This good and pious man was the father of the celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley. He was born at Exeter, and according to the statement of his son (Autobiography, 4to., Oxf. 1647),—
"In the time of Queen Mary, after being cruelly threatened and narrowly observed by those that maliced his religion, for the safety of himself and my mother (formerly Miss Joan Hone, an heiress in the hundred of Ottery St. Mary), who was wholly affected as my father, knew no way so secure as to fly into Germany; where, after a while, he found means to call over my mother, with all his children and family, when he settled for a while at Wesel, in Cleveland, and from thence we removed to the town of Frankfort. Howbeit, we made no long tarriance in either of these towns, for that my father had resolved to fix his abode in the city of Geneva, where, as far as I remember, the English Church consisted of some hundred members."
John Bodley returned to England in 1559, and on the 8th of January, 1560-61, a patent was granted to him by Queen Elizabeth, "to imprint, or cause to be imprinted, the English Bible, with annotations." This privilege was to last for the space of seven years. In 1565 Bodley was preparing for a new impression; and by March the next year, a careful review and correction being finished, this zealous reformer wished to renew his patent beyond the seven years first granted. It does not appear, however, that his application to the authorities had the desired effect; for it will be remembered that Archbishop Parker's Bible was now in the field, and the Queen's Secretary, Sir William Cecil, was compelled to act with caution. A curious letter, addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London to Sir William Cecil, concerning the extension of Bodley's privilege, is printed from the Lansdown MS. No. 8. (Art. 82.), in Letters of Eminent Literary Men, edited by Sir Henry Ellis for the Camden Society.
For a full history of the Geneva Bible, I beg to refer S. S. S. to the second volume of Anderson's Annals of the English Bible: Lond. 2 vols. 8vo. 1845.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
In the notice of Sir Thomas Bodley contained in Prince's Worthies of Devon, S. S. S. will find some particulars relating to his father, John Bodley. Prince's account of Sir Thomas is "from a MS. on probable grounds supposed to be his own handwriting, now in the custody of a neighbour gentleman," (Walter Bogan of Gatcombe, near Totnes.) From this it appears that John Bodley was long resident at Geneva—
"Where [says Sir Thomas], as far as I remember, the English church consisted of some hundred persons. I was at that time of twelve years of age, but through my father's cost and care sufficiently instructed to become an auditor of Chevalerius in Hebrew, of Beraldus in Greek, of Calvin and Beza in divinity, and of some other professors in the university, which was then newly erected: besides my domestical teachers in the house of Philibertus Saracenus, a famous physician in that city, with whom I was boarded, where Robertus Constantinus, that made the Greek Lexicon, read Homer unto me."
There is, however, no mention of John Bodley's having been one of the translators of the Bible.
R. J. KING.