Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-04-09
REV FIR ROOTS LECTURE
History of the English Explained to
 His Congregation.


 Third Congregational church last night the Rev B. +. Root delivered an interesting lecture on 'sThe History of the English Bible" He said in part:
 '.The Norman French. the Old Eng hsh and Latin were the three lan- guages Of England from the Norman conquest to the middle of the four teenth century. The coming of the Angles and the Saxons into England in the fifth century was the event that gave a new language to the world. The first attempt in rendering the Bi- ble into the AngloS Saxon was made by Caedmon, who in the seventh century made paraphrase of most of the Old Testament. the life of Christ and His apostles. Then were mentioned other versions such as tue Gospel of John by Bede. which marks the begin ming of the English Bible."
 After the Norman conquest the French language influenced the Anglo Saxon, making 1t Anglo-Norman. or Middle English A version of the guage Of England in the fourteenth century, follows: Wade oure thet art in hevenes, y-halgedby thi name. NOAAi4AO6 LAA4 WO1tAAS " A as inc hevene. and inc erthe Bread cure echedayes; yef ous today. And vorlet ous ldings; ase and we vor- nagt into yondinge. Ac Yri ous vram queade. ou by hit"
 John Wycliffe holds the honor Of having rendered the whole Bible into the English. His version was fin dchnxJ iy, 7Q2O nhratc T, chapter, seventeenth verse, reads as follows: If ony man wole do his willie, he schal knowe of the teching, whether it be of God or spoke of my silf'''
 "Then came the invention of print ing from moyeable types. This did away with the long and laborious work of copying letter by letter. Says a scholar: Amongst the names of those who have left their impress upon the English Bible the foremost place must be given to William Lyn- dale for whole pages of the authorized version are virtually his transla tions, slightly altered He completed his translation in 1525.'
 s'An old chronicler tells an amusing story Of how Bishop Funstall tried to stop the circulation of the work. For getting how quickly books could be multiplied by the printing press, the bishop thought the best way to put an end to the whole matter would be to buy up the edition and destroy 1t. A friend persuaded Tyndale to sell 1t and to apply the money to bringing out another and later edition. This was done. And the Bibles destroyed by Funstall only produced thousands of copies of better and improved printing"
 The speaker referred to other Bi- bles in their chronological order. By royal proclamation a copy of the Great Bible was placed fin every church" So great was the excite ment and the desire to read that Bishop Bonner threatened their re moval because "ddverse wilful and un- learned persons read the same at the time Of divine services. yea, in the time of sermon and the declaration of the word of God"
 The speaker referred particularly to the American revised edition. He also gave number of examples of the advantages of this edition. The re vised version of the New Testament was published in 1881 and of the Old Testament in 1885. So great was the interest in this country that the whole of the revised edition of the New Tes- tament was actually teiegraphed from New York to Chicago and published in the newspapers.