 Title page of The Souldiers Pocket Bible, 1643 | |
| Language | English |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1643 |
| Publication place | Kingdom of England |
| Media type | Pamphlet |
The Souldiers Pocket Bible (aka Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible, The Soldier's Pocket Bible, Cromwell's Soldier's Bible [1] ) was a pamphlet version of the Protestant Bible that was carried by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army during the English Civil War. [2]
The Souldiers Pocket Bible (lacking a possessive apostrophe in the title) was first issued in 1643 to Cromwell's army and was put in general use among his soldiers. [3] [4] [5] It has been of historical record that Cromwell's soldiers were provided with a small pocket Bible. [6] [7] [8] George Livermore, an American book collector from Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, discovered a copy of The Souldiers Pocket Bible in 1854; he realized that the Bible which Cromwell's soldiers were known to carry was not the complete Protestant Bible of 66 books, but a condensed pamphlet version. [6] [9] It was an octavo booklet (5½ × 3″, 136 × 78mm). [10] In comparison, it was about the size and thickness of an international travel passport used in the 20th century. [10]
The Souldiers Pocket Bible had just 16 pages that contained some 150 verse quotations from the Geneva Bible, [10] [11] all related to war. [6] All but four of the verses were from the Old Testament. [12] Verses intended to inspire the morale of Cromwell's soldiers included the following from the Geneva Bible:
The 150 war-related verses were organized in sixteen sections. [10] Cromwell helped select some of the verses used [14] and supervised the editing of The Souldiers Pocket Bible by Edmund Calamy. [4] [6]
Section headers for the verses included the following:
This condensed Souldiers Pocket Bible was usually buttoned on the inside waistcoat, placed near the heart, and under the soldier's outer coat. [6] The placement did not hinder the movements of the soldier. [10] English Puritan church leader Richard Baxter relates a story that the life of one of Cromwell's soldiers was saved by his carrying a copy of The Souldiers Pocket Bible near his heart; a bullet fired at him became lodged in the pamphlet instead of his heart. [14]
Cromwell's military success was largely due to the training of his soldiers. [16] However The Souldiers Pocket Bible was used for religious inspiration and to help influence good morals and rigid discipline. [4] Before Cromwell's soldiers went into battle, they would pray and sing religious songs from the Book of Psalms. [17] According to Cromwell, his soldiers never lost a battle after The Souldiers Pocket Bible was issued to them in 1643. [17] [18]
Two copies exist of the 1643 edition of The Souldiers Pocket Bible. The London copy was presented by George III to the British Museum. [19] The only other 1643 copy known is found in the United States and was once owned by the prominent 19th-century book collector George Livermore. [6] [14] [20] The work was reissued in 1693 under the title The Christian Soldier's Penny Bible. [21] [22] The British Museum has the only 1693 copy known to exist. [6] This version is similar to The Souldiers Pocket Bible except for changes to some of the "Headers" and minor alterations in the text. The latter reflect the King James Version of the Bible rather than the Geneva Bible text used for the 1643 edition. [23]
In 1861 Riverside Press reprinted one hundred copies of the 1643 text in facsimile for Livermore. [20] [24] At the time of the American Civil War, the American Tract Society printed The Soldier's Pocket Bible in large numbers to serve as a religious manual for the Northern troops. [20] About fifty thousand copies of The Soldier's Pocket Bible were reprinted for the troops at that time. [9] [10] [22] [25] [26]
The Souldiers Pocket Bible was the first of the shortened, concise Bible versions that became popular for distribution to troops by military authorities and for use by individuals for personal guidance and inspiration. [13]
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The 80 books of the King James Version include 39 books of the Old Testament, 14 books of Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament.
Oliver Cromwell was an English statesman, politician, and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and latterly as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, he ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658.
William Tyndale was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He translated much of the Bible into English, and was influenced by the works of prominent Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.
Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles, was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English. His theological development is a paradigm of the progress of the English Reformation from 1530 to 1552. By the time of his death, he had transitioned into an early Puritan, affiliated to Calvin, yet still advocating the teachings of Augustine.
John Rogers was an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator. He guided the development of the Matthew Bible in vernacular English during the reign of Henry VIII and was the first English Protestant executed as a heretic under Mary I, who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism.
The Matthew Bible, also known as Matthew's Version, was first published in 1537 by John Rogers, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew". It combined the New Testament of William Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as he had been able to translate before being captured and put to death. Myles Coverdale translated chiefly from German and Latin sources and completed the Old Testament and Biblical apocrypha, except for the Prayer of Manasseh, which was Rogers', into the Coverdale Bible. It is thus a vital link in the main sequence of English Bible translations.
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the Douay Rheims Bible by 22 years, and the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne and others. It was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower, and its frontispiece inspired Benjamin Franklin's design for the first Great Seal of the United States.
The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms in that members were liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being limited to a single area or garrison. To establish a professional officer corps, the army's leaders were prohibited from having seats in either the House of Lords or House of Commons. This was to encourage their separation from the political or religious factions among the Parliamentarians.
Edmund Calamy was an English Presbyterian church leader and divine. Known as "the elder", he was the first of four generations of nonconformist ministers bearing the same name.
Mary Ashton Livermore was an American journalist, abolitionist, and advocate of women's rights. Her printed volumes included: Thirty Years Too Late, first published in 1847 as a prize temperance tale, and republished in 1878; Pen Pictures; or, Sketches from Domestic Life; What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and Other Lectures; and My Story of the War. A Woman's Narrative of Four Years' Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps and at the Front during the War of the Rebellion. She wrote a sketch of the sculptor Anne Whitney for Women of the Day and delivered the historical address for the Centennial Celebration of the First Settlement of the Northwestern States in Marietta, Ohio on July 15, 1788.
The Ironsides were troopers in the Parliamentary cavalry trained by English political and military leader Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, during the English Civil War. The name came from "Old Ironsides," one of Cromwell's nicknames. It was after the battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644 that Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the commander of the Royalist Army, "first gave the nickname to his enemy of 'Old Ironsides' because his ranks were so impenetrable--the name originated with the man and passed on to his regiment".
Middle English Bible (MEB) or Wycliffe's Bible or Wycliffite Bibles or Wycliffian Bibles (WYC) are names given for a sequence of orthodox Middle English Bible translations from the Latin Vulgate which appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395.
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopted by the Church of Scotland. As many as 121 ministers were called to the Assembly, with nineteen others added later to replace those who did not attend or could no longer attend. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual, the Directory for Public Worship, for the Churches of England and Scotland. The Confession and catechisms were adopted as doctrinal standards in the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches, where they remain normative. Amended versions of the Confession were also adopted in Congregational and Baptist churches in England and New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Confession became influential throughout the English-speaking world, but especially in American Protestant theology.
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Modern estimates suggest that during this period, Ireland experienced a demographic loss totalling around 15 to 20% of the pre-1641 population, due to fighting, famine and bubonic plague.
The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamentarians after his defeat in the First Civil War.
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".
Events from the year 1643 in England. This is the second year of the First English Civil War, fought between Roundheads (Parliamentarians) and Cavaliers.
Francis Fry (1803–1886) was an English businessman and bibliographer.
George Livermore was an American antiquarian, bibliographer, and historian, known chiefly as a book collector. He developed in his lifetime what was recognized as one of the finest private libraries in the United States and his library included many rare and one-of-a-kind bibles like some printed by Johannes Gutenberg. Livermore owned twenty-six volumes of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. He wrote newspaper articles from time to time. Harvard College awarded Livermore an honorary Master of Arts, although he dropped out of school at the age of fourteen.
Robert Ram (c.1595-1656) was an Anglican priest in the early seventeenth century. He was a younger son of Thomas Ram, Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin.