WEBVTT 00:39.560 --> 00:43.540 In the last programme, we looked at the way in which English had begun to oust 00:43.540 --> 00:47.340 French as the language of law and government, and how there was a new 00:47.340 --> 00:48.980 confidence in English literature. 00:50.060 --> 00:52.720 We are fulfilling your bidding to fulfil. 00:53.280 --> 00:56.520 Nine months past the plane since we were born to pay. 00:57.120 --> 01:01.160 But during the 14th and 15th centuries, there began a movement to return English 01:01.160 --> 01:02.780 to its central place in society. 01:04.420 --> 01:06.440 This fight was often a violent one. 01:07.160 --> 01:11.620 It was as much a political story as a linguistic one, and it starts right at the 01:11.620 --> 01:15.520 top, for late medieval Britain was above all a religious society. 01:15.940 --> 01:20.620 The Catholic Church controlled and pervaded all aspects of life, and it was 01:20.620 --> 01:24.280 in the Church that this struggle for access and power would be fought. 01:24.840 --> 01:27.800 English set out to become the language of God. 02:03.640 --> 02:08.620 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 02:08.620 --> 02:09.320 was God. 02:09.580 --> 02:12.020 God created the heavens and the earth. 02:12.480 --> 02:15.240 Now the earth was formless and empty. 02:15.880 --> 02:20.100 And God said, let there be light, and there was light. 02:20.600 --> 02:22.360 Through him all things were made. 02:22.660 --> 02:25.560 Without him nothing was made that has been made. 02:26.040 --> 02:30.160 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 02:31.060 --> 02:36.020 Number 12 in your hymn book, and then stand up, ready to really sing as well as 02:36.020 --> 02:36.840 you possibly can. 02:39.760 --> 02:46.020 All over the world, the Spirit is moving. 02:47.240 --> 02:53.680 All over the world, as the prophet said it would be. 02:54.440 --> 02:56.220 All over... 03:04.880 --> 03:09.140 In the beginning was the Word, but not if you lived in 14th century 03:09.140 --> 03:10.740 England and couldn't speak Latin. 03:11.380 --> 03:13.160 Power in words lay in the Bible. 03:13.780 --> 03:15.280 There was no Bible in English. 03:16.260 --> 03:19.060 In formal terms, God spoke to the people in Latin. 03:20.020 --> 03:24.160 Six centuries ago, the Bible stories were commonly enjoyed, but not the Bible 03:24.160 --> 03:24.720 itself. 03:25.260 --> 03:28.400 To the vast majority, it was a closed book. 03:33.400 --> 03:42.180 Both Oseer and Eseer prayed that a prince with wooden pair should descend down in a 03:42.180 --> 03:50.540 lardy, to make man keen clearly, to late them that are long, and in 03:50.540 --> 03:54.060 Badland, Herby, shall that sound barn be born. 03:54.780 --> 03:58.720 These are the mystery plays, first performed in York around 1376, 03:58.980 --> 04:00.220 and still being performed today. 04:01.020 --> 04:04.760 They tell the Christian story, from the mystery of God's creation to the 04:04.760 --> 04:06.660 birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. 04:07.040 --> 04:10.000 They are religious plays, but they're not the Scriptures. 04:10.700 --> 04:13.920 They're a sort of biblical soap opera, at the same kind of removed from the 04:13.920 --> 04:16.480 original source as our nativity plays are today. 04:16.900 --> 04:20.900 If you wanted to hear the real thing, you'd have to go in there, in the Minster, 04:21.180 --> 04:22.320 and hear it in Latin. 04:25.200 --> 04:28.520 Out here, you'll get the strip cartoon version in English. 04:34.260 --> 04:38.440 Only one play each year is now performed in the original language, the language of 04:38.440 --> 04:39.360 the time of Chaucer. 04:40.440 --> 04:44.200 It may not sound marvellous, a man, if fully you be hit. 04:46.040 --> 04:52.520 But it should mean, that what not ye, for all ye can gap and gong, ye can sing 04:52.520 --> 04:53.800 it as well as they. 04:54.360 --> 04:57.940 And on a say, it shall soon be proved all we pass. 04:58.900 --> 05:03.640 If ye will help, hold on, for thus it was. 05:10.040 --> 05:14.520 This year, it's The Shepherd's Play, the story of the three shepherds seeing 05:14.520 --> 05:17.640 the angelic host coming and preparing for the newly born Jesus. 05:20.360 --> 05:24.720 This was a merry note, be the dead that ye shall see. 05:24.720 --> 05:29.500 It hath so cracked in me throat, that me lip is only green. 05:34.760 --> 05:41.300 An angel brought, whose tithing is new, a barb in Bethlehem should be born. 05:41.760 --> 05:48.060 Of whom, then, spark o'er prophecy true, and bar does mate him there this morn. 06:02.180 --> 06:05.220 That was the language of the streets, immediate and direct. 06:06.200 --> 06:08.380 But in God's house, Latin ruled. 06:26.280 --> 06:29.160 Anybody who is brought up in the ways of the Church of England, as I am, 06:29.160 --> 06:33.800 would find a medieval church service linguistically a strange and remote 06:33.800 --> 06:34.160 affair. 06:35.040 --> 06:38.380 When you went to church then, and everybody had to, it was compulsory, 06:38.820 --> 06:42.840 there was no familiar English hymnal, hymns ancient and modern, or even a book 06:42.840 --> 06:43.640 of common prayer. 06:44.220 --> 06:49.180 Everything was in Latin, and at best you'd only have understood the odd word of it. 07:10.720 --> 07:14.840 Only the clergy were allowed to read the word of God, and they did even that 07:14.840 --> 07:15.680 silently. 07:17.040 --> 07:20.600 A bell was rung to let the congregation know when the priest had reached the 07:20.600 --> 07:21.280 important bits. 07:35.220 --> 07:40.700 For the authority of the Catholic Church, it was vital that a priest and a language 07:40.700 --> 07:42.880 stood between a believer and the Bible. 07:59.810 --> 08:02.870 But all that was about to change dramatically. 08:03.570 --> 08:07.290 In the 14th century, there was the beginnings of a counter-movement that was 08:07.290 --> 08:09.730 going to turn the English-speaking world on its axis. 08:10.310 --> 08:12.210 It would eventually tear the Church in two. 08:12.730 --> 08:16.730 It would mark the end of the Middle Ages, and would cost many, many lives. 08:17.290 --> 08:19.350 It was the battle for the language of the Bible. 08:19.970 --> 08:24.190 The English, some of them, wanted access to the Kingdom of Heaven in the language 08:24.190 --> 08:24.650 of the streets. 08:24.650 --> 08:29.470 They wanted a Bible that belonged to them, and they were prepared to fight for it. 08:30.110 --> 08:33.910 It was the boldest way for English to become the language of real power. 