XVIII.] ÆPINUS DE ECCL. ROM. IMPOSTURIS. 295

should stand where Panzer has placed it. If, however, this book was really printed at Hamburgh in 1527, it must stand by itself, an isolated fact, a sort of little Eddystone in the barren sea of time; for three years elapse before we come to a notice of another supposed book. The next article in Panzer is

"MDXXX.

"2. JOANNES HEPINUS de Romanae ecclesiae imposturis. Epis tola data est Hamburgi MDXXX. octavo Cal. Jun. 8.

"Maitt. Ind. I. p. 477."

Why surely we might as well put down Dr. Brown's Fasciculus, which we have been talking of, as printed at Sundridge, in Kent, because the doctor's Epistola data est "Sundrigiæ nonis Octobr. MDCLXXXIX." Dr. Brown was Rector of Sundridge, and Dr. Hück (who chose to call himself pinus) was pastor at Hamburgh. If either of these divines thought fit to write a letter, it is probable that he would write it at, and date it from, the place where he lived; and it is highly probable, that if anybody saw fit, for any reason, to forge a letter from either of them, he might be deep enough to think of this. But to put down a book as printed at a place, merely because the prefatory epistle is dated from it, is so monstrous, that it would not be worth while to say another word about the matter, were it not that the mystery of Hamburgh hangs over this book also, and involves a point or two which are worth our notice, because the genuineness of the literature of that period and the good faith of the men concerned in it, (especially of those belonging to the party of the Reformation,) is a very important matter with reference to our inquiry.

(1.) In the first place, did this author ever write any such book? He was a very well known man, and his works

2 Maittaire, thus quoted as his only authority by Panzer, refers us only to Le Long's Bibliotheca Sacra; and Le Long (vol. ii. p. 337) quotes only "Hollandus in Heroologia Anglicana," which I have not at present opportunity to consult. Of course this matter has been more fully investigated since the days of Panzer; and whoever studies the information respecting the history of Tyndal's translation and editions of the New Testament, which has been zealously and ably collected by Mr. Offor, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Lea Wilson, will need very little argument to persuade him of the probability that this work of Tyndal's was not printed at Hamburgh.

296 ÆPINUS DE ECCL. ROM. IMPOSTURIS. [ESSAY

seem to have been popular. But I do not find this one mentioned either by his biographer or his bibliographerthat is by Melchior Adam, who wrote his life, or by Simler who allots him a very respectable space in his edition of Gesner's Bibliotheca. Both of them give lists of his works, but neither of them mentions anything that can be mistaken for this one. (2.) If Epinus did write such a book, did he print it at Hamburgh, for that is our immediate question? It may be said, "Of course he would print it where he lived; ' "but there is one circumstance which strongly forbids this assumption-namely, that all his other works (as far as I have been able to find) were printed elsewhere. Simler, as I have already said, gives a list of his works, and he distinguishes between those printed at Basil and those at Frankfort, but says not a word of any one having been printed at Hamburgh. Why did the Superintendent of Hamburgh send away his books from that place, to be printed elsewhere, long after the year 1530, (Simler gives no work earlier than 1541,) and why did other Hamburgh writers do the same?-as it would be easy to show they did, if it were needful to follow up this point with further authorities. (3.) There is something worthy of notice in the title of this supposed Hamburgh book, or rather in the description of the author. His name, as I have already stated, was Hück, or (as he tells us, some people pronounced it) Hüch; and when, after escaping the danger into which the reforming zeal of his youth had led him, he saw fit to conceal himself, by hellenizing his name into drewòs, he knew better than to prefix an aspirate3.

3 In the prefatory epistle to his "Commentarius in Psalmum XIX,” printed at Frankfort, 1515, addressed to Joachim II., Marquis of Brandenburg, he gives a notice of his early life which, as the book is not common, may be worth extracting:

"Olim adolescens cum formabam juventutis studia, et gubernabam 'scholam in Marchia, valde fœlicem judicassem me, si in hac luce, nunc 'demum ibi exorta, mihi tum agere licuisset, vel etiam in gravi difficul'tate: sed Domino tum aliter fuit visum: dedi tum pro meis viribus operam ut Evangelium in Marchia innotesceret, sed Satanas cum suis mancipiis, monachis et sacrificis, tunc et meos, et plerorumque aliorum bonorum conatus, qui tum mecum eandem rem ibidem agebant, impedivit, et me falsis criminationibus delatum, apud Tua Cels. patrem, prudentissimum Principem, liberaliumque studiorum amantem, mendaciisque deformatum, detrusit in carcerem, objecit morti, et invisum reddidit Marchiæ præpotentibus, qui tum zelo quodam, Evangelicæ et incorruptæ

