Lanterna Rally

Author: Henry Cotton

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-11

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 9781331177074

Excerpt from Editions of the Bible and Parts Thereof in English, From the Year MDV, to MDCCCL Although the spirit of Religious Reformation had been fairly awakened through the country; and Tyndale and a few fellow-labourers were heartily engaged in the holy work of laying the Scriptures open to the masses of the people who now demanded, as their right, to have the Word of God in their own tongue: yet this desire could only be gratified by the most prudent management, and with the aid of the shelter of a foreign land. Tyndale himself had been forced to fly to the continent; and no printer in England was willing to hazard his liberty and perhaps his life, by being openly concerned in the publication of the Bible or New Testament in English. The tenets of the Reformation were indeed steadily gaining ground among the people: but the Church of Borne still possessed in the bishops a powerful and active party, determined at all hazards to resist the introduction of light, and the spread of doctrines which portended an utter overthrow to their ancient authority and influence. The King played a singular part through these transactions. It has been generally supposed, that his private sentiments were in favour of a free circulation of the Scriptures among his subjects. Yet his chief concern seems to have been, how to secure and strengthen his own absolute authority. He was fickle, capricious, continually wavering to and fro: so that the Reformers could never reckon on his protection for a single day. No man could foretell in the evening what would be the Royal will, and the national creed, on the following morning: none could divine which feeling was likely to predominate - the haughty denial of the Pope's supremacy, or the fear of offending the Church and giving occasion for seditious risings among the people. The stars of Gardiner and Cranmer seemed to be alternately in the ascendant. Under such circumstances, the dissemination of the Scriptures was a work of great delicacy and danger. No man dared openly avow himself an agent in that work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.