08:34.950 --> 08:39.950 The prime mover was John Wycliffe, who at the age of 17 was admitted here, 08:40.470 --> 08:41.970 to Merton College, Oxford. 09:12.000 --> 09:15.820 Wycliffe was a charismatic scholar, fluent in Latin, and therefore familiar 09:15.820 --> 09:16.440 with the Bible. 09:16.440 --> 09:20.780 He was a major philosopher and theologian, who believed passionately that his 09:20.780 --> 09:22.480 knowledge should be shared by everyone. 09:23.100 --> 09:25.840 And he was fiercely opposed to the power and wealth of the Church. 09:26.560 --> 09:30.120 When men speak of the Church, he said, they usually mean priests, monks, 09:30.340 --> 09:31.220 canons, and friars. 09:31.560 --> 09:33.000 But it should not be so. 09:33.720 --> 09:37.280 Were there a hundred popes, he wrote, and all the friars turned to cardinals, 09:37.720 --> 09:42.320 their opinions in matters of faith should not be accepted, except insofar as they 09:42.320 --> 09:44.260 are founded on the Scripture itself. 09:46.440 --> 09:49.240 The Church in Wycliffe's time was often lazy and corrupt. 09:49.780 --> 09:54.120 Bible reading, even among the clergy, was surprisingly rare, for often they 09:54.120 --> 09:54.920 didn't have the Latin. 09:56.940 --> 10:02.060 When the Bishop of Gloucester surveyed 311 deacons, archdeacons, and priests of the 10:02.060 --> 10:07.320 diocese, he discovered that 168 were unable to repeat the Ten Commandments, 10:07.860 --> 10:12.680 31 didn't know where those commandments came from, and 40 couldn't repeat the 10:12.680 --> 10:13.240 Lord's Prayer. 10:15.400 --> 10:18.720 Wycliffe railed at the corruption and complacency of the Church. 10:19.140 --> 10:23.520 His overriding thought was summed up in his passionate belief in the right of 10:23.520 --> 10:28.140 every man, whether cleric or layman, to examine the Bible for himself. 10:29.240 --> 10:31.280 This meant a full English Bible. 10:31.980 --> 10:33.300 But it wasn't an easy task. 10:33.580 --> 10:37.040 It was unauthorized by the Church, and so potentially heretical, even 10:37.040 --> 10:37.480 seditious. 10:37.900 --> 10:42.180 It had to be done in secrecy, for its aim was to overthrow the powerful. 10:42.180 --> 10:43.620 With words. 10:47.360 --> 10:51.520 We know that by the beginning of 1380, Wycliffe had organized the translation 10:51.520 --> 10:53.780 from the Latin of the first English Bible. 10:56.160 --> 11:00.840 The work took place here, in Oxford, probably with a number of translators. 11:03.180 --> 11:07.640 And it wasn't only the mammoth task of translation that faced them, their Bible 11:07.640 --> 11:09.200 had to be disseminated too. 11:14.270 --> 11:18.090 Once the translation was done, the new Bible was reproduced. 11:18.690 --> 11:22.750 Hundreds were copied in scriptaria, production lines turning out handwritten 11:22.750 --> 11:23.190 copies. 11:26.810 --> 11:31.770 170 of these Bibles survive, a huge number for a 600-year-old manuscript, 11:32.050 --> 11:36.330 which tells us there must have been armies of people secretly transcribing it, 11:36.650 --> 11:39.210 copying it, and passing it on. 11:49.130 --> 11:54.710 And here it is, the first English Bible, laboriously copied out in perfect script. 11:55.850 --> 11:56.530 Look at it. 11:57.190 --> 12:00.610 The first thing that strikes me is how like the Lindisfarne Gospels it is. 12:00.810 --> 12:02.210 The tradition went on. 12:02.450 --> 12:05.570 Of this book you can fairly say it literally changed the world, and later, 12:05.710 --> 12:09.470 for the sake of this book, hundreds would be martyred, dying the most horrible 12:09.470 --> 12:09.850 deaths. 12:09.850 --> 12:14.630 But this was the most radical cause of its day, one, some thought, worth dying for. 12:15.150 --> 12:17.170 God's word in English. 12:21.390 --> 12:23.450 Here it is in modern speech. 12:25.630 --> 12:32.850 In the beginning, God made of naught heaven and earth, forsooth the earth was 12:32.850 --> 12:39.590 idle and void, and darkness were on the face of depth, and the Spirit of God was 12:39.590 --> 12:40.810 born on the waters. 12:42.230 --> 12:47.530 And God said, Light be made, and light was made. 12:48.350 --> 12:53.730 And God saw the light that it was good, and he departed the light for all 12:53.730 --> 13:02.150 darkness, and he kept the light day, and the darkness night, and the even tide 13:02.150 --> 13:05.690 and morrow tide was made one day. 13:08.750 --> 13:10.870 There was a problem with Wycliffe's Bible. 13:11.090 --> 13:12.490 It wasn't an easy translation. 13:13.350 --> 13:15.890 Many familiar phrases do have their origin here. 13:15.890 --> 13:18.650 Woe is me, an eye for an eye. 13:19.230 --> 13:24.430 And words such as barbarian, birthday, canopy, childbearing, cock crow, 13:24.670 --> 13:30.710 communication, crime, dishonor, envy, frying pan, godly, graven, 13:31.070 --> 13:36.990 humanity, injury, jubilee, lecture, madness, menstruate, middleman, 13:37.150 --> 13:41.290 mountainous, novelty, oppressor, philistine, pollute, puberty, rampart, 13:41.410 --> 13:44.310 schism, tramp, unfaithful, visitor, and zeal. 13:44.310 --> 13:48.510 You read them first in Wycliffe's Bible from the 1380s onwards. 13:49.330 --> 13:53.610 But on the whole, Wycliffe and his team were so in awe of the sacred nature of the 13:53.610 --> 13:57.890 Latin scriptures that they did a translation word for word, even keeping 13:57.890 --> 13:58.950 the Latin word order. 13:59.270 --> 14:04.750 So it contains phrases like, Lord go from me, for I am a man sinner, and I forsooth 14:04.750 --> 14:06.670 am the Lord thy God strong jealous. 14:07.170 --> 14:11.630 These were people still nervous with their own language, anxious that it could carry 14:11.630 --> 14:13.090 the weight of God's word. 14:13.090 --> 14:18.210 One result was that there are over a thousand Latin words that turn up for the 14:18.210 --> 14:22.570 first time in English, whose use in English is first recorded in Wycliffe's 14:22.570 --> 14:23.050 translation. 14:23.230 --> 14:27.490 Quite ordinary ones, like emperor, justice, profession, city, cradle, 14:27.890 --> 14:32.810 suddenly, angel, multitude, and glory, a good word for this Bible. 14:34.530 --> 14:38.390 This was still a difficult language to Wycliffe's contemporaries, but at least it 14:38.390 --> 14:38.990 wasn't Latin. 14:42.990 --> 14:46.210 By the standards of the day, it was the bestseller. 14:46.770 --> 14:50.630 The church condemned him for it, maintaining that he'd made the scriptures 14:50.630 --> 14:53.990 more open to the readings of laymen and women. 