the church of st john baptist
the Paraphrase of Erasmus
and the 1617 Bible
St John’s church
has two ancient
chained books,
now in glazed
cases in the
chancel.
Edward VI
(reigned
1547-1553)
decreed that
Erasmus'
'Paraphrase of
the Gospels'
be set up in all
English
churches.
Erasmus himself
noted that a
paraphrase is
not a
translation but
a kind of
commentary with
no change of
persons; yet it
allows something
of the
paraphrasist's
own to be added
in explanation
of the author's
meaning.
In 1561, (some eight years after the death of Edward VI) the Churchwardens' Accounts show a payment of sixteen shillings "It[e]m P[ai]d for a paraphraas". This was an original copy of the 'Paraphrase of the Gospels' by Erasmus, written in 1523, and printed at Basle, Switzerland, in 1523. It was purchased by the Churchwarden John Langdonne in 1561.
In 1565, the
then
Churchwardens
(Tristram Brooke
and Giles
Hacker)
purchased a
chain for twelve
pence to secure
it and the
Accounts record
"P[ai]d for
makynge of a
chayne and a
lock to fasten
the paraphrase".
In a separate display case is a Bible that was printed in 1617. It was donated by Elizabeth née Paulet, the widow of George Prowse who died in 1624.
It is an
early edition of
the King James
Bible, bound in
leather with
metal clasps and
embossed on the
cover with the
letters E P and
an inscription
on the title
page reading
"This Bible was
given to the
Church of Yevell
by Elizabeth
Prowse, widow,
of the same
parish and
delivered by
John Ostler, her
executor."
gallery
This photograph
features in my
book 'The Church of St John the Baptist, Yeovil - a History and Guide'.
In its glass-topped wooden case in the chancel, is the 1561 Paraphrase of Erasmus.
This photograph
features in my
book 'The Church of St John the Baptist, Yeovil - a History and Guide'.
... and the 1617 chained King James Bible, also in a glazed cabinet in the chancel.
