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 for three years. He went to France, where he spent his time chiefly at the university of Orleans, but he also visited Lyons and studied at Paris, where his services as interpreter were often required by the English ambassador, Sir John Mason [q. v.] or Sir William Pickering [q. v.] Towards the end of 1552 he visited the universities in Germany and Geneva, and, probably at the close of his three years' leave, returned to England in May 1553. Whittingham had adopted extreme protestant views, and the accession of Queen Mary ruined his prospects for the time. Late in August, however, he made intercession, which was ultimately successful, for the release of Peter Martyr [see ]; but after a few weeks he himself escaped with difficulty by way of Dover to France.

In the spring of 1554 the project was started of making Frankfort the ecclesiastical centre for the English exiles on the continent, and Whittingham was one of the first who reached the city on 27 June 1554, and at once sent out invitations to exiles in other cities to join them [see ]. Difficulties soon arose between those who wished to use Edward VI's second prayer-book without material modification and those led by Whittingham and Knox, who considered Calvinism the purest form of Christianity, and insisted on revising the prayer-book in that direction. Whittingham was one of those appointed to draw up a service-book, and he procured a letter from Calvin, dated 18 Jan. 1554–5, which won over some of the wavering adherents of the prayer-book; but the compromise adopted was rudely disturbed by the arrival of Richard Cox [q. v.], who was an uncompromising champion of the prayer-book. In the ensuing struggle between Knox and Cox Whittingham was Knox's chief supporter, but he failed to prevent Knox's expulsion from Frankfort on 26 March, and is thereupon said to have given in his adhesion to the form of church government established at Frankfort under Cox's influence. He was, however, profoundly dissatisfied with it, and about 22 Sept. in the same year he followed Knox to Geneva (Original Letters, Parker Soc. p. 766). He was himself probably the author of the detailed account of the struggle, entitled ‘A Brieff Discours off the Troubles begonne at Franckford in Germany, anno Domini 1554. Abowte the Booke off Common Prayer and Ceremonies, and continued by the Englishe men theyre to thende off Q. Maries Raigne,’ 1575, 4to. It bears no place or printer's name, but was printed probably at Geneva, and in the same type as Cartwright's tracts; one copy of the original edition is dated. It was reprinted at London in 1642, 4to, in vol. ii. of ‘The Phenix,’ 1708, 8vo; again in 1846, 8vo (ed. M'Crie), and in vol. iv. of ‘Knox's Works’ (Bannatyne Club). It is the only full account of the struggle extant, but its value is impaired by its polemical object (see also, pref. to reprint of 1846; , Essays on the Reformation, 1849, pp. 104, 106, 196; English Hist. Rev. x. 439–441).

Meanwhile on 16 Dec. 1555, and again in December 1556, Whittingham was elected a ‘senior’ or elder of the church at Geneva; on 16 Dec. 1558 he was appointed deacon, and in 1559 he succeeded Knox as minister. He had hitherto received no ordination of any kind, and declared that he was fitter for civil employment than for the ministry, but his reluctance was overcome by Calvin's insistence. On Mary's death most of the exiles at Geneva returned to England, but Whittingham remained to complete the translation of the ‘Geneva’ or ‘Breeches’ bible, as it is often called, ‘breeches’ being the rendering of the word usually translated ‘aprons’ in Genesis iii. 7. He had already produced a version of the New Testament, which was issued at Geneva in 12mo by Conrad Badius on 10 June 1557, but this differs from the version included in the ‘Breeches’ bible, for which, as well as for the prefatory address to the reader, Whittingham is generally held to be mainly responsible. He also took part in the revision of the Old Testament, and the fact that he remained behind to supervise the completion of the work when most of the translators returned to England probably justifies his claim to the most important part of the work. This version of the Bible is in many respects notable; the old black-letter type was abandoned for Roman characters, the chapters were for the first time divided into verses, and it was printed in quarto instead of in folio. It was in a way a manifesto of the Calvinists; the apocrypha was for the first time differentiated, as regards its authoritative value, from the rest of the Old Testament, and the critical and explanatory notes were of a pronounced Calvinistic character. It was printed at Geneva by Rowland Hall in 1560, and at once became the most popular version of the Bible in England. More than sixty editions were published before the appearance of the authorised version in 1611, four times the number of the editions of the bishops' bible produced in 1568 to counteract the puritan tendencies of the Genevan version. Even after 1611 its vogue was not exhausted, ten