Introduction

Abstract

The Introduction explores the primary grounds on which textual difficulties in scripture were formulated in early modern England, charting early modern theories of and approaches to interpretive difficulty. It explores how Catholic–Protestant and intra-Protestant polemic framed biblical difficulty in English culture. Such polemic sets the stage for English literary encounters with scripture’s textual concerns and highlights key textual and hermeneutic arguments. In their seminal debate during the early years of the Reformation, Martin Luther and Erasmus discussed not whether scripture or the Church was the authoritative basis of faith, nor scripture’s inerrancy, but whether it was difficult. The Dark Bible opens with this polemic and its English offspring, in particular that of William Tyndale and Sir Thomas More, and William Fulke and Gregory Martin.