14:54.430 --> 14:58.890 Thus the jewel of the clerics is turned to the sport of the laity, and the pearl of 14:58.890 --> 15:03.130 the gospel is scattered abroad and trodden underfoot by swine. 15:20.790 --> 15:25.110 Wycliffe had begun to organize and train what amounted to a new religious order of 15:25.110 --> 15:27.530 itinerant preachers, whom he dispatched around England. 15:31.410 --> 15:35.090 Their purpose was to spread the word, literally, in English. 15:36.010 --> 15:37.650 It was like a guerrilla campaign. 15:37.650 --> 15:40.370 They were determined to win the battle for God. 15:43.530 --> 15:48.590 In the highways, byways, taverns, inns, and village greens, they preached 15:48.590 --> 15:52.630 against church corruption and proclaimed Wycliffe's anti-clerical ideas. 15:53.150 --> 15:57.110 They read from his English Bible, and they became known as Lollards. 15:57.610 --> 16:01.150 The name might be derived from lollia, meaning weeds, or from lollen, 16:01.510 --> 16:03.770 to whisper, murmur, or hum. 16:07.280 --> 16:11.740 They were a secret but influential movement, and hated by the Catholic 16:11.740 --> 16:12.260 establishment. 16:12.820 --> 16:16.540 They went straight to the source of God's teaching, and cut out the priests. 16:19.200 --> 16:24.340 Blessed be poor men in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 16:25.720 --> 16:28.700 Blessed be mild men, for they shall wield the earth. 16:30.540 --> 16:33.080 Blessed be they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 16:34.220 --> 16:39.100 Blessed be they that hunger and thirst rightwise, for they shall be fulfilled. 16:40.940 --> 16:45.460 Blessed be merciful men, for they shall get mercy. 16:47.520 --> 16:52.640 Blessed be they that be of clean heart, for they shall see God. 16:55.460 --> 17:01.540 Blessed be they that suffer persecution for rightfulness, for the kingdom of 17:01.540 --> 17:02.420 heaven is theirs. 17:05.120 --> 17:10.620 So shine your light before men, that they see your good works and glorify 17:10.620 --> 17:13.420 your Father that is in heaven. 17:17.610 --> 17:19.670 The church wasn't going to stand for this. 17:19.950 --> 17:21.310 It cut at its very authority. 17:22.050 --> 17:27.690 On this spot, Blackfriars, in London, on May the 17th, 1382, a special synod 17:27.690 --> 17:32.510 made up of eight bishops, various masters of theology, doctors of canon and civil 17:32.510 --> 17:36.810 law, and 45 friars met to examine Whitcliffe's works. 17:37.330 --> 17:38.310 It was a show trial. 17:38.950 --> 17:40.250 The conclusion was preordained. 17:40.870 --> 17:43.930 And two days into their meeting, they drafted a statement condemning 17:43.930 --> 17:46.590 Whitcliffe's pronouncements as outright heresies. 17:50.960 --> 17:54.160 The synod also condemned Whitcliffe's assertions. 17:54.980 --> 17:59.020 It ordered the arrest and prosecution of itinerant preachers throughout the land. 17:59.560 --> 18:04.160 Eventually, it secured a parliamentary ban on all English language Bibles. 18:07.080 --> 18:11.940 On the 30th of May that year, the synod instructed every diocese to publish the 18:11.940 --> 18:12.320 verdict. 18:15.020 --> 18:15.880 Whitcliffe became ill. 18:16.480 --> 18:19.540 The stress defeated him, and he was paralyzed by a stroke. 18:26.380 --> 18:28.300 Two years later, he died. 18:36.980 --> 18:40.160 Whitcliffe's death didn't signal the end of the movement, though afterwards, 18:40.460 --> 18:42.860 Lollards were at constant risk of their lives. 18:43.200 --> 18:46.020 They met in hidden places, especially in Hereford and Monmouthshire. 18:46.360 --> 18:49.840 They managed to elude the agents of the church and keep their faith alive. 18:50.480 --> 18:54.020 One contemporary chronicler said that every second man he met was a Lollard, 18:54.100 --> 18:57.920 and they went all over England, luring great nobles and lords to their 18:57.920 --> 18:58.300 fold. 18:58.300 --> 19:02.740 It's most unlikely that there were that numerous, but nevertheless, this was a 19:02.740 --> 19:07.260 national, political movement, and its cause was the English language. 19:09.900 --> 19:16.500 In summer season, when soft was the sauna, he shook me into a shroud as he shaped 19:16.500 --> 19:16.880 well. 19:17.580 --> 19:21.980 But in a Maya's morning, on Malvernahulles, me befell a fairy, 19:22.160 --> 19:23.760 a fiery mythochter. 19:26.660 --> 19:30.200 This is the West Midlands dialect of William Langland's Piers Plowman. 19:32.580 --> 19:36.500 It's a religious poem, the most popular poem of its day. 19:40.660 --> 19:44.820 It's the first time we know of that the English language was used to express a 19:44.820 --> 19:49.280 personal, Christian, spiritual vision, and it's evidence of a native tradition 19:49.280 --> 19:53.460 that's a real and growing alternative to the established religious culture. 19:55.500 --> 20:00.600 It came to Langland in a series of dreams, the first here on the Malvern Hills. 20:00.600 --> 20:05.520 It's written in a literative verse, itself a form which harks back to the old 20:05.520 --> 20:09.520 English of Beowulf, and it's an allegory of the Christian life, and of the 20:09.520 --> 20:12.020 contemporary corruption of the Christian church. 20:13.200 --> 20:19.300 And as he beheld into the est, and heich to the sauna, he saw a tour on a 20:19.300 --> 20:26.480 toft, trelliche he makeht, A deep dale beneath, a dungun therein, With deop ditch 20:26.480 --> 20:32.200 and derk dreadful of sicht, A fair feld full of folk fond he there betwen, 20:33.200 --> 20:39.900 Working and wandering as the world asketh, Some putten hem to the pluch, pleiden full 20:39.900 --> 20:44.260 selden, In setting and in sowing, swonken full harde. 20:44.260 --> 20:51.060 He fond there freres, all the four ordres, Preaching the peple for profit of her 20:51.060 --> 20:54.840 wombes, Glossing the gospel as hem good liketh. 20:55.320 --> 21:00.740 But the parish priest and the pardoner parteth the selver, That the poor peple of 21:00.740 --> 21:03.620 the parish should have yif that herne were. 21:06.680 --> 21:11.340 English here is being used to form not just a literary language, but one which is 21:11.340 --> 21:15.240 an alternative to the received authority passed down either through French or 21:15.240 --> 21:15.540 Latin. 21:16.240 --> 21:19.260 This is plain speaking for plain folk, it seems to say. 21:19.460 --> 21:20.620 This is real experience. 