The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

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Exhibit 529

Anne Hudson, 'The First Complete English Bible', Tyndale Society Journal no. 2

Exhibit 529 ยท Scholarly essay

Anne Hudson, 'The First Complete English Bible', Tyndale Society Journal no. 2

Orthodox owners are known: for instance the copy now found in the Bodleian Library Oxford, MS Douce 277, belonged to Henry VI

States that about 250 manuscripts of the Wycliffite translation survive; that the hierarchy tolerated translation until Arundel's Constitutions; that those Constitutions banned translation and ordered unapproved English Scriptures confiscated; that owners included Henry VI; that Arundel licensed Nicholas Love's Meditationes as a substitute; and that possession of English scriptures became evidence of heresy.

Source
Anne Hudson (historian of Lollardy)
Date
n.d. (Tyndale Society Journal no. 2)
Quoted from
Paragraph 'Despite this prohibition circulation of copies...'
Grade
Reported
Document
https://www.tyndale.org/journals/tsj02/hudson.html
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit
Note
Hudson's reading ('confiscated') goes beyond the text of constitution 7, which restricts reading until approval.

Cited by

Finding REL-2.2
Primary record The Constitutions of Archbishop Arundel, drafted in 1407 and promulgated in 1409, forbade anyone to translate a text of Scripture into English on his own authority and forbade reading any such translation until the diocesan or a provincial council approved it, under the greater excommunication.
Finding REL-2.9
Reported Innocent III in 1199 called the desire to understand the divine Scriptures "commendable" while condemning secret lay assemblies and usurped preaching; Thomas More wrote in 1529 that the clergy kept from the laity only translations not yet approved or already condemned; the 1559 Act of Supremacy limited what commissioners could adjudge heresy; and Anne Hudson reports about 250 surviving manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, including a copy owned by Henry VI.
Finding REL-2.10
Open question How far vernacular Scripture was restricted in Europe and England before 1520, given licensing, noble and orthodox ownership and the limits of the Toulouse and Oxford texts, is disputed and is not settled by the documents cited here.