At what date, and by whom, the Scriptures were first set forth in a form which was intelligible to the people of this country is not known. In the earliest period respecting which we have any clear information, the Latin Vulgate was the Bible of the clergy and of public worship. Some portions only were rendered into the language of the common people. Few of them probably were able to read, and this may explain why it was that the Psalms were especially selected for translation. They could be more readily committed to memory, and be more easily wedded to music. But whatever the reason, the Psalter is the earliest English Bible of which we have any definite knowledge. It was translated quite early in the eighth century, both by Aldhelm, sometime Abbot of Malmesbury, but at his death, in A.D. 709,[4] Bishop of Sherborne, and by Guthlac,[5] the hermit of Croyland, who died A.D. 714.[6] A few years later, A.D. 735, the Venerable Bede translated the gospel of John, dying, as related in the touching narrative of his disciple Cuthbert, in the very act of completing it. In the following century King Alfred greatly encouraged the work of translation, and it is to this period that we are probably to attribute those Anglo-Saxon gospels which have come down to us.[7] Towards the close of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh, the first seven books of the Old Testament were partly translated and partly epitomised by Ælfric, Archbishop of Canterbury. A verse from each of these two last-mentioned works will show of what sort was the form of these early English Bibles, and will at the same time illustrate one of the causes which from time to time have rendered the task of revision an imperative duty. The Anglo-Saxon gospel presents Matthew v. 3 thus: “Eadige sind ða gastlican þearfan, forðam hyra ys heofena rice.” And in Ælfric’s Heptateuch, Genesis xliii. 29 reads: “Ða josep geseah his gemeddredan broþor beniamin þa cwaeþ he, is þis se cnapa þe ge me foresaedon and eft he cwaeþ god gemilt sige þe sunu min.”