Church, Monarch, and Bible in Sixteenth Century England: The Political Context of Biblical Translation

The King James Version of the Bible is seldom viewed as a radical text, yet the history of English Bible translation in the sixteenth century, culminating in the now-familiar King James Version, is a complex one, revealing that Bible translation did not occur in a vacuum but within a web of politics, shifting religious pressures and repressions. The struggle to translate the Bible into English is here examined within the political context of the age. Emphasis is placed upon the varying royal policies and how these resulted in policy swings and the subsequent encouragement or discouragement of religious change and new Bible translations. The book is arranged chronologically, spanning the changing environments for Bible translation under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I, and James, who varied from forbidding such translations to encouraging them. A bibliography and index are included.