ABSTRACT
The history of the English Bible from the fourteenth century to the midsixteenth century is a history of translation in conflict; of rebellion against Church and State, of continual revision in pursuit of a stable text, of didactic paratextual intervention to bring the unlearned readers to an understanding of the Bible: and its erasure by the authorities that had licensed the Bible for that purpose; of persecution, condemnation, and conflagration of Bible translators within what purported to be a Christian Commonwealth. The ethical struggles out of which English Bibles emerged are reflected in the pages of the Bibles themselves, through the decisions and revisions that vied for the claim to truth, but most especially in the paratext to the Bibles, in the prefaces, annotations, and framing devices that overtly engaged with rival readings of what was most necessary to know for the good of the Commonwealth.
