The Text of the New Testament of Iesvs Christ,

the Protestant reaction to the Counter Reformation

'The first systematic and comprehensive attempt to refute the arguments and accusations contained in the Rheims New Testament of 1582' (Darlow & Moule).

This the third edition, variant printing with John Bill named in the imprint rather than Thomas Adams, of William Fulke's (1538-1589) systematic rebuttal of the first authorised Roman Catholic translation of New Testament into English.

So named the 'Rheims' version for its place of publication, The Nevv Testament of Iesvs Christ... had been translated from the Latin Vulgate by the English Catholic priest Gregory Martin (d.1582) under the supervision of William Allen, founder of the English Catholic seminary at Douai in Upper France. 'The appearance of a Catholic Bible in English undermined traditional Protestant criticism that the Roman church kept scripture out of the hands of the laity. Instead Protestant theologians such as Thomas Cartwright, William Whitaker, and William Fulke attacked the credentials of the translators and denounced their work as filled with error' (ODNB).

Fulke's commentary marked the culmination of an acrimonious pamphlet war that had raged between English reformists at home and members of the Catholic college at Douai. The text comprises a comprehensive side-by-side comparison of the Rheims and the Bishops' versions, the authorised Elizabethan text being a revised edition of the Great Bible of the Henrician Reformation, both of which are printed in full in parallel columns, together with Fulke's extensive annotations.

Two works issued together in 1 vol.; third edition; folio (35 x 22.5 cm); Bishop's version and Rheims New Testament in parallel columns, woodcut title, woodcut initials, head and tailpieces, bookplates to front pasteboard, ownership inscriptions in pen to title and endpapers, title and preliminary ff a little creased, lacking first blank f., final f. of text torn with slight loss at gutter margin but not affecting text, otherwise a well-preserved example; contemporary sprinkled calf, covers double-ruled in blind, upper joint cracked but holding, a little rubbed, very good; [56], 912, [14]; [4], 25, [1], 206, [2], 18pp.

ESTC S107073 & S124432; Herbert 360.