21:21.220 --> 21:24.440 This is the language of an individual relationship with God. 21:24.980 --> 21:28.280 It prefigures books like Pilgrim's Progress and Paradise Lost. 21:28.920 --> 21:33.440 It would bestir the pilgrim fathers and in good time become the Protestant language 21:33.440 --> 21:34.820 of the English Reformation. 21:40.650 --> 21:44.350 But meanwhile the church was not satisfied with Wycliffe's death. 21:44.670 --> 21:48.650 It continued to burn Bibles, it burned people and it ordered Wycliffe to be 21:48.650 --> 21:49.710 posthumously burned. 21:51.190 --> 21:56.170 In 1414, the most imposing council ever called by the Catholic Church condemned 21:56.170 --> 22:01.830 Wycliffe as a heretic and in the spring of 1428 ordered his bones to be exhumed and 22:01.830 --> 22:03.630 removed from consecrated ground. 22:03.630 --> 22:08.350 With the primate of England looking on, Wycliffe's remains were disinterred and 22:08.350 --> 22:12.930 burned by a little bridge that spanned the river Swift, a tributary of the Avon. 22:15.970 --> 22:18.110 His ashes were scattered into the stream. 22:28.430 --> 22:31.070 So officially the Bible remained in Latin. 22:31.790 --> 22:36.610 But there was a Lollard prophecy of the time which ran, The Avon to the seven 22:36.610 --> 22:42.830 runs, the seven to the sea, and Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad, wide as the 22:42.830 --> 22:43.550 waters be. 22:46.090 --> 22:47.650 The prophecy was right. 22:48.330 --> 22:52.750 English would eventually have its Bible, but the church would not give way before 22:52.750 --> 22:56.230 the new force of English until the state had buckled first. 23:00.870 --> 23:04.870 The battle for an English Bible was a battle literally for the soul of England. 23:05.510 --> 23:09.410 But before it could be won, the heart and mind of the country had to be persuaded 23:09.410 --> 23:09.850 too. 23:10.370 --> 23:14.990 And that process began here in 1417 in France with Henry V. 23:28.880 --> 23:33.280 Right trustee and well-beloved brother, right worshipful fathers in God, 23:33.360 --> 23:37.680 and trustee and well-beloved brother, for as much as we know well your desire 23:37.680 --> 23:43.300 were to hear joyful tidings of our good speed, we signify unto you that of our 23:43.300 --> 23:45.520 labor has sent good conclusion. 23:47.580 --> 23:51.560 In the early 15th century, Henry was campaigning around northern France, 23:51.620 --> 23:54.500 winning French territory in famous battles, especially at Agincourt. 23:55.800 --> 23:59.780 It seems a small thing, but it was of quite extraordinary significance that 23:59.780 --> 24:05.180 after his victory, Henry V broke with 350 years of royal tradition and wrote his 24:05.180 --> 24:06.440 dispatches home in English. 24:06.920 --> 24:08.280 This was an astute move. 24:08.880 --> 24:13.160 English kings had begun to speak English under his father Henry IV, but all court 24:13.160 --> 24:17.000 documents had hitherto been written in French, as they had been since the Norman 24:17.000 --> 24:17.580 conquest. 24:18.320 --> 24:22.340 Henry's English letters are deliberate pieces of propaganda to be spread 24:22.340 --> 24:23.240 throughout the land. 24:24.000 --> 24:25.900 Here's his letter announcing peace. 24:27.600 --> 24:32.220 Upon Monday, the 20th day of May, we arrived in this town, Troyes, 24:32.540 --> 24:37.800 and the accord of the peace perpetual was here sworn by the Duke of Burgundy, 24:38.080 --> 24:40.300 and semblably by us in our own name. 24:44.680 --> 24:49.140 The letters forthwith sealed under the great seal, copies of which we send to be 24:49.140 --> 24:53.440 proclaimed in our city of London, and through all our realm, that our people 24:53.440 --> 24:55.640 may have knowledge thereof for their consolation. 24:57.140 --> 25:01.160 Signed, Henry, by the grace of God, King of England. 25:05.120 --> 25:09.000 Henry's motives may have been the exploitation of anti-French fervour, 25:09.340 --> 25:12.780 but once he returned from the campaigns, he continued to write in English. 25:13.060 --> 25:17.580 And in doing so, he made the first major step towards the creation of an official, 25:17.780 --> 25:20.200 standardised English that everybody could read. 25:20.740 --> 25:24.660 The Houses of Parliament, where I am now, are also called the Palace of Westminster. 25:24.660 --> 25:28.500 That's a reminder that on this site, the Kings of England once had their 25:28.500 --> 25:29.720 principal London residence. 25:30.340 --> 25:34.340 This hall is all that survived the Great Fire, and somewhere round here, 25:34.700 --> 25:38.160 when the King was in residence, would have been the first circle of his 25:38.160 --> 25:38.480 government. 25:43.020 --> 25:44.720 This was called the Signet Office. 25:46.440 --> 25:50.360 It wrote personal letters on behalf of the monarch, which carried the royal seal, 25:50.540 --> 25:54.860 and, in ways familiar to us today, once Henry decreed that the Signet Office 25:54.860 --> 25:59.520 should use English, it was inevitable that the rest of the country would come to do 25:59.520 --> 26:00.020 the same. 26:00.840 --> 26:03.000 The problem was, which English? 26:03.360 --> 26:07.560 Across the country, people still spoke a mass of different dialects, and would have 26:07.560 --> 26:09.280 had trouble understanding one another. 26:09.420 --> 26:14.300 For instance, the word stjern, or stain, in the north, was stone in the 26:14.300 --> 26:14.580 south. 26:15.060 --> 26:19.880 The ing participle, as in running, was said as and in the north, end in the 26:19.880 --> 26:22.040 East Midlands, and ind in the West Midlands. 26:22.040 --> 26:27.180 So, running could also be said as runand, runind, and runend. 26:27.940 --> 26:31.080 But that was nothing compared to the variety of spellings in use. 26:31.640 --> 26:35.180 Because England had traditionally used French or Latin as its written languages, 26:35.540 --> 26:39.420 there had never been any need to agree on a common linguistic standard, or even how 26:39.420 --> 26:40.720 to spell particular words. 26:41.000 --> 26:42.660 But now, there was. 26:43.820 --> 26:47.480 Take the word church, for instance, one of the most common and important in 26:47.480 --> 26:47.940 the language. 26:47.940 --> 26:52.320 In the north of England, it was commonly called a kirk, while the south used 26:52.320 --> 26:52.860 church. 26:53.320 --> 27:01.660 However, kirk could be spelt k-y-r-k, k-y-r-k-e, k-i-r-k-e, k-e-r-k, 27:02.160 --> 27:05.960 k-i-r-c, and k-e-r-k-e. 27:05.960 --> 27:15.620 Church was variously c-h-u-r-c-h-e, c-h-e-r-c-h-e, c-h-i-r-c-h-e, c-h-e-r-c-h, 27:15.900 --> 27:25.080 c-h-y-r-c-h, c-h-e-r-g-e, c-h-y-r-c-h-e, and s-c-h-y-r-c-h-e. 27:26.420 --> 27:30.120 Fortunately, from the language's point of view, there was a big engine of state that 27:30.120 --> 27:31.800 could deal with this unruly tongue. 