Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired

Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired, by Benson Bobrick, is an excellent account of “the most influential book ever published.” It begins by reminding us that the first question ever asked by an inquisitor of suspected heretics was whether they knew any part of the Bible in their own tongue, which in itself could be enough to prove heresy and to condemn the accused to death. In telling the story of the Wycliffe Bibles, which he does very well, Bobrick tells us much that we never knew about the strange history of the English. He has been forced by an impecunious publisher (Simon & Schuster) to do this without benefit of footnotes, so the book, which includes mention of the Act to Abolish Diversity of Opinion of 1539, is crippled by the weakest of apparatus: a mere list of quoted phrases sometimes paginated incorrectly. Bobrick deserves better.