The King's printers were opposed to such importations, and caused the arrest of booksellers and publishers, so that this Holland trade was largely broken up. It is said that the King's printers so raised the price of Bibles that the poor were unable to buy them. The privilege of printing was limited to London, York, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Then London and Oxford quarrelled over Bible printing, and each tried to undersell the other. [Illustration: THOMAS GUY.] Thomas Guy and Peter Parker printed Bibles for Oxford, had four presses in use within four months of their undertaking the Oxford work, and showed the greatest activity, skill, and energy in the enterprise. Their work was excellent, and some of their Bibles and other volumes are still found in the English libraries. These University printers, Parker & Guy, had many lawsuits with other firms, who claimed that the former had made £10,000, or even £15,000, by their connection with Oxford. Doubtless they had made money; but they had done their work well, and deserved their success. Concerning Oxford Bibles, a writer in _McClure's Magazine_ says, "In these days the privilege of printing a Bible is hardly less jealously guarded in the United Kingdom than the privilege of printing a banknote. It is accorded by license to the Queen's printers, and by charter to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and it is, as a matter of fact, at the University of Oxford that the greatest bulk of the work is done. From this famous press there issue annually about one million copies of the sacred book; copies ranging in price from tenpence to ten pounds, and in form from the brilliant Bible, which weighs in its most handsome binding less than four ounces, and measures 3½ by 2-1/8 by ¾ inches, to the superb folio Bible for church use, the page of which measures 19 by 12 inches, which is the only folio Bible in existence--seventy-eight editions in all; copies in all manner of languages, even the most barbarous." The choicest paper is used, and the utmost care taken with setting the type. It is computed that to set up and "read" a reference Bible costs £1,000. "The first step is to make a careful calculation, showing what, in the particular type employed, will be the exact contents of each page, from the first page to the last. It must be known before a single type is set just what will be the first and last word on each page. It is not enough that this calculation shall be approximate, it must be exact to the syllable. "The proofs are then read again by a fresh reader, from a fresh model; and this process is repeated until, before being electrotyped, they have been read five times in all. Any compositor who detects an error in the model gets a reward; but only two such rewards have ever been earned. Any member of the public who is first to detect an error in the authorized text is entitled to one guinea, but the average annual outlay of the press under this head is almost nil."