XVIII.] JOANNES ÆPINUS AND HIS WORKS. 297

He called himself, and his son continued the name, Æpinus; and, though he is, of course, often named by various writers, I know of only one place beside this where I have seen him designated Hepinus. (4.) I may as well plainly express my suspicion that the work is not genuine, and that some of our countrymen had a hand in the matter. That Epinus was known to some of them who would not have hesitated to borrow his name, is beyond doubt, for he was over in this country in the year 1534. Some of his works were subsequently translated into English, and it is in one. of those English translations alone that I find him called Hepinus. John Day, it seems, printed without date, "A 'very fruitful and godly exposition vpon the 15 psalm of 'David called, Lord who shall dwell in thy tabernacle. 'Made by John Epinus, preacher to the church of Ham'borough, and translated into English by N. L. 8vo."4

'doctrinæ ignari, defendebant Papisticos errores: tandem etiam ex car⚫cere eductum, compulit me e patria commigrare, apud externos sedes quærere, et apud ignotos in exilio agere, et cum multis ac magnis difficultatibus luctari, ubi ob adversariorum pertinax odium et cupidi'tatem mihi nocendi, etiam coactus sum mutare gentilitium nomen, et 'juxta piissimorum, doctissimorum, ac prudentissimorum virorum consilium, pro teutonico gentilitio nomine Hück (quod et Hüch a multis effertur, et scribitur) Græca voce airewòs uti, quæ magis congruere 'videbatur, et quæ tantum uno, aut ad summum immutatis duobus elementis, Germanice gentilitium nomem meum sonat, quod adhuc re'tineo quod omnibus passim notius sit."-(Sig. A. iv.) A good deal of curious matter respecting him may be found in the Philocalia Epistolica of J. H. a Seelen. p. 8-27.

Herbert's Ames, vol. i. p. 673. This is the only instance in which I have observed his name without the diphthong, except in Sleidan's Comm. Lib. xxi. p. 658, and, by the way, in Le Courayer's translation (vol. ii. p. 30) he stands in the text as "Jean Repin," a blunder which is not corrected in the biographical note professing to give an account of him. As to this book of his, there seems to be some little puzzle about it, as about everything connected with this question. Bauer (Bib. Lib. Rar. Supp. Tom. i. p. 21) thus describes the work of which that mentioned by Herbert is a translation;-" Æpini (Joh.) in Psalmum XV. Commentarius, in quo de iustificatione, de vita christiani hominis, de ' votis et iuramentis, de consuetudine impiorum vitanda, de contractibus &c. agitur - Recens nunc primum æditus. Argentor. 1543. Liber 'perrarus, &c.' Now the book from which I have just quoted a part of the dedication, is his commentary on the XIX. Psalm. It bears the date of Frankfort, 1545, (two years, that is, later than this Strasburgh edition of the Commentary on the XV. Psalm,) and yet in that same epistle to the Marquis Joachim, he professes that he is dedicating to his highness the first fruits of his labours in the way of commentary on the

And Henry Bynneman printed at London, in 1570, a book entitled "De arte concionandi formulæ, vt breues, ita doctæ 'et piæ. Joanne Reuchlino Phorcensi, Anonymo quodam 'rhapsodo, Philippo Melancthone, D. Ioanne Hepino "Autoribus," &c.5

