This Dr Reynolds, by the way, was party to a most curious episode. He had been an ardent Roman Catholic, and he had a brother who was an equally ardent Protestant. They argued with each other so earnestly that each convinced the other; the Roman Catholic became a Protestant, and the Protestant became a Roman Catholic.

His big head, his slobbering tongue, his quilted clothes, his rickety legs stood out in as grotesque a contrast with all that men recalled of Henry and Elizabeth as his gabble and rhodomontade, his want of personal dignity, his buffoonery, his coarseness of speech, his pedantry, his contemptible cowardice. Under this ridiculous exterior, however, lay a man of much natural ability, a ripe scholar with a considerable fund of shrewdness, of mother wit and ready repartee.

The list of the learned persons to whom the execution of the new version was entrusted has been carefully preserved and often published. It includes the names of some of the most distinguished of that day, whose memory is still dear to the friends of piety and literature; and as to others among them, of whom history has preserved scarcely any memorial, no reasonable doubt can be entertained of their competency to discharge their momentous trust. They were divided into six parties, two of which met in Oxford, two in Cambridge, and two in Westminster.

The first company, ten in number, met at Westminster, and to them were assigned the Pentateuch and the other historical books, as far as the end of the Second Book of Kings.

The principal individual, and the president of this company, was the celebrated Dr Launcelot Andrews, at the time of his appointment to the office of translator, Dean of Westminster, and afterwards promoted successively to the Sees of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester. Scholars of the greatest eminence, such as Casaubon, Grotius, and Vossius, have eulogised his extensive attainments; and the prelate Buckeridge, Bishop of Rochester, who preached the sermon at his funeral stated that he understood fifteen languages. He died in 1626, and Milton, in one of his early and beautiful Latin elegies, has embalmed the name of this distinguished scholar, and bewailed his loss in terms expressive of his wide and brilliant frame. The next translator on the list is Dr John Overall. He was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and in 1596 was raised to the Regius Professorship of Divinity in that university. In 1604 he was appointed to the deanery of St Paul's, and afterwards was preferred to the bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry, whence he was translated to the See of Norwich. It is said that to his eminent learning he was indebted for his great preferments. He died in 1619. Dr Andrain de Saravia, a learned foreigner of Spanish extraction, was the third person in the Westminster company. He had been Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden, and after he became resident in England his attainments attracted the notice of Archbishop Whitgift, who appointed him successively to prebendal stall at Gloucester, Canterbury and Westminster. He died in 1613.

Wood speaks of him as "educated in all kinds of literature in his younger days, especially in several languages." The fourth name given in the list of those at Westminster is that of Dr Richard Clarke, who had been fellow of Christ Church, Cambridge, and was, at the time of his appointment to the translatorship, vicar of Mynstre and Monkton, in the Isle of Thanet, and one of the six preachers at Canterbury Cathedral. A volume of learned sermons by this divine was published after his death, in 1637. Dr John Layfield, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and rector of St Clement Danes, is the fifth on the list. Collier says, that being skilled in architecture, his judgment was much relied on for the fabric of the tabernacle and the temple. The sixth is Dr Teigh. He was Archdeacon of Middlesex, and Vicar of All Hallows, Barking, - "an excellent textuary and a profound linguist," according to the testimony of Wood, and therefore employed in the translation of the Bible. Mr Burgley, of Stretford, Mr Geoffrey King, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Regius Professor of Hebrew; Mr Richard Thompson, of Clare Hall; and William Bedwell, of St John's College, in the same University, were other members of the first Westminster company. Of none of these individuals, except the last, has history preserved any further information. The name of Bedwell, however, is mentioned with great honour in the life of Dr Peacock. That famous oriental scholar is there stated to have been a pupil of Bedwell, "to whom the praise of being the first who considerably promoted the study of the Arabic language in Europe may perhaps more justly belong, than to Thomas Erpinius who commonly has it. "He spent many years in preparing an Arabic lexicon; and the commencement of a Persian dictionary and an Arabic Translation of the Catholic Epistles of St John, by the same scholar, are still preserved among the Laud MSS in the Bodleian Library.