27:31.800 --> 27:35.860 It was the Chancellery, reduced to Chancery, the civil service of the day, 27:35.920 --> 27:39.740 because it was crucial that a document produced in London could be read in 27:39.740 --> 27:40.220 Carlisle. 27:40.340 --> 27:42.480 We needed a common written language. 27:48.230 --> 27:53.670 This is the Public Records Office, where the official documents of the 15th 27:53.670 --> 27:54.430 century are kept. 27:59.120 --> 28:03.100 As Chancery began to use the English language, it had to make hundreds of 28:03.100 --> 28:06.180 decisions about which form of a word and which spelling to adopt. 28:06.180 --> 28:10.620 We don't know how these choices were made, but we do know that they stuck. 28:11.240 --> 28:15.600 Thousands of documents were painstakingly written out and sent all over the country. 28:17.480 --> 28:21.560 Many had legal status, so they had to be exact and consistent. 28:23.600 --> 28:28.000 And under the influence of Chancery, the language starts to look more modern 28:28.000 --> 28:29.120 and more even. 28:31.260 --> 28:38.320 Words like any, but, many, not, such, ought, and even I, previously Ike, 28:38.360 --> 28:42.160 I-C-H-E had also been allowed, find their modern forms at Chancery. 28:43.920 --> 28:49.080 Lond becomes land, and church, Kirk, and all the others become church. 28:50.940 --> 28:56.960 During the decade 1469 to 1479 alone, for instance, the modern word shall starts 28:56.960 --> 29:01.240 as xal, then shal, and finally settles into its modern form, shal. 29:02.520 --> 29:07.580 The word writhe becomes wright, hath and doth become has and does. 29:08.560 --> 29:14.020 By 1500, under the influence of Chancery, the language is becoming recognisable to 29:14.020 --> 29:14.320 us. 29:17.080 --> 29:19.920 Is there anything else in common with the plurals? 29:20.980 --> 29:24.960 Some end in s, some end in e-s, some end in i-e-s. 29:25.840 --> 29:27.120 Anyone know why? 29:30.840 --> 29:33.800 Is there a reason why they all end in different endings? 29:34.760 --> 29:36.740 Is it because it's just the English language? 29:37.020 --> 29:38.980 It's just the English language. 29:39.080 --> 29:40.040 That's a very good answer. 29:40.160 --> 29:40.460 OK. 29:40.460 --> 29:44.640 But just because everyone began to spell the same way, it didn't mean the language 29:44.640 --> 29:45.760 became any more logical. 29:46.000 --> 29:46.440 Look at this. 29:46.480 --> 29:47.660 Why English is so hard. 29:48.120 --> 29:50.080 We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes. 29:50.540 --> 29:52.900 But the plural of ox is oxen, not boxes. 29:53.560 --> 29:55.720 Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese. 29:55.960 --> 30:00.740 Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. 30:01.300 --> 30:05.540 You may find a lone mouse or a whole load of mice, but the plural of house is 30:05.540 --> 30:06.740 houses, not heis. 30:06.740 --> 30:12.340 If the plural of man is always called men, then why shouldn't the plural of pan be 30:12.340 --> 30:12.860 called pen? 30:12.980 --> 30:15.660 And it goes on, and it goes on, and it goes on. 30:16.140 --> 30:17.800 What's the poet trying to tell us? 30:18.240 --> 30:19.260 That English is confusing. 30:19.720 --> 30:21.060 That English is confusing. 30:21.320 --> 30:22.460 Hands up if you agree with Ola. 30:23.240 --> 30:24.740 OK, hands down. 30:25.300 --> 30:29.520 Ask any foreigner, in fact ask any pupil about mastering English spelling and its 30:29.520 --> 30:32.660 inconsistencies, and they'll say, what have we done to deserve this? 30:33.180 --> 30:37.620 A lot of it is just to do with the mongrel nature of English, and a lot of it is to 30:37.620 --> 30:40.000 do with accidents of usage from centuries ago. 30:40.500 --> 30:42.280 But some of it was deliberate. 30:43.060 --> 30:45.460 Hands up if you think that English is so hard to learn. 30:45.660 --> 30:49.360 Around the time English was being standardised by Chancery, there was much 30:49.360 --> 30:51.520 debate about the best way to spell things. 30:51.900 --> 30:55.460 Broadly, there were reformers who wanted to spell words according to the way they 30:55.460 --> 30:59.460 were pronounced, and traditionalists who wanted to spell them in one of the ways 30:59.460 --> 31:00.260 they'd always been. 31:00.900 --> 31:06.740 When it's something like anchor, you don't notice if it's a H or a K. 31:07.580 --> 31:09.180 The traditionalists won. 31:09.840 --> 31:10.760 It is confusing. 31:10.960 --> 31:11.760 How are you going to know? 31:11.920 --> 31:14.200 Because the silent letter is silent. 31:15.040 --> 31:16.780 They couldn't help tampering though. 31:17.480 --> 31:20.920 In a desire to make the roots of the language more evident, words that had 31:20.920 --> 31:23.660 entered English from French, for instance, were given a Latin look. 31:24.300 --> 31:27.500 The letter B was inserted into debt and doubt. 31:27.940 --> 31:29.540 The letter C into vittles. 31:29.540 --> 31:33.240 Words that were thought to be of Greek origin sometimes had their spelling 31:33.240 --> 31:37.440 adjusted, so that throne and theatre acquired their H. 31:38.420 --> 31:42.220 Rhyme, on the other hand, was given an H just because rhythm had one, even though 31:42.220 --> 31:43.560 it's etymologically absurd. 31:44.260 --> 31:48.800 On a similar principle, an L was inserted in could because it had become silent, 31:48.960 --> 31:50.660 but it was still present in should and would. 31:51.100 --> 31:53.920 The same with H in words like whole, were and welk. 31:54.120 --> 31:57.980 And like anybody who tries to rationalise English, they really messed it up. 31:58.680 --> 31:59.960 You feel confused. 32:00.060 --> 32:00.700 Who do you blame? 32:01.200 --> 32:02.000 Me? 32:02.320 --> 32:02.720 OK. 32:03.180 --> 32:03.900 Let's carry on. 32:03.980 --> 32:06.180 Let's have another look at the second verse. 32:06.960 --> 32:12.820 The cow is a plural, making cows all kind. 32:13.360 --> 32:18.280 But the plural of vow is vows not vine. 32:18.940 --> 32:24.140 And I speak of foot, and you show me your feet. 32:24.620 --> 32:29.620 But I give you a boot, would a pair be called feet? 32:30.380 --> 32:31.040 Stay here. 32:31.080 --> 32:31.600 Be on television. 32:31.760 --> 32:32.540 The right would be quiet. 32:32.680 --> 32:32.900 OK? 32:33.660 --> 32:34.140 Right. 