The Henson Journals

[111]

Saturday, February 6th, 1926.

And yet, if the matter should be tried by custom, we might also allege custom for the reading of the Scripture in the vulgar tongue, & prescribe the more ancient custom. For it is not much above one hundred years ago, since Scripture hath not been accustomed to be read in the vulgar tongue within this realm: & many hundred years before that, it was translated & read in the Saxons' tongue, which at that time was our mother's tongue: whereof there remaineth yet divers copies, found lately in old abbeys, of such antique manners of writing & speaking, that few men now been able to read & understand them.

Cranmer. Preface to the Great Bible. A.D. 1540.

Cranmer's evidence thus supports the arguments of Sir Thomas More that the Church had not prohibited the making and using of vernacular versions of Scripture, but only those versions which were inaccurate and unfaithful. Of course, the argument was less honest than relevant, for the Church cannot truly be said to have encouraged the reading of the Scriptures by the laity. At most it abstained from condemning the labours of pious individuals, who made translations.

[112]

I wrote to the Bishop of St Alban's about his recalcitrant deacon, Mr Gilbert Wood, who has applied to me for ordination to the priesthood. It would be contrary to sound discipline for one bishop to patronize the rebels against another. On the other hand, I do not care to refuse protection to the victims of episcopal intolerance.

Noel Garilliam came to lunch, and 'made his peace' with me. He is now setting his mind on being ordained next Advent.

Davy brought his miner friend Sugden to see the Castle, and have tea. I spend an hour in showing them about. It is a doubtful policy to welcome these "Babylonian ambassadors within our houses!

I started to read More's Apology. It fills 84 pages of the black letter edition of 1557. The style is vigorous, but hardly to be described as terse. I came on one continuous sentence of 69 lines (i.e. about 500 words) between two full stops! It is on p. 870.

This insubstantial volume of More's English works contains 1458 pages: each page has two columns closely printed in black letter. Every column contains 60 lines: and about 480 words, i.e. 960 words to the page; this makes a total of no less than 1,399,680 words.

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