TA DEFENSE of the sincere and true Tran slations of the holie Scriptures into the English tong, against the manifolde cauils, pish diuinitie in the trayterous Semi- By WILLIAM FVLKE D. in Diuinitie, Wherevnto is added a briefe confutation of all such quarrels & cauils, as have bene of late vttered by diuerse Papistes in their English Pamphlets, against the writings of the saide WILLIAM FVLKE. AT LONDON: Imprinted by Henrie Bynneman, Anno. 1583. Cum gratia & Priuilegio. A DISCOVERIE OF THE MANIFOLD CORRVPTIONS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTVRES BY THE Heretikes of our daies, specially the English Sectaries, and of their foule dealing herein, by partial & false translations to the aduantage of their heresies, in their English Bibles vsed and authorised since the time of Schisme. By GREGORY MARTIN one of the readers of Diuinitie in the ENGLISH COLLEGE OF RHEMES. 2 Cor. 2. Non sumus sicut plurimi, adulterantes verbum Dei, sed er sinceritate, sed sicut ex Deo, coram Deo, in Christo loquimur. That is, VVe are not as very many, adulterating the word of God, but of sinceritie, & as of God, before God, in Christ vve speake. Printed at RHEMES, By John Fogny. 1 5 8 2. TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCESS ELIZABETH, BY THE GRACE OF GOD QUEEN OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &c. AMONG the inestimable benefits, wherewith Almighty God hath wonderfully blessed this your majesty's most honourable and prosperous government, it is not to be numbered among the least, that under your most gracious and christian protection the people of your highness' dominions have enjoyed the most necessary and comfortable reading of the holy scriptures in their mother tongue and native language. Which exercise, although it hath of long time, by the adversaries of him that willeth the scriptures to be searched, (especially those of our nation,) been accounted little better than an D. Standish, heretical practice; and treatises have been written, pretending to shew great inconvenience of having the holy scriptures in the vulgar tongue; yet now at length perceiving they cannot prevail to bring in that darkness and ignorance of God's most sacred word and will therein contained, whereby their blind D. Heskins.2 [1 John Standish here alluded to was admitted a probationer fellow of Corpus Christi, Oxford, in 1528. In the time of Edward VI. he was a zealous reformer, made rector of Wigan, and married; but was separated from his wife when queen Mary ascended the throne, and deprived of his preferment. Bp. Bonner for his affections to popery gave him the rectory of Packlesham. Among other works he wrote "A Treatise against the Translation of the Bible into the vulgar language; printed by Caley in 1554," of which there was a second edition by the same printer the following year. Wood's Athenæ. Vol. 1. p. 236—8.] [Thomas Heskins, or Heskyns, was collated by Cardinal Pole to the chancellorship of Salisbury, 1558, but ejected on the accession of Elizabeth the following year. (Le Neve's Fasti, p. 269. Wood's Fasti, p. 113.) Heskins wrote "the Parliament of Christ, concerning the Sacrament, impugned in a sermon by John Jewell. Ant. 1566. fol." It was answered by Fulke in his book entitled Heskins' Parliament repealed by W. F. Lond. 1579.] devotion, the daughter of ignorance, as they themselves profess, was wont to make them rulers of the world, they also at the last are become translators of the New Testament into English. In which, that I speak nothing of their insincere purpose, in leaving the pure fountain of the original verity, to follow the crooked stream of their barbarous vulgar Latin translation, which (beside all other manifest corruptions) is found defective in more than an hundred places, as your majesty, according to the excellent knowledge in both the tongues wherewith God hath blessed you, is very well able to judge; and to omit even the same book of their translation, pestered with so many annotations, both false and undutiful, by which, under colour of the authority of holy scriptures, they seek to infect the minds of the credulous readers with heretical and superstitious opinions, and to alienate their hearts from yielding due obedience to your majesty and your most christian laws concerning true religion established; and that I may pass over the very text of their translation, obscured without any necessary or just cause with such a multitude of so strange and unusual terms, as to the ignorant are no less difficult to understand, than the Latin or Greek itself: yet is it not meet to be concealed, that they which neither truly nor precisely have translated their own vulgar Latin and only authentical text, have nevertheless been bold to set forth a several treatise, in which most slanderously and unjustly they accuse all our English translations of the bible, not of small imperfections and oversights committed through ignorance or negligence, but of no less than most foul dealing in partial and false translations, wilful and heretical corruptions. Against which most lewd and untrue accusation, though easy to be judged of by such as be learned in the tongues, yet dangerous to disquiet the conscience of them that be ignorant in the same, I have written a short and necessary defence; which, although not laboured in words, yet in matter I hope sufficient to avoid all the adversaries' cavils, |