32:34.320 --> 32:35.240 You can all stand there. 32:36.040 --> 32:36.840 I've got the point. 32:36.900 --> 32:37.300 Let's go. 32:41.260 --> 32:44.860 As if to prove the folly of trying to bring reason into the language, 32:45.120 --> 32:48.320 the English promptly decided to pronounce everything differently anyway. 32:48.760 --> 32:53.060 Around this time, and nobody really knows why, a sea change took place in the way 32:53.060 --> 32:54.120 English sounds. 32:54.140 --> 32:56.360 This is called the Great Vowel Shift. 32:56.680 --> 32:58.180 And it happened comparatively quickly. 32:58.540 --> 33:00.020 We think over a generation or two. 33:00.580 --> 33:03.840 Before it, English was pronounced in a way that sounds foreign to us now. 33:04.240 --> 33:08.520 Might used to sound rather like today's meat, which in turn was said something 33:08.520 --> 33:09.060 like mit. 33:09.400 --> 33:15.560 So the sentence, I might go and buy some meat, once sounded like, I meat go and boy 33:15.560 --> 33:16.480 some mit. 33:17.120 --> 33:18.520 That was the Great Vowel Shift. 33:18.660 --> 33:21.960 It made 15th century English recognisable to the modern ear. 33:22.120 --> 33:23.800 But it didn't change the spelling. 33:26.120 --> 33:29.800 What really gives all languages their uniformity is, of course, writing. 33:30.100 --> 33:33.860 And what gives writing its huge modern power is the invention and spread of 33:33.860 --> 33:34.240 printing. 33:36.160 --> 33:39.160 Printing was invented in Gutenberg, Germany, around 1435. 33:40.700 --> 33:44.860 It's often regarded as the most seismic technological change Western culture has 33:44.860 --> 33:45.360 gone through. 33:46.700 --> 33:49.920 Printing marks the beginning of the Information Age. 34:15.340 --> 34:19.320 It's extraordinary, looking at this simple piece of technology, to think of what a 34:19.320 --> 34:20.420 revolution it brought about. 34:20.420 --> 34:24.420 This isn't 15th century, but it worked in exactly the same way. 34:25.080 --> 34:29.320 And because this device made it easy to manufacture books in large numbers, 34:29.620 --> 34:33.120 it became very hard indeed to control the spread of ideas. 34:33.500 --> 34:35.580 And print favoured the language of the people. 34:35.940 --> 34:38.180 English was pressed into service. 34:41.100 --> 34:47.120 And although Latin was still the language of religion and scholarship, when Caxton 34:47.120 --> 34:50.640 introduced printing to England, he got straight on with making books in 34:50.640 --> 34:50.980 English. 34:50.980 --> 34:55.500 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Mallory's Tales of King Arthur were his best 34:55.500 --> 34:55.860 sellers. 34:59.390 --> 35:03.710 But English was still a fluid and regionally difficult monster, and Caxton 35:03.710 --> 35:07.850 worried about how to achieve a common standard that would be understood and read 35:07.850 --> 35:08.710 by all. 35:10.310 --> 35:16.950 Certainly it is hard to please every man because of diversity and change of 35:16.950 --> 35:17.510 language. 35:17.510 --> 35:24.930 For in these days, every man will utter his communication in such terms that few 35:24.930 --> 35:26.870 man shall understand them. 35:27.410 --> 35:32.790 But in my judgement, the common terms that be daily used been lighter to be 35:32.790 --> 35:35.770 understand than the older and ancient English. 35:38.070 --> 35:42.610 Caxton tells us that he is translating Virgil from a French version, but he 35:42.610 --> 35:44.990 doesn't know which English word to use for eggs. 35:44.990 --> 35:49.210 He tells a story of some merchants from Northumberland who are away from home and 35:49.210 --> 35:50.870 visit a house in Kent to buy food. 35:51.690 --> 35:53.250 One asks the woman for eggies. 35:53.710 --> 35:55.790 She tells him she doesn't speak French. 35:56.450 --> 36:00.790 Another asks for the same thing with a different plural, eren, which means eggs 36:00.790 --> 36:03.030 in the dialect of Kent, and he gets them. 36:03.830 --> 36:06.130 So which word should Caxton choose for his translation? 36:07.070 --> 36:10.030 He settles for eggies, and so now do we. 36:16.520 --> 36:21.120 So it's printers as much as teachers and writers who decide on a lot of words and 36:21.120 --> 36:21.900 their spellings. 36:22.440 --> 36:25.420 And although it was writers like Chaucer and Wycliffe who had established a 36:25.420 --> 36:30.060 dominant dialect, it was Caxton's publications that consolidated the gains. 36:30.540 --> 36:33.920 Gains which would eventually be made permanent by the English Bible, 36:34.040 --> 36:37.580 which in Tudor times, thanks to printing, reached everyone who could read. 36:38.160 --> 36:43.000 The scene was set for the creation of probably the most influential book that's 36:43.000 --> 36:46.060 ever been in the history of language, English or any other. 37:07.160 --> 37:11.000 Early in the reign of Henry VIII, the new king was still promising the Pope 37:11.000 --> 37:13.220 to burn any untrue translations. 37:13.940 --> 37:17.780 So he wrote Wycliffe's Bible, relentlessly circulating in hand-copied editions, 37:18.300 --> 37:22.300 and he sent his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to hunt down and burn all 37:22.300 --> 37:23.180 heretical books. 37:24.080 --> 37:29.360 On the 12th of May 1521, a huge bonfire of confiscated heretical works was made 37:29.360 --> 37:31.240 outside the original St. Paul's Cathedral. 37:31.800 --> 37:34.760 It was said that the flames burned for two days. 37:36.600 --> 37:41.360 That same year, a young man who was Oxford educated, and an ordained priest, 37:41.600 --> 37:45.160 became tutor to a large household in Little Sodbury, Gloucestershire, 37:45.420 --> 37:49.380 where he started to preach in the commonplace called St. Austen's Green, 37:49.740 --> 37:50.640 in front of the church. 37:54.690 --> 37:59.250 His name was William Tyndall, and his Bible was to bring about a radical change, 37:59.350 --> 38:02.150 both in the English language and in English society. 38:05.030 --> 38:08.550 He's had more influence on the way we speak than anyone except Shakespeare, 38:08.990 --> 38:10.710 and he had to leave the country to do it. 38:15.410 --> 38:18.110 Tyndall was in the mould of Wycliffe a hundred years on. 38:18.970 --> 38:20.730 To a cleric who challenged him, he answered, 38:27.470 --> 38:32.270 You may say he finished Wycliffe's business. 38:34.530 --> 38:37.470 He believed passionately in an English Bible. 38:42.170 --> 38:47.230 In 1524, aged 29, Tyndall left England, never to return. 