Bobrick, Benson. Wide as the waters; the story of the English Bible and the revolution it inspired.

Penguin Putnam, 379p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. c2001. 0-14-200059-0. $14.00. A

This is a challenging book for serious students interested specifically in the Reformation, The King James Bible, and the political revolutions in English history that challenged the authority of pope and king. It is a real eye-opener for anyone who thinks that the Protestant Reformation in England was just a quarrel Henry VIII had with the Pope about his marriage to Anne Boleyn. This is instead an extremely complex story, and Bobrick tells it well. He starts with John Wycliffe, born about 1328, who became an Oxford scholar dedicated to translating the Bible into the English language. This effort infuriated and frightened those holding power in the church and state alike. Their thinking was that if ordinary people could read the Holy Scriptures for themselves, they might think they were equal to those in authority: the king and clergy. And thus, the parallel of religious freedom and political freedom was established long before Henry VIII came on the scene with his own agenda. Wycliffe's translation was banned by authorities and he was considered a heretic. After his death, his bones were disinterred and burned, his ashes scattered into a stream. Hence came the verse that inspired the title of this book: "The Avon to the Severn runs,/ The Severn to the sea,/ And Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad,/ Wide as the waters be."

Wycliffe's translations and sermons based on the translations were treasured in an underground movement that grew and gave birth to other translations and other reform movements. The turmoil around the events of Henry VIII's reign and break from Rome, the subsequent horror of his Catholic daughter Mary's reign, the wisdom and progressive thought of Elizabeth I, and then finally the authoritative translation of the Bible under her heir, James I, is a long history, over decades of struggle. Students of religion and literature will be especially interested in the account of the efforts of those scholars who produced The King James Bible, one of the great cultural achievements in the English language. Bobrick's argument that this struggle is about political freedom as much as it is about religious freedom is an intriguing one. Students can use the excellent index and bibliography to concentrate of those areas of this history they are most interested in.