language of Milton, " that the word of truth, hewn, like the mangled body of Osiris, into a thousand pieces, and scattered to the four winds, should be gathered limb to limb, and moulded with every joint and member into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection."

Joye's great friend, the pious and amiable Tindale, who is described as "a man without stain or blemish of rancour or malice," and whom Sir Thomas More designates as "the captain of English heretics," resided at this time at Antwerp, where he had taken refuge from the persecution to which he was exposed in England, after he had embraced the reformed religion. He had been originally educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and had afterwards removed to Cambridge. During his residence at Antwerp, "considering in his mind, and conferring also with John Frith, he thought with himself," as Fox remarks, in his Acts and Monuments of the Martyrs, "that no way would be of more advantage than if the Scripture were turned into the vulgar speech, that the poor people might read and see the simple, plain word of God." He was an excellent Greek scholar, and accordingly, in 1526, he published a translation of the New Testament, which was the first that had been ever printed in the English language.

His first edition was speedily bought up by Tonstal, then Bishop of London, who hoped, by that means, surely to prevent the laity from becoming acquainted with its contents. The result, however, proved far otherwise, as the profits of the sale enabled him to publish forthwith a new and much larger edition; which circumstance is thus quaintly related by Hall, in his Chronicles of England.

"Shortly after, it fortuned one George Constantine to be apprehended, by Sir Thomas More, of suspicion of certain heresies. And this Constantine being with More, Master More said in this wise to Constantine; Constantine, I would have thee plain with me in one thing. There is beyond the sea, Tindale, Joye, and many mo; I know they cannot live without help; I pray thee, who be they that thus keep them? My lord,' quoth he, will you that I should tell you the truth ?— "Yea! I pray thee,' quoth my lord. Mary, I will,' quoth Constantine. Truly,' quoth he, it is the Bishop of London, for he hath bestowed emong us a great deale of money in New Testaments, to burn them; and that hath been and yet is our only succour and comfort.'

6

great seeking for English books, and for an English priest that should print," &c. [Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 308.] This, as Mr. Lewis remarks, may perhaps be that fragment which Mr. Wanley (in his Bibl. Lit. p. 40,) said he had, and which seemed to him to be part of an entire Bible, and to be older than Coverdale's, printed in 1535.

In 1534 was published a fourth Dutch edition, the fifth in all of Tindale's translation of the New Testament'; such was the eagerness with which it was demanded by all classes of the people. Many elderly persons, as we learn in Strype's Life of Cranmer, learned to read, for the sole purpose of imbibing its divine doctrines and precepts. The first edition consisted of about 1500 copies; in the two editions published in Holland in 1527 there were about 5000 printed. The fourth Dutch edition, a copy of which is in Lord Pembroke's library, was superintended by Joye. He was censured by Tindale for having taken certain liberties with the translation; in answer to which charge, he published his "Apology, if it may be, to satisfy William Tindale."

About the same time a work on the Lord's Supper was published in the Low Countries, which Bale, in his Centuries, mentions in the list of Joye's works; and to him Sir Thomas More, in his "Answer to the poison'd Book called the Supper of the Lord," attributes it. Sir Thomas More complains severely that the "nameless heretic," as he styles him, "would, if he could, convey from the blessed sacrament Christ's own blessed flesh and blood, and leave us nothing therein but a memorial only of bare bread and wine."

In 1535, Joye published "A compendious Sum of the very Christian Religion," in which he treats briefly of the scriptural character of God, the creation of man, original sin, the promise of Christ, of faith, of the Holy Spirit, of charity, of justification, of sanctification, and of a future life. Sir Thomas More, in the preface to his " Confutation of Tindale's Answer," mentions this. In the same "Confutation" he complains indignantly, that, by the influence of such heretics as Tindale, Joye, and others, the philological studies of the young were almost superseded by the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and remarks, that "after the Psalter, children were wont to go to their Donate and their accidence, but now they go straight to Scripture! And thereby have we, as a Donate, the book of the 'Pathway to Scripture,' and for an accidence we have 'The whole Sum of Scripture' in a little book."

1 The earliest version of the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular tongue, in England, of which we have any account, is a translation of the Psalms into the Saxon language, by Adhelm, Bishop of Sherborn, about the year 706. Egbert, Bishop Lindisfern, who died A. D. 721, made a Saxon version of the four Gospels, and in a few years after the venerable Bede translated the entire Bible into that language. The first English translation of the Bible extant is supposed by Archbishop Usher to have been made about the year 1290. About the year 1380, the entire Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate, from which also, in 1582, the English New Testament printed at Rheims was translated. After Tindale's translation, first published in 1526, had gone through very many editions, the whole Bible was translated by Miles Coverdale, which was the first printed English translation of the Bible. [See Lewis's History, &c., and Horne's Crit. Introduct.]