38:48.010 --> 38:50.710 He settled in Cologne, and began the work of translating the Bible into English. 38:50.710 --> 38:54.070 He began translating the New Testament into English, not from Latin, but from the 38:54.070 --> 38:55.490 original Hebrew and Greek. 38:56.250 --> 39:02.290 By 1526, 6,000 copies had been printed abroad, and were about to be smuggled into 39:02.290 --> 39:02.630 England. 39:04.270 --> 39:08.170 Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, whose spies had alerted them, were 39:08.170 --> 39:12.670 terrified of this perceived threat, and the whole country was put on alert. 39:13.890 --> 39:18.210 Naval ships patrolled the coastal waters, boats were stopped and searched, 39:18.570 --> 39:20.670 and a great many of the Bibles were intercepted. 39:21.030 --> 39:23.090 For the state, this was a serious struggle. 39:23.750 --> 39:27.890 Latin was the language not only of God, but the state's authority rested on it 39:27.890 --> 39:28.210 too. 39:28.730 --> 39:32.490 The enemy had to be beaten off, an enemy that would eventually give the 39:32.490 --> 39:35.350 English language so magnificently to the English people. 39:36.410 --> 39:40.250 But first tens, and then hundreds of these Bibles began to get through. 39:40.250 --> 39:42.330 The Bishop of London tried another attack. 39:42.750 --> 39:46.250 He sought to buy the entire print run through an intermediary. 39:48.930 --> 39:52.270 Oh, he will burn them, Tyndale is supposed to have said when he heard this. 39:52.610 --> 39:55.810 Well, I am the gladder, for I shall get the money of him for these books, 39:56.070 --> 39:59.270 and the whole world shall cry out upon the burning of God's Word. 40:00.550 --> 40:01.550 And that's what happened. 40:02.130 --> 40:06.390 The Bishop bought and burnt his books, and Tyndale used the money to prepare and 40:06.390 --> 40:08.450 print a better version at church expense. 40:08.450 --> 40:13.470 And this is what the conflict was about, a Bible for the people in their spoken 40:13.470 --> 40:14.010 language. 40:15.670 --> 40:20.750 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 40:22.630 --> 40:25.410 Blessed be they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 40:26.710 --> 40:29.570 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 40:30.370 --> 40:34.250 Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be 40:34.250 --> 40:34.590 filled. 40:34.590 --> 40:38.570 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 40:39.150 --> 40:42.170 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 40:43.630 --> 40:48.550 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 40:49.830 --> 40:55.470 Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the 40:55.470 --> 40:56.350 kingdom of heaven. 40:57.530 --> 40:59.530 Ye are the salt of the earth. 41:00.790 --> 41:05.110 It's hard, it's impossible to overpraise the quality of Tyndale's writing. 41:05.570 --> 41:09.830 Its rhythmical beauty, its simplicity of phrase has penetrated deep into the 41:09.830 --> 41:12.030 bedrock of English as we still know it today. 41:12.790 --> 41:17.410 Tyndale's work formed 85% of the later King James Bible, the one we all know. 41:17.750 --> 41:19.690 And we all use his phrases still. 41:20.650 --> 41:22.050 Scapegoat, let there be light. 41:22.370 --> 41:24.330 The powers that be, my brother's keeper. 41:24.630 --> 41:26.470 Filthy looker, fight the good fight. 41:26.770 --> 41:29.010 Sick unto death, flowing with milk and honey. 41:29.110 --> 41:31.150 The apple of mine eye, a man after my own heart. 41:31.250 --> 41:32.950 The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. 41:33.290 --> 41:35.250 Sign of the times, ye of little faith. 41:35.530 --> 41:36.630 Eat, drink, and be merry. 41:37.010 --> 41:39.790 Broken-hearted, clear-eyed, and hundreds and hundreds more. 41:40.750 --> 41:44.110 Words like beautiful, fisherman, landlady, seashore, stumbling block, 41:44.250 --> 41:49.170 taskmaster, two-edged, viper, zealous, and even Jehovah and Passover come to us 41:49.170 --> 41:50.110 from Tyndale. 41:51.010 --> 41:54.790 By this stage in the adventure of English, we're coming across words that carry our 41:54.790 --> 41:57.410 ideas and emotions and feelings even today. 41:58.090 --> 42:01.810 Words that not only tell us about the external world we live in, but about the 42:01.810 --> 42:03.590 inner nature of our condition. 42:05.410 --> 42:07.430 Then God said, let there be light. 42:08.550 --> 42:11.470 And God saw the light, and that it was good. 42:12.110 --> 42:17.590 And he divided the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness 42:17.590 --> 42:18.130 night. 42:19.430 --> 42:25.070 And so of the evening and morning was made the first day. 42:30.310 --> 42:33.650 Before long, there were thousands of copies of Tyndale's Bible in England. 42:33.930 --> 42:37.990 In his happy phrase, the noise of the new Bible echoed throughout the country. 42:38.690 --> 42:43.110 Produced in a small, pocket-sized edition that was easily concealed, it passed 42:43.110 --> 42:46.590 through the cities and universities into the hands of even the humblest men and 42:46.590 --> 42:46.810 women. 42:48.270 --> 42:53.310 The authorities, especially Thomas More, still railed against him for putting the 42:53.310 --> 42:56.050 fire of Scripture into the language of plowboys. 42:56.590 --> 42:57.530 But the damage was done. 42:59.250 --> 43:02.210 The English had their English Bible, legal or not. 43:06.070 --> 43:08.530 The hunt for Tyndale continued, however. 43:08.530 --> 43:14.470 In 1535, two hired assassins entrapped him in Antwerp and smuggled him out of the 43:14.470 --> 43:17.070 city to Vilvoorde Castle, where he was imprisoned. 43:18.730 --> 43:22.930 In his last letter, Tyndale asked that he might have... 43:22.930 --> 43:25.890 A warmer cap, for I suffer greatly from the cold. 43:26.710 --> 43:29.590 A warmer coat also, for what I have is very thin. 43:30.050 --> 43:32.570 A piece of cloth with which to patch my leggings. 43:33.550 --> 43:37.710 And I asked to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit 43:37.710 --> 43:38.510 alone in the dark. 43:39.390 --> 43:44.410 But most of all, I beg and beseech your clemency that the commissary will kindly 43:44.410 --> 43:48.350 permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary, that I may 43:48.350 --> 43:49.710 continue with my work. 44:07.480 --> 44:09.480 And continue his work he did. 44:10.460 --> 44:13.580 Phrases like, a prophet has no honour in his own country. 44:14.500 --> 44:16.440 A stranger in a strange land. 44:17.300 --> 44:18.460 A law unto themselves. 