The First Company

Lancelot Andrews, D.D.

He was born at London, in 1565. He was trained chiefly at Merchant Taylor's school, in his native city, till he was appointed to one of the first Greek Scholarships of Pembroke Hall, in the University of Cambridge. Once a year, at Easter, he used to pass a month with his parents. During this vacation, he would find a master, from whom he learned some language to which he was before a stranger. In this way after a few years, he acquired most of the modern languages of Europe. At the University, he gave himself chiefly to the Oriental tongues and to divinity. When he became candidate for a fellowship, there was but one vacancy; and he had a powerful competitor in Dr. Dove, who was afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. After long and severe examination, the matter was decided in favor of Andrews. But Dove, though vanquished, proved himself in this trial so fine a scholar, that the College, unwilling to lose him, appointed him as a sort of supernumerary Fellow. Andrews also received a complimentary appointment as Fellow of Jesus College, in the University of Oxford. In his own College, he was made a catechist; that is to say, a lecturer in divinity.

His conspicuous talents soon gained him powerful patrons. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, took him into the North of England; where he was the means of converting many papists by his preaching and disputations. He was also warmly befriended by Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. He was made parson of Alton, in Hampshire; and then Vicar of St. Giles, in London. He was afterwards made Prebendary and Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, and also of the Collegiate Church of Southwark. He lectured on divinity at St. Paul's three times each week. On the death of Dr. Fulke, in 1589, Dr. Andrews, though so young, was chosen Master of Pembroke Hall, where he had received his education. While at the head of this College, he was one of its principal benefactors. It was rather poor at that time, but by his efforts its endowments were much increased; and at his death, many years later, he bequeathed to it, besides some plate, three hundred folio volumes, and a thousand pounds to found two fellowships.

He gave up his Mastership to become chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth, who delighted in his preaching, and made him Prebendary of Westminster, and afterwards Dean of that famous church. In the matter of Church dignities and preferments, he was highly favored. It was while he held the office of Dean of Westminster, that Dr. Andrews was made director, or president, of the first company of Translators, composed of ten members, who held their meetings at Westminster. The portion assigned to them was the five books of Moses, and the historical books to the end of the Second Book of Kings. Perhaps no part of the work is better executed than this.

With King James, Dr. Andrews stood in still higher favor than he had done with Elizabeth. The "royal pedant" had published a "Defense of the Rights of Kings," in opposition to the arrogant claims of the Popes. He was answered most bitterly by the celebrated Cardinal Bellarmine. The King set Dr. Andrews to refute the Cardinal; which he did in a learned and spirited quarto, highly commended by Casaubon. To that quarto, the Cardinal made no reply. For this service, the King rewarded his champion, by making him Bishop of Chichester; to which office Dr. Andrews was consecrated, November 3d, 1605. This was soon after his appointment to be one of the Translators of the Bible. He accepted the bishopric with great humility, having already refused that dignity more than once. The motto graven on his episcopal seal was the solemn exclamation,—"And who is sufficient for these things!" At this time he was also made Lord Almoner to the King, a place of great trust, in which he proved himself faithful and uncorrupt. In September, 1609, he was transferred to the bishopric of Ely; and was called to his Majesty's privy council. In February, 1618, he was translated to the bishopric of Winchester; which if less dignified than the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, was then much more richly endowed; so that it used to be said,—"Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger." At the time of this last preferment Dr. Andrews was appointed Dean of the King's chapel; and these stations he retained till his death.

In the high offices Bishop Andrews filled, he conducted himself with great ability and integrity. The crack-brained king, who scarce knew now to restrain his profaneness and levity under the most serious circumstances, was overawed by the gravity of this prelate, and desisted from mirth and frivolity in his presence. And yet the good bishop knew how to be facetious on occasion. Edmund Waller, the poet, tells of being once at court, and overhearing a conversation held by the king with Bishop Andrews, and Bishop Neile, of Durham. The monarch, who was always a jealous stickler for his prerogatives, and something more, was in those days trying to raise a revenue without parliamentary authority. In these measures, so clearly unconstitutional, he was opposed by Bishop Andrews with dignity and decision. Waller says, the king asked this brace of bishops,—"My lords, cannot I take my subject's money when I want it, without all this formality in parliament?" The Bishop of Durham, one of the meanest of sycophants to his prince, and a harsh and haughty oppressor of his puritan clergy, made ready answer,—"God forbid, Sir, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils!" Upon this the king looked at the Bishop of Winchester,—"Well, my lord, what say you?" Dr. Andrews replied evasively,—"Sir, I have no skill to judge of parliamentary matters." But the king persisted,—"No put offs, my lord! answer me presently." "Then,- Sir," said the shrewd Bishop, "I think it lawful for you to take my brother Neile's money, for he offers it." Even the petulant king was hugely pleased with this piece of pleasantry, which gave great amusement to his cringing courtiers.

