acy. Twelve thousand of these (12mo.) Bibles, with notes, were
seized by the King's printers as being contrary to the statute; and a large
impression of these Dutch-English Bibles were burned, by order of the
Assembly of Divines, for certain errors. The Pearl (24mo.) Bible, printed
by Field, in 1653, contains some scandalous blunders;--for instance,
Romans, vi. 13.: "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
_righteousness_ unto sin"--for _unrighteousness_. 1 Cor. vi. 9.: "Know ye
not that {392} the unrighteous _shall inherit_ the kingdom of God?"--for
_shall not inherit_.

The printer of Miles Coverdale's Bible, which was finished in 1535, and of
which only two perfect copies, I believe, are known to exist--one in the
British Museum, the other in the library of the Earl of Jersey--deserves
some commendation for his accuracy. At the end of the New Testament is the
following solitary erratum:

"A faute escaped in pryntyng the New Testament. Upon the fourth leafe,
the first syde in the sixth chapter of S. Mathew, 'Seke ye first the
kingdome of heaven,' read, 'Seke ye first the kingdome of God.'"

ABHBA.

* * * * *

IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY.

"That unworthy hand."

I am not aware that the fact of Cranmer's holding his right hand in the
flames till it was consumed has been questioned. Fox says:

"He stretched forth his right hand into the flames, and there held it
so stedfast that all the people might see it burnt to a coal before his
body was touched."--P. 927. ed. Milner, London, 1837, 8vo.

Or, as the passage is given in the last edition,--

"And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, he
put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and
immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face), that
all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched."--_Acts
and Monuments_, ed. 1839, vol. viii. p. 90.

Burnet is more circumstantial:

"When he came to the stake he prayed, and then undressed himself: and
being tied to it, as the fire was kindling, he stretched forth his
right hand towards the flame, never moving it, save that once he wiped
his face with it, till it was burnt away, which was consumed before the
fire reached his body. He expressed no disorder from the pain he was
in; sometimes saying, 'That unworthy hand;' and oft crying out, 'Lord