Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible
Title page of The Souldiers Pocket Bible, 1643
|
|
| Country | Kingdom of England |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
|
Publication date
|
1643 |
| Media type | Pamphlet |
The Souldiers Pocket Bible (aka Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible, The Soldier's Pocket Bible, Cromwell's Soldier's Bible) was a pamphlet version of the Christian Bible that was carried by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army during the English Civil War.
The Souldiers Pocket Bible (lacking a possessive apostrophe in the title) was first issued in 1643 to Cromwell's army and was put in general use among his soldiers. It has been of historical record that Cromwell's soldiers were provided with a small pocket Bible.George Livermore, an American book collector from Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, discovered a copy of The Souldiers Pocket Bible in 1854; he realized that the Bible which Cromwell's soldiers were known to carry was not the complete Christian Bible of 66 books, but a condensed pamphlet version. It was an octavo booklet (5½ × 3″, 136 × 78mm). In comparison, it was about the size and thickness of an international travel passport used in the 20th century.
The The Souldiers Pocket Bible had just 16 pages that contained some 150 verse quotations from the Geneva Bible, all related to war. All but four of the verses were from the Old Testament. Verses intended to inspire the morale of Cromwell's soldiers included the following from the Geneva Bible:
The 150 war-related verses were organized in sixteen sections. Cromwell helped select some of the verses used and supervised the editing of the The Souldiers Pocket Bible by Edmund Calamy.
Section headers for the verses included the following:
This condensed Souldiers Pocket Bible was usually buttoned on the inside waistcoat, placed near the heart, and under the soldier's outer coat. The placement did not hinder the movements of the soldier. English Puritan church leader Richard Baxter relates a story that the life of one of Cromwell's soldiers was saved by his carrying a copy of The Souldiers Pocket Bible near his heart; a bullet fired at him became lodged in the pamphlet instead of his heart.
...
Wikipedia