The writings of Melancthon, to whose piety and virtues his greatest enemies have borne abundant testimony, and from whom, Mosheim remarks, "the cause of true christianity derived more effectual support than from any of the other writers of the age, from his judgment, his meekness, and his humanity," seem to have been a favourite study with Joye, as we find him, in 1542, writing a commentary on the prophecies of Daniel, which is, in great part, extracted from Melancthon, whose letter of dedication to Prince Maurice of Saxony he has translated, and prefixed to the work. In this work, he has enlarged, with further scriptural proofs, on the cardinal doctrine of salvation by faith alone, and has exposed with singular felicity and fairness the doctrines and practices of the church of Rome.

Sir Thomas More, in his "Answer to the poison'd Book which some nameless Heretic has named the Supper of the Lord," bears testimony to the reputation for learning and talent which Joye had in England; and we find him on several occasions quoting the classic authors of antiquity, for whom his acquaintance with the writings of Melancthon would alone, no doubt, have given him a relish.

To conclude this hasty sketch of the labours of one, of whom the reader will probably wish to know more, "George Joye was," to use the words of Fuller, in his Worthies of England, "the great friend of Master Tindale, and therefore perfectly hated by Wolsey, Fisher, and Sir Thomas More. The particulars of his sufferings would justly advance him into the reputation of a confessor. Notwithstanding many machinations against his life, he found his coffin, where he fetched his cradle, buried in his own country, the last year of King Edward VI.""

The reader who wishes to see a list of the numerous works published by Joye, both in England and on the continent, is referred to Bale's Scriptorum Illustrium, Mag. Brit. Catalogus, Cent. ix. p. 721, and to Tanner's Biblioth. Brit. Hibern. fol. 1749.

Historical and Antiquarian Magazine.

JOHN GOWER, THE POET.

EVERY one who is acquainted with the writings of this poet is probably aware that the materials for his personal history are extremely scanty and unsatisfactory; that it has never been ascertained from what family he sprung; and that we are in complete ignorance about his descendants.

The desire of complimenting a noble house, seems to have induced the author of the "Illustrations of the Life and Writings of Gower" to adopt the opinion of those writers who have considered that he was a member of the family of Gower of Yorkshire, not only without evidence, but in direct opposition to the little which has been hitherto adduced. However slightly the following notices may be considered to relate to the poet himself, there can be no question that they refer to his family, and establish that, though the Marquess of Stafford "is the head of the illustrious house of Gower," it is of a house which derives no part of that lustre from "the moral Gower." Nearly the whole of the facts which we are about to state have escaped the biographers of that writer; and even if the opinion be thought erroneous, that part of them, and particularly the deed which will be inserted, refer to the poet, it cannot be denied that they throw much light upon a point which has never been properly investigated.

The will of the poet proves that he possessed the manors of Southwell, in the county of Nottingham, and Multon in Suffolk': we find

As his Will is one of the very few documents relating to him which are extant, and as it will be occasionally referred to in this article, a copy of it is here given: "IN DEI NOMINE AMEN, Ego Johannes Gower compos mentis, et in fide catholica ad misericordiam divinam domini nostri Jesu Christi ex toto me commendans, condo testamentum meum sub hac forma. In primis lego animam meam Deo creatori

from his tomb that his arms were Argent on a chevron Azure, three leopards' faces Or; his crest, on a chapeau a talbot passant; and there

