Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/222

 SIXTEENTH CENTURY

213

from the Conqueror to Henry VII. He is very particular in the aSaiis of London, many things conceniing the government of it bring noted by him which are not to be met with any where else. This author, speaking of the invention of printing, meaks thus, " This yeie (35th Henry VI.) after me opynyt>n of dyverse wryters, began in a citie of Annaine, namyd Mogunce, Uie crafte of em- pryntynge bokys, which sen that tyme hath bad wonderful encrease."

Heuy VII. while he asserted his authority over the clergy, found it consistent with his poUcy to employ them rather than his nobles m state affairs, and suffered them to proceed against the Lollards, or followers of Wicuf, with the ntmost rigour. Amongst many who suffered for their adherence to the opinions of Wiclif, was Joan Boughton, " the first female martyr in England;" she was more than eighty years of age, and was held in such reverence for her vir- tues, that, during the night after her martyrdom, h^ ashes were collected, to be preserved as relics ibr pious and affectionate remembrances. Bishop FMwck, who is said to have been the most learn- ed man of his age and country, was another vic- tim to the tender mercies of the church of Rome. After making a public recantation, he was put in dose confinement in Thomey abbey, and was to have only the meanest provisions ; he was also deprived of the use of pens, ink, and paper ; and to be allowed no books, except a mass book, a psalter, a legendan', and a bible. — Lady Young, daughter to Joan Boughton, followed her mother tfaioagh the flames, and met death with equal constancy. — William Tylsworth was burnt at Amershaja, and his only daughter, being sus- pected of heresy, was compelled with her own Bands to set fire to the fagots which consumed her parent. — A correspondent of Erasmus wrote to him, that the price of wood was considerably advanced about London, in consequence of the qnantity required for the frequent hvperboles. The statement is one of those hyperboles which, in the familiarity of letter writing, are under- stood as they are meant, and convey no more than truth. — For a further account of early mar- tyrdoms, see Southey's Book of the Church.

The reign of Henry VII. produced so many beneficial changes in the conoition of England, and the manners of its people, that many nisto- rians have attributed to this monarch a larger share of wisdom and virtue than is justly his due. He was a fedthless friend, a bitter e]pemy, a cruel husband, an undutiful son, a careless father, and an ungenerous master. An inordi- nate love of money, and unrelenting hatred of the house of York, were his ruling passions, and the chief sources of all his vices and all his trou- bles. As a proof of Henry's attention to the smallest profits. Bacon tells us, that he had seen a book of accounts kept by Empson, and sub- scribed in almost every le^ by the king's own band. Among other articles was the following : — /tent. Received of such a one five marks for a pardon, which if it do not pass, the money to be repaid, or the party otherwise satisfied.— -Oppo-

site to the memorandum the king bad written, " Otherwise satisfied." — Bacon, p. 630.

1009. QuincupUx Ptalterium, Gallieuni, Ro- jnanum, Uebraictim, Vetus, Conciliatum, folio. Henry Stephens, the first of the celebrated family of typonaphers, printed the QuinaqtUx Pialter, of Le Fevre, at Paris, the first publication in which the verses were distinguished by Arabic numeraU ; and as being probably the most mag- nificent production of uiat celebrated artist. It is indeed a fine specimen of the typographic art, printed en rouge et noir, litteru rotimdit, on excellent paper; and exhibited an occasional use of Greek characters.

This work is remarkable as the production of a divine enlightened far beyond the measure of this barbarous period ; as having been severely stigmatised in the Index lAbrorum prohibitonan, 4r expurgatorum. The sentiments of Le Fevre, not agreeing with the bigotry of the times, soon rendered him obnoxious to the Sorbonne, as a favourer of heretical opinions. A fierce perse- cution was consequently excited against him, which would probably have cost nun his life, had be not escaped by the special interference of Francis I. himself; by whom his learning and merits were held in high estimation. He died at Navarre in 1537, some say at the extreme age of one hundred and one years.

This edition of the Ptalter appears to have been a work of considerable attention and labour, since we find that for the old, or italic version, Le Fevre made use of a most valuable manu- script copy written with gold and silver letters upon purple parchment, in uncial characters, in folio ; supposed to have been part of the spoils of the city of Toledo, obtained by Childebert I. king of the Franks, about the year 542, and afterwards to have been made use of by St. GermanuE, bishop of Paris, who died in 576.

1509, Oct. 23. Dr. Thomas Linacre, an emi- nent and most learned English physician, by whose exertions the College of Phyticiani was founded and incorporated, of which he held the office of president, was, in the decline of life, resolved to change his profession for that of divi- nity, entered into early orders, and was collated on this day to the rectory of Mersham ; and ob- tained afterwards several preferments. An anec- dote is related of him, which proves, that how- ever accurate and extensive his ^piammatical knowledge of Latin and Greek might be, his ignorance of the scriptures was so great, as to render him totally unfit for the sacred functions he assumed. Being ordained priest, at an age when his constitution was broken by study and infirmity, he, for the first time, took the New Tettament into his hand, and having read the fifth and sixth chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, threw away the book, swearing, " Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not Christians !" This, however, will appear the less extraordinary, when it is remarked, that the study and use of the scriptures was at that time so low, even in the university of Oxford, " that the being admitted a bachelor of divinity gave only liberty to read

VjOOQ IC