauli. MDCXXXVIII ^[11].

The main title is printed in black and red, surrounded by a slender border. The pages are not numbered. There are 131 leaves, signatures A, α—γ, ¶, ¶¶, B—N, in fours, preceded by one leaf for the title, the reverse of this leaf being blank. The second part numbers signatures A—P 2 (obv.), in fours. Page, 3½ x 5¾; paper, 4¼ x 6¾ inches. Printed in two columns to the page, except the three title-pages and the preface, which are in long lines. The preface, sig. A—A 4, is written in Latin and addressed to Archbishop William Laud, to whom the translator dedicates his work. Then follows the (second) title-page to the Prayer Book proper :

Βιβλος | δημοσιων ευχων | Και | λειτουργησεως μυστηριων, | και των αλλων Θεσμων και τελε- | των εν τη 'Εκκλεσια 'Αγγλικανη εις την των φιλελληνων | νεων χαριν, 'Ελληνιστι εκδοθεσια. [Follows the printer's mark.] 'Εκυπωθιν | 'Εν τη Λονδινια πολει τωτης Χριστιανης σωτεριας ετει αχλη..

Part 2 of the Prayer Book contains the Psalter, or Psalms of David, entitled:

Ψαλτηριον | προφητου | βασιλεως | του Δαβιδ. Εις τα τμηματα και κομματα | εν 'Εκκλεσια ημων 'Αγγλικανη δημοσιως | ειωθοτα διηρεμενον. [Below this is the printer's mark.] 'Εν Λονδινη. Εδοθη παρα Θωμα του Κωτησιου τυποθηριον τω της σωτεριας ετει αχλη.

Reverse of title-page is blank. The text is that of the Septuagint Psalter.

Grifftiths 45:2

[11] Thomas Cotes was a printer in London at Barbican, Aldersgate Street, from 1620-1641. He owned the printing house originally established, about 1560, by John Charlewood, printer to the Earl of Arundel, under the sign of the Half Eagle and Key. Cotes died in 1641. — Richard Whitaker was a bookseller in London, King’s Arms, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1619-48. He was in partnership with his brother Thomas. They conducted an extensive business and published much of the best literature of the period. He died on February 5, 1647/8.

Concerning the translator scarce anything is known beyond the fact that he was a priest of the Church of England. His only other publication known so far, appears to be a sermon published in 1623 ^[12].

The Greek translation was made at the time when Laud and Cecil were attempting a union between the Greek Church and the Church of ,England. At the beginning of the seventeenth century “several excellent persons” were interested in the subject of Eastern Christianity. There can be no doubt that another result of the movement toward re-union with the Greek Orthodox Church was the erection and consecration of the still-existing Greek Church in Soho, now known as St. Mary’s, Crown Street.
 

[12] Jeremy Collier, The Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain. New edition, by Thomas Lathbury. Vol. VIII (1852), p. 166 says: “By the encouragement of Archbishop Laud, the English liturgy was translated into Greek by one Petley, as it had been into French by King James’s order for the use of the Isle of Jersey.”

Petley’s translation seems to be the first Greek version of the whole Liturgy, with the additions of 1604. But William Whitaker had long before brought out a Latin and Greek Prayer Book, which he dedicated to his uncle, Dean Nowell. The title of this translation reads: Liber precvm publicarum Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, in iuventutis Græcarum literarum studiosæ gratiam, latinè græcéque æditus ... Londini, Anno Domini MDLXIX. The colophon, at the end of the book, reads: Excusum Londini apud Reginaldum Wolfium. The dedication is dated 23 Maii 1569. The Latin is based to some extent on Haddon’s work. The book, numbering 123 pages, small 4to, contains only the Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, the Collects, and the Catechism.

Whitaker was born at Holme, in the parish of Bromley, Lancashire, in 1548. His mother, Elizabeth, was the sister of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul’s. His uncle took charge of William’s education and sent him to Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1564, and remained until he commenced M.A. in 1571. Throughout his earlier career he was assisted by his uncle, whose Larger Catechism he also translated from Latin into Greek. No English divine of the sixteenth century surpassed Whitaker in the estimation of his contemporaries. Joseph Scaliger, Bishop Hall, and Isaac Casaubon alike spoke of him in terms of unbounded admiration. He died in r595 while Master of St. John’s College, at Cambridge, England. Whitaker endeavoured to account for the discrepancy between the Latin version of 1560 and the English book of 1559 in the plea that it only arose from the expansion or contraction of the original in a translation.
 

Griffiths 45:1

An unauthorised Latin version of the Prayer Book appeared in 1616. Its author was Richard Mocket (1577-1618), warden (since 1614) of All Souls’ College, Oxford. The translation was part of a volume entitled: Doctrina et politia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, a ... Edovardo Sexto . Elizabetha stabilita, et a ... Iacobo ... continuata . eivsdem ecclesiæ Apologia [auctore episcopo Iewel] .... (Apologia. — Doctrina Catechetica ... succincta. — Doctrina Catechetica magis ampla. — Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ doctrina. — Liber Precum. — Forma consecrandi Archiepiscopos, etc..Eccl. Angl. Disciplina et Politia). Apud J. Biilium, Londini, 1616. (8), 350 pages, 4to. There were seven parts, of which the last five had separate titles. It was published anonymously and reprinted, with new prefatory matter, the following year, 1617. The book displeased King James, and all the copies of the 1616 issue were seized and burnt in 1617. But one extant copy, in the British Museum Library, is known. The seven parts are: (1) Bishop Jewel’s Apology; (2) The Church Catechism; (3) Dean Nowell’s Catechism; (4) The Thirty-nine Articles; (5) The Prayer Book; (6) The Ordinal; and (7) The Author’s Doctrina et Politia, a general view of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the English Church, mainly prepared for the information of foreigners. Mocket’s work, without the rest of the volume, was republished in London in 1683, under the title: “Tractatus de Politia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,” and with it was printed Richard Zouch’s “Descriptio Juris et Judicii Ecclesiastici. ” Another edition appeared in London in 1705, 8vo.

Griffiths 87:8 & 87:40 (this a 1995 reprint)