Tudor Theological Paratexts

Chapter 1 treats the theological paratexts of Henrician and Edwardian bibles, from Tyndale’s 1525 New Testament, of which only a single fragment survives to the unknown 1552 Cheke whose annotations (and the Edward VI title page) got regularly reprinted until 1619. These paratexts wrestle with the representation of the sacred, the remembrance of the past, the state’s relation to the supernatural, the role of works once any notion of merit or satisfaction has been jettisoned. They disclose the extraordinarily early impact of Genevan theology—of the intertwined Genevan and Deuteronomic strands that characterize English Reformed piety for over a century—and simultaneously, the emergent fissure between a more and less Protestant wing of the English Church. Yet more than a few of these bibles couple medieval calendars with Calvinist indices, Passion woodcuts with Tyndale’s prologues, etc.: a paratextual latitude likewise heavy with futurity.