In Scotland, the General Assembly of the kirk caused to be printed at
Edinburgh in 1564, and enjoined the use of, a book entitled _The Form of
Prayers and Ministry of the Sacraments used in the English Church at
Geneva, approved and received by the Church of Scotland; whereto,
besides that was in the former books, are also added sundry other
prayers, with the whole Psalms of David in English metre_. This
contained, from the "Old Version," translations of forty Psalms by
Sternhold, fifteen by Whittingham, twenty-six by Kethe and thirty-five
by Hopkins. Of the remainder two were by John Pulleyn (one of the
Genevan refugees, who became archdeacon of Colchester); six by Robert
Pont, Knox's son-in-law, who was a minister of the kirk, and also a lord
of session; and fourteen signed with the initials I. C., supposed to be
John Craig; one was anonymous, eight were attributed to N., two to M.
and one to T. N. respectively.
So matters continued in both churches until the Civil War. During the
interval, King James I. conceived the project of himself making a new
version of the Psalms, and appears to have translated thirty-one of
them--the correction of which, together with the translation of the
rest, he entrusted to Sir William Alexander, afterwards earl of
Stirling. Sir William having completed his task, King Charles I. had it
examined and approved by several archbishops and bishops of England,
Scotland and Ireland, and caused it to be printed in 1631 at the Oxford
University Press, as the work of King James; and, by an order under the
royal sign manual, recommended its use in all churches of his dominions.
In 1634 he enjoined the Privy Council of Scotland not to suffer any
other psalms, "of any edition whatever," to be printed in or imported
into that kingdom. In 1636 it was republished, and was attached to the
famous Scottish service-book, with which the troubles began in 1637. It
need hardly be added that the king did not succeed in bringing this
Psalter into use in either kingdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account