meo, et corpus ad sepeliendum in ecclesia Canonicorum beate Marie de Overes in loco ad hoc specialiter deputato: Et lego Priori dicte ecclesie qui pro tempore fuerit quadraginta solidos. Item lego Subpriori viginti solidos. Item lego cuilibet Canonico sacerdoti Deo ibidem servienti xiijs et iiijd. ceteris verò Canonicis ibidem noviciis lego cuilibet eorum sex solidos et viijd. ut omnes et singuli exequias sepulture mee devocius colant, orantes pro me. Item lego cuilibet valetto infra portas dicti Prioratus Priori et Conventui servienti duos solidos, et cuilibet garcioni xijd. Item lego ecclesie beate Marie Magdalene xl. solidos ad luminaria et ornamenta dicte ecclesie. Item lego sacerdoti ibidem paroch. x. solidos, ut oret et orari faciat pro me. Item lego magistro clerico ibidem iijs. Item lego subclerico ijs. Item lego iiij ecclesiis paroch. in Soutwerk, viz. sancte Margarete, sancti Georgii, sancti Olaui, et sancte Marie Magdalene juxta Bermundesey, cuilibet earum singillatim xiijs. et iiijd. ad ornamenta et luminaria ut supra: Et cuilibet sacerdoti paroch. sive rectori in cura ibidem pro tempore residenti et ecclesie servienti sex. et octod. ut orent et orari pro me in suis parochiis faciant et procurent. Item lego magistro Hospitalis sancti Thome martiris in Southewerk xl3. et cuilibet sacerdoti qui est de gremio dicti Hospitalis in codem servienti vjs. et viijd. ut orent ibidem pro me. Item lego cuilibet sorori professe in dicto Hospitali iijs. et iiijd. et cuilibet earum ancille infirmos custodienti xxd. Item lego cuilibet infirmo infra dictum Hospitale languenti xijd. Item lego singulis Hospitalibus subscriptis, viz. sancti Thome Elsingspitell, Bedlem extra Byschopus-gat, seint Mary spitell juxta Westm. cuilibet sorori ubi sunt sorores in dictis Hospitalibus professe una cum ancillis et languentibus ibidem, ut percipiant singillatim modo ut supra. Item lego cuilibet domuum leprosorum in suburbiis London. decem3. ad distribuendum inter eosdem, ut orent pro me. Item lego Priori de Elsingspitell xls. et cuilibet Canonico sacerdot, ibidem professo sexs. et viijd. ut orent pro me. Item lego ad servicium altaris in Capella sancti Johannis Baptiste in qua corpus meum sepeliendum est, viz. duo vestimenta de panno serico cum toto eorum apparatu, quorum unum est de Bleu Baudkyn mixtum de colore albo, et aliud vestimentum est de albo serico. Item lego ad servicium dicti altaris unum missale grande et novum eciam et unum calicem novum, unde voluntas mea est quòd dicta vestimenta una cum missale et calice inancant imperpetuum tantummodo ad servicium dicti altaris, et non alibi. Item lego Priori et Conventui quendam magnum librum sumptibus meis noviter compositum, qui Martilogium dicitur, sic quòd in eodem specialem memoriam scriptam secundum eorum promissa cotidie habere debeo. Item lego Agneti uxori mee cli. legalis monete. Item lego eidem iii ciphos, unum cooperculum, duo salaria, et xij cocliaria de argento. Item lego eidem omnes lectos meos et cistas una cum apparatu aule, panetre, coquine, et eorum vasis et omnibus utensiliis quibuscunque. Item lego eidem unum calicem et unum vestimentum pro altare quod est infra oratorium hospicii mei. Item volo quòd, si dicta Agnes uxor mea diucius me vivat, tunc ipsa libere et pacifice, immediate post mortem meam, percipiat omnes redditus michi debitos de firmis Maneriorum meorum tam de Southwell in Comitatu Nott. quam de Multon in Com. Suff. prout in quodam scripto inde confecto sub sigillo meo necnon sub sigillis aliorum plenius constari poterit. Huius autem Testamenti facio et constituo executores meos, viz. Agnetem uxorem meam, dominum Arnaldum Savage militem, dominum Rogerum Armigerum, dominum Willelmum Denne canonicum Capelle domini Regis, et Johannem Burton clericum. Dat. infra Prioratum beate Marie de Overes in Sutwerke in festo Assumpcionis beate Marie ao. dñi millesimo ccccmo, octavo.

"Tenore presencium nos Thomas, etc. Notum facimus universis quod vicesimo quarto die mens. Octobris anno dñi millesimo ccccmo. octavo in Manerio nostro de Lamhith probatum fuit coram nobis Testamentum supra scriptum pro eo etc. cuius pretextu etc. Administracioque omnium bonorum dictum testamentum concern. vbicunque etc. dilecte in Christo filie Agneti uxori sue exec. in eodem Testamento nominate commissa extitit et per eandem admissa in debita forma iuris. Reservata nobis potestate, etc. In cuius rei etc. Dat. die, loco, mense, et anno supradictis et nostre translacionis terciodec. anno.

"Noverint universi per presentes etc. quod nos Thomas etc. de fidelitate dilecte in Christo filie Agnetis relicte et executricis testamenti et bonorum administratricis Jo