The second company, to whom was committed the books of the Old Testament from the beginning of Chronicles to the end of Canticles, met at Cambridge to pursue their labours. The president of this party was Edward Lively, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, who enjoyed the reputation of an acquaintance with the oriental languages unequalled at that period. He died in 1605, and his death is supposed by some to have been hastened by the earnest attention which he devoted to his high commission immediately on his appointment. John Richardson, a fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and afterwards Master of Peterhouse, and then of Trinity, was associated with Lively in the company of the Cambridge translators. Next to him was Dr Laurence Chaderton, one of the Cambridge delegates to the Hampton Court conference. He was Fellow of Christ's College, and afterwards Master of Emanuel. Chaderton entered Christ's College in 1564 and embraced the Reformed doctrines. He had been brought up as a Roman Catholic, and his father offered him an allowance of thirty pounds if he would leave Cambridge and renounce Protestantism - "Otherwise I enclose a shilling to buy a wallet - to go and beg. "He acquired a great reputation as a Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar and was also proficient in French, Spanish and Italian. It is remarkable that after having when advanced in life, from fear of the appointment of a successor of Arminian principles, resigned his mastership in favour of one who held the same opinions with himself, he not only survived this person, but lived to see two other masters. He died in 1640, at the age of ninety-four. He is described as well-skilled in Latin, Greek and Hebrew; but to the study of Rabbinical learning he especially devoted himself, with a view to the elucidation of the Scripture. He was one of the three representative Puritans at the Hampton Court conference. Forty clergy owed their confession to his preaching. Of Francis Dillingham, fourth on the Cambridge list, all we know is that he was Fellow of Christ's College, Parson of Dean in Bedfordshire, and author of some theological pieces. According to Fuller, "He was an excellent linguist". He wrote A Dissuasive against Popery. '

Little is known of Thomas Harrison, the next name that appears. He was vice-master of Trinity College, and his attainments in Hebrew are indicated by his having been appointed by the University as chief examiner in that language. The names of Roger Andrews, brother of the Bishop, Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Master of Jesus College, and Prebendary of Chichester and Southwell. He is described in the Lambeth manuscript as having been also Vicar of Chigwell, Essex and Cuckfield, Sussex. He was made BD 1604; DD 1609. Robert Spalding; a Fellow of St John's College, and successor to Lively in the Hebrew chair- and Dr Andrew Byng Fellow of Peterhouse, and afterwards successor to Mr King who followed Spalding in the same professorship, close the list of the second company of translators.

The third company met at Oxford, and consisted of only seven persons, to whom was allotted the rest of the Old Testament from Isaiah to Malachi.

Dr John Harding described as father-in-law to Dr Reynolds (Lambeth MS), president of Magdalene College, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Rector of Halsey, in Oxfordshire, presided over this company. Dr John Reynolds, already mentioned as a chief advocate on the Puritan side at the Hampton Court conference, and the person who suggested the new version to King James, was conspicuous among the Oxford translators. In 1598 he became President of Corpus Christi, which station he held at the time of his death, in 1607. His learning is particularly noticed by Wood; and Hall relates that the memory in reading of the man were near to a miracle. Dr Thomas Holland was the next member of the party at Oxford. He was Fellow of Balliol College, Rector of Exeter, and Regius Professor of Divinity; and was particularly qualified for the work of translation, inasmuch as he had the character of being another Apollos - mighty in the Scriptures. He died in 1612. He was no man for episcopacy. (Lambeth MS.) Dr Richard Kilby's name stands fourth in the list. He was rector of Lincoln College, and author of Commentaries on Exodus, prepared chiefly from the writings of the Rabbis and Hebrew interpreters. Good old Isaac Walton relates the following anecdote of Kilby, in connection with his employment on the Authorized Version:- "The Doctor was to ride a journey into Derbyshire, and took Mr Sanderson to bear him company; and they, going together on a Sunday with the doctor's friend to that parish church where they then were, found the young preacher to have no more discretion than to waste a great part of the hour alotted for his sermon in exceptions against the late translation of several words, not expecting such a hearer as Dr Kilby, and showed three reasons why a particular word should have been otherwise translated. When evening prayer was ended, the preacher was invited to the doctor's friend's house, where, after some other conference, the doctor told him he might have preached more useful doctrine, and not have filled his auditors' ears with needless exceptions against the late translation; and for that word for which he offered to that poor congregation three reasons why it ought to have been translated as he said, he and others had considered all of them, and found thirteen more considerable reasons why it was translated as now printed." This circumstance was enough to cure the young divine of his fondness for criticism in the pulpit. Dr Miles Smith, who took a leading part in the translation, and who afterwards wrote the Preface, was of the Oxford company. He was at the time Canon of Hereford, and for his indefatigable exertions in forwarding the version, was elevated to the See of Gloucester. Wood speaks of him as having Hebrew at his finger's ends, and as being so conversant in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, that he made them as familiar to him almost as his native tongue. Making some allowance in this case as in others for the somewhat extravagant character of the Oxford historian's eulogies, they are still to be considered as trustworthy testimonies to the very superior scholarship of these ornaments of his Alma Mater. He authored the long translators' preface to the version. De Brett, of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Rector of Quainton, in Buckinghamshire, - a good Grecian, an oriental scholar, and famous alike for learning and piety, - and Mr Fairclough, complete the number of this company of the translators at Oxford.