"For the benefit of the afflicted," as the advertisements have it, we give a little incident which may afford a useful hint to some that need it. While Dr. Andrews was one of the divines at Cambridge, he was applied to by a worthy alderman of that drowsy city, who was beset by the sorry habit of sleeping under the afternoon sermon; and who, to his great mortification, had been publicly rebuked by the minister of the parish. As snuff had not then came into vogue, Dr. Andrews did not advise, as some matter-of-fact persons have done in such cases, to titillate the "sneezer" with a rousing pinch. He seems to have been of the opinion of the famous Dr. Romaine, who once told his full-fed congregation in London, that it was hard work to preach to two pounds of beef and a pot of porter. So Dr. Andrews advised his civic friend to help his wakefulness by dining very sparingly. The advice was followed; but without avail. Again the rotund dignitary slumbered and slept in his pew; and again was he roused by the harsh rebukes of the irritated preacher. With tears in those too sleepy eyes of his, the mortified alderman repaired to Dr. Andrews, begging for further counsel. The considerate divine, pitying his infirmity, recommended to him to dine as usual, and then to take his nap before repairing to his pew. This plan was adopted; and to the next discourse, which was a violent invective prepared for the very purpose of castigating the alderman's somnolent habit, he listened with unwinking eyes, and his uncommon vigilance gave quite a ridiculous air to the whole business. The unhappy parson was nearly as much vexed at his huge-waisted parishioner's unwonted wakefulness, as before at his unseemly dozing.

Bishop Andrews continued in high esteem with Charles I.; and that most culpable of monarchs, whose only redeeming quality was the strength and tenderness of his domestic affections, in his dying advice to his children, advised them to study the writings of three divines, of whom our Translator was one.

Lancelot Andrews died at Winchester House, in Southwark, London, September 25th, 1626, aged sixty-one years. He was buried in the Church of St. Saviour, where a fair monument marks the spot. Having never married, he bequeathed his property to benevolent uses. John Milton, then but a youth, wrote a glowing Latin elegy on his death.

As a preacher, Bishop Andrews was right famous in his day. He was called the "star of preachers." Thomas Fuller says that he was "an inimitable preacher in his way; and such plagiarists as have stolen his sermons could never steal his preaching, and could make nothing of that, whereof he made all things as he desired." Pious and pleasant Bishop Felton, his contemporary and colleague, endeavored in vain in his sermons to assimilate to his style, and therefore said merrily of himself,—"I had almost marred my own natural trot by endeavoring to imitate his artificial amble." Let this be a warning to all who would fain play the monkey, and especially to such as would ape the eccentricities of genius. Nor is it desirable that Bishop Andrews' style should be imitated even successfully; for it abounds in quips, quirks, and puns, according to the false taste of his time. Few writers are "so happy as to treat on matters which must always interest, and to do it in a manner which shall for ever please." To build up a solid literary reputation, taste and judgment in composition are as necessary as learning and strength of thought. The once admired folios of Bishop Andrews have long been doomed to the dusty dignity of the lower shelf in the library.

Many hours he spent each day in private and family devotions; and there were some who used to desire that "they might end their days in Bishop Andrews's chapel." He was one in whom was proved the truth of Luther's saying, that "to have prayed well, is to have studied well." His manual for his private devotions, prepared by himself, is wholly in the Greek language. It has been translated and printed. This praying prelate also abounded in alms-giving; usually sending his benefactions in private, as from a friend who chose to remain unknown. He was exceedingly liberal in his gifts to poor and deserving scholars. His own instructors he held in the highest reverence. His old schoolmaster Mulcaster always sat at the upper end of the episcopal table; and when the venerable pedagogue was dead, his portrait was placed over the bishop's study door. These were just tokens of respect;

"For if the scholar to such height did reach,
Then what was he who did that scholar teach?"

This worthy diocesan was much "given to hospitality," and especially to literary strangers. So bountiful was his cheer, that it used to be said,—"My lord of Winchester keeps Christmas all the year round." He once spent three thousand pounds in three days, though "in this we praise him not," in entertaining King James at Farnham Castle. His society was as much sought, however, for the charm of his rich and instructive conversation, as for his liberal housekeeping and his exalted stations.

But we are chiefly concerned to know what were his qualifications as a Translator of the Bible. He ever bore the character of "a right godly man," and "a prodigious student." One competent judge speaks of him as "that great gulf of learning!" It was also said, that "the world wanted learning to know how learned this man was." And a brave old chronicler remarks, that, such was his skill in all languages, especially the Oriental, that, had he been present at the confusion of tongues at Babel, he might have served as Interpreter-General! In his funeral sermon by Dr. Buckeridge, Bishop of Rochester, it is said that Dr. Andrews was conversant with fifteen languages.

John Overall, D.D.

This divine is the next on the list of those good men, of whom the marginal comment in the Popish translation says,—"They will be abhorred in the depths of hell!" They may be abhorred there, bnt, after a while no where else. He was born in 1559, at Hadley, and was bred in the free school at that place. He lived through the whole of that happy period, which many, beside the bard of Rydal Mount, regard as the best days of old England,

"When faith and hope were in their prime,
In great Eliza's golden time."

In due season, he was entered as a scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was next chosen Fellow of Trinity College, in the same University. In 1596, he was made King's Professor of Divinity; and at the same time took his doctor's degree, being about thirty-seven years of age. It is noted of this eminent theologian by Bishop Hacket, that it was his custom to ground his theses in the schools on two or three texts of Scripture, shewing what latitude of opinion or interpretation was admissible upon the point in hand. He was celebrated for the appropriateness of his quotations from the Fathers. He was soon after made Master of Catharine Hall very much against his will. To end a bitter contention in regard to two rival candidates, he was elected, if election it could be called, under the Queen's absolute mandate. When Archbishop Whitgift wished the new Master "joy of his place," the latter replied that it was "terminus diminuens;" which is Latin for "an Irish promotion," or a "hoist down hill." But his Grace, in the true spirit of a courtier "all of the olden time," told the dissatisfied Professor, that "if the injuries, much more the less courtesies, of princes must be thankfully taken, as the ushers to make way for greater favors." These appointments must be taken as full proof of Dr. Overall's superior scholarship in that learned age, when such preferments were only won by dint of the severest application to study.

In 1601, on the recommendation of Lord Brooke, that noble friend and patron of men of learning and genius, Dr. Overall was made Dean of St. Paul's, in London. It may be doubted whether this studious recluse, absorbed in deep studies, shone with his brightest lustre in the pulpit. "Being appointed," says Thomas Fuller, "to preach before the Queen, he professed to my father, who was most intimate with him, that he had spoken Latin so long, it was troublesome to him to speak English in a continued oration."

Soon after the throne was filled by James the First, whom that accomplished statesman, the Duke of Sully, called "the most learned fool in Europe," the Convocation, or parliament of the clergy, came together. Dr. Overall was prolocutor, or speaker, of the lower house of Convocation. To this body he presented a volume of canons, the only book from his pen now extant. Its object was to vindicate the divine right of government. But though it was adopted by the Convocation, the King prevented the publication of the book at that time, because it taught, that when, after a revolution or conquest, a new government or dynasty was firmly established, this also, in its turn, could plead for itself a divine right, and could claim the obedience of the people as a matter of duty toward God. This "Convocation Book," now so long forgotten, was printed many years after the death of "King Jamie;" and obtained some historical and political celebrity, because it had the very effect which was apprehended by the monarch who suppressed it.

For when his grandson, James the Second, was expelled from the soil and throne of England, many bishops and other clergymen, called "nonjurors," refused through conscientious scruples, to swear allegiance to the new government of William and Mary. Bishop Sherlock and many others, who at first declined the oath, professed to be converted from that error by the reading of Dr. Overall's book. But conversions so favorable to thrift are apt to be held in suspicion. Dr. Overall was the author of the questions and answers relating to the sacraments, which have been much admired, by the ablest judges of such matters, and which were subjoined to the Catechism of the Church of England, in the first year of James the First.

It was while he was Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, that he was joined in the commission, the highest of his honors, for translating the Bible. Though long familiarity with other languages may have made him somewhat inapt for continuous public discourse in his mother-tongue, he was thereby the better fitted to discern the sense of the sacred original. He was styled by Camden "a prodigious learned man;" and is said by Fuller to have been "of a strong brain to improve his great reading."

John Overall, who "carried superintendency in his surname," was made Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, in 1614. Four years later he was transferred to the see of Norwich, where, in a few months, he died, at the age of sixty years. This was in 1619. He frequently had in his mouth the words of the Psalmist,—"When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity."

In his later years, he was unhappily inclined to Arminianism. He was a correspondent of Vossius and Grotius, and other famous scholars on the continent. He was greatly addicted to the scholastic theology, now so much decried. Since the days of Bacon the schoolmen have been much depreciated, because there was so little practical fruit of their studies. And yet there was something wonderful in the keenness and subtlety of their disputes; though it is lawful to smile at the excess of logical refinement which subdivided the stream of their genius into a ramification of rills, absorbed at last in the dry desert of metaphysics. One of them is highly praised by Cardan, "for that only one of his arguments was enough to puzzle all posterity; and that when he was grown old, he wept because he could not understand his own books." We can conceive, however, that the refinement of the schoolmen as to precise definitions, and nicer shades of thought, might be a valuable quality in some, at least, of the company of Translators.

Hadrian Saravia, D.D.

This noted scholar was a Belgian by birth. His father was a Spaniard, his mother was a Belgian, and both were Protestants. He was born in 1530, at Hedin in Artois. Of his early life no notices have reached us. He was, for some years, a pastor both in Flanders and Holland. He was, in his principles, a terrible highchurchman; and seems, from his zeal for the divine right of episcopacy, to have had some trouble with his colleagues and the magistrates at Ghent, where he was one of the ministers in 1566. From that place he retired to England. He was sent by Queen Elizabeth's Council as a sort of missionary to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, where he was one of the first Protestant ministers; knowing, as he says of himself, in a letter, "which were the beginnings, and by what means and occasions the preaching of God's word was planted there." He labored there in a twofold capacity, doing the work of an evangelist, and conducting a newly established school, called Elizabeth College.

From his island-home, he was recalled to the continent by the Belgian churches, in 1577. He was invited to become Professor of Divinity at the University of Leyden, in 1582; and soon after was also made preacher of the French Church in that city. In 1587 he came to England with the Earl of Leicester, and became master of the grammar-school in Southampton, where, in the course of a few years, he trained many distinguished pupils.

His zeal for episcopacy led him to publish several Latin treatises against Beza, Danseus, and other Presbyterians. He also published a treatise on papal primacy against the Jesuit Gretser. All his publications relate to such matters, and were collected into a folio edition, in the year 1611. They are still highly praised by the "Oxford divines," who have given occasion to Macauley to say, in his caustic style,—"The glory of being further behind the age than any other class of the British people, is one which that learned body acquired early, and has never lost."

In 1590, Saravia was made Doctor of Divinity at Oxford, as had been done long before at the University of Leyden. He was made Prebendary of Gloucester next of Canterbury, in 1695; and then of Westminster in 1601. This last was his highest preferment. He added to it the rectorship of Great Chart, in Kent, some eight years after. He died at Canterbury, January 15th, 1612, aged eighty-two years. Thus his fluctuating life ended in a quiet old age, and a peaceful death.

He is said, by Anthony a-Wood, to have been "educated in all kinds of literature in his younger days, especially in several languages." It was his fortune to find friends and patrons among the great. Archbishop Whitgift, that stern suppressor of Puritanism, held him in high esteem, and made great use of his aid in conducting his share in the controversies of the time. In particular the arch-prelate relied much on Dr. Saravia's "Hebrew learning" in his contests with Hugh Broughton, that stiff Puritan, whom Lightfoot styles "the great Albionean divine, renowned in many nations for rare skill in Salem's and Athen's tongues, and familiar acquaintance with all Rabbinical learning." Thus the Prebendary of Westminster was accustomed to cross swords with no mean adversaries; and was, no doubt, thoroughly furnished with the knowledge necessary for a Bible translator.

While Dr. Saravia was Prebendary of Canterbury, the famous Richard Hooker was parson of the village of Borne, about three miles distant. Between these worthies there sprang up a friendship, cemented by the agreement of their views and studies. Professor Keble says, that Saravia was Hooker's "confidential adviser," while the latter was preparing his celebrated books "Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity." Old Izaak Walton gives the following beautiful picture of their Christian intimacy;—"These two excellent persons began a holy friendship, increasing daily to so high and mutual affections, that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same; and their designs, both for the glory of God, and peace of the church, still assisting and improving each other's virtues, and the desired comforts of a peaceable piety."

Richard Clarke, D.D.

Dr. Clarke is spoken of as a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge; and as a very learned clergyman and eminent preacher. He was Vicar of Minster and Monkton in Thanet, and one of the six preachers of the cathedral church in Canterbury. He died in 1634. Three years after his death, a folio volume of his learned sermons was published. But alas for "folios" and "learned sermons" in these days. When people look on such a thing, they are ready to exclaim, like Robert Hall, at the sight of Dr. Gill's voluminous Commentary,—"What a continent of mud!"

John Laifield, D.D.

Dr. Laifield was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Rector of the Church of St. Clement's, Dane's, in London. Of him it is said, "that being skilled in architecture, his judgment was much relied on for the fabric of the tabernacle and temple." He died at his rectory in 1617. Few things are more difficult, than the giving of architectural details in such a manner as to be intelligible to the unprofessional reader.

Robert Tighe, D.D.

This name, in all the printed lists of the Translators, has been misspelled Leigh. It should be Teigh or Tighe.¹ Dr. Tighe was born at Deeping, Lincolnshire; and was educated partly at Oxford, and partly at Cambridge. He was Archdeacon of Middlesex and Vicar of the Church of All Hallows, Barking, London. He is characterized as "an excellent textuary and profound linguist." Dr. Tighe died in 1620, leaving to his son an estate of one thousand pounds a year; which is worth mentioning because so rarely done by men of the clerical profession.

Francis Burleigh, D.D.

Dr. Burleigh, or Burghley, was made Vicar of Bishop's Stortford in 1590, which benefice he held at the time of his appointment to the important service of this Bible translation.

Geoffry King.

Mr. King was Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. It is a fair token of his fitness to take part in this translation-work, that he succeeded Mr. Spaulding, another of these Translators, as Regius Professor of Hebrew in that University. Men were not appointed in those days to such duties of instruction, with the expectation that they would qualify themselves after their induction into office.²

Richard Thompson.

Mr. Thompson, at the time of his appointment, was Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. According to Wood he was "a Dutchman, born of English parents." By the Presbyterian divines, he was called "the grand propagator of Arminianism." Of the prelatic Arminians Coleridge too truly said, that "they emptied revelation of all the doctrines that can properly be said to have been revealed" If "sin be the greatest heresy," as that class usually affirms, a more serious error imputed to Mr. Thompson is intemperance in his later years. As to his literary qualifications, he is described by the learned Richard Montague as "a most admirable philologer," who was "better known in Italy, France, and Germany, than at home."

William Bedwell.

Mr. Bedwell was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was Vicar of Tottenham High Cross, near London. He died at his vicarage, at the age of seventy, May 5th, 1632, justly reputed to have been "an eminent oriental scholar."³ He published in quarto an edition of the epistles of St. John in Arabic, with a Latin version, printed at the press of Raphelengius, at Antwerp, in 1612. He also left many Arabic manuscripts to the University of Cambridge, with numerous notes upon them, and a font of types for printing them. His fame for Arabic learning was so great, that when Erpenius, a most renowned Orientalist, resided in England, in 1606, he was much indebted to Bedwell for direction in his studies. To Bedwell, rather than to Erpenius, who commonly enjoys it, belongs the honor of being the first who considerably promoted and revived the study of the Arabic language and literature in Europe. He was also tutor to another Orientalist of renown, Dr. Pococke. For many years, Mr. Bedwell was engaged in preparing an Arabic Lexicon in three volumes; and went to Holland to examine the collections of Joseph Scaliger. But proceeding very slowly, from desire to make his work perfect as possible, Golius forestalled him, by the publication of a similar work.

After Bedwell's death, the voluminous manuscripts of his lexicon were loaned by the University of Cambridge to aid in the compilation of Dr. Castell's colossal work, the Lexicon Heptaglotton. Some modern scholars have fancied, that we have an advantage in our times over the translators of King James's day, by reason of the greater attention which is supposed to be paid at present to what are called the "cognate" and "Shemitic" languages, and especially the Arabic, by which much light is thought to be reflected upon Hebrew words and phrases. It is evident, however, that Mr. Bedwell and others, among his fellow-laborers, were thoroughly conversant in this part of the broad field of sacred criticism.

Mr. Bedwell also commenced a Persian dictionary, which is among Archbishop Laud's manuscripts, still preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. In 1615, he published his book, "A Discovery of the Impostures of Mahomet and of the Koran." To this was annexed his "Arabian Trudgeman." Trudgeman or truchman is the word Dragoman in its older form, and is derived from a Chaldee word meaning interpreter. This Arabian Trudgeman is a most curious illustration of oriental etymology and history.

Dr. Bedwell had a fondness for mathematical studies. He invented a ruler for geometrical purposes, like what we call Gunter's Scale, which went by the name of "Bedwell's Ruler."

This closes what we have to say of that first Westminster Company, of ten members, to whom was committed the historical books, beginning with Genesis and ending with the Second Book of Kings, once "commonly called," as its title still says, "The Fourth Book of the Kings."