The England of Caxton’s time was torn asunder by civil war. The year 1471, in which Caxton was beginning his printing undertakings in Bruges, was the year in which was fought, only a few miles from London, the battle of Barnet, and it was the year of the death of Warwick and of Henry VI. The year 1485, in which Caxton was busied with the translation and printing of several of his most important books, including _Charles the Great_, witnessed the battle of Bosworth Field and a change of monarchs in England. All the troubles of the civil wars and the excitement connected with the overthrow of a great political party and the accession of a new king had, it seems, little influence upon the preference of that small portion of English society which was interested at all in literature, for “joyous and pleasant histories.” It was doubtless also the case that this direction of literary taste was influenced by the preferences and the knowledge of Caxton himself and of his associate and successor, Wynken de Worde. They brought with them to England the literary interests and standards of the gay Flemish capital, in which the capacity for pleasure and enjoyment was developed to its fullest extent. The rule of the Puritans in England was still more than a century distant. It is probable that a remunerative demand could have been secured for an edition of the Bible or of the New Testament printed in the vernacular. There were, however, difficulties in the way. Sir Thomas More has clearly shown the reason why Caxton could not venture to print a Bible, although the people would have greedily bought Wyclif’s translation. There were translations of the Bible before Wyclif, and that translation which goes by the name of this great reformer was probably made up in some degree from those previous translations. Wyclif’s translation was interdicted, and thus More says: “On account of the penalties ordered by Archbishop Arundel’s constitution, though the old translations that were before Wyclif’s days remained lawful and were in some folks’ hands had and read, yet he thought no printer would lightly be so hot to put any Bible in print at his own charge, and then hang upon a doubtful trial whether the first copy of his translation was made before Wyclif’s days or since. For if it were made since, it must be approved before the printing.” This was a dilemma that Caxton would have been too prudent to encounter.[57]