great good of the public, and would have undertaken still more, as is well known, had the health of your body permitted. Since, therefore, the great pains you have taken on this work is universally known, I see no reason why you should reject the praise deservedly awarded you by all. But I leave all to your own prudence, and am ready to approve of whatever you shall think best to be done.

"I return you abundant thanks for the purse you have sent me as a present. I beseech the all gracious and Almighty God to vouchsafe to bless you with long life, and with true, unalloyed happiness. From Hanworth, the 20th of September. Your most attached and affectionate friend, “KATHARINE THE QUEEN. K. P.”1 The whole expense connected with the translation of Erasmus's work was defrayed from the queen's privy purse. This we learn from Nicolas Udal's epistle dedicatory to her, before referred to, in which he says, that "at her exceeding great costs and charges, she had hired workmen to labour in the vineyard of Christ's gospel, and procured the whole paraphrase of Erasmus upon all the New Testament, to be diligently translated into English by several men, whom she employed upon this work." He at the same time expresses his hope that the king would not allow it to remain buried in silence, but would cause it to be printed, as the queen intended, "to the commodity and benefit of good English people, now a long time sore thirsting and hungering after the sincere and plain knowledge of God's Word." Henry, it thus appears, was privy to the undertaking, and had he lived till the work was ready for the press, it would probably have been printed and published under his patronage.

During the lifetime of Katharine, the only portion of it printed was that on the Gospels and on the Acts of the Apostles, which was printed at London in 1548, in folio, accompanied by three epistles composed by Udal, one to King Edward, another to Queen Katharine, and the third to the reader.2

1 The original is in Strype's Mem. Eccl., vol. ii., part ii., p. 330.

2 The translation of the remainder, forming the second volume, was published about a year later, accompanied with a dedication to King Edward, by Myles Coverdale. A

In his epistle dedicatory to Katharine, Udal pays a merited compüment to the ladies of rank in England, many of whom at that period cultivated with enthusiasm profane and sacred learning; and pronounces a high eulogium on the devotion of the queen to the study of letters, and of divine things. "A great number," says he, "of Dobie women at this time in England are not only given to the study of human sciences and strange tougues, but also so thoroughly expert Holy Scriptures, that they are able to compare with the best writers, as well in enditing and penning of godly and faithful treaties, to the instruction and edifying of realms in the knowledge of God as also in translating good books out of Latin or Greek into Esh, for the use and commodity of such as are rude and ignorant of the said tongues. It is now no news in England to see young dasels in noble houses, and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies, and other devout meditations, or else Pan's epistles, or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as famiarly both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italan, as in English. It is now a common thing to see young virgins so trained in the study of good letters, that they willingly set ather vain pastimes at nought for learning's sake. It is now no news at all to see queens and ladies of most high estate and progeny, stead of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtuous exercises, reading and writing, and with most earnest study, both early and late, to appy themselves to the acquiring of knowledge, as well in all other beral arts and disciplines, as also most specially of God and his Holy Word. And in this behalf, to your highness as well for composing and setting forth many godly psalms, and divers other contemplative meditations, as also for causing these paraphrases to be translated into our vulgar tongue, England can never be able to

and pression of the whole work was issued in 1552. In the reign of Edward, a was ordered to be placed in every parish church in the kingdom, to be read on The Sabbaths and holy days to the people.-Strype's Mem. Eccl., vol. ii., part i., pp.

render thanks sufficient." He then proceeds with a mixture of flattery, the common fault of learned men in that age, and even at a later period, to praise the Princess Mary's diligence and ability in prosecuting, till interrupted by sickness, her part of the undertaking.

The zealous endeavours of Katharine for the translation and publication of Erasmus's paraphrase, excited the bitter opposition of Bishop Gardiner, and deepened his enmity against her. After it was published he violently urged his objections in a letter to the Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector, and in other ways. He agreed with those who said that Erasmus had laid the eggs and that Luther had hatched them. He represented the paraphrase as hostile to the power of princes, as well as full of other dangerous doctrines, and as powerfully tending to foster in evil men the monstrous opinions which had lately sprung up. He might term it, in one word, "abomination," on account both of the falsehood and malice of much of its matter. In Latin it was bad enough, but much worse in English, the translators, who knew neither of the two languages, having often from ignorance, and often from design, misrepresented the meaning. Besides, being written by Erasmus in his youth, it contained many sentiments which, in his mature judgment, he had renounced. And as to the law requiring every parish to purchase a copy, it was, calculating from the price of the book and from the number of probable purchasers, equivalent to the imposition of a tax of £20,000. But Gardiner, much as he detested the English translation of Erasmus's paraphrase, had it not in his power to suppress it till the accession of Mary to the throne.

Besides devoting herself to the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, Katharine retained several learned and pious chaplains for the improvement of herself and her household. Every afternoon, and especially in Lent, a discourse upon some portion of the Sacred

'Ballard's Learned Ladies, pp. 127-130.

* Strype's Mem. of Cranmer, book ii., chap. iii., p. 151.--Jortin's Life of Erasmus, London, 1808, vol. i., pp. 120, 121, 384; and vol. ii., pp. 103, 104.