44:19.420 --> 44:21.540 We live and move and have our being. 44:22.040 --> 44:23.660 And let my people go. 44:23.660 --> 44:25.740 All come from Tyndale's pen. 44:30.610 --> 44:36.230 In August 1536, Tyndale was found guilty of heresy by a court in the Netherlands. 44:37.590 --> 44:41.650 And on October the 6th, he was strangled, then burned at the stake. 44:42.630 --> 44:46.590 His last words were, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. 44:51.890 --> 44:55.350 In fact, events had already opened the King's eyes. 44:55.350 --> 44:59.510 Henry VIII had tried to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and that had brought him into 44:59.510 --> 45:00.750 confrontation with the Pope. 45:01.130 --> 45:03.730 Now he too was opposed to papal supremacy. 45:04.510 --> 45:09.350 Henry's mood had changed, and scripture was suddenly more important than church 45:09.350 --> 45:09.810 authority. 45:13.050 --> 45:17.130 Thomas More had been executed for refusing to see things the King's way. 45:18.510 --> 45:22.910 And his new advisors, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer, keen to keep their heads, 45:23.250 --> 45:25.170 moved on ecclesiastical reform. 45:28.750 --> 45:32.750 And that reform came with the split from Rome and the English Reformation. 45:33.370 --> 45:36.810 Now England needed the scriptures to be available in its own tongue. 45:37.270 --> 45:39.830 English was to become at last the language of power. 45:40.770 --> 45:44.630 Henry's change of mind came too late to save Tyndale, even supposing he gave his 45:44.630 --> 45:45.790 fate any thought at all. 45:46.250 --> 45:50.210 But by the time of Tyndale's martyrdom, Henry had already authorized this, 45:50.630 --> 45:54.390 Coverdale's Bible, which was translated from the German and was the first legal 45:54.390 --> 45:55.150 Bible in England. 45:55.590 --> 45:56.650 That was in 1535. 45:57.270 --> 46:02.370 In 1537, Matthew's Bible, an amalgam of Coverdale's and Tyndale's, was allowed to 46:02.370 --> 46:03.190 be printed in England. 46:03.530 --> 46:08.130 In 1539, we have the Great Bible, designed to be the official version for 46:08.130 --> 46:12.010 newly Protestant England and to be placed in every parish church in the land. 46:12.510 --> 46:16.910 After centuries of suppression, three Bibles are approved and published 46:16.910 --> 46:18.030 inside six years. 46:18.030 --> 46:18.870 And it goes on. 46:19.230 --> 46:22.850 The Geneva Bible, the Bishop's Bible, the Ream's Bible. 46:23.770 --> 46:25.750 The English language has suddenly flowered. 46:26.110 --> 46:29.170 It's already returned to the palaces of court and state, like this one, 46:29.270 --> 46:30.210 Lambeth Palace in London. 46:30.710 --> 46:34.030 It's again become the language of a vivid and vigorous national literature. 46:34.410 --> 46:38.270 And now, with a split from Rome, it's conquered the last and highest 46:38.270 --> 46:39.870 bastion, the church. 46:42.330 --> 46:46.530 It was the spirit of Protestantism that the Bible be available to everyone. 46:46.530 --> 46:51.770 In 1530, Thomas More had ranted about the shame of it being read by plowboys. 46:52.610 --> 46:57.310 But the Great Bible of 1540 came with a preface by More's successor, Cranmer, 46:57.490 --> 46:59.310 which commended it to all. 47:00.750 --> 47:06.190 Here may men, women, young, old, learned, unlearned, rich, poor, 47:06.590 --> 47:10.730 priests, laymen, lords, ladies, officers, tenants and mean men, 47:11.130 --> 47:16.670 virgins, wives, widows, lawyers, merchants, artificers, husbands and all 47:16.670 --> 47:21.250 manner of persons of what estate or condition so ever they be, learn all 47:21.250 --> 47:26.490 things, what they ought to believe, what they ought to do, as well as 47:26.490 --> 47:30.970 concerning Almighty God as themselves and all others. 47:32.070 --> 47:34.110 And so, we've come full circle. 47:34.750 --> 47:38.670 Where the medieval Catholic Church kept the Bible from the people, Henry's new 47:38.670 --> 47:41.470 church set out to get the Bible to as many people as possible. 47:42.050 --> 47:45.250 It's had an extraordinary influence on the spread of our language. 47:45.770 --> 47:49.950 By the end of the 16th century, there were so many competing versions that 47:49.950 --> 47:54.070 King James I ordered a standardised version, which we now know as the King 47:54.070 --> 47:55.570 James Bible of 1611. 47:56.230 --> 48:00.050 The writers drew on all the previous versions, but mostly on Tyndales. 48:01.390 --> 48:05.650 Interestingly, they made no attempt to update the language that was now 80 years 48:05.650 --> 48:06.010 old. 48:06.010 --> 48:11.310 So even though by 1611 English had undergone further revolution, the King 48:11.310 --> 48:16.730 James translators would still use ye sometimes for you, as in ye cannot serve 48:16.730 --> 48:20.550 God and mammon, even though nobody said ye in common speech anymore. 48:21.110 --> 48:26.390 They used thou for you, got for got, spake for spoke and so on. 48:31.010 --> 48:35.450 In other words, the King James version was deliberately archaic, even then, 48:35.610 --> 48:37.610 and that's part of its extraordinary power. 48:37.610 --> 48:42.610 It was designed to feel as if it had the authority and resonance of speech from the 48:42.610 --> 48:43.050 past. 48:43.210 --> 48:47.710 It was meant to sound ancient, antique, like the very words of God. 48:57.740 --> 49:02.880 And above all, the men who made this version listened to their final drafts 49:02.880 --> 49:08.000 being read aloud over and over again, and altered them accordingly, so that they 49:08.000 --> 49:09.860 had the right rhythm and balance. 49:09.860 --> 49:15.140 This makes the authorised English Bible par excellence a preacher's Bible. 49:15.760 --> 49:19.140 It was written to be spoken, to be heard, to be understood. 49:20.820 --> 49:22.980 It was written to spread the word. 49:23.880 --> 49:26.500 English at last had God on its side. 49:26.980 --> 49:29.960 The language was authorised by the Almighty himself. 49:31.280 --> 49:37.460 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 49:37.460 --> 49:38.380 was God. 49:38.380 --> 49:41.760 The same was in the beginning with God. 49:42.800 --> 49:49.760 All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 49:50.800 --> 49:54.060 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 49:54.980 --> 49:59.520 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. 50:00.480 --> 50:04.540 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.