This  new  canon  of  interpretation  was  one  of  the  last  in  a
series  of  facts  which  restored  the  Bible  to  a  position  in  the
Church  from  which  it  had  been  long  excluded.  It  was  to  the
task  of  multiplying  copies  of  the  Scriptures  that  the  new  art  of
printing  first  addressed  itself.  Editions  of  the  Vulgate  were
repeatedly  issued  during  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century ;
the  first  Hebrew  Bible  was  printed  at  Soncino  in  1488,  the
first  New  Testament  in  Greek  at  Basel  in  1516.  In  like
manner  Bibles  in  both  High  and  Low  German  had  multiplied
during  the  same  period ;  and  though  books  were  still  scarce
and  dear,  compared  with  the  abundance  and  the  cheapness  of
later  times,  the  Scriptures  had  become  accessible  to  all  who

1  Weimar  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  507.  '^  Erl.  D.  S.  vol.  xxvii.  p.  259.
