“About the year 1440, the art of printing was introduced; and this, under the divine blessing, opened the way for the promulgation of the sacred volume, with a rapidity unknown to manuscript editions. The first printed book with _moveable_ types, was a copy of the Bible, which made its appearance between the years 1450 and 1452. This discovery is certainly to be attributed to the Germans, whether it consisted in printing with blocks of wood, or types moveable at pleasure. John Guttenburgh, of Mentz, has the best claim to the honour of this invention. The introduction of this invaluable art into this country, in 1447, is justly ascribed to William Caxton, a merchant of London, who acquired a knowledge of it in his travels abroad. He is said to have been a native of Caxton, a village near Cambridge, towards the latter end of the reign of Edward the Fourth. The first book printed in the English tongue was ‘The Recuyell of the History of Troy;’ and is dated September the nineteenth, 1471, at Cologne. The ‘Game of Chess,’ dated in 1474, is allowed, by all typographical antiquaries, to have been the first specimen of the art among us. Mr. Caxton died in 1486, or, according to other accounts, in 1491. “In this century, _viz._ in 1428, the bones of John Wickliffe, the rising sun of the Reformation, were taken up and burnt, by an order of the council of Constance; and his works were thrown publicly into the flames, at Oxford. “This great man was born at Richmond in Yorkshire, in the year 1324. He was presented to the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, through the influence of his friend the duke of Lancaster; and, in spite of the machinations of the priests, he not only preached with great success, but his doctrines became extremely popular, and he expired in peace, on his living, in the year 1384. “The event of his death was hailed with triumph by the popish faction. But in vain did tyranny or artifice strive to stop the progress of truth: his followers rapidly increased; and, under the name of Lollards, we find them enduring, in the fifteenth century, a furious persecution. Yet, in spite of all that cruelty could devise, the doctrines of Wickliffe were not only maintained, but, one hundred and fifty years afterwards, we find that they had made great progress through all ranks in the nation. “It was at this period that the Reformation from popery and its errors commenced, under the reign of Henry the Eighth; and it was instigated, in a great measure, by the resistance of the pope to the divorce of this monarch, from the widow of his brother Arthur, to whom he had been married several years, and by whom he had one daughter, afterwards queen Mary. Religious scruples respecting the validity of this union, were the ostensible motives given by the capricious king; whilst a passion for Ann Boleyn, a celebrated and accomplished beauty, was the real motive which led to a step so wonderfully over-ruled for good.