Early English Reformation Printing - John Bale’s Anti-Monastic “Actes of the Englysh Votaryes” – London 1551 – Complete in Two Parts

Early English Reformation Printing – John Bale’s Anti-Monastic “Actes of the Englysh Votaryes” – London 1551 – Complete in Two Parts

BALE, John (1495–1563)

"The first two partes of the Actes or unchast examples of the Englysh votaryes, gathered out of their owne legenades [sic], and Chronycles by Johan Bale, and dedycated to our most redoubted soveraigne Edward the syxte."

-London: Imprinted for Johan Bale, 1551.

-Two parts in one volume.

-Complete: [4], 78, [2], 120, [3] leaves (with the blank at the end of the first part but lacking the final blank K8).

-Collation: *⁴, A–P⁸, Q⁴; A–K⁸ (-K8, final blank).

-Printed by Steven Mierdman for Abraham Veale, 1551.

-Part 1: “Imprynted at London by Abraham Vele, dwellyng in Pauls churcheyarde at the sygne of the Lambe. Anno 1551.”

-Part 2: “Imprinted at London, for Johan Bale, in the yeare of our Lorde M.D.&LI. and are to be solde wythin Paules chayne, at the sygne of S. John Baptist.”

-General title-page with a large woodcut depicting John Bale presenting his book to the young King Edward VI, repeated on the verso of leaf viii of the Second Part.

-General title-page remargined at the fore-edge, *2 with an old marginal paper repair, old worm track to the base of 12 leaves around signatures P–Q, not affecting text; otherwise a very good copy.

-Early nineteenth-century calf decorated in blind and gilt. Rebacked in modern calf to style, retaining the earlier endpapers. All edges gilt.

This is an uncommon complete copy of John Bale’s anti-monastic Protestant polemic, printed in London during the reign of the young Edward VI and dedicated to the King.

John Bale (1495–1563) was an English churchman from Suffolk who became a Carmelite friar in early life. In 1534 he married, left the convent, and converted to Protestantism, becoming one of the most vocal Protestant polemicists of the English Reformation.

In the Actes of the Englysh Votaryes, Bale attacked the vices and excesses of the Catholic Church and monastic life. He attempted to construct a history of the corruption of English religious institutions from their own chronicles and legends. Bale was particularly aggressive in his attacks on what he regarded as the sexual hypocrisy of monks and the monastic orders.

Bale also promoted other “foundation” myths for the Church in England, famously stating that Joseph of Arimathea had come to Britain before the Roman Church and founded a purer and truer church, which Britain was only now rediscovering.

This 1551 edition was produced during the increasingly Protestant reign of Edward VI (1537–1553). The woodcut title-page depicts Bale presenting his work to the young King. The printing is attributed to Steven Mierdman, an important Protestant printer from Antwerp who worked in London during Edward VI’s reign.

Provenance: From the James Dix Biblical Collection, with his bookplate dated 1850. The library of James Dix was sold by Sotheby’s in 1870.

Uncommon on the market. Only two copies of this 1551 printing appear to have been offered at auction since 1917.