But enough has been said about this author, and his works; especially considering that our only question is, whether a certain book on the Impostures of the Romish Church, circulated under his name, was (whether genuine or spurious) printed at Hamburgh. If it really was, the production of it seems to have been an effort from which the press of that city did not soon recover. Of six subsequent years, Psalms, in terms which make it impossible to believe that he had published a similar commentary on a different psalm two years before. After stating various reasons for publishing, he proceeds: "Hæc et plura alia, 'quæ hic prolixius persequi nolo, induxerunt me ut illis morem gererem 'qui a me contendebant meas annotatiunculas in Psalmos in nostra schola dictatas, edendas esse ut etiam in illorum manus venirent, quibus non 'fuit data facultas eas coram audire aut calamo excipere, et præcipue 'commentarium in Psalmum XIX. His monitoribus cum permiserim ut 'commentariolus in Psalmum xix. Typographo ad imprimendum darentur constitui inscribere ac dedicare eum Illustr. tuæ Cels. 'Hic commentarius cum omnium primum sit, quem ipse publicaverim, 'tuaque Celsitudo meæ patriæ Princeps sit. jure quodam videor 'me debere T. Cels. has primitias mearum lucubrationum," &c.-Sig. bb. ij. It is possible that there may be some force in the "ipse publicaverim," and that he may refer to things with which he had, or had not, some connexion, being published by others with his name; but the whole style of the dedication is not what we should expect from a Superintendent of Hamburgh who had fifteen years before printed a book against the Church of Rome in his own city; and whether he did that, or whether somebody else did it for him, is our question. The reader is requested to remember this, and not to fall into the idea that I am attempting to deny that a book with that title, or something like it, and bearing the name of Epinus, or Hepinus, was in circulation. Bauer, in his work already quoted, places among the works of Epinus, " Pinacidion de Ecclesiæ Rom. imposturis, adversus impudentem Canonicorum Hamburg autonomiam 1530. Liber rarissimus. Hennings, p. 17." It is worth while to add, that he mentions in the same list another work which does not seem to have been known to Melchior Adam or Simlerat least it is not in their lists-"Liber de Purgatorio, et multi alii ejusdem auctoris tractatus. Lond. 1549. 4. Liber maxime infrequens. Bibl. Solger, ii. p. 169." A copy of this work is also mentioned in the Bibl. Bunav. Tom. III. p. ii. p. 1265. It is surely somewhat remarkable that the only edition of this work that is known at all (while none seems to have been known to countrymen of his own who gave lists of his works) should bear the name of London as its birth-place.

5 Herbert's Ames, vol. ii. p. 970.

Panzer finds not a word to say. We do not hear of so much as a single book said, or (what is, indeed, all that he has yet had to offer us since the year 1491) even supposed to have been printed at Hamburgh. But after that how does the torrent of typography burst forth! Panzer reports no less than four several and independent works as belonging to that annus mirabilis 1536. His statement is as follows;

"MDXXXVI.

"3. STEPHANI Wintoniensis Episcopi, de vera obedientia Oratio. Cum præfatione Edmundi Boneri, Archidiaconi Leycestrensis, Sereniss. Reg. Mai. Angliae in Dania Legati, capita notabiliora dictae orationis complectente. In qua etiam ostenditur, causam controversiae, quae inter ipsam Regiam Maiestatem et Episcopum Romanum existit longe aliter ac diversius se habere, quam hactenus a vulgo putatum sit. Hamburgi, 1536. 4.

"4. Psalmus XLVII. de regno Jesu Christi doctore Urbano Regio interprete. Hamburgi, anno 1536. apud Franc. Rhodum Calendis Septembris 8.

“Maitt. Ind. 1. p. 337. Hirsch. Millen. IV. p. 58. Bibl. Schw.iun. "5. Psalmus octuagesimus septimus de gloriosa Christi ecclesia D. Joachim. Moller Senatori Hamb. dicatus, cum commentario D. Urbani Regii. Hamburgi in officina Francisci Rhodi 1536 mense Octobri. 8.

"Hirsch. Millen. IV. p. 58. Bibl. Schw.iun.

"6. Canticum et Ecclesiastes cum Sect. Bibl. et Psalt. hebr. Occurrunt in Parte II. Machazor germ. Hamburgi 1536. fol. "Cl. De Rossi apparat. Hebraeo-Bibl. p. 65. n. 120. Masch. Bibl. Sacr. Vol. IV. Suppl. p. 18."

But magnificent as this statement appears, half of it is disposed of by observing that the first article is the book of Bishop Gardiner, which is the subject of our inquiry; and the fourth is by Panzer's own direction to be expunged. It seems a pity to rob a place which has so little to spare, of the glory of printing a Hebrew book; but if, while such persons as Wolfius and Masch dispute, such another as De Rossi decides that the book was not printed there, but at Augsburgh, what can we do? So there remain only these two commentaries on two Psalms by Urbanus Regius; of which

6 In his Supplement, (vol. ix. p. 473,) Panzer says, in reference to this matter, "Non Hamburgi sed Augustæ Vindelicorum impressum fuisse hunc librum docet Cl. de Rossi, 1. c. p. 37, n. 238. Deleatur ergo hic."