INTRODUCTION.

BRIEF SURVEY OF THE AGES WHICH PRECEDED ANY PRINTING OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE-INCLUDING THE REVIVAL AND TRIUMPH OF CLASSICAL LEARNING AND THE ARTS, CONTRASTED WITH THE TIMES OF WICKLIFFE, WITH HIS VERSION OF THE ENTIRE SACRED VOLUME, AND ITS EFFECTS—THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, ITS RAPID PROGRESS TO PERFECTION, AND THE POINT TO WHICH THE EUROPEAN NATIONS, BUT MORE ESPECIALLY ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND HAD BEEN BROUGHT, BEFORE EVER THIS INVALUABLE ART WAS APPLIED TO ANY VERSION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY THE PEOPLE.

THE darkest hour in the night of Europe, is an era respecting which historians are not even yet agreed. It has been regarded by many as being in the tenth century. One or two other writers consider the seventh or eighth century to be the lowest in point of depression, or the nadir of the human mind; and they suppose that its movement in advance began with Charlemagne, while England can never forget her own Alfred the Great. A few moderns, too fastidious, or by no means so affected by the gloom and barbarity of the middle ages, profess to be tender of allowance as to the extent of this darkness, and would fondly persuade us to adopt a more cheerful retrospect. But speaking, generally, with reference to the people at large, the entire period, from the fifth or sixth to the fourteenth century, presents at the best, but a tedious and dreary interval in the history of the human mind. Individual scholars, indeed, like stars which shed their light on the surrounding gloom, there ever were; and wherever there existed any marked regard for Sacred writ, in the vernacular tongue, there the life-spark of Christianity was preserved. The Albigenses, the Waldenses, and other parties, might be adduced in proof; the persecution and dispersion of whom, had considerable influence in diffusing the light which its enemies laboured to extinguish.

It was not, however, till after a long and profound sleep throughout the dreams and visions of the middle ages, that the human mind was at last effectually roused to action; and in none of the countries throughout Europe more decidedly than in Italy and England. But still, for some great moral purpose, worthy of infinite wisdom, and to be afterwards disclosed, that mind, throughout all these western kingdoms, was first to be permitted to discover what was the utmost vigour of its native strength.

First came the age of the chisel, and the painter's pencil, and the pen, not to say of the music of the human voice. Those stupendous fabrics, which began to be erected from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, in which the massive dullness of the Lombards, was giving way to the influence of the Saracens of Spain, still stand out in proof, that many hands were already busy, under the guidance of some presiding ingenious mind. Literature and the fine arts, more especially classical learning, painting, and sculpture, were then to enjoy that triumph, the spoils of which now adorn the walls of every palace, as well as the cabinets and libraries, the galleries and public rooms of every city in Europe. This triumph, too, must take place in ITALY, or in the very seat of that extraordinary power which had ruled for ages, with unmeasured sway, over all the west; for, throughout the long preceding night, it could never be said that Rome herself had been either asleep or inactive. The Eternal City, as it was styled, the Lady of Kingdoms, like the Assyrian of old, having "found out as a nest the riches of the people; as one gathereth eggs that are left, so had she gathered all the earth;" and, generally speaking, it was only here and there that some solitary individual "moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."

There was, however, one singular peculiarity belonging to this power. Ruling over the mind, its vigour seemed to increase with its remoteness from the seat of government; and the thunders of the Vatican, unlike those of nature, often struck terror in proportion to the distance at which they were heard. This much at least is certain, that though Great Britain and Ireland formed the utmost confines of that power on the west, there was no country between these islands and Italy where the Roman Pontiff felt such confidence of his strength, nor one which was more harassed and oppressed by his pecuniary exactions. The western states of Europe, even the most remote, had, indeed, all couched down under their burdens, and that for ages, before the full claims of the Rota, or pontifical conclave, were admitted upon Italian ground. Nor is this mystery inexplicable. Kings, however despotic, had by degrees been moulded to subjection; but the stern Republics of Italy, composed of a metal

least of all malleable, long remained hard, unbending, and most vexatious neighbours. To say nothing of Florence, Pisa, or Genoa, it is well known that even in the diocese of Italy, properly so called, the Milanese had resisted the claims of the Pontiff down to the eleventh century; and during the twelfth, the country was covered with cities still fighting for liberty; but that, so very near to Rome, there should have been such a power or form of government as that of Venice, at once arrests attention as by far the most extraordinary point in European history. As this remarkable State, less than two hundred and fifty miles distant from Rome itself," arose before the old empire of Rome was swept away, endured through the barbarism of the northern irruptions, as well as through all the darkness ensuing, and was only extinguished by Napoleon within our own times, its history forms a connecting chain, if not the only one that can now be traced, between the Europe of the Romans, of the middle ages, and of modern history."1 With its internal feuds we do not interfere; but no survey, however brief, can be complete where Venice is overlooked.2

An insignificant band of fugitives, in the fifth century, took possession of the rocks and little islands on the north-west shores of the Adriatic sea. Cut off from all possessions on the mainland, not possessing one foot of land there for eight hundred years, but surrounded by their own marshes, they were at first ruled by magistrates sent down from Padua. This people, resolved to provide for their own security, form a government for themselves. "Detestation of the despotic authority or government of one man, and an inflexible determination to remain a separate and distinct people, were the two principles by which the Venetians were guided, and upon which they continued to act with the steadiness and success of a natural principle." At the close of the seventh century, indeed, they elected a chief magistrate, (the Doge, Dux, or Duke,) whose office was to continue for life, and the people to choose his successor; but his powers, though vast, were rendered next to nominal by those of the Council and the other magistrates. Without his Council the Doge durst not open an official letter, and much less do any thing official. Yet here, and at a moment when every prince in Europe was a vassal to the Emperor, either of the East or West, the Venetians, unsubdued, were rising to greater opulence and strength. Though Pepin fought against them with all his strength, they conquered, and

As early as the year 1268, a law passed in Venice, enjoining the Ambassadors of the Republic to note down and communicate whatever they could observe, and these curious as well as valuable reports, well known as the Venetian Relazioni, referring to all the courts of Europe, continued from time to time for above five hundred years. The last, full of striking and accurate information, relates to the commencement of the French Revolution in 1792. — Ranke. 2 For most of these facts as to Venice we are indebted to Daru or Sismondi, and an able article on the Venetian constitution in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvi.

put an end to all claims on their allegiance; Charlemagne had no choice left except to declare them independent.

At a much later period when we turn to Rome under successive Pontiffs, and their insatiable thirst for power; while the Doge of Venice convoked the people, whether from the different islands or the districts of the capital, for the purpose of choosing their own pastors and bishops; not one of whom, by fixed and original laws, could hold any civil office, whether of honour or emolument; to him belonged the power of installing these Bishops, as well as of awarding all ecclesiastical punishments. The assertion of such rights, of course, could not be easily maintained, and more especially in the neighbourhood of a power which had determined to overshadow all the earth: but as the beginning of the thirteenth century may be truly regarded as the twilight of a better day, Venice, amidst her own rocks in the sea, will serve as a contrast to the entire surface of Europe, and prove the extent to which she had still secured her independence.

THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

In our own country, at the commencement of this century, poor King John was actually promising to make his kingdom tributary to the Pontiff, with a proffer of not less than a thousand merks, or a sum equal to £20,000 now, over and above the old tribute: and although the Barons soon after wrested Magna Charta from him, to shew how low the kingdom had sunk, we find the Pontiff, at this same John's request, annulling the proceedings. The great charters, it is true, were confirmed by his successor, Henry III.; but the power of Rome was growing every day during his fifty-six years reign. It was then that the Pontiff was exclaiming—“ Truly, England is our garden of delight! It is an unexhausted well! and where so much abounds, much may be acquired." No wonder that he thus exulted, when his income from England was three times as much as that of the King on the throne."3 But, above all, in proof of the Pontiff's power towards the west, this was the era of that detestable persecution of the Albigenses, pursued with such hideous cruelty. The execrable measure, in which plunder was the grand object, was counselled, planned, and commanded by Rome.

Now, if we seek for any relieving contrast throughout the entire century, it is to Italy itself that we must turn our eye. Even in the neighbouring Republic of Florence, it is true, amidst the surrounding gloom, Dante had begun to sing, in his own style, about

3 Under Innocent IV. his revenue from England was 70,000 merks, that of the Crown was not 30,000.--Grossteste. After this it went on increasing.-M. Paris, Flores Histor.

paradise and the infernal regions, not forgetting to intermingle certain severe allusions with his poem; and, besides this, there was his treatise "Monarchia," distinctly hostile to the claims of Rome : but for the bolder contrast to the sentiments of all Europe, we must look to Venice. It is admitted that in the commencement of this century the Venetians had chosen to apply to Rome for an indulgence, but this was merely to facilitate a treaty with the Caliphs of Egypt. Eager to retain their commerce with the East Indies, they wished to open a communication between the Nile and the Red Sea; and had they succeeded, perhaps the trade might never have passed from their hands. Still, this application betrayed no disposition to bow allegiance. On the contrary, this ancient Republic had reigned, for more than two centuries, as Lords-paramount of the Adriatic: and although that gulf washed the shores of various States, those of the Roman Church among the number, not one of them dared to navigate it, or even fish in its waters, without a license from Venice, for which they paid a heavy tribute. When one sovereign Pontiff presumed to inquire, by what right they pretended to domineer there, the brief reply given was-" That sea is ours."

But the sea would not suffice any longer as the bounds of their sovereignty; and, therefore, about the middle of this century, they began to acquire land. Arvi in Romagna was taken under their special protection, much in the same style as the provinces of India have since been taken under that of Britain. This place belonged to the Church, and that in the opinion of the Emperor; but even he said not a word. It so happened, too, that the Venetians did not approve of any ecclesiastic engaging in war, and if he did, at their hands he must abide the consequences. The Captains-General of the Pontiff's troops, were dignitaries of his Church. Such a prisoner being taken, with his crosier, sceptre, and sword; the Venetians condemned him to ride, sitting backwards, on a mule, and preceded by the common crier, proclaiming-" Behold the wicked priest, who displeased God in his life, and was taken in iniquity." Such a proceeding, in the year 1274, had no parallel in any other part of Europe.

It was little more than seven years after this when the Pontiff, Martin IV., having, in his customary style, given the sovereignty of Naples to Charles of Anjou, and proclaimed a crusade against the lawful heir, chose also to excommunicate the Venetians because they would not unite in the outrage. But was the result similar to that which ensued, in all other nations? On the contrary, for three long years, no priests officiated, no prayers were offered in their churches, and without yielding, they allowed the Pontiff to die! His successor, Honorius IV., at last succeeded, and removed the inter