medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I saw that programme
too, and Lord Bragg's commentary was rather confusing! As has already been
stated, the prohibition on possession and translation of the Bible in England
arises largely from the production of the versions of the Wycliffite Bible at
the end of the fourteenth century.
The most definitive
prohibitions came in the 'Constitutions' of Archbishop Arundel, promulgated in
1407 and issued 2 years later. Article 7 (in Foxe's translation) declares:
'It is a dangerous thing, as witnesseth blessed St. Jerome, to translate the
text of the holy Scripture out of the tongue into another; for in the
translation the same sense is not always easily kept... we therefore decree and
ordain, that no man, hereafter, by his own authority translate any text of the
Scripture into English or any other tongue'. The Constitutions banned
not only translations of the scriptures, but production of any new book or
writing whatsoever; Article 6 declares 'we will and command that
no book or treatise made by John Wickliff, or others, whomsoever, about that
time, or since, or hereafter to be made'. A Catholic myself, I'd have
to agree with Nicholas Watson in calling this legislation 'one of the
most draconian pieces of censorship in English history, going far beyond its
ostensible aim of destroying the Lollard heresy and effectively attempting to
curtail all sorts of theological thinking and writing in the
vernacular'.
Good reading on
the 'Constitutions' and related translation
issues includes:
Nicholas Watson,
'Censorship and Cultureal Change in Late-Medieval England: Vernacular Theology,
the Oxford Translation Debate, and Arundel's Constitutions of 1409',
Speculum, Volume 70, Issue 4 (Oct. 1995), pp. 822-864 [available
on-line at http://www.jstor.ac.uk/]
Anne Hudson,
'Lollardy: The English Heresy?', in Lollards and their Books, (London,
1985).
Anne Hudson, The
Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History, (Oxford,
1988).
Rita Copeland,
Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic
Traditions and Vernacular Texts, (Cambridge 1991).
Kantik Ghosh 'John
Wyclif and the truth of sacred scripture' in The Wycliffite Heresy -
Authority and the Interpretation of Texts, (Cambridge,
2002).
David Lawton,
'Englishing the Bible, 1066-1549', in The Cambridge History of Medieval
English Literature, (ed.) David Wallace, (Cambridge,
1999).
G. Shepherd 'English
Versions of the Scriptures before Wyclif', and H. Hargreaves, 'The Wycliffite
Versions', in The Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 2, (Cambridge,
1969).
Annie Sutherland,
Biblical citation and its affective contextualisation in some English
mystical texts of the fourteenth century, (Oxford, D.Phil thesis,
1999).
Wogan-Browne,
Watson, Taylor, & Evans (eds.), The Idea of the Vernacular,
(Exeter, 1999).
Hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Johan
---
Mr. Johan Bergstrom-Allen, BA (York), M.Phil (Oxon)
Flat 2, 74
Walmgate,
York, YO1 9TL, U.K.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of
medieval religion and culture I'm
afraid this is rather an idiot question, but I hope you will bear with
me.
I've just watched the tape of a recent tv programme on Tyndale and
his translation of the Bible into English. The implication was that the
translation itself was considered heresy - I was under the impression that it
was the interpretations of the Bible a translation could lead to and the
consequent challenges to the authority of the Church that were the real cause of
concern? Hadn't large parts of the Bible been translated into Old English
under King Alfred? I know Waldes got into trouble - but wasn't that
because of unauthorised preaching based on the translations of the Bible he
commissioned? Did attitudes towards translating the Bible harden over the
Middle Ages?
Any clarification, or suggestions for beginners' reading, much
appreciated.
with thanks
Cate Gunn
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