The fourth company, consisting of eight members, also met at Oxford, and to them were committed the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation of John.

Dr Thomas Ravis, (He took all academical degrees, and enjoyed all collegiate dignities, He was student, Canon, and Dean of Christ Church, Chaplain to Archbishop Whitgift, vice-chancellor of Oxford, Bishop of Gloucester, 1604, and of London 1607. He died December 14th, 1609. He was a great man against the ministers who petitioned King James. (Lambeth MS.) then Dean of Christ Church, and afterwards successively Bishop of Gloucester and London, was the president. His eminent learning is mentioned by Wood. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester, but better known as Archbishop of Canterbury, to which elevated station he was raised in the same year that the version was published, was also one of the second class which met at Oxford. Though the singular events of his life, and the active part which he took in the ecclesiastical and political affairs of the day, impart to him his chief distinction on the page of history, there can be no doubt that he was a very superior scholar, or he would not have enjoyed, as he did, the honour of filling three times the office of vice-chancellor of his University. He very strongly opposed the Romanising influence of Laud and was very severe in his denunciation of anything which savoured of "popery".

Nevertheless he accepted some high offices in the Church of England and in 1609 became Bishop of Lichfield and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611. He was regarded as the head of the Puritans within the Church of England and he vigorously opposed the King's declaration permitting sports and pastimes on the Lord's Day. He encouraged James to request the States General to dismiss Vorstius from his professorship at Leyden because of his Arminianism.

Dr Richard Eedes, Dean of Worcester, another of the translators of this class, died very soon after his appointment in 1604. "Mr Dean of Worcester" is the name in the original list,. Dr Eedes was Dean of Worcester at the time of his death, in 1604, and he must be the person intended. Wood expressly states that Dr Eedes was one of the translators. Ath. Ox. Dr Giles Tomson, Dean of Windsor, and afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, the fourth of the Oxford company, was a man of high reputation for learning as well as an eminent preacher. Mr Saville's name comes next. This was, no doubt, Sir Henry Saville, Tutor in Greek to Queen Elizabeth, appointed by her to be Provost of Eton College in 1596, and knighted by King James in 1604. Wood observes that the encomiums given of him by divers authors would, if enumerated, form a manual. John Perin, Greek Professor, and a noted Latinist, Grecian, and divine, a solid theologian, and an elegant orator of the English language for the age in which he lived, were the remaining individuals employed at Oxford in the preparation of the version.

The next class, consisting of seven individuals, assembled at Westminster and translated the Epistles of Paul, and the general Epistles. William Barlowe, Dean of Chester, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, and finally of Lincoln, is the only one of whom much is known. He was one of the divines at the Hampton Court conference, of which he wrote an account, not so impartial as it ought to be, according to the admission of Fuller in his Church History. Of the five following names no biographical particulars have been discovered,. Dr Hutchenson, Dr Spencer, Mr Fenton, Mr Rabbetts, and Mr Sanderson. The last on the list is Mr Dakins, Professor of Divinity in Gresham College.

The sixth and last company met at Cambridge. They comprised the following persons: Dr John Duport, Prebendary of Ely, and afterwards master of Jesus College, Cambridge, also four times vice-chancellor of the University; Dr Branthwaite, at that time Fellow of Emanuel College, afterwards Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Dr Jeremiah Radcliffe, Fellow of Trinity College, in the same University; Dr Samuel Ward, at that time of Emanuel College, and afterwards Master of Sidney College, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity. He was the correspondent of Archbishop Usher; and his letters are said to unfold treasures of diversified learning, especially concerning biblical and oriental criticism. Andrew Downes, Greek Professor at Cambridge, whose notes on Chrysostom are particularly commended in Usher's letters. John Bois or Boys, Fellow of St John's College, Prebendary of Ely, and Rector of Boxworth, near Cambridge. He was extremely well acquainted with the Hebrew language, and his knowledge of Greek was equally great. When the work was completed John Boys was one of the six translators who met at Stationers Hall to revise the whole. This took them about nine months and during this period the Company of Stationers made them an allowance of thirty shillings each per week. Some of the notes made by John Boys during the final revision were recently discovered in Corpus Christi College Library at Oxford, edited by Professor Ward Allen, and published in 1970 under the title - "Translating for King James". John Boys' "Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels used in the English Liturgy" furnishes ample evidence of his competent scholarship and doctrinal soundness. After a long life of profitable study, ministry, translating and writing he died at the age of 84, "his brow without wrinkles, his sight quick, his hearing sharp, his countenance fresh and his body sound". Mr Ward. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, Prebendary of Chichester, and Rector of Bishop's Waltham in Hampsire, completes the list.